Thanks for reviewing, ElTangoDeRoxanne! This is another wierd chapter, but don't worry! It will buck up soon, I promise!
Penelo woke up in an empty alley, though outside of it, men and women ran back and forth in the burning streets. Some were laughing, some were crying, some were screaming, but all were shouting and yelling. Gunshots rang through the air—more people screamed.
"Shields up, gentlemen! And, for'ard, push!" someone barked. Penelo poked her head around the corner, peering into the street. She recognized the buildings of Archades immediately, though they were clothed in smoke and leaping flame. It appeared that the people of Old Archades were rioting, spilling out of the stairway leading down into the old city. They were armed with bombs, guns, sticks, stones, rusted swords—anything that could be utilized as a weapon. They swarmed toward the palace rising in the distance, like a promise pointing to the red streaked sky. However, standing in their way was a small contingent of Imperial soldiers armed with large riot shields, and just behind them, a Judge mounted on a Chocobo, his sword drawn and raised high into the air.
"Heave!" the Judge shouted, and with a collective grunt, the soldiers, filling the street from one end to the other, pushed forward, shunting the crowd of rioting slum dwellers back down the steps into old Archades. They fled this way and that as the wall of riot shields pushed forward, lest they were trampled under the soldier's feet. More soldiers that flooded the roads from the sides, herding them all to the stairs, pushed those that fled into the alleys back out again. A beggar tried to grab hold of the Chocobo's reins, and the Judge struck him with the flat of his sword. The man fell to the ground, cradling a broken nose. Penelo could not stand it any longer.
"Stop it!" she shouted, moving to help the fallen man, her hand glowing with a Cure spell. "Leave him alone!" Upon studying the Judge closer, she realized that blood spattered his armor and sword. Even though she had made her peace with the Archadians, she could not stand to see them treat others so.
"Out of the way, my lady, lest you want to be pushed back into Old Archades with these people," the Judge snapped. Penelo stood her ground.
"No! I'm looking for someone, and I was told they might be here. I won't leave until I've got them," she said.
"And who might that be?" the Judge turned his Chocobo to the side slightly to better view her through his face mask.
"I search for the Sky Pirate, Balthier!" she announced. The Judge was silent, studying her with his impenetrable mask.
"How do you know that man?" he asked eventually.
"I—" Penelo began, flustered. It had just occurred to her that eight years ago, Balthier had probably been sixteen, only an apprentice pirate just starting out. Why was she in Archades, anyway? She should be in Balfonheim!
"I think it would be best if you came with me, my lady," the Judge said carefully. "Argus!" A soldier turned and saluted smartly. "Take control of the situation and report to me at my home when you are done."
"Yes sir! You heard His Honor!" Argus barked.
"Your Honor…" Penelo began, but the Judge silenced her, shaking his head as he extended a gauntleted hand to her. She took it, and he helped her onto the back of the bird.
"I have many questions for you. All in due time, though. There is plenty of time for idle chatter. For now, we must away."
"If you are arresting me for consorting with known criminals—" Penelo started again, but the Judge interrupted her.
"A known criminal? I think not. The Sky Pirate Balthier is not in any of the Judiciary records, so I would like to know how you claim to know this fellow. As far as I know, he does not exist." They cantered down a quiet street, the screams of the riot fading into the distance. Penelo studied the Judge's back as she hugged his metal bound stomach, a thousand questions running through her head. When they pulled off onto a side street, the Judge dismounted, putting the Chocobo into a tiny private stable beneath a flight of stone steps, and clanked toward the stairs.
"Is this where you live?" Penelo asked curiously. Like most of Archades, the building was built from red stone and reached for the sky. There was a front door on the main road, but then there was this tiny private Chocobo stable and this flight of steps that led up to a presumably private room. Odd, indeed.
"Most of the time, yes. I do live at my ancestral home in the country, occasionally, but what with Father out most of the time and work here in the city, it is more convenient to live here. The Judiciary pays the rent," the Judge said. "However, I cannot, for the life of me, imagine why they made the eye slits in the face masks so small! Going up stairs is bloody ridiculous! If I see a Judge fall down the stairs, protocol be damned, I am taking this helm off before I walk on stairs."
Penelo, despite still being angry at him for striking the unarmed beggar, giggled as she watched the Judge carefully take the stairs one at a time, clinging to the ornate handrail. When he reached the top, he produced a key from a pouch on his belt and unlocked the door.
"Well? Are you going to just stand there, or must I brave the stairs again and carry you up here? I have questions for you, and I am sure you have questions, too." Penelo quickly ran up the stairs, two at a time, and followed the Judge inside.
The two room apartment was respectably sized. There was a kitchen (that looked as if it had been subject to an explosive science experiment), a table for two, a small sofa, and a well-used fireplace vomiting soot onto the hearth. In the other room, she could see a one-man bed, a stand presumably for armor, and a chest of drawers. The windowsill housed a small, leafless gnarled tree, and the corner near the window contained a tall perch. A glossy raven, with milky white eyes, perched there. Penelo's heart jumped into her mouth.
