Chapter 6:

The air was becoming thick in Zidane's prison, though he didn't care at all. Lifelessly he lay on the floor, his arms and legs out stretched as if he was offering himself to death his forehead, thick with a feverish sweat, there wasn't much long for him. He tried to turn down food and water however the end could not come soon enough for him. In his hand a lovely blue flower with a few of the silky petals missing reclines across his fingers. As a bandit, Zidane was taught about many different types of poisons, the one he held was "Maidens Mourn", a flower indigenous to only Alexandria that was famous for its translucent petals. However, if eaten, the flower could be one of the most horrible poisons on Gaia. The flower was known to cause death but only after the poison had tortured the victim with hours of extremely high fevers, seizures, and body aches that resembled being hit by a sledge hammer. He had found a few of the flowers growing outside his small window and decided he would speed up the death process. If he was to eat anything, he thought, it might as well be Maidens Mourn.

Zidane stared out his window, waiting to die; the emptiness he had felt since Terra was destroyed paralleled the blank space it left in the forever unlit night sky. He had no home, no natural beginning; he was created from colored buttons and wires and was birthed from a machine. He felt as if he had no humanity after that but when he saw her, Dagger. He knew that she was the little bit of hope he had left, the little light he felt in his chest when he thought all was lost. Since she had passed, he spent his days in the cell staring vacantly almost as if his soul that he was given had floated away somewhere. If he never remembered what it was to be a genome, he certainly now knew how it felt.

A huge crash of what sounded like metal erupted from down the hall in a haze. He heard the sound of a woman's voice, warped and strange, screaming "Get up and fight them off! I'll get him!" Some clashes were heard, people were fighting, Zidane could hear the sharp slashes and moans of metal against metal. The noises swirled around in his head like water going down a drain. Echoes of his cell door opening caught his attention though he didn't care much who it was as long as they left him alone. A pair of furry feet delicately walked in on their toes, a pole arm was laid down beside him. Freya's long gray fingers pressed up against his neck, she shouted, "He's still alive!" Taking the flower from the bandit's hand, the silver haired woman sighed and shook her head in sadness. She brought his head up into one of her arms and put her other underneath his legs. Leaving her pole arm behind she ran to Steiner who was still fighting off the guards with difficulty. She placed Zidane back down, and adjusted her red hat a bit she then crouched down and lunged at the guards with lightening speed. Mist floated around her in the shape of serpents and dragons engulfing her body giving her the skull crushing power to kill the guard in one blow.

"Is that the last of them?" Freya asked as she lightly kicked the dead body at her feet.

"Seems to be so." Steiner said as he sheathed his sword. He looked over at the mess that appeared to be Zidane, he walked up and squinted at him just to make sure it was him. He looked up at Freya with concern.

"Is he going to be ok." He asked.

Freya shook her head uncertainly. "I don't think so if we don't get him out of here right now. He's very ill. We need to get to Eiko." She picked Zidane back up and they ran from the castle grounds jumping into an unattended gondola and sailing back into town. They darted through the night to a house with one yellowish stream of light shining through its window. Steiner stayed outside and kept watch while Freya placed Zidane on the bed and ran up the stairs.

"Eiko, wake up." Freya said as she shook the sleeping girl from her bed. Eiko sat up slowly rubbing the sleep from her eyes a little irritated by the sudden shaking.

"What is it?" She snapped.

"It's Zidane he's alive and downstairs but he is badly poisoned, we need you right now."

Eiko bolted up from her bed and sped down the stairs nearly tripping. She ran over to Zidane who was just two breaths away from expiring. She took hold of one gloved hand and placed her other hand over his heart, bowing her head as she cast panacea. With a flash of ethereal light the spell was done but everyone held their breaths, though Zidane had been cured he still wasn't moving.

"Is he dead?" Eiko asked, Freya walked over and checked Zidane's pulse again she paused for a while praying for even the slightest heart beat but she felt nothing. His pulse was a still as stone. She stood for a moment in silence, hiding her eyes under her hat. Eiko shook her head in disbelief.

"A-Again! Check again!" She demanded, Freya looked at Eiko feeling only sadness for her. After Kuja had been defeated, the girl had abandoned her home on the forgotten continent to be adopted by Freya and to live in Alexandria just to be close to him. She loved him more than anyone else could, and if she had only been older it might have been that she was the one for him. Even though her dreams were shattered by Garnet, the woman she always desired to be, she quietly accepted what would never happen and decided to stay near Zidane regardless.

"Do it!" Eiko screamed. Freya nodded and placed her fingers on the man's neck again. He continued to keep his statue-like demeanor. Freya clenched her hand in frustration she wished she could raise the dead but the truth was he was gone and nothing could save him. No potion, no spell could bring him back. Eiko watched Freya's silent figure bent over Zidane, she folded her hands and prayed that there would be some sign of life but the silence that the rat woman emitted could have only meant the worst. Suddenly there was a thump. And then another and then another after that! Soon there was a steady rhythm, a wide smile spread across Freya's face it was like a symphony under her fingers. She turned to Eiko, radiating pure joy, "He's alive!" she announced happily. Eiko jumped up and hugged Zidane's sleeping body, while she embraced him she cast curaga enveloping them both in her light.

