Chapter 17: A Glimpse of Chaos

A/N: The effects of edibles ending early encroaches onwards.

"Wake up, Zeke!"

Hands grasped his shoulders, wrestling him back and forth, making his thudding headache increase. Groaning, he breathed in muggy, humid air and turned his head, feeling wet mud slid onto his cheek in the process.

"Ugh," he groaned articulately.

The first thing he realized as his mind stirred from the recesses of its drowsiness was that the ship Indol had let him use to track down Torna shouldn't have mud on it.

"Pandy, where in the blazes are we?" He pushed himself up, blinking in the darkness, gloves squelching in the muck underneath him. Behind him, Pandoria let out a happy sigh of relief.

"You're alright!" Electric ether phased to a bright point on the bulbs that made up her shoulders, hat and tail temporarily illuminating the wet, slimy stone walls of what looked to be a cave. "I mean, I would've known if you'd died, since I'd be donzo too, probably, but…"

"Of course I'm alright! I wouldn't let something so trivial off the mighty Zeke von Genbu." Though his headache blurred the memory of what it was, it was sure to come back to him. Standing, he tried and failed to wipe the muck off his overcoat, and quickly abandoned the effort. He moved to patting himself down in a quick inventory.

Pouch, Pandy, Purple Lightning Dreamsmasher.

Perfect.

Whipping to face his Blade - and in turn making the tails of his overcoat trail in tandem- he grinned in spite of the situation. "So, what did happen, anyways? I'm okay with dark and dank caves, or pit stops in dark and dark caves, but this is way too dark and dank to be Mor Ardain."

"Heh, turn around."

Hand on his hip, he whirled about again- noting with satisfaction that Pandoria timed it exactly to his with her hand on her opposite hip - and saw a veritable mess of wood, metal and Titan in a pulpy, chewed up mess.

The tiny Indoline titan ship, one of the smallest and most battered pieces of junk in their fleet, lay half submerged in a large standing pool of water. Half of it was still intact, but no way it was flying again, not with the small Titan dead as it was.

Zeke winced. "Oof. That's a rough way to go."

"Yeah, crunched straight in two by Uraya's maw."

A pensive eyebrow raised. "Uraya? They really need to get a handle on their Titan if it's going around munching on innocent passersby."

"Yeah, but everyone knows you don't approach Uraya from the front."

He'd heard that as well, and most of the time you could predict the orbit of the Titan generally enough to know where to stay away from. But the blasted thing often submerged itself under the cloud sea. So if that had happened…well, no wonder accidents like this happened. Must have been a nightmare to deal with.

"It must have raised out of the cloud sea and caught us completely off guard; there's no other explanation."

"Or something else happened." And from the way she said it, it seemed like she knew something. "You know how terrible your luck is."

"Oi! Careful where you go bandying about that sort of thing. Lady Luck is a fickle thing."

She rolled her eyes. "Luck or not, I don't think the Praetor's gonna give us another ship anytime soon."

"You've got that right." Hopefully the zealots in the Praetorium didn't take offense to Uraya's Titan doing this. He threw a thumb behind him at the half Titan. "So, when did that happen anyways?"

"We were sailing to Mor Ardain, remember?"

He tapped his finger midair. "Right, to get a start on finding those imposters and their shiny new world-ending weapon."

"Right." She tapped her finger midair in response. "You promised you'd take on the steering wheel. After setting our course, I figured it'd be simple enough to just go straight that even you couldn't mess it up."

"Hey!"

She sighed wistfully. "It was almost peaceful for a while, just me and the fish. Almost suspiciously peaceful. Then a huge shadow blocked out the sun, and when I looked back, I saw you standing asleep at the wheel, heading straight for Uraya's mouth!"

He twitched guiltily in response, memory flooding back, but waved his hand back and forth, dismissing the charge in a very convincingly innocent manner, thank you very much. "No, no, no, that's hogwash, my dear Pandy. I wasn't the one steering, so I had every right to take a snooze."

"Uh-huh. And how could anyone else steer if you're passed out on top of the thing?"

"Now, now." A sly smirk turned the corner of Zeke's mouth up as he shook a raised finger chidingly back and forth. "I think you're forgetting our secret weapon. Our third compatriot."

Hand sneaking into his overcoat, he grasped onto the tiny shell, the struggling little legs and whipped out the culprit for Pandoria to see. She gasped appropriately, hands going to her mouth. He appreciated the effort - four and a half stars out of five - even if he could tell it was staged.

