Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 9..........
Note: I know I haven't written FF9 stories in awhile but, that's ok. I love FF9...
~*Aurora Borealis*~
Chapter 1: Mission Failed....
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"Hey," the ever so cocky thief began as he walked up to Dagger who was bent over the small moat that separated the town from the shining elegance of the castle, "are you ok?" he asked as he kneeled down next to her.
"I'm ok." Dagger simply responded as she ran her hand through the clear cool water, making it ripple from the simple touch. Zidane quickly moved his legs to the position where his legs were comfortably cross legged.
"Can I help you with something?" he offered sheepishly as he began to stroke his tail gingerly.
"I'm all right." she insisted as she looked at him. Zidane shrugged and bent over the stones that kept the water in a direct flow. He looked at himself and quickly put on his impish smile and began to stroke his hair. Dagger's non existent expression quickly became one of suppress laughter as she watched out of the corner of her eye, Zidane acting cool to himself. A splash was heard to Dagger's left and found that a fish had jumped out if the water, destroying Zidane's image of himself in the water and getting most of his vest and face wet. Zidane quickly shook his head as if to get rid of the memory, almost of insult. He turned to Dagger.
"How you doin'?" he asked mischievously. Dagger just stared at him, no expression what so ever.
"That has to be the worst pick up line in existence." she told him as she looked back to the water. Zidane moved closer to Dagger and began to slide his hand around her shoulder.
"Than how about this?" he began. "You wanna do something tonight?" he asked.
"If you would stop saying bad pick up lines than yes, I will." Dagger told him. Zidane gave a bright smile. He quickly stood up.
"Meat you here tonight at 8:30?" he asked, almost pleading. Dagger smiled and nodded. "yes!" Zidane whispered excitedly as he ran back to the castle, leaping for joy every so often. Dagger smiled as she looked at herself in the water. She picked a floor from the ground that had seemed to escape the stones and was in full bloom. She softly set it into the water and watched it drift away from her, across the waves to the other side. She stood up. She took a deep breath in and began to head back to the castle. The walk was short but looked like a hundred miles as the castle loomed high over head and the gardens full of roses and assorted flowers blew with the wind. Her foot steps seemed to echo in her head, notifying her that she was the only one who was walking. There was no other sound except the wind quietly whispering sweet nothings through her hair. The sun shown brightly upon the white cobble stones and even onto the large crystal witch rested magnificently atop the castle, the suns rays hit the crystal with amazing force causing beautiful beams of light to reflect in all directions. The light that reflected from the crystal was hard to avoid, but no one wanted to miss its splendor touching their skin. It was like they had been specially chosen to become an angel, an angel sent from the crystal. Dagger had seen its beauty many times but today it felt somewhat brighter, some what more lively. It didn't dance like the wind did but it at least showed its beauty, it was shy, it never moved, just like her. Dagger didn't consider herself the shy type but when it came to most men she couldn't help it. It was hard, in the past few years she wasn't able to express herself to Zidane than Eiko or any other lady for that matter. Dagger blinked a few times to adjust to the ray of light that had reflected onto her from the crystal. She looked down to avoid the direct light. But found it much brighter on the ground because now the reflection was doubled by the white cobble stones. She decided to just close her eyes and continue walking. It had been a few seconds with her eyes closed and she figured that she had passed the beam of light, she began to open her eyes. Until she felt herself run into something. She opened her eyes to find silver directly in her face. She looked up to see who the magnificent silver belonged to, of course it was Steiner.
"Hello my Queen." he said as he bowed as low as he could with the armor on.
"Hello." Dagger responded as she walked passed Steiner. Steiner just turned around and began to walk beside her.
"Is something bothering you?" he asked trying to fix whatever problem she might have had.
"I have no troubles." Dagger assured him.
"Well I know for a fact that something heavy is on your mind. Tell me." he half begged and half pleaded as best he could without making him look like he was to interested, it was an obvious fail.
"It's more of a girls thing, you probably wouldn't be interested." Dagger insisted as she quickened her pace to the castle.
"So it's a date with Zidane?" Steiner asked as he smirked to himself. Dagger's eyes lit up in surprise.
"How did you know?" she asked as she turned to him now completely stopped.
"I saw you two at the water front and I also saw Zidane leaping for joy." Steiner explained as he looked at her. Dagger blushed deeply. "No need to be embarrassed, I shall not tell a soul!" Steiner assured her. Dagger smiled lightly.
"Thank you." she said as she nodded her head.
"I was once like Zidane, I know how it feels." he confessed.
"You were a thief?" she asked.
