Legacy

Chapter 9: Division

"They took Marie."

"M-Marie?" April echoed shakily after a long pause, turning to Skylar worriedly. "Not the bartender we met, right?"

He didn't reply, grim expression speaking for him.

"Right?"

The boy wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Oh no," she whispered. "But Marie's not that uncommon of a name! It could be someone else."

"I don't think so," Skylar shook his head, gaze sliding to meet those of his other friends, who both looked about as surprised by this as he was. They had seen him tense up from the start, and that coupled with the fact that they didn't know who Marie was left them confused but not all too shocked. His eyes continued on their path to Selphie and Han, who wore identical expressions of resigned helplessness. The feeling seemed to permeate the air, mixed with weariness and fear, the frayed emotions of those who had been in hiding too long.

"So...who's going to rescue her?"

The question sliced through the momentary lull in conversation like a knife, drawing all eyes to the speaker. Aki met their shocked, occasionally even appalled faces with innocent puzzlement and open, questioning eyes. What was the saying again? Ignorance is bliss? Mana was beginning to think that the blond was that statement personified, not that she'd ever tell him. He probably wouldn't understand.

When no one answered, he just tilted his head in inquiry. "What?"

"I-it's too dangerous," someone finally muttered, though the boy couldn't make out who had spoken up through the crowd. "We'll get ourselves killed. It's been tried before, and...none of the people who left ever came back. The entire thing is just one big suicide mission."

"But-"

"Idiot," his redheaded friend cut him off, smacking him over the head for good measure. "You really are every bit as dumb as you look. What the hell did I say about playing hero?"

"You also said it was okay if it was something a normal person would do," he insisted, undeterred and not ready to give this up just yet. "I'm a normal person, and to me it feels right to go!"

"There is a big difference between the right thing to do and the smart thing to do," she retorted without skipping a beat. "And running straight into enemy territory with no idea what we're doing or where to go is most definitely not smart."

"So it's only okay if you say so?" Aki shot back hotly.

"Would you really be surprised if I said yes?"

Silence reigned as the two glared at each other, neither willing to back down from what they thought was right. The crowd watched with baited breath, even the man who had been almost in hysterics only a moment ago, all anxious to see the outcome. Whatever it was, it would probably decide their fate.

"Stop it," a clear, authoritative voice broke the quiet. Skylar stepped between them with a blank look on his face. "We're not going. They're right; it'd be a suicide mission, and I don't want to waste either of your lives on this."

"But-"

"Aki." His tone was threatening, dissuading any arguments the other might put up. "No means no."

He still looked like he wanted to protest, but Mana dragged him away before he could say anything else, muttering something along the lines of, "Don't be a moron."

Skylar wouldn't meet the bar owner's eyes, nor those of anyone else. He simply headed off in a different direction from his friends, still refusing to look at any of the disappointed or just plain insulted expressions of those around him. April looked worriedly back and forth between the direction Aki and Mana had left in and Skylar's chosen path, trying to decide who she should follow, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her from moving. It was Han, shaking his head to tell her to give them peace. To her dismay, the harsh whispers of the crowd followed her lone friend out, but he paid them no heed.

Not visibly, at least.

~X~

In the quiet of the night, a figure slowly rose from his bed, taking extra pains to ensure that he didn't wake anyone he didn't want up. He had been eagerly awaiting this moment for the past few hours, when everyone was in bed and his plan could finally be executed. As silently as possible, the boy slowly made his way to his sleeping friend on the other side of the room.

This was the place he and his crew members had been staying in up until this point. There were two beds on his side of the room, though now they both lay empty. One didn't appear to have been slept in at all, something which worried the house's only awake occupant. Still, he pressed on until he was beside the bed holding his sleeping companion.

"Mana, wake up," his quiet voice hissed in the girl's ear. The hand he'd rested on her shoulder was shaking her forcibly into wakefulness, a fact she was understandably less than pleased about.

