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Vivi had been having dreams. He wasn’t sure what the dreams meant, and often times, he could not remember the dreams in the morning. Still, a feeling of warmth and a kind of innate restlessness would remain with him throughout the day, acting like a kind of nagging sensation in the very back of his mind.
He tried to talk to his closest friend, Eiko, about it.
“Eiko,” he said, “do you dream?”
She looked up from the toy, a tiny mechanical airship, that her adoptive father had given her as a gesture of goodwill. “Of course I dream. Everybody dreams, Vivi!”
“Do you remember them in the morning?” he asked, his expression brightening slightly.
“Yeah,” said Eiko, who cast the toy aside, her hands gesturing wildly as she spoke. “Yesterday, I dreamed that you and me had a picnic with the moogles. We were flying, and you wore a daisy chain.”
“Flying?” asked Vivi curiously.
“Yeah!” said Eiko. “Like birds. But without wings, it was really pretty.” She launched into loud and excited chatter about what the dream felt like, and how she was taller and how Vivi still had his big floppy hat on, even when he took a tumble.
It was not exactly the answer that Vivi had been looking for, but he enjoyed himself nonetheless. Eiko’s stories were always so exciting.
The next week, Vivi found himself in Alexandria, ready to pay Dagger a visit. Only Dagger went by Queen Garnet these days. Sometimes he had trouble remembering to call her that. But before he could have tea with the queen, he decided to pay a visit to Steiner first. Vivi found him settled in at the guardhouse, where he appeared to be hiding from something—or someone.
“Hello, Master Vivi,” said Steiner, the nervous expression fading away at the sight of his familiar friend. Clearly, Vivi was not the person Steiner had been hiding from.
“Hello.” Vivi gave a polite bow, only to topple over onto the cold stone floor.
Steiner clacked and clanged as he knelt down to help right Vivi. “Master Vivi, are you all right? That was quite the fall.”
Vivi nodded, adjusting his hat and dusting his coat. “I’m all right. Can I ask you a question, Steiner?”
“Go ahead, Master Vivi. I am unsure as to what kind of answer I can provide for you, but I will undoubtedly try.” Steiner looked faintly purple, clearly hesitant but unwilling to actually say no to Vivi.
“What do you dream about?” asked Vivi. “Do you feel things when you dream?”
“That is a very deep question.” Steiner furrowed his brow as he thought, his armor making noise again as he paced across the room. “I do dream, Master Vivi. Or I did. But now all my dreams lie with Alexandria.”
“You dream about the city?” asked Vivi curiously. “It makes you feel good?”
“I have sworn my life to protect Alexandria, and I only hope that I can protect the royal family and make Alexandria a great city for future generations to come!” Steiner’s armor clanged particularly loudly as he gestured wildly out the window, toward the palace grounds beyond.
“Oh,” said Vivi thoughtfully. “That seems nice.” He was prepared to ask Steiner another question, but the arrival of Beatrix—followed by the subsequent departure of Steiner, red-faced and stammering—had Vivi being rushed off for tea with before he could get another word in edgewise.
“Do you dream about feelings?” asked Vivi quietly a little later as he added yet another cube of sugar to his tea.
Garnet gave him a tiny smile, one that did not quite reach her eyes. She seemed to be doing that a great deal, half-smiles, coupled with a faraway look in her eyes. However, she tried her best to give Vivi an adequate reply. “Sometimes, the only way to truly feel is through dreaming.”
“What does that mean?” asked Vivi politely. “I’ve learned about what it means to live, but what does it mean about feeling when you’re asleep?”
“It was something Lord Avon said, in one of his sonnets,” explained Garnet as she took a delicate sip of her own tea. “I think it means that when you dream while you’re sleeping, some of your most personal thoughts become clear. Your self-conscious tells you things that it could not at any other time.”
“Oh,” said Vivi thoughtfully as he reached for another scone. “So dreams can be good?”
“They can be,” said Garnet, the faintest hint of a smile crossing her features, for the barest of moments. Soon, her carefully neutral expression returned, and she shook her head. “But it is also important to remember the reality as well.”
Vivi nibbled his scone as he lapsed into silence, considering the gravity of her advice. Things didn’t seem too much clearer, but he was beginning to have an idea of his own.
