Author Notes

> Alex is not based on any fictional or real person, and is of my own creation. As such, I own him, and I will hunt down and crush anyone who steals him.

> For more details on Alex (such as character stats, for those of you who feel so inclined to know exactly what each character can and cannot do), visit my profile page and look under Immortal Moon. This was previously contained at the end of this chapter, but I realized it took away from the story and moved it.

> This is not a yaoi – I repeat, THIS IS NOT A YAOI. As such, ZidanexDagger is the pairing here, though I might slip up from time to time. I'm more practiced when it comes to shonen-ai, so bear with me here.

It was several days later that I found out that Condie Petie had been completely blocked. I had walked all that way through the desert for nothing… And, because it was blocked, that meant there was only one other way to get to the other side of the mountains…

I had to climb right over them.

It took another day of searching before I found what appeared to be an old abandoned trail… And an entire week passed before I finally reached the summit.

It wasn't a fun journey.

"Goddam fucking snow… It's a mountain chain in the middle of the fucking desert – so will someone please explain to me why the hell it's snowing up here…?"

I continued to curse every snow deity I had ever heard of as I trekked up the barely-visible path, shivering like crazy under a small brown cape I had made from my tent. It had started snowing a few hours ago, and as I pushed through it, it only seemed to get worse. I honestly didn't know how I hadn't frozen to death already… but I was pretty damn close. My journey so far had been pretty straightforward – no killer monsters, no giant chasms, caves, or… snow storms. So, yeah, there really wasn't much to say about what had happened up till now.

Well… that's not entirely true, really. I had noticed some things about myself… I mean, things that had changed – like, I didn't have to eat as often. To tell you the truth, I probably didn't have to eat at all – but I sure didn't feel like testing the possibility. See, I would still feel hungry – but it would be kind of muted, and really easy to ignore, at least until I found something to eat. This applied for being thirsty, too. Personally, I didn't see that as something to complain about, but still… it was odd. What really got me about the food-thing though, is that no matter how long I went without food or water, I never got any weaker. You know how it is – your metabolism slowly shuts down from the lack of energy or whatever? Well, mine didn't. I could function just the same as normal, with the only drawback being a small gnawing hunger as if I hadn't eaten for a few hours or so… except I hadn't eaten for three days straight, and I hadn't drunk anything in a little over two. Honestly, I didn't test it 'cause I wanted to – (I didn't), I just didn't have a choice. There wasn't a whole lot of food out in the desert, especially in places where the mist had been particularly thick while the Iifa tree had been alive. As it was, I ended up living on monsters and scraggly little plants. And as for the water, I think that's kind of self-explanatory, considering I was in a fucking desert.

Another thing I had noticed about myself was that I didn't need to sleep as much. I've never really needed much sleep – I was known in Tantalus for wandering outside before sunrise wide awake and ready to go rob some unlucky jackass. Still, now I was probably only sleeping for about… four hours or so, because random stuff kept waking me up – like monsters trying to eat me, for instance. But despite this, I always woke up as if I had slept perfectly well. I stayed up once for two nights in a row, just to see if I could (hey – I was bored, and it wasn't as creepy as the food thing), and I did – but I fell asleep on the third from being bored out of my mind, and I was starting to get a little crabby besides. So apparently I did still need sleep – just a whole lot less of it.

For a while I thought I was going crazy, I really did.

There was some other stuff, some other changes I was going through… But I didn't find out about that stuff later. Or at least, I didn't notice it happening at the time…

I blinked, squinting through the harsh wind full of ice crystals. In the distance, I could see something – just barely… but if I didn't know better, I would say it was a person. Then again, when have I ever "known better" about anything? My eyes widened fractionally as I saw them collapse in the snow, their reddish-brown cloak fluttering around them.

"Heeeeeey! You okay?"

I ran over to them (not exactly an easy thing to do, considering I was tromping through 6inches of freaking snow…), now sure that I wasn't hallucinating, and that there actually was a person in front of me. One who had just fallen down, and appeared to be unconscious. They had been pretty far ahead of me, so it took a while to reach them. Once I did, I didn't bother looking them over too much, other than making sure they were genuinely out of it.

Out here, in the storm… they would die from exposure, if I didn't find shelter for them, and fast.

It didn't occur to me at the time that the same logic should apply to me… or that I wasn't suffering nearly as much as I should, considering my make-shift brown cloak was now basically white, and I had next to no protection from the cold besides… Though in retrospect, it probably wouldn't have surprised me too much, had I really thought about it.