"Go away before I kill you," Mana muttered in return, turning over on her bed in an attempt to escape the offending person. Obviously, whoever it was couldn't take a hint, as the shaking only increased in intensity. Her fist shot out unconsciously, just barely connecting with the boy's shoulder. The hit elicited a quiet grunt of pain from the it's recipient, and that was enough to at least get her to crack one eye open. "The hell do you want this early in the morning, blondie?"

Aki pressed a finger to his lips. "Be quiet. I don't want to wake anyone up."

She snorted, shutting her eye again. "You're not doing a very good job of that then."

"You know what I mean."

"No I don't. It's too early in the damn morning, which brings us back to my first question: what do you want?"

The blond bit his lip apprehensively, clearly dreading this part. "I want to-"

"No."

"You didn't even let me finish!"

"You want to go help that girl, right?" From his guilty expression, Mana could guess that her deduction was right on the mark. Her expression softened fractionally. "I do too. But it's just too dangerous. And besides, Skylar already said we couldn't go."

"I know, but-"

"The answer is still no."

"Listen to what I have to say!" he hissed. The girl gave him a critical look, but propped herself up on her elbows to listen anyways.

"Shoot," she ordered once she was comfortable.

"I know Skylar said no, but I still really think we should do this. If we're quick, just go in, grab her, and get out really fast, we might even make it back before the sun rises. But I can't do this alone."

"So you're trying to recruit me?" Her words were incredulous, and rightfully so, but he simply met her gaze and nodded. She sighed. "Let's say I choose to go along with this, which I definitely have not, by the way," Mana started hypothetically. "There are quite a few problems I can find just from what you said. What about guards? Do you even know what the girl looks like? And most importantly, do you have any idea what our dearest captain would do to us once we got back?"

Aki visibly paled at the last one, but held his ground. "We can take him." Her doubtful answering look clearly said: No, we most certainly can not. Other than the look though, she politely kept her opinions to herself.

"Look, I still just don't think it's a good idea," she shook her head and started to lower herself back onto the bed. The blond knew it was now or never. He had to play his trump card.

"You know, we might have to pass through the kitchens on our way to the dungeons or wherever they're holding her."

Mana froze, eyes flicking to him warily. He had to hold back a smirk at the curious glint in them. She'd fallen for it!

Hook... "Go on."

Line... "I'm just saying, they probably have a bunch of rare and cool ingredients there, and since we'd already be in trouble for taking Marie back, taking some of them couldn't hurt. Just think of all the cool stuff they probably have, and how awesome it would be to cook and eat it!"

And... Realization dawned in her eyes. "Are you trying to bribe me?"

"Maybe," he shrugged, still fighting that smirk.

There was a long pause as she considered what he'd just said. Aki waited with baited breath. This was the crucial part, and if she turned him down, he'd never be able to rescue the girl.

"...Get your swords. We're leaving now."

Sinker, baby!

He could have soared twenty feet into the air at that moment, but chose to spend the time on more important things like, oh, fetching his swords from where they leaned against the foot of his bed. Celebration could come later. After all, convincing Mana had been the easy part.

As quietly as they could, the pair snuck out of the house, carefully making their way to the ladder that led down to the main dock where they had landed with Jeremy the other day. Aki climbed down while Mana checked for any signs of human life. Satisfied with how empty the place appeared, the girl followed her fellow crew mate down the ladder, choosing to jump from halfway instead of descending the last few rungs like he had. All seemed well, and they allowed themselves a short breath of relief.

"I thought you two would come here."

They jumped, whirling to face the owner of the dreadingly-familiar voice. Sure enough, there Skylar stood in the center of the dock, arms crossed casually across his chest and seemingly completely at ease. He was smirking. For a moment, no one moved. No words were exchanged. The two eyed him worriedly, just waiting for him to explode at them about disobeying him. Instead, he just turned to the already prepared boat next to him and jumped in. When neither made any move to follow, he turned back with an exasperated sigh. "Well? You coming or not?"

