Chapter Text
The war was over.
The Militesi Empire was defeated and the Dominion of Rubrum had full control over the land they called Orience.
At first the Lorican Alliance was destroyed. 9
Then the Kingdom of Concordia submitted to the Vermillion Bird. 9
And now the defeat of the Militesi Empire was the last cog wheel for summoning the final moments of this world. 9
When 9 and 9 meet 9 – Tempus Finis shall be willed upon them.
Tempus Finis – the time where the Rursan Arbiter is said to bring judgment on the world if Agito is not found.
Agito.
Someone who is supposed to be the savior, a hero who is supposed to ensure the world"s survival.
Class Zero was doomed to become Agito. Their path was set on this fate.
Or was it?
“I want you to write the final pages of yourselves.” She said. “Non of you have ever chosen your own way of living – not once. So I want you to chose your own endings. This is the final freedom I give you as humans.”
-x-
They did well, these twelve children who were raised for nothing more than becoming Agito. Raised as war machines, their humanity drained and taken from them and now they had to chose how they end?
How is one able to make a human decision if it never was human in the first place.
-x-
They finished their last given task together – defeating the Rursan Arbiter and bringing an end to Tempus Finis.
But now the cycle didn"t end here like in previous ones. Instead it lived on due the cries of the hearts of the children.
They begged her to end this, their souls didn"t want another painful experience edged in their memories which will haunt them forever. Something they couldn"t remember and yet it was always there, hidden and carved in their hearts and minds, never leaving them.
And she listened. For the first time in 600 million cycles she listened to her children.
“I told you to make a decision. And if that is your final decision then I will accept it.”
-x-
They were more human than they thought.
When they arrived at the destroyed Akademeia again they grieved for the first time in their lives for the loss of all those cadets they lived with them together. They could remember them, all those dead bodies they saw lying in the hallways, the memories of them … they were still there.
“I know the name of this person.”
“But how? They"re dead.”
“I know.”
“I"m not able to dematerialize my weapon.”
“Why can"t I use magic anymore.”
The confusion was written all over their faces. What was going on?
“I"m scared.”
“Shh Cinque, it"s okay. We figure something out.”
“You think Mother is here?”
“C"mon, let"s look for her. You coming with me?”
“Sure.”
They split up, one group made their way through the halls of Akademeia to search for any information they could get their hands on. Maybe they would find survivors, too, though they didn"t expect to find any other living souls after they saw so many dead bodies.
And finding Arecia was the highest priority. She could explain what was going on, she could always explain things that no one in this world knew.
The other group meanwhile settled for their classroom, albeit the half of it was destroyed, but it still brought a safety – a feeling that they could have very well right now. They sat down in front of the desks in a circle, their weapons always in reach – should there really be a threat nearby they would be ready - and tried to find suitable words.
“What are we going to do now?”
“Shouldn"t we wait for the others first?
“Yes, but … we can already think about some thing, right?”
They all nodded together and fell into a compatible silence.
-x-
Before they headed to
Pandæmonium
nature went crazy – the sky turned red, the wind was unbearable, rain felt like blood running on their skin. The temple itself was the only source of light.
But now ... the sky had cleared up and even the sun broke through the last remnants of smoke that lingered in the air, the wind felt fresh and tickled on the skin, birds were chirping and sung the song of their people.
Nature recovered fast from Tempus Finis and repaired the damage that the Rursan Reavers had managed to make in that short time period.
It felt like … like a glimmer of hope.
-x-
They waited minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes until one of them made the first move and shifted closer to another.
Seven looked right beside her and saw Sice shifting closer to her with hanged head, their shoulders brushing now. She older one reached out to her and laid her arms over her shoulders to pull her closer. Over the course of time Sice got rather affectionate to Seven, even when other Class Zero members were around. They found it out eventually – they just couldn"t hide it anymore, not after the whole class caught them kissing in a hallway - and actually found it cute how
different
Sice acted when Seven was near.
Deuce had apparently a similar idea and moved over to Cinque and patted her on her shoulder. She cracked a little smile and appreciated the little comfort the girl gave her and snuggled further to the source of comfort – that made even Deuce smile a little.
Jack looked over to Eight who currently held his gaze on his crossed legs and picked on his shoelaces, distracting himself from the tense situation. It wasn"t easy to sit still and do
nothing
, especially not for Eight, and Jack saw his strained features and it hurt him. He playfully bopped him against his shoulder and smiled to him, immediately pulling him out of his thoughts. Eight looked up to him then, returning this little smile with a little nod and shifted closer to him, similar what Sice did to Seven, and leaned against his shoulder.
“I hate this silence.” Sice mumbled as she pressed her forehead against Seven"s shoulder. “Can we just … talk about something. Anything. I don"t care what. Just … this is killing me.”
Seven snorted in her hair, gently running a hand over her back.
“Normally you tell everyone to shut up.”
“Yeah, but this isn"t normal.”
