Disclaimer: I don't own any characters, places, names, or things in this story besides Contru and Rog. They are mine and copyrighted to me. The rest is copyrighted to Square-Enix.

Chapter 11

Cecil's arms were up above his head as he looked around at the people who had caught them off guard. All of the faces seemed very young to Cecil. "All of these people look like they are no older than I am." Cecil continued to look around and decided he should try to get them out of this position.

"We mean you no-"

"Keep your mouth shut! Do not speak until you are spoken to!" One of the people yelled at Cecil. Cecil backed up a little bit at how forceful his words were.

"This is not a group I would expect to be coming from Baron." Cecil heard an unknown voice say. Cecil looked around, along with everyone in his group. The person, who Cecil thought the voice belonged to at least, walked out from behind a group of trees. The man looked like he was around twenty years of age, with shoulder length, light brown hair. His was about as tall as Cecil was and was about the same build too. He had on a full suit of armor, that Cecil would guess, would be made of mythril. He also had a sword and a knife at his sides as well as a quiver full of arrows on his back.

"A Monk of Fabul, two old men who seem to hate each other, and some kind of knight who looks pure white. Last time I checked the Captain of the Redwings was a Dragoon."

"A Dragoon?" Cecil blurted out. All of the bows that were pointing at the group came down on Cecil's body. "I apologize for interrupting you, but I was wondering why you think a Dragoon is now the commander of the Redwings?"

"Should we shoot him now Captain?" The man shook his head. "He is the commander here then." Cecil thought.

"No. I shall tell him why I think that. The reason why I think that is because the last time the Redwings were here a Dragoon was the person who seemed to be in charge. That is what I was told at least." The man looked him up and down and a smile spread across his face. "Now that I have answered your question, answer mine. Why have the Redwings returned here to Mythrila?"

Cecil was completely shocked at this. "I do not know why the Redwings were here the last time, but-"

"How could you not know if you come in an airship right now?" The man cut him off, looking him right in the eye. "The only airships that are around the world are those that are part of the Redwings of Baron."

"That is very true, but I have just come from Baron. I am not a member of their army though…not any longer at least."

The man looked at Cecil right in the face and started to laugh. All the other men started to laugh too, but kept themselves focused on the people in front of them.

"You expect me to believe that? You say that you were a former knight of Baron, but now you are no longer one, even though you come here on an airship. I am sorry, but I find that hard to believe."

Cecil nodded his head in agreement. "I can understand that." Cecil looked up at his arms. "May I put my arms down so I can explain."

The man looked at him, and then nodded his head. Cecil lowered his arms, but purposely kept his hands away from his sword.

"My name is Cecil Harvey. I was raised in Baron basically by the king himself because my parents were dead. I was the commander of the Redwings…the Dark Knight. I have renounced that evil sword though and now fight against Baron to try to retake the Crystals and also rescue someone whom means very much to me." Cecil finished up and looked at the man, who seemed to be set as a stone right now looking at Cecil.

"Do you believe him Captain…his story sounds farfetched to me." Cecil looked at the man who just kept looking into his eyes, his searching, green eyes looking right into Cecil's.

"Yes I believe him…something in me says that he is telling the truth." The man motioned for every to relax their bows. "I am sorry for the misunderstanding, but I have my orders to protect the town from anyone who might hostile." Then he walked up to Cecil and extended his hand. "My name is Contru, Contru Falan." Cecil grabbed his arm and returned the gesture.

"I am glad that you decided to believe me because it would have been very awkward trying to explain more under that much pressure."

"You will have to explain everything to me, but not now. That can wait until we are back in the town. Come and follow us." Contru started to walk away and all of the soldiers started to follow. Cecil started to follow as well with Yang, Tellah, and Cid coming up as well.

Cecil went around the same trees that Contru had and saw him standing next to a chocobo.

"You rode chocobos all the way here and we still did not hear you at all?"

"Like I said before Cecil, the two old men were fighting so much I could have killed all of you before you would have even known." Cecil's lack of expression showed that he wasn't surprised.

"Well I am glad you did not do that." Cecil looked over and saw that the rest of his group was there. "Contru, let me introduce you to everyone. This is Yang, the Monk of Fabul." Yang bowed his head to Contru who returned the gesture. "The man with the wild blue hair is Cid, the airship engineer from Baron."

