Chapter Ten: Rescue the Captain

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy XII or any FFXII characters. I do, however, own my OC (Celeste von Valen).

The judge took off his helmet, revealing blond hair and a rather handsome young face.

"You have grown thin, Basch. Less than a shadow. Less than a man. Sentenced to death and yet you live, why?"

Basch replied sharply, "To silence Ondore. How many times must I say it?"

The judge ignored the urgency behind his reply.

"Is that all?"

"Why not ask Vayne yourself? Is he not one of your masters?"

The judge replied, "Ehh! We've caught a leader of the insurgence. She is being brought to Rabanastre. The woman Amalia. Who could she be?"

Basch was silent.

"Such a faithful hound to cling so to a fallen kingdom."

"Better than throwing it away."

The judge put his helmet back on.

"Throwing it away? As you threw away our homeland?"

With those last words, the judge and his soldiers left.

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We approached the cage quietly, hoping the guards were far enough away that they couldn't hear our footsteps.

"Who's there?" Basch asked us.

He was ignored at first.

"This the place?" Balthier asked Fran.

"The mist is flowing through this room. It must be going somewhere."

Basch yelled towards us, "You! You're no Imperials. Please, you must get me out-"

Balthier interrupted him, "It's against my policy to speak with the dead. Especially when they happen to be kingslayers."

I cringed, that was awful rude of him to say that. I knew the truth and even though they didn't know it just yet (and wouldn't for quite a while), my comrades didn't have to be so hateful towards Captain Basch.

"I did not kill him." Basch said confidently.

"Is that so? Glad to hear it."

I couldn't tell whether Balthier was being serious or extremely sarcastic.

Basch made the mistake of saying the words "For the sake of Dalmasca" in front of Vaan. His temper skyrocketed in less than two seconds and he jumped onto Basch's cage.

"Dalmasca!? What do you care about Dalmasca!? Everything that's happened is because of you! Everyone that's died, every single one! Even my brother— You killed my brother!" Vaan shouted and screamed at him as he shook the cage.

I tried to approach him, but he shoved me away, causing me to fall to the ground harder than I was expecting.

"Quiet! The guards will hear!" Balthier hissed as he came over to help me up.

I grabbed his hand and clasped it tightly as he lifted me up. I winced in pain as I stood, but I ignored it. I couldn't slow us down.

"We need to get out of here, Celeste."

I nodded and he let go of my hand, just in time for Fran to say that she was dropping the cage. I could hear the Imperials running down the hall, their armor clanking loudly. Fran kicked down the lever and we all jumped onto the cage as it plummeted to the ground far below.

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The fall wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and nobody was seriously injured. As soon as we all stood up and shook off the dust, Vaan tackled Basch to the ground. He was just about to throw a punch when Balthier caught his arm and threw him off.

"Spare your quiddities." Balthier was obviously very frustrated, as was I.

"Yeah, but-But he's a-" Vaan stammered.

"A traitor? I know. Stay here and fight, if you want," He turned to Basch, "If you can walk, let's go."

"You're taking him with us?" Vaan cried out in confusion.

"We could use another sword arm," Balthier simply said in response to the young teen's anger.

"And you have it," Basch replied.

Vaan let out a growl.

Finally, I snapped. I took off my escutcheon and threw it like a frisbee at Vaan, hitting him square in the chest. He hit the ground with a thud and gasped for air. Fran, Balthier, and Basch all turned to look at me.

I threw my hands up in anger, and I ripped Vaan a new one.

"Vaan! Just shut the hell up! I'm so sick of your attitude towards Basch! The only things you know about him are the stories people have told you! All of them are lies! So just get over it! Stop pinning the excuse of 'Oh, you killed my brother!' on him! He didn't do it! My god! You are acting so immature right now! Just grow up and deal with it!"

I turned on a heel and stormed off, walking through the darkness alone. No one was following me just yet, so I stopped and stood still.

"Look what you've done! You've gone and pissed her off now," Balthier said rather frustrated.

I could hear my shield being picked up.

"If you piss her off again, you're going to have to answer to me. You got that? We don't need any tension in this little faction of ours, so stop being such a child."

My anger melted at the sound of Balthier sticking up for me.

I heard them start walking in my direction, so I went to the entrance of the Barheim Passage. This place wasn't one of my absolute favorites but it wasn't my most hated either. When I walked down the stairs and over the wooden walk way to the fuse box, I immediately noticed the fuse was blown. I walked back over to the entrance and waited for the others to rejoin me. I gave Vaan an angry look as we walked down another flight of stairs. Balthier pulled me off to the side before we reached the lonely Bangaa sitting under the light.

"Here is your shield back. You've got quite an arm there; you should use it in battle more often."

I plucked the shield from his hand, and rolled my eyes.

"Don't give me any sass, Balthier. You might end up like Vaan."

This caused him to chuckle and we walked back to the group.

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"Don' get many visitors down here," the Bangaa said to us, "Come scavengin' fer odds and ends, have you? Oh, the way out? It's just back up those stairs—"

I scratched my head and gave him a sheepish look, "Um, about that... We kind of destroyed that exit to smithereens."

"To smithereens, you say!? Then there's nothin' left but to find some other way out through these tunnels. You'll need to get the power workin' again, 'fore that gate'll budge, though. The fuse in that contraption up the stairs is blown…but this oughta fix it up."

He handed me a fuse tube, a good one to replace the bad one.

"Made that Tube Fuse from parts I found down in these very tunnels. It's good as any you'll find, and better 'an most, mark my words."