“So …” Deuce cleared her throat, “Have you thought about what you want to do then?”
“We don"t even know if-”
But Sice couldn"t finish her sentence as the other six Class Zero member returned, not looking too happy in their faces. They mumbled a bit and sat themselves down to the six that already sat in the circle, sighing when they took the place.
“I guess it didn"t go well?” Seven cut the silence between them, wanting to know the result of this search. She didn"t want to sit here for nothing.
“Nothing. No one is alive here.” Trey began, “They either have left Akademeia when it wasn"t too late or they all fell victim to the Rursan Reavers.”
“We can"t even check if certain people are alive, because for some reason we can remember the dead.” Ace continued, “Remember that scientist who always hung out in his little room in the Crystarium? Yeah, we couldn"t find his body and he is nowhere to be found. We have no idea if he is still alive or not. He could explain a lot if he was still here …”
“Mother isn"t there, too. Her office is still like the way it was before, but … there is no trace of her. She is just … gone.” Queen finished and everyone else sank back and sighed.
“So much for this then …”
“Wait so,” Sice lifted her head up now from Seven"s shoulder and waved in front of her. “We remember the dead, right?”
Everyone nodded.
“We can"t dematerialize our weapons.”
Again, nodding.
“We can"t use magic … “
Nodding.
“ … does that mean the
Crystal
is gone?”
Everyone suddenly held their breath and uncontrolled rambling started to spread.
This was impossible.
“Queen? Was … the Crystal still there? I mean you looked in Mother"s office, right?” A faint whisper from Deuce came in between all the chanting from the others who then stopped their rambling to listen to the conversation.
“I … I haven"t looked. The door to it was locked, but … you"re right, the impressive aura from it was gone from Mother"s office.”
The aura from the Crystal lingered in the air at the whole Sorcery Division. It gave an astonishing and crushing atmosphere as if the Crystal wanted to impress nearby beings by its immense power. But now … it was
gone
, just like the rest of the things Sice listed.
“The … Crystal is gone. What … why?”
“We wanted all of this to be stopped, right? Then …”
“Wait wait wait! Does that mean
Mother
removed the Crystal?! That"s bullshit, yo! Why would she-”
“Maybe it was the only way to make our dream come true? To live in a world with peace and harmony ...”
“Well, the Crystals started the war in the first place.”
“That is just …”
“... Hard to swallow, yes.”
Another silence occurred and everyone needed to process this information at first. They were bound to the Crystal, they lived and worked because of it, they fought for the Crystal. And now it was gone like it never existed in the first place.
They suddenly didn"t have a leader anymore, nothing they could rely on, no one who gave them instructions. To get this inside their heads was hard.
“Mother removed the Crystals because of us … for us. We should … we should be grateful for that and work from here now then.” Ace cut through the silence and received approval.
“So you mean we should build our own world?”
“Yes.”
Another wave of approval and nodding came from them.
“So … what do we want to do first?” Cinque asked with a finger on her cheek.
“How about we rest up for a while? The war is over … there aren"t any threats anymore and we definitely could use some days off.”
“Hey yo, we can"t just do that … we can"t just sit here and do nothing! I definitely won"t.” Nine leaned himself on his knees and threw a fist in the air, “If we"re gonna build a new world we need to do something as soon as possible, yo!”
“What do you suggest then, Nine?”
“Me? Well, you know-” He sank back to his previous position and closed his mouth, shaking his head. “I don"t know, man. Just … something! We can"t just do nothing, that won"t help the world.”
“Wow Nine, that was the fist time you ever contributed something useful.” Queen smiled and everyone else started to snicker. At least their banter will never go away.
“H-Hey, yo!”
“Have we ever thought about what we wanted to do when the war is over?”
They all looked at each other, confused and uneasy. Their minds were set on war and fighting, they barely had the time to even think about other things that they might be interested in.
“Do we have any idea how to start with … building a new world? All we ever did was fighting.”
“We could start with learning new things!” Deuce raised her hand, but received only groaning.
“Learning? No, not
again.
No more exams and tests! I"m sick of this.
”
“Not about fighting, about … how to live. How to make food for example! Why it rains and how plants grow.”
“Hey man, that sounds interesting. Would be something even I would want to learn, yo!”
“I … I want to learn how to raise children.” Seven cleared her throat and all eyes were on her now. “I always wanted to follow Mother"s steps and … maybe raise orphaned children. With the war and all – I bet there are a few. Someone has to take care of them.”
An acknowledge hum came as a response and Seven took it as a good sign.
“Well, I mean I already have some experience – I raised you all a bit, too.”
Now everyone chuckled and Sice playfully punched her against her shoulder, giving her a crack of a smile, too. She was the oldest of Class Zero and took everyone under her wing to the point where she was considered as “big sister”. She enjoyed her role though and everyone needed a trustworthy person in their lives – and Seven was it for Class Zero.
“You can handle this, Seven.” King said to her – as the oldest male he understood her the best in this situation.
