The following is a Final Fantasy 9 fanfiction by Kaiya Beck and The Pink Tonberry. Yay for legal stuff! Some of the characters in this fanficiton belong to Square Soft. Marco, Kavi, Hope, Jade, and other incidental support characters belong to the respective authors of this fanficiton. Please do not distribute this document without my express permission.

The Pink Tonberry

mercybrand@hotmail.com


After 'Happily Ever After'
Chapter 2 (by Kaiya Beck)

It was cold. Bitterly cold. Cold as death. He wouldn't have known what death felt like, but that was what bards were talking about all of the time. "Cold as death." For a moment, he wondered if he was dead, and if this was Hell-or at least the darkest, coldest part of Hell. He'd always thought that Hell would be an inferno, not an ice palace. A small cold lump in his hand brought him to attention, and although his eyelids were heavy and he couldn't see the object in his hand, he closed his fingers around it. Moving hurt. He almost cried out at the pins and needles that pricked at his fingers, but his voice failed him. That scared him. Had he suddenly lost his voice for one reason or another? And why in Hades couldn't he move? His ears caught the sound of muffled voices, but most of the words were indistinguishable.

"What's black mage here?"

"I but help out"

"Are sure? It attack" He almost screamed in frustration. Wouldn't they stop their mindless blathering and help him? As his ears strained to pick up their conversation, their voices grew louder and clearer.

"Well, are we going to do something or are we just gonna stand here with our thumbs up our butts?" A laugh. "Judging by the look on Lex's face, thumbs up our butts sounds good."

"Come on, guys!" A younger voice. "I wanna know what this black mage is doing here? Hope, can you cast a fire spell and melt this ice? Not a big one; I want to keep him alive-if he is alive."

"Very well. Fire." Now the coldness gave way to warmth, and the warmth to him was the most wonderful feeling in the world. Within a few minutes, he was able to move his hands. He opened his eyes and stared at his saviors. They were all children, at least in his eyes. A young boy in a red mage outfit was casting a spell-a fire spell-on the ice. A girl with long brown hair stood beside him, gripping the hilt of the sword at her side. Behind the other blond boy was a little black mage, clad all in a light red and wearing a dress. A dress?! He wondered. Could that be a girl black mage?! His gaze returned to the boy who was casting the spell. He wondered what kind of ulterior motive the boy had by rescuing him. He certainly wasn't doing this to be nice or was he? "Hurry, Hope!" the little black mage cried. The boy-Hope-turned around. "I am trying, Kavi. Be patient." At that moment, the figure in the ice saw Hope's tail, lashing in faint irritation. The figure saw, and remembered. One name flashed into his mind that was enough to send him into a blind rage.

Zidane.

Marco suddenly made an involuntary move forward as he saw the mage's eyes glow red. From the light of Hope's fire, he could see two distorted shapes behind the mage, which looked like wings. Marco may not have paid attention to any of his alchemy lessons, but he was attentive to his mother's tales of her and Zidane's adventures when she had only been Princess Garnet. Marco knew what this creature was. Now Hope was curing it. "He might have hypothermia," he explained. "I'm getting rid of any complications he might-"

"Hope, STOP!" he screamed. Hope looked back at him quizzically. "Why? He's almost free. I can see him moving around in there."

"You've got it all wrong!" Marco cried emphatically. "That thing we're rescuing see the wings?! That's not a black mage! It's a Black-"

A sudden explosion of what seemed like splintering glass drowned out whatever Marco was going to say next. A shard of ice sliced Jade across the cheek, but he paid no attention to it. His eyes were fixed on the creature before them. It fell to its knees for only a brief moment, then shakily got to its feet. As the children watched in horror, it flapped its wings in an agitated way before rising into the air, ringing a silver bell. Alexia could see its shoulders shaking in silent laughter-laughter of its freedom. Black Waltz Number One had returned.



Tonberry's Note: Anything that helps Kaiya out of her writer's block works for me. How do you guys like it so far?