Aftermath
By
AnimeFan101
Disclaimer: Squa-nix, which I am not, owns all things Final Fantasy 12.
Author's note: same continuity as my previous FF12 fic "Voices." Yes, that is a shameless plug, but it's still important to read it first. Yes, I know that Fran and Balthier survived, and they did in this continuity as well, but this is before they slipped in and stole the Strahl out of the hanger.
0o0o0o0 Aftermath 0o0o0o0
Penelo all but staggered through the door into Old Dalan's place. Like most of Rabanastre, she had spent the last week hard at work. While the paling had managed to protect the city from direct strikes when various craft were shot down over it, it was far from an impenetrable barrier. Enough scrap had fallen through to thoroughly clog the streets.
After, well, after, there was a great deal of work put in by not only Rabanastre citizens, but also the Rozarrian and Arcadian forces that had so recently been trying to kill each other. But so many hands had made short work - if not easy - of clearing the streets. Most all that was left was some building repairs. In any case, Penelo was looking forward to a good three days' rest.
It would give her time to mourn for Fran and Balthier, lost when Bahamut went down.
The knocking at the door was unwelcome. Penelo cursed viciously, and headed back down the stairs. Opening the door, her spine reflexively snapped straight as adrenaline pounded through her veins in automatic reflex at the armored soldier outside.
"Good day," the man said calmly, as Penelo finally noticed that he was holding himself deliberately still and away from the door. "I have letters for Penelo and Vaan, from the Her Highness the Lady Ashelia."
"I'm Penelo," she said after a momentary hesitation. "Vaan is still out but he'll be back later."
The soldier nodded, and opened the leather pouch at his waist to pull out two sealed envelopes. "Here are your letters."
Penelo took them, and the soldier bowed slightly before turning and moving quickly for the nearby passage to the upper streets.
The girl shook her head, closed the door, and sat down in the back kitchen to read her letter. It was short, just a few comments on Ashe's gratitude for Penelo's assistance, and a request that at some point soon, both Penelo and Vaan come up to the Castle for a visit. Vaan's letter had the same request, Ashe wrote.
Penelo folded her letter back up and headed back upstairs, leaving Vaan's on the table for when he arrived. Honestly, she was too tired to try to stay up and give it to him herself.
0o0o0o0
Walking in the main gates, in full view of the guards, was decidedly wrong, Vaan decided a few days later. It grated with his thief's instincts, but he had been officially invited in, unlike his previous adventures.
Penelo had been surprised at Vaan's insistence that they let Ashe set the day and time for their visit. Truthfully, Vaan was rather more aware of the roles schedules played in the lives of the upper classes and nobility. He'd made use of that often enough while stealing. Penelo, though as much an orphan as he, just didn't have the thief's attitude. She'd always been for messages and errands.
In any case, Ashe had sent back a short letter with a day and time for them to come to the palace. And now, here they were.
They were escorted to a large balcony, with planters offering decoration and shade. Ashe sat on a bench near one particularly large specimen of desert shrub, her gaze distant. As the two approached, she looked up and smiled, standing and holding out her arms for a hug from Penelo.
Penelo was happy enough to return the hug, though she noticed from the corner of her eye that Vaan had slowed to a halt. He stood slightly stiff, as though expecting an attack, she noted uneasily. After a few moments, he relaxed and gaze Ashe an easy smile.
The visit was refreshing, but as Ashe and Penelo talked, the orphaned street girl gained an insight that she hadn't had before: though they had all grown close during their journeys, get-togethers like Ashe had invited them to would be few and far between. There was a great gap between them that, though not a factor only a few weeks ago, now stood between them much as if they had never met.
Penelo cried a little at that, and Ashe nodded gently and hugged her again as the younger girl explained the tears.
"Always friends," Ashe whispered. Then, "I need to have a conversation with Vaan, but don't leave. It's one of those things about being a noble," Dalmasca's ruler grumbled, her lips twisting wryly, clearly recalling the relative freedom she'd enjoyed not a month ago.
Penelo nodded, confused, and sat on the bench Ashe had been waiting for them on while Ashe and Vaan walked over to the balcony's ornate stone railing.
