I worked non-stop on our kingdom for a whole year. I became anti-social, hidden in the royal hall, sleeping there, working there, looking out over her kingdom each day. It became my home and my sanctuary. The royal bedroom was too full of memories of waking and finding her gone, too full of memories of her in those last days.

So I never went there, I stayed in the hall, doing the work of two people, trying to cover up the fact that she left me. I became anti-social because all anyone ever seemed to talk about was her and I couldn't bare knowing that she was out there dead or alive and I wasn't even going after her.

I desperately wanted to go after her, find her, be with her. But then, who would run this kingdom? I suppose I used that excuse actually, Steiner was always there and he knew how to run the kingdom better than me, but the truth was that I didn't want to find her because I was scared of her reaction to me. She ran away from me and she didn't want me. What would be the point of finding her?

The hall became my home and my chair my bed. Many a time would I be woken up by a maid gently nudging me with a cup of coffee smiling down on me and asking if I had a nice sleep? I would make small talk, casually smiling at them and listening intently to what they say. As if they were the only person in the world. And eventually, they would leave me to it, to work another day away.

Yet no one could get through my outer shell. The way I displayed myself to the world. No one could however much they tried. The only person who had heard me displaying my emotions was Eiko and that was only because when I talked to her, she sounded so innocent, and it reminded me of Garnet, the young princess. I wouldn't let her in the hall though, she came over each weekend, talked through the gaps in the doors, but I wouldn't let her in, because she was the one I knew I would let my shell down for and I needed it up, needed protection from the world.

She was the one who gave me hope though, she was the only one who dared to speak about Garnet in a horrible way in front (well, in between cracks in the doors) to me. She would tell me the things that no one dared say to me, say to me the things that she had always thought about Garnet. I suppose she wanted to be let in to see me. But I wouldn't let her in. Even when she cracked and pleaded to see me, when she sat there in silence, listening to me pace around the room. The worst time where when she would sit there and I knew she was silently crying, crying for me, but she wouldn't cry loudly. That, as she told me, was for little children, and Eiko, was not a little child.

At the end of the year, I couldn't take it anymore...

Steiner put on his armour of the first day in the first year and looked down at his newly-polished Sword. smiling, remembering, he picked it up and flicked it in the way he used to when he had defeated an enemy.

'Reminding yourself of the old times?' Beatrix's beautiful, silky voice came from behind him as her arms slid round his armoured chest. 'Yes, they were the days.' She said as she leant her head on Steiner's broad shoulder.

Steiner smiled at her, still beautiful after all these years. He bent down and kissed her softy then unattached her arms from him while kissing her forehead.

'I have got to go report to Zid...The king.' Steiner said and smiled. Beatrix's forehead creased.

'Why do you not call him Zidane?' she asked, confused at his words.

'For he is not Zidane, Not the Zidane I know...knew.' Steiner replied and walked, as casually as he could, out the door.

He walked down the hallway and round the corner where he nearly knocked one of his faithful knights, Kohel, down to the floor. Kohel jumped back at the last moment and saluted. Then bent over panting.

'Sir, we...we...we found the...royal...' Kohel pants 'Hall... empty. Milord is not there.' Kohel stood up again, with new found breath. 'One of the ships has been taken too, one of the new ones that have no tracker devices in them and are very fast. Sir, the guards in the air base say that the king was there only an hour ago and told them to go off guard for the night. Then they say that they heard an airship start up and fly off, and they were too far away to run back and catch him before it was too late.' Kohel scratched his leg. 'Also, Sir. Eiko Carol from Lindblum castle is appeared missing too.' Steiner creased his forehead trying to take it all in and nodded to the knight.

'Well? What are you waiting for? Go search for any clues to where they might have gone!' he shouted at Kohel suddenly and thundered back to his room to tell Beatrix the news. When Beatrix heard, she didn't even suppress her smile.

'Finally! I was wondering when he would go after her!' Steiner stared open mouthed at her. 'Oh come on! You thought Zidane would sit back here the rest of his life and never go after her?' Steiner shook his head.

'No...But what about the kingdom?' he asked gob smacked at his partner's easiness of the dilemma.

'How long have we been in service?' Beatrix asked Steiner 'Too many years to count, that's how long!' Beatrix carried on 'I think we know how to run this place.' She smiled at Steiner as he scratched his head.

'Do you think we should send a search party out for them?' he asked and Beatrix laughed.

'Not yet, give it a while, maybe even a year, and then we will go out after them.'