This fic will be about 5 chapters long, it's mostly about Zidane, set before the start of the game.
I want it to be as consistent with the game chronology as possible.
I hope you will enjoy it.
Red.
A pulsing red light trapped in a sphere.
"Your souls are very similar, we could say he's your brother, except, after several years of studying your behavour, I understand what is wrong with you, and I correct it in the new creature..."
The red vanished softly.
An ethereal presence was left in the darkness, and fell, knees on the ground, like a broken thing.
Then opened his eyes looking towards him.
Blue.
Intense blue eyes were staring, they were so intense that could almost hurt.
"Brother..." A bitter whisper echoed in the darkness. "I'll show him who's the usless one." As the voices raises, the torment within the creature had been exposed.
Then it was blue, a blue glowing light, a blue whirlpool, blue cold water.
His body floated on the surface, in the dark blue sky, a shiny blue moon was eclipsing a red one.
He awakened gasping for air, and opened wide his eyes.
Then it was red again.
Some red filaments were tickling his left arm.
He did the only thing that felt natural: reached for them with his right hand. It was a soft, red substance, at first he caressed it curiously, then he tried to pull it.
A sudden movement startled him, but he didn't remove the hand from the red thing.
The filaments were coming out from a brown belt, under the belt were almost visible two little brown eyes.
"BAKU, PLEASE DON'T! IT WASN'T ME WHO STOLE THE 101 GILS UNDER YOUR BED!" The red haired screamed, then rubbed his eyes. "Oh... must have fell asleep..." He whispered in a sleepy voice.
The red haired child blinked looking at him, and rushed to remove the hand between his hair, slightly slapping it.
"Are you dumb?! You startled me!" The red haired said again.
No answer came.
"Oh, maybe you are sick, Baku find you at the harbour..." He tried.
He was staring at the red haired with no expression.
"I... was found a year ago by Baku too. I was left out of Lindblum in the mist, a grand dragon almost killed me." Despite the story he was telling, he smiled "Baku said I was really a mess! But then they cured me, and this is how I got these scars on my face, and chest, and legs too..." The child pointed at his own little nose, where an evident scar was lying. "But don't give me that look, I am really lucky because girls like scars. They make me seem like a hero or something!" The child smiled proudly again.
A noise distracted them, someone was knocking.
The red haired child hurried towards the door of the room.
"Hey, Ruby!"
"Hey Blank, Baku told me about the new one, I want too see him!" Another child was speaking with a strange accent.
"Ah... uhm, you are not here for m-"
The door opened wide as she rushed in, and run towards the bed.
Huge curious eyes were staring at him. "You are awake!" She said enthusiastically.
"Yeah, he's awake, but he looks dumb..." The red haired said. "YOU LOOK DUMB!" she raised her voice "He's cute, I think he could be the prince, or maybe the king, when we will recite again!" her eyes closed as she brightly smiled.
The red haired boy pulled her away scornfully. "Shut up, Ruby! I would be a better prince."
A noise interrupted them again.
"Baku!" The red haired child greeted. The man's step were heavy and produced an annoying noise on the wood floor.
"How's the tail boy?"
"He's awake but doesn't speak."
The man laughed "Well, he's alive, he was really a mess when I found him, just like you." The man roughly placed a hand on the red hair of the child, stroking them.
The child puffed his cheeks in annoyance, and crossed the arms on his chest "I was more a mess than him."
The man bursted out laughing.
"What do we do about his name?" He asked the children.
The little girl with a blue ribbon in her hair speaked first. "Marcus, just like Marcus from I want to be your Canary" she said with dreamy eyes.
The red haired child pulled her again. "Zidane!" he said enthusiastically.
"Zidane?" The little girl asked, and the boy nodded.
"I think it suits him. We'll go for it." The man decleared.
The boy stuck out his tongue, and the girl puffed her cheeks "The next one will be Marcus, promise me!"
The new named boy, Zidane, just gave them a blank stare.
"It's okay to be a little dumb after you almost drawned." The big man called Baku said, while glaring at him, patting his shoulders so strong it made him cough.
Zidane past his first days on Gaia looking out of the window of that room.
His phisycal condition was good, but he looked almost always aloof.
"Could be the shock, he almost drowned." Baku had said, or maybe some other "psychological trauma that made him shut in his emotions" like the doctor that visited him had said.
To Blank, none of that made any sense.
