Filling In The Blanks
A/N: This chapter is interesting. I promise!! :D I know exactly what's going to happen!
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone or anything. It'd be cool though.
Quick Random Thought: Does it bug anyone else that Steiner wears armor shorts instead of pants?
Chapter 8: Astonishing Things
"No fucking way..." His hands clenched on the side of the table, and he could have sworn he almost broke it in half, "You're serious?"
The grin on the other's face grew and grew until they both thought his mouth would permanently be stretched. "That name I asked you for was Blank... Zidane, when you were taken, you were taken in Treno when a big fat guy named Baku punished us for screwing around on a mission, and sent us to get supplies in the city, and clear out whatever idiotic monsters were in there so they would stop harassing townspeople. But we stayed too late, and were too deep into the city where this thing came, and it took you..."
"You've got to be shitting me..." Despite his language, his face lit up. "Blank? It was real?"
The redhead nodded excitedly, and leaned forward, "So... Tell me you don't remember me anymore?"
It seemed so surreal, and so much more than a coincidence that he would end up back with his best friend. Of course, the blonde didn't remember a lot of things, but he now knew that indeed those dreams were real, and indeed this was the friend that had been yearning to find him for five years. All he could do was shake his head.
For a few moments, they simply stared at each other, delight at seeing someone they had lost, mentally and physically, growing by the second.
"Well..." Zidane started, almost bouncing in his chair, "What can you tell me?" He posed a challenging smile, "Just how well did you know me?"
To this, Blank had to laugh. It was a laugh he hadn't used in a long time. His pure and considerate laugh that hadn't been brought out, so it sounded slightly odd to the redhead. It seemed as though, despite the fact Zidane's mind may not have remembered Blank, it remembered him enough for them to still be able to know each other, and grasp the sense of familiarity that had been floating out of their reach, almost completely invisible, for the past few hours.
"You were part of a group called Tantalus. We'd get into cities disguised as a theater ship, and steal supplies and such. Even before the war was in full play, it was just to get the good people, and the rising resistance some stuff, you know? Like Robin Hood..."
"Wasn't it bad to steal though?"
"Not entirely. See... We were just stealing from Kuja, and considering the fact he stole from us then it makes us even. You loved to do it - no doubt the best out of all of us."
Zidane smiled slightly. Him? Being the best at stealing? He thought about it for a while, and figured he could remember himself being a sneaky person in his reality world, so why not put that into a good cause?
"It makes sense... What else?" He leaned forward flashing his pearly teeth.
"You were a charmer... Even at the age of twelve... Before you were taken anyways. And you always liked having people around. You were definitely the most social and fun out of us all as well. There was Marcus and Cinna -"
"Are they around here now?"
"They're out... But man... Wait until they see you again, they'll completely go overboard. Nothing was really the same after you were gone... This is why I kind of quit Tantalus and practiced enough to become part of the main team. You know, with Dagger, Steiner, and Beatrix," Zidane nodded in understanding.
They kept talking for a long time. And even when people occasionally walked into the kitchen, they didn't bat an eyelash. So enthralled in each other's tales of a perfect reality, and a shattered one, they hadn't noticed anything else for several hours.
"Oh!" Blank suddenly said, interrupting his own sentence as he looked down at his waist. "Here..." He unbelted one of his dagger sheaths from his side, and slid it across the table.
"What's this?" He pulled the dagger out of its slot, and saw it was the blue one, instead of the tan one he had used before. The ruby glinted, even in the dim lighting, and created a purple reflection in his blue irises.
"I held onto your dagger for you. Somewhere along the way of getting chased by whatever abducted you, you dropped it, and on top of that your sheath came unloosed from your belt... I'm guessing you most likely slid?"
"I did... I remember that part from the dream; I guess I just never noticed... Or didn't have any time to react..." He shrugged slightly nonchalant about the matter; when it didn't seem real to him, it didn't really matter all that much.
"Let's see what you can do with it, huh?"
"Didn't you train with double daggers for a long time?" Zidane asked, already recalling the earlier parts of their conversations, "wouldn't you need this?"
"Please..." He leaned back in the chair, allowing the front legs off the ground as he balanced himself out by putting his boots on the table, "I'm still a pro without the second!"
