Filling In The Blanks
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fnatasy 9 or any of its characters.
A/N: I wish I was still getting reviews! :( that makes me sad, because I love this story!
Chapter 45: A Time Worth Waiting For
A week passed, and both Cid and Vivi had been spending more time in the Black Mage Village. The regent was learning so many things he had absolutely no knowledge of previous to his first encounter with them, and Vivi was getting to know those of his same kind.
But of course, his loyalties still fell with Zidane, and helping to get him back to his normal health. Currently, he was sitting in the infirmary room with Dagger, who was sipping a cup of water.
Things had slowed down since Tantalus had gotten home. Of course, everybody was constantly checking on Zidane, whether they cared deeply for his well-being, or simply wanted to whole gory story to go along with the details of the other members – either way, there were many people whose attention was still fully on him.
Blank had finally been convinced to leave the hospital room and get some rest, as he'd probably gotten the least amount of sleep out of them all, not wanting to fall into a slumber when Zidane could wake up, or worse… wake up with illusions once again.
A groan wafted from the bed, and though Vivi had grown accustomed to it, with no further action afterwards, both resistance members still locked their eyes on his figure, waiting for something more.
Suddenly, a hand slowly raised from the bed, shakily and weak, but causing the two to spring into action.
"Zidane!" They both yelped, stumbling over everything in their path simply to get close to him. The raven's water went flying, and the cup lay abandoned on the floor.
He groaned again, rubbing his head gently to try and make the throb go away, "Ugh…"
"Zidane…" Dagger grabbed his other hand, and the quick contact caused his eyes to flutter open. It was a slow process, but it was actually happening.
"What happened…" He grumbled, blinking to keep the light from his eyes. Vivi immediately reduced the lighting in the room, and leaned closer.
"You're awake!" He exclaimed.
"Is that so –" his sentence was interrupted when a flood of pain and memories came rushing back to him, slamming into him with the force of a wave. Hs hand dropped to his side, and a louder groan erupted from dry lips. "Did that all seriously happen?"
"You mean how you've just given us a huge upper hand in this war at the possible cost of your own life?" The hysteria in her voice caused his eyes to creak open and stare at her. A vibrant sapphire shined through slights, piercing her own dull, chocolate eyes. It was strange now, seeing something so beautiful and shimmering on him, after over a week of no voice or beautiful eyes to stare into.
"Are you okay?" He questioned stupidly.
"You're awake!" She yelled out suddenly, completely uncharacteristically of her, but she still did it anyways. "I can't believe it…" she whispered.
Vivi tried to stifle his sniffles, but was unsuccessful as he hid his face in his hat, "I'm really glad to see you, Zidane…"
Though his body throbbed in places he didn't even know existed, it all seemed to dull when he saw the reaction of these two. They were so happy… the memories of what happened were so fuzzy, he wasn't sure what was real, and what wasn't.
"Guys…" He croaked, not really knowing what else to say.
Without thinking about it, she flung her arms around his neck, but Zidane bit back his groan so she could hug him. He couldn't believe that ironically, these were the two around when he first woke up.
And then, all of that happiness seemed to vanish as he recalled his last few memories before he was knocked out from the pain. The fire – suddenly his leg burned, the screaming – suddenly his throat ached, the constant mix of spells – soon his whole body began to shake. She pulled back and glanced at him worriedly.
He sucked in a sharp breath, forcing all of those memories out. The pain was still evident, but right now wasn't the time to think about what happened. She kissed his nose, "We have to get Blank… He's been in here ever since you guys got back…"
He glanced around the room, "Where is here, exactly?"
"Our new Dali…" She winked, "We take cover in the trees and underground, and," she elbowed Vivi delightedly, "in the Black Mage Village to the east…"
His eyes ripped off of hers and stopped on Vivi, "Whaaat?"
He felt heat go to his cheeks though he knew they couldn't see him blush. He pulled his hat down further before wiggling a little bit, and letting it go. The two watched as the edges flopped back up, "I found a village of live black mages… and not just the ones that are stupid and don't listen and work for Kuja and hurt people…" It all seemed to come out in a rush, as though the little guy was far too excited to tell the blonde. "I wish you will come see it once you're able to move around…"
He laughed, even though it hurt his ribs, "Of course, Vivi! That sounds great! You'll have to tell me about it more later!" The mage nodded, but then seemed to decide something, and slid off the seat.