"Behold, the culprit!" He gestured boldly with his free hand to the culprit in question. "The one who steered us into the deadly path of the Greatmaw of the Urayan Titan!"

"Uh…"

"You see, Turters here figured he needed a chance to shine. I figured he needed the practice, so I let him have it. He clearly had it handled, right Turters?"

Turters, being a turtle, didn't respond.

"Nice try."

Zeke moved in close to the little reptile and muttered, "Way to rat me out like that, Turters, old chum! I thought we had something going there for a moment." He shoved the traitorous mascot back into his overcoat. "So now, the question becomes why you didn't wake me up. Any theories there, hmm?"

"Weeell, I was in the middle of playing with some of the fish-"

"Wait, I thought you said you were fishing for dinner?"

"I can multitask! But I'd been at it for a while, and my mind drifted, and…you know…"

"Oh, so she admits it now." A smouldering smirk played out on Zeke's face. "You fell asleep too, didn't you? Uraya surprised you just as much as me."

A delicate flush played out on Pandoria's cheeks, and the bulb at the end of her tail flashed indignantly. Bingo. "How was I supposed to know that it was Uraya's dinnertime?"

"By staying awake, that's what." His hand curled finger by finger to his chin, "Although, at the end of the day, the Zekenator is a pretty good snack."

Pandoria made a very undignified snrk.

"What?" Zeke raised an auspicious eyebrow.

"Nothing. We should go find a port."

"Well, the only port I know of is in Fonsa Myma." There were probably other ports around the Titan, but he didn't have a map of the thing. They had originally planned on heading to Mor Ardain after all. So, Fonsa Myma it was.

"It's on the other side of Uraya," she pointedly reminded him.

"Then let's not waste any more time by hanging around here anymore then shall we? I for one want to leave this mess behind and give those Torna goons what's what."

"Onward!"

Bolstered by Pandoria's resolve, he took his first step away from the Greatmaw…and slipped, falling face first into the muck.

The whole of the pass was too quiet.

Vandham kept a watchful eye on the ground while his Blade, Roc, flew overhead to forewarn them of any potential hazards. It might give any ne'er-do-wells a heads up of where he and the caravan the Garfont Mercenaries had been hired to protect were, but it helped prevent ambushes from sneaking up on them.

Everyone was riled up with all the rumours of the Aegis goin' around. A floodgate of 'em opened up near after Vandham had gotten that message from Niranira, each more wild then the next. One of the farming villages near Garfont had hired them to protect their goods on the way to Uraya's capital in fear of the legendary Blade.

Fun as it might be to take a whack at the legendary Aegis, if the legends were true, there weren't much merc could do against them if she went all out. Far as Vandham could tell, hardly anyone had even seen her. But a job was a job, and there were threats closer to home that he and his mercs could handle.

This pass had always been dangerous - its most recent threat was an increase in Igna activity - but it was the quickest, albeit most dangerous, way to Uraya's capital of Fonsa Myma outside of taking the tunnels. Schlepping through caves might be faster, but that had its own share of dangers.

If it were just him, he'd do it; if you knew where you were going, it took a sizeable chunk of time off the route from the head of the Urayan Titan - where villages like Garfont were - to Uraya's capital near its back end.

'Long as you didn't mind the inevitable monster fights along the way, the caves were good trekking. However, with the small caravan he'd been hired to protect on the way to the capital, he didn't want to risk the caves. Pack armus spooked too easy in tight spaces anyways.

As he eyed Roc making another circle up above, he couldn't help but think that the usual types of dangers this pass provoked - even outside of the reported increase in Igna activity - were…lacking today. No humans or monsters had bothered them yet, and the terrain wasn't too bad either.

One of his mercs, Smaghi, caught up and matched Vandham's pace. "Hey Vandham, you think we'll actually make it through the pass today without any monsters threatening us? "

"Wouldn't be the first time, though it hasn't happened in a while."

They nodded, sagely. "Tell me about it. Monsters of all kinds typically swarm this place, but today, it's…quiet. Something feels different."

"Could be that someone else passed through ahead of us recently and got rid of them for us. Or scared them away," Vandham mused. "Might be a lucky break."

"You think so?"

"Could be, but I wouldn't bet my life on it. Nah, best keep on keeping an eye out, will ya?"

"Of course." Smaghi smiled. "Pragmatic as always. It's why I joined up with you in the first place."

Vandham slapped him on the back. "C'mon, we both know that's not the only reason!" Smaghi and his sister, Eslan, had joined when he rescued them from the mess of a mission that'd gone down in the Dragon's Throat 'couple years back. Rest of their original merc group that'd gone on that mission were dead. "Course I know you stayed 'cause of that pretty lady you've got your eye on."

