Zidane's Secret

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy IX,thoughI sure wish i did. .

This fic takes place right where final fantasy IX last left off but takes a totally different direction!

enjoy. . .

Garnet had brought him inside the castle some time between midnight and morning where she offered him a room and even though he had his own place in Lindblum, she wouldn't let him refuse. It was the great scenery from the window that loosened up the atmosphere and it was made fit for a queen, or in this case just fit enough for him, compared to what he used to call home. He couldn't help the urge to jump on the bed, put his hands behind his head, and take it easy for a while, so that is what he decided.. When they thought they were alone, a familiar voice called for Zidane. One swift movement got the door to sway and hit the wall leaving a dent. This mysterious person calling for Zidane revealed herself and that's when they knew they weren't alone, and weren't going to be for quite a while.

All of a sudden Zidane felt a certain genial little summoner girl tugging at his hand, she had a pudgy face with emerald eyes and would never leave Zidane alone for a second, or at least she tried. "Hello, I hope you haven't forgotten me! I'm the one who always believed in you and knew you were going to survive no matter what, Zidane!" She grasped his hand with a relentless grip, "you remember what I told you when you left, right?"

"Hiya," Zidane replied ignoring her question, "It's nice to know someone had faith in me," he said, trying make her feel good. Garnet glared at him,

"Of course, I was talking about you, Dagger!"

"I hope he didn't take my glaring at him too seriously!" She thought noticing how Zidane had changed his statement.

"I'm sure Eiko helped too," she tried to make things better; Garnet was never the one to pick fights, "Everyone helped, isn't that right?"

"But you thought of me all the time!" Eiko assumed.

"Uh, of course, I thought of everybody!"

Eiko paced around the room, abandoning the conversation, and noticed the scenery, she came up to the window and sat on the sill, "Zidane come and watch with me!"

She motioned her hand for him to come.

Zidane was getting ready to sit next to her, leaving his comfortable spot, until, Garnet decides to head for the door, "I'll leave you guys to the scenery, I have, um, work to do," she said placing her back against the door, she turned the knob and in that split second, the room went pitch black and the light bulbs shattered. Pieces of glass glimmered like the shimmer from the sea for a moment's time before their eyes and hit the floor. Eiko let out a shriek and went to Zidane for cover. The glass hadn't harmed anyone, but it made seeing each other rather difficult.

"W-what's going on?" Garnet demanded, she peeked through the door, coming towards her at a rapid speed was a chimera, she gasped and slammed the door in just enough time to let it slam the door hard and confuse itself.

"Dagger!" Zidane called, he reached for her, but Eiko was holding on to him with her eyes shut tight. Garnet turned her back on the door, her face pale. She slid down against the door but caught herself before falling.

"Dagger," he called again, "get away from there!"

Garnet shook her head from dizziness and got up gingerly, "what has happened to the castle?" she looked at Zidane like she really wanted an answer from him, somehow, she assumed this had something to do with him.

Eiko looked around, then finally let go of Zidane, "are we stuck in this room?" she asked after seeing the chimera crash into the door. It became obvious the whole castle was invaded by mist monsters. Zidane looked around, sweat dripped down his face, he answered Eiko's question first, "no."

Garnet started to walk over to him and Eiko crossed her arms. He stuck his head out the window; the wind was chilly and stung his face. He checked how high above the ground they were, too high to jump but there were vines growing along the window that covered the whole outside wall, it might have been risky, been it could be done, "Eiko, Dagger, prepare yourselves, we're climbing down the vines, and we might not know if we encounter any monsters outside so be on your guard."

"You'll protect me, Zidane" said Eiko, she assured herself and ran first to the window. As she slipped her leg out the window, the door was given a tremendous shove by a monster that shook the room. Eiko lost her balance and swayed out the window. Luckily Zidane grasped her hand but he too was slipping. She was hanging outside with Zidane halfway outside and now the monster was making its way into the room, Garnet, not wanting to seem useless, went over to the door and gave it a shove trying to keep the monster from getting in, Zidane, on the other hand did not approve of this.