There was something odd about that though, Penelo noticed. Vaan had been leaning up against a nearby wall, but not near enough to overhear Ashe's quiet voice when asking Penelo to stay while she had a private talk with the young man. Ah well, she thought. Must have been something in Vaan's letter only.
0o0o0o0
Vaan took a quiet breath as he and Ashe reached the railing. This was it. His life was about to be bound for better or worse.
"No," Vaan began quietly. "I've told no-one since I learned of it, not even Penelo. I don't know how many might have guessed, either. I've only had the ability for a few years."
Ashe flinched slightly, and Vaan felt a stab of pain. He wasn't doing this right. Balthier must have had it right when the sky pirate surmised that Luck was Vaan constant companion. But if it were, Luck clearly had taken a vacation.
Ashe steadied herself after a moment. "So, what happens now?"
Vaan shrugged. "I don't know what my ancestors could do; all I have are the legends that are told. Mindwalkers: the nightmare that walks as hume, seeing into the thoughts of all beings it encounters, to bend and break as determined by their own twisted evil. If that's a mindwalker, I'm a cripple. Surface thoughts, I get all the time; emotions - strong ones, anyway - are the same. Beyond that, base impressions: this is a hume, that's a bangaa, and so on."
Ashe's lips crooked. "I don't have to speak at all here, do I?"
It was Vaan's turn to flinch. "I wish you would. It helps calm you, which is better all around."
Her gaze narrowed. "How so?"
Vaan turned slightly and hopped up to sit on the railing, straddling it. "My parents died not long before my twelfth year. My brother, Reks, was only a few years older than me, and I'm guessing his abilities didn't even start showing until either just before or shortly after we were orphaned. By the time I was finally beginning to understand all the warnings I'd always been given about not letting people know I could 'hear' their thoughts, Reks had joined the Knights of Dalmasca, and was away nearly constantly. Then he got stabbed, and you know most of the rest of that." Vaan trailed off, his gaze on the horizon. "By the time I really realized what it meant, anyone who could have taught me anything was gone." Vaan shrugged. "My parents never talked about their families, so for all I know, I'm the only one still walking Ivalice."
Vaan turned to fix Ashe with his gaze. "But when you talk, the words help steady you inside; you find your footing in your voice, and it quells your fears and strengthens your heart. And that means I'm not being swamped by your emotions."
Ashe tilted her head, silent. Vaan grimaced. "No; I don't know how or even if I can stop hearing those around me. That's why I tend to stay moving or disappear into Garamsythe. When there are no people about, I can actually rest. When I'm surrounded by people I'm familiar with, like Penelo, and to a lesser extent the rest of our group, it's a little easier somehow to bear up under the weight, but I still need to get away frequently. And since I can only 'hear' about as far as most humes' ears work anyway, I'm not forced to find some cave in the Westersand to hide in."
Vaan looked back out over the city. "It came in handy a couple times while we traveled, but it's more hindrance than anything else." His gaze shifted to view Ashe from the corners of his eyes; she'd let her own sight drift over Rabanastre. "How'd I give myself away?"
Ashe blinked, and looked back at the thief in surprise. "You're the mindwalker, shouldn't you know that already?"
Vaan grimaced, as though he'd bitten into something rotten. "You're incredulous and disbelieving of my ignorance, and your thoughts are running in that same circle: he's a mindwalker, he should know, but he doesn't, so maybe he's not a mindwalker, but he knew my earlier unspoken questions, so he has to be a mindwalker..." He favored her with a mildly irritated stare. "Please, think about something else. You're giving me a headache."
A startled chortle bubbled from Ashe. Vaan sighed and waved a hand. "Yes yes, so amusing. Please?"
Ashe took a breath to calm herself, then nodded. "On Bahamut, after you sent Vayne flying out of the main control area. You jumped the railing and then just froze for a few moments, letting Vayne get some distance from you. Given how you were going after him In the first place..."
