Zidane carried the limp child toward the room where the mirror stood with silent determination. Under the grimace, however, was a nervous heart. He was going against the wishes of his own wife to do this. 'Even if it succeeds,' he thought, 'It will still have been the wrong thing to do.' Yet something else urged him forward, his entourage of guards following close behind. The two girls whispered to each other as the group approached the storeroom. The big guard stood by the door just as Zidane reached for the handle. "Are you quite sure you want to do this?" Zidane looked back over his shoulder. He lowered his head, turned to the door opened it. The guards stepped inside took a place either side of the mirror. One drew his sword. "What's going on do you reckon?" Yuffie whispered as Zidane carried the child inside. "I don't know. It doesn't look good." Rikku whispered back. They watched from the doorway. Zidane knelt down in front of the mirror; its surface was pitch black and not reflective. He cradled Eiko in his arms and waited. "Are you there?" Zindane asked with a calm, quiet voice. The mirror remained black but a whisper drifted from it, too soft to hear. "Are you there?" Zidane asked again. He shifted his weight a little. "Let me see her." The mirror whispered. The voice was quiet and indistinct. Zidane held the child toward the mirror as best he could. She remained draped across his arms like wet laundry. "Do you trust me?" The mirror whispered. Zidane closed his eyes, they remained closed for many seconds, when he opened them again he said, "I do. I trust you." "Thank you, please don't move. This might not be pleasant." The mirror spoke louder this time, images of a light haired boy flickered across the surface. Zidane watched, frozen. The guards were poised to strike. "I won't move, no-one will move." Zidane watched the mirror's image as it revealed the image of his brother, who stared back out at him, his face calm and sullen. The image looked out at the room and at the child for a moment. At once the boy in the mirror reached through the mirror's surface, his translucent arm dived right into Eiko's head and returned holding and pulling at streaks of red firey rope. "Kuja!" Zidane yelled as his balance wavered, Eiko jolted awake, Kuja reached his other arm out and pulled on the twisting, tangled web of fire that was emerging from the child's head. The fire whipped around, trying to escape Kuja's grip as he pulled it into the mirror. As he pulled one handful into the mirror, he let it go and it flailed against the inner surface, trapped inside. He reached out again, pulling more and more of... whatever it was... from the girl. The guards stood, mouths open, silent and still. Eiko let out a scream as the one last, coiled tendril of fire was dragged from her mind and pulled back into the mirror. She collapsed onto Zidane's lap, awake and sobbing. Kuja's image flickered in the mirror. The coils of fire lashed at the surface as though they were trying to get back. Kuja had a firm grip of one part that writhed around in his hand. "What ... did you just do?" the guard yelled. Zidane picked the crying child up and wiped a hand across her cheek. She looked up at him. She sniffed. Her little arm reached up and rubbed at her head. "It was living inside her mind." Kuja stated. "It was her fear come to life." Zidane looked up at the mirror. He opened his mouth and just stared at the writhing mess that lashed out against the glass from the inside. "Wh... how?" Zidane felt his chest aching as his heart steadied itself. "I don't know. There is something ... some kind of force... it brought me to life also. I can't say how, I can only say..." Kuja's image faded as he wrestled with the tangled mess he held in his arms and faded into black, dark silence. The mirror whispered one last statement, "It is born from your memories." "What is born?" Zidane asked. He reached forward and touched the icy cold glass. The mirror only reflected his hand back at him. Eiko sobbed and sniffed against his chest. "Are you feeling okay kid?" Zidane looked down into her eyes. She opened them wide as she looked up at him, then past him and up at the ceiling. She smiled. "It's gone." She stated as she sniffed again. The little smile widened. "What was that?" Rikku stepped into the room a