Nobody In Their Right Mind

[10.17.01] » by White Crescent

His pepper and salt hair had not been combed for days. His coat was already starting to gather dust. His mind was already starting to slip away….

There he sat, alone, by his deceased wife's body long dead. It had been four-no six, was it? He had lost count of the days that had passed. All he remembered was a day, a bright summer day, a speeding blue car, and a blond-haired wife ecstatic about their wedding anniversary.

His wife saw him not as an evil man-but an inspired husband whose desire was to straighten all of Galbaldia.

It had all happened in a blink of an eye. His wife wearing shades and non-revealing clothes, protected secretly by a dozen or so secret agents was crossing the streets when a car sped, hit his wife, and then sped again.

It would not have been so bad. Galbaldia's technology allowed people, injured far more than his wife had been, to survive and live a normal life once again in less than a year.

But it was made worse, far worse, by an activist.

An inhuman activist who thought only of the so-called 'universal good' came and had to add his two-cents.

This inhuman activist was someone who thought someone, innocent or not, should die just because she was related to one 'evil man'.

The activist had injected air into his lovely wife's bloodstream, spelling death.

He buried his face into the bed sheets and cried.

What had his wife done to deserve this?

Whatever did come into those rebels' minds to kill his wife?

Nobody in their right mind would do that?

"Carol…Carol….Carol" he murmured as he cried. He wished that one of those pale and frail hands would reach out and place itself over his head.

But the truth… the truth was there. She, his beloved Carol was dead.

"Carol…. Carol….Carol…" he cried in a voice much louder.

The man who now cried for comfort was the shadow of a great and strict dictator, Vinzer Deling.

"Carol… Carol….Car-" he stopped and stood up.

"CAROL! BRING BACK MY WIFE! DAMN YOU! BRING HER BACK!" He screamed angrily, and then returned to his crying position to cry and beg for her comfort once again.

Nobody in their right mind would do that…. Nobody…..

~~*~~

Light flooded in his office at the pull of a string.

"What do you want?" He growled.

It had been a week before his aids could convince him to sober up and go back to work. A week, but it was not because he got tired of crying and waiting for the impossible to happen.

It was because a rebel group had decided to pull an attempt to bring the Presidential Palace to rubbles.

Of course, they did not succeed.

What great time they chose to pull an attempt….

They were caught. And as soon as the dictator got hold of their names and a bit of info about what they had attempted, he, without a single thought of hesitation, ordered them to be executed publicly right in front of the great Victory Gate-which represented the power of Galbaldia.

Amateurs…he remembered quoting that very word as he turned away and disappeared into the halls after the final of the rebels were gunned down.

All this of course stirred great anger to all the rebels, especially those from Timber which was in fact the hometown of the rebels he had executed.

But their grief was none compared to what the dictator had suffered.

"S-sir-" his middle-aged aid shook violently for a moment before he spoke.

What nerve, Vinzer said to himself, this man has to disturb me, still he is quite impressive to have the courage to do this….

He smirked and turned around ready to scream enough to make this man faint with fear.

"Get to the point! You do realize how many times I have replaced some of my staff just because they try to dally?" He screamed.

The man stiffened, but amazingly did not faint.

How many months had passed since his dear wife's death? Fifteen months?

Probably Fifteen and a half, and in those time, he had replaced roughly about two hundred and fourteen people.

Most of them that were 'replaced'-a better word would be eradicated, no a simpler word would be killed-were from the offices which often require daily contact with the dictator.

How lucky they were…. Killed before they could know the true anger of the great Vinzer Deling….

"A Sorceress is waiting for you at the confere-"The man, in record time, said. But before the man could finish, a bullet tore through his chest.

"Stop talking rubbish." He hissed as he blew the smoke coming out of his classic revolver.

He closed the blinds again and darkness enveloped the whole office.

He felt so home in the dark-felt so free.

Was death like this?

He slid the main drawer of his desk open and placed his revolver into a protective box.

He closed his eyes then and whispered through the darkness-no called through the darkness for his wife…. "Carol…Carol…." He called in a whisper.

His hand searched into his desk like an addict for the framed picture of his beloved wife.

When he finally found it, he quickly snatched it out of the desk and stood up.

He hugged it selfishly like a child does to a bag of candy. He was afraid that someone would take that memento away, so afraid.

After less than minute of hugging, he took the framed picture with both of his hands, held it up to his face, took a glance and then smiled suddenly.

