Callie fell back, her life ceasing as she smiled one last time at her little girl. Eyes falling shut, she took her last breath and finally rested her head on Ultimecia's lap. In that moment, Ultimecia's only family was destroyed.

"Ultimecia..." Llnaya started, but was stopped short as a luminous, pinkish mist began to envelope Callie's body.

"Oh no...!" the SeeD gasped, and Ultimecia looked up, startled by the light around her. She stifled a sob within her, suddenly confused by the light which danced about in calming waves.

"Grammy?" Ultimecia sniffled, and the mist shined brightly in response. "Is it you? What do you want me to do?"

For a moment, the whole area was seemingly bathed in silence, all sound being lost as though swallowed whole by eternity. Ultimecia merely stared at the mist, nodding occasionally. She couldn't hear any words, but she somehow knew what to do. She reacted, and as her mother and Callie before her, Ultimecia could feel the Sorceress' spirit all about her. Losing control, she lifted her arms to the night sky. She had to accept that spirit, make it a part of her. She could hold onto it forever... but it was still not her grandma... it would soon be her.

"Ultimecia!" Llnaya tried to cry out, but her voice was lost in the eternal cloak that bound them all almost jealously within that moment of time. She couldn't even raise her gunblade, as it felt as though it weighed twenty times its actual weight. She could only watch, forcibly transfixed as her years of patient work and sacrifice were wasted. Now, she had to watch as a new sorceress was born... the very thing she had been trained to prevent. All of her days at Balamb Garden, all of her studies and preparation, even the Galbadian election; she had done so much to please her headmaster and father.

Ultimecia, on the other hand, was entranced by the light about her. She knew what was happening, she just couldn't believe it.

"I want you to stay," she said as tears rolled down her cheeks, and the mist slowly wafted toward her. She had to accept Callie's power, or she would never be able to rest. She knew it all, but she was still scared. Her own voice trembled into gibberish as she pleaded with Callie to somehow stay with her...

...And then it happened. Without warning, without a chance to prepare, Callie gave her power to her granddaughter. There was no feeling of inner peace, and there was no feeling of calm. A flash of light later, the mist was gone along with Callie's body, and Ultimecia was alone with Llnaya. She was a Sorceress.

"No Grammy!" she sobbed, and threw herself to the ground where Callie's body had once been, "Please come back! I need you! I love you! Don't go!"

Llnaya could feel herself regain control over her body. Looking down the shore, she could see that the other SeeDs were too far off to notice what was happening. She had to strike now, before it was too late. Taking up her gunblade, she silently walked to Ultimecia, standing behind her with the blade at the child's back.

"You understand, don't you, Ultimecia? You understand that there are forces at work that we know nothing about, don't you? How could we ever? This is the way it has to be! The world... it cannot go on if there are still those with magic. How can we progress? How could we ever understand ourselves if we relied upon magic? There never would have been any order that they would not allow us to have! You understand, don't you? Ultimecia?"

Ultimecia shook as though she were being battered from all sides. She didn't understand any of it! How could she? She never understood any of it! Why did Llnaya have to kill her grandmother? It didn't make any sense!

"I could have been a Sorceress many times," Llnaya started, "but I resisted the temptation. I allowed their powers to perish with them, knowing that it was for the good of the very world..."

"If this world needs to revel in bloodshed to survive, then it deserves to die..." Ultimecia hissed, her pain slowly turning to anger. "You kould never have been a sorceress, Llnaya! You need a heart to be a sorceress! You need a pure will! You SeeDs are trained to kill your emotions! All you kare about is death!"

With no warning, Ultimecia stood and pushed Llnaya away with a mere gesture of her shaking hand, the SeeD's gunblade clattering to the ground beside her. Dripping with blood, she stood over her former friend and trembled with rage.

"But, you say that you kould have been a Sorceress. That must mean that you have a heart..."

Llnaya tried to move, but she could not. Without any sort of flashy display or movement of any kind, Ultimecia had pinned her to the ground with her newly acquired powers. Opening her mouth, she tried to call out for her comrades, but all that erupted from her mouth was the sound of air escaping from her throat. Taking in ragged breaths, she tried to keep oxygen flowing into her lungs as she was pressed firmly into the stone about her.

"If you do... have a heart I mean..." Ultimecia intoned, her voice even and controlled; she was calm, eerily so. The expression on her face was neutral, her eyes wide and emotionless. Somehow, this frightened Llnaya more than the child's wrath ever could. The youthful, energetic look in her eyes was gone, replaced now with an empty gaze, one that looked right through the woman on the ground as though she weren't even there.

"If you do have a heart, Llnaya... then I want to see it."

Llnaya's gunblade began to shake. As if by an unseen hand, the weapon was raised in mid air, the blade pointed now at Llnaya's chest.

"D... don't..." Llnaya breathed, her eyes wide with fear. She could feel the tip of the weapon edge through the fabric of her uniform, piercing the skin ever so slightly above her heart. It began to beat faster, sweat seeping into her wound. Wincing, she waited for the final strike.

"I don't understand anything save this," Ultimecia continued in her bland tone, "I understand that you are a SeeD. I understand that you are about to die. I need to understand nothing more."

An aura of white surrounded Ultimecia as she prepared for the final strike. Concentrating, she focused her energy and unleashed her powers through fury alone. Although she could not see her targets clearly, she knew that the SeeDs further down the beach were dead.

