Super Duper Ultra Late Answer Thingie!

[twh]

No words can say how sorry I am for posting this nearly THREE MONTHS since I was supposed to. But, look at it this way, instead of it being a total piece of crap, it's only a half piece of crap and the other half's reused into applicable fertilizer from which new things can grow from!

In other news: I'd like to give it another go. Maybe, I can only be a month and a half late! :D The reason why I joined this in the first place is because I wanted to write this story for the longest time. So, I'm sure there's more stuff I can do.

So, here it is:


Fandom: Final Fantasy IV
Date Finished: December 15th, 2005
Classification: General, Light Romance
Pairing: Cecil/Rydia
Rating: PG
Note: Kinda sweet and cheesy, just the way we old schoolin fogies like it.

Quite A While

Cecil could only feel the thick darkness around him. He was sure he was dead. The last thing he could remember was seeing Rosa at his side, along with his children and several grandchildren. She had aged gracefully, as per his words to her many times. Though her body had lost much of its vitality, her soul still shone as beautiful to him as the day they were married.

Yet, it was most likely an eternity since he last saw her. Now, he felt like he was in a sleep deeper than anything else he had known in his life. He had a long life and was glad to have the family he did. He had no regrets and death was more than welcome to take him, at least, that’s what he thought.

When he had closed his eyes for the last time, he imagined going to a place far beyond the realm of mortal understanding. To eternity and whatever lay beyond.

Instead, he felt trapped. Except that he wasn’t trapped. It was a sleep, but it wasn’t. There were no dreams, no visions, no memories; only darkness. He had no way of knowing how much time had passed since he first came to this state of being.

Every now and then, a familiar presence brushed against the edge of his reach of consciousness, only to disappear as soon as it came. Who was it? Or, what was it?

Since time had no meaning, the intervals between the intrusions seemed repeated enough for him to at least make out what it was.

“...il...”

Sound! He could hear someone... but who was it?

“...Cec...”

The voice... it was very familiar. It was a woman’s voice. He could remember the women he knew in his life, but the sound wasn’t strong enough for him to identify whom exactly it was. Regardless, it was still someone he recognized.

“...up, Ceci...”

It was getting louder. Not only that, he could feel the darkness around him starting to disperse. Perhaps he had finally reached the great beyond and Rosa was waiting for him. Yet, how could she have reached it there before him?

“...ake up, Cecil...”

The darkness around him was growing brighter as he felt life returning to him. Was the person he was hearing telling him to wake up? How? He was dead! It couldn’t be possible for him to do so unless...

“Cecil... it’s time to wake up.”

His eyes fluttered open to a crisp winter morning. He saw his breath coming out in small clouds through the rays of sunlight in the east. The wind blew over his exposed face, like the gentle caress of an old love. He closed his eyes for a second, only to open them again to see the mountains, covered with snow and scattered clouds. It was a marvelous sight. It was also quite familiar.

“Welcome back, Cecil.”

With a great amount of effort, he turned his head over to see the smiling face of Rydia Drake. Still as the same as when he last saw her, by the looks of it. He knew that she had spent time in the lands where the Aeons the summoners called lived and it changed her greatly as a result. If any time had truly passed since he last saw her, then perhaps she was much older than anyone living.

“Never... thought I’d... see you again... fairy,” he muttered hoarsely, using a nickname he had given her because of the fact she hadn’t changed. His throat stung, as though his voice had not been used in the longest time. As he winced, Rydia reached over to pull the sheets on him back to his neck, noting the cloak she wore that covered her all but her face.

“Take it easy, you haven’t used anything for a long time,” she answered almost paternally.

Taking a look around him, he noticed that he was in an open-air pavilion, attached to a house nestled on the plateau of one of the higher mountains. He could also see a few small houses nearby that appeared to have been well maintained.

“I owe you an explanation, I know, but we have to take your recovery slowly before that,” Rydia said before pulling out a pearl flask from the ground. Producing a small bowl from her pocket, she filled it halfway and slowly sat on the bed next to him.

He knew what the liquid was by its scent and he opened his mouth obediently as she gently poured the sweet tasting elixir down his gullet. As per his experience with the miraculous potion, he felt the cold in his body start to disperse and the vitality returning to his limbs. They had used that quite sparingly as they traversed the world and the moon in their war against Zemus.

