Hey, a Chapter that's back to being on-time! Neat!
Chapter 13 reached record new highs, replacing the second highest chapter... Chapter 12! Growing steadily it seems! Yay!
Heh, review flood pushed this fic all the way to third in number of reviews for Xillia. Thank you Ryuchu for that! In fact, I'll thank everyone for their reviews all over again. Thank you, Ryuchu, MisakaMisaka0202, MoRGzY1, Presea for a review on every chapter, Kiyiamayu, FlameUser64, Aquamarine Lacus, FreeWeirdGal, and Arrocha Semotis Vir. Extra thanks to everyone who reviewed multiple times of course. Also thanks for the concern about my well-being Presa, when you feel bad I'll hope you get better too.
Tales of Xillia and the Tales of Series are the copyright of Namco Bandai and whoever else owns the rights. I own nothing except for OCs that haven't appeared yet/ever.
Chapter 14: Crushed Hope
Leia skipped through the street of Leronde and down the way over to the Mathis Clinic to wake up Jude. He usually wasn't the type to sleep in, but she was just really excited to see him back home, and wanted to spend as much time together as possible. Seeing him back was just a breath of fresh air after the usual chores of everyday life. Now, she wouldn't even have to send him letters for a while! He'd only written back once too, and probably didn't even get the last letter she sent. But either way she was glad she could talk to him again. Sure the kids and other teenagers around the area were her friends too, but Jude, he was special. He was always just so, nice, and caring. He'd always be there when he was needed, rightly concerned.
So seeing him utterly devastated about his teacher hurt her as well. He hadn't included that in his letter, she'd needed to hear that from the little recap in the Lodge. The letter was about his exercising of all things! She couldn't help but notice he really ruined his routine from what she read of it. It was somewhat difficult to finish the letter though. Jude's writing was just, way too girly. Seriously, who besides little girls like that Elize would write like that? But ah, that was a thing of the past, and something that really wasn't worrying in comparison to that Professor Haus dying. Now, now she just had to cheer Jude up! That had to be what he came home for!
She entered the Clinic and waved to Jude's mom. Ellen Mathis was where he got his black hair from. She wore it cut short and kept it back, out of her face and eyes. She had a white doctor's coat on, opened up, sleeves rolled up with some scrubs on underneath. The picture perfect of a doctor! In Leia's opinion at least.
"If you're looking for Jude, he already left," Jude's mom told her.
"Whoa really?" Leia took a step back in surprise. Guess he didn't want to meet his dad? "Did he say where he was going?"
"The woods," she answered.
"Huh?" Why would he go there? Just nothing but monsters ever since the mines closed down. Well, monsters were good for training, and with all that talk about power and stuff at the Lodge, maybe he wanted to go get stronger? The monsters weren't that dangerous, and Jude was certainly a cautious guy, but she was still worried. "Alright, thanks, I'll go fetch him," she said and ran off.
It didn't take long to leave town and head into Votea Woods. During the time the old mines were open there were paths carved into the ground, but they'd slowly been reclaimed away by nature once the mines stopped producing. The trail she followed wasn't that one though, it was the trail of monster bodies that led her right to Jude. He was locked in combat with two of the local monsters, and both sides were putting up quite the fight!
"Demon fist!" he yelled and let loose with the martial arte and plowed through the closest enemy, slaying it. But the second snuck in closer and knocked him back.
"Jude!" she yelled. Alright, this was her time to shine! She pulled out her staff and ran up to cover him.
"Huh? Leia?" he groggily said and slapped his head awake. "What are you?"
"Less talking, more hitting the bad guys," she told him and darted in staff-first and pushed the monster back. "Alright, got us some breathing room." she cheered and checked Jude out. He had some minor cuts on him. Perfect for her to fix up! "Hold on, I'll patch you up in a jiff." She twirled her staff and held it up vertically, then began to chant her spirit arte. "First Aid!" she yelled and cast the spirit arte on her childhood fired, healing up the wounds he'd taken. "Let's finish this thing off!"
"Alright," Jude nodded and took up the spot beside her. She felt their Lilium Orbs link, and they moved as one towards the monster and struck with perfect timing and finished it off right away. With it dead they separated their link and Jude fell down on his butt. "Whew, sorry you had to rush out and help me like that. Guess I'm even more out of practice than I realized," he apologized.
