This chapter is NOTHING like the other ones!! This dives more into the minds of my 3 main characters, that is Blank, Veranda and Beatrix! (strange combination!!)

And don´t expect the obvious of me! I´m not used to follow any rules in my writing and if I really imply something´s gonna happen, it most probably won´t! ^_^

Don´t kill me for the lack of action!!!





Chapter #4

//A barrier //

Aahh!! Veranda was screaming insider herself. Her feet were killing her. They were aching so badly that she was beginning to be unstable on them and kind of rowed around like she was going to fall any second now.

Owowowowow! she thought. Then she heard the alert horns blown. What? Again?

All who were seated by the table, and had been for the past one and a half hour, blast them, sprang to their feet, looking very alarmed. All except Freya and Amarant.

'W-what´s going on?' Veranda heard Cinna studder. Cinna had always come across to her as a very kind person. He was not very smart, but he had a heart to make up for that.

'Just keep calm, everybody!' Zidane exclaimed.

'Yeah right. Calm!' Amarant said with a sarcastic tone. Freya sitting beside him let out a small laugh that sounded almost like a chuckle. They had both been drinking quite a bit with the dinner, and there was a good deal of alchohol in that wine.

Amarant raised his glass at the King and said in a loud voice with the same sarcastic tone;

'So when the sky comes crashing down on all of us you´ll just tell us to be calm!? Do not take me for a fool,' he kept on, speaking as if he was a very important national hero, making a statement that his nation would never again be oppressed by the authorities and so on and so on, 'for I am no fool, in no ways, and this luuuuuvely lady here by my side,' he raised his glass at Freya, who chuckled a bit more, 'will most gladly tell you more about how bad I can be, if you catch my drift!' Then he winked at his companions, taking a sip of the wine. Freya was laughing out loud now, seemingly not aware of the fact that everybody was looking at her with a sick look.

'O.. kay, then...' Marcus said, with a kind of frightened expression on his face. Veranda stifled a laugh.

'Go see what the fuss is all about!' Steiner yelled to a guard standing near the door leading to the main hallway. The guard opened the door but that same instant Beatrix came bursting through the it, knocking him down. She walked right past him and so it came to Blank to help him to his feet.

'Your majesty!' Beatrix shouted in a loud voice. 'Your majesty, I bring ye news!'

My god, Veranda thought. They know each other well enough to skip those formal speeches. Won´t the noble ever see how stupid it sounds?

'What are they?' Zidane and Garnet answered almost instantly. Beatrix shot Zidane an evil look before getting herself together. She spoke to Garnet;

'We´ve found another letter!' she said holding up the letter Blank had gotten.

Garnet gasped, along with most people in the room.

'Another one murdered?' Zidane asked.

'.no!' Blank spoke, to everyone´s surprise. He emerged from the shadows and the belt covering his face and the fact that most people had not noticed him come in made him very, very spooky.

Veranda, who had luckily found a chair and thrown herself in it, felt her heart tumble as she saw Blank. For a moment she let herself be happy for just being able to see him, but then it was if she realized how she felt.

Get a grip, she told herself firmly. This is no way to feel, you wuss!

She pushed all that she had felt for Blank inside a little chest in her soul, and locked it. There it was to stay, forever. Because no one but her had the key, and she was not going to unlock it.

'What? Where did you find it then?' Zidane, who was seemingly shocked with the fact that Blank was there and was talking, asked Blank.

'I ran into the murderer and she handed it to me!' Blank answered and wanted to snatch back those words as soon as they slipped from his lips. He knew that this fact could get him into trouble.

'You ran into her and let her go?!' Baku shouted with amazement. 'Are you OUT OF YOUR MIND?!'

'Wait, wait, wait, what did you say?' Steiner asked looking at Blank with two, wide opened eyes.

'She handed it to you!? What were you two doing?' Marcus asked with a faint disbelieve in his eyes.

'Oh, my god, I knew it all along!!' Eiko shouted, as if something had suddenly made alot more sense to her than it had for a long while.