With a contented sigh, he gave her a nod of appreciation as she replaced the cup and potion.

“My recovery?” he asked, noting that his throat didn’t sting as much.

She nodded. “Yes. It turns out, Cecil, that you... never really passed away.” The look in her eyes told him that she didn’t want to let him know, but knew he had the right.

“Then... what happened?” he asked, trying to get up, only to find the effects of the elixir took longer than he thought to take effect.

Rydia said with a bit of uncertainty, “The closest thing I can say is that you were in a sleep of regenerative hibernation.”

Though he knew and understood what she had said, the meaning was lost to him. “What does that mean?”

With a sigh, Rydia reached into his sheets and gently pulled his left hand from beneath the covers. She tilted her head to it as she held it in front of him. He still wasn’t able to decipher her meaning until he noticed a very significant aspect of his hand.

There was not a wrinkle to be seen. His gaze trailed to his elbow where it still looked as fresh and vital as it was so many years back. In a somewhat panicked state of mind he turned to her, wanting to know if there was an answer to such a question.

Placing his hand back on the bed, she looked to him, hoping that she would phrase the words correctly. “The only thing I can imagine is because of your lineage. The blending of blood between humans and Lunarians may have resulted in you receiving the best of both worlds. And, that entails being able to live a much longer life than anyone.”

Though somewhat calmed by the explanation, there were so many things he still did not know.

“How long... have I been asleep?”

“Almost a hundred and fifty years,” Rydia whispered quietly.

Cecil’s eyes widened in surprise and shock. A hundred years? How could that have happened? He tried to push himself up, but the strength in his arms still had yet to return. When he finally realized he wouldn’t me moving any time soon, he turned to her and asked quietly, “What’s happened since... I fell asleep?”

Rydia’s face grew sad as she answered. “Plenty. The kingdoms around the world prospered, then a war broke out between them and all that left are a few hamlets where kingdoms used to be. ”

“That seems an odd way to paraphrase all the years I've been asleep.”

Rydia looked away, looking uncomfortable. “Believe me, there were things going on that would have made even Zeromus cringe.”

“Try me.”

Rydia frowned and countered. “Very well, racial purification by systematic genocide of certain groups of 'undesirables' in Mysidia. Rampant incest in Baronian and Elbanian aristocracy. Tororia kidnapping everything from children to the elderly for inhuman experiments. Fabul using human sacrifice to create their own Aeons. Hordes of monstrous machines from Silvera, destroying everything in their path. And this was only in the second twenty five years.”

“But that doesn't make sense... how could people become so vile in so short a time?”

“Easy. They forgot what you've done. That's not to say there weren't forces that tried to hold it back, but even they fell as well.”

Immediately, Cecil felt the weight of the implications fall on him, making the wind brushing against his cheek colder.

Rydia sighed again and said, “Before you start shouldering the blame, let me tell you something: Don’t. The peoples of this world made their choice, knowing full well what could happen.”

Cecil turned form her and looked to the ceiling. “It was still the world we lived in. It almost makes our efforts moot.”

“Not entirely,” Rydia said, standing up to walk across the pavilion to the edge, ”the legend of the Paladin King still is spoken and sung among everyone that still wants to hear of what a real hero was.”

A small, humored smile stretched on Cecil’s lips as he replied. “Oh, really? Those legends give me too much credit.”

“Let others be the judge of that Cecil. Besides, you need to recover. There’s a few people I need to you meet when you feel good enough to travel.”

Cecil gave her a quizzical look as she stood up. “Travel?”

She nodded. “Of course. You were never one stay in bed for long.” She walked over to the pillars and pulled what appeared to be a silk-like fabric from each one. He could feel the wind no more as she pulled the last curtain closed, noting it was either enchanted against the elements or there was more to it than he could see.

“I know you just woke up, but it looks like you’re going to have to rest for a little while longer. I’ll be back to help you change and you’ll be able to see whom you owe your life to.”

Cecil said nothing as she finished her preparations and left him to watch the rising sun through the curtains and contemplate his current position. He was still alive when he felt his life to already be complete. A part of him had no desire to live some more only to leave behind something when he already did his part.