Vaan stared. Then blinked. Then slapped his forehead so hard that he very nearly overbalanced and fell off the railing. Steadying himself, Vaan felt the desire to express his feelings. He did so, virulently and steadily for a couple of minutes. Finally, he turned back to Ashe, and just barely managed to keep from knocking himself off the railing all over again.
"Yeah, yeah, new and interesting vulgarities. You won't be able to use them though, Lady Ashe, Vaan valiantly fired back against the amused woman before him. He shook his head.
"Venat had been amused about something right then," Vaan recalled. "I couldn't for the life of me think what; and with everyone's emotions running hot and Gabranth mentally assessing his injuries as fatal, I didn't even think to 'listen' for anyone else to have seen the freak. Wouldn't have done any good to try to listen to Venat, either: I only ever felt base emotions from the Occuria when they were around. When they wore Rassler's form, I knew them as not hume; I just wish I knew how they hid their thoughts - it would make my life easier if I could shut out the thoughts of those around me."
"So it was Venat that made you hesitate there for a moment," Ashe murmured.
"Yeah," Vaan sighed. "Popped up right in front of me. Laughing in my face, almost. So sure that it had succeeded...I had to go after Vayne then, and kill him. It was the only way to win something back from Venat, I thought."
Ashe tilted her head, questioning.
Vaan shrugged. "Venat's plan, near as I can put together, was three-fold: make everyone aware of the Occurian manipulations in Ivalice, destroy the Sun-Cryst to remove their influence on the world, and die."
"Die?" Ashe demanded, startled.
"Die," Vaan confirmed bleakly. "When we took out Vayne, Venat went right with him. Left me 'deaf' for about ten minutes, by which time Fran and Balthier were long gone out of my range, so I don't even know if that guy had a plan to save their skins from a sinking Bahamut." Vaan rubbed his forehead, remembering the shadowy pain that had left him nearly reeling, like man suddenly trying to walk normally after having a leg torn off.
A silence stretched between them as they remembered the sky pirates they'd traveled beside for so long.
Vaan finally shook himself, and met Ashe's gaze. "What happens now?" When she quirked an eyebrow in silent question, he clarified. "I'm a mindwalker, and there's a long-standing belief - nearly an ironclad law - that the only worthwhile mindwalker is one that's being burned to ashes."
Ashe smiled, and patted Vaan's knee. "What mindwalker? All I got here is a Rabanastre street rat."
Vaan sighed heavily. "Thanks, Ashe."
Ashe's expression turned serious. "It's not without its limits, though. For one thing, actual meetings between us are more than likely never going to happen again."
Vaan nodded agreement. "If I'm ever discovered, the commoners would riot. The death toll would be extreme. Bad enough I'm known as having been in your group, continuous contact between us..."
Ashe nodded wordlessly. Vaan tilted his head and favored her with an urchin's cocky grin. "None of that now, 'Amalia.' Besides, beyond my heritage is the fact that you have to be Queen now for this nation. Queens and street rats barely share the air they breathe." Vaan hopped down and brushed desert dust from his trousers. "Besides, I'm going to be a sky pirate, and those types really don't share nobles' air unless they're thieving from them."
They turned and walked back to the bench Penelo was still sitting on. Together, they all walked to the palace gates. Ashe favored the large structure with a cool eye. A division, it seemed to whisper. To one side, the common folk. To the other, the nobles who ruled over them. Vaan's eyes drifted from the gate to Ashe as he and Penelo stepped through.
Just before the two were swallowed up by the crowds of Rabanastre, Vaan turned and hollered back to where Ashe stood beside the gate guards. "I'll be seeing you, Princess! You just won't see me!" Smirking like the street rat he was, Vaan slipped into the throng and vanished like water spilled on the desert sands.
Ashe shook her head. "I'm going to have to talk with the Captain of the Guard about security and thieves, aren't I?" she muttered to no-one in particular.
End
Author's postnote: I'm not as pleased with this one as I was with Voices. Something seems a little lackingor maybe it's that I've got a lot more dialogue in this one that I didn't in the first one. That one nearly wrote itself. Ah well. Here it is, for all who wanted a little more: the only other scene that my muse fed me in this fandom.