Filling In The Blanks

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 9 or any of its characters.

Chapter 51: Miscommunications

"Don't be a smart ass with me… You're in big trouble…" A wicked grin overtook her face. "You're going to die, Kuja scum!"

He froze, unable to be quite affected by her threat. It seemed like everyone else definitely was though, and there was a lot of chatter that suddenly arose around them.

"Shut up!" She barked, and there seemed to be some ounce of obedience. She let go of Zidane's neck with a jerk to the side, and his eyes trained on the grass. As she started some spiel about how she and her people weren't afraid of them, Zidane's sapphire eyes scanned the area.

It was all green and hilly, but from that, he couldn't see much else. There was a sort of haze that was settled here, and he wondered if it was just because of the damp morning, or if it was some sort of spell. The canyon was all around them, blocking them in, and their airship lay behind them, looking more pathetic than ever.

That's when something hit him.

"You said we were Kuja scum?"

She whipped around, narrowing her eyes at him. "What do you have to say for yourself? Killing innocent people! Trying to get innocent people to do your work!"

His brows furrowed in anger, and he glared at her, making himself seem ten times taller than he actually was. "You're the Kuja scum! I think you're pretty dense if you're getting us confused with your own men!"

Her eyes widened for a moment, before she settled back down. "You're lying."

"Why would I lie about being affiliated with that bastard?!" Zidane howled, tugging against his restraining hands.

"Let us explain why we're here!" Beatrix called out in desperation, and everyone could tell this wasn't the first time she'd said that. Apparently, the knight had come to the realization that these weren't Kuja's people before everyone else.

"You're here to capture our people! Use them as your sick, twisted dreamers, and to fight for you! No! You will not take fathers and daughters and sons and wives and sisters and brothers away from each other! We will fight!"

Suddenly, Zidane had a grin on his face. This didn't go unnoticed from the woman. She unsheathed her sword, and pointed it right at his throat.

"What's. So. Funny?" She growled menacingly at him.

An eye patch covered one of her eyes with her jet black hair cropped at her chin. She was tall and built, though somehow still slim and kind of petite looking. She was dressed in a completely black suite. It looked almost like latex armor, suctioning to her skin, moving where she moved, and never letting a piece of her exposed.

"You aren't going to become a dreamer…"

Her face turned more suspicious when he uncovered the fact that he knew that word. "Why's that?" It seemed she was taking the chance to humor him.

"They're done with that phase… He's woken all of the dreamers up – fed them lies saying that everyone who fights against them burned their Alexandria –"

"Alexandria?" She questioned, looking away for a moment. She mumbled something to herself and then locked her eyes back on him. "Alexandria's been gone for years!"

"But the dreamers think it's only been gone for one year…"

"How would you know all this if you were not Kuja's scum?!" She demanded, "They trick us! We'll skip the torture! Just kill them all!"

"Wait!" The girl cried, and Zidane slowly closed his eyes. He had been wishing Dagger wouldn't get involved.

The woman sneered in her direction, but let her talk. Dagger tried to move forward, and glanced around at her guards. They decided there'd be too much at stake for her to try anything, so let go of her arms, and walked forward with her.

She sucked in a breath, knowing this was going to be a big leap. "My name…"

"Dagger!" Steiner yelled from somewhere in the back of the group. His eyebrows knit together. She couldn't reveal herself like this.

"My name is Garnet til Alexandros XVII… I'm the heir to the throne of late Alexandria…" She gestured around to the people she knew. "Adelbert Steiner – former Captain of the Pluto knights! Beatrix Vaylor – former Captain of the Rose Brigade! Sir Iron-Tail Fratley of the Bermecian Royal Guard!" Dagger glanced around, trying to find more formidable people with them.

Her eyes only landed on two. "And these are Zidane Tribal, and Vivi Ornitier… The two dreamers who awoke from Kuja's trance early, and made an escape…"

Needless to say, if the woman didn't believe them, she was at least impressed. She turned around, trying to find some sort of truth in the eyes of all these newcomers.

"I'll humor you," she spoke swiftly, turning towards Dagger, who after that stroke of confidence, shrank where she stood. "If these are who you say they are, who are the rest of these people?"

"We come from a resistance…" Zidane cut in, knowing that Dagger didn't want to speak anymore – she was just trying to save Zidane's life… His mind nagged at him that that wasn't going to work – he was going to die anyways – but he shoved that quickly out of his thoughts.

"A… resistance?"

"One last formidable stand against Kuja, to recapture Alexandria, and to purge our homes of his evil."

Again she circled, trying to find truth in each member's eyes. "Are you the leader then?" She questioned the blonde.

