Author's note: Hello, welcome to my story. Obviously, I don't own the characters, save one. I'm sure you'll be able to tell quickly. All glory to Square Enix. Please comment on this. This is my first fic on FFXII. I do have more chapters coming. Please enjoy!
He closed his eyes and let his weight disappear. Sleep overtook him quickly.
The sudden change in pressure jolted her to consciousness. It took half a second for her eyes to realize her bed was occupied by a man. For a heartbeat, she wanted him to take her. The initial shock sat her up and threw her towards the foot of the bed. The man rolled forward towards her and threw a hand over her mouth, silencing her, pinning her face down on the bed. She screwed her eyes shut, panic setting in. The young woman swallowed hard and prayed it would be over quickly.
"Treska, look at me," the voice behind her whispered. It was familiar, calming her briefly. She nodded slowly, and quietly rolled over. Recognizing her brother, vaguely in the little light there was in her chambers.
"Ffamran, what are you doing in here?" She sat up and arranged herself. "I thought you were-"
The reprimand was cut off by a loud crash, the hall door flying off of it hinges. Ffamran leapt to his feet and caught her by the shoulders. "I'm afraid I must be off. Troubles at work, unfortunately…"
"What have you done? What have you done to this house?" The conversation continued across the room as he briskly walked -he never ran- to the large casement.
"Ah yes, here I am coming to you in mortal peril, and your worried about the family image. Such a dutiful daughter, servant to the house of Bunansa. I'm certain you and Father shall have a wonderful time arranging afternoon tea for him and his new invisible compatriots." He stopped a moment for her to catch up, dressing robe trailing behind her. "Tell me, what do you think of the view?"
"What are.."
"As always," he said catching her around the waist, "Too slow on your cue. Honestly..." With that, he hefted her to the rail and in one fluid motion, jumped to push her off and finally clear the balcony himself. The door of her room blasted open at the same instant, Imperial guards clambering into the room, just in time to see the former Judge's boots disappear. Gabranth rushed to the balcony.
The fugitive had dived head first and spun to face his pursuer, firing upwards. The Judge reacted quickly enough to be only grazed by the bullet, leaving a red, glowing streak up his chest. Gabranth stumbled back a step. "To the lower level," he commanded his guard. "Raze the house to the ground . I'm sure Lord Cidolphus will understand." They left the room to pick up the trail.
But the trail was already beginning to cool. The siblings had landed in the deep canal. As she gathered her senses, she realized they had plummeted into the grand floating garden of the estate. Treska struggled to find the surface of the water, weighed down by her nightclothes. An arm broke the surface and looking up, saw the distorted, yet cool face of her brother. With a great effort, he brought her up, and she gasped for air, lungs burning. He had found the edge of the canal and guided her towards it. Her hair matted around her face and she thrashed wildly in the water.
"Well, that was a delight. Just a perfect cap to the evening, wouldn't you agree, darling?" She glared at him, trying to pull herself onto the dry walkway. Her robe was ruined, her brother was insane, and to top it off, she'd have to explain to her friends why there was a large gash in the Dalmascan roses.
"I'm of a mind to call for Father."
Ffamran was having a much easier time composing himself after the leap. He swept his hair back and squeezed the water from his sleeves. "I'd rather face the guards. What do you think that was, thirty, forty meters?" He pried a rose stuck by a thorn from his pants, offering it to her, as a brother. He quirked an eyebrow, waiting for her to accept this peace offering. "A rose for the lily?" he prodded. She quickly reached for it and broke the stem in his hand, throwing the bloom to the ground.
A tense moment passed between them. She looked petrified, on the verge on fainting dead away. He carefully stepped towards her, trying to make eye contact, which was a challenge. He opened his arms, trying to embrace a quick peace treaty between the two. She half heartedly smiled and inched toward him, slowly lowering her head onto his chest. She sucked in a breath, trying to return her breathing to normal. Ffamran rested his chin on her head gingerly, and closed her in his arms, swaying gently. The mark of the family crest was inked into her shoulder, easy to see through the wet night gown. "You were very brave, just now."
