Yuan - post-Paradisa
...Yeah, I dunno. Watch this space, I'll probably do some editing on this when the idea isn't so fresh. There may even be follow-up ficlets in the future.
When Yuan awoke, he was sitting up at his desk in the Sylvarant Base, a place he hadn't properly seen in over two years. It took him a long moment to reorient, until he was sure he understood where he was. But when he saw the dates on the paperwork before him, he nearly laughed in incredulous joy.
"They were right!" It was a cry of amazement. He hadn't dared to hope that this might come true, that he might remember his time there when he returned. That it wouldn't drift from his mind like an unreachable dream after waking.
That thought sobered him quickly. What if it had all been some kind of strange hallucination? What if he started trying to act on what he knew, only to find out that it had all been in his head?
...He needed to call Botta.
-------
The team was preparing to head for the Iselia Temple to find the Chosen, when a call came over Botta's communicator. Frowning, he pressed the button. No one should be contacting them at this stage unless something had gone wrong...
"Botta here," he told the device. "Is there a problem?"
"I'm not sure," Yuan's voice said. His tone seemed odd, like it always did when his leader was thinking about fifty things at once and sorting through possibilities in his head. "In your surveillance of the town, did the Chosen have two friends? A boy with short brown hair dressed in red, and a young half-elf with silver hair?"
...Yuan had always been many things, but Botta had never before wondered if he was psychic as well. He must have some other source of information. "She did. Is that relevant, sir?"
"...Maybe." There was a long pause over the communicator as Yuan thought.
Botta tried to fill the silence. "Sir, should we call off or alter the mission plan?"
"...No," Yuan said at last. "Go through with it as scheduled, but don't harm the children. Any of them. Just hold them off until Kratos gets there, then return to base. ...I've...gotten some new information, that will change a lot of our plans."
"Understood." This was not strictly true, but Botta knew he wasn't going to get anything else useful out of Yuan until they could have a private chat. "I'll see you when we return to base, sir."
-----------------
Yuan sat back in his desk chair and just stared at the ceiling for a long moment. So many choices, so many possibilities. A grumpy voice in the back of his mind reminded him that changing too much could have unpredictable consequences for a future that was, on the whole, pretty good. At least in terms of the world.
But Yuan couldn't sit back and just watch while his own life fell apart, while the people most important to him died or drifted away. It wasn't about changing the world's future, now - he knew how that would come out, and as long as he played his cards right it still could. Now, it was about accepting the second chance that he had, by some miracle, been given. It was about saving Botta, and Kratos, and countless Renegades and innocents who should never have needed to die.
He grinned, finally, at the ceiling. For once, the future looked like it might actually be worth living in.
When Yuan awoke, he was sitting up at his desk in the Sylvarant Base, a place he hadn't properly seen in over two years. It took him a long moment to reorient, until he was sure he understood where he was. But when he saw the dates on the paperwork before him, he nearly laughed in incredulous joy.
"They were right!" It was a cry of amazement. He hadn't dared to hope that this might come true, that he might remember his time there when he returned. That it wouldn't drift from his mind like an unreachable dream after waking.
That thought sobered him quickly. What if it had all been some kind of strange hallucination? What if he started trying to act on what he knew, only to find out that it had all been in his head?
...He needed to call Botta.
-------
The team was preparing to head for the Iselia Temple to find the Chosen, when a call came over Botta's communicator. Frowning, he pressed the button. No one should be contacting them at this stage unless something had gone wrong...
"Botta here," he told the device. "Is there a problem?"
"I'm not sure," Yuan's voice said. His tone seemed odd, like it always did when his leader was thinking about fifty things at once and sorting through possibilities in his head. "In your surveillance of the town, did the Chosen have two friends? A boy with short brown hair dressed in red, and a young half-elf with silver hair?"
...Yuan had always been many things, but Botta had never before wondered if he was psychic as well. He must have some other source of information. "She did. Is that relevant, sir?"
"...Maybe." There was a long pause over the communicator as Yuan thought.
Botta tried to fill the silence. "Sir, should we call off or alter the mission plan?"
"...No," Yuan said at last. "Go through with it as scheduled, but don't harm the children. Any of them. Just hold them off until Kratos gets there, then return to base. ...I've...gotten some new information, that will change a lot of our plans."
"Understood." This was not strictly true, but Botta knew he wasn't going to get anything else useful out of Yuan until they could have a private chat. "I'll see you when we return to base, sir."
-----------------
Yuan sat back in his desk chair and just stared at the ceiling for a long moment. So many choices, so many possibilities. A grumpy voice in the back of his mind reminded him that changing too much could have unpredictable consequences for a future that was, on the whole, pretty good. At least in terms of the world.
But Yuan couldn't sit back and just watch while his own life fell apart, while the people most important to him died or drifted away. It wasn't about changing the world's future, now - he knew how that would come out, and as long as he played his cards right it still could. Now, it was about accepting the second chance that he had, by some miracle, been given. It was about saving Botta, and Kratos, and countless Renegades and innocents who should never have needed to die.
He grinned, finally, at the ceiling. For once, the future looked like it might actually be worth living in.