"No my dear, I had the same attitude." he explained. "I was deeply in love with this one girl, but it was hard to get close to her or even talk to her because my voice would always crack or my plan would back fire horribly." he told her as a small smile appeared on his lips. A smile appeared to Dagger's lips but not for long as it dropped into to one of confusion.
"Zidane is in love with me?" she asked eagerly.
"I'm not positive, but it does seem like it." Steiner said smiling as he grabbed her shoulders gingerly. "Your growing up into a fine women. don't let anyone make your decisions. They are yours and yours alone." he told her. Dagger nodded her head and gave Steiner a big smile.
"Thank you." she said to him as she ran off to the castle.
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"He loves me." Dagger said as she picked a flower petal off of a small white flower. "He loves me not." she frowned as she picked one more off. Now there was one more petal left to be picked. "He loves me!" she cried as she quickly yanked the petal from the flower. She rolled onto her back and looked up to the sky. She took a deep breath in and smelled the sweet fragrance of flowers all around her. She let her gaze wonder down where her castle lay. She took her gaze up once again to the sky and saw the clouds shifting amongst each other slowly. The clouds quickly formed wonderful pictures only the far reaches of the mind could imagine but they were quickly changed into another picture with one strong gust of the wind. She looked slightly to her left to find a cloud that had formed the shape of a tail. Instantly images and events came flooding back to her from the image, they were all Zidane. Dagger closed her eyes and imagined her and Zidane in all their past events including when they first met and their final battle. She giggled as more thoughts came running back to her. She opened her eyes again as to not be quite so occupied with memories and more on what was going on. She took a deep breath in and took another look at her castle. She looked to the guest room window and found a figure sitting on the window sill staring outside at her or just the gardens. She sat up and squinted at the figure. She couldn't figure out who it was. But before she could the face turned away and soon the entire body went back into the interior of the room. Dagger shrugged and laid back down onto the crushed flowers she was on previously.
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Zidane poked his head closer to the window as he saw Dagger in the field of flowers on her back looking up at the sky. His attention wasn't at the sky but at her. She had the most captivating looks, more so than the flowers around her. The wind blew hard and Zidane's hair blew frantically in every direction from the open window. The flowers moved as one with wind, some of the petals being blown off by the strong force. Dagger sat up in the field. Zidane quickly corrected his posture and didn't move, just stared at her as she stared at him. "Zidane?" a small voice called behind him. Zidane got up from the window sill and turned around. He found little Vivi playing with the buttons on his coat.
"What can I do for you?" Zidane asked as he walked up to him.
"I just wanted to talk, that's all." Vivi told him quietly as he looked to the floor.
"Well? What did you want to talk about?" Zidane asked as he closed the door behind Vivi. Vivi quickly waddled up to his bed and began to climb up. Zidane smiled at his attempts to climb up his bed. He picked Vivi up and put him on to the bed while he himself flopped down onto the bed.
"I wanted to talk about Dagger." Vivi told him shifting his position from left to right. Zidane's eyes lit up, this was a subject he could immerse himself into easily.
"What about her?" Zidane asked trying to keep his excitement from being revealed.
"she seems kinda quiet." Vivi told him as a fiddled with his coat.
"I think that is more of a girls thing, and we probably won't understand it." Zidane told him.
"Well, not just in general, more like around you." Vivi said trying not to be rude. A look of concern crossed Zidane's face.
"Me?" he asked a bit shocked. "What did I do?" he asked searching himself and Vivi for answers.
"I don't know, Zidane. But try to figure out what is wrong sometime." Vivi suggested as he hopped off the bed leaving Zidane. "I can't and I won't understand. I'm to young, I wish I could, but I can't. You have a proper experience with this type of thing." Vivi told him. Vivi waved good bye and left, shutting the door behind him.
"I've never felt like this, I've never tried to unlock anyone's heart or tapped into someone's personal feelings except my own." he said aloud. "This is all brand new, I've never felt like this." Zidane told himself.
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Dagger sat alone on the dock where Zidane and her were supposed to meet. She looked at her pocket watch, it read 8:30. She began to put it away but something caught her eye. On the glass cover was a shimmering wave of colorful lights. She took a her free hand and touched the cover. She looked at it curiously, but soon realized that it was just a reflection of the sky. She looked up and found the shimmering wave of colors. She smiled as the waves whipped through the sky. She looked to the water which also reflected the magnificent event that was going on the sky. The soft waves hurled themselves against the cobble stone dock. She looked across the large moat and found the city lights shining brightly against the waves. She heard several footsteps behind her. Dagger quickly looked around to find Zidane hesitently walking up to her, he looked almost, scared. "Are you alright?" she asked as she got up to greet him.
