Chapter 9:

Yes. Let's continue.

Zidane was lying awake on his bed, while Jason still seemed to be asleep, when there came a knock on the door.

"Can I come in?" a soft voice asked. Zidane recognized it as Vivi right away.

"Sure," he said, getting to his feet and opening the door. "What's up?" Zidane wondered.

"Well, I wanted to get a look around Lindblum. It always seems so busy... I wonder where people go when they want to be alone?" Vivi wondered.

"Well, I was gonna go check out the hideout in the Theater District. You wanna come with?" Zidane asked.

"N-no thanks, I'll just look around town," Vivi responded.

"Okay, I'll show you around!" Zidane encouraged.

"That's okay. I wanna go alone," Vivi said. Zidane nodded.

"Okay. Well, I'll see you later, Vivi."

"Bye, Zidane," Vivi said, walking out of the room. Zidane looked to Jason.

"Still asleep, huh? I can fix that."

Zidane bent over Jason and put his mouth to his ear.

"HEY JASON! WAKE UP!" he shouted. Jason bolted upright, or at least tried to, because Zidane's head was in the way. Jason fell back to the pillow, rubbing his head, while Zidane stood in pain.

"Ow..." Jason said.

"Heh. I guess I deserved that," Zidane said. "Come on, I'm gonna show you the hideout today."

Jason got out of bed, sleep instantly gone from him.

"You mean the Tantalus hideout?" Jason asked.

"Yeah. Let's go," Zidane replied. Jason nodded and followed as they walked into the hall. They heard a sound like kupo coming from an open doorway, though, so they decided to investigate. They entered, and indeed a moogle was standing placidly in a corner. Something then occurred to Jason: shouldn't these moogles be offering to save their progress? Not very likely, since thus far the game was not very much like the game, but Jason figured he'd see what could be done. If saving was possible, it would be an invaluable asset. In effect, it would make them invincible.

"Excuse me, but can you write us down in your diary?" Jason asked. Both Zidane and the moogle cast curious glances at him.

"Kupo! Does it look like I have a diary, kupo?" the moogle wondered, agitated. Jason blinked and realized that it was a rather ridiculous assumption.

"Sorry... don't know what I was thinking," he apologized.

"Sheesh, Jason, just when I think you're getting sensible, you go and act crazy again!" Zidane said with a laugh. The two headed out of the hotel, across the street and into the cab station. Zidane and Jason were reaching a point of mutual understanding; Zidane no longer had to ask what Jason was trying to do, and Jason no longer felt that he had to explain himself. It was just an accepted fact: Jason was not quite right in the head, so occasional oddities would have to be expected. Zidane, being the lighthearted guy he was, didn't let this fact keep them from being friends, however. Zidane was telling him about one of his thieving endeavors when they reached the hideout. While Jason could've gotten the entire story right from Zidane's head, he discovered it was rather impolite, and furthermore, and the story was more enjoyable when listened to out loud.

"Well, here it is," Zidane said.

"Doesn't look like much," Jason commented as they stepped inside.

"Yeah. It looks like no one's been here for a while... I sure hope the others made it out of Evil Forest okay," Zidane said. Jason nodded.

"I think they did. Don't worry about it," Jason assured.

"You're probably right," Zidane agreed. They heard bells ringing in the distance.

"Sounds like a performance just ended," Zidane said. "Is it really that late already?" he asked no one in particular. Two children rushed in, almost on cue.

"Hey, it's Zidane!" the boy said.

"Yay!" the girl shouted with glee. Zidane walked up to them.

"Hey you guys, how's it going?" he wondered.

"Great! We're members of Tantalus now, too," the boy said.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah! Uncle Baku said that if we found a treasure, we'd be in!" the girl said. The boy took out something from his pocket and handed it to Zidane.

"See?"

"Wow, trick sparrow's wings. That's some treasure."

"Yay!" both of the children shouted. Jason smiled. He hadn't seen such cute kids since... well, ever.

"Say, did you bring the princess back?" the boy wondered.

"Yeah, I did," Zidane replied.

"Where is she?" the girl asked.

"She's at the castle right now," Zidane said.

"I bet she misses you. You should go see her!" the boy encouraged him.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Hey, who's that?" the girl asked, pointing to Jason.

"Well, that's my new friend Jason," Zidane explained.

"He looks kinda funny. Did you find him at the castle?" the boy wondered. Jason chuckled a little.

"Something like that. Well, I'm gonna go see the Princess now," Zidane said.

"Okay! Bye, Zidane!" the boy said.

"Bye Zidane!" the girl echoed. The two rushed out with the energy of youth, leaving the other two in a cloud of dust.

"Well, I guess we're going to the castle. You wanna come with?" Zidane asked.

"Actually, I think I'll look around here some more," Jason responded. "I'm sure you can catch the heart of the lovely Dagger without my help," he said. Zidane laughed.

