[action, closed to Rygdea]

[animus_concisus]

[...Damnit. Damn it all. This was exactly what Cid wanted to avoid, exactly what shouldn't have ever happened. Everything had been going smoothly until now, and although he knew that it was inevitable, he was hoping that he could delay it for as long as possible. Apparently, as long as possible wasn't more than just a few weeks

Comments

[cowboy_aloft]

[He knocks, though the formality feels strange when he really just wants to kick the door down and demands answers. Still, Cid is his superior officer, and old habits die hard.]

[animus_concisus]

Come in.

[He's been expecting him, so the door is open. Some way, any way...]

[cowboy_aloft]

[Stepping inside the room, he closes the door and leans against the doorframe. In a tone that's so flat it even obliterates his usual drawl, he bites out a single word.]

Explain.

[animus_concisus]

[A deep breath, and he tries to do what he can. Maybe if he explains everything at once, without giving Rygdea a chance to question each section too much? He doesn't know what to do. At all.]

Fang and the others were l'Cie. You did not know their actual Focus. It wasn't to save Cocoon. It was to destroy it. I... I decided that I did not want to let this happen. My only choice, I believed, was to defeat them so that they would not complete their Focus. The entire time, they were being manipulated.

[cowboy_aloft]

[He stays silent throughout. He's always looked up to Cid, and he's already made a silent vow to give him this; the chance to explain himself without Rygdea hurlng accusations after every other word.]

[animus_concisus]

Yes, I went after them. Yes, I attempted to kill them. It was not because I had anything against them. It was because I did not want to let Cocoon die.

[He knew what Rygdea was going to ask next: How did he know?]

Their manipulator was the fal'Cie Barthandelus, better known as Primarch Galenth Dysley. I became privy to this information.

[cowboy_aloft]

[He takes a deep breath, digesting that. Then he nods a silent encouragement to go on.]

[animus_concisus]

[This only leaves one last major thing--from his time, anyway. The primarch and killing thing can come later; it's just too much at once.

All he can hope is that he'll get a different reaction. If that's not the case, well, then...

There's a long pause before Cid slips off his right glove, unwrapping the bandages there so that his brand shows.]

[cowboy_aloft]

[Rygdea swallows hard. That...explains a lot. And raises as many questions as it answers.]

An' whose bitch are you? Dysley's, as well?

[animus_concisus]

Yes. He saw me as the perfect pawn to help him in his plans to destroy Cocoon. I lost hope, but I decided ultimately to fight my focus.

[cowboy_aloft]

[There's a faint hint of respect for that.]

That's why you tried to kill Fang an' the others, to stop them from destroyin' Cocoon?

[animus_concisus]

Yes. However, despite....turning myself into a Cie'th in order to give myself power, I was still defeated. Killed, perhaps. Turned to crystal. That was the last thing I remembered before I was taken here.

[cowboy_aloft]

Shit...

[He scrubs a hand over his face, not sure he understands it all, but no longer flaming angry. Living in Cocoon, you learn fast that fal'Cie have a way of twisting you.]

I don't...I don't get it all, an' I still think that tryin' to kill them was a scummy thing to do, especially after we told Fang we weren't the enemy. But you did it to save Cocoon, right?

[animus_concisus]

Yes, I did. I had nothing against them. I admired them, in fact, in their wanting to fight their focus. They inspired me to fight my own.

[He wasn't going to say this, but the words are coming out anyway. Cid is too desperate to get things off of his chest.]

Supposedly, in our future, Barthandelus revives me and forces me to be Primarch in order to lure the Cavalry into Eden. It worked. ...you killed me.

[cowboy_aloft]

I..I what?

[animus_concisus]

What I said. You shot me.