An Ultimate Quest Chapter 1

By Karura

The night is peaceful, and the moon is high. It is a full moon, breath-takingly beautiful.

“I like it like this.” Terra Branford thought to herself, sitting comfortably on the branch of a tree that overlooks the small village Mobliz.

“I really like it this way. No more war, no more horrible monsters to threat the children. The children… they are growing up fast! I fulfilled my promise. The world is safe for them, there is no more Kefka, no more magic.”

…No, it’s not true. Not entirely true, anyway. Terra opened up her palm, stares at it and murmured under her breath. Immediately a small ball of fire emerged, dancing around her hand. She dismissed it with a wave, and sighed.

There should be no more magic left in this world. Upon the death of Kefka, all of her friends lost their magical abilities; even those in Strago’s village who are descendant of magic knights. She has lost a part of it too. No longer could her cast spells like Ice3, Meteor or Ultima. But Fire stayed with her, almost as if…

As if it is her very own essence.

And if she had kept it, maybe someone else did too. This troubles her sometime. Will there ever be another War of Magi or the war with Kefka?

Terra laughed to herself. Nonsense, she only kept her ability because of the Esper blood inside her, no more. Her father was mistaken when he told her that she would lose it. No one can be right all the time, not even her father.

It is getting late; she should get some sleep. Terra stand up, jumps into a back flip and landed on the ground quietly with grace and casualty.

Tomorrow is going to be another long day; she really should go to sleep now.

Terra told herself once again. Somehow, it is going to be difficult. There is a strange feeling troubling her, and she does not quiet understand it.

She is missing something terribly, but…what could she be missing?

.

The King of Figaro is a young man in his mid-twenties. Right now he is sitting in his study, bending over a pile of documents.

Suddenly the door burst open, a young man who resembles the King strongly rushes in: “Darn, Edgar, this is not fair!”

The king looks up at his twin, said in a sarcastically patient tone: “Sabin, did you notice the little round piece of metal attached to the door? It is a knocker, when you want to enter someone’s room you are suppose to grab it and…”

“Cut it out, bro, before I use my blize on you.” Sabin interrupted impatiently. “The chancellor keeps bugging me about the treaties with Narsha, will you tell that old fool to stop bothering me? I’m the king’s brother, not his secretary!”

“You know, this is not a half-bad suggestion, coming from you.” Edgar said thoughtfully, “ Maybe I should appoint you my personal garbage treaty taker or something.”

“Bro.” Sabin warned, with his hands clenching into powerful fists.

“Alright, alright.” Edgar sighed, looking up at his brother, “ Sabin, please understand, I’m the king of this country and a very busy man. As my only close relation, you have the responsibility to help __”

“Busy man, huh?” Sabin walk up to his desk, before he could react, draw out a piece of paper from underneath the documents, “Brother, I don’t think this is one of the crucial-business -of -Figaro thing, is it?”

Edgar blushed in spite of himself. The paper Sabin holding is a fine portrait of a young woman, skillfully done to capture every detail of her striking feature, from the golden-green hair to the emerald eyes to full red lips: Terra.

“ Well, I…” He coughed, struggling for something to say when the door fly open again with a big boom, “Edgar!”

“Yeah, nice to see you too, Locke!” Edgar groaned, “Does anyone know the definition of knock the door anymore?”

“Sorry if I interrupted.” Locke hastily apologized; his handsome face was dark with worry. “I have bad news, Edgar. The town of Tzen was burnt down to ashes. No one survived and nobody knows who did it. It looked like…”

He hesitated, then said in a low voice of uncertainty; “It looked like magic.”

.

Two weeks later

In the grand meeting room of Figaro castle, six people sit around a table, all with serious expression on their face.

They are all close friends; they have been through much together in the fight against Kefka. They are Edgar, Sabin, Locke, Celes, Cyan and Shadow.

They discussed with each other in a low voice, while waiting for the arrival of the seventh person: Terra.

“Your Majesty, Lady Branford has arrived.” Someone at the door announced. With a gesture from Edgar, the door was opened wide and in comes a young woman in red armor, with a weary expression on her face. She has traveled a long way, from Mobliz all the way to Figaro.

Everyone stand to greet her. After a brief exchange of regards and hugs, they sat down again, and Terra asked in her soft voice: “Edgar, you said there is an emergency, what is it?”

Briefly, Edgar and Locke described the wipe out of Tzen to her. Terra listened quietly and intensely; her face became whiter with every passing moment. Finally, when Edgar and Locke finished, she let out a long held breath: “ I was afraid this might happen.”

