I'm Coming Back to You
Chapter 10- Discovery
Disclaimer: Great game. Not mine. Fair enough?
AN: Okay, I'm back with the next chapter. Fanfiction.net has been having a lot of "site overloads" and with my slow modem I was getting pretty frustrated. But I finally managed to get this up. Yay! Oh, yeah, what's been going on…
Zidane's finally figured out that there's this girl waiting for him. He's practically dumped Zeithi, who took it in the end fairly well ("dumped" is such a strong word; it was a mutual understanding), and is now out to look for Mikoto and Vivi, who he knows as "the other girl with the tail and the black mage". (Oh yeah, Garnet and Blank are right now being ambushed by a bunch of perverted, money-greedy freaks, but that continues on the next chapter!)
Key: _…_ emphasize (italicize)
/…/ thoughts
"…" words
*…* action
I wondered what had happened to Zeithi's fiancé. She seemed really hurt about it, and desperate to find someone to cover the pain up. I shook my head. /Sorry, Zeithi, but I'm not the one for you. Maybe you'll find someone else one day./
The trees enclosed around me and I had a faint sense of claustraphobia. The Black Mage Village was nowhere in sight, and I was beginning to figure out that I might be lost. Sighing, I came to a fork in the road. I randomly picked a path and started to walk. To my surprise, I came to another fork in the road that looked familiar. /Am I walking in circles?/ I wondered. Choosing the same route, I walked and walked, coming upon more sets of crossroads. Finally, I was so tired I had to sit down.
There were bird calls above me. I glanced up and yawned, munching on some of the food that Zeithi had given me. How was I ever going to find the Village at this rate? Zeithi had given me so vague directions I mentally slapped myself for not asking for more details. She had said to keep walking until I saw a Black Mage. Well, there were no Black Mages around here, so was I in the wrong place?
Suddenly there was a rustle in the bushes. I held my breath. A mage appeared and began to saunter towards me. At first it musn't have noticed me, but I shifted my position, and it heard me. "Who's there?" it called out.
First I hesitated, then stepped out of the bushes. /Was that a good idea?/ The mage glanced at my tail. "You know, you don't have to hide from me. You could've just told me that you wanted to enter the Village." He cast a spell and an opening appeared out of nowhere. I blinked, speechless, and followed him in. It closed behind me.
"Are you new here?" it asked. "You kind of look familiar."
"Umm…I don't think I've been here before." I looked around. There were small, cozy cottages. It almost looked like a town. Something tweaked in the back of my mind. Maybe I had. I couldn't remember. "It's nice, though."
The Black Mage looked at me. "You're a genome, right? There's something strange about you. Like there's something strange about Mikoto. But there are only supposed to be three genomes with souls, and two of them are dead."
What was a genome? "Mikoto?" I asked. The other girl with the tail…
"Yeah. She's out somewhere with Master Vivi. You hungry?"
I followed it into a shop, where the mage at the counter seemed busy. It was rummaging through cabinets. "Erm…what would you like?" it asked without looking up.
"Whatcha got, No.163?" the mage beside me said.
"We have—" it stood straight and was adjusting its pointed hat when it saw me. If we could see its mouth, it would probably be hanging open. "You've found him!"
"What?" it looked at me, confused, then pointed a gloved thumb at me. "This guy?"
"Quick!" The shop mage yelled at another one nearby, who had been dozing. "Wake up! Fetch Mikoto and Master Vivi! Tell them that we've found Master Zidane!"
/Master Zidane?/
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"Zidane!" I turned around and saw the same girl that I had seen earlier when I had 'run away' from Zeithi. There were tears streaming down her cheeks. She threw her arms around me and squeezed so tight that I felt I was going to collapse from lack of breath. Suddenly she pulled away, an embarrassed blush tinting her face. "My apologies! I am almost never this emotional. I am simply very glad to see you."
"Mikoto, right?" I said.
She didn't seem to hear me. "Oh, General Beatrix has been up and about this area in a frantic search for you. We're all very happy we have found you. I am sure that Queen Garnet will be, too, once she gets word."
/Huh? Garnet? Why would a Queen be happy that they "found" me?/
"Kupo!" We all looked to see a moogle. "I'm sure we will all be happy as well when the Queen is found. She has run away to look for Zidane, kupo! Her captain has ordered a search for her."
