[Crossover: Final Fantasy IV/Final Fantasy VI] The Way Home, Part 2
Characters/Pairings: Celes Chere, Edge Geraldine, Locke Cole, Rydia Drake (Edge/Rydia, Celes/Locke)
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers
Notes: Written for the January 09 round of no_true_pair (IJ) Part 1 can be found here on InsaneJournal and here on LiveJournal.
Summary: Having lost her memory, Celes tries to find a way back to her own world.
Wordcount: 2,526
Beta: first_seventhe
Celes woke before dawn, and lay motionless in her bedroll, as though she still slept, while she examined the area around her. There were a few guards posted, who seemed to be more concerned with monsters than with people. Everyone else slept. The air was chilly, a welcome sensation on her skin. She preferred cold weather to warm; heat made her feel as though her body was trying to melt.
She had been having a very strange dream, a swirl of colour and magic with faces she thought she recognized but could not name. She felt as though there was some huge task she was meant to undertake, but could not draw the specifics of it out of the fog that seemed to envelop her memories.
She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and promptly feigned sleep, though she kept her eyes open the faintest bit. The first hints of dawnlight gleamed on polished leather and green robes. Rydia was moving quietly through the camp, and behind her Celes could just glimpse a dark-purple shadow that must be Edge. The pair paused near a tent that seemed to contain foodstuffs and filled the packs they carried.
Celes gave up her ploy of sleep and rose from her bedroll. After picking up both her pack and her weapons, she walked toward Edge and Rydia.
"Great, you're awake," Rydia said with a welcoming smile. "We were hoping to slip out of camp before everyone wakes up."
"Do you often have to sneak around in this way, Your Majesty?" Celes asked. She was growing used to their slow, slurred dialect; it reminded her a bit of Thamasa.
She wondered where that was, and why she had been there. The name brought to mind images of fire, and a sense of deep loss, so she pushed it aside. She could worry about it later; right now, she had a goal to accomplish.
"Only when it seems likely that Gramps will get in the way," Edge answered. He hoisted his pack. "I thought we'd start by heading back to where we met--maybe you can tell me, from there, where you came from."
Celes nodded and finished fastening her sword belt. Rydia fastened the straps of her own pack and slid her coiled whip up her arm to rest comfortably on her shoulder. Edge observed them impatiently.
In that way, he was different from the other ninja. That man could stand still for hours and betray no reaction.
Celes decided that these fragments of memory were more irritating by far than the featureless blankness of the majority of her past.
"Let's go, then, if only to stop you dancing in place," Rydia murmured to Edge. He rolled his eyes and led the way out of camp.
The path he chose led them over what seemed to be the firmest available ground; Celes could not help but wonder what would prompt someone to build a kingdom in the midst of a marsh. Then again, she was unsure why anyone would choose to cross a desert of their own volition, much less make a home there, an attitude that had amused Edgar to no end.
Edgar?
"Celes?" Rydia asked softly, and Celes realized she had come to a halt.
"My apologies," she said, hurrying to catch up.
Rydia put a hand on her arm, and though the touch was light, Celes could feel the magic humming all around the other woman. "Don't push yourself," Rydia said. "It's not a race. We'll find out where you came from."
Celes shook her head. It was not that she felt compelled to rush toward finding a solution; a general who raced in headfirst would find herself with a number of unpleasant surprises as a reward for her haste. Yet neither was she satisfied to wait until her memories came back. The nagging feeling of something important left undone was growing stronger, and it seemed tied to the glimpses of blood and fire that had plagued her dreams.
The rising sun cast long, twisting shadows across the path that Edge had chosen for them. Celes took care with her footing and looked about her, endeavoring to commit the landscape to memory. It was, at the very least, familiar--although much of it appeared similar--and she gauged that they should come to the area where she had met Edge within a few hours.
For the most part, it was a pleasant walk, broken only occasionally by the need to fight monsters. It seemed Rydia was a powerful mage. Once, she called forth a goddess of ice to destroy a pack of flame dogs; Celes felt a violent, wrenching pain when the goddess returned to the place she'd come from, and an aching loneliness, as though someone she had close kinship with had been torn away. She wondered why it seemed so familiar. Edge, for his part, made short work of anything that came within range of his twin swords.
