Your Lucky Day

Your Lucky Day

Beatrix

I happened to be watching Garnet polish off her nails on that particular day. Our Queen could almost always amuse herself while waiting for dignitaries by doing simple things like that. It made me adore her like an older sister would.

I however never had Garnet's patience, I could not amuse myself by clipping spilt ends from my hair or by rounding out the corners of my finger nails.

About the only thing I could manage to do was dreaming.

I'd think usually about what might have happened to me should I have plunged off the cliff when I was eleven and there had been no Amber there to grab my arm. I'd day dream about my first love Coil, and how he used to give me sly glances from across the training arena. I'd day dream about Zidane and his little group, and what might have happened should I have killed them when I encountered them in Bermecia.

At the time I had highly regretted not killing them. But the day before Kuja had made an off hand comment about me being a blood thirsty little general, and how only seeing death made me happy. So I had refrained, and allowed the group of four to live. And now that I look back on it, if Kuja had never made that comment, I would never have spared their lives, and more then likely Kuja would have destroyed both Gaia and Terra by now.

Funny how things like that worked out.

"Beatrix? I think those emissaries from Treno are here."

"Of course my lady." I replied walking over to the door and opening it.

I hardly expected to see Zidane, along with an overly confused Vivi and Amarant standing there.

After a moment I noticed that Lani, who looked drastically upset, was standing behind them.

"We need to talk with Garnet, your free to stay so long as you don't repeat anything to Steiner." Zidane stated in one of the most commanding tones I'd ever heard out of him.

I instantaneously stepped aside and allowed Zidane and his little group through.

Garnet had forgotten her nail file and was standing now, walking gracefully over to the group. "What's wrong?" She asked cocking her head to the side.

"Kuja." Zidane stated instantly.

"What about him?" Her eyes grew cross instantly.

"That freak has been wondering about Oeilvert for the past few days, not only disturbing all of our research, but I think he kidnapped Lumos!" She said with a great amount of rage in her voice.

"Zidane?" Garnet asked instantly.

But before he could reply Lani burst in with. "Tell her about the Nukes!"

"Nukes?"

"They're really powerful weapons from old Terra, about as powerful as Bahamut." He stated carefully.

Garnet blinked, paused, and then shoved past her beloved Zidane, waved a hand at me, and forcefully headed out the doors.

"Oh shit." Zidane said from behind me as I followed the Queen towards where the new airship dock was. I found her yelling at a few poor men to get the Red Rose prepared for take off.

I'd always been fond of the ship, and with the new renovations which Cid has done for Garnet a year ago, the Red Rose happened to be one of the most luxurious and powerful in the skies.

Zidane, Vivi, Amarant and Lani all creeped onto the ship following me. Garnet waited till the ship was safely in the air, and headed towards its destination before grabbing Zidane and dragging him off.

"Poor guy." Amarant said looking after him. "He really should have let Kuja kick the bucket, guess this is the price he pays for being so virtuous."

Amarant wondered over towards the railing, crossed his arms, and watched thoughtfully over the side of the ship as we passed over the Alexandrian Range.

Lani joined him after a moment or two, they spoke quietly to each other.

That left me with Vivi, who looked up at me rather curiously.

"I didn't know Zidane finally told you." He stated.

I smiled. "I happened to be so fortunate as to run into Kuja a while back. And I suppose they could no longer hide it from me after that."

Vivi fixed his hat firmly onto his head, and then said. "I know a lot of people are upset with him still being alive. But when I saw him last year, I thought that he really had changed. And it wasn't just how he acted either, it was how he felt too."

"Hm…" I deliberated over that for a moment. Sure when I had first met Kuja he'd felt fairly stable, but over the years he'd slowly become more and more vile feeling. I'd always assumed that somehow the mist was contaminating him. "When I first met Kuja he reminded me more of how Zidane is now."

"I think that Kuja feels like Mikoto and Zidane. But neither of them feel like him." Vivi's little eyes glowed up at me and he wondered over to the side of the railing to look down at some of the snow filled mountains.

"I wonder then what he's doing in Oeilvert…" I thought out loud.

"Something Zidane said, makes me think that Kuja was trying to protect Oeilvert from Lani ever finding anything. Mikoto talked to me and told me that there's supposed to be a lot of Terran technology in Oeilvert, stuff that should never be used on Gaia."

"When did you talk to Mikoto?" I asked, a little curious.

"Right after I heard, I can talk with her the same way Zidane can." He adjusted his hat again and glanced over at me. "Most Genomes and Black Mages can do it almost naturally. And Garnet can sorta do it with Zidane."

I nodded and looked into the distance where I could see a tinge of blue starting to appear. Vivi and I watched the ocean and talked about Kuja while the day passed. I noticed near evening Garnet reappeared with Zidane in tough. She seemed to have clamed down, although Lani still acted highly concerned. Amarant cleaned his fighting claws and Zidane sat near by him for a time, fiddling with the Terran technology which made up his Ultimate Weapon.

