Disclaimer: ….you know the answer.  C'mon admit it!  You do!  You are all a bunch of smart bunnies! ^_^

Callista: Thanks for checking out our other story!  Hehehe.  I hope you continue to read this one and enjoy it as much as you have!  Oh, and your opinion on Vivi's death was interesting, I never thought of it that way! 

Aya-Yahiko and Leanna: It took me forever to come up with what her Trance could be, do you have ANY idea?!  I was so proud of myself when it just came to me!  And it also fits in nicely with the later chapters!

Chapter 12:

            Zidane shot out of bed, immediately covering his mouth the muffle the scream already escaping his lips.  "It's all your fault," the words echoed in his mind.

            Whenever Amy had that horrible dream, she never failed to make him view it as well.  Maybe she couldn't help it, but one thing was for sure.  As she grew, the dreams became more frequent and detailed.

            It had gotten to the point where Zidane could read the names engraved on the tombstones.  But, once he woke up, the more he tried to remember, the more the details slipped through his fingers.

            Every time he fell asleep, the dream came back, and in the next tent, he was sure Amy was going through the same thing.

            Leaning back into his pillow, he scanned the tent to make sure he didn't wake anyone up.  Baku remained snoring loudly on the other side of the tent, as did Cinna.  Blank had covered his ears with his pillow so that he didn't have to hear it, and Marcus just remained sleeping as if nothing bothered him.

            Zidane's eyes darted to a watch on the floor, 4:53 a.m.  Oh well, need to get up anyway.  Slowly, he lifted himself from his sleeping bag and pulled his jeans on.

            "Whatcha doin'?" Blank yawned sounding agitated at being woken up.

            "It's almost five, we need to get ready to pack up camp."

            "Man," Blank whined, "I couldn't get any sleep last night with those two," he pointed over his shoulder.

            Zidane smirked, "Payback time?" the red-head smiled deviously and nodded.

            Mouthing the words so no one else could hear, Zidane counted, "One, two, THREE!" he yelled the last one.  At the same time, the two friends ran at the snoring figures and jumped on them. 

            "Good morning sunshine!" Zidane said teasingly from atop Baku.

            "Wake up!" Blank yelled shaking Cinna.  Jumping on him wasn't enough to wake him up!

            "Get off me ya scumbag!" Baku growled, throwing Zidane off.

            "What's with all the noise?" Marcus complained sitting up.  The tent erupted with laugher.

            Still laughing the boys got ready and stood outside the tent. 

            "Alright Marcus, you have fire duty." Baku said, "Blank, Zidane, wake everyone up.  Cinna, make breakfast." Baku gave orders as he made himself comfortable sitting down.

            "Wait a minute, Boss!  That ain't fair!" Cinna complained, "You aren't doing anything!"

            "You're not gonna make an old man work now are ya?" he winked.

            Rolling his eyes, Cinna started rummaging through the tent for food.

            "Alright," Zidane started, "I'll take all the tents on the left, you take right." Blank nodded and they did the Tantalus salute before departing.

            "Everybody wake up!" Zidane yelled as he walked between the rows of tents.  Finally, he stopped in front of Eiko and Amy's tent.

            "Rise n' shine!" he yelled shaking the small tent.  Shrieks could be heard from inside.

            "Ahhh!  Dad, don't scare us like that!" Amy whined poking her head through the flap.

            "Don't make me drag you out," Zidane laughed and winked, then he moved on to the next tent.

            It wasn't long before Blank met up with Zidane at the fire.  The two gave each other a high five and sat down by Marcus.

            Slowly the logs around the fire started to fill as people started getting out of their tents.  Amy and Eiko were among the last to arrive.

            "G'morning Sleeping Beauty," Zidane chuckled.  Amy looked far from happy at the moment as she sat next to her father.

            Was it the dream?  He questioned.

            Could you hear me?!  She asked worriedly.

            No, I had it too though. 

            I'm so sorry, I-I didn't mean to, it just happens…it sounded as if she was going to say more, but something broke her concentration.

            "Hey Amy," a boy with cinnamon colored hair that just barely covered his ears said as he took a seat on her other side.  His slate blue eyes were full of excitement.

            "Hey Zak!  When did you get here?"

            "Just a while ago.  Mum went berserk last night, couldn't find her sword," he rolled his eyes, "We had to leave Alexandria at three o'clock in the morning!"

            "I'm sorry," she giggled. 

            Noticing that Amy would rather be talking to Zak than to him, Zidane spoke up, "Well, I'll leave you and your boyfriend alone," he said teasingly.

            "Dad!" Amy said agitatedly, "We're just friends!"

            "Wooo!  She's blushing!" Marcus laughed and the entire crowd joined in.