"Heh. You read me like a book," Zidane said.

"I'm psychic," Jason reminded him.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Zidane said, scratching the back of his head. "Anyway, I'll meet you back at the hotel, okay? I'll sign you up for the Festival while I'm over there. It starts tomorrow, so be sure to get lots of sleep tonight," Zidane said.

"Thanks, Zidane. Have a good time with Dagger."

"You know I'll try."

At this point in the conversation, they had returned to the street.

"I'll see you later, Zidane."

"Later, Jason."

And with that, they parted ways. Jason headed down the stairway he found in front of him, which took him to a square that appeared to be outside the backstage entrance to a theater. Jason would expect such a place to be busy with people, but instead there was only one person there. She was a girl, whom Jason judged to be about his age, who was wearing long, almost baggy red pants, and a black shirt that could barely be seen, as over it she wore a red, robe-like garment that cut off at mid-thigh. It crossed over her front, and was held in place by a black, cotton belt. Moreover, she was practicing what seemed to be some form of dance. Jason thought for a split second and realized that this girl was obviously an expert in some martial art, but he wouldn't even have guessed that such practice existed on Gaia. He had been slow to realize the nature of her movements because they didn't appear to serve any practical purpose, and because he had never really seen any sort of martial artist perform. Nevertheless, he found the presence of this blonde-haired girl to be almost mystifying. Before he could even announce himself, she turned to him and smiled.

"Hi."

Kuja had proven to be an invaluable resource to Megan. His influence gave her a close position to Queen Brahne, so she could soon be able to eliminate her as a figurehead, and once she got Kuja out of the picture, she would be in full control of the Black Mages. But there was much preparation she would have to do before that. First of all, she would have to figure out how to use the psychic attack that Jason had so cleverly discovered, because Kuja was quite obviously immune to usual psychic techniques like mind-reading and mind-control. But for now, she needed to keep up the illusion that she was loyal to Brahne. She knew that Kuja's plan hinged on the Queen's belief of their loyalty, though she had not yet been told exactly why. What was really important was for her to keep up the illusion that she was loyal to Kuja and his plan, because he was the one that could easily eliminate her.

That was easy enough to do, though, because that called for next to nothing right now. They were going to mobilize the Black Mage army right outside of Gizamaluke Grotto, but the mages were well enough controlled right now that her assistance was not needed. Rather, Kuja had her keeping a constant psychic watch over Brahne, so that he could be certain all was going as he planned it. Consequentially, this kept Megan close to the battlefield, and so Kuja had another job for her. She was to use her abilities to scan the area and find out where their targets were, like the King of Burmecia.

As part of this new, high-ranking position in the Alexandrian military, Megan also received new clothes. Flare was something that was appreciated in the specialty officers of the military, and so after Megan's abilities were brought to light, she had an outfit specially designed and fitted to her. It consisted of a form-fitting black bodysuit, with gold fabric hanging down from a loop that went around her shoulders, suspended by her telekinesis. The fabric was cut so that it fell like streamers down her height, so people could see the black suit beneath.

In addition, she had a delta-shaped piece of gold suspended over her forehead, again by her abilities, so that the tip of it rested in space an inch out and an inch above the space between her eyes. The two shafts of the hollow triangle shape went back to a space in the air over her cheekbones and a good two inches over the top of her head. Overall, it was a very menacing look. She was a prize to the Alexandrian military, thought Queen Brahne. If she were less arrogant, and thus less ignorant, she may have realized how deadly of a mistake she was making.

"YOU! Where is the Princess?" Steiner demanded, shaking his fist at Zidane accusingly. Zidane remained nonchalant.

"Relax! I just got here, I didn't even know she was missing," he explained. Steiner thought for a moment, then shouted.

"What am I doing here? I should be out looking for her! Out of my way!" he demanded as he plowed down the staircase.

"Geez, what's with him?" Zidane wondered, walking after him and heading back to the fountain room. There he heard Garnet's beautiful voice singing the strange song he remembered from Dali.

"It's coming from upstairs... I've got to get up there!" he resolved.

It was easy enough for him to trick the sleepy guard into giving up his armor. From that point on, it was an easy ride up to see the Princess. As he approached her, a group of birds flew away, and she looked to him with a depressed face, with a somewhat false smile on it.

"How did you get up here? This is a restricted area," she noted.

"Hey, I do this for a living, remember?" Zidane reminded her.

"Oh yes. It was probably easy for you," she said.

Their discussion continued up to the telescope, and to Zidane's mistake reference of an airship ride. But with his impressive charisma, he convinced the Princess that should he win in the Festival of the Hunt tomorrow, she would allow him to take her on a date. Zidane felt on top of the world. Jason, on the other hand, was just plain confused.

"Um... hello," Jason said in response to the girl's greeting.

"You don't look like you're from here," she noticed, walking up to him casually.

