Filling In The Blanks

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

Chapter 105: Dire Need of Support

The sun peeked over the orange canyons. Rich browns blazing with fiery rays of dazzling sunlight stood out proud against the dim lavender sky. Each corner was a new adventure, the lines of limestone showing how long it had taken the land to form and break to create this natural fortress – this natural home.

Dagger's hand slid along the stone, feeling the bumps and curves muffled underneath her glove. Pastels splashed over the sky while deep shadows nestled close to the walls, still awaiting the midday sun before springing. Hardly anyone was still awake, but the girl found a strange, uneasy comfort in this place. It was a hard feeling to describe being relaxed and on edge all at once.

She pressed her lips into a thin line as her eyes followed the canyon wall to the ridge. That one corner sparkled with the sun she suddenly missed, and claustrophobia suddenly threatened to strangle her. She missed the grass, no matter how minimal it was near that forest, and she missed the rush of the wind through the leaves and the bark of her favorite tree against her back. To think, she'd taken to wandering the foreign new scenery.

Being in the mostly-abandoned settlement once before, she thought she'd find her way and maybe the sense of unknown mystery would have gone away, but padding lightly around each corner just to find a dead end or a sudden clearing, one wouldn't be able to tell she'd stepped foot in that village before.

She tried to remember the delight she'd felt walking into Madain Sari for the impromptu dinner party Eiko had thrown for them when they had just met her. She had been walking on air; her first kiss had just happened with Zidane, they had escaped Dali with their lives and though there were a few losses, there was hope in the orange lands around them because a whole new world of opportunities to escape Kuja's thick grip stood before them.

They were all tired, tense and upset still over the loss of the rich prairies of the Mist Continent, but Eiko had such spunk and curiosity that she couldn't help but feel giddy at the thought of hiking into this wondrous village she'd only heard of in "very-few-and-in-between" stories. Zidane had clasped her hand just before they entered, and she felt surrounded by safety, Beatrix and Freya and Blank and everyone else (save for Steiner at the time) behind her.

But the tension was thick in this stifling air. Maybe it was because they'd just lost their home again, and Kuja's men had been closer to them than they had been in a little over a year – since the attack on Dali. She blamed no one for being uptight. But it felt deeper than the tired resistance members trying to find a place to rest. Most of the moogles had popped away on their entrance, and Mog had explained that they were shy and would take a few days to come out and meet such a large group of people.

Dagger felt a sad history of this village, one that she didn't even know, as though the life that had once dwelled there hadn't quite left, and moped in spirited sorrow around the tangible landscape.

She shuttered.

Stepping over a jagged rock, the girl rounded the corner and halted, seeing that a large group of the resistance had found comfort in the clearing before her. There were a couple of cave openings into the canyons, the mouths peppered with braver souls. People huddled in their blankets, hunched over or sprawled out. She noticed that a small sliver of the area, cleared of most rocks, possessed the enticing charm of the sun's rays; she would have sat down in it had people not been there already.

Upon closer speculation, she saw Ruby and Cinna collapsed next to each other, the bigger thief's nose twitching like the sun was going to make him sneeze. Dagger smiled; at least those two had each other in times so hard for the remaining Tantalus members.

Tiptoeing around the mounds of people in the clearing, she followed the sound of the river, hoping to find someone who was still awake. When she first wandered away from the dwindling group, she thought she'd find peace in quiet solace, but realized quickly she wanted to be around life – people.

She ran a hand through her hair as she found Eiko's balcony-like kitchen and dining area, the stone landing jutting over the edge of the cliff. If she stood next to the railing she could feel the spray of the rushing water and somehow this calmed her.

"Couldn't sleep?"

Dagger jumped, whirling around. She felt like that happened far too often to her – lost in her thoughts so she didn't recognize a presence behind her.

Beatrix leaned against the stone table that was a little ways back. She had a bowl of something in one hand, her face a mixture of grogginess and amusement.

"I thought I'd take a look around."

"Find anything interesting?" she asked, gesturing to the table. Dagger sat down next to the woman who lowered herself down slowly into a chair; the raven's hands twitched like she wanted to cast white magic on the brunette, but knew it would do no good.

"Not really… Just a lot of pathways and sleeping people."

