Thick as Thieves

By Dixxy

Prologue

Author's Notes: Before you begin to read this story, I would suggest reading another story I wrote entitled Memories. The part of the prologue in italics is a slightly edited excerpt from the story to show where the events changed as this is something of an alternate ending (slight editing is only extra description and emotion, really). As another note, this is a revision of the story Thieves, which has been discontinued. Thieves story is being re-written and revised as this story, Thick as Thieves.

~

Daylight began to break over the Zenan Mainland, waking many of its people, whether they were in Porre or Guardia. Some had been long awake, baking breads and preparing morning deliveries that would fulfill their livelihoods while others were just up to witness the big orange ball climb high into the sky. All in all, it looked like what should have been the start of a beautiful day.

The four young boys were nearly on the outskirts of Porre. Norris was in the lead, the figures all hidden under cloaks to hide their identities as they made their escape. Dario kept close to his brother, almost constantly reminding the younger boy that they were almost home free. Karsh was running on Glenn's other side in an attempt to make the boy feel safer.

"There!" Norris announced, pointing ahead of them. The group stopped, seeing the edge of the forest surrounding one part of the city just ahead of them. He laughed brightly. "You guys are almost home free!" He turned to Glenn and knelt down to look the younger boy in the face, placing a hand on his shoulder in the process. "Don't worry, you'll be home soon. You'll be back with your dear old dad and out of this hell hole."

The smallest member of the party looked up at the Porre resident with interest. He tugged on his cloak, trying to her his attention. Norris looked at the five year old and squatted down to see what he wanted. "What about you, Norris? Aren't you coming, too?" asked Glenn. Wide, bright blue eyes looked at him in curiosity and an almost pleading sort of hope. "It's dangerous here- those Porre men are mean. What if you become mean if you stay here?"

Norris shook his head, lowering his eyes. "I'm sorry, Glenn, I'm not going with you guys to El Nido," he said. The small child looked at Norris in surprise, wondering why he wouldn't want to get out of the gray, dull streets of Porre to see the bright, almost tropical market that was Termina. "My place is here in Porre. My mother would be upset if I left."

"But that man Curtis is here!" said Glenn, looking concerned. "He's bad!" He pointed at his cheek, where the still very red wound was still healing. Scarring, yes, but it was healing, none the less. "What if he tries to hurt you, too? I don't want him to hurt you, Norris. You'll be safer in El Nido! My Daddy and Radius and Zappy and General Viper and the Dragoons will protect you!"

Dario gulped nervously, grabbing at the collar of his tunic and loosening it. This is gonna go over REAL well- Glenn might be scared of Norris now, he thought to himself. "Uh, Glenn? Little brother? I, uh, don't know how to tell you this but, ah, you see, Curtis is-"

The Porre youth slowly turned his gaze towards Dario, his face with an innocent and almost naïve look to it. He blinked slowly, turning his head slightly. "But what, Dario? I don't know any Curtis aside from that man that hurt your little brother- I haven't the slightest clue as to what you're alluding to," said Norris coolly.

Karsh gave Dario a knowing look. Dario shut his mouth, catching the drift. Glenn would be happier not knowing who Norris was in relation to his kidnapper. They weren't sure how the boy would handle such information, and they didn't want to risk a negative reaction- he had been given enough shocks to last a lifetime.

With that done, the boys began to run for the exit. Once they were out of Porre, they were much, much safer. This city would do them no good- it had done Glenn no good and Norris knew that something worse would happen to Karsh and Dario is they were captured. Perhaps the three of them would die. Even I might die.

Just as they reached the city limit, they heard the clicking sound of a cocked gun. All four boys jolted to a stop, nearly crashing into each other. Norris turned his head to see it was none other than his father pointing a gun at the boys. "I don't know who three of you are, but I know that little Glenn is with you. Why don't you just give the brat to me and then be on your way?"

Norris gritted his teeth. What was he going to do now?! He knew very well that giving Dario, Glenn, and Karsh over to Curtis would only result in harm to them. Curtis had already given the five year old an injury that was sure to leave a scar, and he didn't want to think about what else he might possibly want to do to them. They've been through enough! he decided. I can't-

"Never!" Dario said, defiantly throwing his hood down. Curtis stared at the blonde with a skeptical look in his eyes, surprised that he'd done something so bold. "I'm not going to let you hurt my little brother again you bastard! How the hell can you be so insensitive?! He's only five years old! Who the hell gave you the right to hurt innocent children?!"

