Zidane walked hastily through the bustling streets of Alexandria, his old, blue Tantalus outfit a stark contrast to the blasé fashions of the commoners. He was actually rather surprised the old thing still fit him. Palace life had not been kind to his waist line, he had realized, and although he was determined to lose some of that weight before the baby arrived, he had not had much luck. Damn, Quina's cooking had improved over the years and ensured the layer of pudge around his midsection. He had also allowed his hair to grow out, much to the queen's disappointment. But the fleshed out blonde pony tail that trailed gracefully behind him made him look far more distinguished, especially in the ceremonial 'Queen's Consort' armor Dagger made him wear. Not that he liked that armor very much. It didn't actually provide much protection, it was really only ceremonial, and the hole they had to cut in the posterior to accommodate his tail was a pain in the ass.
He quickly turned a corner then stopped to listen. Steiner was clanking along noisily behind him. And try as he might, he just couldn't ditch him. The problem was Steiner kept insisting that it was part of his duty to accompany the Queen's Consort whenever he left the safety of the palace, but it was obvious he just wanted to spend time with him. And Zidane wasn't going to go easy on him until he could admit it.
So he slinked close to the wall and ducked into the bar. He took a quick secondary glance out the door to check for his stalker before turning into the room to see the back of a very familiar head. "Amarant!" He said, taking a seat next to his old bounty hunter buddy, "Didn't expect to see you here."
Amarant didn't respond. He had his head supported on one arm, not that it was terribly much support, his chin was only about six inches off the counter. The man looked like a wreck, which might have been due to the three empty glasses in front of him. His face was the most unreadable yet pathetic mix of expressions Zidane had ever seen.
"Looks like someone's been dumped." Zidane said conversationally.
With surprising gusto, Amarant slammed both hands down on the counter, drawing the attention of everyone in the bar. "Shut the fuck up, Monkey-boy!" He yelled threateningly, "You know nothing about me and even less about Freya!"
"Whoa!" Zidane backed off defensively, "I didn't say a word about Freya!"
"Oh…" He paused confusedly before standing up, "And neither did I!" He turned and walked toward the door.
Zidane stood dumbfounded for a moment before shooting after him. "OK, now I need details!"
Amarant strode as confidently as he could out of the bar, not even breaking stride when he nearly shoved Steiner to the ground. But Steiner stumbled awkwardly out of the way before he could be stomped on by the red headed monk. "Amarant, you brigand!" He noisily shook his armored fist, "How could you simply disregard your friends like that? You should be ashamed!"
Amarant stopped dead and whipped around, pointing angrily at Steiner. "Back off, Rusty, this has nothing to do with you."
"It has everything to do with me if you are disturbing the peace." Steiner said as Zidane came dashing out into the street.
"Oh, come on, Amarant," Zidane said casually, "You know it's our business as your friends to horn in on your personal business. Now come on, give me details!"
In a motion Zidane could barely even see, Amarant shot forward, equipped his claws with an almost invisible motion, and swung at the young genome. Thankfully Steiner's eyes were sharper than his own and stopped Amarant's deadly fist weapon with the broad side of his sword. Steiner sidestepped and heaved Amarant backward.
"So this is what it'll take to get some details out of you? Works for me." Zidane said, drawing his daggers. "I haven't worked out in a long time."
Amarant glared at Zidane and relaxed into his familiar fighting stance. Steiner stepped back to begin removing civilians from the streets figuring there was no way he was going to be able to stop this fight. There was a kind of rage in Amarant's eyes he had never seen before, and quite frankly, it scared him. And he was fully prepared to do everything in his power to help his friend through whatever it was he was going through so he would never have to see that look again. Even if it meant beating the shit out of him. But most importantly, he had to make sure civilian injury stayed to a minimum or else Beatrix would never forgive him.
Zidane bolted forward, both his tail and his hair leaving dramatic trails behind him. But Amarant's superior speed had not failed him over the years and he hastily dodged aside. The retired thief actor planted his foot to stop and leapt after Amarant as he loosed a volley of shurikens. Zidane dodged one, blocked one with his dagger, and deflected the last one with the steel toe of his shoe while doing a back flip; an acrobatic maneuver he was surprised he still had in him.
"You waste energy that way." Amarant commented as he made an underhanded sweep at Zidane's midsection. Zidane twisted aside and slashed at Amarant's neck. He would have take his tonsils right out had Amarant not flexed his elbow and planted it right in the Genome's gut, sending him flying backwards. "You're out of practice, Monkey-boy." Amarant gloated, "I think you're enjoying castle life too much."
"Wouldn't you?" Zidane asked.
"I need to keep moving, just like we have been."
Zidane grinned. "We?" He sing-songed mockingly. "As in you and Freya?"
A strange look of shock passed across his face before it contorted in anger. He readied himself as if to take another swing at the infuriating monkey, but instead he sidestepped and brought his claws up to block an unexpected broadsword from behind. He must have really trained his senses over these last few years, Zidane realized as he hadn't even noticed Steiner coming up behind the man who was standing directly in front of him.
Amarant planted his heel into the back of Steiner's knee, forcing him to stumble forward awkwardly. He gracefully stepped aside then shoved the armored man directly at Zidane. Zidane caught Steiner and helped him regain his balance. But as soon as he was stable on his feet again, he realized that their opponent was no where to be seen. "God damn it, Rusty, he's getting away!" He exclaimed, running up and grabbing the edge of the nearest roof, hoisting himself up with a bit of effort. The moment his boots touched the slate room tiles, he was forced to leap aside to avoid the handful of throwing knives that lodged themselves into the room right where his hands were a moment ago. "Damn, I was somehow hoping you didn't carry as many of those anymore." He joked.
"No such luck." Amarant said, throwing another handful of deadly projectiles.
"Son of a bitch." Steiner muttered to himself as he ran along the ground after the two combatants on the roof. "They only took this to the roof to avoid me." But more than cursing his quarreling comrades, he was regretting his own selection of combat attire. These two functioned just as well as he did in battle and they needed to wear little more than regular clothing. Jerks.
He followed their motions into the alley and nearly stumbled down the stairs to Ms. Ruby's theatre. Even less than he wanted to face down a rabid Amarant did he want to face down that mouthy woman. So he looked around the alley for a ladder or stack of boxes or something but found less than nothing here to facilitate a rise to the roofs. So instead he resheathed his sword and grabbed the cover to a nearby wooden rain barrel. Now he knew he wasn't the most talented marksman, but maybe he could create enough distraction to give the Queen's Consort the upper hand.
So he cracked his neck and loosed the wooden disk toward the fighting men on the roof.
Of course, Amarant saw it coming a mile away and pulled out an oversized shuriken to deflect the flying disk. But just as metal met wood, Zidane sprang forward and struck Amarant right in the back of the head with the butt end of his dagger. All time seemed to freeze for a moment, shock and pain flashed across Amarant's face before his eyes rolled back in his head and he went down, bashing his head right on the edge of the roof before falling unceremoniously to the ground and rolled down the stairs to the theatre where he laid in a bloody and unmoving heap.
This is probably my weakest chapter so far and for that I apoligize. I am no good at writing fight scenes and this one in particular seemed rather tedious. But thankfully I just came back from Anime Detour (I believe the biggest Anime convention in Minnesota) where I attended a fanfiction panel where I had my imagination resparked. Hopefully it will carry over to the next few chapters because now we get to the meaty bits of the story...
