ZT: Hey everyone. Well, three of the millions of things I need to do are done now, so here's an update for you guys. I don't own Sailor Moon or FF9. Enjoy!

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A person writing a review – Of course you're allowed to guess. Kuja huh? It's possible…I'm not telling until later though. Here's the update.

Of Silver Crystals and Feathers

Chapter 9

"Remind me again why I agreed to go with you?" Serenity asked shakily as she held onto Zidane for dear life, looking down at the ground which was very, very far below her. Zidane had decided that it would be much easier for the two of them to get around if they didn't use an airship. Of course, when he decided on that, the foreigner to the land didn't realize what his alternate mode of transportation was.

"Don't worry Serenity. Choco's not gonna drop you," Zidane replied, patting the golden chocobo's neck as he did.

"Some reason, that doesn't make my nerves settle any…" she replied. She usually wasn't one to be uneasy with heights, but being up high in the air on a creature that was smaller than a horse without her wings out made an exception to the case.

"I ride Choco all the time; I'm not gonna fall off. And with how tightly you're holding onto me, you're not gonna fall of either," Zidane said, hoping she would get the hint that she was crushing his ribcage. Obviously she did because he felt the pressure around his torso ease some and heard her mumble and apology behind him.

"So, what's Daguerro like anyway?" Serenity asked, trying to change the subject and get her mind off how high they were.

"It's definitely a unique place. Daguerro is built within a mountain, so you wouldn't even realize it was there if you didn't already know it was. Inside there is a big monument to the guardian of Daguerro which is apparently a big dragon. I guess what creature they based it off of had to do with the fact that the most abundant creature outside of the mountain is the grand dragon…well that and those stupid gimme cats…" Zidane stopped and frowned at the memory of those pathetic things.

Serenity giggled when she heard the tone in his voice, "Don't like them that much?"

"They ask for diamonds. If you give them one, they make fun of you and run off. If you attack them, they retaliate with meteor," he answered.

"Ouch…"

"Tell me about it. Anyway, because of those creatures hanging around outside, there is also a weapon's shop there which sells the best weapons you can buy, and a master synthesist. There are also tons, and I mean tons of books there. Everywhere you look you see 'em. I find that kind of funny since the majority of the place is knee deep in water…" Zidane finished.

'A library huh? Sounds like a might make progress here after all…' Serenity thought. For a while there was silence between the two as Zidane focused on making sure Choco stayed on track, and Serenity let her mind wander. Surprisingly, she found herself not wondering about "Big blue" for very long as her thoughts strayed towards the person in front of her. Although he did not know it, Zidane had been right when he wondered if she was just as curious about him as he was her. She had found it strange that he was able to go into Lindblum's palace even though he was a thief, but had let it slide since he was a resident of the town; she just figured Tantalus did a favor for the Regent awhile back or something. However, when she realized that Zidane's "lady friend" in Alexandria castle was in fact the Queen of Alexandria, then she found it odd. He must have done something on this planet, something big to be welcomed into castles and asked by royals for help. But what, though, she couldn't even begin to guess. She had considered asking him, but thought against it; after all, if she made him answer her questions, it would give him reason to make her answer his. And she knew he had questions.

Serenity let a frown cross her lips when she thought about that last part. She didn't like it; she didn't like lying to him. Well, technically she wasn't lying, just not telling him what she knew, but still, it made her feel bad that he was going through all this trouble to find a particular person, and she didn't even have the nerve to tell him that she sitting right behind him with her arms wrapped around him to keep from falling off a funky looking bird with one seriously big head. 'Why don't I tell him?' she found herself suddenly wondering. After all, it would save him a big headache, and she had nothing against this planet. Sure he might get angry that she kept this information from him, but it didn't matter right? She would be leaving once she found out if this planet had anything to do with "Big blue" or not… As soon as she let the thought pass through her mind, something inside of her screamed back in protest. It caught her by surprise and she tensed for a moment, getting Zidane's attention again.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"N…no, just found myself dozing off," she lied.

