Young Adult
This fanfiction takes place a year after the end of the game. Edgar forced Terra to marry him, but Locke and Celes broke up, with Locke still having feelings for Celes. Kefka has been brought back to life, and made the Magitek suits and supplies extremely powerful. Kefka is trying to capture Edgar, Locke, Celes, and Terra to perform experiments on them, or execute them, depending on how crazy he is feeling that day, and he is mainly looking for Locke and Celes. Magic is illegal to anyone who is not in the Empire.
I was swiftly walking down an alley-hoping to find some old “cider” for the merchant in exchange for an elixir and 20 potions. I passed many different drug dealers trying to lure in possible customers. I finally got to the back door of the bar- and I snuck in through the back. The bar was already closed, and so I was able to get in safely without getting noticed by anyone. I looked at the many bottles of alcohol lined up neatly on the wooden shelves, and I took a quite large bottle of “cider” hoping that maybe I could get a few gil as an extra. I then put the heavy bottle of alcohol on the side of my jacket, in a pocket. I was carefully walking back, and I saw a girl–no, a woman who looked like she was in her 30s or so, with tears welling up in her chocolate brown eyes. “Please help me, I’m a returner and some guards are going to get me, please-”. As she was tugging on my brown coat, the bottle of alcohol fell out, and went crashing to the ground. I stared in dismay as the bottle broke into a thousand dangerous shards of glass. I looked at the woman, and as silent tears fell down her pale face, blood started gushing out of a rugged cut that was made by the glass. I helped her up, and secretly stole her diamond ring in the process, and then I ripped her purse, breaking the leather strap. “HEY, that’s mine!!” she frantically screamed, chasing me to retrieve her broken bag. “But I am a treasure hunter!” I said as I swiftly ran out of the dark, cold alley and into the dusty dirt streets. Once I had gotten far away from the alley, I looked inside the broken leather purse. There was a pouch full to the brim with gill, and a handkerchief. I took out the handkerchief and studied it for a minute. It was a light cream brown and there were delicately embroidered roses on it. I scoffed and threw it back into the bag. At least I got some gil for this. I then felt cold, heavy metal hands being placed on my shoulders, and then, two guards came sprinting towards me. The two guards stood on the sides of me, and held a very firm grip as the guard behind me let go of my shoulders and came in front of me. I wanted to rub my aching shoulders, which I was sure would swell up to the size of a goodly sized bottle of “cider.” I studied the soldier. He had graying thick hair, and he was rather short. He was dressed in a jacket and slacks- which was odd- for a soldier- and of course- he along with the two other soldiers were in the magitek suits. The new- stronger ones. I knew what they wanted. “We have been sent from the Emperor- Kefka- to capture and persecute you. You have to come with us- and don’t even try to escape” he said in a hoarse voice, a sly grin spreading across his aging face. I tried to wriggle free from the strong, metal hands of the guards, but it was no use. Kefka had used his magic to make the magitek “so strong that no human being could ever break free from its grip”. Kefka wanted his revenge- and quickly. I knew that they were looking for me- because I was one of the main ones responsible for his death. “Damn morons, you should tell that idiot Kefka to be getting Celes, not me- she killed Kefka…” I mumbled beneath my breath. The guards glared at me, and said nothing. My heart ached when I said Celes– I still wanted her- but she did not want to seem to want me. The soldiers led me to a gloomy, stone building, and forced me inside a rusty, old jail cell. Surprisingly, a few minutes later, Kefka himself walked into the stony building. “W-e we go- got him!” He exclaimed, then started to laugh uncontrollably, like a maniac. He used his newly found magic to burn the key used to lock the jail cell, and he burned it, until there was nothing left but a puddle of metal liquid on the dirt floor, and an imprint of the key burnt on his hand. He smiled creepily, and walked away. I could hear the loud bang of the door as he walked out. I sat down on the creaky wooden frame- that was supposed to be a bed, but the last person who was stuck in this very jail cell had- eaten- the bedding because he was so hungry. The bed frame broke, and I landed onto the floor. Lying there, I looked next to me to find a skull. I nearly screamed. I sat there for hours thinking about how I should have never tried to save the world, how fun my execution would be for Kefka, and about Celes. I got out the purse I had stolen, I had managed to hide that, but the diamond ring I snatched fell on the floor when the soldiers threw me into the cell, and they took it to sell it for some gil. I saw the pouch full of gil, and I sighed, money was worth nothing now, because I was about to die anyways. I took out the handkerchief, and sighed. “So much for being a treasure hunter, Locke, you just managed to get into jail, and sit there locked up, waiting for your death.” I mumbled.
Walking down the empty streets of Kohlingen, I entered a tiny shop that was selling different kinds of boots. I needed another pair, because my old boots had been so worn that multiple holes were in them. They were not very practical anymore, because everywhere I went, I got rocks, dirt, and if it was raining, water and mud inside my boots. I had decided to get a really good pair of steel-toed boots, of course, because they were the most durable. Inside the boot shop, there were a variety of boots. Boy’s boots, Men’s boots, Rain boots, Hiking boots, and lastly, in the back, steel-toed boots. I noticed that there were no Women’s boots that the store was selling, but I got a pair of steel-toed boots close to my size and walked to the counter, where the shopkeeper was waiting for me. I had a dark brown hood over my face, as it had been cold and rainy in Kohlingen. I took the hood off, got out my gil, and put the boots on the counter. He looked up at me, and with a sly grin he scoffed “What’s a woman doing buying boots?! Shouldn’t you be taking care of your house, kids, and husband? By the way, you owe me 10,000 gil for these, like you even have that kind of money.” I glared at him and threw the sack of gil at him. I grabbed my boots, and started to walk away from the counter as he said “Wait, I have to count all the gil first!” I cursed the shopkeeper under my breath as he slowly counted the gil. He finally got done counting it all, in about 2 hours. He had wasted my time, because I was a woman. Great. I walked out of the shop, holding my boots. The last thing I wanted was to get my brand-new boots dirty in the muddy streets of Kohlingen. I put back on my hood, and started to walk to an inn, where I could finally rest. Then, a soldier leaped in front of me, and two other soldiers started to come behind me. The first one, in front of me, had black hair, blue eyes, and a huge scar across his face. It went from the bottom of his chin all the way up to his forehead, crossing over his left eye. I glanced at the two other guards, and one had blonde, curly hair, with green eyes, and the other had straight brown hair with brown eyes. The one in front of me said in a loud, husky voice, ”We are Imperial soldiers, and we are loyal to the Emperor, and only the Emperor. We have been sent to find you, Celes, because you have been on the Emperor’s wanted list for a long time. You will be locked away for your terrible crimes of murder against him, and then you will be executed. You have to come with us. Now.” I stared at them in shock. I was only trying to save the world, why would I be executed for trying to murder the “Emperor”, who was brought back, and clearly was insane?! But I mean, Kefka was insane, so it made sense that he would have a “wanted” list. More like a torture and kill while laughing crazily list. I had to do something- anything, because the last thing I would want was to die like a wimp, and with the last thing I would be hearing would be–Kefka laughing. He was so lucky, he practically escaped death. Only because of some loyal soldiers, ugh. The soldiers were about to drag me away to a dreadful, cold prison, but then I just ran. I ran as fast as I could. The soldiers ran after me, practically screaming at the top of their lungs for me to halt immediately. I ran into a forest, thick with pine trees, and tripped over a tree root. I heard them shouting as usual, but they didn’t seem to know where I was. The voices faded quickly, and I knew I had lost them, for now. I went to a skinny, tall oak tree, and pulled out my sword. I also pulled out the dagger Locke had gotten me for my 20th birthday. I dropped it, and it sliced the palm of my hand. I bent down, and picked it up, this time much more carefully. I shuddered. I used the dagger and the sword to awkwardly climb up the tree. A few minutes later, I was at the top. I wanted to stay there, because I feared the soldiers would come back to search for me. I looked at the dagger again, and then looked at my hand. It would heal up in maybe a week, but that was nothing compared to the huge scar I had across my face. I had gotten it from that same dagger. It seemed to have a curse of bad luck. On my birthday, Locke had gotten me the dagger, but then he tried to kill me with it. He had said “he was sorry, but he wanted Rachel back.” He had said he felt lighter than ever, but I guess, he was lying. He didn’t care about me, I was just a replacement for her, all those times I was slightly hurt and he cast Curaga on me, just so I could be a replacement that wouldn’t die, so he can live his fantasy. No. And he had been lying the whole time. He literally promised to protect me, then tried to kill me?! On my BIRTHDAY?! There’s a reason the only person I will ever be able to trust again is Terra.
