Noah and Crys (Side Story)
1,000 years ago.
The land scarred by battle. A Kevesi soldier walking up towards a Consul, accompanied by 2 other soldiers. More Kevesi soldiers lined up behind both sides of the alleyway. The 2 other soldiers gave the central soldier a gentle push, and he knelt both feet on the ground, looking sad. He had pointed chin, red iris, and scruffy hair, plain skin. As the Consul walked up towards him, the other soldiers turned around and returned to their post.
"Congratulations! You're special. Precious few make it all the way to their Homecoming." Then, the Consul summoned a Kevesi blade, pointing it at the guy. The guys eyes widened by such act. Perhaps he was shocked, surprised; perhaps he already knew his fate, seeing others suffered the same when he was younger. "But... this won't do at all. Your lives shine all the brighter... if they're extinguished right here on the battlefield." And he dropped his head in dismay.
Someone suddenly walked in between the guy and the Consul, blocking the Consul's view "Mm?... What's the meaning of this, Commander Crys?"
"I bid you sheathe your Blade, my Lord Consul."
"Come again? You want to take his shine for yourself?" How dare you defy the order of a Consul, you worthless puppet that should not have your own thoughts!
"I am simply stating there's no need. Why kill him now?"
"Hm?" The Consul took a small step back, asking him to speak more.
"His time is at an end... How brightly he shone, he himself knows better than anyone. Your actions will not make him brighter, I'm sure."
"M-Mutiny...?"
"Why not just let it go, V?" He turned to his right (and Crys' left) and saw M appeared silently.
"M...? Why are you here?"
"When their appointed hour arrives, should we not grant them an appropriate departure?"
"DON'T BE A FOOL!!! Then their life...arg urg... will be lost from circulation, will it not?!"
Crys: "Oh!" So that's the reason.
"Z also wishes it so."
"Z does? I refuse to believe it!" And M just looked at him in his eyes, insistent that he let it go. And he, weaker than M, could only abide, "V-very well... Do as you see fit, then." And he walked away therefore, back to his original position, with M watching him.
Crys turned around and face the soldier for a moment before turning to M, asking for permission, "If I may? Let me send him on..." And she nodded.
With a thin smile, the soldier also agreed him accompanying his final moments. Bringing out his flute, he played the melody, and the guy closed his eyes, immediately evaporated into golden motes. The other soldiers watched as he rose into the air. V put out his hand, regretful of the loss, perhaps another cup of lives lost from enjoyment, but could only put down his hand as there's nothing he could do right now. The others watched quietly as the golden motes rose and dissipated into the sky up ahead.
Day after day, night after night, the day passed untracked. Crys, forever playing his melody, forever on his way to play his melody, forever sending off those that needs be. How many had he sent on, he could no longer count. A thousand years passed, and we arrived at one of the occasion1. As he tucked his flute back into his pocket, Noah praised,
"That's a good tune. A Crys original?"
"Yeah, I suppose it is."
"Maybe I'll pinch it as well."
"You've got your own tunes, Noah. Those are... just as good. Wonderful, I'd say..."
"Really? I only... tweaked a few notes in a score from my previous Colony..."
"It's not the notes that matter... It's the feelings you imbue them with."
"Feelings?" He couldn't yet understand what he meant, but he nodded back, perhaps believe that, one day, he'll come to understand it.
"Raw emotion... It resonates." And he looked up at the blue sky with some cumulus clouds, and Noah followed glance.
That scene was played out in the movie theater, with the sound of tape playing in the background. Then, whiteout the screen, blinking as it came to an end. One of the Moebius watched, before the projector shut off and the lights that reflected onto his/her mask dimmed, leaving only his/her eyes glowing in the dark.
All form of noise like a thousand ghosts trying to escape a central entity, their wish not satisfied and hence unwilling to leave the living realm just yet. In Z it originates. As he spoke, the noise continued rambling in the background. "O all ye formless dead... Will you respond to the Queen's awakening?"
A light came online and shone directly on N, still depressed in his meditative form, unable to get out from his lost of M. Z looked at him for a few moments before continuing, "The Sword of the End..." And he recalled Noah's Ouroboros pulling it out from his core; the immeasurable power it wields that illuminates even the darkest of the night. And he recalled how Origin, from far above the sky, came crashing down the mountains and pillars among a dusty region.
