Filling In The Blanks
A/N: I'm really excited to give you all the explaining you need! :D I'm really super duper happy, so I can't wait for you all to read this! Even though I still haven't posted this story yet! Haha! -- Wow!! I hadn't posted the story when I wrote this? Crazy stuff . I'm going to update a day early for all of you - so I can get my every 5 day-multiples of 5- thing back lol.
Disclaimer: I don't own it, though I wish I did, but you guys all already know that.
Quick Random Thought: I'm so tired. Buses are not cool to sleep on for like twenty - four hours!
Chapter 6: Answers Greatly Needed
"Sorry there's nothing more than water..." The pale skinned girl gingerly set a glass in front of him on the wooden table. It had a cloth over it, but it didn't look like a table cloth, it looked more like a curtain that wasn't needed for a place like that.
"Thanks..." He nodded anyways, ignoring the odd furnishings, sliding his chair closer to the table to sit up straight.
He took the water and held it to his lips, shuttering when he saw the redhead decided not to sit around the table next to him.
"I apologize for earlier..." The brunette woman gazed at him with a sincere expression, "I shouldn't have threatened you like that, but you must realize it's essential for this place to stay hidden, for us to stay safe..."
"Any questions you have now..." The man decided to add in his way of apologizing; Zidane understood is was hard to come outright and say it when you weren't a girl, "you are free to ask, and we will answer them to the best of our abilities."
Zidane's sapphire eyes swept over everyone's faces, and a sudden question hit him. He decided, since the mage and himself had the floor, he could ask whatever kind of stupid thing he wanted, "First of all... I think it would be appropriate for all of us just to forget our little... Encounter back there and start new. In order to do that, I'm sure my friend and I here would love to know some names. You all already know my name is Zidane... Zidane Tribal, but who are all of you?"
"My name is Beatrix Juste." She nodded. It was simple, and straight to the point. Something Zidane appreciated.
The man in the armor was momentarily stunned at how fast she was to give out information, despite the fact he was supposedly a dreamer.
"My name is Dagger... Courter... And that's Adelbert Steiner. He prefers Steiner though..." She replied with another gentle nod, and a laugh at the one known as Steiner tried to look at her and Beatrix at the same time.
"Hello..." The mage started in a quiet voice, "I'm Vivi Orunitia." For a moment, everyone took in a black mage, and Zidane assumed that that was something Vivi might appreciate him asking about in the future, but for the moment he stayed silent.
Everything was still in the room as they waited. Perhaps the redhead would join them, but he stood against the doorway simply staring, while no one dared steal a glance at him. He seemed in a very, very pissed off mood.
"I am Regent Cid..." The old man spoke up, filling the bandit's silence to ease away the tension between all of them; it was the last thing they needed on their plate.
"A regent?" Vivi asked before he could help himself; very quickly, he looked back down again, his feverently yellow eyes holding an embarrassed glow.
"Yes my young friend..." He answered, about to go into detail, "I am the Regent of Lindblum that was taken over many years by the forces of Kuja..."
"Kuja?" It was Zidane's turn to question, "Kuja was our leader... Or is or..."
"Perhaps..." Dagger started thoughtfully, caring a lot about the sake of the two's sanity, "this would be easier if you could explain what was going on in this reality world of yours."
Vivi looked at the older teenager, signaling he wished very much he didn't have to talk. With a small smile, Zidane began, "It was a really beautiful place, and everything was peaceful. The only things that were off, were about how perfect everyone's lives seemed. Everyone had a place to go, a chance to set off on new adventures, and have friends, you know... A perfect reality. The only other thing off about it was that there were always these black mages in purple coats who stood very randomly throughout the town. No one could talk to them, because they never spoke back. If you ask me, it was rather rude, but whatever. And this... Kuja that you speak of who's killing all of your people or taking over or whatever, he ruled."
"It was nice having him as a rular?" Dagger single-handedly gave Zidane an ego boost when it came to story telling.
Instead though, he decided to ignore that question, and go onto the next one, "What exactly is going on right now in the world?"
