Estranged
(How's it going, everyone? This time, I thought I'd try more of an experiment with this story. Because it's a Grandia fanfiction. I love the first Grandia game. I love it, so much. Better than the original Final Fantasy 7, in my opinion. So, I wanted to show that love by writing a fanfiction for it, set a decade after the events of the first game. The song I've picked for this is by Guns 'n' Roses and is on their Use Your Illusion 2 album. Oh! As a side note, I know there was a Grandia MMORPG, but I don't know enough about it, so I won't be referencing it. Or, if I do, it will be a coincidence. And last note, this chapter contains very strong language and extremely mature themes.)
Feena walked into a hotel bar room in New Parm, one evening, her shining green hair capturing the lights around it, making it glow, almost. She'd like to say she was happy. That's what she'd like. Truthfully, however, that wasn't the case. "Whiskey and ice, please?" She asked the bartender in a tired, angry, husky tone. Said bartender didn't even try to smile back, sensing that might not help. He just poured the drink and took Feena's money.
"Thanks." Feena responded and walked over to find a table in a tucked away corner, where she wouldn't be bothered, hopefully. She'd been out at sea, searching for treasure, only to come back with the smell of sea salt in her hair and a couple of new forms of cave barnacle attached to her now ruined clothes. Which was annoying, but not the biggest source of anger. No, the source of that comes back to two people: Justin, who had the gall to try and claim anything they found as his discovery, and Sue. It all started one horrible night one year ago.
Feena had been out looking for more clues to the civilization of Angelou, as she was asked to by the new owner of the Adventurer's Society, Mullen. All the old Garlean Army infantry had moved on. Some turned to honest labour. Some, to adventuring. Others, sadly, turned to crime. Back on topic, When Feena returned to her new home in Old Parm, she found Justin in bed, naked, with Sue. She wondered how long that affair had been going on, leaving the house screaming about how he betrayed her trust. That wasn't the biggest crime the two had committed.
Justin and Feena had kids together. One by one, all of them had told Feena how evil she was, going out on adventures and leaving them behind, without caring about how they felt, or how much they missed her. That was the first time, since her sister had died, that Feena had hysterically cried her heart out. For the first time in a decade, Feena was all alone again. This time, however, it was because her lover, his little purple haired whore, and her poor, misguided children, had forced her into it.
"Excuse me, Miss Feena?" She heard out of the corner of her ear. She looked up to see the hotel receptionist looking at her. She downed her whiskey and stood up, now sporting her new look; Black skin-tight trousers made of leather, silver knee high boots with a steel toecap, a black, sleeveless top which covered nothing but her chest and black fingerless gloves that reached her elbow. Her belt carrying her whip and dagger. She tries to smile, to not scare the poor woman. "Um, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but…" The receptionist carries on, checking her clipboard. "But I'm afraid your payment for our room ran out last night, and someone else needs the room for their stay-."
"Yeah, I get it, I'll grab my stuff and go." Feena responded, angrily walking past the receptionist, not even turning around to look at her, or anyone else. A group of adventurer-looking men caught her eye. She could hear them talking, saying "It's her." And making stupid school-boy level comments about her body. "Idiots…" She scoffed, under her breath, once she was out of earshot. Feena's angry, yes, but she's not stupid enough to start a fight against four men, in a bar. Sure, with magic, she could win, but not without burning the hotel to the ground.
She made her way to her room, quickly packed what little clothes and possessions she had, and left, sticking to any street that had some form of light on it. Last thing the Icarian girl needs is trouble. As relieving as a fight sounds, to her, Feena knows better. She passes a few more adventurers. Four men and a woman. One man has a sword and shield, on his back, and is clad in a leather trench coat and Jeans. The coat has different pieces of metal armour on it. One Pauldron, slices of plate armour down the sides and back. His hair is a dark red, with one matching red eye. The other is a pale green. "What?" He asks, with a warm smile. "See something interesting?"
Feena scans the group and smiles, sort of. The girl seems to just be wearing plain clothes. Mostly. The jacket she's wearing has some spikes on it, it's pretty punk rock looking. She has black jeans on, and leather gloves on, both have pieces of steel on the knuckles and soles, respectively. Her hair is dark blue, all over, and it stops at her shoulders. Her icy eyes seem to be a kind of cyan colour. Next to her seems to be her partner. His hair seems to be a normal brown colour. She can't really tell, with the low light and his wide-brimmed hat, obscuring most of his face. He seems to have a large sceptre on his back and is wearing a blue leather coat. That's all she can make out. On the far left is a younger man, black hair with a single purple streak. He has two short swords on his purple belt, which hold up black trousers. He has a simple t-shirt, under a chain link shirt which is made of some kind of black alloy. The last one is a tall man, probably around seven foot in height. He's bald and has a long beard, stopping at just below the pectoral area. He's wearing silver plate armour, sans helmet, and is carrying a long halberd.
