Final Fantasy IX: Thanatos


First Life of the Angels of Death

Heiress to the Souls of two Worlds

Thy Time draws near


--

"Ladies and gentlemen!  And Eiko..."

"Hey!"

"Prepare yourselves!  Gird your hearts and minds for the shock I am about to deliver you!  A shock so great I must advise those of frail constitution, and any pregnant women, to please leave the room now!"  He paused a moment to look at a certain member of his audience.  "Queen Garnet?"

The queen and four-time mother unconsciously laid a hand over her stomach.  "I certainly hope not."  Zidane's expression voiced his silent but very enthusiastic agreement, and polite chuckles came from all gathered - except Mikoto, of course.

"Ha ha, good, I would hate for you to miss this," the young scholarly black mage continued.  "For I, Hugo Ornitier, in my diligent research into the nature of the phenomenon known as Trance - capital T! - have discovered the greatest, most essential, most amazing, most...most...!"

"Someone, quick, his hubris got stuck in his throat!" Eiko heckled.  Only Sigrun laughed at that, although Zidane really wanted to - and Mikoto managed a grin.

Hugo recovered from his state of euphoric self-occupation to scowl at Eiko - as well as one lacking in facial features can scowl.  "The most essential part of Trance," he finally finished in a disgruntled tone, though his eyes regained their previous sparkle immediately after.  "And so much more!" he said exuberantly, getting back into the swing.  "If my theories are correct - which they are - then what I have discovered may well play a vital part in every major event that has ever occured and ever will occur!"  He began to move one of his hands to the patterns of magic.  "And that most amazing discovery..."  His hand stopped with a snap of his fingers, crisp and clear despite the soft gloves he war.  "...is this!"

Harmless sparks and swirls of multi-colored light enveloped the large blank - but expensively framed - canvas to the black mage's left.  Lines began to appear on the canvas as the light danced; numbers, symbols, runes; a mixture of mathematical equations, magical script, and even art for those magematicians concerned with the visual impact of their theorems - which Hugo most certainly was.  It was a design as beautiful as it was incomprehensible, yet designed nonetheless to draw the eye to the one prominent symbol at the center, inscribed with obvious love and painstaking attention detail; Hugo's great discovery.

"A moogle?"

"Yes!  No.  It represents destiny," Hugo explained.

Everyone in the black mage's audience blinked at least once - except Mikoto.

"Moogles represent destiny?"

"Well, not generally, no.  Or at least, not until now!" he finished, swishing a pointed index finger through the air.  "It's my discovery, you see, so I get to invent the symbol for it."

"You made the symbol for destiny a moogle?" Mikoto spoke, to everyone's mild surprise.

"Of course, what else would I choose?" Hugo asked.  After the brief silence that followed he threw up his hands.  "But none of this matters, anyway," he said, hastily pulling the framed canvas displaying his formula behind him as he was overcome by sudden impatience, theatrics forgotten.  As he began to rummage about in a drawer the canvas's stand, along with the canvas, tipped over, and everyone jumped as it crashed to the floor - except Mikoto.

"Aha!" Hugo exalted, emerging from the drawer with what looked like a small dragon's claw wrapped around a crystal carved in the shape of a grinning owl.  But that wasn't all: dangling by random bits of string from each of the claw's fingers were a few cheap Tetra Master cards, and one bottlecap - effectively ruining whatever chances the item had of being taken seriously.  "This," Hugo continued enthusiastically, "is my destiny detector!"

It was clear from everybody's expression - except Mikoto's - that they were indeed not taking this claim very seriously.

"I see a demonstration is in order," Hugo said, undaunted.  Walking around the desk, he stood before Zidane.  "This should be interesting," he said with a quiet but almost deranged glee as he held up the artifact with the owl's eyes facing Zidane.  Almost immediately a soft glow emanated from it, and it made two spectral hoots as the bottlecap slowly floated upwards to the length of its string then fell limp.

"Hmm, interesting," Hugo murmured, apparently having actually gotten something from this display.

"What?" Zidane asked.

Hugo looked up almost startled, having briefly forgotten anyone else was there.  "You don't seem to have much destiny.  Not that I'm sure of the scale yet, mind, but I know I managed to get a higher reading than you did.  Much higher.  Imagine, I have more destiny than Zidane Tribal Alexandros," he grinned, not that anyone could see it.