"I'll go find, Blank…" He waddled out of the room, closing the curtain after him. Zidane swore he saw Vivi wink as he turned around. But that wasn't important right now… What was important was…
"Dagger…" He smiled weakly at her, and she quickly cast a few powerful cures on him. He breathed, feeling instantly better, though he understood it would be a while before he could be up and moving – at least he could wiggle a little without this hurting.
Her eyes danced as she gripped his hand loosely, "Hey," she greeted, so informally that Zidane had to laugh. He smiled and reached up to her, his thumb brushing over her cheek.
They sat in silence for a long time, their motions towards each other speaking far more than words. Each knew the first question that was going to come was going to be about Kuja's assault, and what exactly happened, but both of them knew that the blonde wasn't sure whether he was going to tell the raven about it or not.
Eventually, he sat up slowly (with Dagger's help of course), and leaned forward, never letting her go as he pulled her in. It was a quick, but tender kiss as their lips briefly met. Somehow that meant so much more than a passionate make out session at the moment. And then she hugged him once more. It was soft, and though she wasn't crying, she felt all of the sadness in the world fall down on both of their beings.
Surprisingly, the subject of her question changed by the time she asked it, "How much of a chance do we have to win?" It was so soft, Zidane wasn't sure he'd heard it right, but knowing he had, and understanding she was waiting for an answer, he closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh, not willing to let her go just yet.
A few more moments passed before he pulled back from her and gave her a small smile. "To be honest?" He shrugged, and she could almost guess he was about to be modest, "Alone, or separated we are not going to win… But I think if all of us together fight, we might have a chance…"
"But…" she coaxed, knowing there was more.
"Kuja is powerful… and in all reality, for an average member of this resistance, so are his guards and mages…" He shook his head, "If every other Dreamer is as strong as Vivi is, or even me to a certain extent…" He trailed, but picked back up again, "I just don't know how it'll play out… We need luck…"
"Luck is something we're good at," she commented with optimism.
He chuckled at her, and pushed her hair out of the way. It had grown down to her shoulders now, and he smiled at it. "Your hair's grown so much…"
"You've missed so much…" Even though he hadn't, it felt like he'd been away from her for years. She could feel herself mature, and take on more responsibilities, and she wasn't sure how exactly to handle that. Being here with Zidane now, however, made all of her worries melt away into nothingness.
He chuckled at her and numbly shook his head, "Nah… I think you've been okay without me…" He nodded and smiled at her, and she rolled her eyes, "But I'm glad to be back…" She settled into a tender smile then, and brushed his bangs from his azure eyes.
"Blank told me a little of what happened…" she murmured, knowing that even if the redhead had told her, she still wanted to hear it from him.
The blonde sighed and tore his eyes away from her, unable to think of what to say. "I'm sorry…"
"For what?" She questioned, tilting her head to her side.
"That you heard…"
"I asked…" She countered, and sucked in a breath, "And I want to know what happened from you, since Blank wasn't there for very long – or so I hear…" She scooted closer, a grin on her face, "Plus… I've never been to Terra… I'd really rather like to hear about it…"
He chuckled and glanced at her, wondering he really should tell her what happened. The weakness he showed, and that strange pulsating light that had filled his body. What was that even? He'd have to ask Beatrix or Cid about it – the two smartest people he knew. Maybe even Freya would know… Freya… Should he tell Dagger of how he'd met Freya long ago? Would the Bermecian even remember him? He didn't know for sure… And besides… who knows if he really remembered the whole thing? Though it would be important information for later, what kind of person would want to constantly recall almost dying?
Before he could answer her in anyway though, Blank burst through the room, and Zidane could tell more were behind him from all of the bustling.
