Love's Lost Refrain
PART 4
"Kni-Knights of the Round?" Zidane stumbled upon his words. "Why is Knights of the Round in Garnet's pendant? What does Kuja plan on doing?" Zidane began to tremble as he stared at the giant mural on the Eidolon wall. He had to communicate with Kuja, but he did not know how. "KUJA! I THOUGHT YOU CHANGED!"
"Oh, but I have." Not only could Zidane hear Kuja's voice, he could now see him, standing before him. "Hello, Zidane. Long time no see."
"Kuja... what do you want this pendant for!?"
"That's none of your business." He looked at the wall, noticing the mural of Knights of the Round. "But I see that you already know my purpose for obtaining the pendant."
"Do you plan on destroying Gaia?"
"What if I said... yes?" He looked straight at Zidane's with his razor sharp eyes.
"Then you would be a fool. You don't know what I gave you! I saved you! Don't you understand? I gave you a second chance! A chance to make things right again!"
"I know!" Kuja yelled. "And what's best for the world, is if it didn't exist!"
"But WHY!? What possible reason could you possibly have for destroying the world!?"
"To put it out of it's misery." Zidane was now confused.
"What do you mean?"
"Oh Zidane... the world is a cruel place. But I only learned that after you saved me. We are ruled by betrayal, hatred, and war! What reason could anyone have for living?"
Zidane interrupted, "Well we NORMAL folk don't like to dwell on 'hatred' and 'war' and 'betrayal,' we learn to love and cherish our moments with each other! That's what I hoped you'd learn after I saved you!"
"Who said I wanted to be saved!?" He screamed to Zidane. Zidane could not believe what he was hearing. "And besides," he continued, "Where do you go off saying that you are part of the 'normal folk?' You know, Zidane, you and I are very much alike." Zidane stared at Kuja, just as he stared back at him. He didn't want to believe that he was saying this, after he had tried so hard to forget his troublesome past. "Now," Kuja began, "give me the pendant."
Zidane looked at the pendant, remembering Garnet's words about how much the pendant meant to her.
"No." Zidane said in a quiet, solemn voice. "I can't let you have it. I won't let you destroy the world!"
"Oh, Zidane... Zidane... you will regret this." He started to fade. "Don't forget that you are my puppet... I control you." He disappeared.
"I DON'T CARE! I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS!" Zidane ran off back to the airship, where he headed to Alexandria to warn her of Kuja's intentions.
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"Garnet! Queen Garnet!" Zidane was hysterical as he clutched her pendant in his hand and ran to Garnet's chamber. He ran into her room, but she was not there. "Garnet? Where are you!?" He looked by her bed, by the closet, but she was not there. "Oh no..." he thought. He left the room, yelling her name. "Garnet! Where are you!?" He ran downstairs and into the armory. "Garnet?" not there. He ran into the kitchen. "Garnet!?" not there, either. "Oh god..." He now expected the worse, but there was one place that he hadn't checked yet. He ran outside. And as he approached a set of stairs, he spotted Garnet. She was lying by her mother's grave. He slowly walked up the steps. "Garnet...?" Silence. He walked closer to her. "Garnet?" She was motionless. "Garnet, wake up..."
She sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"Oh, Zidane." He was very relieved. He hugged her. "Zidane? What's the matter?"
"Oh, nothing." He still clutched the pendant in her hand.
"My pendant! I knew I could trust you." She reached her hand out for it.
"No, wait." Her eyes met his with a look of question. "There's something you should know about this pendant.
"What is it?" she asked innocently.
"It..." he remembered last time he tried to tell Garnet of Kuja, and couldn't. The consequences were too high. But now he didn't care. "It contains a very important Eidolon."
"Knights of the Round."
He was shocked that she knew this.
"What?"
"Knights of the Round. I know, Zidane."
"Why didn't you tell me? Do you understand just how powerful it is?"
