A/N: Huh… not getting' many reviews. Am I losing my touch?
Anyway, since I got at least one review (Thanks for being such a constant and positive reviewer, ShinkuRoze), I'm going to go ahead and write my next chapter. I hope more people come to read this. Although it's not the most popular of my fanfics thus far, it is my favorite and it's the only one I have plans for sequels for.
Here we go! The Delphinus is losing, but Vyse decides to gamble by using his ace in the hole: Fina, Arcadia's most powerful magician. He fully believes that she is the only one with the power to take down Jericho. Will his plan work?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 10: Fina vs. Jericho
"Full speed ahead, Lawrence!" Vyse yelled as he threw his good arm forward. He turned to the talking tube nearby and switched the route to the engineering room. "Hans! Give us everything you've got!" He turned back forward and gripped the edges of his chair. "This is it…"
"I'll do my best to put up a magic barrier to help shield us from incoming cannon fire," Fina said through the talking tube in the see-through mana chamber. "I can't guarantee how much it will help though. The Jericho commands a lot of firepower."
As scared as Vyse was, he couldn't help but grin. The rush of all this was making his stomach do flip-flops, giving him a sick, and yet, exciting feeling. "Good enough Fina. Thanks!"
The Delphinus soared at higher than maximum speed, through a handy assist from Fina, towards Jericho amidst a hail of secondary gun fire. On account of their swift movement, most of the shells either missed them completely or were deflected altogether.
"Alright!" Vyse yelled. "Main cannons, open fire!"
Outside the speeding Delphinus, the thundering crash of cannon-fire roared throughout the open skies. The initial volley struck its mark but did little more damage than the first two waves of torpedoes had done.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Captain Vicente! No damage has been reported from their last volley of cannon-fire," said the Vice Captain of the Jericho. "Just as before, their attacks are proving to be ineffective."
While most men in his position as captain of the most powerful vessel in the world would've been grinning like madmen by now, Vicente instead wore a very neutral expression on his face. He was preoccupied with thoughts of the charging Delphinus, asking himself questions like "What are they thinking?" or "Is this some kind of trick?" He knew that Vyse wasn't stupid. Despite all of short-comings of the former Valuan Armada, It's not everyday that you see someone escape, not once, but twice from the Grand Fortress. Not only that, but this was the same air pirate that took down Lord Galcian, Admiral Ramirez, and all six of the gigas. Vyse obviously had a plan. Discovering what it was, though, may prove to be difficult… unless, of course, they found out too late.
"Very well," he said in reply to his second-in-command. "Are we having any luck with penetrating their barrier?"
The vice captain shook his head. "Not much sir. Some of the secondary cannon shells have penetrated, but, in such small numbers, secondary cannons won't have much effect."
Vicente nodded. The barrier that was defending the Delphinus was another mystery. Sure, it wouldn't last forever, but what could be generating such a shield? Not even De Loco was in the process of developing such a defense, so it couldn't have been stolen or anything. He highly doubted that anyone onboard Delphinus was capable of developing such a device on their own. Something was up, and he had to figure it out before it was too late.
He turned back to the main observation window. "Continue with the defensive barrage. Should they decide to retreat, send a second volley of torpedoes at them. I'm not going to take any chances."
The vice captain saluted. "Yes sir!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Woo!" Gilder yelled excitedly as another shell roared from his turret. "This is the most fun I've had in a while!"
Clara could only stand-by with wide-eyes and hold her hands close to her. How could Gilder be enjoying this?
"Gilder!" she cried. "How can you be enjoying thi- ah!" She ducked and covered herself as a secondary cannon shell hit the hull area to the right of their turret.
Gilder grinned. "Ya missed!" He pressed the auto-loader button to prepare another shell. Once ready, he gave the cannon's large trigger another pull, letting yet another high-caliber shell fly at the Jericho. "Take that!"
Clara stood back up and stamped her foot. "Gilder! Are you nuts!? How can you not be scared at a time like this?!"
Without turning, he replied, "Who said I wasn't" He pressed the auto-loader button once more.
She tilted her head in surprise at him. As far as she could remember, she had never heard him admit that he was scared. "Gilder?"