Still, he was startled quite considerably when Mikoto of all people, confronted him in the Black Mage Village some weeks after his visit with Garnet. Mikoto had been keeping to herself mostly since her arrival in the village, offering assistance when needed, but not much else. He’d heard the rumors, of course, that she was Zidane’s sister, and the de facto leader of the Genomes, but little else.
“Vivi,” she said one evening, calling out to him as he was watering the plants in the village’s garden after supper. “Vivi,” she said again.
“Yes?” asked Vivi, who waited politely for her to continue.
Mikoto frowned. She was not normally one for words, but this time, she would need them. “Vivi,” she said, for a third time. “Do you—have you thought of making more black mages? Surely the ones in the village will stop eventually. What will happen next?”
Vivi dropped his watering can with a clatter. “I’m not sure, Mikoto.”
“Would you consider making more?” asked Mikoto, her voice as subdued as always.
“I don’t know if it would be fair,” admitted Vivi quietly as he slumped to the ground. “I would like to. I think that is what I have been feeling. But I don’t—know if it would be fair.”
Mikoto seemed to pay no heed to Vivi’s obvious emotional trauma, instead picking up the fallen watering can and continuing with the chore herself. “It has been said before,” she said slowly, “that black mages had the souls, but genomes, they had the lifespans.”
“Yes.” Vivi spoke quietly, barely more than a whisper.
“But you are special,” said Mikoto blandly. “Would you like to have children, Vivi?”
“How?” asked Vivi, his words tinged with emotion. “It isn’t possible.”
“Why isn’t it?” said Mikoto. “I have heard of Dali, where black mages were created. I know things. Terra had a different kind of technology than what is here on Gaia. With your help, black mages could live on.”
“But wouldn’t they be used for war again?” asked Vivi. “I won’t have that, it would be too cruel.”
“It will not be cruel,” assured Mikoto. “We will give them the chance to live.”
“I would like that,” admitted Vivi. “But why are you doing this, Mikoto? It doesn’t seem like something you’d offer to do.”
“I’m cold, not heartless,” she said. “Also, if this works, then it will help my people. As loathe as I am to give my brother credit, having the black mages and the genomes live together has actually been working out well.”
“You called Zidane your brother,” said Vivi, a certain lightness returning to him as he scrambled to his feet.
“Yes, well, we can’t choose family, and he seems to believe I’m his sister,” said Mikoto dryly. “I figure if I get into the habit now I can surprise him when he returns.”
“Zidane’s not dead?” Vivi slumped back down to the ground again.
“Of course he isn’t,” said Mikoto, impatience creeping back into her tone. “It would take a whole lot more than some tree to thwart us. Now, are you going to work with me on this or not?”
Vivi nodded eagerly, even as he reached forward to give Mikoto a hug. The watering can topped to the ground once more, and Mikoto stiffened, unsure how to react. Eventually, nervously, Mikoto awkwardly reached out to pat Vivi on the back. Vivi tightened his hold on Mikoto before finally pulling away. “Yes,” he said.
Eventually, they made their way to Dali, some few days after their last conversation. Vivi had been on pins and needles for the whole journey, full of excitement and anxiousness. He’d been unable to sleep the night before, which unfortunately, kept Mikoto awake as well. She was a light sleeper, and shortly before dawn, she eventually arose, dragging Vivi out to basement area, where black mages were once mass-produced.
“How can there be more black mages if there isn’t any Mist?” asked Vivi as he surveyed the once bustling factory. Where there were once black mage assembly lines, there were now piles of dust, parts, and an eerie sense of something not being quite right.
Mikoto ignored Vivi, instead spreading out piles of papers and books, reaching for a quill to take notes as she examined the various machines. “I said I could make black mages without Mist. Trust me.”
“I know you said you could, but how?” asked Vivi as he followed Mikoto around like a lost puppy. “Can I help?”
“Food,” says Mikoto briskly, as she rolled up her scroll. “And about a gallon of coffee. I need both.”
“Oh, okay!” Vivi, eager to please, dashed toward the ladder, pleased to be given some way to help.
Mikoto stayed behind, her tail swishing behind her as she lost herself in thought. She was still like that when Vivi returned twenty minutes later, a bag of pastries in one hand and a tightly sealed thermos of coffee in the other. (Tightly sealed because he’d already dropped it three times just getting it out of the restaurant.) He paused when he saw Mikoto sitting there, still as a statue.
