The Blank Impression

by QueenQeeko

Blank's history from when he meets Baku, through the game and after it. Blank attaches himself to his friends stronger than they know, and they only realize their loss after he's gone. Ch. 4 uploaded. Pending re-write.

3. Blank Script

Disclaimer:

Okay, this sucks like hell.

Final Fantasy IX belongs to SquareSoft and not to me.

I make no money from this fanfic; I'm just a miserable excuse for a living existence who gets creative using Square's FF characters.

So this time it's about Blank, who doesn't belong to me either.

By QueenQeeko.

The Blank Impression.

Chapter 3 - Blank Script.

Blank sighed and asked for the time again. He, Marcus and Cinna were waiting in the dark by the doorway of their Theater ship's planning room. Baku had briefed them that the Regent of Lindblum had given them the task of bringing Princess Garnet Til Alexandros 17th back to Lindblum. Gods knows why, but as long as Regent Cid Fabool kept his promise of a large, shiny reward, that was fine by them. Blank checked the watch for the second time.

"He's late again," he whispered irritably, "you'd think for once he could be early".

"Well, you know Zidane," Marcus whispered back.

"Yeah, I know Zidane," Blank grumbled. He instantly hushed when the doorknob turned, door opening enough to let a slim, agile body in, "Ah, there he is!"

"Sure is dark..." Zidane's voice said quietly, "Guess nobody's here yet..." He lit a match and began wandering around the room, taking an agonizingly long time. Blank listened patiently as his sixteen-year-old brother marched about.

Eventually, the monkey-tailed youth stooped down to the ground, mumbling, "Hey, someone dropped some gil…" he pocketed it, "…mine now".

"So that's where I dropped it!" Cinna hissed quietly. Finally, after much trotting around by Zidane, Blank lost his patience.

"Light the candle in the middle of the room!" he called. 'Why am I always helping him?

It was satisfying that Zidane did in fact do just that.

"Who's there?" Cinna called. Marcus knocked his helmet and hissed, "You know who it is!"
 
"It's me, Zidane!" the monkey-tailed youth called back. The other three Tantalus members swung the door open the whole way and filed into the brightly lit room. Trademark Tantalus salute, and formalities were finished.

"Hey, Zidane! You sure are late!" Blank told him, straightening the belt around his head.

"Sorry," Zidane rubbed the back of his head, "so, where's the Boss?"
 
Cinna shrugged. "Ain't here yet."

A scraping noise caught all four teens' attentions, and they turned around to witness a large dragon headed humanoid leap down from the stairs and roar its challenge to them. They instantly drew their assorted weapons and stepped into their familiar battle line formation, Blank on one end, then Marcus, Cinna and Zidane at the other end. The monster produced its own sword from its belt, and waving it around leaped forward at Zidane…

"Owww!"

…And tripped.

The boys all blinked, and then dropped back into their respective battle stances. Marcus attacked first, swinging his sword at the monster and claiming a direct hit. Zidane dashed forward and sliced at the beast, then ducked around it tried to see what he could steal. He returned to his place in line empty-handed. Blank took his turn next, striking at the creature in an upward motion. The monster leapt forward and tripped again, before jumping back in time to receive a knock over the head from Cinna's hammer. Marcus scored another hit on the monster the next time he attacked, and Zidane couldn't help but grin as he acquired a Wrist from the creature.

"Get some!" the monster shouted as it came forward and slashed Marcus across the shoulder. Blank growled, but smirked to himself as he dealt the beast a deep cut from his own sword. The monster roared angrily at the attack and with an obnoxious "Ha HAH!" it jumped forward again and smacked Cinna over the head with the flat of the blade. Cinna slumped down, leaning on his hammer for support.

"Cinna, get back out of this row and heal yourself," Zidane hissed, jumping aside as the creature swung its sword over his head. Cinna nodded, and stepping into a 'back row' opened a Potion and drank it. Marcus charged again, but this time the monster evaded it. Zidane tried his luck at stealing again.

"Ooh! A High Potion!" he beamed.

"Keep your mind on the task at hand, if you'd please, Zidane," Marcus scolded as Blank jumped forward and brought his sword down on the monster's left shoulder. Cinna bounced up to it this time, smacking it over the head with his hammer. The monster came forward again, and slashed at Blank, who only just managed to block it with his sword. Marcus attacked the monster for the third time, and suddenly its head split in two, revealing the true enemy.

"UGHUUH!!! Oh, my head!" Baku hollered, holding his sore head, "Go easy you guys!" He put his sword away, and looked around the boys. Blank, Zidane, Cinna and Marcus all slumped down with various "Whew"s. 

"Hey, fools!" Baku exclaimed in delight, patting Zidane on the head, "You're lookin' a lot better!" The large man looked around his sons again, and laughed.