He flushed, but smiled good-naturedly . "You know about that?"

"You serious? Pretty sure everyone in Garfont knows 'cept the both of you!"

Smaghi scratched his cheek, abashed. "So…do you think I have a shot?"

"You might if you act soon. Better give it a go before some other bloke snatches her up."

"Er…right."

"Just keep your guard up now and you'll get your chance when we get back."

Nodding, Smaghi broke off and kept going. Eventually, someone in the caravan called for a stop. One of the pack armu's crates had slipped loose, a frayed strap came up as the culprit. Vandham easily stepped in, hauling loose and fallen crates, and helped gather up loose cargo. He was in the midst of helping lash the cargo on when a small breeze picked up.

A faint, but foul scent caught his nose. Smelled like rot.

The breeze picked up again, amplifying the putrid stench. Muttering to the mercs that he'd be right back, Vandham circled the perimeter around the caravan, eventually meandering his way towards the mouth of a nearby cave. The stench seemed stronger over here.

As he neared the cave's mouth, he turned at the sound of the beat of wings, and saw Roc alight on a boulder nearby him. "Did something catch your interest?" they asked. "Everything still looks clear from the air."

"Something about this cave reeks." Peering a little further into the mouth of the cave, Vandham spotted the culprit, mumbling, "And this here looks like the perp."

A gentle wind whistled through the cave towards the mouth, bringing with it the stench of decaying flesh. It wasn't hard to figure that out based on the igna bodies near just past the cave's entrance, small insects were already tearing into the flesh.

Vandham grunted, rubbing his nose at the putrid smell. "This is different, ain't it? Last I heard, these ignas had just taken root here. Yew was saying to look out for them as we went along, right?"

Roc clicked their beak. "Yes that's right; your memory isn't that far gone, is it?"

"Sayin' I'm gettin' old are ya?" Letting out a belly laugh, Vandham pounded his Blade good-naturedly on the back. "I know I'm gettin' up there."

"We're not finished yet." Roc tilted their head towards the cave entrance. "Looks like something else cleared out the populace and moved in. No bonus for the mercs, I suppose."

"If the Ignas just moved in, then it'd be a while before a bounty on it forms anyways." Not that he'd have left them long enough for someone to be worried enough to make a bounty out of it. Peering around a little more at the bodies, Vandham's eyes narrowed. "But what if it wasn't something that done it, but someone?"

The Blade's feathery moustache twitched, intrigued. "Oh?"

Vandham gestured to the way the igna's lay. "Wild beasts and monsters wouldn't just waste good meat leaving 'em there like that. Humans wouldn't eat that stuff unless they're desperate." He prodded one of the bodies with his boot. "And look at these wounds. This weren't no monster claw that made them. That's sword and lance work. Some bullet wounds too."

"So someone's inside?"

"Looks like it. Whoever's in there don't want visitors. They want to send a message to wary passersby not to come in here and try their luck against a 'ferocious monster.'" Not that the pass was used as casually as slower, safer roads.

"Then it's too bad for them that we came by. You can't let things like this lie, can you."

"You know me too well! This could explain our 'lucky break' here. After I let the mercs know I'm taking a quick detour, let's give a little knock and see who answers."

"All I'm saying, Pandy," Zeke gesticulated articulately as he walked, "is that adding something sweet to something spicy completely ruins the experience of savouring the spice."

A drip from a stalactite pattered painlessly on a pond, punctuating his sentence. Ripples in the water glided over an insidious looking plant. Had he seen that before? Possibly, but best to avoid it, even if it hadn't turned out to be a huge monster the last time he'd seen one. He skirted around the pond, Pandoria following closely behind him.

"Yeah, no," she insisted. "I'd rather skip the part where my nose clears itself out faster than a raging Gogol."

"That's the best part!" he insisted back. "My sinuses are never clearer save right after the spiciest of dishes. And that's only a small piece of the quintessential experience that you're always missing out on."

"So the fact that it destroys your insides is part of the experience?"

"Absolutely! If you're going to enjoy the hottest of foods - like the great Hero Addam always did - you have to have the full package. All the bells and whistles. You can't wuss out by diluting it by sweetening it up."

"Riiight," she drawled.

Zeke paused at an intersection of the cavern, hand slipping to his chin. Two equally dark maws of a cave lit only by dim, glowing flora yawned ahead of them. Two equally dank and dismal directions that could get them out of these caves and towards the capital.