The thing about deserts is that most people think they're boiling 24 hours a day. They aren't. They're freezing at night, and you could easily die of hypothermia if you didn't have shelter. Thankfully, I was able to find a tent I had dropped during my attempt to reach Kuja, and had been using it ever sense. Currently it was draped over my shoulders, as I said before. Anyway, the thing about these tents is that they're spelled to stay warm (or cool) no matter what the outside conditions were, so I never actually encountered the biting cold of the desert night. As it was, the charms finally gave out when I was about halfway up the mountain, and had been fully non-functional ever sense.

Despite this… I was fine. In fact, I had been fine the entire trek up, save a little uncomfortable.

I grabbed their shoulder and shook them, while I tried to yell over the howling wind… but they were out cold. No pun intended. I really didn't have to think about it – I hefted them onto my back, and trudged onward, my new goal being to find shelter as fast as possible.

I wonder… how many people would have left them there…

My thoughts had gotten a tad more morbid lately. Obviously.

I don't really know how much time passed – it felt like hours, though it probably wasn't nearly that long. But finally, I saw a dark spot in the distance. A cave, sheltered by an outcropping of rock and boulders nestled in a cliff wall. I ran to it, kicking up the snow as I did. I had never, ever been so happy to see a cave in my whole damn life. The tunnel that led into it was about 10 feet long – and small enough that you had to crouch in order to get through it. But once you reached the end, it widened out into a circular cavern, probably about 15 feet across. I stared blankly for a moment, then blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things. It wasn't… furnished, per say, but it had definitely been some sort of shelter in the past. Along the stone walls, a number of shelves were crudely chiseled out, various jars and boxes sitting on them. Near the back of the cave was a large stack of wood, and next to it a lopsided pile of old blankets. Throughout the cave various odds and ends were scattered – old broken bowls, an ancient staff, a decrepit old basket… I walked to the back of the cave, and gently lowered the person I had carried there off my back to the ground. I quickly took off their now soaking-wet cloak, and replaced it with several of the old blankets. I didn't bother looking at them, really – I figured I could do that once I had a fire going. I got lucky – the wood was dry, and there was enough tinder to start a nice blaze. Heaping it in a small pile near where I had put down the person, I clicked my daggers together a few times; eventually managing to create enough sparks to create a flame. I spent the next few minutes tending the fire, and making sure it wouldn't go out. The warmth was wonderful – but it made my hands hurt a lot… which wasn't really a good sign. God, talk about irony – everything I've lived through, only to get done in by frostbite. Damn, that would really suck…

Though in retrospect, I doubt I could have gotten frostbite even if I had wanted to.

Anyway, once I was sure the fire was fine, I took off my cloak, as it was now making me colder instead of warmer, and wrapped one of the blankets around me. Then, I sat plopped down next to the person and looked them over. They were in bad shape… they weren't even shivering anymore, and it sure wasn't because they had gotten warm. However, I could see a faint white mist issuing from their mouth, and I could see their chest rising and falling… so they were alive, though barely. I frowned, wishing I had paid more attention when Daggar had been teaching Eiko about taking care of someone who had practically been frozen… But I hadn't, so for now I was basically doing this blind… so the best I could do was try to gradually warm them up, and keep them from getting cold. I wondered vaguely, if a potion might help (I had found some during the trek up the mountain), but from the looks of it, it wouldn't – at least not really. Better to save them for once they woke up. So now all I really could do was watch and wait. I looked over at them, curious about what they actually looked like. They were very, very pale – though I think that was from the cold, and had straight black hair that hung around their shoulders, not unlike mine would if I didn't keep it tied back. Though their face appeared delicate, I could tell they were male – probably a few years younger than me. Their – his – lips were blue, another bad sign. I wondered what on Gaia this kid thought he was doing, wandering through the mountains like that – and by himself, no less. I mean, I at least was kinda used to this sort of crap… but this boy looked like he had lived a pretty sheltered life – sort of like Daggar had, only not as extreme. I doubted he had done anything like this before…

After a while of sitting there, I finally realized something a bit strange… I was a lot less cold then I should be. In fact, I had been a lot better off then I should have been for most of the trek through the goddam snow.

…Wonderful. That's just what I needed – another bizarre aspect about myself that had randomly shown up within the past few days. Well, at least it was more subtle than the healing thing… not to mention a little less disturbing. Ever sense the incident with the wyrm, there hadn't been any other times when I had gotten hurt, really… or more specifically, there hadn't been any other times for my… ability, to kick in. So… it was kind of strange. My memories of getting out of the Iifa tree had gotten pretty foggy – I could barely remember that I had gotten hurt at all…

But I remembered the blind terror.

