Edonil: Yay! Christmas holidays! I'm so happy… I'll try to update a few times, I promise!
Disclaimer: If I owned FFIX… Well, it actually wasn't all that cold today, and it still hasn't snowed (as usual), despite the fact I live in Canada, but if I owned FFIX, I would hire someone to wrap Christmas presents for me.
Claimer: Crims, Sarah, and Avylonn are all mine.
Advertisement: Yin is Good with the power to do Evil. Yang is Evil with the power to do Good. When they merge, they are the legendary Gemini. To read about Yin and Yang, go to my FictionPress account, and read the story 'Gemini'. (I've been working on it for over a month, and it's a short story! It must be good!)
To Change
Chapter Thirty-One
"Is this normal?"
"I… don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"I don't! I was weird when I was a kid, Kuja, so I don't know how she's supposed to act!"
"Didn't you have any friends?"
"I hung out with weird people."
"SHUT UP IN THERE!"
"Kuja, I think she can hear us."
"OF COURSE I CAN HEAR YOU! YOU'RE ONLY IN THE NEXT ROOM!"
"Crims, do you think-" With a sigh, Avylonn reached over and turned on some music. Maximum volume. It took perhaps twenty seconds for her father to appear in the doorway.
His mouth moved, but the music was too loud, and Avylonn couldn't hear him. He glared, then yelled, "TURN THAT MUSIC DOWN!" Shrugging, Avylonn complied.
"Happy?"
"Yes… Avylonn, are you sure you don't want to listen to something more… hip?" Avylonn looked at him curiously. More hip? Why?
"I like this, Father."
"Yes, but… Girls your age shouldn't be listening to gothic church organ music."
"I like it."
"Alright… Dinner will be soon."
They don't know. They don't understand. They wanted me to be more assertive. Do they think I couldn't hear them? But I heard them. I heard every word. Now I'm more assertive. I have an 'identity'. They should be happy. Why aren't they? I don't care. They wanted me to be more individual. They wanted me to stop moping. They got what they wanted. They should be happy…
---
"Crims, what should we do?"
"I don't know. AVYLONN! DINNER! Kuja, hand me that spoon, would you?"
"Do you think perhaps we should move into the city? Perhaps seeing people her own age…"
"Which city?"
"Um… I suppose it will have to be on the Mist Continent. Maybe… Treno?"
"No. I grew up there, remember. It was… horrible."
"But she will grow up with the nobles… I suppose it would be best if we tried somewhere else first. Treno has too much deceit and fakery. It would be too confusing."
"Yes… I suppose Burmecia is out of the question?"
"I destroyed it, remember?"
"Indirectly."
"Still, I destroyed it. What about Alexandria? We could pay my brother a visit."
"I suppose… AVYLONN! YOUR DINNER'S GETTING COLD!" Avylonn's gothic church music began blaring again.
Kuja looked at Crims. Crims looked at Kuja. They'd tried to get her to stop turning up her music, to stop reading depressing poetry, to stop leafing through tragedies and melodramas… Avylonn was a very troublesome child.
"Alexandria, you say?"
---
Zidane paced anxiously. Kuja was coming to visit. He'd written Zidane a letter, saying he wanted to immerse his daughter into society. It sounded reasonable to Zidane… But then Kuja had said that Avylonn was 'difficult'. Steiner had immediately rejected the notion. Everyone else figured that Kuja just didn't know how to behave around teenagers.
"Zidane! There you are!" Zidane looked up to see Dagger. "I've been looking for you!"
"What do you need?" Zidane asked, after passionately kissing her.
"Some of Uncle Cid's diplomats just arrived. I have to go visit with them. Will you apologize to Kuja and Crims?"
"Of course. Go enjoy- Go talk to them." Dagger grinned. Enjoy oneself around diplomats?
---
Steiner paced anxiously. That little witch was coming! What was he going to do? Three Angels in the same place… It was horrible. Absolutely horrible!
"Hey, Rusty!" Steiner turned to glare at Zidane.
"I am Captain Adelbert-"
"Steiner of the Knights of Pluto, you insolent fool," Zidane finished for him. "Really, you shouldn't call the spouse of the reining monarch 'you insolent fool'.
"You are an insolent fool," Steiner sniffed. "Not to mention that calling the Captain of the Knights of Pluto 'Rusty' could lead to a coup."