"Sounds about right," Beatrix smiled, her lips tight. "Hungry?" she produced two spoons and handed one to the girl without waiting for an answer. Using her index finger and thumb, she flicked the bowl between the two, and it made a loud rolling noise on the table as it came to a stop.

"What is it?"

She shrugged, "I'm not entirely sure, but Quina whipped it up, and from the lack of sour expression on Steiner's picky face, I'd say it's at least edible."

The teenager shrugged in agreement; she knew exactly the look Beatrix spoke of.

"This place is different than any we've settled in before," she noted as she took her first spoonful. Deep brown eyes gazed at the mixture like it might bite.

But the ex-knight took a reassuring mouthful first, chewing it slowly and swallowing before answering. Dagger observed that the woman had been right – from the lack of expression lingering on her face, it couldn't have tasted that bad. "It feels more secure in many more ways than one, but there is something about it that gives me unease."

"You too?"

"Freya said that the earth is crying. Something happened here – a tragedy that unsettles the canyon walls."

"I do not doubt that," Dagger said, finally taking her first bite. For the grotesque look of the food, it was surprisingly bland. The aftertaste left a sort of bitter sweetness that was somehow appealing. She took another spoonful.

"I remember when Kuja first attacked Madain Sari. I was twenty years old and had just been promoted to captain and the news came all too fast. Alexandria was called upon to help, but there was no longer anyone above me to give me guidance on where I wanted to spread my forces. We, along with Lindblum and Bermecia, were often called for aid in those days. In the end, it was Lindblum who went to the aid of Madain Sari, and the Rose Brigade to the mountains past the North Gate to deal with an uprising of mist monsters – no doubt Kuja's doing now that I think about it."

"Did Lindblum make it there in time?"

Her face darkened as she shook her head. She placed her spoon gently in the bowl as though her story chased away her appetite. "They were in Conde Petie," her voice dropped low as she turned away from Dagger, eyes straight forward, "Cid's report to Alexandria said his soldiers could hear the destruction, even as far away as they were. They could see the magic fight – something so intense and so bizarre it was hardly ever spoken about directly. Just months before that, Madain Sari was hit with that terrible storm. Kuja waited until the time was right and their forces were low, otherwise I do not believe he would have beaten them."

"What a way things would have changed," Dagger whispered, also having abandoned her wooden spoon in the clay bowl.

They sat for a long moment together, arms wrapped around themselves as the sun slowly crept towards them and the water rushed consistently just below them.

"If I had made my decision sooner," she began quietly, running her ungloved hand over the smooth stone. Dagger noticed for the first time Beatrix's lack of armor. She was adorned in a simple white, sleeveless blouse and her red armored pants and tall boots. Her sword was nowhere to be seen, but the raven knew both of her shoes held small, lethal daggers. "If I had moved sooner, my brigade could have made it to Madain Sari. We could have saved some of those people. Eiko wouldn't have –" she bit off abruptly at the end of her sentence, turning her head and clamping her teeth down on one of her nails.

Something about the move must have broken something in Beatrix. Her eyes were red and glossy, and her shoulders moved from the large intakes of breath she forced inside her diaphragm to stop from crying.

Dagger blinked, openly surprised. Here in the early morning sun was the woman she looked up to most in the entire world as a friend, sister, and maybe even a mother figure. She suddenly looked fifteen years younger, so unsure of herself and questioning why she was so young and already a captain. Why was she calling the shots? Dagger's eyebrows shot up in irony – she and Beatrix weren't so different.

"Were those mist monsters going to hurt people?"

The ex-knight seemed startled, jolting as she turned to look at Dagger with almost exasperated and clearly perplexed eyes. "What?"

"The ones that you went to defeat in the north."

She nodded, "They had already injured several by the time we got there."

A wise smile cracked over Dagger's face, and she could see it in Beatrix's eyes that she didn't comprehend how the girl thought this story was funny. The raven haired teenager's fingers shot out and clasped Beatrix's wrist until she lowered it to the table. A hawk swooped into the river and flew back up with a grey trout, letting out a cry.

