I wasn't planning on writing a whole chapter on the capture of Sasarai, but once I started I couldn't seem to stop. I also have the last chapter written but am going to wait a bit before posting it. Why? Because I'm a sadist. Thanks for all the nice and borderline reviews. I appreciate them all.
Disclaimer: I don't own Suikoden. Somehow, I'll deal with it.
Chapter 11: The Other Twin
After capturing Luc (and Sarah) and traveling all the way down the treacherous mountain (courtesy of Yuber), She parted ways with the mercenaries. She offered to take them back to Budehuc by way of the blinking mirror, but the group had politely refused. Joker muttered something about rather fighting two water dragons complete with hovering icicles. She responded with a cheery shrug and thank you and, much to the mercenary's relief, promptly teleported away, bishounen in tow. Upon returning to the ranch, the group was greeted by a crowd of NPCs and Caesar's frantic yelling.
"Stand back! Stand back! Oh, come on now." She could practically see the young strategist's foot stamp in frustration. The NPCs were obviously not listening to him. Indeed they actually seemed to move in closer to whatever it was that they were surrounding.
Shu's mouth twitched in a smile as he glanced at Her. "Perhaps leaving him alone wasn't a good tactic after all."
She returned the smile, albeit somewhat anxiously, before breaking out in a run towards the NPCs. She had an idea of what the crowd was surrounding, and She didn't like the direction the situation was headed. "Caesar!" She could feel, if not see, him cringe under Her authoritative call as She pushed Her way through the NPCs.
"Thank goodness," She heard a breathy sound of relief from Futch, who was obviously also stuck in the middle of the NPC mob.
"Futch! Are you alright?" Her anxiety waned a bit. She had more faith in the dragon knight's ability than Her inexperienced strategist.
"He actually caught Sasarai!" Sharon shouted, before the dragon knight could respond. At that moment She reached the middle of the curious crowd, the rest of the bishounen easily following through the path She made.
"No kiddin'." Shu looked slightly impressed. Of course, he realized the potential of the young strategist, but Caesar tended to try a little too hard sometimes, which often led to failure.
She, on the other hand, was not impressed. This was not so much due to Her lack of respect for Caesar's skill, but more because if Caesar did catch Sasarai, the bishop was more than likely injured in some way. That would explain the crowd of NPCs and the reason he was lying motionlessly on the ground. She quickly appraised Caesar's group of bishounen. They were standing guard, in a futile attempt to prevent the NPCs from getting too close, but they didn't look hurt. Luckily, when She reached the middle, all the NPCs backed a respectful distance away. She glared at them, shooing them back to their business before carefully kneeling beside the unconscious bishop. "What did you do to him Caesar!" She exclaimed, while prying open his lids and checking them for dilation.
"I didn't do anything!" the teen protested, not meeting Her eyes.
"What do you mean, you didn't do anything to him. His pupils are dilated!" She screamed. Caesar shrank down.
"Elaborate," Shu, always the voice of reason, commanded softly.
Caesar flushed at the other strategist's tone, still looking as if he'd rather be anywhere other than where he was. "We had a small situation involving Borus and the guards," he reluctantly admitted.
"Really." She was now finished with her preliminary exam and arched a well sculpted eyebrow at the knight, who kicked at an imaginary stone.
"They were lecherous bastards!" Borus whined.
"Bad-mouthing Lady Chris?" Nash smirked.
Borus' fingers turned white over the hilt of his sword as he recalled the guards. "They said…" he sighed with barely restrained rage and tried again. "They…"
Caesar directed a slightly contemptuously look at Borus' feeble attempts and pretended to flick a piece of lint off his shirt. "They suggested Chris was sleeping with her knights..." He smirked as Borus growled at the memory. Percival looked conflicted and Nash had the audacity to chuckle.
"And he expressed some jealously over the matter." Caesar shrugged.
"How dare you…callous…" Borus snapped and grabbed the strategist by the collar, hoisting him up to eye-level.
"Borus," She warned. Although She really wasn't all that concerned about the strategist's fate at the moment, She did want to hear the story.
