Isobelle ducked into the Tantalus hideout with a little caution.
'Isobelle?' Blank called from behind her and climbed through the fallen down beams to where she was standing. 'Well, at least this place is mend-able and none of Tantalus are here…' Blank stated seriously whilst Isobelle looked around dismally.
'The whole city has been ruined, and for what?' she growled angrily. She fought her way through the rubble again and ran to the air cabs
'Iso…Isobelle! Where are you going!' Blank shouted after her as she climbed onto a cab to the castle. As soon as the cab touched down she raced up towards the lift that would take her to Cid. She smiled at the guard, someone who looked nothing more than 20.
'Say…why is someone like you cramped in a place like this?' she asked the guy, one of the few Lindblum guards around. He went a little red 'oh wow, that's an interesting lift…' she hinted, twirling a bit of her hair around her finger and looking up through her eyelashes. He smiled at her as she went up towards the lift 'wow…' she stated as she slipped into the meshing of the lift and pressed up 'oh no! sorry, I'll come right back down again!' she cackled afterwards and then brushed down her skirt. When she got to the top of the lift, she stepped out carefully and then ducked behind a statue as a guard walked past. Slipping cautiously into the mechanic room, she slid up the winding stairs until she was atop the balcony with the telescope. Dammit, how can I get to Cid. She thought as she made her way over towards the telescope. She leant on the wall beside her and heard voices below her. Twisting round and looking down, she saw the throne, the minister she'd seen earlier and Zidane. She smiled and climbed over the wall, edging herself down, she managed to push herself forwards so that she landed at Cid's (the throne's) feet. All of the people turned round to her. She stood up, a scowl on her face.
'Why is the city destroyed?' She asked cautiously, knowing that if she made any sudden moves, anything more than just talking, the guards would grab her and throw her out of the city.
'Isobelle.' Zidane said, causing her to look at him 'Isobelle, calm down!' he told her sternly, and she growled.
'Every where's destroyed,' she said, her voice rising 'and I just want to know why.' She carried on and then took a step towards Zidane 'I just want to know.' She looked around at the people around her 'I want to know why some of the best people I have known have been killed.' She bit her lip, the death, the destruction; it was all around, clawing at her lively self, making her feel drained.
'Isobelle…' Garnet took a step forwards. 'Why you had to make such an entrance I don't know, we were going to come find you once we were finished here.' she smiled at the girl 'Why don't you go outside with one of these knights and calm yourself.' Isobelle looked around at everyone, their fake, plastic smiles, their happiness. She sighed, she wasn't going to get through to them.
'no, forget it.' She turned to the general of Lindblum and sunk to one knee 'I'm sorry I disturbed you.' She got up again and met no one's eye. 'I'll see you guys later.' She mumbled as she was escorted to the lifts again, barely seeing what she went past, Isobelle couldn't think. Taking the air cab to the business district, she ran across the street into the inn, slapped down the money for a room, ran into the room without the moogle and locked the door, pulled the windows closed and sunk into a corner.
The Hideout was never where I would have called home anyway. Home, maybe it's about whom, not where? Home is supposed to be safety, where you can be yourself. I'm always myself, even faced with royalty. But not everywhere is my home…oh; it's all so confusing… Isobelle's thought lagged into silence as she heard someone's footsteps on the stairs. They were light, which dispelled any thought of it being Blank in his boots. She stood up and wiped the tears away from her cheeks as someone knocked tentatively on her door.
'Isobelle?' Garnet's voice asked, trying to sound friendly she always tries too hard at everything… Isobelle strolled over and opened the door to the princess, who stepped in cautiously …too hard to be normal, too hard to be a summoner, too hard to be the good girl… 'Isobelle! We finally found you, the guard said you'd taken off, we couldn't understand why, I mean, I know you were upset but…' the princess wound down when she saw Isobelle loose interest '…Blank's been going frantic.' She added, Isobelle felt a pain in her heart, she'd left Blank with no reason of what she was doing, she didn't know how long she had been gone, but a few hours would be a good guess, if a little underestimated. …too hard to be caring, too hard to make sure everything she does has a consequence, too hard… 'What's wrong Isobelle?' Garnet sat down on the bed by the window, looking up at Isobelle, who was concentrating on pouring out tea into two cups. She handed one to Garnet silently 'Is it about Lindblum? Because it was your home?' Isobelle slipped into her corner again
'How do you know Alexandria is your home?' Isobelle said, looking down at her tea and subconsciously swirling her finger on the top of the liquid, as if her finger was an ice skater. Garnet faltered, looked away, out the window and back again
'It just is. I've lived there all my life…' …too hard at answering honest questions, too hard at thinking over her memories… '…same as Lindblum is to you.' She rounded off; Isobelle hadn't looked at her for all that time. She got up and looked out the window.
'Lindblum isn't my home, it was my friends' home.' She explained and took a sip of her tea then rounded on Garnet, her eyes piercing Garnet's innocent face 'Why was it destroyed?' she raged out, seeming to fill the room with her presence.
'Mother…Queen Brahne, she's power crazed. She's wiped out all the major kingdoms of the mist continent. I fear she wants to take over the world.' Garnet got up and looked across the room 'she stole my eidolons and then used them against me, I need to stop her.' …too hard at being there, too hard at being the heroic one, too hard… Isobelle looked away from the princess and opened the door.
'Where's Blank?' she asked as she started down the stairs, aiming the question at the princess who was following her, trying to keep up.
'by the fountain, this is the last place we were gunna check, I told them I'd check it-' Garnet began, as they came out into the street, Isobelle's eyes searching for the fountain and for the figure of Blank to be standing there. As they neared the fountain, Isobelle cut in on Garnet's good girl act of reasoning.
'-BLANK!' and she started running, Garnet not understanding until she looked up to see part of a house collapsing onto the fountain, where Blank was sitting unaware. She started running after Isobelle. As they both ran, the warning Isobelle had shouted reached Blank's ears, he looked up and covered his head as the building fell on top of him and he was isolated. Isobelle climbed onto the rubble and started to pull bricks and mortar away from where Blank was. Garnet stayed back, being a princess and unsure at what she could do to help. Isobelle turned to Garnet
'Where's Zidane?' Garnet smiled, relieved
'With Vivi, getting supplies for our journey.' Thankfully not under there. Isobelle heard her seem to carry on, the tone in her voice suggesting that very point. Isobelle turned back to the rubble and got out her daggers to cut through some wood. Growling at the princess for being so helpless, Isobelle looked around and saw Alice standing there with potions. She remembered how they had used super-soft on Blank before, she ran over to Alice; 'do you have any soft?' she asked eagerly, aware that every second Blank may be suffocating. People were crowding round the rubble, wondering why it was blocking their way, wondering why a girl was frantically trying to get through the bricks, what was so desperate. They didn't know it had fallen only moments before, that there was a living person underneath there. Alice handed over the soft as Isobelle pressed a bag of money into her hand 'keep the change' she said, knowing there was only about 20 gil over in the bag.
Isobelle ran back to the disturbed patch of rubble she had been digging and looked at the bottle, sinking her nails into the cork, she tried to pull it out to no avail and, getting desperate, she tried to bite it out, only to break the cork so no one could get it out. Almost in tears she threw the soft at the rubble in annoyance and the glass bottle broke, the rubble melting away. Quickly, Isobelle scrambled through the soft rubble and pulled Blank's body out from the crumbled wall. He was unconscious, scratched and bruised and as Isobelle put her cheek to his mouth and checked his pulse, she gave a gasp and tears rolled down her face. She looked up at her crowd
'He's dead.' She said though her high voice and tears.