"Now for you," Ultimecia said, turning methodically back to Llnaya. Closing her eyes, she prepared for the end. It did no good. Tears still ran down her eyes as she whimpered in terror. Why didn't Ultimecia understand? Why didn't she see things like Llnaya herself? Didn't she understand that Callie had to die?

Suddenly, none of it mattered. The blade plunged forward. There was the initial pierce... a wave of agony to end all agony, and then, she tried to open her eyes. It wasn't for a moment that she realized that they were open; her sight had gone before she had. Quivering uncontrollably, her body contorted about the gunblade. Soon, she hoped to whomever would listen, she would be dead.

"I have no one, now," Ultimecia said, though the words seemed impossibly distant to Llnaya. "I am alone again..."

Just before she blacked out, she could see someone. It was Callie, and she was crying. Llnaya didn't know that it was Callie right away; the figure before her was so young and vibrant... but she soon felt the familiar spirit. She ran to see her, but no matter how far she ran, she never got any closer. Just then, she could see what Callie was crying about. A dark shadow had grabbed hold of Llnaya, and it was pulling her back. She didn't know where she was being pulled, but she knew that she didn't want to be there. With an unworldly cackle, it pulled harder, claiming its prize. All about her, the stench of rot and decay filled her being, as tangible in death as in life.

She struggled against the dark shape, but it did no good. With a flash of horrified realization, she understood what was happening, and she tried to cry out an apology to Callie... but it was too late. She was being erased from her own body, death and the darkness each claiming an equal part of her.

As she cried out to the heavens, she felt herself slip totally out of her body... but not before she felt a slight, teasing kiss on her forehead. She wanted to reach out and beg the one who gave it to her for forgiveness. Instead, she felt herself being dragged away, and then... nothing.

Chapter 19

"Squall? Where are you? Mommy? Grammy? Where am I?" Ultimecia's voice rang out in the darkness, a shrill, frightened sound. She didn't even realize that at the moment she cried out for someone to hold her, she was slaying her grandmother's murderer. Instead, she allowed impulse to guide her worldly actions as her spirit combed her soul for any trace of those she loved. Squall was gone. Her mother was gone. Callie was gone.

"Where are you?" she cried, hoping for someone, anyone, to respond. No one did.

"Grammy! Mommy! Please speak to me! Say something!"

There was nothing. She was alone in her thoughts, no one to meet her, no one to bring her out of her misery. What was happening was real, and now she was comforted only by the blackness that filled her being as she watched Callie perish before her very eyes.

"Not my thoughts!" she sobbed, her spirit burning in agony as she grew aware that she was being deprived of her final shelter. She could see nothing beyond the pain she held, a pain for which she had never realized that she had the capacity. She could never see Squall again, not if she had no way to guide her thoughts.

"Squall! Answer me! Please! You are my Knight! You have to protect me! ...Please? Oh God, please!"

Huddled within her mind, she never even noticed as she slowly subdued her pain, allowing the anger she felt begin to rise, creating a thin wall about her fragile soul. Comprehension building slowly, she cried out in agony as she allowed her rage to swallow her spirit. Her small resistance, weak now from loneliness, was no match for her human mind's only defense: crush the weakness. There could be no more room for such pain to be felt.

Perhaps the strangest thing about all of it was that she realized that it was happening. At first, she fought back, but when she tasted how sweet and simple it was to let go, she could do little else. Soon, that fear became relief, and in one instant, the sorceress heart that Ultimecia held was corrupted. The darkness spread throughout her very being, and she relished every degrading wave. As it washed over her, she felt comforted, her pain still existing, but able to be controlled... and used.

Inwardly, she could see her mother and Callie, both of them crying. She could feel their torment, two souls lost in the void of oblivion. She reached out her hands, but it seemed to make them more distant, as if she pushed them out of reach with her mere gesture. Eyes burning in horror, she watched as they faded from view, their last moments in her sight filled with anguish and pain.

"NO!" she shrieked, and she gathered all of the strength that she had just received. "Come back!"

She used her anger, her hatred and her own anguish to amplify her powers, feeling wave after wave of dark energy swallow her in its cold, tenacious grip. She searched the void that her soul had so quickly become, looking for her mother, her grandmother... the only ones who could pull her out of her own degeneration once more.

Still, the more she tried, the further it seemed as though they fled from her. Misery clung to Ultimecia's heart like a blackened cancer, and, for the first time, she truly realized that she was utterly alone.

"i... i'm not strong enough for this..." she thought. There was no one to hold her up... no one to hug her when she was sad. Her knight had abandoned her, and her only parents killed. "i have no one to live for anymore..."

Consumed by her losses, Ultimecia turned to the darkness that teasingly floated about her, as if physically faced by a wall of negative emotion.

"then end my life..." she begged the shadowy vortex that sought to devour her, "...end it all now..."

Plunging headfirst, allowing the void free reign over her very soul, she fell inside of her own self, completely submerging herself in the hope of death from the evil that poisoned her heart. She could feel its icy fingers close about every organ; a sickening, violating feeling.

"...end it now..."

But it would not end. She continued to suffocate within the folds of her own agony, death never claiming the prize so readily dangled before it. When she finally understood that the darkness would not slay her, it was too late. Every enhanced sense, every heightened nerve, every delicate emotion had been saturated in the evil she was surprisingly ready to accept with open arms. As if in welcome, she heard a low, ominous voice, an echo from somewhere within her.

"FiTHos... lUSeC... WEcOs... ViNoseC..."

She replied with the same verse, allowing the unknown words to fill her with its comforting refrain, a refrain that allowed her to shelve her pain for one brief, intoxicating moment. Overpowered, she could only wait with open arms as the darkness swarmed over her, clenching down tight with jaws of unending, bitter torment.

