Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Akirame Norwen ❯ Legends of War ( Chapter 44 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 44: Legends of War

Akira pushed herself off of the cold stone floor and grimaced as her back popped in several different places. “Can’t be healthy.” She muttered to herself as she wrapped her arms around herself and tried to bring life back into her numb legs. Once she was certain they weren’t going to collapse under her, she approached one of the small slit windows and looked outside. Night had fallen in the Farplane, as the sky above was now a deep blue-black, filled to the brim with an infinitesimal number of stars, as if someone had tried to force an entire galaxy to fit in the small expanse of sky. Her mind reeled as she tried to take in the sight of the sky, and the pyreflies that glowed below, still singing their eerie song above the voices of the waterfalls. It was unbelievable. And yet, something inside her fluttered in anxiousness, as if this place was teetering on destruction. A bright flash caught her attention. A single streak of light across the sky -a shooting star. She softly gasped in awe, and couldn’t help but smile. Soon she saw another one, then three more, followed by seven... soon the entire farplane seemed to fall silent as the lights streaked outward from a single point, almost like a firework.
Riku quietly stepped behind Akira and watched the display over her shoulder, and foreboding rose in his chest, making him tense. “Should we tell Trelain?” Akira softly whispered, even though she didn’t expect anyone to answer her question.
“I think the Oracle will know more about this then the Guado would.”
Akira jumped and looked up at Riku over her shoulder. “Didn’t hear you. . .” She turned her attention back to the window.
Riku remained quiet, and shivered as the air around them suddenly became cold. He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Akira’s waist, pulling her close so he could soak up her warmth. In response she folded her arms over his and leaned against him. She let out a sigh, and a white cloud escaped her mouth. “Wow. . .” She said, watching another cloud raise above her head.
“It’s what happens when the air is colder than your breath.” He softly explained.
“Riku. . .” A white crystal formed in front of her, and gently floated down to land on the tip of her nose, where it melted. “Snow?”


Erik shivered and rubbed his arms to keep warm as he leaned upright. “Hyne it got cold.”
“The seal must have broken.” Was Serena’s response, as she pushed herself off the ground and walked over to the window.
“Woah... check it out.” Erik softly said, seeing the star-shower from his spot on the floor. “Is that what you meant, the seal breaking?”
“Yes... the seal that kept Sin trapped within the abyss of the Farplane is breaking down. The Sacrifice is slowly losing control over Sin... I don’t know how long she’ll be able to keep it at bay so you and your friends can prepare... I imagine once the Sacrifice departs, the Keeper will try to hold it back as well... I will explain it soon, let us call up Riku and Akira.” She walked over to the trapdoor and lifted it up, and Tremere gave a very relieved sigh. “Tremere, I now wish to speak to Akira and Riku.”
“As you wish, Serena.” The guado seemed somewhat worried, and his shaky breaths came out in white puffs that were slowly taking longer and longer to dissipate as the temperature continued to drop.
Erik sat back on the couch and watched as Akira ascended the ladder and pulled herself up into the room, and his heart fluttered slightly. His sister... the whole entire time, he’d never been much further than a few miles from her... the more he thought about it, the more frustrated he was that he hadn’t taken Irvine’s generous offer to attend the party in Destiny Islands with the rest of the crew. Then that was followed by a quick flash-back to his brief kiss during the photo shoot... and his face turned red.
Even though she was clear on the other side of the fire-lit room, she could see her friend’s face turning varying shades of crimson and pink, and it made her wonder what on earth he could have possibly learned from the Oracle. “Are you okay?” She softly asked as she walked towards him, and it hurt when he wouldn’t meet her gaze.
“Yeah, um.. I’m fine... I’ll talk about it later, just not right now.”
She shrugged in response and sat down next to him. “You were only up here for like, half an hour... what all happened?”
“What? Was that all? I thought I was in here for an eternity...” his voice trailed off. *Time is all we have here, she said....*
When Riku finally pulled himself up into the room, the eerie cold in the room seemed to be abated, strange when one considered his usually icy personality and cool, collected speech. One would instead expect the room to grow even colder... or at least to be colder around him. He shivered and rubbed his arms as he crouched down in front of the fire, all those years living on a tropical island left his skin unhardened to the effects of harsher climates.
Serena looked at the now assembled group from under her hood, her veils laying discarded on the floor. “At last, the heroes of this story are here.”
Erik smirked bitterly at the comment, and the look in his eyes made Akira’s stomach knot up. “The explanation for your presence here will take me a while to explain... but since the seal keeping Sin within Gaea is breaking, we will have to make it brief. The best I can do for now is to simply give you what I can before we leave.” the voice continued from under the layers of white fabric.
“We? You’re coming with us?” Akira asked, feeling like as if a holy relic from a church was asking to be carried away in her pocket. “Aren...Shouldn’t you be here?”
“Yes but... If I do, I’ll be trapped within the Farplane for eternity... the only reason why there are portals into this dimension is because of the time distortion... surely the Guado Maester would have explained it to you?” Although unseen, it was sensed that her eyes flickered over to Riku, who was staring almost unseeingly into the orange blaze that was slowly consuming the logs in the fireplace.