Carol looked so wonderful! Her golden hair was kept in a neat braid. Her emerald eyes', even though she was wearing silver-framed spectacles, still featured its mystical glint that had captured young man Vinzer's heart thirty years ago. Her slim frame remained the same through the years. Such a lovely lady, Carol was.

He also noticed the almost unnoticeable belly Carol had.

Carol was pregnant in the picture-at least twelve years ago she was. But after their car, was rammed into by a 'rebel's car', Carol lost the baby, with it the chance to have any more.

With that memory, he started banging the frame against his head.

No tears fell, but curses were uttered as well as regrets and apologies.

"There is no need to destroy your mind with such a memory." A female voice hissed.

At that moment, his hands froze and the framed picture slipped from them and floated in an air-an impossible feat, unless the man which now lay dead on the floor with his blood staining the carpet was right.

He spun around to all directions in an attempt to find the hissing voice's owner.

He found no one.

But he felt no fear, none yet that is….-he was a man who had faced a lot of so-called impossible events in a lifetime's span-a hissing voice and a now gyrating picture was nothing to be feared, yet.

His eyes then rested on the big mahogany doors north of his desk.

He crouched down and reached for the revolver in his drawer.

But he was not able to draw it. For the voice spoke again:

"There is no need for violence, my child. I have come not to wage war but to build an alliance…"

He refused.

No, nothing would get to him!

He drew his gun and aimed it at the doors' direction.

"Fool! But very well, you are not the man after all to be convinced so easily…" the voice stated.

He placed a ready hand on the hammer and pushed it down. His hand was ready to fire when the door became like liquid and a tall woman wearing exotic-if not revealing- deep-violet clothing and a crimson red glass mask that made this woman's face a shrouded mystery.

The woman had entered through the door and not by the door.

The revolver fell to the floor with a dull thud and became forgotten.

Vinzer stood there, his body gelatinous with fear.

"Greetings, President Vinzer Deling." The woman politely greeted-too politely perhaps.

Vinzer took time to gather his wits and when he did so, one word entered his confused mind.

"Witch!" He screamed. "You're a witch!"

The woman seemed to have smiled with his reaction, but nevertheless she waved her hand and ordered the framed-picture of Carol to flying towards her.

Her talons made a screech as they came into contact with the frame's glass.

"Your wife?" She asked, but waited not for response. "If I am right, she died a little more than a year before-"

She knew how to push his buttons!

"Shut up! Why are you here?!" He questioned with gritted teeth.

"Hahahaha….. How pathetic….. Why, I am here to help you! To do business, my child!" announced the woman in a voice to be feared.

"Who would be in his right mind to make a deal with a witch like you?" He growled. The witch only shook her head in a way that she seemed to be mocking him. " Witches aren't to be trusted! You devil-spawns!" he added.

"That is why the whole world fears us-no me. For I am a witch. Imagine Galbaldia-with the only witch in the world! How Galbaldia would fair! Watch those neighboring countries bow down to you!-" the witch explained-no cried with her hands thrown up in the air.

"Witches aren't to be trusted! Nobody in their right mind would! NOBODY!" He screamed. And to add to the authority and firmness of his voice was the loud banging his hands made absent-mindedly.

"Hahahahaha…." The witch laughed.

"Stop it…" he hissed. The witch didn't. "I SAID STOP IT!"

Almost immediately after his scream, the witch returned to convincing him.

"That was what you said when your wife died. Nobody in their right mind, you believed, would do that… Wake up, my child, think about the life of the one who killed your wife? Does he not have a normal life? Do you not have times when you wish for death?" The witch then made herself float to his side.

Her perfume intoxicated him. It made it hard for him to think.

"You do not want death!" she whispered boldly.

"What……do…….I….want?" he stammered. He couldn't think. His emotions were getting the best of him.

Memories flooded his mind. Hatred. Anger. Pain. Loneliness.

One of her hands snaked into his shirt and started rubbing his flesh while the other surrounded his neck and caressed his cheeks.

"You want death… Revenge. You want them to suffer. All of them who opposes you. You want no patience. You want no other law, my child. All you want is your law. I can see it now….. the perfect Galbaldia. Abolish those laws that I know you despise my child. In future we shall have your Galbaldia. Nobody else will rule, nobody but you…. and me…" the witch whispered.

His hand snatched the hand caressing his cheek and started to kiss it carnally.

"With a witch?" he questioned as he spun around and pinned her to the wall.