"Gwahahaha!" he roared, "Alright! Let's start this meeting already!" The boys all rolled their eyes, and the four of them followed Baku into an adjacent room. In there, the five of them surrounded a table, with a construction of the Castle of Alexandria on the tabletop. It was an antique that Marcus had acquired from the actual castle itself about a year ago, serving as a dollhouse for Cinna's toy. Blank scanned the room thinking off hand.

'That's strange, he boss doesn't normally discuss missions with Ruby, Benero and Zenero…' Blank thought.
 
"Here's the plan!" Baku began, "Tantalus, the infamous band of daring thieves (that's us), is headin' to the Kingdom of Alexandria...Our mission: to kidnap the heir to the throne, Princess Garnet!" As he said this he brought out of his pocket a small princess doll, supposing to represent their target.

"I'll take it from here, so listen up!" Cinna chirped, standing up and producing from behind him a replica of their ship, the Prima Vista, "Our ship's about to dock at Alexandria...And when it does, we're gonna put on our costumes...and perform 'I Want to Be Your Canary,' the most popular play in Alexandria! Break a leg, Marcus! 'Cause you're playin' the lead!"
 
"Leave the actin' to me! Of course, the real kidnappers'll be Blank and Zidane," Marcus said.

"I'll distract the audience from backstage with these little buggers," Blank added in, holding out a palm-sized flea-like creature. A look of disgust floated over his face, "I can't stand oglops...But I'll manage, so don't worry about me. And that'll be your cue, Zidane!"

 "Okay!" Zidane grinned, " That's when I kidnap Princess Garnet, right?" Blank and Marcus gave an exasperated look upon that statement, feeling sorry for the princess for having to meet Zidane. He'll be trying to seduce her from the word 'go'. Baku didn't notice.

"You bet!" he said, "You're gonna kidnap the most babe-ilicious beauty in all of Alexandria, Princess Garnet!"

"YEAH!!!" they all shouted.

"Alright get out of 'ere, you lot," Baku ordered. They all saluted, and then dispersed out of the room to their respect duties. Blank watched his brothers sift out, as he remained leaning against the wall. Baku failed to notice him, picking up plans and shoving them into draws as he mumbled his own lines from the play to himself. He gathered up the miniature caste and placed it in the safe at the back of the room before knocking over a waste paper basket and cursing quietly. Blank allowed his psychic gaze to help him follow his adoptive father around the room, right up until Baku nearly bumped into the young man with a half broken broom.

"Yer lost something?" Baku asked, looking Blank up and down. Blank shrugged.

"I'm not looking for anything," he said, getting up from the wall and making his way out. Blank sighed as he stepped out of the room. A kidnapping huh? Where the hell did Baku get the idea that they could actually pull this off? A princess of all people to abduct. Sheer suicide. Thank God he only had to keep look out as Zidane did his job to drug her. Then, being the stronger one, Blank just had to carry her out swiftly. Not that the monkey-tailed teen was weak, but his blind brother would simply do it faster. Hopefully Zidane would be able to handle any problems on the way. But then maybe he was just being too paranoid. Blank was a skilled thief after all.

Another sigh from Blank, and he set off for the boiler room. Might as well check the engine… As he went pass, an arm that shot out from the doorway of the instrument storage room and stopped him.

"Somethin' on your mind, Bro?" Marcus asked, shifting his hand up from Blank's chest onto his brother's shoulder. Blank didn't bother to remove it.

"Yeah, I'm making a mental Will," he said, turning his head to face Marcus. He could sense a sad smile on his fanged brother's face. "Oh, don't look at me like that, Marcus…"

"Why not? You should know by now that I'm gonna worry every time you go and get this depressed," Marcus said, stepping out of the doorway to in front of Blank.

"I'm not being depressed, I'm being practical. You can have my bottle and potion stash if I die and you don't."

"Bro…"

"And you can have this too," Blank drew his sword and held it straight up in front on him. Marcus hesitated, but eventually, he withdrew his hand from Blank's shoulder and brought out the sword's twin. He held it out as Blank did the same, pressing the flats of the two blades together.

"You'll be to take mine too, Blank," Marcus said, "but no one's gonna die, Bro, I promise you that."

"Yeah, Bro," Blank answered, putting his sword away. He saluted his brother, and continued on towards the engine room. Taking a left turn before the stairs he entered under one of the Mist engines. The boilers were overheating and spitting out steam everywhere.

"Lazy ass…" Blank muttered, and turning a few knobs watched as the dials began to read more favorable temperatures. "Woulda thought Cinna knew how to take care of his own duties."

"He was dealing with them," came a voice from above him, "but someone was so paranoid about this mission I decided to work on a few escape routes." Blank growled up at Cinna's face grinning down at him through a hatchway in the engine room's ceiling.

"You should tend to the ship first in future, rather than working on a little project that could have cost the airship itself," Blank snapped.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, just get up here," Cinna shrugged it off and tossed a rope down through the hatchway. Blank sighed again. Taking hold of the inch thick twine, he shot up the rope and found himself back in the planning room.

