Final Fantasy IX Sequal, "Forever Fantasy"

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“Hurry up, Vivi!” Eiko yelled as she ran quickly up a flight of stairs, the poor black mage trying terribly to keep up with her. By the time they reached the landing, Vivi was huffing and puffing.

“Oh Vivi!” Eiko said in an exasperated tone as he plopped down on the top stair to rest a moment, “Dagger’s rooms are just down this hallway! You can rest when we get there!” Suddenly, Eiko leapt to the overhang and looked down, “Oh! I thought I heard someone! Hi Freya!”

“Good afternoon, Miss Eiko!” Freya looked upward and greeted her. Fratley and Amarant were both standing at the foot of the steps.

“Hey! Where’s Quina?” Eiko called.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him today.” Freya answered, making her way up the stairs.
Just then, everyone turned and saw a quite fat, clown-like creature come running down the lower hallway and up the steps.

“I am here!” Quina Quen nodded briskly, shaking his two-foot long tongue, “but am in hurry…” he said, looking quickly over his shoulder. Quina had a very peculiar way of speaking.

“Is someone chasing you, Quina?” Vivi asked.
Before Quina had time to answer, everyone heard a clanking of armor and then Steiner came running up, out of breath.

“Quina! There you are! How dare you run off like that!" ” he blustered.

“What is going on here?” a voice came from the end of the walkway. All heads turned in the direction of the sound to find Beatrix, captain alongside Steiner of the Alexandrian Knights. Her long, chestnut hair gently swished as she joined the others on the landing.

“Um, my dear Beatrix, “ Steiner gave a hasty salute, “we were just discussing the whereabouts of Queen Garnet’s birthday cake!” he glared frostily at Quina.

“Steiner, I’ve heard all about it. The Queen has obviously ordered another cake be made and the master chef has begun the construction. Do not worry about Quina,” Beatrix soothed Steiner’s ruffled feelings.

“I sorry…” Quina apologized, “but I sooo hungry… and me not bother chefs while cooking! That blasphemous in ways of Qu’s!”

“I understand, Quina. But, next time something like this happens, please know that you are able to cook food for yourself in the kitchens whenever you need to.” Beatrix replied.

“Oh yes yes! Thank you!” Quina nodded happily.

“What are you all just standing around here for?” Beatrix asked quickly, “the Queen has requested that all are to meet in the royal chambers. We shouldn’t keep her majesty waiting.”

“Oh yes, uh… quite right.” Steiner said, finding himself. “Let us all go inside,” he strode over to the double-framed doors and rapped smartly.

“Please enter,” came a voice from inside the room.

“What is this!? A man in the Queen’s chambers!?” Steiner burst in only to find Zidane sitting in a chair looking rather pleased with himself. “Oh, its only you…” Steiner looked embarrassed.

“That’s right, Rusty!” Zidane stood up as the rest of the group filed in.

“Zidane!” Eiko ran and hugged him fiercely.

“Aaak! Hi there, Eiko…” Zidane attempted to keep himself from being squeezed to death.

“Its good to see you again, Zidane,” Freya said, shaking his hand.

“You too,” Zidane answered, “what’s it been, two years?”

“Zidane, what is this all about, anyway?” Amarant asked, quite annoyed.

“Well, I’ve brought someone with me that you need to meet but already know,” Zidane said, smirking.

“Oh really, Zidane! We didn’t come here to listen to riddles,” Freya reprimanded.

“Hey, sorry…” Zidane placed a hand behind his head, “I’ll get right to it then.”

“Alright, first I’ll ask you guys a question. You all remember the wars four years ago, right?” he asked.

“Of course! That is the reason that we are all still together,” Steiner said.

“Ok, so that means that you all remember why we were fighting?” Zidane looked each in the eye.

“Zidane, where is this all going? Just tell us already,” Amarant glared.

Zidane breathed out forcefully and then said, “We were fighting someone! Someone that would have died anyway. If everyone’s memory is true, then the name of the person will become clear…” Zidane dropped off.

Just then Vivi, who had been silent for sometime, said, “Just tell them. We’re your friends, Zidane!”

Zidane smiled then, and nodded.

Before he could speak, though, Garnet’s voice called out from her sleeping quarters, “Zidane, could you bring them all inside?”

Zidane sighed and signaled everyone to follow him. He slowly turned the ivory doorknob and stepped within. The sight that greeted the group was nothing that any of them could have imagined in a thousand years. There, seated across from Queen Garnet at her small, wood-finished table, was Kuja; alive and in the flesh. The reaction that he received was mostly what Zidane had been expecting.

“Zidane! Queen Garnet! Stand back! I’ll slay the fiend!” Sir Fratley leapt in front of the group and was prepared to strike Kuja down then and there.

“Wait! Stop it Fratley! He means us no harm!” Garnet stood between them, arms outstretched, preventing Fratley from advancing.

“Please explain this! Forgive me, my queen,” Beatrix said.

“That is quite alright. Now, I myself would not be able to tell the tale properly. I think that Kuja would like to tell it himself,” Garnet turned and smiled at Kuja, persuading him to take it from there.

Kuja slowly stood. At his full height, he was a might bit taller than everyone else in the room, apart from Amarant “Hello… again,” he forced a smile to cover his fear, slightly unsure, “I am sorry that we all have to meet like this… under these circumstances…”

“What’s going on here, Zidane? Why is Kuja standing here, alive and well, in the queen’s chambers?” Freya asked, quite puzzled and clearly troubled.

“Well see… that’s the thing,” Zidane began.

