A/N: I don't own Final Fantasy 9, the characters or the places, however I do own the idea to this here story! Please enjoy this chapter!
Just to survive
Zidane's eyes quite literally popped open. He sat up with a start, his head slightly hitting the bottom of the bunk in front of him. He fell back down, and pulled his hand free of the sheets. Slowly rubbing his forehead.
"I didn't see that coming." A mage chorused from his right. "I didn't think you'd be able to move at all!"
Zidane blinked, his eyes slowly unfuzing, and his head pounding. He looked over at the mage sitting there, he looked roughly like a block of black red and blue, with two yellow dots. "Neither did I." He remarked, surprised by how clear his voice sounded.
"I'm going to go tell Mikoto!" The mage said, the yellow dots disappearing for a moment, then flashing back as the mage blinked.
"Alright..." He said, as the mage slightly wobbled out of the room. By the looks of it I'm still in the Black Mage Village... I still don't really understand what happened, how did I get out? Something about all this is wrong, Mikoto was lying, I know it! He thought to himself, it was odd but some how he could feel it.
Kind of like how I could feel where Kuja wa... He stopped, something hit him dead on. He could still feel where Kuja was. Somewhere far away to the top right of where he was right then. He could also feel that Mikoto was slowly moving towards him, she was to the lower left, only a few feet away. He shook his head. Kuja was at the Ifia Tree, maybe I'm just feeling where he died, not Kuja himself...
The door to the room clinked opened, letting in some soft candle light. Which really seem to bright. "I hear you hit your head again." She said, almost sounding cheerful about it.
He sighed, "Yeah... I forgot about last time." He mumbled.
"Oh." She said. "How are you feeling?"
"Alright, my eyes aren't focusing and I think the knock on the head hurts some. Oh and I'm hungry too!" He said hoping he'd get some room service. Mikoto did as he hoped and turned to look at the mage, giving him a nod. He scurried out of the room.
"Myself and a few other mages are planning to go out to the Desert Palace here in a week. Mr. 288 is coming with us, I would like it if you would also come." She remarked sounding slightly interested in the event.
"Uh... Okay, do I get to ask why though?"
"We are hoping that we might find some material on the Black Mages. As you know Vivi has lived for quite some time. However he has already lived beyond a year, unlike most of the mages. We hope to find out why." She paused. "Vivi is currently the only one out of your friends who knows your alive... He thought it best not to tell them that you were."
"Hun?" Zidane asked quietly. "Why is that?"
"According to him Garnet needs badly to go back to ruling her country. They all have many things they need to continue on with, he thinks that right now you'll only throw them off track...?" She pause as if sensing his confusion. "You can talk to him latter, he's going to be coming back here within the week. He wants to go to the Palace also."
"Yeah..." Why the hell would my return make things worse. Vivi has a tone of explaining to do...
The mage reentered the room carrying a blow, with little parts of steam floating out of it. He gave Zidane a considerate nod, and placed the blow on the table near the bed. After glancing back at Mikoto one last time he left.
"Well eat up.. Brother, and come out when you feel better, I'll be at the grave yard with Mr. 288." She said, as she stood and walked out of the room.
Zidane sighs, so much was suddenly flowing through his brain. Like this strange new connection to where both Kuja and Mikoto where. Vivi's odd idea that no one should know he was alive. Mikoto's little lies, and the most interesting of all... The trip to The Desert Palace.
Garnet's finger flipped through the pages of the book, she looked at the numbers, then added them to a sheet of paper. She stared down at the paper. This was bad. "How can we even hope to rebuild this city and not go into a depression. The solders, material, workers! Ug..." She said staring at the paper.
Beatrix nodded from her right, even though paper work was not her thing she had volunteered to help Garnet the moment she had seen it. Steiner taking over her duties. From her left Dr. Tot, fingered through some old record books, he was lost to deep in them to even hear the Queen.
"Your majesty the shipment for Iron from Treno just came in. We paid them and they are leaving now. Here are the balances." The man said handing about four sheets of yellowish paper in front of her. She stared at it for a moment then flipped all the way to the total, and sighed.
"They told us under the circumstances they would give us a discount, so long as we buy only from them, and not from Burmecia." He told her with a bow.
"Well that's an extra forty hundred thousand that we can spend..." She smiled, then looked over at Beatrix knowing the general would say something.
"I'm going to need twenty thousand of that to cover some of the citizens funds, and another twenty to cover solider wages." But she was still smiling. "However that still leaves us..."
Dr. Tot who had seemed not to be listening rattled the numbers off for her. "Three hundred sixty thousand gill, and I'm going to need sixty thousand of that for workers pay on the castle." He paused looking down at a few more books. "We'll be needing another shipment of white marble here by next month. That extra three hundred thousand should take care of that bill." He said with a nod.
"Oh..." Garnet sighed, and looked around the room. "Beatrix me and Tot will take care of the rest for today, how about you tell the kitchens to make us something for dinner."
"Of course." She stated with a salute, and then walked back out of the room.
Tot nodded and looked after her as she closed the door. "I hate to have her help us like this, she's just not one for books." He stated.
"I know, but she feels like she needs too. Besides, it's better than putting her on pointless patrols. I don't think there is anyone left to attack and even if some assassin did come for me she'd be right here ready to take him out." Garnet said with a laugh. "I think we're going to have a good year in taxes don't you Tot?"
"Yes I do believe we will... You still need to appoint a new king for Treno. Since the last one is now gone." He said with a slight tone.
"Yes... Tot, do you know who the last one was?" She asked curiously.
"I believe it was Kuja." He said, trying to be easy on the subject.
"Oh." Was her only reply.
He pulled his hand to his mouth, it was so easy to feel the blood dripping through his fingers. Running down his arm and dying his clothes white. His breathing came out in short hisses, and his legs could barely hold him. Finally he stumbled into the control panel.
I... Just need... To set this up... Then the Invincible... Can be controlled and... His free hand stumbled over the keys, typing in passwords and slowly diving into the system of the old Terrain computer. His eyes were slowly becoming blurry. Their was darkness on the edges of his vision.
It didn't take long for the last of the keys to be punched. Once done he sent out his final message to the Invincible. It was far away from him, near Zidane and Mikoto. But he knew that the ship responded. So slowly he sunk into floor.
The green lakes around him slowly started to rise, as if they we're growing. It wasn't long before Kuja's own body lay beneath a pool of green.
How ever their was another interesting factor, the liquid below, was slowly turning blue.
A/n: Hm... More to the plot, tried to make this fic somewhat long. I'm think about the Kuja thing right now. He could be saved by some miracle right, or he can stay dead. Or I can do option number three and surprise you all near the end of the fic... Please read and review!!!
Thanks to Eika, Reasa and Mogglish for reading the first chapter and giving your opinions!!