Final Fantasy IX Sequal, "Forever Fantasy"

Final Fantasy IX: The Sequel
“Forever Fantasy”
Written by: Kujaku Silverdragon

***Disclaimer: I do not and will not own the characters, ideas and settings of “Final Fantasy.” This is merely a fan fiction designed to please and will not be used for profit gain.***

Morning on the deathlike Pualei Plains did indeed have a spectral quality; wispy tendrils of stale mist rose from the long deceased roots of a giant, tree-like skeleton. Almost no sound could be heard as if in the midst of the necro-void, a small, pale gold bird creature could be seen running towards the quiet monolith. A closer look would reveal a Chocobo with a rider; a man, about twenty years of age.

“Come on, Choco! We’ll make it in less than five minutes if you hurry!” he said. The young man had semi-long, blond hair held back with a strap of leather, blue eyes and an unmistakable tail quite like something a monkey would have.

“Kweh!” Choco chirped, picking up speed. Zidane Tribal smiled to himself as the wind whistled past his face. They would soon reach the Tree of Iifa.

“K-KWEEH!” Choco called a warning, grinding to a halt.

“Sorry, old friend… I guess you can’t go any further…” Zidane said, gazing up at a huge wall of gnarled tree roots. “Wait here, alright? I won’t be long.” He quickly jumped down from Choco’s back and began to climb the towering mass that seemed to be trying vainly to keep him out.
Zidane had walked this path many times in the past, so nothing could stand in his way. He climbed steadily to the top and then leapt down, landing almost cat-like at the bottom of the other side. He strode a few feet of somewhat clear, sandy ground and then entered a deep “forest” of decaying tree. No matter how many times Zidane had come this way to the Iifa Tree, he never could abide the smell…

“This is so rank…” he said under his breath as he carefully navigated around patches of slimy fungus growing out of the ground. “Yuck…” Zidane quickly pulled his foot out of a spiders nest that he had unfortunately stepped in. Tiny, chaff-like bodies spilled out; long dead. “Sad, that this had to happen,” he said to himself as he quickly but steadily made his way to the trunk. Upon reaching it, Zidane leapt up the bark about twenty feet or so, and then climbed through a boulder sized hole in its side.

Zidane slid down a few meters and then came shooting out of the hole and onto another exposed root. Catching his balance, Zidane began his accent, climbing, finding foot and hand holds, to the upper inside trunk. Even though it didn’t seem so, Zidane really did have a destination.

After a relatively short time of climbing, Zidane jumped up onto a wide ledge, stopping in front of a gigantic, intertwining ball of dead tree matter. It stood silently like some celestial being in the midst of empty space and low filtered sunlight coming from the branches above.

Zidane sighed and then walked forward to place a reverent hand on the decaying timber. This was the resting-place of someone Zidane had lost a long time ago; someone he would have liked to call brother.

“Hey, Kuja. Sorry I haven’t been back here for a few months. I got kind of held up with Alexandria’s spring festival. God, I wish you could have been there! It was amazing, especially the food… I was so stuffed I couldn’t eat anything for three days afterward! Dagger… err… Garnet made me stay in bed while she fed me some sort of broth to ease my stomach ache… heh… oh but it was worth it…” Zidane stopped. He suddenly found himself feeling oddly choked up.

“Damn it, Kuja… why… what happened… why did you have to die? I’ve never had a real family and when I do find them, they’re not actually my family after all! You were the closest thing I ever had to a brother, and you were taken from me! Damn it!” Zidane fell to his knees and slammed his fist into the crumbling wreck that was the ancient tree of life, ironically now the monument of the dead. “Damn it, damn it, Damn it!!!” Zidane cried out, each time emphasizing his grief with a blow to the cracked wood. “I’m sorry Kuja… If I could do anything to bring you back… I’d do it… I’d do it…” Zidane stepped back, wiping his eyes, “I gotta go…” Zidane stood up, gazing wistfully at his brother’s tomb, “Bye… I wish you were with me again.” He turned to leave.

Before Zidane could begin his decent back to the base of the tree, something caused him to halt. “Who… who’s there?” a frightful feeling crept its way up Zidane’s spine, making him shudder. Then he heard it. It was almost so quiet that Zidane could hardly make it out, but it was definitely an inaudible whisper of sorts that ricocheted its way down the roots. Zidane stood, hearing it plainly in his head but unable to make out any words, “Hello!?” he turned, peering through the dwindling light from above , then, something made him look back at Kuja’s shroud.

“What..?” he murmured as an unearthly glow began coming forth from the tomb. “Kuja?” Zidane stepped forward but was suddenly thrown back as a huge beam of light blasted out of the timber orb. All Zidane could do was press up against the wall and stare in spellbound silence as beams of brightness shot out in all directions. He finally had to shield his eyes until the light began to subside.

