A/n: And so turns the world, and I miss my tuesday mark. I'm so sorry! I got really involved in everything going on with me right now, I completely forgot. So, here it is, a bit late, but here it be! The rest of the IX crew finally make thier appearance, and Three begins his self evaluation... Shout outs! Malevalla, Pilotsolver, Beastiewolf, Lori, NeoNaoNeo, La Llama and Rose Mage. Thank you, my faithful reviewers! Next Tuesday will be on time, I swear!

Disclaimer: I don't own Vivi or the Black Waltzes, er nobuddy. I don't even really own the personalities of the waltzes. They're Three, Two, and One's and they'res only! So stop asking me about that! (you know who you are...shifty eyes)

Beautiful Equilibrium

The Black Waltz the ripped in two.

He was frozen in place, staring at the mage's crumpled form, blinking. Had he... done this? He shook his head. What did he care? It was mage's own fault he took it so hard- he had just apologized! Was that so hard to the idiot to comprehend!

...but then again...

The waltz could vaguely see where Vivi was coming from. The mage had surprised even his when he showed his courage, standing up to the menacing murderer like that, dissolving Three's illusions of pure stupidity in the mage. He was able to weed out the truth from him, and that, in itself, was a feat. But that was only a small belief in the winged figure mind, not the basis of his reality. Vivi's heart had been set on hating him for that incident on the airship, and now it had been crushed with a utterance of the word 'unaware'.

He growled, shaking his head. But that was his own fault! He had set himself up for this fall, not thinking it through! What idiot of a Black Mage would not even think of the possibility of the Waltz's situation being so like their own? It was Vivi's fault he was a close minded moron! He could stay like that all day and it wouldn't both him one bit!

Three's eyes wandered to the mage's unconscious amber rivets. He could stay like that... all... all day...

He growled. Maybe it was Two's pacifism, his kindness to others that had effected him, or maybe it was the smallest amount of guilt he possess for this pain- the smallest, one must mind- but his feet had managed to take him to Vivi's comatose form, and of his body's own accord kneel beside him, pulling him roughly into his crossed legs with his good arm.

No one ever said he had to be nice about being nice.

Luckily for him, he had dealt with this sort of thing before. Two had often worked himself up into anxiety attacks and fainted, leaving a panicking One and a impatient Three to take care of him. Swallowing the urge to decapitate him on the spot, he hovered his black clawed hand over the mage's invisible mouth, feeling the hot breath in response. Well, at least he wasn't dead yet.

He pulled him back into his lap impatiently as he began to slide off- but stopped as he did so. He had grabbed the back of Vivi's hat to pull him back, and now withdrew it slowly-

His palm was smeared in blood.

He blinked calmly, seeing this essence before. Allot. He had been in more fights than even his brothers knew about, and had drawn blood from both himself and the opposition. This blood was coming from... from the back of Vivi's head, the cavern, despite the campfire, being dim enough to hide the blood soaked underside of Vivi's hat from the Waltz. He sighed and grabbed the brim of the floppy leather garment, pulling it off without a hint of hesitation.

But now he hesitated.

As he took the hat off, the mage's face had stayed exactly the same, shadowed black face and featureless visage, pained amber lights slit. But...

Exquisite, shining blue hair had fallen from the hat, the strands laying delicately across the teenager's boyish face, looking almost like layers upon layers of soft, cerulean feathers. His ears were pointed like his, earrings silver circles at the tip and lobe, a clip between them. Breath stripped of him, he let his hands fall beside him, staring at those eyes, studying that hair...

...curious...

His hand lifted, tenderly taking a strand of hair, brushing it away from his face, then, slowly, letting it fall on Vivi's forehead, straying across it and his features as though seeing with it. Beautiful closed eyes, childlike nose, fragile chin, perfect... perfect lips... the Waltz withdrew, taking a composing breath. He never imagined... beneath that annoying infantile voice, irritating adolescent demeanor, stupid hat and jacket- was this.

Something... as grown up as he was.

Three felt his eyes move to an expression on confusion. How, how could he have missed this? How could he have been so mean, so hateful, towards someone like... like... like Vivi... this...

...angel...

†

The day had been a perfect one for Zidane Tribal. He stood in front of a mirror in the room long ago claimed his, ever since his return after the Iifa Tree incident. It was modest enough, for a castle guess room, anyways, in a newly added area of the castle. Since the ascension to the throne, Garnet had done some amazing things to Alexandria, and Zidane had followed in her wake. It didn't bother him that he was no longer the lime light- in fact, he liked it. His life was a bit slower, and now that he was nearing his twenty fourth year of existence, he figured it was best.

