A.N. Greetings, I am sorry that this chapter of my saga took so long to be posted but I the scenes took a long time to form in my mind and I could not write until they had. Nevertheless I promise that the next chapter will not take as long as I have already received inspiration for it. In an attempt to make it up to you I have made this chapter the longest yet. I hope that you enjoy it.

Goodbye and good fortune

Fallen Saga Creator

Visions in the Night

The genome queen span with a swirl of furs and the sound of bangles jingling against each other, turning her back on Dagger after a single nod of gratitude. The door was opened and she moved through with the same predatory grace that she always moved with. As Dagger moved to the door her eyes fell upon Zidane and his companion. The second genome glared at Zidane as he held a hand over his ear and he did his best to avoid his gaze.

Their eyes met and Dagger smiled at him, trying to communicate her gratitude in the look. He flashed a grin back to her before the queen's voice sent him snapping to attention. *Zidane, I can see by the redness of Martin's ear that he was listening, no doubt at your request. However since you doubtless both know the true identity of our guest I can dispense with that revelation. However I will tell you of my judgement in this matter. I have decided that garnet may leave our kingdom. Upon your recommendation Zidane she has sworn an oath never to reveal us or our secret. I shall have your tail for a belt if she turns out to be untrustworthy.

*However, she will nonetheless leave our kingdom and return to her mother. Zidane, as a captain in my army I want you to organise a bodyguard of a score of my finest to escort her to the boundaries of our kingdom. You will lead them there and set Princess Garnet on he road home upon her horse. I trust you had it stabled*

*Yup. It's on the ground with the rest of the captured horses. There's about a dozen men down there looking after them.*

*Good. Make preparations for departure in the morning. In the meantime I want you to escort Garnet to the guestrooms here in the palace. Give her the best one. I want to make sure that the remainder of her stay is as comfortable as possible.*

*Yes ma'am.*

As he turned away she spoke again, *Oh and Zidane, I want you to be her personal bodyguard.* The young genome stopped in his tracks, his eyes straying to Dagger as Martin choked on his laughter, his face red as he clamped his hands over his mouth. Zidane shot him a glare that would have curdled milk but was ignored as the other turned and left the throne-room. Zidane groaned, by the end of the day every genome in Bramble would believe that he and the First Princess of Alexandria had been making out all morning and would be continuing to do so through the night. He glanced at Dagger and could not help the train of thought that said that the rumour would be a very nice one to turn out true.

He mentally slapped himself as he turned to Dagger easily slipping into Alexandrian, 'I guess I can call you Garnet now huh?' She nodded and smiled at him as he approached, rubbing the back of his neck in that adorable way he always did. 'Well uh, the queen's just told Martin about who you really are but he knew that already.' He grinned and giggled mischievously before putting on a straight face again. 'Um, well, she says that you'll be able to leave Bramble tomorrow, I'll be escorting you along with a couple dozen of my men.'

Dagger was surprised, he was so young and yet he seemed to have authority in the genome kingdom. He at least seemed to have command over a retinue of men. 'We'll get you to the edge of the forest nearest Alexandria and from there its only about ten miles of no-man's land to your border and no-one lives there anyway.' He grinned, 'They're all too scared of the Terran Ghosts.' She grinned in return as he continued. 'Tonight you'll have a room in the palace. It probably won't be quiet what you're used to but it'll be better than that cell.' He hesitated for a moment, 'Er, the queen want's me to look after you until you leave Terra so I'll be sleeping outside your room tonight and I'll be with you the rest of the day.'

'Does she think I'll need a bodyguard?'

He shrugged, 'I don't know. She's got some weird things buzzing around in her head but she's probably just trying to make sure that you're safe. Plus I'll be able to give you a bit of a tour of the city.'

She smiled sweetly at him, 'I'd like that.' A thought occurred to her that had been hanging at the back of her mind for a while and she voiced her question. 'Um Zidane, I don't mean to pry but how is it that you can speak Alexandrian?'

He grinned, 'Oh, I thought you were gonna ask me a really tough question. Sorry. Well every now and again an airship stops here. The crew are all friends of the genomes and they're trust worthy so we let them come in and dock here in bramble whenever they want. They bring news and goods and we pay them back with whatever they want.'

'Oh? I thought you said that no kingdoms even knew of your existence.'

'Well Fried does obviously but apart from them it's the truth. These guys,' he made neutral gestures with his hands, 'don't exactly bow to any kingdom. They usually come here in fact to get away from an angry one that's looking for them.'

'Oh. So they're slightly… unscrupulous?'

He shrugged, 'I guess you could call it that. But they never do nothing major, they nick the odd bit of treasure but apart from that they mostly just go about their normal business.'

