REDG:Well, another chapter, another character! You'll get to meet X in this chapter! On another note, it's a wonder that I'm even able to write!!! I have my idiot 17-year old brother, Zeth visiting. Right now, he's trying to gimme a hickey. Ewww...someone help me! NE ways, (pushes Zeth away) enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 11

Alexandrian Rampant

The group slowly made their way into Dali, enjoying the sunlight and the fresh air again. The town was actually really small, with just a few homes, an inn, a shop, and plenty of farmland. Several kids were outside playing.

"maybe we should get a room at the inn?" Aiko suggested, "Then we can look around here"

"Sure thing!" Zidane agreed, "But remember, this is a country in. There's no such thing as separate rooms."

"S'ok" Tori said, shrugging, "We'll habe Rusty beat the crap outta you if you try anything"

"Me? Try what?" Zidane asked with an innocent look on his face, and walked into the inn. The guy at the counter was fast asleep and was snoring a little. Zidane poked him.

"Zzz...? Oh, hello" the guy said, waking up. He saw Dagger and stared.

Zidane poked the guy again, "Hey, I know she's cute and all, but you don't hafta stare like that!"

"Hmm? What?" The guy said sleepily, "Anyways, the room's over there. Go ahead and make yourself at home" and he went back to sleep.

They all walked into a large room with several beds and started picking which one they wanted.

"well, Gar- I mean, Dagger and I'll take this one!" Zidane said, pointing at one. He got a smack on the head for that.

"I want this one then!" Tori said and flopped on the bed

"I wanted that one..." Steiner muttered, looking disappointed.

"Too bad!" she laughed.

"Why you insolent little-!!"

Dagger and Zidane watched Tori, Vivi, and Aiko chase eachother around for a while.

"Hey Dagger? How come you wanted to leave the castle?" Zidane asked, still watching Steiner.

"Hm? Oh, I suspected mother was up to something. There had also been a strange man wandering around the castle."

Zidane laughed, "Oooo! Dagger-chan's gotta stalker!"

"I DO NOT!!!!" she said, "Anyways, I heard about the Prima Vista coming, and I decided to sneak on the ship and leave. Kind of ironic, really"

"yeah, we came to kidnap you, and you WANTED to be kidnapped. Ya don't have that happen every day."

Aiko walked over to Zidane and glomped his arm, "Can ya show me around Dali, Zidy-kun?"

"Uhh...I guess..." he mumbled, and quickly glanced at Dagger.

She smiled, "Go on ahead...Zidy-kun"

They walked out of the inn and Zidane asked, "Hey Aiko? D'ya think she's might've gotten a little jealous?"

"I don't think she's really like that, y'know?" Aiko said, "Anyways how about we go look over there-"

"MOVE!!!" A guy yelled from behind them. They moved out of the way in time to see a giant snake just miss them. A guy with platinum hair was chasing after it with a sword.

Aiko let go of Zidane's arm, "Lets got help him!" and started running.

"My arms still numb" he muttered ;;and followed her.

Once they had caught up with the guy and the monster, they all started slashing. It didn't take very long before it died.

"Thank you for warning us" Aiko said to the platinum-haired guy. She saw he had bright green eyes, and was wearing a black shirt with baggy jeans.

"I-it was nothing..." The guy said, blushing a little.

"So, whats your name? I'm Aiko!" she said, sticking out her arm to shake hands."You didn't get hurt in the fight, did you?"

"No, I'm fine. You can call me X, Miss Aiko" He said, taking her hand and kissed it.

"U-uhhh...you can just call me Aiko. Formalities are weird" Aiko stuttered.

"Ahem" Zidane coughed.

"Oh!" Aiko laughed and skipped over to Zidane, "This is Zidane. We're traveling with a bunch of people to Lindblum because he kidnapped the prin-"

"Shhhhh!!!!" he whispered, "Do you REALLY want us to be arrested?! He might be working for the Queen!"

Aiko looked over at X, who was still blushing a little, "...I don't think he is"

X smiled, "I'm just traveling around. I don't work for anyone right now"

"Really? Hey, I know! I'll go introduce you to everyone! Then you can travel with us!" she said, hugging Zidane's arm again, "Right Zidane?"

"Uhh...I guess so." He replied and looked at X. He was giving the two of them an odd look, so Zidane pried her off his arm, "Why don't you show X off to everyone? I'm gonna look for Dagger."

Zidane walked down the road a little further, "Geez, he' got it bad for her" --;;

"Wh-what?" someone asked. Zidane looked down and saw Vivi sitting. He sat down next to him.

"Hey! Whatcha doing? Anything wrong?"

Vivi sighed, 'Nothing"

Zidane smiled and flicked his tail mischievously, "It's a girl, isn't it? Is she cute?"

"N-no! I-its nothing like that!" Vivi stuttered.

Kweh!

Vivi looked up, "Wh-what was that?"

"That's the sound a chocobo makes." Zidane said, thinking, "They look like giant yellow bird. People use them as transportation"

"oh"

Zidane got up again, "Well, I gotta go find Dagger. Cheer up, ok?" and he walked away.

Eventually, he went into the shop and spotted Dagger. He went up and stood right next to her to see how long it took.

"Zidane!!!" Dagger gasped, "How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long. So, what're ya doing?"

"I'm trying to learn to speak normally by conversing with the local people of this village"

Zidane blinked and said, "Try and say, 'I'm learnin' to talk right from the people here'"

"learnin'? I don't think so, Zidy-kun."

He laughed, "Why not? It'd be funny to see ya saying that! And why does everyone call me Zidy-kun now?"

