Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters in this story.

Author notes: Here we go guys! The conflicts are all original from here on out! Plot threads that have been weaved into the storyline and forgotten will be brought up! Epic battles for the fate of Gaia will be waged once again! And throughout it all, Trevor will find himself caught in the middle, forced to choose saving the planet he now calls home, and saving his best friend! Grab yourself some popcorn and a drink, and for God's sake Ezakiel, sit on the floor so you don't fall out of your chair!

Chapter 1: The Tempest Brotherhood.

XXXXXXXX

She ran as hard as her legs would take her. The streets of Alexandria were dark at night, and her panicked state of mind did not help her navigate in the slightest. She couldn't see her pursuer, but she could hear him, knocking over every box and discarded wine bottle that he came across. He was a spindly man, and so drunk he could barely stand, but it was the rusted dagger he had shown her that worried her the most.

He had first found the barmaid working in the tavern. He sat by himself, ordering enough wine and ale to drown a cat, grabbing her rear or reaching for it every chance he got. What had started as an unsightly encounter soon turned uglier. He waited for her outside as she left, then grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her into the alleyway. That was the first time she saw the dagger. "Scream… and I'll slit yer throat," he slurred. As he used his knife-hand to undo his belt, she found her chance to pull away and escape. She turned and ran, but not before he grabbed her blouse, tearing it and exposing a bare breast.

"SOMEONE HELP ME!" she begged, shouting as loud as she could while covering herself. She darted through alleyways, but her assailant always saw her as she turned a corner, and was able to keep up. One of the paths should have led to safety. An open plaza, a guard, a crowd, something! But wrong turn after wrong turn only led her deeper between the buildings, until she took one wrong turn too many and was faced with a dead end.

She stood in the middle of the path, with nowhere to go and no one to help. Thinking she still had time to escape, she turned back and continued running, but halted as soon as she had started. The man had found her again, cutting off her only means of escape. With dagger in hand, he approached her, angrier than before. She did all that she could do and backed into a corner. Hot tears streamed down her face and she choked on her words.

"P-Please…" she begged. "Don't do this! I-I was saving myself for…"

"Shut yer mouth!" the man threatened. He caught her again, grabbing her shoulder and shoving her to the ground so he could sit on top of her. His grimy hand caught the rest of her shirt, tearing it off and leaving it hanging from her belt. She screamed again, shouting as loudly as she could, for everyone to hear, if anyone would rescue her. But who could hear her here, in this barren alleyway?

"No, please!" she begged. "NOOOOO!"

"I SAID," he roared, holding his dagger high. "SHUT YER FUCKIN' MOUTH!"

The young woman turned her head and clenched her entire body, waiting for the attack that would end her life. However, after several seconds, nothing had happened. She felt a great weight lifted from her stomach and looked down. Two nearly identical men were standing above her. One with long hair and a black duster had thrown her would-be rapist to the ground and was busily punching him in the head. The second with shorter hair kneeled down to comfort her, offering a brown leather jacket to cover herself. He wore chain mail and a black shirt and pants underneath.

"You're safe now," he assured her. His voice was soft, but confident. He wore two long, thin blades she wasn't familiar with on his waist. "We're the Tempest Brotherhood. Once my partner is done… dealing with him, we'll gladly walk you home. No charge, of course."

Meanwhile, the other man's fists kept pulling back for another blow, covered in more and more blood. She was glad the shorter haired man was comforting her and not his partner. He looked crazy and almost seemed to enjoy himself. Though she felt no pity for her attacker, the longhaired man was going to rather extreme lengths to subdue the man.

"Trevor! That's enough! You're going to kill him at this rate! Remember what Dagger told you!"

The second man pulled his hand back and rested, but only after offering one final, solid punch, breaking the rapist's nose. The drunken thug gurgled as blood pooled in his mouth, drowning out his moans of anguish. "Right, sorry," he said. "Got carried away. Is she alright?"

The young woman kept the jacket clutched tightly to her chest. She was still crying, but felt safer already. "You're not hurt?" the calmer man asked.

"Uh, I… no. No, I think I'm alright," she sniffed. She pulled herself up and looked at her attacker. He was bleeding from every hole on his head, and his nose was bent in the wrong direction. His entire face was red now, and the blood didn't show any sign of stopping.

"My name is Kaiten Saeis," her savior said, offering a hand up. The young woman rose slowly, leaning on Kaiten for support the entire way up. "Can you tell me your name miss?"

"Oh, I'm… Chloe Hall," she finally answered. She turned for a moment to adjust the jacket, buttoning it up. "How did you know where I was?"

"We heard you screaming," Kaiten said. "We were originally tracking him, but when he took off, we lost sight of him. If it weren't for you calling for help, we might not have found him. You did well."