"Zidane, I understand everything about it. That's one of the reasons it's so important to me."
"Garnet... that Eidolon is capable of destroying Gaia."
"I know, Zidane!" she hesitated for a moment. She never thought she'd have to tell anyone this, but now the time had come. "I've done my research. I'm about to tell you something that I never told anyone else before." She sat Zidane down, and began to talk. "Zidane, this pendant carries the anguish that I've endured over the past few years. I have suffered a lot, and I don't know why, but my pendant understands that. My fear, anguish and hatred has been stored up inside. And between the death of my mother, my learning about my heritage, and..." she hesitated once again, "and my separation from you... I have survived all of this. I didn't know how powerful my anger could be, and it comes out in the form of an Eidolon. That Eidolon is Knight's of the Round. I've heard of this Eidolon before. And legend has it, that there are 13 spots along the equator of Gaia that are sort of like the 'Achilles heal' of the planet. If anyone was to get a hold of my pendant, these 13 Knights would be set loose, and would attack these points simultaneously, and the planet would be destroyed. That's why you're the only one I can trust with this pendant, and why I can't let anyone else have it." She stood in silence.
"Garnet..." Zidane was awestruck by how much she had just told him. "Garnet, I want you to take this pendant, and put it in the safest place in Alexandria."
"Why?"
Zidane decided that it was time that she learned of his encounters.
"It's Kuja. He's come back." She grabbed the pendant and grasped it tightly.
"What? I thought he was destroyed with the Iifa tree?"
Zidane felt yet another sudden jolt in his body.
"Me too... Garnet... I don't know what happened."
"Zidane? Are you feeling all right?"
He took the pendant back from her, than whipped his head around.
"I'm sorry." He seemed to be back to his senses. "Say... Garnet."
"Hm?"
"Why were you... lying by your mother's grave earlier?"
"Oh, I was just thinking... about her. You know, even though she tried to do so many evil things to me, I could still find it in my heart to forgive her."
"Yeah, that's what makes you so special..."
"I guess I was there just thinking... thinking about her legacy. And what I wanted out of life."
"Garnet, no one is forcing you to do anything."
"I know, but I want to be with you."
"Me too." Zidane replied. He had just realized that he had felt the same panic that Garnet felt when he could not find her earlier. He could understand what it is like to think that you have lost a loved one. He hated it, and he never wanted Garnet to experience it again. He gave the pendant back to Garnet, and walked away.
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Zidane walked back to the Prima Vista ship, and went to his room. He laid down on his bed and went into deep thought. He realized that when he held her pendant in his hand, Kuja was not able to stop him from telling Garnet about the dangers of the pendant. But when he gave it back, he was not able to tell her that Kuja was still alive. Maybe the pendant had more powers than he thought. But maybe it was better this way... maybe she shouldn't know about Kuja until he settled the score once and for all.
He then began to think about his future with Garnet. Marry her? Zidane did not want to be the person to rid Garnet of her future as Queen of Alexandria. Doing that would mean betraying her own mother. Would becoming King be as bad as it sounded? Doing so would mean saying good-bye to Tantalus. But it was what Garnet wanted. After a long thought process, he decided this is what he would do.
"I'm gonna be King of Alexandria."
________________________________
"KING OF ALEXANDRIA!? Are you nuts, Zidane!?" Baku was giving him a sever scolding.
"It's what Garnet wants." Zidane replied.
"Whatever! What's more important!? The life of a stuck up, snot nosed King, or a carefree life with US!?" Ruby yelled.
"Hey, listen, guys. You're not making this any easier. And besides, what right do you have to make me decide between my friends and my, um, girlfriend?"
"Since when was she your girlfriend? You two hardly see each other anymore!" Blank said.
"Well maybe if we stayed in one place for more than a week-..."
"Oh so now you're putting down Tantalus?" Ruby said. "You have freedom here! We don't judge you!"
"Well I love Garnet, and there's nothing you can do to stop me from marrying her!"