"We're at war... And I don't just mean two nations against each other. I mean the whole world against this one man." Regent Cid leaned forward in his chair, "For more than five years now, he's been capturing the people who potentially threaten his rule so that he can, in a round about way, brainwash them into fighting with him instead of against him."
"Which is where you come in," Beatrix informed him, shifting slightly in her seat, "people only wake up from this monstrous sleep they're put into if Kuja wakes them up. To wake up without his aid would be to have a lot of built up power. Something that isn't even in the strongest of us here, but you two managed to achieve just that impossible task."
"So do you mean to tell me that Vivi and I are... How do I put this exactly... We're more powerful than the other people in that room?"
"Kuja has a rule over the world. You were in the dungeon of the castle, and Alexandria is his headquarters." He didn't let it pass that Beatrix failed to answer his question, but let it go for the moment, "He has taken over much of the world... Only a couple places have managed to evade the attacks, all of them much too small to matter to him."
It was silent for a second as Steiner went to fetch a map, and Zidane and Vivi let it sink in. Staring at each other occasionally, and then at the others in the room, they waited for more questions to come to their minds.
Of course the blonde had more to ask. He didn't understand why in the world things were how they were, and where his friends went, et cetra, but he did know that everything he remembered, happened to be a lie.
"Dagger..." He looked to the girl, who jumped slightly at being addressed. "Would you happen to know if... Anyone has woken up before?"
"Not that I'm aware of... Why?" She questioned, her eyes gentle. She didn't have an idea what he was going through, how long he was in this sleep, or what he remembered before he was in it, so she wanted to stay as optimistic and soft as she could.
"I have... Friends there... I mean, is everyone there a real person?" He didn't know if she would be the right person to ask that question or not.
"Think about how many people populated your Alexandria..." She bit her lip in an attempt to find the right words.
"Alright... I'm thinking about it..." He smiled slightly at her attempt; it had to be hard to try and size up something she'd never seen before.
"Now think of how many people you saw in that room... I mean, there was a room full of people when you woke up right?"
"There were quite a few of them..." It was an understatement, but by the mischief in his eyes, she could tell he was being jokingly sarcastic.
"Well..." She shrugged slightly unsure, "you tell me just how many people were in that room, compared to who all was in Alexandria," he could hear the pain in her voice when she spoke of that place, and wondered slightly why.
Until of course, the realization struck him that unfortunately, there weren't enough people in that place to possibly fill out the whole city's population, and his heart sank a little. The people he had grown to know so well had a possibility of being... Unreal? He thought of Elouise and her strong personality. There was no way she could be just an illusion.
Vienna and her gentleness, unless her anger exploded with Griffon who was always trying to play innocent when he wasn't. And then Avalanch, being quick and smart - no facade could ever match the personality he had.
Before anything else could be said, Steiner came back with a map, and angled it towards Vivi and Zidane.
"There is where we are - that's Dali. It's a small village close to the boarders of the kingdoms of Bermecia and Lindblum." The man's hand glided over the mountains seperating the continent into three different parts. "Right here," he picked up a delicate quill pen and circled Dali, "here," a few more places were circled on the map of the world of Gaia in the red ink the end of the quill was dipped in, "and these places are the only places that Kuja doesn't have control over.
Sapphire eyes scanned the map. There were only about five places, and they didn't seem to be very big: Dali and the four Qu's Marshes spread all over the world. Zidane bit his lip, fearing what he would be told next. Two places were crossed off: Esto Gaza, and Mognet Central.
"What are these?" He found himself asking before he could stop himself, gesturing to the two X's.
"Those are the only neutral places in Gaia. Kuja doesn't really bother with the moogles, and since Mognet Central is the moogle transportation capitol of mail, which he doesn't know, they're helping us as much as they can without getting too involved. And of course, Esto Gaza isn't really neutral, because they're infested with Kuja's black mages, but no one can get attacked there considering it's a place of worship."
"Black mages?" Vivi whispered, bubbling with confusion.
"There aren't a lot of black mages in the world that are responsive and powerful all at once like yourself, Master Vivi," Steiner shook his head, slightly confused, "you are actually one of the first. The rest of them are unresponsive and wear purple, much like the ones your friend described here."