“What is it that you have been keeping from us, you blaggard!?” Steiner growled.

“What?? Err… nothing! I mean… AAH! Can we, if possible, go somewhere else to have this chat? Somewhere less crowded?” Zidane pleaded with Garnet, not liking the sudden hostility of the small, packed bedroom.

“Of course, let us go out into the garden for a little fresh air. It will do us all good,” Garnet walked forward, “Excuse me please…” she said to the others, who kindly made a path for her.

“Good idea…” Zidane said, motioning to Kuja who pushed in his chair and came up beside him. Zidane could see his discomfiture and, with a smile, put an arm around Kuja’s shoulders and softly led him through the group of silent figures. Kuja was completely unable to shake the feel of eight pairs of eyes staring at him as he walked past.

On their way out to the gardens, Amarant couldn’t help turning to Freya and asking quietly, “What does Zidane think he’s trying to pull, anyway? Has he lost it? Again?”

“I don’t know,” Freya confessed, “but whatever it is… maybe we should believe in him.”

“Alright then, shall we continue?” Queen Garnet said, after seating herself on an old, stone bench garlanded with sweet smelling rose blossoms.

“Of course, your highness,” to everyone’s surprise, Kuja, who had finally found his voice, bowed to her.

“Now then, I can tell by the current atmosphere of things that there are still many hard feelings, and believe me, each and every one of you has that right. What I have done in the past… was inexcusable. It was barbaric, vile, and completely hideous. But… I want, more than anything, to be excepted by those other than myself… So please, try with… all your might to push these evil memories away, and if not that, then at least try to understand that what I have done, I did with my own two hands, and not with my own free will. I was led astray by fear and mistrust, under the influence of power and greed… What I have done, I cannot undo but, I beg for your forgiveness… your trust…” Kuja went down on one knee and bowed his head, a real tear of shame falling from his down-turned eye, “please, reach inside your hearts and grant me this one request. I am deeply chastened and… sorry.”

There was a moment of silence and then Freya stood from her chosen place next to Fratley, “Kuja, this, I’m sure, comes as a surprise to all here. I do not think that any one of us was expecting to arrive at Alexandria Castle to find you alive. It has been four years… yet, the cries of my people as they were slaughtered by armies of your black mages still rings throughout the depths of my dreams. It is an impossibility to forget them…” Freya grasped the clasp of her red cloak as Fratley stood beside her, placing a comforting arm around her shoulders, “but… I think that what I know now and what I believed then are two different entities in themselves. I do not know about the others but… I can safely say that I am willing to forgive you, as long as you are able to prove to us that you have indeed changed for the good.”

“I too,” Fratley spoke up, “I too agree with Freya. Nothing can make me forget the horror of what took place four years ago, but… if Kuja is really alive again… then, we have no choice but to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

There was a rustling of murmurs all round as, to everyone’s surprise, Amarant stepped forward, “Look… I can’t say to anybody that what happened before had anything to do with me, but… I was there. I saw the carnage, I fought in it. I stood back as other’s got hurt… and I helped the unfortunate, something I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing in the past. I think that the wars helped… strengthen me, in more ways than just brawn. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is… I actually have you to thank, Kuja. Thanks for giving me something worth fighting for.”

“Yeah! I think Kuja deserves another chance!” Eiko sprang up from a bed of posies, “What Kuja did was wrong, but that doesn’t mean that all is lost, right? I mean, why condemn someone if all they really want is a friend?” she smiled up at him.

“Thank you…” Kuja whispered, tears of joy replacing those of shame.

Suddenly, there was another voice, that of Quina Quen, “Kuja! You say you sorry for what you done! That important! My masta’ always say, ‘the first step to forgiveness is apology! Second step is big dinna’!’ You good person, I can tell. But, no more naughty-naughty’s, ok?” Quina shook his tongue from side to side.

Kuja nodded, his smile growing by the moment. He looked at Zidane and caught his eye, seeing nothing but trust and companionship radiating from him.

“Wait!” Steiner jumped up and down, “you haven’t explained how you came to be alive! Didn’t you originally die!?”

“Oh, I had completely forgotten, forgive me.” Kuja apologized, “you see, I am still not sure myself how this came to be, but before I finally awakened, I heard the voice of Garland.”

“Isn’t that the old bald guy who made the Genomes?” Eiko blurted out.

“Yes, you are correct,” Kuja smiled at her, “Garland did produce the Genomes, including Zidane and I. When I awoke, I heard Garland speaking to me. He told me that he was not giving me life for my own self but for a much greater purpose. Zidane and I still do not understand quite what to make of it.”

“That does seem rather strange, seeing as how Garland has been dead longer than you have, Kuja,” Beatrix pointed out.

“But what about when Garland used to speak to me from ‘beyond the grave’?” Zidane asked.

“That’s right! I didn’t think about that…” Vivi said quietly.

“Well, maybe soon we shall see as to what Garland has prophesied, but in the mean time,” Garnet stood from her resting place, “why don’t we take Master Quale’s advice and go in to dinner?”

“Ah, Dagger! You read Quina’s mind!” Quina nodded furiously.

“Of course! We’d be honored,” Freya spoke for everyone else.

“Thank you, let us enter the dining hall,” Garnet turned and walked gracefully up the causeway steps.

Zidane turned to Kuja and winked at him as if to say, ‘see? I told ya I knew what I was doing!’ Kuja returned Zidane’s wink and added a warm smile. The others followed Garnet inside, each with their own thoughts, and each with a rather content eye on Kuja.


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