FINAL FANTASY V

"Absentee Emperor"

A Brief Little Vignette Starring Gilgamesh



WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS ABOUND



	It bloody well figured.

	Gilgamesh, scourge of the four kingdoms, samurai ninja master with

no peer, whose very name struck fear into the hearts of all morally

upstanding individuals of culture and refinement, reduced to scrub-

bing a throne that had been vacant for over thirty years. Why did 

have to be this way, he asked? He could have had his own empire by

now, giving King Galuf a run for his money. But no, he had decided

to strike it out with some over-hyped, under-abled tree-person! Damn

Exdeath, the ninja thought. Damn him for all this. Why in Mu's name

did he have to go and get himself sealed up, then?

	The Emperor Exdeath had left very specific orders to his minions,

including Gilgamesh. His castle was to be kept in order, and he would

give the sign, when the proper time arose, for his revival to be

staged. He had essentially placed all proper executive power into his

chief General and Commander-in-Chief, the mighty Gilgamesh.

	So, the ninja asked himself, again, what was he doing scrubbing

the chair he should, by rights, be sitting in?

	Exdeath had demanded Gilgamesh keep a low profile. A ironic smile

spread across the ninja's lips as he realized the plant-man knew him

better than he thought. Back before he had struck out on his own,

back in his village, the children had joked that "Flamboyance" was

his middle name.

	Gilgamesh made sure the village was the first to be obliterated

once he took over command of Exdeath's troops. Showed them, he

thought, satisfactorily. But, he had to be honest, they had a point.

Nothing did quite appeal to the general quite as much as an effective

entrance. What was the point in having power if you couldn't flaunt

it about a bit?

	No one had learned this lesson better than Uruk, Exdeath's former

General and top aide. Gilgamesh remember, with nostalgic fondness,

his approaching the gates of Castle Exdeath, and delivering the

challenge to General Uruk. It hadn't quite seemed as suicidal then

as it did today, but it all worked out. Uruk, bloated and full of

himself, hadn't been prepared for a fight, and Exdeath, rather than

stopping the proceedings, watched with an amused eye as his chief

aide was pummeled unforgivingly into the dirt. Afterwards, Gilgamesh

was offered Uruk's position. Maybe "offered" wasn't the right term,

though. One did not turn down an order from the mighty Exdeath and

expect to walk away in one piece. "Press ganged" was perhaps a more

fitting phrase.

	Ah, those were the good old days. Nothing could stop the might

of the invincible Exdeath's army. Town after town fell under their

rule. But it seemed... strange, even back then, to Gilgamesh.

Lord Exdeath never seemed interested in the day-to-day workings

of his armies, and summarily ignored every report Gilgamesh issued.

Even back then, the ninja-general could see that an all-expansive

empire was not Exdeath's ultimate goal. He was shooting for some-

thing else. Damned if Gilgamesh knew what is was though. It almost

seemed like the armies were only kept for the ninja's amusement.

	Times had changed, though. If he didn't know better, Gilgamesh

would have thought Exdeath had purposely walked into the trap set by

the Four Braves of the Dawn. He had certainly prepared for it, to be

sure. Now, almost three decades later, almost all the possessions of 

the once mighty army had broken free, and the world almost seemed to

be going on without Gilgamesh. It was a feeling he hated. Most of 

the army had deserted, leaving only Gilgamesh, his aide Enkidou, and

a few of the old guard behind. And they essentially acted as a maid

service, keeping the castle clean, as per Exdeath's orders.

	Sometimes, Gilgamesh wondered why he was still there. He was still

young enough to make a nice living as a free-lance thief, or perhaps

a pirate. It had been nice tasting the good life as a general, but

those days were gone. Time to get on with life.

	But he couldn't. Something held him there. He could exactly place

his finger on it, but he assumed it was something of a morbid curio-

sity. He wanted... needed to know what Exdeath's true motivations

were. If that meant waiting for all eternity for his return, so be

it.

	"General Gilgamesh," a remote crackled on Gilgamesh's belt.

Activating it, the ninja sighed.

	"Gilgamesh here," he sighed. "What's the story, Enkidou?"

	"Something's come up," the voice replied, the harsh cackle of the

bird-man that Gilgamesh had come to know over the past several

years. "It could be..." he paused, for dramatic effect. "The boss."

	Gilgamesh jumped in his seat. "H-he's coming back?" sweat formed

on his brow. "Already?"

	"Looks like it could be," Enkidou retorted. "The Meteors have

been remote activated, and the dimensional warp is heating up."

	"Well, then," Gilgamesh gleamed wickedly. "Looks like we'd better

get ready, then. The shit's about to hit the fan..."



*	*	*	*	*



AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi there. Hope you enjoyed this, I had fun writing it.

It's my first attempt at Final Fantasy-based fan fiction, so I hope

you weren't expecting too much <G>. Why Gilgamesh, you may very well

ask? Why a minor villain in a what is, for many people, an alien game?

Because he is, IMHO, among the most interesting of characters in any

of the games (along with Sephiroth and Golbez), and because his

relationship with Exdeath is never fully explained in the game. I

wanted to use this as an opportunity to explore the internal workings

of Exdeath's "army", and I hope it was interesting.

	I also hope to do a follow up from the position of either

Kururu or Galuf, and maybe one from Dorgan's POV, as well. Anyway,

till then...



------

Sean Christian Daugherty (seancdau@prodigy.net)