"Really," Shu considered. "That's not a completely outrageous conclusion…" Borus dropped the red-haired strategist, who unceremoniously flopped to the ground and turned his murderous gaze towards Shu. "If you don't know Lady Chris, of course," he finished. "Think about it." Shu calmly sauntered over to Borus and put his hand on the knight's shoulder. "There aren't many women in the military. Those that haven't seen Chris' prowess in battle and observed her control of command might doubt her ability to successfully lead the Zexen Knights."
Borus grumbled, but couldn't think of an acceptable argument to counter Shu. "I'm going inside," he growled, angrily stomping towards the ranch.
"I'll go make sure he doesn't hurt anyone…like himself," Percival muttered, before rushing after the other knight.
"He always says that," Futch muttered, watching the knights go inside.
All of a sudden, Caesar noticed Yuber, who was standing inconspicuously to the side of the group, an unconscious Luc hoisted over his shoulder. "What the hell is he doing here?" Caesar shouted.
"Caesar," Shu addressed the younger tactician. "It's not good practice for a strategist to raise his voice…ever. It's unprofessional…not to mention unseemly."
"Shut up!" Caesar, whose face was now completely crimson, yelled. "You have some explaining to do!" He tried to get up in Her face, but as he was about three inches shorter than Her, was not having much luck.
"No," She addressed the strategist with some amusement. "You have some explaining to do." She gestured towards Sasarai. "Then, if I feel like explaining Yuber's presence to you after you tell me all about how you messed up, I will."
Caesar stammered indignantly a moment, before crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the grass.
"Well," She prodded. Caesar remained stubbornly silent.
Futch sighed. "First, we tried teleporting to Crystal Valley, but apparently Caesar doesn't know how to use the blinking mirror correctly," Caesar glared at the dragon knight. "Because instead of ending up in the Capital of Harmonia, we ended up in the far outreaches of the Northern Outlands."
"That's kind of close!" Caesar protested.
"How can you not use the blinking mirror properly?" Shu asked, only barely able to keep the derision he was feeling out of his tone. "It's not Viki, for example, prone to human error. It's a non-living organism. You tell it your destination and it takes you there."
"Yeah, well," Caesar sputtered before finding an acceptable argument. "She probably booby-trapped it against me!"
"I most certainly did not!" She heatedly objected.
"Why would She do that?" Shu didn't bother hiding his derision now. "She wanted Sasarai, and you were saving Her time by doing the job. It wouldn't be in Her best interests to sabotage your mission."
"That's right!" She nodded vehemently.
"You seem be able to accomplish that all on your own," Nash remarked.
Shu sighed, knowing his efforts of calming Caesar down would be put to waste by that comment. He wasn't disappointed as Caesar's face immediately puffed up like a furrfly. He was about to retaliate when Futch saved the day by continuing the story.
"Oh," the dragon knight continued. "I forgot. Not only did we end up in the Northern Outlands, but we somehow managed to teleport right in the middle of the only swamp on the east side of the continent."
"That doesn't seem so bad…" She carefully interjected.
"It wouldn't have been," Futch continued. "Only we landed in the marsh…and interrupted some large species of snake's nap."
She grimaced slightly, while Nash snickered and Shu raised an eyebrow.
"And her babies," Borus, rejoining the party, added dryly. "Don't forget about her babies."
"Where's Percival?" She addressed Borus.
"Cleaning up." The knight shrugged. "He lost." As if on cue, Percival trotted back outside and began walking towards the group. "Mind if I take over for a while?" Borus asked. Futch shook his head, smiling wryly. "You were at the part where Caesar teleported us into a cesspool of venomous reptilians?"
Futch nodded. She started as Borus' previous comment sank in and stared at Caesar in a mix of shock and anger.
"Venomous?" Caesar winced as Her hands started shaking, but nodded miserably.
"So we all had to fight our way out of The Lake of Snakes," Borus continued. "Well," he amended, glancing over at Watari, who was lounging against a tree beside Yuber. "Almost all of us. Watari simply did his vanishing trick to get out of the pool and watched us to see how we would fair."