A creepy boy with no expression started to live there with him and Baku. Blank remembered he almost died before Baku took him, he was severely damaged, but he could also remember he never looked that dumb, no matter what.
Looking at Zidane it was hard to tell if he was completely indifferent and detached by the world outside, the world he was constantly staring, but since he kept staring, it was possible that he was fascinated by it.
They were hot, sunny summer days in Lindblum, people outside were pretty active, children played all day along the street screaming, singing, arguing with their cute voices, worker worked all day inside and outside the buildings, they were finishing to build the theater in the square nearby. Things were pretty lively.
Somehow sunset seemed Zidane's favourite moment, when the sky tinted itself with warm, beautiful colors.
It was not like he made some expressions, nor he said something, but everytime at sundown he reached for the windows with his little hands and looked like he wanted to touch the little red incandescent sphere in the sky.
During those days Blank past most of his time looking at Zidane, deciding what to do about him. He was the only one that noticed him being fascinated by the sunset.
"Zidane" He called. Zidane, at least reacted at his voice. Blank climbed on the bed and gave him a curious look. "Let's go see the sunset." He tried.
He was not sure Zidane could speak or understand the common language, since the only answer from him was an expression between the surprise and the blank stare.
Blank grabbed Zidane's arm and dragged him out of the bed, then showed him how to climb the little wooden stairs that was in the room.
They reached for the roof of the building.
From there the sight was really amazing, a large part of the town was visible, and the Castle too. The warm light of the sunset just made it better.
Even if he didn't said anything nor showed any emotion, Zidane looked overwhelmed by such a wide beautiful sight, like he had never see nothing similar.
Blank giggled looking at his face. It didn't matter if that child was a little weird, they lived together and they were both abandoned and found by Baku.
They shared the same fate. They were like brothers.
"From now on, Zidane, follow me around the town. I will teach you things."
Zidane remained silent as always.
"You'll be my brother." Zidane blinked. The red haired child brought his gaze on the horizon, some stars had already appeared in the darker side of the sky.
"Brother...?" The voice was full of doubt and insecurity, but still- that was the first word he said since he had been there.
It seemed a familiar word. Like he said that before, or maybe listened to it. It was a strange word, sweet and disturbing at the same time.
Blank's face lightened in happiness. "You can speak!" He grinned widely. "We have to celebrate! I'll teach you the first thing today." Blank stood up and reached for the edge of the roof, then stopped, slightly spreading his legs.
"Come here, Zidane!" He made a sign with his arms.
When Zidane reached, Blank talked again, widely grinning.
"It's a ritual between male friends."
From the downward hallway the voice of Baku reached till the roof.
At first it was quieter "Is it suddenly raining?" Then, after a little silence where he probably checked out the sky, he shouted "Blank, if I catch you doing it again... Remember what I said?"
Blank giggled "But it wasn't me this time!" He leaned forward to see Baku's face, raising his voice to be heard down there.
"It was Zidane." Blank cunningly grinned. In that moment, in his heart, Blank accepted Zidane as a member of Tantalus.
It was almost six months that Zidane was leaving with Baku, Blank and Ruby in Lindblum, at first he spoke in a strange accent, like he had never spoken before, but it was hard to believe for a child around four years old as he was, finally he started to speak fluently, and started to grow.
To Blank displeasure, he had grown even a bit taller than him.
Zidane was following Blank around the town, as always.
"Hurry, come on!" Blank pulled him by the tail, to reach together behind the long, plumped skirt of a noblewoman who was waiting to see the play at Lindblum Theater.
Blank slowly lifted his hand to reach for her bag, as fast as a magic, his hand was out of the woman's bag.
He giggled and showed Zidane two 100's gil banconotes, and handed one to him.
"Hehe" Zidane giggled with his voice, but his face was still almost expressionless.
"Everytime you look as you've never laughed before!" Blank blinked, then hurried to distance from the noblewoman.
Zidane shrugged, and followed Blank in the tavern. A good smell was in the air. They managed to sit on the stools, still too high for them, and Blank opened his hand and showed the bartender his banconote. "We want your special soup." He said with a big smile.
"You are friends, guys, take the gils with you, I will offer you a meal today!" The bartender didn't accept the money and started to cook something.
Blank made a dumb face, looking at something Zidane couldn't guess.
"What is it?" He asked, despite being expressionless he was becoming a curious child, aware of his surroundings.
