Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 9, nor do I claim too, all of it's characters are simply being borrowed by me to play with. Any characters not appearing in FF9, are mine and do belong to me.

Chapter Two: Someone's Revenge

I walked back and forth across the catwalk for the stage. Ruby was below me practicing her death scene alone. Every so often she would pretend to be stabbed by an unseen sword and then grab the guy's shirt and shake him before finally falling down. From up here it looked ridiculous. But I knew that in the actual play the scene looked great.

I watched as she stood back up and dusted herself off and prepared herself for the next scene where she came back from the dead. Blank, who was up on the catwalk too, walked over stretching his arms out.

"Hey Zidane."

"Hi Blank." I gave him a slight hug and he slapped me on the back. "I managed to get out of the castle for a while."

"Nice, I imagine Dagger's taking care of things."

"Yeah, she's visiting with one of those morons from the Northern Continent." I scratched the back of my head unconsciously and then stopped remembering that it was impolite. "So I thought I'd skip down here for some lunch, and… Well I'm avoiding Beatrix."

"Hun?" Black looked at me surprised.

"Yeah, she ran across Kuja last night and thought it was me. So I'm trying to avoid getting questioned by her."

"Ah, I see." He put a hand under his chin and looked down at Ruby who was redoing her death scene. "You'll have to confront her about it eventually, and you know how women are… They don't like being put off."

"Yeah, yeah." I frowned and followed Blank's gaze. "So how are things working out with you and Ruby."

"Not to well. I mean, she's great and everything, but sometimes I feel like all she wants is attention. One moment she's mad, the next she happy. It's so stressful to deal with her sometimes, I think I need a break or a vacation." Black fidgeted with his feet and looked away from me. It was obvious that he didn't want to talk about it. Although he did give a heartless laugh in attempt to cover it up.

"Yeah, well you'll figure something out. Anyway—" I said changing the subject. "I heard Baku is taking you guys treasure hunting out near Daguerreo."

"Yeah, he is. That Lani chick has some sort of operation out there and Baku wants to settle things up with her territory wise."

"Lani? I thought she was a bounty hunter?" I asked him remembering the big breasted chick who ran about with Amerant.

"Yep. She changed positions seeing as no one's really interested in bounty hunters. I mean, you know how things were, now people just got so much more to be thankful for. And it isn't like there's a lack of jobs anywhere, so no one turns to stealing like we did."

"Hun, the world's so different now. It's almost like this isn't the Gaia I remember."

"It isn't." Blank responded lamely, "So you gonna take me out for lunch in Lindblum or what?"

"Sure, sure." Zidane said and walked Blank out of the theater and towards the castle's newly constructed airship hanger where the Invincible waited.

Kuja

Oh yes, two could most definitely play at this game.

"So Mikoto, want to head out to Daguerreo, or maybe Lindblum?" I asked her casually as I poured some salt onto my omelet.

"Why would I want to go there?" There was an unusual smirk on her face.

"Some fabulous books there, plus I want a copy of that play Zidane was talking about."

"You haven't read it yet?"

"No—" I said looking down and noticing the large pile of salt which had fallen down on top of my omelet. "Mikoto…"

"Oh dear! Would you look at that."

I let out a frustrated sigh and twitched a finger in the direction of her plate, which made the object elevate towards me. I then slid my own omelet towards her. "Next time you plan on destroying my meal I'm locking you in the dungeons."

She looked at me and then grabbed a bowl which had contained her fruit earlier. Taking the omelet she poured the salt off and then shot me another glare. It didn't really matter considering that I already knew I was going to lock her up on account of being a little prat anyway.

I finished the rest of my meal watching Mikoto gag as she hit a particularly salty piece. Inside I laughed, but on the outside I only flashed her the customary smirk as she pulled the glass of water towards her.

Kuja, you're an ass. She thought at me, and I easily picked one of my more complacent remarks to throw back at her. "Oh yes, I always thought they were beautiful beasts too, but hardly in comparison to me."

Mikoto glared at me with a deep passion and then turned back to scrapping salt off her meal. She took another sip of water as I left the room, and I flicked on the security system mentally. Setting it to attack and capture; after all, Mikoto could use a night in the dungeons. I headed outside towards my living room, taking in a nice view of one of my newly renovated rooms which I was letting Mikoto stay in. She had managed to keep it in fairly nice care, which was surprising considering her attitude towards me.