I looked back down at the ocean and almost jumped when the sea below me changed from a light blue to a dusty red.

We'd be making it to Oeilvert around midnight according to one of the pilots.

And for my own sake I headed back towards my usual cabin on the ship, and allowed myself some sleep.

Garnet

I slumped back against the wall worriedly. Zidane believed that his brother had gone there to protect these weapons, or at the least keep someone like Lani away from them.

I could see that, it made sense given Kuja's recent history.

But I could also see him starting a war against all of us. I could see him using those weapons him self, or even selling them to someone like he had my mother. Wasn't that his nature?

Zidane had listen quite patiently to me and my concerns while I'd rattled off my worries to him. However he's stayed strong, and hadn't wavered at all on the issue. I clutched my hand onto the front of my light blue shirt and leaned over.

Alexander, I was worried.

With Kuja still alive I was always worried.

And some of these worries were things that I could never speak to Zidane. I couldn't tell anyone how much I dreamed of having the reborn Alexander rise from earth before me and destroy Kuja. I couldn't tell anyone but Eiko how the Edilions sent me dreams. How they showed me in my dreams that Kuja's time had come.

I stroked away a tear and then headed for the front railing of the airship's deck. I shook my head and closed my eyes. This unnerving tension was starting to clamp down on my heart. It felt like someone had taken their hand and tried to crush me.

I closed my eyes trying to keep the tension away.

"Dagger?" I heard Vivi's voice ask, I looked down at the adorable little mage.

"Yes Vivi?"

"I feel it too." He said, and for a moment I wasn't sure what he was talking about. "The pressure. The feeling like someone is trying to crush my soul. I've felt it ever since dawn."

"Why?" I asked.

"I'm not sure, but I think something has gone wrong, really wrong."

I clutched my pendant in my hands and looked back over the red earth. "If he intends to use those weapons…"

"No, I don't think it's Kuja, I think that it's something else. I think it's something in Oeilvert though." He paused and then wondered over to Zidane, and asked him if he felt anything. I saw Zidane shake his head, but Amarant spoke up and stated, along with Lani, that they felt something.

Vivi stepped back and nodded. Momentarily I saw both him Zidane focus. A few seconds later they both said.

"Nope."

"Hun?" Lani asked.

"Mikoto and the other genomes don't feel any of the pressure."

Vivi sighed, I looked down at the dust red cliffs, and Zidane listened as one of the pilots told him that we'd arrived.

And we all lapsed into silence as the ship landed near the small camp of Alexandrian soldiers. The puffy red dust which rose up around the ship clogged my throat for an instant, and I was forced to cough in a ungraceful manor to remove it.

As we pilled out, Lani spoke to that one mage who's name I could never recall, and Zidane conferred again with Vivi. Everyone seemed edgy. The pressure which I could feel in my inter most soul was at the very edge of boiling out.

A soft wisper from a short man next to me forced me to stop contempating the pressure. He held out a tiny lithograph and with a frog like smile requested me to sign it. I patted my pockets in search of a nice pen, and when the search turned futile he produced one from beside his ear.

"Who shall I address this too?" I asked, coughing again slightly as some more of that toxic red dust infiltrated my lungs.

"Vivere Parvo." He said, and I noticed how very frog like his voice sounded. It was a good thing Quina was not present to admire this man.

"V-i-e-r-e?"

"Quite right Young Queen." I inwardly grimaced at the unfortunate nickname of "young" queen, but signed the lithograph anyway.

"There you are, take care." I gave him one of my fashioned smiled and then walked quickly towards Zidane.

Lani called out something like "Lets go" although it was obscured by the Red Rose' engine. With her leading us past the Alexandrian guards who'd reported that they had seen or heard nothing of Lumos still, that sinking feeling in my heart grew worse.

Vivi

I watched the back of the group as we wondered about the many halls of Oeilvert. I remembered the strangely organic halls from before, they seemed almost familiar now. In fact, I rather liked them. They were not as oppressive as those on Terra, and yet their plant like nature amazed me.

I didn't quite understand why Zidane had asked me to come along, after all I couldn't use any magic. He didn't usually make decisions like this… I wondered what was up with him.

I fixed my hat. Then I watched Beatrix who walked near me. I hated it when no one talked, but at the same time I didn't know what to talk about…

And that was when I first heard it.

Deos Deia corpsa neial peos.

I knew instantly that the words were inside my own mind, although how anyone could speak like that with the magic barrier around was a mystery to me.

Caoms lovar lish nehs oparvi.

I closed my eyes and allowed whatever it was to take away my body from me.

Somewhere in the distance I heard Zidane screaming as the voices tried to take his own body away from him.

