Author: Cyhirae

Notes: Whee...Hello everyone~! For the record, this is not an attempted rewrite of "Dark Guardian"- it's a completely different story, though certainly a sequel to "Dark Moon". The original sequel's storyline has been scrapped for two reasons:

1) Palom is fun to write for occasionally but I just can't do do a whole story in his PoV.

2) the guardian idea wasn't shaping up.

So- back to writing from Golbez's PoV. ^_^ And let the story begin....after the disclaimer.

FFIV and it's characters are not mine- if they were, the game woulda been fully redone with modern graphics to do homage to it's glory. ^_^ Nuff said.

The sky weeps softly onto the dry, lifeless earth beneath my feet as I look around...all around me was death...skeletons of animals lay, their flesh long ago rotted away to leave only bleached bone behind...and though the sun rides high in the sky, it is as dark as the day that cursed moon had risen over the Blue Planet, though not nearly so cold. It's hot rather...hot enough each gasp of air feels as though fire is delving into my lungs..

Desperate for a way to escape this searing darkness, I find myself running forward through the graveyard of a forest..trees and animals all in various stages of rot and decay. I can feel my lungs truly beginning to burn now, trying to give into the heat and just collapse...

Then there is coolness as I stumble into a shadow. My hand finds purchase against a stone structure my heat blurred eyes can see only the outline of..and scrabbling acrossed the stone, they guide me to the entrance. I throw myself within- then gaze about the oddly familiar hall. Long, ragged rows of pillars...cracked and shattered by time, they wall the way I now walk..

Wake up!

I pause, hearing those words...but something distracts me. A light of sorts at the end of the hall..if one can truly call that "light". It is more like the halo surrounding an eclipse..blindingly brilliant yet illuminating nothing...

Hey, Golbez! Wake up already!

A second pause..I know that voice- annoying and brattish for all it attempts to sound like a young man and not a child..And around me, something in the air is shifting. The cool no longer feels blessed- it's becoming sharp and painful, just as much as the heat outside. When I start to step back, it only gets worse...but if I keep moving forward-

Alright, you asked for it!

The dream shatters suddenly as a wholly new kind of cold takes it's place...a cold that leaves my bed and sleep garments- I refuse to call them anything so childish as "pajamas"- caked with snow and ice. And which has me, for the second time since my return to this world, highly tempted to just kill Palom and be done with it. I might actually get through a day without a headache if I did!

But damn the boy's timing! I had finally come close to the ending of that dream and then this-!

"This had better be good Palom...very damned good..."

The teenage wizard makes an expression I'm assuming was meant for an apologetic smile- it looks more like a victorious grin to ME however- and shrugs. He's in full "regalia" as they term it here..wearing his finest dark robes and that damned hat I had finally all but forbidden entering the tower that had been built to serve as my home...Now what on earth could-

"I guess you've been sleeping too much, Golbez. Did you forget what today was?"

The mage's grin is only getting larger...and my temper is only getting worse. I'm NOT in the mood for Palom's games..and I think he's finally realizing that as the smile's spread hesitates..then begins to shrink...

"By all means, Palom..enlighten me as to why it was so important to wake me up you had to use an ice spell to do it."

The smile has vanished completely- good. He finally realizes just what kind of thin ice he's skating on..

"The Elder has summoned everyone to the Road. We're supposed to go to Baron to put the final touches on the-"

Finally it clicks and I wave him away...so that was it. The "Festival of the Sealing" as some idiot mage had dubbed it- though it was hardly a festival. It took every wizard in Mysidia and myself to errect these seals...locking away the elemental crystals two by two..today would be the final one. It was just a small step in helping maintain the balance- for even the crystals had some tie into the one we had worked so hard to restore- but it was better than none.

At least this way, they would never be used again. Nor would the moon and it's troubling inhabitants find their way back. The incident of centuries past would NOT be repeated..not on this world anyway. Let my relatives wreak their high and mighty havoc elsewhere...

"I know, I know. Get going- I'll be there shortly."

Palom hurries out of the room and I begin to get ready..pausing a moment to look in the mirror. I truly looked like I really HAD been walking through that hellish place thanks to Palom's prank. I sigh and ready myself for the coming ceremony, though there's plenty to this I'm not looking forward to.

Returning to Baron- a land that quite understandably hated me- for one....and having to meet my brother again for the second. We kept things civil as long as we were on opposite sides of the ocean.

Being in the same room as him for a few hours should certainly be..interesting.

(Continued in "Deep Awakenings")