"Lindblum would have taken longer to get to the monsters. More people would have died. You saved people who probably went on to inhabit Dali, who in turn helped protect an entire underground colony of people! You could have gone to Madain Sari – gotten there quicker maybe even too! But you would have been there, in the middle of an annihilation it sounds like nobody could have stopped. You would have died there Beatrix, and I don't know what I – what any of us would be doing without you and your knowledge and your experience to guide us. No one would have known what to do a long time ago. So many people would have been lost… Steiner, and villagers of Dali, many who first fled the cities after Kuja's reign spread so fast. Darla, Gilligan's little girl who was just born when the resistance started, who would have been left behind if you hadn't remembered that Gilligan's memory was gone and that nobody else would remember a baby during a siege on a row of tents! When the first tunnels under Dali collapsed and Rama was stuck under all that debris and you were the one who thought to use those long metal pipes to get him oxygen until we could dig him out – dig him out four days later!" Words were tumbling out of her mouth then as her hands continued to flare up from the table and her eyes got wide with emotion.

"There was the time when the Nero Brothers ran into the gater in the lake – the one that had come all the way from the Evil Forest and literally swallowed them whole! You were the only one brave enough to slice into that thing when it was still snapping and literally cut them out! I know they've passed away now, but think of Elma – old Elma who's blind but somehow still makes fantastic blankets and that homemade soap so we all don't wreak. She told Zenero and he told Cinna and Cinna told Zidane and Zidane told me that she was so thankful for his brother because he, through that whole mess in the tunnels when Dali was ambushed, he bustled along at her pace to get her out of the tunnels, and made sure to grab her sewing kit and the last bottles of soap she'd made and that could have been one of the reasons he died! And let's not forget how Zenero saved everybody in the Evil Forest on the way out of Alexandria after rescuing Zidane!" she choked on her next words. "You know how many times I would have died, if not for you?"

The rapid end to her speech made Beatrix turn in her direction. Her chest was rising and falling swiftly, and the older woman knew she had just frenzied out that explanation.

A smile flickered to life on the brunette's face as she gently reached for Dagger's hand. The young woman stared up at her with wide chocolate orbs.

"Thank you," was all Beatrix said before they went back to their bowl of Quina's surprise breakfast, watching the sun climb higher, and listening to the hawk continue to catch its first meal of the day.

They sat in silence like they'd never had the conversation at all.


"So what kind of trouble are we getting into today?"

She raised an eyebrow, clearly suspicious of the way he was trying to raise a conversation – and with such chipper words. His sarcastic tone could use a little work though.

"We are scoping out a place to hold training for each group. Cid does not think it wise for us to leave the canyon walls for practice, regardless of how much space is available to use in here."

"I don't disagree with him… Maybe Kuja will find something and maybe he won't, but if he's on the prowl we should stay out of his way."

"Though I do not like the way you insist we stay out of his way, I cannot disagree with you. The entire resistance, new and old, is scared and exhausted. Warriors or no that is no way to advance into battle."

He nodded in agreement though he wasn't sure if she saw him. Freya's ears swiveled on her head, her red hat, for once, being abandoned. Her shoulder length silver hair ran in a freshly combed pattern, each strand melding with the next and yet standing on its own, as it curled around her neckline and over her shoulders. Her coat had been abandoned too; she hadn't wanted to admit it, but he finally got it out of her that she didn't want the dust from the canyon caking it if she was expected to wear it training or into battle.

Instead, she sported a crimson sleeveless blouse, and he could tell by the way she fidgeted in the light fabric that she wasn't used to wearing it. It fell around her much closer than the jacket, and despite what she might wear underneath the heavier garment, he suspected too that that was part of the problem.

"Amarant."

Her voice shook him from his thoughts. Why did he care about her armor anyways? "What?" he grumped in response.

"What in the world are you staring at?"

His face puckered when he realized he was caught. He gestured, hoping it would speak more than he had to say. She shook her shoulders and leaned forward, prompting him to continue because she didn't understand his body language.

"Your choice in armor is different."

"We are on this subject again?"

His shoulders relaxed after he shrugged them out, "That first conversation was about your jacket. This is an observation about if you'll be able to fight as well."

She raised an eyebrow, clearly wondering why he was so chatty. Maybe it was his attempt at getting to better know the people around him – she, along with many others, hadn't missed the conversation he'd had with Ruby on the way in.

"Would you like to challenge that?" she asked, her voice scarily even.

