|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Standard Disclaimers apply
Chapter 4: Suspicions
It was a shaky ride, a long one that stretched from Treno to Lindblum. The youth was starting to feel giddy, the first signs of motion sickness. Anyone would have gotten queasy after hours of an unstable journey, in a well-built but shaky carriage like the one Zidane was on. Reaching a rest stop, the gargant paused in its motion to enjoy a meal of fresh yellow flowers.
Zidane sucked in a deep breath and calmed down the liquid that was swirling in his ears, which had affected his sense of balance. He recalled the doctor's advice on taking the travelling easy, or the flu fatigue may come back.
He thought this place to be amazing. For all he knew, he could be a hundred metres below some mountain. There were nothing but rocks and gargant feed that built up the scenery before him.
Taking out what he packed for his lunch, he sat very still, not wanting to cause the slightest bit of movement for fear of the carriage swinging again and giving him that wobbly, unsteady feel.
Having just recovered from a grim case of influenza, Zidane was not in the best of his spirits to take the travelling easy. If he had been his normal healthy self, he could have just climbed all over the gargant and carriage to rid himself of the restlessness that resulted to his motion-sickness.
It had been a full week before he could get out of bed and eat something solid, and another half a week before he could say bye-bye to Treno.
Thanks to Doctor Tot's gargant express tunnel, he could get a direct ride from Treno to Lindblum in a day.
Actually, Doctor Tot had offered Zidane to keep his set of pyjamas since they were no longer wearable for him. The pants had a hole cut in it for the blonde's tail to fit through. Of course Zidane refused the offer...politely.
The world was not that big, but it was not small either. It tends to be proportionate to the level of transports one possesses, which is non-existant in Zidane's current accessible inventory. He had no airships, no chocobos, or a ship at all to take him in search of his family who had so kindly abandoned him. Lindblum might have some transport that could get him over to the other continents.
Knowing the people there well, he might be able to sneak into a ship or something. Maybe his Tantalus brothers might be there too, and may just provide him with a way to pinpoint where his siblings are.
Tantalus had a good network when it came to obtaining information. For one, they had friends all over the world, and Ruby especially had a thing for the mog-letter system.
An uneasy smile crept up Zidane's face. Blank and the rest of the gang might have thought him to be dead. They'll just whack him like no one's business if he ever showed up. His intuition told him that it would definitely hurt. He absently caressed his cheek and grinned a silly, lovable grin that would melt anyone's heart.
Be that as it may, he couldn't wait to see how the gang was doing.
Looking at the map on hand and munching a sandwich, Zidane traced his finger along the yellowed canvas to a marked spot, which he knew to be the Black Mage Village. Since half the present inhabitants are from his clan, it would be the most possible place his two siblings would be in.
The sandwich was bland.
The restless fair-headed youth washed it down his throat with a gulp of tasteless water from his skin pouch.
There was no one for miles here underground. Maybe except for the beetle-like gargant, which so far did nothing except to move from rest point to rest point and eat flowers.Travelling alone ain't fun at all.
***
"...and that's why I need your help, Ruby," Zidane walked up to the stage, carrying a few potted plants piled high in his arms.
"Hurumph!" Ruby gave a snide pout, "You came all 't way just to ask us to wipe yer arse for ya? Ruby 'ere ain't no babysitter, Zidane hon',"
"And where do I put these ones?"
"Right o'er there beside the stage, mah man, smack in 'em middle,"
Zidane placed the plants carefully as instructed, and arranged it to compliment the platform in the middle of the room.
"I just need to know if any mog you've seen so far had contacts or came from the Black Mage Village recently," Zidane smiled boyishly, "c'mon, Ruby, just this once. I gotta find my bro; who knows what he can be up to if I don't watch his back."
"Gee, ya really helpin' a friend all the way, ain't ya?" the unknowing Ruby folded her arms, and cocked her head to signal to him that there were a few more pots of plants and furniture to be moved.
Zidane silently carried on with the work, knowing this particular lady's path must never be crossed.
"Well, ah heard from the moogle at the inn that Stiltskin's back in Lindblum, why don't ya just ask 'im? He'll be 'ere for a couple of days."
"...all right," Zidane stretched his arms after completing his pots-moving job.
"Ah told ya to come 'ere at noon, hon! What took ya so long!!"