"Not bad," Blank commented as his potbellied brother closed the hatch and swung the table back over it, "at least we have more ways of getting around. Good job."

"I hope so, good enough for you?" Cinna asked, dusting off his hands, "You being the one not wanting to die so bad."

"Oh shu-"

"Kinsmen! Hii!"

Blank and Cinna cast they glaze over to the open doorway, where an over exaggerating Zidane stumbled in, holding two wooden swords. He collapsed to the ground in mock exhaustion and held a sword out to Blank.

"Thou must hear my message! Marcus! He hath been thwarted again by Leo!" Zidane cried. "Doth love still exist?"

"Oh the drama…" Blank groaned as Cinna dropped into his role.

"Nay Kinsman! Not while thy evil stands in thou's way!" Cinna answered Zidane, taking the practice sword and shoving it into Blank's hands, "Thrice now King Leo hath crossed our Marcus!"

"Bereft of father! Bereft of mother!" Blank said next, deciding to play along in their roles before they docked. "Marcus! Thou hast lost even thy love!"

"Fortune hath escap'd thee!" Cinna cried, "For what end shalt thou live?"

"For the sake of our friend..." Zidane said, rising from the ground with an elaborate swing of the sword and almost knocking over Marcus as he came in the door. "L-let us bury our steel in the heart of the wretched King Leo!"

"Aye!" Cinna squeaked before laughing. Marcus swatted Zidane over the back of the head playfully and striding across the room, took a seat and leaned back in it.

"We shall back thee, Kinsman!" Blank shouted to Marcus, darting around behind his brother's chair.

"Pray, sheathe thy swords! This villain is mine alone!" Marcus said in full role without getting up.

"Nay, Kinsman!" Cinna brandished his hammer, "For I, too, have lost a brother to this fiend!"

"What ho? Out, vermin! Away!" Zidane barked, doing his best impression of Baku. He puffed his cheeks as he said this and lumbered around in an abstract circle, earning the laughter of his brothers. "Thou darest bare thy sword before the King!? All who stand in my way will be crush'd!" He then sagged into his own role again, swinging the wooden sword back and forth over his head. "Treacherous Leo, my Kinsman's suffering shall not be in vain!" He swung the sword out to the side. "For I shall instruct thee in his incomparable pain!"

"Awwk!"

Zidane dared not move and blanched. Upon the word 'pain', the hilt of the wooden sword had made a collision with Baku's nose, accurate to the word said at that moment. The other teens were barely suppressing their mirth as Baku stepped around Zidane and dealt the monkey-tailed teen a smack over the head.

"Not a bad practice, fools," Baku stated, looking around the room, "just watch where yer swingin' stuff."

"I'll say…" Zidane muttered, rubbing his sore head. A moment later, Benero came charging in with a spanner in hand.

"Almost to the castle, Boss!" he huffed in his deep bovine voice.

"Great!" Baku exclaimed, "You lot! Get yerselves ready now, show time!"

"YEAH!!" shouted everyone. Trademark-Tantalus-salute. Blank followed his brothers out to the storeroom containing their props. The boys didn't have to bother with costumes, their own clothing served well enough. Baku and Ruby would don new outfits for the play though.

"Blank!"

Speaking of Ruby…

"Yeah, Ruby?" Blank asked with a sigh. Fifteen-year-old Ruby was of course playing Cornelia, and being the lady she was, demanded nothing but the best cosmetics. She stomped up to him and pressed a small purple bottle into his hands.

"Whut the hell is that?" she asked, glaring at him. Blank briefly examined the bottle.

"Looks like perfume," he said.

"Perfume that smells awful! I told yer that I need sumfink glamorous fer the part of Cornelia, and you concocted this?!"

"Sheez, who the hell is gonna be able to smell you from the audience? The only one that'll get any benefit from your flowery stench is Marcus. Look, it smells fine, it'll be good enough for the play and we don't have time anyway."

The whole ship rocked suddenly, before slowly descending in the theater dock of the castle. Ruby glared at Blank again.

"Well fine!" she snapped. "I'll wear it, but next time make sumfink a liddle more classy!" She then proceeded to deal him a punch to the stomach and stormed off.

"Reoow hiss!" Zidane cawed, laughing as Blank turned and growled at him.

"She's always got somethin' to bitch about…" he muttered, looking through the sword bin for a suitable weapon on stage," …and it's always to me! 'Blank this!' and 'Blank that!' Arrggh!"

"C'mon, Bro," Marcus soothed, trying to prevent the blind teen from beating his head into the wall, "it's probably 'that time of the month' or somethin' like that."

"Sheez, seems to be like that a lot when it's around me!"

The boys all filed out of the room as the ship lowered into place and locked into the dock. They each looked out of the many windows along the side of the Prima Vista. Swarms of nobles from Alexandria, Lindblum and Treno alike were pushing through the castle compound gates, eager to take their seats in the amphitheater.