It took a minute for the words to sink in, but once they had, the change was obvious. Mana was looking at him like he was crazy, but she always looked at him like that. Nothing accusatory or upset, just mild confusion and the will to follow her captain to the end of the world. Aki was grinning like he was possessed, incredibly happy with this turn of events. The guilty feeling was fading fast from his stomach, as was the nervousness, to be replaced by an almost invincible one now that Skylar was on their side again.

They left without another word, only pausing briefly at the main exit to wave goodbye to the sleeping village. The trio traveled in silence for the first part of the journey, but eventually Aki just couldn't hold back the question that he was sure was plaguing Mana's thoughts as much as his anymore.

"Why did you say no to it back then if we were just going to anyways?" the blond asked once he deemed they were far enough away to not be heard.

"I didn't want to get their hopes up for nothing," the other answered resignedly, leaning back slightly in his seat and shutting his eyes. "If we succeed, great for us. But if not, it'll just reenforce the belief in their minds that they can't win against him, and they'll keep living like this forever. If we do end up dying, at least they'll be able to think that we really left without telling anyone."

"That's...actually really smart," Mana observed. "But now they hate our guts."

"Let them. There's nothing we can do now," the boy shrugged, and she almost would have believed that he really didn't care if she hadn't seen his eyes at that exact moment. They were filled with incredible loneliness and a resigned kind of sadness that made her heart hurt just looking at it. What must it be like for him, who was actually feeling that? How many times had he gone through this process? Worse, how many times had he failed what he was trying to accomplish?

She traded a look with Aki when their captain wasn't watching, and saw that he shared her sentiments on it. He'd also seen the dead look in the teenager's eyes, and they were obviously thinking the same thing about it: maybe it was better for everyone else, but what about Skylar?

Without giving herself a moment to reconsider the idea, Mana reached out and pulled the other into a hug. He stiffened but didn't try and pull away, which she took as a good sign.

"Wha...why...?" Skylar was trying to ask her something, but the words weren't coming. She smirked slightly into his shoulder.

"Because I feel like it," was the muffled response. "Now shut up and relax."

For a few seconds, he seemed like he was going to try and push her away. After a small mental war though, the younger finally decided to just give in, awkwardly returning her embrace with a loose one of his own. She smiled, running her fingers through his hair in a comforting, almost motherly way.

"The world's not resting on your shoulders, you know," the redhead informed him after a long moment. "Other people can take care of themselves just fine. It's alright to protect yourself sometimes too. And remember, you're not alone anymore. We're here for you, and it's not like we can't take some of the burden too. Rely on us sometimes, cause that's what we're here for. That's what a crew is, right? If you ever need to talk, we'll listen. Or I will, at least. The idiot might not." Aki stuck his tongue out at her from his position at the back rowing the boat, but otherwise did nothing to disrupt the moment. She smiled at him before turning back to Skylar.

Mana opened her mouth to say something else, but stopped when she noticed how he'd yet to open his eyes. The boy's arms had slackened around her, and his breathing was shallow and quiet. Almost like...

"I think the brat fell asleep on me," she realized in disbelief, unsure if she should be indignant or amused. "Do you think he even heard a word I said?"

"You know what, I bet he did," Aki replied with a smile as his companion gently lowered their captain so he could lie on one of the three benches that ran across the center of the boat.

"Good, cause I'm not saying it again," Mana grumbled, settling down on another of the benches herself and reaching for her sake bottle. "Too mushy for my tastes."

"I didn't think it was that bad."

"You would say that." She turned her attention to the water, mesmerized by the waves as they lapped against the sides and then fell back again. The process was hypnotizing, and she almost missed her blond friend's next words.

"It's kind of hard to believe that he's really three years younger than me," Aki laughed sheepishly. "I mean, I'm still stronger and more handsome-"

"And more modest," the cook interjected dryly.

"Yeah, that too," he agreed teasingly. "But back to what I was saying earlier, despite all that, I think Sky's a lot more mature than I am. Our ages could be swapped, and no one would be able to tell. In fact, he'd probably be mature for my age too."

"Hm," she hummed in agreement. "I think you're half right. He's grown up about some things, but not others. For example, he's just as involved in our stupid little fights as we are."