They all sat in silence.
Baku began. "Well, have you ever thought about letting her join Tantalus? She aint a bad fighter, we could use a woman like her."
"That's just your testosterone talking," Ruby said.
"No, I'm serious! Even I know that Garnet always loved the freedom of a Tantalus member. Maybe she'd enjoy it!"
"Baku, I don't want her to give up the throne to live a life of thievery and fighting," Zidane said.
"But with Tantalus comes a life of freedom and informality. Garnet's one wish was to live a life of freedom, was it not?"
Zidane was stumped.
"Guys..." he started, "I'd really like to be alone now... to think."
They sat still, than one by one they left. As Baku left, he turned to Zidane and said:
"Don't do something you'll regret."
And with that he closed the door behind him.
"Garnet... what should I do?" he thought to himself.
Zidane then heard Kuja's voice again.
"Well I'd go find her and talk to her right now. Like I said, you'd regret not giving me her pendant."
Zidane's eyes grew wide, than he shot up and dashed out of the Prima Vista, in search for Garnet.
The first place that he ran to was her chamber. He heard a sound in there, so he threw open the doors yelling "Garnet! It's Kuja!" But when he got inside, Beatrix was standing there.
She questioned him. "What about Kuja?"
____________________________
Garnet resided by the river outside of the castle. She too was thinking about the future of her and Zidane. She had just finished hiding her pendant when she heard a voice.
"Queen Garnet. Remember me?"
"It's... Oh god... Kuja..."
"That's right..."
"What do you want?"
"Well I've come to tell you that your friends life is in danger... maybe you should go look for him..."
She sat for a second, then got up and ran for the Prima Vista, praying that Zidane would be all right.
"Zidane! Zidane! Where are you!?" she ran around desperately searching for him. She saw the Tantalus group sitting down. "Have any of you seen Zidane?"
Ruby responded, "Well last I heard he went to search for you."
The chamber... she thought.
"Thank you!" And she ran off.
"Did something happen to Zidane?" Blank wondered. When no one responded he got up and followed her.
_____________________________
Garnet ran back to the castle straight to her chamber. She threw the doors open and saw Zidane standing before her. She threw herself into his arms and cried.
"Oh Zidane! I heard Kuja! He... he said to look for you! I thought he was dead!" she was sobbing. "I thought he killed you! Oh I don't know what's going on!" her vision became blurry with the tears. She stopped crying. "Zidane? Aren't you worried?"
She backed away and noticed blood on her outfit from where Zidane touched her. She looked up at Zidane's hand and saw blood on them. She immediately looked behind him, and saw Beatrix laying on her bed, with a stab wound on her abdomen. Next to her lay a bloodied dagger. Blood had covered the bed where she lay.
Garnet was now hysterical. "Z-Z-Zidane? D-Did you... do this?" He had an evil smile on his face. "Z-Zidane?"
He grabbed her and pulled out a Dagger. He held the dagger tightly to her neck.
"Where's the pendant!?"
"Zidane... W-what are you doing?
"Tell me... where is it... GIVE IT TO ME!"
"Y-You told m-me to h-hide it!" She began crying again. "Zidane... please don't kill me... PLEASE!"
"TELL ME NOW OR YOU'RE DEAD!" He held the dagger closer to her neck.
"I-It's... It's by the grave..." She was still crying. Zidane held her tight. She felt blood trickling down her neck. Zidane then dropped the dagger, and let go of Garnet. She turned around to face Zidane.
"Garnet... I-I'm sorry!" She held her hands to her neck, but realized that the wound was not life-threatening. "I was possessed... by Kuja..."
"Oh Zidane!" she advanced toward him to hug him when she paused. Her mouth fell open and her eyes shut.
"Garnet? What's wrong?"
"Z..." Blood poured out of her mouth. She fell to the ground to reveal a murderer.
It was Blank.
To Be Continued...