He started kissing her in every part he could reach.

He felt so young. So young in fact that he felt so free.

Freed by a witch.

"With me, my child. With Edea………."

~~*~~

Nobody in their right mind would love a witch……. Nobody but me. But who can tell if you're in the right mind or not? It's all the same, isn't it?

~~*~~

Vinzer awoke in his bed feeling ages younger.

Beside him was Edea, her hair flowing freely down, and her face fully revealed. Without her crown of horns and jewels, she very much looked like an 'ordinary' and gorgeous woman.

Pity she was no longer a virgin … pity.

"Today," Edea started, "We will announce to the whole world our alliance! Watch them tremble and fall down to their knees."

She opened her arms and pulled Vinzer close to her naked body.

"We shall reign together, my child….we shall…we shall…" she whispered as she rocked him in her arms.

We shall…we shall……. Her words repeated in his mind over and over.

No more memories haunted him.

Carol was forgotten.

How long was she forgotten?

Six months-that was how long she was forgotten.

Her old framed-picture no longer resided in his drawer-it now resided in the Presidential Palace's storeroom. Forgotten and starting to gather cobwebs.

He pulled away and then stood up.

"I'll go call the troops to capture Dollet's satellite. Then we will leave for Timber." He announced firmly.

Edea slipped out of her bed and hugged him from the back.

"That would be wonderful. How shall you deal with the SeeDs then?"

The question came out of the blue.

SeeDs! SeeDs! The group with one common goal-that is to fight Sorceresses.

No! "I will not let anything happen to my Sorceress…." He said voicing his thoughts.

"Good.." And with that she gave him a kiss.

What bliss!

Her kiss, he thought was neither too sweet nor too bitter-so perfect! So perfect!

It had seemed like an eternity before they parted and his sorceress started dressing herself.

He now considered himself as her knight…. Her knight?

Was he truly a knight? Or was he just a puppet?

He shrugged those thoughts off and dressed himself-a new day awaited them.

A new era of pure terror in which they would rule was to start that night.

The nightmare was about to begin…..

~~*~~

I've heard rumors of her being married with SeeD from one of my staff. Pity though, I killed her before she could explain more…. But what was there to know? Edea loved me, and I loved her in return. How many nights have I spent with her in bliss? Her husband no longer matters!

Nobody in her right mind would live her husband just like that!

Unless there truly was no love….

Nobody in his or her right mind would dare defy us! Nobody…. Nobody….

Even if my wife were to rise up from her grave!

But she is dead-long gone and buried in my past.

My Sorceress awaits……

~~*~~

The silver blade slightly cut his neck.

Vinzer could not truly identify who it was who had suddenly come and held him with a blade so dangerously close to his throat.

But he saw his attacker's comrade, or so it seemed; A teenaged young woman with golden hair pulled up, wielding a deadly looking whip.

The way his attacker's looked and attacked, he thought, was not that of normal rebels.

They were experts.

He had assumptions that his attackers were SeeDs… But it was not until three other teenagers came into the scene and started arguing that his assumptions were made right.

Apparently, it was out of the plan for Vinzer to be handled like that.

He couldn't really remember or rather hear what the auburn-haired young man, or the whip-wielding blonde was talking about-because his heart was beating so fast-but from the way they were looking as they talked it was clear that they disagreed with what his holder was doing.

The only thing he had recognized was the word "Garden".

Sensing their uncertainty, he threatened them.

He threatened that if anything happened to him-the whole Galbaldian army would come after Garden.

He was waiting to see their reactions-unfortunately though, his captor, being much younger than he was, and with a blade just below his chin, managed to drag hi into another room.

That was where his Sorceress saved her.

Wonderful Edea!

Lovely Edea!

She had saved him from death!

He did not see whatever his lover did to the unfortunate young man-whom as Vinzer left, he recognized as one who was extremely capable and handsome-for he ran away to the safety of his private train.

Once inside the train, he smirked at the news a frightened intelligence officer reported to him.

"The Gerogero prototype was destroyed, Mr. President." The officer had whispered before hastily sprinting away to the next carriage before he could register any emotion.

Amateurs…. That was the only thing he could describe those who had actually believed the information he spread….. Amateurs…..

~~*~~

Night..Night had come so easily.

Who in their right would have thought about it….?

No, nobody in their right mind would have denied it……

Nobody in their right mind wouldn't have seen it coming……..

Nobody but me…..