He shook his head. "I may be powerful…" He jerked his head over to Vivi, standing about ten feet to the left of him, "But my friend and I joined the resistance a little less than a year ago… This resistance has been alive for many years, lead behind the scenes, by Regent Cid Fabool IX…"

"Cid? He's alive?! How can this be?! Who is your leader?" The woman demanded, though more excitedly than anything else.

Zidane decided at this point, he wouldn't speak anymore. He didn't know exactly who Dagger wanted people to think was the leader of this little infiltration, and he was still genuinely worried that they had revealed themselves to Kuja's lackies.

The raven haired girl stared up, her chocolate eyes wide as she gestured out, "I am the leader of this resistance…" She nodded, "But I am flanked by Beatrix and Steiner… They make most fighting decisions out on the field…"

The woman nodded, and turned slowly to a man standing rigidly behind her. She muttered something to him, and he stared at her in bewilderment for a moment, before nodding and jogging off.

She held up her hand, and then sliced it through the air quickly, and suddenly, Zidane was being jostled around again. "Hey! Back off!"

"Where are you taking them?!" Dagger demanded, stomping her foot. It seemed for the most part, the guards were leaving her alone.

They abandoned their hold and Steiner and Beatrix as well, shoving everyone else forward into the mist; the woman wouldn't answer any questions of where they were being taken.

"Dagger!" Zidane was shouting, thrashing about.

"Stupid kid…" One of his guards mumbled, and took two fingers, jabbing him in the back of the neck. Immediately, Zidane's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed limp on the ground. The other soldier with him hoisted him over his shoulder, and carried him the rest of the way out.

The raven haired girl went to follow, but the woman finally spoke again.

"They're going to be fine…"

"What did you do with them?!"

The woman shook her head, dismissing it quickly as Beatrix and Steiner raced to the girl's side.

"They're being held in our stronghold until I can decipher what to do with you all… But first we must talk."

"I've revealed much information to you already," Dagger decided, standing a little straighter and feeling a little more confident with her two superiors behind her, "and you haven't even told me your name."

"Lysandra," she spoke curtly, as though the younger girl had personally offended her. "Tell me why you're here."

Dagger was about to protest, but Beatrix put a hand on her shoulder, and pulled her back protectively, so her whole arm was around the girl. Steiner stepped forward and sighed. "I know that we do not have much to go off of, and I understand that we're invading your home…"

She stuck her nose up in the air, indicating that he was right so far.

"But we mean no harm."

"How can I trust you? You've brought an army with you!"

"No… at least, not for you… You see… Our rebellion has a plan. We think we can overtake Kuja and his army if we rally the world together to fight him."

"What are you talking about?"

"We flew in from the Outer Continent just southeast of Conde Petie."

"What?!" She gasped, dropping her guarded wall. "Why have you come so far for just us?!"

"We're making trips everywhere… We want to get everyone together – to train and group… We've got everything from mages to warriors to paramedics to clothing makers with us… helping us – in any way that they can… We'll make one final march on Alexandria, and take him down."

"That won't work…"

"What won't work about it?!" He demanded, narrowing his eyes. "Or do you just fear the unknown?!"

"I am no coward!" She yelled at him, but then stood straight again, pushing the hair out of her eyes. "You think people will risk their lives –"

"They already have!" Dagger told her, exasperated. "We've rallied citizens from Terra… My uncle has four airships now… he's sending out teams to each populated location in the world – spread out on all four continents. Terra was our test ground, and to steal a ship from Kuja…"

"You stole a ship from Kuja?!" The woman stumbled back, obviously unable to wrap her head around such ideas.

Steiner motioned to Dagger to allow him to take over. "I know it's overwhelming… But our resistance is far more powerful than you might believe. After we leave here, we'll go to Bermecia and Dali, Treno and Lindblum, and I know we won't be alone… People will fight, because Terra was our test run."

"So why have you brought so many if you're telling the truth?" She raised her eyebrow, skeptical.

"Incase we were to run into any of Kuja's soldiers, we'd be able to get around them with no casualties… His forces are not around these areas –" his hand waved out in front of him, "- obviously, you have that mostly covered."

She smirked a little, probably from pride, and puffed out her chest just a tiny bit. "So we've come to an agreement then, that you and I are not enemies…"

Steiner straightened a little, and took one small step protectively in front of the other two. "We have agreed that either I nor you work for Kuja… And that's all the further this assessment has gone…"

There was a strong silence for a moment, while both sized the other up, until Lysandra burst into laughter. It was hearty – kind of masculine, but all three could tell it was because she'd had to keep her guard up for so many years.