Dagger had grown up in a highly cultured background and so had to puzzle for a moment over his colloquialisms, 'I'm sorry but I don't understand, nick?'

He grinned and she saw his cheeks colour slightly, 'Um, sorry… liberate is maybe a better word.'

Dagger grinned as realisation dawned, 'Oh. I see. A kind of Robin Hood act?'

He smiled at her and gestured back to the hall through which they had entered the throne-room. 'Come on, I'll show you to your room.' She smiled at him and allowed him to lead her from the magnificent throne-room and into one of the wings of the palace. As they walked Dagger marvelled once again at the genome construction. The entirety of the building was supported by the tree limbs, some thicker than the marble pillars that held up the roof of the throne-room in Alexandria.

They formed a part of the construction itself, the floor under her feet living bark as often as it was planks. She saw only a few other genomes as they walked through the palace and briefly wondered where the guards were before she realised that in a society like the genomes' the royalty probably had no need of them. However she remembered the dozen silent forms that had watched her in the throne-room and knew that though she probably did not need it the queen was not foolish enough to let herself go completely unguarded.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Zidane opened a pair of huge doors and led her into her room. Quiet frankly it wasn't what she was used to. But it was something that she could definitely get used to very easily. Her room was on the inside of one of the larger upper limbs of the tree, the walls pulsing all around the room as the tree went about the business of living, oblivious to the quarters that had been set up within it.

The room was large for a start. The circular floor easily measuring ten paces across. To the left there was a king-sized bed set up against the wall, a mattress of soft moss standing upon a raised part of the floor. She could see no covers but guessed that in the sweltering heat of the jungle there was no need for them at night. Next to that there was a small chest of drawers, a mirror leaning against the wall atop it. Opposite the door a huge, arched window let the sunlight stream into the room, the heavy foliage of the tree dappling the light green, every breeze causing the patterns of colour and shadow to dance on the floor. Opposite the bed was a bath of crystal clear water. Like the room this had been hollowed from the branch and descended below floor level, the water shimmering as though diamonds floated upon its surface as it lapped gently against the sides.

She turned to Zidane, her eyes shining with delight, 'It's amazing. It's beautiful, just like the rest of Terra.'

He grinned at her, his pleasure evident on his face, 'I'm real glad you like it, most people from outside Terra just think that it's too primitive.'

She smiled, her brilliant white teeth flashing for a moment, 'Oh no, it's beautiful. I love it.'

He grinned, 'Hope you can manage to leave it in the morning. I'd hate to have to explain to the queen that you wouldn't leave cause you liked your room too much.'

Dagger giggled at his joke and favoured him with another smile. 'Don't worry. I don't think that there's any danger of that. But, I thought you said that you'd give me a tour of the city?'

Zidane smacked his forehead, 'Sorry. If you want me to I could still give you one.'

Dagger nodded, 'Yes please. I want to learn as much as I can about this place. It's so different from anywhere I've ever been before.'

Zidane's grin showed off his sharp teeth, 'We're genomes your highness. We're one of a kind.' She laughed at the way he could make even her title sound like a joke, but in a good way. He grinned again and gave an elaborate bow. 'Right this way "your highness", your servant awaits to give you a tour of his most humble city.' Dagger covered her mouth to hide her laughter but her shoulders shook with her silent mirth. Zidane looked up, his grin still present as he saw her reaction.

'Come on Garnet, I'll sow you around.' Normally Dagger would have found it strange, even angering when someone that she did not know well used her first name however from Zidane it sounded completely natural. She even went a step further as they walked out of the Palace.

'Please Zidane, call me Dagger.'

His expression showed amused scepticism, 'Dagger? That's a bit of a weird nickname.'

Dagger smiled, 'I know. But I like it.'

'Where'd you get it?'

'Back when I was younger a friend was visiting mother and her son and I became friends. One day I found him practising with one of his slim Lindblum daggers. I watched his movements and I just thought that the dagger looked so free as he span it in the air, I asked him to teach me and I remember wishing that I could be like the dagger, free to take off into the air like that.' She glanced at him, 'Living as royalty can be a little… stifling sometimes. But Richard has always been a great help'

Zidane's did not understand the disappointment that welled up in him as she spoke of a man in her life. 'Oh.' He said quietly, 'So… you and this Richard. You're…' he left the question unsaid but Dagger shook her head vigorously.

'Oh no. We're not an item. We're just friends.'

