Title: Crystal Core
Author: Darkening-wings
Rating: T
Summary: Huge transparent labyrinth. Let's own it. Not. Concerning walking the wrong way when looking for Balthier's old man. Mild spoilers for mid-endgame.
A/N: I found this when cleaning my folders. I thought it sounded good enough.
Now, since I wrote the ending, it is just kind of random...
"Vaan? Vaan!" Balthier voice got more and more agitated with each passing second. The blond boy shook his head and looked up from the map, finally deciding to pay attention to what the sky pirate said.
"What, Bal?" he asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I've got this damn headache. I don't like this place, not at all."
The shimmering golden orange walls, wavering with Mist, stairs that led into empty rooms and to more of the magic transportation devices; the gigantic crystal Core in Giruvegan was the greatest labyrinth in all of their lives.
Of course, it also held new species of monsters; ghouls and wyrms stronger than anything the group had ever encountered before. In the beginning they had all been joking about what a fortune they'd make when they eventually had defeated Dr Cid and returned to Rabanastre. Less than two hours later, they were all tired and bruised.
It wasn't worth a gil.
"You can't keep zoning like that all the time." Balthier tapped his right hand against his leather pants. "There could be a reaper here right now; you do know they're able to use Vanish on themselves..."
Vaan merely shrugged and placed the map on the glass-like floor before him as he massaged his throbbing head.
"I don't get it. There are too many patterns." He mumbled. "Maybe we should head down and not up?"
Balthier sighed. "I told you to leave way stone 9 alone, right? We should've taken number 7."
Ashe stepped up to them, supporting herself against the Gungnir spear. She looked over the young man's shoulder, eyeing the map. "I don't like this place, either." She added and sat down. "There's some creature in here that sends shivers down my spine. And I know for sure that it has no friendly intentions." She uncorked a potion and sipped on the faint green liquid.
Vaan nodded in approval. "It feels like one of the Espers. Like Exodus but stronger."
Balthier glanced from one to the other, frowning. The princess and the thief had their creepy abilities, as they were seeing dead people and sensing otherworldly creatures. Thought, it seemed Vaan didn't posses a gift as strong as the princesses'. From what the sky pirate had heard, the thief had only seen a dim image of the long gone prince, while Ashe's version had been clear as the sky above Balfonheim.
He shrugged off the growing feeling of unease and looked to the young pirate-to-be. "Are you sure you're holding the map right?"
Vaan didn't lift his gaze but replied in a testy voice: "Lead the way if you're so damn sure you can read the map better than me." He pushed the map away and Balthier picked it up, eyeing it.
"..." The sky pirate scratched the back of his head. "There are only lines crisscrossing each other."
"Yeah, guess what my problem was." Vaan muttered and stood up, grabbing the map as he passed by Balthier and looked it over again. "We should head back."
Some circular rooms, two gates and one waystone later they found their panting comrades, and after healing them up as well as they could, they spoke at the same time, eager to tell the three who had been resting about their little adventure.
They had seen the biggest mimic-chest EVER.