"Of all the vestiges of Origin, strewn through the world, who knew this fragment yet remained?" The shockwave Origin sent as it cruised through the air, pushing it sidewards like the booming sound a jet blasted through that could be seen with naked eyes. Upon contact, an immeasurable heat was immediately generated and released, sending bright light like that of a bomb blasting, and fire clouds engulfed and destroyed all structures in its vicinity, sending smoke to the further vicinity.
"It is no longer one with the flow. We have no means of controlling it." The Moebius that was in the theater earlier spoke. Crys' melody played as he spoke.
Z therefore asked, "Will you go, then?"
"No... There's no need, is there?" He removed his helmet and revealed himself -- Crys. Moebius C, probably. "He will come to me. I know it. To share with me his feelings..."
At the location where they'd just found the penultimate piece2, Noah was examining the location of the final piece. A central circular disc with some thin rod connecting to one side. "Is it here?" He brought up a blue dot that signifies at one of the central of the thin rod.
Eunie: "It's not inside the Castle. O...K..." She therefore sighed, relieved. And she continued to think where that is, "So that puts it at..."
"GARDIN DEFENSE BASE?!!!" Shout both Lanz and Eunie, and they looked at each other overreacting.
Sena, never heard of that name, was wondering why they were so 'excited', "Gardin... what now?"
Noah explained to the former Agnians, "It's a guard outpost at the Castle rear. They bring new recruits there too, for basic training."
"Well, phew!" Sena don't understand why that sounds difficult. "You had me worried there for a second. Thought we'd be back in the Antol's3 jaws..."
Taion: "Even so, it's an enemy base. We can't expect to just waltz in without a fight." Noah agreed with him, and laid out his tactic,
"First, let's just try to scope it out."
The group arrived at the bridge leading to the Castle. At the end of the bridge was a closed door. No soldiers seen guarding the post, but neither could they pass from the locked front entrance. As they slowly walked towards it, Sena: "So, it's beyond this bridge...?"
Lanz: "Yeah..." Stopping and looking at it, he continued, "No chance from the front, not like this."
"Huh..." Noah scanned toward the left. There was a few floating island, and at the edge of their current island, there's a machinery for them to slide to the next island. "We can go across those islands. That way... we should be able to swing round the back. Then... it's in and out, fast as we can."
Eunie optimistically agreed, "Yeah. We go in, we get the shard, and we hightail it outta there."
"Right."
Mio: "I can't see another way... Let's do it." And she led the way while the rest followed. Noah left himself behind, looking attentively at the door at the end of the bridge, his mind wandered to unknown dimension. As he looked up at the Castle, his mind wandered even more. What is he eager to meet there? Or who is he waiting for? Who is waiting for him? Will the friends from the depth of memories reappears?
On a battlefield, the cliché exchanges of fires and blades. Far back, Noah and Crys watched without joining in. And Crys turned around and said something to him, and his eyes widened, thrust himself forward, as Crys did something unexpectable.4
Later, on some metal ground, perhaps in his barracks, Noah looked at the black flute that lies on the ground, or is it his bed?, thinking in his head, "Crys... You were a week away from your Homecoming... Why?"
"Huh..." O the heavy rock that weigh down your heart; shall it bring you back memories in the worst of time. You who don't have time to think about it in the first visit, occupied your mind with the annihilator; now the shackles had been released and the depth of your memories now returned.
"Noah? You OK?" Mio had stayed back, noticing his lagging behind. Taion and Eunie turned around to check his status.
"Hrnggg uh... Oh, yeah. Sorry about that." He therefore shook his head, to try to rock it out from occupying his attention.
"Hmm?" The other two, noticing his OK, had already continued their pathway. Mio wondered more, but still continued thereafter, leaving him to have had a final watch at the Castle before joining. Even he felt "Strange... Now of all times?"
The black fog that never dissipates clouded the area where containers and buildings installed themselves. The group had already snitched in, walking like gangsters occupying the central alleyway. The day was slightly dark, and street lights illuminates the vicinity yellow-orange. Nobody noticed them, because there's nobody. As they arrived at the second door leading up the Castle, Noah turned around, and the others followed, looking at the path they had just walked. It's... too quiet. A forest without birds chirping and insect calling for mates is the highest level of emergency -- something is lurking out there that scared these fragile small ones from revealing their existence.