"Maybe, but his answers actually make sense."

"Meh. You should never ruin a good argument with facts," Mana shrugged, but inwardly she was in agreement. Aki was staring at her now, and it was a bit uncomfortable. "What?" she finally asked, tone a bit more harsh than was probably necessary. He didn't even flinch.

"Nothing. I was just thinking..." She had to bite back her sharp comment at that and listen to the rest. "You can be mature sometimes too. Like just then, for instance. I don't know, but you never really struck me as the parental type. Still...good job."

He wouldn't meet her eyes, but then again, she wasn't looking up anymore either. The darkness was masking her slight blush at the comment, but she'd be damned before letting him find out that it actually had affected her in the least.

"Go to hell, idiot," she muttered, which he only laughed at to her extreme annoyance. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing," Aki replied with a blinding smile.

"...Moron."

He only laughed harder.

~X~

"I don't like this. It seems too easy."

Aki rolled his eyes at the redhead's comment. "Will you relax? We haven't been caught yet, and that was climbing up the cliff. If they wanted to shoot us down, they would have already done it."

"Not necessarily," she protested, gesturing towards the wide expanse of space separating them from the stairs leading up to the restaurant's back door. "There's plenty of room there for a little target practice, or at the very least an ambush."

"If you two don't shut up, I'll be the one using you for target practice," Skylar snapped, just barely quelling the urge to massage his temples. "Mana, don't be so pessimistic. Aki, don't be such a moron. Please."

Secretly, he was leaning more towards Mana's point of view, but saying that would only add more fuel to the fire. He had expected to at least see a guard or two in the secret harbor where they'd landed, or along the stairs up to this point, and yet there had been nobody in sight. Frankly, it was quite unsettling to the boy. Didn't Acosta even care about raids? Was he really that confident that the harbor wouldn't be found, or was there something else going on?

Well, we won't find anything out by just sitting here, he decided with a sigh, rising out of his crouch. The three were currently hiding behind a large pile of boulders, but it wasn't tall enough to fully hide any of them should they stand up. Ignoring the protests of his crew, Skylar stepped out into the open space before them and waited. For what he wasn't sure, but maybe there really was an ambush. Though the fact that they hadn't been discovered despite their not-so-stealthy arguing only moments ago strongly hinted against that, there was always a chance.

Only silence greeted his movement forward however, punctuated solely by the occasional chirping of the small birds that made their homes within the rocks. He waved for the others to follow, all the while scanning the area for anything that looked even remotely like a trap. Nothing came up, but rather than putting his mind at ease, this observation only served to heighten his paranoid feelings. All his senses were on overdrive by the time they reached the doors at the top of the second set of stairs, and at this point a trap would be almost welcomed.

Key word: almost.

Skylar had barely stepped into the main room when a loud rumbling sound from behind alerted him that all was not right. He whirled, but it was too late. Already, the heavy doors were swinging shut seemingly of their own accord, but it wasn't even that fact that had him so shocked. No, his distress was stemming from the ground below his friends as it quickly crumbled and began to fall away into the darkness underneath, taking the paralyzed two down with it. The boy shot forward, colliding with the doors just as they slammed shut. No amount of pulling at the handles or beating at the unforgiving wooden surface would make them move again, so he tried calling for them.

"Guys!" he cried as loud as he dared, still painfully aware of the situation he was now in and more wary than ever thanks to the recent turn of events. Acosta may have known they were there now, but there was no need to go broadcasting his location to everyone on the island. "Aki, Mana! Answer me! Are you alright?"

For one long, terrible moment, there was no response. Then, finally, an answering call came, muffled by the doors in between. "We're still alive, if that's what you're asking," Mana replied, rubbing the back of her head where she'd been hit by a piece of falling rubble. "Just a little scraped up. Also..." she paused, waiting for her vision to adjust. Gray stone walls greeted her searching gaze, stretching on farther into the blackness to a place she couldn't currently see. The walls were broken up every ten feet or so by door-like rectangles carved into them. Bars lined the otherwise empty spaces, stretching both across the width of it and lengthwise so that they crossed in a grid pattern. "I think we found the dungeons."