Or deeper into the cavernous depths of Uraya.

"We're lost, aren't we?" Pandoria's sigh echoed in the small area.

"What? No! Don't change the subject," Zeke protested. "Besides, even if that plant back in the water over there looks familiar, it's only because it's a common variety of local flora. I read it in a guidebook once."

"The same guidebook that told you it was a good idea to take shortcuts through caves?"

"No, different guidebook. We've only been traveling for maybe two or three days. The path through these caves supposedly spit us out soon at some dangerous pass. That dangerous pass joins back into another cave that leads almost directly to the capital. We've got to be getting close to that first exit at this point."

His stomach chose that moment to protest at its lack of sustenance.

"It'd better be soon. Cave routes don't have villages to resupply."

"Come now, we've faced worse, so no need to worry, Pandy. I won't let something as trivial as hunger get the better of the Bringer of Chaos and his…illustrious partner."

"You really must be hungry if you can't think of a title for me."

"Pah! We only need the sustenance of the chaos of the cosmos to fuel our cavernous escape. So!" He wetted the end of his finger, holding it aloft in the air a few moments. "From the way the air is flowing, this tunnel on the right has to wind out into the main path the guidebook was talking about. And if a go-getter, adventurer type Nopon says it's faster to go through the tunnels to get to Fonsa Myma, then who are we not to believe them?"

"He probably knew where he was going." Out of the corner of his eye, Pandoria crossed her arms. "Actually, haven't we seen that stalagmite before in that cave you're thinking of going through?"

Narrowing his eyes, Zeke walked slightly into the path on the right and squatted down, examining the curly piece of rock. He leaned in close enough that his nose almost touched. He sniffed it, circling about it with an extremely critical eye.

It did look somewhat familiar. He cursed inwardly. She had him there.

He straightened up, raising his hand to his chin. "Possibly. B-b-b-but, that doesn't mean we're lost just yet. That just means we know for sure what path to take this time."

She sighed in a long-suffering manner, which he appreciated. "Just remember that the longer we miss the mark here, the more Torna's gonna have the chance to wreak havoc. I say once we get out of Uraya's nooks and crannies, we take the obvious way. Should be easier to navigate."

"Alright, I'll concede, but…" He paused, noticing movement from the pool of water nearby. He stepped closer, eye narrowing. He lowered his voice. "Hey, hold up a second. Flowers don't usually…wiggle like that, right?"

"Wiggle?"

It was at that moment that the 'flower' sprung up out of the water, sending water spaying across the walls of the cavern as it stood. Far more fauna than flora, this one.

His hand whipped back to the hilt of the Purple Lightning Dreamsmasher and batted away a projectile seed spat their way that almost hit Pandoria. "They don't look excited to see us!"

She yelped and reflexively established their affinity link. Good thing too, since he had to start stepping up his game to slice through more incoming projectiles. An inert Blade weapon only went so far.

"Look out!" she yelled.

He dived away from a spikey looking vine like tendril slammed down with enough force to make the cave rumble. "Looks like we stirred a really strong one, too."

"There's hardly any room here for us to move around. We should lead them to an area better suited to our style."

"Just what I was thinking, Pandy! It's almost like we've been working together for years. In fact," a sly grin slipped back onto his face, "I have an idea that might just work to get us out of our current predicament."

"What is it?"

Standing straight, he slung the Purple Lightning Dreamsmasher onto his back, flashing a smouldering smile. "You'll see."

He ran in the opposite direction, Pandoria right behind him.

Like all of Uraya, there was illumination inside the cave. Unlike the bigger outer stretches where the patches of the Titan's translucent carapace and skin allowed light to filter in when the continental Titan was submerged, the caves usually had glowing flora you could see well enough by.

After a decent amount of time winding through the tunnel Roc called a stop, whispering, "There's life up ahead."

Vandham nodded, knowing Roc could read the air better than he could. Taking a slower stride, though it was rougher to make his massive frame not make too much noise, he snuck forward. Up ahead it was brighter, signalling the cave opened up more where more glowing plants would be congregated.

Sure enough, he found a lookout posted. Or, more accurately, he found them snoozing on the job, arms crossed, chin resting on their chest as they leaned against the wall of the cave. He knocked the guy out silent like without a peep from him and continued onward.

Murmuring voices were starting to peek around the corner, and he stopped, not daring to try and lean outward and take a peek. Stealth wasn't his style and didn't work with how big his frame was. Maybe when he was younger and dumber he would've charged in, but he had too many years and scars to try that nowadays. He tapped his eyes and pointed to Roc, who nodded. He'd keep watch.

