Vivi got off the bed and walked to the door. His sides were very painful, and his legs were moving very slowly. He was hunched over, like an old man, and his eyes told a story of pain and grief, doubled tenfold. He looked up to the doors, expecting to see no one, and saw a girl standing there, her long blue hair flowing in the wind and a horn protruding from her head. Vivi noticed how much she had changed from the last time he had seen her and again felt strange. She was smiling at him, her eyes big and round. He got to the doors and leant against them. He reached his arms up to her and she walked into them. Slowly, painfully, they went round her arms and back and he leant his head down into her hair. He closed his eyes and thanked the thing that must be looking out for him that he lived.

Eiko buried her head deeper into Vivi's chest and wrapped her arms round his back carefully. She knew he was hurting, but she knew how much this had taken him to do. Vivi was not a person who showed his emotions easily, and he never let anyone close to him. But now, here he was, holding her and crying softly into her hair. Eiko moved slightly and she felt Vivi wince. She stayed still again and held him more. She didn't want that moment to end, but she knew it had to at some point. She memorised everything about him then. The smell of him, the feeling of her cheek on his chest, his heart beat, his arms wrapped delicately around her…

I didn't want Zidane to be the first one to find the letter. I didn't want him to see the things I had written, the sorrow I entwined into the words. I left it with Steiner, with instructions that he make a copy of it, without my emotions entwined into the words, that he burn the letter I wrote…

Zidane went away a lot, and I suppose I should have seen it coming. I kept hearing reports of people seeing someone looking like Zidane with a lot of girls around towns and cities. At first, I ignored the comments, until an anonymous person sent me a video, clearly showing the back of Zidane's head as he hugged a girl. And another clip of the back of him as he was kissing someone. And another clip of them going into an Inn…

I thought he had changed, but I knew, deep down, that I couldn't change him. He was, and always would be, a ladies man. There were so many times that I had asked him what he had done that day, and he had just shrugged his shoulders, claiming not to remember, or not to want to talk to it. Then he would cuddle down with me, and stroke my hair, and ask her about my day. And I would tell him, thinking that he cared about every little detail. Now I see that he was just trying to avoid the subject of 'him'.

I left, knowing that he had cheated me for months, maybe years.

'I never did such a thing.' Zidane said and rubbed his head with his hands. 'You think I cheated on you?' he hit his fist into his leg 'Dammit Garnet! I never did such a thing!' he pulled at his hair on the back of his head again 'Is that why you left me?' He growled and kicked at the ground with his boot.

'I know what I saw.' Garnet replied and looked down at her hands.

'You saw it?' Zidane asked. Garnet nodded her head

'Someone sent me a tape. The back of your head as you hugged a girl, the back of your head as you kissed another girl, a side view of you going into an inn.' Garnet said, hanging onto the words she claimed.

'Do you still have this tape?' Garnet nodded her head again and produced a black videotape from the front of her baggy jumper that was on the floor.

'I didn't want Kuja to ever find it, so I keep it with me most of the time.' Garnet looked up at Zidane 'I made a fitting into most of my jumpers so I could hide it.' She said, smiling at the secrecy of it. Zidane took the tape and violently shoved it into the video player.

'Right…' he said and sat back as the first clip of him came onto the screen. '…That's not me.' He said suddenly and paused it. He went up to the screen and touched the back of his supposed head. 'Look, can you see that?' he said, pointing to the slice of his supposed face. 'I have blue eyes, this guy has grey eyes!' Garnet squinted and looked carefully at the colours on the screenthe slice of his face was so small, but you could just see a bit of his eye, and she had to admit it. This 'Zidane' had grey eyes.

'Ok, so that's one out of three.' Garnet said in a very cold voice and folded her arms. Zidane looked back at the screen and let the video run again. The end of the next clip and Zidane sat there for a few moments.

'Garnet.' He said and looked at her. She looked back at him. 'That was you. I was kissing you.' He laughed and rewound the tape. 'Look, I put my hands under brown hair, the same length as mine, cut with a dagger, and look again, look at the girls eyes. They're yours!' Garnet looked at the girl and gasped you couldn't see her face that clearly, couldn't see the girl that clearly, like it had been fiddled with so that you deliberately couldn't see her face. "It was when you wore the dress I got you, remember?' Garnet smiled at the memory, that dress had made her look so different, like she was finally grown up. She had so many clothes back at the castle she could wear a different one every day of the year and still have some left over. For this reason, she hardly remembered any of the clothes unless she saw them again, and that dress had been chucked out because it got wine spilt on it. Then she realised that what Zidane said was true. And they had gone into an inn; they were checking round Alexandria and the Inns, for their yearly inspection. Suddenly she felt a fool and started crying.

'I ran away for no reason!' She blurted out and felt arms go round her shoulders, she leant into the guy holding her and grabbed onto his clothes, as if he was about to walk away and she didn't want him to go.