"Dario, you IDIOT!" Karsh snapped. He was obviously upset with Dario for making what could have been a critical mistake- NOW Curtis knew that only did he have Glenn, but he also had Garai's other son in his potential clutches. Dario gulped, seeming to see the error in his decision. Glenn stood in confusion, unsure of what to do with himself.

But before any more retorts could be put into play, Curtis made a grab for the collar of Dario's cloak. Almost effortlessly he pulled the older brother off the ground with one hand, the youth clutching the cloth and kicking his feet in a futile attempt to break free. Glenn cried out, trying fruitlessly to get Curtis to drop him by pulling at the man's arm and kicking his legs. Curtis ignored the attempts of the five year old and turned his full attention to Dario. "So. . . you're the older son of Garai, aren't you?" he said. The commander's face cracked into a grin as he chuckled softly. "Well, I suppose that it wouldn't hurt to have BOTH of the great Garai's children under my control- it would be rather nice to watch you both squirm."

Dario didn't removed his hands from his shirt collar and continued to try to break free. His eyes met the commander's, and he froze for a second. Curtis seemed crazed and perhaps ever a little. . . psychotic, though he supposed anyone who would harm a child must be at least somewhat mentally ill. "Keep. . . your. . . hands. . . off. . . my. . . baby. . . brother!!!" Using his free hand, Curtis slapped his clear across the face. The elder brother clamped his teeth down to keep from crying out, but the pained look on his face seemed to be more than enough to satisfy Curtis. Glenn screamed at Curtis, yelling at him to stop. This only resulted in the commander placing the younger boy in the same position as his elder brother.

Norris watched all this in horror- was THIS the kind of man his father was? THIS was the man who fathered him and supported him and his mother? THIS was the man whose footsteps he was expected to follow? This MONSTER of a man- if you could call him a man at all- was supposed to be the most important figure in his whole LIFE?! Father, why!? Norris mentally demanded. Why are you doing this to my friends?! This isn't right!

Before he could continue his thoughts any more, he felt someone jerk him backwards slightly. His eyes met the deep, red eyes of Karsh, who seemed rather serious and determined about something. He pulled Norris' face close and began to whisper. "Git yerself out of 'ere while ye still kin- ye 'ave dun more than enough fer us. We'll keep 'im busy so ye can git home. Go!"

Norris was about to protest, but the words died in the back of his throat as Karsh pushed him aside, threw down his hood and introduced himself as the son of Zappa. Curtis roughly tossed the brothers aside (and for that matter out for the count) as he turned to the purple haired youth in interest, his eyes wide in a look that thoroughly terrified Norris. Karsh slowly began to back away, though he never once took his eyes off the slowly advancing Porre commander.

The Porre youth couldn't believe his eyes. Karsh knew that if Curtis captured himself and the brothers, they would face certain death if not something worse- Porre most certainly had torture chambers in some of their facilities. Yet he stared him down as if he was just some bully on a street corner, not flinching in the slightest at the actions. Norris couldn't help but respect him for that.

He's doing this so I can escape. . .

. . . but why?

This was something Norris was having a lot of trouble comprehending. He was the son of the man who had all but ruined Glenn's childhood, if not his whole life. It would probably takes YEARS for him to get over horrible strings of nightmares, and he wondered how the other children in El Nido would treat him now that he had such a mark on the most noticeable of his features. If anything they should have beaten him to a bloody pulp to take revenge on his father- to give Curtis the same feelings of despair at his child's harm that Garai would feel once he saw Glenn, assuming he ever saw his youngest again. Yet despite this, Karsh was trying his damnedest to get him out of there unscathed.

Karsh quickly turned his gaze to where Norris was standing, an almost exasperated and annoyed look in his eyes. "Fer the love of yer mother," he said under his breath. He then took in a deep breath and began to scream as loud as his lungs would let him. "GIT THE HELL OUT OF HERE! DINNAE WORRY ABOUT US! SAVE YERSELF- IS TOO LATE FER US! RUN! GIT OUT OF HERE BEFORE IS TOO LATE! GO! NOW! NOW! NOW!!!"

