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flonnebonneFandom: FF6
Characters: Celes, Terra, Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Shadow, Cyan, Gau, Setzer, Relm
Genre: Drama, AU
Wordcount: 11,975
Summary: What if, after one year asleep, Celes still does not wake?
Important Note: This is a revised version of the story I posted on April 2.
The main changes are:
1) New material at the beginning and end of the story, with significant changes to the plot;
2) Removal of unnecessary lines to promote clarity and better flow, hopefully, throughout the story;
3) Splitting up the story into thirteen sections instead of two, because I realize this is a damn long story;
4) Chapter titles.
Hopefully the story is better now! I am leaving the old version up for posterity's sake, if you'd like to compare. Comments and criticism are welcome, always.
Part 13: Awakening
Celes could hear her friends' voices from above, faintly.
"What on earth just happened?"
(Edgar, taking charge even amidst his confusion.)
"That was the Light of Judgement, wasn't it? Kefka must have somehow noticed we were vulnerable and decided to attack."
(Sabin, first to answer his brother's call, as ever.)
"Terra, where did you suddenly get all that power? It was awesome!"
(Relm, blessed or cursed with her own inquisitive nature.)
"It wasn't just me. It was Celes. She's awake!"
(Terra, voice tired but still strong, as ever.)
"Uooo!"
(Gau, moved quickly to delight.)
"Let us go meet her."
(Cyan, steady and strong.)
"You ready?"
Setzer, beside her.
"I suppose so."
Celes felt suddenly, unaccountably shy.
But there was no time for that, because a moment later they were there, streaming down the stairs from the upper deck with about a dozen children trailing in their midst.
Terra looked like she wanted to cry. She stumbled down the last step, her arms reaching outward.
But Gau beat her to it. "Uwaaooo! You awake!" he yelled, and leapt.
Celes, who didn't know what to do with an armful of sooty, smelly boy on any day, was nearly bowled over. Her dress was no doubt getting stained all along the front.
"Give her some space!" Sabin admonished, but he was laughing even as he pulled Gau back.
More and more children were appearing from the cabin doorways. "Who's that?" they whispered.
"She's Celes," said Terra, hugging Celes tightly. "She saved us." Celes hugged her back, tentatively at first. Then she laughed helplessly and buried her face in her friend's hair. It smelled like ashes and sweat.
It was overwhelming, the sounds and smells of them all at once, their voices so bright and unmuted. And now she could see them too, Edgar and Sabin's matching blond hair, Cyan's old but smiling eyes, Shadow glowering a little ways behind Relm with loyal Interceptor at his feet. And Terra, still in her battle armour but so much more alive, somehow, than Celes had ever seen her, with her sword at her hip and surrounded by her horde of wide-eyed children.
"Was she here before?" one of them asked.
Terra looked down at the boy and said, "She was. She was just sleeping. Like the princess in the story."
"How come we didn't see her? Where was she?"
"Um, in a storage locker."
Setzer, still at Celes' side, tapped her gently on the arm. "How much do you remember, Celes?"
She turned to him, sensing that there was more to that question than he was letting on.
"Not much," she admitted. "I remember hearing all your voices a lot, and I think I could understand what you were saying, at the time. But it's all just vague impressions now." She watched his face, curious at how bland his expression was. "Except," she added, "what happened just now, with our magic, I remember perfectly."
She looked to Terra, then, and they didn't need to say anything. The song was still there, humming silently between them.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to help earlier," Celes said, turning to all her friends. It almost hurt to think of them, waiting for so long with so little hope. She felt almost helplessly grateful. "I know you waited a long time for me. Thank you, all of you."
"You may not have been awake," Edgar said diplomatically, "but you were here with us, nonetheless."
Sabin nodded. Celes' eyes were drawn to the place where his arm used to be, but then she looked him in the eyes. He had lost none of his confidence.
"We all spoke with you while you slept, my friend," Cyan's voice was as rich as she remembered. "Even Sir Shadow spent hours by your bedside."