little way. She was shaking from the ordeal as much as Zidane. "I don't know. Some kind of ghost. Something about ... a memory of hers that came to life." Zidane mused, almost to himself. "But I don't have memories of Kuja being nice. In fact ... I don't have many memories of him at all." "She was afraid of fire?" Rikku looked down at Eiko, who continued to stare up at the ceiling with happy, teary eyes. "Well who knows what it was to start with. Something in the air I guess... something big and firey up in the ... oh... the Invincible..." Zidane looked down at Eiko. "We dismantled it Eiko. It can't hurt you." He wondered if she even knew what it was herself. All that time they thought she was just having some kind of breakdown from the stress of being around other humans again. The doctors had told them she needed to 'have a childhood' and so on, then they assumed it was Cid's sleaziness causing her stress and she'd come to live with Zidane and Garnet. 'All that time it was just... a ghost in her head.' Zidane hugged Eiko to his chest and closed his eyes. She hugged him back. "It's gone!" Zidane was deep in thought as he carried the tired child back to their room. He thought about how he was going to explain this to Garnet for one thing. How was he going to stop this... thing from coming back. Perhaps he needed to explain to Eiko, what she was afraid of and why she shouldn't be afraid any more. No fear, no ghosts. He sighed. It didn't explain why Kuja, or at least his 'ghost', was acting like that. Though, he could feel the answer on the tip of his mind, waiting for a quiet moment to present itself to him. Rikku and Yuffie trailed behind, lost and confused. "That was pretty freaky right?" Rikku asked, wanting only to break the silence with conversation. "Yep. But I thought ghosts were like... someone's ... spirit or something. Not just a memory." Yuffie mused. "I don't know either. Its all so confusing, you know, I mean, for one thing... why are we here?" Rikku asked. "Hey you know, I wondered that... I reckon we're here to save the day. Like hero's and stuff!" Yuffie grinned. Any adventure was good. Adventure meant life could wait for a while. That was also good. Life was getting complicated, adventures were easy. "But what brought us here? Didn't he say the mirror showed him where we were? I wonder if that ghost man brought us here?" Rikku continued. "I dunno. Maybe. You know what? It doesn't matter why, we just are!" Yuffie cheered up more and more. "But... it doesn't make any sense." Rikku felt glad that Yuffie was reclaiming that spark she'd seen in her eyes when they'd met. It was enough to keep her going as well. ---------- Garnet slept on through the afternoon. Zidane took the three girls outside by the fountain to get some fresh air. Eiko watched the clouds and commented on the birds, the blueness of the sky, how warm the sunlight was. As though she'd missed it. "It's as though that ghost, in her head, was ... there... wherever she looked it was there. No wonder she was so scared... but only sometimes. So sometimes it must have left her alone. She was getting worse though...so... so the ghost was growing? Maybe because once she'd seen it... she believed in it." Zidane mumbled to himself. It seemed so wrong to have to just make up answers as he went along. Rikku sat on the side of the fountain while Yuffie watched the water shooting into the air, falling as sparkling rain. "We'll find out who it is and kick their butts right?" Yuffie said, she smiled at Rikku. "Sure. Yeh." Rikku felt the skin on her neck prickle up. 'Yeh so I can fall in love again and get crushed again.' She sighed. Yuffie noticed and watched her for a moment. "You okay? Hey you don't have to worry, you have no idea how much butt I can kick. Aint nothing gunna stand in my way. Ba-boom, you'll see!" Yuffie punched at the air. "Okay." Rikku grinned. Somehow, that spark, it lit fires inside Rikku that she could do nothing about. There they burned away, hot fire in her heart. Rikku could feel the start of the wildfire. 