Relaxing into one of the many sofas in the room I picked up and book and closed my eyes, reaching out towards a mind which I could feel half a world away.

Zidane? I called to him silently.

Heya Kuja, what's up? He responded, I could felt the Invincible tugging gently at the back of his mind. It meant that he was currently in control of the ship.

I'm just letting you know that I'm leaving Mikoto here for the night, she'll be fine since I turned the security system on.

Oh yeah? Where you headed to?

Gurugu Volcano.

What for? As I remember you weren't to fond of the monks.

I wanted to check out some of the machinery I left there from a while back.

Machinery? I could hear Zidane's voice spark into interest, he was growing rather fond of tinkering with the machines for creating Black Mages.

Yes, some more dangerous things from Terra's past that used to be on the Invincible. Weapons, scanners, a lot of random junk that Garland was pack ratting away on the ship.

Alright, let me take a look at it next time I stop by the palace.

Sure, I'm going to stop by Daguerreo to, I wanted to look into that book you've been ranting about.

Oh yeah…. Um… About that, I was offering up my idea to Dagger and she called me a moron.

No really? Well that's not surprising. I found my body actually smiling at the thought of the Queen going on a rage about another of Zidane's attempts to help me. I assume that she was ever so slightly pissed that your not spending time on the kingdom like your spending on me?

Something like that.

Which reminds me. I cut him off. I had a run in with Beatrix, twice last night.

Twice?

Yes, she caught me leaving you and then when I was leaving from the tower. She figured out who I am, and didn't exactly seem disturbed either.

That's odd, you only blew half her world to pieces.

Yes, I noticed that.

Zidane paused lost in whatever internal thought he had. I suppose I'll have to ask her to keep the secret as well, nothing else to do about it.

I could place another memory charm on her next time I stop by. I suggested considering how well the other three were working on her.

You know, at the rate your going with bumping into her I'm not sure it's worth it. So I'll just tell her, see what she does, and we can move from there.

Simple enough.

Anyway, I'm heading out to lunch with Blank and I'd hate to run the Invincible into another airship since I'm not paying attention, so byebye.

Bye Zidane. I felt the connection to my brother snap and pulled the book up in front of my face to read.

Garnet

I let my eyes droop as the idiots from some random village left. They wanted to get a trading deal with Alexandria and frankly I couldn't blame them, we had the best Navy in the world right now, and although sailing wasn't always as fast, it was cheaper then flying.

Steiner marched back in through the door as the ambassadors finally left for their guest rooms. "I can hardly understand what they say my Queen."

"Yes, me too." I sighed.

Beatrix turned and held out her hand to me, "If you'd like my Queen we have some time before dinner, we could head out into the gardens?"

"I'd love that Beatrix, let me go get changed." I accepted her hand and lowered myself out of my mother's old thrown.

Beatrix nodded, and I walked quickly out of the door into the hallway. It was still being renovated from destruction all those years ago, but the large white marble blocks were far more attractive then the gray stones from before. I traced my fingers in the grooves of the stone and then lifted them up whenever I approached a curtain.

It didn't take long for me to change and grab my staff. And before I knew it I was out in the boat being taken across the water to outside of town where the newly created gardens were. They were an extensive construction undertaken by Silvia Rosemeier two years ago. Most of the work had been done by the children of the city, but I doubted there wasn't a person who didn't come out here and look after the flowers at least once a week. I even saw Zidane out here early one morning looking after a small section of lilies.

Beatrix ran her fingers over the petals of carnations next to me as we went through the front entrance. The first arch which lead into the rest of the maze like garden was 10 feet tall with white carnations flowing all over it's sides.

The pathway of the garden was made out of little blue and white pebbles collected from the Ice Cavern. I smiled as they crunched lightly under our feet. A large white rose bush caught my eyes and I plucked a few of the petals off and held them in my hand.

"I love this place." I mutter to Beatrix.

"I do to, sometimes I wish I could stay here forever." She smiled at me, and then frowned. "I wanted to speak to you."

"Oh?"

"Yes." She directed me towards a bench near a cherry tree and we sat down together. "I saw Kuja last night."

"Oh…" I frowned. Again that damned mage was popping up to ruin my life. "Well, yes…"

"I didn't know he was alive, but… You did?"

"Of course I knew! Mikoto was practically forcing me to save his life while she finished fixing whatever the hell was wrong with him, and Zidane… Oh Zidane pulled and pushed, and ahhh." I just stopped feeling the rage build up with in me.