“What do you mean?” Sabin was puzzled; “ You know something that we don’t?”

Terra hesitated: “Well, yes. You see, the idea might be a little crazy, but…Esper might not be the only source to magic.”

“What?” Celes cried, “But when Espers vanished, we…”

Her voice suddenly dropped to silent. On Terra’s palm lies a little fireball, perfectly magical in every way.

No one spoke for a moment, then, Cyan whispered: “The town of Tzen was wiped out by magical fire…”

Terra felt a tinge of an old anger of being feared and doubted. She almost had the temptation of throwing her fireball on Cyan’s hair.

“Are you saying I did it?” She demanded her voice no longer soft.

Cyan smiled apologetically: “Nay, lass, not you. Thou art with a good heart.”

Sabin cut in: “Forget about the thou business! We all know it couldn’t be Terra, the question is, who did it?”

“Lord Sabin, I think I have the answer to your question.” Someone at the door said.

Everyone turned to the voice. Celes cried: “Grandpa Cid, what are you doing over here?”

Cid smiled weakly: “I was researching the mechanical phenomenal of Universe in the library. What I accidentally found was…quiet remarkable.”

He laid a heavy book on the table. It was so dusty that everyone coughed and sneezed until the dust settles down.

“Sorry.” Cid said, turning the pages, “According to the ancient writing of Magitak people three thousand years ago, in the hundred and sixth chapter of this book, let me see, it is volume forty, page…”

“Wow, hold on.” Locke held out a hand, “ Enough with the text, Cid, just tell us what it said.”

Cid nodded rather unwillingly: “Alright. The bottom line is, there is another source to magic besides the Espers.”

“So Terra was right.” Edgar commented, “Go on.”

“According to the book, there is a gate leading to another dimension, the dimension of Final Fantasy VII and Crono Trigger. __Don’t ask me what the hell that means, I have no idea.”

This prevented further questions, and Cid went on: “The book says that as long as that gate is open, magic will pass between the two __rather, the three worlds, and so…”

“So someone stole the magic leaking here through that gate, and used it to wipe out Tzen.” Shadow suddenly spoke; finishing Cid’s sentence and glances around, “What do we do?”

“Simple. We have to shut the gate, find that creep and beat the hell out of him or her. The question is, how do we do it?” Sabin asked, “any suggestions?”

“Cid, how do we shut the gate?”

“That is exactly where the problem is. You see, we can’t. Our world and those other two worlds were all created by the same superior being called SquareSoft, we can’t shut that gate, not permanently anyway.”

“SquareSoft?” Celes frowned thoughtfully, “I’m sure I heard that name somewhere before, almost as if it is embedded in my memory from a long time ago…”

“Maybe it is the memory we have of that superior being who created us all.” Locke suggested.

Sabin shrugged: “Don’t get philosophical on me. Just tell me, is there anything we could do?”

“Actually, there is.” Cid nodded, “You see, the reason magic transmitted into our planet was because of an quantum level magical attraction between the three worlds. If we can somehow alter this attraction a little, we will be able to redirect its direction."

“Can someone explain this in Figarian for me?” Sabin demanded.

Celes sighed: “What he said was that we can find a way to change the gate between the three worlds, therefore control the magic. Really, Grandpa Cid, must you get this technical all the time?”

Terra asks: “so where do we go to do this?”

Cid smiled: “There is a place between the three worlds where the source of magic is being directed. It is called the fairy tale land.”

“The fairy tale land?” Shadow asks in such a tone as if the name is something really disgusting.

Sabin grimaced too: “The fairy tale land? As in where all the stepmothers are F*$# bitches and tons of princesses are rescued from dragons every day?”

“Exactly, you comprehend well.” Cid nodded his approval.

Edgar looked very odd, but somehow he managed a rather reasonable tone: “We have no choice but to go there. Does everyone agree?”

They all nodded with the same odd expression on their face. Finally Sabin cursed:

“Damn it! When this is all taken care of, the F*$# @$$hole that burnt down Tzen is sure to get a bum rush from me.”

“Save a spot on his @$$ for my chainsaw.” Edgar added calmly, did not care that it is not exactly the appropriate language for a king.

“He can have one of my ninja star as a token.”

“The villain will feel the wrath of mine Quadra slice.”

“And the revenge of a th...treasure hunter.”

Shadow, Cyan and Locke said at the same time with a desire for blood, while Celes and Terra looked very much like they wish they could still cast Ultima.

.

Go To Chapter 2

Crossover Fanfics