Filling In The Blanks
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy IX or any of its characters.
Chapter 94: Breaking Point
With so many more people venturing through the ice caverns, the slippery ice room was nowhere near as challenging as the first time Zidane went through. Steiner carried Dagger, her petite frame tucked protectively into his chest. Amarant carried Eiko on his shoulders, her tiny form flopped over his thick red hair. Freya carried Vivi because she was more locked, claws etched into the icy stairs. His hat tickled her cheek as she clutched his small legs on her arms, feeling secure the way they had adjusted his arms around her neck in a piggy-back ride.
The entire place glittered like crystals, and more than once, the genome stopped to admire the sparkling walls, the light glinting off of them and fracturing each piece of ice like it was glass. It wasn't quite as slow as the last room, so conversation picked up a little between Steiner, Beatrix, and Freya. He, Blank and Amarant stayed silent, their eyes shifted one way or another, listening to the low hum of voices in front of them.
They staggered forward after they got out of the ice cavern, no one bothering to speak. The temperature was so much better, Zidane almost watched the tension melt off of everyone's shoulders. The three magic users continued to sleep, and the blonde figured they wouldn't be woken up until the rock check point just outside the forest. It didn't take long to get there, and luckily the chill was walked off by the time Eiko – who was the last to awaken – blinked out of her sleep.
"Is everyone alright?" Dagger asked, staring around at her team.
"We could ask the same to you," Zidane told her with a grin.
"Did no one else fall asleep?" her voice was panicked, but Beatrix put a firm hand on her shoulder.
"Vivi and Eiko did," she nodded, "the rest of us started… but Freya was able to summon a dragon that seemed to wake us all back up."
"You don't remember?" Amarant tilted his head at the three who still sat on the ground, stupefied.
Eiko shook her head, "I hardly even remember sliding down that horrible ramp!"
"Just…" Vivi mumbled before his golden eyes locked onto Zidane who stood directly in front of him, "the faces."
"Don't worry, there was nothing as offensive as that in the rest of the cave!" the blonde grinned. "Unless you count the icicle that snagged my arm!" he griped, shoving his arm out at an awkward angle to show off his tricep muscle.
"Zidane!" Dagger squeaked, grabbing his hand and pulling it closer. "That looks sort of deep!"
"Hmm, really?" he tried to examine it further, but couldn't wrap his head that far back.
"Pansy," Blank mumbled, crossing his arms.
"Hurry and heal it, and then we must be moving on," Freya told her.
She began pulling power to her hands, feeling the energy trying to direct itself through her body. But none of it would build at her command, and she furrowed her eyebrows in frustration.
"Are you going to do it or not?" Amarant snapped at her, heaving a sigh, "I hate how much standing around there is with you people!"
"Shut up," Blank barked. "Stop being so temperamental!"
The ex-soldier rolled his eyes at the thief's sass. "Kids…" he mumbled; he wasn't sure if everyone ignored his comment, or simply didn't hear him.
"I can't cast magic…" Dagger sucked in her cheek and examined her hands. "It feels like a silence spell."
"It is as we feared in the cavern. Dagger, Vivi, nor Eiko will be able to cast spells."
"What?" spluttered the raven uncharacteris
tically. "But what if –"
"We're just going to have to be extra careful," Beatrix nodded. "Let's get through the forest quickly! We're almost there!"
No one argued with her as they plunged into the darkness, letting it swallow them. Their torch had run out and there was no one with fire to start it again. They trusted Freya's eyesight in the dark as their feet pounded the dirt path, trying to ignore the way the trees seemed to lean over them, pressing closer together.
Zidane had experienced the intensity of the gloom once before, so he wasn't worried. However, Dagger's hand squeezed him almost to the point of uncomfortable pain as they ran along the path. She had never been through the forest – her elders having experienced it enough before she was able to fight. They must have adapted the river method before she was allowed to go with them.
