I promise this fic will one day end. ^_^ just not any time soon. MWAHAHA- ....ahem. well. Ah, well- more family confrontation here, for those who, like me, always wondered how the hell golbez GOT to the moon as a kid.

More Final Fantasy I refs- though a little vauger here.

Klu Ya "guides" me to another area of this strange dream...to a tower resting in the middle of a desert. I get the oddest feeling I know this place, though I can't seem to place it...

"And this....is what you now call the Tower of Bab-il.."

"The tower was much larger than THAT Klu Ya.."

The lunar simply smiles a moment and moves forward to press his hand against the tower...Unlike the place around that temple, this almost felt real. Right down to the feeling of sand sneaking into your boots and getting in your mouth and eyes when the wind blows..

"The tower was expanded of course. The lower half is already present- but it's sealed away for now. This was simply a way-station for moving our people to and from the moon...or station as they'd called it then."

He gestures for me to look to the sky...where once again, only one moon resides. There are other things drifting above however...like stars only moving faster...

"The fiend known as Tiamat, the many headed dragon you saw earlier, destroyed most of our home at the time and made her place there in revenge for our actions in sealing her power away in the crystals. She stold some of it back- they all did- but not enough to destroy the crystal."

"So what is this "wrong" you wanted to show me?"

In answer- the world just..shifts, and we're standing on the top of the tower, the wind gusting and roaring at us as it tries to throw us off- but from here, we can see for miles upon miles. And from this vantage..we can also see four figures struggling acrossed the stormy desert.

"..they were our mistake. Our final "wrong", as it were, that shattered things completely. Four we had gifted with the will and power to combat the chaos...when we simply should have ceased our meddling and let things go. We taught the people of this world how to harness the powers of black and white magic...all for the purpose of one day guiding these four to their battle to truly "save" this world. All we did was worsen it."

"You're losing me again...not that I was with you in the first place. Speak plainly, Klu Ya. I may be the brighter son, but even I can't draw a conclusion when all the dots aren't there."

Klu Ya sighs, looking so much like my uncle I'm almost convinced I might have finally driven him to the point of him just blurting out what he wants me to understand. I am not a fool and I will never say I am- but there are some things I'm simply not used to having to do. Like putting clues together....it's a skill I've never picked up. Cecil had been such an open book after all and his "trusted" friend Kain had been just as blatanant...and Zemus..well he was never one to beat around the bush like this....

"You commented on the balance of Black and White magic earlier, Golbez. Now tell me...what is the greater balance that draws on?"

This was one of those moments where you simply wish to smack yourself for having missed the obvious. There would have been another perfect example of this ten years ago...when Cecil and Zeromus had fought.

"...Dark against Light-"

No.

I wince at the sudden sharpness of that tone as it cuts through mind and ear both, surprising after so many soft spoken words from this man. The old Paladin simply looks at me a moment- then points again to the four who make their way to the tower on which we stand.

"They had the same misunderstanding, taught to them by us for that's how WE saw it. And since that time- this world has been dying step by step, and breaking apart reality every inch of the way."

So much for having missed the obvious. I draw in a sharp, annoyed breath, stepping towards Klu Ya and catching hold of his shirt, dragging him forward to his rather plain surprise. He didn't seem so frail, but compared to him I was much stronger...not so delicate and slender as a true Lunarian was.

"Enough with the games, Klu Ya! I have played by these rules you claim I set out for this dream and those prior- but I'll be damned if I can figure WHY. If this is so important, why will you simply not TELL me?"

"...The restoration of this Balance is not so important as the maintaining of it. Anyone can restore it- very few can keep it. And only those who understand it CAN do so. No one ever has until it's too late. I didn't want to let that mistake happen again..Each time this Balance has been restored, it has only been broken again not even a century later, further fracturing reality. It has to end here, at the center of the disturbance."

"And if it doesn't? What if the balance is restored only to unbalance again?"

"Then it all goes back to the beginning, too wounded to carry on as it is now. Time itself has been violated in this instance- events twisting back on themselves in a way the true reality never would have allowed because of our intervention. We did, for a time, find a way to balance it....but our understanding of it was flawed and ultimately- it only slowed down the process rather than stopping it- and ensured it would always be the fate of two beings to be tied into this, no matter who they were or what they wanted..."

There's an almost audible click as he admits those final words- the answer really HAD been in front of me all along- from the very first memories I had of my time with Zemus up to now. The Paladin was Light's champion- a being who embodied every aspect of it, from it's kindness to it's occasional cruelty..such as abandoning a child destined for a completely different path.

"You..let him.....you LET him...."

"..I do not know what FuSo Ya told you about the time, Golbez...but when your own powers had revealed themselves to have the potential to rival my own, we were estatic..until the day came when we learned what path they embraced. In our belief of how things must go...it meant that one day, I may well have to kill my own son. And then Cecil was born. The thought of raising brothers who MUST fight until one was dead was too much for your mother and myself. We had to make a choice..."

A choice. They had CHOSEN to send me to Zemus?! That old, bitter tasting hatred begins to stir again, this time mixed with the sharp spice of betrayal - until Klu Ya's "voice" cuts over those thoughts with a strength one wouldn't expect from so slender a being...

NO! We did not send you to HIM!

I stare hard at those eyes- so damned much like Cecil's -waiting for him to explain. The paladin takes a step closer, hands reaching up to close on my shoulders...his expression not angry.. I'm not sure how to read it. Grieving perhaps..?

"We sent you to FuSo Ya...you were to be raised on the Moon, away from this world and it's imbalance. We thought if you were gone from it- a new champion for Darkness would be born and our children would be spared the need to battle. Your mother had such high hopes even though she knew she'd never see you again..she talked for days about the great sage you'd one day be under FuSo Ya's teachings. It was a year later when Zemus made his move, snatching you from your uncle's care and taking you to his own prison. He knew what you were as surely as we did.."

I close my eyes...those days I can recall all too well, no matter how much I try to forget them. FuSo Ya had thought it imporant I remember them.... So I knew what to watch out for in my own future should I tend towards that path again. Endless days of being told of my role in the planet's demise- of how I had been chosen by Darkness and by him- the man was a raving lunatic, but it looked like he HAD been right...

"Sending you away was a mistake I can never repair, Golbez...and I have no right to even ask your forgiveness. I did try to reclaim you from Zemus- but failed in that as I had in all else with you. We had simply assumed..since I was not the Paladin until I had gone to the world below our Moon that removing you would result in the same effect, only reversed. And in a way it did...the balance shifted -but even more so out of alignment... I had only wanted you both safe and in the end only made it worse..."

And now the three words I'd wanted to hear him say all my life, even when I'd forgotten him- and now which made me only want to strangle him, to ask him how he possibly thought they could make anything right...

"I'm sorry, Golbez...."

He lets go of my shoulders and steps away, looking down...

"We completely misunderstood you and Cecil both. It was no consequence that the champions of Light and Darkness came into being as siblings. It was this world's last attempt to save itself...for a good family has times of conflict but also times of peace. Brothers will fight but they will play as well- and if treated well, they will grow to be able to work together, no matter how different their methods or personalities. That balance has NEVER been Light against Darkness..."

At this point- even Cecil could have drawn the conclusion. Like this- angry and hateful, even I can...

"Light AND Darkness...coexisting....one no more favored than the other. And all the pack of you have ever done is set them against one another....."

(Continued in: Final Balance?)

La la-finally got to this plotpoint! sorry it took me so long..was waiting to see how many would guess. *L* ah, well- on with the story!