It didn’t seem right. It should – after all these years, I finally got someone to marry me – but Terra seemed so sad. I went to take a walk in South Figaro to clear my head, but when I could see it clearly, I saw Imperial soldiers stationed at every entrance. Terra didn’t want to see me and had teleported to Narshe. I went back to the castle, or tried, but it was on fire. Again.
I attempted to enter, but an Imperial soldier came out the front door in a Magitek suit and pushed me over, saying “This is the Emperor’s new castle! GET OUT.” He was approaching me at an alarmingly fast pace, so I stood up as quickly as I could and scrambled away. I ran into Figaro Cave and somehow cornered myself to a wall, even though I’d probably been there hundreds of times. The guy in the Magitek suit stepped forward to me, squishing me in more than I already was. I groped the wall for a switch – I’m pretty sure Locke had found one around here at some point – but to no avail. “Surrender now, or suffer first. You’ll find these new Magitek suits are quite effective,” the soldier told me in a voice that sounded more like a monster than a man. “We’ve already captured one of your friends,” but which friend? “and look forward to experimenting on the disgraced former king of Figaro.” Who said I wasn’t the king of Figaro? They took over the castle – well, I suppose they took over the city too. What about Kohlingen? Surely there was somewhere they hadn’t gotten to. I suppose that with Setzer working for Kefka for whatever reason, they had access to the entire world. Even Relm, who is only eleven but has grown up entirely too fast. I realized I was about to pass out, and passed out. I awoke in a rusty stone jail cell, and looked to the side – Locke?! “How did you get here? And here I thought you were a ‘great treasure hunter.’” I was utterly confused. If anyone could leave, it was him – didn’t he have twenty-five bobby pins in his bandana? Or, did he not get any more after using his first bandana literally to heal a bird? Although Celes had said she’d be dead if not for that bandana, but that’s kind of irrelevant because Locke couldn’t have known that it would reach her, especially specifically after she committed suicide and failed to die. I realized my chest was bleeding, oh well, it’s not like I can do anything because we don’t have access to the pocket dimension anymore. There was also a puddle of melted metal on the floor, but I was afraid to ask what it was, also, if it was what I thought it was, how did I get in here in the first place? “The key,” Locke said, and turned back to what he was doing. That was when I realized he had turned in the first place. “What are you doing anyways?” I asked him, thoroughly confused by the quick speed of the events that had happened today. Well, hopefully they happened today, otherwise I had absolutely no idea how long I’d been there. He looked down, then continued doing whatever it was he was doing, without answering my question. Evidently I was a terrible king, and I was stuck in a rotting pit with a thief who couldn’t even pick the lock to get out. So much for that, “Locke.”
Finally, I had done it. Finally, I had escaped. I felt free. I had also made it to Mobiliz, and teleported to Narshe. Edgar was too overprotective, and I barely knew the man. It just didn’t feel right at all. I finally escaped the chains that Figaro castle held on me. I walked to a tiny little shop that was selling some potions and elixirs, which is what I needed. I went up to see the prices of the elixirs, but they were extremely expensive. He was charging 1,000,000 gil for an elixir. I decided to buy one anyway, and after I gave him the gil, my pouches full of gil were empty. I needed one anyway, because I had used up all my magic, and I was dying from all the fights I had gotten into lately. The people around here were suspicious. I drank my elixir, and I felt relieved. I then decided to teleport to Kohlingen to look around at the shops. I couldn’t seem to find sprint shoes, which was odd. I can’t remember how many places I have looked for sprint shoes at, but there were none. They seemed to strangely- disappear. I looked around. It was a cloudy, humid day, and it looked like it had just stopped raining. There was mud everywhere, and huge puddles of water. Because of the rainy weather, the shops seemed unwelcoming, so I decided to walk around in the forest instead. I wanted to change into an esper, but magic was now illegal, besides Kefka using it, so I decided not to. I wandered around, and then realized about 3 hours had passed since I teleported here, as the sky was starting to dim. I sat down on a tree trunk and wondered how far I had gone. I couldn’t recognize anything, so I was sure I had gone pretty far. I needed to find my way back to the town. I started wandering aimlessly around, hoping to find a path or trail I could follow. After some time, I was tired, and wanting to go back to Edgar. I then found something. I wasn’t sure if there was anyone still here, the place looked abandoned. But, at least it was something to stay in for the night. I could always teleport, but I was all out of gil, so I wouldn’t be able to afford to stay in an inn for the night. My only other option was to go back to Figaro and stay with Edgar, but I disliked him. He forced me to marry him in exchange for happiness and lots of money. I had money, but I for sure wasn’t happy. I decided to go into the old stone building. It looked a lot like a run-down prison. I walked in, and the door creaked loudly. A rat ran by my feet, and bit my ankle. I was wearing sandals, as my boots had completely fallen apart and I couldn’t afford new ones. I ran outside, and looked at my bitten ankle. Even though it was risky, I cast Cure on my ankle to heal it, and ran farther. I hated that place. I couldn’t see much, but it was an abandoned prison. I got tired from running, so I decided to sit in a pile of fallen leaves. I looked up. I was sitting by a really, really tall tree. It seemed to go on forever. It was layer after layer of branches and leaves. I saw as the tallest branches seemed to shake. The leaves shook around, with some gracefully dancing down to the ground, twisting and turning. This bewildered me, because it would seem that nothing could get up that high on the tree, and when I looked closer at the bark of the tree, I could see stab looking marks in the tree – dagger looking stab marks. They went all the way up to the top. I needed to find out who this was. For all I know, they could be a child! But a child shouldn’t have a dagger, and wouldn’t have the strength to climb up this tall tree with just two daggers. I decided to turn into an esper and float slowly up to the top to see who this person could possibly be. When I got to the top-finally– I was surprised to see- Celes?! Yep, Celes Chère herself. “Celes, what in the world are you doing- at the top of a tree?!” I asked, shocked that she got up here in the first place. Celes looked at me, looking both shocked and sort of relieved at the same time. She replied with two words- “The Empire.” I stared at her in confusion. “Explain this, please.” I said. “Fine. I got caught by Imperial soldiers, and they tried to arrest me. I climbed up this tree with my dagger and sword.” she replied in a retorted tone. Wait- Celes had a dagger!? “Oh.” I replied as quietly as I could. I wondered how long she had stayed up in the tree. “Um, I’ve been wandering around, and I haven’t seen any Imperial soldiers- so I guess you can come down.” She stood up, and looked over the edge of the tree branches. It was so high up. “I could try to get you down, but it would be risky,” I whispered. She looked at me, and nodded quickly, as if all she ever had dreamed of is to just get off of this tree. I tried to cast Float, and a burst of flames spread all over the tree. Celes rolled her eyes, and then she cast Blizzard, which then coated the tree in a frosty glaze. She slipped off of the icy branches, and fell to the ground. I flew down to check on her, and turned back into my human form. Surprisingly, Celes was fine. I stared at her in disbelief as she got up and started walking around, trying to rationalize how she had been fine after falling down so far. I followed as she went around the forest, and then she realized that she herself had gotten lost. The tree was nowhere to be seen, and the sky had started to darken. We had to find some sort of shelter, and fast. She looked stressed as I calmly told her that apparently I had found some old, creepy prison that we could stay the night in. It would be creepy, and it reeked in that old stone building. I took her to the old prison, merely from memory, and we slowly walked into the prison. It was just as eerie as before, but at least it was something. “If you are the Imperial soldiers, just kill us already, hAha” a mysterious, but obnoxious voice called out. Celes ran to the back of the prison, while I just stood there. She ran back. She told me apparently “Locke and Edgar are back there.” I sighed. I was happy that Locke was here, but not that Edgar was here. I trudged to the back of the prison, and as soon as Edgar’s eyes met mine, his face lit up. “Hmm, fitting- a king in a prison.” Celes muttered.
