Gem: I hate begging for reviews but I do like them and sometimes I get ideas for later chapters from them. Yes, my nautical terms are correct. I have also borrowed part of the script from GameFAQs which you can find by googling Final Fantasy IX script. I own nothing far as FFIX goes.

"Where was I?" Blank asked the room after everyone was sitting in their seats again.

"Sumefin' 'bout runnin' into the stage darlin'," Ruby replied.

"Oh, yes."

I could feel three or four sets of eyes on me after running into the stage. I felt around until I found some stairs and then walked up them. That was certainly a way to get acquainted with the stage though I had a feeling that's not what Boss meant. Someone came over and led me towards the others and I could sense the others trying not to laugh.

"I've done that before," Marcus admitted. "And we're going to try to get you learning a few lines for any upcoming plays."

I nodded to show I understood and he started reading lines for me to memorize.

A few weeks later I found myself, along with Zidane, Marcus, Cinna, and Gem, in Lord Arkwright's house. Anzori and Locke had been contacted by someone in Alexandria who wanted Tantalus to put on a play. Boss didn't want to leave any of us and it appeared that Anzori and Locke both wanted the two girls to get along. We were told to play nicely while the three of them talked. I had a sneaking suspicion that playing nicely wasn't going to happen.

I could hear the sounds of fighting start as soon as the adults were out of earshot. It sounded like a tug of war and I didn't want to get involved. I ignored what was being shouted and just sat there feeling very confused. Sure I knew why both girls didn't get along but still, their fathers hadn't been gone even five minutes.

"Gem Irene Fairbairn!

"Ruby Celeste Arkwright!"

I sensed everyone turn towards Anzori and Locke's voices. The girls immediately quit whatever it was they had been doing and the air seemed to become heavy. I felt the other boys come over by me and the two girls be pulled out of the room. Someone was kneeling in front of us but wasn't saying anything.

"What happened?"

Boss's voice was right in my face.

"Ruby and Gem were fighting over a toy."

Marcus sounded tired; obviously the girls had done this before. I sensed what sounded like someone ruffling another's hair before Boss pulled us all off the sofa. Apparently we were going to stay away from the fight. Boss told both men that he was taking us home.

A month after both girls fought, we were in Alexandria to perform "I Want to Be Your Canary." I didn't quite have the acting skills the others did when we started working on it but soon, it was impossible to tell that I had started off with practically no skills. During that month, we went 'shopping' for swords to use. In the busy Business District, I still needed to be led by the hand in order not to loose my brothers. It bothered me because the others were able to run around without needing to be held on to.

Marcus and I were the ones who had to distract the shopkeeper while Cinna and Zidane stole. It worked fairly well since the two of us looked like the suspicious ones. Marcus was describing everything in way more detail than was necessary and apparently the shopkeeper was watching both of us like a hawk.

As we headed back to the aircabs, Marcus asked me what was wrong.

"I can't see, there's too many people, and I'm being led around like I'm three."

I could sense him staring at me. That was the longest rant any of the others had heard out of me. But it was the truth. I then felt an arm slung around my shoulders.

"I knew someone once who told me that 'things take time and if you don't get it the first time, keep trying until you do.'"

"Who told you that?" I had turned in his general direction.

"Someone I wanted to live longer. Aunt Irene told me that when I started learning how to fight."

I felt my face fall slightly. I was good at controlling most of my expressions but the air felt heavy. I wanted to ask the relation but knew that it would have been a bad idea. Somehow, my problems seemed less significant.

"Don't worry about it Bro. It was a few years ago."

The aircab stopped and I headed unsteadily towards the door. I felt a hand on my shoulder right before I nearly ran into the door leading into the cockpit. It really showed how distracted I was at the moment.

"Bro?"

"I'm fine."

We headed back towards the hideout to continue practicing and to get the feel of our new swords.

I had my hands on the wheel and Boss stood behind me. Despite having been blind for almost a year now, there were some things I still couldn't do without help. One of those happened to be steering the Prima Vista.

"Okay, turn starboard. That's to your right. Port is the other direction."

I pulled the wheel the direction I was told to. I felt it turn and let out a very small smile. Something finally was in my control!

"Okay, steady her out."

I knew then that this was the job I always wanted. I may not be able to see but I would always be able to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin. It had taken a better part of the year but I could fight decently and the scar over my eye was almost healed plus I could find my way around any part of Lindblum. I had learned to steal and to pick out targets without ever having seen them. I knew that Boss had been surprised. To learn all that in a year required some talent.