Besides, when Garnet was around, there was always the right amount of excitement at the right time.

There was a polite knock. "Zidane...?"

He grinned lazily. Speak of the angel. "Yes, my dearest?" He called back, grinning.

Garnet entered- and just as every time she entered Zidane's line of sight, the blonde gave a almost boyish grin. At the moment she was wearing a stately white dress patterned with beautiful black flowers, the small royal circlet, her hair, now grown a bit past her waist, laying flat down her back. She smiled at him as he pushed away from the vanity, placing his gloved hands on her shoulders comfortingly.

"Wonderful." He said at last.

Garnet bowed her head, embarrassed. "You should look at yourself, Zidane. Or should I say, Sir Tribal."

The blonde's roguish grin returned. He was wearing a black and green tunic and pants, all of it silver embroidered, a matching cloak and black boots and gloves. He still carried his leather sheathe and dagger, but he had down-graded his ultimate weapon to a simple Gladius, seeing as it was easier to manage then the swallow. He shook his head, biting his tongue jokingly at an angle where Garnet could see. "Ah, you know, Steiner's still not happy about that."

The raven haired royalty laughed mischievously. "Who cares what he thinks." She folded her arms over his shoulders, staring into his teal eyes with her huge brown ones. "Now that your a Knight you can stay in the castle with me, and no one can say a thing. That's what I care about."

"Then that's good enough for me, Dagger." He grinned, leaning in for a sweet embrace. They stood lip locked for a while, pulling away only so Zidane could murmur lazily, "Let's forget dinner. I wanna skip dinner."

Garnet blinked innocently. "But I'm hungry!"

He grinned. "Let's take dinner in here then."

The Queen pushed away playfully. "Oh you-! You better be on your best behavior Zidane, I mean it. I don't want to be embarrassed in front of the kingdom again."

"Again?" Zidane raised a brow, shrugging. "That joke was a hit with the guys in Tantalus!"

"Yes, but I highly doubt that kind of... humor would be appreciated at a formal dinner party, Zidane." She sighed, shaking her head. "Risqué is not the Bermician's buiessness, usually."

"Freya liked it."

"Freya is not King Puck and Bermician High Court." Garnet mused patently, watching him adjust his Gladius with a stern look. "And Puck has grown up in seven years. He's not a perverse child anymore, so no jokes. This is a serious, boring old get together, Zidane, not a bunch of vagabond's partying."

He sighed at a length. "Fine. Let's go before you bore me to death talking about it."

"If you'll die by me talking of it you wont last two minutes in the real thing."

"Bleh bleh bleh..."

They accompanied each other to the conference hall, laughing and joking all the way- till they were in front of the doors. Zidane held out an arm, Garnet linked her hands around it, then they went in with expressionless faces and regal air.

As Zidane had been thinking earlier, life in the castle wasn't really all that bad. He had adjusted quite well, considering how much of a outlaw he used to be. Even Captain Steiner seemed impressed with his progress thus far, which had surprised everyone when he had said so. Yes, the monkey tailed knight could take just about anything this castle could throw at him; except these meeting dinners.

Thirty minutes in and Zidane was dosing on a palm. This was so boring! How long could someone talk about the regulations of Chocobo racing in the border of the kingdoms! He was almost to sleep and dreaming how nicer this dinner would be with some hot server girls when there was an explosion from somewhere in the castle.

The Bermician Council were sent into a frenzy, but Garnet was up in an instant. "Please, please stay clam, it was probably something from the kitchen, please-"

"No I will not calm down!" A voice from beyond the double doors yelled. "My dumbass brother is dying, and you tell me I can't see Garnet because of some stupid meeting! Fuck that!

Zidane was up on his feet with his dagger drawn when the doors crashed opened. He growled, expecting to see some disgruntled Alexandrian citizen-

But he didn't.

He was face to face with the monster from Ice Cavern, the one that had almost taken his and his friends' lives-

Black Waltz One.

One blinked, raising a brow at Zidane. "Well, you're looking a bit less scruffy than last time, monkey freak. I wanna see Garnet now."

The blonde shook his head, his tail lashing angrily, his hackles already risen from that monkey comment. "What makes you think I'm just gonna let you walk in here and let you-"

"I-it's... one of those pointy hat demons!" A Bermician with a thick Cleyran accent pointed, looking about his peers. "The one's that destroyed our homes!"

