Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy.

Well, sorry it took so long but I hope you liked the chapter. Nobody review my last one so I feel a little sad and forgotten.

Chapter 13: The Dream

A strange, load buzzing woke Sara up from her slumber. It took her several seconds to register the fact that it was the alarm clock which lay on a shelf next to her bed. Sara shut down the alarm and sat up in her bed. Looking around, Sara gave out a gasp.

She was in her room, yet somehow the normally familiar surroundings seemed strange and unreal. There was a wooden desk with an outdated computer on it to the right of her bed, a wooden bookshelf next to that, and a closet in its usual place on the east side of the room. Through the window Sara could see the sun starting to rise up in the morning sky. Checking the alarm clock Sara saw that it was 6:00 a.m. It was the time she would get up to get ready for school.

Sara jumped out of bed and her bare feet touched the cold hardwood floor. She looked into a mirror above the bureau opposite the door. She was in her nightgown. The very same one she had slept in before she had been sent to Gaia if her memory served her correctly.

Sara frowned at her predicament. It was as if her recent escapades never happened, as if it were all some long and elaborate dream. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she walked into the bathroom down the hall and washed her face. She also gave her teeth a good scrubbing, which she figured they needed badly. After finally relieving herself and washing her hands she walked downstairs.

Everything here seemed typical also. The familiar smell of breakfast wafted into her nose and made her stomach rumble. Her mother was cooking eggs and bacon, which was a morning favorite of Sara’s father. Sara’s mother looked over toward her and asked in Japanese, “Would you like some?”

Sara nodded and took a seat next to her father at the dining room table. He was reading a newspaper with interest, and it wasn’t until her mother served breakfast that he put it down. Sara’s father had blonde hair and green eyes and was averagely built. Sara’s mother had long black hair and brown eyes and was slightly taller than the average woman at 5’7”.

“Hey sleepyhead,” her father greeted, “Did you sleep well?”

Sara nodded. “I had this really odd dream though.”

Sara’s mother had finished getting her own food and spoke yet again in Japanese with a smile, “Now, what are you all talking about in English?”

Sara smiled. She knew that her mother understood and spoke English perfectly. Still, to humor her Sara replied in Japanese, “I had a strange dream last night that I was in another world. There was magic and I met all sorts of people.”

Sara’s mother replied, “Speaking of meeting people, you do remember that you are going to see your great-grandmother today, right?”

Sara frowned slightly. “We are?”

She nodded and continued, “Yes. After your classes.”

Sara remained silent. Thinking it over, she came to the most likely conclusion that they were going to visit her grave. Finishing up her breakfast, she continued her morning routine and hopped on the bus to her school.

While she did try her best, Sara found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on what her professors were saying. Her mind continuously wandered back to Gaia, and to the friends she had made there. Could all that have possibly been just a dream? Sara refused to wrap her mind around that conclusion. She had a good imagination, yes, but not that good. Maybe her videogame obsessed friend Ashley, but not herself.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Ashley’s voice snapped Sara out of her thoughts. Sara answered, “Yeah, why?”

Ashley replied, “Well, for one thing you’re staring mindlessly at your food. Second of all, you just sat there while I gave the entire explanation of the plot of Final Fantasy IV, something you’d never let me do.”

Shiori, sitting to the right of Sara and across from Ashley replied, “She’s just got a lot on her mind. Sara, you’re to visit your great-grandmother today, aren’t you?”

Sara nodded, “I’m trying to figure that out too. Mom said that we’re going to visit her, not her grave. It could be just a misunderstanding, but it kinda creeps me out.”

Shiori gave an understanding nod. “You’re going through a confusing time right now. You do not know what is real and what is not. Yet fear not, because you will learn it yet.”

Sara gave a confused glance at her friend. Before Sara could ask what Shiori meant, the bell rang and her friends bid their goodbyes without another word.

Whatever concentration ability that Sara previously had went straight out the window she stared out of. Luckily, the day went by oddly fast so Sara could go immediately home.

Her mother was waiting outside the house and as soon as Sara approached the door she said, “I’ve laid out the outfit I want you to wear on your bed for you.”

Sara replied thanked her mother and walked upstairs to change and was startled by the outfit her mother had picked out.