And I remembered the massive agony of coming back to life – excruciating pain both mentally and physically…

I was sure I had died, now, when the Iifa tree had gone berserk… I was sure that I had felt my heart start beating again, once I had destroyed the roots holding me pinned in the air, imbedded in me… though I still hadn't figured out how I had destroyed them, exactly.

I winced, and shook my head. I had forced myself to try and remember it a few times, to try and understand what had happened to me… But all I could really remember were emotions and sensations… and those were fading. It made me feel sick to think about it… whatever it was that had happened to me. It scared me, and I didn't want to remember, not really…

God, I hated it. All of this crap was supposed to end once we defeated Kuja… or hell, even Garland.

But here I was… and I couldn't understand any of what was happening to me, or why…

Well… there was… one possibility, but… gods; I didn't want to think about it. If it was true, what Garland had said to me on Terra… then…

… There was a good reason I never told any of the others what he had said to me. I guess they all assumed I had freaked out when I found out I had been created as a soulless vessel, or something like that… I wasn't really sure how much they knew…

But that wasn't it – sure, it bothered me - it bothered me a lot, but… the real reason I freaked out… was something else entirely. There's no way they could have known, unless Mikoto had told them, and I doubted she had. Sure, I wouldn't be surprised if she called me by my… title, a few times, but I highly doubt she ever actually explained it. Certainly not in a way they would have understood, at least.

I shut my eyes and leaned back against the cold unfeeling stone, and whispered what Garland had said to me, only the wind of the mountains and an unconscious boy as my witnesses.

"…An angel of death… Destined to live among the stars for all eternity. You have the power, the position, and the motive to do it…"

Did he really mean that literally…?

I was pulled out of my thoughts as I heard a soft rustling sound and a tired groan. I turned around to look over at the kid, and smiled, distracted from my thoughts of the past for the time being.

"So… I guess you aren't dead, after all. That's good."

"Eh…?"

Blearily, the boy opened his eyes (they were an amber-tinted brown) and looked over at me.

"…Who are you?"

"The name's Zidane – I found you collapsed out there in the snow. I couldn't just let you die, so I carried you until I found this place."

I waved my hand nonchalantly around the cave. The boy squinted into the gloom, trying to make out where we were. Admittedly, it was pretty hard to see past the circle of light the fire gave off.

"…A cave?"

"Yeah – the weirdest thing… I think it must have been some kind of shelter for travelers at one point, 'cause there was a bunch of stuff laying around – like those blankets you're wearing."

He looked down at the blankets and nodded, then looked back over at me.

"Thank you… I really didn't think I was going to make it. And I guess if you hadn't come along, I wouldn't have… Thank you."

I rubbed the back of my head with my hand and shook my head.

"Don't worry about it – it's no problem."

Suddenly he gasped, and his eyes widened, his actions startling me a little.

"Hey…! This is Iron Cave! This is where I was heading before – I was planning on waiting out the storm here… The last thing I remember, I was at least 5 miles from here…! You carried me 5 freaking miles?"

I blinked slowely, not quite sure how to respond to that.

"Five miles…? Are you sure? 'Cause I was carrying you for a long time, but five miles…?"

"Well…"

His slight flush lit up his face.

"If you stayed on the path, then yes – that was five miles. I can't believe you carried me so far, honestly."

I stared blankly at him.

"There was a path?"

"You… you're joking, right?"

"No…"

"You climbed… over the freaking… oh geeze. No wonder it didn't feel like 5 miles to you – you took the only shortcut. A freaking avalanche zone…"

"…Oh."

"M'hm."

There was an awkward silence for a moment, then a snicker. I snorted. I guess we just couldn't help it – the complete idiocy of the situation had hit us, and we burst out into barely contained laughter. It was just so… stupid, it was funny. Eventually, the mildly hysterical giggling died down, and I turned back to him.

"So, kid… what's your name?"

He smiled softly as he gazed into the fire.

"…I haven't had anyone ask me that in years."

"Huh?"

"Nevermind – my name's Alex. It's nice to meet you, Zidane."

He smiled at me, then held out a hand, which I shook.

"Oh – and by the way…"

He continued dryly.

"I'm not a kid – I'm 16 years old, not 12 or something."

I blinked again, somewhat confused by his words.

"…I never said you were a KID kid – I thought you had to be around 14-18 from the start…"

I gave him a confused look. This time, HE blinked.

