Split Ends

Introduction: Hey! Wahoo, 5th chapter! It's going to get a little bloodier after this chapter as the battle ensues and we find out what Llednar's really up to. A few old characters appear in this chapter more for comic relief than anything. Enjoy!

Italics- thoughts, memories, etc Bold- actions, important stuff

V

*****

      "Kupopo! Sir! You must wake up Sir!"

     Mewt opened his eyes feverishly and tried to sit up. One swift movement and his body screamed at him again, wailing in pain. His head spun until he was so dizzy he doubled over and vomited onto the hard wooden floor. Someone blue and fuzzy jumped back from where he'd coughed up blood.

   Mewt sat there for a second, waiting for the flow of pain to ease. His double vision was slowly going back to normal thankfully. As his eyes refocused and the ringing in his ears settled, he peered at the blue fuzzy thing. The thing turned out to be a moogle, a moogle he didn't recognize at all.

   That did not comfort him. Stuck in some dank and dreary place with a stranger was not pleasant. But he didn't have time to think about that. I have to find the others.

   "Are you feeling better?" The moogle questioned, staring at the blood with unease. "You're lucky you didn't die!"

     It slightly surprised Mewt that he had been near death, but he regained his spinning head. "Who are you?"

  "I am Nono good sir! Nono the gadgeteer, brother to the black mage Montblanc!"

"Montblanc?" the name was familiar. But his head was still spinning wildly, so he couldn't put his finger on it…

  "Yes! Montblanc! He's been traveling with a boy about your age! Except he had a much bigger bounty on his head and he was searching for the Prince!" Nono beamed, hopping up and down in an excited fashion. "He even helped me retrieve my ship from the Jagds!!"

   "Boy? Prince?" Mewt was only hearing bits and pieces of what Nono was saying. But after a moment or two he caught on. "Oh! Marche! Marche was looking for me."

  "You?" Nono eyed Mewt warily. "You… wait a minute… You're the Prince!!"
  "Yes…" Mewt took a deep breath, just to make sure he still could. A pang in his side told him that he had not fully recovered from the blow he took from Llednar. He felt down his abdomen and found someone had bandaged up his stomach. What the…?

   Nono didn't seem to notice his surprise. "If you're the Prince, why'd the palace templars throw you in here? You got blood everywhere when they brought you, poor thing. I asked those guys for bandages and quite luckily they had some!" He gestured toward the corner of the damp room lined with stone, where three figures were huddled together. "There wasn't too much to bandage, you already had a good deal on you."

  "What?" Mewt racked his mind. He didn't remember anything like that. He took a look around the room he was in, quickly trying to note where he was. The answer popped into his mind almost instantly. "I'm in Sprohm Prison?!"

    "Yes you are!" Nono said, bouncing onto his lap. "I don't know what you did, but I've been hearing a lot about how the Prince took the laws away and did away with his personal mage. The judgemaster has disappeared, and Marche has a bounty on his head for murdering the Queen!"

  "Babus…" Mewt thought a moment. "Nono… what else has happened?"
 "The Prince said someone was trying to impersonate him and to not believe him…" Nono cocked his head. "But if you're the real prince…"

   "I am!" Mewt reassured him. "The totema's names are Famfrit, Ultima, Mateus-

  "I believe you! I believe you!" Nono reassured him. "If you knew Marche's name and speak of him as a friend that means you must know him personally! The true Prince would never throw Babus out!"

   "Nono…" Mewt smiled, he was very grateful to the moogle. "Nono we have to get out of here! Marche, Ritz, Babus, your brother, they could all be in big trouble!"

   The moogle did not question him. "Yes! Yes! We will get out!" He put a finger to one of his chubby cheeks and thought. "Hmmm…"

   "Oi, Nono," one of the guys in the corner called. "Is Mewt all right?"

  Nono beamed, "Yes! He's fine!"

    Mewt cocked his head. "How do they know…?"

  The three emerged from the shadows, and Mewt's eyes widened. "Lyle? Colin? Guiness?"

    Lyle took off his green beret and bowed. "At your service."