Feena's smile turned into turned, very quickly, into loud, patronising laughter. "Interesting?! Yeah. Right. Go back to the cosplay convention, it suits you more." She blurted out, quite loudly, and she walks away, still chuckling to herself. This doesn't last long, though, before she starts to feel a little guilty. "I should go back and apologise to them…" She said out allowed, before she felt something poke into her lower back.
"No, you were right to walk away." A deep, quiet voice whispered into her ear. She caught a glimpse of the man in a reflection in a nearby window. Tall, dark haired with black stubble on his face. This is one of the men from the bar. "Keep walking, between those two buildings on the right. You try to run, cast magic, grab one of your weapons or call for help, I will gut you where you stand, Icarian girl…"
Feena kept a straight face and did as she was told, for now. "So, you know who I am. You and your bastard friends must be Ex-Garlean troops, right?" She asked, bluntly. Truthfully, she's a little scared. That fear grows when she sees the other three waiting for them. Three bald, muscular men, all wearing suits, like their compatriot, behind her. The only thing separating them is their eye colour, and then there's the one man behind them, wearing sunglasses. He wasn't at the bar, with them. "So, talk. What do you want?"
"Take it easy, Princess Feena…" The man in the sunglasses said, walking over to him, looking her up and down. "Yeah… We've had our eye on you, for some time now. Hard to believe you're the last of the Icarians." He turns away as he says this, looking to his partners in crime. "Yeah, we're ex-military. That's how we know about you."
Feena's fear starts to grow. She's on her own, now. She can't fight back. "What are you going to do with me?" She asks, trying to hide her fright. It doesn't work all that well. There's a definite quiver in her voice, and all five men heard it.
They start laughing, cruelly, as the bald man behind her flips a knife around and brings it up to her neck. "What do you reckon. Boss? Think she'll fetch a high price on the market as a slave?" He asks in a sleazy tone of voice. "Gotta admit, she's smoking hot. Girls like this one would draw a lot of attention."
The man with the sunglasses walked over to him and takes his knife, before slapping the stubbled man. "You fool! She's way too powerful to leave locked in a cage for patrons." He said and then smirked at Feena, with bad intentions. Her heart begins to beat rapidly. Her knees began to shake. Her jaw quivers. Tears form in her eyes. "Relax, dear. We're not going to kill you… Not yet anyway." He takes the knife to the belt and cut's it off.
Her eyes widen as the tears keep coming. She can't even make a noise, from being so terrified of this situation. Death is one thing, but after cutting off her belt, she knows what's coming next. She shakes her head, violently, still unable to speak, or even whisper, never mind call for help. The man in the sunglasses smirked and chuckled. "Yes… Cower at me, Icarian. We're going to take what we want, one by one…" He informs her, cruelly, slipping the knife under her jacket, cutting a strap of her top. "And then we're going to take your life. No one is coming to save you, little girl…"
At that moment, the three men behind him burst into flames, screaming in agony. He turns around to see a man with a longsword and shield landing in front of him, turning to face him. He slash's upwards and manages to cut the sunglasses in two, before bringing the sword back to the man's throat. "Drop the knife and let the girl go, Kreidoh. I won't tell you again." The man with odd eyes demands form Atticus, who drop the knife and puts his hands up. Behind Feena, the man who was preventing her escape was knocked to the ground and stabbed by the giant with a spear.
Kreidoh looks around, at the group and scoffs. "You all made a huge mistake, the first time you interfered in The Hand's business. In my business. And here you are again." He explains. His arms are folded, shrugging his shoulders. He's not intimidated by anyone here.
"Come on, Kreidoh, don't be that cunt." The man with the odd coloured eyes responds, calmly. "You're outnumbered, six-to-one. No one else is coming to help you. If they were, you would have had more man power. And some back up waiting in the wings. Face it, you became a liability, and a very creepy one at that, so The Hand let fate decide what happens to you next."
The young black-haired man with eh purple streak steps forward, drawing one of his two short swords, but doesn't hold it up to Kreidoh. "Talk, bastard. Where's The Hand's Hideout. This is the only way you get out of this alive." He says with a snarl. Kreidoh smirks and shakes his head, slowly. "Strike one. Shivren?"