The others were also mildly spooked, but the sure footsteps of Blank and Zidane, with the leading feet of Freya, Steiner, and Beatrix – no one was too worried. Slowly – too slow for most of their likings – the shadows seemed to lessen, though the darkness never faded. Once they climbed an impressively steep slope on the path, Alexandria suddenly broke out in front of them.
Dagger's breath caught in her mouth as they stared at the broken city. The moon had split through the clouds for just a moment, shining down on the crumbled white walls. It looked abandoned and sad when the darkness drowned out Kuja's threat over the kingdom.
She took a few steps forward, shaking her head. "It's been a long time…"
Zidane watched her with a guarded expression. He watched as her eyes lit up and her lips parted slightly; he knew that the others must have had similar expressions – seeing a place they remembered so clearly for the glory it used to hold in shambles – but he couldn't bring himself to feel anything for the crushed stone.
The important parts of his life that he had remembered in the last two years were amongst his friends, and protecting people who couldn't protect themselves. The rickety five years of his life that he spent in some fake world based on the beauty of the city-state that Kuja stole was not something he wanted to remember with gusto.
"Let's keep moving," he nodded. "Mae has to be close!"
It wasn't difficult to find a way over the wall. There were mountains of stone that provided plenty of stepping stones up and down. Beatrix and Steiner's hearts nearly broke as they stumbled over the shattered wall of their beloved city – the one they had spent nearly their entire lives trying to protect.
It was almost silent beyond the ominous sounds of the forest. Their feet tapped gently against the stone but the sound didn't echo. Once they were over the wall, they shuffled through the dust and the dirt, eyes swiveling and trying to get an idea where they were.
Steiner took the lead, wandering just a little ahead of everyone else. He was in a world a million miles away as he stared at the weathered sidewalks, still-black and scarred grass that never went away after the destructive take-over all those years ago. Splintered wooden signs creaked from their busted hanging spots above steps, old shops that went down in a blaze that night, or the nights soon following. Heaps of materials that were hard to make out underneath the scorch marks lay in clumps around the torn up walk way.
"This must have been the market square," Zidane murmured. Everyone jerked around to stare him down as he gestured to the widened cobblestone and hunks of broken wood and stone that he recognized as torn down vender stalls. "You see how everything is sort of in a semi-circle outside this row of shops? I recognize this…"
"From the dream world?" Dagger asked him tentatively.
The blonde forced himself to stay in the present by locking his eyes on Blank and Dagger who stood side by side. He gave one nod, and then gestured them forward. "Where would Mae be, if we're in the market district?"
Beatrix shook her head, "If this is supposed to be your trap, where would you be drawn to?"
Zidane sucked on his lips, pulling them into a thin line as his eyes swept the area. He was very aware of the cold wind around them – almost too cold for the humidity that festered around his armor. Deciding on a whim to follow his gut, he turned to follow the direction of the sharp breeze.
"That leads you around the market place. It's a straight shot to the arena just outside the palace for special performances," Beatrix recited, though she hadn't the slightest idea how she still remembered.
The genome nodded, hurdling a massive street light that had fallen. "That's right," he confirmed her suspicion as everyone moved hesitantly behind him. "When I was in the dream world," he started, unsure why he suddenly wanted to share. "I was rewriting Lord Avon's I Want to be Your Canary."
"Rewriting it?" Steiner snorted as they started on the long stretch of abandoned shops and inns. He recalled this part of Alexandria being especially busy whenever the Regent would visit from Lindblum, wanting to watch a performance with his brother and sister-in-law. Citizens of Alexandria would go nuts, wanting to catch a glimpse of the entire royal family together almost more than they wanted to see the show.
"I thought it was my own work, having no memory of the real world," he explained as he dodged more piles of broken stone. He felt like they were going in the right direction, and it was a feeling that didn't necessarily settle with his stomach. "It came to me one day, and I think it's because I had a dream of a performance I saw with Blank and Baku when he was training us for acting. I wanted to be a play writer –" he let out an 'oof' as he slid over another fallen column, "- and there was a contest for the first prize winner to leave Alexandria for Lindblum to start work on the production."