"Really? Most people automatically think I'm a little kid at first sight…"

"I can't imagine why – you're only about a head shorter than me, maybe less."

"Wait – how old are you?"

I opened my mouth to answer, then remembered that I wasn't one hundred percent sure… See, I've always tried to avoid this question, sense I never actually knew when I was born. Well, I counted my birthday as the day I met Tantalus, and I Ithink/I I was around 6 at the time, so…

"I'm 22… I think. I don't actually know when my real birthday is, because I was adopted."

"That sucks… that you don't know when your birthday is, I mean."

"Yeah, I guess…"

I looked into the small flames of the fire, not really wanting to discuss the matter. I guess Alex got the hint, because he didn't push the issue. We spent the next few hours talking about whatever random thoughts struck us, separated by periods of peaceful silence.

It was nice having someone to talk to – even better to be able to talk with them without worrying about the fate of the world in the back of your mind. Alex kind of reminded me of Dagger a little, but with more of an attitude… Kinda like a mix between her and me, with some Vivi thrown in. …I was bored, okay? So sue me.

"So, Alex – you know why I was wandering around up here now, so… how about you?"

Admittedly, I hadn't really been truthful when I told him why I was climbing around in the mountains… I kinda gave him a seriously watered down and vague version of things. It had still taken a while to tell him, though, and he had been avoiding talking about his reasons… I could tell. He looked a little nervous at my question, and kind of… embarrised, somehow?

"I… I was part of a caravan, which stopped by the mountains to let me and a few others get off. We were supposed to find a special gem, and then meet the caravan on the other side in a few weeks – that was back when the Condie Peite Mountain Path was still open, so they've probably gotten to the other side by now. But during the earthquake made by those giant roots, we got separated, and I've been looking for them and the gem ever sence."

He paused for a moment, then continued.

"I think they're probably alright… We were relatively near the rendezvous point when we got separated. Chances are they went on – that's the general procedure… Try to find the other person, and if you can't, get back to the main group. Then you go back and look for them later, while they try to find a designated shelter and wait. Except… I don't think they can come back. My best chance of meeting up with them again is to try and intercept the caravan somehow… I know the route, so… but I need that stupid gem…! And for the life of me, I can't figure out where the hell it is…! And—"

As I watched him grow increasingly frustrated, I cut him off, placing a hand over his mouth.

"Wait wait wait wait – back up. What's so important about this gem that you can't go and find your friends first? I mean, if it's just treasure that doesn't make any sense… So there must be something important about it."

I moved my hand away from his mouth, to let him speak.

"It's…"

He paused, and I nodded for him to go on.

"You'll probably think I'm crazy, but there are these summon spirits, that live within these gems, and—"

"You mean Eidolons?"

He broke off mid sentence and stared at me.

"You… you know about the Eidolons?"

"Yeah…"

I was a little confused by his response… I mean, yeah – most people didn't know about the Eidolons or Summoners, let alone the connection to the gems – but I didn't think it was that unusual… Then again, considering I was friends with two Summoners, it wasn't really surprising I knew a lot, but still… Most people who actually knew of the Summoners thought they were extinct. Why is it that no one ever tells me that knowing this kind of stuff makes people stare at you…? I frowned slightly. Why the heck was this kid looking for Eidolons? It made sense that we (me, Dagger, Eiko, and the others) had been on the lookout for gems – I mean, we had had two Summoners in the party after all… But… I thought they were the last. And without a summoner, or an unbelievably powerful harnessing spell, the stones were basically useless. I shuffled around so I was sitting in front of Alex, balancing on the balls of my feet. I reached forward and (completely ignoring personal space) lifted the bangs covering his forehead, squinting my eyes.

Nope. No horn, no scar… nothing.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing…?"

He glared at me and lightly smacked my hand away.

"…Well, to be honest I was trying to see if you had a horn – or at least a scar."

Not surprisingly, he stared at me, his mouth partially open.

"You were looking… for a HORN?"

"Yeah… I thought you might be a summoner, or something…"

"What the heck does having a horn have to do with being a summoner?"

"They all have horns, unless they've been removed – it's let's them communicate with the Eidolons. You're hunting for Eidolons and you didn't know…?"

He looked away, and muttered something under his breath. I couldn't make out what he said, but I could hear the pain in it. I frowned deeper, not liking the suddenly bitter tone his voice had taken on.

"Alex… ARE you a Summoner?"

He murmured his response, not looking up at me.