Taion: "This is unsettling."
Lanz: "Not a single person anywhere in sight."
Eunie: "What's goin' on? Is this... 'cause we busted up the Annihilator?"5
Taion: "No, I very much doubt it. We didn't do any direct damage to the Castle itself."
Sena hypothesized, "Maybe it's because of the machiney Queeny?"
"Even so, we didn't actually free the soldiers here, right? And yet no one's here." He checked his iris and scanned the surrounding to gather more data. The blue dot that revealed the location of the shard now inside the Castle. "Huh? The shard's changing position! Hey, Noah! Look at this!6" Nope, he was looking at the Castle attentively, lost in his mind. "Noah?"
"It's a song." He had already heard it, amidst the background, the silent melody that played too easily filtered by the mind, esp. when he was speaking out louder than the song.
"What song?"
The other off-seer can hear, "You're right. It's a Kevesi one. The melody..."
"Yeah. And it's not just any melody. I know who's playing."
Mio dropped his head and recalled what she saw when they interlinked, or perhaps at the white smoke space after M's execution, where Crys stood at the top of the stage during their first Homecoming day, whom occupied his central attention the whole ceremony. "Crys..." And Noah turned and acknowledged.
Before he could acknowledge, "Wait, Crys...? Wasn't that the guy who was Noah's off-seeing instructor?" Eunie heard of him before.
"Yeah..."
"Huh? But, Crys is..."
Lanz: "Yeah. He died. Four years ago."
Taion: "Does that mean... he's been reborn, like Ethel?"
"No... I don't think that's it." And he drew out Lucky Sevel unsheathed; it oscillates strongly.
Lanz: "What then... like, Moebius?" After all, Joran was one, so it wasn't that shocking anymore to discover another.
"Hfffff...."
Mio shared, "There are two types of Moebius. The kind like Z and X... who were Moebius from the beginning... and humans... who became Moebius... like N, M, and Joran."
"Uh-huh...."
Sena: "S-so..." And Mio nodded to her. "Is this like, a trap?"
"Probably. But the Origin metal readout is real. It's definitely here." The sword oscillates so strongly it shone!7
Taion: "In we go?"
"Yeah. In we go."
"Wha-? Into the jaws?!" Eunie can't believe such decision making.
Noah had already taken down his eyepatches. "They're clearly aware that we're coming. But there's no one around. He's waiting. For me..."
Walking along the corridor inside the Castle. The blood red sky filled the chamber behind them. The others also took off their eyepatches; there's no need anymore. Then, the elated voice of Crys echoed, "Good to see you again, Noah."
"I knew it. Crys."
"Thank goodness. I'm so happy to see that you're still an off-seer."
"Crys! Come out! Reveal yourself!" The others were looking up to find the source of the voice, scanning; but nobody's there, only his voice.
"I'm waiting in the throne room. Take your time. I want you to come up here. Then I want you to play... that special melody." In front of them were the stairs that lead up to the elevator that lead up to the throne room.
"CRYS!"
"I'll be waiting."
"I first met Crys... on the day of a Homecoming." It was the first Homecoming they attended. Even before knowing him personally, he already fixated his eye on Crys.
Lanz: "I remember..." Same as Eunie. They were now standing in front of the elevator. But they were not ascending until they heard Noah's story.
"A short time later, I put in to become an off-seer. And then... we met again."
Start of Noah's Memories 1
Noah stood in front of a wall with deep carvings that looks like a bird, like a whale, like a creature fighting another creature, or was it just random?8 Then, Crys approached from behind. They were inside the Castle, at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the elevator to the throne room.
"The name's Noah, right?" He turned around and faced him, whom introduced himself, "I'm Crys. Starting today, I'll be your personal tutor. All right? Let's begin."
He wasn't replying, looked at him emotionless. Then, he looked down and saw the black flute he held out, handing him. His lips grew a faint smile as he looked back into Crys' golden iris, and he nodded. He therefore nodded back and grabbed the flute from him.
By an evening sky along fluffy brown grass that swayed with the wind, Crys was playing the melody, Noah listening.
Another night inside the barracks, Crys holding on to his flute and Noah his, teaching him how to take care of his flute, wiping it with a piece of cloth.
