Well, I´ve started to realize that this fic is not turning in the direction that Zidane fans would love, so I´ll just warn you now! If you´re a Zidane fan prepare yourself for a Zidane bashing!!!! Now with this out of the way, there will be no flames, right?!

Well, in this chapter Mikoto joins in somewhat...

Chapter #10

//Mikoto´s//

Veranda slowly edged her way to the door and then as slowly opened them. Outside Beatrix stood, frowning, and behind her, huge as ever, Amarant stood, scratching his chin, as always. Veranda was quite shocked with seeing him there, but let the two of them in anyway. Amarant seemed too big to fit in the small innroom, but somehow he managed to make his way to Blank´s bed and sat down on it.

'Where´s Blank?' was the first thing Beatrix asked Veranda.

Veranda, who was still staring at Amarant, thinking what the hell he was doing there, pointed at the bathroom.

'So, you´ve switched places?' she asked her and sighed. 'Has he been in there long?'

'No, just couple of minutes!' Veranda answered. 'But I don´t think he´ll be out any time soon!' she added.

Beatrix looked at her with a quiestioning look, then turned her attention on the bathroom door.

'Blank? You in there?' she shouted and leaned towards it.

'Whatdoyawant?'

Now, this is awfully familiar! Beatrix thought.

'Whatcha doing?' She had been developing a more casual way of speaking during her travel with the two of them, not having to act like in front of a royal born.

'Nothing!'

'As always! Get your ass out here! Amarant Corel´s here and he has some information ´bout Zidane! And he needs to talk to you!' she shouted.

Silence...

Then the bathroom door opened and Blank, looking like hell, emerged out. He shook his head, then turned to face Amarant.

'Hey there!' he said weakly, nodding at Amarant, who returned the nod. Blank sat down on Beatrix´s bed opposite Amarant and Beatrix by his side. Veranda placed herself on her own bed, positioned by the other wall in the room, a little away from the other two. Lying, she watched every movement of the other three.

More silence...

Then all of a sudden Amarant reached out a hand towards Blank and said; 'Here! Take it!'

Blank looked at him in surprise and reached out his own.

'I met Marcus on my way out, and he asked me to bring you this!' Amarant continued, dropping the thing from his palm and into Blank´s. It was a pendant. 'He said you would know what this is!'

Blank only nodded as he let his eyes inspect the pendant in his palm. The small, silver pendant with the white stone.

The pendant he had given to Ruby.

He tightened his hand into a fist over it, squeezing it with all his strength.

Beatrix seemed to notice the change in Blank when seeing the pendant so she spoke to him;

'So, I met Amarant on the way back here,' she started, Blank not looking at her, 'and we went to a bar and talked things over. That´s why I was gone for so long!' she told him, nodding her head. 'He too has noticed changes in Zidane!'

That seemed to capture Blank´s attention and he looked up at Amarant.

'Like what?' he asked, not sure if he was prepared to hear the answer.

'Well, for one, he seems to be totally in charge of Garnet´s thinking! It looks like she hasn´t thought a single thought by herself since the marriage! She follows the King around like a dog, saying only what he feels, not having any opinions of her own, almost asking him persmission to speak aloud! It´s freaky! I´ve never seen anyone like this! It looks like brainwashing!' he shuddered. 'And it has conitnuesly begun to grow stronger and stronger every day! Garnet looses more control of herself each day that passes!'

Blank looked down onto the floor. This was what he had feared. Bad news. He yearned to hear something really nice for once, since these moodkilling informations about his past were brought to his attention. He had craved to be informed that this had all just been one big misunderstanding. He wanted to hear Zidane say that the bounty on Beatrix´s head was nothing but a mere misunderstanding, however that could be reasoned. He wanted to hear that Ruby was not dead, that Zidane was not going mad, that he was not made! He craved these things so badly that it was almost physically hurting him.

But he did not recieve the thrill of having his wish granted, much more than usual.

Blank clasped his hand even tighter around the pendant.

'Yes.' he said gravely, looking at his fist. 'I noticed too.'

Beatrix looked at him, and to Amarant´s surprise he could see that her eye spoke of pity. Amarant kind of pitied Blank himself, but he did not show it, for Blank was in fact trying hard to hide his pain. It was even more obvious when Blank sighed a bit, then drew himself up, sitting straight and speaking sternly;

'Do you think this is Zidane´s doing?' and he pointed at the bounty notice in Beatrix´s hand.