I stared at Celes. Maybe, just maybe now she would think to forgive me. I mean, she hadn’t spoken to me in forever, so maybe that was a sign, when she muttered “Hi, Edgar… and Locke,” when Terra wasn’t there and it felt like just the two of us existed? I would never know, but maybe, just maybe. I would always want my Rachel back, but Celes was something too. She seemed to get weirded out, because I had been staring at her for at least 3 minutes. I looked away, my face turning red. Terra looked at Edgar, asking how we had gotten in here. He explained, “Oh, Locke… Figaro castle was taken over by Imperial soldiers… I missed you, Terra… Kefka…” I had almost fallen asleep if it weren’t for the cold, hard floor of the prison. Obviously, Kefka had intended his prisoners to have no sleep right before their deaths. “Hmm, we have to get you out of the jail cells somehow-do you happen to know where they keep keys for the cells, Locke?” Terra asked me. I shook my head and nodded toward the puddle of now hardened metal lying on the floor. That was the one part of Edgar’s long rant that he forgot to mention- the key had been melted into a puddle. Celes muttered “Well, we could use magic-” and I watched Terra’s eyes brighten up and she started muttering to Celes. She nodded slowly, as if she was still considering if the mystery words- a plan- was a good idea. Terra then announced, proudly as ever, “Celes will make some sort of ice barrier in front of you guys, and then I can use my fire magic to melt the iron bars into liquid, so you can escape. Then, Celes will freeze the burning hot liquid metal so you can walk!” Celes then rolled her eyes and mumbled “Talk about a wordy plan, Terra.” Celes then stepped forward, towards our little cell, and mumbled something. As soon as she was done speaking, a pile of snow fell on us. Terra winced and then said “That’ll do, I guess.” and mumbled unrecognizable words as well. There was fire all around us, which melted the snow, but we were somehow completely fine. As it was completed, Edgar and I stared in shock as the rusty metal melted into a big pool of reddish gray liquid. Celes, who looked a bit annoyed, then froze the liquid metal, and I felt ice on my legs, but she turned away before I could ask. I supposed she did still hate me – not without reason, but still. “And here you said you were the ‘world’s premier treasure hunter’, yet you can’t pick a lock?” She purposely left out the other part of what I said – of course she did. “Celes, I-” I paused, groping for words. “I’m sorry-” She whipped around, her blonde hair catching a soft breeze. She seemed furious. “You’re sorry? What a surprise. Maybe you should have thought about that before you tried to kill me on my birthday. You’ve been lying the entire time.” She then turned around and stomped away. Terra looked at me apologetically and followed her. I hadn’t meant to lie, it probably just came out that way – after all, I had said I felt lighter than ever after Rachel’s second death – but it had just felt less and less true as the days passed. I wasn’t sure my mind had been completely my own that day, either, but Celes wouldn’t let me explain, so there we were. I reluctantly followed them outside, the fresh air scented with the aroma of the pine trees filling my lungs. Edgar walked up from behind me and looked at Terra, also appearing a bit sad. I suppose he had about the same reason as I did. Terra looked at us and motioned for us to follow her. We followed her through the thick forest and eventually ran into a tree. Terra looked up at it, her arms crossed. “How come I only find this when I’m not looking for it? This is the second time and you can’t see it above the trees, even though it probably reaches up forever.” Celes looked at Terra, looking – a bit scared? “Do you think this is…?” She trailed off and stepped backwards, away from the tree. She looked back at Terra. “Kefka?” Everyone then realized – we have to get out of this forest now. Terra suddenly sprinted away, and we followed her because where else would we go? Celes stopped but I passed her because she was the least of my problems – Kefka would want to put a slave crown on Terra again, and she was so dangerous – and she was our friend. I realized, Celes was dangerous too, and turned around, but Celes was gone. “Don’t worry about her! She’s gonna find something to get us out of this forest!” Terra yelled back at us, stopping. She closed her eyes and sighed. A while later, Celes found us. “Alright, we should be able to get out now,” she said, falling in step with Terra, who had started walking as soon as Celes appeared from out of the brush. We soon left the forest and the town, only for it to appear completely destroyed! Before I could ask, Celes told everyone (but probably not me), “Kefka destroyed Kohlingen, and that whole town was an illusion. But Kefka’s tower,” she looked up, “is most definitely still there…” Sure enough, a humongous tree that seemed to reach all the way to heaven was standing. “And of course I chose that tree, of all things…” she said, looking at Terra.
I was evidently very, very lucky I had made it this far – I literally climbed Kefka’s tower. But I had to be there, with him – that made it a lot less fun to be lucky. At least I wasn’t with Setzer – in luck with him, you won or you died. If the airship flew behind you, even more so, but someone would always end up dead. Those thoughts didn’t matter, though, so I quickly cleared my thoughts. What would we do? I wanted to leave – of course! Relm was in Jidoor – she would have been at least kind of welcoming, seeing as we had saved her painting from a random demon named Chadarnook. And even if she hadn’t wanted me, I could have gone to Figaro, or something – it’s not like Edgar would have minded, being who he is. After arriving at Owzer’s house, I noticed the door was locked. I knocked on the door, and felt a push, as though somebody wanted me to stay out of the house. I couldn’t see through the tiny window of the door, but I remembered something about a secret passageway – something I wouldn’t have used otherwise, but it piqued my interest – so I found it and snuck into the house. I entered into the basement and came up the stairs into the main part of the house, which was just as dark as the basement because all the lights were off. I looked down the railing to see – Locke kissing someone? They didn’t seem to hear me, or see me because their eyes were closed, so I strained my eyes to look forward. The girl did look familiar – it was Rachel! But how was she alive? And that didn’t matter so much as he had been lying even more than I had originally thought. My eyes were supposed to be the color of ice – if he even bothered to look at them again, they wouldn’t just be the color of ice, they’d be potent enough to turn him into an ice statue. I decided to go the long way, and walked down the stairs, turned on the stairway light, and pushed him. Really hard. I then walked all the way to the door, strangely calmly, and left the house. No sooner did I leave than Rachel pushed me – much too hard for a rich girl who hardly even had muscles, never mind was strong enough to push me to any effect. I cast Blink, so they wouldn’t see me on the ground, and stood up, following them silently to their destination, wondering what was going on – this girl was not Rachel, just like I was not Maria – but then, who was she?
A gust of wind made my hair all wild, and I looked like a caveman. I didn’t care though, it’s not like Celes would care. I sighed, would she ever care to even glance at me again- who knew? It didn’t matter though, because I had my Rachel back. Her beautiful black hair floated around in the wind, as if invisible hands were holding up her hair. Her blue eyes sparkled- in a way. It was like everything was back to normal again. Just me and her, and not a care in the world. It was like my mind had shut off from worrying about Celes- or just about anyone else I had met- it was just me and her again. But, in a way, something felt off- like she wasn’t herself. It was like when people finally get what they want- even if it was impossible- but that one little detail was off. It was strange, but I decided to ignore it. She looked at me, and told me to follow her. She seemed like an angel, and I was right by her. She led back to- Kohlingen?! It was all back to normal again, and it seemed like everything was back to the way it was before- the day before she lost her memory… I was confused- but I didn’t bother. Maybe I had died, or this was all a dream- no. I was happy, but something felt very wrong- fake in a sense- I started to realize that this was not a reality. She led me to a forest, and somehow, with an inhumane sort of strength, pulled me into the woods. I recognized the smell of the fake pine trees. She pulled me deeper and deeper into the forest- until it was almost dark outside. We definitely had gone past the Kefka tree, so where was she taking me? Finally, she stopped. I looked around. There was a boulder in the middle of a clearing in the woods, the entire scene bathed in golden sunlight. I was confused. “So this is where you take me?” I muttered under my breath. She grabbed my wrist with her tender hand and pulled me to the rock, and sat beside me. She stared deep into my eyes, and said “You know I missed you, Locke,” and a slight smile appeared on her face. She then grabbed me, and kissed me violently, but only briefly, her soft lips touching mine for a fleeting moment, then pulled back. She then gazed at me, and her blue eyes seemed to sparkle, this time differently. “But, not enough.” She then took out a dagger, and stabbed me in the stomach. She immediately stood up and walked away. “N-no,” I groaned, wincing at the pain. Maybe Celes will come and save me- I thought. Right before I fell unconscious, I realized, “I’m going to die.” I closed my eyes and collapsed.