All the mages and people with tails that had gathered around were very shocked and sad. "Oh no," said one mage. It was a bit smaller than the rest—the mage that I had seen earlier with Mikoto. I remembered that his name was Vivi. "Dagger's missing? What'll we do?"
I couldn't take it anymore. My brains were scrambled from trying to sort everything out so quickly. "Wait a second here!" Suddenly, all eyes were on me. "Umm…What is everyone talking about? Why did a Queen run away to see me? Why is this General looking for me? Whose daggers are missing?"
One of the people gasped. Mikoto looked at me. "What? Is something the matter, Zidane?"
"Yes, something is the matter!" I was so frustrated that I wanted to throw a fit.
Mikoto just looked at me, and then her eyes softened. I watched as she suddenly seemed to feel all my anger, my bewilderment, and my desire to understand and be understood. "Something has happened, right, Zidane? Something has happened, and something is wrong. You are very confused. It is very strong around you." She looked around. "Come. We must sit, and you must tell me everything." She nodded to Vivi, and he and I followed her into an empty house, where she pulled up a few chairs and let us sit.
"Start from whatever you can remember."
That was difficult, because I had only dreams and snatches of my past, but I told her everything, from the time that I woke up in Zeithi's house. Mikoto listened carefully, seeming to feel the different feelings that I felt when I told of every event. Something was strange about the girl, the way that she was very quiet and reserved, but could sense almost every emotion raging inside of me. I finished at the incident of the yelling shopkeeper. "That was when you ran up to me and scared me by giving me a hug." I smiled.
There was only a hint of a smile on her face, but her eyes sparkled a pretty shade of turquoise. "Again, my apologies. I did not know that you had amnesia." She frowned again. "It seems to be very serious. We must get you help. But who could we go to?"
Vivi spoke up. "How about Doctor Tot? He's trying to help Freya with Sir Fratley's amnesia problems. Maybe he can figure out how to restore Zidane's memories."
I looked at their faces, filled with hope, and I smiled again. Maybe they _could_ help me.
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"We would like this to be delivered to Regent Cid in Lindblum, please," Mikoto handed the note to the moogle. "Labeled urgent. Have I seen you before?"
"No," she replied, "A few of us have been re-stationed, kupo. I'm a new recruit, and there are a lot of us around. I'm Mogkits." She took the folded sheet of paper. "Kupo, I'm afraid we won't be able to get this to Regent Cid right away."
Vivi looked worried. "Is there another problem with Mognet Central?"
"I think so. A few lines in our network have been cut. We'll do our best, though."
"Is there anything we can do?" Mikoto also seemed concerned.
Mogkits shook her head. "I'm afraid not, kupo. But we'll try to get back on track."
"What's Mognet Central?" I asked Mikoto.
"Mognet is how we get messages across Gaia, from one city to another. Moogles go to Mognet Central to pass the messages on to other moogles, who will give it to whoever the letter is addressed to."
"Well, you see, it's different now," Mogkits said. "Before, we had to ask travelers to help us. But recently we have revamped the entire system so that we moogles can deliver the letters ourselves, kupo! Except, we made the change so quickly that there have been some problems."
Mikoto frowned. "Mognet is very important, and if there is a problem in the system, many things can go wrong. I hope they can fix it."
"Don't worry, Mikoto," Vivi assured her. "Everything is going to be just fine. We'll get Zidane back his memories and reunite him with Dagger. Then we'll all be happy."
"Dagger?" I asked. They had been referring to a lot of people—General Beatrix, Freya and Sir Fratley, the Queen and her captain, Doctor Tot—and I couldn't help getting mixed up. And now there was strange new name. "I'm going to be reunited with _who_?"
Vivi looked at Mikoto, who shook her head. "Not yet, Vivi. If we feed him bits and pieces, he'll just get more and more confused."
"But, Mikoto, the last time someone dumped a lot of information on Zidane at once, his attitude changed…dramatically."
Still, she stood firm. "And anyway, we should not do anything yet. We need Dr. Tot's expertise and advice." I watched as Vivi agreed. "As soon as we hear word from Regent Cid, we shall take action. For now, Zidane, we shall show you your new room."
AN: I know you're probably used to long chapters, but I can't add anything more right now. What we've got is what we've got, and I need to work on Dagger's side of the story. I'm not sure about the whole numbering of Black Mages, but I'm pretty sure the shopkeeper was No.163. I hope that Mikoto doesn't seem too OOC either. ^.^ Reviews?