Edge seemed to prefer to scout ahead, and so Celes found herself walking with Rydia while he tested the ground ahead of them and checked for evidence of monsters hiding in the tall marsh grass.
"Have you traveled much?" Celes asked her. Perhaps she knew of the lands Celes had seen. Edge seemed nice enough, but rather scattered.
Rydia nodded. "We have been all over this world, and the one below. And the moon." At Celes's disbelieving look, she laughed. "It would take too long to explain, and you probably wouldn't believe me if I did."
"You might be surprised," Celes said.
Rydia shrugged. "Zemus, a creature of darkness, was trying to enslave our world to gain more power for himself. We spent so long running after him and trying to keep the Crystals safe, but in the end we had to fight him. That's how I met Edge, and everyone else." Her eyes went blank and distant for a moment. "Zemus's actions caused the deaths of everyone in my village--my entire clan. I'm the only summoner left."
"I am sorry," Celes murmured. "I know what it's like to be the only one of your kind."
"Oh?" Rydia looked at her with curiosity.
"I...I'm not sure exactly what set me apart. I think it was to do with magic." She rubbed her forehead.
"It's not the most usual thing to be able to use many kinds of magic," Rydia agreed. "Even in Mysidia, where most people go to learn magic, there are only a few who can use black and white magic. I had to choose, when I went through my initiation, which I would sacrifice. It's hard enough to master two kinds; three is nearly impossible."
If she closed her eyes, Celes could almost remember a pristine laboratory, scrubbed pure white, with racks upon racks of glass tubes and all kinds of hoses. "I don't think your magic and mine work the same way," she said.
"Well, if we can't find your companions--or a way for you to get back where you came from--here, I can always ask Cid to lend his airship and take you to Mysidia. They've got lore stored there from hundreds of years ago. Or I can ask Leviathan; he knows a lot of things."
"Cid?" Celes repeated. "I knew someone by that name--but he was a scientist, not a pilot."
"It's not that uncommon a name, I guess," Rydia said.
Ahead of them, Edge waved. He stood at the edge of a vast tract of forest.
"Hey, hurry it up!" he called.
Rydia raised her left hand, and a bolt of lightning leapt out of the clear blue sky to strike the ground a meter to Edge's left. He yelped and leapt away.
"Watch it!" he cried.
"I was," she shouted back, with a serenely satisfied smile on her face. She saw Celes's shocked expression and laughed. "I have to keep him in his place, you see," she explained.
Despite her words, they did both increase their pace, and joined him at the edge of the forest. "Does this look familiar?" he asked.
Celes studied the area. "I believe so. I think I initially awoke in the forest."
"There's a path here. I figured maybe we'd take it, see what we can find." Edge turned to lead the way.
"As long as you don't get us lost like you did that one time in Agart," Rydia said loudly.
"Rydia!" Edge protested.
"The entire island," Rydia explained, "is about half the size of Eblan City, but somehow he still managed to get lost."
"I did not," Edge insisted. "I maintain that that was completely Kain's fault."
"He says otherwise," Rydia pointed out.
"Yes, because his memory is so reliable that way. Also he's never done anything stupid before." Edge rolled his eyes.
"And of course, you wouldn't know anything about falling through a hole in the Eidolon Passage that I specifically warned you was there because you were too busy watching my backside," Rydia countered.
Celes thought Edge might be blushing, though the veil made it hard to tell.
"I apologized for that already," Edge grumbled. "Besides, these are my lands. I know them well."
"Famous last words," Rydia said with a sigh. "All right, fine. Lead on, O Mighty Navigator."
Edge turned and led them directly into the forest. Celes gestured for Rydia to follow, since Rydia wore less armor. Celes herself took up the rear, and watched their surroundings closely.
The path they followed was clear enough, and whatever Rydia's opinion of Edge's navigational abilities, he seemed to have little difficulty leading the way through the underbrush. Celes thought she recognized the area, but most forests looked very much alike to her.
They had been walking for perhaps an hour when they came across a clearing that Celes was certain she recognized. The path continued on past it.
"This is where I woke up," she said.