Zidane was slightly started by the unanticipated yell, and flung his head in the entrance's direction.Blank was using Cinna as a human shield, to block Ruby's scoldings of death™, which sadly did not seem to work.
Ruby ran over and pulled Blank out from his refuge by the ear, "ya're going to do some work for our messy mini-theatre-like house, you hear?"
Pitiful soft whining sounds came from the young man as Ruby dragged him and dumped him unceremoniously in front of the platform.
"So," the golden-haired youth questioned, "how's life goin' for ya, bro?"
"Painful," Blank replied, and was greeted with another ear twist torture from the pretty lady.
"Jest git to work, boys, awright?" Ruby purred, and then went back to talk with Cinna.
"Never mess with a pretty lady who inflicts pretty painful pinching to match," Blank rubbed his sore ear, as he joined Zidane in the house-arranging session.
"But hey, haven't seen you in a long time, Zidane. In fact, when Mr Rusty from Alexandria told us you went back to the Iifa tree, we thought you'd never make it back!"
"I nearly couldn't get my hide out alive, y'know." Zidane smirked.
"Ruby was all upset, she was cursing all day, something about you being an idiot to go all the way back to the Iifa tree right after escaping from it.
That struck an arrow in Zidane's heart as he thought of Kuja and Mikoto. How were they doing? Mikoto might be fine since she's a sensible girl and would probably be with the other Genomes who respected her, but Kuja...
Kuja was a worrying factor, especially when the monkey-boy spotted the sad blank look in those blue eyes that his brother tried to hide most of the time.
"Ruby's right. I'm an idiot after all."
"Don't worry bro. You're a lovable idiot. Chicks dig that." Blank grinned and slapped a hand on Zidane's shoulder.
"Yeah right. Thanks."
"Hey, anytime, my lovable idiot!" Blank teased, only to get a rough elbow bop on the side of the head by the blond bandit who did not know whether to be amused or annoyed.
Blank adjusted his big multi-purpose headband and chuckled.
"So, you and Ruby gonna get together?" Zidane smiled, eyes glinting in mischief."HELL NO!"
"Quit the squabblin' and screamin' boys!" Ruby shouted back to the two great Tantalus bandits, who immediately obeyed like puppies.
Blank glared at Zidane with his headband, since his eyes are covered by it. Faced with the threatening stare from Blank's leather headband, Zidane shrugged uneasily and scratched his head.
Sitting back and looking around him, he could only comment wistfully, "this really reminds me of the times when we were younger and lived here..."
"Yeah. Boss liked you especially."
"That's why I'm so tough and hardy - he really can whack up people he likes!" The two of them laughed at each other, reliving fond moments of the years past.
A boom echoed through the small room, calling to attention all personnel in charge of renovation. None other than the boss himself went straight up to Ruby and inquired the situation. Spotting the fidgeting monkey, the burly man advanced.
"My, my, isn't this Zidane?" the bearded man pushed up his glasses and positioned his face to a hair's breadth away from the nervous boy. Poised stately, his auburn whiskers frowned.
"Um...hi boss, long time...no see," Zidane greeted almost timidly, hands behind his back and shuffling his feet ever so unnoticeably.
Baku raised his hand above Zidane's head, and the blonde braced himself for a whack, which never came. Instead, the older man clamped a hand down on his head and ruffled his hair.
By instinct, Zidane shot a look of annoyance diagonally upwards. Then when common sense took over reflex, his expression turned into one full of puzzlement.
"You haven't been eating well lately, have ya?" Baku asked. Without waiting for an answer, he waved for the fellow actors to stop their work.
"Lunch time," he grinned.
And the merry band of actors cheered.
"So when are you getting back to the princess now that you got out alive?"
"I dunno. When I settle my other problems," the youth in a formal looking suit that did not look formal to the least on him replied.
"We won't butt in your personal affairs. In case you need it, the boys should be able to help you since they have nothing better to do now."
"Thanks, boss."
"You look like a sick puppy. Had a bad case of hypothermia after escaping from the Iifa tree and falling in some pool before coming?"
"C'mon, don't rub salt into my wounds..." Zidane felt a big sweat drop forming on his head.**Note #1: Zidane at the moment is thinking, "Well, I couldn't tell him I just recovered from a case of flu which I caught from my brother, who gave it to me while sneezing over the wonderful curry I made for lunch. I do have PRIDE too."