"Play's not even gonna start for another hour," Marcus said, looking the nobles over with an expression of pity. "They're all gonna be devastated when they realize their princess is gone."    

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The outer hall of the theater ship lifted in an explosion of fireworks, the band was elevated way above the stage they revealed and music and cheers filled the castle compound.

"This is gonna be gold," Cinna muttered from off stage.

"This is gonna be suicide if we screw up, so don't," Blank mumbled, and shrugged off his tattered hood and cape. He didn't think he'd need it on stage.

Baku pulled his royal robes on. He waited for the band to finish their number before he entered onto the stage, and the applause died down.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Baku spoke with a refined accent and careful pronunciation of his words, "Tonight's performance is a story that takes place long, long ago. Our heroine, Princess Cornelia, is torn from her lover, Marcus. She attempts to flee the castle, only to be captured by her father, King Leo. When our story begins, Marcus, having heard this, crosses swords with the King." Baku could see Queen Brahne easily (who could miss her?) up in the royal box and a little off to the side was the lovely Princess Garnet. She didn't appear very interested.

'Not surprised, ungrateful brat,' Baku thought, and then returned to his lines. He made a graceful sweep of his hand towards the royal box. "And now, Your Royal Majesty, Queen Brahne, Your Highness, Princess Garnet...noble ladies and lords, and our rooftop viewers, Tantalus proudly presents 'I Want to Be Your Canary'!"

"Here's goes!" Zidane whispered as Marcus and Cinna marched on stage.

The performance went on successfully. For a full hour misery and contempt ruled the stage, and Blank wondered how many times he had done this play. It was the first time they had performed 'I Want to Be Your Canary' in Alexandria, although every other time they didn't have so much dependant on their acting skills. They would have to work quickly, and without it being too evident that they had been offstage for very long.

Blank wiped his face and was about ready to bust one on Cinna when Zidane came up to them with a grin on his young face.

"And now to our favorite part!" He went to a dark area backstage. Blank and Cinna knelt down. A new section of the ship shifted revealing the two actors on an extension of the stage.

"Kinsmen! Hii!" Zidane stumbled in on them, and they went to his sides. "Thou must hear my message! Marcus! He hath been thwarted again by Leo!" Zidane cried. "Doth love still exist?"

"Nay Kinsman! Not while thy evil stands in thou's way!" Cinna answered Zidane. "Thrice now King Leo hath crossed our Marcus!"

"Bereft of father! Bereft of mother!" Blank cried, standing up, "Marcus! Thou hast lost even thy love!"

"Fortune hath escap'd thee!" Cinna joined him above the ground level. "For what end shalt thou live?"

"For the sake of our friend..." Zidane pulled himself together, "Let us bury our steel in the heart of the wretched King Leo!"

"Aye!" Blank and Cinna shouted. Blank sighed inwardly as he ran onstage towards Marcus. On the stage, the lightning effects were sparking, and the three of them stopped behind Marcus. Ahead of them, were Baku, dressed as King Leo, and on either side of him were Benero and Zenero.

"We shall back thee, Kinsman!" Blank shouted.

"Pray, sheathe thy swords! This villain is mine alone!" Marcus answered, being sure to place a steady hand on his sword hilt.

"Nay, Kinsman!" Cinna replied, dropping his gaze to the floor. "For I, too, have lost a brother to this fiend!"

"What ho? Out, vermin! Away!" Baku growled. Had he not been such a brilliant actor he wouldn't have been able to handle the accent. "Thou darest bare thy sword before the King!? All who stand in my way will be crush'd!"

"Treacherous Leo, my Kinsman's suffering shall not be in vain!" Zidane snapped as Marcus drew his sword. "For I shall instruct thee in his incomparable pain!" And with that Zidane leapt forward and attacked Benero, pretending to slash the blue-skinned, bovine man with the flat of his blade. Marcus went to attack Baku, but found the 'king' to be very evasive. Blank stepped forward and grinned at Zenero, who in turn nodded. Special Effect magic was commonly used in well-written plays, and Blank made use of his. Casting Pyro, he set it upon Zenero, and in an explosion of fake fire, Zenero stumbled back in phony injury. Cinna simply bounced forward and smacked Baku over the head with his hammer. Zidane decided on Meteo, and he cast his Special Effect magic on Baku as well. Marcus, being the hero of the story, was the one that had to cut down King Leo in the play, and thus was thoroughly annoyed when Zidane dashed ahead again and drove his sword through Baku's robes.

The crowd gasped.

"You idiot!" Blank hissed at Zidane as he darted back again. "Now Baku has to drop back from you!"
 
"Arrg... Grrr..." Baku groaned. He stumbled off up the stairs on stage left, and looking down at the four teenagers from center back stage, declared: "Thou hast not seen the last of me, Marcus!"

"Come back!" Zidane shouted. Blank frowned, and then he let out a sigh, jumping in front of the stairs to block his brother's path.

"Out of my way, Blank!" Zidane shouted, slashing at the blind 'traitor' of the story.

