Final Fantasy XII OC Story
A/N: Hello Readers. My name is Fran and I am uploading the first fan fiction I ever wrote here. It was written in the summer of 2011, and I never had the chance to properly upload it. So I might as well do it now. The writing is nowhere near the style I use now, but then again this fan fiction is a few years old. Enjoy!
Final Fantasy XII OC Story
Chapter 1
Darkness...
That's the Last thing I remembered before I awoke. I had no idea where I was, and I couldn't remember how I got here. I started to look around, it looked like some kind of sewer. I didn't recognize this place at all! How did I get here? I didn't want to stay in this place, that was for sure. I started walking to what I thought could be a way out.
CLANG!
What was that noise? I frantically started looking around. "Is someone there?"
No response, it must have just been my imagination. I continued walking downwards until I reached a big hall with a stairs, a balcony and a few small windows.
"Yeah! I did it!" a voice said.
I quickly hid behind a pillar, who was that? I became curious, I had to know who this person was, maybe he could help me get out of here? Slowly I raised my head to the side, as my eyes scanned the area below.
Whoever it was, he surely wasn't there now.
I stood up and started to head down the stairs until I felt someone tap on my shoulder.
"Aaah!" I turned around to see the person that startled me.
He looked like a teenage boy, he had blonde chocobo-like hair, blue eyes and a silly smile plastered to his face.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I also didn't think anyone else was down here.. My name is Vaan."
I must have looked like some kind of idiot for staring at him like that. After a few seconds he started waving a hand in front of my eyes. "Hellooo?"
That brought me back to reality. "Oh! I'm sorry, I was lost in thoughts."
He looked at me confused, before smiling and speaking once more.
"No probs, hey if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing down here?"
"I'm trying to find my way out, to be honest I don't have a clue about where I am."
"Vaan" Looked as if he was thinking for a moment," Don't worry, I'll help you out, ehh.."
"Stella, pleased to meet you" I raised my hand, which he shook eagerly. "Likewise, follow me."
We started walking down the stairs towards a large rusty door, it didn't look like this place was well cared for. While we started walking down the hallway we ran into a young boy.
"Hey Vaan! Have you been training against the rats again? Did u beat them?"
"Kytes don't you have some errands to run?"
"Yeah but I was send to get you back to Michello first, he said he had a job for you to do."
"All right, Ill head over as soon as I can."
" Okay! But did you beat them? Are u getting any stronger? How about.."
"Kytes, your errands?"
"Oops! Sorry, I forgot again! Bye." the boy ran off towards the exit in a hurry, after an awkward silence I spoke. "I don't think he noticed me." Vaan faced me again. "I'm sorry about that, he's a nice kid but he's got the attention span of a mouse." I smiled at this as we started walking down the hall once more.
As we walked through the hallway we started to talk more and more to one and another. I found out that Vaan was 17 and lived with his friends Penelo and Kytes. They worked for a Bangaa called Michelo and earned a living through running errands.
When we reached another door Vaan started to explain about the city we were in, it was called Rabanastre and it was ruled by the Empire of Archadia. When I asked him about the Empire, he shrugged it off saying I would find out about it soon enough.
As I closed the door behind us, I looked around in the little storage room we entered. I could see a large brown door on the left of Vaan, and lots of boxes and materials to the right. In front of me there was a huge mirror, and I couldn't help but look at myself for a little while.
My long curly brown locks looked a little disheveled, but I was used to them being in that state. My large green eyes looked tired, and my white jumpsuit was a little dirty. I dusted myself of, trying to make myself look half decent, and walked through the door Vaan just opened to find myself in the Slums of the city.
It was a very dark place and the people didn't look like they had a lot to spend. There were a lot of people here and I almost lost Vaan in the crowd. Vaan told me he had to visit a friend before we went to the upper level and asked me to wait outside the house he entered. It was a small house with purple curtains and lots of boxes outside, which I took a seat on.