“Mikoto?” he asked, stumbling over as he tried to sit at her level without spilling their breakfast. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said, bringing her hand up to brush her hair out of her eyes. “Just trying to figure out how to make this work. Garland …wasn’t a terribly neat note taker,” she admitted.
“Oh,” said Vivi as he tentatively offered Mikoto the bag of pastries. “I found muffins. And buns. They were selling them in town.”
Mikoto ignored them in favor of the coffee, taking a deep sip from the thermos as she savored the caffeine hit. “It’s going to be difficult to make this happen without Mist.”
“But not impossible?” asked Vivi around a mouthful of blueberry muffin
“Not impossible,” she replied. “It’s just going to be different. A mix of old and new I think will work best for making black mages.”
Vivi nodded, and he continued to chew thoughtfully on his breakfast as Mikoto mulled over her papers while taking constant sips of her coffee. He idly wondered if she’d been literal when she had said that she wanted a gallon of coffee. Eventually, though, she set the remnants of her meal aside and turned to Vivi, the barest trace of what passed for a smile on her lips.
“I think I know how to do it,” she said. To her credit, she only winced slightly when Vivi raced up for a hug.
The work was long and difficult. They were creating life, and Mikoto would not stand for any mistakes. “We’re making black mages,” she said to Vivi one day, about three weeks after they’d settled into Dali. “I plan to make them right the first time.”
Cid in Lindblum had gotten word of Mikoto and Vivi’s exploits, no doubt from Garnet, and along with badly-needed funding for the project, along came engineers. Scores of them, all of whom Mikoto had no qualms about working to the bone.
“No, the gears need to move counter-clockwise,” she snapped, glaring at three Lindblum engineers as she tried to take over installing one of the mechanisms herself. “I swear, you need to do this correctly, or else I’d be better off just doing it myself. Or maybe I’ll just let Vivi do it. Vivi is the most capable person here!”
While Vivi didn’t know how to do a thing with gears and mechanics, he did know how to keep things organized. So keep things organized he did, always rushing around with the proper plan, guideline, or outline whenever anyone needed it. He fixed meals, managed accounts, ordered parts, and did just about everything Mikoto couldn’t find herself bothered to be doing. They made for an unusual team, but one that worked none the less.
Mikoto muttered a grunt of thanks as Vivi gave her yet another cup of coffee. It had been six months since the project had started, seven months since Zidane had left to do battle with a giant tree, and three weeks since Cid had offered yet more advice in regards to the project.
“Cid says the plans are not sound,” said Mikoto with a frown as she leaned against a post. “We’ve nearly finished repairing and rebuilding the mechanics, and now he says that the plans are unsound. I’m going to throttle that man.”
Vivi offered no reply, instead trailing behind Mikoto as she stomped over to her work area. “I trust my knowledge, the technology I’ve learned. Cid is so excited by the possibilities, but the realities scare him. Then Garnet, she’s no help! She’s all over the place, mooning over my fool of a brother while acting like she doesn’t care.” Mikoto scowled and sent the tin mug flying in a rare show of temper.
“I thought Garnet had been doing better,” said Vivi quietly. “Cid means well, Mikoto, you know that. He’s been very invaluable.”
“I know.” Mikoto climbed onto her favorite stool, her posture ramrod straight as usual. Clearly she was not that upset. “You’re right, Vivi. Today has just not been a good day.”
“But we’ve come pretty far already,” he pointed out, “and this is a lot better than the time when you realized the first Mist alternative just wasn’t feasible.”
“True,” she said, reluctantly wishing she had not thrown her mug aside. “Things are going well. I’m just rattled today.”
“Did you have a dream last night?” asked Vivi. “You were crying out in your sleep.”
Mikoto looked suitably appalled. “I do not cry out in my sleep. I never dream—why bother with it?”
“I think you had a bad dream,” said Vivi. He shrugged and fetched Mikoto’s mug, refilling it for her before setting it on the edge of her desk. “Was it about… before?”
“I really can’t remember,” she said, taking a sip of the coffee with a sigh of relief. “But your dream will be fulfilled, and soon. Just a little more to go.”
