Who: Zidane Tribal What: Zidane knows he needs to make a choice... When: Trial Night! Where: 1st Circle: Limbo Status: Narrative, complete! Warnings: Spoilers for FFIX, violence, talk of destruction and genocide and violence.
Zidane was in the forest again. He couldn't see much; the fog was so thick that he didn't know where the path was. He'd come out here once or twice on his own. He was curious if the stuff he'd seen during the trial was part of the circle itself or something else. The times he'd been here before, he'd been on a path. There'd been no sign of the blood, nothing of Beatrix or Dagger or any familiar faces. Just the trees and the fog and the path.
But this time, there was no path, and he had no idea where he was, but he did know there was something else out here with him. He didn't know what it was, only that it set every nerve and instinct screaming at him to be careful, to be ready for a fight. He had his Orichalchon daggers out and ready, but he was cautious of trying to strike in the fog - he couldn't see, he had no idea of who he was swinging at.
He still remembered the blood. He remembered Beatrix's warning. But there wasn't another way, was there? He would have to fight to save Gaia. It wasn't like he could talk Kuja down. Garland had already, apparently, killed him once. If he ascended, or whatever, if that sent him back home for another chance... how was he meant to protect Gaia without fighting?
The fog dampened the sound to where he almost missed blocking the blade aimed at his throat before it was too late. He caught it on the edge of his dagger just in time, the shining blue crystalline blade ringing against his Orichalcon daggers. They shuddered under the pressure, to his surprise. It was a beautiful sword, one of the dual-bladed thief swords he would have liked to have himself. For a moment, time seemed to freeze, blade to blade with his opponent. His eyes followed the blade up to the star-rayed handle, to the gloved hand gripping it... up the muscled arm, up to see his own face.
Zidane's heart stuttered in his chest. He barely recognized himself. It wasn't like the Epitaphs at Oeilvert, the mirror monsters that stole their comrades' reflections. He'd fought those mirror images of himself, of his comrades before, but they were hollow, easy to recognize and defeat.
This wasn't the same. This alternate Zidane had fire, had life, but there was also a frightening glint in his eyes. A determined set to his mouth. There was no warmth.
Before Zidane could say much of anything, the doppelganger wrenched his sword back and took another swipe. This time, Zidane jumped back, trying not to stumble over the tree roots and ferns. The doppelganger was relentless, sweeping the sword out again, then another time on the backswing, then arcing it high over his head and bringing it down. Zidane dodged and retreated, using his own daggers to glance off blows as best he could.
"Stop! What the hell is going on here?" he shouted. "I don't want to fight!"
The doppelganger laughed, a cold mockery that he didn't recognize. Was that... what he sounded like? He shuddered. "That's a lie and we both know it," the doppelganger said, bouncing on the balls of his feet, sword at the ready. His tail lashed back and forth behind him in agitation. "You're raring to go. Look at you."
Zidane was also posed at the ready, his blades held defensively, but prepared to strike. His tail thrashed in sync with the doppelganger's.
"Like looking in a mirror, isn't it?" the doppelganger said cheerfully. His smile was playful almost, except that there was nothing behind the eyes.
The doppelganger took a swing at him. "Fight me! That's what you've been doing this whole time, isn't it?"
Zidane ducked back. "This doesn't need to be a fight! Why the hell would I be fighting myself?"
The doppelganger paused, tilting his head at an angle with a hand to his chin in thought. "Let's see... maybe because you don't want to become this, right?"
All at once, the doppelganger floated up off the forest floor with a little spin that forced the mist away. His hair ruffled with the force of the air, turning a vivid magenta threaded through with feathers. Searingly pink-toned fur rippled out of his skin, the hot glow of energy swirling around him and lighting up the fog. He looked powerful. He looked older. He looked like-
Zidane could hear magic, and he put his sword up to block the Dyne that he was sure was coming, but the doppelganger wasn't attacking. The mist behind him was lighting up with images, ghostly, shimmering, wavering images of...
...that was Lindblum.
That was Lindblum, and that was Zidane's Grand Lethal hitting it full force, waves of energy sweeping out and breaking down the walls of the buildings. People screaming, collapsing, burning under the assault. It was worse than Atomos, it was worse than the Black Mage army, because it was him.
"What do you think, first or last?"
Zidane wrenched his gaze away from the horrible images to stare at his doppelganger. "What are you-"
"First or last?" the doppelganger repeated. "Should we take them out first? It'd get that airship fleet out of the way. Without Lindblum's air force, the rest of the Mist Continent will be a cinch."