Amarant scratched his chin. 'Well, I gotta tell ya that I´m not sure!' Blank looked a tiny bit relieved. 'But,' Amarant kept on. 'I can´t be sure. The more I think about it the more likely it becomes.' The relief disappeared from Blank´s face.

'But could you think of any motive? Why would he want Beatrix dead?'

Amarant lifted his chin, looking at the ceiling. 'Well, for starters, he hates her!' Beatrix frowned. 'Sorry ´bout that.' Amarant added with one eyebrow raised. Beatrix waved a hand at him. 'and besides that, she is really the only one opposing any threat to his new little game!'

'What do you mean?' Blank asked him, questioningly.

'Well, he has been getting quite comfy in the throne... and no one seems to notice anything so strange about him to make a fuzz about it, EXCEPT,' he said raising his eyebrows and leaning a bit forward, 'his loyal general!' He turned to Beatrix. 'And you do have enough authority to make people listen to you! So you really are a threat to his little personal kingdom.'

Beatrix just nodded. She had known this all along.

They sat in silence for several moments.

'I´m going to go to bed...' Blank said suddenly.

'What?' Amarant asked, surprised.

'I´m gonna go sleep. I can´t think! It´s 5 a.m.! We´ll do some thinking and planning tomorrow.' And so he stood up, walked behind Amarant, drew up the blanket covering his bed just enough for him to slide under it, laid his head down on the pillow and tucked the blanket around him. His hand was still tucking the pendant.

'Good night!' he said.

Amarant, who had followed Blank with his eyes, looked at Beatrix, who lifted her shoulders and hands gesturing that they should maybe humor him and go to sleep.

'So, I´ll go rent a room?' Amarant asked standing up.

'Nah, you can crash on the floor if you want. Or me and Veranda can share a bed. No need to spend more money!' Beatrix said, waving a hand at him. 'Unless, you don´t mind?' she then asked him.

'No, no, I don´t mind! I´ll crash on the floor, thank you!' and he hit the floor, tucking that small sack which kept all his worldly possessions under his head and laid still.

'Good night...' Beatrix said into the night.

Veranda sat silently on her bed for a few minutes, then, when she was convinced that the three of them were fast asleep, got up, got to the bathroom and locked the door.

*~*~*~*~*~*

At 1 p.m. Veranda opened her eyes. The ceiling above her was white and smooth with small cracks in it leading from one corner. She turned her head to the right and found that she was alone in the room. She sat up and yawned. Her stomach screamed in pain of having nothing to digest for over 24 hours, but she ignored it. Standing up without pausing to sit she saw a note on the desk. She walked to the table and read it to herself;

''Blank and I have gone to see Mikoto. Amarant will wait for you downstairs at 1 p.m. - Beatrix''

Great, she thought. I´m stuck alone with Amarant! Why didn´t they just wake me up?

Irritated she noticed that it was already 1 p.m. so she hurried downstairs, buttoning the green shirt she had gotten from Ruby´s wardrobe. The blue skirt was flowing around her legs. She was absolutely not used to these long and wide skirts. She had been wearing only a knee-long, tight skirt in her maid job at the Alexandrian castle. This one only got in her way.

When she got downstairs Amarant was already there, leaning up against the wall in front of the counter.

'You finally awake!?' he said, standing up straight and scratching his chin.

'Yeah,' she said, fixing her short, dark hair which stood almost directly up into the air. 'why didn´t you wake me up?'

'Oh, you were sleeping so soundly...' he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

'What?'

'You were actually kicking and screaming in your sleep at 9 a.m. when the others woke up, so when they got you all calm again they decided that you probably needed a few hours of peaceful sleep! So they left around 12 to visit this Mikoto girl, still not wanting to wake you up!' He smiled at her a smile that you would direct at an infant.

'Yeah, how nice of them!' Veranda snapped, no expression in her voice. 'So, are we going to meet them anywhere?'

'Yeah, they said it was most likely best if we did not all turn up on Mikoto´s doorstep so we were to meet them there at about 2 p.m. So now we´ve got some time to eat! Care for some grubs?'

'Sure, why not!'

Veranda found that it was surprisingly easy to talk to Amarant. He had always looked so threatening, so hostile without really doing anything that could be considered hostile. He did not talk when he did not see a need for it, but the silence between them never got uncomfortable or awkward like it did so often when with strangers. Veranda found that it was nice to be able to skip the small talk when with someone.