Norris was so startled by the sudden screaming of his friend that he couldn't help but turn on his heels and do just that, his father yelling after him to come back and rot with his other El Nido friends. He only turned back briefly, getting another scream from Karsh and a new scream from Dario, who was now injured to boot. Tears streamed from his eyes in tiny rivulets over his cheeks as he realized what he was doing- abandoning them. He was leaving them alone at his father's mercy. He knew that if they were left to his pleasure then they would NEVER see El Nido again. . . and may not even live long enough to see the following day.

. . . I. . .

. . .I. . . I. . .

. . . I. . . I can't. . .

. . . I can't. . .

. . .

I CAN'T LEAVE THEM!!!

The Cogs of Fate had shifted.

~

After looking back on Thieves, I decided that it needed some work. Some of the changes would effect so much of the plot that I would need to start from the beginning and do a complete re-write. Please continue to review as there will be changes throughout the story. The new story is entitled Thick as Thieves, but it is, in essence, Thieves.

Can we see the plot changes already? Can we, can we, can we?!?! Curtis doesn't know that Norris was helping the brothers and Karsh yet! But is he going to find out later? Hmm? Will he?

No, I don't know why I'm acting like a three-year-old on a sugar high. . .

Aside from this story, you guys will also see be seeing updates of mine from The Porre Affair. At this point in time all of SB2's chapters are now posted- chapter twelve is currently in the works. As a side note on that subject, I'm now working in cooperation with Alba Aulbath on the project. We're doing an alternation of chapters type thing where we take turns writing the chapters, but the other person gets to review the chapter before it gets posted and we agree on what each chapter will be about. So she's working on it, too. We already have some minor ideas as to different character appearances and some-ideas on what to do about some of the cliffhangers that were left behind.

I'm also putting out a Ronin Warrior/Chrono Cross cross-over sometime soon. It'll be in this section of FF.Net. It probably won't be out for a while, but you never know.

The following comments are from the last chapter I posted to the old Thieves and the announcement. To see more chapters of this story, I want at least eight reviews a chapter, though nine or ten would be really, really cool. So unless I get those eight reviews, I won't update and add new chapters. Normally I don't do this unless I really don't think anyone's reading something at all, but since this is a revision of something I've done, I really want to know how you guys feel about the changes that are implemented. Some chapters won't have a lot of changes at all, but some will. Because of this, I'm only doing the eight review ransom until I get to the point where I was in the other story. And I like using bold text to emphasize stuff in the author's notes ^_^.

Rikku-oh-ki: Um, okay.

IluvRikku12: Ooo. . . eh, 50 cents a minutes sounds about right for the travel industry. But the fact that you are now paying money to read my stories makes me feel special ^_^.

Tami: I was bored, what can I say? Well, I own more Nintendo games- I have five PS games (two of which are the same game- CT and FFIV) and about eight or nine N64 games. Ah, Lunar 2- what a bitch. As opposed to its prequel, it is much longer and MUCH more difficult. One of the challenge factors is definitely Lucia, because you CAN'T control her- sometimes you can try to "trick" the AI in the game, but it doesn't always work- Lucia will do what Lucia wants to do and that's that. Another problem I've run into is money- by the time I reach Zulan I always run into a money problem of some sort. And then the "last" dungeon leaves you in a tough spot because you can't backtrack to a city to restock on supplies, especially things like Star Lights. Where are you in the game? I'll give you some advice, if you'd like. BTW- there are actually TWO endings- the actual ending, which occurs when you beat Zophar and then the epilogue, which ties up all the loose threads. And I DO mean ALL loose threads- even the townspeople have loose ends tied up.

Yukari: I cut the merchant thing.

Uftaki: Of course I'm not going easy on them! There'd be no plot if I went easy on them! MWAHAHAHA! Merchants have been screwed. They're too complicated.

Lena: We probably hit the majority of your comments over the course of a few e-mails.

Now here are the comment answers:

Uftaki: Yup, and these probably aren't all of them. I've recently picked up Take a Thief by Mercedes Lackey, which Lena has been recommending to me for a while now. She wasn't kidding when she said it would be a good resource- what we have here is an example of some very intelligent, clever, and damn successful thieves. The point of that being that I now have a better idea as to how to go about scenes where the group is actually taking things. I'm thinking Glenn WON'T stay away, but it COULD happen- in fact, it almost DID happen in the original. Heh, I worked really hard on just the prologue alone.

Yukari: I'm back, don't worry!

Until next time!

~Dixxy