"Why are you telling us this?" Amarant asked, his voice aware and slow, like he suspected the oncoming danger much like the blonde.
"I would come down here all the time, trying to watch the competition," he let out a hazy laugh, like he hardly remembered it himself, "and try to sneak into the performances. No one I knew ever managed to get tickets in… Kuja probably never even created the performances in his spell, otherwise it would be the same exact one over and over again… so he must never have let anyone inside who was from the real world."
"That's how you are so familiar with this portion of the city," Beatrix concluded for him, a sadness in her voice that she couldn't lift.
Zidane didn't answer though, as he leaned forward, squinting his eyes as he tried to see. Past more rubble of houses and shops, he saw a clearing and a lone figure on the stone. "Mae!" he shouted, rushing forward.
This was the feeling Dagger was waiting for – the one that had told her instantly it was a trap. Her chest tightened as the Elite group raced after him, each of them knowing very well that they wouldn't just be able to take Mae and run with the way she was left out in the middle of the street. But there was no telling Zidane to stop and wait.
He stumbled the last few steps, his finger tips brushing the stone before he regained his balance. He fell to his knees by the little girl, his hands hovering over her as though he was afraid to touch her. Before he could affirm if she was still breathing, Beatrix nudged him out of the way and bent her head low to her mouth. Her fingers prodded lightly at the girl's neck as she waited for the wash of a breath in her ear.
"She," the woman started, her voice cracking as panic rose in her chest.
Eiko slapped a hand over her mouth, trying to hold back any sounds. Mae couldn't be dead.
Suddenly, a light breath filled the brunette's ear as, in the same moment, her two fingers found a light pulse in the girl's neck. "She's alive!" Beatrix cried, her own eyes watering with relief.
Zidane closed his eyes briefly, relief flooding his own body in warmth. But that nagging breeze still washed over him, forcing his eyes to flutter back open as he looked around. The other's fussed over the girl, their hands trying to reach every part of her to make sure she wasn't hurt.
Steiner was the next to stand, staring at the genome before his own charcoal eyes extended past the present. He watched the sudden stillness of the city, feeling the same chill of wind that the blonde did.
"Amarant, Eiko," he found himself blurting, his tone demanding. The others looked up at him, "Get a head start with Mae back to the village. We'll be right behind you."
"What do you –"
"Go," he hissed at them, realizing now that Freya and Beatrix were staring around in much the same way as he and the genome.
Dagger, Vivi and Blank slowly started to understand what was going on as Zidane took a step forward. Amarant hoisted the little girl on his shoulders and ushered Eiko away from the group, knowing very well that if he didn't get Eiko moving now, it would be hard to tear her away from the oncoming fight. He was itching to stay as well, but knew the others worked better together as a team.
"Zidane, don't," Blank tried to order, but the blonde didn't listen. His curiosity was getting the best of him as he continued to step cautiously forward towards the wind.
"That feels like a blizzara spell," Vivi whispered, fear rising in his throat.
"We should leave now," Beatrix prompted, an unexplainable panic building in her gut.
"We can't lead troops back to Dali; not again," Zidane told them, his voice too low and too calm. His gloved hand wrapped unconsciously around his dagger, but slowly, one finger gripping the hilt at a time.
"Then we'll take a detour… We won't head back to Dali," Dagger tried to plead with him, keeping her voice just as calm. "But we need to leave now," even as she said so, she found her arm reaching behind her back at a slow-motion pace, ready to grab her staff. The others already had their hands on their weapons.
Steiner was the first, with his protective nature, to unsheathe his sword. The sling of metal against metal, sword against protector, rang out coldly in the sudden dead of the night, the thick clouds swallowing back up the moon like it was only a snack – only the beginning of the darkness descending.
A glint on Blank's dagger caught his attention, a sudden light that came from nowhere. Before he could even look up, and before the sound of Steiner's sword faded out in the distance echo, a shower of arrows suddenly covered them from all directions.