"They made me."
"I admit I was getting impatient for your to wake up," Relm piped up, "but if you and Terra can use that crazy double-whammy super magic on Kefka, it's all good."
"Give us a little time to recharge," Terra told her. "We need to stop off at South Figaro anyway. And we need to plan, and talk, I'm sure." She looked to the young man and woman behind her, who were watching the proceedings in silent bewilderment.
"I think we all need a rest before we jump into battle again," Edgar agreed. "Celes, now that you're, er, sensate, you'll need a proper place to sleep. My room is always available if - "
Sabin elbowed him. "Nice, brother. Trying to pick up the woman who just woke from a coma."
"Can't fault a man for trying."
"Maybe I can room with Terra," said Celes. "Besides, I don't think I'll be sleeping that much."
Later, she found Edgar at the helm, piloting the ship.
"Setzer's checking on the engine room," he explained. "Wants to make sure his darling is ship-shape. We were forced to do some rather dramatic maneuvers during the battle."
"It's you I wanted to talk to anyway," she told him.
Edgar looked taken aback for a moment. "Finally, someone acknowledges my considerable charm!"
Celes gave him a faint smile in return. "I want you to tell me what happened while I was asleep, I want to know where Locke and Strago are, and I want to discuss our plans after South Figaro."
Instantly, Edgar's expression changed. "You really don't know how to take a break, do you?"
"I think I've had a long enough one."
He gave her a long look, then took something out of his pocket. It was blue.
On the way back to her room she ran into Setzer, who was covered in engine grease. The smell of the stuff was oddly comforting. She thought it made him look more honest, somehow, than he did when he was perfectly coiffed. He gave her a wry look.
"I apologize for the mess. I would love to chat, but I really do need to get cleaned up, if you'll excuse me - "
"Setzer, you were the one who found me, right?"
Up came the poker face. "So they've told you the whole story, have they?"
"Edgar did, yes," she murmured. But that wasn't what she wanted to talk about. "I remember your voice from when I was asleep," she said to Setzer. "You were there more than anyone, weren't you? Waiting for me to wake up."
He shrugged. "Maybe."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome," he said with his usual easy grace. But she thought she knew his voice well enough by now to see beneath that. His vigil had cost him dearly. A name floated into her consciousness - a woman's name, spoken with such terrible longing - but Celes was awake now, and some things were better left buried.
"I have a request to make, Setzer," she said. "When all this is over...I'd like to do a couple things. I'd like to return the dress you stole, for one."
"Ah, you heard about that."
"Yes," she replied neutrally, still not sure how she felt about being rescued from her rescuers in that way. She left that conversation for another time. "I'd also like to go find Cid. I'm sure I remember hearing his voice. He must have been the one who saved me and put me on that raft. But I don't know where we were. Somewhere that smelled like the ocean, I think."
Setzer nodded, slowly. "Absolutely no idea where?"
"No. An island, perhaps. That's why I need your airship. I might need your help for a long time."
He lifted one elegant silver eyebrow; the effect was rather ruined by the grease stain running across his forehead. "Aren't you going to look for Locke?"
Celes tried to keep her voice even. "Aren't we all going to?"
"Yes, but I'm surprised you don't want to look for him now."
She fingered the bandana in her pocket, the one Edgar had pressed into her hands with words of regret, if not condolence. "We've run out of time. Kefka has already attacked us directly, and we're all worried about Strago. At least with Locke, we know he's alive. He must be."
"How are you and Edgar so sure?"
Celes was surprised at how fierce her answer came. "Why not? Everything we've done until now has been a wild hope to begin with. What were the chances that so many of us would be alive? That we'd find each other again? That Terra would be able to wake me? Will we be able to defeat Kefka? Will we find Strago alive and whole, will we find Locke and Cid at all? We can't think about the odds. We have to keep fighting. All of you taught me that."