"I'll tell you what, Steiner of the Pluto Knights –" Beatrix rolled her eyes. Sometimes that man could make his squad out to be so fantastic, when really, it was full of a bunch of slacking duds. "- you may stay for awhile, and rally who you'd like… We will not harm you, and we will not harm any of your friends…" She gestured to their ship, "It seems you'll need a place to stay, and we can accommodate for that…"

"Really?" Beatrix asked, shaking her head. "That's… more than we could ask for…"

"If what your people say is true, then we have no reason to stop your advances in halting Kuja's power… We would be delighted to help… But I feel before many of us can make a decision, I must grant you the power to roam and get to know people yourself, while we get to know you…"

"We wouldn't want it any other way…" Dagger nodded, and bowed slightly to her. "Thank you…"

The woman smiled a little, a flutter of hope igniting in her chest. Could these young people do what she failed to do, so many years ago?


Zidane groaned and rolled over. "That was the weirdest dream –" suddenly, his heart leapt into his throat, and his eyes fluttered open.

He was in a strange, unfamiliar place that was dark, and maybe a little hazy. But soon, his eyes locked onto something comforting.

"You're awake!" Dagger smiled at him, her eyes bright, and her voice chipper.

"What happened?"

"You were kinda…" She thought about the way to put the order of events, "Kicking and struggling too much, so in order to get you where they needed you to be, they used pressure points on you…"

Zidane rubbed the back of his neck bitterly. "I noticed…" He grumbled.

"Don't be such a grump!" She decided, crossing her arms.

He raised an eyebrow, "I'm the grump? Okay Miss I-don't-want-to-talk-to-you-because-you-want-to-save-lives!" He grinned, but that happy expression faltered when her eyes set downcast. "I'm sorry…" He mumbled, looking away.

She grabbed his hand quickly, bringing it to her cheek. "It's alright…" Closing her eyes, she listened to his breath for a moment, before speaking. "I think that you should get some more rest."

"What? Why?"

"It's dark now, and they don't want us to be out there in the dark…"

"Why?"

"You might slip and fall…"

"I'm being serious, Dagger…" Zidane rolled his eyes, tugging out of her grasp and sitting up on the side of the bed. He rubbed his head, trying to get the swimming vision to go away.

He stood up, regardless, and began walking across the room. He knew she was right up after him in a second. "So am I, Zidane!" She told him forcefully.

He stopped for a moment, but didn't look at her. Slowly, he turned towards the girl with a raised eyebrow. "Show me…"

She sighed, "We could get in trouble…" She laced her hands together and scuffled her feet across the floor. That's when he realized that it was stone… so was the wall – all the walls actually! And the ceiling and –

"You gotta relax sometime, Dagger, I'm sneaky!" He took her hand and pulled her close to him. "… And I live for trouble…" He purred in her ear.

Tingles shot down her spine, and she allowed him to lead her out of the room. The girl's mind touched briefly on the fact that if he were ever trying to lure her into a different situation – with that voice, it would probably work…

He laughed, breaking her from her thoughts. "Are you going to show me, or are you going to let me fall?"

"I would never…" She smiled, pulling ahead of him, and carefully opening the door. "So we have to –" She turned around in a full circle spin, confusion growing on her face. "Zidane?"

Suddenly, a hand caught her arm and soon her feet were dangling off the ground. Her mouth was covered so she wouldn't scream, but that didn't stop her from struggling.

"Dagger!" He laughed quietly, "Dagger, it's me… Sneaky, right?"

The princess glanced down, and saw that they were about seven feet off the floor – on the ceiling. Then she turned back to him, gawking. "How did you –" She gripped him tighter in fear of falling.

"I'm just sneaky…" He answered simply, dropping back down to the ground with her in his arms.

She shook her head. No matter how long she knew him, or how close they got, he would still never cease to amazing and or shock her.

"This thing you're supposed to be showing me?" He grinned when she jumped for the umpteenth time that night.

"R-right…" She mumbled something incoherent while leading him down the hall.

"You might want to stop muttering, they could hear you –"

"Shh!" She barked at him, glaring. He laughed again, this time, a little louder. "Take your own advice!" She snapped at him.

Zidane had forgotten how often he enjoyed pushing her buttons. They were basically flashing neon buttons, considering how easy it was to irritate her. But the walls weren't windy and pretty straight forward. Sure, a right here, or a left there, but it was all very neatly cut, each hall running perpendicular to another in some way.

"There…" They came suddenly to a ledge, and if she hadn't said anything, he would have walked right off.

