Love Triangle Murder

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 9 and all their legal rights. Those are totally and completely not mine. This story I made up of the characters is mine, so thats about it. Enjoy.

Just so the readers know, the character everyone knows as: Amarant Coral, is going to be called Flair. I named him that on the game and it's always stuck to me, so that's him, so now no one is confused.

Murder

An ominous wind blew as the night covered it's flowing blanket of darkness over the land of Alexandria. All was quiet as a grave until a sudden shriek is heard and a blur of a man is seen running along the street of Alexandria, seeming to be escaping, but from what not a soul would know until the Castle people began to ring out into the town.

"The Queen has been murdered! Queen Garnet is dead!"

The cloaked figure that had been running through the streets is now out the city gates and out in the open land. Strides as long and powerful as a stallion, he continues towards the path leading out of Alexandria and towards Evil Forest.

He was a wanted man all over again, and like the last time, he had done nothing. Always the blame would be put upon his broad shoulders, it's not like he had any proof it wasn't him after all. He would find proof, no matter how long he'd have to stay away from Alexandria, he promised he would return. With the evidence of his innocence in the murder of the most powerful woman in all of Gia, Queen Garnet Til Alexandros 17th.

Making his way down a steep path down the mountain side leading right to the Evil Forest, the man takes one look back at the Castle, then continues on. With careful, fast steps, he is now walking around the Evil Forest. He knows better than to mess with that wickedness waiting for him. He's still running, but seems to be losing his gusto. He heads South West, towards the South Gate. Here he would cross and go onto Treno, a place were bandits and thieves had come to stay for many years. Getting closer and closer to the Gate, he notices there is a commotion around it. Now in front of it, he sights soldiers blocking the entrance.

"No one shall pass with out being questioned and searched!" Rang out one of the guards.

"Fuck." The man says to himself as he quickly turns around and heads out into the open land once more.

There was one other place he could go through that could get him to his final destination. That was the Ice Cavern. Not many had gone through it as of late, he'd most likely be the first that year to go through it. With a new wave of energy, he runs along the river, heading North West towards the path.

Now at the front of the Ice Cavern, he sees no one there guarding this exit from Alexandrian territory, so he moves inside. Its cold, as always, and he feels his skin start to create Goosebumps as he walks onward. He was getting slightly tired, but he would not stop until he had made it somewhere safe from being captured. Looking around, he noticed some change in the interior of the Cavern.

When the Lifa tree had gone all crazy, the Cavern had started melting. So now, even though it was no longer in harm of doing so again, it's ice cycles were still deformed looking like they had been on the verge of melting away. Putting his attention back on the path he was taking, he sees a monster hiding in wait for him. With skillful knowledge, the man takes his weapon of choice and starts running right at the monster. Jumping, he lands on the monster and quickly slices it's throat and silences the beast forever.

With that taken care of, the man continues on, now quickening his pace from a walk to a jog. Entering the end most part of the Cavern, he notices the waterfall and looks at it. There's something strange about it, coming closer, he is almost pulled under by a gigantic monster. Luckily he was agile enough to jump away just in time to see how he was going to deal with this new problem.

The long serpent like beast looks down upon him with hunger as he begins to slither closer to the man. Sending an electric attack onto the creature, it begins to spasm from the shock of electricity in the water. You'd think the damn thing would just die, but no, it still came for the man. lashing out, the creature sank its fang into the mans shoulder. Never the type to cry, the man takes the pain he feels and fills up his rage. With hate and anger, the man throws a weapon, a wing edge, upon the monster, slicing it in two.

Holding his now bleeding and aching shoulder, the man rushes out of the cold cavern and exits out into the warm air of freedom. His vision seems to be getting blurry, but he notices the town down the hill, Dali. With great effort, he forces his body to keep on going, not letting the poison shut him down. He's about less than a mile away when he feels his legs begin to feel like they were falling asleep. Still trying to make it to the safety of the small town, he keeps going, until he falls hard onto the ground. His legs seeming worthless, he begins to crawl with his one good arm, which is starting to feel the effects of the poison as well.

