Separation Anxiety By FlowerPower1o1

A/N I should probably put some sort of disclaimer in here or something. Very well. I do not own Final Fantasy 9, or any Final Fantasy, for that matter. Squaresoft owns them all. But wouldn't it be cool if I DID own one? I mean, come on, think about it.

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Chapter 2: The Group Gathers, OR; Quina's hungry, what else is new?

Ten minutes later, the group was assembled by the docks.

"I'll make this brief, people," Eiko said. "Dagger is in a bit of a rut here, and we need to help her out. We need to get her and Zidane back together. Of course, in order to do this, we need to find him. Anyone have any ideas on how to do this?"

Vivi raised his hand. "Not that I'm disagreeing with you, Eiko. It sounds like a good plan and everything, but are we sure that Dagger even wants Zidane back?"

Eiko grinned. "Yes we are, Vivi. I talked to Dagger, and she admitted that she still loves Zidane, she just has a communication problem. We need to figure out how to get the two of them together someplace with no breakable things and make them talk real civil-like."

"It sounds like that's going to be the hard part," Beatrix said. "The easy part is going to be tracking Zidane down."

"Foolish girl," a voice from behind a tree said, and Amarant stepped around it and looked at everyone. "Zidane is a Tantalus. If he doesn't want to be found, he won't be found. You're going to need another thief to help you."

"A thief like you, Amarant?" Eiko grinned. "It's good to see you. So I take it you've been listening?"

Amarant nodded. "I take it you're going to convince me to come and help you out? I guess I will. I don't have anything better to do, and I do still owe the little monkey for saving me at Ipsen's Castle way back when."

"Excellent!" Eiko said, clapping her hands. "Now, where do we think he might have gone?"

"Amarant said best," Quina said. "Zidane Tantalus. He go to Tantalus hideout?"

"It makes sense," Steiner mused. "The Tantalus is the place that he called home before our adventures. If he were to go anywhere, he would go there first."

Quina clapped, her tongue flapping against her apron. "Yay! We go to Lindblum! Lindblum have tasty treats!"

"She's hungry," Amarant muttered, rolling his eyes. "What a surprise."

"Someone needs to stay here and protect the Queen," Beatrix said.

"I'll be the one to do that, love," Steiner told her. "I know you haven't left Alexandria in a while, and besides, the Knights of Pluto are going to be starting their annual training festival soon, so I'll need to be here anyhow."

Beatrix leaned over and kissed her husband on the cheek. "Thank you, dear."

"So what are we waiting for?" Eiko said. "I have the Hilda Garde 4, we can be back to Lindblum in about fifteen minutes if we left now!"

"Why not?" said Beatrix as she raised her Save The Queen sword. "I have everything I need right here."

"Well, not everything," Vivi said. "We'll have to pick up some supplies in Lindblum."

"And food! Food good!" Quina enthused.

"Yep. On the road again..." Amarant sighed.

The Hilda Garde 4 safely docked in Lindblum Grand Castle, the group headed to the theater district and the Tantalus hideout.

"Hello!" Eiko called as she banged on the door. "Is anybody here?"

The door swung open to reveal Blank, looking as if he had just woken up. "Hey everybody," he said, rubbing at one eye. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Zidane's missing," Eiko said. "We thought he may have come back here."

"I'm surprised you're not out with Baku and the others then. They've been scouring Lindblum looking for clues, and if they don't find any here, they're taking the Prima Vista out to search for him."

"Why?" Eiko said.

"You mean you don't know? Give me two seconds, okay? I spent all last night at the tavern, and I feel like I've got a Cactuar casting 1,000 Needles in my brain." Blank disappeared back into the building and returned with a bundle of papers. Eiko took them and looked at them curiously.

"You don't have to go all through them," Blank said. "There's a couple letters in there - one from Zidane that doesn't say very much, and a longer one from some unknown guy, describing Zidane's condition, environment, and ransom. It also says that a copy of this letter was sent to Dagger at Alexandria, Cid in the Grand Castle, and Freya and Fratley in Burmecia."

Eiko's eyes widened. "You mean...?"

Blank nodded. "Zidane's been kidnapped."