"I-I'm fine." he stuttered as he pulled out a clam from behind his back. Dagger looked at it quizically. "It isn't much but that's all I could afford." he told her sheepishly. She took the clam from his hands and began to put it in her pocket until Zidane put his hand onto her wrist. Dagger looked at him, an unreadable look, mostly composed of shock. "Open it." he told her as a smile grew on his mouth. Dagger placed it close to her head and opened it. What she found inside shimmered back at her with amazing aw.
"A pearl!" Dagger exclaimed. She quickly shut the clam and gently put it into her pocket. She threw her arms around Zidane's neck. "Thank you." she whispered to him. Dagger didn't feel Zidane's arms wrap around her. She pulled away with a look of hurt in her eyes. She looked at Zidane's hands which were shaking. "Are you ok?" Dagger asked.
"Yeah, yeah just fine." he assured her as he swung his hands back behind him. "Can you hold on just one second?" he asked. Dagger nodded. Zidane smiled broadly and ran away. Dagger felt a rush of air smack into her shuffling her hair about her face. She turned toward the water. Where the shimmering lights in the sky still existed. They never moved. The lights of the city littered the water, giving the water a harmonious look of tranquil and desire. She heard the sound of splashes come up along the edge of the water. She found Zidane rowing a small boat. The boat cleanly sliced through the colorful water. "Your boat has arrived Madam." Zidane told her as he stood up in the boat and bowed. Dagger carefully got into the boat and took a seat.
"It's dangerous to stand up in a boat." she told him with a slight smirk on her face.
"I'm in to dangerous stuff." Zidane remarked keenly. Dagger smiled brightly from his comment. Zidane took his seat as the boat wobbled to and fro. He grabbed the paddles and began to row, turning away from the dock.
"Where are we going?" Dagger asked as she looked at the perfect night.
"Anywhere." Zidane told her as he looked up with her. "Pretty isn't it?" Zidane asked as he looked up to the swirling waves of colors in the sky. Zidane felt himself loosen up around her now, he didn't know why, all he knew was that he was very happy to be rid of that feeling of anxiety.
"Do you know what it's called?" she asked. Zidane didn't answer, he was looking deeply into Dagger's eyes witch perfectly reflected the shining image in the sky. Her brown eyes were singing a hypnotic song, he couldn't ignore those eyes anymore. He wanted her so bad. He leaned forward in his seat as he stopped rowing as if he was going to kiss her off guard. Suddenly the oars slipped from their holes and into the water where the floated away on the waves. Dagger was the only one who noticed and she turned back towards Zidane who was coming closer to her every second. "The oars!" Dagger screamed in shock. This snapped Zidane from his trance and he quickly looked to where the oars were supposed to be, but there were no oars. "Now what?" Dagger asked, scared written all over her face.
"Don't worry." Zidane assured her. "Do you know how to swim?" Zidane asked with pleading eyes. Dagger's bottom lip began to tremble.
"No." she weakly replied. "I'm really scared." Dagger told him. She was almost about to break down into tears. Zidane moved closer to her.
"Don't worry. The current will either take us to the castle or the city." he assured her as he put a hand to her shoulder.
"Most likely the ocean." Dagger said as she broke down in sobs. Zidane's eyes grew wide with terror. He could just see it, drifting in the ocean. Left to starve or die of de hydration. He was about to break down but held his composure for the sake of Dagger. Zidane was about to take a seat next to Dagger until. "Zidane don't sit-WAHHH!" she wailed as they flipped backwards along with the boat. Zidane felt the cold water surround his body. He quickly swam to the surface. He looked in all directions for Dagger, but she was no where to be found.
"SHIT!!" Zidane cried. "She can't swim!" he reminded himself as he dove back into the water. He swam deep and found Dagger kicking desperartly for the surface. The light in the sky had penetrated the water and enchanted beautiful colorful rays of light to dance in the water. He swam towards her frantically moving body and grabbed onto her. He began to swim, up as fast as he could to the surface. He lifted Dagger up and she gasped and coughed for air. "Just hold on." Zidane told her as he began to swim for the Alexandrian castles dock.
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Zidane dragged himself up onto the docks of the Alexandrian castle, completely exhausted. Carrying her body was enough but he also had to swim her and himself to the docks. Dagger crawled herself up as well. Zidane heard her get up. He sat up with her. "I'm sorry, this happened maybe we could-" but Zidane was cut off by Dagger's voice.
"Please, Zidane. I'm tired and I'm scared. I'm going to bed." she told him as she stormed off to the castle.
"Shit." Zidane cursed. He looked up high to the marvel that rested in the sky as it waved around franatically shining many different colors upon the land. He lowered his head in defeat, the cold water in back reflecting the towns lights and all of the glory the Aurora Borealis gave off.........
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A/N: Was this good? I certainly hope so....
R+R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO FLAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