With only a few yards to go, the man stops all movement and blacks out...

----------------------------

Opening his eyes, he notices that he no longer is outside, but in a comfy bed in a warm house. Looking around, he sees a young girl at the little stove cooking something that smelled heavenly.

"Where am I?" He asked, watching as the girl turned to him with a bowl full of soup.

"Somewhere safe and warm." Was all she said as she sat on the side of the bed and began to blow on the hot soup. She takes the spoon and acts as if to hand feed him. He shakes his head at her, not wanting any of the delicious smelling food.

"You can't exactly feed yourself, just yet." She said towards him, trying to get him to let her take care of him.

He tries in vain to move his body to show her how wrong she was and was annoyed to find she was right.

"Now open up." She said, seeming to get frustrated with his behavior.

"Why did you save me?" He asked, feeling cautious, wondering if wanted posters were up with his face on them. A high amount of money could promote any country poor girl to save him for later for the authorities.

"You were just laying there, and no one else would have bothered with you." She told him, not even bringing up the fact that he was now worth more to her alive than dead, which surprised him.

"You should have just left me to die out there, what if I were a killer?" He asked her.

She was taken aback at this, but then her features softened and she smiled at him, "You're no killer." She told him, taking her hand and feeling his forehead, "No fever, that's good." She commented. He was nervous at her touch as he watched her take her soft hand away and pick up the soup again and trying to feed him once more.

"Now will you eat? How do you plan on getting fully healed with out eating something first?"

She had a point, and being that his appendages wouldn't allow him to feed himself...he gave into her wishes and let her feed him the warm and filling wonderful soup. When finished eating, the man could feel his body becoming more awake, yet he knew it would take some time before he was on his feet. Then again, maybe not…

She watched as the man tried lifting his arm. "I'd wait a while before exerting too much effort..."

"Bite me." The man replied, accomplishing the small feet of lifting his arm on his own and moving his fingers individually.

"Where are my weapons?" He asked.

"Over there by the door, but you won't be needing them for some time..."

"Hand them to me." He said, eyes peering into hers.

"No, not until you're fully healed."

"Now!" He yelled, a spurt of energy and luck gave him the strength to grab her wrist and pull her down to his face. Glaring at her, waiting for her to tell him the words he wanted to hear.

"Alright..." She stammered, which in return let him release her. Walking over to the door, she picked up his weapons and set them on the bed. "Happy?" She asked sarcastically, watching as he picked them up and equip them.

"You're not well enough to get out of bed, much less fight, so why even bother with them?" She asked, annoyed at the man's behavior.

"Watch me." He stated, as he pushed his hurt body up in bed and flung off the covers. Moving his legs over the bed, he stood up, ready to leave. Legs shaking at the weight of him, he took one step, then another, until he was at the door. The girl watched all this with silent shock as he turned to smirk at her.

"Told ya." He said and opened the door, exited the little house, and was slowly, but surely back on his way to Treno. Stopping to give himself a saved up Elixir, he felt his body become lighter and felt much better. Continuing on with a new wave of freshness, the man journeyed over to the South Gate which would lead him to safety.

He stopped outside of the Gate and took in everything. Seeing that no one was acting as if on high alert, or that the word of Garnets murder had been spread to this part of the Southern Gate, the man entered. Making his way past the unsuspecting guards, and through the small groups of people he had to deal with, he made it by. Exiting the Gate, he was now in open land. In the distance, he could spot Treno. With a relieved sigh, which he would never have done if accompanied, he began to jog off into that direction.

Making it to the city, the man went straight to the Inn where many a thief or wanted man could go and be in safe company. Grabbing a room, the man settled down to a long awaited sleep, never even thinking that something unexpected would occur.

He woke to the sounds of his door being beaten down and guards storming his room, grabbing him and shackling him down with heavy chains. He was then dragged out of the Inn, and taken to the outskirts of the city where an air ship awaited him.