"Oh whatever!" Zidane threw the apple core, that still perched on the table at the redhead, almost knocking him completely over, but in the end it learned a few laughs anyways.
While they were distracted, footsteps shuffled loudly outside the door, until the wood almost broke off its hinges as Steiner burst inside. With a loud bang, the door hit the stony wall, splintering and cracking it in multiple places. Blank shot up, his chair falling over from the strange position it was in.
"Steiner! What the he -" But the redhead was cut off.
"We've got company!" He nearly shrieked; under any other circumstance, Blank would have thought it was funny how distressed he sounded.
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"You two must stay here. It's essential that why ever they're in Dali, they don't find what they're looking for..." Beatrix placed her hands on Vivi's shoulders, trying to stress the utmost importance of them staying hidden.
"They're looking for us?" Vivi squeaked, wringing his hands together nervously; Beatrix could only offer a reassuring smile.
"Be careful, Dagger..." Cid looked at her, his eyes warning, but she could only nod determined back.
Picking up his dagger, Blank shot a grin at Zidane, "Don't suffocate down here, missing all the action!"
"Don't provoke them, Blank!" Steiner snarled, "They'll want to come then!"
The redhead only chuckled and followed the dark haired girl up the ladder to the windmill that they were positioned directly under. Slowly climbing to the top, Dagger peeped her head out, before crawling slowly onto the small balcony. There was no place to sit, so she had to squeeze around the safety bars, only her, Blank, and Beatrix without her sword would fit.
And being up in the balcony, she froze, seeing what everyone heard from below. Two men on white chocobos, completely covered in gold armor, helmets covering their whole face, the red dyed chocobo feathers coming out of the crest of the helm signaling these were men who swore loyalty to Kuja.
"Has anyone seen any strangers abroad out here in this filth pile?" One asked, his chocobo planting its feet in the dirt, pecking momentarily with its strong beak.
Only a few older villagers stopped in the street, shaking their heads or not meeting their eyes for a response. Growling, the second guard moved his chocobo into the small town further.
"We asked a question you maggots!" Glaring, he sent his brigade of ten other guards into the buildings to search.
After only a few moments, some of the guards came out from the bar, beer mugs in hand, while the others raided the buildings they went into. The townspeople got rather irritated, and were trying to forcefully take their things back, not used to having any guards around Dali at all.
With the hilt of his sword, the first guard knocked an old man off his feet, and into the muddy dirt, "Stop messing around you old hag, and tell us what we need to know!"
Some of the younger men formed a line between the snow chocobo, and the old man, being helped up by a few ladies. A miniature riot began, the chocobos becoming confused as they tried to maneuver around the people in an attempt not to step on anyone. People tried to tear the armor from the guard's bodies, while the soldiers threatened the people with the hilts and non-sharp points of swords.
In the hustle of some young adults yanking the first man off his chocobo to beat him on the ground. But while this was going on, the second came over, and in the fray, accidentally impaled a young woman in the chest, and as the sword came out, a rib tried to come with it.
For a second, everyone was momentarily horrified at what exactly just happened, until a sudden scream from a child, throwing herself over her mother in a sobbing heap, snapped everyone out of it. It was then that out of no where, a dagger flew through the air, hitting the man who stared uncaringly at the woman, smack in the forehead.
The ringing was enough of a queue for everyone to begin to fight, to back the soldiers out of the town. Bursting out from behind a building on a chocobo, was a knight in silver armor, and when his dark eyes glared towards the twelve guards, Dagger knew that that was Steiner's signal to attack. Swinging down from atop the windmill onto some soft plants put there for that purpose only, she held her staff firmly in front of her.
Atop the mayor's house, Blank stood, arms crossed, waiting for his dagger to be returned to him. Beatrix, at the moment, was no where to be found.
As if on cue, everyone began to attack, the townspeople getting out of the way as fast as they could. Dagger swiftly picked up the little girl, whose mother was beyond being able to be cured with her white magic. Dodging a few attacks, she finally burst into the inn, where the citizens were huddled together, screaming when someone opened the door. She allowed the girl down, as she ran over to someone that immediately picked her up. Smiling reassuringly at them, the dark haired girl turned back outside.
