Title: Tenure

Chapter Rating: PG-13.

Date: August 17, 2002

Tenure, Chapter 2

A shimmering snow globe danced with flakes of glitter and false snow. A thousand dancing figures reflected inside, a thousand faces passing by. A single pair of hands held the globe, looking inside it for answers, shaking it gently to see whether the snow flakes would part to reveal the face she wanted to see, amongst those thousands of faces. The face of her true love. Yet, as she shook it, the glass spliced apart, sending shards of glass everywhere. The snow inside grew red with blood – hers or her love's? She screamed and dropped it, and the remaining half-glass dome rolled away, trailing blood-red snow. Slowly, slowly, the dancing figures grew, escaping the snow globe. They danced around her, each a strange face, each dead, each listed in the unidentified bodies section of the other kingdom's reports. Yet, no face was her love's.

…::*::…

Garnet bolted upwards from her bed, her dark hair casting a curtain over her paled face. The nightmares were getting more and more painful to interpret. She threw her feet over the side of her bed and then stood, shaking her hair out so that it would lay appropriately on her back. Today she was to personally escort Amarant and Lani to Lindblum on a boat so that Regent Cid could give them an already-prepared, fully equipped ship that could fly them to the Outer Continent. With the Mist gone completely, only Cid could design a ship that could grace the sky.

With a somewhat grievous formality, she donned a black suede dress and pinned her hair back and then twisted it into a bun, but then she sighed and let the hair fall back to her waist. She knew she looked better with her hair down – it masked her growingly sullen face and the dark circles under her eyes. Garnet took a last look of approval into the mirror and then she walked hurriedly down the steps and into the hallway where she first met Zidane. Do I have something on my face? Garnet felt like an idiot for saying that – what did he think of her, saying something so stupid?

She arrived at the main hall just as Lani emerged from a room, looking slightly upset. She was wearing the normal outfit for an Alexandrian female military member, the stark white setting of her fiery, rust-red hair well. Lani straightened herself up a bit and said, in a slight monotone: " Good morning, Your Highness." She readied to bow with somewhat of a flourish but Garnet had walked by, giving her a slight nod.

Lani followed. " So, we're going for Lindblum, right?"

Garnet nodded again. I never felt too warmly towards Lani… but I suppose that its' only necessary that two bounty hunters, experts at finding people, would find Zidane. " I'm afraid I can only walk you and Amarant to the gates, though. Then you'll have to walk for a few hours to get to the pier."

" That's fine." Lani's voice still sounded angry.

" What's wrong?" Garnet asked, finally.

" I mean no disrespect…" Lani began. "… but I find this a pointless trip. I hate to tell you this, but I see that Beatrix is a bit too nice to speak up… I think he's dead. Gone."

Garnet spun around on her heels, her eyes burning angrily. Her voice rose to a shout: " He is … NOT… dead! He is alive! I know it, I feel it inside!"

Lani took a step backwards, her eyes widening. "…"

Garnet looked down at her black-gloved hands as she clenched them tightly, since they were shaking so badly that Lani could notice it. Her body trembled and then she looked up again, her face a mask, hiding her incredulity and fury. She smiled wanly, her lips pressed thin and tight. She didn't say anything else, she simply turned away again and began to walk quickly for the entrance doors of the castle. Lani followed behind, staring into her back, her eyes daggers. She's lost it, Lani decided inside. She's gone off the deep end. I wonder how long until the rest of the kingdom realizes it.

They climbed into a shuttle and it took them to the gates of Alexandria. Amarant waited there already, his camouflage-print pants and tight white shirt shrouded with his thick black leather vest. He smiled at Queen Garnet, then he gave a small nod to Lani. Lani's eyes burned back at him with a somewhat questioning look. Garnet ignored these exchanged looks and then began: " I don't want to make too much of a raucous about this, this is against the law." She took a deep breath. " Cid had tried to patrol the Outer Continent from the air, but its hard to spot the difference between a wanderer in the desert and a shrub from so high up in the air. I knew from the start the only thing to do was to do a proper ground search."

Lani's axe, balanced on her shoulder, along with the backpack strung over her back, was growing heavier by the minute. Though she was used to carrying it around devotedly, she couldn't stand the idea of dragging it through the desert of the Outer Continent. The temperature there was usually well over a hundred Fahrenheit and the sun was constantly to the face or back, and the nights were, in turn, very cold. Many explorers and bounty hunters Lani knew never returned from the deserts because of the constant temperature changes – it caused a horrible shock to the body.

" Please draw as little attention as you can to you. Lani, I know you can operate an airship so that's no problem." Garnet took a deep, wavering breath. " I trust you both will return safely."

Amarant shrugged. " I've been through worse assignments."

Lani nodded. " I can deal with anything." Her dark, chocolate-brown eyes moved to his.

Amarant felt almost challenged. Which of us will fall first? Which of us will get tired and want to return first? So, that's what this is all about – a little bit of a competition. Well, I'll never quit. I'll outlast her. He squinted at her with an attitude that could make a cobra recoil. Lani didn't even waver away from his gaze.

Garnet was rambling on about the path they should take. " The Iifa tree is completely destroyed, from reports I've received… it collapsed on itself from the inside out… so, I think that it will be the hardest to look through that rubble. But… I'm pretty sure that he made his way out of there by now. If not, then…" Then he's probably dead.

Lani patted Garnet's shoulder. " Your Highness, we'll do our best. Stop worrying and let us off the hook now."

Garnet nodded. " Alright, then. Goodbye, you two, and keep your eyes keen about yourselves. I'd hate to lose any more friends." She then stepped back from the gates, giving them a free choice to leave now or to stay.