"Haha, don't worry about it, I'm just glad you're alright," she lent her hand and helped him back up. "Our parents are probably gonna yell at you though."
He scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, probably. But I've just felt so, powerless, during this whole thing. I just, finally wanted something I could do." He clenched his fists on the final word. "And here I am getting saved again," he let out a melancholy laugh as a finisher.
"Oh," Leia crossed her arms and donned a little smirk. "You'd have preferred if I didn't come save you eh?"
"No, I didn't mean it like that," he said panic-stricken. But when he looked back at her he seemed to calm down. "You really conquered your old injury and illness huh?"
Leia dropped her arms in surprise. "Huh? Oh yeah," she faintly replied. She really wasn't expecting that to come up here of all places. "Mom doesn't tolerate weakness you know."
"Haha, yeah," he averted his eyes, thinking about something. "Alright, I think that's enough training for me. Master Sonia's just gonna make this look like a picnic."
"You know it," Leia smiled at him. "Let's head back, maybe this time you'll actually get the food when it's hot."
"That sounds good," Jude nodded and followed her lead back into their hometown.
The trip back was short and sweet, so Leia didn't want to try and pry about if he'd met his father already, she'd just learn that soon enough. But before they could head indoors, they saw that woman Jude tried to defend yesterday, and he rushed off to talk to her. That was kinda annoying, and Leia frowned before running up to join him.
"Are you leaving?" he asked.
She clearly didn't want anything to do with him. "Of," she shook her head. "Why are you even bothering to ask?"
"Um, well, I don't know I guess," Jude scratched the back of his head nervously. "Maybe, it's because Alvin helped lead me to this and you're his friend?"
"That's, no, never mind," she turned back around. "I hope I never have to see you again," she waved and continued down the street.
"Jeez," Leia put her hands on her hips. "What's her problem?"
Jude moved the hand scratching his head and looked at it with a lowered head. "Leia, am I, annoying?" he asked.
Her mouth opened at the surprise question. "Huh? Where did that come from?"
"Just, something I've been thinking about, I guess," Jude shook his head. "I mean, even just today I troubled you to come save me."
"Oh come on that's just not true." She stomped her foot for some emphasis. "I mean if anything should worry you, it should be how hard my mom's gonna scold you for getting off your training."
Jude turned around and looked at her with a bit of awe, and then he laughed. "Yeah, you're right, thanks Leia."
That was more like it. "Seriously, where did that kind of thinking come from anyway?" she asked. That really wasn't like him.
"Oh, well, it's just, you know how she was acting," he indicated the woman. "Along with Milla and Elize and some of the girls at school. I thought, maybe there was something wrong with me. I mean, I know I've hurt Milla and Elize, but Mink, and this other girl I met called Nadia, really seem to have it out for me, and I was wondering if it was somehow my fault too."
Leia felt her eye twitch as Jude kept throwing all these girls in his face. "On second thought, you are kinda annoying," she pouted.
"What, what did I do?" be asked in complete bewilderment.
She flicked her head up to deny him his answer. "Find out for yourself."
He sighed and slumped his shoulders. "And yet this is still going to be easier than dealing with dad."
A giant boom suddenly reached their ears followed by a wave of pressure and heat and some wooden debris. The two of them ducked and covered their heads. "What was that!?" Leia yelled and looked around. From the direction it sounded like... she followed her hunch hoping beyond hope it was wrong. But it wasn't.
The Leronde Lodge was the source. "No!" she screamed and immediately began running home.
"Leia, wait!" Jude tried to stop her but she ignored him and kept running.
"Mom! Dad!" she shouted out for her parents as she ran up. There was a large hole in the southeast section of the lodge, reaching from the roof all the way to the ground. People were already filing out of the front door, most of them injured. That only redoubled her worry and she pushed past them to get inside.
A few puffs of smoke lingered around the ground floor, and the stairs to her right were completely blown apart as well, showing another hole in the building she couldn't see from outside. "Has anyone seen my parents!" she shouted in panic.
"Leia, up here!" the familiar voice of her mom came down from above, alleviating so many of her fears. She looked straight up, mom and a bunch of other people were stranded. "Your father's fine too, don't worry, there's not a lot of serious injuries."
Jude ran in after her, and shouted up at her mom. "Master Sonia, what happened?"
"Some type of explosion," she explained. "Jude, Leia, take care of the injured until your parents get here, we'll get everyone up here down to you." Her dad, Milla, Rowen and Elize came into view with more injured people.
