'Heaven is full of the gods to whom we give the name of stars.'

Zodiac Signal

A Final Fantasy Tactics fanfic

By Tenshi no Ai

I don't own the characters and locations in the game that are presented in this work, Square-Enix does.

Dancing the Cycle: Heavenly Bodies

"Let's play a game."

These words drew an odd reaction from the people around the speaker, as they all stared at him with varying measures of confusion. Mustadio Bunanza, who was seated closest to the dancing flames of the campfire, spoke first as he squinted into Worker 8's complicated operating system. "Never thought I'd hear you say that, Beowulf."

Agrias Oaks, who was sitting against a tree near the young machinist, raised an eyebrow as she methodically cleaned her blade. No one dared tell her that the sword was already gleaming mercilessly with the firelight; everyone had their ways of dealing with the anxiety of the upcoming battles. "Yes," she agreed, eyes fixated on the sword, "we would expect it from you."

"Hey, hey. I can be serious," Mustadio retorted in a playful tone, digging deeper into the robot with the help of one of the tools he always carried, "I'm just not all scary-serious like you are."

"Hn."

"Um, anyway," Ramza Beoulve spoke up, the first time he had attempted to do so that night. He was sitting on his bedroll and organizing the supply of healing items, though everyone had been hard pressed to figure out by what rules he was sorting them out with. It could be forgiven; after all, the shadow of Orbonne Monastery seemed to loom over the patch of forest they were camping in. "What game is it, exactly? Someone left the pack of cards in that inn in Limberry." Glares were shot at Mustadio, who blithely ignored them.

Beowulf Kadmus kept his gaze on the star dusted sky above for a moment longer before turning his attention to the leader of the group. He was sitting on his bedroll, directly across the fire from the very focused Agrias. "I thought I could see the constellation Scorpio, and that got me wondering if we could fill the cycle of the zodiac with the people we've come across on this journey."

"...Scorpio?" Reis Dular, who was sitting next to him, wanted to know as she looked up into the sky. Beowulf pointed at a certain group of stars, and she stared at them before shaking her head in confusion. "That's just a clump of stars."

"Not really. See, there's the tail."

"...If you say so."

"That sounds like fun," Meliadoul Tingel murmured while she sat on her bedroll and stretched out limbs that had been encased in armor for most of the day. "It beats sitting around and displaying all our nervous tics," she smiled thinly as Agrias glanced at her with an unreadable expression.

Sitting between Agrias and Meliadoul, Cidolfas Orlandu made an impressive sight even as he sat in a meditative stance, the amber blade of Excalibur gleaming dully across his lap. "It is something to do," he agreed. "So, who would care to start? Miss Rafa?"

Rafa Galthana meekly shook her head, her hair freely moving around her face with the crimson band that held her hood in place sitting on her roll. Malak Galthana was sleeping on the bedroll beside her, and on her other side was the couple of the group. "No, I'm sorry, I don't know any Arians."

"The first chocobo...the one Agrias and I had saved in Araguay a while back...I think it was an Aries," Ramza muttered, trying to figure out if the bottle he held was a potion or a hi-potion. "It was really aggressive, but it was a good chocobo."

"Yeah, it tasted great," Mustadio cut in. "Ah, I wonder what this wire does."

"That's horrible," Meliadoul rolled her eyes, "it could've been someone's pet, or treasured friend."

"The wire?"

She grinned despite herself. "The chocobo, idiot."

"No, I'm pretty sure it was a wild one," Ramza responded to the Divine Knight. "Well, that's Aries. So...Taurus?"

No one said anything for a long moment. Agrias sighed, pausing in her scouring to stare into the flames. "The Princess..." she whispered in a wavering tone that was unlike the stoic lady knight before she cleared her throat and started over with, "The Princess is a Taurus, steady in mind as well as step."

"That does sound like Ovelia," Cidolfas said fondly. "She has always been a serious girl, even as a child."

Agrias glanced at the Holy Swordsman, appreciation clear in her eyes. "Yes. She will be...a good queen."