Gilder pulled the giant trigger once more, sending another shell soaring. "That's right. Even I'm scared now. But… if I lose my cool, then I won't be able to perform to the best of my abilities. Sure, the turrets aren't doing anything against that thing, but Vyse has asked us to try anyway. He has a plan, and it's our job, not just as crewmates, but as friends to help him out in any way possible."
"Well put," thought Clara to herself. It wasn't terribly often that she saw Gilder like this. His serious side, like his fun-loving side, was cool, calm, and collected. However, unlike the latter side of himself, his serious side exuded an aura of great intelligence. It was but one of the many reasons Clara had fallen for Gilder. "But even so, what's with all the hooting and hollering?"
Gilder turned back to her with a smirk. "Well, might as well have fun while I'm at it, right?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Captain, we're almost in range!" exclaimed Lawrence as he turned the wheel furiously in alternating directions in an effort to dodge the hail of cannon-fire coming from the Jericho.
Vyse nodded. This was it. No turning back now. It was "Do or Die" time. "Alright Lawrence, keep at it! Jericho's going down!" He turned back to the mana chamber. "Fina, I want you to concentrate all of your efforts into creating a spell large enough to take that thing down!"
Not opening her eyes, Fina said through the talk-tube, "If I do that, I'll have to drop our defenses. I can't concentrate on so many things at once."
Vyse nodded. "Roger that. If this works, we won't need the defenses anyway. Even if it doesn't, we probably wouldn't last much longer anyway."
She nodded. "I'll do my best. I'm lowering the barrier now."
The moment that the barrier was dropped, the number of secondary cannon strikes on the ships hull became increasingly larger in quantity. Despite this, the Delphinus continued to scream towards its target. Finally, the moment of truth had arrived.
"Captain! We're within the mana cannon's range. Your orders, sir?" Lawrence asked as he continued to struggle with the wheel.
Vyse took a deep breath. He switched the talking tube route to the three remaining turrets and the torpedo room. "All hands! Launch an all-out assault, torpedoes included! Do not let up!" He switched it off again and turned to Fina. "Okay Fina! Do it!"
Her hands had been clasped in prayer while she was preparing her spell. Once ready she opened her eyes, she threw her arms forward and yelled, "Red Moon! Vanquish our foes who stand before us!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sir! It's an all-out attack! They're throwing everything they have left at us!" yelled the Vice Captain.
Vicente turned to his Vice Captain, a disapproving look in his eyes as he did so. "Calm down. If this is their last ace, then they're going to lose horribly. Normal weapons will have little effect on the Jericho."
A young man at a strange looking panel nearby interrupted the two. "Sir! I picking up massive mana readings from the Delphinus!"
Vicente waved his arm in an "I don't care" fashion. "It's just their barrier. Either that or they're speeding up their engines. Nothing to worry about."
The young man continued his protest. "But sir! This is much larger than before! Also, I no longer detect the presence of a barrier or an engine boost of any sort!"
Vicente wheeled around to face the young man with a shocked look on his face. "What?!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shortly afterward, a large fireball about the size of a small meteor was brought into existence by the mana cannon atop the bridge of the Delphinus and was sent hurtling at the Jericho. Less than ten seconds later, it, along with a hail of torpedoes and cannon shells impacted into the front side of the Jericho. The flash of light and the sound of the explosion were enough to make one grab their head in pain.
Anyone, that is, except Vyse. The intensity of the light and boom of the explosion pained his eyes and ears to no end but he didn't care. He was going to see this through to the end. "Fina… did you really do it?" he asked himself quietly.
As the light and echoing noise died, everyone uncovered their eyes and ears to see if the Jericho had truly been destroyed. All of their mouths and eyes widened in horror once they did so. The Jericho… was still in one piece. Several small fires had broken out on the hull, but no considerable amount of damage had been caused.
"It… it can't be," Lawrence barely uttered through his own fear.
"Impossible! There's no way that thing could have survived that!" exclaimed the seemingly defeated captain.
A panting Fina was crying as she was lying on the floor of the mana chamber. "I-I'm sorry everyone. I wasn't s-s-strong enough."