"You're not the only one," Edge replied, crouching next to one of the large rocks. "There's two sets of boot prints here, and one is too big to be yours."
"Where did the other set go?" Celes asked.
Edge pointed at the other path.
"Before we go haring off," Rydia said, "let's stop and eat something. We'll need the energy if we're going to go much father."
Edge immediately plopped down next to the rock and began digging in his pack. "Beautiful and intelligent," he declared as he rooted around.
"It's a good thing one of us is," Rydia retorted, kneeling gracefully.
Edge clutched at his heart with an excess of dramatic expression. "You wound me," he said.
"Edge, nothing wounds your ego." Rydia pulled half a loaf of bread, neatly wrapped in a cloth, out of her pack.
Celes examined her own pack and found some dried meat and vegetables, while Edge's rummaging eventually produced a bottle of wine and some cheese. Silence fell while they ate their lunch, except for the rustling of cloth as Edge fidgeted in place. It was not entirely unpleasant, and Celes found the lack of bickering to be something of a relief, for all its comedy.
"Ready to go?" Edge asked when all the food had been consumed.
"Impatient," Rydia said with a sigh. "But yes, I am."
Celes contented herself with a nod as she rose from her seat on one of the rocks.
"Onward!" Edge declared, and pointed dramatically at the path they planned to follow.
Their journey remained relatively quiet, as all of them were being watchful for monsters. Celes was no scout, but she did notice where branches had broken due to the passage of a person who was not watching where he or she was going. As they continued forward, she noticed that the branches seemed to be broken in a specific pattern, rather than randomly. Every fourth tree had a branch that was broken, but not completely removed, and the broken branches pointed in the direction they were travelling.
She wondered if it was a message from an ally, or bait from an enemy.
Ahead of her, Edge stopped abruptly. Celes stood on tiptoe to see over his shoulder, while Rydia ducked around to his other side.
There was a large clearing ahead of them, and dead center was a massive oval portal of some kind, glowing with the peculiar shade of reddish light that suggested magic. A man perhaps ten years older than Celes herself stood braced before it, struggling against its efforts to draw him in. He wore a familiar dark-blue bandanna, and his eyes lit when he saw her. "Celes! Come on, we're the last ones! Let's go home!"
"Huh," Edge said.
Rydia turned and opened her arms for a hug. Celes obliged, somewhat stiffly. "I'm glad you'll be able to go home," Rydia said. "Be well."
"Thank you for your kindness," Celes said gravely.
"Hey, good luck," Edge said, and clapped her on the shoulder. She nodded her thanks and moved toward the man in the bandanna.
"Take my hand," he said, and she did, wondering why the situation seemed so familiar.
"Ready? Go!" He stopped bracing himself, and the magic reached out for them, drawing them both through the portal.
She stumbled when they landed, and had to brace herself against the stone floor of the cave they were in. In a flash, the fog that had permeated her memories seemed to lift, and she knew exactly who and what she was.
"Well, that's a relief," Locke said, sitting up. "I was starting to wonder if I'd ever get my memories back."
"You, too?" she asked.
"Yeah. I woke up there and couldn't remember a thing. You were there, but I didn't know who you were - just that I needed to take care of you." He pulled off the bandanna and ran a hand through his hair. "So I went to scout the area, but you were gone when I got back."
"I went looking for a way out," she explained, "and met with Edge and Rydia. They helped me find my way back."
"Good for them." He grinned, and squeezed her hand. "But, seriously, this is not okay. What am I, an amnesia magnet or something?"
"What I want to know is how we got there," Celes said.
"No idea." Locke sighed. "Also no idea where we are now."
"Mr. Thou! Mr. Thou! I find!" Gau's voice echoed off the rocks. A few minutes later, Sabin came around a bend in the tunnel and glared at them.
"About time," he said. "Next time you two want to be alone, just tell us instead of disappearing like that, okay?"
Celes looked at Locke, who rolled his eyes. "Let's not share the details," he muttered, and she nodded.
"So, let's get a move on. Kefka is not destroying himself, unfortunately," Sabin said.
Celes adjusted her sword belt and nodded. "Let's go," she said.