"Gwahaha! Then we'll just have to feed you up good again!"
"You sound like a grandma!" Zidane protested, then grinned as he strolled with his adopted family down the streets of Lindblum to a newly opened cafeteria.
"We're there for you, you fool," was the words read off the expression from the smiling man whom Zidane respected as his father.
Lost in an afternoon of gay laughter and joyful companionship, all worries ceased existence.
***********
***********
"Of all decent things to do, I have to fetch spare parts from Dali?" A mellow, exasperated voice resounded in the deserted underground cavern. He had landed in the field of the small village, and commanded his fiercely obedient steed to go to the air for fear of being spotted by the residents.
He was not alone. A couple of genomes with him stood in attention as soldiers would. Mikoto had assigned them to him with instructions to listen to Kuja and to be absolutely patient with him.
Most villagers had abandoned the hidden garage where Kuja himself helped manufacture black mages. Not helping their economy anymore, the villagers did not even bother to clean the place up.
"This is a good place indeed, if it be turned into a mechanical laboratory of some sorts," Kuja mused.
With the flip of a big power switch, everything came to life.
Engines steamed, levers cranked.
There were no less than cogwheels-a-turning, pulleys-a-pulling and belts-a-conveying machine parts.
Instead of creating black mages, it revealed where the mist was being stored for processing.The tall pale man flicked his hair away from his neck in the humidity of the underground storeroom and got to scavenging the whole room, to put it crudely. Without needing to be told, the two helpers he had joined him in his work.
Kuja smiled.
Helping others without being ordered to was a pleasant surprise to him. He had nearly forgotten about the existence of his two assistants. The two blond genomes gave him a big smile and bowed their heads in utmost respect as he stared at them.
There was no time to be restless, but the fair youth was bored out of his wits. What would he give for someone to be with him, even if that someone had only the ability to crack stupid jokes and make a fool out of himself.
"...Zidane."
Giving himself a mental slap, Kuja sighed and got to doing the menial work.
Quiet chattering emitted from the two young blondes as they searched together on the other end of the conveyer belt for spare machine parts. Without warning, they starting laughing. When they found out that Kuja was staring at them in burning curiosity, they immediately quieted, looking at Kuja with hearts all over their faces.
"What wrong with these genomes?" Kuja wondered if it was a trend for Genomes to be extremely happy in his presence. Some of the younger ones can be especially weird. Perhaps it was their souls being incomplete, thus the process of developing them resulted to such abnormalities? Or was it something Mikoto told them?
Giving a refined scowl, the silver-haired gentleman mumbled something under his breath about Mikoto being the only normal genome around in the village. In fact, just that morning, he actually caught a young genome boy worshipping him with incense in hand when his back was turned. Immediately stopping in his tracks, he dragged the genome to Mikoto's hut and interrogated her on the books the child had been reading.
There was some mention about fictitious books on superstitions, fairytales and beliefs of other made-up worlds. The young unknowing genome had borrowed the books from the village's common bookshelves and innocently ingested all information without question.
Kuja went up to the bookshelf and slapped a notice on the fiction section - "NOT TO BE READ WITHOUT MATURE GUIDANCE."
*******
*******Mikoto sneezed.
She knew what sneezing meant. When a genome's nose is irritated by dust particles inhabiting the air it breathes, a sneeze is a good way to get the irritants out of the system. Also, a genome would sneeze if it was ill.
Kuja had brought up an interesting point - that one would sneeze when mentioned or talked about by others. She was not sure what that meant, but stored the line in her upstairs in case the information were to come in handy anytime in the future.
Arranging the lists of machine parts she wrote, she put down her quill pen for a short break. The genome beside her was scribbling something on the rough drafts of some airplane plans.
She stood up and went around the genome, peering over and was amused. The long-haired blond girl was drawing. This genome definitely developed a character of her own, with keeping long hair, a former taboo in Terra as long hair was not very healthy in a long run as it absorbed nutrients from one's body.
*note #2: Of course, the mention of split ends absolutely horrified Garland, who'd immediately start his sermon on the importance of the health of the 'vessels'.
The drawing was not exactly well-drawn, but the shape was made out to be vaguely human. Mikoto touched the long-haired genome's shoulder and asked, "who's that?"
The questioned girl turned the piece of paper over in shyness and blushed.