Blank went closer to him and lowered his voice "I think she likes me." He said carefully.
Zidane eyes wandered to find who Blank was referring to. The only woman nearby was the waitress with long silky brown hair.
"The red dressed lady?" Zidane asked giving him a blank stare.
"Yeah, man, what should I do?" Blank sighed, and Zidane blinked looking puzzled. "I mean, do you think she's cute enough for me?" Blank explained himself.
"Cute?" Little Zidane naively asked, and stared at the girl, as their eyes encountered she smiled tenderly at the child.
Blank crossed his arms in front of his chest as he noticed she smiling at Zidane. "She's too old." The red haired said, annoyed.
The bartender brought them his best soup, and they started to eat it like they were starving.
After lunch, they reached for the theater, where the show "I want to be your Chocobo" was about to begin. It was like "I want to be your Canary", but for children, and made by children. By Baku's children. In the audience there were even adults, some noblemen, and other people were looking from the roof of some nearby houses.
Blank had his chocobo costume on, and Ruby was dressed as a princess.
Zidane put his legs in his moogle costume, but as the tail got in the way he stopped and looked at Blank.
"Oh, problem with your tail?"
Zidane nodded.
Blank took the costume and ripped off the moogle's tail, leaving a hole for Zidane's tail to exit.
"When you were found... you had really strange clothes on, almost like girl's clothes, I wonder where you came from..." Blank almost mumbled. "Even this tail..."
For the first time, on Zidane's face there was the shadow of an expression, and enigmatic one.
Blank suddenly felt uneasy about that, so he placed a hand on Zidane's shoulder and patted it, not sure if he made the blonde child sad, then left telling him they'll wait for him to start the play.
Little Zidane dressed like a moogle with a strange blonde tail was looking at the mirror, giving himself a blank stare.
"He he" He made the sound of a giggle, remembering Blank commented about him being expressionless everytime he did that sound.
"He-" "What are you doing, Zidane? The play is about to start!" Baku entered the room.
"Baku, where do I come from?" Baku scratched his head and gave a worried look. "Don't think too much, child" The man said. "You'll make life more difficult."
Baku's children where abandoned, maybe orphans, Baku knew that they could probably find nothing but sorrow if they started to look for their origins, so, when they asked something similar, they made him feel really uneasy. He still remembered the time little Blank went outside the town alone to find for hints of his past, and got in troubles with some monsters again. Baku, he himself was a war orphan, so he knew well that kind of sorrow.
But Zidane found out all this some years later, he was still too little to understand.
"Can I see the clothes I had on the day you found me?"
"I gave them to some poor children." Baku cut out.
"But we are poor." Zidane observed, considering about they worked as little actors and they passed the days stealing things from rich people, and everytime he, Blank or Ruby asked Baku to buy something he never agreed.
"You are passing way too much time with Blank..." Baku said wrily. "Starting to become annoying..." He mumbled.
"Baku, can you tell me-"
"UGHUAAA" With a shout, Baku hit the wall with a punch, startling Zidane. "You are being stubborn, kid. I told you to go on the stage, the show has to start." Zidane didn't had the strenght to insist further, and was sent on the stage.
The fight, Chocobo VS Moogle, was the most important scene Zidane had to play.
Zidane, around that times could have looked like the dumbest kid in the entire Lindblum with his naive blank stare always on, but when it came to agility, none was better than him, even in the fake fight he gave a brilliant performance, making it difficult for Blank to look as good as him.
In the fight scene he was really the star, after the play, he always received gift and gils from the audience, and even if he wasn't aware, he gained the affection of many little girls that saw him as a hero, and the admiration from the other male kids that wanted to be just like him.
Even so, with his expressionless face, out of the stage, he always felt kind of... out of place. Out of the stage, he was the weird kid. There were many times when he felt lonely, in those moments he started to think about home. About what could have been to have a home, a mother who smiles when you come back, a father that is proud of you, a sister, a brother to share those things with.
Sometimes he wondered if the blue he kept dreaming about could have been that of the eyes of his mother, his father, or maybe his brother.
Afterall he himself had blue eyes.
"We were abandoned, they didn't care about us, don't think about it too much." Blank had once told him.
Zidane was sitted on the stage with his legs crossed, he searched in his pocket and pulled out some gils he received from the crowd that watched the show. The crowd had disappeared as the show had finished, and the sky was getting darker. The moogle costume he had used was on the ground near him, with the little dagger he used for the fake fight.