His internal mental debate continued as he lost track of time. Every now and then, he would look to the sun, noting that he was feeling stronger than before. He would try to raise his arm out of the sheets and would succeed, only to have it move back under the covers due to the residual cold in the room. Once he got out of here, he wanted to have a good talking to whomever it was that brought him here. There had to be a reason why he wasn’t left to his rest... which sounded downright ghoulish to him.

Eventually, he gathered up his courage and pushed the covers off his body. He tugged at the comfortable night shirt and pants he wore, realizing that they were more protective against the cold than he thought.

When he placed his feet against the floor, he grit his teeth, fighting against the intense cold that assaulted his recently awakened nerves.

“That won’t do you any good, brother,” a familiar voice said from the entrance to the pavilion. The mention of the word ‘brother’ only narrowed the possibilities down to one person, though it shouldn’t have been possible.

He turned to see Golbez, clad in clothes similar to his own, and with a tray with steaming warm food in his hands.

“Golbez?”

Cecil’s brother nodded before adding dispassionately, “I highly doubt anyone else would call you brother, knowing our heritage.” Cecil sat on the bed stunned as his brother walked up to the bed and handed him the tray.

Cecil snapped himself out of his trance and accepted the tray with a nod of gratitude, yet felt compelled to ask. “Golbez... what’s going on?”

His brother’s face remained neutral, as it always did for the short time they knew each other. “I take it to mean that Rydia has not explained to you how you and I are still alive are all these years?”

“No, she already explained all that... but where did she figure that out?” he asked as she started to take small bites from the soup his brother had brought him.

Golbez answered calmly, “She didn’t. I told her about it and she simply relayed when she learned from me to you. You see, not long after we parted ways, I made an indepth study about the lunarians and our father’s introduction to human society. As I told Rydia, we both inherited the best of both worlds. We received the strength to conquer from humanity, and unnatural long life from the lunarians. Now, here we are, the only two of our kind living amidst the mountains in secret at the world heals from another one of its silly wars.”

Cecil blew on the vegetables in his spoon once before pausing. “A war that you knew was going to happen?”

Golbez turned to him and said completely indifferent, “I know what you’re going to say, brother, but you’re wrong. The Drake girl and I did all we could to prevent it. Everything short of leveling civilization ourselves was attempted, but we could only stand by with what few that had no desire to join in the bloodshed. Not even Zeromus in all his hateful glory could conceptualize something so petty.”

Taking another bite, Cecil looked down momentarily and after he swallowed, he whispered, “I’m sorry.”

Golbez looked to the distance with a distracted look in his eyes. “Don’t be. You and I never had the chance to be brothers so we never had the chance to learn and adapt to our respective idiosyncrasies.”

Finishing the soup, he looked to the bread with it and asked idly as he tore off small parts to eat, “So, what’s to become of all of us now?”

Golbez turned to him and said simply, “We live. We go back into society and start over. Our time has long since passed and so no one will remember who we really were, save for the vague legends that continue to be passed through them.”

‘But it seems so... sudden. How can we just do something like that?”

Golbez stood up and held his brother’s shoulder gently before he said, “If I had the answer to such a question, brother, I would not be here now, helping you recover.”

Golbez excused himself from the pavilion, leaving Cecil with the multitude of questions unanswered.

Days passed slowly, and as Cecil’s strength returned in full, he and Rydia toured the place that had been their home for the past while. Turns out that many of their caretakers were the eternal Aeons that Rydia had summoned in battle so many years ago. Taking human form, they too had integrated themselves into human society, wishing to learn more of the race that had often called upon them in the past.

Considering that this place was their sanctuary, Cecil knew that he, his brother, and Rydia would have to leave eventually. They would also go their separate ways after Rydia would show him a place she had made mention of several times in the past.

With warmer clothes to withstand the harsh mountain cold, Cecil looked to his traveling companions with uncertainty. Rydia still held the shawl, which covered her head, along with a dark green colored cloak, trimmed with white, to practically hide herself from view.

His brother still preferred dark blue, it seemed. The robes of a black sorcerer suited him somehow, considering he most likely never held a sword in his life. The only thing that offset this was his mane of white hair, which was still a noticeable shade darker that Cecil’s own.

