Final Fantasy Chronicles of Exigo - Brave New World VIII

[Zerathos986]

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“Hellfire!” I commanded as Ifrit replaced my body.


The Guardian Force had slowly become my crutch as I navigated the ruined landscape. Enemy forces were many in number and friends were far too hard to come by. The few I’d found scattered and I was as alone as I’d been since I first found myself here.


The last thing I could distinctly recall was the Time Compression. The Sorceress Ultimecia had done some bizarre time magic of hers, but this was planned by the Headmaster. His team had gone inside of Time Compression to face the sorceress head on, though the result of it was unclear. I guess the magic was too much for the rest of us to handle.


“I say that like I even know who the rest of us are.” I told myself aloud, having survived the latest monster attack.


The monsters were so strong. Or was I just weaker? Was I ever powerful? At least, I don’t recall ever being that. Still, it would be better if I didn’t have to keep relying on Ifrit seeing as how my memory was barely holding up. The part of the world I had woken up in was foreign to me. It definitely wasn’t anywhere near Balamb, its garden, or my old digs in the Fisherman’s Horizon.


“They did tell me not to stick my nose where it didn’t belong.” I said, picking up where I left off before the attack.


I didn’t know where I was headed, but I could believe my head wouldn’t be all together there when I got there. I was talking to myself, after all. It wasn’t exactly healthy, but I didn’t know if I’d lose my sanity even faster if I didn’t say anything. There was no one around here, whereever here was, and the land pretty much screamed death.


“I just mentioned that three times, didn’t I?” I asked myself, “I’m really feeling the lonely, huh? I’ve got to find one of them, at least! Come on!”


And just like that...


“More monsters.” I grumbled.


Taking out my pistol, I loaded one of the bullets I’d had Ifrit refine, screaming an indignant, “Give it a rest!”, and firing.

[01habbo]

I stared out to sea as the boat sailed along. I narrowed my eyes as I began to worry what I was going to tell my cousin. “How will I tell him that I’m about to embark on the same mission before my disappearance two years ago? Oh, he is not going to like this.”

Earlier in the week, I had been told by the Headmaster Squall Leonhart, that I was to join a small team to investigate these lights that had appeared, again. He hoped that if I joined them then maybe my memories would return about what had happened the day that I had disappeared.

I brushed a strand of my black hair behind my ear as I began to feel guilty. I knew that Akio would definitely not like this, after all I had only been found a few months ago. I remember waking up in the snow near one of those weird lights. I remember it humming, it was quite enchanting. But anything before that is a blank. I can’t remember anything about any of those two years.

I let out a big sigh and leaned my head on the railing, I kinda wished that the sea just could wash all my problems away. It would be nice, just this once to visit my cousin with no problems. I stared out at the sea some more, to try and calm myself down. My heart was beating faster as we got nearer to shore.

When the boat docked I took a deep breath and began to walk confidently off the boat. “Hey kid, we leave early tomorrow morning make sure you’re here then.” Said the male voice.

I raised my hand waving their comment away. “Yeah, yeah I’ll be here” I answered not even turning around. I had hitched a ride with the boat from Balamb who were making a delivery to Winhill. It was now only a matter of a short walk to Winhill

“Hmph, make sure you are.”

I grinned to myself. “Yes sir!” as I turned around to do a mock salute. I then turned and ran down the road before I could see their reaction.

I finally got to Winhill and opened the door to Akio’s house. "Hello Akio I'm coming in!" I took off my boots and walked through to the kitchen. I immediately went to the fridge, I wanted to check whether he had been eating right. "Ah, jeez again? What are you like? I swear you just live on noodles. If Aiko was here she would stop you from eating so many noodles." I closed the fridge door and paused when I saw a photo of her. I smiled sadly at it as I tenderly touched the photo. I missed my cousin a lot. I sighed. "Aiko, I think I'm on a losing battle with your brother. Oh well!" I grabbed a piece of paper and began to write a shopping list making to include a lot of fruit and vegetables.

I then heard some movement from the squeak of the floor I looked up thinking it was my cousin. “Oh so you are home, did you- AHHHHHHH!!!” I suddenly feel backwards in fright not believing who I saw.

