To See Another Day Chapter 6

Fa’al em Delamfar

By Kain Servant

Blank bounced lightly against the wooden deck of the Hilda Garde V, examining the structure with a well-trained eye. He had learned a lot about airships since flying around on the Prima Vista. Enough, at least to fly almost any ship. And to know that this ship was the best one ever built.

And this was the ship they were taking to Treno. Cid said that he would go as far as the dark city, then they would have to go back to Lindblum and drop him off. “Maybe Alexandria can go without its ruler for a while, but that doesn’t mean that Lindblum has to.” He told Zidane sternly when he asked if Cid would come with them.

Of course Alexandria wasn’t going completely without a ruler. There were various nobles and officials that were overjoyed to have partial control of the kingdom for a while. Felecia something or other was named Temporary Ruler, which she took with a gigantic blush of pride and over-exaggerated curtsy to Zidane.

Zidane shrugged it off later, “I don’t know who the heck any of these people are, that’s Garnet’s job.” He said. That made Blank laugh. Zidane had been living in the castle for years and he still knew absolutely nothing about politics and the plots nobles made against each other. Blank was different…he had never been living in a court or castle, but he could read things behind masks. He knew Felicia the XVLIM-whatever the hell she was- only wanted the position because it was a good place to gloat over everyone else of nobility, but she was also afraid because it was a prime position to take blame and get killed.

Blank thought that he would be a rather good king if the position ever fell to him… Ladies constantly throwing themselves at his feet, begging for him to make love to them, and then the men would…well…throw all their money at him and pledge allegiance for the rest of their lives. He, of course, wouldn’t accept all of the lovemaking opportunities… he would be a decent fellow, maybe get married to someone who was pretty and obedient…and better than Garnet. Damn, if he was Zidane he would never have married her in the first place. His wife would be –

“Blank?” The voice startled him through his thoughts. With a surprised yell he whirled around, his sword swinging from his back to extend in front of his body, pointing straight at the throat of…Eiko. Damn. Cursing himself for a fool to be scared like that, he hastily sheathed his sword again and swiped at his hair,

“Uh…hey Eiko. Did you want something?”

Her amused smile did not escape him. Now there was a girl coming right into her prime. The slender curves that made up the feminine body were becoming more generous now, hinted at fully by the baby-blue spring dress she wore that stopped well above her knee. Of course he was a man of honor, or he probably would have made moves on her by now, but she was only sixteen…so…well, honor wasn’t the issue entirely. It had a little to do with the jealous zeal Cid guarded her with…but not much. “Not really…Cid is testing Zidane to see if he can bring on a self-induced trance and hold it, and he wanted me out of the way in case it gets dangerous.” She walked up to the railing of the ship and stared down at the grasslands moving quickly beneath them, “I wish he wouldn’t treat me like a baby still… Just because he could never have a daughter himself doesn’t mean he should watch me like a hawk until I’m off and married.”

For some reason Blank had never really noticed the horn on her forehead before, he had seen a lot of strange things, so something like that wasn’t too unusual to him. ‘Wonder how you maneuver around that thing when you kiss her?’ But quickly he pushed that thought back. It wasn’t like he was going to kiss her or anything. “Yeah…I’ve never really had a parent, ‘xept for Baku. My parents left me when I was real little, didn’t want to put up with me I guess…smart parents.” That earned him a giggle. “But Baku found me before the reaper did…same as he found Zidane. But I was just…normal and Zidane…well, Zidane is whatever he is, Angel of Death or something. Don’t hold it against the guy, Eiko, Cid’s really doing what’s best for you. Of course it’ll make it all the harder for him when he hasta let go…but…he’ll let go, don’t worry.”

Eiko was silent for a moment, hesitant Blank thought. Then she turned to him, most of her face hidden by shoulder length purple hair, “I used to think I was in love with Zidane…silly thing, I know…it never really earned me anything. But I was thinking about it a while ago, and Steiner and Beatrix would never have gotten together if I didn’t write that love note…do you remember that?”

What the hell did that have to do with parents? “Yeah.” Steiner and Beatrix were in it deep, real deep…like deeper than he ever wanted to be. And he did remember that love note…painfully of course, being the idiot that he was he thought it was for him…not that he had ever hoped Eiko liked him or anything… “Yeah, I guess you can think of things optimistically like that.” He never did. Maybe it was an attribute donated to females.

She peered at him with a smile, “You’re making fun of me, aren’t you?”