Blank raised his hands and bowed his head, not wanting to hear any more of these questions and announcements. But they continued yelling at him, asking him why he had not done anything, not letting him get the chance to speak. Finally Garnet stood up and to everyone´s surprise shouted at them;

'Would you shut the fuck up for a moment!? Gheez!!!' she said with her hands on her hips. She was dressed in a white dress with bright blue stripes and bows, and a silver crown on her head. She looked very elegant and threatening, even though the dress was a bit naive. Then, realizing what kind of language she had just used, she sat down again, saying;

'We should at least let Blank speak, before we rule that he is guilty of something!' she said, calming herself down and straightening the crumbles in her dress. The room was so quiet you could hear a fly fart. Everybody was looking at Blank, who did not like the attention he was getting one bit.

'So, what happened?' Garnet asked him when he did not show any signs of spitting it out.

'I.' Blank´s voice trailed out. He was estimating what he was going to say. He did not want the others to know about his headache. First of all that would only worry them and second of all it seemed to always come when something was about to happen. And he thought that they would think it was just too. 'convenient'. Then he voted against himself and decided to tell them the whole story, headache involved. 'I.' he started, but was then interrupted by Beatrix.

'I saw it all happen! He didn´t do anything unproper, he was just dazed for reasons I myself do not know, but it was not his fault that the killer got away.' She spoke with real determination, that said that this was fin and it did not need to be discussed any more.

Blank looked at Beatrix with questioning expression. He had always thought that Beatrix did not like him but then why did she speak up for him? Well, she saved his ass, that was for sure. He might have been labeled a trator if she had not done that. Blank had to remind himself to thank her later.

'If that is the case, why didn´t you say so?' Baku asked Blank, with as innocent expression as he could come up with.

Like you gave me a chance! Blank thought, but did not say it aloud.

'Like you gave him a chance!' a voice rang out. Everyone turned to face Veranda who was now blushing with shame. She was not allowed to speak when she was working in the dininghall. This might cost her her job.

Blank stared wide eyed (not that it could be seen.) at Veranda. He had not seen her sitting in the back and was most surprised to hear her speak up for him, after he talked to her the way he did earlier.

'I am so sorry, please excuse my impudence, your majesty!' Veranda said, bowing in Queen Garnet´s direction. Garnet only nodded and, after giving Veranda a thoughtful look, turned her attention on other matters.

'So what does the letter say?' she asked Beatrix because she held the letter. 'Something about more genomes?'

'Why did she hand it to Blank, anyway?' Marcus added.

Beatrix cleared her throat and then spoke in a voice, almost as silent as a whisper. 'Because it is for him!' She did not look at Zidane, but she knew he was shocked.

'For him? How about the other ones that were meant for Zidane? Why are they also bothering Blank?' Garnet asked with a lost look on her face.

'The other one´s weren´t for Zidane, your majesty. They were all meant for Blank! We just misjudged it.' Beatrix answered slowly, as if explaining to a child.

'Well, how can you be sure?' Zidane asked, looking like he had been betrayed.

Beatrix looked at him, this 19 year old boy who thought he knew everything, then unfolded the letter and read it aloud:



My oh my why aren´t we thick Blood so pure and mind so sick I warned you, I did, so do not hate Your girlfriend´s death was just a bait (she glared at Zidane)

We need it´s powers and greatest force To help out purpose and please his needs But only a true heir knows the source And you´re the last one of the pureblooded, sophisticated mindless fools who lived out their lives only to serve another human being! Now, isn´t that sad!?

COME NOW! You are the one we want! Come see us now and no others will die! We won´t warn you again!

When she finished she folded it again and handed it to Blank who stood beside her. Blank took it, his hand unwilling, and put it in his pocket, his hands kind of shaking. He was afraid of Beatrix´s power, but he felt that now he was on her good side. And he intended to stay there.

When no one spoke Beatrix cleared her throat again, looked directly at Zidane and said;

'We think it ´s for him because they mention Ruby as his girlfriend and then handed the letter to him in person. Now, if you have any other ideas about how to interpret these facts I´d like to hear them!' She spoke in an arrogant and sarcastic way, the way no general should speak to his or her superior. She realized that and then added: 'If you would be so kind.' And bowed her head as to emphasize, but it still sounded sarcastic..