On her bed were the clothes she had on before she had passed out in Gaia: a red shirt and blue jeans and to top it all off was the emerald crystal Sara had grown used to carrying. The crystal, as faded as it was in Gaia, was now strapped on a chain and made into a necklace. Sara would have taken this time to further ponder her situation but a honk from the car and the hurried yelling from her father rushed her to change.

Sara changed out of the outfit she was already wearing, a white shirt with an unbuttoned light floral pattern jacket and blue jeans and reluctantly changed into her old ones. She then quickly put the necklace on and ran out to the car.

After riding in the car for several minutes, Sara ventured to ask, “Mom? Where did I get this necklace?”

Her mother replied, “Don’t you remember? Your great-grandmother gave it to you almost two weeks ago.”

Sara asked, “How is that possible?”

Her mother’s usual joyful expression was replaced by a serious one. “You shall learn soon enough.”

Her father then said, “We’re here!”

He parked on the side of the road (the left side, if you need to know) and Sara looked out the window.

They had parked beside a large garden. Flowers grew untamed throughout the grassy lawn, and there was a miniature waterfall toward the back of the garden. Two cherry trees stood on either side of a figure standing with its back toward the car.

Without a second glance at her parents, Sara stepped out of the car and cautiously approached the figure while the various fragrances from the foliage made her feel slightly lightheaded.

“You have come, I see.”

Sara stopped dead in her tracks, a few feet away from the woman who had just spoken to her. The woman turned around, and Sara got her first real glimpse of her.

This woman had hair the same color as Sara’s, yet instead of being merely shoulder length it almost touched the flowers blooming at her feet. She had very fair skin, and eyes as green as emeralds. She also wore a headband with two turquoise bands and a white one in the middle with an emerald neatly affixed to it. She was wearing a robe with a turquoise and white color scheme.

The sleeves of her robe extended slightly past her hands, and were turquoise above and under the red seams it faded out into white. The robe appeared to be almost like a dress covered in a cloak, the cloak a turquoise color while the dress underneath white. To top this entire ethereal figure off, she seemed to glow and light up the entire garden.

Sara asked, “Are you my great-grandmother Mina Hysaro?”

She nodded, “I am.”

Sara shook her head. “I get it. I’m dreaming. None of this is real.”

Mina replied, “Yes and no. Your corporeal form lies in Gaia, while your soul has returned here to Earth.”

Sara looked perplexed. “Why?”

Mina answered, “I have called it here.”

This didn’t help. “Again, why?”

Mina laughed and said, “To explain that I must go back to the beginning, even before you first picked up the crystal of wind.”

Sara carefully sat down trying to avoid sitting on the multitude of flowers running rampant and said, “I’m all ears.”

“You see, I originated as a Gaian, yet I came here to Earth.”

Sara interrupted, “How’d you do that?”

Mina shook her head. “I do not feel you are ready to hear that.”

Sara looked disappointed, yet nodded for her to continue her story. “While I had moved to Earth, my mind couldn’t let thoughts of Gaia behind. I started to wonder if Gaia would ever be salvaged. So, when cancer claimed my life I became a spirit destined to roam the worlds until my business is done.

“When I traveled back to Gaia, I happened upon three other spirits who had resolved to put right what had gone wrong in that world by taking on the responsibility of an elemental crystal. They did this in an attempt to foil the four Fiends draining power from the elements. Yet while they had earth, fire, and water, they were useless without wind. So being who I am, I took on this element.”

Sara asked, “Who are the other spirits?”

“The representative of earth is a wise old scholar from Melmond. Fire is embodied by a Sage from Crescent Lake. Responsibility of water is a wizard from Onrac, and I represent wind.”

“So where are you from?”

Mina smiled goodheartedly and said, “That you shall learn in time, my child.”

Sara guessed, “So, these spirits gave out the crystals, didn’t they?”

“Yes we did. Earth was given to Homac Higashi, the grandson of a famous black mage from Melmond. Fire was given to Elayne Toroth. A troublemaker to say the least, but talented as an up-and-coming ninja with a fiery personality. Water was given to his brother Doma Toroth, with a strong sense of justice and a good heart. You were given the wind crystal, as you should already know.”

Sara asked, “But why me? Why not some other person, perhaps a white mage with more experience?”

Mina replied, “Because I wanted to keep the wind with the wind. Yes, it was a gamble that the other spirits wished I didn’t take. One said you wouldn’t care what was happening to Gaia.”

“That’s silly. I would’ve cared no matter where the place is.”