"Alright," Jude touched her shoulder, "Leia let's go."
"Right," she nodded and followed him outside. Jude's parents were already on the scene, the injured that could still stand were being led over to the clinic by his mom, while his dad checked on the ones lying on the grass.
"Jude," he shouted without looking up. "Did you receive triage training in school?" Jude's father was a stern man, his face behind his black-rimmed glasses always had a serious expression every time Leia saw him. He had his short brown hair combed neatly to one side, and wore a doctor's coat like his wife. Unlike her he had it closed with the sleeves rolled down, though he retained the scrub bottoms.
"Y-yeah," he weakly replied. This clearly wasn't the reunion he wanted-or anyone wanted for that matter.
His father looked back down at the new patient. "Alright, I'll be taking the most serious patient over to the clinic for surgery, Leia, Jude examine the rest of the injuries. Bring over the most serious cases immediately and just stabilize the rest." Doctor Mathis stood up draping a patient across his back. "Do I make myself clear?"
"Yeah," Jude repeated himself.
"Get to work," his father told them and walked away with careful pacing. Jude however, didn't move.
"C'mon," Leia grabbed his hand and dragged him to the closest person.
"Ah, right," he snapped out of his funk and began checking the first of their long list of emergencies. This just had to happen when they were busy! "Alright, these are quite light," Jude passed his hands over the leg injury and applied a spirit arte. "I can't do much but relieve the pain right now. Leia, let's go."
"Right!" she replied and followed him around checking everyone out. As they worked, the rest of the people inside the Lodge were evacuated, and Elize also came over to help. She was even better than the both of them, but eventually they came across a patient they couldn't treat. He kept moaning about internal pain despite the trio's best efforts. "Let's get him over to your dad then," Leia said.
Jude nodded. "Elize, please stay here while we carry him over."
"We're not doing this for you," Teepo spat at him.
Leia frowned. "Now really isn't the time for this."
"No, it's, okay," Jude reluctantly admitted. "C'mon, we need to move this guy, gently." Jude took him by the top while Leia carried the bottom over to the clinic. Jude's mom directed them to one of the rooms, and they deposited the patient, who rolled over on his side in pain. The two of them left the room and almost ran into Doctor Mathis coming in.
"Be careful Jude," he scolded his son and moved past without another word, closing the room door behind him.
Jude twisted his head to watch his father head in, but didn't say anything, he just frowned.
"He is right, sorta," Leia weakly tried to defend Jude's father's actions.
"I know, it's just, y'know," and he shook his head. He didn't want to talk about it, not now. "Let's go get some more patients before he tells me to stop wasting time."
"He's no gonna come out just to say that."
A thud came from the room Jude's father had just entered. The two of them turned to look, and shouting followed from inside. "Dad!" Jude yelled and ran straight into the room and Leia followed. The patient was going at Doctor Mathis with a knife! But when the two of them entered, he turned his attention and began swinging wildly to keep everyone away, while he slowly backed up towards the window. "Is he hysterical?" Jude shouted and dropped into a combat stance. This only caused more panicked swinging.
"Jude subdue him," his father ordered.
"Huh?" he looked at his father in bewilderment.
"If he continues on like this he'll end up causing more harm for himself and others," he said with a serious countenance. "This is why I let you learn from Sonia, because cases like this happen."
Jude looked at his father for a brief moment before switching over to the patient, who was now almost to the window. Jude took a deep breath and stepped in, as more knife flailing occurred. Jude's eyes followed the trail of the blade, and in an instant he had stepped in behind him. He grabbed the patient's arms and twisted the knife out of him, but the man still struggled.
"Keep him still Jude," his father said and pulled out a syringe and a vile, quickly filling the former with the latter. The patient's struggles increased, but Jude held him down as his father injected the drug into the increasingly violent patient. But those struggles quickly stopped as the sedative did its work, eventually rendering him limp in Jude's arms. "On the bed now," his father instructed, and Jude complied. "We'll need to move him to the bed with restraints before he comes to," Doctor Mathis commented. "Get back to the Lodge you two."
"Ah, but dad, you're hurt," Jude noted. Leia-too swept up in the other excitement-only found out when he pointed it out. But sure enough following Jude's focus she noticed the red cut on Doctor Mathis' coat, the red slowly growing larger.