Zidane glared at her with eyes of pure dislike, but said nothing.

Now, THIS is tense! Blank thought as he stood there in the silent room. Nobody dared to speak and most people stared down at their feet, except for Zidane, Garnet and Beatrix.

'Well, isn´t that a *burp* partywrecker?!' Amarant said laughing. Freya chuckled.

'Shut up!' Baku yelled at them. They were really getting on his nerves.

Then Beatrix turned towards Garnet and spoke: 'What will you have me do, your majesty?' she asked Garnet, ignoring Zidane. Zidane just glared at her. Blank had never seen him so angry, and he did not like she sight of it. And if so small a thing got him so upset as he was, then something was not right. Zidane had been acting different since he came back, but who would not change after wandering around alone for 3 years? .... he had been alone, had he not?

Garnet, who now looked fierce with anger, like Blank had never seen her before either, spoke in a loud voice; 'You two,' she was talking to Beatrix and Zidane, who were occupied glaring at each other. 'accompany me to my chamber, please!' she, not asked but ordered them. Beatrix nodded and followed her out. Zidane just went expressionless and walked along side his wife, who did not take his arm as he offered it to her.

The door slammed shut.

And there was an awfully awkward silence.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Veranda let herself fall backwards onto her bed. That dinner had been awful. She almost talked herself out of her job. It was a good thing that that fight between Zidane and Beatrix had started. That had requered Garnet´s attention and took the stress from Veranda herself. Maybe the Queen would just forget it ever happened. Veranda prayed that would be the case. What was she to do if she would loose her job? She did not want to think about it. Her family lived in Treno and she hated that place. That was why she had moved to Alexandria. To become a honerable maid for the royal family, or what was left of it. And in that part she had succeeded. But she did not have many friends.

Oh, I´m diving in selfpity again! Stop it, or I´ll kick my own butt! she told herself.

But she could not but wonder what the outcome of the fight would be. After the royal couple and the general had left the hall no one had spoken for about 5 minutes, except for Amarant and Freya, but that had just been drunk talk. Then, at last, Blank had decided that they ought to just disappear to their own rooms. Everyone seemed relieved that somebody else had made that decision and hurried out of the hall. Veranda only saw the back of Blank´s head disappear out the door. After cleaning up after the dinner and escorting Amarant, who could not stand straight on his own, to his room she had fled to her room, dying to plunge herself onto her bed. She had thought she would fall asleep on the spot, but that was not the case. She just lay there thinking.

I miss my mum. Maybe I oughta go see her, before it´s too late. And I wonder how Bernard is doing? He´s gonna be 16 this summer! I haven´t seen him for two years, not since my 19th birthday. When I moved here. Gosh, I gotta go see them soon. I wonder how long my vacation this year will be. It was so short last year, that I couldn´t go home. Not that I wanted to, anyway.

And out of these thoughts she fell asleep.

*~*~*~*~*~*

General Beatrix was furious. She was angry with Zidane, but even more she was angry with herself. This was not very much like her. She had never spoken up to her superiors before, and she did not even know why she had started it now. Zidane just had this fine tactic to go on her nerves, and seemed to be using it alot. But most likely he was not trying to agitate her, maybe she just saw something in him that she did not like. Of course that was the deal, and she despised herself for letting go of her selfcontrol.

Do it again and you´ll loose your job, dimwit! she screamed at herself in her mind.

Garnet had been so furious, so forthcoming, so unlike herself. She had snapped at them both, Zidane and Beatrix, and basically told them to stop this meaningless and stupid competition, or she would have to take some actions. She did not say what those actions would be but neither of them wanted to find out so they just played along and made peace. But that would not be the end of it. Beatrix was sure that she would never get comfortable with taking orders from Zidane and he would plainly see that. He was also known to hold grudges.

