FicWad

"Ughhh." Kain moaned.
"Shh...hold still Kain." Pearl ordered. Kain opened his eyes to see a worried Pearl leaning over him. Kain tried to sit up, but laid back down when he met Pearl's eyes and she began yelling about him not knowing what was good for himself.
"If he needs to be babied by you Pearl, than what good will the good warrior do us?" Eziekial said bluntly. Reluctantly, Pearl backed away from Kain, who slowly propped himself up on his right elbow, and then scooted over next to the rock wall the lie near Pearl and sat against it.
Eziekial then turned from what looked to be a makeshift pot holding a small bowl made of rock, filled with a steaming liquid. "Here, it's not much, but the broth and what small chucks of life I could find around this place should give you enough nutrition to recover a little." Eziekial paused for a moment and then said, "I don't know how you survived here before we got here."
"Should I tell him about all the trips to Mysidia?...No, not now anyway." Kain thought with a smirk as he slowly downed his soup.
After noticing Kain had eaten his soup, Eziekial took the bowl from him and said, "Get some rest."
Nodding, Kain ruffled the pile of cloth he used for a pillow, laid his head down, and closed his eyes, which soon welcomed sleep.

*

That night, Eziekial sat by the small fire he had been able to conjure up and watched the still body of the injured Kain. Pearl lay asleep next to his right side, and all the while, all Eziekial could do was think.
"Is he strong enough?....I guess he'll have to be...tired, so tired and yet, I can't close my eyes..." Just then, Eziekial saw Kain stir and then slowly sit.
"You still up?" Kain said with a yawn.
"Can't sleep." Eziekial replied.
"Something wrong?"
"No." Eziekial lied. "Nope, just suffering from a little insomnia I guess." He finished with a weak smile.
"Alright," Kain said, returning Eziekial's weak smile with a grimace. Just then Kain's stomach roared with hunger. Looking up slowly, Kain began to talk, but Eziekial interrupted him saying,
"Yes, we have a little food left over. Here take this, I'll go find some more in the morning." Eziekial held out a few strips of dried meet and a full water canteen. Kain took them and grumbled his thanks as he began to devour the meat. When the meet was gone, Kain took the canteen and tipped it up as high as he could get it and guzzled the water that it contained.
"My my, seems that sleeping makes a man hungry." Eziekial dryly stated. Kain smiled,
"I guess so, now if you don't mind, I'm going to get it a bit more sleep, and you should get some rest too."
"Yeah, you're right. Well, goodnight Kain."
"Mmhmm." Then Kain rolled over and was asleep again before Eziekial could say another word.
"Oh well, I guess it'll just have to wait 'til the morning."

The next morning, Kain's strength had begun to return to him so the group began their trip down the mountain. Pearl led the way followed by Kain and Eziekial, who walked together only because of the fact Kain was still too weak to walk without help.
Over the course of the trip, Pearl hummed a bright tune as she made her way down the hill while, as always, Eziekial was left to be the bleak one. "As you have undoubtedly figured out with your stunning prowess," Eziekial began sarcastically, "You are in a puzzle. A very complex puzzle that swirls and shifts around a single firm point...you."
"I don't..." Kain began but was quickly cut off by Eziekial.
"That's because I'm not finished. To be more specific, this puzzle is space and time, a consistently inconsistent thing that makes who we are and what we are mean something. But space and time aren't just what's here...no space and time also has a space, that space being the Tower of Cimntu."
"Cimntu? Isn't that elfish for prison?"
"Is that what they use for it these days? I do not know what it means now, but in Degranese, the ancient language of the Elfs, it means Time's Prison. Which is in essence, what it is. You see when this universe was created, the Gods of the ancient peoples created time, but what they did not foresee is the way that time would grow. And in time, Time actually festered until it had consumed a fairly large portion of these God's world.
Fearing that they themselves would soon be sucked into their creation, the Gods created a massive tower from magic. This tower was designed specifically to contain time, and so far has stayed true to its purpose, but that is not the only safeguard that the Gods put in place.
Inside the tower resides a magical being, one that centuries ago challenged the might of the Gods. After losing the battle, instead of killings their challenger, they sentenced him to the worst punishment that they could think of. They took him into the tower in which they now created five floors, each floor to contain a certain amount of Time. To us, one floor is equal to about one Age.
They then took their challenger to the fifth floor, where they locked him into the tower, using their magic to fasten Time itself to him as his shackles. He is known by mortals only as the Keeper. His punishment does not stop there, however.
Upon being shackled, the Gods imposed a curse on the being. That curse impels him to use his degenerative powers to periodically 'shave' time, so to speak."
"So where do I come into this?"
"The Keeper has found a way to counter the God's curse, and being as they sealed the Tower from their entrance forever, and left five guardians to guard the Keeper's cell, there is nothing that they can do about it except wait for their prison to explode from the overfill of Time.
That is where you come in. You must travel with us into the tower. You must pass the guardians from each floor. You must stop the Keeper from allowing Time to go unchecked, because if you don't, Time will slowly begin to leak into itself, which will create horrible things.
Imagine, walking down the street with your buddy when another timeline leaks into yours, WHAM, your buddy is cut in two by a materializing building."
"Could you not talk about that?" Pearl said with a shiver. "You know it gives me the creeps."
"Sorry." Replied Eziekial, dropping his voice to a whisper. "And it doesn't stop there, the Keeper is immensely powerful, and as the Gods went about their business, he built an army with his magic. Horrid abominations of both man and beast, these fiends will stop at nothing to do their master's bidding."
"Thirteen legions."
"Yes Thirteen....how did you know that?" Eziekial questioned.
"A dream...I heard a voice and it showed me it. It also showed that we only had three weeks until it arrives."
"Then we have less time than I had hoped. Is their anyone you know that can muster enough forces for some kind of diversion....a false battle I mean, so that we may enter the Tower unhindered?"
"There is one person." Kain said with a smirk, immediately thinking of Cecil.

