Rusty, The Anime-Niac, proudly presents...

A fic-type that has been done over, and over again...

That just had to be done once more...

Crossing

Because I had no better name!

This is one of those infamous fics where a person gets zapped into their FF9 game. I'm going to try and make this good, okay? Don't just stop reading right now. You know me! This should be good.

Chapter 1

Never-mind why Jason had always been different from everyone else he knew. The fact was that he was different, and there was nothing he could do about it. So Jason just dealt with his oddity: his ability to mold thoughts into reality, and call upon pure psychic energy to deal damage to whomever. He only knew he could do these things, and that with training he would be able to access the full power. For now, there was very little he could actually do. It didn't bother him, though, because he was always done with his homework within an hour or two of coming home from school, and had no social life to speak of. So he had plenty of time to train his mind.

Jason was fourteen years old, had pale skin, light brown eyes and blonde hair that was almost white. He was about 5'5", (shall we say a bit smaller then Zidane?), and had no musculature whatsoever. But it didn't matter, because he was a psyker. What would never make much sense to Jason was how it all happened. He stood on the damp ground, wondering about it. He knew what this place was, he just couldn't figure out why he was here.

His little brother, Garry, absolutely loved his Final Fantasy 9 game. His thoughts were almost completely filled with Final Fantasy 9, and Jason could read them all. So he knew that he was sitting in what was called 'The Evil Forest', and that the people he followed were named Zidane, Steiner, and Vivi. He actually would have known anyway, being the psyker he was, but that didn't really matter. Jason that about it some more.

He had been watching his brother play, trying to predict his movements. He had been doing pretty well, actually. Then his brother got to the Evil Forest. Jason thought about the place, and suddenly it seemed more real then anything he had even experienced. And all of the sudden, there he was, standing just behind the three heroes, having made not a sound at all, and wearing an outfit similar to Zidane's.

"Well... never mind why I'm here. If I know RPG games... and I do..." he mused to himself, "this is going to get ugly. I could stand to be with them."

So he followed. And when Zidane, Steiner and Vivi stopped at the spring to take a drink and talk with the Mog, Jason caught up. Needless to say, they were all surprised.

"Kupo!" shouted the Mog. They all looked back to see Jason standing there placidly. Zidane regarded him idly, Vivi looked frightened, and Steiner pointed his sword at him, asserting authority.

"You! Who are you, and what are you doing here? Have you been following us? If so, for what purpose?"

"Woh, Rusty, slow down! You're asking the poor guy too many questions!" Zidane intervened. Steiner grew upset at the way he had been addressed, and Jason just watched quietly. Then he answered each question, in order.

"My name is Jason, I am here as the result of some inter-dimensional mix-up, I was following you, and I was doing so because I have a very bad feeling about this forest."

He received four blank stares.

"KUPO!" shouted the Mog as it flew away.

Jason blinked. "Oh... I see. The Mog has a privacy issue..."

Everyone was confused beyond their normal mental limits. Zidane decided to take this all lighthearted, of course.

"Okay, Jason," he began, thinking of how strange a name it was, "I don't know what's going on here, but seeing as how this is the Evil Forest, after all, you had better come with us."

Jason nodded.

"Guess we should introduce ourselves. I'm-"

"Zidane," Jason said. More blank stares arrived. Jason then continued.

"Steiner and Vivi," he said, pointing to the owners of each name.

"How do you know these things, mendicant!" Steiner shouted. Jason suddenly realized that no one here understood what he was. So he smiled, chuckled, looked down, then explained himself.

"I can read minds, sometimes. I have some other special powers you'll probably find useful. Oh, and I know all of your names because..." Jason hesitated. What might happen if he told them this was all just a game? They would probably think he was crazy, and that was the last thing he needed. He was never good with people skills.

"Because?" Vivi asked, quietly. Jason shook his head.

"Never mind. Let's go; we have a princess to rescue!" he urged them. They paused for a moment, and then they all realized what he had been saying. They were all thinking a lot about the princess, so he could probably tell what was going on. No more arguments were given as they walked on towards the Plant Brain's layer. They did have one monster encounter along the way, though, and they all got a taste of Jason's power.

A single goblin had snuck up on them, but Jason noticed it right away. He turned around to see it rushing at him, preparing to slice. The hair on his head seemed to fizzle a bit, and his eyes dilated for a moment, and then the goblin was down, moaning. Jason sighed; it was truly sad. All of this time he had such awesome power in him, and he had come so close to using it on kids at school before. But that would all have to go behind him now. The others were once again looking at him oddly.