"Well it's nice to met you sonny." Cid said from next to Cecil.

"And last is the Sage Tellah, from Mysidia." Tellah came forward and looked right at Contru. "You have been to Mysidia many times, have you not?"

"Yes I have Sage Tellah. I am in reality a mythril trader and not a solider. Why do you ask?"

"I ask because I remember a young boy coming to Mysidia with his father when he would come there to trade materials and goods. You have grown up into a strong man, I can tell."

"Thank you." Contru turned his attention back to his chocobo, and then handed the reins to another soldier. "Alright men, let us get back to Mythrila." Contru starting walking with Cecil and his group.

"You are walking Contru?"

"Yes. I need to talk to the new people I have just met and almost killed five minutes ago." Contru let out a little chuckle that made Cecil laugh.

"That is very true."

"Contru," Yang said from behind everyone. "I did not know that Mythrila had an army, when did this fighting force get formed?"

Contru looked over his shoulder to look at the Monk as he answered his question. "Two days ago."

"What!?" Cecil shouted with astonishment. "How could you have trained an army to be this good in only two days?"

"These men that are with me right now are the men who are always with me on my ship when we go out to sea. We might only be traders but we know that there is danger out on the open waters so we all know how to fight. Other men that we have at the town know how to fight well enough, but will never be good enough to ever do with these men just did."

"I understand now." Cecil said as they continued to walk towards the town. "May I ask you a question Contru?"

"Yes you may." Contru said while looking around at their surroundings.

"When the Redwings were here last, did they cause any trouble?"

"No." Contru said, and turned to look at Cecil. "The only thing that happened was the Dragoon bought a full set of mythril armor and left. That is all."

"Then why the army to protect the town now?"

Contru's eyes appeared to fill with rage as he looked at Cecil. "The town Council thought it would be a wise move to make just in case the Redwings did not want to pay next time they wanted mythril or just plain attack us for it. I do not understand their reasoning but I am forced to follow them."

Cecil nodded his head and looked at the rest of his group. Yang seemed to be talking with one of the other soldiers near him and Tellah seemed to have the attention of a couple of the other soldiers and Cid was just walking along with his wrench still in hand, like he didn't trust anyone here. Cecil turned back around and looked over towards Contru, wondering what he was thinking at this point.

~

Contru continued to lead them back towards the town and looking around to make sure that this really wasn't a trap. Contru looked over to Cecil who was looking at him and he smiled at him.

"I trust him, but I do not know…something seems off."

"Is there something wrong Contru?"

"No." He lied. "Nothing at all. Just making sure that everyone is accounted for." He looked back over towards Cecil. "Have you ever been to Mythrila before Cecil?"

"I have, but it was a long time ago, like five years ago. The town was just a small mining town with a few people."

"Well it still is that way. Another person and myself are the only people that have really tried to drive the town into the modern age. My father was the one who actually started the whole trade route that I run every time I go out now. It has really help bring in money to the town because before they would wait until someone came to them to buy the mythril. We still have fairly large stockpiles of it around the town and plenty of mines that have not even been touched yet all in the mountains around us. Some of the miners think that there might be some in the forests as well."

"You seem to know a lot about the area around here. Born and raised here I take then?" Cecil asked.

"Yes. Not many come here to live unless they want to get away from the big cities. Anyone that comes here though has to do some kind of work around here. No one is allowed to do nothing. The money that comes in for the sales of mythril pays even people on the Council, so everyone has to earn money to buy anything here."

"Makes sense. Is your father still involved in trading?"

Contru shook his head. "No, he stopped about a year ago and handed the ship over to me to continue on. Now he is part of the Council."

"You have been in charge of the trading for the town for a year?" Cecil asked a little shocked.

"Yes. He gave it to me when I turned eighteen years old, just like he said he would a long time ago. Why are you so surprised? You were the leader of the most powerful group in the world at age around twenty years of age?"

Cecil looked right at Contru and stopped his thoughts. "You are right…I guess that should not surprise me as it did." Contru started to laugh as they continued to walk up a small hill.

"How much further until we reach the town Contru?" Tellah asked as the two people he was talking to went away to join the rest of the soldiers.