Another evening outside their camp area, Crys teaching him to learn by ear.
And after that, they had bread and pasta and tea, probably, for dinner. Noah took his bite first with Crys watching.
By the grass again, Noah's now the one playing, with Crys supervising.
The morning blue sky turned into an evening red. Approximately the same location; this time, by some waterfall and a pool. The grown up Noah and Crys standing side by side. He asked, "Hey, Crys? Tell me something. Back then on that day, why did you look so sad?"
"Which day?"
"The day of Homecoming. In Colony 14."
"Ahhhh... I see. So that's how I looked to you then." And he nodded, speaking of his observations,
"The others looked so happy. And the soldier, he was so pleased about it. But not you."
"I think... he probably felt content."
"Content?"
"He had lived through it all. Fought hard. And in serving his Colony, he found purpose." Noah waited for him to speak more. "I find... it's quite a tragic thing."
"But why? I mean, it was time for him to return Home."
"What do you think that entails?"
"Huh?"
"Reaching your life's expiry date? Surviving through so many battle?"
"Well, I..."
"Do you honestly believe... he was happy to disappear for such trivial reasons? That his smile belied no doubt? To me, he looked ready to cry."
"Huh..."
"Being unable to choose his end, merely accepting what comes next."
"Crys..."
"There's no joy in a contrived death, Noah."
End of Noah's Memories 1
"Contrived death, huh." It makes Eunie thinking. "At this point, I get him. Kind of, at least."
"On that day... he shook my belief. Was I really content? Content with the path I'd chosen to follow?"
"Huh..." Mio can felt him, him who always thinking about his path, day by day, night by night.
"And then he chose for himself. His end... would be by his design. I need to know. What was he thinking back then?9 And why now? Why has he appeared before me?" So he turned around and went up the elevator therefore.
Inside the throne room, Crys stood beside the mechanical Queen in front of the throne. Noah first dashed up, the others following behind; he stopped once he saw the person he'd been waiting for ages. "Crys..."
The Queen first spoke behind her mask, "Ouroboros. You dare to appear before me once again. Do you not value your lives? Such idiocy. You should never have shown your faces here again. But you leave me no choice. For sullying this consecrated ground, I will see to it... that justice is served!" And she immediately summoned 3 fireballs in mid-air.
The group summoned their blades to defend themselves, naturally, while awaiting her to gather enough forces before the release. Crys did nothing while it gathered for a while, until he started speaking few moments later, "What a terrible din." And he just raised his left hand, aimed it at the Queen's head, and blasted her off. She fell to the ground, unmasked once again, and black smoke rose from her mechanical head, awaiting another repair.
"Huh?" Noah was shocked by what he did. Isn't she his ally?
"Only an imitation. Its empty words could never ring true. Let me hear it... Noah. I want... a true melody." He walked himself into the middle of the stage to face them. He recalled his blade, one like Lanz but its fatness unbelievable.
Halfway through the battle, Noah sheathed his blade, shouting, "Why, Crys? Why become Moebius? Tell me... What would possess you to side with them?"
"So I could see you again... Noah." They had already sheathed their blades, seeing the battle not going to continue.
"But why?"
"Your sworn mission is to change this world, is it not?"
He fire-rapidly replied, "Yes."
"And is that because you're unhappy with the way it is?"
"It's wrong, and we have to correct it. That is all."
"I see... So relentless desire... is what drives you."
"Desire?"
"You fight for betterment. For ever greater aspirations."
"And what's wrong with that?"
Slightly shaking his head, "Nothing at all. It's human nature, after all. But you still don't understand. There's something you must learn."
"What's that?"
"To be content... with one's lot."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you see? Only the strong can ever hope to reach the fabled horizon that you seek. Your words must be backed up by strength in equal measure. Winners' logic." That immediately brought him back to what Joran had said,
"But birds... What can they possibly know of how a lowly worm feels?!"
Crys continued, "Then... what would you have become of the weak? Would you abandon them? You would refute their everything? End their story there?"
"Moebius are the ones doing that!"
He closed his eyes, "Noah... What you're trying to achieve here amounts to the same thing. You really think freeing Origin will revive the world and solve all our problems? You must surely have heard from the Queen of Agnus. The truth of this world." The collision. The engulfment.