"Consider this, Zidane! If Prince Schneider were to marry Princess Cornelia, peace would reign over both their kingdoms!" Blank argued, spreading his hands apart.

"'Tis foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!"

Zidane chased Blank up the way 'King Leo' had fled, slashing at him with a confident, "Aha!" Blank went, "Mph!" respectively as he dodged the blow. He slashed back again, and as his monkey-tailed brother flipped over his sword, he took a step back and leaped back down into the center of the stage. Zidane followed him as they ran passed Marcus, spinning him around and faced each other again right in front of the audience.
 
"En garde!" Blank challenged, quietly whispering, "(Hey, you remember the moves, right?)."

"Expect no quarter from me! (Not one!)" Zidane answered. Blank growled in annoyance.

"(Then just follow my lead! Duck!)" Blank whispered, and the fight continued on: Blank giving Zidane his directions to matched his own. A few times Zidane stumbled back when he got a command wrong, but eventually it looked as though they could leave stage with a satisfied audience. 
 
"We shall finish this later!" Blank announced, running away towards the castle.

"Come back here!" Zidane called, following him. Blank dashed away into a hall opening away from the crowd's vision. The area was dark; seemingly that the guards thought no one would come through there. Zidane then appeared at Blank's side.

"Where's the Pluto Knight's home room?" the monkey-tailed teen whispered.

"Recon stated that it was just ahead," Blank replied. They pressed up against the wall in the shadows as a pair of Alexandrian soldiers passed by, chatting casually. Following behind them were two dodgy knights. The two men were apparently quite taken with the ladies' figures and were only too happy to point out pleasing features to each other. Blank grinned a mischievous grin. He nodded once to followed after the knights, alternating the shadows of doorways to hide in as he moved forward. Eventually, the two knights took a left down another corridor and into a stone walled room through a large timber door. 

"Doof!"

"Ungha!"

Blank and Zidane looked down at their handy work.
 

"I love how versatile a simple sword can be," Blank grinned, indicating the hilt of his weapon that he had just used to knock one of the knights out. Zidane's dagger hilt had served the same purpose, and the other knight lay unconscious at his feet. Blank knelt down and began to steal the knight's armor. Which each snap of a catch and click of a bolt, more pieces of the suits of armor were removed. Blank looked his armor inside and out.

'Ew,' he thought, 'these guys should really take care of their clobber a bit better. Look at that rust.' He then began to dress. Luckily, the armor, being the property of the overweight knight, was large enough to accommodate all of Blank's extra equipment. Still, he couldn't help but laugh at the two knights snoozing away on the floor.

"Hehehe!" Blank sniggered. "Finished changing, Zidane?"
 
"Yeah, but this helmet..." Zidane screwed up his face and tossed the head gear over his shoulder, "it kinda smells..."
 
"What are you talkin' about!? My helmet totally reeks! My armor's way too big..." He rattled his armor, "And my back's real itchy..." he showed how he couldn't get to the itch, "The boots are wet..." he stomped up and down squishily, "My gloves are all slimy..." he tugged at the worn leather coverings "There's cookie crumbs in my pocket..."
 
"Okay, I get the picture..." Zidane said, putting a hand to his forehead, signaling to Blank to cease his strange little dance. "You still have the package, right?"
 
"Don't worry! I won't screw up!" Blank replied. As if only to prove him wrong, a single oglop leaped out from under Blank's chest plate and proceeded to bounce around the two thieves. He stepped forward and grabbed it during a mid jump.

"Alright! First, I'll go pour some sleep potion into Princess Garnet's teacup!"
 
"And I've got a special something for the lovely queen!" Blank knelt down next to the stripped, unconscious knights and chuckled. "Hehehe. They're sleeping so soundly!" Blank leaped up and ran over to the other wooden door. 

Sneaking out of the room Blank found himself in a marble hall of the castle. No one was around.

'Surely when there were this many strangers in the country and the castle that there would be more guards around…' He thought suspiciously. "According to recon...the royal seats should be right above these stairs!" Blank proposed, making way over to a winding staircase.

 
"Got it!" Zidane agreed, and then turned in reaction to the quick crowd-cheer that erupted out by the stage.

 
"Uh-oh! The scene where Marcus sneaks into Cornelia's chamber is about to start!" Blank started, "Let's get this over with before the finale, okay?" Blank stepped aside from to allow Zidane to run up the stairs ahead of him, and then went to follow him. He froze when he noticed his monkey-tailed brother halt at the top step with flailing arms. Someone had apparently stopped him.

"Umm... Would you please let me pass?"

A female someone, judging by the voice.

'C'mon Zidane, don't start flirting, we've got stuff to do,' Blank growled in his thoughts. He turned his attention to another cheer from the crowd.

'Shit, we don't have much time,' he thought. Blank let his psychic vision float around him, taking a glance at the girl. She was wearing a hood, that's all he could tell.

"…thought maybe you were the one I'd been waiting for all this time."
 
