DISCLAIMER: Final Fantasy VI and its characters are wholly the properties of Square Enix. This story is written purely for entertainment and not profit.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: As amazing of a game as Final Fantasy VI is, the ending feels somewhat incomplete. Sure, the main villain is defeated, but the world is still ruined, and many of the characters' own arcs don't feel satisfactorily wrapped up. This story will aim to give each of them a hopefully more satisfying conclusion. Hope you enjoy!


Resolutions

Written by daBOSSz

Chapter 1: Edgar

To our beloved family:

Your honored presence is requested at the wedding of

Celes Chere & Locke Cole

Set to take place at Figaro Castle on the Summer Solstice

Ceremony to begin at high noon with reception to follow

Gifts not necessary; your attendance is the most desired gift

The first rays of the dawn's light over Figaro Castle brought its inhabitants out of their slumber, although a good number of them were already wide awake. The big day had finally arrived. The mood was festive throughout the mechanically advanced structure. In every corner of the building, every person was humming jovial tunes as they put up the final decorative touches.

It was a ceremony that the castle's residents had been preparing for months in advance: the wedding of Celes Chere and Locke Cole. Of course, for King Edgar Roni Figaro himself, it was a wedding he foresaw years before anyone else.

Celes and Locke had found each other during their incredible journey across the world that permanently bonded fourteen of the most mismatched individuals together. Through sheer grit and determination, the fourteen of them had managed to defeat Kefka and purge his evil taint from their world, but the price paid by the entire planet was steep. The world had been torn asunder with countless lives lost in the process, and the damage had been so severe that, five years later, much of the land was still reeling from the year-long destruction that Kefka had caused.

However, from the ashes of Kefka's taint rose a blossoming romance that continued to grow stronger over time. While the group disbanded shortly after Kefka's defeat, Celes and Locke chose to return to Figaro with Edgar. It took some time for Celes to settle with the guilt of her imperial past, but Edgar believed in her enough to hire her as the head commander of Figaro's military. The decision paid off: under Celes' tutelage, Figaro's troops became the strongest, most disciplined, and most respected in the world.

Locke was not someone who could stay in one place for very long. Fully understanding and accepting of this part of his personality, both Edgar and Celes allowed him to continue his adventures as a self-proclaimed world class treasure hunter. However, Locke had found a home with Celes in South Figaro to which he returned frequently to be by her side, often with glamorous tales of his adventures and a few treasures sprinkled throughout.

Now, five years after Kefka's defeat, Celes and Locke were finally ready to take the next step in their relationship and tie the knot.

Edgar was never a fan of overly fancy decorations, but even he had to make an exception once in a while. When two of his closest friends declared their engagement, he never hesitated to offer Figaro Castle as the venue for their wedding.

"You just pick the date, and I'll do the rest," Edgar had told them once they agreed to accept his offer.

Well, he partially lied, since no king had enough time or energy to plan and prepare for an entire wedding ceremony. Edgar had to delegate much of the work to his staff, although he did contribute his fair share of the effort alongside them. There was one task he made sure to do himself though: writing and sending the invitations to the other members of their mismatched family.

Edgar smiled as he admired the decorations adorning the Figaro throne room. The entire family had not been together at the same place and time since they escaped from Kefka's tower aboard the Falcon five years ago. He did not know how often the others saw each other, but he made sure to stay in touch with all of them himself. Of course, being a king had its advantages, one of which was that he possessed the resources to maintain contact with everybody as well as serve as a go-between for any of them to contact anyone else.

Like the rest of the world, the past five years had not been easy for the Kingdom of Figaro. With no sense of direction for how to rebuild and no dominant ruler to lord over them, some areas of the world quickly fell into chaos. Fearing that they would be next, and having learned of the heroics that Edgar and his friends had accomplished, the nearby towns of South Figaro, Narshe, Kohlingen, and Jidoor swore allegiance to Figaro Castle, pleading with its young king for protection. Although Edgar welcomed their loyalty, he was not a king who wanted to bite off more than he could chew, and the more towns that trusted him, the more pressure he felt to meet the needs of those towns' residents. For a man who never initially wanted the throne to begin with, Edgar was more often than not overwhelmed by the expectations these towns had for his leadership.