As Rydia was still speaking to an old man, which was the mighty Leviathan in human form, Golbez inclined his head to the start of the path. Cecil obediently followed his brother and stood by as Golbez took another look towards Rydia.

“It may not be my place to say this, brother, but it’d be best for you to know that you owe your life to the summoner.”

“Any reason why?” Cecil asked with a tinge of surprise.

Golbez folded his arms. “I can only guess, but in all the time I have known her, she was just as reclusive as I was. However, in what few times we did cooperate, she often spoke of you. From the day you met in her village, to how you defended her life in Kaipo and how she saved yours in the kingdom of the Dwarves.”

Cecil cocked an eyebrow at his brother’s words. “You make it sound like she was doting on me.”

Golbez replied unperturbed. “Perhaps... perhaps not. But what I do know is that much has changed her since you saw her last and I think it best if you accompanied her, even after she takes you to where she has mentioned. Both she and I are powerful sorcerers and she has not had the time to rest like we have. She may need you to protect her from herself.”

Cecil whispered suspiciously. “That is a lot of assuming you’ve done.”

Golbez gave his brother a rare smirk, yet it wasn’t vicious as he had remembered when they stood on opposing sides. It was warm and humorous. “It’s all a matter of perspective, brother.”

Soon, Cecil matched his brother’s mirth and chuckled a bit. “One man’s helping is another man’s bowl?”

Golbez nodded. “It looks like I was worrying too much about you. You have grown more than I thought since we last met.”

Cecil looked to the distance, not caring that the wind was freezing his cheeks. “Having a good wife like Rosa can do that to a person.”

Golbez started walking down the path, but not before turning to Cecil and saying, “but that hardly means I’m going to leave you to your own devices. Expect me to stay in touch, otherwise I doubt our dear mother would ever forgive us.”

Before Cecil could ask, Golbez said, “Another time, brother. Another time.”

Cecil watched his brother depart almost dumbly as Rydia finished speaking with Leviathan. She walked up to his side and tapped his shoulder.

“You’ll see him again,” she said in a reassuring tone of voice. “He’s been around more than he’s willing to let on. Now, we have to go.”

He followed her pace down another path as he asked, “The location you mentioned, right?”

She nodded once and replied, “It shouldn’t take long.”

The rocky pathway weaved smoothly down the mountains, without any sign of monsters as per Cecil’s experience. The range they were in didn’t appear familiar at all, even after living in its midst for a while. It only made sense for Rydia to know where to go, having grown up in a village named after the very thing they traversed through.

With several minutes out of the sanctuary, Cecil turned around one last time to bid a farewell glance to a place where they may never return to. He had no idea what to feel, for his home was most likely reduced to nothing.

It had been three days since they left the mountains. Already, Cecil was feeling uneasy about returning to the places he once knew, but were no more.

His fears were justified as he and Rydia eventually walked through the remains of the once mighty city of Baron. No stone stood higher than his head as he walked through the streets, which were filled with the bones, suits of armor, and other deadly implements within the rubble.

The towns between Baron and Damcyan to the north were similarly demolished, with little more than a haunted catacomb to leave the memory of the Kingdom’s former greatness.

Fabul, Elban, Mysidia, Agart, Tororia, and Silvera also appeared to have met similar fates. Along the way, he had seen only small hamlets of people that had somehow managed to make ends meet through either farming of meager trade. It tore him up inside to see children and adults in clothes that had seen better days, for the winter that would eventually come would most likely chill them to the bone if they weren’t prepared.

Throughout his career as king of Baron, he did all he could to ensure that few people starved or had to endure the cold months that eventually came. He was largely successful, he thought, as he often saw more people getting employment in the opportunities he had made.

However, all he had done was no more and all he could do was simply follow Rydia as she led him to the forests that had grown around the foot of Mount Ordeals. The eastern section, newer than the one he had traversed all those years prior, seemed less inviting than the rest of the forest. It was almost like the plant-life gave off a sense of hostility as he walked the path that only Rydia knew about.

Noticing his discomfort, Rydia said to the forests, “It’s alright, Eden. He’s a friend.” Her voice became distorted and wavered, which was the same whenever she summoned one of her mystical help-mates.