 "How did- what are you- but I thought-

 Colin laughed as he leaned on his sword. "Don't worry Mewt, we won't pick on you anymore. We found you when that weird blond kid blasted you and got you an ambulance. They managed to bandage the worst of your wounds… but not all of them."

   Guiness fixed his turban. "Yea, then the world changed again like last time. Except now we're dressed in these get ups instead of being zombies."

   "You guys were zombies?" It was hard to believe that a hunter (Lyle), a soldier (Colin) and a paladin (Guiness) were once zombies. *Author's Note: This is actually true in the game, in one early game mission (forgot which one) Lyle, Colin, and Guiness are the names of three zombies you must defeat.*

   "Yup," Lyle stepped forward. "Anyway, we want to help you against that creepy blond kid. Apparently he's been posing as you." 

   "Yea, but we can see right through his crap can't we?" Guiness nudged Colin and chuckled. "We're done with bullying, and we want to make sure no one else will bully you either Mewt."

  "Whoa, back up," Mewt said, waving his hands in front of him. "Are you saying you want to be my friends?"

   The three of them nodded. Mewt clapped a hand on his forehead. This was one of the last things he'd ever expected to happen. "Ok… why? Don't you hate me?"

  The three stared at the ground. "We never hated you Mewt, but we were all unhappy with our lives. So we took to picking on people… and we're sorry. We never meant to truly hurt you Mewt."

  Mewt stared at them for a moment before he extended his hand to Lyle. "Thank you. Friends?"

  "Friends!" The three chorused, Lyle shaking Mewt's hand.

   "The little dude here," Colin gestured to Nono. "Thinks maybe he can build us a cannon, if we can bust up a wall or two."

  "The walls in the prison are all linked to other cells, only one wall faces the outside, but it's invincible. Except for the window," Guiness pointed to a small window a couple feet above them. "Lyle's been shooting arrows at it for an hour, and the bars have worn down. Nono here figures if he can make a cannon we can blast out the window."

   Mewt still couldn't believe what he was hearing. They were serious; they truly wanted to help him. This might take some getting used to. "All right… and guys… thanks."

  "Anytime," Colin nodded. He turned to the other two and Nono. "You heard Mewt, we're set. Let's get to work!"

    Mewt felt bad for the other prisoners on the other side of the walls. Because the most Lyle could do was shoot arrows, Nono, Colin, and Guiness had to take up the task of blasting apart the stone walls. The racket was incredible, and Mewt wondered whether or not someone had heard them.

   Finally the stones in one wall gave way, one falling and landing on a board Nono was standing on. Nono was catapulted upward and over, looking utterly confused. He ended up flying right through the bars and skidding to a stop behind the desk where the bangaa receptionist had stood just a second before.

   They looked at each other, and then at Nono. "Nono, get the keys!!" Colin hissed. The moogle nodded brightly after chasing the stars away and scuttled around behind the desk, quiet as a mouse. Gently he popped the ring of keys off the tack they were slung around, and bounded back to the cage, not making any sound at all.

   Mewt was speechless. "How did you do that?!" he whispered. Nono beamed. "I was a thief once!"

   Lyle threw a key into the lock and turned it. The door swung open with a long creak. Colin cringed. "Let's pray no one heard that. Come on."

   The five of them crept along the wall down the hall and out the back door. When they passed other cells they made it look as if they had come to visit someone. They had dressed Mewt in a spare illusionist's outfit the moment they reached the storage room, where the bangaa templars had stored most of the prisoners' weaponry and armor.

     Mewt fiddled with the sleeves, the disguise was just a little too big. But he did not complain; he did not want to ruin their chances of escaping. Colin snagged a black mage's hat so he wouldn't be discovered, and the other two took up a sniper costume and an elementalist costume respectively.

   Guiness giggled under his elementalist costume. "How do I look?" he whispered, modeling for Lyle. Lyle, in the sniper costume, suppressed a laugh. "Beautiful darling, beautiful!"

   The two busted out in silent laughter. Nono appeared from behind some boxes. "Would you guys stop fooling around?" he hissed. The two boys took one look at him and doubled over in laughter. Nono was wearing a juggler costume, which on him made it look slightly ridiculous.

   Colin shushed them. "Shut up!"