"Just over this hill Tellah and then we will be able to see it. From the top of this hill it will be about another five minutes." Just as he finished that sentence, they reached the peak of the hill and they overlooked the town. Contru signaled for everyone to continue on while he stood there with Cecil, Yang, Tellah, and Cid.

"I remember that this town was small and looked nice. It looks like a fort now!" Cecil said as they all looked down at the town. The town's wall ran around the outskirts keeping the town locked up nice a tight from anyone. Archers paced across the top of the wall waiting for anyone that might try to attack the town.

"You did all of this in two days?" Yang asked as his face was just completely surprised.

"Yes. Everyone around town was helping including the women and children. You have to remember, we have a lot of miners in the town that have not been able to mine, so with all of their help it got done very fast." Yang nodded his head and continued to look down at the city.

"We should be going, you have a lot to tell us when we get you into the city." Contru said as he started back towards to the city and they started to follow behind.

Contru was now at the tail end of his group of soldiers that was on its slow march back into town.

~

Rog was in the command area at the back of the Inn waiting for word from Contru about anything. Rog poked his head out the nearest window to check again to see if anything was going on out there. Rog brought his head back in and sat down in the chair.

"Where is he…he should've been back by now. Contru is not stupid, he knows his limits when it comes to battle." Rog was just about to get up when of the soldiers came in the door.

"The archers have reported that Captain Contru's group is returning to the town!" Rog got up out of his chair and scrambled up the ladder that came from the roof. When Rog got out there he went towards the edge and could see the group coming back.

"Commander it seems that they were victorious." Rog looked at him, but grabbed the periscope and started to look out there.

The first thing that he saw that made him believe that was true was because they were walking in and not running in on the chocobos. It also seemed that they had new people with them.

"Looks like he has prisoners as well. This is going better than I ever thought it could." Rog placed the periscope back where it always rested and slid down the ladder. Rog got down and grabbed his sword just in case and started for the exit. Rog walked though the hallways of the Inn and tapping people on the shoulder and having them follow him. Rog got outside with seven men behind him and signaled for more people to start following him as he walked towards the gate in and out of town.

The gate opened up in front of him and the other people started to come in first. "That's weird, Contru is usually always leading them back wherever they go." Rog saw Contru's chocobo come in, but being lead by someone else.

"Where is Contru?" Rog asked the man when he walked up to him.

"He is at the back with the people we met." The soldier then walked away to lead Contru's chocobo back to its stable. Rog just had a weird look on his face and didn't know what to do. Rog turned back around to face the gate and as he did saw Contru walk into the gate followed by four men that he had never seen. Rog walked briskly up to his friend with a look of concern on his.

Before Rog could say anything to Contru though, he saw him coming. Contru motioned for the people to wait there while he walked towards Rog.

"Contru, why-"

"I have a good reason Rog, I am not stupid." Contru cut off his friend. "They say that they are not part of the Redwings, they took that airship from Baron to help them fight Baron."

"You believe them!?" Rog blurted out. "They could be lying to you to just get in here, and look what you did! We have to get them out of here before the Council finds out about them-"

"Since when have you been afraid of the Council? Another thing too is that they gave US command of the forces to protect this town. We only have to answer to them if something goes wrong, we have the right to trust anyone we want. I brought them here because if they do try something, they are in the middle of a town filled with men. There is only four of them against a hundred."

"You seem so sure of yourself Contru. What are you not telling me?"

Contru looked over towards the four men who were still standing there, waiting. "The old man with the white hair is Sage Tellah from Mysidia. I do not think he would side with anyone evil."

Rog looked over towards Tellah and searched him up and down. "You are right, it is Tellah. Looks like you did not make a mistake after all." Contru shoved his friend lightly, making him stumble a little bit, but never falling down. "Well, let us go over to them and find out why they are here then."

~

Cecil waited as he saw Contru and the other man talking, looking over in their direction every so often. Cecil turned to look at his friends to make sure that they didn't feel this was a trap.

Tellah seemed to be looking around, most likely comparing the town to what it had been before. Yang was very calm and didn't appear to feel anything that could be wrong. Cid just stood there looking at how they had built the walls and anything else that could have to do with engineering.

Cecil turned to look back at where Contru was and saw him approaching with his friend. Cecil turned and let them know that he was coming back and everyone came closer to avoid causing any problems with people going in or out of the town.