            "Guys, leave 'em alone!" Eiko giggled as well, but everyone remained laughing except for the two uncomfortable looking teenagers, both of which were beet red.

            Finally, the attention switched to Cinna, "Breakfast is ready!  Come 'n get it!" the crowd stampeded like a herd of yans to a small table adorned with food.

            Zidane was the first to reach the table and load his plate with the food.  Scrambled chocobo eggs and toast; it all looked so good!

            After he had all the food he was sure he could eat, he walked over to stand by Beatrix.  "How's it goin'?" he asked through a mouthful of eggs.

            Trying not to laugh, she replied, "I'm all right Your Highness."

            "Aren't you gonna eat?  It's good." Zidane said as he took a big bite out of his toast.

            "We ate before we came," this time she did laugh.  The king of Alexandria has no manners.  Oh well, it just goes to show that no one can completely change. 

            "Suit yourself," he shrugged.

            "Hey!  Zidane!  Ya got clean-up!" Cinna yelled from somewhere in the mass of people.

            "The king will do no such thing." Beatrix said looking appalled. 

            "Don't worry 'bout it." Zidane said touching her shoulder.  "As long as I'm out here, I'm just Zidane the parent, the friend and the thief."

            "B-But!  Your Majesty!"

            "General, calm down.  I haven't done hardly anything on my own for over twenty years now!  Funny as it may sound, I want to help!"

            Still looking slightly offended that the King had to clean up after anyone, Beatrix watched as he ran to help his friends.

            However, to Zidane, it felt just like old times.  Camping out in the wilderness with a bunch of friends.  Helping out a nation in need.  Of course things were a lot different in many ways, however he didn't let that bother him.

            Many of the people that were there to seal the cave and fight monsters had already picked up their camp and were getting ready to move out.  As soon as Zidane got done with his chores, he rubbed his hands together in satisfaction.  Then, he started to walk around to find everyone that he would be traveling with.

            Once everyone had left this task was easy.  All that was left was Amy, Eiko, Tantalus, Beatrix and Zak. 

            "Alright," Zidane started as he thought, "We need to split this up strategically.  In each party there needs to be a knight, white mage and a thief," everyone nodded understandingly. 

Not sure how to divide the teams, Zidane thought for a while before continuing.  "Alright, let's do it this way.  White Mages stand over there." Amy and Eiko did as they were told.

            "Good, now Knights, choose your mage." He winked at Zak.  Just as suspected, Zak stood with Amy and Beatrix stood with Eiko.

            "Okay, now for the thieves!" Zidane stood with Amy and Zak.  Someone needs to keep an eye on you two, he teased.

            Oh, Dad!

            Marcus had joined the other group along with Cinna.  As usual, Blank hung by Zidane.

            "What about you boss?" Marcus asked, noticing that Baku hadn't moved.

            "I'm too old to fight boys!  I'm here to watch you kick monster butt, but that's it.  Gwahaha!" he slapped his thigh.

            "You'll be missin' out!"

            "On what?  Being mauled my monsters?" Blank said sarcastically.  The thought of it made Amy shudder.  Noticing this, Zak put his hand on the small of her back, hoping to calm her.

            "You'll be fine," he reassured.  Seeing them, Zidane smiled.  They looked and acted just like him and Dagger at their age.

            "Okay then, let's move out!" Zidane motioned for the group to follow him.  "We're heading to Fossil Roo.  I imagine that's where the root gave away."

            The two parties split up so that they could eliminate as many monsters as they could on their way there.  They agreed to meet back up near the cave entrance.  Mist monsters were everywhere.

            For the most part, battles were a lot easier now that Amy only had to concentrate on healing and protecting.  All the attacking was left to the boys.

            Finally, the sun started to set, exposing the twin moons.  Fossil Roo was just barely visible, but the mist pouring out of it was very noticeable.  As well as the random monsters that would make their way out.

            This being Amy's first day of real adventure, the poor girl had been wiped out.  She was so tired that Zak carried her on his back when they weren't fighting.  It looked so cute that Zidane and Blank couldn't help but fall behind so that they could 'ahh' at it.

            "You're the dad.  Shouldn't you be up there you know, kicking some ass?"

            Zidane's eyes glittered, "No, they looked too much like me an' Dagger.  Besides, Zak is Beatrix's son.  We don't want to piss her off."

            "Good point." Blank laughed.

            "Uh, dad?" Up ahead, Amy had slid off Zak's back and they were now standing next to each other hand in hand.

            "Yeah?"

            "How do you expect to seal off the cave?" she asked.

            "Good question.  We don't know yet."

            Amy's jaw dropped, "You're kidding, right?" Smiling, Zidane shook his head.