There was an awkward silence before Ramza placed the potion--what he figured was a potion, at any rate--down, where it clinked loudly with another bottle. "Yes..." The issue of the newly crowned Queen Ovelia due to Delita Hyral's efforts was an uncomfortable one to Ramza. He believed his best friend's words, but... "Anyway, Gemini is next."

"Izlude is...was a Gemini," Meliadoul spoke immediately, focusing her attention to the reflection of the fire in her golden gauntlets in an effort to avoid any pitying glances.

Rafa glanced at her brother, who was oblivious to the world. "Malak is a Gemini as well," she said. Meliadoul's expression tightened at those words, as well as her grip on her armor.

Noticing some tension but unaware of where it was coming from, Mustadio glanced up from Worker 8's internals and broke out in a wide smile at Rafa, who noticed and sent an unsure smile back. "Did someone say something about Malak? Oh, your brother's sleeping," he noted with some surprise. A few people had small grins on their faces after hearing this; for all his inattentive behavior, Mustadio was unusually focused once he had his hands upon some bit of machinery.

"Yes. He was mentioning that he felt tired earlier today," Rafa replied.

Mustadio was taken aback. "I didn't realize he actually did anything!" Malak stirred in his sleep and Mustadio reflexively brought up an arm to block any incoming projectiles. The elder Galthana was one person who had never appreciated Mustadio's unique brand of humor. He lowered his arm after it was apparent that the mage was still asleep. "Wow. Anyway, shouldn't you be getting some sleep too, Rafa?"

The youngest member of the group shook her head. "No, I'm not tired at all."

"Oh. Well, you should get some sleep anyway. I mean, not like you need beauty rest or anything, because you're pretty cute, but--" A pine cone flew out of nowhere and smacked the machinist on the forehead, and Malak threw a glare after it as well as a few inaudible choice words before turning to his sister.

"Rafa, you need to go to sleep soon," he grumbled before flopping back onto his bedroll.

"Yes, brother," she murmured, looking at the now pained Mustadio with pity. Her brother really had been overdoing the 'protective elder brother' role since Riovanes.

"...So, are there any other Geminians?" Ramza asked, very used to this sort of behavior. Worker 8's optic visor, dark when Mustadio set to work on repairing the robot, suddenly flashed an unearthly glow as the mechanical giant stood, startling the nearby elite knights and Mustadio into defensive stances.

/Yes, Master/ the mechanical relic hummed in its unnerving, disaffected 'voice', /this general operations unit was first activated on Gemini first./

Mustadio, who was rubbing at the sore spot on the middle of his forehead with the heel of one hand, looked quizzically at Worker 8 from a safe distance away. "What does that mean? What's 'Gemini first'?"

Worker 8 was silent.

Annoyed, Mustadio turned to the fearful looking Ramza, who looked very close to bolting from the robot. "Ramza, ask it what it means."

"A-alright...Worker 8, what is 'Gemini first'?"

/That was the date that this general operations unit was first operated./

"...Oh. You can, uh... 'deactivate' now."

Despite not having his question answered, Mustadio still looked pleased as he clapped Ramza on the back. "Hey, glad to see you're getting the hang of the jargon already! I'll have you ready to help out in Goug by the end of the month!" he cheerfully announced, to which the youngest Beoulve son looked slightly embarrassed about.

"Are we continuing the game?" Meliadoul asked, having settled back onto her bedroll. "We're up to Cancer, if anyone has forgotten."

"I'm a Cancer," Agrias stated, lips twitching in disgust as she examined the Defender she carried with her. "This sword..."

Meliadoul glanced at the weapon in question. "Isn't that mine?"

"Yes. We stole it off of you when you thoughtlessly attacked us in Bervenia."

"'Thoughtlessly'?!" The Divine Knight looked furious. "I had a reason! And if you stole that from me, give it back!"

"You broke my last sword," Agrias retorted, "and you already have a better one."