The redhead basically flew to his bed side, slightly visible eyes shining with almost every question under the sun, "How are you feeling?!" The blonde smiled, and was about to answer, before all of Tantalus stumbled through the door simultaneously, along with a hefty amount of other members, itching to see if the blonde really was alive, or groaned a few times before his certain death.
"Zidane!" Everybody seemed to be yelling, along with showering him with questions asking how he was feeling, what happened, was he okay, could he remember? And so on and so forth. He blinked a few times as his head began to spin, trying to focus on everybody at once.
"Give him some room!" Cinna howled above everyone, shoving violently backwards. Though it wasn't very graceful, everybody did take a few steps backward to give the blonde some breathing room.
It was silent for a moment, before the other Tantalus member instructed them to ask one at a time. A boom of questions peppered the blonde again, before Cinna barked, and slowly, Zidane could narrow it down to one.
"Are you okay?!"
"I don't think I would be if I didn't have Dagger's white magic…" He laughed and tossed a glance at the girl, who forced her eyes away, blushing. "She's even the reason right now that I can sit up…"
A murmur seemed to rise, then slowly fall in the room as everyone contemplated this, as though it were an interview for royalty or a high-ranked noble.
"Can you remember what happened?" One Bermecian in the crowd dared ask. Zidane averted his eyes to the bed, where he was subconsciously gripping the bed sheets, balling them tightly into his fists without even realizing it.
He exhaled and glanced at the people in the room. "Is everybody prepared for the story?"
The room was still, and he took this as his queue to move forward. "I just kind of stood in the street, waiting for something to happen. It didn't take long for the huge ship to anchor into the street, not caring what it was devouring in its path…" Zidane shook his head, "All of the destruction probably took the homes of many people in Terra…" He glanced away and was quiet for a moment, before he began again, "I was up against an entire army. At first, I took them on, and was doing pretty good… But for every one that I took down, four more showed up in his place. So I ran…"
"You ran?" Someone parroted in the crowd, and the blonde nodded.
"There was nothing more I could do. I was chased down the streets of a place I'd barely known by an entire evil army… Kuja stayed where he was, booming orders at his guards, and threats in my direction. The only good thing, was that he thought I was alone…"
"So he wasn't even expecting an ambush…?"
"It wasn't so much an ambush," Cinna answered for him. "Zidane was supposed to be used as bait so we could steel the ship… We never expected though, for Kuja to fight him head on… It was too dangerous, and though we won ownership over the ship, I wouldn't do it again for all of the ships in the entire world."
People contemplated this for a moment, before Zidane asked if he could continue. "I hid out in a random house for awhile," he decided to keep out that it was his own childhood home he rested in, just because he knew those details weren't important to anyone but himself, "And as soon as they caught onto that , I ran again…" He sucked in a breath through a thin line in his mouth, and then peeked up at everyone to see their reactions to his words. They all were frozen like statues, awaiting his next words.
"When I finally returned to my starting point, I knew the only thing to do was to engage Kuja… Luckily, it was a one on one fight, and the army wasn't going to get involved…" There seemed to be a cumulative sigh of relief before he continued, "At first everything was alright…" He nodded, "Neither of us had lost our cool, and I was able to dodge all of his blows…"
He knew the shameful part was coming up, and he looked back down at the sheets before he continued. "He started to talk about an old best friend…" A few who knew the story squeaked, their sympathy for him showing, "And how she was working with him…" Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to continue without choking up. "She's with him now…"
Dagger walked closer and put a comforting hand on his own in his lap, and he glanced up at her with hurt eyes. He didn't have to ask the question for her to have no answer. Why? His eyes seemed to say, but she couldn't think of a thing to say.
"That's when my moves started to get sloppy…" He sighed.
"Anyone's would have," a random person in the room sympathized with him. He was a little older, and probably had kids of his own at one point, but it was hard to tell for sure.
"He landed a couple of blows on me with his powerful magic. It was really scary…" Zidane decided to share, "I never thought I would ever meet someone so powerful in my life, and here I was, facing him with no allies…"
"What did you do?" Someone in front whispered.
