Author's Note:
Hello my dear readers! This is the 5th year of me posting fanfiction on this website, which is why I decided to write a new story. I hope you enjoy it!
Final Fantasy XII: New Beginnings
Prologue
Floating, she was floating. As far as she could tell there was no water around her, no light either for that matter. Was this a dream? If so it didn't feel like one. But how could she be dreaming? She didn't even remember ever falling asleep. Come to think of it she couldn't remember anything, at all. She sighed and held her arms out in front of her, trying to feel her way around. Nothing. She looked down at herself and inspected her body. Everything looked normal enough, nothing out of the ordinary, aside from the fact that she appeared to be wearing a strange white robe. What was going on? Why was she here? "Hello?" No response. She frowned and yelled out in frustration. "Where the hell am I?!" She turned around trying to look for an answer, but soon felt herself being pulled downwards. She panicked, and a painful impact upon a watery surface brought her back into unconsciousness. Her body drifted off into nowhere and unintelligible voices filled her thoughts.
Upon awakening she could feel an arm around her waist, pulling her up out of the water. She tried to breath and struggled to open her eyes. She blinked slowly, but her eyes couldn't see a thing. The unknown person still had a strong hold on her and dragged her onto a stone surface. The person kept talking to her, but she didn't understand a word he was saying. As soon as she felt like her body was being let go, the man started performing CPR on her. A few moments later she started coughing wildly and for the first time in what seemed like forever she slowly started seeing something other than the darkness. As her vision cleared up a bit, a man appeared in front of her and slowly but surely she could make sense of his words too. "..re you all right?" He pulled her up into a sitting position and looked her in the eyes. "Can you talk? My name is Balthier." It was difficult to focus on anything, and the cold water had made her entire body go numb. Balthier brought her closer to him and tried to warm up her body with his own. "How the hell did you end up in there? Don't you know the sewers are rarely visited by anyone? You're lucky I came around when I did." She grabbed onto his shirt and tried to pull him closer. Freezing, she was absolutely freezing. "Right then, first things first. I'm taking you with me. I'd ask for your permission, but I doubt you'd be able to resist me." He smirked as he put his arms underneath her legs and her back then slowly picked her up. She didn't protest, what choice did she have anyway? She could barely speak let alone move. "I'm taking you up into the city of Rabanastre." She tensed up, which he seemed to notice. "Don't worry my dear, I'm not taking you anywhere inconspicuous. I know somewhere you can be healed and rest for as long as you need to." The man started walking up a stairwell, and sooner than later she saw a huge hall in front of them. There wasn't much of interest in the hallway and as they walked through the door at the end of it, a woman approached them. "Balthier, who is this? What happened to her?" The woman said calmly as Balthier kept walking forwards. "I found her in one of the waterways, drowning. The woman nodded and motioned for Balthier to follow her. After a short period of time, they started approaching a ship of some kind.
The woman opened the doors of the ship and ordered Balthier inside. "We must hurry." She said calmly as Balthier laid me down onto the ground. The woman started to inspect my wounds and was very focused on what she was doing. "What? No worries for little old me?" Balthier said jokingly. The woman frowned and started waving her hands in front of her. After a few seconds I could feel my pain being relieved and saw the wounds I had slowly closing up. Once the woman finished what she was doing, she pulled me upwards and inspected my hands. "How?" I asked looking up at the woman in front of me. "A healing spell." She said, letting go of my hands. I nodded and thanked her. As soon as I tried standing up on my own Balthier offered me his hand and pulled me up. "Now tell me, what is your name?" I looked down at my feet and wondered about what I could tell them. It wouldn't be very believable to tell them I didn't know anything, right? Then again I was a horrible liar. "I don't know." Balthier raised an eyebrow at that and scratched his neck. "You don't know? How can you not know your own name?"
"Perhaps she hit her head?" The woman said as sat down on one of the chairs at the front of the ship. "Perhaps. Any idea what we're going to do with her?"
"Why are you talking about me like I'm not even here? I can decide what to do on my own perfectly fine." Balthier chuckled. "I doubt that. Do u even know where you are?"
"No, but I'm sure I can figure it out." The woman turned to face me and spoke. "It's not safe to go about on your own. The imperials are on their guard now more than ever. I would suggest staying with us for a while, we won't harm you." Balthier held up his hands in defeat. "Guess it can't be helped." Imperials? Who were they? "Imperials?" Balthier sighed. "Sit down my dear, we have a lot to discuss."
It took a while for me to wrap my head around all the information I had been given. The world was called Ivalice, and it was torn apart by a war between Rosaria and Archadia. The city we were currently at was called Rabanastre and it belonged to the kingdom of Dalmasca, which lay right in between the latter empires. Balthier and the woman, Fran, where sky pirates. They didn't really explain what that meant, just that they belong with anyone. They lived their lives the way they wanted to up in the skies with their ship. Which seemed like a dream to me. "So, what were you doing in the sewers?" I asked Balthier. He smirked and stood up. "Scouting. We were trying to find the perfect routes in and out of the palace."
"Why?"
"Because we're going to take their treasures, what else? Sky pirates, remember?" I smiled. "Could I come with you?" Fran raised an eyebrow at that. "Why?"
"Because I want to help, I have to pay you back for helping me somehow. And besides, I might find out a little more about this world for myself along the way." Balthier and Fran looked at each other for a moment, probably wondering what they were going to do with me. I didn't expect them to take me with them, but it was worth a shot. "All right then." Balthier said, smirking as he sat down next to me. "Here's the plan.."