Inheritance

Okay, I've done another chapter. I've decided to continue this thanks to major positive feedback. Don't expect it to be updated very quickly though. This is the . . . fourth fiction I'm taking on, and exams are just around the corner. I NEED to pass English.

Oh, on another note, nearly everyone has a part in this, so I apologise in advance for any character action OOC. Zidane and Tantalus I can do, I'm not so sure how well I do the others.

There's a flashback from the game in this, and I'm not 100% sure what the person actually says, so I've winged some of it.

R&R

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"Bring my Beloved Dagger to me!"

Zidane would never forget the looks on his friend's faces as he flung the cape off and gestured to Queen Garnet. Eiko's eyes had bugged out of their sockets, Freya's mouth had dropped to the floor, and Quina fainted. Only the children of Vivi didn't react, since they had never met Zidane, and had grown up around Genomes.

But Dagger's was the best. Looking over her balcony with a mixture of shock, disbelief and happiness. In no time at all she had disappeared from view, and Zidane could see her barging through the crowd, all politeness forgotten. When she reached the stage, she tossed off her tiara and flung herself into Zidane's arms.

"How did you survive? . . . "

"I had to live. I wanted to come home to you, so . . .

I sang your song. Our song."

* * *

Off stage, Tantalus was watching the touching scene. Ruby looked on lovingly at the scene, whilst Baku openly cried his eyes out as Ruby offered him her handkerchief.

"Gotta love a happy ending" Blank said, smiling.

* * *

"I still can't believe you're here."

Once Queen Garnet had composed herself, she allowed the love of her life to leave her long enough to finish the performance. But when it was over, she had latched herself to Zidane's arm, and hadn't let go since. Naturally, everyone wanted to see the returning hero and the Queens true love, so had taken over the bar in town. For some reason however, Vivi's children had not joined in, and had last been seen having a skipping contest with three girls in the square.

"Where have you been?" Eiko asked, jumping up and down. "Making us all worry like that!"

"Indeed! The Queen was praying for your return for months!" Steiner added, getting his own 2 cents in.

Zidane laughed, scratching the back of his head. "I was in Lindblum same as you Eiko. I've been in a coma or something most of the year. The guys didn't think it was right to tell you in case I didn't wake up. I'm amazed Cid didn't find out."

"If father did, then I'm gonna summon Fenrir on him" Eiko grumbled.

Zidane blinked. "Father?"

"Oh right, you don't know" Eiko laughed. "Cid and Hilda adopted me!"

'Cid has his hands full now' Zidane thought to himself.

"Man, I am really low on the grapevine" he complained. "What else have I missed?"

"What? No heroic tales of your return?"

Everyone turned to Armarant. He didn't look up though.

"What tales?" Zidane laughed. "I go to the Iifa Tree, get hit by a root, then wake up months later at the hideout. Not much to tell there."

"What about Kuja?" Freya asked. "Did you find him?"

Zidane frowned. Kuja's name just reminded him of the feather he'd found in his hair. He'd brushed it off as one of Choco's that had gotten caught in it, but the feeling of unease didn't go away.

"Yeah, I found him, but he died after teleporting us out of the tree" Zidane explained. The guys never told me what happened to his body, but I know he didn't survive. But back to what's been happening. Are you back with that Fratley guy yet?"

"That's 'Sir Fratley' to you" Freya replied. "And . . . yes, we are."

Zidane grinned. "Finally remembered you huh?"

"I . . . didn't say that."

"Ah." Zidane decided to let it drop, and turned to the rest of his friends. "What about the rest of you? Come on! Anything will do!"

"I still want Zidane to take me to new places with good food" Quina replied. "I gave Queen frog and Oglop stew last week."

Dagger's face went pale.

"That was Oglop?"

Eiko grinned. "Well, since I know he won't tell you himself, I hear Armarant's been hanging out with that Lani girl. A LOT . . . "

At that everyone turned to the green man leaning on the counter. He gave no notion that he'd even heard the sentence. Eiko frowned and walked up to the guy.

"HELLO! Aren't you even going to comment? Are you asleep? You're asleep aren't you? I KNEW you couldn't stay that quiet all that time normally. Armarant!"

"Leave the man alone Eiko" Freya asked. "He doesn . . . " she trailed off when she saw Zidane motioning her to be silent. The Burmecian's gaze turned to Armarant's hand, which was slowly being raised.

"I bet I could say he and Lani eloped and he wouldn't react. I wonder what Lani even see's in . . . OW!"

Armarant's fist clunked down on the young girl's head, causing her to see stars and collapse to the floor. Zidane burst out laughing, and the others hid smiles.

"She was asking for that," Dagger added. "But I'd get out of town before she wakes up Armarant."

" . . . "

Zidane finally composed himself, and turned to the only member who hadn't coughed up something. "And what about you Rusty? You and Beatrix engaged yet? You looked pretty happy holding that sword earlier"

Steiner turned bright red. "Of course not! We were . . . uh, just celebrating Beatrix's decision to stay on as General."

Zidane snorted. "Yeah right. But you're dating right? I mean, you're 34 years old, but I bet you're still a virgin."

Dagger rolled her eyes and hid her face in her hand. Steiner looked ready to explode; doing a perfect imitation of the bomb that had destroyed the first Theatre Ship.