"I see." She sighed and looked out over the hedges across from us. "Garnet. I wish you would have told me."

"Why, so you could slaughter him?" I growled.

She didn't respond.

"Why Beatrix." I pushed again.

"I loved him before things got out of control." She answered me quietly, and I found I could not respond.

"There was a time maybe a year before your father died when I first saw him around the Castle. He wasn't quite as sinister then as he became. He had just earned a huge fortune from the Treno's King and had been invited to one of the Queen's balls." A smile hit Beatrix's lips and I found myself sitting down although I could not remember when I stood. "It was the first time I ever saw him, and he arrived with the King, although neither of them looked like they remotely wanted to be there. I remember for the longest time they sat in the corner of the room chattering randomly between each other." She closed her eyes savoring the memory and I thought back too as Beatrix collected her thoughts.

I could easily remember the pair from the King residence, but somehow the Kuja in that picture wasn't the same as the one who I ended up fighting. He was skinner and younger, and as I remembered it he was sarcastic.

Most beautiful girl in the kingdom? I can believe that, but would you look at her parents…

His harsh words towards my mother floated back and I looked back at Beatrix who was still smiling.

"Beatrix." I snapped, and my general pulled herself out of whatever dreamy little memory she was entangled in.

"Oh sorry. Well he was very beautiful, I thought he was a woman at first. And it completely sent him off into a little rant about how General's should learn some respect for their betters. I of course laughed at him and challenged him to a duel. Your mother only encouraged it and made a bet with the King that if I won he could have her crown."

"Oh! I remember this! And the King didn't want to do it, but Kuja said he would. I remember that mother sent me to bed after that."

"Yes well, Kuja didn't want the crown and he argued that he wanted the pendent, but your father wouldn't got for it." She paused again. "So in the end he gave in for the crown. We headed out into the fields in the east of the city to duel. And of course your father didn't come, he thought it was a trivial matter."

"I guess it wouldn't seem that way now."

"No. Well, I took him down in one hit with Chimhazzard."

"What?"

"Yes I know, he waited till I walked back over to make sure he wasn't dead and sent a Blizzaga my way. Then he healed himself and walked over to the Queen and reached out his hand." Beatrix laughed. "Oh course the Queen never handed it over, instead she started to bargain with him on training you to learn some more powerful magic like that."

"She did?"

"Yes, but I never really found out what happened at the end of that." Beatrix replied being startlingly gossipy. "I was quite surprised that he managed to trick me like that. I guess from that day forth I became more and more upset over him loitering around like he owned the castle…" She stopped and glanced over at me. "In some ways that's how he got into her circle, how she ever found out about his power. But it wasn't until after your father died that he actually went around publicly in the castle. Before that it was always covert meetings."

"Oh, as I remember it I didn't see much of him until maybe a month after father died." I ran a hand through my hair and stared out at the garden. "Beatrix, why does it matter to you if he's still alive?"

"I don't know, it just does. Part of me feels as though I should be getting vengeance on him for his crimes, and part of me wants to see him like he was before."

"Did you know him well?" I asked.

"I-- I knew him well enough considering the amount of time he spent working around the Queen. I guess I doesn't really matter now. But, it does change things." She paused as she thought over the information again, it always surprised me about how slow Beatrix could be thinking about things outside of battle. "Who else knows?"

"Zidane, me, Mikoto…" She trailed off thinking back to the time when Zidane had called on her to save his brother's life. "I think Blank, he was one of Zidane's friend's from Tantalus."

Beatrix let out a helpless sigh. "How long has it been I've thought he was dead… Five years?"

"I know, I'm sorry Beatrix. I dislike it more then anyone. You know that, but you also know that I'm doing this for Zidane."

"Zidane, yes, I never quite understood why he went back after Kuja."

"Me neither…"I paused, that wasn't entirely true. "When me and Zidane were in the Black Mage Village during our travels he told me about searching for his home. He told me that he left several times to find his home, left from Baku, and something about the way he said it makes me think that all he ever wanted was a family."

Beatrix nodded and looked up at the sky, a small lazy cloud was drifting by above us.

"We should head out Garnet, after all you said you wanted to get some fighting in."

I laughed, only Beatrix was nice enough to actually sneak me out through the gardens to go fight some monsters. This was most certainly a field trip I would never get hanging around Steiner. Even if I could summon the king of dragons to kick his ass.

Edit: May 18, 2008