Garnet smiled, "Because its funny? Anyways, I think we should go find Vivi. I don't think he should be alone out there"

"Aww...he can take care of himself" Zidane whined, but walked outside anyways. They walked towards the windmill that he had been sitting next to, but he wasn't there."Weird. he was sitting right here"

"Shhh!" Dagger whispered, "I thought I heard someone crying..."

"Sniff...Dagger? ...Zidane?"

"Vivi!" Zidane yelled, "Where are ya? Are you ok?!"

"Some other kids dragged me down here and asked why I wasn't with the others."

"...Others?" Dagger thought out loud.

"Just stay put, okay? We're gonna get you outta there!" Zidane ordered and ran off.

Dagger followed him, "Why are we running? Shouldn't we find the others?"

"No time for that" Zidane said, looking around, "Help me look for a man-whole or something"

Dagger blinked and said, "How about searching the windmill. His voice was coming from that general area"

"Oh...right...that's what I was gonna do" Zidane muttered and walked into the old whindmill, "Aha! A man-whole, right there"

"Told you" Dagger said smugly.

They climbed down the ladder and walked through an underground storage area filled with boxes and barrels and that kinda stuff, following the voiced up ahead. Zidane's thief instincts kicked in every once in a while, and he had to stop for a second to see if there was anything valuable in the barrels and boxes.

"I hardly think its appropriate to go looking through those boxes while we're trying to save our friend!" Dagger whisped angrily.

"Awww! C'mon! I was just trying to make a bit of a profit outta all this!"

"Shhh!" Dagger hissed suddenly, "There's Vivi, up there!"

Zidane's eyes widened and he was getting ready to run after him, until Dagger pulled him by the ear away from Vivi and the guards around him. He gave her a confused look.

"I don't want to cause trouble just yet" she said.

"Fine" Zidane muttered, "but if they hurt him, I swear I'll-"

"Okay" Dagger said, sighing.

"...Hey, you okay?"

"Hm? Oh, its just some of these barrels have the Alexandrian seal on them. Is this in any way connected to Alexandria somehow?"

Zidane shrugged, "I dunno. C'mon, lets go find Vivi"

They wandered through a few more rooms until they heard Vivi's voice again. There was a box in the corner that was moving, and something inside it was screaming, "Lemmee outta here!!!!"

"The box talks?!" Zidane said with fake shock. Dagger just gave him an un-amused look, so he went to work at prying the box apart. Once he'd finally gotten Vivi out, he asked, "What the hell where you doing in there?!"

"I-I dunno! This kid just suddenly grabbed my and shut me inside the box!" Vivi stuttered.

"oh my..." Dagger whispered, 'its like a factory...they all sort of look like..."

Vivi hung his head, "Do you really think they look like me?"

Dagger blinked and then shook her head apologetically, "Ummm...n-no! that's not what I meant!"

"Yeah!" Zidane agreed, "They're just dolls or something, Vivi."

They all stopped when they heard someone walking in. To avoid getting caught, they all jumped into a barrel and hid.

Steiner strolled through the crops in Dali, his rusted armour clinking, "If that old man was right, the Cargo ship should be right here!"

Tori sighed, "No, it should be right THERE" and pointed.

Behind them, Aiko and X were chatting away, and every once in a while paused awkwardly. Then there was a nervous laugh and they went back to chatting.

"I think they'd make a cute couple" Tori cheered.

Steiner snorted, 'And I think that its stupid. They just met today and they're already hanging all over eachother!"

"And THAT is why you don't have a girlfriend," Tori muttered, "And besides, they're not hanging all over eachother! They're just bloody well talking!"

"Hmmph" Steiner said as a reply. As they got close to the ship, Steiner started inspecting the barrels, 'Aha! This ship is going to Alexandria! Hurrah! We can bring the princess back!"

"Hurrah?" X asked, "who says that anymore?"

Aiko rolled her eyes, "That rust-bucket does"

Steiner's face turned beet red, "I am NOT a rust bucket! I am...hey, did that barrel just move?" He watched it closely, and saw it move again, so her pulled out his sword and poked it.

"Owwww!!!!" someone yelled from inside the barrel. It tipped over and out came Zidane, Vivi and Dagger.

Steiner started on his rampage again, and started jumping up and down screaming, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE PRINCESS?!"

They all stopped and turned around when they heard a laugh behind them. There was another mage like the one Zidane had fought in the Ice Cavern, but this one looked a little different.

"Not again!" Zidane said and quickly covered his mouth.

"What d'ya mean by that?" Aiko asked, getting a little nervous.

"I fought something like him in the Ice Cavern when you all were alseep, I think they were called "Black Waltzes" or something like that" Zidane explained.

The Black Waltz laughed, "Don't mistake me for that fool! I'm Black Waltz No. 2! My magic far supasses that of Black Waltz No.1. Now, princess, come with me back to Alexandria"

"No!" She yelled and cast a Slow spell on him.

Tori ran up and started pounding and kicking the crap out of the Black Waltz, while Zidane and Aiko slashed at him with their twin blades. Steiner and X seemed to be having a race to see which one could get to the Black Waltz first.

"Agh! Princess...why?" The Black Waltz stuttered and sent out one last, powerful lightning spell before he died.

REDG: Phew! That was a LONG chapter! I kinda forgot exactly what happened in Dali, and I was too lazy to go look it up somewhere, so I just kinda wrote what I remembered, and made up the rest! Okay, I'm just babbling now. Thanks to everyone who reviewed so far! Maybe I'll start doing review responses? Anywho, ideas, comments, blah blah blah are welcome! Anyways, Zeth is bugging me again, so I hafta go and pester him. Muahahah! reviews are much appreciated!

Later!

XXxLove!