Sena didn't get the storyline, "So what then? You're saying the Queen's lying?"
"No... Surely not."
"Then what?"
"But there is no guarantee."
"Huh..." The answer that she had avoided so far, distracted herself from thinking about such possibility. It would render their actions so long useless; it would pull up their anchor!
"If... If the Queen is wrong, and the world is not created anew... what happens then?"
"Huh?"
"What if this is some flight of fancy? What if you've been taken in, staking your lives, on a whim? Who's accountable? I ask you that."
"Um... Well, I..."
Noah took over as she stuttered, "I think... it's still the right thing to do."
"Oh?"
"It was your smile... Crys." That day when he ended his life. "I get it now. I know why you were smiling back then. 'I'm good here.' I get what you meant now. You asked me once... if I would keep moving. And my answer..."
"Tell me, Noah."
Unwaveringly, "I will. To the end. So that I can treasure those final moments..."
"Final..."
"When that hour is upon me... I want to look back and smile..." M's smile, Joran's smile, Crys's smile. "Then I'll be... 'good'." Crys sterned his eyebrow a little. "And to come out smiling... we all have to choose where our lives take us. For our future selves... And yet... lack of choice is enough to break a person." The final cries of Ethel and Cammuravi, the out-of-mind elation of Joran, the dissatisfaction of Shania, M's thought on jumping off a cliff, N's emotionless face when he killed the people of the City finally, "They struggle, suffer... clawing their way through endless fog. A world without choice... That's wrong. If death is a lie in this world, it deserves to end."
"So you'd rather perish along with the world."
"I just... I just want to cut this world free from Moebius."
"Whatever the consequences?"
"Yeah. Otherwise... the Queen would never have told us the things she did. We take everything as it comes. And we're afforded so little. Still..." And he clenched both palm into fist, looking at the floor, "No matter how slim a chance we might have, it's a chance. So if that's an option we can take... Then I'll take it!" As his head raised, he no longer wavers.
And Crys put up a smile on his face, "Noah. Your melody... I hear it loud and clear. Now show it to me. YOUR CONVICTION... AND YOUR SMILE!!!" And the throne started transforming as he finished his words, changing into a mecha robot we'd seen before in Agnus Castle's floating throne. Then Crys teleported onto the mecha robot10 and overlook the battle.
The giant mecha robot detached and crash to the ground. Electric sparkles at its joint. Crys held on to the balcony's handle tight as it impacted the ground. Noah, seeing him not in good shape, quickly sheathed his blade and ran up to him, dragging him out of the balcony and laid him down, back on the robot.
After he managed to relax a bit, he opened his eyes softly and looked at Noah's, softly speaking, "It's... a beautiful song... Noah."
"Hngggggh" He snuffed his tears.
"Noah... The one who made me Moebius... was Z."
"Haaaaarghh"
"And it wasn't just me. J too. And N... and M... All of us were human once, and Z changed our very being."
"Why? Why would he do that to you?"
"For that... you'd be best off asking Z himself... But listen... Noah... I think in the end, I was happy... to have become Moebius... How could I not be... after hearing such a wonderful song."
"Crys..."
"Moebius are... an entity bound by the confines of this world. Strong... yet somehow fragile... And in their fragility11... they crave only the 'now', fearing to tread even a single step towards the future..."
"Hah..."
"I chose... the path of the off-seer... because I had a thought." He thought about the mecha-Queen waving her hands up as if to embrace. The guy whom reached his expiry date at Noah's first Homecoming disappeared into golden motes therefore. "The sender, and the ones being sent... I wanted to learn exactly what it was... that connected them."
The rest of the group, still standing far from the two, listened in the background as they spoke, feeling touched themselves.
Crys continued, "Though we may be forgotten... our feelings live on. It is through our melodies that we carry them on. I think... I once told you something... to that effect?"
And he nodded in remembrance, "Yeah."
"There's a place doing just that: The City."
"The City is?" He didn't know that, even though he'd visited it already. What's Crys's point of view?
"The many lives born of the City... Lives, whose existence was never recorded in Origin..." Noah recalled when they saw the new baby for the first time being born in the maternity ward. "They are our future. They themselves are proof of the coming winds of change."
"I think... I see..."