"Oh… thank you," Chloe said bashfully.

Meanwhile, Trevor had beaten the attacker bloody. The monster's frightening visage was now lumpy and sticky with his blood pouring out of every hole in his head. The longhaired man flipped the would-be rapist onto his stomach and began shackling his wrists and ankles. "Freddie Gillespie, for attempted rape, parole jumping, several thefts, assault, and attempted murder, you are going to be delivered to the Lindblum City Guard, where you will be arrested and properly charged. You fucking idiot."

"Um, excuse me," Chloe asked. "But, what's going on?"

"We were contracted to bring him in," Kaiten said. "He got out of prison two months ago, but missed a parole meeting three weeks ago. The Captain of the Lindblum City Watch asked us to find him. We got a tip a few days ago that he was hiding out in Alexandria, so we came in to search. You probably saved us a couple of days by running into him."

"I'll take him back to the Invincible and lock him in the brig," Trevor said, hoisting the attacker over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Hey, since we're here, why don't we wait until morning and see Zidane and Dagger? It's been weeks since we've hung out with them."

"Fine by me," Kaiten agreed. "But it'll be a short visit. I'd like to get our target back in jail by tomorrow evening."

"Works for me. See ya on the ship."

As Trevor departed, Kaiten gently extended a hand to Chloe. "If you're ready to go Miss Hall."

Chloe held the jacket's collar tighter on one hand, but gave Kaiten the other. She followed him without a word as he led her out of the alley and back home to safety.

XXXXXXXX

Two whole years…

I had thought the time I spent traveling with the others gave me a good impression of Gaia, but I wasn't even close. As mercenaries, Kaiten and I flew everywhere and really saw the world. From the lush, green Chocobo forests to the aqueous beauty of Daguerro's flooded halls, there was so much more of Gaia to see. During our travels during the storyline, in the back of my head I had always planned to go home, but since that was all but impossible, I had made the best of my time here instead. It was a good decision.

So much had changed since Zidane came back. Kaiten and I started a business, Zidane and Dagger got married, Dante and Wayne started expanding their engineering gig (in no small part thanks to my ideas from Earth), and everyone was enjoying life. I worked with both Dagger and Minister Artania to bring more of Earth culture and ideas to Gaia. They both loved the idea of Christmas and Independence Day so much that there was talk of combining the two into a week of just celebrating life and giving gifts.

Gaia was far different from Earth, but I grew accustomed to it. Getting used to living here was an easier transition than I would have thought, thanks to living through the game. I still missed TV, Internet, and cars, but what I got instead was adventure, magic, and my own airship the size of a city block! I also had friends who I would defend to the death who would do the same for me in an instant. Plus, this way, I didn't need to study for finals.

It was pretty fun being a merc. I got to continue saving people and acting like a hero while making a decent living out of it, not as prosperous as I would have liked, but it was enough. Kaiten and I were a deadly match, working in perfect sync with nary a word spoken. Kaiten's ranged spells matched with my melee spells, though he was oft to point out his melee was still better than my own, as he proved during our sparring matches. However, that only made us better fighters, with even Kaiten seeing improvements in himself. Our training prepared us for all the missions we took on and all the monsters we battled. We fought bloodthirsty beasts and cutthroat bandits and even went on the occasional escort mission, aiding diplomats and the like. We stood as a symbol for anyone who needed help anywhere. We earned our fans.

Starting our merry band was a lengthy process. We decided to set up camp in Lindblum, mostly because it had the only air dock around that could accommodate the Invincible. Also, as the more technologically advanced city, it was closer to Earth, with running water and steam power all around us. Kaiten said he missed life on Terra, but Lindblum was advanced enough that he could get by. I still missed not having TV or the Internet, but at least we didn't have filth lining the gutters, so all in all, it was better than living I, say, the Bronx.

Obviously Kaiten and I couldn't be the only members of our band. We received offers from plenty of people who wanted to join us, but many of them were fanboys with no combat experience. Kaiten would regularly reject any applications, saying anyone we didn't personally recruit had to beat one of us in combat. It was just a way for Kaiten to vent his frustrations, but it kept all but the most hardheaded fighters from bothering us. We did manage to find a few good members to join up though.

The first was Seki, still living in Burmecia. Though she was a single mother of six now, she admitted she missed the old adventuring days as a Dragon Knight. Money was hard for her, working on a farm from sunup to sunset, but when she heard how much more money she could make, only the wellbeing of her kids kept her back. When she learned that the building we rented was large enough to house the kids and that we were three blocks from the air cab, which would drop them off at school, she caved in immediately.