As I waited I started wondering about the things I would do once we reached the city, I could work for Michelo like Vaan had offered but I had a plan of my own. I wanted to travel and explore this new world I found myself in. Perhaps I could find out more about my past.
When Vaan came out, we started walking to a huge gear like door around the corner. It startled me when it rolled open, but Vaan told me that was normal. We walked up a few staircases until we reached the upper level. I was almost blinded by the amount of light! It was very different from the previous area. There were a lot of high sandy brown buildings, the sun shone bright and I was overwhelmed by the heat of it.
"Well, were here! What do you think of it?"
"It's a lot nicer than Lowtown, I can tell you that much." Vaan smiled at me as I said that. I nervously smiled back at him as we continued our quest.
As we reached the store of Vaan's Bangaa friend, Vaan asked me what my plan was.
"I don't know, I've been thinking about exploring the city for a little while."
"All right, do you know what you'll do after that?" I looked at him curiously, but then it hit me. I didn't have any money at all and I didn't even have a place to stay at.
"I don't know, I don't really have anywhere to go."
"Well then, you're staying with us for the night. No objections." I sighed, I had wanted to turn the offer down at first, but I really didn't have a choice.
"All right then, I'll meet you back here in a few hours." I waved Vaan goodbye and wondered of into the city. The city was very much alive and there were children running all over the place. I looked around in a few shops until I eventually reached a small bar.
As my eyes scanned the room I saw a bar to the right of me, there was also a large board with all kinds of bounty's next to it. There was a pair of stairs that lead onto a balcony, where there were a lot of round brown tables for people to sit at. I took a seat in one of the chairs and started reading the newspaper that was left on the table. It told me about the world I was in, it was called Ivalice and was torn by war between the Archadian Empire and Dalmasca. I had read about skypirates plundering the battle sites, until a female Viera came walking towards me. She wore a dark grey helmet and had long white hair in a ponytail, she was dressed in a black vest and dark grey legwarmers with long black heels on her feet. "Hello, may I take this seat?"
"Of course! I'd like the company, my name is Stella by the way." She gave me a glimmer of a smile as she sat down in front of me. She ordered water for us to drink and we started talking to each other. As the conversation went on she asked me a question.
"I'm sorry but there's some kind of strange energy about you I just cannot understand. Where did u come from?"
I was thinking about what to answer her with, could I trust her? I didn't even know her name. "I.." "Fran, it's about time for us to leave." A man interrupted me before I could even answer. The man had short brown hair and had a few earrings. He wore a white sweater with a brown blazer on top of it. He had black pants and a belt with a gun holster on his left hip.
"I see, I bid you farewell Stella." Fran left the table and walked down the stairs, the man spoke to me when she was out of earshot. "I would advise you to lay low for a little while, There are many who would abuse such energy." He winked and walked off to the exit.
To say I was confused was the least of my thoughts. Energy? Abuse? Lay low? I couldn't lay a finger on the words he spoke to me. I left the bar and went back to Michelo's shop where I promised to meet Vaan for the evening. But as I walked through the city I couldn't help but wonder about Fran's words, Was I really that different? I surely didn't feel that different.
When I arrived at Michelo's shop I saw Vaan saying goodbye to a teenage girl, she had white blonde hair in two ponytails and wore a brown with blue dress down to her knees and long brown boots. I assumed she was Penelo given the way Vaan described her earlier. When she was gone Vaan turned to enter the shop once more, until he saw me coming towards him. "Heey Vaan, What are you up to?"
" Stella, Are you tired?" The question surprised me, did I look tired? I wasn't feeling tired at all. "Nope, I feel great to be honest." He smiled slightly before asking me something I would have never expected. "Good, because I need your help with something important."
"What do u want me to do, Vaan?"
"I'm sure that by now you've found out about the war Ivalice is involved in, and the horrible things the Empire did to us." Where was he going with this?
"I want to reclaim some of the treasures stolen from the people of Dalmasca, by going to the palace treasury and steal what is rightfully ours!" Uh oh, Vaan was in for a lot of trouble, I could tell that much.