She turned a glare at Watari who shrugged as if to say, "You only told me to get Borus out of there if he was put in a dangerous position directly related to the capturing of Sasarai."
"You know a ninja won't put himself at unnecessary risk to save a comrade," Shu chastised. She grunted in response and turned back to Borus.
"The snakes outnumbered us greatly, but somehow I managed to hold them off long enough for the party to exit the pool."
"No. It was due to my superior strategy," Caesar interrupted. "I arranged it so the mother snake would snap at me and instead get one of her babies. Then she panicked, sending the rest of the young snakes into complete disorder, which gave us enough time to exit the pool."
Futch snorted. "That's not how it went. One of the baby snakes did bite Caesar and the mother snake had herself all coiled around Borus and was attempting to drown him when Bright finally arrived." Percival smirked at both Caesar and his friend's discomfiture.
"Bright wasn't there to begin with?" She interrupted, trying to follow the story.
"Ahem," Futch cleared his throat. "Who's telling the story?"
"You are," She mumbled before taking a comfortable seat on the grass.
Futch stared at Her pointedly before continuing. "Apparently, while the rest of us were teleported to the Northern Outlands, Bright actually made it to Crystal Valley hours before we reached our destination." She sighed while Shu rolled His eyes. Nash smirked at the irony. "Luckily, he seems to have a sixth sense and knew where to locate me."
"Wait! Doesn't the mirror work instantaneously?" Shu turned his puzzled glance on Caesar, who shrugged.
"Don't ask me. I just went along for the ride."
Futch cleared his throat again and impatiently tapped his foot.
"Sorry," Shu stated dryly. "Please continue."
Futch nodded his acceptance of the apology. "Bright flew over as fast as he could, and made it there in the nick of time. He plucked me out first, before rescuing Caesar and then Borus."
"Any particular reason for that order?" Shu inquired, genuinely interested.
"It seems that, not only was the snake's venom extremely toxic, but Caesar also had an allergic reaction to it and was on the brink of death at the time."
Her eyes widened again as She looked at Caesar. "I was fine," he mumbled, rubbing his arms.
"You were going into shock," Futch countered. "So, we had to fly to the nearest village in hopes they would sell some kind of antitoxin, since the ones we brought weren't strong enough. Luckily, Bright remembered flying over one, not too far away from the swamp."
"Unfortunately, the villagers were hostile," Borus interrupted. "And they noticed when Bright flew over them the first time, and so prepared for the dragon to attack. We weren't within 100 feet of the village before arrows started flying towards the dragon. I deflected some with my sword."
"Of course," Shu interjected wryly as Futch snorted, both actions causing Borus to flush before moving on.
"Uh. Well, we decided to land right away and let Bright stay out of sight in case there was heavier resistance up ahead. We figured the savages would not be looking for ground forces."
Shu nodded his approval of the plan.
"We ran into some more scouts not too far from our landing spot, and tried to explain our predicament. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to understand us, but they did take us to their village."
"As hostages," Futch butted in.
Borus nodded reluctantly. "As hostages," he agreed. "They were sneaky barbarians. Even Watari couldn't avoid these scouts."
"Or perhaps he chose not to," Shu commented.
As Borus paused, Futch took up the story. "But they comprehended Caesar's affliction and treated him as soon as we reached the village…Well, right after they confiscated our weapons and the mirror."
"Good thing too, because he was going into seizures," Borus remarked.
"My mirror!" She cried.
Futch glared at Her to be quiet. "Just let us tell the story." She impatiently subsided. "After that, we were all thrown into a makeshift cell made up of wooden branches."
"Rock hard wooden branches," Borus elaborated.
"Yes. They even withheld Borus' temper tantrum upon being thrown in a cell."
Everyone smirked at Futch's wry tone…except Borus, who glared at the offending dragon knight.
"Even the natives were concerned about us after Borus threw his fit, and stayed well away from the cage until nightfall."
"That's when Caesar became coherent again," Borus explained.
She nodded. "And this was a good thing?" Caesar directed a venomous glare at Her.
"Actually, it was," Futch sounded surprised himself. "They'd put him in a cage next to us, so he would have room to lie down. He started having seizures again, apparently a delayed reaction to the medication, which he was also allergic to, by the way."