Dismissing her inquiry, the genome in pink swore she saw two feathers sticking out of the drawing's assumed head...
She knew that all genomes, after knowing what Kuja had done, had an unspeakable respect for him. The younger ones especially, saw him as some sort of a tragic hero (though he's not dead yet), even as an idol, for his powers and courage to defy their fates. It was thoroughly amusing to see them bickering excitedly about Kuja's deeds at first, until Mikoto discovered that some of them formed some sort of secret fan club. She saw it as probably a passing fad, until they realize that they too, were just as capable as Kuja in defying their fates.
But the fanclub...
Mikoto told herself she didn't want to know more.
On the gravel-paved roads of the black mage village, Bobby Corwen cooed and ran across the bridge connecting two huts together, chased tightly by a line of black mages. The witty baby chocobo always had fun playing with his adopted parents. Mikoto stretched her tired arms and smiled wearily at the sight before her.
"Coffee would be good," the would-had-been-the-next-angel-of-death strolled to the item shop, where the friendly shopkeeper would play her a nice tune on the gramophone over her tea break.
Something was missing, though. There was life in the small village, but there seem to be not much life in her own body. Being annoyed by an older cheeky Genome was not fun, but it definitely was better to know that she was not alone in her origins.
"...Zidane."
She snapped her eyes and mind open, tearing herself away from the aromatic coffee and stood up, her chair making a big screeching sound across the floor in her haste.
What startled her was the sound of hasty flapping and a long painful howl. She ran out into the main square, to see her slightly flustered eldest brother frown in a most disturbing way. Not the usual ones he would administer to people when pouting or sulking, but a real frown that embedded itself onto his delicate features.
The two genomes with Kuja took care of settling the possible airplane parts into their new home as Kuja dismounted the dragon and greeted Mikoto with a solemn nod as they headed indoors.
"I don't like the smell of this, Mikoto. The mog at Dali had disturbing news from Artemis."
"Something to do with us?" the young girl added.
"Artemis, as you know now as that mog who deliver letters, had a letter for Zidane and was passing through Dali. So I just 'borrowed' the letter from him."
Mikoto listened on intently as her older sibling drew out a piece of paper from one of his sleeves.
"It's from that old doctor in Treno. I'll read it out."
Dear Zidane,
I had forgotten to tell you something regarding your health.
When you were sick, some unknown element in your body reacted strongly to the flu Kuja gave you.Kuja's raised his eyebrows at the mention of his own name, then continued under his sister's engrossed attention.
I cannot identify this strange reaction against the flu virus in your body, but in detail, it seems to be coming from an old wound you had before you came to me. It could be that your immunity levels were still low. Please take care, and consult any doctors in the vicinity if you see the slightest wrong with your health.
Tot
The glum expression still glued to his face while folding the letter neatly, Kuja exchanged glances with Mikoto.
"You felt the balance being disturbed in Zidane the whole time too, haven't you? From the Iifa tree till now..." The older man finally spoke up.
"I have my suspicions on the Iifa tree itself."
"I second that. I suggest examining the Iifa tree again."
"What about the ship?"
"I'll give instructions for the villagers here to work on it properly. After all, mechanics and physics are my forte,"
"Not mine. I know." the blonde girl smiled sheepishly as Kuja's teasing gaze pointed at the glass ball of a projector which lay as a paperweight on the airship Invincible's plans.
"Good attempt on drafting, but I'll fix up the loopholes in the plans so that the people here can get to work while we find out the problems with the Iifa Tree if there's any."
"So what do we do about Zidane? For if our concepts derived from what we've gathered so far are theoretically correct, Zidane's problems could be due to us," Mikoto questioned, raising the furrowed silvery eyebrows of the vain one opposite her into thought.
"Remember I told you what I saw at the Iifa tree when I came for the both of you? If I had been right in seeing it, then Zidane is going to have much difficulties with himself." the mature female garnished her statement further.
There was a moment of silence as both of them went into deeper thought. Their general suspicion on the link between the three of them and the Iifa tree resulted to the below conclusion, represented by the eldest of the angels-of-death.
"We'll avoid Zidane at all costs, until we find the root of the problem."
**********
----------End Chapter 4
Nefas: So what exactly is wrong with Zidane and his siblings? Stay tuned for more. ^_^;
9 September 2001
The 2YK Productions