'I don't think I can cope with that again.' She stood up and walked away. "Hey, where're you going?" Yuffie called out, she flicked water at Rikku's legs. "Is she your friend?" Eiko asked. "Yeh. She's kinda wimpy though. I'm gunna have to teach her a lot of stuff." Yuffie watched Rikku wander back inside. "Oh... You're going to go find out what was going on? I'm going too." "Yeh right brat! As if!!" Yuffie laughed. Eiko was visibly annoyed. "I'm not useless ya know!" "Sure kid. Hey. Your dad's calling you." "He's n... oh okay." Eiko ran to Zidane as he walked to Yuffie. "Hey. Where's Rikku?" Zidane asked. "Dunno." Yuffie shrugged. "Well. She's awake now; I should go explain to her what happened. I might just get out of this alive hehe." Zidane laughed his nerves away. ---------- Yuffie returned to their bedroom. Rikku wasn't there. For a few moments she sat on Rikku's bed and imagined the great adventure ahead. There was something else, a little hint of something she'd never thought about much before. Her heart seemed to jump a little when she thought of Rikku. Curious. It jumped a lot when she saw Rikku smile. "This is gunna be cool," she mumbled and wondered where Rikku had gone. As she left the room, one of the nurses pointed to a door, "She's out on the balcony." "Oh!" Yuffie almost had to stop herself from skipping toward the door. Her smile widened when she opened it to reveal Rikku, sat in the corner of the balcony overlooking the courtyard below, her legs dangling down through the balustrade. "Hey there you are!" Yuffie sat cross-legged down beside Rikku. Her smile vanished into her stomach when Rikku turned to face her, red faced, tears catching the sun. Rikku turned away again and stared out over the little rooftops. "Hey... are you scared?" Yuffie asked. Rikku shook her head. She sniffed and shook her head again. "It's not... its nothing." Her voice was strained, broken, dissolving into sobs. "My arse it's nothing... what's wrong?" Yuffie said, Rikku's tears seemed to be appearing inside her own eyes. "Nothing." Rikku cried. "You don't have to be scared." Rikku turned to Yuffie with such a look of pain in her eyes that Yuffie found herself suddenly overwhelmed. Life had gone and got confusing again. When Rikku looked away again, Yuffie felt compelled to say, or do, something. She could only watch. Rikku cried to herself while Yuffie sat beside her and looked out over the rooftops. "I'm cursed." Rikku coughed out. "Cursed? Well we'll just cure it eh?" Yuffie smiled again. "You ... have no idea." Rikku sniffed and turned her attention back to the rooftops. "What kind of curse?" Yuffie asked after the silence elongated longer than her curiosity could hold out. "Cursed. There's no cure. Just cursed. Doomed." Rikku's head slumped forward and collided with one of the balustrades. "How?" Yuffie's mind raced. She'd find a cure. Cant be doomed, not Rikku! "I fa... I ... I fall in love." Rikku stuttered out. Yuffie waited. "And?" "I fall in love." Rikku repeated. "How is that a curse?" "With girls." Rikku forced the words out against their wishes. They hung in the air for a while. Yuffie considered the statement. Tasting it on her lips. 'With girls eh? Well.' "Oh. Weird curse. Where'd you get a curse like that?!" She blurted. "Well... I didn't. It's just who I am. I was born like this, I'll die like it." Rikku dissolved once more into sobbing. "You won't die! Seriously... hang on a minute. You were born with a curse?" Yuffie asked. "No! It's not a curse. It just feels like a curse." "Oh." Yuffie tasted the flavour of the curse again. She shrugged. "I dunno, I reckon that would be kinda cool. Girls are way hotter than guys. Guys are gross anyway. How come it makes you so miserable?" Yuffie mused. "Imagine falling in love with someone who doesn't love you back. Then watching them... fall in ... love ... with someone else!" Rikku sobbed. "Oh. Well. I've never been in love. Love's not my thing ya know. Icky. So were you in love with someone and they loved someone else?" Yuffie asked, then she added, "A friend of mine had that happen to her." Rikku barely heard anything Yuffie said, so deep into her own misery. Familiar territory, down there in the dark. Yuffie watched over her as she sobbed to herself. All the time, wondering, imagining, tasting something new. Imagine falling in love with a girl. A new thought. Strange new thought. Yuffie had never bothered to consider. Why would she? Love was icky... wasn't it? 