"Wha –" His eyes cast out upon the field. The blonde spotted their fallen airship, still smoking in the distance. His eyes grew in size as the wind howled against the stone rock of the canyon – the rock they were standing in. "I don't believe this…"

She pointed to a narrow ledge just off to their right, "You see why they couldn't have you kicking and screaming the whole way? It's very dangerous… That's why they don't want people out at night…"

"So there are more of these tunnels?!"

It was her turn to grin at him. "Genius, right?" She gestured all along the canyon barriers. "They're actually all over, but you can't see them at all!" She took both of her gloved hands, and turned him so his body was facing hers.

He could feel the cold, brisk wind nipping at his back, and he shuttered. The girl in front of him didn't seem phased that they stood on an edge that would surely end their lives if there was one minor slip up.

"They're like us… All these people live in the canyon to avoid detection of a big village…" She shook her head, "Kuja hasn't bothered trying to get by the mountain, because he's spotted no civilization dwelling within the valley!"

"That's…" Zidane had to think about it for a moment, "That's insane!" He knew it wasn't a very appropriate word for such a masterpiece, but that's all he could think of.

He glanced at the girl, who set her gaze upon the rest of the field. From here, though the haze still covered the other half, one could see the foggy outline of the other side. The blonde wondered if any of their friends and comrades were being held over there.

But the longer he stared at the girl, the more thoughts melted away from his conscious mind. Her hair wavered in the wind, and her cheeks were bright pink on porcelain skin against the chilling cold. But her ruby lips were quirked up, and her eyes sparkled with more hope and excitement than he'd seen in a long time.

He took her hand then without saying anything, hoping not to spoil the moment. But they stood there, staring over this vast area of lush, emerald grass together, both wishing the moment would never end.


"What do you know?"

"How do I know… you're going to keep the people safe that I want safe…"

Kuja raised his eyebrow, "Oh? So you have thought about the affects your little exchange might have on the other people…"

"I only want you to have Zidane…" He growled, trying to sound menacing, even though he was the one in the chair.

"So he's alive?"

"You knew that."

Kuja's eyes narrowed. If he was being honest with himself, no matter how much everyone who witnessed the battle tried to convince him otherwise, that wretched brat wasn't dead. He could just feel it… In the pit of his stomach, there was something rising – and Zidane was the middle of it.

If he was going to play his cards right, taking Bronson's offer would be the smart thing to do… Get the information on Zidane, kill only Zidane – with the other dreamer brat as a casualty of course – and wipe everyone else out with his hand-selected army.

His lips curled up into a smile. Did he ever love that idea. Kill only one, and have the rest of his profitable army do the rest of the dirty work? The idea was sounding more appealing every second.

"I've always been a man of my word…"

Bronson raised a suspicious eyebrow. He watched Rendell get completely frozen over by one of Kuja's spells – unsure now if he wanted to say anything to the man or not. Darious was going to be next soon, if Bronson didn't hurry it up… Not that he particularly cared for these men, but it would be a bit of an inconvenience.

"How can I trust you?"

"You're idea of killing only Zidane sounds appealing to me…" His eyes seemed to sparkle, and the outline of his make up made him look all the more hideous.

"Why?"

He shook his head, unsure of how to answer with Elouise in the room. Telling him the truth – the most believable thing – would mean letting his whole story slip… the whole reason the dreamers were fighting with him. If they were to find out he was the reason Alexandria had fallen, and so many died… Well… They wouldn't be very happy.

Elouise leaned against the window support, staring at the confrontation in front of her. Her emerald eyes set on Bronson's facial expressions as she waited for Kuja's answer. His plan was strange… It made sense – Zidane tried to kill him in Terra… She knew about personal revenge… But it was still weird that he would only want to kill Zidane… nobody else?

A part of her, no matter how much she wanted to admit it, was relieved he was alive. If only she could talk some sense into him… If only she could make him see that he was being treacherous, and hopefully beg Kuja to forgive him, so they could go back to the way things were…

After that day in Alexandria that he had passed out… after that day he had hugged Elouise while she cried for his safety… after that day that he promised he would stay with her… She didn't see him again. A few hours later when she went to check on her best friend, there were mages standing outside his house, and a bunch of government officials.

"What happened?! Why are you here?!" She remembered demanding, storming up to the guards. The mages didn't answer, and the men inside the house didn't even stop to look at her. Her frustrations flared, and punched one of the mages as hard as she could.

It reacted in such a way that still made her hand tingle. The mage, still with its blank eyes, shot a fire ball at her. She leapt out of the way, pure shock covering her face. Her knuckles were singed, and she absent mindedly rubbed her other hand on top of them.

There should have been a scar still – but Kuja had healed them all and protected them all when Alexandria fell under attack.