She glanced back as they left the cave, but saw no further signs of the portal that had joined their two worlds.
It was strange that already, she missed Edge and Rydia, in spite of their bickering.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers
Notes: Written for the January 09 round of no_true_pair (IJ) Part 1 can be found here on InsaneJournal and here on LiveJournal.
Summary: Having lost her memory, Celes tries to find a way back to her own world.
Wordcount: 2,526
Beta: first_seventhe
Celes woke before dawn, and lay motionless in her bedroll, as though she still slept, while she examined the area around her. There were a few guards posted, who seemed to be more concerned with monsters than with people. Everyone else slept. The air was chilly, a welcome sensation on her skin. She preferred cold weather to warm; heat made her feel as though her body was trying to melt.
She had been having a very strange dream, a swirl of colour and magic with faces she thought she recognized but could not name. She felt as though there was some huge task she was meant to undertake, but could not draw the specifics of it out of the fog that seemed to envelop her memories.
She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and promptly feigned sleep, though she kept her eyes open the faintest bit. The first hints of dawnlight gleamed on polished leather and green robes. Rydia was moving quietly through the camp, and behind her Celes could just glimpse a dark-purple shadow that must be Edge. The pair paused near a tent that seemed to contain foodstuffs and filled the packs they carried.
Celes gave up her ploy of sleep and rose from her bedroll. After picking up both her pack and her weapons, she walked toward Edge and Rydia.
"Great, you're awake," Rydia said with a welcoming smile. "We were hoping to slip out of camp before everyone wakes up."
"Do you often have to sneak around in this way, Your Majesty?" Celes asked. She was growing used to their slow, slurred dialect; it reminded her a bit of Thamasa.
She wondered where that was, and why she had been there. The name brought to mind images of fire, and a sense of deep loss, so she pushed it aside. She could worry about it later; right now, she had a goal to accomplish.
"Only when it seems likely that Gramps will get in the way," Edge answered. He hoisted his pack. "I thought we'd start by heading back to where we met--maybe you can tell me, from there, where you came from."
Celes nodded and finished fastening her sword belt. Rydia fastened the straps of her own pack and slid her coiled whip up her arm to rest comfortably on her shoulder. Edge observed them impatiently.
In that way, he was different from the other ninja. That man could stand still for hours and betray no reaction.
Celes decided that these fragments of memory were more irritating by far than the featureless blankness of the majority of her past.
"Let's go, then, if only to stop you dancing in place," Rydia murmured to Edge. He rolled his eyes and led the way out of camp.
The path he chose led them over what seemed to be the firmest available ground; Celes could not help but wonder what would prompt someone to build a kingdom in the midst of a marsh. Then again, she was unsure why anyone would choose to cross a desert of their own volition, much less make a home there, an attitude that had amused Edgar to no end.
Edgar?
"Celes?" Rydia asked softly, and Celes realized she had come to a halt.
"My apologies," she said, hurrying to catch up.
Rydia put a hand on her arm, and though the touch was light, Celes could feel the magic humming all around the other woman. "Don't push yourself," Rydia said. "It's not a race. We'll find out where you came from."
Celes shook her head. It was not that she felt compelled to rush toward finding a solution; a general who raced in headfirst would find herself with a number of unpleasant surprises as a reward for her haste. Yet neither was she satisfied to wait until her memories came back. The nagging feeling of something important left undone was growing stronger, and it seemed tied to the glimpses of blood and fire that had plagued her dreams.
The rising sun cast long, twisting shadows across the path that Edge had chosen for them. Celes took care with her footing and looked about her, endeavoring to commit the landscape to memory. It was, at the very least, familiar--although much of it appeared similar--and she gauged that they should come to the area where she had met Edge within a few hours.
For the most part, it was a pleasant walk, broken only occasionally by the need to fight monsters. It seemed Rydia was a powerful mage. Once, she called forth a goddess of ice to destroy a pack of flame dogs; Celes felt a violent, wrenching pain when the goddess returned to the place she'd come from, and an aching loneliness, as though someone she had close kinship with had been torn away. She wondered why it seemed so familiar. Edge, for his part, made short work of anything that came within range of his twin swords.