Blank jumped off the building, and managed to pick up his dagger again, but not before getting smashed in the face with a shield. Quickly trying to regain sense, he swung at the air, only to get hit in the wrist with the sharp end of a sword. Grunting, he kicked upward with his foot, finally causing the man some pain, as he fell and rolled backwards to avoid more swords from bewildered, and tipsy guards.
Steiner moved at all the right angles where his chocobo could use his wings to gain leverage on other man with the mount. He could sense both the chocobos didn't want to fight, so he attempted to keep the creature out of the battle as much as he could. With clanking of swords and squees of the chocobos, they fought, trying to reach a peak where they could take the other down.
Finally, out of nowhere, Beatrix came, and with her mega thunder spell, haste spell, and master sword skills, she managed to take on three of the knights simply alone, before one knocked the sword out of her hand with a deafening snap, and another, slightly larger one tackled her down.
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"I don't like the way things are sounding up there..." Vivi looked to Zidane, his eyes worried.
"Well... They told us to sit tight, so that's what we have to -" he flinched as someone was thrown against the windmill, unfortunately missing the squishy plants, "do..." He trailed, finishing his sentence.
"We should maybe go help them..." It was unlike the mage to seek trouble or danger, but he figured with the sounds from above, they might need some help.
"Ugh!" Zidane threw his hands up, and grabbed the ladder, "Let's go! We'll see what's happening first..." Climbing up the prongs in record time, he poked his head out in time to see Dagger's staff be knocked from her hands, and a darkness spell cast on her, with no allies to help.
Growling, the blonde leapt from the windmill, not even bothering with the plants to pad his fall, and tackled the man down who was about the strike the poor girl to her death. Twisting around out of the man's reach, he used his own, newly equipped dagger's hilt to hit a pressure point in the man's neck, and the sharp metal to slice off his hand holding the sword.
Knowing he wouldn't be any more of a threat, he pulled Dagger out of the line of fire from a guy with an axe. Despite the fact this man was short, his weapon held a large amount of impact with it, completely splitting the fence in half. Zidane's eyes widened as he kept himself and the girl out of harms way.
"Can you cast an esuna to get rid of the blind?"
"I need time!" She yelped, struggling to maintain a hold on her calm attitude.
"I'll give it to you, but you've got to hurry!" He allowed her to plop onto the soft grass, as he defended against multiple guards who tried to come and strike them down because of the handicap on them.
Vivi on the other hand, was having one heck of a time getting down from the windmill. Finally, a chocobo was in a perfect position, allowing him to thud down onto it. With eyes wide, he summoned up magic - any magic at that - towards the guard about to slice Steiner's legs from behind.
A chilling sensation shot through Vivi's arms, creating a vivid blizzard spell, and sending it spiraling towards the man. He suffered freeze on the spot, and fell to the ground, chipping off what seemed to be his arm. Before the mage could control it, a second force thrust his body almost completely off of the immobile chocobo. It was electrifying and fast, and a sudden haze of yellow lightning thrashed the second guard's body to the ground.
With his armor charred, and his skin only slightly burning from the heat of his armor, on top of him being hot with rage forcefully charged towards the knight.
Beatrix, who had suffered largely from the tackle, had managed to kill the guy with her thunder spell, jolting herself in the process, managed to save Steiner just in time for him to slice the man's neck.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the battle was over. The crumbling buildings seemed to smoke from the magic, and the grass smelt burnt. There were broken fences that were charred and had a smoky effect portrayed on them. The roads were trampled on, wet with rain, mixed with the heavy boots, and bodies that were thrown this way and that. A few dead soldiers lay on the ground, their blood mixing into the mud, creating a maroon syrup leaking into the stomped and broken grass.
The others, who hadn't died, had managed to get away, leaving one poor, white chocobo there, squawking for its friend that was steered away. The yellow one that the village owned went to comfort it, both of them trying to find something unspoiled to munch on while there was still time to be let loose.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and it began to sprinkle, leaving drips of dark water randomly dotted over the town. Blank pulled himself out of the mud, where he had been laying for the past several minutes to look at the damage. Dagger walked around from house to house telling them the fighting was over, but to keep inside the houses unless there were men to come help clean up.
Steiner was trying to wake Beatrix up, after a hard blow to the head, and Vivi was checking everyone's pulses to make sure there was no one suffering and too weak to pick themselves up.