They found themselves a little cafe and ate something that looked like a newt on a stick, but tasted strangely good. Amarant ordered a beer and was quite shocked to see Veranda ask for it as well. He had never witnessed any woman, other than Freya, drink beer. If women ever drunk around him they would order portwine or champaign which would not really get them drunk. He smiled a little and gulped down a big swallow of beer to hide it.

'It´s nearing 2 p.m.!' Veranda said when she had finished the last sip out of her own beermug. 'Shouldn´t we head off?'

'Well, since it´s just down the street,' and he pointed at a house that they could see through one window. 'I think that we don´t need to rush it!'

Veranda nodded, but the same instant the door of Mikoto´s house flew open and a girl came running out through it. She had a tail and her hair was blond and short. It was obviously Mikoto.

Mikoto ran away from the house frantically, running aimlessly out to nowhere and, Veranda thought she could hear, was screaming. But not in fear or in agony, but anger. She was shouting angry things and pointing back at her own house. And in the door, both Veranda and Amarant could see, Beatrix was now standing, one hand on her hip and the other at her temple, covering her closed eyes. She then moved a bit and let Blank walk out of the house and onto the street. They could see Mikoto back away a bit at the sight of him and continue screaming and Veranda turned to face Amarant.

'Maybe we should get out there?'

'Yeah, that´s most probably right!'

Veranda payed for their lunch and then followed Amarant out. When they got outside they could just catch the end of a sentence Mikoto was screaming.

'...and do not get near me, you freak!' and pointing at Blank. She was still backing away from Blank, but getting closer and closer to Veranda and Amarant who were walking in her direction. Finally, without realizing, Mikoto flung herself in Amarants arms, who caught hold of her upper arms and held her tight. She yelled out in an instant shock and looked up to face Amarant. Then she screamed again.

'Who the hell are you!?' She was shaking and her voice was getting soar from all the yelling. 'And you?' she said when she saw Veranda.

'We´re with them.' Amarant stated slowly, nodding in Blank´s direction.

'AHH! Let me GO!' Mikoto shouted struggling. Then Amarant could feel his feet being pulled from under him and he was all of a sudden lying uncomfortably on the street. He shook his head in amazement, not knowing what had happened. But he had let go of Mikoto´s arms, so she was now free and trying to find a way to escape from them, not able to find any. Amarant rose to his feet as fast as he could and looked inquiringly at Veranda.

'She tripped you with her tail!' she explained. Amarant had totally forgotten about that tail, which seemed quite strong to have pulled his legs from under him. Amarant rubbed his right arm, the one he had landed on, and found that he would probably get a big bruise there.

Now, THAT´S a woman! he thought, amused.

Now Mikoto was standing just in the middle between Amarant and Blank, looking unease and keeping a close eye on both of them, and also the two women.

'What do you want?' she asked suspiciously. 'More lies?' she turned to face Blank.

'... Mikoto... you know I would not lie about something this important to both me and y...' Blank started but was cut off by Mikoto.

'Important to you!? What´s important to you, you freak? Do you even have feelings? You´re not real!'

'Please!' Blank kept on. 'Let´s not talk about this out here in the open. Come back inside with us! We are not going to hurt you!'

'Why should I trust you!?'

'Have we shown any kind of activities that indicate that you shouldn´t?' Blank asked her. She glared at Amarant, who raised his arms.

'You ran into me!' he said innocently. Mikoto glared at him even harder.

'Mikoto, please!' Blank said, reaching out a hand.

She watched him for a second with untrusting eyes, then answered;

'Well... just for a few minutes. But if you try anything,' and she pointed her finger warningly at Amarant, 'I won´t go easy on you!'

'Right! OK! You can lower your tail now...' Amarant answered, and Mikoto lowered her tail, which end had shapen itself into a fist, prepared to strike.

They walked silently into her house, Mikoto always making sure that she did not touch any of them, and into her living room. Her house, Veranda noticed, was made up from old-looking furniture and many small, also old- looking and wooden accessories that covered the walls and shelves in her cozy little home. Veranda thought it was very nice, and her couch and the chairs around it looked so comfortable that she wanted to throw herself in them. But decided to stand. She did not want to sit down.

Beatrix sat in the sofa with Blank at her one side. Amarant sat in one of the arm chairs beside it. Mikoto drew the other to the front of the sofa and sat down, but not until she had positioned it far enough from them. She did not want to in their grasp.

'So..?' Mikoto began. 'What do you want?' she sounded totally suspicious of them, as should be expected.

'We told you before!' Beatrix told her sternly.

