RobertDogwood@aol.com
Final Fantasy IX characters and locations from said game are owned by SquareSoft
Song Lyrics are the intellectual property of their respective owners
Original plot Copyright RobertDogwood 2001
Rated GP-13 - Action/Adventure, Humor, Romance
Chapter One
What to do when I felt lonely...
That was the only thing you couldn't teach me
But we need to figure out the
answer for ourselves...
I'm so happy I met everyone...
I wish we could've gone on more adventures
But I guess we all have to say goodbye someday.
Everyone...
Thank you.
Farewell.
My memories will be part of the sky...
Everyone was there. Everyone was there to watch the special performance of I Want to be Your Canary presented by Tantalus. Everyone was there, who had played a part in the quest to save Gaia.
"Alone for a while I've been searching through the dark
For traces of the love you left inside my lonely heart"
Everyone was there - Cid and Lady Hilda and Eiko - Steiner and Beatrix - Vivi and Puck, in fact there were a number of Vivi's there.
"To weave by picking up the pieces that remain
Meolodies of life - love's lost refrain"
Everyone was there to watch the performance of a life time - Freya and Sir Fratley - Amarant and Lani. Everyone was there - even Quina - and of course the recently crowned Queen of Alexandria - Garnet Til Alexandros 17th.
"Our paths they did cross, though I cannot say why
We met, we laughed, we held on fast, and then we said goodbye"
Yes, everyone was there..........except for Zidane, thought Garnet desolately. "If he were going to ever show up again, it would have been on today of all days," the Queen realized.
"Oh, Zidane" she sighed aloud. Recognizing that Steiner had moved closer to her, as she sat on her balcony on the second floor of the palace, Garnet said no more.
Why didn't he come back? Better still, why didn't he come for her? "He said he loved me," Garnet thought. "Was he just leading me on?" she wondered.
"And who'll hear the echoes of stories never told?
Let them ring out loud till they unfold"
Was he alive or dead? Why couldn't they find out?
As soon as Garnet had returned to Alexandria, she had sent out enough men to search for Zidane to scour half the known world. When they all came back, one thing was certain - no one knew anything for sure.
One said Zidane was dead, for sure. He'd seen the grave. Five more said he was horribly disfigured and refused to return to Alexandria, because of not wanting pity from his old comrades. Ten said he was dying of a malignant disease. Two said he was happily married and already had children, which of course was an impossibility unless he had it with a creature that had a quicker gestation time than humans. Fifty-five said they could find no trace of him.
"Why didn't he come back to me?" Garnet thought again. "He makes me so mad, I could spit. And he makes me so sad, I could weep."
"My little monkey boy," she giggled, remembering the times Zidane would wrap his tail around anything he could find and swing back and forth just enough above that the ever angry Steiner could not reach him with his wild thrashing.
"I wonder what affect that little idiosyncrasy would have had on the formation of our children?" Garnet thought. "I guess we'll never know," she sighed. "It takes two to make a child and now there's only me."
Garnet never ever allowed herself to think in terms of sex, only in the making of an heir to the throne. She was now seventeen - in their world a prime marrying age. But now there was no one she wanted to invite for dinner, much less marry. "If Zidane was here right now," Garnet thought, "I'd kill him myself for what he's put me through."
"In my dearest memories, I see you reaching out to me
Though you're gone, I still believe that you can call out my name"
As the play began, Garnet attempted to empty her mind of her sad thoughts as she loved this play most of all, but it was futile, she realized. She began to half listen as she scanned the huge crowd that had gathered for the performance. Her heart suddenly quickened when she thought she saw him, but no - it wasn't him.
"A voice from the past, joining yours and mine
Adding up the layers of harmony"
Garnet glanced back at the stage hearing one of her favorite scenes, when Marcus and Cornelia meet secretly at night to declare and pledge their love. "Strange, isn't it?" Garnet thought. "How much Zidane and I resemble the characters in the play? Although I don't think he would much prefer to be called a peasant," she giggled to herself.
"And so it goes, on and on
Melodies of life,
To the sky beyond the flying birds - forever and beyond"
But wait - what did she just hear Marcus intone? Garnet didn't remember ever hearing that line - "No cloud, no squall shall hinder us!"
"Where did that come from?" she wondered.
When Cornelia recited "O, love is the sweetest joy and the wildest woe," Garnet thought to herself, "No truer words were ever spoken."
"So far and away, see the bird as it flies by
Gliding through the shadows of the clouds up in the sky"
As the play moved on, Garnet only half listened and watched not at all, as she continued to search the crowd desperately looking for Zidane. She saw all of her old friends were here to celebrate with her the almost completely rebuilt Alexandria and the rebirth of her country. All, except one. The most important one to her.
"I've laid my memories and dreams upon those wings
Leave them now and see what tomorrow brings"
Garnet sadly decided the search was futile fore Zidane was not here nor would he ever be here again. The tears formed quickly in her eyes and ran silently down her face, but her expression never changed. She was the Queen, after all and her subjects should never see her weeping.
"In your dearest memories, do you remember loving me?
Was it fate that brought us close and now leaves me behind?"