Closing his eyes, their affinity link burst to life, and Vandham waited while Roc worked his ether manipulation. A little 'trick,' he'd cooked up not too long ago. Wind rustled faintly around his ears and suddenly he heard.

Wincing at the onrush of heightened sound, he tuned out the gentle ambiance, and sounds of people moving, focusing purely on their voices.

"-much longer do you think it'll be till Waldemar comes back?" Their accent was Urayan, a woman.

"Dunno." Another Urayan accent, a bloke this time. "I'm starting to get worried. You don't think the empire or the kingdom found him out and offed him do ya?"

"I'm still here, thank you." A terse, annoyed and young sounding girl, her accent sounded like a Blade's.

"Oh, right, sorry."

He heard the Blade scoff. "This whole deal's been shady from the start. We shouldn't have taken it in the first place."

"Shady?" The Urayan bloke again. "Nothing about what we do isn't shady, Theory. Besides, you know how much this many cores are worth, right? Once they're sold, we'll be home free. Won't ever have to deal with it for years when it goes through."

Vandham's hand had curled into a fist as he listened. He'd met Waldamar before. Nasty piece of work he'd been. But sounded like he was heading a core crystal hunter group now. That kind of work was always something of a grey area, but it tended to attract the wrong sort of people.

He heard the Blade, Theory, snort. "They're useless if our buyer's gone missing completely. With everything that's going on, it feels too convenient that we can't get into the capital to rendezvous with the seller in the first place."

"I know what Praxis said about security in Fonsa Myma going bonkers, but there's other ways in, other avenues of trade. And if needs be, other buyers."

"Not with that kind of sale price there isn't." the Urayan woman again. "That's a once in a lifetime opportunity."

"Well," another girl, another Blade accent, lots of pep to their voice, annoyance clear, "then we just have to find another way, another strategy, that's all. Waldemer's pretty good about that, right, Theory?"

"Sure," Theory responded, before sighing. "You'd think the world would be more distracted by the awakening of the 'Aegis' or whatever's happening. But if anything, everyone's on high alert. And it doesn't sound like it'll die down any time soon."

Considering what happened last time Alrest had an Aegis - or maybe two - running around, Vandham had a feeling the world would keep getting crazier. Things weren't likely to calm down anytime soon.

"We'll adapt. We always have."

The conversation wound its way to less dire topics and Vandham opened his eyes. Roc cut off the ether manipulation and twerked their moustache questioningly. Vandham put a hand out flat and wobbled it back and forth. Could be tricky. Sounded like there were just the two Blades in there without their Driver, mixed with a handful of other bandits.

Vandham mulled it over. From the names of the Blades mentioned, he recognized this as the errant core crystal hunting group from mercenary writ he'd taken. Blasted piece of luck if it is, finding them while it's just Roc and me. With the way they were talking about pricing, and with rumours flying around about the Aegis, it was no wonder two major nations were making them a priority target.

Uraya and Mor Ardain had been tip-toeing around their ceasefire for a while, racking up cores for more Drivers. With the Aegis back, it could be the tipping point for another war. Part of him wondered if it'd been Uraya who had hired the group to nick the cores for the kind of money they were talking about. Could be, but he doubted it.

But what to do about the core hunters here? Should he try and take them on his own? Especially with a couple of Blades - even if their Driver was gone - it could get ugly on his own. Best if he got more backup from the mercs.

Vandham started to walk away, thinking it'd been too bad that he'd knocked the lookout out as that'd probably spook 'em once they found out. Better make it a quick trip to the caravan for some backup, then bash some heads-

A tremendous boom shook the cavern and Vandham braced his hand against the wall of the cave. He didn't need Roc's little trick to hear the bandits anymore, even if it was just confused shouts and yells. The shaking increased before there was another loud crack, followed by what sounded like rocks falling.

He couldn't help himself and moved over to peek into the entrance of the cavern. Like he expected, the cavern was quite a spot larger than the rest of the cave, and was lit with loads of glowing plants. The area was circular, relatively flat - though the middle was piled high with rocks - and he could just make out another tunnel on the other end leading further in.

Glancing up, he quickly saw the reason for the ruckus and the rocks: the roof had caved in, exposing the remains of another tunnel above. The rocks had all fallen down near the center of the cavern, crushing a couple of unlucky bandits while others had managed to get away. Just like he'd heard, there were just the two Blades, weapons out towards the source of the rockfall.