Zidane's eyes flickered open, looking down and he purple head on his chest he smiled and placed a hand on the girl's back. "Thank you, Eiko." He whispered through a low sickly voice. Eiko looked up at him with a smile on her face, he placed a kiss on her forehead and in surprise she quickly moved to the corner of the room where she sat and tried to hide a shade of red she had acquired.

"How are you feeling?" Freya asked as she sat on the bandit's bedside.

"Like crap." He said with a weak chuckle, the woman returned a smile to him though it didn't reach her past her mouth her eyes bared a melancholy shadow that enveloped her face.

"You know…Dagger is getting married in a few days…" She said with a sigh.

"What?!" Zidane bolted up out of his bed, breaking back down to a laying position. He struggled to sit back up again but the weight of too much information at once combined with crippling pain in his muscles, pushed down on his body as if someone dropped a piano on him.

"Zidane, just rest." Freya motioned to the bed with her hand, "You probably didn't know but the arrangement was announced this morning. That's why Steiner and I decided to speed up your rescue, we were planning to do it with out anyone seeing but we thought it was too big a situation for you to miss."

Zidane sat lifeless in the bed; he looked up at the ceiling just watching cobwebs on the rafters sway silently from side to side. Freya's face was painted with concern she moved her head to her shoulder and asked, "I'd like to know why poisoned yourself? If you don't mind me asking."

The bandit looked a way for a instant feeling ashamed of the obvious fault in his character. He was Zidane Tribal! Zidane Tribal didn't get sad! Zidane Tribal wouldn't kill himself. After all they had been through - he and the group, he had only once let himself slip and he vowed to himself it would never happen again. Although the circumstances were different then, the only person lost was himself and Garnet came to save him. She was his hero as much as he was hers so he felt justified to say "I was told she was dead."

Freya gave him a look of anger and in a grave tone she said, "Zidane, I will only say this once so listen well. Never give up hope until the last piece of evidence you have is gone. I looked for Frattly every day being told everywhere I went that he was dead but I wouldn't stop until I found him alive or resting in the ground. And though I felt like dying the entire journey I wouldn't act on that feeling until I knew all the facts. I actually think that philosophy saved my life. Maybe it will save yours too."

With no further discussion the silver haired woman ascended silently up the stairs to bed. Eiko followed after saying good night and leaving Zidane to think. Though his mind was full, his body was weak and slowly shutting itself down to sleep demanding that the thinking be done in the morning.

The doors of Paulus's bedroom flung open slamming against the walls echoing the baritone smash of wood on wood down the stone castle halls. The old man jumped out of bed alarmed at the two guards standing in his doorway holding pikes.

"Lord Paulus, it seems that the prisoner Zidane has escaped." One of the men announced. The old councilman stood for a second letting the information break through his sleepy mind. Then it clicked.

"You let them escape?!" Paulus screamed in a terrifying rage.

"Y-yes sir. He had help - two others." The man stuttered.

"Are you telling me that my prison guarded by fifteen men was broken into and taken out by only two people and a dying bandit?!" The councilman raised his hand in the air while using the other to massage his temple.

"I'm afraid so." The guard stated simply. There was silence for a moment and then an unknown energy seemed slither around the floor creating a subtle almost unnoticeable vibration. The old man stood silently breathing in and out as if trying to restrain his anger but in a flash he grabbed his dresser and slammed it into the ground shattering mirrors, and scattering papers and pens across the floor. He grabbed a lamp from a side table and threw it at one of the guards, just missing him. With a flash of angry eyes the old man held up his hand once more and enveloped the messenger in a flame that swirled around him with such heat the guard dissipated in what appeared to be a vapor. Not a scream was heard.

Paulus fell forward on his foot his bout of rage had taken more out of him than he planned. Panting and holding his chest as if he were having some sort of heart attack, he hobbled over to his bed and laid down; he placed his hand out once more at the other guard who was now huddling in a corner. The horrified man flinched at the sight of Paulus's hand but then realized the motion wasn't an offensive one, it was one that beckoned him to the side of the old man's bed.

"Call in all the guards to duty," Paulus said in a ragged breathless voice, "I don't care if they are asleep, or sick, or anything of the sort. After that is done I want you to go and talk to my son. Tell him to prepare his bride for tomorrow morning. We must marry them off before Garnet finds out that Zidane is alive. He's probably already on his white horse."

So I changed Eiko's future after the game to help the story line a bit. It wasn't too big a change so I hope no one was thrown off too badly by it.