The next member was the first friend I made outside of the World Heroes, Dante Ingram. The young engineer was already busy creating an empire with revolutionary plans and schematics. He was still working with Wayne, who also received an offer. Dante was hesitant to join up, stating that he wasn't a fighter, he was a builder. His business was going well and he was always coming up with some new blueprint. However, I saw his ideas and told him I could give him massive improvements. His ideas were good, but limited to revolver-style weapons. I told him about rifling the barrels for greater distance, about shotguns, magazines and clips. Guns were commonplace on Earth and, although he didn't believe I was really from another planet at first, my basic knowledge of firearms served as enough proof for him. He agreed to the trade and became our part-timer. He never worked alone, preferring to come with either Kaiten or myself to back him up, but he did solid work.

Wayne declined our offer to join sadly. He wasn't a fighter at all. That night Alexandria attacked, he had been forced to react, which he wasn't crazy about doing again. Still, he said he liked us, so he would give us something else. If we went to him exclusively for our blacksmithing and weapon synthesis, then he would give us a special discount. 40% off all prices! It was such a surprise that we inducted him anyway, joking that he was our second part-timer who just never showed up to work.

Our big reveal was at the first Festival of the Hunt after our band was formed. As soon as the festival started, we found each other and teamed up. It wasn't about personal glory, so much as showing off what we could do. It was just like last year's festival where Dante and I teamed up, but this year, we were far more brutal. They even had three Zaghnols this year. Dante took a shot at each in the head while Seki, Kaiten and I finished our own off. They had to close the entire Festival early just because they ran out of monsters to fight! By the end, we had all secured the top four slots, earning us fame, money, and for me, a small mountain of pancakes, topped with little ice cream Yans.

Regent Cid was so impressed with our performance that he decided to break tradition and let Kaiten give a speech, detailing his success. Kaiten had come in first, setting the new record at 523 points! I had beaten my old record of 240 points, coming in with 430 this year. Seki got 380 and Dante finished with 320. Considering how uncommon earning more than 200 points was, our victory was seen as a harbinger for how hardcore our team was. Kaiten really nailed it when he gave his speech, securing our place as the most badass mercenaries around.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" he called out to the adoring crowd. "WE ARE THE TEMPEST BROTHERHOOD, AND WE ARE THE STRONGEST FIGHTERS YOU WILL EVER SEE! IF YOU EVER NEED A SWORD, A SPEAR OR A GUN AT YOUR SIDE, THEN NO MATTER THE JOB, WE WILL FINISH IT FOR YOU!"

Kaiten had even gotten Wayne to fly the Invincible over the city after his speech. In one swoop, our airship had gone from the most feared in the world, to the most recognized and adored. For weeks after that, people cheered when we flew overhead and when we walked in the streets. It was exactly what I had wanted all those years ago when I was first pulled in to Gaia. I was a hero, saving people and surrounded by admiring fans. Kaiten and I could have used more work to help with our funding, but we got by. Most of the money came from the dividend I earned by giving Dante Earth designs. Plus, we had enough downtime to go visit our friends whenever we wanted. The only hindrance was that Kaiten never let me drive the Invincible. He claimed I would never give it back. The bastard knew me too well. All in all though, I was happy. I had my friends, my magic, my short swords, and plenty of bad guys to fight.

Life was good.

XXXXXXXX

The next morning saw a beautiful open sky, barely a cloud to be seen. The warm sun graced the city streets of Alexandria. The market was open today. Street vendors lined the paths, selling everything from fresh vegetables from kitchen knives. We had parked the Invincible outside of the city for jurisdictional reasons, having a prisoner on board and all. It worked in our favor though, since I got to see all the set up in the mid-morning shopping rush. Kaiten stopped in the weapon vendors to admire their work, so it was just me by myself as I walked to the castle to seek an audience with the queen and king.

The throne room was new, having been built during Alexandria Castle's restoration. The main hall led to a large archway with massive wooden doors where Brahne's large portrait once stood, leading into a stretch of room. The room wasn't what I would call cavernous, with a smaller ceiling than the main hall, but it was decorated beautifully. Pillars lined the purple rug for guests to enter in. Between them, banners hung down from the walls, displaying wondrous art, or detailing scenes of battle, just like the Bayeux Tapestry. Artisans had crafted two long cloths detailing the start of the Mist War, Kuja's declarations of world domination, and saving Gaia from the turmoil in Memoria, focusing largely on the current Queen and King's involvement. Two large cushioned seats made up the thrones, side by side at the far end of the room with a colorful glass mosaic behind them to let in light.