"Excuse me? You were waiting for me?"
 
"Yeah! I've dreamt of meeting you here ever since I was born!"
 
"Do you mock me?"
 
"No, of course not..."
 

'Of course he does,' thought Blank irritably, 'he waits all the time for a lay.' Blank sighed and leant against the wall, waiting for Zidane to finish his stupid conversation. Although if any of the guards were to come by now they'd be screwed. Then Blank heard rushed footsteps above. Immediately he leaped up and ran straight up the stairs as Zidane was saying,  "Say, you wouldn't-"

Getting to near the top Blank asked, "Hey, what's goin' on, Zidane?"

"I must go!" the girl squeaked, dashing pass Zidane and then Blank who found himself spun around.
 
"Who the heck was that!?" Blank asked, trying to regain balance.

"Get up, Blank! That was Princess Garnet!" Zidane yelped, leaping over Blank's head.

"Are you serious!?" Blank choked, taking off after him. He dashed along down the stairs and to the left down the marble halls, tailing Zidane and the hooded girl.

"Tell me that really isn't her!" Blank asked, catching up to Zidane's side.

"It's definitely her!" the monkey-tailed youth snapped. "But we have to split up!"

"What?! Why?" his blind brother demanded. They turned sharply to the right down a stair case and right again into a kitchen, following the girl through the chaos of several confused Kitchen Masters at work.

"Because if we stay together," Zidane dived under a falling pile of plates that were knocked off balance when the girl shoved an Onion Master into them, "everyone will notice two knights chasing the girl! If we call attention to ourselves we're screwed! Go!"

"Grr…" Blank growled, and spinning on his heel departed the kitchen amongst the cookery. He ran out of the castle following the tiled floor outside. Stopping at the steps, he thought for a moment.

'Well now what? We don't much longer before Zidane has to be back on stage,' Blank pondered, sitting down, 'how did I know this would get screwed up?' Blank's musings were interrupted when a fairly young Pluto Knight approached him, looking shaken.

"Hey, has the Captain been by you yet?" he asked curiously. Blank could see that it seemed important to this knight.

"Uh, no," he answered cautiously, "is something wrong?"

"Oh the Captain is absolutely in a state of almost hysteria!" the knight sighed, shaking his head. "The guys are all getting it from him because Princess Garnet has turned up missing!"

"Oh crap, " Blank gasped, feigning interest, "so is the Captain tearing around telling us to find her?"

"Pretty much, yeah," the knight replied, "so anyhow, if you see him, take caution."

"Sure, thanks," Blank answered, standing up and deciding to take a walk around east of the castle. His travels were short as he found his way blocked by a caged waterway entrance.

'Guess it's as good a place as any to stand watch,' he thought. A cheer went up from the stage area of the castle.

'Hmm, maybe they can stall until we get back,' Blank mused, turning to find another knight already advancing on him.

'Shit! This has gotta be the Captain!' Blank thought, judging from the superior (but rusty) armor he was wearing.

 
"Nobody has come this way either, sir," Blank said, saluting in what he hoped was a salute used by the Pluto Knights. The tall knight glared at Blank almost as if he shouldn't have opened his mouth, and then turned and jogged away, clanking as he went.

"Whew," Blank sighed. Supposing the Pluto Knight's captain ran into Zidane, it would be bad news, but Blank decided not to worry as he heard clanking going up the tower.

"Better get back to the Prima Vista…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey Blank!" Ruby called poking around Blank's helmet, "Is that you under dere?"

"No ma'am, I am Pluto Knight Bob, ma'am."

"It's you," she chuckled, so where's the princess then, we gottsa wrap this show up soon."

"We're working on that okay?" Blank, looking around himself. "So how is the show goin'?"

"Swell, the crowd's bin throwin' us lots of Gil," Ruby answered. Blank nodded and taking off his heavy helmet, sat down heavily against the wall.

"Didn't dey have size small in armor?" Ruby asked, peering down on him. Blank simply shrugged, and then jumped up again in alarm as a huge crash over head woke him from his rest. A few boards of timber rained down on them, and Blank snatched Ruby away from the dropping wood.

'Shit, that helmet up there looks like the Pluto Knights' captain's!' Blank thought irritably, casting his attention upwards. There was no mistaking the large feathered helmet and the squirming arms with it. 'That probably means that Zidane and the princess are on the ship! I gotta get outside!'

"Ruby, if that knight comes by you, you haven't seen the princess, got that?" Blank said urgently.

"But I don't-"

"I gotta go!"

Blank ran around the corner pass the band and flung himself over the railing, sliding down the boards and landing near the stage, he could see Baku prancing around ordering Benero and Zenero around, and quickly shot around the ship.

"Need it to look like I found the ship by accident!" Blank muttered to himself as he neared the side entrance. As he drew closer, the armor-borrowing thief could already hear the Pluto Knight Captain trying to get in.