"There was this strange feeling that overcame me…" He shuddered, and glanced up, staring at them all with questioning eyes, probing them to see if they had an answer, "I felt power and energy surging through my veins as though it were my blood…" He shook his head, not being able to conjure an answer, "My vision became sharper, and my exhaustion left me… My whole body seemed to have a purple glow, and I landed a couple powerful hits on Kuja, that kept him speechless. One last hit pissed him off…" The Genome had a lopsided grin on his face.
"He threw me back, and suddenly my energy was gone, and I could barely stand… I don't know what it was…"
People began to murmur amongst themselves, wondering what sort of God Zidane had to be to hold such power. "Could it be a trance?" Steiner questioned, moving forward in the crowded room. All eyes then landed on him, he thought for a moment. "A long time ago, before I was Captain of the Nights of Pluto –" somehow Beatrix still found a way to laugh, despite the situation, and though some knew how silly the brunette made his old team out to be, no one knew the exact story. He shot a glare at the woman, "- the Captain before me spoke of such a thing…" He shook his head, "He said it was entirely rare, and most thought he was insane when he spoke of it… They told him that it was impossible – just a folk tale to get soldiers to try and train hard enough to achieve it someday… But, that sounds exactly like it…"
"Do you honestly think that it could be real, Steiner?" Dagger asked, tilting her head to the side. Her own chocolate eyes seemed to shine with question.
He sighed, knowing he didn't have a solid answer, "I don't know…" He admitted with a nod, "Sometime, we'll have to take it up with Cid, and see if he knows anything about it… But please, continue your story, Zidane…" He, for once, shot the blonde a kind and urging look.
"Rusty's warmin' up to me…" He grinned, and soon that almost respectable look was replaced with a glare.
"Shut up, thief!" Zidane rolled his eyes.
"It starts to get fuzzy after that… All I know, was that there was a lot of pain." He gestured down at his broken body, "I broke my leg, and he was taking a lot of good hits on me… The magic spells were even worse than before, as though he was even more pissed off than he normally was…" He shrugged then, "I just remember fire, and pain, and then I went unconscious…"
It was then they started to glance at the other Tantalus members, as though expecting them to pick up the story. When no one seemed to want to tell the tell, Cinna stepped forward. "When we got back, the situation was bad…" He shook his head, "Marcus said we were going to have to jump out of the ship, and figure out how to get him out of there… We were the bait for Kuja's raging forces, as Marcus tossed Zidane over his shoulder and ran. We all had to jump back on the ship, but once we were there… we were free…"
"We didn't know if Zidane was dead, or alive…" Blank mumbled, a whole new tone overtaking his voice. "At first, I couldn't hear a heartbeat, and neither could Marcus…" Then he turned towards his best friend, and slapped a hard hand on his shoulder, swaying him a little, "Then this asshole decided to wake up being a smartass!"
Zidane grinned at him like a small child on Christmas, and chuckled, rolling his eyes.
"That's pretty much the end of the epicness," Cinna concluded, and everybody already had more questions for him. But of course, a few knew better, and ushered everybody to come back later.
Grudgingly, they agreed, and then there was Vivi, Dagger, Blank, Steiner, Beatrix, and Cinna left in the room.
It was quiet for a moment, the words more solemn to these, even though the story had ended with such humor. They heard footsteps and listened in anticipation who would be at the door. Beatrix suspected it would be Freya, with how light they were, and seconds later, her suspicions were proven correct.
She tipped up her hat so Zidane could see a glint of her silver eyes. "Zidane… It's good to see that you're awake…"
He shot her a shaky smile, then glanced at everyone else, "Could I have a moment with Freya?"
Everyone nodded and filed out, though he knew at least half of them would be close by, trying to listen in on the conversation.
She raised a curious eyebrow at him, as she sat down in the chair, neatly crossing her legs. "What is it, Zidane?"
He smirked at her then, and crossed his arms, "How long was it going to take, before you told me?" She looked startled for a moment, searching his face to see if she could get a feel for what he was talking about, and then she visibly relaxed, leaning back and chuckling.
"I figured I would let you come to me… I didn't want to scare you incase you did not remember…"
He glanced over to the table, and picked up the rustic, but now frighteningly sharpened, dagger that had been with him almost through everything. "You never did tell me why the ruby was so important…" He glanced back up at her, and she smiled.