"FITHOS LUSEC WECOS VINOSEC!"

The voice within was a cacophony of ear-rending sound, her finely detailed senses recoiling as she was so assaulted. Deep within her mind, the memory of her song, her voice, her happy, carefree emotions, all of it was lost with her childhood, a childhood she might as well have never had. She reflected, just as Callie said, but could see nothing but darkness. All of her hope for the future had been wiped away in a single, defining moment. The song, now twisted beyond her possible recognition, continued on. The Sorceress within her was being born to the music, a song that bore with it a dark testimony, a dark nature that she could hold as a shield against her pain.

"...fithos... lusec... wecos... vinosec..."

Her own voice melded with that of the shadows which first uttered its unholy melody.

"Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec!"

She grew louder, more bold, ready to grab hold of the darkness that she allowed free reign of her being. It would all be over soon, she hoped. She would be free from those cursed feelings that so beset her with misery. She would kill them, find shelter within her own self, and from there, with her powers, she could shape her world as she saw fit. She was empty, and would stay that way.

As she sang, her voice strong and yet still so frail, she began to fade from within her thoughts, awaiting her rebirth into the damned world that first greeted her fourteen years before.

(...mommy...grammy...i love you...squall...why did you leave me...?)

Chapter 20

It was one month before anyone in Esthar had heard a word from Ultimecia Deling when she returned from her journey to New Balamb. With the apparent eradication of an entire SeeD force, as well as the death of President Llnaya Alaster to be accounted for, many wished to question the young heiress about her travels. However, her reluctance and total self-imposed isolation made this impossible. Many sympathized with her loss. As long as she remained quiet, then the Estharian Senate would be content to allow her room to grieve.

No one knew what transpired within her rooms. Since arriving back in Esthar, she immediately fired the entire staff that had for years been servants of the Delings. No one brought food to her, no one cleaned the rooms, and no one ever saw the young woman so much as set a foot outside. The shades were all drawn, and the phones disconnected from the inside.

Ultimecia sat in Callie's old, battered high-backed chair, the chill of the air finding ample means of entry through the empty fireplace by which she sat. Caked in the blood of Llnaya and her Grandmother, she allowed herself to dive into her own thoughts; they were now blank, desolate plains of infinite darkness. To her, it was a sanctuary where she could allow her pain to thrive unmolested. Wrapping herself within its comforting folds, she slept and brooded, feeling her powers grow in a demented parallel with her own misery.

During this time she ate nothing, drinking only when her thirst grew so severe that it inhibited her sensitivity to her thoughts. Never once did she bathe or see herself in a mirror. Gaunt, pale, and covered in dust and cobwebs, she sat as though enclosed within a cocoon of despair. Wearing Callie's black Senatorial robes, she allowed her thoughts to rule her days as her blonde hair grew gray with the grime that collected about her.

Yet she grew stronger. Day by day, she could feel how quickly her powers grew when fed with her own wretchedness. She grew to hate Esthar and its people, the memories and feelings of her life on the streets resurfacing after years of denial. Much of the time, she could use her powers to traverse the streets of Esthar in her mind's eye, bringing silent, immediate death to those she saw that displeased her. Thieves and whores fell in increasing numbers, killers and sadists following suit. From their own pain, she drew even more power, adding to her own bulging reserve. All of their darkened souls merged with her own, creating a force unlike any other. Occasionally, she would even kill those of her own class, remembering the sneering looks on their faces as they regarded her and her mother with little more than curses and insults.

Griever fed from those that Ultimecia slew. As the void within her grew, so too did his own spirit. He defined himself as her guardian, a beast of such power that it mirrored Ultimecia's own. He was a spirit without form, a beast of the shadows that lurked always within sight of his master. Each day, just like Ultimecia, he defined himself further, her one true protector and loyal follower.

It was on one of these days, just as she began to awaken from her depraved slumber, that a loud knock resounded throughout the townhouse. Sitting up with increasing awareness to surroundings she knew, yet had grown unaware of, Ultimecia answered the sound with a voice rough and garbled with disuse.

"Who is it? What do you want?"

"Miss Deling?" replied a male voice.

"Yes, who is it?"

"President Udine would like to speak with you, Madame."

She sat up in her chair, stretching her tensed muscles to the point of cramps. "Who?" she called out again.

"President Udine, Madame. We are to take you to him immediately."

"Very well," she muttered, and with a wave of her hand, the door opened. Standing in the entry hall were two soldiers. They both stepped back in shock as the door opened seemingly of its own accord. Then, they both choked as the musty air entered their lungs. Their startled outbursts that followed were lost upon Ultimecia's private introspections.

She stood, her bones creaking as though she were a ninety-year-old woman rather than a sixteen-year-old girl. Disheveled, she walked to the door slowly, her eyesight perfect even in the darkness.

"Um, we could wait while you freshen up, Madame..."

"Let's get this over with..." Ultimecia sneered, and she pushed past the two guards, leaving behind her the stench of one who has not seen a shower in over a month. The soldiers followed about fifteen feet behind her. They whispered back and forth, but with her abilities, the words were perfectly clear to her.

"They say she's been alone all month."

"She smells it..."

"Yeah, well, keep those comments to yourself. If Udine wants her, then you'd better not insult her..."

The callous sons of bitches, she thought. They never would have given her this consideration were they to chase her through the streets for the fun of it. They never would have given a second thought to the dirty little girl of the alleys. They would have shot her and laughed about it; she might even have been so "lucky" as to have been honored in a memorial joke or slur. Holding her hatred in reserve, she walked down the shadows to the outside world.