'Must have slid down too,' Blank thought, pressing himself against the side of the Prima Vista.

"Princess! Princess? PRINCESS!!!"

'Sheez he's loud.'

Suddenly there was a crash, as the captain put his sword through the door. He leap inside continuing to call "Princess!" as he ran around.

"Princess?" the Captain asked, walking around in circles. "Princess...Princess! Princess...? PRINCESS!!!?"

'Time to go in,' thought Blank as he rounded the corner. This brought another "Princess?" out of the captain.
 
"Where have you been!?" the over armored man demanded.

"Sir! I'm sorry, sir!" Blank answered, saluting again. They bother heard a noise beyond the planning room.

 
"Princess!"

There was another noise. The reaction this brought out of the captain of the Pluto Knights as to run up to the door and start pounding on the door.

"Princess!" he shouted. Blank let him do this for a few minutes before he was call upon to open it.

"Yes sir," Blank answered, and walking up to it turned the knob. The captain just stared at the door for a moment before throwing Blank a furious glare and stormed in.

'Sheez, nice way of saying thanks,' Blank grumbled internally as he followed the big armor covered knight. The room was empty although it still appeared different to Blank. The table had been tipped over, Cinna's trapdoor open. 'Shit, they already fled through it.'

"The princess must be down there!" the captain hollered. Blank had no intention of making it easy for the knight to find the princess and stepped forward immediately.
 
"I-I'll go first, sir!" he shouted and jumped in back first. The desired affect was obtained, and balancing between the armor and his sword, Blank managed to become effectively wedged in the hatch opening.

"Hey!!! What do you think you're doing!?" the captain barked, clanking impressively as he jumped up and down.
 
"Captain, sir! I'm stuck, sir!" Blank exclaimed, pointing out the obvious. The captain growled furiously.

"Grrrr! Blast it!!!" he snapped, and ran out of the room. Blank continued to struggle for a moment, and when he deemed it safe to do so, stopped and checked the captain had left.

 
"Hehehe. He bought it!" he laughed, and sat back against the hatch, stretching his arms.

Soon he curled up and dropped into the hole, landing like a cat on all fours. He perked up and caught Cinna's thumbs-up as they fled through another door leading to the under stage controls. Blank leaped up and raced down and around the engine room. As he neared the doorway the others had gone through, he heard the booming voice of that blasted knight again.

"Aha! Princess! I, Steiner, have come to your rescue!" went the boastful proposal.

'So that's his name…Enter stage left,' Blank thought, entering the room to find Zidane, Cinna and the princess of Alexandria bailed up by the captain.

 
"You needn't worry, Your Highness!" he said to the alarmed looking girl. He grinned wickedly to himself as the captain said "Good work! This will be remembered as the Pluto Knights' finest hour!"

"Hehehe!" Blank chuckled, "Just relax, Princess. We'll get you outta here!" Steiner displayed a gaping mouth as he realized who he had been running around with for the last ten minutes.

"WHAT!!!?" he shouted, "You're not one of my knights!" Blank and his Tantalus brothers stepped forward, forming a line in front of the princess.

"You can just..." said Zidane.

"...leave the princess..." said Cinna.

"...to us!" said all three.

Before anyone knew it, the four men started into another fight and the princess was left to watch from behind. Blank didn't mind the battle so much, but he detested the bulky armor he had to fight in. As far as he could tell, they were winning, judging from how quickly the knight wore down. After one attack from Zidane however, the Captain of the Pluto Knights raised his sword quite menacingly.

"I'll never give up!" said Steiner, his sword glowing blue.

'Oh crap, I think that looks like…' Blank thought, but then the blue beam was fired at him, '…Armor Break…' Blank's armor split apart and fell to the ground, and with them oglops from the box bounced out everywhere. Had Blank been paying attention, he would have heard the knight shouting "N-no! I hate oglops!" but he was too busy going blue in the face. A single oglop sat on his forehead, going "Kriiiip!"

"Aaaaaahhh! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!" Blank grabbed the stray oglop and toosed it off his head. He then proceeded to runs around with the captain and Cinna shouting things like, "I hate oglops!" and "Oglops are the worst!" Everywhere he turned there were more oglops. Big oglops, small oglops, some as big as your head; oglops were all over the place. Blank pulled his sword from the scabbard in a state of panic and took random swings at the oversized bugs.

"I…" swish, "hate…" swing, "…oglops!" chop!

Blank lashed out blindly until few oglop pieces even twitched anymore. He turned around in time to witness Steiner exiting through the last door to the room directly under the stage. Blank dashed after him, hearing a "Stop!" and a "Yow!" Getting into the room he found Cinna laying on the floor in a dizzy manner and two platforms raising up into the stage.

"Shit," Blank swore, helping Cinna up off the floorboards, "it's up to the Boss to deal with that one."

"If Queen Brahne sees the knight up on stage and recognizes him, we're screwed!" Cinna exclaimed, taking off towards the engine room. 