Beatrix gave a shout and dove under a rickety old wagon that never quite burned all the way through. The others scrambled for cover under anything they could find, and Vivi watched in fear as an arrow sliced straight through his hat. The thick material stopped its speed, and it slowly slumped down in front of his face, no longer a threat to the young mage.
"We have to get out of here!" Dagger yelled fiercely, as thunder suddenly rumbled above them. The storm that Freya was predicted earlier was upon them, and she feared the worst as they attempted to break out of their hiding spots.
As the first boom faded away, they realized that the oncoming noise was the sound of a battle cry, and not the intense patter of rain.
Beatrix's eyes widened as she looked down the way, seeing soldiers flood from every open door and window from the deserted buildings, and another hoard of them marching up the street. "We need to run – now!"
They took off in the other direction, the overwhelming sound of stomping feet and angry men consuming the thick air around them. Zidane lead them blindly back to the market district, feeling it was further away than when they walked through it the first time. No one else had a clear memory of the place, being away from it for such a long time. Arrows shattered at their feet, hitting stone and snapping in half from sheer force. The company pumped their arms and pushed their feet as fast as they could go, not wanting to be slung with one of the arrows.
The light Blank had seen was from fire, igniting from hidden cauldrons all along the rooftop walkways that they couldn't see as they wandered past. People were pouring out now on either side of them, and no matter how fast they moved, they were being closed in on.
The uneasy feeling never left Dagger's chest, and now that their way to freedom was narrowing, blocked off by Kuja's men, she felt like the only release of tension built inside her petite body would be to spread wings and fly.
It was Beatrix's hard swing that first connected with a body and began the fight of their lives. Men swarmed them like flies on a corpse, all yelling and shoving, hoping to get a piece of the resistance members. Her cry and the spray of blood led everyone else's momentum into battle. In the empty clearing of Market Square that Zidane always recalled being too busy, their fight suddenly erupted, and as the blonde removed his dagger from his first kill's stomach, he could only think of how ironic it was.
He leapt to the side as more arrows rained down on them, sweeping low and swiping the feet out from underneath a soldier, whose sword was raised to bash down on the blonde's head. He wrapped his tail around the light post behind him, still standing, and yanked himself backward out of the way of another soldier. Scampering up the wooden post, he heard the hard pelt of more arrows in the wood. He teetered at the top, walking unsteadily out onto the post that held the light, before diving onto a small group of unsuspecting men who were too close to Vivi for the genome to be comfortable.
"Zidane!" he yelped when the blonde tumbled on top of his enemy. Said resistance member looked up, a cheeky grin plastered on his face.
"Hey Vivi! Just wanted to check up on you!" he joked as he leapt up and kicked a man in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and using the momentum of his armor to send him tumbling into his allies. Before anyone else was on them, Zidane plucked a spar dagger from his boot and handed it to the mage. "Use this – it's going to save you a hell of a lot of trouble! But keep the staff – you never know when that silence sickness is going to wear off!"
He nodded, determination sparking to life in his golden orbs, "Thanks!" Vivi knew he didn't have a lot of power behind his strikes because he'd never practiced with a melee weapon before, so he focused on people's legs where he was short enough, and where he could do the most damage.
The mage dodged battle axes and swift swords just by the thread keeping his hat together. He'd learned more than he first realized from his trip from Tantalus and being reminded of the time when Zidane taught him how to pick pocket, he was able to move around the hoard of people easier.
One man drove an axe into the ground before him, grinning madly when he blocked Vivi's only exit. The mage sucked in a sharp breath, and threw his dagger with all of his might at the man. Golden eyes widened when he realized the weapon stuck, hitting the man in the thigh, missing his groin by inches. The man seemed just as surprised, and his heart seemed to be leaping into his throat with the close call. With this distraction, Vivi charged with his staff, whapping the man as hard as he could in his wound. He let out a howl of pain, intensified with a strangled cry once the mage removed the weapon and struck him again, this time, not missing the mark of his privates.