And he gently nodded. He tried to draw more breathe, and while still spoke softly, spoke louder softly, but he's clearly losing Qi, "They are... our hope. Just as you once were, they too are the product of Ouroboros's will.12" And he scanned the rest of the group. "And that... is something that can never die."
"Crys... You knew everything all along..."
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaa..." And he relaxed his muscles and rested his head down on the mecha robot's body, looking up as if he saw the sky that was awaiting his return. "Noah... One last thing."
And he already knew what it was that he wanted. He stood up, took the flute from his pocket, held it in his hands. After looking at Crys for one last moment, to which Crys nodded back to him, he carefully placed the flute to his lips, and started to play Crys's melody.
Lanz closed his eyes to enjoy the melody. Eunie watched with teary eyes at the heartbreaking scene. Even Taion can't resist shedding tears. Nor do Riku and Manana.
Crys closed his eyes as he heard the melody to send him on. He whom had send others on, now it's his turn to be sent on. He recalled his moments with Noah for the current life Noah's living, the bits and pieces that they shared were among the happiest; someone whom had heritage his legacy except his voice, for which Noah had found his. One first need to know how to play, only then one can think philosophically. For if one don't, one'll be too burdened by the playing that used up too much mental energy from thinking what life is.
Sena turned to Mio, asked, "Aren't you gonna...?"
She turned to her and shook her head. She knew what he wants; it's not a shared feeling; it's his feelings towards him. And so he would have it all. As blue cyan light started glowing on Crys's body nearing the end of the melody, motes started to rise thereafter, Crys gave his last words, "You really... do play the most beautiful tune..." Noah played with his eyes closed, but muscle contracted as he heard Crys's words, "Go now, Noah... Sing your song... for all to hear..." As tears gathered at the tip of his eyes, Crys finally gone for good. He opened his eyes just in time to see him gone.
The motes shot up into the sky; globules of motes spiraled up among individuals. He put down the flutes and looked up; another friend gone, no more being reborn, at least not before time starts again.
As they walked out of the Castle, they were quiet, giving Noah time to settle his feelings. Other soldiers previously fainted already woken up from their dreams, still feeling drowsy from forced asleep, shaking their head as they walked out of the quarters lining the defense base. Noah stopped and turned around to have a last look at the Castle. The throne room at the top of the segment, very near the sky, near to heaven. And his eyes widened. The rain dripped from the sky, as if crying at the loss of a loved ones.13
Mio watched his reaction turned a little brighter and let out a sigh of relief, "Huh..." She then turned to look at where he's looking.
Lanz looked the same direction, but turned around to ask, "Noah..."
"Hm?"
"So those things Crys said... What was that all about?"
"Finding value."
"What now?"
He turned around and looked at the soldiers that occupied the roads, some speaking, some traversing. "Crys... When he played his off-seer song, he conveyed his wish to me. His wish... that I would come to find value, in all things."
Taion: "He entrusted it all to you, Noah. Ergo... The rest is history."
"Yeah... But it's so..."
Mio voiced out his thought, "Sad, isn't it?" And he nodded. Can't use a more descriptive word, but it works out all right.
He therefore made up his mind. "I'm going. For sure. His wishes won't be in vain as we march... on Origin."
Origin.
The black fog so thick in the Castle cannot prevent Z from looking at the group's current situation on the cinema screen. The thousands of undead soul still whispering, captured inside his body. "Do you truly want it thus, o ye voices? Then let me enunciate, emphatically so, the rules to which this world adheres, for the benefit of us all."
Footnotes:
1: morning time
2: Because you can choose where you search the penultimate piece, this location changes dynamically.
3: An insect-like enemy.
4: Unknown to us what it is.
5: Bro, how long that is already? You think the effect can last till now?
6: This isn't shouted out, just higher tone.
7: Actually, it's the streetlight that shone on it, reflected from it, that caused it to shine; but hey, isn't it more awesome to hear that oscillation creates energy and making it shine?
8: OK, it looks like Bionis fighting Mechonis, if you watched Xenoblade 1 before.
9: Can he really recall without his memory cheating on him? We don't know.
10: There's a one-man size balcony in front of it.
11: Talk about antifragile.
12: soft staccato voice for those bold italics.
13: Only in the no-subtitle video.