Lani went first and Amarant followed. Neither of them would stoop to stay back. It might be pointless, Lani decided, but here's the chance to show whose the better bounty hunter. I can't believe I even got such an amazing chance to prove it. Ever since Amarant and I broke up, I've wanted to be better… self-reliant… I don't need him.

...::.*.::..

Zidane took a deep breath. He was feeling much better. Though the Moogles were to take most of the credit for the way he felt, he knew he couldn't stay with them and keep them company any longer. He knew that within a week he'd be leaving them - - he had a wild idea about a way to make it back to Garnet. He could craft a small boat – it couldn't take too long using magic. If he used Fira a few times he could somehow learn to control it to burn wood into a shape he preferred. Then he'd try using Shells and Protects to make sure the wood was strong enough to last the journey. It's worth a try.

As he sat at the table in Eiko's kitchen sipping at some water from a stone cup, he traced a simple design into the sand on the table with his finger. A disfigured little boat soon appeared and then a clumsy, triangular sail. He sighed and swept his hand across it. " Damn it." His hand swept it all off and down onto the floor. Looking at the scattered grains, he wondered if the Moogles would help him with the boat.

I can't do that, they already did so much for me. And yet, I don't know if a week is enough time to make a boat. They had already fixed his clothing, made him new boots, and then provided him with new, much better weapons. He was still a bit weak so he couldn't drag them around yet, but he figured he'd be alright soon enough.

" Kupo?" A timid Moogle appeared in the doorway again.

" Mmm?" He looked up.

" I got a letter." The Moogle exclaimed. " From Mogsy."

" Oh!" Zidane exclaimed. " What does it say? What sort of news does it have?" He had ripped away from the table and knelt before the little Moogle, his hands on its shoulders, shaking him.

The Moogle's black eyes shimmered as he pulled out a dry letter. It crackled in his fingers as he unfolded it and read:

" Queen Garnet is going to try another search for…" The Moogle frowned. " It's horribly smudged. I bet it's a search for you, Kupo."

" Who brought the letter to you?" Zidane wondered.

" That's the odd thing. It just arrived. A miracle." The Moogle showed Zidane the envelope. " Just a mark on it."

Zidane examined the mark. Cid's royal seal! " It's Regent Cid - - from Lindblum. He's been patrolling the air - - I've seen his ships before. I tried to get their attention, but…" He rattled his brain for reasons, for answers. " He has a Moogle onboard… all airships should."

The Moogle nodded. " We're useful, kupo."

" They probably dropped a few cartloads of these letters… encouraging news for me, I guess." Zidane cursed under his breath and the Moogle's black eyes widened.

" Kupo…" He said, warningly, his innocent ears rotating like satellites.

He read aloud on his own: " …search for… let's say that's my name there… there's a line that I can't tell apart… then… hang in there, help is coming." Zidane sighed and rested on his heels. " Help. Who? They can't land on the ground. More airships?" He scoffed.

The Moogle shrugged. He edged backwards and stood in the doorway of the kitchen. " I should go. You asked for us to find some old wood, and there's a search going on."

Zidane nodded. " See ya." He told the little creature. He tried to figure out what sort of help could arrive but he couldn't. I just hope the help is somewhat more useful then airship patrols.

…::.*.::…

Two days later, aboard the Perinea – on the way to the Outer Continent

Amarant folded his arms across his chest and looked out at the shimmering waters stretching for miles ahead. His red hair was tousled by the wind and the fresh, salty spray from the ocean hit his face with a pleasant mist. They were still hours away from the coast, but he was already anxious, on his feet, pacing the deck. Regent Cid's ship was small but grand – there was more technology on it then Amarant had ever seen. The sonar was reading every whale and sea dragon in the ocean below and every flying creature in the air. From time to time, a dragon would appear, a dark and heavy blotch on the pale screen, crisscrossed with numbers and lines. Lani was steering, but once they were close to that coast, she set the airship on Autopilot.

" What are you thinking about?" A voice asked behind him. A shiver ran up his spine. Amarant turned around and saw Lani, her Alexandrian uniform's collar dipping seductively low, revealing that she was rather well endowed with womanly curves. She sighed and then rested on the metal railing. " Not talking much?" She added.

" I'm thinking about the mission." Amarant said.

" What about it?"

" It's stupid." He murmured.

" Pointless." She spat.

" Nobody can survive out there. If the Iifa tree didn't get him, a few weeks of crawling through the desert sand would. I only hope he made it to a Moogle, at least. They'd do their best to help." Amarant's stormy eyes seemed intense and at the same time disappointingly calm. They weren't the eyes of a wild adventurer. They were the eyes of a tired traveler.

Lani clucked her tongue on the roof of her mouth. " I'd survive out there."

" Well, so would I." Amarant retorted immediately.

" I'd have found water on my own. I wouldn't need some damn Moogle's help." Lani said.

" Damn right. It's best on your own." Amarant's voice dropped to a husky whisper.

Lani's cold dark eyes met his. " I'm glad we agree on that." Her wide, pillow-like lips looked moist and shiny, delectable and seductive. They curved into a little scowl.

There was the unspoken break-up of their relationship in the air. It had happened, once before, but had broken up. Their careers had been in the way, they had been young, adventurous. There was too much competition between them and not enough time together to make their relationship alive. It's best on our own, Amarant repeated in his mind. It's been true to me before. I thought maybe Zidane was right for a moment, but then - - his stupid ideas got him killed. If he left Kuja on his own and did his own thing, then at least Zidane would have lived. Yes, it is best, safest on your own.

Lani sat herself down on a wooden foldout chair and she pulled out a book. Her long legs crossed, she appeared to be unapproachable, her long eyelashes covered her eyes, separating herself from Amarant. She didn't even look at him any longer.

I'm glad we agree on that, she had said. Amarant knew that there were two meanings to her words. Our relationship is never going to return.

…::.*.::…