When they had left the Queens personal chamber and stormed back to the dininghall, the air still filled with frustration and anger, they found no one there.

Great! Just GREAT! was the only thing that had crossed Beatrix´s mind.

'What should I do now, your majesty?' she had asked the Queen, without wanting to hear the answer. She knew it without asking.

'Search for her, even though there´s a little chance we will find her now.' Garnet answered. 'And please do ask Blank to come see us!' she added when Beatrix had turned her back at her, after saluting.

'Yes, my Queen. Right away!' Beatrix answered without turning around. She deliberately only addressed the Queen.

Now she was on her way to Blank´s room, frustrated over being used as a messenger boy, but still more furious with herself. Hopefully there would be some action now in this murder matter that would keep her from seeing Zidane for a few days. That would be a nice distraction.

Zidane Tribal. The kid who had no home and no family, was made to destroy this world. Well, he had one sister, or whatever, who was currently living somewhere in Lindblum. Mikoto she was called, Beatrix remembered. The only Genome known to be living in Gaia besides Zidane, and maybe Kuja, but Zidane had not been willing to talk about him since he came back. Beatrix had never met the girl Mikoto, but was planning to change that fact. She had a growing suspision and was going to investigate on it.

She knocked on the door. There was no answer. She knocked again.

Darn it! He´s not here? Beatrix thought, really bad tempered.

She knocked once again.

'Yeah?'

The voice behind the door sounded as if it had been hiding and did not want to be found.

'Hey, I have got to talk to you!' Beatrix half-shouted at the door, her irritation reflected in her voice.

'Who is it?' Blank´s voice said. It did not really sound much like him.

'Beatrix!'

A little thud could be heard through as if someone had just thrown their feet out of the bed and onto the floor. There was a small clinging sound when Blank unlocked the door and then it opened.

Blank frankly looked like shit. His hair was all messed up and the belt looked like it had been fastened in a hurry.

He took it off?

'What do ya want?' he asked grumpily. He obviously did not want to be disturbed.

'The couple wants to see you, this instant!' she told him. He looked at the floor and rubbed his chin.

'Right now?' he asked without looking up. She nodded. 'Why?'

Beatrix really thought that question was stupid. Why?

'Why do you think? Because of the letter. Because of Ruby´s death. Because we need to do something about all of this. Because you´re involved, and because it looks like you´re really important. Do you want more reasons? Because I have them!' she snapped at him.

'Guess not.' he answered, stroking one hand through his hair, holding himself steady with the other. 'Just give me a sec, would ya? Gotta get myself together.'

'All right! But be quick!' she told him. 'I´ll wait right here, then escort you to them. I guess I´ll have to be present!' She shuddered with that thought.

He closed the door and Beatrix leaned against the wall, waiting.

When he came out, after about 4-5 minutes, he looked more like himself. More confident, more dirty-clean like he always was, and the belt was straight wrapped around his head. He had obviously fixed it.

I heard that he never took it off...

And they walked side by side to the royal chambers.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Blank had hurried to his room after the dinner. He read the letter over and over again in the faint hope that he would find some hidden clues, something he and Beatrix had not seen before, but did not find anything. Not that he had really expected it.

He sat on his bed with the letter in his hands. The bed was big, too big for him, he thought. Not that he was small, just the bed was too big. It was a royal size bed and Blank was not used to or comfortable with such luxury. He always lied on only one side of the bed, as close to the edge as he could be without falling out of it, and only used a corner of his pillow. He looked forward to going back to Lindblum where he lived in a dump.

But that was not the most important thing on his mind this exact second.

What the fuck are they talking about!? Sheez, can´t they even be frank? I´ve got to find this place, their hide-out! I´m gonna kill them all, starting with that blonde!! he thought, making a face. Then, as if he realized what he was thinking, he let the letter fall down from his grasp to the floor. Then he stared at it for a moment or two. This was not what he had wanted. The only thing he had wanted, he thought, was for a nice quiet life in Lindblum with Tantalus and maybe a pretty girl who he loved and loved him back.

Guess that´s out of the question now.

