concoursec | To Zanarkand!

Entry tags:

To Zanarkand!

Characters: Jecht (dreamer), Chika (dragged-in)
Location: Slumberland, but not the Little Nemo one
Rating: PG
Open/Closed/Finished: Closed.
Summary: Jecht has a dream. It isn't a good one.

Zanarkand.

The ruined city of Zanarkand. An ancient city that never slept, its technology meaningless compared to its Summoners -- and its Summoners meaningless against the war machine of Bevelle.

A thousand years ago it had fallen. On a hill just outside the city, Jecht stood, arms crossed, facing the reality of a city that had been real to him. A dream, dreaming of a dream.

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Chika meanwhile, was just going to look around in complete wonder at what she was seeing. Sure, she was a bit unnerved that she was someone else again, but right now she was more focused on the rubble of the city. Whatever it was, it had been massive. And future-like and stuff.

Still, she looked around, checking to see if she could find anyone else that was here. So far, there was nothing. Was this even the same world as Garden, or was it something else?

The dream began drawing them forward. Not with any sense of conscious movement -- this was dream-movement, which followed its own whim and logic. Down the deserted, broken roads at a walking pace, and indeed Jecht even seemed to be walking, sword in hand, though he had no feeling of it.

"Hey!" Chika shouted as she saw someone finally! She moved to run over to him, though it was weird, it seemed to take a lot longer than moving that distance really should've. "Do you know where we are?"

Jecht stopped, staring at the girl as if she were a thousand yards away, before blinking slowly.

"Who the hell are you?"

Chika blinked, looking over at the guy for a moment. "I'm Chika..." she said. He looked a bit familiar, maybe she had seen him around the Garden campus a couple of times, but well, she didn't know who he was. "Do you know where we are?"

Dream logic. Capable of creating whole new people...

Jecht chuckled cynically at his own thought -- hollow, like he's distant, through a fog or a blanket. "Zanarkand."

Chika... blinked a bit hazily. "Zanarkand? I've never heard of that place before..."

She shook her head. What the heck was going on, why did she feel so out of it? "Is this place in the same world as the one with Balamb Garden? Or did I end up in another one again?"

"There are two Zanarkands." Jecht began taking dream-steps forward again -- not one foot to the next, but one memory to the next. The dream-images jumped forward, to finally stop outside a wrecked and ruined stadium. "This is the real one. Different world."

Chika blinked, looking around as everything changed. "What do you mean by 'real one'? Is the other Zanarkand some sort of simulation thing?" Because that made as much sense as anything that was going on right now.

He looked at her for a long moment, then turned away.

"It's a dream. And this is where I found out."

Disconsolate, he forged on. In his current mood he didn't care if he left Chika behind or not... but the dream would give her no choice but to follow.

"A... dream? What do you mean by that?"

And oh hey, he was ignoring her. She quickly moved to run after him. "Hey! What's going on here?"

"This is where... "

Jecht swallowed as he stepped past a maze of colors and lights without seeming to cross it, headed for stairs that plummeted down into the depths of the city.

"This is what Zanarkand used to be. Before the war. I can't tell the story that well."

Chika frowned, following after him a bit more. She wasn't exactly sure what he meant, but whatever this place was, it had to be important to him. "I... I see."

That said, this whole place was just, well, weird. The way that a lot of it didn't seem to be following much logic.

"Hmph. The old guy told the story pretty well."

Down they went, jumping from scene to scene with that strange dream-logic that valued results over processes, and images over transitions. Into the heart of the temple... while around them the air grew cold and curiously stale.

Chika shivered, paying the jumping between locations not that much mind. She didn't know who the old guy was, and she was pretty sure that he wasn't going to elaborate, so there wasn't even a reason to ask him. As for where they were... she guessed she really shouldn't have been surprised that there was a temple here. All cities had places for religious people to go to, right?

Still, it was a bit different than anything she was used to seeing. But she figured that Jecht might explain in a little bit. She could always try asking if he ended up not doing that though.

"You're late."

Not Jecht that spoke. Their dream-wanderings had taken them into a chamber beneath the stadium that housed people -- a dark-haired, stern warrior in red who looked at Jecht with the same mild reproach he'd spoken with; a man in heavy robes, whose kind face was set in lines of sad determination; and a woman with shockingly little on, who looked down at them all from a dais.

Chika blinked, looking over at the two new people. "Wait. We're late? How can we be late? I don't even know why I'm here," she said, frowning as she looked over at the woman. She... well, she wasn't wearing a lot, that's for sure.

Still, it could just be local custom around here, right? Maybe, kinda. Or wherever she came from since this place was a completely destroyed ruin.

She just hoped that the guy she was here with knew more about what was going on right now with these two than she did. She was completely lost, after all.

The two men and the woman ignored Chika -- or more accurately, failed to see her. She wasn't part of the memory that this dream was based off of.

The woman with alarmingly little clothing spoke to the man in robes.

""Welcome to Zanarkand. I congratulate you, summoner. You have completed your pilgrimage. I will now bestow upon you that which you seek. The Final Summoning...will be yours. Now, choose. You must choose the one whom I will change...to become the fayth for the Final Summoning. There must be a bond, between chosen and summoner, for that is what the Final Aeon embodies: the bond between husband and wife, mother and child, or between friends. If that bond is strong enough, its light will conquer Sin. A thousand years ago, I chose my husband Zaon as my fayth. Our bond was true, and I obtained the Final Aeon. There is nothing to fear. You will soon be freed of worry and pain. For once you call forth the Final Aeon, your life will end. Death is the ultimate and final liberation."

Chika's eyes widened as she heard that, her hands balling up into fists. "Why do they even need to do that!? You're asking people to turn themselves into something else and then to die! What's wrong with you?"

There was another thing that came to her mind though. "And if you're one of those who did this, then how are you still here!?"

Of course, she had no idea what Sin was, or why it would need to be conquered several times; just that apparently once wasn't enough.

"S'the only way to stop Sin, even for a little while," Jecht grunted. "Two people's sacrifice to buy a whole world a few years' peace? You really think that's a bad deal?"

Chika sighed, turning back over to the guy who actually was, you know, paying attention to her. "Well, considering I still don't even know what Sin is, then yeah, it kinda is. Especially if it doesn't do anything but just get rid of it for a few years!"

Jecht didn't look at her, just folded his arms and stared fixedly at no one.

"Sin's a monster," he finally said. "A big one. Makes Garden look small next to it. It attacks everywhere... killing, unleashing its spawn. Ya can't stop it. Outside of the Final Aeon, ya can't kill it."

"... Didn't you JUST say that it only lasts for a few years?" Chika asked, sounding a bit annoyed. "Even if you guys do decide to do this, why isn't anyone else trying to think of a way to kill the thing for good!?"

The woman laughed, darkly. "Fool. There is no other way. Even if there was... Even if you did destroy Sin... Yu Yevon the immortal would only create Sin anew."

Chika blinked, looking over at that woman. "And how does he manage to do that? If you know how he does it, you should be able to figure out a way to stop it!"

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