A little more to go turned into approximately three more months. Vivi, in some ways, could sense that his time was near. Other black mages in the village were stopping, and every day, it seemed that there were less and less of them. He had been a special case, but he know realized that he could not live forever. He would live—and he had lived—and he would not fear his death.
“Are you ready Vivi?” asked Mikoto. Her face was stained with grease, her knuckles bruised, and her blonde hair had been cut ridiculously short in a fit of impulsiveness last week. She looked pleased with herself, but absolutely exhausted as well.
“Yes,” said Vivi. He did not feel as nervous as he felt he ought to be. Instead, he was overtaken by curiosity, admiring all the mechanizations Mikoto and her team had labored over so determinedly over the past year. “I’m ready.”
“Well then.” Mikoto nodded, before climbing up to the control panel to execute the creation of the black mages herself. “We’ll start with one, and if it works—when it works, you can decide how many more you’d like to have, Vivi.”
Friends gathered around them. The remaining members of Tantulus had come, and were currently straining Steiner’s last nerve as they teased Beatrix and goaded Garnet along. Eiko bounced around until finally her new father, Cid, brought her up on his shoulders so she could see properly. Hilda and Freya stood nearby, both with neutral expressions upon their faces as they took in their present surroundings. Quina had brought along a feast for the entire party to enjoy afterward. Amarant was nowhere to be found, but that wasn’t entirely surprising.
With everyone more or less accounted for, Mikoto finally pulled Vivi up to the control panel. “You really should do it,” she said. “They’ll be your children, after all.”
So, with his hands only shaking a little bit (which everyone would deny knowledge about afterward), Vivi started the mechanizations that would eventually lead to the creation of the first brand new black mages. The assembly line in sleepy little Dali cranked to life, with an ominous grinding sound. The gears lurched and moved and finally, after a few hours of waiting—some waited more anxiously than others—an egg appeared at the end of the conveyor belt.
“An egg?” said Eiko, who sounded most disappointed. “I thought we were making black mages.”
“You honestly expected fully formed black mages?” said Mikoto. “I’m very clever, but not nearly that good. Yes, an egg. It will be well cared for, and then it will hatch. Out will come one black mage.”
“How long will it take to hatch?” asked Freya as she walked up to examine the first egg.
“Three months or so,” said Mikoto. “It’s not exact, at least not yet.” She stood next to Freya, tools out as she tested the egg for all manner of problems and difficulties.
“How does the egg seem?” asked Vivi quietly as he leaned next to Mikoto.
“It seems very well.” Mikoto wrote notes down laboriously in her book before turning to Vivi. “We should make more eggs. How many do you want?”
“How many can we make?” asked Vivi seriously.
“We’ll make as many as we can.” Mikoto was off and running, observing the creation of more eggs down the assembly line as Vivi continued to admire the first precious egg. It wasn’t any bigger than a chocobo egg, plain gray and unobtrusive. He longed to touch the egg, but refrained, unsure if it was a good idea to do so.
“Congratulations,” said Mikoto gruffly as she managed an actual smile for Vivi, the first one he’d ever seen come from her.
“It was your project,” said Vivi modestly, his eyes still firmly affixed upon the first egg.
“But it was your idea. Your dream,” she amended quickly. “They’re your legacy, I suppose.”
“Yours too,” he insisted. “It would not have been possible without you.”
“If it hadn’t happened my way, it would have happened another way,” she said. “I think that somehow, this was going to happen for you.”
Vivi nodded, and reached over to pat Mikoto’s hand. “Thank you.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without your coffee every day.”
“You’re not staying?” asked Vivi.
“I’ll be here in three months for their hatching,” said Mikoto. “But in the meantime, I think I should spend some time traveling. If Gaia is to be my new home, I think I should know it well, don’t you?”
“In that case, I think you’d like Daguerreo.” Vivi said, with a small flail of his hands. “Lots of books and things there. You’d appreciate it.”
“It seems like as good a place as any to start exploring the world,” said Mikoto. “I’ll visit you and your little family, as a kind of aunt, I’d guess?”
“Yeah!” said Vivi. “Aunt Mikoto. You’ll tell them all about your travels?”
“As long as they never call me Aunt Mikoto,” she said, a smirk crossing her features.
Vivi knew that passed for a smile, and he nodded. “I promise.”