While reading this I had a thought... What if Ruby of Tantelus was Regent Cud the 9th's daughter and a Red Mage, with Zidane being her adopted brother AND her Royal Knight? It could be a good tic I think.

Never break parely. Death is sure to follow.

Subtle changes yet still fit within character, my hat goes to you.
Thankfully we don't have to deal with the poisoning and the betrayal, the bad news is that nothing will be pretty.

With Brahne trying to declare war on everyone, I would have thought military spending would have been increased for some time (also this is the medieval period, when wars were pratically mandetory and battle was glorious) although the fact that joke was used made me laugh in of itself.

"Torn between respect and annoyance." Sums up Steiner's view of Zidane in most AU fics unless he is the number 1 noble or such.

not a whole lot of fanfics like this i hope more people of Burmecia escape

See, it's that sort of thing why as a "tragic and sympathetic character" Kuja is poorly written, he is unintentionally unsympathetic, throughout the story he shows no hesitation or remorse for his actions until WAAAAAY too late with poor development and was extremely forced and shallow, the only reason Kuja was even remotely regreting his actions was because he found out he was mortal (which honestly made no sense, why did Kuja think he was "immortal? There was no reason to think he should be, and most certainly Garland didn't give any implication that he was), the writers even pulled a "giant space flea from nowhere" out of their behinds in the form of Necron, whom the writers tried to justify by "SYMBOLISM", but really he was just a scapegoat for Kuja to make a really forced and undeserved heel-face turn.

As for everything else though this is certainly a WAY better written story than the game's poorly written one, great fic.

I posted my own FFIX review on DeviantArt, check it out if you want please: art/FFIX-review-598982715

Kuja needs to be careful about pressing his luck here... Because even though he's a status to enjoys harming people emotionally and mentally. Zidane and Garnet are in a position to harm him physically! I wonder... Do you suppose either of them would object to torturing him? I'm sure if he needles them enough they won't mind putting a lovely scar across that pretty face of his...

Wow Bahamut off the bat. That is going to be so awesome! You revealing Kuja's secret relation to Zidane surprised me a little to be honest. But the biggest thing I'm curious about is what Beatrix will do now. Kuja's assault calls her honor as well as her queen's into question and that is a huge deal for her. I'll look forward to what happens next time

I like this. Its a great "what if?" Story that still keep the characters as them selves, yet at the same time making them and the story flow easier. Keep up the great work!

I loved reading this. Especially as I'm playing through the game. Hope to see more of this.

cannot wait to read more!

Ok. I love the story now. Good take on the alternate Zidane. Can't wait to see how he pisses off Steiner now.

Y'know how you mentioned how Puck was a combat Alchemist a while ago? Great idea, and if you plan on involving him more in future fights, the sequence where Dumbledore faces down a nundu in "Accidental Animagus" by WhiteSquirrel has a good starting point for some spells/abilities. How would Trance work with him, though? Sorry about being late with this.

Cannot wait to read more I love this!