Meliadoul's face went blank. Everyone, save for Orlandu who seemed to be meditating, glanced between the two elite lady knights. The Divine Knight was one of their most recent members of their group and her temperament was still unpredictable, not to talk of the fact that she had attacked a number of them during their first meeting. The woman sighed. "A good workman never blames his tools. In this way, appreciate the value of the sword, because it is merely an extension of who you are."

"Those are good words," the Holy Swordsman said suddenly, peering at the green-clad woman out of the corner of his eye. "Was that one of your father's lessons?"

"Yes, sir." Meliadoul hesitated a second, then said, "When he was still in his right mind, he was a good man who was very knowledgeable about the way of the knight. I've tried to keep them in mind so that his true legacy will not be lost."

"Good to hear," the eldest man of the group murmured, glancing at the distracted Ramza. "My son is a Cancer as well. There is another Cancer known to us, isn't that right?"

Ramza closed his eyes, trying not to notice the sudden turn of attention directed at him. "Brother...Zalbag was a Cancer. He...fit it well."

There was a long silence, awkward and stifling. Mustadio, who could be counted on to break through such moments, set down the rod of metal he was using to separate the tangled mass of wires inside Worker 8 and said, "Okay, so that's Aries, Taurus, Gemini and now Cancer, right? What's next?"

"Leo," Beowulf said, a note of surprise in his voice. He had been unaware that there was an Ivalician who did not know of the order of the zodiac, but decided not to ask. "I do remember that Vormav was one," he added, nodding respectfully to the Murond Shrine Knight commander's daughter. For her part, she looked faintly surprised.

"Did you know my father, Sir Beowulf?" she asked, now hopeful that someone would remember her father as he once was.

Beowulf shifted uncomfortably, catching the notice of his lover. He bent his head and whispered something in Reis' ear, and she nodded in understanding. "I did know your father, Miss Tingel," he finally answered, "but he was not an...easy person to get along with."

"Were you a subordinate of his?"

"Well...I was the head of the Lionel Holy Knights for a period of time."

"Ah..." Meliadoul's eyes widened as she absorbed this piece of information. "I see, you were that Temple Knight...yes, Father didn't like you either."

Rafa, enraptured by the conversation, looked at the group's most senior knight through the flames. "Sir Orlandu, are relations between knights always so complicated?"

"Hm..." the wizened warrior glanced at the women sitting to either side of him before returning his attention to the young Heaven Knight, "you could say that, though I know little of Church politics."

"You wouldn't want to," Beowulf muttered darkly, dropping his tactful nature for a moment.

"...Alma is a Leo," Ramza murmured as he catalogued the remedies, "she's a spitfire," he chuckled hollowly as he gazed at the walls of Orbonne through the trees. In the morning they would storm those walls and settle everything once and for all, and if God was willing his sister would be returned to him.

If only.

"Virgo, Virgo...as much as I try, I can't think of one," Reis lamented suddenly, drawing attention away from the boy with the sadness marring his youthful face. There were equal looks of discouragement around the campfire; everyone had gotten into the game at least somewhat by now. At least, almost everyone was discouraged.

"Wiegraf was a Virgo."

Agrias glanced up from her sword to Meliadoul, who had spoken those words. "How did you know that?" she asked, struck by the odd timbre in the older woman's tone.

"What are you implying?" Meliadoul smiled into the fire. "He was a Shrine Knight for a period of time. I was amazed by his single-minded devotion...it was admirable."

"Uh-huh," Mustadio said into Worker 8's circuitry, disbelief evident in his voice. "You sure that was all?"

The smile dropped from Meliadoul's face. "It was enough."

A few people, Ramza and Agrias among them, had raised eyebrows at the Divine Knight's statement, though for altogether very different reasons. However, only one of them decided to speak their thoughts. "I would think that a Divine Knight, particularly one who had belonged to the Church, would have certain holy vows to follow," Agrias commented.

"Excuse me, please speak more plainly. I can't stand people who speak with subterfuge molding their words," Meliadoul retorted.

The Holy Knight glowered at the other woman. "As you wish. What kind of 'divine' knight breaks her holy vows to go cavorting about with a known terrorist--"

"He was my friend--"

"--A terrorist who took pride in his actions of wanton murder and inciting others to commit such crimes against the country!" Agrias exclaimed. "And such a man would be endorsed as a, a 'Zodiac Brave' while we are the hunted!"