"Please, have a seat, don't mind Deimos over there, he's mostly harmless. Er… tea?" the Judge looked toward the stove, and while she could not see his facial expression, his voice was wary. Penelo found herself wondering if the Judge could even make tea.
"If it is not too difficult," she answered, seating herself on the couch. The Judge set about putting a pot of water on to boil, and went into the other room.
"I'll be right out; I just want to get out of this armor… I never asked for your name, my lady. Please, will you tell me?"
"It's Penelo."
"Penelo…?" he waited expectantly, but she shook her head.
"Just Penelo, I don't have a surname. Everyone at home calls me 'Dancing Penelo', but…" she trailed off.
"Suit yourself, Miss Penelo," the Judge shrugged. "I'm Judge Bunansa, but having people call me that all the time is a thunderous bore. Ffamran Mid Bunansa, at your service."
When he emerged a few minutes later, sans his armor and in a clean, simple white shirt and black leather pants, Penelo almost screamed. An almost obscenely young Balthier strolled into the room barefoot, stretching in a gesture that was so familiar she felt like crying. Nearly everything about him was the same— the same bronze brown hair, burning gold eyes, and serpent thin waist. However, he was paler than she remembered, and his chin pointed with juvenility. Tiny silver bells hanging from a diamond stud replaced the gaudy half twists he wore later in life. He walked to the bookshelf and pulled a small red book from its cranny, flipping through the pages.
"Here," Ffamran handed the book to her, his thin finger on a page. "The entry ends on 'Balial' before going on to 'Baltimere'."
"But—" Penelo began to protest, but the kettle whistled. Ffamran quickly removed it, and opened a drawer to get tealeaves before giving a cry.
"There you are, Balthier!" he exclaimed, reaching a hand inside the drawer. Penelo had to hold her breath to stop from screaming again as he removed his hand, a rather large black snake coiling around his fist and slithering up his arm. It was easily a little over three feet long, though it was not particularly thick. It looped itself around Ffamran's neck, tongue flickering as it looked around with wary jet black eyes. "Balthier is mostly harmless, too, but I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him. He's a hooded spitting cobra." Ffamran sounded prideful as the snake continued winding around his neck and arm, eventually crawling into his shirt. She could see the creature moving about inside.
"Aren't they very poisonous? Aren't you afraid he'll bite?" Penelo gasped. Ffamran dropped a small packet of tealeaves into his pot and set it on the table with two mugs. Balthier the black serpent slithered partway out of his sleeve as Ffamran put the mugs down, and Penelo felt goose bumps rise on her arms.
"Not particularly," the young Judge stroked the snake's scaly head with one finger. "He's very helpful. Deimos, too."
"So the reason you were curious is because Balthier is not a sky pirate, he's your pet snake?" Penelo deadpanned.
"Balthier is a snake, yes, but a famous sky pirate? Not yet. He will be, though. How do you know about him? His existence is a secret in Archades."
"I am a friend," Penelo hazarded, wrapping her hands around a mug, and Ffamran cocked his head, studying her with careful eyes.
"Balthier doesn't have friends, only enemies and acquaintances. Who are you really, Dancing Penelo?" he asked. Penelo glanced back at the raven, Deimos, who spread his wings and croaked. Ffamran took a long drink of tea, his sharp eyes never leaving her.
"I'm who I say I am. I'm from the future, where I know you—Balthier." Penelo said at last. Deimos gave a laughing caw, flapping into the air to perch on Ffamran's shoulder, while the boy scowled.
"And my mother was a bangaa," he retorted. "I don't believe you. Are you one of the other Judge's girls, sent here to play pranks on me? Or… perhaps they have gotten wind of my illicit activities, and sent you to find me out." Deimos screeched, flapping his wings and rising into the air as Ffamran stood, slowly making his way around the table to stand behind her shoulder. "Yes?" His fingers caressed under her chin, tilting her head back to look him in the eyes. She felt the oily, rough scales of a snake glide over the pit of her throat, and she shivered as she saw Balthier slipping out of Ffamran's sleeve.
"No!" she croaked, struggling to control her terror. "Damn you, Balthier, I'm trying to help you! Now stop being a jerk, get out of creepy mode, and listen to me!"
Ffamran blinked in surprise, and Deimos settled on his shoulder, studying her with death blind eyes. Before he could recover, she continued, ignoring the feeling of Balthier the cobra exploring her hair. "As I speak, you are dying, the future you! If you don't help me, you are going to be killed by your own poison!"
"So you really are from the future!" Ffamran exclaimed. "For that particular field of research I know is a secret. Well, I suppose you know everything about Balthier the sky pirate, don't you?"
"No, not everything." Penelo replied. "I didn't know about you. I thought Balthier had started out as a pirate—I didn't know he was a Judge."
"The fact he is a Judge makes him very useful in pirate circles, to be sure." Ffamran agreed, wincing as Deimos stuck his beak in his ear. "My captain, Fulton, uses me to track the movement of the army so he can evade them."
"Fulton… is your captain?" Penelo's mouth went dry.
"Yes—Lady Penelo, is something wrong?" Ffamran asked, and she saw Balthier the snake rise over her as the boy pressed his hand to her forehead.
"I think there might be," she murmured.