Edge seemed to prefer to scout ahead, and so Celes found herself walking with Rydia while he tested the ground ahead of them and checked for evidence of monsters hiding in the tall marsh grass.
"Have you traveled much?" Celes asked her. Perhaps she knew of the lands Celes had seen. Edge seemed nice enough, but rather scattered.
Rydia nodded. "We have been all over this world, and the one below. And the moon." At Celes's disbelieving look, she laughed. "It would take too long to explain, and you probably wouldn't believe me if I did."
"You might be surprised," Celes said.
Rydia shrugged. "Zemus, a creature of darkness, was trying to enslave our world to gain more power for himself. We spent so long running after him and trying to keep the Crystals safe, but in the end we had to fight him. That's how I met Edge, and everyone else." Her eyes went blank and distant for a moment. "Zemus's actions caused the deaths of everyone in my village--my entire clan. I'm the only summoner left."
"I am sorry," Celes murmured. "I know what it's like to be the only one of your kind."
"Oh?" Rydia looked at her with curiosity.
"I...I'm not sure exactly what set me apart. I think it was to do with magic." She rubbed her forehead.
"It's not the most usual thing to be able to use many kinds of magic," Rydia agreed. "Even in Mysidia, where most people go to learn magic, there are only a few who can use black and white magic. I had to choose, when I went through my initiation, which I would sacrifice. It's hard enough to master two kinds; three is nearly impossible."
If she closed her eyes, Celes could almost remember a pristine laboratory, scrubbed pure white, with racks upon racks of glass tubes and all kinds of hoses. "I don't think your magic and mine work the same way," she said.
"Well, if we can't find your companions--or a way for you to get back where you came from--here, I can always ask Cid to lend his airship and take you to Mysidia. They've got lore stored there from hundreds of years ago. Or I can ask Leviathan; he knows a lot of things."
"Cid?" Celes repeated. "I knew someone by that name--but he was a scientist, not a pilot."
"It's not that uncommon a name, I guess," Rydia said.
Ahead of them, Edge waved. He stood at the edge of a vast tract of forest.
"Hey, hurry it up!" he called.
Rydia raised her left hand, and a bolt of lightning leapt out of the clear blue sky to strike the ground a meter to Edge's left. He yelped and leapt away.
"Watch it!" he cried.
"I was," she shouted back, with a serenely satisfied smile on her face. She saw Celes's shocked expression and laughed. "I have to keep him in his place, you see," she explained.
Despite her words, they did both increase their pace, and joined him at the edge of the forest. "Does this look familiar?" he asked.
Celes studied the area. "I believe so. I think I initially awoke in the forest."
"There's a path here. I figured maybe we'd take it, see what we can find." Edge turned to lead the way.
"As long as you don't get us lost like you did that one time in Agart," Rydia said loudly.
"Rydia!" Edge protested.
"The entire island," Rydia explained, "is about half the size of Eblan City, but somehow he still managed to get lost."
"I did not," Edge insisted. "I maintain that that was completely Kain's fault."
"He says otherwise," Rydia pointed out.
"Yes, because his memory is so reliable that way. Also he's never done anything stupid before." Edge rolled his eyes.
"And of course, you wouldn't know anything about falling through a hole in the Eidolon Passage that I specifically warned you was there because you were too busy watching my backside," Rydia countered.
Celes thought Edge might be blushing, though the veil made it hard to tell.
"I apologized for that already," Edge grumbled. "Besides, these are my lands. I know them well."
"Famous last words," Rydia said with a sigh. "All right, fine. Lead on, O Mighty Navigator."
Edge turned and led them directly into the forest. Celes gestured for Rydia to follow, since Rydia wore less armor. Celes herself took up the rear, and watched their surroundings closely.
The path they followed was clear enough, and whatever Rydia's opinion of Edge's navigational abilities, he seemed to have little difficulty leading the way through the underbrush. Celes thought she recognized the area, but most forests looked very much alike to her.
They had been walking for perhaps an hour when they came across a clearing that Celes was certain she recognized. The path continued on past it.
"This is where I woke up," she said.
"You're not the only one," Edge replied, crouching next to one of the large rocks. "There's two sets of boot prints here, and one is too big to be yours."