"He managed to get a cut off," his dad informed them. "Tell your mother on your way out."
Jude protested. "But!"-his father cut him off. "Jude do what I say."
Jude shut his mouth, and Leia could feel the resentment festering as he did so. "Fine," the younger Mathis relented and whirled about. Leia wordlessly followed him out of the room. "Mom," Jude said when they encountered her, "Dad's been cut by a patient, he wanted me to tell you."
"What?" the mother Mathis reflexively covered her mouth with surprise. "What happened? No, I can hear that from your father, I'll be right there." And just like that she hurried back to the room they'd just left.
"And just like that," Jude sighed as he watched his mom and dad completely ignore him in favor of their own work. "All the critical patients are here now, I could have treated him."
"C'mon now, if you heal everyone still at the lodge that'll show him," Leia tried to cheer him up in, well, admittedly it wasn't a healthy way to cheer him up but she had to try.
"I guess," Jude weakly agreed and followed her outside.
Following Jude and Leia's departure with their patient, Milla, Rowen and Elize were left looking after everyone still stranded at the Lodge. Anyone left had naught but minor scratches, so even Elize didn't have much to do.
So, Rowen decided to take the initiative and spoke with Milla regarding some of his doubts. "Random explosions happen to be fairly rare. I would presume there was some sort of actionable ploy here," he concluded, "but the circumstances regarding our arrival, and the mostly ineffectual attack would lead me to believe this was a spur-of-the-moment action."
Milla looked at the old strategist and nodded. "They still need the key, so that would explain why they simply didn't take care of us in our sleep. But still, what would be the point now? We'll simply be on guard for any further attacks."
"I could not fathom a reason," Rowen agreed. "No one has died from this, injuries are all-together minor on average. It is foolishness simply to rely on the obvious failures of our enemy to draw a conclusion, so clearly we are missing something."
Milla let a frown cross her lips, to Rowen's eyes it looked like she had an idea, but when she spoke it didn't seem it was regarding her thoughts. "We should depart. Jude and the others can handle things here, if we stay we invite disaster upon them."
Rowen could have slid into the opposite points, but seeing how they'd react was just as important. "Very well, then," Rowen relented with a nod. "Miss Elize, we're leaving immediately."
The young healer turned around from her position healing another person, she was a fair bit away from them now. "Ah, alright, please just let me finish up here, this man has friends around the side."
Rowen narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Miss Elize, please, we have reason to believe the target of this attack was ourselves."
"Isn't that how it always is?" Teepo replied for her.
"Yes, but staying here only invites more attacks on the populace," Rowen told her. Some of the injured looked at them now, already so quick to blame them.
"I, yes, I understand," the young girl sadly replied as she accepted Rowen's words. She stood back up and turned around to walk back, but she convulsed in pain and a scream and fell into the arms of the man she had just healed.
"A spyrix!" Milla accused the newly revealed enemy. She quickly unsheathed her blade and Rowen joined with her. The man smiled, an arrogant smile, he tossed Elize over his shoulder and hopped over the fence and began running to the seahaven. But that was the very direction that the two of them were in as well. Milla quickly took the lead and leapt over the fence in her way, aiming to cut off the kidnapper, but as she cleared the obstacle, an explosion erupted from her position, sending the Lord of Spirits to the ground and obliterating the fence. Another pile of injuries were added to the wounded. The man drew something from his pocket, but Rowen's knife was already on the way, knocking it aside. He couldn't use spirit artes on a fleeing opponent carrying Elize, but he could still aim his knives.
Milla struggled herself to a kneeling position, and watched as the man ran by. She forced herself forward, but but her right leg collapsed and she grimaced as she plummeted back to the ground. Rowen ran forward to pursue, but the enemy dropped something along the way, a small ball. Another explosion followed from that ball, creating a cloud of dust to cover the man's retreat. Rowen threw knives into the cloud, attempting to estimate the position, but he heard no screams of pain.
He slide around the cloud, not wanting to step on any secondary devices laying in wait. He knew the kidnappers destination, but, if there was any additional adversaries he couldn't leave Milla alone.
"Go!" the booming voice of the inn-woman rang out. "We'll help this one, you go catch that sleazeball that did this!"
"Much obliged," Rowen thanked her as he returned to pursuit. It wasn't the best of solutions in the least, but it was the only one he could rely on. What he couldn't rely on was his body. Age had quite taken its tolls on his joints, dulling his footspeed considerably, by the time he arrived at the seahaven, the departing ship was already recovering the boarding plank. "Stop that ship!" he demanded futilely, as the port authority did nothing. Elize was gone, he had failed.