The world moved in slow motion as the Jericho launched a full counter-attack on the Delphinus. Without the barrier and the engine boost, the secondary cannons proceeded to land well over a hundred strikes on the hull of the Delphinus. Everyone on board the Delphinus was thrown violently around as the blows to the hull shook everything on board to-and-fro. The world went black.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fina awakened on the floor of the bridge, having been thrown from the safety of the mana chamber. Looking around, she saw that no one on the bridge was moving except for Lawrence who somehow was on his knees, steering the ship in a very tight circle around the Jericho, perhaps to give the ship defilade from the sky fortress' cannons. Looking around, she saw Vyse nearby… with a bleeding wound on his head.
She feebly crawled over to Vyse, sobbing as she did so. "Vyse… no, please… you… you can't…"
She reached him and ran her hands over him, searching for any signs of life, short of a pulse since she had never taken one before. "…be… dead."
Lawrence turned slightly to Fina, who had just now noticed that she was there. "Miss Fina, I'm sorry, but I think we're done for. All I can do here is delay the inevitable." He normally wasn't the sensitive type, being a mercenary and all, but even he was heart-broken by the look that Fina gave him after she thought Vyse was dead. "Miss Fina, I'm terribly sorry about Vyse. I… I just don't have the words." He took a deep breath and went back to being a professional. If he was going to die, he was going to do it like a professional. All I can say is that you are now the captain by default. I am still under contract, and shall serve you until the end if necessary."
Fina hugged Vyse close to her body, let her tears run onto his sweaty and slightly bloody face. She brushed his now uncombed bangs aside did what she thought was wrong earlier by kissing him gently on the forehead. "First Aika… now Vyse and… and Gilder, Clara, and everyone else. This has to be a nightmare… it just has to be." She set him down as gently as possible and stood up. She looked back down at his fallen body. "Vyse… I can't live in a world without you," she whispered as she walked away. "This one is for you."
She walked over to Lawrence and whispered a few words as a green aura surrounded her. "Green Moon… please bless this man." Just as before with Vyse, Lawrence's wounds healed and his pain slowly faded away. She helped him to stand up.
"Thank you Miss Fina," he said with a small bow. "I am grateful for your kindness."
Fina looked out of the busted observation window that lead directly to the main deck and stared at the Jericho as they circled around it. She walked towards the broken window slowly and gracefully. "Mr. Lawrence, your first and last order is to pull away from Jericho and turn us around so that we are facing it. Then, if they are still operational, I want you to take one of the life-boats and try to escape. There's no sense in you dying too."
Even Lawrence couldn't take this. She was going to go down with the ship and there was nothing he could do or say to change her mind. An order was an order but… "…as you wish, Miss Fina. It… has truly been an honor to serve you and Captain Vyse," he said quietly as he gave the wheel a hard turn.
She turned back once with a very small smile on her face. "Thank you for everything Lawrence. We couldn't have had a better helmsman. I wish you luck in all your future journeys." She turned back around and walked out on the deck through the shattered window.
A few sub-cannons opened fire from the Jericho on the Delphinus as it attempted to get away. The Delphinus suffered only a few hits as they reached a minimum combat distance and Lawrence spun the ship around.
He walked slowly away from the wheel as he saw the motionless Fina standing on the deck with her head bowed and her hands clasped together in prayer. "Farewell… Fina."
He walked past the body of Vyse and stopped dead in his tracks. He turned back around and knelt down next to Vyse. Something didn't feel right. None of his wounds seemed very serious upon closer inspection and he had begun to wonder if Fina had properly checked his vital signs. He took the glove off of his right hand and put the middle and index fingers to his captain's throat and checked for a pulse. His eyes shot open. "Oh no…" he whispered as he stood back up and ran to the shattered window. "Fina! MISS FINA!! Vyse is still alive! You don't ha-"
"Silver Moon!" Fina cried to the heavens as she threw her arms upward. "Please, help me in my darkest hour! For the sake of the world, I beg you! Stop the Jericho! PLEASE!!!" Her tears fell to the deck as kept her arms suspended high in the air.
Lawrence was doing his best to get Fina's attention but was having no luck in doing so. "Miss Fina!" he yelled frantically. At this point, he knew he had to take matters into his own hands if he was going to save her and Captain Vyse as well. He stepped out onto the deck, but only took a few steps before he stopped suddenly as something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He looked upward and his mouth dropped as he witnessed the source of his attention: from the silver moon, what appeared to be a meteor, no, a moonstone was screaming downward. This one was larger than normal and was even bigger than the fireball Fina had created earlier.
