A/N: Hooray! Grey-san (BalthierFan6828) is out of the hospital tonight! Grey! If your reading this, stay away from the cigarettes and take it easy! I'm just glad you're okay.

For the story, I made Fran very Humelike. She has...emotions. It's weird but I think it's good. Hopefully you'll like it too. Please review and hope you enjoy. Thank you again!

Penelo could not stop sobbing, and even Vaan couldn't help but cry as the two left the room. Ashe was staring off into space. trying not to believe in what had just transpired in less than an hour.

The group had made it to Old Arcades, but far too late to aid Balthier. They had taken shelter in the shambles of a kind elderly woman's home, who was nice enough to give them assistance and shelter, putting Balthier to lay still on an old straw bed with only Fran and Basch left at his side, though even Fran was on the verge of leaving as well, unable to take in the sight. Basch put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I do not know of any poisons in plant or beast that can kill a man in such a way," Fran commented, looking at the grey veins still slightly visible in the pirate's face. The captain nodded in agreement.

"Nor have I. There were tales of beasts in Landis that had enough poison to kill a man, but those were either instant fatalities or a more unfavorable slow and painful one." Basch noticed Fran's hands were trembling slightly. There was a small crack in her voice as she spoke, her composure slipping.

"Fool of a pirate. You lied. You said that the leading man never dies..." Her voiced died away and she leaned against Basch for support. Basch was glad that the Viera allowed herself to act so humely at such a time. He led her out of the room, hoping some fresh air would help her. He understood her pain. After all, Balthier was her closest and dearest friend. He himself was feeling a pit in his stomach, realizing that he truly was gone.

"You okay Fran?" Vaan asked when the woman walked in with the blond, wiping away his own tears. Fran looked up at him and nodded, though that look in her eyes said otherwise.

"I think that I will take a walk outside," the woman said, looking over at Ashe who was still rather in shock about everything. "You should come as well. It may help." Ashe absently nodded and the two left the small house, passing the elderly owner as they did. Penelo's tears had subsided and she noisily blew her nose. Vaan held her to him and patted her back gently.

The elderly woman gave a small, sad smile. 'The lad in the next room was very lucky to have such caring friends. 'Poor boy,' she thought sadly as she walked into the room. She didn't know what plans his friends had for the men, but whatever the method, he looked like a man who wanted to look halfway decent.

Even though his heart had stopped beating some while ago, there was still quite a great deal of blood on oozing from his wound through the bandages and over his clothes. She grabbed a roll of old bandages from under the bed and removed the old ones. With a damp washcloth she dabbed away the blackish red blood from his arm. She was about to start wrapping when something caught her eye.

The was not a single scratch on the corpse's arm, the skin simply a sickeningly black and stained lightly with red. She was certain that before there was a nasty bite wound when the group had arrived, and they even had mentioned it. The crone touched where the wound had been before with shriveled fingers, the skin cold as ice. It made no sense. Potions or anything that would heal such a wound would not work after death, and she knew of no magic that did so. Strange, not even the littlest mark. She was puzzled but her confusion soon turned into a horrible sense of astonishment and mild terror.

There was a small twitch at first, but then fingers flexed. Wide eyed, the elderly woman slowly back out of the old room, not daring to remove her eyes from the sight. A loud groan of pain.

"H-he he he he..." Vaan looked up as the woman walked in backwards trembling and stuttering. Vaan removed Penelo, who had now calmed down and was breathing calmly against him, and caught the woman as she fainted, only narrowly missing the floor.

"What happened?" Penelo asked, helping the poor woman onto the eaten couch. Vaan shrugged, confused.

Everything hurt, like he had been thrown off of a cliff. The moment the small rays of sunlight hit him, his eyes burned. He let out a groan as he covered his brown eyes then proceeded to travel up, running his fingers through his hair. He didn't feel the weight of his rings and turned to see if they were nearby. His gaze met a terrified old woman, shaking and looking like she was about to faint, slowly backing out of the room. Confused, he rubbed the back of his neck and tried to sit up, which was then that he noticed that he only was wearing his pants and red cloth was all around him. His hand went to his throat next, which probably hurt the worst. He felt so dehydrated and his throat felt sore and raw.

He couldn't remember where he was. It looked like it had to be either Arcades or Rabanastre, but since the Lowtown was underground, it was quickly ruled out because of the filtered light. It was strange. Last he remember was running around trying to open the path in Sochen, trying to unlock the path to the treasure. How he ended up here was a mystery.

He dragged himself out of the straw bed and walked over to the door the woman had backed out of.

'Unless something happened, the others should be somewhere nearby,' he thought to himself, walking with his hand to the wall for balance as a wave of dizziness and nausea washed over him.

When he walked in, he saw Vaan and Penelo putting the old woman onto a tattered couch. They turned back when they heard his footsteps. Penelo was first to turn around and poor Vaan started to panic when she passed out as well. The boy looked at him wide eyed, mouth opening and closing like a fish, as if trying to find the right words, though none came.

Balthier was alive.

A/N: It's alive! I don't want to spoil anything for the next chapter since I'm on the verge of doing so right now. All I'll say is that things will get awesome.

Well please review and thank you again for reading. And glad your okay Grey-san! Love you and everyone who is kind enough to read!

Until next time!