Vandham expected a monster to appear once the dust settled a bit. And there certainly was; a Blant - one of those nasty plants monsters, a big one too - curling up on itself as it slowly dissipated into motes of electric ether. A shadowy figure backflipped off the dissipating corpse, landing and emitted a bombastically ecstatic laugh.

"IT WORKED! HAHA!"

Through the settling dust, a glow emanated from within the cloud. The glow of a large Blade weapon - a massive sword - still sparking.

"Wow, that actually worked."

One of the Blade girls - that was Praxis, if he remembered right- stalked forward, megalance in hand. "Who do you think you are, dropping in here like that?"

The shadow of the figure whirled towards them. "Oh? Who am I? Well," The same voice chuckled again, echoing almost menacingly. "That depends, doesn't it?"

The dust settled on a smirking tall, well-built younger man with grey hair, eyepatch covering one eye. A large overcoat, open to his bare chest and far too many belts to be practical. The man swung the Blade weapon to the side and then casually balanced it on his shoulder.

Nearby, a Blade girl with nearly teal green hair and large round glasses smirked in a mirror of her Driver. Said Driver flashed a smile that somehow caught light from the phosphorescent flora, glinting merrily off his teeth.

What was up with this guy?

Just when the silence had gone on long enough to be awkward, he threw out his arms wide. "Behold! I am the wings of justice fallen from the heavens, the-"

The bandits didn't seem impressed with his posturing either and the Blades didn't waste time with words, rushing forward to engage him. The others wisely stayed further back.

Reacting quickly for the size of the weapon – quicker than most Drivers with weapons that size even - the man flamboyantly weaved in and out of the attacks, before striking back, driving them away.

"Hey, that's just rude!" Zeke yelled.

The Blades recovered quickly and the young man sidestepped the stab of the lance from one and back flipped away from the ice spire springing up from the other, landing crunched, but in a good position to move.

He straightened and pointed accusingly at the Blades with his free hand. "You should at least let a man introduce himself before swinging weapons like those around." He shook his head disapprovingly. "Inconceivable, am I right, Pandy?"

His Blade nonchalantly shrugged, tail flicking back and forth, a lightbulb glinting on the end. "Wouldn't expect anything different. Bandits, probably."

"Hiding in caves, attacking completely innocent strangers, interrupting introductions." Vandham saw his eye flick over to a container in which he could see a core crystal ready to resonate poking out. That eye narrowed dangerously, and something real seemed to enter into his voice. "Stealing innocent Blades. You really do tick all the wrong boxes."

Praxis grit her teeth. "You can't just throw accusations like that around when you literally just crushed a couple of us by pulling that stunt! We're just mercenaries on a dangerous monster extermination mission. Those cores were resonated with monsters and we picked them up after defeating them."

"You aren't innocent in this," Theory intoned.

A blatant lie, Vandham knew, but they were just stalling, and the other bandits were moving around to flank the young man.

"Oh, jolly sorry about that. But that doesn't change attacking me unprovoked like that, and striking to kill, too! That gave you away." He eyed the cores again. "If I had to guess, you lot are core crystal hunters, and some friends of mine have gotten right ticked off at your lot. I might even have an idea of exactly who you are, too."

"So what?" The Blade girl with the megalance snapped. "Why do you care?"

"I'm not sure I should tell you." He leaned forward, examining the lot. "But you're obviously not anywhere near fearsome enough to be Torna, so I'll bet you must be the core crystal hunters that got too big for their britches." He shook his head. "Honestly, stealing core crystals allocated to Driver recruitment for the Ardainian Empire? What were you thinking? Bet your point of contact for selling them is somewhere in Fonsa Myma."

There was silence.

"I'm right on the nose, aren't I?" His tone turned gloating as he shook a disapproving finger at them and his Blade copied the movement. "Bold, but stupid of you to think you'd get away with that."

The core crystal hunters moving around the man to flank him got closer but the young man continued as if he didn't notice them, his free hand went over his eyepatch. "You cannot hide from true justice, for that is that power that I, Zeke von Genbu possess. The eye of shining justice sees through all shadows you try to weave."

The Blade stepped forward. "Eh, we got lost, and he got frustrated, then that monster attacked."

The pall of menace that the Driver had been building broke in an instant. It was difficult to tell if it was intentional or not.

"Oi! You can't just out me like that right now, Pandy."

"You can handle them. They don't have their Drivers here."

"Praxis, Theory!" one of the other bandits yelled. "Let's just kill the clown, already. His Blade'll be a nice bonus for us."

