With Love, Zidane
A/n: this is gonna be short. It's gonna be about nine chapters long… but all of them should go fairly fast, seeing on how in my original plans, this was just a one shot. I should be finished with this within the month. I've already got most of it completed I just need to type it up. I've been planning it out for a while. I think it will be a nice little refreshing piece for me.
Read it. Review it. Love it.
The Introduction: If I Fall
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"Wow, just look at the size of that thing!" was the first shout that caught Garnet's attention. The whole crew, including herself had been staying at Lindblum Grand Castle until the press and towns people calmed down over the recent war's end. Various ships left daily from the castle to try and find the leader of the well known heroes of Gaia. For the past week, they had come home with something everyday… everything except Zidane. On this particular day, Garnet found herself at the dock much like every other day, to see if what they found was really of any importance.
"What is that thing?" One of the engineers gaped at the airship before him, "We don't even have the technology for anything like this!"
"That's because the technology for that ship is not of this world." Garnet simply stated walking closer to The Invincible.
"Wh-what!" the engineers all shouted soon huddling up in excitement over the alien ship.
Garnet put her hand to the cold metal of the ship. Running her hand over feeling various scratches and dents under her finger tips, it must have been through so much after being abandoned at the Iifa Tree. One of the engineers strayed from his peers, "Your highness, I'm sorry, but we can't have you near this thing… we don't know what it's capable of."
She shook her head, dismissing him, and not moving her hand from the vehicle, "How did you get this here?"
The man puffed out his chest in pride, "Well, it took us a while, but we towed this baby all the way from the tree!" He patted the side of the ship.
"How many ships did that take?" Garnet managed to mumble under her breath before boarding the ship, unaware of the clanking of Steiner's armor behind her.
She walked through the familiar halls, running her fingertips against the sides of the wall, and taking notice to the slew of abandoned items scattered amongst the floor board. She came to an abrupt halt at one of the many various rooms on board. She sighed and slowly opened the door. A smile slowly spread across her face at the sight of various bags and weapons sprawled out across the room. She walked over to her bag, opening it and pulling out an older rod. An instant grin was now plastered on her face as she twirled it through her fingers. She lost her balance in her excitement, and clumsily fell into another bag. "ow," She moaned picking herself up from the bag and turning to see it was Zidane's. Her eyes welled with tears and she was struck with an instant fear in the pit of her stomach. She wasn't quite sure as to why she was scared… but curiosity was taking over her and she sat on her knees, opening the bag.
The first thing in the bag as older pairs of his daggers, as she dug deeper there were extra pairs of clothes and other accessories, but more over every thing that interested her, there was a large envelope packed full of papers. She raised an eyebrow, and finally sat on her bottom for her own comfort.
"Your highness…" She cocked her head up towards the door seeing Steiner.
"Oh, Steiner, when did you get here?" She looked back down to the envelope and cleared a space of the floor in front of her.
"Long enough." He cleared his throat and clanked over to the part of the room that held his old bag, "I don't think Zidane would want us to go through his stuff.
"It's not just his." She sighed pulling out the paper on top. The paper was lined with decorations of roses and tangles of green vines. Between its beautiful border, however, was the scribblings of a dwarf. She smiled warmly, "This one also belongs to me."
Steiner turned to her, absorbed in observing an old broadsword, "Oh, really? What is it."
"Our marriage certificate," She almost whispered.
"Your what?!" Steiner jumped in a rage, a few choice words on his tongue mainly about a certain young thief and a naive queen.
"Whatcha guys up to?" a squeaky voice interrupted Steiner's rage, as Eiko dragged Vivi by the wrist into the storage room, "Ya' know Cid's thinkin' 'bout using this ship to improve his own."
Eiko plopped on the floor next to Garnet and observed the marriage certificate that Garnet had just put back down.
"You've been awfully attached to the regent lately, Eiko." Freya leaned against the doorframe.
Vivi suddenly pulled his hat over his eyes, "We shouldn't be here! The engineers said not to!"
"Awe come on, Vivi! This our ship, not theirs." Quina dashed in with excitement, tongue flailing and all.
Garnet silently giggled to herself and pulled out a small bundle of envelopes from the package. It was a stack, about ten or so wide, they were wrapped in a sheet of paper, and reinforced with some light blue lace.
"What is Cid gonna do with this, only Zidane knows how to fly it…" Amarant's voice interrupted Garnet's concentration. She shook her head and looked back down to the papers. As the groups conversation continued, Garnet found herself more interested in the papers. She ran her finger tips across the lace and read the title Zidane had wrote across the paper , "If I fall."
"Huh?" The team ceased their prior interest to look to Garnet.
She hugged her knees to her chest with one arm and held out the papers to the group in the other, "Some one has to read this," Garnet stopped herself from sobbing, letting only a few tears descend her checks, "I can not."
The group stared at one another for a moment before Freya extended her arm, grabbing the papers. "If I fall…" she said before untying the lace and letting it fall to the floor.
"We shouldn't read that!" Eiko jumped up.
Vivi joined her, "Zidane's not dead!"
The room fell silent, undisturbed by all, but Amarant who grunted, "There's no way he survived, we saw him go in… we saw the roots collapse."
"Even if he did survive…" Steiner's voice became unusually calm, "he's been trapped in there for a week with no food or water."
"No!" Eiko jumped, "Zidane would get out! He would!"
"He would!" Vivi echoed
The adults just looked sadly to the younger children. "I can't believe you all!" Eiko turned to face Dagger, "You don't seriously think he's dead, do ya' Dagger?"
Garnet sighed and patted Eiko's head lightly, "What should I think?"
"AUGH! I can't believe this!" Eiko yelled, "If you even begin to utter a word from that I am leaving!"
Soon the small, rather cramped cargo room became a roaring mad house, with all seven comrades' arguments.
"SHUT UP!" Amarant's voice boomed over the chaos and immediate attention was given to him, "how about this. There is a letter to each of us individually. We will give them all to each of you, and whenever you're ready to read it, read it."
"I'm not taking that letter from you!" Eiko yelled and turned to Vivi, "You won't either, will you Vivi?"
"I…uh, well…" Vivi twiddled his thumbs, "it's not like I'll read it now, just when I'm ready to…"
"NO! Not you too Vivi!" Eiko stormed out with tear stung eyes. How could her own friends give up so easily, they were supposed to be the strongest beings on the face of Gaia! No, they were weak. Weak and pathetic, as far as the horned heroin saw it! Zidane was her hero, and that was enough information she needed to know that he still lived!
She stomped into the guest room, wanting only to clear her head. All she felt she could do was relax and take a cat nap. A short time after plopping into her bed, she succumbed to a well needed rest.
Soft footprints made her ears perk as they came to a sudden halt at her bedside. I soft kiss rest itself against her forehead, "Sweet dreams, Eiko."
"Zidane…?" Her eyes slowly opened and though her sight was blurry, she scanned the room. No one was there, however, so she rested her weary head back to the pillows. As her eyes adjusted, she saw an envelope on resting on the side table. She grabbed the envelope and began to sob, "Where have you gone? Why aren't you home?" She hugged the envelope close to her chest, and opened it…
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a/n: wanna know what it says? Stayed tuned! I hope this introduction didn't bore you to tears. I'm kind of using this as release as I wait for my Beta to finish proofreading CTS. But don't worry I will finish this one, and it won't take long, I promise.