"And you were very foolish, since you were born," she mumbled into his chest.
"I suppose I deserve that, but let's just keep that between us, hm?" There was no response.
"Ffamran, what are we to do?"
He winced inwardly. He didn't think she'd be able to think so clearly just yet. This had to be farewell. "Treska. Darling."
She bristled. She pushed back slightly to look her brother in the eye. "Whatever you are about to say, it had be better followed by 'together'".
"I'm sorry, Sister, I cannot- we cannot- continue on with you or we will be hunted and killed….together." He hoped that his sibling would appreciate his semantic acquiescence.
"Ffamran. You cannot leave me here. The Judges will come after me to find you. And Father. He'll…" She could not finish, but the fear in her eyes betrayed her feelings. "You cannot leave me to be looked after."
"Treska, he will not have you. He has never wanted you."
She slapped him hard across the face, the sting brought every nerve on end, sending his heartbeat to his boots and back. He seized her around the wrist, but could not follow through on any action. "When I leave, he'll consider the house fallen. No heir to continue the line. The house will fall in his mind."
"I have news for you, darling Brother," she sneered, "his mind has already fallen. Every day he toils in the lab, with no sleep, no rest. Who knows what it is that possesses him? I will die forgotten and alone, within the walls of the house. My brother, flown as a fugitive of his own justice. My father a recluse in a laboratory. There is nothing for a woman of the Empire. I am imprisoned in a house that holds no glory, a name that no one will remember, except in your infamy. Bunansa will be a curse on Archadian lips."
Ffamran looked at his sister, disapproving of what he saw. A petulant child, no more. With the concerns fit for only a woman of status. Even as her glare pierced him, but he could not reassure her this time. There was nothing more he could do for her.
"Good. It is my new aim in life."
"Oh, well I'm so glad you could include me in your little career shift. Fine then, leave me, leave here-"
There was an awful sound that issued from overhead. The siblings stopped instantly and turned eyes upward to find the familial manse engulfed in flames. Ffamran's eyes took in all they could, the flames, the stones, the flora withering from the heat and beginning to rain down. Then the most next most horrifying sound he had ever heard in his life sounded.
Treska's mouth contorted in a pained grimace served as an amplifier for her dreams being crushed, the death of the family's status. A horrible, extended moan, peaking at a shrill bloodcurdling scream. Families across the canal came to windows to watch the conflagration gut the house. Windows cracked and exploded in succession as the flames desired egress. He instinctively threw an arm around her to quiet her. The shrieking continued for minutes it seemed. A movement above caught his eye and he began to move, with her in tow, still wailing.
He could hear the metallic commands of Gabranth closing in. Bullets hit the water near the two as they made their escape. She was lagging behind, still in shock, still wet, still furious with him. She felt like stopping, holding him here, wait for the Judges to take him. He hadn't even told her what he had done. He was never one to tell, just play games, sashaying around any actual fact. The cavalier smirk he wore was hard to see now. She didn't care if he stayed. She only wanted to be wherever he was planning on going. They had to stay together. Treska tightened her grip on her brother's hand.
They rounded the corner, to a stairwell that led up to the street. They could disappear into the crowd and hopefully enjoy an unannounced jaunt to Bhujerba or Balfonhiem. He'd always considered the life of piracy. Ffamran was wondering if the idea would appeal to her when a shot rang out. A scream sounded distant. He didn't want to stop. He just felt he needed to. Treska barreled down on top of him, sending both to the ground. He then found the source of the scream, as it stopped suddenly as it knocked the air out of him.
"Ffamran! Get up!"
"Treska!" he grunted. "Get off!"
She scrambled to her feet and helped him to his. As soon as he stood, a searing pain ripped through his left arm. A small hole burned into his sleeve and a rivulet of blood began to trickle.
"Ffamran!"
"GO! Just run!"
"No!" She pulled at his uninjured arm to spur him on, but he was looking over her head to something else. Treska turned and found herself toe to toe with a detail of Judges. They had their weapons brandished, pointing at both or them. In an oddly feminine moment, she ran to her brother for protection, as if a childhood flash of lightning had frightened her. The head of the detail called up "Lord Judge Magister, we have him!"