"Uh, Hey..."

I had fallen on my back and it had hurt a lot. “Ow, ow, ow,”

"Hey, sorry to scare you. Are you okay?"

I instantly recognised her voice not believing my ears. I stood up as I held my back getting a proper look at her. Kyra looked well, but her clothes, well they were pretty weird. The blonde woman was wearing a white top with a blue cross on it, a bright blue short skirt and black boots. The skirt was far too bright, the design of the top was weird and the belt was weird. Almost immediately though questions began to fall out of my mouth I grew irritated she had been gone for over two years, and just recently we were told by Ellone that she was okay.

“Ow, I'm alright just a little bruised. Where have you been for two years? My cousin was worried sick we heard only a few days ago from Ellone that you were okay and happy. He looked for you everywhere!”

"It's a long story.. I guess. Was that only a few days ago?"

“Yeah, Ellone had been looking for you too but had no luck. We were with her when she was looking this time. She said another power connected with hers; A desperate child looking for help and then she found you. Then it went weird cause Diablos just disappeared. Akio was looking after him for you and he said he just went for a few moments. Kinda freaky really.”

"Ah, right. I do suppose Aeon's tend to worry. Maybe I should connect with him soon. I was teleported back somehow. Someone with even greater power than Ellone sent me back from a place called Spira. I really miss it actually. I was in the middle of a mission..."

“Aeon? What are you talking about?" I was completely lost on what she was talking about, in fact the whole situation had been weird. I mean I still couldn’t believe she was here, it sounded like though she was in the middle of something and hadn’t wanted to come back. The word Spira though was bothering me it was like I had heard of that somewhere before.

"Diablos. Aeon. Oh! That's what they called them on Spira. Guardian force always had a weird ring to it. Don't you think?"

“Aeon seems pretty weird.... Did you say Spira? I’ve heard that somewhere before can’t remember where though”

"Did Akio ever mention it?" Kyra questioned.

“I don’t think so hmmm....” I looked down at my shopping list that I had written to try and distract myself. “Wanna help me shop? He has only got noodles again.”

"Sure! I've been wondering who's been getting food for him! He works so hard he only has time for noodles! I swear he only has noodles for brains..." Kyra said jokingly. It was a bad joke. "Thanks for looking after him.."

"Of course he is my cousin it's my responsibility!" Afterall without me he wouldn’t even have a varied diet.

The shopping seemed to ease the tension between us, last time I saw Kyra was at Aiko’s funeral. I had been told that my cousin had died because of a Behemoth attack. I had blamed Kyra because she had been on the same mission and I directed all my grief and anger at her. Over time I began to realise it had been no one’s fault but I had a lot of resentment towards Kyra. Basically I had been a brat, I grew jealous that Aiko spent so much time with her and when she died I treated Kyra badly. Now that she was back this was my chance to make things up to her.

Suddenly as I was deciding what apples to get Akio, Kyra suddenly rushed past me and out of the store. “Hey Kyra?!” I called, I hurried went to pay for the shopping that I had in my basket, I gave the girl the right amount of gil and ran out of the shop with the bags of food. I managed to catch up with her as a blonde woman walked away.

"Someone you know?"

"It wasn't her..." She sounded disappointed.

"You okay?"

"Not really, but I also don't want to talk about it. Can we go?"

"Yeah I think we got everything, at least he doesn't have just noodles for at least a week now!"

"Ok…Hmm. Anything interesting happen while I was away?"

“The Lunar Cry happened shortly after you disappeared, it brought down a monster called the Slayer. It was…” I sighed it was one of the last memories I had before I went on that fateful mission. This huge monster just looming over the battlefield. I shuddered at the memory of it.

“Was what?” Kyra encouraged.

“It was awful it completely nearly destroyed a whole army of SeeD, I don’t know if I believe it but apparently it only stopped when a ghost appeared. I was… In that battle.”

“That would have been about two years ago… Are there any rumours of what the ghost looked like? What the Slayer looked like? Where this happened?”