A cocky smirk planted itself on his face at the word challenge as though it sparked to life a completely new side of the redhead. He wasn't any less crabby, but his facial expressions and very movement seemed to come alive.

"I wouldn't want to wear you out. You have a long day ahead of you."

She lifted her spear; he forgot that she'd been carrying it all this time. So she wasn't completely unprepared. He chuckled and produced his claws from the pouch at his side. "You're going to regret this," he warned, though he didn't hope she backed down.

Freya said nothing as he attached his weapon to his fist. Before he looked up, she was already charging at him. He leapt backwards, barely missing the extended reach of her spear.

"We didn't say go!"

"Enemies rarely let you know when the battle is starting!" she told him fiercely, leaping at him again. "Especially Kuja's men! You should know that, Amarant!"

He snorted at her and ducked underneath her spear. She was wild, and she was fast. He glanced down at the lame reach of his gold claws and almost rolled his eyes. He was going to have to find a way around that spear if he wanted to get close enough to her.

The redhead hardly had time for a thought process though. She was ducking and weaving and flying at him, nearly invisible in all of her speed. Her footfalls were soundless and her breath didn't come ragged even after a few short minutes of leaping about.

Amarant and Freya danced this delicate dance, toying with each other, neither really taking the spar all too seriously, but onlookers appeared anyways. Mostly it was people who hadn't been in Qu's Marsh during the first rounds of training – new people who hadn't seen either of them fight before.

The ex-dragon knight ducked low, her chest almost hitting the ground as she squatted below his roundhouse kick. If there was one thing she had to avoid, it was his long reach with his tall legs and she suspected he was starting to figure this out.

Whirling like a storm he continued at her, kicking up both of his legs until she slipped up. One time his boot nicked her spear and it went spiraling across the dusty clearing. Both of them stared at it with mild shock before he charged. The bermecian took to blocking his steel-toed boots with her arms, pushing him back in hopes of knocking him off balance. But the man was just as tall as her – if not taller – and bigger too; tipping his stability wasn't going to be easy.

As Amarant continually lunged at her, and Freya bounced in memorized steps away from his flying kicks and swift punches, a sudden battle cry rang out, and before either knew what was happening, Amarant was tackled to the ground by an angry bermecian – or rather, cleyrian - woman.

She was fierce and tall, her long dark hair falling nearly to her waist as the long chiffon fabric hanging under her leather armor draped over him. She clawed at his face and struggled with his arms, beating at him.

"You monster! You are a monster! Step away from her! Stay back! Why is no one helping!?"

Freya swallowed her shock and grabbed the woman by the waist, yanking her back as she kicked and batted her long, slender fingers at Freya's forearms. She winced as the light skinned cleyrian's nails dug into her flesh. It was the wrong day to abandon her jacket.

"What is it that you are doing, exactly?!" Freya demanded of the woman. "You would step foolishly into the middle of a spar?!"

The woman recoiled like she'd been hit, staring in shock at Freya until Amarant moved on the ground. She tried to pounce again, but more people had come over to hold her back. Her arm flung out at the redhead brushing the blood away from his cheek.

"He was there!" she cried, sounding crazy. "He was there in Treno the day that my son was killed! He was amongst Kuja's soldiers! The treacherous snake is spying on us!"

Murmurs rose and fell in the crowd as gaping onlookers twisted to stare at each other, wondering if the rest of the people around them were just as confused and shocked.

"Why was he with Kuja's guys?"

"Was he spying on them?"

"Is he spying on us?"

"Does Cid know?"

"Do Beatrix and Steiner know?"

"Was this really just a spar we were seeing or did Freya find out?"

The questions started to muddle together the louder they got as those holding the cleyrian back – two men Freya recognized from Ipsen's Place (she met them when she sought out Fratley, finding him sharing a drink with the two) – stared at each other in question. She had forgotten that those who didn't know Amarant when he joined knew nothing of the story of how he came to be on their side.

"Enough!" she cried out, snapping most back to attention. She whirled around to stare at the woman, irritation stimulated in her ice-colored eyes. "Amarant Coral is no longer with Kuja! He was once, yes, because Kuja promised him many things like he promises many of his soldiers who no longer want part in his tedious war! He proved his loyalty to us when he helped us escape the prison just outside Madain Sari!" that irritation turned into a downright glare. "You are welcome to ask about him at the prison yourself if you must!"