"You people killed a cardinal! You say that he turned into a Lucavi, and I believe you, but how do you think it looks to the rest of the country? Wiegraf had ideas in line with our own, so he was accepted. Terrorist? Only an ignorant noble would use such a word when it's obvious he fought for freedom!"

"Freedom? By murder and anarchy? No wonder the Church accepted him, if they think that wholesale slaughter is the way to ensure freedom! You're a true devil's advocate if you actually believe that those disgusting methods would've brought the peace you claim to desire!"

Before either woman could make a move towards the other, Ramza affixed the women with a dangerous glare. "God!" he gritted out through clenched teeth. "If you two cannot act according to the dictates of your ranks, then you can both start marching back to Dorter! I won't take people I can't rely on with me to save my sister!" He took in deep breaths, trying to calm himself after his outburst. He hated being angry, especially at the people he considered to be his friends and close allies, but Alma was still lost to him.

Agrias slowly nodded, her normally stern face now pinched in humiliation. "I am sorry. It was unprofessional of me."

"I'm sorry," Meliadoul murmured.

Ramza ran his hands through his bangs, exhaling slowly. "Thank you."

"What is all this noise..." From the opposite end of where Ramza sat rose Cloud Strife, the transported foreigner. Due to his continued disorientation, he tended to act slower and sleep more deeply than the citizens of this world.

"Sorry, Cloud," Ramza smiled tightly, "it won't happen again." No other words were needed for the strangely clothed man, as he fell right back onto his roll and dozed off again.

"Ah...anyway, we're on Libra," Beowulf coughed, trying to get everyone back into the game and away from any other unbecoming displays, "which I happen to be."

"Oh, oh, I'm one too," Mustadio spoke up, popping out the earplugs he had hastily shoved into his ears when he had caught wind of the argument between the two lady knights. Normally these earplugs were used in the heat of battle, as the noise of the gun he used was deafening otherwise. In this way, the screeching of two women could be equally hazardous to his hearing.

"Hm?" Meliadoul looked from Beowulf to Reis, then back again. "Aren't you a Pisces, Reis?" The dragoner nodded at this. The Divine Knight nodded sagely at this. "Oh, only normal compatibility? I'm surprised."

"What does that mean?" Reis cared little for astrology.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I just thought you two would have signs that were more compatible than just 'normal." Meliadoul shrugged. "I suppose it really is just a myth."

Reis had other things on her mind as she turned her attention to Beowulf. "I thought you said that we had good compatibility," she said to him, her expression bland.

"What?" He looked genuinely confused. "When did I say that?"

"The third time we saw each other, back in Lionel."

"...I don't remember...I mean, that was almost seven years ago..."

"I see." This was said with a note of finality.

Noticing the situation she had started, Meliadoul attempted to lighten the atmosphere. "Well, that just goes to show that you can't believe anything you hear, especially with the zodiac. Though, Sir Beowulf, that's quite the line. I can certainly see how you're a Libra."

Beowulf now looked put-upon. Reis, however, was now the one nodding sagely. "Yes, that's very true. I've always taken his words with a pinch of salt, as it were."

"...What?" The former Temple Knight looked completely and utterly shocked. Everyone else just looked interested as they watched this new development. Even Orlandu was leaning forward, attentive when he had once been disinterested.

Realizing the full weight of her words, Reis leaned over and whispered something in Beowulf's ear. He merely raised an eyebrow in response. She leaned in closer, and he frowned. "Well, I can understand, but..." he trailed off when she continued. "No, no, I see..." he attempted, but she was hanging off of his shoulder and still trying to get her point across. "Oh...hm, I didn't think of it that way..." he nodded, wrapping one arm around her slender waist as he began to smile. "No, don't say that. I really appreciate it. You've definitely changed for the better." He laughed at something she said, holding her close. "I know, love. Thank you." He kissed her on the cheek as she pulled away only enough to rest her head on his shoulder, and he tenderly tucked a lock of hair that had fallen over her face behind her exposed ear. That was when he happened to glance over and notice their audience. "Hello," he said, faintly.

