Jumping from the cliff was easy, running across the field through the darkness and seeing a giant mouth crawl its way out of the void and devour a helpless city was not… Atomos had materialized quickly, opening his maw wider and wider revealing multitudes of razor sharp teeth that were simply unneeded as all he had to do was greedily suck the life out of the city. It was as if a tornado had struck them, drinking the wind into the bottomless void of its stomach. They shivered as they could feel the pull from the mile away they were. Silver staggered into the grass weeping for all the life that had and was being taken. Zidane went to her and held her while Lailah held his daughter close like she could fly away at any moment. "It's so savage…" Kailynn shivered.
The chaos of the city grew in intensity until Atomos had had his feel and disappeared into the night, leaving the remnants of his meal to drop from the sky. "D-dad…?"
He shivered, "Just like humans… There are good eidolons and bad ones…"
"No, mother!" Garnet cried out, wailing into Zidane's shoulder.
"But I thought you said we could save them!?"
He nodded, "Meadow did. No lives were taken by Atomos tonight."
"But what about the soldiers? And the mages?"
"Meadow, Regent Cid, and Keld found a way to reverse the process on the mages and the Lindblum soldiers employed it. There were a number of casualties but it is far less than what it could have been. Though…" A tear made its way down his cheek, "Any life taken…"
Zidane listened closely as he held her tightly to his chest, protecting her from the pain, "How do you know this?" Garnet asked.
"He's an angel Silver."
"What?" She looked to him and he nodded.
"We can explain later. Right now people still may need our help."
She nodded and he led the party through the grass and towards the gates of the massive fortress. It was nearly dawn by the time they had arrived, the flames lingering after the closed battle. They had seen the Red Rose from Pinnacle Rocks and Tessa shivered as she realized how long the chaos had reigned. They tripped over rubble as they made it through the gate an eerie silence settling over them. "Mother…! How could you attack Lindblum like this!"
"It's so quiet…" Zidane said. "Careful, they might still be around. Vivi you may need to stay here and hide, if the Alexandrian soldiers see you…"
"No way! It's dangerous here!"
"I agree," Tessa said, "Let's put a cloak around him, or I could put him in my bag. Which would you prefer Vivi? It's pretty spacious in there, I even have a kitchen and a garden," she smiled softly as she knelt beside him.
"A kitchen…? Really?" she nodded, "A-alright." She whispered a spell and he disappeared into the confines of her pack.
"You have a kitchen in there!? Where's my kitchen!?"
"Shh… You have one. All of you do," Lailah added looking to Perry who gave him a slight smile before it evaporated under the circumstances. She opened her mouth. "Later." She huffed and nodded.
The party made their way through the walkway to find out the extent of the damage. They coughed in the smoke that clung thickly to the air, Tessa went over to a small girl who looked around frantically, "Hey, you okay?"
"I-I can't find-," she sniffled, "Mommy and daddy…! I don't wanna be alone!"
"Hey, don't worry," she soothed. "We'll help you find them." She pet the girl's hair into place and got a wipe from her bag, gently wiping off the smudge and dirt that clung to her face.
"You-you will?"
"Of course we will." she put it in her bag before pulling out the cactuar plushie, "Do you wanna name this cactuar while we look for your mommy and daddy?"
She nodded and clung to it as tight as she could while Tessa picked her up, "Tessa?" Zidane came over.
"We'll meet up with you guys later, okay?"
He nodded. "I'll help too," Perry pet the girls hair, "I'm Perry. What's your name?"
"... Marsha…" she said quietly.
"Well, Marsha, lets find your mommy and daddy."
Lailah nodded, waving for them to follow he led them down the wind of the street before going onto a side street taking two rights a left and then going through an alleyway to a side street lined with homes. They passed several Alexandrian soldiers who insisted that this country was now under martial law and they would have to follow orders to the letter or else the punishment may include death. When Marsha heard this propaganda she whimpered and cuddled further into Tessa shoulder, Tessa glared in reply but made no move to speak to them, only rocked Marsha and comforted her. Lailah led her by the elbow to a small blue house at the end of the block and knocked on the door.
It opened to reveal a tear stained woman who when seeing the little girl in Tessa's arms cried out, "Marsha! Oh! Marsha!"