"Where did the other set go?" Celes asked.
Edge pointed at the other path.
"Before we go haring off," Rydia said, "let's stop and eat something. We'll need the energy if we're going to go much father."
Edge immediately plopped down next to the rock and began digging in his pack. "Beautiful and intelligent," he declared as he rooted around.
"It's a good thing one of us is," Rydia retorted, kneeling gracefully.
Edge clutched at his heart with an excess of dramatic expression. "You wound me," he said.
"Edge, nothing wounds your ego." Rydia pulled half a loaf of bread, neatly wrapped in a cloth, out of her pack.
Celes examined her own pack and found some dried meat and vegetables, while Edge's rummaging eventually produced a bottle of wine and some cheese. Silence fell while they ate their lunch, except for the rustling of cloth as Edge fidgeted in place. It was not entirely unpleasant, and Celes found the lack of bickering to be something of a relief, for all its comedy.
"Ready to go?" Edge asked when all the food had been consumed.
"Impatient," Rydia said with a sigh. "But yes, I am."
Celes contented herself with a nod as she rose from her seat on one of the rocks.
"Onward!" Edge declared, and pointed dramatically at the path they planned to follow.
Their journey remained relatively quiet, as all of them were being watchful for monsters. Celes was no scout, but she did notice where branches had broken due to the passage of a person who was not watching where he or she was going. As they continued forward, she noticed that the branches seemed to be broken in a specific pattern, rather than randomly. Every fourth tree had a branch that was broken, but not completely removed, and the broken branches pointed in the direction they were travelling.
She wondered if it was a message from an ally, or bait from an enemy.
Ahead of her, Edge stopped abruptly. Celes stood on tiptoe to see over his shoulder, while Rydia ducked around to his other side.
There was a large clearing ahead of them, and dead center was a massive oval portal of some kind, glowing with the peculiar shade of reddish light that suggested magic. A man perhaps ten years older than Celes herself stood braced before it, struggling against its efforts to draw him in. He wore a familiar dark-blue bandanna, and his eyes lit when he saw her. "Celes! Come on, we're the last ones! Let's go home!"
"Huh," Edge said.
Rydia turned and opened her arms for a hug. Celes obliged, somewhat stiffly. "I'm glad you'll be able to go home," Rydia said. "Be well."
"Thank you for your kindness," Celes said gravely.
"Hey, good luck," Edge said, and clapped her on the shoulder. She nodded her thanks and moved toward the man in the bandanna.
"Take my hand," he said, and she did, wondering why the situation seemed so familiar.
"Ready? Go!" He stopped bracing himself, and the magic reached out for them, drawing them both through the portal.
She stumbled when they landed, and had to brace herself against the stone floor of the cave they were in. In a flash, the fog that had permeated her memories seemed to lift, and she knew exactly who and what she was.
"Well, that's a relief," Locke said, sitting up. "I was starting to wonder if I'd ever get my memories back."
"You, too?" she asked.
"Yeah. I woke up there and couldn't remember a thing. You were there, but I didn't know who you were - just that I needed to take care of you." He pulled off the bandanna and ran a hand through his hair. "So I went to scout the area, but you were gone when I got back."
"I went looking for a way out," she explained, "and met with Edge and Rydia. They helped me find my way back."
"Good for them." He grinned, and squeezed her hand. "But, seriously, this is not okay. What am I, an amnesia magnet or something?"
"What I want to know is how we got there," Celes said.
"No idea." Locke sighed. "Also no idea where we are now."
"Mr. Thou! Mr. Thou! I find!" Gau's voice echoed off the rocks. A few minutes later, Sabin came around a bend in the tunnel and glared at them.
"About time," he said. "Next time you two want to be alone, just tell us instead of disappearing like that, okay?"
Celes looked at Locke, who rolled his eyes. "Let's not share the details," he muttered, and she nodded.
"So, let's get a move on. Kefka is not destroying himself, unfortunately," Sabin said.
Celes adjusted her sword belt and nodded. "Let's go," she said.
She glanced back as they left the cave, but saw no further signs of the portal that had joined their two worlds.
It was strange that already, she missed Edge and Rydia, in spite of their bickering.