He watched as the moonstone continued on its course and realized that the Jericho was in its path! He began putting the pieces together. "Did Fina call this? Does she really have that kind of power?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vicente smiled a victorious smile as he saw the dormant Delphinus floating with easy firing range of the Jericho. "Heh… it's over. Farewell… Vyse the Legend! Farewell to the Blue Rogues!" He turned to his vice captain. "Open fire! Hold nothing back! I want that ship to be pulverized into mere atoms!"
Before the vice captain could reply, the young man at the panel interrupted them again. "Sir! There's an immense object coming straight at us!"
He turned to the young man. "Impossible! The Delphinus isn't returning fire and there are no other ships to be seen anywhere!"
The young man waved his arms upward frantically. "Not in the open skies sir, but from… from… the moon!"
The vice captain stepped forward and said, "Ridiculous! How could something attack us from… the… moon…" It was then that he realized what was going on. He turned to Vicente who must've realized it before he himself had, for he was already staring towards the upper skies.
"…the rains?" the vice captain asked fearfully.
Vicente did not turn to him. "Fu-"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It wasn't quite the rains… but it was enough. The meteor-like moonstone just missed the bridge as it ripped through and completely annihilated the lower half of the Jericho. It continued its descent towards Deep Sky and took the remains of the lower half of Jericho with it.
Lawrence fell backward and looked at the destruction. "By the moons!!" He looked back toward Fina who looked as calm as could be. She slowly brought her arms back down and watched as the remaining half of Jericho slowly fell towards Deep Sky. "What power," he thought to himself. "There's no doubt about it. She truly is the most powerful being in Arcadia. Not even Ramirez could bring down the rains without Soltis or the Moon Crystals. What brought out so much power from within her? Was it…"
As he stood up, another man limped past him and Lawrence looked on as he did so. "…heh. Today is just full of miracles."
The man walked up to the unsuspecting Fina and embraced her with his bloodied arms. "Fina…" he whispered in her ear.
She turned around in surprise and could have died from pure joy when she saw who it was. "Vyse! Y-you're alive! I-I-I thought you were…"
"Dead?" he said, completing her sentence with a smile. "Not a chance. I still have too much to live for." He held her as tightly as possible. "Thank you Fina. You've saved us all."
She smiled back at him. "Vyse, I-"
"Captain Vyse! Miss Fina! Look!" yelled Lawrence. "A heavy scout-class cruiser is emerging from the remains of Jericho! It must be an escape ship!"
From inside the bridge, Vicente's voice crackled over the damaged communications panel. "Damn you Blue Rogues! And damn that woman that destroyed my fortress! You'll pay for this! It isn't over yet!"
The cruiser turned in the direction of the Delphinus and soared at top speed toward it. It seemed to have every intention of destroying the seemingly defenseless Delphinus.
"No!" yelled Fina as she clasped her hands together again. She glowed once more, but it quickly died as she fell to the deck in utter exhaustion. " huff huff I-I can't do anything. I have no energy left. I'm sorry Vyse…"
Vyse kneeled down and held her close to his chest. "Close your eyes Fina. It's best if we don't look." Together, they closed their eyes as Lawrence stood motionless as he watched the cruiser approach them.
The boom of a large cannon echoed through the skies but it was not from the cruiser. Rather, it had come from the Delphinus. Lawrence couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the shell hit the front hull of the cruiser, causing it to shake violently and leaving a considerable hole in the shell's wake.
Lawrence looked back to the bridge and saw that everyone who was in there before was up and more-or-less about. From the talking-tube panel next to the captain's chair, Gilder and Clara both could be heard yelling, "Woo! We got 'em!"
Vyse and Fina opened their eyes in joy as they heard their voices. "They're alive!" they said together. They both looked to the bridge and saw what Lawrence had seen. "And they're alive too!" said Fina happily.
"Ahh! Damnit!" cried Vicente through the communications panel. "Retreat! Retreat!" The cruiser promptly turned around and headed towards Nasrean lands.