He stared, then caught himself staring and laughed. "You are crazy. I knew there was a reason I asked you to marry me. Does Edgar still have that blasted coin?"
"Maybe. Why?"
"Heads and heads. You don't gamble, do you? You just make a wish, and it happens."
"'My life is a chip in your pile. Ante up,'" she quoted his own words at him. "So after we defeat Kefka, will you continue to aid me?"
"All right," he said, silver quick and with no regrets, just like the way he'd agreed to help her before, the first time they met. "I can believe in fairy tales too." He gave her a speculative look. "I think I will be pleased to get to know you better, Miss Chere."
She stopped at her storage locker, opened it, and crawled inside. She closed the door.
The walls were suffocatingly close in here. She felt her breath stop for a moment, as if she were going to fall into sleep once more, and it terrified her. Then she took a breath, and another, and the moment passed.
She gathered up the silk roses and put them in her box, then chose one of them, the nicest one. She wrapped the bandana around it and tied a bow so the cloth would stay in place. Then she put the rose back in the box.
I'll come get you later, she promised.
When Celes got back to her cabin, Terra was already asleep.
Lying on her back, head turned to the side, green hair spread out on her pillow, Terra held under each arm a child - a boy on one side and a girl on the other. She looked exhausted but content.
Celes could feel her friend's magic singing to her even now. It made her feel as warm and safe as Terra looked.
Later, Celes would curl up on her cushion on the floor and try to sleep, really sleep. But for now, she settled down in a chair beside Terra's bed and waited for her to wake.
- End -
Author's notes:
The next time I decide to write a story from the point of view of a person in a coma, someone please slap me.
The poem Memories of the world before the fall remain.../But the light of dawn doth never change,/nor e'er the hearts of men... is from the GBA translation of FF6, when you find Cyan again in the World of Ruin. The original translation was a little different. It's not clear whether this is a poem that Cyan wrote himself, but I'd like to think it is. Or maybe it's an old, old poem from around the time of the War of the Magi - another period of cataclysm and change.
Thank you (a BIG thank you) to cryforthedream for giving so much constructive feedback on the original version of this story.
As I was writing this new version, I thought a lot about fairy tales and what we do to the women in them. Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood and the like - in the original versions of these tales, the women are raped, dismembered, eaten, etc. We sanitize the stories now, but the undercurrent of threat is still there. The princess is an object, a thing for men (and witches, of course) to project their desires upon; and even if we emphasize the prince's desire to love and protect his princess more than his desire to, say, cannibalize her, the core idea of woman as object is still there, no matter how Disney likes to dress her up (or dress her down, as is often the case).
When I set out to write the FF6 version of the Sleeping Beauty story, my vague intent was to show what it is like to be the woman-as-object - what it is like to have everyone put their desires and hopes and dreams onto you. A little bit feminist, right? At the same time, though, I realized by putting Celes to sleep I was actually stripping her of her agency and giving it to Setzer and Edgar and the other men in the game. Also, in the original version of my story, Locke and the Phoenix were involved in her awakening, recreating the prince-wakes-princess version of the Sleeping Beauty story. Bad feminist! No biscuit!
So in the rewrite I wanted to change the ending. But...in FF6, Celes does care deeply for Locke, maybe even has an unhealthy dependence on him, emotionally speaking (think of the bird on the Solitary Island), and that's something that's at the core of her character. So what to do? I wanted Celes to wake up without her (deeply flawed) prince, but I didn't want to discount his importance to her. (I like Locke too, yeah? Even if he is a dweeb with issues.) In the end I decided to let Celes do what she always does - be strong, but not so strong that she doesn't also need other people. Hence the thing with the bandana and the rose.
I also made a conscious decision to emphasize Celes' relationship with Terra, even though there's not really that much evidence for it in the game. (They were designed to be foils, yes, but we don't actually see them interact much with each other in-game.) Because they really ought to feel connected to one another, considering the circumstances they were both raised under, and because female friendship FTW. :D