Turning her attention back to the performance, Garnet watched what she considered the saddest part of the play - Marcus waiting in vain by the morning dock for Cornelia to meet him. She listened as Marcus implored, "The time for our departure is long past. Where is Cornelia?" Tears continued to run down Garnet's beautiful face, although she wasn't certain now if she was crying for herself or the sadness of the scene as Marcus continued, "She told me that she couldn't live without me."
She watched as Marcus questioned, "Could she have betrayed me?" and moved toward the center stage. Turning his back to the audience, Marcus recited, "I beseech thee, wondrous moonlight, grant me my only wish."
"If I should leave this lonely world behind
Your voice will still remember our meolody"
Garnet couldn't believe her own eyes as Marcus suddenly whirled casting his cloak aside revealing his true identity as he replied, "Bring my beloved Garnet to me!"
It was Zidane! It was Zidane! It was Zidane! The same thought seemed stuck in her mind as she scarcely felt herself rise up from her chair and peer over the balcony. Garnet lifted her long gown off the floor and ran behind her ornate chair to the door that Steiner and Beatrix guarded. When she reached it, both Steiner and Beatrix kept their arms down blocking her path.
Steiner smiled at the young queen as he pushed his side open and Beatrix bowed with a flourish indicating with her right hand that Garnet should pass. Garnet ran down the stairs to the first floor as fast as she could taking dainty steps and through the door and into the groundlings. As she attempted to slip through the large crowd, she careened into someone and her pedant flew off and behind her.
"Now I know we'll carry on
Melodies of life."
Garnet turned back toward her lost pedant, a look of total anguish written across her beautiful features. As precious as her pedant was to her, Garnet knew it meant absolutely nothing to her compared to Zidane, so she whirled and continued to run on her way through the audience, who had parted for their Queen.
As Zidane stepped up to the very forefront of the stage, Garnet reached up with her hands and flung her crown off onto the ground. With anguish and joy clearly mixed on the young Queen's face, she jumped on the stage in one large leap, her arms spread wide. Zidane reached out in anticipation of catching her.
"Come circle round and grow deep in our hearts
As long as we remember"
Reaching out with his powerful hands and placing them around her slim waist as she leaped, he drew her into him effortlessly as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Garnet stepped back, closely examining Zidane as if she believed he was just a figment of her imagination. Zidane grinned at her in a slightly ironical manner with a slight quirk of his smile. Garnet flung herself at Zidane again pushing him slightly off balance and in her present combination of joy at finally seeing him safe at last and rage about the pain he put her through in his selfishness, she struck out at him, hitting him with her closed fist - one, two, three times.
Zidane gently stroked the back of her hair and then drew her face into his shoulder and embraced her. As the crowd leaped to its feet in spontaneous applause, Zidane continued to stroke the back of Garnet's beautiful dark long hair.
"How did you survive...?"
"I didn't have a choice."
"I had to live."
"I wanted to come home to you."
"So...
I sang your song."
"Our song."
Within a week of Zidane's return, he had swept Garnet into a whirlwind romance where they were together practically every minute of the day, but never all night. Much to Zidane's great disappointment, Garnet insisted as the Queen her behavior had to be completely circumspect and above suspicion.
At the end of the week, Zidane knelt on one knee one evening and, taking Garnet's hands in his, solemnly asked her to marry him. Garnet giggled to see him in such a position appearing so earnest, but she simply nodded her head with a huge smile spread across her beautiful face.
Bans were posted and within a fortnight they were walking down the aisle together in the marriage of the century, as least as far as most of the residents of Alexandria were concerned.
Later in the evening, Garnet lay completely bare under a sheet awaiting Zidane to exit the bathroom. The door opened and Zidane stood in his natural state, his tail twitching back and forth as if it was an entity separate from him. Blushing crimson, Garnet did not avert her eyes but forced herself to drink in every inch and aspect of her beloved, understanding full well that this soon would seem a normal sight.
Zidane crossed the room to the bed and gently pulled the sheet off his bride. As he gazed down at her, Garnet willed herself to make no effort to cover herself, no matter how foreign the situation might seem to her. This was my husband, she thought to herself. It is his right.
Zidane murmured, "I love you so much, it hurts."
Raising her arms up, Garnet directed, "Come, my love."
But that was six months earlier.
Today events and circumstances were quite different from that glorious time.
"I never thought this through enough," Zidane spoke aloud. He was standing by himself near a large crowd, who were waiting for him to cut the ribbon across a new span leading in and out of Alexandria.
The this Zidane was referring to was the fact that he, as the Royal Prince because he was married to her Majesty, the Queen of Alexandria, had to dress and act accordingly.
"If Blank could see me now," Zidane thought, "he would laugh out loud." That surely was not an exaggeration as Zidane was outfitted by, not one, but two royal butlers each morning and when they were finished with him, he no longer bore any resemblance of the Zidane of old.
Today he wore a dufy blue crushed velvet shirt with accompanying pantaloons and enough lace to make two or three curtains. He felt like a complete idiot, but the people seemed to expect it of him.