'Yes, you want to know if I'm going insane! You've made that quite clear by showing off your own insanity!' She glared at Blank. 'Now would you mind telling me WHY you want to know this? What does my sanity have to do with you?'

Blank looked unease, not knowing what to say he only coughed a bit. Amarant scratched his chin and Beatrix just sat stiffly, looking hardly at Mikoto. None of them was likely to speak aloud any time soon so Veranda grabbed the opportunity to say something.

'Mikoto, have you had any kind of a contact with you brother the last three years?'

Mikoto looked startled, both of the question and of that Veranda had asked her this. Both Beatrix and Blank had explained to her how they were connected to the subject, but Veranda she did not know.

'And who are you, if I'm allowed to ask!' Mikoto said hostilely.

'I'm Veranda. I am a personal maid of Queen Garnet's, and a friend of these three here! What more would you like to know?'

Mikoto did not answer right away. The foul expression on her face was getting softer and her body was not as stiff now as it was five minutes ago. Her voice was even calming down.

'Well, no, not really!' she answered. Then she seemed to think about the former question. 'And no, I haven't had any contact with my brother, Zidane, since I got here from Terra. I received a letter from him very shortly after he was found, but that's about it! He hasn't returned my reply to him!' She then paused, as if thinking over what she had said. 'Why are you asking me this, anyways?'

Beatrix sighed and spoke in stead of Veranda, who had just begun to inhale to speak. 'How much do you know about yourself, Mikoto?'

'..what do you mean?'

'I mean, how much do you know about your being a genome?'

Mikoto paused. 'Not that much, really!' She hesitated. 'We were made so that we would destroy this world. Or something like that anyway...'

'That's right! Now tell me; Do you feel any kind of urge to go out there,' she pointed out the window and into the sky, 'and take over?! Or destroy it, even!?'

Mikoto stared at her with both disbelief and pity. 'No. Are you sure you're not the one who needs help...?' Beatrix only gave her an evil eye. Mikoto realized that she was not in the mood for a little humor so she returned to the subject. 'No, I do not feel any need or urge to go out there and dominate or destroy the universe! Now, are you satisfied?'

'Yes,' Beatrix answered. 'up to some degree!'

Mikoto sighed and rolled her eyes. 'What more do you want, woman?'

'Would you mind exusing us for several minutes?' Beatrix asked her.

'Sure, go right ahead!' Mikoto answered, not seeming to be thinking about gettin up herself. Beatrix just stared at her, and finally Mikoto broke, got up and splattered; 'Fine, fine, I´ll go! Great! I´m going to get something to eat!' and walked out. The four of them could hear some clatter from pots being positioned on the stove and dishes being uncabineted.

'Well?' Veranda inquired from the silent Beatrix. Beatrix hesitated for a while, staring at the table in front of her. It was made out of dark wood and polished so it gleamed. 'What do we do now?' Veranda kept on.

'I don´t know!' Beatrix stated, thoughtfully. 'There seems to be nothing wrong with Mikoto, she´s getting used to living in this world obviously,' she waved a hand at the walls around them, 'and doesn´t seem to be having any psycological problems!'

'But..?' Amarant asked. 'There´s obviously a 'but' there!'

'But.. I can´t just walk away. We´ve got to take her with us!' Beatrix said.

'What?' Blank exclaimed. 'Now, aren´t you taking this a little too far? I mean, you can´t just rip her from her life, saying that it is for the good of the world, without telling her what it´s all about!'

'Yes, we can!' she stated stubbornly.

Veranda sighed loudly and threw her arms into the air. 'Now I´m siding with Mikoto! You´re totally out of your mind!'

'No, I´m not! Think about it! It´s the only reasonable thing to do!'

'I´m afraid that I´ll have to side with the other girls on this, Beatrix!' Amarant spoke, slowly. 'This is just not sane!'

Beatrix glared at them both. Then she looked inquiringly at Blank, who sighed and spoke;

'Well, I think that we should inform Mikoto about this... situation concerning her brother. I think she has a right to know!'

'But they´re not really siblings! They´re just of the same.. tribe, if you will! It´s just like saying that Freya was the sister of every single Burmecian there is!' Amarant said in a nagging tone of voice.

'Well, Zidane is her only 'family' or at least the only one in the world who comes close to it!' Veranda said. 'I guess it´s just right to tell her!'

'Yes! We´ll do that!' Beatrix stated, and no one of the others had the courage to oppose her.