"It was Fratley's."
"Oh?" He questioned with a raise of his brow, suddenly interested.
"A Bermecian life span is much, much longer than that of a human…" She explained briefly, "While I looked the same age as you when we were so young, I had been on this world for twenty years already…" She nodded at him, then flickered a smile at his shocked expression. "We were oh so young when I met Sir Fratley. He was twice my age, and though it may seem bad to you, that difference is probably only about you to Dagger, or perhaps maybe even Steiner to Beatrix…" She shrugged, "I was taken with him the first time I met him, when we instantly became friends…
"He spoke of traveling the world with his parents…" She sighed, "They were loving creatures – to nature, to others, and to those they didn't even know anything about…" She sighed, "They were more like parents to me, than anyone ever had been… And when they left to travel to places unknown to Fratley, to see if they could help in the war efforts, he gave me this ruby…" She glanced at it longingly, "It was his mother's, and what his father had given to her the day they were wed. She put it into a dagger in hopes of Fratley giving it to someone he cared for who needed protection, knowing the beauty of the ruby in such a rustic dagger would give hope…"
Freya seemed to search his face deeper than she had before, and Zidane was worried she wouldn't find what she was looking for in it. "I passed it on to you, because I had a feeling I would see you again… And I knew that you needed it far more than I did at that moment in time…"
"Wouldn't you ever want the ruby back?"
"Only if you have no use for the whole dagger…" He suddenly cradled it protectively, not wanting to let go. "But do not worry about returning it to me… The ruby is a materialistic item, now that Fratley and I are together again…"
"Why were you so far from Bermecia being on that ship?"
"I tried to follow Fratley and his family. It was the first time he'd left, and had I known he would come back, or this wouldn't be his only time leaving, I would have waited for him… But I blindly followed the ones who cared for me most, but ironically followed in a completely different direction. I ended up at the Fire Shrine on the Lost Continent," She finished with a wry smile. "He had only traveled as far as the North Gate…"
Maybe it was the irony of the story, her perhaps the peculiar tone of voice she used, but Zidane couldn't help but burst out laughing. "You're kidding…"
She chuckled as well, much to his relief, "They found a war effort there, and decided to stop to help… Though it took a long time for the gruesome effects of war to make them want to return home – far after I was already back in my place, traveling from Lindblum blindly across the plains, hoping to someday find home – they decided not to travel any further."
Another chortled escaped the blonde as he shook his head, "What a cruel world…"
She shrugged, "And yet here we are, surviving…"
He suddenly looked at her very seriously, "And that's exactly what we're going to do…" She seemed surprised at his suddenly determined voice. "Kuja won't win… I won't let him take down the ones I care about most…"
She smiled and gestured to the dagger, "That's exactly why I let you keep it… If you do not return it to me someday, I will not be here to return it to…" She let out a puff of air, "If we fail, we all fail together…"
"We won't," he assured, and leaned against the bed frame.
"You should rest…" Freya murmured, crossing the room, and placing a hand on his head in a tender gesture, just as she had to comfort him when they were young. His remembrance of that boat ride suddenly made them very old friends, and extremely close, though it was more in a sense of brother and sister, though from completely different places in the world.
He nodded to her, and was already starting to drift as he watched her form, filled with the red of her clothing, leave the room.
Though drunken with sleep, he intended to keep the promise that he'd just laid upon the Bermecian.
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A/N: OH MY GOD! First of all, to all of those still reading this story I'M SO SORRY! I have like 5 chapters done ahead of what I have uploaded on fanfic, but I didn't realize it at all… I thought I was all caught up and didn't have any padding, and had major writer's block, but NOPE! You guys don't know what'sh appening with Zidane, or with Dagger Bronson Vivi anybody!
I hope you are still enjoying! Thank you to anonymous reviewer: Guest. He/She was the one who reminded me I hadn't updated in forever and was actually the reason I went and checked.
Please review! Tell me you're still out there… even though I haven't done a good job of letting YOU know that!
-zesty-