The kidnapper had done it, he had successfully pulled off his mission. He laughed, he laughed long and hard. The other passengers and crew looked at him, they questioned him, but he deflected their questions with lies and diversions and managed to get himself all nice and secluded.
It wasn't the cleanest operation, no, it may very well have been the messiest solution. His partner wasn't here, which probably meant he had failed, and Maxwell was still alive, but he had the girl! That would earn him some serious accolades. He looked at her with a look of absolute triumph on his face.. He'd get promoted for sure, might even get credit as savior of the world.
He laughed some more and stood back up. "Yes, I did it, I did it!" he exclaimed before something hit the back of his neck and he embraced darkness.
"You certainly did," Presa said after knocking the Rashugal spy clean out. If this was what was passing for Rashugal's intelligence these days, no wonder they needed Al. Well, their stupidity was her gain, as it always was. A complete lunkhead of a spy and now Jiao's little friend. Things were looking right up, especially after her run-in with Jude and the Conductor. Wingul would be most appreciative of her new gifts. Even if orders were to let the girl go after her escape from Hamil, it'd still be a good idea to keep tabs on her. Jiao would be especially grateful. He'd already gone off reservation to track her down by himself once, now she could deliver the little girl right on over and everyone would be happy. Except the girl, but that was life after all. Not everyone could be happy at the same time.
But, it would be too much of a pain keeping two prisoners, so she'd try a bit of a different act. Keep the spy down and tied, but let the girl up and about. She was completely alone on the ship, and the only person she would even know was Presa herself. The ship they were on was bound for Lakutam, and Presa reasoned that the Conductor was probably heading to Auj Oule as well, with Lakutam seahaven as the most likely docking spot. So, all Presa had to do was spin enough convenience factors for the little girl and she'd be much more cooperative.
The spy had some odd devices on his person, including some shackles, probably to detain the girl. Well, now they'd feature on him. She quickly stripped the man of anything dangerous, before dragging the both of them off to her room.
The explosions from outside had stopped again, after having restarted just before Jude and Leia were about to set back out. Jude's father had come running to prevent the two of them from going out, so the two of them just waited in the Mathis clinic for some sort of sign. They busied themselves with other patients in the meantime, but it wasn't until Master Sonia came in carrying a wounded Milla that things finally changed.
"What happened?" Jude ran up to her and began investigating the woman.
"The perpetrator of this whole thing managed to get a detonation in on her," Master Sonia explained.
"This isn't good," not that it needed saying, but the damage to her legs was extensive.
"Doctor Mathis!" Leia shouted, and just like that his dad came running, and immediately took over for his son in examine the patient.
"Jude, Leia, carry her to Room B and get the obstructions off her legs, I'll be in in a moment," he commanded.
The two children took his command and carried the wounded woman over to the indicated room. They gently set her down on the bed, and after grabbing some instruments, carefully cleared off remnants of the clothes on her legs.
"This is really bad, isn't it?" Leia commented. "Do you think your dad can help her?"
"Yeah," he replied keeping his full attention on Milla's wounded legs. He could see the damage to her right leg was significantly greater than her left, but regardless of that fact, both of them would require surgery. The number of lacerations was truly staggering, but, it could have been so much worse. One of those explosions had torn a hole in the lodge wall, they could have just easily blown her legs clear off.
The door slide open and his parents walked on through, having scrubbed for surgery. "Jude tend to the remaining patients," his father commanded and swept over to Milla's side.
"But, that stab wound," Jude tried to protest.
"It's fine, do as I say," he ordered.
Jude lowered his eyes, and did as he was told. Leia followed after him, closing the door on the way out. He was somewhat responsible for the way Milla had ended up, and now he was unable to do anything to make it up for her. He still didn't fully trust her story, but this wasn't what he wanted at all!
With a sigh proceeding him, Jude went back to taking care of the minor injuries. With Leia's assistance they took care of everyone quite quickly. As he finished up treating the last person, the main door to the clinic slide open and Rowen walked in. "How is Milla?" he asked upon seeing the two of them.
"She's currently in surgery with my father," Jude answered the old man. He offered a it of hope though, "If anyone can treat her it's my dad."