At this point, the blue haired girl walks up and punches the man in his stomach, hard. Kreidoh doubles over in pain, his smug expression no wiped from his face, as he drops to his hands and knees. The man with the purple streak squats down to get on the enemy's physical level. "See, that's what happens when you don't give us what we want. You'll get one more shot like that if you don't answer us again. But… well, strike three isn't so much of a strike as it is your termination. And trust me, you cretinous little lech, no one here will have guilty conscience, if it comes to that."
The large man with his halberd turns his back on what's happening, keeping a watchful eye on the main street, as his sceptre-wielding compatriot follows suit. The odd-eyed man trains his sord to the back of Kreidoh's head, pressing the tip of it against his adversary. "Let's take this from the top, creep. Where… can we find… The Hand's… Hideout?"
The response that Kreidoh gives was not unexpected. "Go to hell, pricks." He says, stifled considerably by the coughing. He coughs even more, eve throwing up blood, after the blue-haired lady brings her heel down into his spine and kidneys.
"See, I don't know what you thought you'd get out of that, Kreidoh, but if you really thought we were bluffing about killing you, you're about to find out the hard way." The man with the streak in his hair responded, driving his one drawn short sword into the ground, mere millimetres away from Kreidoh's face. "Oh, and the day we go to hell, we'll find you there and torture way worse than we are right now. Because you'll be there first, I guarantee it."
"You… need me… alive…" Kreidoh slowly, breathlessly, lets out, trying to force some laughter out. "You… are definitely… bluffing…" He adds, coughing up more blood. Feena can hardly believe her eyes. This man, who was about to rip her apart, physically and mentally, was now on death's doorstep. Thanks to the five people whom she had previously talked to, so condescendingly.
At that sentence, the odd-eyed swordsman chuckles. "You really think so? You don't think, for one moment, that there aren't higher ranking members of The Hand that we can't just destroy, like we have with you?" And then he outright laughs, quite loudly. "Do you know what I find so hilarious about degenerate fuckheads, like you? The juvenile level arrogance you reach. You, and your ilk, have this obscenely over-inflated sense of self-worth, and it's never enough. You need to feel powerful, by any means necessary, to get your fix. It's so utterly childish and pathetic. And now, look at you. Bleeding into the dirt, like a cow being slaughtered for its meat. The only difference between you and the cow is that its meat is going to provide for us."
At that point, the swordsman finishes talking, allowing for his comrade with the purple streak to continue "So, unless you start talking, then you'll be left for dead. Your self-worth will be taken from you and tossed into the unknown, like yesterday's trash. Do you understand? We don't need you. You're a low rung on the ladder. We'll step-up and move to a more important target."
Kreidoh looks up at Feena and laughs, hysterically, with a crazed look in his eyes. "You think five would-be adventurer types can stop me from hunting you down, Icarian? Make no mistake about. I will hunt you down, without mercy. I will kill everyone around you. And then, when no one else is around to protect you, your mind will break. And that's when my venom enters your veins and-!"
He might have finished that sentence, but Feena took the knife from the ground and lunged forward, running it into his stomach. Then his sternum. Lastly into his shoulder. "Not from beyond the grave, you won't, you bastard!" She lets out, finally finding her voice again, before falling backwards, looking back at the lifeless body of the man who attacked her.
"Strike three…" The blue-haired girl responds upon seeing that, walking over to the man with the sceptre and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Your turn. You know the drill, yeah?" She asks the man, who's clearly a mage, of some description. He, silently, walks over to the final two dead bodies and starts charring them to ash, with burn spells. As the mage takes care of that, the man with the purple streak in his hair moves towards his tall companion.
"Another one down. Still no closer to our target or finding out what they want." The man in plate armour says to his friend, not looking at him. He looks up to the stars and sighs. "Tell me, Koreyn… What do we get out of this one? Last time it was money. The time before that, recognition. How many more targets must we kill, in cold blood, without getting even the slightest hint of what we need out of them?!"
Koreyn can hear the frustration in his friend's voice. He remains calm and readies himself for what he predicts will be another one of the giants' large outbursts. "I understand your frustration, Ardynius-."
"Really?! Because from where I stand, all I see is evidence to the contrary!" Ardynius says with an angry tone and a tremble in his voice. "We kill when we don't get what we want. We move on to another mark, lather, rinse, repeat. And for what?! This time, for some girl?!"
