The water was not truly water. It merely made me descend upside down and a slow speed. A sea of light surrounding my bare body, warming my skin. Lifestream seemed to flow all around as if endless bubbles in the sea of light.
*Where am I going? It feels like I have been falling for hours.*
Talking echoed my voice and became rather irritating, so I began to drift in silence. Nothing to do but think quietly to myself. My mind wandered while in endless suspension. After a while, I began to think of what life may have been without the Garlean Empire standing in the way. What life I may have lived in the heart of Gyr Abania with my parents.
"Hear"
My eyes widened at the sound of that familiar voice. One I had not heard in some time.
"Feel"
For a moment I felt relief, only to remember what had happened to her. Leaving our world, to save another from light itself.
"Think"
"Minfilia?"
I asked aloud, closing my eyes as the light became blinding. My feet gently touch the ground and darkness enveloped my closed eyes. The tapping of armor clashing against a hard floor filled my ears. Opening my eyes I gazed upon the ancient ruins of a lost city reaching endlessly around me. Slowly I took in the surroundings of the ancient city.
Tattered ruins and collapsed structures, moved aside a cleared path. The sound became more clear as it approached closer and closer. I began to walk forward until I felt cloth underneath my foot. Glancing down, my eyes widened as I gazed upon the tattered remains of an Ul'danian flag.
"Ul'dah, Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, Ishgard, Doma... Ala Mhigo."
I glanced behind me to see a woman shrouded in a black cloak walking closer. Her lower half covered in armor as she kept her face under the cloak. Hints of silver hair flowed from it as she walked to my side.
"Who are you-"
"The ruins of what could have been, rather then what is. You wonder what could have been. Is it not evident yet that what could have been, is nothing more then a passing thought?"
I glared at her and immediately went to grasp her shroud. She instead grasped my hand and with ease tossed me into a ruined building behind me. I began to stand up, wiping my body off of dust.
"I know that voice as well."
"Yes, of course you do. No one ever forgets there mothers voice."
She grasped the shroud and tossed it aside, to reveal herself. Sophia, covered in armor and a tattered robe, rested her hand upon her thigh as she looked me up and down.
"Hello my love."
She stated with a smile, walking up to me as she brushed me off a bit.
"Mummy...."
She glanced me up and down, her eyes blue as her hair turned light blue. Quickly she hugged me and held onto me for a long moment. It felt strange to me, feeling her embrace me. For years, all I wanted was to know her, and love her. Yet now, she felt as if... a stranger. Hesitantly, I placed my arms around her and hugged as well. When she finally let go, she placed her right hand upon my hair.
"My little Scarlette."
I smiled a bit looking her up and down myself.
"Blue hair?"
"Heh... Yeah, well, this is how I was born."
She glanced me up and down and sighed a bit.
"Nudity looks decent on you, however it is a bit unnerving to see you this way."
I blushed a bit and quickly covered myself with my hands.
"I would give you clothing if that were possible."
I sighed and placed my hands at my sides.
"Well, I apologize, I did not come here willingly unfortunately. I think my Master, Denz sent me here to learn more about the light. However I do not think I have the aptitude for it as you do."
"You think you do not?"
She asked, moving her head slightly to the side in curiosity.
"I... well... It has never really blossomed before being here and..."
She stopped me and placed an arm around me. We began to walk forward down the long pathway of a ruined Ul'dah.
"I know you have the power within you..."
I raised an eyebrow, watching where I stepped with my bare feet.
"How is that?"
I asked as she lead me down to where the Aetheryte once was.
"Because I gave you All the power I was given before I died."
"You what? When?! How?"
As we approached the crushed aetheryte, mother knelt down and grasped a piece of crystal, handing it to me.
"You were young. You lost all your memories once. It only makes sense that you would forget what happened."
"What? What happened?"
She looked me in the eyes and she smiled long and hard before I felt my echo hit me. I held my head as the visions began to fill my head.
******
I looked around to the endless dark until I noticed a woman leaning over a small girl.
"Mother?"
I quickly knelt down beside the woman, noticing it was indeed my mother. Her pure white hair and white eyes drenched as she began to cry, looking down to the girl in her hands. I looked to the girl and quickly stood up when I realized, it was me.
"Save her! Please save my daughter! Please!!!"
Sophia shouted, desperate as she glanced down to the wound upon her own body, bleeding all over her white cloth covered armor. Moving her head she glanced around the area.
"PLEASE!!!"
"I can not save your daughter my child."
"Why?! She is just as much your child!"
"Thy child is weak. She does not have the will to fight as you."
"She is afraid! Please save her. Please!"
"If thou wishes to save thy child, then thou must make a difficult choice."
A distant woman stated to my mother.
"What must I do? I will do anything!"
"Her body is unattuned. She may yet live if another of her kind is willing to give power away."
Sophia thought for a moment and looked down towards her daughter.
"Whatever it requires.....for you."
"Consider carefully my champion. For if you sacrifice your own power, you will lose the ability to repair your own body."
She shed a few tears as she kept her eyes down upon the fading aether of her daughter. Effortlessly, she summoned all the power within her and massive aetherial wings appeared upon her back. Her body began to glow with blinding light as the wings shifted, piercing through her daughter. All her aether began to channel within the young girl until the light faded from Sophias body. Extremely weakened, Sophia coughed a small bit of blood, holding her daughter as long as she could.
"You are bound to me my child."
The womans voice stated in the background. Tears flowed freely down Sophias face as she smiled at her daughter whom was beginning to mend. Wings appeared upon the little girls back and quickly surrounded her body as it began to heal her.
"I know... and I am sorry Hydaelyn. Nothing will deny my daughter from living a full life. I will see to it."
A chain made of light aether appeared around her right ankle. She glanced behind her to see the bindings were quite literal.
"Let me return my daughter... and say farewell to my love."
In a flash of light Sophia was returned to a bloody battlefield. Several garlean soldiers lay dead, burned and severed around an ally deep in a large city. Sophias back facing the remaining militia while she faced a wall with a shield still holding over both her and her daughter. The battle before seemed incredibly fierce, yet now the soldiers looked on in dismay and horror. A shadowy figure appeared behind her, followed by several more explosions in the wake of his path.
"Aeon... you've arrived..."
*****
"Guhhh!!!!"
I gasped, as the memory finally faded. Memories of my own began to fill my mind once more. The pain of the bullet which pierced my heart. How it was so powerful it slapped me against the wall. My eyes fell upon a man with a gunblade pointed at me from a distance. He grinned as he clicked his trigger to fire again.
Finally the memory faded as I stood up, staggering backwards. I held my head and tried to fight back tears until mother quickly placed her arms upon my shoulders. Nothing could stop me now as I sobbed aloud.
"So..... it is my fault. You are gone because of me in every single way. And the world is a darker place without."
"No."
Sophia leaned down and began to wipe my tears away.
"I made a decision long before you were even born. Nothing would stop my child from living her life. When given a opportunity to spare you, I took it. Without even a second thought crossing my mind. I bore the responsibilities that were to become yours. A means to assure you would not be bound to Hydaelyn the way I was. Your friend gave me a last chance to help you as she took on those responsibilities."
"What? You mean...."
"I am afraid she is correct upon that."
A familiar voice appeared from behind us. I glanced behind me to see her standing in a beautiful dress as she slowly walked towards us. Her hair had grown much more then the last time I had seen her, reaching down to rest upon her long gown near the ground.
"Minfilia."
Minfilia smiled a bit as she approached from a blinding source of light.
"Tis been to long my friend."
TOC
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/character/2469857/blog/3411115/