Lawrence helped the two young pirates up. "Your orders?"
Fina and Lawrence got to either side of Vyse and helped in limp back into the bridge. He thought for a moment and looked up. "Follow them."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The pursuit was very slow and took them past both Maramba and Nasrad. The skies gradually grew to a crimson shade of red as they neared the resort city of Esparanza, the city of reborn hope.
"Captain Vyse," started Lawrence, "we've reached the city of Esparanza but the cruiser is still going. It looks like… it looks like it's heading for the Dark Rift."
A slightly bandaged Gilder brought a hand to his chin. "What is he thinking? His ship won't make it through the rift in that condition."
"He's not going completely through it," stated Vyse, matter-of-factly. "My guess is that he's going to hide in the rift until he can repair his ship. THEN he might try to escape through Yafutoma. We can't give him that chance."
Clara turned to Vyse. "But how? The Delphinus is in worse shape than that cruiser. We'll have less of a chance getting through the Dark Rift than they will."
"Simple," said Vyse in the same manner as before. "Remember that ship we captured earlier? I'll send a message to Crescent Island and have them bring the ship to Esparanza along with a repair crew. By tomorrow morning, we should be able to continue our pursuit while the Delphinus is being repaired."
Fina looked up from her task of healing the injuries of her fellow crewmates. "Good idea Vyse, but what are we going to do until then?"
Vyse put his hand to the bandage on his head. "We rest in Esparanza. Let's enjoy ourselves. I think we've all earned it."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the sun began to set over the horizon, the party of four walked out of one of the many fine restaurants that littered the tourist map of Esparanza. The food was good, but the fact they were given free meals in thanks for destroying the possible Neo-Valuan scourge before it ever had a chance to make any progress made it even better.
"Whew! Good eatin'!" Gilder exclaimed as he rubbed his stomach. "Nothing like a good plate of Dark Sardis and Rice and a bottle of Blue Loqua to ease one's stress and hunger!" He then let out an embarrassingly loud belch.
Everyone couldn't help but laugh at this. "Hehe. Piggy!" said Clara.
Vyse looked over at Fina and Cupil. "Heh… even Cupil ate well!"
"Cuu-urp!" Cupil half-said and half-belched.
Fina giggled. "Silly Cupil."
Clara looked all around her, taking in the lights of the city that were just now flickering to life. "Well then. What should we do now?"
"I feel like going for a walk," Vyse said as he stretched. "Looks like a nice night for it."
Fina turned to him. "Umm… can I come with you?"
Vyse nodded. "Of course you can! You're always welcome around me."
She blushed and bowed slightly. "T-thank you Vyse."
Vyse smiled at her and turned to a grinning Gilder and Clara. "What about you two?"
Gilder spoke first. "Eh, I'm a bit tired actually. Think I may turn in early tonight."
Clara nodded in agreement. "Same here. Might do a little star-gazing before I turn in though. Despite the presence of the Dark Lift, I hear that the stars situated above it are really pretty, for whatever reason."
Vyse nodded to them. "Alright then, I guess we split paths here. I guess I'll see you both tomorrow then?"
They both nodded. "Right," said Gilder. "See ya tomorrow then. Don't stay up too late, ok?"
Vyse shot Gilder a thumbs-up. "Gotcha."
Clara waved to them. "Good-night you two! And…" She giggled. "Good luck Fina!"
Fina looked at her. "Huh?"
Clara began to walk after Gilder. "Oh nothing! Later!"
Fina turned to Vyse. "What did she mean, Vyse?"
Vyse grinned at shook his head at their departing friends. "Oh nothing. Just Clara being… silly." He turned back to her. "Come on, let's go. It's gonna be a nice night." He put his arm around her and began to walk with her.
She looked up at him and smiled without him knowing. As they walked, she laid her head down to rest on Vyse's shoulder. She closed her eyes. "Moons…" she whispered to herself. "Thank you… for saving Vyse."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frickin' wow! 4,000 words! My longest chapter for any story ever! Hope you all enjoyed it! Anyway, the next chapters will detail what each group did while in town. First will be Vyse and Fina and then comes Gilder and Clara. Fluffy stuff is on the way ASAP! Please review!