"Give me that money, kid!" a voice ordered.
Zidane instead put it back on his poket, reached for the dagger near him and turned towards the source of that sound.
It was a kid like him, around his age, he held a dagger in his hand too, he wore a bandana on his head.
"The hell I'll give you the money!" That was something he could imagine Blank to say, but from Zidane expressionless face and voice, it sounded so funny, the other child had to held back the impulse to bursting out laughing.
"Then, let's fight, if I win, you'll give me the money."
Zidane had no time to accept, the child had already started to attack.
That poor child must hadn't see the show, and how good Zidane was at fighting with the dagger.
Zidane managed, not only to leave him on the ground, but also finished the fight with both the daggers in his hands, his own dagger, and the dagger from the other kid.
When the blonde boy reached the child with the bandana, noticed he had his eyes closed in fear.
"I... wanted the money to survive" He started, "I have no family..." little wet drops were forcing their way out of his shutted eyes. "...And no home..."
"Please, don't kill me."
Zidane didn't answer, just waited for him to open his eyes.
When the child opened them he found Zidane lowered on him, giving him a hand to help him standing up.
Zidane didn't think about it too much, he just did the only thing that felt natural, without any reason behind it.
From the above street, where was the place Zidane, Blank and Baku lived, Baku was seeing the scene, he proudly smiled. Even if he just took Zidane because he was an abandoned child, he finally saw Zidane really deserved to be a Tantalus.
"Zidane! You acted great on the stage today!" Ruby cheerful voice reached for them, she stopped some step away noticing the crying boy near Zidane.
"Ruby, I think I found the Marcus you keep talking about!" Zidane's face was weird, like he was trying to make some grimace.
Ruby examined fastly the boy, she puffed her cheek mumbling something like "But you would have been a better Marcus..."
"Come with us." Zidane offered the boy a hand again.
Marcus'hand was warm and a little wet because he rubbed his tears away.
For the first time Zidane smiled, and for the last time Marcus cried.
When Zidane was about six years old, he was turning out to be a really curious kid. He started to show emotions on his face, and in Lindbum he was, overall, a popular kid among other children, he displayed a friendly nature.
"What's that?" Zidane pointed to the mainland.
"It's the place where chocobos lives."
"I wanna see the chocobos!"
That was Zidane first travel far away from Lindblum, Baku took him, Blank and Marcus with himself.
They were traveling with a boat. Even in the sea the mist was dense.
"How long is it before Alexandria?" Marcus asked.
"It will be a long travel."
They were going in Alexandria to hunt a treasure, a special object that had been bought at Treno's auction, by an Alexandrian nobleman, the mini Burmecia.
Maybe Baku was a little repented, because the children didn't quiet down not even for a minute. Especially Zidane.
Sometimes Zidane acted as the world was completely new to him, of course, he was just a child and haven't traveled much yet, but some times before, even the sea was wierd to him, in fact, he past quite the time on Lindblum's harbour whatching it.
"Are we almost there?" Zidane asked.
"Not even half the distance."
Baku had an idea about were Blank and Marcus came from.
"Oooh what's that?" Zidane asked excitedly.
"It's the place where the river dives in the sea." Blank answered first.
Blank was surely born in Lindblum, his red hair and his facial features were pretty common in Lindblum.
"How long does it takes?" This time was Blank's turn.
"Four more hours."
Marcus was from Treno.
"That?! What is that?" Zidane leaned towards the edge of the boat.
"Just some uncultivated land, Zidane." Marcus explained.
Marcus said that himself, born in Treno in a poor family, he remained orphan very young, his parents had been murdered by some criminals.
He took the chance to escape that cruel reality traveling with other people to Lindblum, were he lived like a homeless until he was found by Tantalus.
"How long does it takes now?" Zidane again.
"SHUT UP!"
But Zidane, Zidane was a mistery. Baku tought it was possible he come from another continent, maybe some far away land, like those you could read about in adventurers' chronicles. But still, that could not explain he didn't knew what the sea was.
Anyway, with that range of patience Zidane couldn't even reach Alexandria alive if he asked one more time. Reaching some faraway land was out of question.
"What's that door in the mountain?" Zidane pointed at something else.
"It's Gizamaluke Grotto." Baku sighed.
"Gizamaluke the monster? I wanna see Gizamaluke!" He grinned.