To Cecil’s surprise, many of the vines intertwined in the trees retracted, leaving the forest to appear less hostile than before.

“Eden’s the keeper of the forest. She’s been watching over this place for almost as long as you and I were ever alive,” she said calmly.

Following her into a grove not far from the eastern foot of the mountain, Cecil held back a gasp of surprise when he discovered several mounds, nestled against the rock face of the mountains. All of a sudden, a chill ran up his back as he turned to her and asked,
“is this...?”

She couldn’t look at him. She only nodded and said, “it was all I could do in order to prevent a necromancer from using their powers as his own. I had to move the very earth they slept in to here, otherwise, all of our friends would have been walking the earth without their souls.”

“A necromancer? I thought they were killed off by the king before me,” Cecil said walking up beside her.

She shook her head. “They didn’t die out. They simply hid in the shadows and slowly took over the ruling families of all the countries. As a result, there was a lot of rampant death and destruction for their experiments. As a summoner and black sorceress, I found myself impossible to stop them, for their powers and mine stemmed from the same source of elements.”

Turning back to the mounds, wondering which one was Rosa’s. It was too awful to think that someone would so callously resurrect the bodies of the dead. He often read the old logs of the kings of Baron and their struggles against necromancy. It seemed there was always a maniac that wished for power or wisdom not meant for human hands.

“How did you beat them?” Cecil asked as he looked from one grave to another. He waited for an answer, and only heard the rustling of clothes behind him. With no reply, he turned to find Rydia had removed the cowl and cloak she wore.

Beneath her summoner’s robes was the armor of a paladin! Obviously lighter, meant for someone smaller, but holding the same strength to defend its user. In addition, her hair, which now hung free to her waist, had several noticeable streams of white running up from the tips.

“The only power that was able to stand against the necromancers was that of a paladin. I searched desperately for a candidate worthy to take up the cause. However, I failed. So, I took the trial and was accepted. In exchange, I lost all my power as a black sorceress as a result.” She then looked down. “Levaiathan and Bahamut were not pleased either. Though they hold the paladins in the highest respect, the differences in codes and oaths often prevent any summoner from becoming one.”

Surprised and shocked, Cecil stood up and asked, “So... are you no longer a summoner?”

She shook her head solemnly. “No, I can still summon them, however my power in it decreased dramatically. I was weakened so greatly by the change I nearly lost my life on more than one occasion. It was only recently did I regain the trust of the Aeons after losing it for so long.”

A long and awkward pause permeated the area as he looked her up and down. It was all so much to take in a single instant. He then realized how much he had missed from simply being asleep, and he didn’t even know he was asleep.

Rydia lowered her head a bit and said, “I’ll be waiting outside the grove You remember the Paragon’s Steps when it comes to the deceased?”

Cecil nodded. After his ascension from a dark night, he had discovered in the archives of Mysidia the oaths and customs of the Paladins of old. The Paragon’s Steps were meant to be a moral guideline meant for those recently initiated and those hoping to have the honor bestowed upon them. In addition, it held several holy chants meant to send the deceased to rest and allow their spirits to reach the Eternal Dawn, the final resting place of the righteous dead... or adversely, the Neverending Dusk, where the spirits of the damned dwell.

An odd juxtaposition, which he had noticed, was how it invoked the Judge of the Dead, a patron diety of the Dark Knights, to guide them there. It seemed fitting that the Dark Knights and the Paladins, though seemingly at odds by their alignment, held a common goal for the soul of man.

Returning to the present, he solemnly recalled performing those rites for Tellah and Cid so many years prior.

As she turned around to the exit, she answered before Cecil could ask, “It was their wish to be sent there by you, Cecil. That’s the reason why they’ve waited for you.”

He could say nothing to her as he watched the entrance open for her and close as if it were a natural thing. He wanted to let he know that the others would not have minded if she had been the one to do it. However, it was a normal thing for more spiritually sensitive Paladins to be able to speak with the dead. Perhaps Rydia was of that variety.

Breaking out of his thoughts, he moved to the center of the graves, knelt, and began a prayer at the bottom of his breath. With each successive phrase, his voice grew more audible and clear. To his sight only, small lights appeared around him in a large circle. One by one, the motes multiplied and congregated over the paladin, bathing him in a holy light.