"Dagger, hurry, climb down! Forget about it!" he called, raising his head and pulling his sword out with his spare hand, but she didn't move.

"Help Eiko, trust me!" she said with a nod, Zidane didn't want to admit that Eiko was in fact slipping away. He turned to her one more time fearing it would be his last, Garnet seemed pretty confident, so he slipped his sword back into its sheath.

Eiko was trying to reach Zidane's hand with her other, hoping that when she did, he would pull her up from the chilling wind, but Zidane now told her to start climbing down. It seemed logical, so she did. Zidane jumped down the window and gripped a vine.

They were both climbing down with ease. He jumped the last few feet to the ground and Eiko jumped into his arms, "Where's Dagger?" she said shivering.

"She's coming." Zidane said, putting her down, "right now, we have to look for every one, they're probably looking for us." All of the Pluto knights were running around everywhere fighting off mist monsters, Zidane tried asking them where Steiner or Beatrix were, but they only said was that they were going to save the queen. Well, they weren't doing much just running around in frenzy.

Zidane and Eiko had only run a couple of steps when they encountered an Ahriman.

"L-let's keep running!" Eiko stuttered

"No, we have to fight!" Zidane said, pulling out his sword and into battle position. He hadn't noticed the danger he was putting Eiko in, but she couldn't show him how weak she was either. But what could she do, she didn't have her flute with her, all she was good for was white magic.

In a single attack, the Ahriman whipped out Eiko. The monsters had been leveled up to their level and weren't as easy to defeat. Zidane picked up Eiko's fragile body, but the Ahriman roared loudly and swooped down for him.

His heart was beating faster, everything seemed to stop, the same thoughts ran through his head one hundred times over. . .the same words appearing before his eyes in a bright background. He was in a trance(no, not his limit "trance") and wasn't seeing what was really happening before him, but only a bright space with these words flashing in front of him.

'Dagger, is she okay?'

'Eiko needs help'

'My sword, I need to beat this Ahriman!'

Zidane felt an intensified force compressed against him. He was blown from the ground, his feet were lifted from the dirt, and he was thrown in the air, crashing hard on the floor, all against his will Eiko went flying form his arms and hit the ground inches ahead of him. The Ahriman, being a flying type, was blown a far distance and got entangled in a tree. Zidane had come out of his trance and built all of his strength to stand up, he turned his head from where the unknown force had come from. The window he had escaped out of. Immense blazes of fire blew out of the window enough to engulf the room with flames. At this point he didn't know what to feel, had Garnet been lucky to escaped? Zidane just acted on instinct. He began to run towards the wall and started up the vines again. It was useless and a weak attempt, especially when deadly red eyes stared down at him, then revealed its entire self. Menacing claws, rapid tail, and wings the size of the castle wall.

It was Bahamut.

Zidane's mouth opened wide, he fell back on the ground. Bahamut released himself from the deficient room and flew circles in the moonlit sky. Zidane was amazed by this, "but. . . Garnet, is she okay?"

He squinted as he could now see the slender body of the summoner up top the flaming king of dragons.

Bahamut closed up on Zidane, he raced over to Eiko and picked her up, but suddenly got the feeling of despair for letting that happen to her.

"Zidane, Hop on!" came the cheerful pitch of the summoner distracting him form Eiko. She came in closer to him and reached out her hand and he reached out his, they clasped and Zidane lifted himself up in front of Garnet on the vast, flying dragon as of now he could finally breathe a breath of relief knowing the situation might turn out well, however, he might have an issue other than this to worry about. Was all of this really happening because of Zidane? Could it have been something that happened during the time he was gone? He looked down at Eiko and saw the state she was in; her face was blank, impossible to tell what she was feeling. He might be putting the people around him in danger. Who knows how the rest of the team is doing.

That was it for the first chapter! Tell me if it was good/bad. R&R if updates are wanted cause I haven't even started the next chapter yet! Thanx for reading.