Beatrix got up from the couch, sighed and walked to the kitchen. The others just waited. They could hear the soft murmur of the two women´s voices but they could not hear what they were saying. They did not say anything themselves, though they were not really listening either. They just seemed to sit around there silently, all thinking about their own things. Blank on the couch, Amarant in an armchair and Veranda standing in the doorway leading from the corridor.

Then, after a few minutes the murmur stopped. And there was silence.

*~*~*~*~*~*

'Where do we go now?' Amarant asked Beatrix when they stood outside Mikoto´s house. Mikoto had taken the news about her 'brother' quite well, too well for Amarant´s nerves, but she had not agreed to go with them. She said she would think about it during this week and then tell them her decision, considering that they had to stay in town until Blank could meet with that woman.

Yes, Beatrix had told Mikoto the whole story, starting with the marriage. More Beatrix did not know, so now everything was in Mikoto's hands. Now she knew as much as all the others did, maybe that was to be considered too much.

'We go back to the inn!' Beatrix answered. 'Where to else?' Amarant shrugged.

'I´m gonna go somewhere else!' Blank said suddenly. Having been silent since Beatrix left for the kitchen the others were shocked by his speech. 'I´ll meet you back at the inn soon!'

'Where are you going?' Veranda asked him casually.

'I´ve got to pick up some stuff. I won´t be long!'

'That´s all right! Not like we´re in any rush now!' Beatrix told him without looking at him and waved a hand at him. 'You just run along!'

'Thanx!' Blank said, running off.

'Well, then I´m gonna go find myself a bar and get drunk!' Amarant stated, scratching his chin. 'Unless anyone opposes..?' he asked the girls. When neither of them answered he scattered off. 'See ya!'

'Are you going to run off to anywhere?' Beatrix asked Veranda after a short pause.

Veranda thought for a while, not wanting to spend another night alone with Beatrix. She was getting a little too psycho for Veranda. 'No,' she answered, not able to remember any place in the city she could wander off to. 'not really!'

'Well then, let´s get going! I don´t want to stay out in the open for too long, there are still some fliers ´bout that bounty around here. Plus, this festival that is beginning will attrackt lots of people! I don´t want to be in the middle of that when my head´s worth 1 million gil!' And by that she turned, stomping away. Veranda had only enough time to think one line of irritation before devoting her energy into keeping up with Beatrix.

Great! I´m stuck alone with the crazy bitch. Blank - Amarant.. I hate you!

*~*~*~*~*~*

In the darkness between two houses in the theater district there sat a man. A normal man with nothing special or affectation about him. He had short, black hair that only reached his mid temple, was dressed in leather pants, white shirt and a long, black coat. He was quite thin, even thinner than could be considered healthy, but he did not look sick or out of energy as you might think. His face was very special and characteristic and his deep, dark grey eyes were watching everything that happened on the street.

Now they were inspecting that redhaired man with much interest. He was edging his way through the crowd on the street. There were unusally many outdoors today, seemingly some kind of a festival was beginning. But the man cared nothing for those things. He did not take his eyes off the man. His hair made it easy to pin-point him in the middle of hundreds of shouting and laughing citizens.

Then the man stood up from his hiding place. And as he did that he looked up in at the sky for a split second as if to thank someone up there for granting a long desired wish. Then he smiled a bit, showing his marble-like teeth, straight and shining white. The man was really handsome, in a very grown up stort of way. He seemed to be only about 30-35 years old, although he could possibly be older.

He walked out on the street and as he emerged from that alley he had been in people seemed to pause, looking at him and then moving away, allowing him to walk freely. Wizdom seemed to reek out from him like a scent or heat, and he seemed to tower over all other, even though he was not considered a very tall man. His superiority was unquestioned by everyone so they sided to clear his path.

He followed slowly after the redhaired man, through the streets and to a house, a big house. The Tantalus Headquarters, the man noted. He had been there several times before, alone, searching, waiting.

The redhaired man disappeared inside and so did the man shortly after, closing the door carefully behind him.

*~*~*~*~*~*

A/N: I know, I´m taking my time in writing this and letting the story come out. But then on the other hand, this has to be done exactly at the speed I´m doing this. But then again, sorry for the lack of action! There will be a lot of dialog in the next chapter I think, so that one will be easier to write, or shall we say it won´t take as much time! Plus, it won´t take as long time to read. But, we´ll see... maybe it will be longer...

But I´m sticking with my "at least 1 review a chapter until I publish the next" rule now. thanx anywho...