Author's Notes: Sita Silver-Breeze. He he he… You caught me there with that one! Though perhaps its time for me to explain why I chose who to be who! Now I chose Basch to replace Kimarhi because of how protective he was over Ashe in FFXII. I felt it was very similar to the protectiveness Kimarhi had over Yuna. Now, this will obviously change the storyline slightly, since Basch is hume after all, and it wouldn't make sense to have him be the last of his race. (Though technically speaking neither is Kimarhi since Ronso were spread out over Spira… But anyways). Though, there is another person within the party who happens to be of a different race, Fran. And even though this is giving something away slightly, I did feel an explanation was in order. At first when I thought about whom to put in what roles, I had originally put Fran in Kimarhi's place. Not only for them being different races than the others, but because of their stoic-ness and wise council and all that. But then I thought about the reasons why I put Basch as Kimarhi, and I felt it fit better! Vaan well, similar energy levels, and also the fact that in XII he does loose his brother Recks. :) And Ashe, well, leading Lady in XII, and to make a pairing between her and Balthier, well, one has to place her in the correct role! And I'll leave the rest open, I don't want to reveal to much! (And like I mentioned a few chapters ago, I realised after I started writing what an odd couple Fran and Vaan make. Shrug… At least I can argue that you don't see much in form of a loving relationship during X, that comes during X-2)… And thank you for the wonderful reviews!
Chapter 14: Rescuing the Summoner
Dock 4, Luca
"Robots?" Balthier asked as he drew his sword, he was staring at some strange looking mechanical creatures.
"Machina, the Al Bed were expecting us." Bash replied as he held onto his "spear" with both hands.
Fran cast a thunder spell at one of them, making it overload and fall to the ground, useless. Basch ran up to the second one, and brought down his spear on top of it, causing it to fall over, he hit it again, sparks started to come from it, there were 4 other such machina, they came towards them. One lunged at Balthier with a spike, Balthier moved out of the way and swung the sword on top of it. Causing some sparks to fly but not many, it drove its spike towards Balthier again, he moved out of the way and swung his sword again, hitting its body, and knocking it over, it sparked and started smoking. Fran had taken care of two others, while Basch destroyed the last. The three ran towards the boat, it started to move out to see.
"We need to get on that boat! Hurry!" Basch said as he started running faster.
Basch, followed by Balthier, then Fran, ran up the ramp and jumped onto the ship. The stood up, Balthier dusted himself off. The deck of the ship was deserted. There was a crane to their right, and that was about all that occupied the deck. There was a square in the middle, with was a band of yellow striped with diagonal black lines. Suddenly, the metal on the inside of the square slid away, and a large piece of machina was raised onto the platform. On the top, it had what resembled a grinder. Part of the machina opened up, they seemed to be the "arms" of the machine. It was standing on three legs that spread out when the platform stopped in its position. Balthier looked over to the crane and got an idea, he went over to it.
"What are you doing?" Fran asked as she cast a thunder spell at the machina.
"I have an idea, keep it busy."
He said as he kneeled down to examine it, some wires were sticking out, and there was a toolbox nearby. He opened it up and took out some tools, and started working on the crane.
Basch ran towards the machina and hit it, but not much happened. Fran cast another thunder spell. Sparks started to fly from the machina. It opened up its arms further and blitzballs started to fly out at Basch and Fran, who quickly got out of the way.
"Are you almost done?" Fran called over.
"Almost." Balthier called back as he was putting the last wires back into place. "That should do it."
Balthier stood up and went to the controls and pressed a green button, which he guessed would start up the machine. It didn't.
"Let me try something." Fran said.