  Lyle and Guiness silenced, and Colin came to them. "Change into a different costumes you loons! The bangaa are bound to notice you're not viera!"

   Lyle shook his head. "Bangaa may be strong, but they have poor eyesight. Besides…" He smiled wickedly, "They'll only see us for a moment."

    Colin sighed, throwing up his arms. "Fine, do whatever you want. Can we go now?!"

 Mewt beckoned them forward, peering through a crack. "Ok… the coast is clear, let's go."

   The five snuck out of the storage room, and Mewt closed the door behind them. As they walked down the aisles of prisoners, a few catcalled to Lyle and Guiness, who giggled like viera and played with their skirts.

   When they passed the bangaa guard Lyle bent his head in to whisper to Colin, "See? Even the prisoners were fooled."

   They trotted out into the moonlight, all of them beaming proudly. Mewt laughed lightly, "That wasn't so bad… it could've gone much worse."

  Lyle looked around. "Wow, this place is dead."

Guiness rubbed his chin, slightly dismantling his veil. "Really. Now let's get out of here before anyone realizes we left." They started walking to the exit of town.

   Colin froze, a grave look on his face. "Do you hear that?"

Guiness and the others stopped. "Hear what?" Then his eyes widened. "Uh oh…"

  Mewt touched Lyle's shoulder. "What's going on?"

 Lyle's eyes were wide. "It's the templar war cry!"

  Mewt looked confused. "What does that mean?"

Nono bolted. "It means they know we've gone!! They're sounding the alarm!"

   "Run!" bellowed Lyle, and all five took off in a hurry. "We have to find some mode of transportation to get us to Cyril quickly!"

   "Like what?!" cried Nono as he bounced along with them. "I don't have any material to build an airship!"

   Colin looked around wildly. Off to their right across a field stood three chocobos. "There!" He pointed. "Giant chickens! We'll use those!"

  "They're called chocobos you dork!" growled Guiness. "Haven't any of you ever played Final Fantasy? I'm sure Mewt has. Mewt? Mewt?"

   Lyle whirled around to see Mewt lagging behind, tripping over his robes ever couple of seconds. "Mewt!!!" they all cried at once, and dashed back over to him.

  A bangaa store clerk, who had just gone out to sweep his front stoop, saw them run past. He whistled. "That'ss the hottesst pair of vierass I've ever sseen!"

   Lyle grabbed Mewt's arm. "Come on Mewt, we've got to get out of here!"

  "I… can't…" breathed Mewt. Guiness saw the problem instantly. "Lyle! His wounds have reopened!"

   Lyle's mind raced. "Come on Mewt, on my back."

 Mewt looked up at him wearily. The pain in his abdomen was increasing. "A-Are you sure?"

  "Positive," Lyle said as he hauled Mewt unto his back. "Now hang tight. Come on let's go!"

   Colin glanced back at the templars approaching. "We've wasted too much time! Let's move!!!"
   They bolted toward the field where the three chocobos stood. As they ran the templars were shooting rasp at their feet. "Thank god the viera wear skimpy outfits or we'd never be able to make it!"

   Guiness nodded, panting. "No kidding, in a turban and cape I couldn't run half as fast!"

 "Hurry up!" Colin sped ahead, reining in the three chocobos. He mounted on one and pulled Nono into his lap. "Lyle! Take Mewt onto this one!"

    Lyle nodded, but just as he approached the chocobo, Mewt slumped over backward. "Mewt! Hang on!"

    Although he was losing his grip over Mewt's legs he swung one arm over the chocobo's neck and leaped on. He pulled the half unconscious Mewt up next, leaning him against the back of the chocobo's neck. "Mewt! Mewt wake up!"

   "Lyle! What's wrong with Mewt?" Guiness cried from his position on the chocobo.

  "We're losing him!!"

 "Let's get out of here! To Cyril, we can find someone to help him there!!" Colin cried, glancing back briefly at the templars approaching. He flicked the reins and the chocobo took off. "Let's go!"

   The three chocobos sprinted off into the night. Mewt leaned on one's back, the pain blinding him. Lyle's face was blurring. "Hang on Mewt! Hang on…"

**To Be Continued**