The cleyrian gasped, horror-struck. No one missed the smirk on Amarant's face and he guessed the crowd would be 'oooohing' if they didn't find Freya's lethal stare to be unnerving.

She tore her arms away from the two men from Ipsen's Castle, shrugging them away as she flicked the hair from her face, her own intimidating gaze set on Freya. "He was a rebel in Treno, my son. He was fighting for your cause! The same reason I left Cleyra – one of the five who did – to assist in something he believed in! I would have never thought the famous Freya Crescent of the Dragon Knights would resolve to let dirt into her company. I thought her better than that, but if dirt she wants to walk with then she would be a snake."

No one could openly say they'd ever seen Freya surprised before. Irritated, yes; saddened, of course; angry, a bit rarer; but shocked to the point that her jaw dropped and her shoulders sagged like she couldn't believe what words had just tumbled from this woman's mouth. The wiser in the crowd took a step back, anticipating the worst. Many had heard of Freya in some form or another but all knewnot to cross her because of the many hardships in her long years as a knight she had faced. Freya was good and no matter people's opinion about Amarant, no one could deny her sense of duty.

Except this woman.

When Freya didn't bite back right away, she continued, her nose up in the air. "I wonder what Sir Fratley would think of you now, hm? Coinciding with someone who hurts his people? The people he protects? He would think lesser of you Freya Crescent!" she boomed, no hesitation in her voice.

The movement was so fast, no one even suspected it was coming.

Freya slammed the woman up against the canyon wall, ignoring the fear she'd just ignited in not only the cleyran under her strong grip, but those behind her, watching and waiting. Her eyes flickered hard, and she had to flex her fingers to stop herself from beating the woman.

"Listen to me now, Emyrian of Cleyra! Mother to Takin, a brave rebel who died at the hands of a golden soldier on a chocobo – did you think I did not know him? I commended him! Before he left for Treno I met with him, I congratulated him and I thanked him! I warned him of his duties and how dangerous they would be, and I warned him that things may not always be what they seem!" she hissed. "He made his own choices, and no one will question those choices! So if one cannot question the way he put his life on the line, why do you question the way that this man has put his life on the line countless times again! Did you know he stayed back at Gazamaluke's Grotto with another one of our members to save the brethren Cleyra abandoned? Your great city, always thinking lower of Bermecia and everything its sister-city has done for it, left knights to die because they wanted to claim neutrality in a war they have clearly suffered in as well!

"Do not dare say that this man is dirt – this man who has risked his life more than you and your ridiculous dancer get up, dancing to the sickly sweet notes of a harp to protect a city that does not care for more than its precious fraud of a Visionary! Think what you will of me, but I have fought hard for what I believe, and I have fought hard to protect everyone that I could in a war that we shall not be fighting with each other! I will not allow it! And do not bring Fratley into this. Do not berate him for the choice to find love in me – someone who does not stop to enjoy the things still sweet in this world because she is too busy protecting people like you! For what?! For a world so broken like it is now?! For people to look down upon each other when this war is over, instead of clasping hands and rising forth and showing Kuja's leftover soldiers that a world with peace is real?! These wishes I have do not hurt people! They give people hope, give the people who matter hope, so that they can give it to you! I may not do right in everyone's eyes, but I do right in the eyes of Dagger, Cid, Steiner, Beatrix, Zidane, Vivi, the rest of Tantalus and the rest of the Elite and the rest of the resistance and Bermecia and most importantly Fratley! And if there is a man who was once working for evil willing to help us now because he shares these wishes, then we shall take what we can get! A resistance cannot be picky! And if you cannot see what I see by extending hope to those who extend it easier to others than I do not wish to spell it out for you! I do not care what you think of me, but do not ever question the choices this resistance makes about who it lets its doors open to – so unlike Cleyra who keeps close mouthed even to those trying to help! Who offers only five men when I know that the rest of the Bermecian soldiers there to help protect selfish, mindless creatures such as you want to come along to help! And do not ever again question what Fratley might think and what he might not think! Because you have less than half the heart that Fratley does, and half the mind, and half the bravery and courage and love and passion and care than he does, and you could never know what he thinks even if you put all of your being into the effort of it!"