A few more men watched the mage maneuver and backed up, clearly not feeling their lives threatened, but not wanting to experience the pain of their ally nevertheless; they pretended to be distracted with another target's movements, though Vivi knew there weren't enough resistance members to enable that sort of reaction. He grinned, proud of himself as he tried to push closer to his friends.
Beatrix had heaved herself over enemies much in the same way as the blonde dreamer, trying to make it to Dagger. The girl defended herself well with her staff, but the brunette tossed the teenager her own spar dagger, straight from her boot. She didn't need to explain to the raven haired girl that it was more affective.
Dagger shimmied around people, using her tiny frame to her own advantage as she sliced through armor with the steel dagger. It felt proper in her hand, and she had practiced with a multitude of weapons for most of her life, though she didn't love any of them enough to stick with them. However, she was skilled enough, showing off the style she would have never learned if she had remained a princess in a castle her entire life.
She swooped under the stray swing of a sword as Kuja's men tried to press in too close, just to get a taste for blood. As her mind raced with battle maneuvers, she mentally commented on the suspicion that Kuja probably offered some sort of a prize for striking down a member of the resistance, and how that would end up turning into a disadvantage. Even as she shoved people back with kicks and the swing of her small blade, she watched her enemies trampling over each other, and offering no teamwork in an attempt to kill.
Her adrenaline was pumping as she leapt onto a pile of rubble and landed in a roll to avoid a cast of magic. She spotted the first dead-minded black mage to enter the battle, the sheen of its purple coat shimmering in the fire atop the roofs. She knew she would run out of energy too fast to keep up all of this fighting, and wished her magic would just come back as the pile of wood she'd just leapt off of burst into flames.
She swept her foot under a man, knocking him off balance enough for her to kick him back in the fire, but Dagger didn't have time to watch him stagger towards his enemies, setting more than one person and wood pile ablaze, in an attempt to get someone to help him. The square was lighting up with more magic, and she flinched as her hand was caught in a blizzard spell, a thick sheet of ice incasing it. The skin underneath her glove immediately numbed, and she flinched when the sting of icy cold curled up her arm. But Dagger was ever-resourceful, and threw her arm in a heavy swipe, smashing a man's helmet, ringing against his head with her clubbed hand.
"Hey!" The shout came above all others, and she spent a moment looking up to see Blank hanging from a light post of his own. "We match!" he laughed, throwing up his own iced-out hand. She grinned as she clobbered another man across the head, happy that the redhead was still trying, with death staring him in the face, to make the situation better.
He landed lightly on his feet next to her, crashing his hand onto the cobblestone path to try and break free, but to no avail. It would wear out in a few more minutes, but for the time being, he and Dagger fought back to back, crashing into people with their heavy ice weapon, and stabbing with the other.
The shorter thief jumped onto a man's shoulders, teetering as the soldier tried to shrug him off, before digging his heels into his shoulders, veering him backwards into a few more hasty men. "Do they ever stop coming?!" he demanded of Dagger, though she was growing further away from him.
He didn't hear her answer as a man ripped him down by his ankle, and he cracked his head against the sidewalk. His vision doubled and he groaned, rolling over as his reflexes caused him to vomit. His entire body swam with his vision as he sat up on his knees and took a few messy swipes at the enemies before him.
Dagger appeared behind him again, heaving him back to his feet as she shoved a potion down his throat, deflecting attacks as best she could. A few blades snagged her in her arms as she waited for the potion to take effect, but it was nothing that took her down.
When the redhead's vision cleared, he nodded his thanks and bounded back into the fray, becoming serious in his fighting once again. He hoped to bring Dagger closer to Steiner and Beatrix as she meandered after him, fighting with the redhead pressed against her back. They would be able to do more for her if she got hurt.
He spotted Steiner's blade, set on fire by a ruin he had stuffed in his armor. Nadina had been able to infuse a few relics with her black magic to be activated in battle some time before the first attack on Dali, but Blank had never seen one in action.