After some time, the only visible thing from the boat was the grey rock of the mountains, and the sea all around.
The children, eventually, get tired of asking how many time it took to reach Alexandria every five minutes, or maybe they were startled by Baku running out of patience, so they calmed down.
Blank and Marcus started playing Tetra Master, while Zidane was near them, looking down to the sea.
In all that blue spread he could easily get his mind lost, trying to grasp for something buried in his past, something that felt unreacheable.
Now that he was able to express his emotion, his face while glaring at the blue sea, was melancholic.
"Zidane" Baku called.
Zidane shifted his attention to him.
"Is there something that you want?" Zidane's eyes turned on the water again, thinking an answer.
"A Tantalus always gets what he sets his eyes on." Baku said.
Was that it? Until that moment Zidane believed to be a Tantalus meant to be part of a weird family.
"But maybe, you just had seasickness." Baku bursted out laughing and turned his back on him.
Years had passed, and the kids were about the age of ten years old.
Other children joined them, like Cinna and the Nero brothers.
They were all admitted in Baku's Tantalus.
To be a Tantalus was to be a great man who knows how to catch his treasure, a man pure of heart.
A Tantalus had to follow Baku's rules, and they were usually first rules, according to Baku's mood. To be a member of Tantalus, meant that if you break the rules, you will face Baku's fists.
About the weird expressionless child who was Zidane, nothing was left.
After a phase were he was the most curious kid in the world, a phase that relly drove mad Baku, Zidane bloomed in a cheerful, sly, energetic teenager boy.
"You know what they say? Nearby Lindbum, at Pinnacle rocks, there's a ghost of an old guy!" A boy in the borough was saying.
That was an old scary story that every teenager boy in Lindblum was fascinated by.
"Do you think what I am thinking?" Zidane grinned looking at Blank and Marcus.
They grinned back. "Where ther's a ghost, there definetively must be a treasure!" Blank completed the sentence for him.
"If we go there Baku will kill us." Marcus warned his friends.
"Oh, come on! We'll go during the night, when Baku's sleeping so well he could not even feel twenty moogles Kupoing around!"
Marcus sighed, if there was something he learned well, was that Zidane was stubborn, none could have changed his mind when he really wanted something.
That was the kind of person he turned out to be. Stubborn, very stubborn. "Remember? A Tantalus always gets what he sets his eyes on." Zidane repeated Baku's words everytime he wanted to justify his own stubborness.
"Tonight, it's decided!"
And with Blank agreeing with him there was nothing that could stop them...
"Hush, quietly." Blank guided them in the darkness, they started to move as soon as Baku's first snoring echoed in Tantalus'place.
Marcus, Zidane and Blank all had their daggers with them, not that they actually believed to the ghost story, or that a sword could cut trough a ghost, but because of monsters.
Too bad the only two chances that they had with the wild Zaghnols around the area was to flee, run away as fast as possible, or be killed.
At half way they started to wonder if they could made it alive until Pinnacle Rocks, running all that time, they were running out of stamina, even if, as thiefs they were skilled to run fast.
But the tought of the Zaghnols behind their back kept them running till the destination.
"Man, I tought I could be left with my face like Blank..." Zidane panted.
"Bastard-" Blank said, out of breath too. "-Girls like it, y'know..."
"That's not true, bro!" Marcus wheezed.
Zidane giggled, now his face brightened everytime he did it, and his voice was starting to change a bit too. He was growing up.
They lied on the grass of Pinnacle rocks, finally noticing the wonderful sky that was visible out of the town.
A sense of adventure and freedom plumped Zidane's heart, making a big smile appear on his face.
The silence of the beautiful sky full of stars, the smell of the wild plants and flowers around them, the tinkle of a little waterfall.
Maybe he didn't belong to a father, a mother, a home, but at least Zidane realized to belong to a very beautiful world.
"Guys" He raised his voice from the silence. "Before tomorrow, when Baku will find out everything and kill us, I want to do something with you under the stars-"
"What is it?"
"It's a ritual between male friends."
"You still remember it..." Blank grinned. That time he meant just to make a joke against Baku, but Zidane took it seriously like a sign of friendship.
For Zidane, to be a Tantalus, meant to have great friends always there for you, great life mates by your side.
"What's that sound?" Marcus asked.
"The... wind?" Zidane tried.
"Maybe we just-" Blank widened his eyes "pissed off a ghost?"
The end for now!