"Some good news then," the old man rubbed his chin in thought. "Did perhaps anything out of the ordinary happen here?"
"What do you mean?" Jude asked puzzled.
Leia had an idea she voiced though. "Well one of the patients tried to attack Doctor Mathis, that's about it for out of the ordinary if the whole situation wasn't already like that." Hysterical patients weren't new to Jude because of his experiences in Fennmont, but Leronde certainly had to worry less about such things.
"I see," Rowen noted with a grim realization. "Is this patient restrained? I believe he may be responsible for this attack."
"What?" the two of them replied. But it was Jude who continued. "He should be restrained in one of the rooms." But he didn't know that for sure, so not even concerning himself with others, he ran to the room. Sure enough, the possible attacker was still tied down and asleep. But, Jude double-checked just to make sure.
"What exactly happened?" Rowen asked as he and Leia finished following Jude to the room. Jude explained the situation, how the patient had attacked and how Jude had disarmed him. "This just lends further credence to my hypothesis." Rowen tugged on his beard.
Leia was the one to ask this time, "how did you come to this conclusion?"
"I think I should wait until I can explain it to Milla and Jude's parents as well," Rowen suggested.
"No," Jude slowly shook his head. "I want to know, now. Why were we attacked? Putting all these people in danger like this, who could do it? Why?"
"Jude..." Leia put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. It felt warm, nice.
"Very well," the old man relented. "When you mentioned your father was treating Milla, the pieces formed a somewhat more coherent picture. Eliminating your father could have prevented him from treating any of the injured, including Milla." He looked at Jude. "Correct?"
"Yes," Jude agreed. Dad was a remarkable doctor, if anyone could save Milla's legs it would be him.
"I believe that Milla was the intended target of this attack, most likely by Rashugal's Intelligence Service."
"But, why?" Leia asked completely dumbfounded. And Jude was right there with her in confusion.
The old man shook his head at his lose of an answer. "That, I do not know. True, any of us are a threat to Nachtigal's monstrous regime, but was it solely aimed at Milla or targeted at all of us?" He shook his head. "Or was it simply a distraction for other purposes." The old man harshly closed his eyes and looked away.
Why? That was when Jude noticed it. Or rather, the lack of her. "Where's Elize?" he asked.
"She was taken," the old man slowly said. "And I was powerless to stop it."
"No way," Leia expressed disbelief. "By who?"
"The man's partner." Rowen simply answered. "This may have all been a series of diversions to kidnap her once again."
"What are, what are you going to do?" Leia asked him.
But Rowen didn't answer, instead looking at Jude. "You traveled here from a ferry from Fennmont correct?"
What did that matter? Jude thought. But he answered. "Yeah."
"As I feared," Rowen let out a deep sigh. He was so, wrecked by the circumstances, Jude could see it on his wrinkled face. "The spies must have ridden on that same ferry, and now, there's no telling how many of them there are spread amongst the populace, left free to infiltrate other seahavens and cities now."
"But what about Elize?" Leia asked again. She hadn't even known the girl a day and she was already this worried. It was so Leia.
"The ferry she was on is bound to Lakutam seahaven, I have already booked a trip on the next ferry in hopes to catch her but," the old man shook his head again. "But, I do not believe she is in any immediate danger."
"What makes you think that?" Leia asked.
"That, I cannot tell you," he cuffed his hands behind him.
He had revealed so much and now he was holding out? "Why are you telling us so much anyway?" Jude questioned him.
Rowen took a deep breath with closed eyes before answering. "Because I have no choice but to trust you with Milla's life."
"What?" they replied in unison again.
"I must pursue Miss Elize as soon as possible and continue on with our mission." He explained. "I've no idea the severity and repercussions of Milla's wounds but I must make haste."
Jude placed his index finger to his temple. The, the circumstances Rowen was alluding to, and urgency of his mission only meant one thing. "Does this have to do with what was in Laforte? That Lance of Kresnik?"
The old strategist nodded. "Indeed, there is no telling how long it will take before it is deployed. The mission Milla and myself are on is to stop it. When she awakens she will most certainly agree with my course of action."
Jude shook his head in confusion. "How are you putting your trust in us so easily after what I did?"
"Your actions at Laforte, and your words from last night, your words in this very conversation. They show me a clear picture of who you are Jude Mathis, and I believe you will make the correct decision here."