"Really? What makes you say that?" he wondered. It didn't seem to him like he looked different from anyone else here.

"Well, you seem to not know where you were going. Like you were just wandering. No one in Lindblum wanders, as far as I know. We just go to where we want to go. But you didn't know I was going to be here, and yet you came, stopped and watched. So I figure that you must not have a destination in mind, and thus are not from around here. At least, that's most likely, considering you look like you're as old as I am," she explained. Jason thought about it for a moment, and in a way it did make sense. This girl seemed very bright to notice it, though.

"Tell me, is your father a scholar?" Jason asked. The girl smirked.

"Don't you think we should introduce ourselves first?" she wondered. Of course, Jason thought to himself.

"How silly of me. My name is Jason," he said, offering a hand.

"I'm Reiko. Nice to meet you, Jason," she responded, shaking his hand well. Now that they were closer, Jason got a better look at Reiko; she didn't have much on her chest, but her legs seemed to stretch on for... quite a ways.

"Well, Reiko, I was wondering if your father is a scholar, because you seem to be a well-educated girl," Jason explained. Reiko sighed.

"Yes, he is. He thinks I'm wasting my time practicing, and that I should be studying instead," she said resentfully, looking towards the ground.

"Practicing what?" Jason asked stupidly. It was as if his psychic abilities had been turned off; like there was a switch in his brain, and when Reiko came close it got flipped, and all of the psychic 'lights' went out.

"We don't really have a name for it... we just call it our Art," she said.

"Who's we?" Jason wondered.

"My mother, her mother, her mother's mother, back that way a few more generations and me. It's been passed down from mother to daughter for a long time," Reiko explained.

"That's amazing. So your mother has trained you in it, and your father wants you instead to pursue studies?" Jason asked.

"That's the gist of it. Unfortunately, I'm not going to have a choice much longer. My dad is going to make me...it wouldn't be right for me to hurt him to have my way, but he's going to lock me up in my room with studies," Reiko moaned. "I'm starting to think he might be right."

"Can't your mother help?" Jason wondered.

"She's dead, Jason," Reiko said. Jason wondered why he hadn't noticed that. Such a fact should be obvious to a skilled psyker like him, but he simply seemed unable to focus on his abilities.

"I'm sorry, Reiko. Anyway, about this situation with your dad. Always remember that just because you have the ability to learn great things doesn't mean you have to do so. If this Art of yours is what you want to spend your time doing, then I would suggest finding a way to do it. Run away from home if you have to, but don't let your father rule you."

Jason couldn't believe what he was saying. Why should he care if her dad was bossing this girl around or not? What was going on? Could it be that already he actually cared for her? Maybe his psychic sense was still working on a subconscious level, and he sensed some great potential in her.

"Do you really think that's what I should do?" Reiko wondered.

"You need to follow your heart," Jason said. What was this? He had never followed his heart before; he had always followed his mind. But then again, he was very different. At any rate, he seemed to be saying what Reiko wanted to hear.

"Thank you, Jason," she said.

"So," Jason asked, "are you going to be in the Festival tomorrow? You seem like you'd do pretty well," he said. She blushed a little.
"Thank you. Actually, I think my dad decided to let me have tomorrow to myself, since it's so important to my technique. He should be signing me up today," Reiko said.

"That's great!" Jason said. "That means we'll be competing together."

Reiko couldn't help but laugh. "Are you serious? I don't mean to be rude or anything, Jason, but look at you!"

Jason held up a hand before she could go on. He had heard this speech before.

"Listen. I don't intend to fight with my body," he began. "I am going to use my mind," Jason explained.

"I hope you don't think you're going to beat savage monsters by strategy," Reiko commented. Jason shook his head.

"Nothing like that. Don't worry, you'll see tomorrow," he assured her. She smiled.

"Okay. I'm looking forward to this. Just don't get yourself hurt, okay?"

"Of course."

"Well, I should be heading home now. I need to start making dinner," Reiko said.

"Alright. See you tomorrow then," Jason confirmed.

"Right," she answered. Then she leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Just in case we don't meet again. You're a good-looking guy, Jason. Bye!"

And with that, she walked off to a small road that likely led to her house. Jason stood there, confused more now than ever. He had just been kissed. Why? Because he was good looking and Reiko thought she might not see him again? Jason wasn't sure if that was a good reason or not, but he had been kissed. With that conclusion safely tucked away, Jason headed back to the hotel. He figured that it would take Zidane a while longer to get back, since the castle took longer to get to, so he passed the time by practicing his telekinesis. It was not one of his strong points; he was barely able to lift himself a centimeter off the floor, let alone keep himself balanced and moving. By the time Zidane came back, Jason had tired himself out.

"So, how'd the exploring go?" Zidane wondered.

"I got kissed," Jason answered.

Well, that's that chapter... see you next time.