Blank grinned and swiped at his hair, “Naw, why would I make fun of you?” Good thing she didn’t realize he was trying to make her fall for him. Wait a minute, no he wasn’t! She was just a girl, a damn girl, he wasn’t going to stoop that low.

“Well…Father says that I shouldn’t listen to people who make fun of me, because they’re trying to…what did he call it, hit on me?” She grinned, and Blank gulped. Time for a subject change.

“So…are you the last of the…people with horns on their heads or something? I guess you’re just human like the rest of us, but it’s kinda special…you know…to be different.” Her face quickly went sober, and Blank did a doubletake. ‘What did I say?’

“I think I am the last person that actually has the horn…Garnet had hers sawed off.” He had heard that before, but Eiko made it sound like that would be the cruelest thing in the world, and he almost believed her. “All of the Summoners except for Garnet, me and my grandfather died when the Invincible attacked Madain Sari.” Yeah, he had heard that too. Just because he wasn’t with them all the time didn’t mean he was completely ignorant to what was going on. He had been in Alexandria on a Tantalus mission when the girl with the horn on her head was discovered by the King and Queen.

“Yeah, I heard that…actually, it was kinda funny…”

He was creeping down the hallway of some big building in Alexandria. He didn’t care what it was, but if it was big it was probably rich. Sure, Baku had sent him just to deliver a message to one of the Alexandria contacts, but he was going to gain something out of it, no matter how small it was. Up ahead he heard voices, talking in urgent tones.

“It’s almost off…almost off…there.”

“Is she alright, Doctor, is she going to live?”

“Yes, it’s only a growth of bone, just like a tooth…some salve there and a few stitches, and she’ll be just like new.”

Curiosity overwhelmed him and he crept up to the room, then peered around the corner. And there stood five people. Two of them surprised him, the King and the Queen of Alexandria, standing urgently over a table. Two of the others were in white smocks and carrying…steel projectiles! No wait…they weren’t projectiles, they were instruments…this was a hospital!

The fifth person was a short, old man in rich clothing, who was peering over the table as well. On the table was lying a little girl…she looked unconscious, and something else about her looked familiar.

Suddenly ten eyes were focused on him. Slowly he took a step back, “I…uh…I’m the night watchman here, your majesty.” Night watchman…that sounded nice. “I was patrolling and I heard you up here…just making sure this wasn’t trouble…” Woah! Something on a side table caught his eye, a small horn, it looked like bone or something…he had never seen anything like it before…now that was something worth stealing.

“Well, we’re not trouble, now go away.” The king said gruffly. Blank bowed in obeisance, then moved slowly into the room, examining, or pretending to examine everything,

“This is the princess. Is she alright, why is she being operated on?” He edged closer to the horn.

“That’s none of your business, watchman…” The Queen snarled at him. He pretended to be frightened, and stepped back hastily into the table, his hand darting behind him to grab the horn, and…

“Well…I got out of there with the horn, I’ll just leave it at that.” He reached into his belt pouch and felt for it…when he had first grabbed the horn it had shocked him, it was warm and almost pulsing, like it was alive. At that time that had puzzled him, but more traveling around the world had solved that mystery. Now it was cold and dead, like any animal’s horn after it is cut off.

“And you never told Garnet that you have her horn? She might want it back…” Eiko looked at him almost disapprovingly. Give it back?

“Hell no! Er…no.” Gotta watch that tongue… “I found it, it’s not hers anymore. Besides, it’s not like she can just put it back on…” He ducked as a shadow suddenly formed over his head. And didn’t go away…”What the…” He held back the curse and looked up, blinking as the sun affronted his eyes.

There, clipping over the sun was…a planet? It was bigger than the sun, but that probably just meant it was closer, and…What the hell? There was another one. And another one! “Shit!” He called, forgetting Eiko, and himself as he bolted for the stairs to the under deck. If that was what it looked like, then it was not good.

--

Zidane watched sleepily as Cid held up a small electronic looking gadget. The old man smiled almost triumphantly at Zidane, Marcus and Steiner as he began to explain, “This is a artificial anger transmitter. If you touch it against your skin and turn it on, it will force anger into your system. For Zidane, or Steiner, it could also force a trance after a period of time.”

Marcus looked almost dejected, “But not for me, because I’ve never been in a trance?”

Cid shook his head slowly; “Well…I’m not sure. If someone of your experience has never reached a trance state before, then it might mean that it is inaccessible to you.” Marcus opened his mouth to grunt something about not caring, but Cid cut over him, “However, there are different types of trances…I don’t know much about them, but it is possible that there is a certain emotion you haven’t experienced much of that could put you in a trance.”