"Cecil, this is my good friend and second in command of Mythrila's forces, Rog Usurp." Rog extend his arm and shook hands with Cecil. "This is Cecil Harvey of Baron."

"It is nice to meet you Rog." Cecil then moved a little bit so he could introduce everyone else to Rog. "This here is Yang of Fabul." Yang bowed to Rog who returned the gesture. "Tellah of Mysidia." Tellah nodded to Rog and smiled.

"I know you as well. The two of you use to cause so much trouble every time you would visit the Elder in Mysidia with your fathers." Rog and Contru both turned a little red at the mention of their raucous youths.

Cecil laughed a little bit and continued on. "This is Cid, master engineer of Baron." Cid just waved his arm in their direction and continued to look around.

"Cecil, now that you are in the city I was wondering if you would be willing to explain why you have come here if you are not part of Baron any longer."

"I would not mind at all. I am willing to answer any question that you have because of the way you have treated us since we gained your trust."

"Thank you very much Cecil. If you could follow me into the Inn that is where we will discuss everything." Contru and Rog started to head towards the Inn, which was near the back of the town, and they all followed and went inside to hear the long story.

~

By the time Cecil had finished telling the entire story to Contru and Rog, the sun had started to set behind the mountains to the west, covering the town in darkness that was only broken by the tiny torches and fires around the town.

Contru sat back in his chair and started to run everything through his head. "Basically, you have to do Golbez's bidding now, correct?"

Cecil, who had stood the entire time, continued to stand and nodded his head. "Yes. Until I bring the Earth Crystal to him, I have to do whatever he wants because of Rosa."

Rog lifted his head up after he had rested it for a little bit. "I cannot believe that scum, making you do his dirty work."

Contru nodded his head, but a thought nagged in his mind. "You say that he has openly taken the rest of the crystals, right?" Cecil nodded. "Then why would he stop now? Something has to be different about this crystal. Is Troia heavily guarded or have strong magical powers?"

"No. Troia is a peaceful country that has a very small standing army of women. It would be even easier then it was for him to take then it had been for Fabul, which had the second largest army in the world."

Contru sat there looking right at Cecil, understanding the pain that he must be going through right now. Contru stood up and looked Cecil in his eyes. "I will do what I can to help you."

Rog shot out of his onto his feet, knocking his chair over. "Contru! What are you doing!? You cannot just do that; we have to worry about Mythrila! The Council will stop you if you try to leave the city!"

"Do not worry Rog, I was not planning that. What I mean is that they are always welcome to come here and rest and regroup if the need arises, but aside from that, I cannot do anything else."

"Thank you very much, but I do not want to put you in any kind of trouble. The main reason why I came here was to buy some of your mythril equipment that you sell. You see my sword here is not very good and I could use a quality sword and even better armor." Cecil finished up.

Contru nodded his head. "That could be taken care of. You will still have to purchase it though because I have no say over the weapons or armor that are sold. How much do you intend on buying?"

"Everything that all of us need." Contru looked over all of them and gave Cecil a look of pain.

"That is going to cost you a lot of money I hope you know?"

Cecil nodded and pulled out a pouch at his side and placed it on the table. "I am prepared. Each one of us is carrying enough for each of us we hope. I do not think Yang or Tellah will need much so they should have plenty of extra to cover the cost of Cid and I."

"Alright. Well if you like you are more than welcome to stay here the night so you are not leaving so late."

Cecil shook his head. "No, I do not want Golbez to think I am trying to go against him. I want to be in Troia by the morning. Which way is it to the shops?"

"I will take you there so everyone knows that you are there with me. Follow me." Contru pushed his chair back in and waited until Cecil and his group was ready to leave and showed them the way out. Contru stayed back with Rog to talk in private.

"You really think we can trust him Contru?"

"Yes I do." Contru said looking at the door, then turning to his friend. "I can tell it in his eyes, he is not lying. I just hope that they can save Rosa before any harm befalls her."

"Yes I agree. I just hope that your kind offer to them Contru, does not come to hurt us in the end."

"As do I, but we have to try to help as best we can." Contru looked outside and saw it was getting darker out. "I better take them there so they can be to Troia like Cecil wants. Take care of the town while I'm with them, alright?"