Riku’s response was soft, and seemed to come from years of unexplained wisdom. “All those years, I never felt that I belonged... that I was out of place... life had something more for me, some sort of calling... but just now do I really understand it. I’m from another world almost... another time and place... I’m starting to remember a few things... but not a lot... a woman’s voice, I think it’s my mother’s...” He looked up and shook his head apologetically, realizing he was rambling. “Sorry, I always think better when I talk through my emotions... so tell me Oracle... why exactly did my mother leave me at Destiny Islands?”
Serena smiled sadly under her cloak and took a deep breath before answering. “Your mother knew what she was doing... in the time during which you were born, the world was on the brink of a world war... and as royalty, she knew that you would be a prime target... so she sent you forward in time to a place where she knew that you would be safe... at least until you had grown old enough to stop the results of that war in this age, then she would come back for you and bring you home.”
“Woah... say what? I don’t understand.. I’m royalty?”
“Well... in a way, yes... you were the princess’ son...”
Riku’s mind decided that it couldn’t comprehend what she was saying, so he pushed on ahead to his next question. “And... what results of the war? The world doesn’t seem that screwed up to me...”
“Ah.. Surely you have read in a book somewhere before or heard from elders about the legend of a great war that was waged thousands of years ago, in which a great dragon was created by powerful wizards... the weapon to end the war... but the dragon was too feirce and wild, and it was created from the very sins of mankind; and no person can conquer their own sin. So thus the dragon ravaged the country, until at last a woman and her husband used their own power of goodness and strength to subdue the great creature, and trapped it within the center of the earth.”
“A long and fanciful fairytale that parents read as a bed-time story.” Erik responded, and when his eyes met Riku’s disapproving gaze, a silent clash made the room that much more tense.
“Erik, after all I’ve shown you, who are you to disbelieve anything?” was the Oracle’s icy reply, which made him sink back in the chair. “After thousands of years, any tale will be stretched out of proportion and turned into legend, especially when it is always passed on through spoken word. However... the war I spoke of was the one during which you were born, Riku. The world back then was called Spira, and the countries that fought were Alexandra and Hume. Back then the world was filled with light, and the technology man had come to create was a testament to how far the human race had come... but somehow, and it even remains a shadow to me, darkness began to creep into the hearts of the people in both kingdoms. Jealousy towards neighbors, hatred, bitterness... eventually the technology began being used to make weapons... airships started carrying cannons, black mages became greater in number while white mages began disappearing, and more and more often strangers would meet late at night and exchange whispers. At last, after three years the tension broke out into a war which raged for nearly fourteen years... it wasn’t ended until Alexandra reveiled its great weapon, created by hundreds of the greatest minds in the country. They called it Sin....” She shivered, then rest a hand on the mantle to steady herself as she continued on, “Nothing could control it, but Princess Shiva of Alexandra, and Prince Bahamut of Hume both realized what had to be done... they both used their very lives to seal the great beast within the great mass of energy deep within the earth, the Gaea... or the Lifestream. But in the end both countries had been destroyed, reduced to blood-stained rubble and smoke... inspired by the bravery of the two enemies’ unity and defeat of Sin, the two countried joined together, and slowly rebuilt the land.”
“But....” Riku softly spoke, giving it all enough time to sink in, “what are the results of that war that I’m supposedly here to fix? You said... something about the seal that holds Sin in Gaea was breaking? So... is that my job, to kill Sin?”
“Exactly... you see, to this day, a whole millennium later, the Sacrifice Shina, and the Guardian Bahamut are still using every last ounce of their strength to keep Sin captive... but it won’t last much longer, as they’re both weak... but it isn’t you who holds the power to truly defeat the dragon... you’re the key to unlocking the power....”
“Then where is the power?”
“I’ll tell you when the time is right. Until then, I don’t have much time, so allow me to gather the weapons I have been creating for you.”
“Dude, you’ve been making us weapons?” Erik asked. No doubt in his mind now that she was dead serious about all these strange stories she’d been telling them now.
“Mmmhmm... besides, I know how that battle with the Jumbo Cactuar went, if you lost so poorly to that creature, there’s no doubt in my mind you’d be eaten alive by Sin.”
Akira groaned and rolled her eyes. “Like we need to be reminded? Boy, whoever decided it was up to us to save the world must have a great sense of humor.”
“Hyne does have a sense of humor, but that isn’t the way he runs everything... instead, he likes to testify his power by using those that no one would ever expect... he works through our weaknesses instead of our power.”
Once again Erik seemed to disappear into the overstuffed couch. “So tell me, how do you know all of this, especially the whole story about the war? In fact.... who exactly are you, and how did you get here?” Riku began shooting questions rapid-fire, and by now he was standing.
“Because I was there when all of this happened... in fact, you and I are related, dear Riku... you are my nephew. I am Bahamut’s sister. My brother fell in love with your mother Shiva just three years before the war broke out...”