Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story. They all belong to Square-Enix. I just own this story.

Krimson: Thank you for taking the time to read this. This is my first fanfic and I'd appreciate any helpful reviews to tell me how I'm doing.

Damien: Yo.

Krimson: And this is Damien, the voice in my head who tells me to do things…

Damien: BURN THEM ALL! ELIMINATE THE WEAK!

Krimson: …Bad things.

Damien: I just criticize his work a lot.

Krimson: Evil maniacal voice-person.

Damien: Ooh, good one.

Krimson: rolls eyes Please enjoy Chapter 1: Starting point.

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"U...Ugh..."
 
Zidane stood up
 after being flung around like a rag doll while riding the Iifa Tree's roots to the center of the trunk. "Phew... Still alive..." He looked around.
 "I guess that was pretty crazy." 
Zidane ran up a nearby root and arrived to see Kuja, laying on a small platform, dying. 
"Hey! Are you alright?" He wasn't. Kuja had sustained multiple cuts and had a few broken bones from the cataclysmic fight earlier and was bleeding badly.

"Zidane...?" Kuja looked over at him, blood covering one eye. "What are you doing here? I thought I told you to go..."

"Wouldn't you do the same for me if you knew I was dying?"

"... Never mind." Zidane didn't really like the answer, but given his brother's state, decided not to pursue the matter.
 "Your comrades were able to escape?"

"Yeah... I knew you had something to do with it."

"... I'm glad they made it."

"Yeah, well...it's our turn to get movin'." Zidane said, looking around for a way out. The area they were in was rather concealed. There were few openings for light to come through, but those were clearly out of reach since there were no roots which reaches them, and the walls weren't climbable.

"... ... I don't deserve to live after all that I've done. I'm useless to this world." Kuja said drearily.

"No one's useless... You helped us escape, remember?"

"... After you and your comrades defeated me, I had nothing left... nothing more to lose. Then, I finally realized what it means to live..." Kuja says. "I guess I was too late."
 Kuja tilted his head to one side and closed his eyes; he remained motionless
 "Hey! Don't you go dying on me, alright?" Zidane protested.

Suddenly dozens of roots from the Iifa Tree shot out from the wall, each one headed for the platform the two were talking on. "WATCH OUT!" Zidane screamed, pulling out his Ultima Weapon.

Kuja could only watch helplessly as his own brother, who Kuja had earlier attemped to not only kill, but utterly destroy, did his best to keep the hordes of roots away.

Much as he tried, the roots were too powerful for Zidane to stop. He could only use the length of his weapon to deflect them away from the platform, hoping that none if them would get behind him and kill Kuja.

"Zidane, get out of here and just let them kill me!" Kuja protested.

"I can't!" Zidane said, just barely deflecting another root in time. "I'm not going to abandon you Kuja!"

"Fool" Kuja said, mostly to himself. Laying on his back, Kuja saw some more roots sprout out from the walls above him. Weakened as he was, he didn't register what was going on in time. "Zidane…"

Kuja's warning came a second too late. The roots managed too smash the platform right between the two Genomes. Zidane looked back to see what happened and had just enough time to see Kuja's horrified expression before he realized that he was falling away. The roots managed to separate the platform into two, with Zidane on the unsupported half. Instinctively, he reached up to grab the ledge, but it was too little, too late. Zidane realized that the fall was going to kill him. He couldn't believe it. I fight the monsters of the world, run around to a different continent trying to stop a national war, travel to another planet, travel to another dimension, and I'm going to die from a stupid fall inside a tree! I'm sorry Dagger. I couldn't keep my promise. That was the most painful part.

Zidane shut his eyes, silently praying that Dagger new he loved her, thinking about how he was never going to see her again. Then, the unexpected happened.

Kuja reached down and grabbed Zidane's wrist.

"Kuja!"

"You really should've listened to me." Kuja said. He hung there limply, his arm was badly cut and some of the blood was seeping down his arm. Zidane could see the utter pain it was causing Kuja by his expression. Not wanting to cause his brother more pain, he reached up from Kuja's arm to edge of the platform and pulled himself up.

"I guess I owe you another one" Zidane said, pulling his legs up. Kuja, despite his condition, managed to chuckle a bit at this. Zidane did likewise while pushing Kuja into a more comfortable position against a root right next to the platform.

The lightened mood was abruptly cut off however, when one final root came out of the wall towards them at high speeds. "Look out!" Kuja said, pushing Zidane away from the vine's path. Zidane tumbled into another root to avoid falling off the platform again, and looked back to see Kuja sitting upright…

…with the root piercing his stomach.

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Krimson: So how'd I do?

Damien: …meh.

Krimson: I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to all the nice people who are about to review the story. (Please?)