Steiner and Beatrix stood guard by Zidane and Dagger's sides. Beatrix looked the same as ever, but Steiner was in his new armor. He was much easier to notice now, though that also meant he was much harder to ignore. Doctor Tot was also present, having been offered a job as royal herald. He was as short as ever, with a hat, glasses and beard so thick that I could barely see his face. I had arrived at the end of the daily court hearing, where citizens could come to the Queen and King and make petitions and requests. I was the last in a short line, just after the guy asking for more hay for his cows. Dagger was in the zone, looking like a proper queen, with a straight back, a strong voice, and a warm, but firm stare. Zidane's clothes were wrinkled and his eyes were at half-lid, as if it took every fiber in his being to keep from slouching. He perked up when he saw me enter the hall, but Dagger kept a wary eye on me, until I approached as the last guest in the hall.

"What did I tell you before?!"

She was not happy to see me.

"You dragged a bloody and unconscious criminal through the city streets again?!" she cried. "You startled everyone walking the streets, and made the city guard look incompetent!"

"Hardly what I was going for. We just ran into the guy. He was attacking someone, so I kicked his ass! Besides, I was a lot easier on this guy, and Kaiten and I got to him before he could really do anything. Isn't that good enough?"

Dagger sighed and leaned on her arm. I had already gotten used to these scoldings. When I first attacked someone like this in her city, she really unloaded against me. She kept saying that my level of aggression was okay against monsters, but not people. We weren't in a war anymore, so I couldn't just let loose like when the Alexandrian army was attacking us. Apparently, mutilating people before a trial was frowned upon. However, it was still a public good, and for every ugly catch I made, I had three "clean" ones, with minimal injury. Crime was down all over the kingdom and released offenders were less likely to repeat their crimes, though some didn't really have a choice. I turned the first rapist I caught into a eunuch. I may have been a little angry to find him camped outside a school.

The other reason I got away with it was Zidane. He always had my back on these cases as he sat next to Dagger on a matching throne. He seemed radically out of place in the colorful, laced clothes. Even so, he did have that air of leadership that he pulled out when he needed to. He was getting used to living the high life and being waited on, though he was visibly annoyed by it all. It took him three months before he would make any commands beyond his lunch order.

"Garnet," Zidane said, having been prodded to use Dagger's actual name when giving a royal presence. We all still called her Dagger behind closed doors though. "He did have to stop the attack, and really, he did a good job holding himself back this time." He turned to me. "All you broke was his nose, right?"

"I think so, yeah." Honestly in the heat of the moment, I may have broken his cheekbones and knocked out a few teeth, but I was in enough trouble as it was. I didn't need more problems.

Dagger picked her head up and stared down at me from her throne. "Fine. Just please stop being so violent. I don't want you to make a mistake and attack someone innocent. I'll have to judge you if that happens, and I really don't want to be put in that position."

"Yes, your highness."

"That's the last of it, your highness," Doctor Tot said. "Your council is meeting soon, however. You'll need to prepare."

"Of course," Dagger said, rising. "Trevor, despite this, I hope you can stay for dinner tonight."

"Maybe an early one. Kaiten's twisting my arm. He wants to get back home and drop off our prisoner before nightfall."

"Very well. Doctor Tot, can you pass the word along to Quina? Tell him to prepare something light for early evening."

He bowed. "At once, your highness."

Dagger rose, giving me a bow of the head. "If you'll excuse us Trevor, we have a council to attend. Come along Zidane, we don't want to be late."

"Uh, right," he said hesitantly, scratching his back as he rose. "Actually, I think I might skip this one. I'm not feeling too great."

Dagger looked more disappointed than surprised. She frowned as she said, "Zidane, you always do this! You said you'd come to this meeting! Just once I'd like to count on you for something!"

"I know, I know, and I'm sorry," Zidane said with his head down. "I just get nervous for these kinds of things, you know? I feel like my stomach is tied up in knots. You remember what happened during the last meeting? With the wine?"

Dagger glanced back at me and sighed. "I'm sorry Trevor, will you excuse us? I need to discuss something with my husband."

"Of course" I said. "I'll see you guys later."

I walked out of the room, listening to the two of them argue. Steiner and Beatrix stood in place, like silent statues. Once glance at them told me this was not the first fight Zidane and Dagger had gotten into. It was such a shame too, because they looked like a pretty cute couple.

The day of their wedding was one the entire continent celebrated. All of Alexandria was in attendance, and half of Lindblum and Burmecia came out to see. Even a few Cleyrans showed up. The wedding was so grand that it had to be held in the valley. Kaiten and I had been contracted to clear the area of monsters. It had been our largest contract to date, so Seki and Dante joined as well. We spent over a week tracking, herding and hunting everything we could to ensure no unwanted interruptions could possibly occur. By the end of it, we had a massive field ready for workers to come in and build fencing and a wide platform to elevate the happy couple.

Everyone had a good time. Blank was the best man and Eiko got to be the maid of honor. Quina was in charge of catering and had more than outdone himself. The spread took him two months to prepare, as well as fifty assistants. The cake was a massive seven layers tall with a ten-foot wide base. It had to be brought in by airship, layer by layer! Flowers littered the area and you couldn't go more than ten feet without running into another display. There wasn't a single quiet voice when they said their "I do's" to each other and kissed.