"Really?" Skylar asked, ear pressed up against the doors in order to hear her better. "By the way, is Aki alright too?"

The answering groan was all he needed for the second question, but the girl took it upon herself to address the first. "Yeah, I think. How about we start looking for the girl now, and you find a way down from up top? We'll meet up eventually."

He was hesitant to agree, but then again, there weren't really any better alternatives. "Just...just be careful," the young captain said grudgingly. "Like I said earlier, I don't want you guys to die today."

"That goes for you too, you know." It was Aki who spoke this time, apparently over whatever had been ailing him before. "We don't want to be without a captain either, so you better stay alive on your own."

The other male smiled slightly, not that they could see it. "Sounds like a plan."

And with that, Skylar turned to face the rest of the room, eager to reunite with his friends as soon as possible. It definitely looked worse than the last time they'd been there. Fallen cutlery and dishes littered the floor, scattered there the other day in the crowd's rush to get out of the restaurant. Tables and chairs were overturned, the tablecloths that were once so clean and pristine now sporting dirty footprints and stains where meals had been overturned, and glasses lay shattered on the ground, making navigating the room that much harder. The boy was surprised that it hadn't been cleaned yet, but he could also think of a hundred reasons for why Acosta wouldn't want to, first and foremost being that he was too preoccupied with weeding out the resistance throughout the islands.

Yesterday, after the incident he'd staged to destroy the native's hope in them, he'd picked up on a few whispered conversations about how the archipelago wasn't safe anymore for those who were actively involved with the rebels. Their dictator was arresting people left and right, never to be seen again. While Marie was the main focus of this mission, if possible Skylar definitely wouldn't mind freeing others in the process, especially if it would instill more of a fighting spirit in the rebels.

His thoughts were brought crashing back to present when he tried the kitchen doors and found that they too were sealed tight. That left him with two options: the main entrance, which he refused to go out unless absolutely necessary, and then the one leading upstairs. Honestly, neither of those options were appealing in the slightest, but they were his only choices. And that meant he really only had one choice at the moment.

With much trepidation, Skylar headed for the remaining door, careful to avoid slicing his foot open on the broken glass or knives around him. It began to swing open before he even reached it, adding to his uneasiness and also his suspicion. There was a good chance that something was waiting for him in there, be it on the stairs or wherever they ended at, but he forced his frayed nerves to quiet and his heartbeat to calm. Being nervous would do nothing for him now. He needed to be alert and cautious in order to face whatever was ahead.

After another soundless moment of steeling himself, he took a deep breath and calmly opened his eyes, which up until that point had been shut tight in concentration. Grabbing the door, he opened it further and, without giving himself any time to hesitate, stepped up onto the first stair.

~X~

"Alright, blondie, let's move out," Mana said, levering herself up over the wall of debris separating her from the blond head she could just make out poking over the top. Aki was sprawled halfway on the the pile, his long legs and feet firmly planted on the stone floor while his top half lay wedged in between two large rocks. He was struggling to free himself from them, but seemed to be having difficulties. Luckily, he hadn't been hurt by the veritable boulders, or at least not that she could see. He shot her a glare.

"Little busy here."

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Right. Need some help?"

Aki looked like he was about to refuse, but one of his more violent struggles managed to shift a rock. Problem was, it ended up falling back on his side. He grunted in pain, and that was where the redhead stepped in. Taking a rather large gulp of sake, even for her (she was starting to feel a little drowsy anyways), Mana slid down the pile to where her trapped companion was, sending stray pebbles skittering down to the bottom. She reached over the second boulder, the one not crushing him, and placed both hands on the one that was. Then, with a massive push that the girl still somehow managed to make look easy, she sent it rolling forward to hit the juncture between the nearest wall and the floor. She shifted her position so that she was now behind the other and proceeded to also shove that one to the floor.