"Mommy!"
The woman basically grabbed her out of her arms and into a fierce hug, "Thank you! Oh, thank you! I thought I'd lost her! I thought I'd lost you baby!"
Her lip trembled betraying the emotions running through them as a tear slipped down Tessa's face and she found herself being hugged by her father. After saying their goodbyes the trio left to find Zidane and the others, and barring that, more people to help. In the rubble, near the place where Tessa had sat with her father to draw up designs, she found the Lindblum card. She couldn't help but collapse into tears as the full force of what had happened hit her. "So many people…! How could someone do this…!? How can someone kill another person…!? I don't understand!" she wailed. "I don't understand…!"
Perry knelt next to her as Lailah calmed her in his arms, "… That's why we have to fight… We're warriors of God… Just remember, the lives that were lost are up in heaven now where there's no suffering, they won't even remember this…" There was a long stretch of silence before the two realized she had cried herself to sleep. Lailah carried her in his arms as they went to find the others. Perry rubbed his face, "It's been a long night…" He nodded silently.
The two found their way to the center plaza and found Zidane and the others talking to Minister Artania. "Just in time you guys. Is she okay?"
"Tired," Lailah told them.
"It's been one helluva trip…" he agreed.
The minister led them to the air cab to take the party to the castle and brought them before Regent Cid. As they walked up they saw Meadow and a mage in a Lindblum tabard lingering next to Regent Cid and discussing something privately. "Princess Garnet is back!"
"Uncle Cid!"
The trio turned to the newcomers with excited greetings, "Garnet! I thought Brahne had imprisoned you!"
"Zidane and the others saved me… But Beatrix, Steiner, and Freya… They stayed behind to help us escape…"
"Thank you," he bowed to the group, "Ah. The renowned General Beatrix. I don't think you have anything to worry about."
"I don't think so either, Silver. We wound up in Pinnacle Rocks instead of Treno but… They'll be fine on their own."
"Gwok-gwok! Pinnacle…? Did you ride the Gargant?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"I'm the Regent, I must know the land surrounding my country. However… I sometimes lack foresight, I was lucky to have Meadow and Keld here by my side."
"With your wealth of knowledge on eidolons and safety procedures," he spoke to Meadow, "And Keld's wealth of knowledge and compassion surrounding us and the mages, we have no doubt saved more lives than we could have otherwise."
"How did you save them?" Kailynn asked.
"We made sure to keep a lookout on the outreaches of the country to make sure we had enough time and once we spotted them we alerted the citizens and started the evacuation," Meadow said.
"Evacuation?" Zidane asked, "To where?"
"Well the safest place from the majority of eidolons would be underground so we had most people hiding in their root cellars in the Business District while everyone else stayed in the interior castle and below it," she said.
"That was a risky move. People could've been trapped," Garnet said.
"Some have been but the soldiers are digging them out."
"You sure you've got everyone?" Zidane asked.
"The soldiers are doing a Census, as we speak." There was a moment of silence as Tessa stirred, waking up, Lailah set her down gently. She blushed when she realized what was going on and took Vivi from her bag.
Cid and the others startled, "It's bigger on the inside," she yawned.
"Oh, hi guys," Vivi said looking around at everyone, "I like your house Tess, the gnomes are really nice! And the mu has given birth to three kits!"
"Aww! That reminds me! Cid you need to do a better check on those monsters for the hunt! One was frightened beyond all belief and the other was pregnant! Pregnant! I couldn't condone someone killing those innocent babies!" Him and Artania just gaped at her, "Promise me you'll do better checks? Please?" They gave each other a look before he nodded.
There was a moment of awkward silence before Cid spoke, "So, uh, who made that bag?" Lailah raised his hand hesitantly, "How did you do it? We could've used something like that during the attack."
"It has some drawbacks," Tessa said. "Like how you don't know what's going on out here when you're in the bag so you may get ambushed."
"I see. But more or less we could use something like that. I have acquired more information on Brahne. A weapons dealer named Kuja is behind the string of attacks. Kuja has been supplying Brahne with highly advanced magic weapons."
"My mother… Supplied with weapons…?" Garnet shivered.