Mentally Zidane did a back flip before he slapped himself; there was nothing to be gained from that train of thought. I mean sure she was gorgeous but… d'c oh. He grinned at her before beginning her tour of Bramble. It lasted the best part of the afternoon as he showed her all the best sites of the city. But she could never see all of it. For Bramble was indeed worthy of being called a city. It housed easily over ten thousand genomes and sprawled for miles in every direction, walkways and vine ropes criss-crossing between the houses and trees like some kind of drunken spider web.

The sights of the city matched the exotic kingdom. A new wonder amazing her everywhere she turned. There was the Crystal Geyser, a Terran oak that had been hollowed out by an underground spring, the pressure of the water beneath causing the clear water to shoot from a hole between the two forks of the main trunk, the sparkling water sending diamonds glittering through the canopy. Next came the everlasting web, a colony of web-spinning lizards that were harmless to humans and genomes had spun a web almost a kilometre across, the wispy strands forming a springy mattress upon which millions of the tiny creatures lived.

Then her eyes were turned to the menagerie. This was a tree that was unlike any she had ever seen. In a small clearing on its own it grew straight and tall as an arrow the trunk was tiny compared to the mighty Terran oaks. Perhaps only two or three metres thick the trunk rose up above any of the trees surrounding it and branched out in every direction. Thousands of branches almost as thick as the trunk itself sprawled from the trunk and in every fork was nest. Hundreds of birds, scores of species, uncountable colours and calls. All swamped the senses in a kaleidoscopic burst of beauty

These were just a few of the many sights that Dagger saw that day, her head spinning with wonder by the time that they stopped on an isolated platform in the uppermost branches of a tree not far from the palace. Together they looked out over the canopy as the sun began to set in the distance. It was a beautiful sight for Dagger, the clouds above Terra turning glorious shades of orange, yellow and even purple as the red orb of the sun began its slow descent below the horizon.

She looked sideways at Zidane as he hung beside her, his tail curled around a branch above them, his eyes taking in the sight with a small smile that Dagger could not help but adore. She touched his shoulder and he turned his smile to her, waiting her word.

'Um… Zidane, I… just wanted to thank for all that you've done for me.'

He grinned and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, Dagger could not be sure but she thought that she also saw his cheeks colour the slightest bit. 'Well… I… I haven't really done much.'

She rested her hand on his shoulder, 'No. I mean it. You're the only reason I'm still alive. And then again this morning you saved me from that other genome. And then you changed the queen's mind. You've helped me so much and you did it before you even knew me.'

Zidane smiled and Dagger could tell that she had embarrassed him as he dropped to his feet. 'Well… I don't know. I guess I've never thought that you really needed a reason to help anyone.'

Dagger embraced him, 'Still. Thank you.' Zidane had frozen the moment that her arms were around him, his head spinning as the scent of her hair wafted into his nostrils, his sensitive senses picking up every wonderful obscurity of her natural perfume. She pulled back and he struggled wildly to control the urges that welled up in him as her smile shone at him.

He swallowed and grinned nervously, his left hand crushing the end of his tail in an effort to get over the feel of what she had just done. 'Er, it was nothing. I… I was glad to. Come on, it's getting late, I uh, I should be getting you back to the Palace.' As he led her back through the maze of walkways he gradually calmed. "I really hope she knows what she does to men when she does that."

~

That night Dagger fell asleep surprisingly quickly, her lithe body sinking comfortably into the moss bed. Outside the door she knew that Zidane was standing guard as the sounds of the jungle gradually lulled her to sleep. Zidane was on guard but he was hardly standing. Sprawled against the wall he slept with his eyes open, endless nights spent sleeping alone while also watching for jungle creatures had taught him to simply shut his body down while leaving his eyes and ears on full alert. It was damn useful for someone like him who really loved his sleep.

But he was not to get the full night that he wished for. For at about midnight his ears called him to wakefulness, all his sense becoming instantly alert for any danger. But there was none to be seen in either direction along the hallway. He turned to the doors behind him and heard the sounds coming from within, like quiet cries or muffled screams.

Zidane frowned, there couldn't be anyone else in the room with her, he would be able to smell them. But what he could smell told him that she was in trouble, a scent of distress accompanied the tiny whimperings and he cracked the door open to gaze inside. His keen night vision pierced the darkness of the room and made out the figure on the bed. Dagger twisted and contorted upon the bed, lying still for a moment before jerking to one side or the other her lips half-forming words of fear. He opened the door enough to step through and crept to the side of the bed, gazing in concern down at the dreaming woman. He glanced at the chest of drawers and tapped a finger against the globe upon it, glow-worm that slept within rousing and giving him enough light to see her clearly.

He leaned closer and caught the words she whispered fearfully in her dreams and his heart twisted, 'No… stay away… no… stop him… don't let… fight him… send him back…' Gently he reached out and touched her cheek, cupping it gently with his palm.

