The life of a rebel wasn't for everyone.
When one becomes a rebel, they have to exercise the greatest type of caution; they can never look too particular, or sound too particular, or give any hints that they are trying to not be too particular in any aspect.
Of course, when one is part of the underground, it's helpful to actually live underground.
The underground city of Andante was peaceful these days. The rebel forces still made their rounds twice a day, once in the morning and again late at night, and trained in the afternoons. And every now and then there would be small, local disputes that the members of Andantino gladly resolved. Overall, though, there was nothing to do; everything paled in comparison to the scandal with the mineral powder that had happened all those years ago.
As Jazz led the soldiers in their afternoon rounds, his two children watched. "It's boring just watching," the younger, Nocturne, lamented. He was fifteen years old, and had inherited his father's dark hair, which he kept cut short, with it covering one eye. He wore a black leather jacket with checkered pants. He asked, "When is Dad going to start taking us with him on the rounds?"
The older, Bolero, was seventeen and kept her long, dark hair tied into a long braid. She wore a short-sleeved burnt orange shirt with fringe (think of a cowboy jacket) and loose-fitting black pants. "You won't be going anytime soon. You've still got a lot of growing to do." Mockingly, she added, "Little brother."
Nocturne scoffed. "Whatever." He brushed his hands on his black-and-white checkered pants. "Let's go and find Mom. It's almost time for training."
Claves always felt the need to train her children in the depths of the Woodblock Groves. When they were just starting out, she'd done it at their headquarters on the shores of Lake Reverb, but now that they were older, se thought it would be wise to move their training to the Groves so that they'd know how to resist the influence of poison better.
Anyway, the two were ample fighters at this point. Bolero's weapon of choice was a thorned whip. Not many people have the ability it use a whip as a deadly weapon; Bolero was one of the gifted few. Nocturne's katana was one of his most prized possessions, given to him by his exalted father. He was light on his feet while wielding, and fared well in his daily spars against his mother, for someone of his age.
"You have to strike harder," Claves instructed her son, as she parried his attacks. "If you have to sacrifice a bit of speed for power, that's totally okay."
"What if I learn to have both?" asked Nocturne.
"No one can have it all, Nocty," Bolero called from her perch on a nearby rock.
Looking toward her, Claves put her rapier away. "Your sister is right," she said. "Trying to be the fastest as well as the strongest can only end in ruin. There are many people who have been destroyed when attempting to be a jack-of-all-trades."
Following suit, Nocturne sheathed his katana. "What about Dad?" he asked.
Claves laughed, a small laugh to herself. "As many of the soldiers here could tell you, your Dad is the strongest one of all of us," she replied. "However… he isn't very fast at all. Or, rather, he's as fast as you could expect someone to be that wields a sword of that size." She started to walk toward Andante, her offspring following.
"I wonder how fast he'd be without that sword," she mused softly.
When the three made it back to Andante, the soldiers had finished their rounds and were just sitting down for lunch. "What's on the menu, Chaconne?" asked Bolero. "It smells delicious."
"It's corned beef stew," replied the mild-mannered Chaconne. "It's one of the soldiers' favorites."
Nocturne almost slipped and said "mine too," until he realized that his mother didn't know he'd ever tried it. Every now and then, he and Bolero would sneak to the soldiers' dining room, and Chaconne would be so busy trying to serve everyone that she never noticed there were two extra bowls that she'd filled. If Claves of Jazz found out about it, they wouldn't be too happy; they tried very hard to keep their children on a "normal" children's diet.
Later that night, the two went into the kitchen and served themselves two bowls.
"I feel kind of bad about taking food from the soldiers," admitted Nocturne. "I mean, yeah, technically the leftovers go… somewhere else… but it's obviously needed there, too. Maybe we should-"
Bolero clapped a hand over her brother's mouth. "Can you hear that?" she asked.
"Hear what?" he asked back, moving her hand. "I don't hear-"
"Shh. It's Dad. No one else has that much bass in their voice. It's coming from over there." She pointed to the woods, and without much thought she went that way, with her brother in tow.
As they got closer, Bolero heard footsteps coming their way, and she ducked into the bushes. Nocturne hid behind a rock. Not very long after, two men and a woman left, all dressed in traditional Forte armor.
"What do you think he'll do?" inquired the woman.
The smaller man shrugged, but the larger one replied, "He'll do what he needs to- if he values the life of his wife and children."
The next day, Jazz called a meeting of his family and explained that he was being blackmailed by Forte, although he had no idea why. "I would've liked to go and find out, but unfortunately, that's the stipulation- I can't leave." He ruminated for a moment. "Claves, what if the children-"
"Ohmigosh, yes!" Bolero grabbed her whip. "Come on, Mom! Nocty and I are totally up for it! Besides, it's not like we have any other choice, right?"
Claves turned to Nocturne, who was caressing the velvet sheath of his katana with just his fingertips. When prompted he said, "Well, it's not like we're children- Bolero is almost a legal adult. We can probably handle it, sure."
"Then the two of you shall go to Baroque, " Claves decided. "Inform Crescendo, and he'll be able to send someone to investigate- and then come straight back here, got it? We need you here."
[A/N]: And so the action starts.
I decided to start with Andantino because Claves is my favorite character in the game (I know, shoot me). She's just so pretty! Especially her hair! For those of you who are wondering where Falsetto is, don't worry; that's explained later. Jazz and Claves are married now, and have two almost full-grown kids; a lot of time really has passed, hasn't it? *chuckle*
The title for this chapter is also the in-game title of the Andante track (I know they have different names on the soundtrack, but I always use the in-game titles because the translators were better). It's one of my favorite tracks in the game.
In this story, you're going to be able to tell a lot about the characters' personalities by the clothes they wear; for example, Bolero is dressed like a cowgirl, and she's bold and unafraid to speak her mind, and Nocturne is dressed like an emo kid, which is basically how he acts. I didn't do this intentionally, but even their names clue you in to their personalities. (I wonder if I've done that with anyone else…)
I don't know about anyone else, but I can't help but think of Noctis from Final Fantasy Versus 13 whenever Bolero says "Nocty." Also, I noticed after reading this over that when Claves is talking about Jazz's sword, that could be interpreted as having a double meaning.
So, with Bolero and Nocturne on their way to Baroque, it's time to take our story to another town…
Disclaimer: I only own an Xbox 360 copy of Eternal Sonata. I mean, that's not even the good one.