"Agreed, we gotta get outta here!" said Blank, taking off after him. He nodded to Cinna, knowing that his brother knew to go straight for the anchors and unhook the Prima Vista while Blank would prepare the Mist engines. Cinna hooked a rope up to the hatch hole and climbed up, taking the fastest way to the exterior of the airship. Blank turned his attention to the biggest mist engine, and leaping up grabbed its largest lever.

"Come… on!" Blank growled, pulling as hard as he could despite the growing heat of the lever. He finally got in to move down and steam short out of its many outlets. Blank narrowly ducked the steam and went to the next one, turning knows and reading dials.

"Oi, Blank!" came a voice from overhead. Blank went about dealing with the belts leading to the propellers.

"Yeah Zenero?" Blank yelled above the noise of the engine room and when he was given no answer, he realized that Zenero wanted him to come back up. One last check and Blank struggled up the rope to arrive back in the planning room.

"What's happening?" he demanded, running after Zenero towards the storage rooms.

"The Boss and the others are improvising on stage, we gotta get the ship ready to depart," was the answer Zenero gave. Blank nearly tripped over from the display of intelligence.

"Oh, ya think!" he snapped, stopping Zenero in the storage hall. "And what makes you say th-"

Blank stopped short when he noticed a flash from around where the band was. Creeping forward slowly, he approached the balcony the band stood upon and looked out over the stage. He felt his heart plummet when his psychic vision took in all the events below; he saw a cape and hood being flung away, Princess garnet standing in full view of everyone within a mile radius and two Pluto Knights on stage with Captain Steiner. Blank barely heard Baku's words to Zidane as he ran pass Zenero to find Cinna. He found the pot-bellied teen as he was re-entering the ship.

"I got the Prima Vista unhooked," he reported.

"Good," said Blank, "now we just gotta make sure that everyone is on the ship."

"Good luck," said Benero appearing behind them from the cargo bay's doorway, "I can't find Ruby." Blank swore, but not as loudly as Baku's shouted orders.

"Get ter work, fools!" the large man hollered, throwing off the robes from the play, "I told her ter get off the ship. It's too dangerous if the Queen decides to attack and she will."

"But Boss!" Cinna yelled, stepping forward. Baku just held up a hand, silencing him.

"Brahne never saw Ruby, so if she sees 'er now she won't know she's from Tantalus."

"But-" Blank started.

"We'll come back fer her," Baku finished, "but we gotta get outta here. Nero brothers! Make sure the band get into the cargo bay! Blank, check the Mist engines! Cinna, you come with me."

Blank took off immediately for the planning room, throwing himself down the hatch hole when he arrived there. Blank tore across the boiling engine room, feeling like a cooked turkey as he checked dials. Zooming back again he climbed up the rope for the third time and flew to the storage room, around the corner and up the spiral stairs the bridge, hearing upon his ascent the voice of Cinna saying, "Stabilizers configured!" and Baku's voice answering "Good!"

"Engine room is good to go!" Blank huffed out, when he arrived at the cockpit.

 
"Alright!" Baku answered, turning around the to steering wheel and pointing forward, "We're movin' out!

"Roger that!" Blank replied, and turned back down the stairs. He crouched at the bottom of the stairs as the ship began to ascend, and then got up again to head towards the stage. He was shocked to find himself thrown forward when the ship jerked and several harpoons shot into the Prima Vista, rocking the airship and throwing wood everywhere. Outside he could hear people screaming and buildings being smashed as the Prima vista swayed dangerously close to the ground. They were struggling to move forward, which meant the harpoons were tethered to the cannons. All around Blank tumbling timber showered down, and he took off up the stairs again as Cinna and Baku were holding on for dear life, Baku turning the wheel hard to the left. Blank shot up the stairs further only to trip over as the ship rocked again, some of the harpoons and chains coming loose. Making to the top was only achieved by the time Benero and Zenero had joined him at the top lookout of the Prima Vista.

Looking around they only had time to witness a fiery Bomb growing to the last of its exploding size before Blank threw himself on the floorboards screaming "TAKE COVER!!!"

The agitated creature burst into flames as it exploded on the stage every of the ship, rocking it dangerously and sending towers of smoke shooting and wisps of fire everywhere to take place among the timber exterior of the ship. A cloud of smoke and ash engulfed the Prima Vista for a short moment until it flew out, free of chains but fire and smoke emanating from everywhere.

Blank uncovered his head as he looked around himself, realizing they were sailing out away from the castle city of Alexandria, but his spirits sank when he felt himself descending with the ship below the Mist clouds.  

The ship was losing power, and…

 
"We're gonna crash!!!" shouted Cinna as Blank flew down the stairs pass him and Baku.

Blank was thrown forward for possibly the forth time that night when the ship housed another explosion, and was saved from witnessing their fiery crash to the ground as he was in midair in no time, hitting a wall and finding himself knocked unconscious.

Next Chapter - Blank Purpose.

~QueenQeeko