"WHY YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING PICKPOCKET!!!" he screeched. "AND TO THINK I ACTUALLY MISSED YOU!"

Zidane grinned, moving slightly back from the knight.

"Steiner calm down" Dagger ordered. "You know he wants you to react this way."

Steiner took several gasps of air, and his face went back to its normal colour. But as Zidane shook his head, still laughing, he surprised everyone by laughing himself.

"Well I may be older than you, but at least I don't have grey hairs!" Steiner laughed.

Zidane frowned. "Come again?" he asked.

Dagger looked at Zidane. "Turn your head" she asked.

Zidane did as asked so the Queen could see the back of his head. He quickly turned back when Dagger started giggling.

"What?"

Steiner walked over, and grinning evilly, snapped a few hairs from the back of Zidane's head, causing no little pain.

"Ow! Hey! What's the . . . " he stopped when he saw what Steiner had clenched in his hand.

"Were you painting on the ship?" Freya asked, looking at the strands.

The thief surprised everyone by staying silent, and took a few strands of hair from Steiner's hand, and stared at them, desperately wishing the feeling in his gut would go away.

The strands in his hand weren't the normal blonde of a Genome. Instead, they had a soft silvery sheen. A very familiar silvery sheen . . .

"Zidane?"

Zidane snapped out of his trance to see Dagger's worried face.

"Are you all right?"

Zidane dropped the strands and grinned. "Of course. I must have hit something on the ship at some time. I don't really look at the back of my head often. Is there a lot like this?"

"There's a small patch at the back of your head" Dagger answered.

"Ah, I'll deal with it later . . . "

* * *

That night . . .

* * *

Zidane had pulled out so many strands that when he took out the last one, he didn't feel it. After Dagger finally allowed him to leave, with the promise that he'd come see her first thing to make sure he wasn't a dream, he'd gone back to the Theatre Ship and studied his hair. Using another mirror to see where they were, he'd plucked out every silver strand on his head. Despite washing his hair several times, the silver had refused to wash out, and Kuja's words kept echoing through his head.

"What if . . . no. No, its just a coincidence" Zidane said to himself. "Just a coincidence . . . "

'A feather and now silver strands of hair?' A voice in his head answered back. 'Yeah right.'

The thief moaned and collapsed on his bed. 'Just get some sleep' he said to himself. 'Maybe Mikoto will know what's going on. Maybe I can convince Boss to take the Theatre Ship to Black Mage Village. Perhaps I should have gone tonight with the Vivi's . . .

* * *

**He was in the air. No, he was standing on something. A . . . silver dragon?

In front of him, a huge explosion was ending, and he knew he'd just flown out of the blast in time. Zidane felt something trickle down head, and took a hand to the liquid. When he brought his hand down, he frowned to see blood. Then he froze.

That wasn't his hand. Not in a million years would he wear those long sleeves. And wasn't his hair a little too long? Wherever he was, he was not in his own body, yet . . . it felt . . . right.

Zidane took a closer look at the area around the blast. There were boats on the ocean beneath him, and a large tree blocked out everything as a black demon swooped around it.

'The Iifa tree?' he thought to himself, then surprised himself as he started speaking. It was him, and yet it wasn't him.

"Bahamut, one of the strongest Eidolons. You even hurt me . . . a little."

Zidane stared down at the water. He knew Queen Brahne was in one of the boats, but the other half of his mind, the one in control at that moment, knew the 'Elephant Lady' had no further use.

Part of him wanted to stop the Invincible as it appeared. But the other half of him looked on eagerly, and laughed as Bahamut was enslaved, and turned on the Queen . . .

He had witnessed the death of countless mages, soldiers and the Queen of Alexandria. He had CAUSED those deaths.

And he was laughing . . . **

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Zidane jolted up in bed, holding his head in his hands. Seconds later, his door slammed open, and Baku loomed in the doorway, holding a sword. When he realised there was no one but Zidane in the room, the sword disappeared.

Baku sighed, scratching his head. "Where's the fire Zidane. Why the heck where you screaming at this time o' night?"

Zidane smiled sheepishly. "Uh, nightmare Boss" he explained.

Baku rolled his eyes. "Well be quiet about it will ya. I'm amazed I'm the only one who heard it. And suspicious. Cinna's meant to be up making sure no one sneaks on this hunk of wood whilst its on the ground."

Zidane smiled as the man he called Boss walked out. When the door closed the smile frowned, and the boy collapsed to his pillow, his face fearful.

What on Gaia was happening to him? That memory had to have been Kuja's. But how could he have it? He'd been too busy running from Mistodons to have watched what Kuja was up too. Sure, the Crystal meant everyone had everyone else's memories, but unless you where in Memoria, you shouldn't just be able to conjure up peoples memories in dreams.

So how had he? This was getting to be too much. First a feather, then the silver strands, now Kuja's memories?

"Only one ultimate 'angel' could exist at a time . . . "

Zidane shivered as that damn sentence went through his head one more time. That was it, he didn't care how big a fuss Baku made about moving the Theatre Ship around at his whim. He needed to see Mikoto . . .

To be continued . . .

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Okay, don't like this chapter, but I've done worse. R&R!