Throwing the man in the brig, he felt as the ship took to the air. With new anger, he thrashed about his cell, hoping he could break the damn bars and hop off the ship. Within a few minutes, he knew that this thrashing about was hopeless. Sitting down on the hard, cold floor, he gave into defeat.

"You're a suspect too I take it?" Came a familiar voice. The man looked over at the other cell and saw a young face of a man about 18 years old.

"Flair." The young man addressed the now known other.

"Zidane." There was a long silence between the two, until they both said at the same time, "Why did you do it?"

Hearing this, they both became confused. "I don't know what you're talking about, me kill her? You're crazy!" Zidane stated.

"It was you're dagger I saw plunged in her chest." Flair spoke.

"Yeah, well that may be, but I didn't do it. I loved her…" Zidane said, his voice breaking a bit at the last part.

Flair said nothing, but his mind was full of hate and distrust of the other. Then, he finally said something that made Zidane cry, "She didn't love you back…"

"How the fuck would you know if she did or not?! I don't see you with any women, you probably don't even know what love is!" Zidane yelled, angry tears down his face.

"If you had seen what went behind closed doors, she would have told you then and there that she didn't love you." Flair told him, calm and collected.

"What do you mean by that?!" Glared Zidane, "You better not have laid a FINGER on her, or so help me god…"

"Or what? She's dead now, so I thought you ought to know now that she can't tell you herself." Flair stated, never letting out any emotion of either anger or sorrow.

"Tell me what, Damn-it!" Cried Zidane.

"That she and I were together."

Zidane got real quiet, then, after a long moment, he asked, "Tell me everything…"

"After we defeated that Lifa Tree thing, and you were gone, everyone went their separate ways. I headed off on some random adventure, but always found myself coming back to Alexandria. She'd always welcome me into her castle with open arms. She'd talk to me, and I would listen. 'No one ever comes to visit me anymore…' She would say, 'I'm glad you come back every now and then to say hello.' Then she'd have those days where she'd talk about you and ask me where I thought you might be. If you had made it out and were just traveling or if you had died. She'd start to cry and I'd pat her on the back, and just let her cry it all out.

Sometimes, I'd come and she'd be reading a book. I wouldn't interrupt her, just watch from afar as she touched the pages with such delicate fingers, seeming to caress them with each turn of the page. I began to find myself feeling a want for her, which was odd since I am not the kind to mingle with the idea of love and relationships. Yet with this girl…I kept my distance, so quit looking at me like that." Flair stopped, watching as Zidane cleared his face of all emotion and waited for him to continue on.

"Anyways, one night that I was staying in the castle, she came to me in my room, crying. Telling me of some bad dream she had had about you, or something like that. Anyway, that's when she held onto me and I felt her little body shake with her sobs. When she quieted down, she looked up at me and smiled, 'You're always there when I need you.' She told me. Then, just as quickly as she had come, she left me with this battle going on between my head and my heart.

I knew that she was a Queen and that you had a thing for her, so I tried to act only as a friend towards her. Then I began to notice little subtle changes in behavior she was having towards me. While I listened to her talking, sometimes she'd place her hand over mine. Or I'd catch her staring at me when I was out doing my own thing around the castle.

Then one night, we were out sitting on the fountain, watching the stars and talking, when I felt her lean against me. I looked down and saw those dark eyes staring up at me with so much hope in them. I wondered what the Hell she was doing, but it became all too clear when she got on her tip toes and kissed me on the cheek."

Zidane let out a mumble of contempt, but kept his mouth shut otherwise.

"So, when she did that I joked around by saying, "Why'd you do that? You might catch something." She laughed and smiled up at me again, that same look in her eye, 'It was worth it.' Then one thing led to another and we…maybe I should just go on what happened after words." Flair said, seeing the look of hatred in Zidane's eyes. "Good idea." He said through gritted teeth.