"Told you drinking gives me super strength," Mana smirked at the boy, who was moving into a sitting position. Without waiting for a reply, she grabbed him by the wrist and hauled him to his feet. The blond winced, his free hand flying to his injured side, but gave no audible protest as she towed him along. They passed by cell after cell, but all were empty. "What's the point of having so many cells if you aren't holding anyone prisoner?" the girl wondered out loud, gray eyes still searching the corridor for any signs of life.

"Simple," Aki answered, pulling them to a stop and pointing at a poster hanging in the space between the two chambers to their right that had caught his attention. "You need a place to hold all the people you're about to sell off as slaves."

Her eyes widened, both at his words and what she herself was reading off the paper. It was a flyer asking for fishmen to sell at the Shabody Archipelago, dated a few months back. The pieces of the puzzle that was this island began to fall into place in her head, not yet forming a whole picture but revealing a part of it all the same.

"That actually explains a lot," she murmured, tearing her eyes away. "But we can think about this later. Right now, Marie is our priority. Everything else has to wait." Mana felt rather than saw him agree, and the two pressed on. The passages seemed endless, but no matter where they went, the human girl that was the object of their search wasn't popping up. Finally, they spotted light at the end of the hallway, and they headed for that, eager for at least a change in scenery if nothing else.

The room they came into was large, it's domed shape reminiscent of the village they had left behind only a couple hours ago. This, however, was made entirely of stone, with lit torches positioned at periodic intervals around the circumference. Three tunnels, not including the one they had just entered through, branched out from it, and a large pit took up much of the center of the room. They could make out a narrow set of stairs spiraling along the inside of it, leading down into whatever lay below, but neither spared it more than a cursory glance because their attention was focused on the prone form chained to the wall opposite them, on the other side of the pit.

Short black hair hid the young woman's eyes, but not the numerous scrapes and bruises on her pale face. Her simple white shirt and black skirt were ripped in several places, more signs of a fight, and the cuts along her arms were made all the more visible by the way her hands were chained on either side of her head. Aki took a step forward without thinking, but Mana grabbed his arm again to stop him from moving any further.

"That's her. I know it," the blond said, blue eyes narrowed in anger. His friend nodded in agreement, but held him there all the same.

"Don't be reckless," she hissed warningly, gaze scanning the room warily. "This could be a trap, and probably is."

"Very observant."

The voice rang out of seemingly nowhere, startling the two. They both shifted into a ready stance, but made the mistake of moving away from each other. Instantly, a dark, humanoid shape flew out of the shadows created in one of the tunnels, heading straight for Aki. It latched onto his waist, and Mana only had enough time to register blue skin and a sword before the person was gone, taking the boy with them. She whirled in horror to see her friend being pulled into the pit, not even having enough time to call her name before he was over the edge and falling towards who knows what.

The redhead, still in shock from the suddenness of the attack, didn't even register the second form as it detached itself from the shadows of another tunnel and shot towards her until it was almost too late. She had just enough time to bring up her hands to block the punch hurtling at her, but it wasn't enough. She too found herself being thrown back by the force of the blow, harshly colliding with the wall behind. The crash knocked the wind out of her lungs, but the newcomer wasn't done yet. Without giving her a chance to catch her breath, they were already right in front, pinning her to the wall by her neck. Mana froze.

"In fact," the stranger cooed, mouth twisting into a cruel smirk. "I'm so impressed I think I'll let you choose how you want to die."

Lots of talking in this chapter. Not that I mind, just commenting. I hope the boat scene wasn't too corny or anything for anyone to read, but I had to get that whole crew loyalty out of the way. Besides, it was fun/easy to write. The three of them are just so easy to write together! Despite that however, I don't really like the second half of this chapter very much. It was giving me problems. :p

For those of you who've been following up until this point, I just want to let you know that I've changed Skylar and Mana's bounties to make them more realistic. Skylar's is now 5,000,000, and Mana's is 100,000,000. I think I corrected them all already, but if you see one that hasn't been changed, please let me know. Thank you! Also, a big, big thanks to those of you who reviewed. I love reading them and hearing your thoughts on the chapter, and I'd love to hear them on this one too. ^^