The men finally stared up at her, irritated. "What are you doing here little girl? Don't you see we're busy?"

"Where's Zidane?!" She demanded, her eyes brimming with tears.

"You mean the kid that was inside this house?" He put on a sad expression and shook his head. "They shipped him to Lindblum not even an hour ago… He needed medical treatment bad – he was dying…"

Her breath hitched in her throat. "But I just talked to him… Not even three hours ago…"

"That's the sad thing about sicknesses like his… They just creep up on you. It's a shame nobody reported any signs about him earlier…"

Her heart sunk, knowing that they barely ever got any news from Lindblum – not even Avalanch's mother had anything to say most of the time…

"No…"

No, no no! She clutched her head, squeaking her eyes shut. It couldn't be real… it couldn't be real… he couldn't just leave her and… and die!

"No…"

No…! What was she saying? What was she thinking? Zidane had to pay for his mistakes… But did she have the strength to watch him die? Elouise narrowed her eyes. He had been part of the horrible raid that had killed Vienna and Griffon – two of her best friends… He had been part of what had slaughtered her homeland… He would pay.

She finally snapped back into reality, and when she did, Bronson was dishing out his information.

"… they were aiming for the Forgotten Continent –"

"Overseas again?" Kuja leaned closer and narrowed his eyes, "You lie…"

"It's no lie… It was Zidane's idea himself… And they'll come back here too… It was a top secret mission, so they couldn't share where they were going with many people… not until they're back, but I know almost for sure that they'll be back on the Mist Continent… That would be your prime time to strike him down… He wants as much in this war as he can take…"

"How do I know you aren't lying to me?"

"I wouldn't be here, if I didn't want Zidane to be killed…"

Elouise's nose scrunched up, and she had to turn away from the scene. No matter what her feelings were on the subject, and even if Zidane wasn't involved… Boy was this asshole low – exchanging the people he had wanted to fight with, because of a petty reason such as dislike? She rubbed at her eyes, truly wondering what Kuja was going to say after Bronson had been shipped off…

Surely he'd have all three executed, and if not… He'd send only one back with a message… She rolled her eyes. They had to be complete idiots to come here…

She turned back to Bronson, watching his face for more information.

"Will the Princess be with them?"

The man's face became hard, his eyes puckering ever so slightly. He answered with the perfect timing of the truth, but she knew from the way his skin tensed around his eyes, that he was lying.

"No."

"Tsk, tsk… It seems we'll have to be after her in a different way –"

"No!" Bronson struggled, his eyes becoming hard and a snarl released from his throat. "You promised me you'd only kill Zidane!"

"But my dear boy, the Princess has the Eidolons I need…" Of course the princess wasn't the first on his target list… He was far more interested in killing the rogue dreamers right now – the Princess could always be found with a bit of digging… He was simply hoping to get more information out of the man.

And it worked. "She's got this affect on people!" The words stumbled out of his mouth.

"What?" Kuja asked, irritation flooding his tone.

"They'll listen to her… You might not even have to slaughter the rest of the rebellion… She'd make them stay in line… You could set her up as a fake ruler… You could use her as a puppet… She'd be good at it – there would be no more uprisings…"

Kuja rolled his eyes, though made sure he was facing the opposite direction. This man was a fool. No Princess trying to reclaim her kingdom would step down… unless she was desperate…

Unless…

"Do you have anything else to report to me?"

Bronson shook his head, "That's everything I know…"

Elouise raised an eyebrow at her leader, silently asking him what he'll do.

He gestured to Darius and Rendell – one still frozen, and the other one quivering to death. "Kill them." They howled, trying to plead their case, but he ignored them completely. "Accommodate to Bronson's needs…" He grinned wickedly, "In the dungeon!" Kuja made a quick retreat from his office, hoping to get away from the obnoxious pleas for mercy. "Lock him up!" He bellowed in his final words.

Elouise smirk widened as her eyes locked on the three men in front of her… Things were going according to plan…


A/N: Well I hope you liked that one!

I'm just going to say here, for anyone who reads the author's notes… WOW… I've started rereading this story, because honestly, I don't remember a lot of it, and there are a few things that I go back and relearn while rereading…

I'm so sorry for all of the grammatical errors in my writing, spelling mistakes, overuse of words, kind of confusing descriptions, and the fact that I change some things from earlier chapters because I don't remember that I said them.

Hopefully, when I'm all done with this story, I'll be able to go back and edit everything – making it all smooth and fitting :) However that probably won't be for awhile, so for now, I just really wanted to apologize.

I hope you're still enjoying and thank you for sticking with me!

-zesty-