For as long as she had been inside without any hint of the sunlight, she did not react in the slightest when her eyes and skin were exposed to it all at once. Instead, she immediately strode to the waiting car and sat herself down, ignoring the people on the streets who watched with veiled interest as the shut-in was escorted away.

When the soldiers entered the car, they began to move speedily toward the Presidential Palace where Udine made his home. As they sped on, Ultimecia looked out the window of the car. People, bluish buildings, other cars... all of them blurred together in one incoherent mess, a nauseating conglomeration of colors and shapes. She would close her eyes, but still she would see it, the swirling forms rending her sanity bit by bit. There was no escape from them. All she could do was suffer until the car stopped.

Preoccupied by her own anxieties, the trip lasted but a moment to her, but a moment that had wreaked havoc on her senses. She knew that she was still too immature in her powers to have ventured out so suddenly, but she also knew that Udine would certainly take her by force if she refused his invitation. When her car door was opened for her, she stepped out and frowned. There were many soldiers lining the entry to the palace... many more than usual.

"What is going on here?" she asked, irritated rather than afraid.

"Come with us, please," one of the Palace Guards said. Without any resistance, she allowed them to take her inside. Stepping onto the transporter pad, they were lifted into the depths of the palace. Various lights all pulled them inward, and Ultimecia winced noticeably at the fiber-optic relays that ran the length of the complex. Just as it was driving to the palace, so, too, was she tortured by the networks of lights that seemingly followed her, taunting her efforts to keep them at bay.

After about thirty seconds, the lift stopped, and she was pushed off of it down a large, glass-lined hallway. Through the floor, she could see the people below her, milling about without a relevant care in their heads. The sky was a deep blue, the sun casting gorgeous rays of light through the almost prism-like ceiling above. After a few seconds, however, her eyes trained on the well-armed guards who opened the doors to the President's office.

"Enter," one of the guards behind her ordered. Without any hesitation, she did just that. They formed lines on each side of the doors, making a short hallway of armed guards. As she walked in, each trained their weapons on her. Something was wrong; she could feel it distinctly.

The office was a large oval room that offered a grand view of the streets of Esthar far below. The room, despite its aristocratic charms, was rather barren, holding only a large desk in the very rear of the office. Sitting behind it like a wiry statue was President Udine, his black robes wrapped tightly about him as he pursed his bluish lips in expectant annoyance. He was much more thin than usual, old age ravaging his bent frame in proportion to his malicious deeds. Reviling him behind eyes glazed with tempered anger, Ultimecia waited for him to speak.

"Close the doors, you idiots," he growled, and the soldiers obeyed instantly. As they did so, the room grew noticeably darker, the light from the outside somehow doing nothing to enhance the scenery about them. For a moment, Udine simply sat erect, watching Ultimecia with narrow, sunken eyes that allowed no light to escape their greedy clutches. He then took a sip from a steaming cup and cleared his throat.

"Welcome, Miss Deling. I am pleased to see you after so many years..."

Ultimecia said nothing, instead folding her arms as she glared at him.

"I wish I kould say the same," she replied icily, "but I know you all too well. I have little to say to a man who wields power to satisfy his own ego."

Udine smiled and put down his cup. Waving his guards away, they moved out of the room silently, leaving the President alone with the Sorceress before him. His next words seemed an attempt to change the subject.

"You have been to New Balamb..." he said, his voice thin and labored. Ultimecia said nothing in response, merely staring back at the one who had, by any definition, kidnapped her.

"I understand that you have been rather silent since your return to us."

Still, Ultimecia said nothing.

"Well," he said, "if you won't talk, Miss Deling, then I will."

Chapter 21

He sat back, sighing loudly as his head sunk into the lavish headrest behind him. "From what I have been able to discern, you are quite an enigma to many. No past, no birth records, no anything. You have no blood ties to the Deling estate, and yet here you stand, homely heiress to the greatest fortune on earth... Oh, please don't be surprised if I know that you are a fraud. Despite what you may have thought, I know of each and every one of the little diseased brats that plague our streets. Your mother was also closely watched by us, as you must certainly already know. By all means, have a seat."

He gestured to a chair, and Ultimecia sat down, if only to play along with the small man. She couldn't care less how much he knew about her past, nor did she care about his interest in her life before Callie had saved her... but of her mother she was more interested.

"And yet," Udine continued, "you are an heiress to an ever greater prize, aren't you? You have something that now no one else on this planet has... or so you thought."

"What are you talking about?" Ultimecia snapped, suddenly weary of the interview, but finding an uncomfortable aura being exuded by the President. Her sorceress's senses began to recoil noticeably by the evil waves of energy emanating from the small man.

"It means that your position with Miss Callie Deling was no coincidence. You have been granted her... special gifts, am I right?"

Ultimecia sat stone-faced, feeling her confusion compounded by his indirect statements.

"Is there a point to this, President Udine? I have better things to do other than play truth or dare with you."

"I'm sure you do," he said with a drawn smile. "Let me get right to the matter, then. I know that you have inherited the powers of Hyne. I also know that you possess a great spirit... one that I have forever been trying to stop."

With those last words, Ultimecia sat up, her brow knitting in further agitation.

"How kould you possibly know that? What do you mean you have been trying to stop it?"

President Udine rose from his giant, throne-like chair and slowly walked to one of the windows, his silhouette a straight line down the skyline of Esthar.