"Details! So, are they here yet?"
"No."
"You don't want them to come, do you?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Kuja is a maniac who tried to destroy the world, Crims is a promiscuous scoundrel who bore the child of Kuja, and Avylonn is the Third Angel."
"Hmm… I can't really argue with that… But how is being the Third Angel a bad thing?"
"I do not like the first two Angels."
"Good point."
The two stood in silence for several long moments. Steiner was trying to look official and impressive, and not glare at the 'spouse of the reining monarch', who was studying him curiously. Finally, Steiner lost patience.
"What is it?"
"What is what?"
"You're looking at me!"
"Yeah… I've been wondering, is there any particular reason you don't like me?"
"You're a thief and a scoundrel and a low-life-"
"Ok, ok, I get the picture."
---
Zidane could not understand Steiner. The man seemed nice enough, but he really didn't like Zidane. Back at the Iifa Tree, Steiner had been almost civil, but now… Steiner had been ok for the first few months after Zidane's return, but then Zidane and Dagger had announced they were getting married, and… Steiner was just confusing.
---
Beatrix sighed. She had hoped the men would settle their differences… No such luck. She loved Steiner dearly, but he could be so stupid sometimes! Why couldn't he just admit it! Beatrix knew that Steiner didn't hate Zidane; he admired him. It was blatantly obvious! But Steiner didn't know how to express his admiration, so he tried to put Zidane down… It didn't make sense.
---
Zidane looked up. There was the airship. Good. He really wanted to meet Avylonn. She must have changed from the scared little girl Zidane had seen before. Of course, she couldn't be too different; she had suffered through a lot. But seeing her as a normal teenager could be interesting.
"Kuja!" Kuja smiled as he stepped off the airship. "How was the journey?"
"Just fine. Zidane, this is my daughter, Avylonn." Zidane looked over at the airship. It was Avylonn. She was definitely dressed… differently. She wore a long crimson skirt covered in a black fishnet skirt with a black flame pattern. She had two shirts: a red fishnet one with tights sleeves, and a black fishnet one with loose sleeves and several strategically placed black flames. Her hair looked incredibly like Kuja's had when he had been in Trance: red and feathery. Zidane hadn't noticed before, but her eyes were bright red, and apparently her earlier paleness was not the cold, but how she was naturally. She really did look like Kuja.
"It's nice to see you again, Avylonn," Zidane said politely. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Steiner, who looked like he was about to suffer from apoplexy. Clearly Steiner wasn't used to seeing Zidane acting polite.
"Hello," she said quietly. "It's nice to see you too." She looked around curiously.
"This is Steiner, Avylonn. Say hello, Steiner."
"Hello."
"Good Steiner. Now why don't you lead these nice people to their rooms?" Steiner glared, but then glanced at Kuja.
"It would be my pleasure."
---
Avylonn glanced around the room. It was so… different from her room in the Desert Palace. Which made a certain amount of sense, of course. Her room in the Desert Palace had been completely revamped. The walls were a deep wine-purple, and there were black velvet cloths draped around the room. Her huge four-poster bed had wine-purple curtains, and her sheets were a deep blood-red. It was nice and… gloomy. But this room had white walls, an open window, white sheets… Of course, she was guest, so it wouldn't be polite to complain. It could be worse. She could still be living with the Master…
No, not the Master. Garland. I have to get used to saying it. His hold on me is gone. My father fought it. He escaped. Zidane fought it. He escaped. Now I, too, will fight it. I will be free! I will!
Avylonn walked over to the window, curious. She'd never seen so many bright colours before in her life! The Desert Palace was white, purple, and silver, except for her room, of course. But here… Reds, blues, yellows, oranges, greens, indigos… So many colours. And the people! How could they stand it, being all squished together like that? That annoying hum of people talking, children laughing, pigeons squawking… She felt like she was going to go insane!
I'll have to get used to it. Perhaps I should go explore. Yes. That's what I'll do. What time is it? Early afternoon, judging by the sun. I'll go tell my parents I want to explore the town. I've studied maps. I know my way around, right? I'll be fine.
And with that thought in mind, Avylonn left her room.
Edonil: Six pages! Yay! You like? Another sub-plot will soon come into play… R&R!