"And the reaction took that long?" Percival asked, incredulously.
"Caesar is notorious for his delayed reactions," Nash quipped. It took a few seconds before Caesar fully understood Nash's comment. "Hey! I…"
"Anyway…" Futch continued. "Where was I."
"Caesar started seizuring again." Nash smirked at the play on words.
"Oh yes," Futch smiled. "This caused the natives to come over to check out the situation. They had no choice but to open his cage."
"Let me tell this part!" Borus pleaded. Futch shrugged and nodded.
"So, the savages had no choice but to open Caesar's cage."
"Well, they could've let him die," Percival disputed.
"That's not funny!" Caesar shouted.
Shu sighed. "I wonder how I'm going to arrange it, so your face doesn't turn red every time you get flustered or angry."
"Anyway…" She interrupted, before Caesar could form a retort. "The villagers opened Caesar's cage…"
"Right." Borus grinned. "The barbarians opened Caesar's cage, and he jumped them."
"Caesar jumped someone and I missed it? No fair," Percival whined.
Shu's shook his head in disappointment. "No. No. No. Strategists do not jump people."
She, on the other hand, chuckled at the vision of Caesar hurtling at anyone. "Did it work?"
Borus nodded, frankly astonished. "They weren't worried about a scrawny little thing like him." Borus nodded towards Caesar, who swelled with pride.
"They were wrong! That'll teach 'em not to underestimate their opponents."
"I do believe I've heard that somewhere before," Shu remarked.
Caesar continued. "I surprised the first guard and stole his weapon."
"A staff," Futch broke in.
"And then I hit the other right between the eyes."
"More like, he swung wildly and was lucky enough to hit the other guard." Futch snorted.
"And didn't anyone else hear the commotion?" She looked from Caesar to Borus to Futch.
"They didn't have the cage near their village," Futch explained.
"Makes sense," Percival commented. "I wouldn't want them near my family either."
"After Caesar took the guards down, he took their keys and unlocked our cage."
"They were rudimentary keys too," Caesar grinned at his success.
"Of course, he then promptly passed out from exhaustion," Futch sighed ruefully.
"Very roughly carved. It's amazing they even worked in the lock."
"So we took turns carrying him back to where we left Bright, and who do you think was waiting for us?"
"Native scouts?" She hazarded.
"The mother snake?" Nash looked hopeful.
"Nope." Borus shook his head. "Jacques."
Shu nodded. "That explains how Caesar took out two guards."
Futch and Borus paused a moment before Futch closed his eyes and smiled. "You think Caesar had a little help?"
"I did not!" Caesar shouted indignantly. "I took those guards out myself!"
"Mm-hm. Sure ya did." Percival jumped in.
"And then we got out of that hole of a place!" Borus exclaimed with a sigh of relief, continuing on with the tale.
"So then you flew to Crystal Valley?" She inquired.
Futch scratched the back of his head rather sheepishly. "We were intending to, but we were all really tired from being up for 36 hours straight so…"
"They fell asleep," Caesar finished.
"I'm sure everything would've been fine…" Borus started.
"Except for that Bright ran into some heavy fog about halfway there and got a bit disoriented." Caesar picked up the story. "When we woke up, we were near in the middle of the grasslands."
"By this time Bright was pretty tired from flying. He had four passengers, after all and had been flying for six hours straight," Futch attempted to defend his friend.
"Four passengers?" She broke in again.
"Watari vanished right after we escaped the savages," Borus sighed in exasperation. "Some teammate."
Shu directed his I-told-you-so look at Her. She sighed, rubbing Her temple. "Yeah. I get it. Ninjas are only good for solitary missions. I understand. So now you were in the grasslands."
Borus nodded. "And we had to travel on foot to Crystal Valley, because Bright was worn out. About midday, we came across a detachment of Harmonian soldiers."
She nodded.
"Jacques tried to tell us something about the detachment, but Caesar insisted we hide in the bushes until they passed." Borus shrugged. "We traveled to Crystal Valley without further incident."
"That's it!" She sounded almost disappointed.