Considering how happy they made each other then, it was such a shame to see them fighting like this now. Zidane had to give up everything he knew to be with Dagger, but it was wearing him thin. Maybe a vacation would have done them some good. It was clear Zidane wanted out of the stuffy atmosphere, but there was no way Dagger could give up being queen.

I waited in the main hall for a few minutes. I admired the art and the job the architects did in redesigning the building. It looked good as new, before Bahamut reduced most of it to rubble. Suddenly, the door popped open and the throne room opened again.

"Hey, sorry about that," Zidane said, stepping out. "That went over a little messier than I would have liked."

"No problem," I said. "Is everything alright between you two?"

"We'll be fine. This happens every now and then. Gifts help though. Hey, can you go out and buy me some roses before dinner? Nice big ones to make her feel better?"

"Yeah, sure. You are gonna pay me back for them, right?"

"What? Of course I am! Why wouldn't I?"

"Once a thief, always a thief."

Zidane puffed his chest out. "Hey, I'm a king now, remember? I have everything a thief could want. Why would I steal anything?"

"Then why did you send me that letter and ask me to meet you here today?"

Zidane shifted uncomfortably and crossed his arms. "Yeah, about that. How about we walk and talk? It's been a while since you've seen the castle."

Zidane took the lead. We walked up another new section of the castle. It was just a long hallway leading to various guestrooms with tall windows overlooking the moat outside. The windows were adorned with white silk curtains and the hall was carpeted in red. A potted plant was set a few feet from each door. I even found my old room from when I was Dagger's bodyguard. Tempted as I was to check it out for old times' sake, it belonged to someone else now.

"So, I take it you're getting tired of the king's life?" I asked.

"It's… complicated," Zidane said. When I just "Mm-hmm'd" him, he expanded. "This is all completely different. I mean, when we were kids, my brothers in Tantalus and I would joke about getting so rich that we would be able to live in our own castles. Now that I've gotten it, I gotta tell you, it isn't what I thought it would be like."

"Well, what's different about it? What else were you expecting?"

"Adventure," he said quickly. "That was always the plan. Even after I had my own castle, I still wanted to see the world and explore. Maybe rob other kings. But this…"

"At least you have Dagger to help you."

"Don't get me wrong, I love Dagger. Completely and always. But we're both stuck here, in this city. I want to go out, get into trouble like I did before. Now, I have to stay here and take care of the city and the people. There's so much more work than you'd think!"

"Why don't you both take a vacation? Get away for a while? You upgraded the Red Rose to run on steam, didn't you? Go to the tropics or something."

"We did that. Three times actually. It's not the same thing though. I'm still a king, so I can't goof off like before, and Dagger always insists on eating the most expensive food we can find. You know I can't stand that stuff."

"Like goose liver and caviar?"

"I have no idea what those are, but I think you get the idea."

"Fancy food from Earth, so yeah. Well, I'm sorry to hear that, but what can I do? If you ask me to pull a Prince and the Pauper routine, forget it. That story's been done to death."

"Another Earth story?"

"Mark Twain. I'll tell you someday."

"No, I actually wanted to ask you a small favor." He stopped walking and we both stood next to a window. "I want you to take me with you, just for a little while. I need to get out of here, be in my old clothes and see the world. Maybe fight some monsters. Whaddaya say?"

Zidane never had time to dodge as my hand slapped him hard upside the head.

"What was that for?!" he cried out. "You can't hit me like that! I'm King now!"

"You were being an idiot!"

"That's a capital offence!"

"You were being an idiot! Look, Zidane, you have a damn good thing going right now! Don't throw that away over rich food and itchy clothes! You have a wife that, and let me be perfectly honest here, I would kill to get. You live in a big-ass castle, you have more money than you could ever spend in your life! And you know what? Dagger loves you far more than you know! Every day you were gone, she would talk about you, wondering where you were, or how you were doing. More than once she sent me on missions to the Iifa Tree to see if I could find you or any trace of you. This girl would do anything for you, and you're skipping out on important meetings! Meetings she might be stressed to go to. Meetings that she might need your support in. Maybe she's giving up a lot of her personal life to see you happy and help you transition into a new life. Maybe you need to man up and go help your wife!"

Zidane just stared in silence for a moment. He looked around, lost in his thoughts, thinking about everything I had just said.

"Hey, sorry," I said. "I didn't mean to rant like that. I lost a girl like Dagger once and hated myself for it for a long time. I don't want to see you fuck something like that up."

"No, it's okay," he said. "You're right. I guess I can try to see things from her perspective a little more now. I just missed hanging out with my friends like before. And in my old, non-itchy clothes."