'Dagger, dagger. Wake up. Wake up.' He took her shoulder and shook her gently, 'Wake up your having a dream.'

'NO!' Dagger's eyes flew open and she flew upright and straight into Zidane's arms. He dared not embrace her but she gave him little choice in the matter as she wrapped her arms around him, sobbing in fright as she buried her face in his neck. Tentatively he returned her embrace, stroking her hair as he whispered to her soothingly.

'Shh Dagger. It's okay. It was just a dream.' Gradually she began to calm in his embrace, her small frame sagging into his strong arms. Her delicate hands gripped his shoulders with surprising strength as her gasping breath began to even out.

He tilted her chin up so that their eyes met his smile reassuring her as the serene glow of the glow-worm illuminated his face. It illuminated her face also and his mouth went dry as he saw the streaks of tears running down her face. Nevertheless he smiled at her reassuringly, 'It's okay. It was just a nightmare. You're fine now.'

'His soft words seemed to calm her slightly and she nodded, sniffing back her tears before she spoke, 'Yes… I… I'm sorry for making you come in here.'

He grinned, 'Hey, no problem. I'm your bodyguard. I'm supposed to look after you.' He sat beside her on the bed, crossing his legs as he kept his eyes on her. 'You wanna talk about it? It's supposed to help.'

Dagger gave him a small smile and he grinned at the sight, 'A-Alright. It'll probably seem silly to you. But… But it just seemed so real.'

'Hey, don't say that. Just tell me, I promise I won't think its silly.' He put an arm around her and hugged her shoulders, when he received no objections he left it there. 'Come on, you want to tell me?'

She nodded, 'Okay. Well, I just seemed to wake up on a battlefield. There is a huge battle going on. There are thousands of human and burmecian soldiers on one side, they're wearing uniforms that I don't recognise and their banners are strange. They're charging forward with a terrible war cry, like thunder. They cover the ground with their numbers as they charge down a hill, there are so many and they just keep coming, down into a huge valley.

'The things they are fighting look like demons. They charge down the opposite slope of the hill to meet the first army and they're war cries. Ugh,' she shivered and Zidane squeezed her shoulders, 'they sound like vultures or some kind of disgusting creature. I was standing right in-between the two armies when they met in the centre of the valley. They fought like wolves, neither side giving an inch as the battle raged around me. The dead piled up all around me and magic lighted up the sky, storm clouds turning day to night as both sides hurled spells at each other.

'The humans started to win and the demons began to retreat back up the hill, some places holding as others fled like ants. Then, just as it seems that the humans are sure to win the demons get reinforced, thousands of new shapes charging down the hillside. They… they were genomes Zidane.' She heard his breath catch in his throat but his eyes reassured her that he still wanted to hear, 'They attacked the humans brutally and the line began to waver. But suddenly a bright light appears over the hillside that the humans charged down and I see a woman in the middle of a swirling mass of power. She shouts and it echoes around the battlefield, her voice is so beautiful that it causes a lull in the battle.

"Come to me dark one." She shouts, "I await you Kuja. Your powers will avail you naught against the aid that the good spirits have granted me. You and your minions are defeated."

'Then a huge shadow rises above the other hill and a voice sounds out. It's… it's so terrible, like rocks being ground to power. It says, "I do not care what aid the good spirits have granted you. This world is mine." The light and the shadow they smash into one another and a terrible swirl of power erupts there, monstrous forms appearing in the light and sending devastating magic at the shadow which is constantly pushed back. Lightning begins to arc off from the battle above and strike down, some is black and cuts into the human army. But most is pure, shining white that slices through the demon ranks.

'Then suddenly, the thunderous din of the battle ceases and there is a terrible cry of pain from above. The shadow is being enveloped by the light and I rejoice as the woman wins. But then suddenly I find myself within the light and… and the shadow begins to get bigger and bigger. Then, a hand reaches for me from the shadow, a terrible sickly pale hand. Just… just as it closed on me you woke me up.'

She turned to him, her eyes wide and frightened, 'It… it was just a nightmare right?'

Zidane's face immediately told her that it was not so. His expression was shocked and his voice subdued as he spoke, 'Dagger, you've just had a vision of the Summoner Battle.'

A.N. There you have it. The latest chapter of my saga and one in which no small amount of development took place in both romance and legend. In the next chapter Dagger's nightmare and her growing relationship are both tested as they must ignore all these signs and head for Alexandria. I look forward to hearing what you thought of this chapter and I wish to tell you that I aim to get the total reviews to thirty-five with this chapter. Please help to reach this target by reviewing my story. It after all takes but a moment.

Goodbye and good fortune

Fallen Saga Creator