A heavy footstep was heard coming down the stairs. The young lady looked up and saw into the face of darkness. The helmet like a demon in flight, swooped down onto them. "Judge Demen, we need to talk about your position."
"Ah, terribly sorry, did you not get the memorandum that said I would be resigning my post?" Ffamran, defiant to the end, was never one to pass up an opportunity to show off, especially in front of his sister. Especially since they were in a deadly dance such as this. Especially since he had brought her into this
The demonhead turned to her. "Lady Treskanatra, I did not expect to see you assist the fugitive."
Treska's heart was pounding in her chest. She was going to die. And it was all his fault. "I'm sorry, but you I believe you missed the bit where he was tossing me over a balcony and hoping I made a good cushion." She cast a sideways glance at her brother. She wasn't about to let him die knowing he got to be the dashing leading man alone.
"Gabranth, let her go, she has nothing to do with this. Return her to the manse you so graciously burned down, would you?"
The Judge Magister removed his helmet and handed it to an underling. He was a fair man who seemed quite serious. He smiled faintly to Treska, nodding his head out of courtesy and promptly shot again into the rogue Judge. The elder Bunansa made an odd noise, not a scream, but less than a witty retort. She held onto him, as the force of the hit, sent him reeling. She could see his jaw was clenching, biting his tongue to keep up the façade of bravado.
"Ffamran Demen Bunansa, you are charge with Desertion of Duty and Treason of the highest caliber. Lady Treskanatra Strahaliane Bunansa, you are charged with Aiding a criminal of the Archadian Empire. I am really quite dismayed by your actions, Lady Treskanatra. I really am. Your brother is not the man you father, Doctor Cidolphus is. Your father shall do great things for the Archadian Empire. Your brother is a child, wearing the title and the pistol of his father's name, neither of which he deserves. I'm sure some news of this will reach your father, Ffamran, that his only remaining son ran from the position he gave him. He only wanted you to be a great man, like himself. Svatam, I wanted you to be a great man. You were like a second brother to me, Ffamran. Blood."
Through all of this, the two held each other, desperately hoping for a means of escape. He wanted to look into her eyes, tell her he loved her, and was immensely sorry, and that he would make it up to it her. She was staring down the High Judge, defiantly as her brother wished he wasn't right now.
He lowered his head, close to her ear and breathed "Treska, we must do this now. We must move on my mark. Promise me you will stay here. Don't try to follow me, you won't catch me." She didn't even blink. He had no idea if she waited for a signal, or if the blood pounding in her hears drowned him out.
"Oh yes," Gabranth sighed. "And you both shall be executed immediately."
The guards were correcting their grip, ready to fire on command. Treska squeezed her brother's arm, and set out in a run. Everything around Ffamran slowed down. The scent of her floated by. Her tiny feet barely touched the cobblestone as she ran. Her nightdress, still dripping, billowed out behind her. Gabranth brushed past Ffamran and his guards parted. They even dropped their rifles and swords to fully appreciate the actions of their commander. He drew his pistol down on her. He looked back at his captive and smiled sportingly, as if this was a trick. He turned back to his quarry flitting farther away. Without even flinching, his finger hit the trigger.
But Ffamran had already run the other way. He took off up the stairs as soon as he heard the shot. His own wounds burned his arm and his chest. His sister, his life. Gone. He only looked back to see if she was still running. He couldn't see her. He thought he heard the guards running, but in his current state, could not decipher which direction they were headed. He had no time to think.
A most undignified end for a gentleman, but a new beginning for a new man. For a sky pirate. The cobblestone streets and alleyways were empty, he had not thought of that. Ffamran didn't realize this daring escape had been planned so late at night. Just when no one was looking, of course. He cursed himself for his selfish thoughts at this particular moment. He stuck to the shadows, moving silently towards the Aerodrome. It would be he ticket out and away from here. Away from her.
The dream. It had come again. Always an ill-omen of things to come.
That's Chapter One! Questions, Comments, Concerns? Chapter 2 soon to follow