“I want to help her in the orphanage.” Sice said with a hint of a smile. “I always wanted to become a chef since Mother took me in and gave me this soup … it is still the best thing I"ve ever eaten and I want to become as good as her one day.”
Everyone chuckled and a mumbled “We all know why you want to accompany her!” came through all the laughing which Sice ended with shouting a “H-Hey!”
“Sicey should cook something for us one day!”
“Yeah you should!”
She sank back and chuckled with them now, knowing that they didn"t mean it in a bad way.
“Okay, okay. I will.”
“So, some of us already have some ideas what to do? Even if it"s just a little dream, just say what you want to do! I"m interested.” Cater cut in and leaned back, crossing her arms to think about her own dreams of life.
They might all be raised the same and yet they all have different ideas – just little things they always wanted to do in their lives and that they yet hadn"t been able to do it because of the war.
Raising Chocobos.
Becoming a musican.
Continuing studying and becoming a scholar.
Traveling around Orience.
Becoming an adventurer.
Building an orphanage.
Learning how to cook and become a chef.
Becoming a martial artist.
Becoming a traveling comedian.
Becoming a teacher.
Becoming a policeman.
Some of these were just a haze of a dream, others had already a good grasp of what they wanted to do. When everyone listed what they wanted to do they were amazed of all the things you can do in a life except for fighting. They only knew war and now they had to decide what to do next and listing their dreams was one step to work from now.
“What about you, Nine? You didn"t say anything.”
“Ah man, I have no idea. You all listed so cool stuff and I haven"t even thought about things like that.”
“You don"t even have the sightliest idea?”
“No. I just … I can"t see myself doing anything other than fighting, yo.”
“You will find something, Nine, I"m sure of it.” Sice patted him on the shoulder and Nine was surprised by that sudden nice behavior from her around him. “Every idiot can do something.”
… Well, that didn"t last long.
“Nine, you"re strong, you will definitely find something.”
“Well okay then …”
“When do we start, guys?” Jack clapped his hands together and smiled. “I mean, we can"t sit here forever! We need to move and get going, the world isn"t going to rebuild itself on its own.”
“Jack, your enthusiasm surprises me.”
“What can I say? I"m brilliant.”
“So what do we do first?”
-x-
They were just twelve children, reborn over and over to become one of the strongest beings in the world to serve a higher being that they trusted with their lives. Now instead of following the path of death they chose life this time – and trying to get their humanity back that they lost through over six-hundred million cycles of life and death.
But they were young and their souls strong, their will of life lingered deep in their hearts that bottled up over all those cycles and gave this world a new chance of living.
The year 842 wouldn"t be the end of the world, Tempus Finis wasn"t the end. It gave the world a new beginning, a new glimmer of hope.
The world would face a new era of time, a time of peace and harmony where humanity had to work hand-in-hand to achieve this goal.
The ruins of Akademeia would serve as a beacon of hope – a reminder of the heroes that lived there who brought an end to the endless war. Adorned in capes of crimson they fought for this outcome and now their path of Agito was over.
Leaving their capes behind, tied together on a pole to a flag that blew in the wind, surrounded by a pile of weapons, they made their way out in the world to learn about the things that they missed in their lives.
They got to know how the weather worked, how to grow their own food and plants, they found other survivors in other cities and helped them to rebuild their houses – making friends outside of their tight family bond they all had.
It wasn"t easy at first, sometimes shadows darkened their paths, it took them long to get used to all those new feelings and circumstances, but they wanted to help, they didn"t want to let the world down - not after they were responsible for this.
They strove for their dreams, their
freedom,
worked hard for it, and eventually succeeded.
-x-
They say children laughter is the best kind of laughter and Seven definitely agrees to this statement.
Everyday now she heard that kind of laughter and every time it reminded her of what she achieved in the past years. She had grown – a lot – on wisdom and knowledge of all kinds of fields. She managed to accomplish her dream together with the help of Sice who accompanied her now on every step she made in her life. Not one single time they regretted their decision to walk along the same path. They were happy to be around each other – always and forever, even if Sice was sometimes the biggest child around Seven.
“Hey Seven?” Sice poked her head around the corner of the room and saw her girlfriend standing at the table, cleaning up the rest of the breakfast.
“Yes? What is it?”
“Hmm.” Sice grinned and walked over to her, wrapping her arms around Seven"s body which shifted rhythmically to her movements of the cleaning. “Nothing, I just wanted to tell you how much I love you.”
Seven chuckled and poked her in the ribs with her elbow to gain some leverage to turn around and faced her, laying her arms around her neck to pull her close.
“Who are you and what did you do to my Sice.”
“Aw come on, I was just trying to be romantic.” Sice chuckled now and laid her forehead against Seven"s, standing on tip-toes to reach her.
“Leave the romantic stuff to me.” She leaned in and gave a quick peck on her lips. “And I love you too.”
“Always and forever?”
“Always and forever.”