He was thus thankful that Celes had agreed to serve as head commander again, this time for Figaro's military. Celes used her experience from being a general to instill discipline and toughness among his army, but she also added her own touch of compassion that she was forbidden from passing onto the troops she trained while serving under Emperor Gestahl. The results spoke for themselves: unlike the imperial troops that were feared and resented, Figaro's troops were often cheered when they marched into a town. Having established such a positive reputation, even cities and towns located far away sometimes called on Figaro to help quell any chaos that arose.

Certainly, his military could not have developed this type of reputation if all it did was squash unrest. Edgar made sure to learn from the mistakes of the past, more often tasking Figaro's troops with protecting and transporting much needed supplies and travelers to towns across the world than sending them to distant lands as peacekeepers. While not all supplies were manufactured in Figaro, delivering them to their intended destinations had become almost second nature to many of Figaro's soldiers, and their aid was always appreciated anywhere they arrived.

It need not be said that, unlike Gestahl and Kefka, Edgar had no dreams of carving out an empire. Ruling over four surrounding towns gave him enough sleepless nights already, and he knew it would be unfair to his subjects if he continued to devote attention farther and farther from home. However, having seen his castle up in flames at the mercy of a much more powerful foe, and having been forced to play nice to said foe while simultaneously working against it, Edgar could not allow Figaro to be put into such a precarious position again, so he was determined to find a proper balance of strength and security for his kingdom without appearing as a threat.

The amount of work put into all of this, in addition to all the other normal political duties he was responsible for daily, taxed Edgar's mind and body practically every hour. Yet despite the exhaustive nature of his job, he never wavered from his conviction. His story did not end with Kefka's downfall, and from the moment he returned to Figaro Castle once the wizard had been slain, he had set forth to realize his vision of making Figaro an active participant in the world's healing process.

Edgar still could not say that being king was enjoyable, but by now, he had gotten used to both the stress and rewards that came with his duties. Thus, he could no longer imagine himself living the same life of freedom that Sabin was embracing and once tried to persuade him into.

However, being king also meant another expected duty to fulfill: he would need to eventually declare an heir to the throne. Ideally, this meant courting an eligible maiden and producing a biological heir, but that had always proven difficult due to his instantly flirtatious personality toward women. Although he knew that his castle staff would never tell him directly, Edgar was wise enough to understand that, over the years, this trait had turned away every eligible maiden within his castle's walls. Additionally, this trait had caused him to develop a reputation across the kingdom as someone who approached too strongly, reducing the possibility that any eligible maiden was willing to give him a chance.

Edgar sighed to himself, knowing this was not a responsibility he could escape from. He knew time would eventually run out; he was already thirty-three years old, and with every passing year, the possibility of finding someone who would reciprocate the love he was willing to shower upon her dwindled. A day like today, when a wedding was being hosted to forge a new union, simply served as another reminder that he had yet to take that first necessary step to finding his heir. It was not something he wanted to do to another human, especially if that human was his own flesh and blood; after all, he had taken the throne reluctantly himself. However, he had always understood that not leaving a kingdom in the hands of a strong, trustworthy individual would easily undo all of the beneficial work completed in that kingdom's name.

Edgar walked out of his throne room and took the stairs up Figaro Castle's rear tower, saluting his guards as he did so. Upon reaching the top, he peered east just in time to see the sun rise within its own light, and any negative thoughts that had festered in his mind that morning were instantly cast aside. Today, he would not drown himself in his royal responsibilities. Today, he would welcome back close friends and celebrate a love six years in the making.


AUTHOR'S NOTES: How did you enjoy the first chapter? I wanted to start with Edgar, since the story is to be set at Figaro Castle, but I plan to write about each of the fourteen playable characters (although it won't be one chapter for each, since some of them aren't major enough to fit into their own chapters).

Anyway, please feel free to let me know what you think. I love hearing from you!