"Does that mean I'm bad then?" He wondered aloud.
"No, no! Of course not! You simply hold tremendous power like the mages, and an intelligent mind like those of responsive races!" he tried to make a joke, the blonde didn't find too incredibly funny, but he held his tongue.
Vivi nodded, and didn't say anything more. Everyone was quiet, taking in the information that'd been handed to them.
"Why hasn't anyone tried getting these people out?" That's the question that had finally surfaced which had been bugging him ever since he had heard of what they were trying to do, "I mean, why doesn't anyone try to help them so that they can help you... It would be a win win situation."
"It's not like that. It's not simple to get into the castle undetected. We would not be able to do it," Steiner explained sharply, "let alone getting everyone out." The teenager slightly regretted getting aggressive noticing the sword on the man's back once more.
"It's our team of professionals that would be able to do it..." The woman with the chestnut hair informed. "They're masters of disguise if you ask mine, or anyone else's opinion here. They may be able to -"
"We wouldn't."
They were the only words the blonde had heard from the redhead since before they had climbed onto the boat, and they sounded more curt now than they had before. Everyone, including himself, turned to look at him, who pushed himself off of the door frame, to stride across the long room, tracing his brown gloved hand over the rock. Paint dust was whisked into the void of air, catching the light from the candles and making a powdery rainbow.
His shoes tapped against the floorboards as he turned to face them rather abruptly, "And I wouldn't want to risk it. We don't even know if his friends were real or not. It's a huge gamble. One I will not put my basic family through. That's that."
He caught eyes again with Zidane, who stared at him questioningly for a short while, before turning his gaze back to the map. They began to pick up on topic about where everything was in the world, as the blonde explained how he had never seen outside of Alexandria.
Irritated with himself, the redhead turned and closed his eyes, placing his forehead against the wall. Voices were drown out in the background like a swirl, where he could hear nothing but the blonde's voice. His body went rigid when a hand was placed on his shoulder.
"Is everything okay, Blank?"
He looked over to see Dagger standing to the right of him, her gloved hand on his shoulder in a caring way. She was very serious when she saw her friends distressed - something he had really come to grow fond of about the girl. But this was different. It took it to a whole new level concerning his past that he never forgave himself for... For being too slow and too out of breath. For not knowing the right locations, and for not staying behind. But most importantly, for being too late.
It haunted every day of his wake, and quite frankly, to see the ally he had once wished he could have defended to the death there again, without any memory whatsoever about them... And alive after all that time of searching, after all of that research and bait played out. After everything, he just comes waltzing back, not knowing anything. It sickened the redhead, and yet... He still couldn't believe that his best friend was there. Was it even real?
"I'm fine..." He was just short of growling as he shrugged the hand off his shoulder and walked roughly out of the room.
She glanced back at the Regent and to the seemingly knight, before sighing and walking off after the redhead, calling his name through the stony halls as she went.
"Is something wrong?" Vivi asked, concerned as to why the flow of things was recently interrupted.
"He's not the friendliest person in the world to strangers. He's lost a lot of people - probably more than we have all together... So you know, the whole thing is tough on him. You can't get the kid to open up."
But Zidane wasn't listening to Steiner's excuses for the redhead's behavior. There was something more confusing about Blank than there was before, and yet he still couldn't figure it out. Shaking his head, and sifting through his thoughts, he tried to produce an answer that wouldn't come.
Despite what had just happened with the teenager's sudden change of heart toward him with his glossy and irritated attitude, Zidane still felt a tingle of security as though he knew him. It was a strange thing to feel because he didn't know the redhead at all...
And that's why that feeling of refuge was something he didn't particularly like.
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A/N: Oooo! It's for the most part explained! Now we get on with the actual story ahaha! But I hope you all liked that chapter. It was kind of hard to write because I had so many distractions, but that's okay lol... I'm glad whoever is still reading, reads on! Please REVIEW and I won't have to come after you all!
Enjoy, and an update will be soon!
-zesty-