"I can help with the latter."

"Really? How?"

I gave him a big smile. "By inventing the cotton gin!"

"Another Earth invention? What, were you some kind of prodigy on your planet?"

"Just wait until I bring you the air conditioner. Then you'll really love me!"

"Ha, alright. Well, I should be getting to the meeting then. Sorry I can't show you out."

"Don't worry about it. I know this castle pretty well."

"Alright, see you… Oh wait!" Zidane stopped. "I almost forgot to ask, you're going to fight in the Tournament of Kings, right? Dagger and I want it to rival the Festival of the Hunt someday, and top-level fighters like yourself will make it an instant hit!"

"You know I'm in!" I laughed. "I'll try to get the rest of the Brotherhood in. It'll make for a better standoff." That, and we had a better chance of getting the prize money.

With one last wave, Zidane ran back down the hall we came from. It looked like my little speech did him some good. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and strolled down at my own pace. Now that Zidane had mentioned it, I was thinking about the Tournament again. Part of the restoration of Alexandria included knocking down some old buildings in a section abandoned after Bahamut's attack and building an arena in its place. The building was huge, almost rivaling the Roman Coliseum. I could still see it standing high from the hallway in the castle. Looking at it now, I got flashbacks to our fight against Necron, thinking about how we barely pulled out of there. It would be good to fight in an arena without an omnipotent god-like figure trying to destroy all of creation.

The Tournament itself was set six months away from the Festival of the Hunt. That meant I could compete in both and boast the Tempest Brotherhood's name even more. This was going to be the first year of the tournament, and the entire kingdom was abuzz talking about it. Fighters from all around, even outside the continent, were coming to compete. A lot of them were already bragging their upcoming victory in the streets. Most of them looked like pushovers. Huge muscles and massive swords meant nothing against a pair of Demon Sabers. The only question was how Dante could safely compete with his revolver without killing anyone. White Mages were being called from all over to help heal the injured. Perhaps we would have to rely on them.

I had reached the main lobby when a familiar airship landed in the airdocks next to the castle. It was a small ship, less than half the size of the Red Rose, but almost as comfortable. Varnished in cerulean, the Blue Orchid was used for Alexandria's diplomatic and emissary missions. That meant one person in particular was on board.

Vivi came walking in from the airdock hall. He still carried the ornate Mace of Zeus I found for him in Memoria. He had new solid green pants, and a silken blue robe with a wide collar. Now he looked like a real wizard, even though that wizard was trapped in a kid's body.

Vivi looked up and saw me coming towards him. "Trevor!" he called out. He hoisted his staff up and carried it at his side, running as hard as his little legs would carry him. Just as he neared me, he tripped, sliding the last few feet. He picked himself up, adjusted his hat and dusted off his pants, trying to recover what dignity he could. Some things never change.

"I haven't seen you in weeks!" he said. "How've you been? Have you fought any more monsters?"

"Of a sort," I said. "Caught another one last night. What about you? How's ambassador life treating you?"

He shrugged. "It's alright. I miss being with everyone else though. Zidane and Dagger are busy a lot, and Quina is… Quina."

"I know what you mean," I said with a knowing nod. "Are you looking forward to the Tournament of Kings?"

"Oh yeah!" He was practically bouncing on his toes. "I'll get to watch from the royal seating with Zidane and Dagger! I'll have my own seat and everything!"

"You're just gonna watch? You're not going to compete?"

"No, I think I'm done fighting. I never liked it. I only did it because we really needed to. Now that I have this new job, I never have to fight. Good luck to you though! I'll make sure to cheer you on!"

I laughed. "I might need it. How's work going for you though? And how's the Black Mage Village?"

"It's alright. I like it… but…" Vivi hesitated. His eyes shifted down and he leaned on his staff for support. "It's Mr. 288. He's sick. They… they don't think he's going to last much longer. They say he's gonna stop soon."

"Mr. 288?" He was the one who first met us when we first found the village. He was the only one who wasn't immediately terrified of seeing me. He was also one of the only Black Mages to stay behind when Kuja tricked the rest of the village. He was the closest thing to a village elder, as well as Vivi's first Black Mage friend. I knelt down to comfort the little guy. "Vivi, I'm so sorry."

"It's alright," he said solemnly. "Everyone stops… eventually. I'm just… sad."

"No one would blame you if you wanted to be with the Black Mages during all this," I said. "I bet Mr. 288 would really appreciate it. After all, you were the one who helped open trade negotiations with the Black Mages."

Vivi looked at me with big puppy eyes. "You really think he'd like that?"

"I'm sure he would! Why don't you head back to the village when you can? I don't think Dagger would mind if you took a vacation up there for a week or two to comfort him."