"After that night, it was the day of you're return on the little theater ship. So now that you were there, I felt like I had to get the hell out of Alexandria. I told Garnet this and she shook her head, 'I don't want you to leave. Please stay…' I was so surprised she had asked me that…so I stayed in one of the spare bedrooms, just like you did. Seeing you two around the castle, really got me in a mood. It seemed that now that you were back, her and I could never find time to have one of our talks. I was about to just break down and leave her to you when one day she came to me. 'I'm sorry we haven't had time to spend together, how would you like to go on a small sea trip today? Just the two of us.' Of course, I said yes and we set sail and had fun talking and just being in each others company.

Eventually, I asked her if she was glad you were back. She got quiet and said nothing. This didn't seem like a good sign, so I kept prodding her about it. She gave in eventually and said yes, she supposed she was happy you had returned. I nodded my head to this and a question that had been going through my mind for a long time burst out of my mouth before I could stop it. 'Do you love him?' I asked. She stared at me, with confused eyes and shook her head, 'I'm not sure…I think I was when we first met, but now…I can't tell anymore.'

This bugged me, why couldn't she tell? What was going on between you two? I had asked, which wasn't right, not my business and all that, but I wanted to know. No, I needed to know. She told me that you were nice to her, but seemed pushy about certain things that she felt wasn't ready or willing to do just yet. It made her frustrated with you because you'd treat her like she was a silly girl who was afraid of intimacy. You kept on pushing yourself on her and she didn't like it. It use to be funny way back when, but now it was annoying and frightened her slightly.

It was getting dark, so we ended our conversation at that and pointed the ship back to the docks. When we got to the shore, she turned to me and smiled, 'Thanks for listening.' and kissed me on the cheek. I told her whatever, I was there if she needed me. She walked away with a smile on her lips, feeling tired, I headed for my room for much needed rest. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of thunder and lightening. I watched as the door creaked open and she came in, shivering slightly. I asked her what was wrong and she told me you had left and that she had gotten frightened when the storm had started. Lightening flashed and a big roar of thunder was heard as Garnet ran to me and flung her arms around my neck.

I held onto her as the storm continued on. She somehow got in the sheets with me and was nestled by my side as we waited out the storm. It was strange, having someone in my bed with me. To feel another's heartbeat close to mine. I never noticed how close to me she was until I looked down to see her face inches away from mine. 'Flair, hold me…' She whispered the words and she planted her lips against mine. She was so quick…before I even knew it she was on top of me, straddling my hips. She was wearing some pretty flimsy material for a nightgown and I told her I could see her nipples. She laughed at me as I watched with anticipation and huger as she slipped it off of her………"

Zidane was now beat red in the face, "Can you go onto the part where you didn't fuck my girlfriend?" He asked, rage building behind his hatful eyes.

"When morning came, she was gone and I was totally out of it. I kept beating myself up for doing what I had, saying it wasn't right. Then when you came back, I left. I never came back to the castle until that night, right before her murder, she had sent for me. Said it was important. So, reluctantly, I came. She took me up to her room and locked the door. Her eyes seemed to have dark circles under them and her skin was paler than usual. I stood there and waited for her to speak, wondering what was so damn important. She asked me how I was, all I did was nod my head. Wondered what adventures I had gone on, told her I didn't care telling her about them. She gave me such a hurt look…looking back now, I would have been nicer to her…but anyway, she came up to the point that she had something important to tell me, that I would be the first and only one to know.

She told me that after that night three months ago, she had felt sick the while time. She kept thinking it was just nerves, until she noticed she had missed her period. I felt myself become pale as I shook my head in disbelief, 'Flair, I'm pregnant.' She said. I couldn't believe this. I told her it was just once, and she told me all it takes it one time…I walked out of her room, I had had enough. She was calling my name when I heard the shriek. I ran back into her room and found YOUR dagger in her. I knew right away that when people saw me here I was a goner. So I jumped out the window and ran for my life. I had not only lost my lover, but my unborn child as well."

Zidane looked at Flair with some pity in his eyes, but he was still more angry than anything, "I know it was my dagger you saw, but my dagger was lost at the Lifa Tree, and I wasn't even in the castle when it happened."

"Lets here you're story, it's not like we've got anything better to do." Flair suggested.

"I may not have killed Garnet, but I have done some pretty horrible things…"