“Apparently it was a girl with a sword. That’s all I know though, I do know that the Slayer was huge, it towered over everyone, people were afraid it would come towards the cities. It disappeared shortly after.” My memory was kinda fuzzy about that battle. I paused and then saw my cousin walk out the door of his house. I waved and smiled at him. “Oh hey Aiko!”

“You back for the weekend?”

“Yep, I’ll just put this food away.”

As I put the food away in the kitchen I heard Kyra and Akio talking, mostly about me. My heart hung heavy as I realised I do need to talk to him before I leave tomorrow. I came back outside just in time to hear his thoughts on my friends. Friends that I don’t even remember but know that they are alive.

“Koemi, your friends were nowhere near you when you were found, they haven’t been seen for two years. I think sooner or later you are going to have to realise that they are not coming back. You don’t even remember the last two years.”

“I know but… I just feel it, I know they are not dead, they are out there somewhere.”

Later on I was in my room fiddling with the old radio. I had hoped it would be a clue to what had happened to me it was with me when I had been found but it was very old and rusty and I’m not sure it even worked. After a while of fiddling with the radio Kyra came into my room. She talked to me about her friends at my request, I had hoped learning about her friends on Spira would help me remember those who had been on the same mission as me. Tross though I could never forget, he was my best friend I had known him for years and he didn’t die easily. I had faith that he was still alive somewhere.

As Kyra talked the conversation turned towards a friend of hers called Nikki.

“Nikki was sort of our leader. She’d hate being called that though. She was amazing. Thoughtful. An ace with a bow. She… I…” Was she crying? I saw tears run down her face. She must have been someone very special to her. I suddenly felt sorry for her if she had found that sort of happiness then she should have never come back here. She should have stayed in Spira.

"It’s okay, was she like Aiko?” I whispered.

“To me….yes.” She said through her sobs.

“I’m sorry you came back, but don’t lose hope. We’ll get Ellone to find her.”

“That’s not possible..She’s on a whole different timeline… I only got there through time compression, and I was sent back by someone who is stronger than any sorceress I’ve ever seen!”

“Pfft, we found you using Ellone a few days ago, I’m pretty sure Ellone would know where to look now since she’s done it once now.”

“Maybe.”

“And you know what, I bet that little girl that Ellone was talking to is searching for you right now, at this very minute, all Ellone needs to do is connect with her again.”

“Do you know where Ellone is?”

“Balamb most likely, heard she was going to see Squall Leonhart, the big saviour, blah blah blah.”

“Really? His name makes me cringe. He did ‘save the world’ then?”

“Oh yes along with Rinoa Heartilly, Zell Dincht, Quistis Trepe, Selphie Tilmitt, Irvine Kinneas. And you know what? I’m sick of seeing magazines plastered in articles about Rinoa and Squall’s relationship, it’s boring.”

“No kidding. Although, I suppose I should be thankful. Without time compression I wouldn’t have met everyone from Spira.”

“Yeah, We’ll make our own time compression and kidnap Nikki!”

“Yes! I’d really like that.” She smiled, I was glad that I had made her smile but quite frankly I did not know how to get Nikki to come here. Maybe I should think harder on how to do that.

Later in the evening I found Akio. “Hey can we talk?”

“What’s up?”

“Well ummm I’m not staying for long I leave tomorrow so I wanted to talk.”

“Spit it out already,” I saw how he smiled at me gently encouraging me. I took a deep breath.

“I’m going on a mission to find out about the lights.” I said very quickly with my eyes closed. I dared not open them.

“What?”

“I’m going to find out about those lights.” I said more slowly I carefully opened one eye to gage his reaction.

“The same mission that-“

“Yes I know but it might help my memories” I interrupted him.

“And you’re sure you can do this?” I didn’t expect that question from him. I opened my other eyes paying full attention to his facial expressions, as usual he wasn’t giving anything away. “You still don’t have full control of your guardian force.”

“I know but I’m learning, we’re both learning.” My guardian force got rather excitable at times.

“Well I’m not happy about it, what is the Headmaster thinking?”

“Uhh…” I was at a complete loss for words.

“Well I suppose I have no choice in the matter he has chosen you to go on this mission, Just promise me one thing.”

I beamed “Sure anything.”

“Take Kyra with you.”