“Nonexistence is inevitable.” These words were spoken to everyone in the world by… ME! Heeheeheehee. And I’m going to… burn some soldiers! I jumped to the bottom of my tree, where soldiers were waiting for me. “‘Oppose’ still rhymes with ‘dispose!’ Go find Locke, and kill him! HEEHEEHEEHEEHEE!” I turned around, and looked at one scrawny little soldier who looked like he had no idea what to do. “A-Are you new-w?” I ask. He nods his head. He looks ashamed. “We get rid of little problems like you- follow m-me- HAHahAH” I exclaim. He has a troubled look on his face as he stumbles beside me. I didn’t like the look on his face- so I decided to take out a random dagger, and slowly cut off his face. He screamed in pain as the fleshy chunks of his face fell to the ground with little thumps. Blood was all over me, and I laughed at the weakness of the soldier. Blood was also streaming from the remainders of what would have been his face. I led him to a pile of twigs- which I had prepared just in case I felt like burning someone. I plopped him on the twigs, and started a small fire. I watched as the hungry flames spread across the twigs, and licked at his dying body. He screamed and moaned in agony as he slowly burned. The entire time I had a grin across my face. I loved the smell of burning flesh, so long as it wasn’t mine. When he finished burning, and the screaming stopped, I walked away, not bothering to clean up the mess. I headed back to my tree to see if those stupid soldiers had gotten him yet. I saw them dragging him, unconscious, to my tower. His stomach and arm are bleeding quite ferociously. I looked at him as they explained that they had stabbed him in the arm to make sure he was really weak. I wanted to burn him, but I was too tired from the previous burning- so I decided to wait. I heard some rustling in the leaves and cast Dispel, but nobody appeared so it was probably the wind, but I cast Firaga on the entire forest for good measure. I was disappointed to not smell any flesh burning- so I frowned and ordered the soldiers to somehow recreate the forest again so I could burn it again.
I fixed my hair. I would have put my bandana on to keep it in place, but I would never wear it again, unless Locke was obliterated from existence so I never even met him in the first place. I looked down, and noticed a fake forest burning, and it shortly stopped. I sporadically decided to kidnap Maria again because there was an opera today and if I didn’t send a letter, how would they know I was going to kidnap her and give her a doppelganger? I landed my airship behind the opera house and jumped onto the roof. I found the hole I had made with a chainsaw that I put in Zozo, which Edgar stole, and jumped onto the rafters. Draco was about to win (again), so I quickly jumped down and nabbed Maria, and used a grappling hook to get out of the building. Maria started to scream, so I cast Silence, which I suppose was a useful spell after all, and flew my airship away. She tried to jump off, which was really dumb, so I cast Hold. She was then paralyzed, and I flew off to Narshe, because the only person there was a forger who was standing in the basement of his house and wouldn’t bother me. I dragged Maria through the mines to the cave where the moogles apparently used to live, until they all died, and both of my spells inconveniently wore off at the exact same time. She apparently decided that there was no reason to scream and tried to run away, because I hadn’t cast Dark and she saw how I got here, but I was faster and bound her ankles and wrists with rope, effectively stopping her from leaving. “Get away from me-” she attempted to scoot away, but it was obviously not going to work, and she quickly gave up. “I’ll unbind your hands if you’ll play poker,” I told her. It seemed reasonable. “…What are we playing for?” she asked me. I responded, “How about whether or not I take your hand in marriage?” A sly grin had spread across my face. She sat there for a moment, and seemed to be considering it. “Fine.”
That memory was going to haunt me for the rest of my life. Not seeing Locke bleeding – he overreacts and could easily survive being stabbed in the stomach and arm – but watching the soldier burn. I had seen it before, in the Gestahlian Empire, which sounds a lot better than the Kefkan Empire – the Palazzoan Empire? Anyways. I had been trying to figure out a weak point, other than the thing about Kefka being easily distracted, but that was the only thing I had been able to find. It was a good weak spot, though, so I decided to invade his tower. And of course, I had accidentally stepped on leaves. You get to be very quick when running around with a thief, although I regret that decision, and I just managed to get to the tower/tree just before the ground burst into flames. It smelled of burnt flesh, and there were smoking holes in the tree – they seemed very new, so I had to be careful not to run into Kefka. I couldn’t believe the reasoning behind half of what I was there for – but maybe he had learned his lesson. I cast Blink on myself again so as to not be caught by Imperial soldiers, and crept into the main room (although it was a tree, and didn’t really even have rooms, it just looked like a room). There seemed to be a hundred soldiers. It was going to be harder than I thought. My gaze did a quick sweep of the room and found a ladder. There were countless soldiers simply at its base – how would I get past them? I looked around for any other option. Walking through the huge tree, I found a few scattered shards of what seemed to be a dark green and red gemstone – almost magicite, but the shade was too dark. Had Kefka been trying to artificially create magicite? I didn’t touch it, and continued to search. After a while, I remembered that most soldiers could fall asleep at a moment’s notice. Maybe that could help. I put on a ribbon so I wouldn’t be affected by my own spell, and cast Sleep on the whole room. Almost all the soldiers fell asleep, although light. I tread lightly over their sleeping bodies to the ladder. I began to climb up the ladder, casting Haste on myself so I would climb faster. I didn’t reach the top – if there even was a top. I suddenly heard faint laughter. Looking up, I saw Kefka floating down the ladder, and he cast Dispel and Esuna on the entire tree. “You didn’t really think you could get away, did you?” He smiled creepily and grabbed my wrist before I even realized he was close enough to touch me at all. I drew my sword, but he took it from me before I could do anything. He threw me onto the wood and touched the sword to my throat. I pushed myself away, and cast Silence. It didn’t work, not that I was expecting it to, but it shocked him for the tiniest moment, and somehow I got lucky enough that a soldier’s head appeared over the “floor.” I felt strong winds tug on my hair, but paid them no mind. I found a random door and shut myself in it, unsure what would be there, but not really caring.
I felt- wood, and I could hear Kefka talking, and laughing at the same time. I didn’t know how long I had been unconscious, but my head was throbbing, my arm was stinging, and my stomach was burning in pain. I finally opened my eyes, and the bright light hurt them. I could also feel cold, metal chains around my wrists and ankles. I sighed and sat there, knowing that it would be useless to try and break free from them. Suddenly, the door creaked open, and someone quietly, but quickly came in, and shut the door silently. I could hardly see, because my vision was blurred from pain, but I faintly saw golden tendrils of hair – Celes’s hair?! She finally noticed me, lying on the floor in chains, and came over and stared at me. She had a look of revenge on her face, and whispered, “Now it’s your turn to be in chains, Locke.” Kefka burst into the room, with 3 other guards by his side. Celes quickly picked the locks on the chains, and teleported us both to Zozo. She sighed, and cast Curaga on me, and my wounds were healed. She turned away and looked at the sky, which was pouring rain (as usual). There was a sense of growing hope- that maybe- just maybe- she had already forgiven me. I mean, a person shouldn’t forgive such an act. I expected her to continue with her life, and leave me in the dust- but surprisingly, she didn’t. It seemed like the world started to become- brighter in a way. I was the idiot who almost killed Celes, just to bring back Rachel, but it was never worth it. There was a newer problem, thanks to my planning. I had to do something- to somehow thank Celes, and we could go our separate ways, at least with me knowing that she had forgiven me. No- this was wrong to think- we could always try to be together again- somehow. I just had to erase the problems I had created, and it would be back to normal. The sacrifices I made for Rachel were stunning, just to have her come try to kill me. I sighed and stood there, continuing to think about how I would get out of this mess. She looked down, and turned. She seemed – scared? Sad? Then, without a word, she walked away. I wanted to follow her, but I decided not to, since she seemed mad at me. Suddenly, I heard clanking from the rusty metal stairs on the tallest building and looked up, but I couldn’t see anything. Then everything was silent. I realized – maybe someone was attacking Celes – and rushed up the building. I peered inside the area we had jumped through to scale the building, and sure enough – there was Celes, and a thief. There was another thief at the narrow building next to this one, so if she tried to escape, he would attack her. Celes was pressed against the wall, her sword lying on the floor in front of me, her face bleeding. I quietly entered the room holding my dagger tightly. The thief closer to me, probably drunk, didn’t notice me; however, the other did and jumped into the room. Celes was squeezed against a corner, dodging blows from the drunk thief, but the one who had noticed me held up ten daggers, and threw all but one at me. I dodged, but one grazed the side of my already-wounded arm. I winced in pain. They both started attacking Celes, and she couldn’t really move, because she could only move down, which would get her stuck on the floor. I thrust the dagger into one of the thieves’ legs, and I took it out. He yelped in pain. I started to repeatedly stab him all over, blood everywhere. The thief looked at his wounds and poured a random half empty bottle of “cider” on it- to try and stop the pain. He screamed again, as the alcohol made it worse. The other thief had come over to see what was happening, and I stuck my dagger deep into his thigh as well. He watched in dismay as I took the dagger out and blood started to spill everywhere. He was whimpering something about flesh? I then grabbed Celes, and practically shoved her out of the room, urging her to run away. One of the thieves collapsed on me, and started to slice my other arm with Celes’s sword. I struggled to get free, and managed to squirm out of his grip. I ran out, and continued running, trying to find where the heck Celes had gone. I looked at my other arm- which once was perfectly fine, but now was gushing out blood. I shuddered. Suddenly, I saw that all too familiar golden hair. She stood in front of me, and processed the damage. She almost looked sorry for me. She cast Cura on my wounded arm, and teleported us both to Doma Castle – to find Cyan, I assumed. “Why in the world are we looking for Cyan?” I mumbled. She ignored me, and wandered around the ruins of the castle. I decided to not follow her this time- and look inside the castle. There were crumbles of cement and stone everywhere, and the air was filled with dust. I wobbled around on the chunks of stone on the ground, trying to look for Cyan a different way than Celes. It seemed as though I looked on the left side, and she the right side, but we somehow both ended up in the throne room, where Cyan was standing. I closed the door and it slammed shut, but I was the only person who reacted, cringing. “…Cyan? What happened?” Celes walked toward him, but I didn’t. She seemed to hesitate for a second, him not moving, and she rested her hand on his back. “Cyan…” She stood there for a moment, while Cyan just stood there silently, not responding, not moving. “Won’t you help us?” She moved her hand back to her side. She seemed to be waiting – even though she was trying to be nice, it’s Celes. She’d wait there until she got an answer, at least. Which might be forever, by the look of it. “Celes, we should go look for Terra and-” She raised her hand and for some reason, that convinced me to stop talking. I didn’t want to wait here for Celes to hope Cyan wasn’t completely hopeless, but somehow, she had always had a higher authority than me. Cyan didn’t seem to budge, and I was tired of waiting, so I impatiently called out, “Can you answer the question, Cyan!? We don’t have all day you know.” Celes glared at me. “Well, what are we spending the day doing then?” she growled. I shrugged. “Anything besides sitting here all day.” I said in a mocking tone. “How nice of you to make fun of me for trying to literally be nice,” she retorted. I stood there silently, already lucky that she hadn’t thought to slice me into pieces by now. Cyan finally muttered something I couldn’t hear, but Celes nodded and he followed her out of the room, leaving me behind. “Wait for me!” I yelled, running after them.