"Hey!" Shivren calls out, walking over to Ardynius. "Never. Forget. What we are doing. We find a target. We stalk them, take them down, get what info we can and destroy them so they can't track us down." She explains, frustratedly. "And if we can save people, along the way, we do so. Tonight, we stopped a man from destroying that woman's body and mind."
Ardynius sighs and closes his eyes, his shoulders slump down and his head drops. As he opens his eyes, still a little angry, he starts to walk away, back to the hotel. "Today, we saved one woman. But we still haven't found The Hand. So, we still haven't found the one woman that matters." He says, more hurt now, than angry. He doesn't look around to his two friends as he walks away, but he doesn't get far, before he stops, again. "Make sure she's healed up and has somewhere safe and sheltered, to go. We can't afford to bring baggage, like her."
Shivren nods at Koreyn, before making her way over to Ardynius. Meanwhile, Koreyn keeps an eye down the alley. "Hey, Darius, how's it coming along? You about done?" He asks the mage, by talking over his own shoulder, keeping an eye out for anyone who might be watching them. Thankfully, no one seems to be outside.
Darius just finishes burning down the bodies and scattering the ashes with wind magic. "Yeah, I'm done here." He responds to Koreyn, walking along the alley passed Feena and his comrade with the odd coloured eyes. He starts looking at the two buildings and notices light coming out of the windows. "Do you not find it strange that there's light inside, but no one came out to find out what's happening?"
Koreyn shakes his head. "Not really. Kreidoh and his four stooges probably set the lights up, to put people off. Still, we should check them out to be sure." He responds, sheathing his short sword and looking back down the alley. "Atticus?" He calls out. The man with odd-coloured eyes looks up from Feena to his comrade. "Darius and I are going to check out these houses. Are you going to be okay on your own, with her?"
The odd-coloured eyed man looks up at Koreyn and nods once, watching both him and Darius head right. Presumably, Ardynius and Shivren have gone to check the building on the left. He turns his attention back to Feena, who's still blankly staring into space. He presumes she's still processing what almost happened to her. "What's your name?" He asks her, as rain starts to fall, lightly, on them. "I'm Atticus. Atticus Hawkins."
Feena doesn't look up at him. She just curls her body up into the foetal position. "Feena. My name is Feena." She responds, quietly and slowly. "Please. Just leave me alone." Feena adds, sobbing and finally breaking down into a crying mess. Atticus sighs and sits next to her, looking up at the rain.
"I like the rain." Atticus says, as droplets run down his face. "My mother always told me that we should cherish it. Because rain is a life force, that provides strength to the lives it touches. Animals, plants, the soil under our feet… Even us." As he speaks, Feena slowly looks up from her knees, showing him her tired, scared eyes. Her mind wanders back and forth over what Atticus is saying to her. Atticus looks over to her and smiles as he rises to his feet, extending his hand to her. "On your feet, Feena. Let's get you somewhere safe."
Begrudgingly, Feena takes his hand. "I have nowhere to go. The hotel kicked me out." She informed Atticus, picking up her bag and belt, slinging them over both her shoulders. "So, unless you want to pay for a room I don't know about, I have no shelter from this very wet breath of life." Feena added, looking down at the ground. "Plus, I'm not sure your lanky friend wants me around…"
Atticus groaned, placing his hands on his hips. "Ardynius is… How do I put this?" He asks, himself, more than Feena, contemplating how to, politely, tell her he's an impatient, belligerent asshole with a righteous cause. "Ardynius seems like kind of a dick, at first, I'll give you that." Atticus starts, choosing to be chaotic and not be even slightly subtle about it, at all. "But, that said, he has more than enough of a reason to be the way he is. You're better off asking him about it."
Feena nods, as she listens to Atticus speak. She's still not entirely sure whether to trust him, or where he'll take her. Atticus gestures for Feena to follow him. Which, she does, for no other reason than she wants to see where this takes her. The pair walk towards Atticus' group of friends. Which doesn't inspire any good will from Ardynius. "What part of cut her loose wasn't clear, the first time, man?" He responds to the sight of Atticus and Feena walking together. Atticus carried on walking, right passed the group, with Feena in tow. Ardynius looked around, angrily. "Oh, cool move, man. Real cool! And I suppose she'll be sleeping in your room, yeah?!"
Atticus keeps walking regardless, with Feena, towards the hotel "First of all, she has a name, it's Feena. Secondly, yes, she will be in my room, and I'm coming to invade you and Koreyn, seeing as you were complaining about a spare fucking bed, this morning!" He informs Ardynius, his volume increasing, the further away he walked from the group.