A warning: I have NOT read this over. I'll get back to it though.

Chapter 7:

The ticking of the clock on Garnet's wall was like a metronome, it ticked away measuring the order of things, mathematically correct and sound in it's ticking. The princess started to rock on her bed as she stared blankly at her hands. Tick. Tick. Tick. The clock and all the time that it held up until the time she was to leave seemed to count down angrily to what was starting to feel like her demise.

"Your Highness, please put on this dress. The ceremony is going to start in an hour and a half." A maid said in her thick cockney accent worry was plastered on her face. Garnet had refused to talk to her or acknowledge her since she came in with the white dress; she had a hard time swallowing her forced marriage when she thought it was weeks away but now it was as if a canon ball had settled itself down in the depths of her stomach keeping her right where she was. Never moving.

The maid started to get frustrated she grabbed at her hair and pleaded to the Queen to put on the dress but again there was no answer. She flopped down on the ground with the gown bunched up in her lap and started to cry. Garnet looked over at the woman who was now obviously very upset.

"Your Highness, please you don't seem to understand what will happen to me if you don't put on the dress. Paulus will do all manner of terrible things to me if I don't get you ready in time for your wedding!" The woman said through a wall of tears that plunged from her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Garnet finally stood up, she didn't want to hurt anyone, "Here, I'll put this on, you just go and tell Paulus I am getting ready."

The maid stood back up and smoothed out the dress that was now a little crumpled, she handed it to Garnet and bowed while backing out the door. Even though she had promised the maid that she would get dressed she still couldn't shake her catatonic state. She stood for minutes just staring, she knew she wanted to get ready but there was something that didn't feel right, she couldn't put her finger on it but she knew in heavy beating of her heart that something was wrong. It pounded against her heart in a beat that started to feel more like a war drum than a bodily function. She had been feeling weak all morning, the air seemed to rush around her ears like inaudible whispers. It felt like she was dreaming.

A knock against her door shook her, "C-Come in." She said with a stutter. Paulus waltzed in looking quite proud of the arrangement he had set up for her. Even though Leopold had proposed to Garnet himself she knew who was behind it all along.

"Good morning my soon to be daughter in law."

"Don't play games with me, Paulus. You'd rather I be tossed over the balcony and then torn apart by rabid dogs." The Queen scoffed.

"Goodness no, Garnet. You know I have more uses for you before I do that." The old man laughed.

"Maybe I'll do it myself to ruin your plans."

"Now, now, Garnet. No need to be so grim about things. You know my son loves you, at least you are given that much. I imagine you should be happy, other princesses are never that lucky."

"That may be true, but I am no princess. The rules were meant to be enforced me regardless of whatever stupid statement was made in the will of a woman gone mad." Garnet stated as she pinched the white lace in her hands.

"You and I both know that the rules are not meant for you to make. Your existence here is a lie, you should have died along with Madain Sari." The words stung as if Garnet was slapped. She felt the urge to snap back at Paulus but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't bring herself to utter a word. She would have given up her life as a princess and even a queen if it meant she knew who she was and what her life would be like had her town survived the attack, but all she had was the life she would give up, and even that was being taken from her.

Not far in the distance the sound of bells resonated through the city streets of Alexandria. Though they were in tune to a happy melody the bells seemed to only sound like the angry pounding of metal on metal. Zidane woke from his bed he winced as he sat up bracing his body with one of he hands. He looked around the room for a source of the noise that had woke him up and was guided by the rush of people through the streets. Children were laughing and women were squawking excitedly as they made their ways through the flow of pedestrian traffic.

Though his body seemed to refuse movement, Zidane forced him self up out of bed and too the door. He caught a few clues on what was happening from the passers by but he couldn't put them all together until he heard a little girl ask what style of dress the queen might wear at the alter. Zidane's body became heavy as he braced himself against the door frame. He finally realized that Garnet's wedding was pushed up to that morning a wave of sadness and jealousy washed over him as he bolted out into the crowded city streets. He rushed by people faster than his body should have allowed him to go, he pushed, shoved and elbowed people out of his way, uncaring of were his arms and legs landed. All he wanted right then was Garnet and her love.

He darted into an alleyway that he knew acted as a short cut to the town square he could smell the sent of the flowers that were arranged for the ceremony drawing near. The crowd was maintaining an ominous silence that could have only meant that the wedding had commenced. He flipped his head around the corner of a building to see Garnet festooned in mounds of soft white fabric standing next to a man. She was breathtaking. Zidane watched her move forward under the gold wedding canopy a hand belonging to the man beside her was getting in the position to kiss her. In frantic burst of energy Zidane ran shouting from the alleyway flailing and screaming, "Garnet! Don't do it! It's a mistake!". But it was too late. Garnet looked away from the kiss that had sealed her fate to Zidane who was looking quite sick.

"Zidane!" Garnet shrieked as she watched the man lose consciousness. She pushed Leopold away as she ran to Zidane's sickly form. She picked his head up in her hands and brushed the bangs away from his feverish forehead as she wept.

Zidane woke up again for the second time that day in a softer bed than before. He was surrounded by elaborately decorated walls that could only have meant he was in the castle. But why was he in such a comfortable and accommodating room? A nurse sat beside him pressing a cold cloth against his head. Seeing that the man was awake she stood up and left the room. Garnet rushed in only a few seconds after her, she still wore her wedding dress from earlier. She knelt by the bed side and pressed her face into Zidane's chest, inhaling all of his sent she could.

"I'm so happy you are alright…" She mumbled into the sheets covering him.

"Dagger." Zidane uttered wearily.

"Leopold was nice enough to let you stay here until you get better. He fought with Paulus to let you stay. He's very generous," there was an awkward pause as the mention of Leopold must have hurt Zidane immensely, "I thought you were dead…I was told you were executed. So I lost hope…I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry…" Garnet cried.

"Are you really married to him?"

"I am…" She replied hesitantly as she pulled away covering her face with her hands still in disbelief of the days events.

"Excelent." The genome muttered. Garnet looked up at him in confusion, "I have nothing left to fear."