"Not a problem." Contru started to walk out of the room. "Does this mean that we have to be able to know when it's them and not the Redwings coming then?"

Contru stopped and looked back at Rog. "That is true. I will figure something out while I am with them getting them their armor and weapons." Contru walked out of the room leaving Rog to take care of everything.

~

Contru walked outside to where Cecil and his group we waiting and walked up to them. "Shall we go shopping?"

Cecil nodded his head. "Does your weapon shop also sell just sheaths as well?"

Contru gave Cecil a weird look, but nodded his head. "Yes it does, why do you want to know?"

"I have another sword that does not have a sheath and I was wondering if I could get one here." Contru shrugged his shoulders and lead them off back behind the Inn to where the shops were located.

"The weapon shop is the building in the middle while the armor shop is the one to the right of that." Cecil walked towards the weapon shop first and walked in with everyone else is tow. Contru was the last one to enter the shop and saw the scared look on the shopkeeper's face.

"Do not worry, they are here with me." Cecil went over to where the swords were located and picked one up. Cecil started to play around with it a little bit. Contru walked up besides him and smiled. "How does it feel?"

Cecil stopped for a little bit and looked at Contru. "It feels good. It has a nice weight balance to it, and I can tell it is very sharp." Cecil continued to move around with the off white blade in his hands.

"Look at this!" Contru and Cecil looked over towards Cid who was lifting up a mythril hammer that was twice the size of his wooden one. "This is amazing! I could do so much more with this hammer then I could with my old one!"

Cecil laughed at his friend and put the sword over his shoulder, resting the blade on his shoulder. "Then get it, we should have enough money for everyone here." Cecil looked over and saw that Tellah was already buying something from the shopkeeper. "What did you get over there Tellah?"

Tellah turned around and was holding a mythril staff in his hand. "This is a much better weapon for me compared to that old wooden one." Tellah walk towards the door as Cid walked over to purchase the hammer.

Contru turned to Cecil with a smile across his face. "Looks like you have been able to get everything that you need weapon wise. Buy the sword and sheaths and then I will take you over to the armor shop so you can get all of that as well." Cecil nodded and grabbed went to get two sheaths when he saw that Contru was already grabbing them. They walked over to the shopkeeper and placed the items in front of him.

"One sword and two sheaths. That will be 6,200 Gil." Cecil pulled off his pouch and fished out six large gold coins and two smaller silver coins and placed them on the counter.

"There you go, and thank you." Cecil tied the pouch back onto his belt and grabbed a sheath and the sword and put it inside of it. Contru grabbed the other sheath and followed Cecil outside of the shop and over to the armor shop. Contru was the first to walk into the shop this time and walked up to the shopkeeper. The rest followed Cecil in and started to look around as Cecil walked up to where Contru was.

The shopkeeper wasn't as surprised as the other one was, but still didn't seem to like people coming into his store.

Contru turned to Cecil as he came up. "How many of each will you be needing?" Cecil looked around and saw what was for sale and looked back over to the rest of his group.

"Tellah, Yang, do you want any of this heavy armor at all?" Cecil asked them.

"No thanks Cecil, I shall be fine with what I have." Yang said.

Tellah shook his at Cecil. "The heavy armor will not do me any good while casting magic. An old man like me would most likely die from wearing something like that." Cecil then looked over towards Cid.

"You sure bet I'll take that armor. I might be strong, but I'm not as young as you are and sure won't be able to move around very quickly so I'll take that protection."

Cecil turned back to the shopkeeper and started to think of what he wanted. "I will take two of the body armors, two pairs of leg greaves, and two pairs of gauntlets. How much will that be?"

The shopkeeper did some quick math in his head and then smiled at Cecil. "That will be 43,000 gil please." Cecil looked over to Contru who nodded.

"That is the right price Cecil, he is not lying to you." Cecil dumped out his bag and asked Cid to come over too. Cid dumped his bag out and with that they had enough to buy everything they needed.

"How much would you buy all of this armor for?" Cecil asked as the shopkeeper was getting ready to put the money into a bag of his own. The shopkeeper looked him up and down and looked Cecil right in the face, with a large grin. "7,250 gil."