It was kind of amazing that Locke disliked Cyan – I mean, the only reason is that Cyan wanted to kill me, once, and Locke interjected. But I wasn’t angry with Cyan – he’d had a good reason to try. After all, I had been in the Empire, which had killed his entire country. I realized I had been walking for no reason – Doma was on an island by itself and I could teleport anywhere. I turned to look at them. “Where do you think we should go?” I asked, not really caring. “Do you want to go to… uh… lemme think a second…” “Wow, real smart of you, Locke,” I retorted, turning to Cyan. “What do you think?” He shrugged, still looking kind of sad. “What the heck. You guys are being useless right now.” I cast Warp, and teleported myself and these useless men to Jidoor. “Why here?” Locke asked, looking a bit disconcerted. I walked away toward Owzer’s house without responding. I felt a hand on my shoulder and whipped around, looking at Locke. “I don’t care what you think – it’s your fault you don’t want to be here. I had absolutely nothing to do with you kissing your dead girlfriend in a millionaire’s house.” He appeared to be taken aback. “Y-you saw that?” “How did you think I found you?” I turned around and continued walking to Owzer’s house without another word. After I got to the end of the basement, where Relm was finishing up her painting of Starlet, I looked around. It hadn’t seemed to have changed much, other than having some lighting. “Hey Relm.” She looked at me, seemingly startled by being here but quickly hiding it. “I was almost done. Can’t I at least finish my painting?” I sigh. “Sure,” I tell her. Unless Kefka happens to attack right now, it won’t be that bad to wait for a quick painter to finish. “This is a different painting, isn’t it?” “Yes,” a voice from behind me proceeds, “Relm happens to be a very talented painter.” I turn toward him. “Hi, Owzer. I wondered where you were – I expected you’d be down here watching Relm paint.” Just then, Relm jumped down from the box thing she was standing on. “Alright, Owzer,” she said, but – looking at me? “what do you think?” He nodded. “Yes, this is perfect. You may leave, if you’d like to – but come back and paint more!” he added as Relm ran off. “I will!” I followed her out of the house. “So where are we going? And who’s with you?” She hardly even gave me time to answer her questions. “Where we’re going depends on where Terra and Edgar and whoever are-” “-and who’s with you?” “Cyan and Locke-” “-So you’re talking to Locke again?” I groaned. “Relm…” “You’re the one who decided to put up with me.” I sighed and continued following her out of Owzer’s mansion. “Hi, Locke!” I sighed and stood at the edge of the stairs Relm was running down and Locke was at the bottom of. I crossed my arms and walked down the stairs. I looked forward to the front of the town, and to my surprise, Terra and Edgar were coming in. Terra seemed to notice me, and ran forward and practically jumped on top of me, but eventually just hugged me. “Celes! I couldn’t find you anywhere. I looked all over the place-” “-I helped-” “-shut up, Edgar. Anyways,” she said, smiling. She looked over my shoulder, and let go (finally). “Hey, Relm! I haven’t seen you in such a long time.” It’s possible that excited Terra talks even more than normal Relm does. I sigh. “Well, everyone’s here… we’d probably stand a fighting chance against Kefka.” I realized that somehow, nobody remembered that Sabin even existed. “Where’s Sabin?” I asked. Everyone shrugged mindlessly, and then realization seemed to hit – we’d been completely ignoring him for a really long time. Chances are, nobody thought about him, even once.
So, I had been training with Duncan, but he said I was now more skilled than he could ever be, so he made me leave. I was standing in the middle of a field, running around monsters, pummeling them, and getting money. But why was everyone singing? Never mind. I randomly decided to go to Jidoor, so I had to swim there. Midway to Jidoor, I saw a dark purple figure seem to linger in the water under me. I tried to slightly change my path, but the figure kept on moving underneath me. I finally just swam as fast as I could, and I looked around in the water- the purple figure had disappeared. I sighed in relief and continued swimming. After a while, I could actually see Jidoor- I was happy at that sight, because I was exhausted. I realized that after so much swimming, my strong strokes had turned into more of doggie paddles- so I decided to take a quick break- maybe two minutes? I sat there, lightly treading the water, and I saw that purple figure again- yet this time- it was closer up to the surface, and was beside me, slowly moving around me. Then, it came closer to the surface. I watched in curiosity as it slowly came up, and then I frantically started to swim away. My strong stroke had come back, and I was swimming faster than ever. Yet, the purple figure seemed to somehow keep up with my fast-paced swimming- even getting ahead of me at times. I finally had enough- I stopped swimming. A giant purple octopus then rose out of the water, looking at me- as though I was a snack. “ULTROS!? Get out of my way, or DIE!” I yelled. Ultros didn’t speak, he just grinned, showing all of his razor sharp teeth. “Sure, fight me, tasty snack,” Ultros replied. I balled my fists up in anger, and started to pummel him, and one of his tentacles slowly dragged me underwater. He laughed at my obvious weakness in the water, and his new strength. By now, I was completely submerged in the water- and I had given up. I let him slowly drag me to the bottom of the ocean, and I was barely conscious, but I looked over to my side, and I saw a rusty pipe. I quickly grabbed it, and with the best of my abilities, I smashed Ultros’s tenacle, temporarily freeing me. I swam past the octopus, which was still moping over his hurt tentacle, and thought about how stupid it was to try and fight a killer octopus- in water. “I DON’T EVEN LIKE MUSCLEHEADS!!” he screeched at me. I swam faster and faster, until I finally reached land. The octopus didn’t hesitate to slither after me onto the sandy beach. In which my friends were in the town so close- but so far. Ultros looked extremely agitated, especially whenever the sandy ground touched the smashed tentacle. “YOU WILL SUFFER, AND YOU WILL BE MY SNACK!” He slithered up and bit my leg with his sharp rotting teeth, and it started bleeding and even looked infected. I screamed in pain. We were caught up in a tangle fighting, when suddenly- another Ultros attacked Ultros?? “Sabin, you’re a wimp,” I heard a familiar voice say, and behind me sure enough there was Relm. “Don’t you ever learn, Ultros!? Just don’t attack us and you won’t attack yourself!!” she screamed at the octopus as it practically melted into the ocean in pain. “And it’s your fault for not just yelling at us earlier,” she added to me. “You may as well come with me,” she added, “everyone else is in Jidoor, too.”