From feeling my own face, I knew that I hated the ugly scar left there from the loss of my eye. A band of leather had been dug up from somewhere in all the props for me to wear over my missing eye. It made my hair stick up some, not that I minded. I never had been able to tame my hair and the band seemed to tame it some.

We were on our way to Alexandria to perform for the wedding anniversary of the king and queen. I had heard that they had a very pretty daughter and got way more description than I had bargained for. Our age apparently too. I wished that I would be able to see her but my brothers would provide me with even the smallest detail so I could form my own mental picture.

I could feel the ship starting to descend and can imagine what people must be thinking. For such a big ship, it was also very graceful. And soon, those people watching it descend would be able to see I Want to be Your Canary performed by Tantalus.

Marcus was able to play a character with the same name as himself. We were rehearsing in the main area of the ship. I was sitting on a crate to one side with Gem on one side and Zidane on the other. We weren't part of the scene currently taking place.

"The time for our departure is long past. Where is Cornelia?" Marcus asked no one in particular.

"Marcus, the ship soon embarks! Board ye this boat alone, and peace could come to both kingdoms, as Blank so said. Speak, Marcus!" said Cinna. He was supposed to be one of Marcus's kinsmen from what I understood.

"She told me that she could not live without me. So, the sun is our enemy, too. The eastern sky grow bright. Will we not spread our wings, as yonder birds in joyous flight?"

"Hark, Marcus! They cannot wait any longer! The ship departs!"

Cinna exited the 'stage' and joined the three of us.

"Could she have betrayed me? Nay, ne'er would my love speak false. I must have faith! She shall appear if I only believe! As the sun lends me no ear, I pray instead to the twin moons! I beseech thee, wondrous moonlight, grant me my only wish!" Marcus was turned away from us but was still loud enough to be understood.

"Okay boys! And lady, onto the other trouble spot."

I pull myself off the crate and can hear Zidane and Cinna doing the same. I stand on Zidane's left as he kneels down. Cinna is standing on Zidane's right.

"Bereft of father! Bereft of father! Marcus! Thou has lost even thy love!" I say facing the 'audience' who right now happens to be only Gem.

Cinna then speaks up. "Fortune hath escap'd thee! For what end shalt thou live?"

"For the sake of our friends... Let us bury our steal in the heart of the wretched King Leo!" says Zidane before picking himself up off the floor.

"Aye!" Cinna and I both reply before all three of us dash onto 'stage.'

"We shall back thee, kinsman!" I say as I turn slightly in Marcus's direction.

"Pray, sheathe thy swords! This villain is mine alone!" Marcus's sword is already out.

"Nay, kinsman! For I, too, have lost a brother to this fiend!" Cinna's character refuses to run away and he too draws his weapon.

"What ho? Out, vermin! Away! Thou darest bare thy sword before the king!? All who stand in my way will be crush'd!" Boss cries as he draws his own weapon.

"Treacherous Leo, my kinsman's suffering shall not be in vain! For I shall instruct thee in his incomparable pain!" Zidane is the last to draw his weapon. I know that after that line, there will be a staged fight but Boss orders us to get some rest before the show tonight.

I sense the others leave but one person stays. I wanted to stay up and think.

"Bro?"

I turn sightless eyes towards the only one I allow to call me that. I wonder briefly if he knew how hard it was not to be able to see when once you were able to.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

"Besides the fact that I still can't fully accept being blind? Lots."

I feel an arm around my shoulders and allow myself to be led back over to the crates. I can sense him looking me more or less in the eyes.

"Bro, you do know that you can tell me anything right?"

"Yeah."

"So tell me."

"I feel like a huge burden having everything described to me. Whenever we go somewhere new, someone always has to stay with me. From a conversation I accidentally eavesdropped on, Tantalus hasn't done a play in over a year because I was learning how to get around. And while the rest of you got to learn how to read and write, I wound up practicing more since I can't see a darn thing!"

I sensed Marcus staring. I don't really rant all that often; I guess things were getting to me.

"Blank, I don't think that you're a burden. Besides, you've beaten the record for learning how to steal."

Now my curiosity was peaked. Just who had I beaten in that year?

"You may have already figured this out but I was the first person Boss accepted into Tantalus. Two years later, he found Zidane and about six months later, Boss found Cinna. I had two years of training on both of them but they managed to learn in a year and a half. It's been barely a year and yet, you're at or maybe even above our level."

My expression doesn't really change but the fact that at least one person didn't see me as a burden made me feel so much better.

"C'mon. We've got to set up the stage."

I picked myself up and followed my brother.