"Hmph," Zidane frowned, almost pouting.  "It's obviously just broken."

"Pretending it ever worked in the first place," Eiko muttered.

Ignoring her, Hugo responded to Zidane, "Oh, that might have been my conclusion as well, but my findings indicate destiny may vary over time.  Whatever destiny you had has likely been fulfilled already.  A life of peace and contentment is all that lies ahead of you."

Garnet beamed.  "Well, that's certainly a relief.  Isn't it Zidane?"

It took Zidane a moment to answer as he fought to master his pout, though it changed into a smile with surprising ease once he looked at his wife.  "Yeah, I guess it is," he answered, taking her hand.

"Or you could just be fated to trip on something and break your neck soon," Hugo pondered aloud, oblivious to the idyllic moment he was interrupting.  "Peace and happiness is surprisingly close to imminent ignoble death in the destiny spectrum, you know."  Suddenly he aimed his artifact at the now scowling Queen Garnet, watching as it repeated the performance it gave Zidane.  "Hmm, same reading.  Be careful around stairs, both of you."

Walking away with no concern for the two glares burning holes into his back, he stopped before Eiko Carol Fabool leaning against a wall under the stairs.  Her arms were crossed in front of her chest, her sleeveless fighting shirt revealing the muscle tone she'd acquired since blackmailing Amarant into giving her martial arts training.  "Let's see how you do, hm?" Hugo said mostly to himself as he once again aimed the artifact.  Eiko just rolled her eyes and waited.  It began to glow once again, but this time all of its doodads rose and fluttered on the end of their strings as the crystal emitted a four-note piano arpeggio.  "Ah, interesting.  It seems you still have some destiny ahead of you."

"Terrific," Eiko said with little conviction.

"Could it not be detecting her future ascendance to the regency of Lindblum?" Mikoto asked from the shadows further under the stairs, causing Hugo to jump.  Dressed in plain rusty-red commoner's clothes, going unnoticed seemed to be Mikoto's preference, and for more than just her own solitude.  Sigrun had spotted at least four swords of varying length hidden about her person when she came in; Zidane had spotted six.

"Um, no," Hugo recovered himself.  "I don't think so.  They are the Queen and King of Alexandria, after all," he pointed.

"Consort!" Zidane corrected by reflex.

"And they had very little destiny at all," Hugo continued as if Zidane hadn't spoken.  "Besides, I am not heir to anything so significant, and my destiny reading was the same as Eiko's."

"Oh, great.  That doesn't mean I'll be stuck having you around when my great destiny comes, does it?" Eiko asked, only half sarcastic.

Hugo blinked.  "Not necessarily, but come on Eiko, I'm not so bad.  Who provides more practice for your wit than me?"

Eiko snickered.  "You've got a point there, kid," she said, ruffling his hat in lieu of hair.

"Yes, well," Hugo mumbled, putting the hat back into place.  Looking up, he turned to Mikoto.  "Miss Tribal, would you mind?" he asked, indicating the artifact.

She shook her head.  "No, I'm actually quite interested in the results."  Hugo beamed.

Eiko sighed and shrugged.  "No accounting for sense, I guess," she said under her breath.

The device was aimed once again.

"That was the same as Eiko's," Mikoto said with just a hint of question after the device returned to stillness.

"Indeed.  This is proving very interesting," Hugo said excitedly, waddling back to Queen Garnet and Royal Consort Zidane.  "My Lady," he bowed to the queen.  "I humbly request permission to survey the destiny of your two eldest," he said with one hand outstretched to indicate the pair of teenagers at their parents' side.

Garnet frowned.  "I don't know..."

"Oh, you damn well better!" Sigrun Luana Alexandros said directly to Hugo, long dusty blonde hair framing her grinning cherubic face.  As always her choice of attire indulged in the finery of her station, though with a mind for preserving ease of motion.  She was much like her father - who had worn silk cravats even as a common thief - in that regard, and Sigrun could rarely be caught in an actual dress.  She also shared a tail that was nearly as long as Zidane's, though the summoner's horn she inherited from her mother was rather humble.  Sigrun still liked to draw attention to it, however, painting it white with red zigzag patterns after the style of white mages.