Marcus grinned and shook his head. Zidane couldn’t help grinning himself. Marcus was as skeptical as he was stoical, he wouldn’t believe anything until he saw it for himself, and he would never believe he could have a trance until he was pulsing with the energy. With a sigh, Zidane reached out to take the sharp-looking probe object, “Alright…guess I’ll try this.” Well how much could it hurt? Cid forgot to mention that.

Cid nodded and handed it to him, “If this works, it means a great step forward in technology. Can you imagine where we could go if we could forcefully induce emotions? Madmen could be calmed, wars could be stopped, we could control anyone!” Yeah…if Zidane didn’t already think Cid was completely insane, he did now.

“So this has never been tested, huh?” Gently, Zidane pressed the device to his skin and reached for the button, “Well, here goes nothing.”

With a bang, the door to the stairway opened, and Blank literally exploded in, looking as if the army of grasshoppers that had petrified him for a small portion of his life were after him again. That was one part of his life that Zidane owed to Blank. Anyway, Blank’s eyes were wild, “We’re being invaded!”

Cid was instantly on his feet, looking as defensive as he did over Eiko, “The ship? What’s happening man, out with it fast!”

Blank took a deep breath, “No…not the ship. The world! The freekin damn world! Gaia! There are three damn planets hovering right outside our atmosphere!”

Woah! That woke Zidane up, and he was on his feet in an instant, “I want to see, out of the way, Blank.” Without waiting for Blank to move, he pushed past him and ran for the stairs, still gripping the anger-machine. Something was running through his mind now, something that he wanted very dearly to ignore. Fa’al em Delamfar.

--

Menoth allowed himself a triumphant smile as he stared down at the blue planet growing closer. They were almost there, almost to Gaia. He let his hands fall to the marble railing that circled his wall-less palace. Oh of course, there could be nothing in Gaia to compare to his palace, or almost anything on Tialtor, but that was the general idea. He had to keep his planet alive, and Gaia was a strong planet – a very strong planet. It could last for a thousand years or more.

A few black hairs slipped from his braid and he pulled them back into place swiftly. Only a few more days – and Emryal was already at work on Gaia. A few more days… Menoth was almost startled as a man appeared in the corner of his eye. He whirled swiftly, pushing back the black robe that swirled around him. It was only a servant, a big hulking man with red hair draping over his face.

He sighed, a disappointed sigh. There was one thing that looked delightful about the people on Gaia. They were all…different. Unique, none of them looked the same except for by strange occurrences that the people called “identical twins” It had something to do with identical genes, which happened randomly if babies were born at the same time.

Menoth understood absolutely nothing of that. The Ellians, the race of the dying planets, had nothing to do with chance. Their lives were put into strict order long before they were born, there was nothing different about any of them. All male, all redheaded, all tall, all exactly the same. Menoth was only different because he did not want to look like everyone else.

Menoth wanted to change that. Emryal had one objective, to take over the planet and cause as much pain as they could in the process. Emryal disgusted him, always thinking of killing and other horrible things. But he was the Alc Tzai, the brawns side of leadership on Tialtor. Menoth was the Ruc Tzai, or the brains side of the leadership, at least Menoth liked to think of it that way. And he had his own objectives. To bring back the Chosen, the Allicar; without them again Tialtor, and of course Divlya and Quantil, would never be able to live on.

The servant bowed his head low and Menoth repeated the action, not as low though, then spoke, “Keep me informed of any changes, and make sure we will still reach the planet first.” The leaders of Divlya and Quantil had told him that this planet was for Tialtor, and they would find other planets to take over, but he had never trusted any of them, and he never would until they were far away killing off some planet he didn’t care about. This was his planet, he knew there were “Summoners” on it, at least one… And he would be the one to bring back the Allicar, he wanted to be the first Allicar, and nothing would stop him!

--

Zidane peered up at the sky. Yep, it looked like three distinct planets standing against the sun. That was not a good sign, especially since they were too close to be just a random orbit swing. “They’re coming for us. I can feel it…they’re dying planets, like Terra, and they want Gaia.”

Zidane winced as he said it. He was originally from Terra, he was meant to be the bringer of it’s new life…instead he was the indirect source of its destruction.

“How can you be sure, Zidane?” Cid questioned softly. Zidane shuddered.

“I was told…by the man in Alexandria, the man who took away my trance…he said the Fa’al em Delamfar were coming for the planet. That must mean these planets.” Suddenly he remembered the anger-machine he held in his hand. With a grunt he pressed the button, closing his fist around it and grinding it into his flesh. “If they’re coming and that…weird guy defeated me so easily, we’re going to have to be more prepared. Much more prepared.”