As he stepped forward to cut the ribbon with a huge pair of sissors, the crowd politely applauded. "Certainly nothing like the crowd did when I showed up for Garnet," Zidane thought ruefully.
After the deed was done, Zidane turned smiling at the crowd and waved politely at them for a minute, before quickly retreating to his horse drawn coach and instructing his driver to hurry back to the palace. Zidane sank down deep in the cushioned seat, hoping to keep his identity hidden as they rode through the busy streets of Alexandria.
"Enough is enough!" Zidane thought angrily. "I've had it with this senseless playacting."
Zidane had attempted to speak with Garnet about this on a number of occasions, but the young Queen was experiencing her own problems.
Garnet, perhaps in naivety, had ordained that the lower classes should have representation in the country's ruling parliament although, of course, Garnet still retained the inherited right to veto anything she was not pleased with.
Instead of pleasing people, her edict appeared to make them more agitated than ever. The elected officials from the middle and lower classes made no concessions to each other and, in fact, fought more bitterly than the nobles did with both. Every meeting of Parliament was chaotic and Garnet had to be in attendance for practically every minute to negotiate and smooth out angry feathers or the entire legal system of her country would have ground to a halt.
Coming back into her bedroom late every night, she realized Zidane was unhappy, but she, herself, was miserable and he never seemed to recognize her pain and she certainly didn't have the energy to help him with his.
Consequently they were mostly polite with each other, making small talk on their way to their respective assignments. Except for one night, when Garnet was able to arrive unexpectedly early in hopes of a spontaneous romantic evening, but instead she and Zidane used it as an opportunity to rage against each other in an argument that began from something completely trival. Unfortunately when Garnet and Zidane became too angry, they would trance and she still blushed at the memory of that evening when Steiner and Beatrix burst into their bedroom because of all the noise emanating from it and discovered Zidane standing completely covered with long red fur and she in her skimpy, practically obscene, white thong that would magically appear covering her body whenever she went into trance. Even after all this time, Garnet had no idea where that outfit arrived from. She certainly had never worn anything like that in her life, and she hated it when her comrades thought it lay beneath her outer clothing.
Garnet was presently presiding over another long convoluted argument concerning the present rate of tariff on certain goods that were imported to Alexandria and holding her lowered head between her hands, as Zidane rode slumped on his way back to the palace.
As the royal coach rode by Adelbert Steiner, he, espying Zidane, called out a loud hello, at which Zidane blankly turned his head and gazed directly through him. When the coach had passed, Steiner worrisomely just shook his head, being deeply concerned about the emotional state of his former comrade-in-arms.
Which he brought up that evening, when he was with his lovely new bride, General Beatrix in their spartan bedroom. "You know I was thinking," Steiner began.
"Well, that must have been a unique experience for you, Adelbert," Beatrix responded with a slight grin pasted on her gorgeous features.
Turning to gaze upon her, Steiner, once again, was struck with his incredible good fortune that such a beautiful woman and formidable warrior would consent to be his wife.
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," Steiner continued, as Beatrix stuck out her tongue at him, "I saw Zidane today from a distance and I'm really worried about him."
"Why so?" Beatrix asked, serious now because any problem connected to Garnet was her primary concern, as she was assigned completely to the young Queen's security.
"He looked so depressed and he didn't make any recognition that he even saw me, even though he looked directly at me," Steiner explained.
"Well, Adelbert you probably have some cause for alarm because you are nothing, but completely recognizable," Beatrix responded, with an impish smile.
"Thank you," Steiner replied, nodding his head toward his beautiful bride. "But I feel I must make some effort to talk to him and discover his present difficulty."
"I too will look into this situation," Beatrix agreed.
"By the way, Beatrix," Steiner questioned, "have you given any thought to my suggestion that you change your soldiers' obscene uniforms?"
This was an old argument between the two of them, as Beatrix's female warriors were only dressed below the waist in extremely abbreviated thongs which badly insulted Steiner's code of decorum.
Beatrix, realizing this, took no offense to Steiner's constant carping about it. She gently responded, "Adelbert, I am certain it makes them much faster and thus able to defend themselves more than if they were to be weighed down with heavy armor such as your own men wear."
"That may be true in general, Beatrix but not in the fight I witnessed yesterday. One of your men was attempting to apprehend a pickpocket in a large crowd when he suddenly slashed out with a hidden knife and cut the thong completely off."
"What?!" Beatrix loudly exclaimed, completely shocked that one of her soldiers could be so badly beaten. "I certainly hope she was wearing something beneath the thong."
"Oh she was," agreed Steiner. "She was wearing her bare body," he said while smiling maliciously at Beatrix.
Beatrix flushed red and then exploded. "I suppose you were just standing there enjoying the view and not lifting a finger to help her."
Steiner's face quickly took on a hurt expression when he softly replied, "I witnessed this from the second floor of the palace. There was little I could do from such a distance."
Beatrix reached out with her hand and clasped Steiner's arm. "I'm so sorry, Adelbert. That was unworthy of me and certainly of you. I know you would never do such a thing. I was just momentarily jealous."
"Jealous of me?" Steiner thought to himself. "Whatever for?"