"…My grandmother was a Summoner from Madain Sari. She got lost at sea many years ago, and crashed onto the shores of our island. It took many months for her to recover, and during that time she fell in love with my grandfather. She never left… My mother was a Summoner – or at least, she had the potential to be, but she never left the island to pursue the Eidolons."

"Pursue…? Oh – you mean because none of them were awake in her?"

"Not exactly… those of us who are of Summoner descent possess the potential power to be Summoners ourselves – but unlike with pure Summoners, we must come into contact with the gems, or we can't awaken ANY of our powers… For pure Summoners, the gems are just tools that speed up the natural process, but for people like me, they're essential…"

"Oh… I guess that makes sense…"

I trailed off, thinking of the gems I had found during my time with the party, as we traveled all over the world… and then some.

"Hey, Alex…"

He looked up at me, looking slightly forlorn.

"Why exactly do you want the Eidolons…? I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, of course – it just seems like a whole lot of work…"

He sighed deeply, and pulled the blankets a little tighter around him.

"My home… is in danger. We've lived in isolation for years… I can't believe I'm telling you this, I honestly can't – and we barely ever leave, except on caravans and fishing trips. As far as I know, none of us have ever been to the Mist Continent in hundreds of years… Our history is very long. But you see, some of us were originally Summoners, though only a few – and they erected a magical barrier to keep those with ill intent out of our home, or even detecting it's existence."

I raised my eyebrows, a look of understanding lighting up my face.

"Oh…! Yeah, that's like Cleyra and the Black Mage Village…!"

Alex just gave me a confused look, and I gestured to never mind. Shrugging, he continued.

"Anyway, normally it only takes the magic of a normal mage – any sort, black, white, blue, green… to reinforce the barrier. But because of the constant issues with the Iifa Tree lately, it's somehow… interfered with it, so it's up to me to repair it."

"Ohhh… so that's why. That makes sense."

He looked at me somewhat incredulously.

"You're very… trusting, not to mention accepting…"

I smiled wryly, my voice taking on a bit of a cynical tone.

"It seems that way, yeah – but when you've seen as much weird crap as I have, not a whole lot seems impossible anymore… or even unlikely."

I paused, thoughtfully for a moment.

"But back to what you were saying – about the original Summoners? What about their descendants? Shouldn't they be capable of summoning too, like you are?"

Alex shook his head no.

"Technically, they should, but so many generations have passed that it's become very rare. Sure, every few decades someone turns up with the ability, but as of now… I'm the only one."

He sighed, placing a hand on his forehead as he slumped back against the stone wall. I watched his actions silently, mentally thinking about the relatively large number of gems I was carrying around with me. Some of them didn't contain Eidolons to my knowledge – but Eiko could use some of the gems that Dagger couldn't, and visa versa…

Maybe it differed from Summoner to Summoner…?

If so, then the ones I had might just be exactly what Alex was looking for. Still musing the idea over, I spoke.

"Hey Alex? What gem was it you were looking for, specifically?"

"It was a Moonstone – it's said to contain the Eidolon Lunaris… She holds power over water and that which is sacred, or so my Grandmother's books say."

I mentally ran over all the gems I had with me as I nodded, a mischievous smile sneaking slowly onto my face. True – I had left practically all of my stuff with the others before I went after Kuja (I didn't think I was coming back, to be honest), but I had found some on my journey through the desert and up the mountain. As I spoke, my left had crept slowly into the pouch at my side where I kept my accessories.

"Lunaris, huh? Never heard of her… Which is kind of funny, considering I've been carrying her stone around all this time."

I lifted my hand over Alex's lap, the milky-white crystal held between my thumb and forefinger, and dropped it into his lap. His hands darted out and snatched it, his eyes wide.

"Is this what I think it is?"

He looked over at me and gasped as I nodded, then closely examined the pale white stone.

"It – it really is a Moonstone…!"

A look of utter amazement on his face, he looked back up at me.

"This… you're giving it to me?"

"I don't see why I shouldn't – I mean, it's not like I'm using it."

I smiled crookedly, and rubbed the back of my head. His face was beaming, and threw his arms around my neck like a little kid so hard I almost fell over.

"Thank you so much! I'll never forget this – thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

I laughed at his sentence, barely managing to discern what the heck he had said, then lightly shoved him off me. He looked down at the Moonstone, cradled protectively in his hands, now giving off a soft while glow now that it was in the hands of a compatible Summoner.

I smiled, and I couldn't help but feel just a little bit happier inside.