I looked around as Relm came back to Jidoor with Sabin trailing behind her. “Like she said… everyone’s here. We would stand a fighting chance against-” “-why are you just repeating my exact words?” Celes interrupted me with an obvious question. “I, um…” She rolled her eyes at my response – maybe it was terrible but she didn’t need to point that out. Not that anyone else was looking at her eyes, I realized with a jolt, or in her eyes- “I suppose you’re slightly more right than I was though, Sabin being here, but try to be a bit more original,” she said, walking away to stand at the edge of the rocky ground of the town square. “Maybe we should invade Kefka’s tower?” Edgar asked, and to his dismay, everyone actually agreed with him for once. “But shouldn’t I go get Celes?” I asked, with Relm immediately responding to me saying, “Locke, you always seem to follow Celes, she’s literally right there.” I just sat there quietly after that, not saying a word. Relm decided to get Celes, and Edgar tried to flex his muscles in front of Terra for some reason, probably hoping to try and get her to fall in love with him again. While we were sailing to Kohlingen, Terra approached me. “What will we do after this?” “Die from Kefka melting us,” I responded unenergetically. She rolled her eyes. “Nobody seems to be trying anymore. Why are you all so… unenergetic?” “Why aren’t we asking why you’re so energetic then?” I replied. Terra didn’t respond to that. When we finally reached the fake Kohlingen everyone seemed glad to get off, especially me. “Well, I suppose this is it, then? We win or we die…” Celes said glumly. Only Relm answered with, “Yep. Sadly.” But Terra decided to say, “No, we aren’t going to die! Why is everyone so resigned to that? Why are we even here if you all think we’re going to die – which we’re not!?” “Oh shut up, Terra. You’re already a terrible wife!” Edgar exclaimed. Terra replied, “Well, you’re not the best husband either!” They all soon reached the long, skinny tree, and an impending sense of doom fell over everyone. I then muttered, “How are we going to get up this thing?” “Maybe by- I don’t know- using your dagger?” Celes replied, sounding resilient- already starting to climb up the tree. For some odd reason, there were no guards surrounding the tree- which made me suspicious. Terra, who had started to take out her sword to climb up, decided to just cast Float on herself instead. I watched as she started rising up and up, and I sighed. Celes was already halfway up the tree- with Terra slowly coming up with ease. Edgar shook his head- Terra hadn’t bothered to help him at all. I then stuck my dagger into the wood, and attempted to climb up. Celes looked down at me shamefully and I just yelled, “I’m the one with only one dagger- and I guess I’m also the only reason you happen to have two weapons.” She glared at me- and growled back, “Yeah- you’re also the only reason that I now have a scar on my face not from being in or fighting the Empire.” She continued up the tree and looked down, apparently noticing everyone still on the ground, and said, “Terra, why don’t you just cast Float on everyone?” Terra looked down- and realized everyone else was still on the ground. She narrowed her eyes at Edgar, and started to cast Float. Soon, everyone except for Edgar, me, and Celes was floating up as well. Edgar- who looked extremely annoyed- stomped his foot in anger and asked Terra, “You know that if I die, you will be a widow, right?” “Yeah, I would enjoy that more than having to be married to you.” Terra replied sourly. “Then at least cast something on me” then she cast Imp on him. He looked around and widened his eyes, then looked back up. “There’s an entrance here, you know.” Celes groaned. “Of course I would forget that now.” “Can someone help me now?” Edgar pleaded. No one responded, and Edgar sighed. “Wait, I still have green cherries. Never mind-” “-Yeah, you idiot!” Terra yelled and slowly floated down. I watched as Celes jumped from the tree, landing perfectly on the ground. I jumped down as well, because I was only about two feet above the ground anyways. We all trudged to the entrance- with Celes muttering under her breath about how stupid it was that we wasted our time because she somehow forgot that entrance. We amazingly made it up the tree with no guard contact at all- which was especially strange. But when we got to the top of the tower, everyone gasped. Standing there, at the top of the tower, was an entire army of guards surrounding Kefka. When he saw us, he laughed, obviously. I balled up my fist in anger, and Celes sighed. Edgar ran forward and cut off a soldier’s arm with his chainsaw. The soldier cursed in pain at the loss of his arm, and then everyone started to fight the soldiers at once. Kefka, who started to freak out- as his soldiers were quickly dying- decided to cast Firaga, and the entire room was lit with a blinding light, and heat. Suddenly, the room was filled with flames. The flames licked at the dead soldiers, creating a terrible rotting smell that filled the entire room. In response, Celes quickly cast Blizzaga, which filled the room with ice- putting out all the flames. I looked at the meager amount of soldiers who hadn’t been burnt- or frozen. Celes, Edgar, and I were extremely burnt, somehow having frozen burns that hurt even more than a normal burn for some reason, almost collapsing in pain- but Terra’s injuries were only from the ice, it seemed that the flames healed her. I slowly got up, and managed to slice one of the soldiers, blood gushing out of their wound. Celes cast Curaga on every one of our allies, then suddenly seemed hurt? I wanted to ask if she was okay, but a guard came over to me, and knocked me down. He then started to slice me repeatedly, and I was slowly dying. Terra screamed at us, “I can’t do anything! Burning him will only heal him and there are too many…” Her voice was drowned out by a thousand screams and yells and I couldn’t see her anymore. I started to panic, and I wanted to find everyone. I spotted Terra and Edgar, slowly killing three other soldiers, but Celes was nowhere to be seen. Was she- dead? Suddenly a blizzard filled the room and a clump of soldiers backed away and I saw her, unconscious but not dead. I ran over to her, and immediately cast Arise. I realized that Edgar was running toward me with blood all over his face. “Where’s Terra-” I asked. Edgar didn’t respond. Celes suddenly gasped and ran over to the spot where I had last seen Terra, then I realized – she was still there, limp on the ground. Covered in blood. Celes cast Cure, and Raise, and Arise, and Reraise, and Cura, and Curaga, but none of them did anything. “Stop wasting your magic- it’s useless.” Edgar says, seeming drained of all his hope. She continued to look down for a moment, then stood up and whipped around to face Kefka, casting Blizzaga on him and only him. Kefka stumbled, and angrily screamed, “I hate hate HATE ICE!” and cast Meltdown, healing himself and injuring us. He also cast Ultima on everyone as well, and laughed darkly to himself. We were all somehow still not dead. I stood up, and weakly cast Curaga somehow simultaneously with Relm. Kefka cursed loudly, and brought all his soldiers back to life, leaving Terra lying there, getting trampled as the guards ran towards them. It was again chaotic. “I could easily kill all of you idiots, but I’m having fun with this!” Kefka said, laughing. Celes mumbled something and stumbled toward Kefka. She was holding the Atma Weapon and started to brutally attack him. “Ouch-” he said, and cast Flare on Celes, repeatedly, enjoying watching her burn. I attempted to stop Kefka, but one of the soldiers grabbed me, and dragged me away.