"Do you see this magnificent city?" he asked, motioning toward the panoramic view of which they were treated to. "I have in my terms of office added nine-hundred percent total area to this nation, reclaiming land lost thousands of years ago to volcanic disturbances and tidal waves. I have instituted the most successful economic reforms in Esthar's history. I have subdued the warring nations and placed them under the states of protectorates and territories. I hold the power of this world in my grasp. With a mere word, I can have mountains destroyed, men imprisoned, nations reduced to rubble, cities built in monument to my power... all of this is impressive, no?"

He didn't wait for a response, however, and he continued his tirade.

"One might even go so far as to call me a god. I create life through my genetics labs, I judge life through my courts, and I end life in any manner I so choose. I am power in this world... but something is missing."

"You mean besides a soul?" Ultimecia offered in sarcastic indifference. "What are you trying to say?"

"I have been missing my place as true wielder of authority. Until now, there have been others who have held more power than I. They could manipulate matter, defy physics and control the very elements themselves."

The young Sorceress then knew where the conversation was heading. Jumping up from her chair, she paced slightly behind Udine and hissed, "You mean Sorceresses."

The silhouette nodded and folded its arms.

"How could I ever truly consider myself the ultimate master of this planet until the others had been cleansed?"

The crashing realization of what she was being told alerted every sense in her body. Udine had gone beyond her impassive wall and had begun to trample upon her very nerves. Harnessing her rage, she clenched her fists and shook with utter revulsion for the creature that stood so proudly before her.

"You are the one who ordered the attack on New Balamb..."

Udine nodded again. "Indeed. Llnaya Alaster was a convenient cover. Oh, it was so simple! Just send her to secure Deling funds and no one would ever look further. Of course, it was Estharian money that finalized the deal with Balamb and Trabia Gardens for the attack."

He stretched out his arms in exultant triumph. "Such splendid irony! The Deling monies could then be used to supplement the costs. Sorceress monies for a mission to wipe out the benefactors. Then, you destroyed the perpetrators before they could be apprehended by the New Balamb authorities. No one was left to implicate Esthar in any wrong doing. I hadn't planned on that bit of luck, but in the end, it worked out even better than I could have ever dreamed possible. Brilliant!"

"You son of a bitch!" Ultimecia shrieked, red flooding her eyes as she trembled uncontrollably. "You knew my grandma was a Sorceress! You knew and this whole time you have been waiting to kover your tracks! You used me, you used Llnaya..."

"Yes, I have used many people in my lifetime," Udine interrupted. "That is always the most efficient means of obtaining one's goals. But, I digress. You are missing the bigger picture. In the end, I found the strength that I have sought for so long. You see, I was able to harness the power of those that died in the raid. I am now, what you might call, a Sorcerer."

"Impossible," Ultimecia fumed, "There is no way for a man to akquire Hyne's gift!"

"Oh, all one needs is to have Hyne's mindset. Bless her black heart, she never discriminated on the basis of sex. I am the rightful wielder of her ultimate promise to mankind. I will be a god... just like Hyne!"

He narrowed his eyes further, a feat Ultimecia never would have thought possible on the horrible man.

"But there is one other out there... one who foolishly interfered in the raid, regardless of how it benefited me in the end. There is one whose very existence defies my place as heir to eternity..."

Udine turned to look at her, his eyes ablaze with reddish light. Surprised but unmoved, Ultimecia stared back, her own eyes awash in a similar light from her sheer rage.

"Yes, Ultimecia, I have been watching you, ever since you were just an up-and-coming little whore like your worthless mother. She was easy enough to catch in time. In fact, her death helped me to build up a base of power within myself."

"No," Ultimecia snarled, "my mother was not..."

"Oh yes, of course she was! How else could Callie Deling have felt such promise within you? I, too, have studied the ways of the Sorceresses, Ultimecia. I know how power is transferred. I knew that in time, you would be ready to be harvested..."

Ultimecia didn't know what to do. She could feel her anger ready to leap from her body, her powers on the brink of release. All that kept her from evaporating President Udine where he stood was an unanswered question.

"Where is my mother?"

"Oh, I think you know the answer to that, child!" Udine stretched his smile almost comically across his face, pulling the emaciated skin to the point that it looked as though it would tear off of his skull. "Within me is the spirit of the mother! All I need now is the fresh young child... the one that I allowed to return home from New Balamb to build up her strength, so that mine own might be the greater for it. I grow impatient with you, however. Perhaps it is better that I end you now, before you become too strong. Either way, I must insist that your powers become mine, Sorceress Ultimecia!"

"And I insist that you give me my mother!" Ultimecia shouted back. Unable to contain herself anymore, she unleashed a blast of energy that shattered the huge window before them. When the energy wave had passed, Udine stood unscathed.

"I thought you might not surrender," he said quietly. "I was hoping for that!"

Throwing down his hands in an archaic gesture, he disappeared. In his place was a large column of fire. Without warning, it lunged toward Ultimecia. She could feel its intense heat as it rushed forth, a blinding pillar of white, fiery death. Instead of moving, Ultimecia instinctively threw out her hands with a loud cry, and the fire stopped in place, being slowly turned to ice by the Sorceress's spell.

"How quaint..." came Sorcerer Udine's horrid voice, and from out of nowhere, a blast of lightning crashed down before Ultimecia, blasting the ice into millions of shards. They flew through the room, swift, jagged missiles that embedded themselves in the walls. Ultimecia raised her arms to guard her face just in time, as several of them tore through her flesh, drawing blood all about her arms. She yelped in pain, gripping the tender flesh to try and stop the bleeding.