Her voice ended in a yell, the cleyran now pressing herself into the stone. A new crowd had gathered at the booming sound of Freya's voice and they were sure that even those who couldn't see the scene certainly heard it.

"I am sorry for your loss," she shoved the woman once more before stepping back and craning her neck to the side like she'd physically tired herself from the outburst. "But do not question someone else's life, and the things they stand for, and their past and what that has brought in their future because you are hurting. You know nothing of the hardships any of us have gone through, and may it stay that way so your oblivious mind will not suffer the true loss of everything good in this war."

Freya walked away then, picking up her spear and feeling the weight of it in her strong grip before padding out of the clearing, jerky and uptight like the anger still rippled in her muscles.

Amarant finished brushing himself off and stared at the crowd. Their eyes were all wide, gawking right at him like he would have more to say. He shrugged, eyebrows raised. "May that open all eyes to the pain that not only you and your situation have felt, but everyone else too." For feeling so talkative earlier in the morning when just he and Freya walked amongst the walls of the sacred village, he wouldn't say another thing to anyone for at least a day after that.

But neither would any of the people who witnessed Freya's frightful, but very realistic speech.

And nor would Emyrian of Cleyra, even when prompted to retell the story. She walked with that same twisted expression on her face, like Freya's words had impounded it there to stay, until she'd calm down enough to except the fate of everyone around her.


It was too quiet when Dagger was finally roused from her nap. She'd found a place in the sun, secretly rejoicing to herself, though she had no intentions of falling asleep. But with her back just right against the canyon, it reminded her of her favorite tree on top of that hill – or if she fought to remember in a half-dream – the sun-weathered rocks beside the streambed in Dali.

It sort of shamed her to say it, so she would never utter it out loud, but whenever she thought of Dali, she thought of easier times. A wry smile always twisted its way onto her pink lips, dancing with near nostalgia across her porcelain skin. She remembered the stress she was always feeling in Dali, and how she never thought it could get worse – and yet here she was feeling halfway across the world, remembering easier times, though both were still in the middle of a war. Life was just so much simpler back then; they went on routine scouting missions, attempted to foil plans by breaking into the castle, took their turns working the fields and paying contribution to the villagers of Dali – moving equipment and extending their tunnels, and of course, training. Plans of an up rise she always felt would never come were always in the works – back when Dagger sat so politely on the sidelines, minding her manners and never having a fierce opinion about a thing.

When she finally got up from her spot – the sun having passed along on its way, abandoning her and sucking away its warmth with it – her wandering led her to the quiet conclusion that something had happened to unnerve everyone in the village. Most people were huddled in quiet groups, talking lowly amongst themselves and not stating any sort of conflict by disagreeing about a thing – not even about who had to sleep near the caves again that night. Her eyebrows had shot up in distress immediately, and she had to find someone to tell her what had happened.

The first person she bumped in to was Lysandra and when prompted the woman let out a hearty laugh. She said that Freya had put someone in their place quite dramatically earlier that morning, and nobody wanted to cross one of the higher-ups the rest of the day so they were staying low until training commenced again.

But no one would tell her more details about the story than that.

So that's when Dagger took to sulking, walking alone because everyone was too weary to approach, and none of her friends seemed to be anywhere she was. Who knew human companionship would be so difficult in a village packed with people? And she was the leader of said group, at that!

She rubbed at her eyes. Despite the sorrow she felt woven into the very air, she felt reenergized. That small nap had her suddenly brimming with an energy she couldn't consistently grasp, almost like it was fleeting, sometimes more noticeable than others.

"Dagger?"

She turned to see Vivi standing a few yards back, wringing his dusty gloves together. She let on a loose smile.

"Vivi!" she'd never admit it, but she was happy to find company in him at such an odd hour.

"Where is everyone?" he asked, wiping at his golden eyes with his hands. He must have just woken up too, though she could see no other feature on his face that gave it away.

Shrugging, she closed the distance between them and sat on the ground to be closer to his eye level. He followed suit. "They're either busy or sleeping. I don't think Steiner or Cid got a lot of sleep when we first got here."

He nodded in understanding. "They spoke with Mog and some of the other moogles."