"Well, if the lady insists," Hugo answered happily.  This time once the artifact warmed up it sounded a seven-note arpeggio of glass bells.

"That was different," Sigrun reported.

"Yes it was.  It seems you have a greater destiny than all of us.  So far, at least," he concluded, turning to look now at the first born daughter of Zidane Tribal and Garnet Til Alexandros, who'd managed to avoid attention until now.

Gerlinde Jane Alexandros, princess of Alexandria and brigadier of the Alexandrian knights, looked as she always did when out of her armor: nervous.  Though she did have her sword, at least; without that she was a complete wreck.  Piercing eyes the same color as her father's blinked under locks of brown hair, cut shoulder length to keep it out of the way in combat.  From those locks, about an inch above her forehead, emerged a rather proud summoner's horn, almost as large as Eiko's, and not done growing yet by most indications.  Gerlinde was dressed simply, with only a light embroidery along the neck and sleeves of her blouse to disguise its origins as a common warrior's undershirt - which her entire wardrobe mostly consisted of.  She could be seen in a dress even more rarely than Sigrun, though this went with little complaint at court as Gerlinde looked as elegant in a dress as an albatross did on land; while a suit of fullplate made her look positively radiant.

"What do you say, sister?  Want to know your destiny?" Sigrun teased.

Gerlinde's mouth worked soundlessly for a few syllables before she sighed and slumped slightly.  "Fine."

"Excellent!" Hugo proclaimed, and held up the artifact in both hands.

And it was a good thing he did.

Bright light immediately errupted from the owl, followed by a mild but noticeable shockwave as the device made a very very loud sound.

The sound reminded Gerlinde of the time Steiner got in big trouble with Beatrix and in his desperation tried to serenade her.

It reminded Hugo of one of his least favorite spells: Chupon's Seismic Sneeze.

It reminded Sigrun of the way Zidane would grind his teeth whenever he knew she had spent time with Blank and Rose  - and their son, Felix.

It reminded Zidane of the way Dagger snored when she was pregnant.

It reminded Garnet of the time her mother had eaten beans, cabbage, and brocolli all in the same meal.

It reminded Eiko of the Hill Gigas's mating call.

It reminded Mikoto of Bobby Corwen's wails when his tale accidently caught fire during one of the black mages' annual fireworks shows.

Then the device exploded.

Once the spots in his eyes finally cleared, Hugo took status of the situation.  In his hands was a partially melted bottlecap and a burning flan card.  Other than that, absolutely nothing remained of his invention.  He looked up at Gerlinde.  "You broke it," he said flatly.

Gerlinde made a fine impression of a fish as she tried to find her voice.  "I...I never touched it!"

Hugo shook his head slowly.  "You broke it with your destiny," he clarified in the same tone.

"I...so...so what does that mean?" she asked nervously.

Hugo appeared to ponder this a moment.  "Well, to start with," he began, summoning a small blizzard to put out the fire that had quickly spread to his gloves, then drawing his Dwarven Webley MkII out of its holster and checking that it was loaded.  "It means you should keep your sword sharp," he continued, counting six bullets and snapping the gun closed again with a twist of his wrist before reholstering it.  "And you might want to consider wearing your armor more often."

--

She smiled as she looked down at her new sword, gleaming unnaturally in the darkness.  A powerful sword, indeed, and one that accepted her touch.  Her old sword would not any longer.  Not since she learned the truth about herself.

No, not learned.  She'd known for a long time.  Accepted.

War.  She wanted war.  Needed it.  Could not live without it.  She was a monster.  And she'd never felt more free than the day she finally admitted it.

Now with her new sword and new master she would have all the war she wanted.  And the old sword...she really should destroy it.  It would make victory that much more certain, the guarantee that no one would be able to wield her old sword against her.  But that was assuming she actually wanted certain victory.  She did not.  She wanted war, not slaughter.

And so Save the Queen would find its way into the hands of her prized pupil.  Then master and pupil would meet on the field of battle, again and again.  Until finally, her pupil prevailed against her.  Or she prevailed against her pupil, and all of existence was consumed by Necron.  Either one would be a suitably glorious end for her.

And nothing else would do.