The knight swung the two-handed weapon in every direction, snagging a few people and lighting up their light shirts beneath their armor ablaze. Kuja's men were getting smarter about avoiding the fire, much less the flame, but it was giving him more time to plan out his battle moves. He leapt forward, tackling down one man and slicing him across the throat, igniting his corpse in enchanted flames.
Steiner was pounded in the back by a couple of teenagers – no older than Dagger herself – pelting large chunks of debris at him. Kuja couldn't supply all of his men, in such a short notice, with weapons, but still chose to send his youngest followers out into the battle. The sight made Steiner sick as he knocked the boys out, trying hard not to kill them when they were so young. His limbs ached from the constant pull of his sword, and the shoulder he had pulled out of socket on their retreat from Lindblum flared up in agony.
It sent a ripple of pain through his arm, bringing him clattering to his knees, and a man came up behind him and stuck a spikey mace into his armor. The spikes ripped through to his skin, not hard enough to cripple him further, but he was stunned for a few moments. His body pricked, starting with his arm, with poison from the weapon, and he kicked himself mentally, angry that he let a trick like that get him. Steiner staggered to stand, and threw his sword out at anyone who got near him, though through the exhaustion of nearly already a half-hour battle, and the poison spreading steadily through him, he was unable to land any blows.
Out of nowhere, an electrified spark shot out in front of him, stopping a man's heart without even hitting him. Anything that conducted lightning in front of his body sparked, and that was plenty of his enemy's armor. Electricity sparked through him too, and Steiner ground his teeth through the pain.
"Sorry!" Beatrix's voice broke through his wave of weakness. "It's hard to direct her ruins! I haven't used them in a very long time!" he looked up at her with an uncomprehending face, though somewhere in his mind he registered the brunette knight had followed his lead and sent magic sparking through her weapon as well.
She tossed an antidote at him that he nearly dropped, but he was able to flick open the vial and down the contents of it while Beatrix stood guard in front of him, sending her electrified weapon through anyone who hadn't already been affected by it. It tasted bitter as it slithered down his throat, but it began extracting the dizzying effects of the poison immediately.
He was disappointed to see the fire on his sword had extinguished itself, but didn't hesitate to rush forward to assist Beatrix. He was optimistic; Steiner thought they were doing exceptionally well considering they didn't have any white or black magic on their side.
Freya, really the only one able to use special abilities, was jumping – disappearing into the clouds only to reign down with her spear, straight through enemies – and summoning dragons to help aid her against Kuja's troops left and right. She was draining her magic power faster than she could gain it, but she fought hard to keep enemy attention on her, hoping that being the only one with a slight advantage, she could keep some of the pressure off of her friends. The bravest men pressed in closer to her, only to get sliced by the long, curved blade on the side of her spear. The steel made an intricate design all the way to the point, the blades sharp on every corner, so that if she swung at someone, she would still deal a great amount of damage.
The Bermecian tried to block out any daunting thoughts about the mayor's daughter, the two resistance members they'd sent off moments before they were attacked, or exactly how they were going to fight through the never-ending wave of enemies and get out of there. From where she stood, she felt like all she could see were Kuja's men, but when she leapt into the air, she was continually reminded that there were less than they thought (no matter that there were still plenty), but they all pressed tightly together to make the battle look more frightening than it truly was.
The fighting continued, endless and tiresome. The small group of resistance members had had creativity on their side, but even their fighting skills were no match for the numbers that Kuja was sending out in waves. Each kill cost them energy and minor injuries that continually slowed them down.
No longer were Blank and Zidane able to scamper up barely-standing structures, and Vivi was getting too tired to dash around slicing the backs of calves and knees to slow their enemies down. Steiner and Beatrix ran out of relics far too quickly in their attempt to take down a lot of people at once, only to see that one dead soldier was being replaced with two or three, itching to fight. Freya never left the ground, nor did she summon any spontaneous ghost-dragons to help her, and Dagger's stamina with Beatrix's extra blade was running low.