“Um, are you sure he defeated you so easily?” Vivi asked, peering up at him with his big yellow eyes, “You were so powerful, maybe he was lying.”

“Vivi, he took away my trance like taking away candy from a baby. None of my attacks even fazed him, they didn’t even touch him.” At first he felt nothing, but slowly he was aware of anger rising within him. Not his own anger…he knew it was from the machine, but he was getting the same vibes.

Vivi shrugged and turned away, “I’ll be back in a while, I’ve got a few things I have to do in Dali. When will we reach Treno, Cid?”

Cid scrubbed the side of his head heartily for a moment, “A few hours. Now, Zidane, we must discuss what we are going to do. I’m sure everyone else notices there are three planets in front of the sun, but we need to prepare them. We can’t have a repetition of Terra, winning that battle wasn’t worth all of the lives that were lost in it. It must not reoccur.”

Eiko took a step closer to him, “I should go visit the moogles again, make sure they will hide. They try to do the silliest things some times, thinking they’re brave or something.”

A haze was beginning to form, Zidane felt the trance, and began to reach out for it. He felt the vast awareness of everything around him, and the way it faded away when he willed it to. He could feel all of the power that pulsed through him, felt all of things he could do with it. “Cid…I reached trance.”

“…I can see that, Zidane.” Suddenly Zidane noticed everyone was staring at him. Suddenly he blushed, of course they noticed the light and that he was growing fur…they weren’t that stupid. Quickly he tried to cover up his embarrassment; “I’m going to try something I’ve never tried yet. Can you step back a little, please?”

Zidane saw Beatrix stroll up from her chambers out of the corner of his eye. She smiled, then backed away uncertainly, she probably remembered the time he had attacked her while in a trance. That would leave everyone a little uncertain of themselves…well, except for that black-haired man. Everyone was backing away now, so he took a deep breath, and forced himself deeper into his trance.

He could see what he could do with his power as if it was written down in a book, what it was, what it did, each step further into the book he took, he stepped further into the light, the power. This time he further than he had ever gone before, further than the earth, further than even the fire he had discovered the night before. Need was calling him, he knew it had to be out there somewhere.

There it was! He reached out to the page, and suddenly he felt a rush as the power came to life. The airship surged beneath him, and then suddenly it was gone, he was floating above it. And there was everyone below him, staring at him with wide-eyed disbelief. He was flying! He tried to make his voice sound casual, “Cid, do I need to keep holding on to the anger thing to keep the trance?”

“You shouldn’t…” Cid sounded a little uncertain, “Well, you can’t release the anger, but since it isn’t your own anger, maybe…I’d keep a hold of it, I’ll make a bracelet to hold it to you sometime…” Cid was always absentminded, it could be forgiven. Slowly Zidane released the flight, and he sank back down to the airship, then released the button on the anger-machine. And just as slowly the trance ebbed away from him, all the power, all the energy, oh the glory of it!

Silence covered the ship for a moment, then Marcus grunted, “Wish I could do that.”

“Huh, me too, damn the ladies would be all over me if I could fly around, or, wait! Can you imagine how you could enhance…” Blank looked at Eiko and then suddenly fell silent. Zidane thought he imagined Vivi grinning again. Maybe it was more a thought than an action for the black mage.

“Alright,” Zidane took a deep breath, “Here’s what my plan is. We’re going to stop by Treno and try to find Amarant, but he’s not as important anymore. I think our planet is much more important. Cid, as soon as we light down you can leave again, go to Lindblum and warn everyone. Ready the military. Everyone else, I’m sure you can find an airship to take, I want the whole planet to know what’s going on, tell them either to hide or fight.”

“Zidane, how do you plan to fight a planet?” Cid asked, almost incredulously. Cid had never really trusted him, nor understood him.

“The moment it hits our atmosphere and begins the fusion, you saw pictures of Terra and Gaia, right?” Cid nodded slowly, “Okay, as soon as the two planets meet, we should be able to touch this planet…or planets. If we launch a full military assault with support from all the nations of the planet, we should be able to defeat…well…whoever is on that planet.”

Silence once again. Then sparks began to surround Vivi as he cast his teleportation spell, “Well, it’s a plan. I’ll warn Dali right now.” And he was gone. Strange little guy.

“Yeah, not much else to do…” Blank seemed less confident as he swiped his hair and threw another look at Eiko, “Seems like when I get around you all the world always gets in trouble. Well…cheers everyone, let’s get moving – we’ve got some people to warn!”

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