Final chapter of the "split"- Palom and the "other" Golbez having a little conversation. Not as mindbending as "The Mind's Silence" or violent as "Abandoned Heart", but still PRETTY out there. And we actually start getting something of an explination for what's going on here! ^_^ Thank the Xenosaga & Xenogears music I was on to write this...You can thank Arcana's "Last Embrace" album for the two previous chapters.

I try to free my arm from Golbez's hand- but thin and faded as he seems, he's still stronger than me. It must have come from all that time he spent in that tincan of darkness getup so many people had described him wearing. I'd always wondered what kind of self-respecting wizard would wear such heavy armor.

An out of his mind one evidently....

He turns and begins dragging me away from both rooms- stepping instead outside. Here, there is no mirrored set of rooms- there is only a courtyard filled with frozen people. Including we Mysidians have gotten to see a good bit of in the distance when we go near Ordeals- Kain. As dead and frozen as Rosa had been inside...

"I should have realized I would try something like this..it would be just like me to try to break rules someone else is trying to impose on me....even if it turns out to be me in the end!"

I look away from the frozen statue, startled- and coming to a very fast conclusion. Lunarians are weird, and the hybrids are even WORSE. Cecil was an odd sort of okay- you can't call a guy who talks to their dead father on a mountain and forgives his brother for trying to kill his girlfriend AND trying to destroy his world NORMAL- but Golbez takes the cake. He must have genuinely snapped this time...

"Y'know....I'm beginning to think when you came back here- you musta left yer mind on that moon....What the hell are you doing? what's with all this, huh?"

"I doubt you'd understand- but obviously I have also placed some sort of faith in you or you wouldn't be here, now would you?"

He releases my arm and starts walking away from me, just looking up at the sky. He stops after a few steps and just gazes up at the moon, lips drawn thin in thought...

"Ya do know y'sound like you took one too many hits to the head when fightin' Cecil back then, doncha?"

He only smirks a moment in reply- then points up at the sky, towards the stars.

"Tell me, Palom. What do you see there?"

I blink and look up......well nothing seems overly out of place. Just what did the madman want me to look at, eh?

"Well I think we call those fluffy things clouds, and those sparkly things stars, and the big white thing a moon- eh....?"

I let my own commentary trail off as something else catches my eye- or the lack of it. As big as the moon, I can only assume it IS one....but the only way I can even begin to make it out is because it's blocking a constellation I know quite well. The Elder always talked about how it represented some ancient legend or another. Maybe I should have paid attention...

"And that....um.."

"We called that the "Dark Moon". A creative name to join the slew of others we've given things."

His lips turn up in a smile that's everything but amused, then he turns to look to me again..musingly.

"What do you know of reality, Palom?"

Curve ball- and a strike. Where did THAT question come from? I blink again, not responding for a moment before shrugging...what do I know about reality.....?

"We live in it...."

He smirks and shakes his head- that same damned smirk I've wanted to smack off his face several times over the past several weeks. He looks up at the "moon" again, head tilted ever so slightly.

"Reality is not a singular thing. Like a tree, it grows and branches out. These branches then give rise to twigs. I have heard of some refer to it as the Tree of Existance- but then it's only a figuartive term. It's quite fitting however...."

And finally- something in this whole mess is clicking. Well sort of....

"Sooooo.....what you're saying is you're from another reality...? And so are those other ones?"

"Them? No..they are merely shadows I have cast to try to reach into your reality. They do their job poorly...but it is all I can do at this point."

"Uh......huh. Yeah- that makes perfect sense..really. So- what about this balance thing?"

He sighs a moment and looks to the moon again, shaking his head.

"If it was as simple as merely TELLING you how to do it- don't you think I would have already?"

"Alrighty- lets take this angle then. WHY is this balance so important. I mean y- er- Golbez keeps talking about balances but the only balance on our world is the crystals and he insists its-"

An annoyed look suddenly lands on me as he turns, all but snapping in reply to that. Guess I hit a nerve...mental note: don't hit it again.

"The crystals are an example- but they are not the key! Why can't you fools see this?!"

He brushes long, pale hair back a moment, muttering sharply in a language I don't know...and I think I should probably be grateful for that...though it'd be nice to learn a few of those words for use when Porom's around...she can't hit me if she doesn't know what I'm saying!

"When a tree grows, Palom, what happens to the branches far down on it's trunk?"

"We're back on trees........uhm.......well....they either get really thick, move up the tree too, or die off. I think they usually die off.....that's why you can always find firewood if you just look around, right?"

That earns me a smile that for once ISN'T completely condescending... it seems I'm on the right track. But before I can continue, he's turned and started walking again...and talking, since he seems to think this means I'll understand...

"Reality is the same. It's branches die as the main tie to it all, time, presses on. All realities are seperate save in that. And eventually- a reality must prove it's strength if it wishes to stay."

"Okaaay- you lost me.."

"Think of the old branches. As time advances- they will grow stronger- or the tree will shed them. How do these branches survive? Through the twigs and leaves that gather strength to them. But where a true tree needs only sunlight- a reality needs balance. When it's time comes- a reality must balance itself fully to prove it's worth. If it cannot....then like a weak, diseased branch, it is discarded. Each twig gives the branch one more chance...."

I think I'm catching on to what he's saying now.....and I'm really, really wishing I wasn't. This was something for the Elder ,or even Cecil- not ME.

"I-"

"This reality was tested, Palom, and found wanting. Each reality has one key point to be tested upon. For this branch- it is this world. Simplistic and backwater- it should be the easiest to find balance...yet...the Darkmoon rose and devoured it. I returned after the process had already begun...had I returned sooner..perhaps I could have pushed it off."

"Uh...HOW?"

He turns to start answering me- when a sharp rumble suddenly fills the air and continues on beneath our feet. Overhead- that darkness has suddenly begun to spread- devouring not just stars now, but clouds and earth. All around us- the Castle of Baron is crumbling to pieces and being drawn upward. Golbez is immeditally running for the town- where waits a second Golbez......and a third. I'm close on his heels, trying to get him to tell me what's happening- but all I hear is a sudden angry cry of: "What have you done?!"echoing around, drawing out oddly as reality begins to warp and fall apart around me...

Then I'm falling- or am I rising? That darkness is all I can see- until a pale hand closes on my wrist and yanks me back. I twist about to look- into a pair of eyes that could have easily been Cecil's, but the face is far more akin to that of Golbez...

This dream's time is done...it will trouble us no more...Sleep now, Palom, and help Cecil once more when you awaken.....

Light replaces darkness and I sit up quickly- a mistake as my stomach begins to do odd things. Hands are catching me and pushing me back down- a white mage berating me as I do so...saying I've been asleep for days now after my collapse in the hallway outside. I just look up at her dazedly- it just NOW occuring to me I know this girl- I certainly HOPE I should know my own sister! ..even if it does take me a moment or two to recognize her. I blink owlishly up at her....and again.....each one getting longer until I feel sleep curl it's arms around me and draw me in. There are no dreams this time...thank the powers. I couldn't take another round of weirdness....

(Continued in: Interlude-Cecil)