Vivi smiled. "Alright, I'll do that! Thanks Trevor!"

"Anytime Vivi. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go into town for a little bit and buy some flowers."

"Are you're coming back? I thought maybe you could stick around for dinner."

"Well, the flowers are for Zidane to give to Dagger, so yeah, I'll be back. And Dagger already invited me to dinner so you're stuck with me either way."

Vivi beamed at that and laughed. "Alright! I'm gonna finish up my report really fast! I'll see you then!"

"See ya Vivi!"

XXXXXXXX

Dinner was excellent, as always. How Quina knew half the recipes he did was beyond me. He served us a light salad of tomatoes and lettuce in a raspberry dressing. The main course was fresh fish caught just that morning, coated in eggs and dried breading. All of it came with a glass of red wine, as was typical. I had a glass, but mostly stuck to water.

Zidane and Dagger had obviously made up since their spat. The flowers I had gotten earlier helped. Alexandria was still a matriarchy, so Dagger sat at the head of the table, with Zidane just beside her. There was much giggling between the two of them while Dagger did little to stop Zidane from whispering sweet nothings to her. Vivi had joined us, but was in a special seat since he was too short to reach the table. He looked like a toddler in a high chair, and I had to stifle a laugh knowing this kid was an ambassador to one of the strongest nations on the planet. Even Kaiten was there after I ran into him at the market, but it felt like he was there only out of obligation. He sat next to me and was quiet through most of the meal. Even after all this time, he still refused to open up to the other heroes. I was just glad he wasn't the same with the others in the Brotherhood.

We said our goodbyes after dinner as the sun was just beginning to set. Our prisoner was still in his holding cell, by now asking for food. We had already tossed something his way earlier in the morning, so he could wait until we got to the prison to eat. Kaiten took the helm and I took a seat in the back of the bridge. We headed for home and for a well-earned rest and reward.

"Dagger and Zidane are looking well," I said. "Makes me wish I had a girl."

Kaiten didn't take his eyes off the screen as he talked. "I thought you were dating that one already. Tema."

"Nah, didn't really work out," I admitted. "She was sweet, but unbearably clingy. I had no such thing as alone time, you know?"

"I see. Sorry to hear that."

"Yeah, I'm gonna miss her though. She was fun."

"And her ample chest, if I recall."

"You are an asshole." It was a dick move, but it still made me smirk. "Still, what about you? I never hear about you going on dates."

"Not my thing. I was raised for combat. Romance doesn't interest me. Besides, I don't get along with women terribly well, you know that."

"You sure? What about that girl we saved in Alexandria? She warmed up to you pretty well."

"You mean Chloe?"

"AHA! I knew you liked her!"

This time, Kaiten turned his head to look at me. "What are you talking about?"

"You never use a person's name until you respect them, remember?" He still didn't even use everyone's names from the World Heroes. He was very picky like that. He just glared at me from the corner of his eye and went back to looking at the screen.

"Hey, I'm just kidding," I laughed. "Anyway, maybe I should spend some time just hanging out before the tournament and try to pick up chicks that way. It'd be nice to have someone special cheering me on."

Kaiten was a little more forthcoming about his confidence. "After what we did in the last Festival, we'll have half the stadium cheering us on."

"You really think so?" Thoughts of girls clamoring for my attention went through my head.

"Well, until you and I fight. Then they'll be cheering only for me."

"Ahaha," I mocked. "Asshat."

XXXXXXXX

Things were quieting down when we arrived in Lindblum. A quick stop at the prison left us one scumbag lighter and a little richer. We took the air cabs back to our hideout, planted in the Business District. A blue sign hung above the door.

TEMPEST BROTHERHOOD

Mercenaries for Hire

Inquire within

Inside, the lobby opened to a wide, two-story room with hardwood floor and white walls with brown molding. A fireplace burned a gentle fire which lit the entire room in dancing luminescence. A table, several chairs, and a couch stood to the side of the hearth, with the biggest chair on the far side of the table, making it look like something out of The Godfather. Kaiten said he had set it that way intentionally to help our business image. Customers could come in, sit down and explain what kind of job they needed. It wasn't a bad system, though more than half our contracts came from skimming the wanted posters outside prisons and the jobs boards in taverns.

The halls split down in either direction. To the left was our armory, mostly empty but ready for new recruits, once Kaiten was open enough to hiring more members. It only held our armor between missions. Kaiten, Seki and I all kept out weapons in our bedrooms, should we ever need them against someone committing suicide via B and E. It also held a suit of armor too big for any of us, and three iron broadswords. The room needed work. The hallway also led to the upper stairwell, which brought us up to the upper balcony, overlooking the office. The balcony had a connecting bridge to the adjacent balcony on the far side. That room, and the hallway to the right, led to our bedrooms, as well as the living room, kitchen, and play area for the kids. In the time that we've lived here, we hired Dante and Wayne to help build a jungle gym of sorts for them. Now their playroom was nearly the size of our office, honeycombed with platforms and tunnels and even a "secret" meeting area deep inside the cluster. It was like a wooden playpen from McDonalds, but about a thousand times cooler!