Zidane stared in horror.
"Or, we could save them for last. That city is kinda special to us, isn't it?"
"No..."
"Not last?"
"Not ever!" he shouted, and the images disappeared.
The doppelganger was staring at him with a cold, familiar smile. "Then you gotta pick."
"...Pick what?"
The doppelganger held out his hands. In his right hand, a glowing blue orb of light appeared. In his left, glowing red.
Zidane's heart twisted. For a moment, he didn't see his own doppelganger there. For a moment, all he could see was Kuja. The doppelganger hadn't changed shape at all, still wearing Zidane's face and the pink aura of Zidane's Trance. It had never occurred to him how much they looked alike.
The doppelganger held up the glowing blue orb. "If you want to save Gaia, you will have to fight. You will probably have to kill. Your friends will fight alongside you. Probably some of them will die too. You can't protect them all, and you can't do it alone. Maybe they'll die, because you aren't enough. You aren't strong enough. You don't have the kind of raw power that Garland can give you. So your friends, they'll probably all just be another casualty in this mess. And the Genomes... well. It's not like they have much of an existence now anyways, right?"
Zidane stared in horror. "No... no, they're living beings. They're people."
"Are they though?" the doppelganger moved his hands like he was weighing the orbs against each other, despite them hovering over his palms. "It's not like they have souls."
"How do you know?" Zidane narrowed his eyes. "I do. Kuja and Mikoto do. Vivi and the Black Mages do. Why not the Genomes?"
"Does that mean you'd fight for them? You'd fight for Terra?" The red orb was raised up higher, its angry red glow pulsing steadily.
Zidane hesitated.
"You could save Gaia by sacrificing everyone you love, maybe. But you can only save Gaia by killing Terra." He lowered the red orb, and it dimmed and shrank, the pulse weakening, a dying star.
Zidane felt sick.
The doppelganger lowered that hand, raising the crimson orb once more as it flared with strength. "But if you're a killer like that, then maybe you really are just one of Garland's tools. You could take your rightful place - take Kuja's place. Let go of that little blue light." He closed his other fist, and the blue orb shrank, flickering violently, as though in pain. "You could make it so your friends wouldn't have to suffer - just take them out quickly. They'd never know what hit them and it'd be over. Terra could be restored. The Terran Genomes will receive their souls and Terra will live on again."
"...Those both sound like shitty choices." Zidane bit out.
"Yeah, they suck," the doppelganger grinned, looking a little sick. "But that's what you've got."
"I won't do it. I won't do what Garland wanted. I'd rather die."
"And you might just do that. Because here's the catch, kiddo-" the doppelganger vanished, orbs and all, and appeared again right in front of him, his deep blue eyes staring straight into Zidane's. Zidane stumbled back, but the doppelganger had caught hold of him, and his hands were burning icy hot with Dyne energy. "You fight or you die. That's your choices now, aren't they? Doesn't matter which side you're on. Fight or die."
"So what, I commit to violence or I let Gaia fall?" Zidane bit out. "I thought... I thought this place was supposed to push us to be better. To overcome that kind of thing. It's not like I want to hurt people. What kind of a choice is this?"
"You're right. But that's not always what violence is really about. What was it Beatrix said before? The first time you were here? Oh yeah - Is the cause just?"
Zidane shook his head. "I don't wanna hurt anyone. I just want Gaia to be safe..." he hung his head, his hair falling into his eyes. He felt full on sick. "...but it doesn't matter anymore does it?"
The doppelganger's face grew colder. Zidane was slammed up against a tree trunk, the doppelganger grabbing his arm and twisting it so that his wrist was in front of his face. He hissed as the skin there burned and burned. "You will hurt people. You will hurt them if you fight. You will hurt them if you don't, if you die and leave Terra and Gaia to fight over the table scraps like dogs."
"I won't let that happen..."
"You think you have a choice in the matter." The doppelganger's sick little grin was just visible behind his arm. "There was always a choice, and there was never a choice. That's the rub, isn't it?"
Zidane bowed his head lower. "Either way I become a monster, don't I?"
"Yep."
"...I just wanted to help my friends," Zidane whispered. The almost-mark was searing hot like a brand, burning into his skin, reading out the Violence stamped inherently onto his body, onto his soul, from the moment Garland decided to create a small Genome child and raise it to be a weapon.