She cast a thunder spell at it, the crane spluttered slightly. She cast another, and it spluttered to life. Fran smiled and turned her attention back to the Machina. Balthier pressed the button again. The crane lifted and started to move towards the machina, it lowered its claw and grabbed the machina, lifting it up, its legs kicking madly. The bottom half of the machina broke away and fell onto the deck in a heap, the crane took the top half off the side of the ship. The now sparking and smoking machina stood up shakily. Fran cast one more thunder spell. The machina was now busting into flames, small explosions coming from various areas. It was now a smoking heap of charred metal.
"I must say, you're quite handy to have around." Basch said, slapping Balthier on the back, who was knocked forward slightly.
"Thank you."
Behind the smoking heap of metal, a door opened and Ashe stepped out. She walked around the machina and looked at her guardians, and smiled. Fran walked over to her.
"I hope you hurt them." She said smiling.
Ashe nodded, also smiling. "A little."
"So, was he on the ship?" Fran asked. Ashe shook her head. "I see."
"Who?" Balthier asked.
"Oh, my uncle Halim. I've never actually met him."
"I see, so that makes you an Al Bed as well?"
Ashe nodded. "On my mother's side, Halim was my mother's brother, though he became distant after she married my father."
"Don't tell Vaan… He's never had much liking for the Al Bed, so it'd be best to keep Ashe being Al Bed a secret." Fran warned.
Balthier nodded. If Vaan did indeed dislike the Al Bed that much, who knows how he'd react to discovering that Ashe was half Al Bed.
"I wonder how Vaan is fairing against the Psyches." Basch wondered aloud.
"That game!! We have to get back!" Ashe said hurriedly.
"Allow me to handle that." Fran said.
Dock 4, Luca.
Fran had used her magic to bring the group back to Luca, and they were running back to the locker room, since the game had been over for a few minutes.
"They better have won." Basch said.
"I'm sure he did! I doubt he'd let the Al Bed Psyches beat him." Fran said, she sounded annoyed, but amused at the same time.
Besaid Aurochs Locker Room, Luca.
The Aurochs were standing around Vaan, who was lying down on one of the benches. Ashe walked into the room first, and all the Aurochs turned around.
"Lady Ashe! Are you alright?" Letty asked.
"Oh, I'm fine, no need to worry." Ashe said calmly, she walked over to Vaan and kneeled down beside him. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah… Just fine! There's nothing to worry… about." He winced and fell back onto the bench as he tried to sit up.
"Did you win?" Basch asked from the doorway.
"Yeah!! We did!" Dotta said, he was happy, though his expression turned sour. "We're playing the Goers in the finals."
"Good, then you can beat them! Like you should've every other year!" Basch walked towards them, and crossed his arms, he was smiling.
"Maybe we would've if you had played!" Keepa told him.
"Basch used to play?" Balthier whispered to Fran, she nodded.
"He was the Captain before Vaan, but he decided to start focusing more on improving his fighting, and perhaps become guardian to a summoner, so he left the Aurochs and went on a long trip, all around Spira."
Fran was watching Basch intently; she then looked at Vaan and sighed. Recks would still be standing.
"If the captain can't play, maybe Basch should take his place?" Letty asked, the rest of the Aurochs nodded, and looked at Basch.
"Well, I suppose I would have to, we have to beat the Goers after all." Basch smiled.
The Aurochs cheered.
"The game's starting soon." Vaan sat up on the bench and swung his legs over the side. "You guys know what to do." He stood up and faced them. "Though, before you go out, there's something I need to tell you." The team listened to him. "After this, I'm retiring, win lose or draw. I made a promise to myself, and I have to keep it." He looked at Ashe who nodded, he nodded back.
The team looked solemn, but knew what they had to do; they walked out into the hallway, following Basch.
"Quick! Let's go watch the game!" Ashe said.
She grabbed Balthier's hand and pulled him out of the room, and started to run towards the stadium, leaving Fran inside the locker room with Vaan.
Author's Notes: I had taken a while trying to figure out who Ashe's uncle could be. First I though of making her uncle one of the Cids, then I remembered that Marquis Halim Ondore was her uncle. Problem solved:)