I somehow escaped Setzer by being really annoying because I had no idea how to play poker. I had to fight so many monsters that would have overwhelmed me if not for my ice, and steal an airship, and escape Setzer before he realized that he could just forcibly marry me without the poker game, but I did it. I’d found and climbed up that humongous tree – although it was hard, it just took a long time – and when I reached near the top, I smelled burning flesh. When I actually reached the top, I saw a woman who looked almost exactly like me burning from Kefka’s fire. Enraged, I cast an ice spell that didn’t even exist other than for me to cast, and Kefka screeched. He looked up at me in my tattered dress that used to be white but was now blood red, and he tried to burn me, as well. However, the ice in my veins diffused the fire. “WHY WON’T IT WORK!?” Kefka screeched. Trying to burn me, he had stopped burning the woman. I glanced over at her, on the floor. Kefka kept on raging on about the fact that he couldn’t burn me, but then he looked back at her. I quickly cast Raise, and Curaga on her, and she stood up, only half better. I jumped into the crowd of fighting soldiers, but they didn’t notice me. I looked over and saw King Edgar, barely managing to keep the soldiers off of him. Then one of the soldiers grabbed the chainsaw Edgar was fighting with and threw it to the side, not knowing how to use it. It tore a gaping hole in the side of the tree. Kefka then started to cast Flare on Edgar. My attention drew to another man, who was wearing a bandana. The guards were beating him up, and he seemed near unconscious. I ran over to the guards, and cast the ice spell on them. They all froze up, and the man sat up, and looked at me, confused. “Celes?” He asked. “Oh, of course that’s who she is, I should have guessed. No,” I responded. “Then who are you- that opera woman?” he said in a playful tone. “Well, I wouldn’t call it that , but yes.” Suddenly, Kefka cast Ultima on the entire room. He watched as everybody screamed in pain, as a blue explosion nearly wiped everyone out. Even I was affected, although not as much. “So all I had to do was cast- ULTIMA on you all!?” Kefka sneered. He cast Ultima again, and the blue explosion reappeared. Everyone but me was knocked out, and I was close. “Why can’t you all just DIE ALREADY!? I’m getting IMPATIENT!!” he shrieked at us, then howling in laughter, as he cast Ultima one last time, but this time I intercepted it with my ice spell which dissipated his spell. “WHAT!?’ he screamed at me, and glanced back at Celes, who somehow managed to slightly get back up. “How did you- nevermind, that means more torturing for me! You idiots just don’t know when to give up, do you?” He said impatiently, and cast Firaga on Celes, which knocked her out yet again. “Hmm, what to do with you?” he asked, and looked around at all the dead soldiers. “I know!” he screamed, snapping his fingers, and all the soldiers came back to life.They immediately came running towards me, with their weapons drawn out. “An army of zombies-” I winced in pain from the deep wounds all over me Ultima had somehow created, “-that won’t be enough.” He cast Stop, and ordered all the soldiers close to me to stab their swords into me as deep as they could. I had to stand there, as they stabbed their daggers and swords into my arms, legs, stomach, and shoulders. The spell eventually wore off, and I was able to move again, but I could barely walk- as I had deep wounds all over me. I looked around and saw everyone was unconscious, so I mumbled a resurrection spell unknown to man, simply because it was multi-target, which had them sitting up, but still in somewhat pain. Kefka’s face then turned an extremely bright red color, and he stomped his foot in anger. “FINE. If I can’t kill you, then I guess I’ll just have to-hmm…SEND you AWAY!” He screeched at me, his voice sounding hoarse from all the screaming. He then snapped his fingers, teleporting me away from him, right to the middle of Zozo. I sighed, and walked around-wet- with the blood red slowly fading away from my dress. “Hey, it’s that opera girl! Come over here, you little singing freak!” a seemingly drunk thief sneered at me. I shook my head, and ran as fast as I could away from Zozo.
I had burns all over, which stung more than they would have if I hadn’t been an ice elemental. I swore under my breath, as Kefka had teleported our only hope of winning this fight- Maria. As I stumbled back up, I cast Curaga on Locke, Sabin, Edgar, and Relm, then myself separately. Kefka stomped his foot, as if he was angry that he didn’t just kill us while we were extremely weak. I slowly walk over to Edgar, and ask him, “Should we just- run away? I mean, it’s not like we can really do much…” “But then who knows what will happen, we shouldn’t give up just because- we’ve defeated him before, and we might be able to manage again.” He replied, puffing up his chest, and casting Flare on Kefka, who was obviously healed because it was a fire spell. “Damn, I forgot about that-” Edgar said, annoyed, and Kefka just laughed at his disappointment. “I can’t decide whether I should just let you idiots run away, or just kill you!” Kefka said in a mocking sort of way. I closed my eyes and calmly began to mutter a spell. It began as Blizzaga but went on after the spell should have ended. “Hey,” I heard Locke say, “what is she casting-..?” “Does it matter?” Edgar replied, and I heard something that sounded like flesh being torn by a blade. Kefka shrieked, “YOU LITTLE- BITCH!” I mixed Ultima into my ice spell. Kefka screeched even louder, and at this point, everyone was near deafness from his loud screaming. “IF YOU DARE HURT ME ONE MORE TIME, I’LL- I’LL-” and as Kefka was threatening us, Sabin managed to pull off his phantom rush, momentarily knocking Kefka off his feet. I took this opportunity to weave ice magic floating through the air from Maria’s spells, magic that until now Kefka had been hiding, into my spell. It was ready. Suddenly, a hotter flame than I had ever felt burst into existence and everyone around me let out some sort of fearful sound. I almost lost hold of my spell, and it would have been lost to existence had I lost my grasp on it entirely. I opened my eyes. There was a blazing orange wall around me, who knows how the tree wasn’t catching on fire, and all my friends were unconscious. I slit my eyes at Kefka and shot the spell at him, and the whole room. The plan was for it to heal my friends and I slightly while killing Kefka. Which almost worked. He grabbed his body and crumpled to the ground. The flame dissipated and everyone’s still-unconscious bodies seemed a bit more peaceful. “You- you- I won’t die. Not yet. I’LL HAVE THE LAST LAUGH!!” Kefka began laughing maniacally. “Go ahead,” I growled, “laugh all you want,” I told him, picking up the Atma Weapon from the floor, “but you won’t win,” I snarled, stabbing him with the blue ray of light. He screamed, blood dripping from the wound in the middle of his chest onto the wood of the ground. “You- no- YOU’LL GO DOWN WITH ME!” Kefka grabbed the Atma Weapon out of my hands and tried to stab me with it. However, the sword hardly hurt me at all. “Don’t you know how this sword works?” I taunted him. “It does more damage depending on how damaged you are. Since you’re dying anyways, it’ll hardly hurt me at all,” I whispered, smiling. “Think of this as payback for all the other lives you yourself have taken.” He had a look of pure fury on his face, and tried to grab my shirt, but suddenly, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, he fell limp and stopped breathing. I checked his wrist for a pulse and sighed in relief. He was finally dead, for the last time, after all this pain he’d caused… but then there was the matter of my friends. I turned around and everyone seemed to be in serious pain, burned skin peeling off their muscles. Locke’s injuries appeared to be the worst, and – he wasn’t breathing!? His lips were starting to turn to a slight blue. I cursed and kneeled next to him. I tried to heal him, but magic was already fading away so quickly I couldn’t cast anything more than a measly Cure, which didn’t have any effect because Locke was unconscious. I cursed again, louder this time. The tree was already collapsing, and with everyone but me unconscious… I scanned the room for the person who appeared least injured, who turned out to be Relm, and used a phoenix down on her. “Get everyone else conscious, quickly.” I rushed over to as many people as I could. For some reason, I couldn’t get Locke conscious again, although I did get him to start breathing. “Celes, we’re out of phoenix downs,” Relm told me, rushing to the ladder of the crumbling tree. I groaned and began to drag Locke to the same ladder, which everyone else had already started to climb down. I realized how long of a drop it was but decided it was worth it to try, and if he fell to his death, well it would be his fault for not waking up. I dragged him down the ladder maybe ten floors, but the top crumbled, knocking me off the ladder and trapping me much too high above the ground to jump. Unwilling to quit, I dragged his limp body to a hole in the floor that seemed to fall several floors but not nearly as far as the whole tower seemed to be. I pushed him into the hole, then jumped. When I reached the bottom, I saw Sabin. He asked, “Need a bit of help, Celes?” I quickly nodded, and he picked up Locke’s body with ease I was envious of, carrying both of them down the ladder to the bottom of the tree. I looked down, seeing the height of the jump, and up, seeing the tree collapsing above me, and decided it was worth it to attempt the jump since if I didn’t, I definitely wouldn’t make it down.As soon as I hit the ground, somehow not breaking my legs, I rolled out of the way and sprinted to the exit just as the whole tree came crashing down.
