Chapter 1
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Notes/Disclaimer: Final Fantasy IX and all its characters are the property of Squaresoft. I am not making any profit from this work of fiction.
If I made any mistakes with the FFIX continuum, please let me know. I apologize; there was a large period of inactivity right before I beat the game where I just stopped playing. So I may not have correctly remembered some details. At any rate, I also assume Kuja survived at the end. AND, since they don't really tell you how long it was since Zidane disappeared, I'm saying it was like, six to ten months. I know it was probably more, but this works better for the story's plot, so there. ::sticks out tongue::
Chapters will be short - more like scenes, actually. Expect that.
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"Dagger?" Zidane said softly.
"Hm?" asked Garnet, looking up at him. Since Zidane had returned, Garnet had not let go of him for one second. Even after releasing him from her initial tearful embrace and giving him a sound lecture for making her wait so long, she still steadfastly clung to his arm, as though the second she broke contact, he would vanish.
"Dagger, there's... there's someone else that I think you should say hello to. I mean, before I go to meet everyone else."
Garnet looked up at him, her eyes darkening ever so slightly in confusion. But the emotion was barely noticeable even to her among the relief that still consumed her. "Who?" she asked.
Zidane cast a glance up into the audience, waving to his friends. She could tell that he wanted more than anything to go up and greet them, to embrace his old comrades for the first time in months. But for some reason, he hesitated.
"Come on," he said, "I'll show you."
With one last look up at his friends, he led the queen of Alexandria off backstage towards the Theater Ship. As he passed into the back, one of his friends from the gang slipped him a wink and walked out onto the stage in a similar costume, prepared to take his place in the play as the lead actor.
Zidane walked onto the ship and down a short corridor, Garnet right behind him and still holding onto his hand. When he reached the third door down, he rapped lightly on the wood. The gesture seemed more to let the room's occupant know he was there than to ask permission to enter, for he went right in without waiting for a reply.
As Zidane pushed the door open, Garnet got her first look at the person sitting on the small, low bed at the other end of the room.
"Kuja..." she gasped.
He sat on the edge of the simple cot, his hands folded neatly in his lap. At Garnet's cry, he bowed his head to her, hiding his expression. "Your Highness," he said politely, his voice soft and faintly melancholy.
Garnet looked between Zidane and Kuja in startlement. "But... Oh. I guess that makes sense. I mean, you survived, and you did go back to get him after all."
"He barely made it," Zidane admitted. "He was pretty far gone when I got there. It was quite a while before he was well enough for us to move, even after we had gotten out of the heart of the Iifa tree. And then it was slow going getting through that jungle of roots and branches. Some really nasty fauna's moved in there, let me tell you."
Garnet stepped forward, though not far enough that she had to release her hold on Zidane. "Kuja? If you're back here with Zidane, then can I assume that you have given up on your... self-destruction?"
Kuja finally lifted his head, and Garnet saw beneath his rueful expression a profound weariness. It seemed to her as though she could see his tired soul staring out at her from the depths of his eyes. "My plan to bring an end to creation, you mean? Yes. I finally realized, somewhere in that whole mess, the point of this whole existence thing. I still have a lot of learning to do, I think, but Brother is helping me."
This brought Garnet's attention back to Zidane. When he saw her looking, his expression became slightly sheepish. "Well, he is my brother. Sort of. I feel kind of, you know, responsible for him." His voice suddenly lowered to a murmur so that Kuja could not hear them.
"He needs me," he told Garnet softly. "Honestly, he's been so lost since he got back. The world is new to him, and it seems so enormous now that he can't control it. If I wasn't here, I don't think he'd last very long. He's not going to try anything big again, but he might waste away himself. He still believes that I should have left him to die there at the Iifa tree."
"Oh," said Garnet softly. Giving Zidane's hand a last squeeze and keeping half an eye on him, still a little uneasy about releasing him, she let go of his hand. With soft steps she walked across the room to where Kuja sat, his eyes once more trained on the floor.
She knelt before him, which seemed to startle him enough to look at her face. Now that Zidane had mentioned it, she could see that a large part of the weariness about him seemed to be sadness. Despite this man's role in their last great adventure, she felt her heart going out to him. "It's alright, Kuja," she said softly. "You are as welcome in the palace as Zidane is. Please stay. I would be honored to get to know you."
His expression told her that he hadn't been expecting such kindness, and there was a strange, small light in his eyes when he smiled at her. Hope, perhaps, she thought.
"I would like that very much," he said.
Oh God, that was hideous. Take me back.
or
Oh God, that was hideous. Let me complain to the author.