*

"It's not that I don't believe you Kain, it's just that it's kind of hard to take all at once." Cecil said as he sat upon his throne. The throne room had changed since the last time Kain had been here, and it had a softer tone than it had in years past. The stone walls had been whitewashed, and the banners representing the Kingdom of Baron had been taken and re-stitched, making them as bright red as the evening sun. The throne that Cecil sat upon was also different, the old one taken away and this new one carved of crystal and padded with red silk cushions put in its place.
Cecil hadn't changed though. "I know it's hard, but you have to believe me Cecil." Kain replied.
"I...." Just then a man in his late thirties came into the throne room and rushed past Kain, Pearl, and Eziekial and went straight to Cecil. He then whispered something to Cecil and just as quickly as he came, left. Cecil sat massaging his temples for a few moments in silence while Kain anxiously waited.
"He doesn't believe you. Is there anyone else...?" Eziekial began to whisper but was cut off by Cecil.
"That was the palace astrologer. He said that there is a large vortex high in the sky, just barely visible. I guess I have no choice but to believe you." Cecil then stood up and motioned to his guards. "Go get some rest, and tell the servants to make ready my private chambers."

Later that day, Kain and Cecil sat in Cecil's large private chambers. It was a large room, and reminded Kain of a library, and being that he had never been to this part of the castle, it very well could have at one time been a library. Huge shelves of books and maps lined one wall, and the others were littered with various murals. After a closer look, Kain found that most of these murals were painted over the last few weeks, and were different depictions of their battles and Cecil in his Holy armor.
"Rosa's taken up painting." Cecil explained. "And she thinks that their should be about four hundred pictures of me around here and not one of her." He mused with a smile. "But on to business. Where did you say that this army was going to attack?"
Kain approached a huge map that was opened across a large table in the center of the room. "Here." He said pointing to a location right outside of New Damcyan, the castle that had been just recently built in the place of its destroyed counterpart.
"Damcyan." Cecil said with a nod of his head. "As good a place as any."
"How are its fortifications?"
"Decent, nothing to brag about, but they're there. I wasn't planning to use them unless we absolutely had to though, I'd hate for their new castle to end up looking like their old one. Poor Edward would go broke trying to buy the stone alone."
"Better the castle than everything else." Kain muttered.
"What?"
"Never mind. What did you have in mind then?"
"The beginning of the battle we'll let them think that we're going to give them what they will most likely want. Open field battle. Then when that begins to be too dangerous we'll pull back to a series of defensive trenches."
"You do realize that this has never been done before."
"All the more surprise for them." Cecil said with a smirk.

After an extensive conversation on Cecil's plans. Kain decided that he had better be on his way. Before he left though, Cecil begged that he stop by the stables and see the new military unit Cecil had deviously invented.
When he arrived, Kain was surprised to see Dragoons mounted on a multitude of armored chocobos. Cecil explained that soldiers had an obvious advantage from the back of a chocobo, and Dragoons had even more of an advantage with their spears.
After seeing this and talking to a few of his Dragoon friends, Kain left to find Pearl and Eziekial. He found them in the company of Rosa, who looked as beautiful as ever. "Kain!" she exclaimed as he entered the room. She gave him a hug and then quickly stepped back, under control again. "Your friends and I were just talking about the recent events. Well, I suppose you were just on your way out." Kain nodded.
"Yes, we should be going now, the messengers are off, by the time we reach where we are going, everything should be in place." Nodding, Eziekial stood up and motioned to Pearl to follow him. "Goodbye Rosa. Tell Cecil that I wish him the best of luck."
"Thank you Kain. The best of luck to you also." Kain nodded as he spun to follow Pearl and Eziekial.
"We're going to need it." He muttered.

