flonnebonne | NEW VERSION: [Final Fantasy VI] Fic: The Sleeping Beauty (Part 6 of 13) (Reply)

Title: The Sleeping Beauty
Fandom: 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 6: Omen

(Her door opens, cautiously.)

(A presence.)

(A spirit shy with remembering.)

Hi, Celes. How are you?

(One filled with magic, different from her own.)

...That's a stupid question, after all this time. I still never know what to say to you.

(Truer, warmer, more alive.)

(Wilder.)

...There. Ah it feels strange. I haven't done this in a year.

They told me to try to help you. I don't know how though. But, you know, I used to be able to...kind of sense your mind. When I was in my Esper form. I think you could sense me too, right? When I changed? We...Espers have this ability to speak without words, mind to mind. I've done it before. When I opened the gate to the Esper world. When my father showed me his memories, where I came from. When Valigarmanda first woke me, and told me I had a name.

Celes? Can you hear me, feel me? Your skin is so cold...

(Her magic is cold.)

They've all tried using Espers on you, I heard.

...Father. Can you help my friend?

No? Why isn't anything working?

(Her magic is stolen.)

(Her magic is from the dead.)

Well, maybe I'll just talk. They told me that's good too.

(The flare of magic recedes.)

(The girl becomes just a girl again.)

Um, I'm living in Mobliz now. I'm just visiting the airship for a bit. I can't stay - my kids need me.

Sabin is here too. He's with Edgar. Or rather, Edgar is with him, by his bedside.

Sabin is...oh, Celes. He lost his arm when he was protecting me and the village. He was already injured from when he was in Tzen - the Light of Judgement hit there, and he tried to save a child who was trapped in a collapsing house. In the end the child didn't make it. The poor mother...

Sabin should have stayed in Tzen to recover, but he kept pressing on. He came to Mobliz, and when Phunbaba came, he fought it and -

...I kept pouring magic into him, but the arm wouldn't heal. Duane, he said it was infected and we had to cut it off. I had to cut it off. I used my sword. We didn't have anything, not even some alcohol, to dull the pain.

I still remember how he sounded, when I -

(A voice, choked by remembrance.)

(Tears.)

(Long silence.)

I can't fight anymore, Celes.

I just can't.

I'm sorry.

Any luck? No? That's too bad. We were hoping you, of all people...are you all right, Terra?

I...I'm sorry, Setzer.

(Footsteps, receding.)

(A door closing shut.)

Poor kid. Edgar told me, just now, the kind of pressure the Returners used to put on her. Banon once asked her to be their "hope." Actually told her she had to be a symbol! Kind of much to ask a teenager who can barely remember who she is, huh?

...I've done that too, haven't I. To you.

(You have.)

It might not be fair...but we need these things, these symbols. If you were awake, wouldn't it be the same? If you were awake, wouldn't you be leading us?

I can just see it: General Celes Chere, standing tall at the Falcon's prow, a bird on the wing. Carrying enough hope to carry us all. I've seen your strength. You wouldn't show us anything else, if you could help it.

Is that really you?

I don't know. I don't actually know you well enough to say.

(Who does?)

Oh well, excuse my ramblings.

You probably won't remember this anyway.

(Probably, she won't.)

Hello, Celes. It's me, His Royal Aloofness, as Setzer calls me. Sorry I haven't been down here for a while. You've had a lot of visitors lately. I suppose that's why I've been "aloof."

(A voice drier than desert sand.)

Does this even help you? Us talking with you, I mean.

I think I only come down here when I need to talk, actually. You probably heard that we found Terra, and my brother. Neither of them is coming with us.

I wanted to take him back to Figaro, give him the best doctors in the world, give him back his old bed. But he's moved on, hasn't he?

(Capricious wind, capricious heart.)

And, truth be told, Terra, with her magic, makes for a better doctor than any of mine. I think he might love her, you know. She, of course, has no idea. Wants to know love is, she tells me. Ha, if Sabin and Setzer knew, they'd have my head.

Celes, I am a selfish man. I've found my brother, who by some amazing turn of luck is alive, and nearly whole. But I find myself jealous - jealous! - that he's found himself a new home, a new family, a woman to love: a purpose beyond the walls of our father's kingdom.

He's grown up, my little brother. Beat me to the punch.

(Heavy though the heart may turn.)

Sabin made a joke about you, Celes. He said I should kiss you, like the princes from the fairy tales. Of course, I told him that he is the prince, and that he should do the kissing! I am a king, not a prince. It's different.

Anyway, it's not us you're waiting for, Celes. We'll find him. I promise you.

(For the heart may turn, even in sleep.)

There's this artist in Jidoor. A young girl. Sketches come to life, they say.

Truly?

(Prevarication.)

Then we shall have to pursue this rumour with all haste. How didst thou come to know this, Sir Shadow?

Got lucky. Overheard it in a pub in Nikeah.

(Pretense.)

Indeed. Sir Setzer may be reluctant to land near Jidoor, however. 'Twas Maria's hometown, and the rumour of her "kidnapping" has surely spread there.

I think the kid's got my dog with her.

(Pretext.)

That is, of course, the only reason for thy interest in the child.

Yeah.

(Disavowal.)

Sir Shadow...if there were a chance, any chance, that my child might still be...in this world, I would not hesitate to go to him. Not for a moment. Even were he but a rumour, a mere phantom of my imagination...still I would seek him out.

Would you?

Aye.

Then why didn't you go into Doma with the rest of them?

(Violation.)

...shouldn't have said that.

(Recrimination.)

There were ghosts in that castle. Made me see stuff.

(Justification.)

Wish I hadn't gone in.

(Amelioration.)

I see.

(Not yet forgiveness.)