A blast of energy appeared as the Sorcerer materialized momentarily. It shot out toward Ultimecia, intent upon finishing her off. Dodging to the side, Ultimecia let out her own blast of energy to the spot where Udine had been. He moved, but it was enough to scare him away for a moment. That was one thing Ultimecia knew that she could use: he had no practice with his abilities, and would only attack directly.

Then, Udine appeared just in front of her. Aided by his increased powers, he lifted Ultimecia with an unseen force that drew her out toward the shattered window. She struggled against it, but after a thought, she allowed Udine to carry her. Without any comment, he flung her out into the sky, hoping to send her crashing down to the ground three hundred stories below.

Instead, Ultimecia gathered her own strength and focused it on the wind about her. Catching it, she created a gust that shot her back through the window, sending her on a collision course with Udine. Shocked, he merely watched as the young Sorceress crashed into him.

"Get off of me!" he shouted, and Ultimecia did, but only to give her a better shot at the tyrant before her. Ignoring the blood that oozed freely from her body, she let out a blast of energy that met the Sorcerer point-blank. With a satisfying sizzling sound, it blasted him into the far wall, the odor of burned flesh wafting throughout the room.

"That was very unkind..." Udine screeched painfully. As he rose from a crumpled heap, he lashed out again, this time with a blast to match Ultimecia's. By will alone, Ultimecia absorbed the blast without injury and sent it immediately back at Udine. It, too, sent him sprawling.

"Guards!" he cried out, suddenly frantic with the knowledge that he had gotten in way over his head. "Guards! Get in here now!"

"I think not..." Ultimecia breathed, and just as the doors were being opened, she used her power to force them closed again, holding them against the soldiers.

"I think," Ultimecia said, walking toward Udine, eyes wide with anticipation, "that you have something that belongs to me."

"No..." Udine gasped, charred beyond recognition. "Please, maybe we can work something out... really! I'll pull all of the SeeDs off of Esthar's streets! I'll help the poor! I'll do something or other, really!"

"Kan you end misery?" she asked of him in a whisper, crouching to meet his gaze, her nose nearly touching his. "Kan you bring back to me those years stolen from me? Kan you give me the childhood that I never had? No, you kannot. Maybe I might have shown you mercy before... who knows. I have no konnektion with mercy now. I have no konnektions at all! Kan you bring me back to myself? Kan you heal the konnektions that you severed?"

She stood, smoothing out Callie's robes. "No, but you kan give me something."

"Anything! Name it!" Udine coughed in agony, unable to move so much as a finger.

"Give me back my mother."

As she hovered over him, Udine began to sob while Ultimecia prepared to finish the man off. It would only take one more strike, she reasoned, and he would be ready to release all of the Sorceresses that he held captive within his soul.

The light from the office that followed illuminated the evening sky, forcing all within a mile to look upwards in amazed wonder. The only thing greater was the cry of anguish from their dying ruler as he released his spiritual captives, each escaping painfully, one by one.

Chapter 22

Esthar awoke the next day to the sound of their holovisions blaring the sound of the national anthem. The holovisions had been set to turn on automatically if the President were ever to address his subjects. It was no different for Sorceress Ultimecia. Millions awoke to what was assumed to be another pointless address by Udine, but soon found themselves confused as a pretty young girl met their sleepy gazes.

"People of Esthar," Ultimecia began, "I kome before you to make an announcement of momentous import. Last night, our dear President Udine lost his life. It is with the power of my lineage as both a descendant of the Deling family and the honorable blood of Hyne that I proklaim my rule over you."

She sat back in her throne, looking into the camera that faced her and narrowed her eyes.

"I shall address the Senate tomorrow in order to klarify any further koncerns. That will be all."

The cameras were turned off, and Ultimecia looked about her. Assembled were the most prominent men and women in Esthar, all of whom had accepted the Sorceress's rule. Many were simply glad to be rid of Udine, but all were afraid of her arcane power; all of them were under its control. Standing in her new flowing red robes, Ultimecia addressed them.

"I will be quite blunt with all of you: I have no interest in the well-being of this nation or its people. I am using Esthar for its resources so that my own designs may be met. A month ago, I began my life as a Sorceress. By my divine birthright, I am the only rightful heiress of humanity. In fact, this kountry may very well be destroyed upon my slightest whim. It matters not, for you, the sinful sloths that have over-populated this world, are nothing more than puppets to me. I say this without fear of reprisal, as the powers that I have absorbed kollektively have made me the greatest force ever known in the history of kreation. You shall all pay for you sins in time, but in order to retain some degree of dignity, you will serve me."

She stepped down from the raised dais on which her throne sat. Her robes swayed as she walked, revealing runic marks that had been painted all along her body in keeping with ancient custom. Her hair, a flowing river of blonde silk, fell behind her like a golden light that highlighted her burning red eyes. She had even had a pair of large, black wings sewn into her dress, in order to imitate the look of her ancestor, the Sorceress Hyne. As she stood, all bowed before her, the effects of her power a contagious toxin that melted their sensibilities as if they were ice in her hand.

"We serve you, oh Gracious One..." they chanted, driven into religious mania by the forces that held them. All that they cared about was pleasing her. All that they feared was her wrath.

"My Sorceress," one man called out, dressed in the robes of a chamberlain, "I mean not to interrupt, but we have received official notices of independence from Galbadia and Dollet. They refuse to acknowledge our presence with the death of President Udine."