Mustadio raised one hand. "Hey."

"Ahem," Agrias coughed into one gloved hand, drawing attention away from the now-embarrassed couple. "Are we still playing this game? While it lacks some of the entertainment one can apparently receive from watching other people's moments of intimacy, I would prefer continuing it."

"Um, sorry," Rafa apologized, even though she had spent the last few minutes looking down at her lap to give the couple beside her some privacy. The Holy Knight merely frowned at this before returning her attention to her sword.

"Scorpio, then?" Orlandu mused. "That would be me."

"You?" Ramza asked, wide-eyed.

"Yes. Is there a problem?"

"No...I just...well, you know, Dycedarg was a Scorpio."

"Ah," the elder man nodded wisely, a smile adorning his worn face, "but we are nothing alike, you are thinking. Am I correct?"

Mustadio closed the panel that led to Worker 8's internal system, rubbing at his eyes. "That's strange. There's meanings in the zodiac? 'Cause, Father's a Scorpio and he's just...not like either Ramza's brother or you."

"If I could ask," Beowulf started, curiosity gnawing away at any propriety he had, "Mustadio, how is it that you know your and your father's signs, but nothing about the meanings behind them or even the order of the cycle?"

"Well, it doesn't get things fixed or dig out ore from the drifts, so it's not important to me," the mechanic shrugged. "Except for the cases of Worker 8 and the Celestial Globe, anyway. I mean, it's just one of those things that you know about just because, but you don't care too much about, you see?"

"Oh, that's why you and your father didn't recognize the Aquarius and Cancer symbols," Ramza thought out loud. Mustadio nodded.

"Yeah, all that zodiac stuff only has applications in battle these days, but back when the airships flew I'd imagine that it was extremely important."

"Oh, that's interesting."

"So, there are no other Scorpios?" Orlandu inquired during the ensuing lapse in conversation after Ramza's comment. "Then, it would be Sagittarius now, correct?"

The former Hokuten squire closed his eyes, covering his face with his hands. "Delita."

Agrias stiffened at the name, the shell of polite manners and tightly reined emotions that encased the woman's true self slowly cracking at the seam. "Is that so," she stated. Likewise, the famed Thundergod Cid, he of the legendary poise, seemed to be a tad disturbed by the name of the boy who was now the new Nanten commander.

"You know, now that I think about it," Mustadio looked at Meliadoul, who was placing all her armor next to her bedroll after their thorough cleaning, "Melly, your brother said something about Delita at Orbonne. Did you know him?"

"My name is Meliadoul," the Divine Knight muttered. "Delita...yes, that was the boy whom my father used to infiltrate Zeltennia. Izlude talked to him a few times. My brother could make friends with a rock." She smiled fondly, though with the flickering flames the shadows revealed a subtle shade of sadness along her face.

Orlandu glanced at the young woman. "You knew?" he asked, a dark tone in his voice.

"I hadn't realized how little I had known until I joined this group," she said, undaunted. With a father that had grown increasingly more dangerous within the last few years, she was not intimidated by the threat a legendary warrior carried. "But at the time, everything seemed right."

"I can understand that," Rafa said, her voice low with the pain of the memories she only revealed through her dark eyes.

Mustadio glanced at her, his expression sympathetic. "Yeah, but you're not a religious fanatic. You just did what you had to do to survive, I bet." He turned to a glowering Meliadoul. "Uh, no offense."

She sighed, shaking her head. "No, I...they would not be undeserved words."

"The next would be Capricorn," Beowulf suddenly said in a hushed tone, and those who glanced at him witnessed as he unhooked his cape and wrapped it around a now dozing Reis. Lifting her with some effort, he moved her so that he could wrap his arms around her, her head resting against his chest.

Meliadoul raised her hand. "That's me."

Agrias suddenly smirked, a facial expression heretofore never seen on the woman's face. "Not everything's a myth, then."

