Jade nodded faintly to Levy. However, Kalki must have been present when they had faced Palitutu. Surely she already knew of their plan... and apparently it hadn't satisfied her. He wasn't sure he could really blame her for that. There were still many uncertainties involved.
Honestly, he had been just about ready to fight the moment she had revealed herself, until Jack and the others had gotten in the way. The odds that she'd back down after all this were pretty much nil. Putting aside their doomed meeting in Aqures Tosf, the two times Jade had met Kalki left him with an image of a woman whose resolve was utterly unshakable.
...No, make that three times. He had, after all, met the original Kalki in the last cycle, through Professor Nebilim's eyes. It had been easier to think of doppelgangers as completely separate people, but that wasn't a notion he could truly believe in anymore. That meant the woman standing in front of them had, in another lifetime, been a friend to his mentor.
It wasn't reason enough for him to care about her in the least, but it wasn't a reality he could ignore, either. It also meant that if Kalki remembered her previous life, she may well have heard the exact words he was about to say.
"All living beings will eventually die. All things must come to an end. It is precisely because there is a limit to life that people are capable of change. Because they know everything will end someday, they change. And because people change, they can live."
He smiled glumly. "You may call us foolish, or desperate, or whatever you like. You may even be right. But you should realize why your design stood no chance of ever satisfying us from the very beginning."
He'd let others speak if they wished, but Jade wasn't so sentimental that he'd miss this chance to recast Gift of Crystallis while he still could. Idealistic speeches were well and good, but you had to appreciate certain practicalities.
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Honestly, he had been just about ready to fight the moment she had revealed herself, until Jack and the others had gotten in the way. The odds that she'd back down after all this were pretty much nil. Putting aside their doomed meeting in Aqures Tosf, the two times Jade had met Kalki left him with an image of a woman whose resolve was utterly unshakable.
...No, make that three times. He had, after all, met the original Kalki in the last cycle, through Professor Nebilim's eyes. It had been easier to think of doppelgangers as completely separate people, but that wasn't a notion he could truly believe in anymore. That meant the woman standing in front of them had, in another lifetime, been a friend to his mentor.
It wasn't reason enough for him to care about her in the least, but it wasn't a reality he could ignore, either. It also meant that if Kalki remembered her previous life, she may well have heard the exact words he was about to say.
"All living beings will eventually die. All things must come to an end. It is precisely because there is a limit to life that people are capable of change. Because they know everything will end someday, they change. And because people change, they can live."
He smiled glumly. "You may call us foolish, or desperate, or whatever you like. You may even be right. But you should realize why your design stood no chance of ever satisfying us from the very beginning."
He'd let others speak if they wished, but Jade wasn't so sentimental that he'd miss this chance to recast Gift of Crystallis while he still could. Idealistic speeches were well and good, but you had to appreciate certain practicalities.