Final Fantasy XVI: Lion King Edition

Remember Who You Are

Clive didn't know how long he had been walking until he had seen that the sky had turned dark, with only a bright moon and the stars all around his eyesight. Lost in thought, he sat down and stared up at the sky.

"I don't care what anybody says," hem uttered to himself. "I won't go back. What would it prove, anyway? It won't change anything...after all, you can't change the past."

His eyes welled with tears and his voice called out to the one person he wanted the most.

"I told you I'd always be there for you -- but you're not here. There's nothing out there. There's nothing to believe in anymore. Nothing. Nothing."

It was all too much for Clive to bear. Sobbing, he sat quietly... He was interrupted by an odd little tune.

"Follow me, boy, o'er the rolling green meadows! Follow the flames and arise from the shadows! Hear the Rosarian voices outring!"

He followed the song to it's source, an open field of crops, and could see no one but a gruff silhouette of a figure whose angles match those of gnarled branches from a tree. Clive moved away in search of solitude.

He crossed a long bridge where the stars reflected on the surface of the water. A stone plopped into the water, catching Clive's attention, along with the rest of the song.

"Turn up your eyes to the boundless blue heavens! See how the fire in the firmament beckons!"

"Will you SHUT UP?!" shouted the exasperated Clive.

"How can one shut up the plants when they will go right back again?" asked the stranger in a cryptic voice.

"Just who are you?" Clive asked.

"I think the question is...who are you?"

Clive did not know this at the time, but that stranger he met was Cid. He pointed his right index finger at Clive's chest, knowing very well that he was the sort of person who looked deep into the hearts of others.

"I know who you are, but you don't know who you are."

"And I suppose you know?"

"Sure I do. You are Joshua Rosfield's brother."

Clive was taken aback.

"You knew my brother."

"Correction, I know your brother."

"Sorry to disappoint you, but my brother, along with my father died a long time ago."

"Nope! Wrong again! He's alive! I'll show him to you. You follow me. I know the way."

Stepping away from Clive, Cid disappeared through a small opening of a bower. Clive went over and looked in. He considered a moment, then disappeared inside.

Inside the bower was a huge foliage of trees. Clive traveled over logs and through creepers to catch up with Cid, who appeared to be more agile than he was.

At last, they stopped at a curtain of tall reeds. Cid directed Clive to a small pool of water located before them. It was as still as a millpond.

"Look closer beyond your reflection," instructed Cid.

So Clive did just that. Cid placed his right index finger into the  pool, creating ripples that distorted Clive's face. It began to materialize, de-age even a boy's face with blonde hair. He looked so adorable that anyone would want to cuddle him.

"Clive..."

"Joshua...?"

Clive looked up to see where the voice was coming from. He knew who belonged to. Before his own two eyes, something magical started to happen: The image of Joshua began to build itself. At first it was frightening, then a burst of flames followed and Joshua was there, perfectly as he was, as he looked, thirteen years ago. Clive, overwhelmed with tears, rushed over and gave his little brother a long-awaited hug.

"I am so sorry, if it hadn't been for me-"

Josuha placed his right fingers on Clive's lips, shushing him.

"You shouldn't blame yourself for my death, Clive. It was Mother's."

Clive's jaw fell.

"Mother?"

He had always known Anabella to be a standoffish bitch, but this was one horizon she had gone too far into. Still, he needed answers.

"But why?"

"Upon the moment I came into the afterlife, I had been given omniscience. Mother was unsatisfied with all of us. She only loved me because I was the Phoenix and would not have loved me anymore than you would have. So she betrayed us all in favor of power in hopes of finding another dominant as a result of my sacrifice. She did intend to have me spared, though. But now I feel no love for someone as ungrateful as her. No love, for someone who proved to be an ineffectual ruler. I suppose Jill already told you this?"

"She has," said Clive. "And I told her about us...and how you died, and how I thought, at the time, that it was my fault."

"Now you know better, and I hope...with any confidence you have restored. You are ready to take your place on the throne of Rosaria."

"But how? I'm just one person."

Joshua smiled a knowing smile and placed his small hands on Clive's rough cheeks.

"Remember who you are. You are my brother and the one true king."

Joshua gave Clive another hug and Clive hugged him until he felt nothing, for Joshua had faded into a sparkle of tiny little cinders. Clive watched them disappear into nothingness.

"What was that?" asked Cid out of the blue. "Weather can be unusual around here."

"You didn't see?" asked Clive.

"Why should it matter? It's in the past now."

Those words hit Clive with a newfound sense of hope, for a moment, he was that wide eyed child again. A child who believed in hopes and dreams for the future. Everything that his father dreamed of, was now falling upon his shoulders.

"I am going back," he announced.

Slowly he stood up, looked towards the stars for directions and was soon walking, then running his way all the way back to Rosaria. Cid chuckled and cheered. 

Jill spent nearly the entire night looking for Clive. She had not nearly intended to at first for the sake of giving him space, but now, she was starting to worry for him and so was Torgal. It was early in the morning when she gave up after searching the town high and low. When she arrived at Wade and Tyler's home, they were having a steak for breakfast.

"Have you two seen Clive?" she asked. "I cannot find him anywhere."

"I have not seen him," said Wade.

"Me neither," answered Tyler.

Suddenly, Torgal's senses picked up another party. One that was not of Clive, but rather of Cid. He was standing by the open window, watching them.

"I heard the whole thing, Miss and you won't find him here. The true archduke of Rosaria has decided to take back his kingdom."

Tyler began to panic.

"You mean Clive is going to march off into the jaws of death?! That fool!"

Anger began to seethe inside. Wade laid a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Tyler, there comes a time in life ~ when one must take fate into one's own hands. And like Clive, who marches off into the face of death, I too, go to meet my destiny...as his faithful friend."

Tyler thought for a beat, then made his decision.