The other woman, only older by six months, suddenly chuckled. "Nope."

Mustadio glanced between the two women, frowning slightly in his confusion. "Huh. You knights are all weird."

"I'm glad I'm not a knight," Ramza suddenly remarked, smiling innocently as four sets of glares were aimed at him. Rafa smiled at him over her brother's sleeping body.

"And look what you've shown us, Ramza. One doesn't need to be a knight to commit their life to helping others." She looked down at her brother, a contemplative smile lingering on her face. "Thank you."

"You're too kind, Rafa," he smiled, a slight blush across his cheeks accentuated by the campfire before he looked down and started to bundle all the supplies into their proper groupings before placing them into the item knapsack.

"Awww," Mustadio teased, "that's so cute." Ramza kept his head down, thankful that his heavy bangs hid most of his face. Meanwhile, Rafa giggled as she stretched out onto her bedroll, staring up at the stars. "So, Beo, what's next?" the mechanic continued.

His eyes flickering in amusement at the diminutive of his name, Beowulf thought for a moment. "Aquarius," he said just a little too loudly, causing the woman wrapped up in his cape to stir in his arms. "Sorry," he whispered, and Reis mumbled something before relaxing again.

"I don't know any Aquarians," Agrias murmured as she finally sheathed her sword. "Who has first watch?"

"I'm setting Worker 8 to watch for the whole night, since he doesn't need sleep," Ramza yawned as he placed the filled knapsack next to his roll. "I do know an Aquarian...Delita's sister, Teta. She was...I always thought of her as a sister."

"It's amazing that one girl could have the ability to change the lives of an entire country," the former Nanten commander said. "The value of one person may not be just in their actions, but in the way they affect the lives of those around them."

"In that way, you could say that Miss Hyral had even more value than the Queen herself." Meliadoul offered.

Agrias looked over at the older woman, annoyance flitting across her features. "Which one? Either way, what you've said could constitute a crime."

"It's also a crime for me to offer aid to a heretic, Lady Oaks, especially as a member of the Murond Shrine Knights. We all have laws that we've broken to get this far," Meliadoul said, for once not baiting the other woman. "As for your question, both queens. Delita's accusation toppled down Queen Ruvelia, as Sir Orlandu had witnessed. And now, this Queen Ovelia...well, it's simply incredible."

Ramza, distinctly uncomfortable with the discussion at hand, glanced at Mustadio, who was putting away his tools and readying his bedroll next to Ramza's. "Mustadio, Cloud's said that he was an Aquarius, didn't he?"

Mustadio rolled his eyes at the question. "That guy says some pretty wild things, like about what air is and sphere rows and stuff like that. I don't care what sign he is," he flopped down onto the roll and closed his eyes. "G'night."

"Good night." Ramza turned to the others, who were in the process of lying upon their own makeshift beds. "We still have Pisces."

"That's me," Rafa murmured, eyes half-closed.

"Me too," Reis yawned, trying to pull herself out of the cape she'd been lovingly wrapped in. "Beowulf, you need this more than me," she protested when he smiled and held the length of cloth closed over her exposed collarbone.

"But you look better in it," he commented, swooping in and kissing her on the temple before lying down on their shared roll. "Good night, everyone," he called as an exasperated Reis settled down beside him, pulling his cape off and laying it over the both of them.

Ramza smiled as he watched the scenes happening before him. "Worker 8," he said, and a nascent fear arose as the humanoid relic turned to him, staring lifelessly at him with glowing lights for eyes, "please watch for any suspicious activity in the woods around us, alright?"

/Yes, Master/ it intoned, and Ramza relaxed somewhat. He laid down onto his bedroll and stared up at the twinkling stars shining above the group. The thought of the zodiac stones, secreted away within his armor, came to him and he thought to try and look for Scorpio in the sky. When he thought he had found something vaguely scorpionic, he closed his eyes and dozed off, entering the realm of a dreamless sleep. It was that way with all the members of the group who traveled with him.

These heavenly bodies, now at rest.

-End of Zodiac Signal-