"I'll take it." Cecil put all of his stuff down and started to undo the armor as Cid and Contru helped. After a little bit the entire set of armor was off and Cecil was putting it on the counter. Cecil then went and got his new armor and Cid and he started to put it on.

"Well that looks very good on the two of you." Contru said after they both had finished up. Cecil had all the off-white armor on him as did Cid, but Cid looked like he was ready to fall over.

"This sure is going to take some getting used to here, but I should be okay." Cid started to walk off, carrying the hammer over his shoulder.

Contru lead them all outside and went over toward where the stables were. He came out with his chocobo in tow and then four other men came out with two chocobos each.

"My men and I will take you back to your ship so it does not take as long so you can be on your way to Troia." Cecil started to reject him, but Contru stopped him. "You are going to take the chocobos weather you like it or not. This will be the fastest and easiest way for you to get back. Besides there is still a lot I need to talk to you about."

Cecil nodded his head. "Thank you very much." Cecil and his group each started to head over towards a chocobo and got on and Contru and his men lead them out of the town.

~

Contru and Cecil stayed near the end of the chocobo parade that was on its way towards the airship.

"Cecil, remember that my offer is always standing."

Cecil nodded his head. "I know and you have been a really good friend already, but I cannot put this small little town in danger. Where ever I go there is always trouble to follow me."

"Do not worry, my men and I will do our best to ensure the town stays safe. If someone tries to attack us, they shall meet up with more than they thought." Contru looked over at Cecil and gave him a grin that made him seem like a king going into battle and was sure to win. Cecil turned to look around at the surroundings and saw the beauty that was all around him.

"Living here would be great." Cecil mumbled under his breath.

"It is great." Contru said. Cecil looked at him and just got a smile in return with a wink. "Cecil if you were to return, how could we tell the difference between your airship and the Redwings?"

Cecil turned to face the young man and gave him a long look. "Well the first thing is that it is not the same color of the Redwings."

"That is true, but that is very easy to fake. We need some sort of signal." Contru stopped to think what they could do. "Maybe you could fire your cannons off to the side twice and that will be signal. Fire them when you first see some of those islands that have the guard towers on them like I told you about."

"I think that should work out. Cid will just have to deal with losing two cannon balls." Cecil started to laugh and turned his head towards the engineer. Cid wasn't even paying any attention at all; he was more concerned about staying balanced on his chocobo.

The group kept on moving in its line and soon after rounding some groups of trees and bushed on the top of a low hill, they saw the airship. Contru and his men were awestruck as they got closer to it and could see how big it truly was.

"Baron has a whole fleet of these?" Contru asked as they stopped and started to dismount.

"They did, until Golbez took them all. Now Baron is a kingdom without a King and a small army." Cecil's eyes seem to be on fire with a rage that would not be quenched until he got to Golbez. Cecil broke away from his train of thoughts and looked over at Contru. "I want to thank you for your hospitality that you have shown us. You will always have a friend in me."

"Me as well." Yang said as he came up behind Cecil. "If you ever need any help Contru, do not fear to call on the aide of Fabul. Let them know Yang told you to and they will do what they can."

"Thank you very much Yang. If Mythrila needs help, I shall call upon Fabul." Yang bowed his head and Contru did the same. Yang turned and started to head towards the airship as Tellah walked up to them.

"You sure have become a good man from the bratty little boy you were all those years ago. Take care." Tellah then turned and walked away.

Cecil and Contru stared at Tellah in wonder until he entered the airship and was gone from view. The airship then started up and the propellers on top started to slowly turn. As they slowly gained speed, the wind that they made started to pick up and the noise started to drown out everything.

"Cecil, take care now and find Rosa!" Contru tried to yell over the noise that was still building. Cecil nodded his head and extended his hand. Contru clasped it firmly and after a second Cecil turned around and started to run towards the airship. Cecil went inside and soon afterward closed the entrance up and the airship started to take off. After a few seconds the airship was moving quickly up into the setting sky and started out northeast towards where Troia was located.

Contru waited there until his men had the chocobos under control again and the airship was just a speck on the sky.

"Well let us return to Mythrila and get some rest after this long day." Contru mounted his chocobo and grabbed the reins of another chocobo and started off towards home. "I hope they are able to do what they need to do…" Contru thought as the trek back to town began.