"Well if you're able to do that, you must have gotten used to riding Choco pretty quick," he said with a grin.

This caused the blond passenger to groan, "Thanks for reminding me…"

Kuja sighed in frustration as he placed yet another book on his ever growing pile of searched items. So far he had went through dozens of books, countless scrolls, and had even found an old stone tablet in the back, but found nothing about this "silver warrior" he was supposed to be looking for. He reached down to grab another book from his unsearched pile and realized that he was grabbing air. 'Out of all that I found nothing?' he thought incredulously as he slowly got to his feet. Why couldn't Garland have given him more to go on? A name, a title, a general interest, anything!

Walking down a hall, he found himself in a room with a ladder leading down to another shelf. This room was smaller than the others that he was in, but there was one small problem with it… Kuja glared down at the floor below in distaste before getting on the ladder and climbing down, cringing slightly when the cold water started seeping through his favorite boots and soaked the bottom of his skirt. 'Whose brilliant idea was it to build a massive library in a place filled with so much water?' he wondered, before looking at the bookshelf for anything that might help him.

As he reached for one book in particular, he accidentally knocked another free which fell towards the water. Now, Kuja may have been a villain who tried to destroy all humanity, but he loved his literature. He quickly left the book that he was reaching for and moved quickly to catch the book before it could meet its watery grave, effectively making a big splash when his legs moved and soaking himself even more. "Great…" he muttered, glaring at the book he saved. If this wound up being some children's book about a moogle in the big city he was going to burn it. He flipped open to the first page and nearly dropped the book. He flipped through the pages before finding what had caught his attention. 'There's no way this can be what Garland is looking for…right?' he wondered. There was only one way to find out… He was about to place the book back on the shelf when he thought better of it; information like that should not be left where the wrong people can get it. Knowing he was going to have a guilty conscience for doing this later, he tossed the book into the water before heading out to where his silver dragon was.

He got onto the dragon's back, "To Oeilvert." The dragon turned its head to look at its master questioningly. "You heard me, to Oeilvert." Reluctantly, the dragon lifted its wings and flew into the air, heading north. Kuja sighed and fiddled with a pouch filled with dark matter, hoping that this along with the staff he had bought while he was there would be enough to make up for his lack of magic when he went into the monster infested place. 'I should have taught myself how to use a weapon when I first learned of that place…' he thought with an annoyed sigh at his own oversight.

As his dragon flew away, Kuja did not bother to look back at the place where he had once been. Had he done so, he might have been able to make out the figure of a person who was staring after him.

Serenity didn't know why, but something had itched at her to look up once she and Zidane had landed in front of Daguerro. Deciding to go with it, she looked up to catch the glimpse of something disappearing over the top of the mountain. 'Was that a … dragon? I thought Zidane said only the green ones were here…'

Zidane glanced over at her once he put Choco in a safe place and noticed her looking at the top of the mountain. "What'cha looking at?" he asked.

She shook her head, "Just an odd looking cloud I guess." It had to have been. After all, how many dragons were white like that?

Zidane raised an eyebrow at her answer, "…Ok. Well, lets get inside before the dragons around here notice us."

She thought about saying that she would catch up and flying up to see if that really was just a cloud she saw. However, with the monsters around here she doubted Zidane would leave her alone in the open. So, Serenity nodded and followed the teen inside.

Once inside, Serenity found herself looking around in awe. Daguerro looked so unlike anything she had ever seem before! 'Even if I don't find anything, just coming here to see this place was worth the trip,' she thought.

Zidane looked over at her, "I'm gonna start asking around if anyone knows about this silver being. You go ahead and see if you can find anything on your friend and I'll meet up with you later."

Serenity nodded, "Ok, see you later then." Zidane nodded and waved before taking off down a corridor, leaving the blond sailor soldier behind. Serenity sighed, glancing around and seeing tons of shelves of books, "Now, where to begin…?" She decided that if she followed Zidane's direction, he would start asking questions if he noticed her looking through books rather than trying to find her "friend". So, because he took the corridor to the left, she decided to take the one to the right.