Rain began pelting down on them, nearly an hour after the first rumble of thunder. The blood that had slathered across Beatrix's face began running down her skin, blinding her one good eye as she continued to swing her sword. The numbers were clearing, and people peppered the area here and there, still charging at them. Most of their enemies, however, were busy yanking injured off of the field, realizing too many people were getting hurt up against the deadly resistance.
"Beatrix!" Freya hissed, just loud enough for the brunette to pick up on. She threw a man against a rickety old stand, the structure collapsing on top of him. The ex-knight took a minute to breathe, her eyes locked on the Bermecian as she panted with her hands clutching her knees. "I see an opening to the west! We can loop towards the north once we have left the city, to the river!"
She saw Freya's gestures more than she could actually hear her friend, but understood enough to search in the right direction, straining her blood-stained and blurry vision to see. Luckily, the fires were still lighting the city enough to show her that Kuja's men had stopped coming from that way, meaning that they had really killed that many, or his goons were retreating.
That was all it took. She stood, her energy suddenly renewed, as she let out a powerful command. "Fall back!" she boomed over the showering rain and sound of a dwindling battle. She hoped all of her friends were still conscious – still alive – to hear her call. "To the West! Retreat!" she called, sucking in a breath and racing forward.
Zidane's ears picked up on the woman's call, and he lifted his head. His eyes scanned the misty area, trying to see through the thick sheets of rain. He watched with relief, counting six others moving slowly towards Beatrix's yell back the way they came. They had all survived the never-ending battle as Kuja's own men were slinking into the shadows, not ready to follow them.
"Retreat!" he was pulled by the enticing idea of catching his breath and wiping the blood from his face and arms, though he wasn't ready to settle down and let his sore body overtake the rest of his senses. He knew that none of them were injured by the speed they followed Beatrix's command, but with energy running low, even the shallowest of wounds could hurt them now.
But something felt wrong…
Something told him this fight wasn't over, even as he continued to stumble over bodies of people he would never see again in future battles. Something told him that he'd better pull his tired body together, and be prepared for another wave.
It was too quiet. It felt too easy, pushing his body to the limit just to make it through the rain. The others were filing together in front of his eyes, and he realized just how far away he had been. Rubble sat in piles, standing higher than the bodies that littered the square. The only ones left of Kuja's men ignored him as they pulled dead and injured away from the field.
Had they really done all this? In just an hour that felt like an eternity, had they really won this battle? Where had the massive waves of soldiers gone? Were they dead? Or did they purposely retreat, just like their small group of seven was trying to do now?
Something in him didn't feel right as the sound of the storm swirled above him. Lightning flashed, lighting up Alexandria with a blinding light before settling to the darkness of fires being smothered out by the rain.
His skin crawled. Something told him to turn around. His hair whipped in his face as the rain pelted it, washing away the sweat and the blood that had built up in his fury. Beatrix was still yelling, and he took one last look at his friends, just a sprint's length away from him. He confirmed that Blank was still standing – nursing a bloodied arm – and Dagger was leaning heavily on her knees, but they were okay… Dagger was okay.
Zidane turned his head back around, and his feeling of dread was confirmed.
No longer were Kuja's regular soldiers out on the streets, but something far worse.
His sapphire eyes flickered with comprehension and recognition.
As the others moved towards safety – towards the gap in Kuja's forces that would allow them to get out of the city alive, Zidane stared, paralyzed as the world around him melted away.
Through the rain, through the blood streaked in his hair and through the throb of his body as his adrenaline staggered, he saw what had driven him mad for two years.
"Eli…" he breathed, as thunder boomed above him, drowning out Dagger's scream for him to run as she saw the same thing he did.
Kuja sent his dreamers out to play, and Elouise was at the head of the charge.
A/N: Boom! Wow! I never thought I'd get to this point, but here it is! :D I hope you all liked it, and that the action wasn't too slow! I am pumped to keep writing and I hope you're all pumped to keep reading! :D
-zesty-