With another phrase in the chant repeated, the motes hovered over the graves of his deceased friends and family. Small chirps and wisps of sound came from them and within moments, streams of prismatic light emerged from the ground to be joined by the motes of light in something akin to a celebration.

The light shining in the grove was greater than a normal person to bear, but Cecil, now completed with the prayer, looked up to see the streams floating into the air with the motes. He could not explain it, but he a feeling of peace had slowly calmed his anxious heart as he felt the memories of his friends flowing through his head.

Amidst the light, he gasped slightly when he discovered Rosa’s face peeking through the multitude of motes. For an instant, he could have sworn seeing her turn to him and mouth the words, “I love you,” warmly. There was much he wanted to say to her. And to his surprise, the light she was encased in flowed around him, and as every mote past his ear, he could swear he heard her say, “Take care of Rydia, please. She needs you as much as we did.”

His brother's admonition came back as the light Rosa had briefly emerged from joined the rest of the inverted waterfall as it resumed its trek to the afterlife. As the lights slowly faded, Cecil didn’t feel burdened at all. He stood up and looked to the few openings in the grove’s leafy canopy, hoping that they’d wait for him in the next world. As he picked up his pack and walked to the edge of the clearing, he turned to the now empty graves one last time and whispered a fond farewell, knowing that he'd seem them again eventually.

The vines and branches closed around the entrance the same way they did when he first entered the clearing and he saw Rydia, leaning against one of the large trees, contemplating a little bird that had landed on her hand.

He considered Rosa's and Golbez's words as his pace slowed. He wasn't sure what to think of what they wanted of him. It was true he could watch over her like a parent, but the circumstances had changed greatly ever since that fateful morning back in Mist. She was probably the same age as him, maybe older now. He'd be lying to say that he wasn't fond of Rydia. He trusted her. Out of all his friends, she had been the one he had grown to trust the most, next to Rosa, of course.

“Ready?” she asked as she let the bird fly away.

He nodded once and let her lead the way out of the forest. He continued to wonder what a life they would be leading in a thrown back civilization as the sun grew more and more prominent. He figured he'd have to learn how to farm and, he thought with a small smirk, deal with rowdy animals like he did when he was younger. His caretakers at the time were thoroughly convinced he was not suited to be a farmer.

Starting over, all of a sudden, sounded like a very interesting prospect. Which would include something he always wanted to do. Walking up to Rydia's side, he asked, “is there any common language still spoken?”

Surprised at the question, she answered regardless, “Imperius is still spoken in the western lands, if that's what you mean. Most people have forgotten the old languages and simply go with variations. Now that you bring it up, why?”

They stopped their march, and when Rydia faced him, he extended his hand, he said with a bright smile, “I am Cecilus Meridius Pius. A former soldier hoping to start over. And who might you be?”

Rydia was shocked for a moment, but soon picked up on his train of thought. She smiled back and answered, “Lydia Diva Faustina. A scholar with no lord to serve, but with much experience under her belt.” She reached forward and took his hand.

He accepted her greeting with a nod and when they let go, he turned to the great open sky and the unknown future and said, “Shall we go?”

Her smile grew as she nodded, and as they started their march again, she reached to his hand and gave it a momentary squeeze as they both proceeded out of the forest and into the light.

The End.


Fear the cheesiness, fools! I always wanted to write a Cecil/Rydia fic and this is probably the best I can do without making it smutty... since, I can't write smut to save my life. So, if this story's a tanker, I'd like to know why so I can attempt to make it not stink.

Secondly, I hope I didn't drag the story down too much with my playing around with the rules of the FFIV world, but I thought it'd be so much neater that way. So much for trying to toy with originality with an already beaten and bruised story.

Cecil and Rydia's new personae were named from roman names and a few notable romans from the second centry. Cecil's name was taken from the Gladiator movie, but the Pius was taken from Antoninus Pius and his Rydia's was used from Pius' wife, Faustina the Elder. Why roman you ask? I flipped a coin... only I didn't.

Finally; all things Final Fantasy belongs to Squaresoft. And this fic is all the more timely, since the re-release of Final Fantasy IV for the Gameboy Advance. And there was much happiness and rejoicing.

...yay.