            "We'll discuss it, you two run off.  Just don't do anything I wouldn't do!" he called after them

            "That wasn't the best advice," Blank muttered.

            "Oh, shut up!"  Look at them!" he pointed to where to two sat.  Zak's arm was wrapped around Amy's waist as they watched the sky darken.

            "Okay, what did we miss?" came another voice.  Zidane spun around to see Eiko's party walk up.

            "Just talkin' 'bout how we should seal the cave."

            "We saw you eavesdropping on Zak and Amy." Marcus said.

            "No we weren't.  We were watching them.  There is a difference." Blank laughed.

            "Oh whatever." Eiko rolled her eyes taking a seat next to Beatrix while Blank busied himself with the fire.

            "Tell ya what, I'm tired.  Can't we discuss this tomorrow?" Cinna yawned.

            "We're right next to where the monsters are coming through.  I don't know about you, but I couldn't sit in my tent knowing I could be attacked by a Malboro while I sleep."  Beatrix argued.

            "I can sleep through anything." Baku admitted.

            "We know," several people said in unison.

            "I'll patrol," Zidane gave in, "Who wants second shift?"

            "I'll take second." Marcus said.

            "Alright, we'll seal the cave tomorrow then." Eiko said as she stretched her arms.

            Quickly, Zidane rummaged through his knapsack, finally pulling out a small flute.  He put the instrument to his lips and blew a small tune.

            A moogle who obviously lived nearby popped out.

            "You need me, kupo?"

            "We're ready to tent again." Zidane said to the tiny creature.  The moogle nodded and clapped its paws.  Much to Amy's amazement, camp reappeared just as they had left it, right in front of them.

            "Get as much sleep as you can!  We're getting started early!" Zidane called over the crowd.  Without complaining, everyone went to his or her tents.

            As everyone slept, Zidane sat by the fire watching for any foes to appear.  He was having to constantly feed the fire to keep it going.  The only thought that was going through his head was I hope she doesn't have that dream again.

            It was his job to keep everyone safe, and if he was forced in to sleep there was no telling what could happen.  As it got later in the night, it became a struggle for him to do so much as keep his eyes open.

            What surprised him was that there wasn't that big of a problem with monsters.  Sure, a few would wander into the camp, but nothing that was of any competition.

            "Hey bro," a voice came from behind.  "I'm here to take yer spot."

            "Finally," he mumbled standing up.

            "Tired?" Marcus laughed.

            "No, not at all." Zidane remarked sarcastically.

            As Zidane walked to his tent, Marcus put a hand on his shoulder.  "Get some sleep, okay?  You're startin' to worry us, ya know?" Zidane's lips curled into a weak smile.

            "I will," he replied.  With that, he left Marcus and headed to his tent.  Immediately upon entering, he collapsed into his pillow and fell asleep.

            His dream automatically took him to the familiar graveyard.  Tombstones protruded from the ground, all bearing the names of people he knew.  However, one in particular caught his eye.  The words were blurry; he couldn't quite make them out.

            Carefully, he took a step forwards and examined the grave.  The words became clearer the closer he got to it, finally he could make them out.  Engraved in the tombstone was the name Garnet Til Tribal.

            Zidane quickly covered his mouth so that he wouldn't scream.  All around him, all the other names were coming into focus.  Beatrix, Freya, Amarant and many more.  Hurriedly he shut his eyes not believing what he was seeing.

            He turned and started to run, looking for any way out of the eerie place.  But as he tried to find an exit he heard it.

            "Dad!" it was Amy.  Zidane spun around in his spot and started looking for her, his tail swishing nervously.  "I'm over here!  Help!" following the voice, he finally caught sight of the familiar ghostly figure.

            "I'm comin' for ya!" he yelled as he started to charge the creature.  But his efforts were in vain, just like in all the previous dreams.  The grim reaper simply held Amy's arms behind her back and began to glide off.

            "Daddy!" she pleaded helplessly as she tried to wriggle free of the thing's grip.  In her attempts, she knocked off his hood, once again exposing Garland's face.

            The old man's lips curled into a wicked smile, the he uttered those words.  Those same words that had been haunting Zidane for so long.  "It's all your fault."

            Immediately, Zidane shot out of bed and clutched his chest, trying to regulate his breathing and heartbeat.  This dream has to mean something, he pondered to himself.

            That's it; after this is all over I'm taking her home.  I have to talk to Dagger!

~ ~

Oh, what do you think?  I had a lot of time to write this weekend.  I was forced (against my will) to participate in a band competition, and the bus ride took an hour, and I had to ride on the damn thing at least five times!  Okay, everyone!  Now it's your turn!  Review us and let us know what you think!  Reviews are the only recognition we really get for writing these, so please?  :::puppy dog face::::