And it was all because of an ambitious love……

All because I had forsaken and forgotten my wife……

~~*~~

His eyes traveled up and down Edea's slim body-his eyes especially stayed for the longest time to her bare chest which showed quite a lot of her cleavage-as she walked regally to his direction.

She was gorgeous.

She had all the right to rule with him! All!

She looked a lot like a goddess-a goddess of the endless night!

What beauty!

The girl slowly following his beloved Edea reminded him of the happenings earlier in the day for some reason.

Who was she?

Vinzer shook his head and remembered Edea's words before he had left her to take some time with herself.

"I have yet to think about my sacrifice, my child….." she'd said.

So, he thought, you have found a sacrifice? Just perfect….

He turned to face the crowd as Edea finally reached the podium.

The large crowd waving flags for the celebrations cheered as they finally saw their Sorceress-the one who would help Galbaldia become the most powerful in the world.

Vinzer's face wore a smile with pride.

This was his Sorceress. His. And only His.

His beloved Sorceress opened her soft lips and then spoke in a voice so soft at first.

"Lowlifes." She started gently. "…. Shameless filthy wretches…" her voice grew louder and harder.

"How you celebrate my ascension with such joy." She stated.

From this Vinzer felt that something was the matter. His sorceress was not being herself…

"Hailing the very one whom you have condemned for generations…." She continued.

"Edea…" Vinzer whispered quietly. "Edea…."

"Have you no shame?" she questioned firmly.

"What happened to the evil, ruthless, sorceress of your fantasies?" she chided, then hushed again when she spoke again.

The way she spoke troubled Vinzer deeply. This was not the Edea he knew…..

"The cold-blooded tyrant that slaughtered countless men and destroyed many

nations?" she asked again.

His fears doubled.

"Where is she now?" Her voice was reduced to nothing but a soft provoking whisper that was barely audible.

She paused. His felt as if his heart had stopped beating while waiting for her answer-the answer that would answer his nightmares.

"She stands before your very eyes to become your new ruler. HAHAHAHAHA."

Her laughs sent chills to his spine.

This was a side of Edea he never knew.

His mind raced.

He should stop her and calm her down.

Maybe something was wrong…

His mind was killing him for he cared for his beloved so much! So much!

He was afraid-was his Edea gone?

"A new era has just begun." She stated calmly, marking the end of her speech.

He decided to act.

He took a step forward and then asked with much worry.

"Edea….are you alright?" he asked with a hand raised and ready to be placed on his Sorceress' shoulder.

When his Edea made no answer, he asked again.

"Ede……!"

Before he could finish he gasped as Edea's hand quickly grabbed him by the neck and lifted him with unbelievable strength off the ground.

Pain flowed through his body for what seemed like ages.

He felt his life was being drained.

Then everything stopped and Edea threw him to the ground with much force-at that moment he didn't know what he felt-heat or cold.

Everything was a haze.

"This is reality." Edea stated with her voice so sly.

"Nobody can help you." she continued.

"Sit back and enjoy the show." Were her final vocal words before he left him to die.

"Edea….Edea…Edea.." he whispered at first, while struggling for air as he watched her disappear from his sight.

But in his final seconds, he uttered a different name.

"Carol……"

~~*~~

'Why Edea? Why?!'

'HAHAHAHA! What a fool to believe such a thing!'

'Wha-'

'Nobody in his right mind would make a mistake like you did!'

'….'

'HAHAHAHA! FOOLISH LOVE-SIKK MAN!'

'……Edea….'

'You wanted love……. And all I had to do was to give this body…. You were like a dog while I was the master! A puppet! A puppet, a useless puppet! HAHAHA!'

'…..Edea!…..I knew I shouldn't-'

'But you did… you did…. HAHAHA! How blind love has made you! HAHAHA! What fun it is to play with your emotions! How delicious your pain and sufferings are….. My beast and I shall have a feast with all your pain!'

'….WITCH!'

'HAHAHA! I may be a witch, but I am your master!…… Do you truly believe that Edea ever loved you?'

'What the hell do you mean?!'

'When I leave this vessel and possess a much powerful vessel-Do you think she will even know what I have done with you? She may know some things that I have forced her body to do, but she'll never know about your love! Or any of the nights you went in her body…..'

'Who are you?!'

'I am….. I am…… I am….. You want to know my name? Very well, this is your final answer from me-I am the great and omniscient Sorceress Ultimecia from the distant future. Now die a painful death and add to my beast's and my power.'

~~*~~