"That one has wings!"

"It has the audacity to come breaking in here-"

"We should kill it!"

"On an important meeting!"

"Shut up!" All eyes turned to the standing figure- King Puck. He had been silent for the whole meeting, and now he growled, glaring at the Bermicians. "Don't judge someone on their appearances, fools, even if they do look like the one's that destroyed Cleyra and Bermicia.One of my personal friends was aBlack Mage, and it would sever you all to open your thick mind a little before you speak out of turn!"

The Council fell silent, guiltily directing their eyes downward. Puck turned his gaze upon the stunned Black Waltz. "What do you need, friend?"

One was completely shocked. A Bermician... being nice to him? It just didn't register... he didn't understand! He opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water until another figure intruded upon them.

"Hito, you know you can't do things like-" Black Waltz Two had wandered up, looking around at the flabbergasted mouths of One, Garnet and Zidane, the shamefaced council, the noble King- and suddenly felt very lost. "Um... what's going on?"

"Your majesty!" The trio of bewildered figures snapped out of their funk, watching Steiner as he huffed into the room. He had finally gotten new armor, shiny, glossy and considerably less noisy, but his build had only gotten worse as he got older. No mistake was made, however, he was still as strong as he was seven years ago, just not as fast- and his stamina had considerably lessened since he had hooked up with General Beatrix. Panting, he bowed deeply. "My humblest apologies, majesty, I failed in my attempts to keep these brigands away from the royal meeting..."

Garnet shook her head, thoroughly aggravated. "It's fine, Steiner, but what are they doing here?"

Two suddenly bowed his head civilly. "Queen Garnet, we actually journeyed to ask for help. You see-"

Zidane growled suddenly, his mind seeming to finally catch up with the situation. "Why should we help you heartless bastards!"

One's face lowered angrily as he held up a staff, seeming to fume from the inside. "This is why."

Zidane blinked as he heard Garnet's gasp. "V-Vivi's Mace of Zeus!"

Twenty minutes later, Zidane was considerably less bored. The Council had been shown to a temporary waiting room, save for Puck, who insisted on staying on account it was Vivi they were speaking about; so the Waltz's, the blonde monkey tailed knight, Freya, Eiko, Captain Steiner, General Beatrix, Queen Garnet and the King of Bermicia were all packed into the modestly sized meeting room. Garnet had a polite hand shielding her eyes from the light of the wall fixed candelabras, trying to assess the situation.

"...so let me get this right." Zidane started suddenly, leaning against thebrunettewoman'schair. "Vivi and Three are both stuck in a cave somewhere in a forest between the Qu Marsh and Lindblum. You two can't manage the job yourself, so you try an get Lindblum to help." He glanced at Eiko. "Your mum and dad are too busy with the preparations with the Festival of the Hunt to take some soldiers and hunt for them, so he sent you four to come and get us to help?"

Two nodded, a optimistic smile pasted to his featureless face. "That's about right!"

Garnet shook her head dismally. "Poor Vivi... stuck in that cave with a Black Waltz..."

One glared and opened his mouth to say something when Beatrix spoke. "Not to be rude, your majesty," she started, biting her lip humbly, "but how do we know these two are telling the truth? And even if they are, what's to say that the Waltz hasn't already killed Vivi off?"

Everyone but herself and the Waltz's flinched.

"Well...?" Freya muttered, addressing Two. The winged figure drummed his fingernails on the tabletop in thought. "...I suppose there really is no guarantee, your highness..." he mumbled, glancing off to the side. "I can't make excuses for Mittsu. If he had the chance, would probably kill the Mage without hesitation. Then again, what's to say Vivi hasn't killed my brother?" He and One winced.

"True..." Steiner muttered, but with his loud voice it seemed as though he were addressing someone four yards away. "They could've killed each other off by now. But then again, who knows?"

"Yeah." Zidane growled, his fist tightening around the hilt of his dagger. "The longer we sit here debating the longer it'll take to get them out!"

There was a murmur of agreement, then Garnet spoke. "Alright, Waltz's. I'm trusting you." Her voice grew serious. "But If you are lying to me and using the kindness of Alexandria, then you will see the dungeons soon enough."

Two sighed, but nodded. He was certainly tired of the threats and the hostility... his faith in he and his brother's hermitage was renewed in the two days they had been in civil company. Or uncivil, whichever way you looked at it. But he hoped, God how he hoped, that both Vivi and Three were alive right now.

†