That seemed to be all the reasoning they needed, and the fight broke out again.

Vandham turned to Roc, and Roc raised a questioning eyebrow. "You're getting involved, aren't you."

Unhooking his dual scythes, Vandham grinned. "Absolutely. He's got some skill and he's not on their side. That's good enough for me right now."

Their affinity link flared, and Vandham rushed into the cavern, quickly taking out one, then two of the core crystal hunters. His interference didn't go unnoticed for very long. One of the bandits cursed, and called out, "Ambush from behind! Push through and fall back to the escape craft!"

The flamboyant young Driver seemed to realize that would be a bad thing and quickly zipped in front of the way Vandham had come in. "Now hold on a moment, chaps. I can't in good conscience let you do that - wait, why are they going deeper into the caves."

Definitely not a local if he didn't know where they were planning on going. Vandham hurled the dual scythes to Roc who quickly kicked up a windstorm to block the way, much to the bandits' chagrin. "They're headed to a small hole that'll lead to an exit of the Titan."

"A hole in your Titan, huh? Bet that's a hassle for you all to deal with."

Vandham shrugged. "And more of those holes keep poppin' up; one of Uraya's worst kept secrets. Wouldn't be good if everyone started hearin' that we've got a few holes popping up in our boat last few decades, would it? So naturally everyone in the underworld exploits them. The kingdom knows about most of 'em, but only so much they can do."

"No kidding. Well, old man, what say we pair up and smash these ruffians? It's not everyday you get to fight along Thunderbolt Zeke."

"Old man?" Vandham snorted. "Long as you don't trip me up or let them get away, we'll do alright."

"Heh. Buy me some time and you'll see something awesome. You remember the thing, Pandy?"

The Blade, 'Pandy,' blinked. "Which one?"

"You know, the," he made a motion like unsheathing a regular sword, followed by a quick zig-zagging motion with one of his fingers, making exaggerated swooshing noises with his mouth, "thing."

"Oh! Riiight. That thing. Of course. How could I forget."

Zeke rolled his eyes and tossed the sword to his Blade. She caught the massive sword, shoving the blade in the dirt and to Vandham's surprise, pulling out the hilt and part of the blade as a staff. "Keep 'em occupied a second for me."

Letting them do their thing, Vandham rushed over to the exit, charging through a couple of the bandits that thought to try and catch him unawares. Bracing himself — and trusting Roc's ability to manipulate wind ether carefully — he stepped into the windstorm, a rock in the cyclone, until he was its eye, staring the thieves in their eyes.

The wind dissipated, and Vandham caught the scythes as Roc tossed them back to him, landing purposely hard, spreading their wings out to be more intimidating. Vandham went into a careful defensive stance. The bandits glared at him.

He grinned and gave them his best 'I'd like to see you try,' look.

Praxis' visible eye widened. "You!"

"Sorry, can't let you all past."

Grimacing, the Blade in front, Theory, the one with the katana and ice lookin' gaze, slashed forward. He let Roc's ether barrier tank it as he rushed to cut her off. She braced, gettin' ready to dodge probably, and at the last moment, he whirled his duel scythes to intercept Praxis' lunge with her megalance.

Catching the shaft on the blades of his scythes, he tugged hard, drawing power from Roc for an extra push to hurl her up and back. Blade as she was, she took in stride, letting go of her lance and ducking under Vandham's follow up.

She didn't take into account the blast of wind ether from Roc that followed, propelling her back. Theory was there a second later, covering for her recovery. Seemed they hadn't lost their synergy. It was hard to say how much they were hampered by their Driver not being there aside from the additional punch of ether that came from it.

Unfortunately, engaging the Blade like he was allowed some of the core hunters past. What was Zeke doing back there?

Little balls of sparks started dancing on the ground around them, with little lines of electricity connecting them, growing larger by the second. Theory was momentarily distracted by it enough that Vandham landed a solid kick to her stomach, barrelling her into the wall of the cavern. The water megalance user filled in the gap while she recovered.

"Finally, though you were sleepin' on the job back there!"

"Get ready! Chain of Chaos - Transcendent Discharge!"

Not a moment later, Zeke - with Pandy gripping her arms around him tightly - whipped by him, standing on the flat of the blade of the sword like a plank of wood, holding the electrically charged staff. Flashing between points of electricity Pandoria had laid down, he battered the thieves that hadn't gotten through, then shifted to attacking Praxis' ether barrier. Their strikes kept getting faster and faster as they zipped back and forth, staggering her and not giving her time to retaliate.