Mina smiled and continued, “That’s why I didn’t listen to him. I knew that any great-grandchild of mine would be kindhearted enough to help a world that was not her own. The other said that you would fall into a cultural shock and be useless to start out with.”

Sara laughed and said, “I would have thought that of myself too if I didn’t know any better now.”

“The third one was tricky. He said that while you would care and you would quickly get over the introduction of a new world there was no guarantee that you would have the same healing abilities as I did. That did worry me some, yet you’ve shone through marvelously.”

Sara asked, “So, again: Why am I here?”

Mina answered, “I wasn’t sure if you were doing this out of the goodness of your own heart or out of obligation.”

Sara opened her mouth to say something, yet words wouldn’t come. She wondered herself: why was she doing this? Why had she taken on the responsibility of a planet to which she didn’t belong? Sara couldn’t answer this honestly and the more she thought about it the more it made her wonder.

“That is why you are here.”

Sara asked, “What difference does it make anyway?”

“If you do not wish to risk your life for others, then I do not want to force this task upon you. So you have a choice: You an either go back into your car…”

Mina pointed toward the black vehicle. Sara noticed that her parents inside weren’t moving. It was as if they were cryogenically frozen. “…and remain in the world were you were born, or you can return to Gaia and resume your quest.”

Mina pointed toward a point up in the sky and Sara could see herself lying on a bed. It was dark, and everyone was asleep also. Elayne and Doma had fallen asleep against the wall, while Homac’s upper body was on the bed Sara was laying upon.

Sara asked, “If I choose to go to Gaia…will I be able to return?”

Mina replied, “That is not the question. The question is: Do you cast away the traveling companions whom you hardly know to return to a life in which you’ve grown accustomed to, or do you risk never seeing your family and friends again in order to attempt to save Gaia?”

Sara grew silent for a long time as she pondered the choice. How could her great-grandmother stand there and tell her to give up her friends and family or throw away any chance of Gaia being saved? After one final look at her parents, Sara finally gave her answer.

“I can’t. I can’t cast away my family and friends, yet I also can’t condemn Gaia to perish.”

Sara stood up and looked Mina straight in the eye with a very serious look upon her face. “The point is that I cannot choose one or the other. And so…”

Sara took a deep breath and carefully gave a second thought to what she had decided. Mina stood there in anticipation of Sara’s answer. “I choose to continue. I can’t be selfish and throw away a planet full of people for only a handful of people. You appointed me with a task and whether I like it or not, I must complete it. It has nothing to do with me or my wants; it has to do with what is best for everyone. What I want is to help people and I won’t feel happy knowing the only person I’ve helped is myself.”

Mina smiled and said, “Good answer. I knew I choose right when I picked you.”

Sara asked, “So, how do I wake up?”

“Just close your eyes and relax. You will be reunited with your body soon enough.”

Sara opened her eyes to find herself lying down in a bed. She sat up and looked outside. The crescent moon was high in the night sky accompanied by hundreds of twinkling stars. Taking her eyes from the sky she looked at Homac. She thought that he looked so peaceful while he was sleeping, and couldn’t resist the urge to gently caress his cheek. The sudden touch woke him up from his slumber and Sara moved her hand back to where it was.

Homac looked up at Sara and gave a hopeful smile, “You’re finally awake.”

He nearly broke down in tears of joy but managed to choke them back. One lone tear slid down his face and Sara wiped it away. He smiled and drew Sara into a tight embrace, saying, “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

The sudden gesture caught Sara off guard and before she could figure out what to do he let go of her and looked slightly away with an embarrassed smile, the slight blush on his cheeks visible in the moonlight. Sara held back a laugh and said, “Thanks.”

He looked even further away and Sara could only guess that she had made him blush even further. “No problem.”

Sara yawned and said, “You don’t mind if I go back to sleep, do you?”

Homac replied, “Only if you promise you’ll wake back up again.”

Sara nodded. “I promise.”

Homac continued, “Now, I’m holding you to that word. If you don’t wake up again I’ll be very upset with you.”

Sara laughed and said, “Alright then.”

Looking around a bit she found an empty bed a couple beds away from her and said, “You can sleep over there if you want.”

Homac moved the stool and laid down on the floor. “I’m good over here. Thanks for your concern though.”

Sara smiled and said, “No problem. Well, good night.”

Homac replied, “Good night.”

Well, that's my chapter. Hopefully somebody will review this time.