"Yes. The black mages were among these weapons. According to eyewitnesses in Treno, Kuja appeared from the northern sky on a silver dragon."
"That he came from the north suggests that he is from the Outer Continent," Artania supplied.
"Outer… Continent?"
"There are many unexplored continents in the world. The Outer Continent is located above our Mist Continent," Zidane told her.
"I believe Kuja is the only one supplying gwok Brahne with weapons."
"The man I saw at the castle must have been Kuja. He must be the one who is corrupting my mother!"
"So if we beat Kuja," Zidane started.
"Defeat Kuja, and Brahne loses her weapon supply. That will be our cue for a counterattack," Cid said.
"Challenging Brahne now will only result in more casualties," Artania added.
"So we crush the source of the evil!" Zidane smirked.
"Yes. Kuja will find other clients, even if we defeat Brahne."
"I make no excuses for my mother's behavior, but I shan't forgive Kuja for taking advantage of her! But first we must rescue Steiner and the others."
"They'll be fine," Kailynn said leaning against a column.
"How can you say that so casually?" Silver asked.
Zidane nodded, "Over our adventures we've figured out more secrets about these guys than their magical bags. Even if she didn't say so; they're the best dragon knight of Burmecia, the female general of Alexandria, and Rusty… How could they lose? Besides you have me to protect you," he said flirtatiously.
Tessa face-palmed as Vivi and the others joined in their agreement, "I wanna go too…"
"Good! Let's go kick Kuja's butt! Can you lend us the fastest airship in Lindblum."
"Zidane the fastest would need mist," Tessa reminded him, "We wouldn't be able to cross the ocean!"
"What about the new airship, the one that can fly without mist?"
"It hasn't been completed yet. Even so it is now under the enemies control. Brahne gave us two conditions for our surrender; to surrender the new airship and to hand over Gwok the falcon claw…"
"Ohhh!" Tessa slumped, "We worked so hard on it! Who knows what she'll do to it!"
"Don't you know?" Zidane asked.
"I don't remember," she sighed.
"Well the airship I can understand but what does she want with a piece of stone?"
"It's one of the four pieces of a powerful summon," she said slumping over a chair nearby. "It is said to call forth Alexander, a massively powerful holy summon, though how she could even use it I have no idea," she rocked the chair a bit before straightening up like she was smacked with a whip and sat in it properly.
"Alexander!? We need to do more research!" Cid proclaimed.
"Daguerro would have some info on eidolons. We just need to dump Meadow off there."
"Hey!"
"Don't tell me you wouldn't love it! The whole mountain is a library!"
"... I would love it…"
"See? There you go!" Tessa said.
"So let's take a boat!" Zidane suggested, "We can drop Meadow off-..."
"Harbor's also seized."
"Ahhhhhhhhh! What do you want us to do!? Swim!?"
"We fly on wings like eagles!" she grinned impishly, "Just kidding, I wish…"
"There is a way," Cid said. "There's an old excavation site near a swamp located north of the castle. Monsters not native to our continent have been rumored to appear at the excavation site. The cave, which was found during excavation, is rumored to lead to another continent.
"So, you want us to travel through a dark, monster infested, tunnel filled with ancient ruins under thousands of feet of water pressure? Count me in!" Tessa gave a mocking wide mouthed grin and a thumbs up.
Perry snorted, "It's not that bad."
"I know," she grinned, "I really will go. I just wanted to put it into perspective."
"And we don't appreciate it!" Meadow glared, "You know I'm claustrophobic!"
"Oh, it's huge down there! That ain't a problem! I just think about tectonic plates shifting beneath the earths-gaia's crust… Let's go spelunking!" she hopped up.
Zidane shook his head, "I guess we should go then…"
"We'll be fine!" Tessa waved a hand at him and smirked, "Sorry, I love messing with people, but we really will be fine."
Cid shook his head with a smirk, "Please protect princess Garnet everyone!" Tessa saluted while the others nodded or agreed, Kailynn doing it halfheartedly, "It's not much but please use it to prepare for your journey," he handed Garnet a pouch with 3000 gil.
"I'll wait here. Will you guys get my stuff too please?" Vivi asked.
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Zidane said.