Chapter 17- Celes, a little while later
Sabin had dropped Locke haphazardly on the ground, so I had to drag his body out of the fake Kohlingen, past a dead body that looked like Rachel, and ended up bringing him to the shore just past the Coliseum, as I was tired and couldn’t go any further – besides, it’s hard to drag someone while you’re swimming and not drown them. I let go of Locke, then sat down, exhausted. I sighed and looked at the sky, then looked at Locke. “Why can’t you just wake up?” I asked him, with no response. Annoyed, I tried to shake him awake, but to no avail, he still layed there, unconscious. I knew he wouldn’t wake up until I got a phoenix down, but the closest thing happened to be Coliseum. I sighed, and began to drag Locke across the ground again, bringing him inside the Coliseum with me. Of course, I saw Ultros, who looked a little surprised, and a little angry at the sight of me. For some reason, I decided to go talk to Ultros. “Oh, great. You’re here. At least you didn’t bring muscle-head. That moron.” Ultros said. I rolled my eyes, and said, “Yeah, sure. I don’t want to be here if I have to see idiot octopus.” I dragged Locke out of there, with him still unconscious. “That was pointless-” I say to myself, wondering what to do next. Suddenly, Ultros came outside of the Coliseum, and came over to me, and said, “You know, your friend looks like a tasty snack- maybe. I’ll make a bet.” I stared at him, waiting to see his ‘amazing offer’ and he continued, “Ok- we fight to the death, if you die, then I get to eat both of you, and if I somehow happen to die- then I guess I’ll give you an- elixir, to help your pathetic, unconscious friend. Just to let you know, I’ll probably win this, so don’t get hyped up,” he said, laughing. Then, he grabbed me with one of his tentacles, and started to squeeze me hard. His yellow teeth then pierced my arm, leaving a bloody, tender mark on my skin. I growled, and somehow managed to grab my Atma weapon, and pierced his tentacle. He shrieked, and immediately dropped me, and I fell to the ground, hardly injured. I ran up to the purple octopus, and stabbed him again, this time in one of his three hearts. He moaned in pain, blood slowly oozing out of his body, a huge hole gaping wide open. I stabbed him more, until he fell entirely limp. I smirked to myself, and grabbed an elixir from the octopus’s dead body. I grabbed Locke, and ran. I finally found an empty field, and I set him on the ground. I took his blue bandana, and poured the elixir on it. I rubbed it all over his skin, healing the red raw crisp that he was. Slowly, he woke up, and he looked confused. “Celes, wha- where’s Kefka, what’s happening!? Tell me!” “Locke…” I murmured, closing my eyes and listening to the wind rustle through the grass. “Celes, really, what happened?” I opened my eyes and looked across the field at the random blue and purple and red and yellow wildflowers swaying from side to side along with the tall grass. “He’s gone… he’s really gone, this time.” “Why do you seem so sad then?” he asked. I didn’t know how to answer. The faint breeze began to play with my hair, blowing it to the side of my face. I sighed, and said so lightly it couldn’t have been called much other than breathing, “He wasn’t always insane… or evil…” I closed my eyes again and listened to the rustling grass, and felt the breeze in my hair brush the back of my neck. He probably didn’t hear me. Locke scooted closer to me, and I glanced over at him. “What are you…” I looked down. “…” I stood up just as a gust of wind came by, my hair flowing in the wind. I started to walk away, just as Locke stood up and grabbed my arm. I stared at him, and then said, “Locke, why do you have to follow me everywhere? Why can’t you find another separate way- it’s like you’re-” I closed my eyes and sighed. “Like I’m what, Celes?” he asked playfully, still holding onto my arm. I looked at him, waiting for him to say something else. “If I’m going to even think of answering that- tell me, why do you follow me around?” I retorted, after he wouldn’t say anything else. Locke didn’t answer, but instead, started tracing my arm with his finger, and staring at me. I was a little annoyed, as he wasn’t telling me
anything. I realized I had a huge red stain across my arm, from the octopus’s teeth. He took his bandana off and gave it to me. “Um, what would I need this for?” I asked him, slightly confused. He nodded toward my arm. Oh. My arm- duh. “It’ll be fine, I don’t need this.” I said, giving it back. Locke sighed, and put the bandana, which was still damp from the elixir, back on. But his hand was still on my arm. We glanced at each other for a moment, then he held my arm a bit tighter and pulled me closer. Suddenly, I was facing him. A part of me wanted to back up, but a part of me wanted to stay. He pulled me closer and brushed the backs of his fingers across my cheek and down my neck. Then, his soft, warm lips grazed across my neck. “I think you aimed wrong,” I breathed. He pulled his face back maybe half an inch, and looked at me, and kissed me, this time aiming correctly.
I looked around as everyone left to go somewhere, abandoning me. Then the boat started to leave. I ran after it. “You idiots, if you make me swim all the way there I’m gonna paint your portraits!!” It wouldn’t do anything but that meant I could entirely ruin their portraits and draw something they’d hate, but if they destroyed it I would make a new one that would be ten times worse. The group just looked at me, screaming curses and out of breath. I would have jumped, but jumping into the water would be pointless. “Just- I don’t know, stop yelling at us for a minute-” “‘Just- I don’t know, stop yelling at us for a minute,’ he says. Well, I’m the person being stranded on the shore with no way to leave.” I rolled my eyes but everyone was already leaving – except Edgar and Sabin, of course their castle had been there the whole time. I could have left them stranded – as if that would have worked, but I could just imagine how confused they would be to watch their own castle that they own sink into the ground, by the order of someone else. Yes, Edgar, that’s what the girls think of you- I realize they have already gotten halfway there. Oh, come on, youth, of course that was the time you decided to make me stay behind from being lost in my thoughts. I ran up to the two men, and followed them into their castle where I hid in a merchant room for no reason, and sat in a corner. I felt the floor shaking as the castle buried into the ground, and waited for everyone to come running in, which they did, and running back out after five minutes, which they did not. “What are those two idiots doing?” I wondered to myself. Then everyone looked at me. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” they all asked with the slightest hint of malice in their voices. “I’m Relm, you know, the kid who helped save the world- and I have a paintbrush so you may not want to threaten me, idiots,” I added and they all shied away. I stood and walked away, into the dungeon, and there was nothing there, so I walked to the throne room, and there were a lot of yelling voices, so I put my ear against the door – as there was nobody else in the room I was in – and eavesdropped on them. “You cannot seriously be-” “-it wasn’t your choice, there was an agreement and you broke it-” “-you wanted freedom-” “-there are only two thrones-” “-it’s not like Edgar is going to get married anytime soon-” “-don’t be offensive, my brother-” “-I implore you, stop arguing-” “Just flip the coin again-” “-does it really matter at this point?” “Yes.” I was intrigued by the conversation and disappointed when it came to a stop. I opened the door, just a little bit, and looked inside. The chancellor knelt to the ground, stood up, and seemed to be examining something. “It’s tails,” he announced to everyone in that room, only himself and two other people, but that was everyone in the throne room. “Dammit,” Sabin growled, and stomped toward the door. “Sabin, what did you expect? You’re the one who was begging for the coin to be reflipped anyhow.” Edgar tried to- reach out to Sabin, or something else, I don’t know – but Sabin ignored him and slammed open the door, in my face. I screamed in pain. He ignored me and my screaming and sulked onwards, so I screamed every curse in existence – and some that didn’t exist – at him. “You can’t just- ignore me- idiot. I’m literally, all I’m trying to do is go home, or to Jidoor, but no, you had to stop the castle and slam me in the face with a door-” I stopped screaming at him abruptly as my voice broke, and everyone looked at me. So I hid, because I didn’t want them to see me cry, so I swallowed, and continued to scream curses but nobody brought the castle up to the surface, either surface. What the heck. I would rather be sitting in the fake Kohlingen to this – it wouldn’t even matter, Kefka was gone so I wouldn’t be in any danger. Edgar decided to come out of the throne room, and tried to tell me something, but I screamed more curses in his face, so I guess he gave up and left. Then the floor shook again, and everyone came rushing up to their posts, then back down again as sand began to flood the entire castle. I walked over to the hole in the dungeon where the cave to the ancient castle was, and eventually got there, although it was kind of hard due to me being alone and having no magic. And the monsters continually attacking me. I entered the castle, and walked over to the statue of the queen, and then there was a flash and the statue of the queen was replaced with one of the three of the Warring Triad – Goddess. Then the other two, Fiend and Demon, appeared, and magical sparkles began floating around. I watched as the glimmers swirled around the three, and they quickend, circling faster and faster, making a vortex. I tried not to be pulled in… but failed. The magic was suddenly swirling around me and, although I hate to say it, I was scared. “Child…” “Why have you come..?” “Now you must take…” The three different echoey voices stopped. “‘Now you must take’ what? What do I have to take? Why won’t anyone tell me anything?” I was about to curse at them against my better judgment, when they all disappeared. I heard all three voices speaking at once, so quietly I almost couldn’t hear it, “You must take all the magic of the world, and bear it on your shoulders… Child, you should not have come.” I felt a tingling all over my body, as though instead of only my foot or leg falling asleep, it was my entire body. I then ran away, and heard Figaro Castle moving, so I rushed to the entrance to the dungeon, and almost missed it. Then I collapsed.
Fantasy
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Finally Finished this! It didn’t take long, but it was hard! Currently co-writing a sequel! ❤️