Cautiously, Zidane opened his eyes and looked around. Kuja’s tomb could no longer be seen. There was so much dust in the air that Zidane found himself slightly in disbelief as to what he thought had taken its place. There, in the center, where the orb once hung, was a person. He lay still as if in death, long white-gray hair tumbled round him, skin as pale as the moon on a winter’s night; it was the look of a fallen angel.

Zidane was so shocked that he couldn’t even bring himself to speak. He stumbled to his knees next to the Angel’s side, “K… Kuja…” Zidane finally managed to croak as he reached out a hand and gently touched the skin if Kuja’s cheek. It was ice cold. Zidane didn’t understand, “Kuja!” he shook him carefully, trying to wake him, but to no avail. “You can’t be! Oh, what’s the point! You left me already… You’re dead!!” Zidane collapsed onto Kuja’s chest, willing himself not to cry. Suddenly , he sat bolt upright, staring at Kuja’s mouth.

“He… he’s alive..!” Zidane leaned down an ear and could hear, just barely, a quiet breath escaping his lips. “He’s alive!” Zidane leapt up. Without even a moment to laugh out loud, he was thrown back down by a sudden shock from the earth. He looked around wildly and heard, to his mounting horror, terrible creaking and groaning sounds as pieces of the Iifa Tree began to break off and fall down to the floor far below.

“No! That ball of roots must have been the only thing holding this place together! I’ve got to get out of here!!” Zidane reached down and picked up Kuja as gently as possible, noticing that his body felt like nothing in his strong arms. Then he began the treacherous climb down to the base of the trunk, huge pieces and shards breaking off all around him.

“Geeze!” Zidane ducked, barely missing a huge beam as it came streaming down. It was rather hard to climb through breaking tree roots, carrying someone over your shoulder, and trying to save your own skin at the same time. Thankfully, Zidane finally made it to the bottom of the trunk. Now all that was left was getting through the outer bark.

Zidane looked up, trying to see the hole through which he had entered in the first place. “Damn, where is it!?” he yelled, searching frantically, “I will not let this Iifa tree get the better of me again!” Finally, out of sheer luck, Zidane spotted the hole only a few yards above his head. By now, the Iifa tree was shaking violently; monumental-sized limbs falling and crushing everything in their path. “Come on!” Zidane leapt through the hole, clawing his way up and out.

“Thank Ramuh, fresh air!” he said, gulping the somewhat pure air, despite the decaying smell, “Not clear yet!” Zidane began leaping, running and darting to reach safety, which was his Chocobo and away from the Iifa tree. Tree roots were collapsing around him, cracks like canyons opening up the earth. It was everything Zidane could do to save himself and Kuja but still stay on his toes and take every obstacle with full force. “Don’t worry! We’re gonna make it this time!” Zidane screamed like a demon as he braced all odds and finally came to the last wall of quickly disintegrating tree timbers.

“Choco! Choco!!” Zidane called desperately.

“K! KWEH!” a voice came back.

“Choco! You’ve got to fly me out of here! Right now!!” he yelled.

“Kweh! KWEH!” Zidane heard a frantic flapping of wings and soon Choco came flying over the wall.

“Do you think that you can carry both of us?” Zidane asked hurriedly.

“K… kweh!” it nodded finally.

“Ok, let’s go!” Zidane leapt onto its back and with difficulty, Choco took off into the air.

“Dear gods…” Zidane looked with fascination at what lay behind them. What was once the mighty Iifa Tree now lay a colossal mountain of dust and debris, slowly whispering away into nothingness. “That was bound to happen anyway. Now the idol of death is no more…” he said.

“Kweh…” Choco sighed, slowly drifting down to the ground, now a safe distance away from what was left of the omnipotent Tree of Iifa.

“Ok, we’ve got to think of where we can go, to nurse Kuja back to health I mean…” Zidane said, quietly contemplating. “It can’t be too far because one, you wouldn’t be able to make it, and two, I don’t think he would either… hmmm…” Zidane looked around as if to get his bearings. “I’ve got it!” he finally cried.

“Kweh?” Choco asked, quite interested.

“The Desert Palace! In Kiera desert! The same place Kuja had his old hideout! That is the best place I can think of on such short notice. It’s probably still unused so it should do nicely. Think you can fly that far, Choco?” Zidane asked?

“KWEH!” Choco agreed.

“Alright! Then we’re off to the Desert Palace! This is the last time I ever plan on coming back here… Let’s go!” Zidane got back up on Choco’s hindquarters and then the trio; one bird, one man with another near death, flew up into the blue sky and began their quick flight to the Kiera desert.


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