"Really?" Ultimecia mewed, "that is... arrogant." She felt her anger bubble inside of her. How could they refuse her rule? Didn't they understand how much she had suffered? Didn't they appreciate what it had taken her to get where she was? It mattered not. She would not allow them to make a fool of her!

"Who among you heads the military?" she asked, ready to begin her vengeance.

"That would be me, my liege," came a deep voice from the middle of the crowd assembled before her.

"Stand up now," she ordered. "Face your Sorceress."

He did. A man in full-length black and gray robes with a large sword at his waist, he bore the marks and medallions of a general.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I am General Ian Loire," he said proudly. "I am at your service."

He could have been no more than eighteen years old, but his mannerisms suggested a maturity that went beyond his age: a child prodigy or something similar. Ultimecia liked him immediately. Here, she knew, was someone that she could delegate authority to.

"You are of Laguna Loire's progeny?"

The man nodded. "I am, my Sorceress."

"I have a special task for you."

He bowed and knelt back down when motioned to do so. She eyed the rest of them and said, "It will be business as usual for now. Go about your duties as you always have. In time, you will kome to understand your place in my plans. You are all dismissed... except for General Loire."

They did leave, and Ian Loire remained in place, kneeling before his Sorceress. Looking him over, Ultimecia smiled and walked over to him, teasing his hair with her manicured nails. He trembled slightly under her hands, and this pleased her greatly.

"I am beginning to understand the purpose of my life," she said, speaking not so much to him as she was to herself. "I kan see my goals outlined in the darkness... so faint... and yet they kall to me. I kan see that this world is doomed, if not from me, than from some evil of its own design. I have made myself into the perfekt sorceress in order to bring this about."

She placed her hands on his shoulders and put her lips by his ear. "You are going to help me."

"How, Great One?" he asked timidly.

"Oh, General, to be so frightened by so young a child... how you gladden my heart! I have chosen you to be my ambassador of war, one who will lead Esthar's army into battle against those who would dare to defy the Sorceresses."

"Who might that be?" he asked again, not even daring to look in the eyes the one who held total control of his mind.

"You will destroy Galbadia and Dollet... and all SeeDs... You shall slaughter them wherever they are. You will seek them out from among the rocks where the slime hides."

"Of course, my Sorceress," he said, although his very being shook with revulsion from such an order. She could tell that his spirit was trying very hard to rebel against her control. Let him, she thought. He could do nothing against her.

"Yes, you will seek them out, rip open their empty chests and prove to the world just how evil they truly are!"

"Yes, my Sorceress..." he chanted.

"For now," Ultimecia went on, "you will be my Knight."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them, her shattered mind instantly fixating on Squall. How she missed him! Forcing the thought back, she turned her attentions once again to Ian Loire. He could do in the meantime... but he could never replace Squall.

"I'm sure that there is something that you kould do for your Sorceress..." she purred, and brushed his cheek gently with the back of her hand. "I'm certain that you have abilities other than those of battle..." To have him so helpless before her was quite exciting, but she held herself in check. It was not time for such things as romance. She had a world to conquer. Still, after looking at Ian's handsome, chiseled features, she knew that his moment would not be far off.

"Such an exquisite kreature," she murmured, and then she slowly guided Ian to his feet with her fingers pressed softly under his chin. His dark eyes met hers, twinkling with a light all their own. There was an innocence about him that she found wonderful and hideous at the same time; wonderful for her longing to recapture it, hideous for her inability to do so.

"But," she continued from her thoughts, "if I kan't be pure, than neither shall you..." She smiled, crinkling her nose as she had done when she was younger. "Well, I think this has been a produktive interview. You will begin the assault at once. Use all men and weapons that you must. You have them and my power at your disposal."

"Yes, my Sorceress," he intoned. Then, turning on his heels, he left the room, leaving Ultimecia alone.

"I think I shall have that talk with the Senate now," she giggled to herself, her plan beginning to unfold before her. Callie would be so proud!

"Grandma, Mother..." her voice was suddenly raw with emotion, "I will prove myself to you!"

Chapter 23

The Senate chambers were composed of a large, domed room of blue marble that held many desks. There were about three hundred Senators, each one going over the business of the day. To Ultimecia, who arrived with many armed guards, it was a great insult. They had not even taken her proclamation of rule seriously. Were she not already planning to allow them to share Udine's fate, they would be very sorry for their transgression.

One little man ran up to Ultimecia, ignoring the guards.

"Who might you be, Madame?"

"I am Sorceress Ultimecia..."

"Ultimecia... Deling?" he asked, looking down at an electronic clipboard.

"Yes, I'm here to speak to the Senate, but..."

"Splendid! I think we can squeeze you into the first order of business for the day!"

She would have corrected him about her title, but he was efficient enough to allow her to address the Senate first, so she let him go on his merry way. He quickly scurried up to the main podium and issued the role call. Then, when he had everyone's attention, he began the day's daily business.

"Now, with a statement to the Senate, Miss Ultimecia Deling, recent Executor of the Deling Estate." The clerk led Ultimecia toward the main podium.

"You may begin whenever you are ready," the clerk stated. Without answering him, Ultimecia stepped up. She took the podium with unequalled stoicism. Looking over the assembled Senators, she let out a slight sneer before speaking. It was obvious to her that they considered her presence to be a harmless nuisance, and her anger boiled over to a feverish degree. They would understand her presence in but a moment.

"Members of the Estharian Senate, I kome before you today with a matter of great importance and signifikance. You are all very well akquainted with the news of my Grandmother's death at the hands of SeeD mercenaries. I was to believe that this projekt would be funded by Deling family monies. I have, for this past month, blamed myself for Kallie Deling's death."

