Chapter 4
Blank stood at the wheel and stopped the airship, looking into the horizon. There was dry, patchy ground all around and nothing much else. It was unbearably hot.
"Uhhhh.. Where'd you say this place was again?" he asked Zidane, who was busy fanning himself with the map.
Zidane opened the map in his hand, rotated it to the right, turned it upside down, and back again. He looked sheepishly at Blank and said, "Actually I've no idea.. Steiner was always the better navigator." Blank sighed and shook his head. That was so expected. Zidane would have been chatting up with the Princess while the rest were charting the course to their next destination.
"There's something there," Blank pointed, squinting at something that looked like a mushroom-shaped structure in the far distance. As the Prima II went nearer, Zidane recognized it as the village of Conde Petie. "Ah, I know where we are now. The Black Mage Village is not too far off," he said.
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The troupe alighted from the airship outside a forest. Out in the desert, the trees were dry and withered due to a lack of water.
"Are you sure this is it?" Baku asked, peering dubiously into the depth of the forest.
"Yea, these guys used magic to conceal their village, since they were not really popular people at that time," Zidane explained. He led the way into the forest, leading the rest through the maze that the black mages had set up to prevent discovery. Finally, they reached a clearing where the path ended. The dried trees grew densely around the clearing.
"We're here, but we need magic to dispel the magic here to enter the village... I don't suppose anyone sees some sort of doorbell here?" Zidane asked, turning to his comrades. They all searched around the clearing, looking for a way to signal their arrival to the black mages. However, there was nothing to be found. Trying to be funny, Zidane rapped his knuckles on a driedup tree and hollered, "Hellooooo! Anybody home?"
To everyone's surprise, the landscape changed right in front of them. The dried trees shimmered and disappeared, replaced by lush green trees and flowering bushes. The forest came alive.
"..Wow." was all that Blank could say.
A black mage stepped out from in between trees. He looked different from the rest of them, with a much smaller stature, and was wearing a hat that was half as tall as he.
"Vivi!" Zidane exclaimed, genuinely happy to see his small friend. He went up to him and smooshed his hat playfully.
Vivi adjusted his hat to get it out of his eyes, and his bright yellow eyes looked up at Zidane in astonishment.
"..Zidane? Zidane! It IS you! You made it out of the Iifa Tree!" Vivi cried out excitedly. "We tried to find you, so many times.. We tried to burn the tree, cut it down, use Thunder to strike it, but nothing worked!"
"..Yeah," Zidane scratched his head. He couldn't, for his life, remember how he got out either. He remembered going into the Iifa Tree to look for Kuja, he vaguely remembered having been trapped in the tree, and he had the feeling that he went on a very long journey.. when he came to, he was lying on his own bed in the Tantalus' hideout. He was told that he had been found unconscious at the grasslands near the Dragon's Gate. His rescuer recognized him as an actor from Tantalus, and brought him to them. The Tantalus members told him that he had been out of it for four days, and they were afraid that he would never wake up.
After a round of introductions, Vivi led the performing troupe into the village. The village had expanded and become more lively, since more black mages had awakened and settled down here. The Genomes from Terra had settled down quite nicely too. It was an oddly sad combination; souls without proper bodies and bodies without proper souls living side by side. However, the village was peaceful and the black mages and Genomes had lived well in their own way. The same could not be said for many people who had both their bodies and souls intact.
The peaceful village went into chaos as the bunch of strangers stepped in. Some of the black mages ran back into their homes to hide, while the Genomes merely looked on in curiosity. A number of black mages who seemed to be in charge of defence narrowed their eyes in suspicion and moved in to circle the intruders.
"E-Erm, g-guys..." Vivi stuttered, stretching his small body in front of the troupe in his best effort to protect them. He didn't expect them to have such a response. He should have informed the village first before bringing Tantalus in. He had caused this problem, so he had to solve it. He adjusted his hat nervously and tried again, "It's OK guys, these are my friends. They're just here to visit, and- Ahh!"
Vivi yelled in surprise as one of the black mages pulled him away and pushed the little mage behind himself defensively, out of the circle.
