'Where were you last night? I went round your house and you weren't there.' Ruby asked. 'Did Kuja take you out for a meal?' she asked with a smile on her face, wondering if Garnet would tell her the truth.

'No, I met up with an old friend.' Garnet said, not taking her eyes from the table she was wiping down.

'Yeah? Who?' Ruby pushed, noticing the way Garnet responded, the little pause she made, the way her eyes flicked from the table to Ruby's eyes and then back to the table again.

'Zidane.' Garnet said, as if the name meant nothing. No emotion coming from those syllables.

'Really? Tell me all about it.' Ruby said as she switched the sign on the door to closed…

…When Garnet had just finished talking about getting out of there, there was a knock on the door.

'We're closed!' both Garnet and Ruby shouted

'Dara!' a man's voice called out and Ruby looked at Garnet. Garnet's eyes were scared, Ruby remembered that weeks ago, before Garnet has come face to face with Zidane again, those eyes had held such love for the person on the other side of the door. Garnet got up and went to open the door; Ruby got up so she could run away easily if she needed to. She had never trusted the man standing in the doorway. 'Dara! I thoughts you would be heres!' The man slurred as he came up to Garnet.

'You've…you've been drinking…' Garnet stumbled over a chair as she took a step backwards.

'You drive me to it Dara! You are always worrying me so much I have to drown my sorrows in ma drink!' Kuja said, his face serious. He grabbed Garnet's arm and pulled her to him. 'That's a naughty thing to do.' Kuja whispered viciously into her ear and twisted her arm behind her back 'very naughty…and naughty girls need to be punished.' He said and slapped her across the face with his free hand. Then he let her arm go and pushed her backwards, so she crashed to the floor and hit her head on a stone post supporting the second floor.

'Leave her alone!' Ruby shouted and ran at Kuja, who pushed her backwards too and kicked her. She lay there still for a bit then twitched. She looked around her theatre and saw that Kuja had gone. She got onto her hands and knees and crawled over to Garnet, who was whispering something. Ruby put her ear to Garnet's mouth and heard what she was saying

'Zidane…help me…please help…Zidane…' Garnet muttered over and over. Ruby got up and ran into the street and to the air station, flew to the industrial district praying that Kuja wouldn't be at home, and went into Garnet's house. Kuja had been there, everything was smashed and trampled, but in amongst all the rubble was Mikoto. She picked the girl up and ran out, back to her theatre again…

The first night after she had run away had been the worst…

When she had woken up in the morning, there was a man standing over her. He pushed her hair back from her face and told her how beautiful she was; Garnet had just laid there, trying to put the face to the voice.

It took a long time for her to trust Kuja. He had to do a lot to make her trust him. Had to tell her how much he had changed. Had to show her that he had changed and wasn't just saying it.

Kuja was away for a long time, but wrote to her in Mognet everyday. Garnet had Mikoto when he was away. She put the mother as Dara Tribal and the father Kuja Tribal on the birth certificate.

Kuja first started hitting her, when she had just come home from what she was doing and Mikoto was only 6 months old. He accused her of having an affair when he was gone for no reason. Garnet had begged- pleaded- that that was not the case, but it made no difference. She got a black eye; she convinced herself she had just fallen over and hit her eye on a table.

'Dagger?' someone cooed from somewhere.

'Ugh…leave me alone.' Dagger thought

'Dagger? Are you all right?' the voice asked again and a hand swept some hair from her face. She opened her eyes to look straight into Ruby's face. She pulled back to reveal Zidane's face. Suddenly she realised her head was on his lap. She got up quickly and felt light-headed.

'Is Miko…is she all right?' Garnet asked and Ruby picked up a small girl from behind her.

'I went and got her. Don't worry.' Ruby said and handed the small girl to her mummy

'Mama!' the small girl cried and hugged her. Garnet went to hug her back but Zidane stopped her.

'I'd be careful.' He said and lifted up the girl's T-shirt to reveal a huge bruise on the side of her torso, over her ribs. Garnet looked at Zidane

'Kuja.' He just said and looked away. Garnet frowned; hoping he didn't mean Kuja did that. 'Yes… Kuja did that.' Garnet gasped

'How do you know?' she managed to splutter.

'I…He…I was…He' Zidane took a deep breath 'He was in the street with Mikoto. Carrying her. She wanted something and he wouldn't get it. She started crying, he dropped her on a sitting rock, and I was getting some food to eat that night. I saw it all.' Garnet's eyes clouded over

'You're lying!' she shouted and raised her hand, she went to slap Zidane's face, but he grabbed her arm and stopped her.

'Why would I lie?' he asked, let her arm go and sighed. 'Just, get some rest for now, then go home and talk to your boyfriend.' He said and walked away.

'What are you doing here anyway?' Garnet asked and Zidane turned round, smiled at her secretly and walked away again. She heard the door to the theatre close downstairs and knew he had gone.

He hadn't gone. He had just gone to close the door. Then he was back and hounding Ruby to stay the night so he didn't have to rent out the room in the inn again. Ruby sighed deeply and looked at Garnet, who was asleep on the spare bed, to Zidane, in front of her on his knees basically begging to stay. 'Ok then' she said with a hint of sadness. She sorted out the sofa for him, so he was in a mass of animal print cloth, and then she went to her room and settled down for the night.

Zidane settled down for the night and lay back onto the 'comfy' sofa. He couldn't sleep. It was going to be one of those nights, he told himself as he remembered the day that had just been. Slowly he remembered every detail of that day, but all that came down to was seeing every detail of her face. The way her hair fell across her face and made shadows on her skin, the way her breathing was very smooth, and the way that she looked like she was finally at peace in her dreams. How the frown on her face softened as she put her head on the pillow and finally, how she looked at Mikoto with such love in her eyes that it nearly made Zidane cry to see her face when he lifted up Mikoto's top.

He heard as the door opened and Mikoto was picked up, when he heard the creak of the door leading down to the theatre, he considered getting up, going after her, but then he heard the front door close and knew he was too late.

'Bye Garnet.' He whispered to the dark and closed his eyes, knowing sleep wouldn't come…

Eiko looked from the paper before her to the guy beside her. Vivi had his head down, At first glance he looked hard at work, but if you looked for a second longer, you would see his rhythmic breathing and realise his eyes were closed, and his hat slipping slowly from his head. Vivi was asleep.

Looking back at the sheet, Eiko saw something she did not want to see. Vivi was number #679 black mage and on the sheet she was looking at, the sheet of black mages dead. There was number #679. She blinked and looked again, then remembered that Vivi's number wasn't 679, it was 976! She looked for that number instead and thankfully couldn't find it. Ticking off the numbers of the dead onto the sheet of the black mages ever existed, she absently wrote the dates of when they died next to the tick. Finishing the most recent dates, she looked down at the sheet and her blood froze. Vivi was the only black mage left…and the only one stopping the race of black mages dying.

Vivi woke up with a start as someone slammed the door.

'Thank god, I thought she would never go.' A cruel, twisted voice whispered into Vivi's ear. Vivi turned his head and saw yellowed teeth smiling at him. 'Now, let's play the game your friends…' a pair of hands threw the papers at Vivi's face '…played hmm?' Vivi tried to call out for help, but his voice wouldn't work…