"That's boring," Sharon, who had been listening in excitement the whole time, finally piped up.
"Yeah. Boring," Futch sighed. "Apparently, their security wasn't heightened after the library incident, because we were able to walk right in."
"And we were a ragged bunch," Borus broke in.
Futch grimaced. "Of course, we had to leave Bright outside again."
"Of course," She smirked.
"We soon found out the real reason security was down…The bishop was no longer residing in Crystal Valley. The rumor was that Sasarai had committed some sort of treason against Harmonia."
"He was a wanted man," Borus added.
"And he was forced to flee the country."
"Which explains the earlier detachment of Harmonian soldiers you saw earlier," Shu cut in.
"Mm-hm." Futch couldn't quite hide his bitterness. Caesar winced.
"Our almighty strategist mistook the Harmonians as reinforcements for the main army, when in reality, they were loyalists to Sasarai and were escorting him to the Fire-Bringer's base." Borus sneered at Caesar, who was starting to look extremely depressed.
"So that's what Jacques was trying to tell you," She mumbled.
"Yep," Futch sighed. "So we had to fly all the way back to Budehuc."
"At least we were now in familiar territory," Borus pointed out.
"Yeah. Most of the grassland people are familiar with Bright, so we reached Budehuc in good time. Then, while we were sneaking in, Borus overheard some of the guards talking about Lady Chris, and he went berserk. Obviously people came to check out the reason for all the commotion, and our cover would have been blown…"
"But then I saved the day." Caesar's tone was slightly arrogant. "I explained to Cecile that Borus didn't know that Sasarai joined forces with the Fire-bringers, as he hadn't been to the castle in a while."
Shu nodded. "Good, good."
"She bought the excuse and we were free to check on the bishop…Only, it didn't matter, because Sasarai wasn't there anymore."
"What?" She exclaimed.
"It seems after our good friend Watari abandoned us, he tracked Sasarai's movements to Budehuc."
She rolled Her eyes in exasperation and held out Her hand towards Shu. "Don't even start."
"He snuck into the bishop's room in the middle of the night and shot him with these." Futch held out a pair of three-inch-long darts.
"Poison darts?" She shot an alarmed glance at Watari, who quickly shook his head in a negative fashion. "Sleeping darts?" She tried again, more hopefully. Watari nodded. She let out a sigh of relief.
Borus continued the story, a little impatient for it to be finished. "We immediately teleported back to the ranch, hoping Watari brought Sasarai here. We saw the crowd of NPCs…"
"They're kind of hard to miss," Shu pointed out.
Borus scowled at the interruption before going on. "They had Sasarai surrounded, so we broke our way through, and that's about the time you got back."
"Praise the spirits," She shook Her head before standing up. "That's the last time I let you go alone on a mission." She glared at Caesar, who stared sullenly back.
"It wasn't all my fault," he protested. "I had some good ideas."
"Hmph. Why doesn't one of you pick poor Sasarai up and follow me into the ranch." She turned towards Yuber. "How's Luc doing?"
Yuber shrugged a little disappointedly. "He's still alive."
"Well, that's good." Sarcasm dripped from Her voice. "Why don't you follow me in as well, and we can put them in adjacent rooms."
"Oh. That's cruel," Nash smirked.
She shrugged. "They'll never know. Luc probably won't ever want to come out of his room anyway."
"I won't tell if you won't," Percival directed a mischievous look at Nash, who blinked innocently.
"Our next target's Albert right?" Percival checked.
"Mm-hmm," She nodded.
"Don't put Caesar in charge of it." Borus suggested.
"He might just succeed in killing us all." Nash smirked.
"Shu and I already have a plan," She grinned a little diabolically.
"I'm not that bad!" Caesar protested, as the group reached the ranch's doors.
"No," Percival agreed. "But you're so easy to pick on."
As Caesar started his retort, the doors of the ranch slammed shut behind the group. After they disappeared into the ranch, Watari gazed up into the leaves above him, where an unseen archer hovered quietly in the swaying branches.
"That was a good story," he remarked softly, before settling down for a peaceful afternoon nap.
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