'It's done us good.' Zidane whispered to her and stroked her hair. Garnet remembered the one question she had always been afraid to ask, for fear of what the answer was.

'Why did you wait two years to come find me?' she asked. Zidane stopped stroking her hair and pushed her off him. She grabbed his wrist. He looked down at it. 'Why!' Garnet almost shouted. Fears clogging up her brain. He was having an affair. He had been having an affair and it ended so he thought 'oh, lets go get the wife back.'

'I…I was frightened. I was very, very scared that you…Didn't want me. Well, you didn't. You walked out on me, you got Kuja…and Mikoto. And…' Zidane bit his lip, walked away from Garnet, into the bathroom and wiped his eyes on the back of his arm. 'Everybody told me not to come after you. I made a mistake and listened to them.' He said as calmly as his tears would allow.

Garnet had never seen him crying, never knew he was capable of it. He had always been her rock. He had never cried in front of her. Even when their baby died, he wouldn't cry in front of her, he would just hold her, stroke her hair again and again, but he never cried.

'Zidane…' she said and he pushed her away again and sat on the edge of the bath. He looked down, not able to meet her gaze.

'I'm sorry Garnet. I… I don't mean to cry.' He said but Garnet just smiled sadly. She put her arms round him and kissed the top of his head.

'It's alright.' She said and he hugged her back.

Later, after they had talked for ages and ages, just catching up on each other's lives, they went to bed.

'Seeing as you'll probably sneak out while I'm asleep, I'll say goodbye to you now.' Zidane said and looked at Garnet. 'Goodbye Garnet.' He said and smiled at her. She shook her head.

'Who said I was leaving tonight?' she said and lay down. A few minutes later she sat up again. 'Zidane.' She said and he looked across to her. 'Come here.' She said and opened up the bed for him. Zidane climbed in next to her and put his arms round her small frame. She fitted into the shape he was in again and he stroked her hair slowly. 'Just like old times.' She said sleepily and Zidane chuckled.

'So, how was your day today?' he asked her and she smiled. Just like old times…

'So, have you been doing the research while I was sleeping?' Vivi asked Eiko. Eiko bit her lip.

'I don't need to, I found something out…' she said and handed Vivi a paper. 'These are the times Kuja was away.' She said and picked up a few pictures. 'These are pictures of someone looking like Kuja above the Iifa tree and Black Mage village,' she gave him the last paper. 'These are the times the Black Mage village was…raided and Iifa tree became active again.' Eiko looked at the little mage.

'They're all at exactly the same time…' Vivi weighed up and sighed. 'We can't stop him on our own!' he shouted, annoyed at his helplessness. 'We need the whole gang. Come on! Get on the phones!' Vivi jumped into the chair next to a phone and started to dial numbers…

Garnet woke up to the feeling of someone kissing her eyelids and forehead light as a butterfly. She smiled and opened her eyes.

'Morning beautiful.' A voice above her head said and she smiled even more. ' I wouldn't smile too much.' Garnet lost her smile and looked at the guy standing in front of her, fully dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. 'I gotta go back to Alexandria. Something's happened and I need to go sort it out.' Garnet sat up in bed and looked straight at him 'I've got to go… it's your decision to come with me or to stay here.' Garnet looked down at the bed sheets. 'I'm really sorry Garnet.' He repeated and walked into the kitchen area. She heard him fill up the kettle and heard the sound it made as he placed it on the stove to heat it up. She looked at Mikoto, with her small hands and eyes that were closed in sleep. And she knew what she had to do.

'Zidane.' She said as she walked into the room. Zidane looked round, a mixture of hope and sadness on his face. 'I need to tell you something…'she began and sat down on a chair conveniently next to her.

She had been alone for the birth of Mikoto. All except for Ruby. Ruby had been running round like a headless chicken trying to get a midwife or a nurse to deliver the baby.

'How can you be having her now? You're only seven months pregnant!' she kept saying. Garnet sunk back on the soaked pillow behind her head and the water around her. She was too tired to tell her why. Too tired to do anything. 'That's it Garnet. PUSH!' she kept hearing in the background. No one stood next to her, holding her hand, she was alone apart from the pain shooting through her.

'Seven months?' Zidane asked, and Garnet turned to him.

'Kuja is not the father of Mikoto.' She said and smiled at him. 'I never knew when to tell you. You were always so busy back in Alexandria… and then I left… and I haven't had a good time to tell you till now.' Then, like she knew she was being talked about, Mikoto appeared at the doorway and looked at Zidane.

'Sidan! Hug?' she asked and outstretched her arms. Zidane laughed and reached down to the small girl. 'Love you.' She said simply and dug her head into his shoulder

'Love you too.' Zidane replied and hugged her tighter. Garnet watched and marvelled at how attached her little girl had become to a stranger

'She never said that to Kuja.' Garnet remarked and Zidane looked up at her, like he had forgotten she was there. He smiled at her and then looked down at the girl again…