The headache was coming again. Blank hated how it never just stuck or completely went away. It seemed to plague him every time something was about to happen. That was why he decided to take the belt off him.

Maybe it´s my eye! Maybe it´s the reason for this fucking headache! I can´t be sure until I take a look! Maybe it will go away when I take it off! It won´t hurt to check. will it?

His hand shook as he reached for his headband, not wanting to take it off. He could not remember the last time he had taken it off. There were at least 8 years since he last did it, only 12 years old at the time. But he remembered looking in the mirror and despising the image he saw. One eye, his left, plain and simple, healthy, natural. It was green, big and open. But the right one.

Blank unbuckled the belt and slowly dispatched it from his face. The light stung his one normal eye fiercely. He had not used it for 8 years.

He was afraid to look in the mirror. It was strange to feel air touch his forhead and brows and he lightly stoke his fingers over his left eyelid. Then he paused. He stood up, placing the belt on the bed, and walked to the bathroom connected to his room.

Please let it be alright, let it be. bareable! he thought, knowing his prayes would not be answered.

And then he reached the mirror. He stared into his right eye, his machinery eye, and he went numb. It was as hideous as ever. Where the dark pupil was supposed to be was an ugly red light and his whole eye was made from grayish, shiny metal, his eyelids barely cowering it and there could be seen bright lights running through it every now and then. It looked like a very evolved machinery and complicated to make. But since Blank was no doctor and did not have the slightest interest in technique, he hated it. He thought it made him look alien, and frightening.

He did not know how he had gotten it but he had had it ever since he could remember. And his first memory was from when he was six years old, waking up in an alley in Lindblum, looking like he had been in a fight. He most probably had, and most probably he had lost his memory from a blow on the head. The only thing he could remember was his name; Blank. He found that a bit peculiar, because so often people loose their memory and in most cases they remember almost everything EXCEPT their name. And that was not much to go with, so he had learned how to live in Lindblum on his own.

Even at that young age people had stared at him out in the streets because he looked different. He begun to feel like an outcast and started hiding almost all the time, only going out in the night to steal some food. Then one day he had decided to steal from the wrong person. A huge man named Baku. Fortunetely Baku felt sorry for the small boy and took him into his group, Tantalus. Back then it had only been them and Marcus, the first kid Baku had saved from the streets of Lindblum. Then soon Cinna followed, then Zidane and finally Ruby. That had been only 4 years ago.

Four years, and he had not told her once.

Blank shuddered and stepped back from the mirror. The headache did not loose any of it´s eagerness so he slammed himself down on the toilet. There he sat for a while, gripping his hair.

He had been seven years old when Baku had returned home with that strange belt thing. Blank never wanted to go outside during the day, and at last Baku could not take any more of seeing the child so helpless and vulnerable. He had asked his acquaintant, a scientist of some sort, to make this thing. It had cost him a pretty penny, but he did not care, and Blank had already paid him back. Baku had not been totally happy with that, but it was not for him to decide. Blank did not like to owe someone anything. Not even to the person in the world that was the closest thing to being his father.

It was made so that somehow Blank´s eye was connected with an inner computer crafted in the belt that made it possible for the boy to see, without seeing, in a matter of speaking. It was like his brain saw through a bypass hooked up with that computer. But when he took the belt off he could see OK with his cyborg eye and the other one.

But he almost never took it off. It was a part of him now. He felt. naked without it.

Blank slowly walked to his bed and lied down on it, loosening his pants and rubbing his head, the ache still cutting through it.

Then there was a knock on the door.

Blank froze, and thanked himself in his mind for locking the door.

There was another knock on the door.

Please just go away!

Then the third time.

Well, guess I.

'Yeah?'

*~*~*~*~*~*

They had walked in silence. Until;

'Beatrix?' Blank said, stopping.

'What?' she said, her irritation wearing off.

'Thanx!'

'For what?'

'Sticking up for me back there!'

'Oh, that! Think nothing of it!'

'Well, thanx anyway!'

And they continued to the royal chambers.

*~*~*~*~*~*