The pair jumped off their makeshift ride, sending the blade of the sword towards Praxis' barrier, cracking it. The blade zipped back, reconnecting it to the staff, sword once more, before Zeke slammed it into Praxis' barrier, shattering it, and throwing her back.

"Praxis!"

Theory disengaged him and rushed over, forcing Zeke back with minuscule spikes of ice that danced at his boots. She picked up Praxis, slinging her over her shoulder, and rushed towards the exit. She only stopped momentarily to put up small barrier of ice to keep them at bay.

Vandham let out a curse, ardun-rushing the ice blockade with help from Roc, and followed the thieves down the tunnel. Zeke was close behind him. The whine of an engine starting echoed through the tunnel.

The way opened up again to what he'd almost describe as a shore, with a bunch of glowing moss lighting the area. An underground lake, except with the hole in the Urayan Titan, the cloud sea had spilled into the water. The thieves were piling into a small Titanvessel, already launching off the shore.

"Praxis, Theory, get on!"

The katana wielder turned, grunting in annoyance, jumping the distance onto the vessel. Vandham might be able to make the jump with Roc, but decided against it.

Instead, making one last move, Vandham tossed the scythes crossways, aiming more as a desperation shot than anything. Theory knocked the scythes away, and Roc drew them back to him on an ether line. The vessel disappeared into the fluff of the cloud sea at the back of the cavern, and into one of Uraya's cysts.

But Vandham had a feeling he'd see them again.

"Well, that was something."

"You can say that again, Pandy." Zeke grinned. "The 'Chain of Chaos - Transcendent Discharge" worked just like we planned!"

"Yup! But uh…" She turned to Vandham. "Too bad they got away, huh? Sorry about that."

Vandham eyed Zeke and Pandy coolly, sheathing Roc's scythes. "With the way you entered, it's about as good as I could have hoped for."

"Were you hunting them down?"

"I've got a writ out for their capture, and retrieval of the cores they stole, but it was just luck stumbling on them like this." He'd have to send some feelers out to find them again. The reward would still be worth the manpower, expended at least. "Even if it took you a second, that trick of yours was powerful."

Zeke beamed at the praise. "As it should be. Pandy and I have been coordinating that one for ages."

"It also could easily have gotten you and anyone you're working with killed if you miss."

"Good thing I don't miss." Zeke eyed him again. "Say, do you happen to know the way to Fonsa Myma?"

"We're totally lost, and out of food," his Blade piped up.

"No need to come right out of the gate saying that!"

Vandham broke out into a big laugh, partly real, partly to throw them off. "Shoulda just said you were hungry! Come on. I'm travelling with a caravan towards the capital. Should be able to spare some grub if you pull your weight! You can start by rounding up the ones we knocked out."

Vandham eyed the duo as they rounded up the unconscious thieves. The two were clearly powerful and had a lot of skill to work together like that. But what did they really want, past food and directions? As much as they postured, he'd seen a hint of something more past all of that.

He wasn't cruel, so he'd throw them a bone, but keep a watchful eye on them. If nothing else, they'd liven up the rest of the trip.

The whole of Alrest stirs as a legend comes to life once more.

The people wait with bated breath, fear and anticipation hanging over their daily lives, remembering in hushed whispers what happened the last time Mythra 'graced' the land with her presence. The pieces of the world that were forever lost beneath the clouds. The Titans forever changed by her and Malos' battles.

Some of them have forgotten Malos. No matter how much my old Driver tries to preserve that truth, humans will be humans. And humans only remember things when it suits them.

All seem to have forgotten the woman behind the myth, muddled by time. Even I, who knew her personally, sometimes struggle to separate fact from fiction nowadays. Five hundred years of hearsay is a lot to compare to the brief time I travelled with her.

But in my memories, she struggled and grew, laughed like any other person. Brash, certainly, but by the end, I could tell how she cared deeply for her comrades, even if she struggled to show it, even if she kept herself apart from us. I often wonder if things might have been different if there was just a little more time to breathe. A little more time to think. A little more time to talk.

But time is never kind, and it ran out too quickly for that merry little band trapezing through the Golden Country. Now, I simply wonder if she'll ever make it to my little corner of the world. It would be nice to catch up with an old comrade.

And yet, the recent description of her Driver coming out of the empire has me puzzled. The logical side of myself wants to believe it's just a coincidence, but with everything I've seen, I can't help but wonder.

Is that really you, Lora?

A/N: Zeke was the real snack all along.