"It has come to my understanding, however, that despite treaty and protokol, this body was involved in the under-funding of the SeeD raid on New Balamb, for the only way that President Udine kould have akquired the funds for such an operation would have been to go through you, and no money from the Deling family ever made the transfer to the SeeD akkounts."

There was a slight murmur of surprise throughout the room, but no one openly spoke against her as of that moment.

"I am led, therefore, to believe that full responsibility for the lives lost falls upon your shoulders."

This time there were shouts of protest, but none that she allowed to interfere with her address.

"You have made a grievous error, senators. You have awakened the power of a great and terrible people... my people. My people, who have forever been mistreated by this delegation, forever persekuted and stripped of all of their dignity. They have been hunted through your streets, slaughtered to satisfy your own superficial fears and prejudgments. As the last of this great line of noble spirits, it is my responsibility to end your korruption."

"Miss Deling," one senator interrupted as the others began to churn in wrathful agitation, "is there a point to this tirade? Just what is it that you are trying to say?"

"My intent, delegates," replied Ultimecia in open contempt, "is to liquidate this body and place sole authority in my hands. I am using my inherited authority and reinstating the rule of the Hyne Dynasty. Esthar is now under my total kontrol as Sorceress... unless someone would like to challenge me on this issue?"

The Senate chamber erupted into chaos as each senator shouted back in angered surprise while others simply laughed. Papers flew, cries of protest reflected off of the smooth, white walls - the sound was deafening. Ultimecia had been prepared for this, however. She knew how the small men would react once they learned that she had taken their miniscule power from them.

"Sorceress?" Senator Aldrict scoffed, bolting to his feet, his sanctimonious voice reverberating through the microphone he wore, "What nonsense is this, Miss Deling? Are you telling us that you have the power of Hyne? You have no autonomy here! What authority leads you to believe that you have the right to declare any sort of rule? I had thought your announcement earlier this morning to have been a sad joke! Why are we even listening to this psychobabble?"

"Bekause, Senator, if you fail to follow me, you shall die." Her voice was so even, so calculated, so menacing, that the room slowly fell silent. The threat of death was one that was very new to them, and it hit with more impact than even Ultimecia had anticipated.

"I... um..." Aldrict stammered, his confidence challenged and shaken, "...that is... if you ARE a Sorceress, young lady, why don't you prove it to us? Why don't you prove that you are entitled to the title you claim with such confidence?"

All eyes fell on Ultimecia, unsure of how she would respond. Many were busy trying to figure out why the sweet young girl they had met through Callie had suddenly attempted a total coup. The sixteen-year-old girl did not present an imposing figure, nor did she seem of tyrannical stock. Still, she somehow managed to fill the room with a presence more terrifying than anything they had ever known before.

"If your insignifikant mind needs to see through your eyes, Senator," Ultimecia stated with icy bitterness, "then I shall be more than happy to oblige you."

For a while, it seemed as though nothing was happening. Aldrict merely stood in place, staring back at the Sorceress with a glossy, complacent look.

"This world has long been held in the grip of men," Ultimecia spoke with sudden calm, not even seeming to address anyone in the room. Her eyes widened as she spoke, as if she had been possessed of pure evil.

"Those men have for millennia been the ruin of this world."

Aldrict began to choke, his eyes widening as he grasped for his throat. No one dared move to save him, though, as all knew the source of his affliction. They looked to Ultimecia, her mouth moving apart from the sounds of her voice, as though light and sound had been perversely altered.

"They have taken with arrogance what they klaim to be theirs. Their sense of possession has decimated the innocent and destroyed families, children... the land itself."

Blood began to course from underneath Aldrict's eyes, dripping rapidly upon his pressed white robes. As it soaked the fabric, he weakly turned his head toward the other senators and let out a bloodcurdling scream.

"I plan to take it all back... for the Sorceresses!"

Her eyes suddenly flashed a bright white, and Aldrict's body was simultaneously torn apart internally. Large red and muscular arms burrowed their way our, each tipped with five sharp, black claws. The remains of Aldrict's corpse bulged at the joints as though he had been a rag doll set with a small firecracker inside of him. The other senators were frozen in terror, unable to move or speak. Instead, they all watched as the giant creature burrowed its way out from their co-conspirator's skin.

"I shall begin with this legislative body..." Ultimecia went on, "as I unfold each and every one of you, so that the rest of the world might see plainly the evil you have hidden for so long... a death beyond death..."

After mere seconds, Aldrict was no more, and where he once stood was now a hulking, crimson beast with massive black horns and a head of a lion. Rearing back, it let out a deep, resonant roar, shaking the very building with its ferocity.

"Yes... you shall all serve me... the one borne of your streets; the child you left to die as a kommon whore! I promise you an eternity of utter Hell for the one you kreated of your own free will."

No one could move. They all watched as the Sorceress walked toward the beast that was once Senator Aldrict. With a slow, graceful stride, she walked right up to the monster and grabbed it suddenly by one of its horns. With unseeming power, she slammed its head into the marble floor with a crash.

"Who," she asked of the beast which growled in pain, "is your master, you hideous thing?"

With an unintelligible moan, the red hulk seemed to respond, and the answer pleased Ultimecia.

"Yes, you serve your Sorceress. You serve me... Katoblepas."

Then she whirled on the other Senators. "I proklaim this day to be the day of the Rebirth! The rebirth of a glorious new age... an age that will see an end to this forsaken reality!"