*

It was a two-week trip across the continent to the Tower of Babil. Airships were at a low due to the fact that most had been disbanded because of the newly settled peace that had come over the land. And the ones that were remaining were needed to take messages to the kingdoms of Fabul and Eblan. Supposedly a messenger was also sent to convince the dwarfs to help, but no one was sure how much help the underground peoples would really be. And so the group trekked across forest and plain, river and swamp until finally they reached the enormous tower known as the Tower of Babil.
"What should we be ready for in here?" Eziekial asked.
"Nothing much, ever since we first secured this tower, the kingdoms have rotated monthly patrols to keep most of the monsters out." Kain replied. "So it's pretty clear sailing."
"Famous last words." Eziekial mumbled as he followed Kain into the tower. Inside, the tower was not at all how Kain remembered it. Of course the last time he was here his sight was twisted by the darkness inside himself. This time his vision was clear and pure, and he could see and here all of the gears pulling and creaking as they went about their usual routines.
Up they went, until finally they reached the top floor of the tower. There they found the center of the tower where Cecil and the others had done battle with Kain and his controller. "Here is where we must cast the spell." Pearl said. Eziekial nodded,
"Yes, make yourself comfortable Kain, this spell takes much rest and preparation to perform."
Kain set up a 'camp' that night, one that consisted of two blankets; one for a pillow the other for covering himself. And a 'fire' made of a few pieces of scrap cloth found at the bottom of Kain's pack and a torch that he found on the way in. So, he settled in and fell to sleep with the sound of Pearl and Eziekial's chanting echoing throughout the room.

"Kain, wake up....Kain, its done." Pearl said, gently shaking Kain awake. When he rose, Kain saw in the middle of the room where Pearl and Eziekial had been doing their chanting a large blue, liquid-like portal.
"One portal that trancends space and time." Eziekial remarked. Kain could tell that the mage was tired, mainly because he hadn't made a witty comment on Kain's thoughts although he knew the mage could still here them.
"Your right. I am tired. But after we travel through the portal I will take a potion to rid my body of this exhaustion." Eziekial replied. "Now if you're finished gawking, let's continue."
Kain nodded and quickly picked up his things. Once that was done, he took some bread from his pouch and offered it to both Pearl and Eziekial. Both declined, so Kain shrugged and ate it himself, following it up with some ale he had bought in Baron.
"Soldiers and their ale." Eziekial muttered shaking his head. Kain smiled, shouldered his pack then approached the portal. He hesitated at first, but the shrugged off his fear and touched it, and it felt just like water does.
"Just remember to inhale when you enter." Eziekial said. "Otherwise the portal will kill you."
"Great. I'll do that." Kain muttered. "Well I guess it's now or never." Kain stepped into the portal followed by Eziekial and then Pearl. The portal, however water-like it looked and felt on fist touch, was definitely not water-like when you stepped into it. It oozed around Kain and squeezed him, he felt almost as if he was suffocating.
"Breath in!" a voice...Eziekial's voice bellowed inside his head. Kain followed the mage's advise and breathed in, and when he did so his lungs were filled with the substance that made up the portal, then as quickly as it entered him, the substance left his lungs. Kain blinked, stunned at the breathtaking experience, and when he opened his eyes again he found that he was no longer in the Tower of Babil.

"Welcome to the Tower of Cimntu." Eziekial said. The tower looked nothing at all like the one that stood in Kain's world. Instead of huge levers and gears, there was nothing but bleak stone walls and boundless strings of a starry blue substance. "Time." Eziekial said as Kain starred at the strings.
"What?"
"The strings. They are fragments of time, or timelines, as we mortals like to call them. Boundless dimensions, all intertwined at a single source."
"And where would that be?" Kain replied.
"The bottom floor. Where the Keeper is imprisoned." Pearl answered. Looking around, Kain decided that there was no use in gawking, being as their time was already running short, with three weeks on the day been past. So he began to walk forward, but as he did so he was caught by the shoulder by Eziekial.
"Do not touch the strands." He commanded. "Unless you want to find yourself in the middle of another dimension. We must weave our way through them until we can find the door to the next floor and its guardian."
So the group began its slow progress towards what was at best guess the direction of the door. When they reached the wall, however, they found out that their initial guess was incorrect and so began their trip to the other wall.
When they reached this wall, they found a large metal door, decorated with a vast amount of symbols, of which Eziekial deciphered:

This door is protected by the Demon of the Dark Dekhas. Only in death will this fiend relinquish the key to the door.

Just then there was a hiss from behind them, and when they spun to see what was there, all they could see was a pair of beady blood-red eyes. "Welcomes to se Tower of Simtusssssss...."