Authors notes: I think it's time to address an issue that most Breath of Fire fan fictions have in common: Nina. Now first of all in my opinion, Nina's personality in the games was a bit too… bland for my taste. When playing Breath of Fire IV and Dragon Quarter, I would find it perfectly acceptable (in IV especially) if the events that happened to Nina left her with a huge reservoir of rage.
Now of course I can't just have her flying off the handle for no reason, so what you're going to see instead during the next couple of chapters is what exactly has got Nina so angry.
The reason this chapter is up later than previously intended was the person who functions as my editor has been absent of late so I threw up my hands and said "Screw it" and submitted it myself.
Capcom owns breath of Fire, I lay no claim to the intellectual property therein, this document is purely for entertainment.
Chapter 2
Will our Evil Genius please sign in?
The lift shuddered to a stop, snapping Nina out of her internal monologue and back to the present. Lights flickered on with a hum as it sensed movement in the room, illuminating the contents of the dig. Nina almost wished they stayed off.
Directly in front of Nina was a distinct line when the facility ended and the ruins began, metal walkways shifting abruptly into rock worn smooth. A wall, the same black gray color as the seabed it rested on was showing signs of disrepair: Chunks that had left jagged edges in the wall as a result of impacts of one variety or another, irregularities worn into the wall with the motion of the waves, and the entire thing was covered with a light layer of moss. Nina walked over to the wall, her footsteps echoing uncomfortably loud in the room. Wiping through the moss she noticed the remnants of an angular script. Hugging her arms around herself to handle the chill that had little to do with the temperature of the room, she closed her eyes and started inhaling deeply to prevent herself from hyperventilating.
For as far as Nina could tell this was the place she had felt from upstairs, the creppy'got-to-frequently-look-over-your-shoulder-at-every-stray-sound' urge was much stronger down here. No wonder she could feels it's creepy vibe from all the way up in the tower. Opening her eyes she inhaled a sharp breath as she saw the rooms centerpiece beyond the crumbling wall: A circle raised off the ground, its construction clearly differing from that of the wall in that the script that ran along the border was smooth and connected, a harsh contrast to the angular and separate runes on the wall. The main eye catcher though was the illustration: two dragons locked in bloody combat. The first, a red dragon, had its foot on the stomach of a dragon of ebony, preventing it from moving anywhere, while the second dragon, in a attempt to move the foot of the first, was racking its claws on it's oppressor's leg and lower torso, sending down rivulets of blood.
Sweet mercy. She knelled down next to the ellipse and began to slowly read the script on the border. If she did this correctly, she would never after to do another job for these horrible people ever again. If she messed up… Nina slowly turned her eyes to the metal plated dome that surrounded the dig site, holding back thousands of gallons of seawater. I would have to learn how to swim pretty damn quickly.
--
"Hey!" Ryu turned away from the chopper that was just lifting off the deck. Behind him was Momo, squinting into the setting sun. "What happened here?" Ryu managed a short shrug.
"I do not know. The paramedics said he was having an allergic reaction to something. One moment he was fine and the next he was gagging a lot and his face was turning strange colors."
"Poor guy. Listen, I have ahemfound a situation which requires your… particular attention. I'll explain on the way down." She said gesturing to the lift behind her.
"I understand" As the pair walked to the lift, Ryu looked back at the helicopter, now a speck in the sky.
"Don't worry. I'm sure he'll be fine"
"I hope so"
--
When the doctor came to, he felt miserable: he had a pounding headache, his throat was sore to the point where it hurt to swallow, and he felt a mild burning in his chest. Forcing his bleary eyes to focus, he found that he was in a small space with a great noise about it. Helicopter. I'm in a helicopter.
A voice squeaked next to his ear "Don't you worry doc: you've regained normal respiration and that means when we get back, you'll be ready for interrogation!" Cheerful that voice is. Too Cheerful.
"Not… you." He managed to croak out.
"What? I go all this way to see you and you're thinking I'm not good enough for you! Fine," the voice said with an indignant sniff "I can take a hint. Pass me the syringe would ya?" Dr. Campbell's world went black as he heard a cheerful "Nighty night"
--
I'll admit that when I started this I was a little nervous. But I think I can do this. Nina thought to herself looking over the rune-etched ellipse. I think. Now if the runes run clock wise, then… the next switch would be somewhere over…here. She thought pressing down on a section of the circle that gave way under the weight of her hand. A satisfied grin spread itself across her face as the circle rotated a quarter turn clockwise, a clunck filling the room as two pieces in the ancient mechanism fitted together. All right. Now for the last one- her train of thought came to a sudden halt as the sound of whistling filled the dome. She was unable to identify the song but someone else was here… and was whistling a tune? What in blazes?
Nina's eyes flicked back and forth rapidly for the possible source of the sound, finding nothing but the wall behind her and to her right. Since I would have heard the lift come down, then he's somewhere near the opposite edge of the dome.
Where is it coming from! "Show yourself!" She cried as she drew a pistol hidden in her left sleeve. She had just gotten the weapon out when she felt an impact briefly on her left shoulder, an impact that quickly turned into searing pain that threw her back onto the stone oval.
Turning to her left she saw her attacker; the first thing she noticed was that he was not exactly dressed for a day at the beach. Actually the first thing that she noticed was that she was bleeding from her wound in her shoulder, however what Nina had learned long ago that worrying over a wound was secondary to worrying about an attacker who could inflict multiple wounds of a similar nature.
Her attacker was dressed in a suit apparently intended for covert ops; black was the theme here: Black leggings, black boots and a black suit. Nina was familiar enough with this uniform to assume there was also a fair amount of Kevlar in this particular variety. Her eyes were drawn to the only non-black item on her assailant's wrist, a device that appeared to be a small metallic gray box at first glance, but soon her eye was unwillingly tugged to three gun barrels arranged in a circle recessed inside the box.
"Why'd you do it Nina?" Nina's eyes moved from his weapon to his face, devious green eyes residing under spiky brow hair. It was only later that she realized his face was just a bit too pale. "We would've have both left the dig very wealthy people: me, with a copy of the security database and you," he continued gesturing at her "with a small fortune. After, of course the standard vow never to speak of any of these events again"
"…They say you're insane" Nina managed, trying to apply pressure to the wound.
"HA!" he replied barking a small laugh "Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music"
"…And you can?"
"Of course. But that's neither here nor there. We're not talking about the music here, we're talking about you." He said beginning to advance on her prone form. "Keep in mind I didn't choose your name out of a hat. Oh no. I did research, I contacted all two-dozen of your previous employers and the one thing they all said was that you followed your orders to the letter Nina, to the letter. So Nina, what was it that made you forsake, quite possibly, the easiest payoff of your career?" Leaning down so their faces were almost touching, he finished by almost yelling, "What was it that I. DIDN'T. KNOW?"
All of the elements for a successful interrogation were present: Nina, lying prone on an archeological find in no immediate danger of dying but the bleeding very worrisome. Her attacker, in a dominant position and pissed beyond the belief of rational men, with the means to extract answers from his employee turned captive. However, like in any other comparable setting, the mood can be shattered most abruptly, from a most unexpected direction.
In this case that would be the lift dinging as it opened its doors to the dig site.
He raised an eyebrow at the noise and to Nina's surprise, threw her a mock salute "Well. Suppose it could be worse," he said grinning. "Suppose I could be bored"
End of Chapter.