"Clear huh?" Things weren't nearly as clear with him as Rowen said. "I can't stop you from doing this, but, I, I'll try to live up to making amends for my mistake."
"As must we all," Rowen replied seriously. "I must be off now. Take good care of Milla."
Leia was the one who managed to reply to him first. "Make sure you rescue Elize ok? After what they've done here I can't imagine what else they're capable of."
"I will do my utmost," Rowen vowed and bowed. He turned and left without another word.
"Man," Leia started up a new conversation, "just what have you gotten into Jude?"
"I have no idea," he answered truthfully.
Presa leaned against the wall of her room in the ferry headed for Lakutam. Her mind was focused on the explanation she'd need to convince the crew to let the spy disembark as a captive. The truth had its advantage there. Even if this was a "free" trade ship aligned with Rashugal, handing the spy off to the Auj Oule sentries at Lakutam could go effortlessly. But then again, thinking things would go easy was a dangerous complacency. Utter self-assurance was what allowed her to capture the spy in the first place, but her own hubris allowed Al to coerce her away and even the Conductor had figured her true allegiances. So, she needed to prepare. Once she got a sylphjay from Agria she'd send it off to Jiao with a message to rendezvous in Lakutam. If the spy thought about escaping once they reached land, well, there was no escaping Jiao when he put his mind to it. Only one person had ever defeated the giant of a man, and anyone that strong wouldn't be so easily knocked unconscious, even if it was her attempting it.
But informing Jiao had its own wrinkles in the form of the girl. She and her puppet were laying peacefully on top of Presa's bunk for the moment. Hopefully they'd wake up soon, because time had been passing and it was already dusk, and they weren't in Lakutam's twilight spirit-clime yet. Still, the girl had been knocked out the entire time, so they'd be awake and peppy right when Presa was getting tired. Whatever the spy had done to them had been damn effective.
Presa looked over the odd metal rod she'd pulled off the spy. With a flick of a switch the two little nubs at the end vibrated and arced a bit of lightning between them. The spy had no other objects of interest on them, so this bizarre shock staff was the most likely cause of the girl's current condition. There were other options of course, plenty of drugs and poisons that he could no longer hold on his person. But this was the one thing he kept, so he had to believe it would keep the girl in line. She amused herself thinking she might just use it like the spy intended, but that brought up whole other hosts of issues she didn't want to deal with. Ones she'd have to deal with already with the spy, and one resisting prisoner was enough for this situation.
So now she was stuck waiting for the girl to wake up, so she could lie and pretend to be a friend to keep her complacent until they got to Lakutam, and then she could kick the girl back where she belonged. Then they could grill the spy for information on everything, especially this odd "stun rod".
Presa's thoughts were finally interrupted by the girl stirring awake, she and her puppet began huddling together, pulling their limps in for comfort, but they finally realized something was wrong and the two of them shot up-with the puppet going so high he hit the ceiling. "Ow, ow, ow!" it yelped and floated back down to the girl, who'd pulled back when she sighted Presa. "You!" she shouted once her puppet had come back down. "What did you do, where am I?" she pleaded for answers.
"Easy now," Presa started off. "I just saved you from the thrilling experience of being on the bad end of Rashugal's Intelligence Service." Her own memories of such a time clawed at her mind as she indicated the captured spy. "If you want the man who kidnapped you he's all yours."
"You saved me?" the girl said unsure of the truth. The puppet was a bit more vocal however. "Ha, lies! Just like that big fat liar Alvin, we saw you there with him at the Lab, we know you're helping them
"That was just a job," Presa called a half-truth. "Just like the job Al gave me to make sure that Jude kid got through all nice and safe." She blatantly lied. Though she wouldn't put it past Al to have planned this in his own deranged way.
"What?" the girl said now thoroughly confused. Good.
"Oh Al was just besides himself with worry for him, not that I know why," she shrugged. "Not just for him mind you, he truly felt awful for betraying the lot of you." Using Al in such a lie wasn't perfect by any means, but it'd be some measure of vengeance, and he'd play along with it if things came back around. "So, when the ship carrying Jude set out, he wanted me on it to play bodyguard, and explain himself if I ran into the rest of you."
"Liar!" the puppet rightfully shouted at her. "If you know Alvin you're a big fat liar by uh, knowing him yeah!" The girl clenched her little fists together and nodded with her puppet. "Teepo's right! You didn't say anything like this last night either!"