Zidane sat in the grass, leaned up against a building. His breathing was rugged, and he blinked a few time to get the splotchy dark away from his eyes. He vaguely noticed Blank walk over, and hand him a small glass vial.
"You were poisoned. It's not a big deal really, just drink this..." Taking the vial, Zidane let the thick substance slide down his throat. Already, his mind seemingly turned back over, right side up, so he could think clearly again and move about, back to perfect health.
He was fatigued yes, but that was due to lack of rest most likely, after battling so hard. While he drank, he noticed he had earned a gaze from Blank.
"Still staring at me?" He joked, a smile dancing upon his lips; Blank could only smile.
It was at that point that Steiner marched up to them, his face bewildered, his movements jerky, "How did you manage that?!?" His voice was shrill and distressed, but finally when he calmed down, he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, "I thought you said you were in your dream world... Where did you manage to fight like that?"
"I don't know... I just... Instinct just took over! It was crazy..." He could tell no one was buying his story.
He shouldn't have been surprised (although it didn't fail to amaze him) when Blank spoke for him, "It's something he's known to do. Just because he was in a bed for five years doesn't mean he didn't remember..."
Steiner nodded, although still in disbelief, and turned to Vivi, "Is it the same with you?" He asked more gently; it was obvious the older man picked out a favorite when it came to the two new comers.
The mage could only shrug, scared he would get yelled at to. This made the man smile, and shake his head, "I'm sure... Of course there's no one to speak for you."
Blank rolled his eyes, "He's just jealous because Beatrix is paying more attention to you at the moment than him."
"Did you say something, Bandit?" Blank only grinned, his teeth glittering in the droplets of rain that fell before his face; he knew Steiner was only joking around, angry not at him, but at the embarrassment when the woman he loved could be so close to hear.
"Let's take this fight inside..." Dagger instructed, "They'll be back to scan the area, and having us out in the open probably isn't the best idea."
"That sounds like a wonderful plan!" Steiner inquired, picked Beatrix up delicately, a blush creeping to his cheeks, allowing a snicker from Zidane and Blank.
Everyone began to pile down into a hole in the mayor's house floor. Zidane didn't see how in the world their hide out could have so many exits and entrances so close to each other, but he figured the windmill was a good spy tool, considering no one ever looked up to it anyways.
But before Dagger could go down the hole, she turned around, causing Zidane to run into her. He steadied her quickly, as she clung to his arms, embarrassment for her sudden movement apparent on her flushed cheeks.
"Sorry..." She mumbled, but then looked up and in a louder voice continued, "I'm not sure what would have happened if you and Vivi hadn't come out to help us..." She smiled at the mage on the other side of the hole, who was just about to go down, "So... I just wanted to say thanks."
"Well... Thank you, Princess... It's an honor for you not to be mad and accusing!" He mock bowed, sending a deep crimson color to her cheeks.
"Zidane!" She huffed, thinking the moment was completely ruined, "Stop being immature and stand up! I'm not a princess," she almost insisted, "so don't say that kind of stuff! People will get the wrong idea..." Shaking her head, she went down the hole, leaving a confused mage and Genome topside.
"Okay..." Confused, he let Vivi down in the hole first, before going quickly down himself.
He found himself inside the kitchen before he knew it, standing before some unfamiliar people. Blank looked as though he had just been arguing with them, as it was Steiner who directed him there. One was short and fat, his tan armor almost blending in with his skin, and the other had a rugged bandana over half of his face, elf ears pointing out from holes in the side of it, and his clothes were a sort of blue leather.
Behind both of them, was a tall man with a large nose, funny ears, goggles over his eyes, and a very round belly. His eyes were harsh, glaring at Blank until he came in, and his eyes immediately widened, as his mouth opened and closed stupidly. He didn't look like the smartest guy ever, but Zidane had to give him credit - he was definitely scary looking.
In the end, it was the muscular teenager in blue who stepped forward, eyes narrow with confusion, "Zidane?"
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A/N: Yes... Another chapter complete! I thought you'd all be happy to know that :D It's definitely wonderful to still be introducing people :D I hope you all enjoyed it, and I look forward to see what you all have to say!
Leave me some reviews loves!
-zesty-