"Don't be cheated by these bad people, little one," the black mage advised him, "look, they're all carrying weapons!" The mage ignored Vivi's protests and turned back to the troupe. He was apparently the leader of the group. "What is your purpose in coming to the village? Tell us!" he demanded.
"Bwahaha!" Baku, the leader of Tantalus, burst out in loud laughter. "We are the theatre troupe Tantalus! We are travelling Gaia to bring our wonderful performance to the world! It is fate that brought us to this beautiful village! So we shall perform for you right here, for free! Right, boys?" He turned around to address his troupe, and noticed Ruby, her face turning alarmingly black. "...and girl," he added hastily. The Tantalus members brought their arms together in a T-shaped salute. "Yes, boss!" they chorused.
The black mages looked at each other uncertainly. Suddenly, the circle parted and another black mage stepped up. He sized up each of the Tantalus members, and his gaze lingered on Zidane. He turned back to address the mages.
"Everyone, it's alright. These people are our friends. Don't you recognize this young man? He was among Vivi's team that defeated Kuja," he said.
Zidane gave a tentative wave and smile to the crowd. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blond girl walking towards them. "Mikoto!" he called out. Mikoto smiled and made her way into the circle.
"Don't worry, he's kind of my brother," she gestured to Zidane. All present could see the ressemblance, although it could be said that all the Genomes looked like siblings anyway. The black mages backed down.
"Your sister?" All of Tantalus turned to stare at Zidane. He hadn't had the time and energy to explain what happened in Terra, especially the part about his 'siblings', where it involved Kuja being his brother. He sighed. He had a long story to tell.
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"Oh, my love, pray tell me, why do you be willing to accept a poor peasant such as I, and give up a life of riches?" Zidane drawled in his actor accent.
"Love knows no bounds, my lord," Ruby answered, looking intently into Zidane's eyes.
Zidane gave a dramatic sweep of his hand, and the sky filled with fireworks. The curtain fell to loud applause. True to their word, the theatre troupe gave a performance in their new ship right outside the black mages' forest. Having never seen a play before, the whole village emptied out to watch. The actors came out to take their bow while the black mages chattered excitedly about the flashy magic used in the play. They had no idea that it was just tricks and gimmicks.
The crowd started to disperse, and left behind a group of about five black mages who were chattering excitedly with Vivi and Mikoto.
"What's up?" Zidane asked, walking over to the group.
"This is an airship that can fly, right?" one of the black mages asked, "where will you be travelling next?"
"That would depend.. actually we came here to find out about something," Zidane said.
Not one to mince words, Zidane told them the story of the black mage he saw in Lindblum and the girl the mage had abducted. He left out the part about the silver hair; it was a sensitive topic for the black mages who had been made and controlled as killing machines by the silver-haired Kuja. Vivi's eyes widened in increasing horror as he heard one of his kind performing evil acts again.
The black mages looked at each other. One of them spoke up, "We have not heard of such a thing. The black mages in Lindblum are working as magic providers for the new wind-powered airships such as yours. We have only seen them once a few months ago when they returned here with presents from Lindblum. They did not talk of anyone going renegade and resuming the old ways."
Mikoto continued, "But one of them, Mr 609, had said that he was close to finding a way to prevent the mages from stopping, and even to generate more black mages without the use of mist. Some of the villagers had believed him and had followed him to Alexandria."
"And the few of us have been thinking of joining them in Alexandria. We were reluctant to leave our homes here, but after seeing more of our people stop, we want to help to save our kind. That's why we were hoping you could bring us to the Mist Continent," another one of them finished.
"So what is this method that Mr 609 had come up with?" Zidane asked, intrigued.
"He never said it," Mikoto replied, "They might know about this mage you are looking for though."
"Let's all head to Alexandria then!" Baku boomed, joining in the conversation.
"A-Alexandria?!" Zidane stuttered, taken aback.
"Isn't that great, Zidane? You can finally reunite with Dagger!" Vivi piped up.
"Uh, y-yeah," Zidane forced a laugh.