"How are we supposed to get inside the palace in the first place? And what would do once you get in there? We need to be prepared for this Vaan, else way this plan could go terribly wrong."
Vaan looked at me happily. "Do you remember the house I went into at low town a few hours ago?"
I nodded. "My friend, Old Dalan, told me the way into the palace and he also told me how to get into the palace treasury using a sunstone." He showed me an orange stone that glowed with the likeliness of the sun, it was beautiful.
"So, Does this mean you're in?" I thought about it for a moment, if this plan went wrong we could spend the rest of our lives in jail. But then again, this was the kind of adventure I was looking for, right?
"All right, I'm in!" Vaan looked victorious for a moment. "But first I want to know when you want to do this?"
"Tonight after the great fete, there will be a huge banquet in the palace. That will be the time for us to strike! Most of the imperials will be too busy guarding the banquet, they'll forget all about the treasury!"
Great fete? Seeing the confusion in my eyes, Vaan explained it to me. "It's a parade made in honor of the new caretaker of the city, Vayne Solidor." Vayne? That name sounded familiar, but I didn't give too much thought to it. This plan of Vaan could really work!
"Stella, Do you know how to defend yourself?" I knew how to fight that wasn't the problem, the problem was that I didn't have a weapon to fight with. "I know how to, but I don't have a weapon at the moment."
Vaan handed me a small pouch of gil, and a pouch full of potions. "Take these and buy yourself a weapon and some magicite."
I Looked at the gil he gave me. "Vaan, I can't take this."
"Then think of it as a loan, now go. I'll wait for you outside." I sighed knowing id lose this argument and made my way into the weapon shop.
It was a small shop with dark brown walls, to the other side of the door there was a cash register and spread around the room there were weapon racks. As I looked around I started to wonder what sort of weapon I could fight with, I was a close range fighter so I could choose between one or two handed swords, daggers, maces and katana's. I looked around until my eyes spotted a beautiful white katana, as I picked it up I saw 4 pieces of magicite melted into the blade.
"That katana has been in this shop for ages, but no one has ever been able to pick it up. We needed 3 man to put it up there, how is it possible for you to carry it with just one hand?"
To say the shopkeeper looked confused was an understatement. Was the katana really that heavy? It felt light as a feather to me. I started examining the blade a little better. The hilt was white with a white ribbon twisted around it, the blade itself was titanium white with the magicite pieces blizzard, fire, cure and haste melted onto it. It was a beautiful weapon and I became eager to test it out.
"How much gil does this cost?" The shopkeeper looked lost in thoughts before she answered me. "It's free, I've been waiting for the right person to wield it for ages and quite frankly I'd be happy to get rid of it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes I'm sure! Now leave before I change my mind." The shopkeeper walked back to the cash register and ushered me to go away. I couldn't wait to tell Vaan about this.
As I walked out of the weapon shop, I placed the sword on my right hip and started looking for Vaan. He was sitting on small wall to the left, and started walking towards me. "Heey Stella, did u find a weapon?" I unsheathed the katana and showed it to him. "Cool! Can I hold it for a moment?"
"Vaan I'm not sure if u can carry..". CLANG! There stood Vaan with my sword half on the floor, he was struggling not to drop it. "I'm sorry, the storekeeper told me it was heavy to others."
"It.. It's okay.. I'm fine really, Nice sword." I chuckled and took back the sword, as Vaan looked relieved.
"Let's go then, were going back to lowtown. Once we get there well meet Kytes at storage house 5."
I nodded and followed Vaan once more. When we reached storage house 5, Kytes started speaking to Vaan.
"Hey Vaan! I finally worked out how to get the door to the left open, I hope there's something in there besides rats.. I wanted you to go in first, so I waited for you to come back. Who's she?"
"This is Stella, she's going to help me out." Kytes nodded and got to work. He had a little trouble opening the door, but once it was open we walked through it and entered the Garamsyte Waterway.