'I wonder why it's made her cry all of a sudden. I reckon she likes a girl... oh wow. I wonder if she likes me.' Yuffie considered it for a moment. She had nowhere in her mind to store such an idea. It floated away. "I've never been in love." Yuffie's voice floated out into the silence. "It hurts." Rikku whispered. "Then why does anyone bother?" Yuffie asked. "They can't help it, it just happens." Rikku sniffed and turned to Yuffie. Yuffie tilted her head and smiled. It was enough to send a fresh wave of tears to Rikku's eyes. Yuffie found the strange new thought so electric that it frightened her and she found herself ignoring it. She then decided to assume that stress was the cause of Rikku's distress. "There you are... are you okay?" Zidane stepped out onto the balcony. "It's private." Yuffie snapped. Rikku sniffed and wiped at her eyes. "I'm okay." "I just came to ... are you sure? It'll be okay. We'll get to the bottom of this for sure." Rikku nodded. It was easier to just go along with it. "Did you talk to Garnet? Did she chuck one?" Yuffie asked, avoiding any hint at decorum. "Yeh... she was... kinda hurt more than anything. But Eiko's so much better. So I think she'll forgive me. She knows I wouldn't do anything to hurt either of them. But still." Zidane rubbed at his head. One bit of the puzzle had been solved at least. "So now what do we do?" Yuffie asked. "I don't know. I think I'll go back and try and talk to Kuja. I wondered if you could come along." Zidane watched Rikku, she nodded. "It's okay, rest first. When you're feeling better. We'll have dinner together maybe, talk about it some more?" Zidane gave the girls a grin and walked back inside. "Cool. See Rikku? It'll take your mind off things, we'll kick butt. Then you can take out all your worries on some... thing." Yuffie slapped Rikku's back and ... her hand stayed there just a fraction longer, of it's own accord. For that fraction of a second, Yuffie froze solid while her world filled with the feeling of her hand against Rikku's warm body. "I'll teach you everything there is to know about kicking butt." Yuffie said, her voice was a little shakier than before. "I kick butt pretty good already." Rikku said, taking a deep breath. It felt good to have cried. She was lighter. But. Yuffie's smile made her chest ache. ---------- For the first time since their arrival, Yuffie and Rikku ate at the dining table with Zidane and Garnet. They were also joined by close friends of the family. The large guard with the tired face was introduced as Aldebert Steiner. His wife, Beatrix, sat beside him with a look of stern concentration. "The are others... if we need help." Beatrix mumbled to herself. 'Help with what though? They don't even know what they're trying to fight!', Rikku considered the situation as she picked at her food. It kept her mind off... other things. She wondered if Yuffie might be right, that they'd been picked to fight whatever it was... but who by? "We should go back to the tree, that's where all this started." Eiko stated. "Eiko." Garnet spoke without looking up. "I'm going, I'm not sick any more! We fought it before and... " Eiko demanded. "No-ones going near it until we know what's going on." Zidane interrupted. Garnet looked up, "But it's all dead. There's nothing left but rubble." "What tree?" Yuffie asked through a mouthful of food. "Where you were found, there was once... a tree. Of sorts." Zidane began to explain. "Oh yeh! There was all bits of dead tree all over the place - all these roots and stuff under the ground... and that glowing pool of ... whatever it was. It all caved in anyway." Yuffie said through more food. "Glowing pool?" Zidane glared at Yuffie. He looked back at Garnet with the same wide unblinking stare. "I dunno what it was." Yuffie mumbled. "It looked like it was ... as deep as...like it went on forever." Rikku added. "But that's impossible." Garnet said. "Well it only looked like it went forever I mean it could of just..." Zidane interrupted Yuffie's mumbling, "No, that's not what she meant." "Yeh! It's dead! Isn't it?" Eiko yelled. "Yes Eiko, it is." Zidane said. "Then what is going on?" Steiner demanded. The room fell silent once more. Rikku stared at her plate as she thought. She rubbed her temple as the aching worsened. 'You're going to fall in love with her, and she won't love you back!' Rikku felt herself think.
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