Sloshing through the knee deep water, she found herself in a small room with a shelf full of books and a ladder which led to the upper level. 'Well, I guess I should start here…' She quickly scanned the titles on the spines of the books, looking mythical beings and old legends in particular. From time to time, she would pull out a book that caught her attention, but would find nothing in it.

Sighing, she bent down to scan the books on the lower part of the bookshelf when she noticed a book floating in the water. Now, the book being in the water wasn't what caught her attention; many others had found their way there and were floating around. What caught her attention was the fact that there was a symbol on the cover, a symbol in the shape of an eight pointed star with a moon in the center. "What in the name of…?" she picked up the book and flipped it open. The pages were wet and most of the ink had either smeared or washed away, but what she saw made her eyes widen. It was a picture of three beings facing off. The smaller ones had smeared to the point that Serenity could only tell the colors: they were black and silver. However, the larger one was still distinguishable and she made him out easily; it was "Big blue". 'Was this a record of our battle? But this book looks old…how long ago was this written?' she wondered, looking over the picture.

She was studying it so intently that she did not notice the person come up behind her and glance at the book over her shoulder. "Pretty ugly huh?" Zidane's voice startled her and she nearly dropped the book. He glanced at the book and pointed to the blue creature, "Necron. He's pretty ugly."

"Necron?" she repeated the name, looking back at the illustration. 'So that's what he's called here…'

Zidane nodded, looking at the girl in front of him. She was studying the picture intently for some reason… Maybe she was trying to figure out if she heard of this guy before since Zidane could name him so easily. Truth be told, Zidane didn't even know there was a picture of that freak until he saw Serenity with one. Maybe he should shed some light on it for her. "…He's even creepier looking in person; had all those moaning voices that follow him everywhere."

This got Serenity's attention immediately, "You know this guy?"

Zidane nodded, "All those people you met and I fought him awhile back."

Serenity looked at him in shock. Zidane had the power to take down Necron? The bastard took down Chaos in a matter of seconds! She suddenly understood why the others wanted to make sure she could hold her own before letting her loose; they wanted to make sure she could keep up. "…Did you defeat him?"

"Hm?" Zidane looked at her curiously.

"That Necron guy; did you defeat him?" she repeated.

Zidane shook his head, "He went back to whatever hellhole he crawled out of after the fight." He frowned slightly at the memory, "The last thing I heard him say was that it wasn't the end…"

'I am eternal,' Serenity finished in her mind as Zidane voiced the last part out loud. Yeah, that was the same guy alright…and if he was defeated by mortals on this planet, she had a feeling he'd be back… As she thought about this, she came to the realization that Zidane was talking to her. "Hm? I'm sorry?"

"I said did you find out anything about your friend?" Zidane repeated.

"Oh, um…no, there was nothing here…" she lied. "How about you? Did you find anything on the silver being?"

Zidane shook his head, "No, no one here has heard of her."

Serenity figured as much, but didn't voice that. "That's too bad…"

Zidane shrugged, "It's no big; there are still other places to look."

She nodded, "Right. Where to next?"

"Oeilvert," Zidane replied, motioning for her to follow as he walked towards the exit.

"Popular place?"

"Actually… no. No one lives there."

Serenity raised an eyebrow, "Then why are we looking there?"

"Well, Oeilvert is…different from most places on Gaia. I'm kinda hoping that there might be some sort of link to her there," he explained. Serenity nodded in comprehension. Even though she doubted that he would find anything about her, she could understand his reasoning. Besides, if he thought that there was something about her there, then maybe she might find out more about Necron there…

They walked out until Serenity stopped and groaned. Zidane turned around, "What's wrong?"

"Are you sure there's not a better way to get there other than by that?" she asked.

Zidane laughed at her reaction and took her hand, pulling her towards the waiting chocobo.

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