Her nose scrunched up. She should have been there, but she took to wandering away with lifeless thoughts in her mind. Feeling like she needed to meet Mog more than ever, she clasped her shins and rocked back and forth, still sitting cross-legged on the hard ground.

"Were you there?"

He nodded, "For some of it anyways."

A smile found its way to her lips, stretching them. She suddenly felt giddy and excited, teeming with the desire to train, fight, run or learn new spells. She blinked fiercely. New spells? That was sort of a peculiar one to tack onto the list… but she felt that way, nevertheless.

"Did you like the moogles?"

He nodded, though he seemed embarrassed about it. "I've never met a moogle and talked to them for very long before. I've just seen them in passing mostly."

She nodded; she would have been the same way had they not all wanted to meet the Princess of Alexandria as she grew up. The moogles knew more about the resistance than any outer force did. They carried all of the information with them, packed underneath all of their fur, too "simple minded" with "blaringly irritating ticks in their speech" to make them useful to abduct into Kuja's clutches. Except perhaps Stiltzkin: notorious for his knowledge and travel around the world, but he'd gone into hiding a long time ago so Kuja couldn't get ahold of him.

They were quiet, the silence falling over them like a veil – light and transparent. She hummed unobtrusively, feeling this anxious energy that made her need to move.

Vivi stared at her for a moment, watching the way her demeanor had completely changed since they'd entered Madain Sari; it looked like nothing could get to her energy.

"You feel it too?"

Her eyes fell on him, large orbs of dark surprise playing into him. "Feel what?"

He shrugged, lifting his arms and staring at his hands. "The energy here. I feel like I could cast a hundred black magic spells and still be ready for more."

The surprise turned to bewilderment as she glanced down at herself as if he'd just pointed out a spill on her yellow jumper. "Is that what that feeling is?"

He nodded, "I think so. Eiko had something about it briefly this morning to Lysandra. She felt it a little bit too, but I guess not nearly as powerful as us. Eiko thinks it's only people who have the capacity for magic; she said that her grandpa had touched on it really briefly before leaving the village, so she only knows a little bit. But to prove her point, she asked Steiner and Amarant if they felt something strange under their skin, like a certain energy the way magic feels when you're about to cast a spell and they said no."

A grin stretched over her face. So the mystery was solved; maybe Vivi had found her purposefully, just to ask her. "There's something about this place that just makes me feel…" her words were lost as she turned away, shaking her head.

"Inspired?"

Dagger considered this for a moment before nodding slowly. "Yes, I guess that's right." It was sort of a silly word to describe their situation, but it couldn't be pinned as happier, nor could it be empowerment. The brightness of inspiration suited the feeling well; the sorrow still lingered, but something about that very same atmosphere gave her strength.

"I think that too… Which is good, we need that."

She remembered how many tragedies they'd just gone through, and the fact that Blank was still petrified and how they wouldn't know for who-knows-how-long if Marcus and Baku made their journey okay, and that Zidane was still in a sort of coma they weren't sure how to bring him out of.

But none of it could make her feel particularly sad. Distressed, maybe, but somehow it was like her body felt that she had the power to change it.

Her head swam. "This is way too much to take in. The more I acknowledge this power, the more I feel it. It's almost distracting."

Vivi grinned though she couldn't see it. "That's why we should get to training! I want to be better so we can protect everyone."

Her eyes fell half-lidded as a certain tenderness filled them. "You're right, Vivi. You're absolutely right."

"I want to prove to everyone who we recruited that we aren't doing this all for nothing," he told her quietly as he pulled down on his hat.

She smiled at him, leading the way back towards the central part of the canyon-village. Something about the way he said it made her think it had something (or everything) to do with what in the world happened with Freya today. But something about the way he said it also told her that she shouldn't bother asking.


A/N: I remember really disliking this chapter when I wrote it, but now that I've reread it I don't think it was too bad I hope you enjoyed the bit of background information in this chapter and of course – a faster update!

Can I just say too that you guys who are telling me that this story is an inspiration and it helps you get through some long points in your life, oh my gosh. You are my inspiration, honestly. This story would have ended such a long time ago without your support! I love hearing your thoughts, even if it's just a quick one! You're all amazing, and I'm so happy to hear that this beast of a story really helps you in some way or another!

-zesty-