"Just give in." My body told him, and all went dark.

Lumos

The voices had ended.

My eyes flickered up to Kuja who was panting as he knelt on the floor not four feet form me.

"There." He gasped out.

"Why are they here?" I asked.

"Those must have been the souls of the Terrains in those other containers." He stated, his eyes drifted up to the mutilated body before us. The body was still living I noticed, but luckily the poor guy was sleeping. "So do you think the door is open now?"

I leaned back against the wall, and felt solid stones. "Nope."

Kuja just glowered as I replied, and started working on another method to open it.

I walked over to look at the poor woman who lay sleeping in her glass tube still. I watched her for a moment and then jumped when she shot up at me with a rage.

"Keep me here no longer!" She screamed into my mind. I stepped back and fell over into another set of tubes which cracked when I hit them. Acidic green liquid sprayed out and Kuja instantly ran over to see what the hell I was doing.

"Quite!" He roared at her in terran. The woman stopped her screeching. I saw him concentrate briefly and the glass rose up allowing her freedom. "There, now please explain to us what has happened to you."

"Genome… Where is your master, where is Garland?"

"Garland is dead." Kuja replied.

"Garland can not die, he is immortal."

"He died with Terra."

Her eyes widened and she shot out her arms to grab Kuja who stepped back easily from her reach. Tumbling over as her one arm deflected into my side, I saw the strange mutation on her back flutter with life. They were like shreds of fabric wound together into cords which fitted together into something like a bat's wings.

"Impossible!" She screeched and grabbed Kuja by the front of his shirt. Her arms flexed at she shoved Kuja away from her and into the wall. "Our greatest creation, indestructible he was!"

Kuja tried to shake her off, but she would not release him. I stood up slowly and then replied. "He has died, I have seen it myself." Kuja's eyes flickered up towards me awkwardly, and then he looked down upon the ancient Terrian in his arms. She was sobbing now, although why anyone would sob for Garland seemed a little abstract even for me.

"Now tell us, why are you here on Gaia?" Kuja asked again, but the woman shook her head and headed for the door, Kuja quickly followed. I took the hint as well and walked after him outside into the hallway.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I could hear Terrian voices calling out, but they were slowly becoming fainter, less defined.

As we emerged on the other side of the door Kuja let out a gasp. The woman was no where to be scene.

Beatrix

I kneeled over Vivi as he spoke to himself in a strange language, I could see from the side of my eye that Zidane also lay upon the ground and that Garnet watched over him as well. He poor body shook in sad convulsions and then after a moment lay still. He still murmured in the strange language, but nothing as powerful as before.

I swept some hair from my face and looked down at the tiny mage. His slight frame so capable of destruction had always been heartily pledged towards good. And his nature was so charismatic…

Vivi, always charismatic without even intentionally meaning so. Perhaps the bright golden eyes or awkward fidgeting made him endearing. But there was something more plush about his nature that lead a person to feel like they could lend their darkest secrets to him, and never worry about the consequences. Most found that the stuff animal like quality he contained was a person should ever hope for in a good friend.

Garnet shrieked, and I raised my sword parallel to the ground. Her shriek however was a sign of joy at Zidane's groan.

He popped an eye open and looked up at her through it. "Gaarnnet?" He spoke with an odd slur.

"Zidane!" She wrapped him up in a hug and grinned, "what happened?"

"I doono all these voices? I h'rd them." He looked around at the rest of the group and then relaxed back against the floor of the hall. It was then that he noticed Vivi's nervously twitching frame.

"Whaths up with him?"

I countered his look of concern with a direct statement. "He collapsed the same way you did, I assume it, whatever it was, effected you both." I stated directly to him.

One of his eyebrows launched upwards and he stared around for a moment before half crawling half pulling himself over to Vivi. "He'z spakin 'n Terrian." Zidane slurred out.

"What's wrong with your voice?" Lani snapped.

"I doono… Thar's somethin wrong?"

"I think it's getting better!" Garnet said optimistically.

"What is he saying." I said pointing Zidane's attention back towards the mage.

"Oh yeah…" He sat there puzzled for a moment, arched the other eyebrow up, put it back down and shook his head. "I've no idea."

"It's Terrian isnt it?"

"Well… Sorta…" He frowned, Lani kneeled down next to the mage and frowned as well. Zidane sighed and looked up at me as though wondering if I could do anything to help him. I frowned back.

We sat in silence for a moment, before a resounding humming started to echo around the building. I watched Zidane screw up his eyes and look about franticly, as though he knew what was coming.

And I couldn't help but reach out and grab Garnet's hand, almost more to comfort myself then for her reassurance.

/ The language I used for ancient Terrian is slightly Latin, slightly nonsensical. I'm also looking for someone to beta test my chapters for me, if anyone's interested. XD /