I ran back up the steps to the fuse box and quickly replaced it. All of the lights surged on, brightening the room tenfold as I went back down the stairs to rejoin my comrades. I thanked him and pushed the switch box to open the gate.

"I see you got the gate open, oughta be able to look fer all manner of ways out, now. While the lights are on, the passage ain't so bad. But let the charge drop, and some fierce beasts start comin' out in the dark. Openin' this gate probably took the charge down some. That gauge oughta show you how much charge is left. Hrm, 'but thirty percent to operate somethin's the size of these gates, I'd say. Who knows how many more of these gates they got down here. You look fer these switchboards, you oughta be able to make yer way."

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When we entered Op Sector 29, the bright lights dim dramatically.

"Hey! Who turned out the lights? One of those!?" Vaan cried out.

"I've heard of these: Mimics. They disguise themselves as all manner of things, then strike when you're least wary. Some of them have a fondness for energy, I'm told. They gorge themselves on the stuff till there's naught left."

There was a brief pause.

Vaan spoke up, "So… What happens then?"

A zombie rose from the ground, slowly creeping towards us.

"Lights out. And it's worse in the dark. Much worse. So, let them get too close to one of those conduits and they'll suck it dry. But don't worry. It'll give the energy back, if you ask nicely. Sticking with a sword helps too. Clock's ticking!" Balthier stated as we trapped the mimic and killed it with ease.

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We ran through the halls and passageways slaying all of the mimics that were draining the power. By the time we reached the North-South Junction, we had killed about twenty mimics in all.

"The mist seethes," Fran warned us.

"It reeks. Something's close."

I sniffed the air after Balthier said that. Sure enough, the air smelled of something evil and dangerous. It wasn't moving towards us from what Fran was saying so we took a quick rest. Basch found a skeleton that was still wearing armor and gripping a sword. Lucky find. He took them and put the armor on while I held the sword. It was a shortsword from the looks of it.

After Basch had pulled his hair back with a tie and donned the armor, he took the sword back from me and thanked me. I dusted off the armor.

"It will have to do. It's not the best in the world but it will hold up. Don't you think?" I asked Basch quietly.

He nodded, "What's your name?"

I smiled warmly, "My name is Celeste."

He knelt down and kissed my hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Celeste. You are quite beautiful, and caring." I blushed, no real man had ever said I was beautiful and actually meant it.

"Thank you, Captain. You're very kind and brave. I know you didn't murder the King or Reks. You have too good of a heart, and you are far too loyal to your country."

We both went quiet as Basch wielded the sword around to get used to the feeling of handling it.

"Nice moves there, Captain," Balthier complimented him.

"You mean traitor," Vaan said with an attitude.

I clenched my fists. Vaan was starting to piss me off again.

Balthier hushed the young blond, "So they say. But I didn't see him kill anyone."

I wanted to keep my cool just as much as Balthier was, but if Vaan didn't drop the subject in five minutes I was going to beat him with my shield again.

"My brother did," Vaan murmured.

We all went silent.

"Reks..." Basch whispered, "He said he had a brother two years younger. I see. He meant you. Your brother, what became-"

Vaan didn't let him finish before he dropped the dead excuse bomb again.

"He's dead."

Basch hesitated before speaking again, "I'm sorry…"

Vaan lashed out, "It was you who killed him!"

There was a small pause. I slowly started to remove my shield again, but I stopped dead in my tracks after feeling a hand grasp my arm.

"I give you my word; that was not the way of it."

Basch began to tell the story of how he met Reks and what really happened in that throne room. I knew that Vaan still wouldn't believe him, but it was worth a try.

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When the story finished, Balthier was the first to speak.

"A twin brother? Fancy that. Hmm. But still, the pieces fit. I'll give you that much. And he did look like you."

None of what Balthier said even mattered to Vaan, he just kept getting angrier.

"I don't believe you," Vaan bluntly said out loud.

My mouth hung open. How could he be such an asshole?

"Of course not. It was my fault Reks was there. I'm sorry."

Vaan clenched his fists.

"My brother, he trusted you. He trusted you, and he lost everything. How can I believe you?"

Basch stood up, "Not me then. Believe in your brother. He was a fine soldier. He fought to the last to protect his homeland. No. Surely he fought to protect his brother."

"You don't know anything!" Vaan yelled as he faced Basch.

"Believe what you want to. Whatever it takes to make you happy. What's done is done. Drop the subject before Celeste throws you to the wolves."

Basch came towards me, most likely because I was the only one who actually believed him and we walked together until we entered the Terminus Number 4. The first thing we noticed were the mimic spawns hatching and scattering from the middle of the room. I looked up and there she was, the Queen Mimic, and all her disgusting and somewhat scary glory.

"Fran and Balthier, you take the tiny mimics and make sure you kill all of them so that they don't suck all of the power from the broken lines and leave us in the dark. Basch, Vaan, and I will take the Mimic Queen and destroy her! On the count of the three!"

We all got in ready positions and readied our weapons.

"One…" I raised my sword and took my stance.

"Two…" Fran raised her bow, Vaan unsheathed his sword, Balthier cocked his gun, and Basch put both hands on his sword's hilt.

"Three!"

We all scattered to our battle positions. Fran and Balthier immediately began taking out the spawns as Basch, Vaan, and I took on the Queen, using our weapons and Magicks. It was a tough battle but it was well planned. Even if we weren't strong enough to take her head on, the strategy worked well. She was down before I could count to two-hundred Mississippi. We were victorious. But the cave started to collapse and we all rushed out of the Barheim Passage as fast as we could before any of us could get buried alive beneath the rubble.