We started walking up a few stairs then turned to the right to enter a huge platform. We came across a few rats which were easily disposed of. As we went forward, we turned right once more and started walking a straight road forward. As we entered yet another area, we were attacked by a few Ichthon's. They looked like dark blue dragon fishes, we had little trouble beating them and proceeded upward to yet another pair of stairs. As we walked up the stairs trough yet another door, we heard fireworks been shot off into the air. It sounded like the banquet had begun.
When we arrived in a small room, I saw a little green urn. When I touched it, It gave me a map of the area. "Vaan! I found a map."
"Good job, lets continue to the cellars." I nodded as we walked on. There were a lot of people in the cellars, as I looked around I saw the stairs that lead into the halls. When we approached the staircase an Imperial stopped us and told Vaan that we had to wait until the banquet was over. A Seeq called out for us to speak to him, we thought it couldn't hurt to talk with him.
"Trying to go upstairs, aren't you? You're hungry, I don't blame ya. An empty stomach would make me want to crash the fete to." Vaan and I looked at each other and shrugged, perhaps the Seeq could help us.
"Look I can give u the distraction you need to get upstairs, all you need to do is call out for the guard then make a run for it."
I looked over to Vaan who seemed to think about the offer. "What do you think, Vaan?"
"I say run." Vaan grabbed my hand and yelled to the guard. "Hey. Bucket head!" He started running towards the stairs and dragged me along with him, as we walked up I could see the seeq winking at me as I closed the door behind us.
There were a lot of guards around the corner, we would have to be very careful not to get caught. "Vaan, did your friend tell you where we had to go from here on?" Vaan nodded.
"We need to find a lion signet on the floor and place the sunstone on it. That should open the way to the treasury."
"All right, ill distract the guards and you go find the signet."
"Stella, wait..!" I ran off towards the guards, yelled out to them and ran away from Vaan. After a while, I lost the guards and found Vaan in a corner with an open passageway. As we walked into the passage the wall closed off behind us, there was no turning back now. Vaan reached out to a glowing blue panel, which opened another door into the treasury. Once we were in, I was amazed by the amounts of gold and diamonds! There was also a statue of a blue angel on the other side of the room, as I approached it, the face moved upwards and revealed a magnificent orange stone. It glowed beautifully in the light as I picked it up and gave it to Vaan.
"Quite a performance." I turned around to see the man I met in the bar earlier today. "Who are you?" Vaan asked, the man looked at me suspiciously before answering. "I play the leading man, who else?"
"Hello Stella." I turned around and spotted Fran behind me. "Well then, I'll take that."
Vaan started to look annoyed now, as the man kept staring ad us. "No you won't, we found it! It's ours!" The man told Vaan something that made me chuckle. "And when I take it from you, it'll be mine."
When we heard some people yelling close to us, we took that as our que to run and left Fran and the man behind. I ran after Vaan as we walked up a few staircases up to another balcony outside. While we ran to the other side, Fran blocked the way on a hover bike. We turned around to walk the other way until we saw the man speak to us once more.
"The Ifrit, eh? That's quite an entrance. Impeccable timing, if I didn't know better I'd say they'd be waiting all along." All of the sudden the "Ifrit" as the man called it, started to fire against the people walking down in the garden. Vaan and I tried to run again until the man called out to us once more.
"Stop running!" We saw the Imperials following closely behind us. "Fran, let's move!"
Fran drove towards us ad wrapped her arm around my waist taking me onto the bike as the man picked up Vaan and threw him over the balcony edge towards us.
Both the man and Vaan landed on the hover bike as we started flying down towards the field. Vaan and the man started arguing. "Let go off me!"
"Keep this up and I will!" The hover bike started to shake as Fran spoke to us. "I don't know what happening, it's not heeding me!"
Vaan and the man continued yelling as I clutched on the Fran's waist for dear life, hoping that we wouldn't crash and fall. "I don't have time for this!" The man said, with an annoyed tone to his voice. "I'm slipping!" Uh oh! Not good! The hover bike began violently shaking as we fell and crashed into the walls of the garden.