Seki was in the living room when Kaiten and I stepped in. She was reading from our small, but growing library. She set the book down as I hung my trenchcoat on the coat rack by the front door and stepped in. Kaiten kept his leather jacket on.

"Hey you two," she greeted from her comfy chair. "Took you guys a while to catch that guy. I thought he was a petty thug."

"He was," Kaiten said. "This one wanted to stay back and talk with the King and Queen."

"We never get to see them anymore!" I pointed out while leaning my head on his shoulder. "Besides, I miss when we would just go out and relax with other couples. Don't yooou?"

The look I earned from Kaiten was priceless. His face contorted in horror and he shuffled his way back into the kitchen. Seki and I burst out laughing at his retreat.

"He is so easy to mess with!" I chuckled. Our laughter filled the room until Seki shushed me.

"Sorry," she said. "I already put the kids to bed and I don't need any of them waking up now."

"Ah, right. Hey, have you seen Dante today? I need to talk to him."

"He's already gone home for the day." Unlike Seki, Dante didn't move in with us, preferring to keep his home in the Industrial District. He spent most of the day in the Business District, either with Wayne or us, so he was still easy to find.

"Damn. Well, I'll tell him tomorrow. In the meantime, I wanted to talk to you." I took a step and peeked around the corner to the kitchen to see Kaiten making a sandwich. "You too Kaiten."

"Be there in a sec," he said.

Kaiten took the spare chair as Seki curled his legs up on her seat, securing it. I took the couch and propped my feet up on the coffee table. "So, the Tournament of Kings is coming up in two weeks. We kicked a lot of ass in the Festival of the Hunt, so why don't we try for this too?"

Seki's face lit right up, but Kaiten was concentrating more on his ham and lettuce. "I'm up for it," she said. "It's been a while since I've had a real chance to challenge myself. No offence, but a lot of our contracts are real easy."

"Fair point," I agreed. "Kaiten, what about you?"

"I'll pass," he said. "Fighting monsters is one thing, but I can't really let loose against another person unless I intend to kill them. Holding myself back isn't a lot of fun."

"Are you sure? You seemed eager enough talking about it on the ride back home."

"And sabotage your chances of winning the whole thing?"

"Are you so sure you'd beat me? We're pretty evenly matched."

"How did our last sparring match go?"

I tried to respond, but I had nothing. I just sank into my couch and sulked.

"That's what I thought," Kaiten quipped. "Anyway, both you and Seki should be more than a match for whoever you fight. At least, until you fight each other."

"That'll be good," Seki said. "I didn't get a chance to really cut loose when we first met in Treno. Though, if I remember, I won that too."

"Only because you were wearing distracting negligee. Put on some armor and you'll lose your only advantage."

Seki tossed the heavy book she had been reading. I barely had time to react when it hit me in the arm as I was covering my head. "Tits are not a combat advantage! Try fighting with them sometime!"

Kaiten interrupted before our "fight" got out of hand. "Girls! You're both pretty. If you want to, spar in the basement. Otherwise just leave it until the tournament. I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning. Trevor, you'll be on contract hunting duty."

"Ugh, fine." I hated contract hunting. I had to walk all over town for a lead we could use to get a job. It usually meant walking into less-than-reputable places. Lindblum may have been nice as a whole, but some of the bars were filthy and smelled like piss. The barkeeps could be assholes too since I didn't go to the bars to drink.

"So, two weeks?" Seki asked as Kaiten walked upstairs to his bedroom. "I guess I'll have to get a little more training in. Can't let you off easy. Can you sign me up for the tournament though? I don't know when I'll be able to get to Alexandria next time to do it myself."

"I'll sign us both up next chance I get. Maybe Kaiten and I can swing by Alexandria for lunch or something. I'll do it then." I loved having a personal airship, even if Kaiten never let me drive it.

"Okay then. I'll see you in the morning. Good night."

"Night."

I stretched out on the couch, short swords still at my sides. I unsheathed Crimson as I often did and just stared at the blade. I was loving life. This was nothing like what I had planned on Earth. I had just planned on becoming a therapist and living in the suburbs, but this was vastly better. Now I could stay up late, make my own schedule, for the most part, and still fight bad guys. Plus, I still got to fight in tournaments and festivals. Vivi already said he was out, but there were plenty of others from the World Heroes who could do battle. I sank into the couch and sighed in contentment.

I couldn't wait for the tournament to see my old friends.