"Right, an explanation, I know!" he assured them. "My mind is very powerful. I can focus on a target, and overload their brains for a bit. It causes a lot of damage, apparently." Jason thought for a moment. How to put this in RPG terms? "Consider it my attack, just as Zidane has his dagger, Steiner his sword, and Vivi his staff. I have my mind."

"Okay... that's weird as heck, but I'm glad to have you with us! I wouldn't want to have to fight someone who can read my thoughts and fry my brain," Zidane jested. Vivi and Jason laughed a bit, while Steiner remained indignant. "May we proceed? The princess needs assistance!"

"Oh, right, sorry. Let's go," Zidane apologized, somewhat sarcastically. The group moved onward to face the Plant Brain.

"Woh! That thing is huge!" Zidane called out. Steiner spotted Garnet.

"And it has the princess!" he shouted. Vivi looked nervous, while Jason sized up the beast. Suddenly, he had a very accurate picture in his mind of how strong the creature was; probably its HP; and how fast it was moving. That would be its ATB. He could even tell what it was weak against! Astounding! He tried to share this newfound knowledge with his teammates, and it seemed to work, because they all changed their expressions rather rapidly. So Jason discovered his first skill: Analyze, he dubbed it. It didn't seem to take any of what a person might call MP, so he found it very interesting. There thus had to be something else he could do that took magic power. After Vivi assisted Steiner in a magic attack, Zidane looted some item from the creature, and Vivi used a fire spell on it, Jason knew it was time to act.

"What to do?" he thought to himself. He wasn't entirely sure that thing even had a brain circuitry for him to overload, and he didn't want to waste a precious attack finding out. Suddenly, it came to him.

"Goblin form!" he shouted, instantly feeling some of his power drain. It had to be a magic attack. And, quite shockingly, he found a creature identical to the goblin he had killed earlier taking form in front of him. It became apparent to him that he was suddenly in complete control of the creature, and couldn't do much for himself. So he ordered it to attack, and it obeyed. Quite surprisingly to all of the others, who had an idea of how strong a Goblin was, the creature appeared to have four times the strength it should. Its slash attack rivaled the power of Zidane's!

"Woh, Jason, what did you do?" shouted Zidane, after stealing another item. The Goblin shook its head and made some weird noises that were supposed to be "I'm not sure". Jason seemed to be stuck inside the goblin. But that ended soon, because the Plant Brain smacked the creature viciously, sending it to an early grave. Jason came back to his own body.

"Looks like you guys could use some help," Blank said, appearing mysteriously. "Who's the freak?" he asked, meaning Jason. Jason couldn't help but find this funny, since Blank was the one with a patch over his face and a crazy outfit. Then again, Jason didn't look much better, but never mind. The plant creature was casting a spell, it seemed, and was casting it at him. Vivi, Steiner and Blank all finished up their attacks before it could, though, and that gave Jason just enough time to save himself from being zapped. Because once again, he used the Goblin-form ability, and there was the creature to take the heat for him. It even got in one attack first.

Then it was zapped by a lightning spell and once again faded out of existence. The battle continued on like this for a while, with Zidane and Blank struggling to retrieve the last item from the monster, Vivi and Steiner using magic, and Jason deciding to stick with his regular attack. It actually worked, though it didn't seem to be very effective. Jason was low on MP, though, and he felt kind of sorry for the poor goblin creatures. Soon, the Plant Brain was dead, and the entire forest was in an uproar.

Steiner grabbed the princess, and the group ran out at top speed. The plant spiders started chasing after them. They didn't pay much attention, but Jason made a point to kill one with his psychic attack, just in case he could use a Plant Spider form attack later on. It was all so fascinating to Jason, even though he could die at any moment. He was now completely sure that this was his new reality, and it would be a wild ride indeed. He hadn't even played this game, so he had no idea what was coming! There was always the possibility that he'd wake up and find himself in his bed if he died. He'd seen enough weird things to believe it.

What really got Jason was when Blank sacrificed himself. He tried to imagine what it would have looked like from the player's point of view, and it was nothing compared to this. Then, Jason was struck with an odd idea. What if his brother Garry was playing this deformed game, with Jason it? He didn't even want to think about it. The idea of his younger brother controlling his every move in conjunction with the orders of a CD was just too disturbing for him.

Night came outside the forest, and they began to rest. Everyone had a lot to think about, especially Jason. It was going to be a long night.

Well, that's my first chapter. Hope you enjoyed! More will be coming either way.

Rusty The anime-niac