"Oh but I did," Presa gave a little smile as things moved just as she needed. "You fell asleep remember? I had it out with your little pals while you were in dreamland. They certainly would have told you had explosions not ruined everyone's day."
"That's," the girl's wall of disbelief was faltering a bit, and so were her fists. The puppet meanwhile was relentless. "Don't believe her Elize! She's just trying to trick you!"
"For what purpose?" Presa asked. Oh there was plenty she could think of, but could the girl? She couldn't, stammering out a few more words about Alvin, and lies. "Listen, see this?" Presa flicked the stun rod on again. "I'd say it's what Mister Spy there was going to use to keep you knocked out on your ride back to Fennmont's dungeons. I could have just as easily used this as well, but I haven't. Because I am not your enemy." She lied.
"Don't fall for her tricks Elize!" the puppet tried to defend its master. But said master was believing it, for now at least. "But she could have, I, I don't know..."
Good, it wouldn't take much more. "This ferry is bound for Lakutam Seahaven, the same one that was your destination. Rowen, told me last night." He hadn't, she figured that out on her own. "They surely know that as well, and they'll already be on the ferry following this one. Once we get there, we can just wait until they arrive and you can be back in the hands of your friends again." She threw out some bait...
"Really?" and the girl bite it.
"You don't know anyone else on this ship do you?" and now it was time to isolate her.
"I barely know you," she drew back behind the puppet, who tried to glare menacingly, but it was a puppet! Presa had to hold back laughter at its bravado.
Once she recovered, she responded. "Barely know is better than don't know at all," it really wasn't, "you can go shouting to the crew all you want. Will they believe you? Who knows, I don't, but you know where you'll be with me." She presented the options. She could have lied and said this was an Auj Oule ship, that if the girl blabbed she might be captured by them, dredge up memories of the shed. But that was too much. Weave too many sets of lies and even a child could undo them.
The girl didn't answer immediately, instead choosing to turn her puppet around and look at it. Presa could hear some faint mumbling, but the girl wasn't loud in the first place, her whispers were impossible to make out. But eventually the discussion with her puppet stopped, and the two of them looked at her with all the seriousness a twelve-year-old and a puppet could muster. "We don't trust you, but, we'll believe you, just this once." she choked out with as much confidence as she could manage. The puppet was more scathing in its support though. "If you try anything I'll eat your face!"
"My best asset, I better be truthful," Presa played with her words. She let a mental sigh of relief off, but moved her lips towards a genuine smile. "You may not recall it but my name is Mink, and I certainly don't remember your name." But she did remember, Elize Lutos.
"I'm Elize, and this is Teepo." She reintroduced the two of them. The puppet spun in place before finishing. "Not pleased to meet you at all you name forgetter."
More like, Big Fat Liar, Presa thought.
AN: And then Milla's legs go and get blown up anyway. Ugh. I utterly despised having to do this, but there are certain timeline issues that require the three weeks to pass. BUT, unlike the game I won't just be skipping straight to Milla getting back into things, no siree! I'm gonna be writing out what's going on during those three weeks. Plenty of other real AU adventures with other characters, obviously the most prominent being Rowen's attempt to get Elize back!
Milla's leg injuries here aren't really comparable to what happened at Fort Gandala in canon. For this, she'll basically be able to walk fine in a few months, but the threat of the Lance will be spurring her on again. Just wanted to alleviate any thoughts of why some random bombs are as dangerous as the hex shackles.
This was another chapter that needed fairly little editing. I'm not sure if it's me becoming lazy during the edit, or me being so far ahead in the written chapters that I can't properly concentrate. Or maybe this chapters are actually fairly alright even in the raw drafts.
Speaking of chapters written far, far ahead, I'm all the way into writing Chapter 33! Wowzers, that's over half a year's worth of updates! Things are getting plenty crazy that far down the line. Speaking of crazy, but not Agria crazy, I'd like to share the weirdness of how I... save my Outline and Raw Drafts. I actually write and post them on a forum. So I have 72 "posts" in my Outline topic. At 15 posts a page I'm at 5 pages worth of Outlines. With the completion of Chapter 28, I only just finished that first page of Outlines, at 15 posts. That's almost two chapters per Outline Post! And these are still the SHORT Outlines! When I finally complete the story I may do more than one Chapter a week because WOW this would take until Tales of Zesteria was released in the west to finish otherwise hahahaha.