Aboard a massive vessel, stood a stout Pirate, gazing out into the seas, blade in hand.
To the left, an even larger vessel, a mid-twenties blonde-haired woman, searching the horizon with her binoculars.
"Captain, " The man spoke to her, "There is no sign of them."
"They will show up, " The woman said, "And by my hand, they shall meet a watery end!"
"Are you sure you wish to go through with this, sir?" The humble lieutenant asked his captain, "The name Aifreed will go down in history as the one who betrayed the guilds. They will not see this as an act of nobility."
"What we do is not for glory, Seifer, " She told him, "We must right the wrongs that have transpired here."
Behind the two massive vessels, an armada of ships, each one filled with living beings willing to fight and die.
"We have now entered Black Hope, captain."
•••
Patty awoke in a cold sweat, her mouth dry and her head moist.
Friends surrounded her, the ones that traveled with her when nobody else would. They were stuck in prison together.
Rita was the last to awake, in the arms of a tear eyed princess.
"Oh Rita," Estelle said, relieved, "I thought we'd lost you.
Rita groaned and sat up, rubbing the back of her head, "God, my head hurts."
"We took a pretty hard hit..." Flynn said.
Yuri placed his hand on Flynn's back, "Don't beat yourself up. Dorik's records were top-notch, nobody blames you."
"I do..." Flynn said, facing the side of the cellar wall.
"That slimeball, " Patty expressed her anger, "When I get ahold of him, he'll be begging to be one of the fish in my kitchen!"
"We all want a piece, Patty, " Judith told her, calm and collected, "We have to wait for our moment to come."
"Estelle..." Rita said, "Did you speak to the spirits?"
"Yeah..." Estelle said, anxiously.
"What did they say?"
"They said they wouldn't support any type of device that consumes Aer, no matter how insignificant."
"What?!" Rita shouted, "It would like 10,000 Blastia running at full power all at once to account for one regular Blastia!"
Estelle looked ashamed, "I know... I should've been more persuasive..."
Rita hugged her princess, "Its not your fault, " she released her, "Contact them again, tell them that Dorik has an old Blastia and that we need to put a stop to it.
Estelle nodded, "Ok... I'm sorry..."
Rita placed a hand on her shoulder, "Don't apologize."
"How are we going to get out of here?" Karol asked.
"Hey, " Yuri turned to Raven, "You once gave me a key to this very prison, think you could find it?"
Raven shook his head, "It's no use there, I made that key myself. Alexei took it."
The rest of them looked at him, "You made it?" Judith asked.
"Yeah, I know this lock's very shape."
"Then, could you do it again?" Flynn asked.
"Maybe, if I had a piece of metal and something sharp."
"They've confiscated everything we have and gave us these stupid orange suits, " Rita said.
Karl rubbed his chin, "What about one of those bars from the bed? It's reliable and nowhere near as strong as the bars on the prison."
"That could work, " Raven said, "If I had something to carve it with."
Patty reached into her hair and pulled out her pin, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."
She tapped the metal several times, and then smoke covered it, revealing a relatively small knife.
"How'd you do that?" Flynn asked.
"I'll show you later, " she replied, handing the knife to Raven.
Raven started sawing through the leg of the bed.
"Hurry!" Judith told him.
"Don't rush me, " Raven grunted, "This is a delicate process, stand guard."
Judith walked over and listened carefully for any noise from down the hall.
"Judith?" Yuri asked her, "Could you communicate with Ba'ul from in here?"
"I have been, " Judith replied, "He can't find the wreckage of the ship. I think we can assume that the boat itself was dead."
"I still don't understand this, " Rita said, "How could someone like Dorik get his hand on an army of the undead?"
"This wasn't an army. He would need more power to pull that off. "Patty said.
"Still, " Rita said, "Where'd he get his hands on the knowledge? He'd never heard of your technology, and even if he did, he doesn't strike me as the type to be able to recreate it."
"Patty, can you tell us anything else about this technology?"
Patty sighed, exasperated, "It was never meant to be used this way, the legendary Pirate, Aifreed discovered it."
"You mean?" Yuri asked her.
"No, " she replied, "There was another Aifreed. She was named after her father."
"So, this technology is old?" Judith asked.
"Older than we know, he discovered it, but didn't invent it, " Patty told everyone.
"What else do you know? How was it used in this fashion?" Rita asked.
"Before there were guilds to unearth Blastia, there weren't enough to go around, Patty told them. "Aifreed senior discovered this and applied it to his ships to power them."
Patty shed a tear, "But then..." She sniffled, "His daughter, the infamous Aifreed, discovered a way to use it to raise the dead and form an army."
Everyone listened intently.
"She resurrected her allies, " Patty said, breaking down, "But after a failed attempt, she abandoned it."
"One day," she continued, "Another pirate within her army used the technology to raise the dead, it required a massive amount of power to pull off."
"What was the power source?" Karol asked.
"Dozens of Apatheia..." Patty looked down.
"So, forming an army would be impossible without them?" Yuri asked.
"I suppose you could find another incredible power source that didn't require Blastia, but its highly unlikely, " Patty told him.
"What about the tower of gears?" Yuri asked," That was pretty powerful."
"Not without a form of Blastia, " Rita said, "You would need a genius mage to build one that big."
Repede began to growl.
The door to the hallway of the prison opened, and their cell fell quiet.
Large, echoing footsteps drew closer, followed by the obnoxious sound of armor clanking.
Raven tossed the key to Patty, who put it in her prison shoe, and hid the knife behind his back.
Dorik stepped in front of their cell, along with a few members of the Cumore brigade, of which he now had control.
"You!" Karol shouted, "I'll personally kill you!"
Yuri held him back until he stopped trying to run at him.
"So, I'm assuming you're not down here just because you like the look of us in orange?" Flynn asked.
"He's got to be here to taunt us, " Patty said.
"The Mage, The Princess."
His raspy voice was monotonic as if he didn't care.
"Don't you ever ask nicely?" Yuri asked him.
"I require the Mage and the Princess, " Dorik said, his expression unwavering. He pointed to the keyhole, one of his guards unlocked it.
"Hey! We aren't just going to hand them over!" Judith shouted.
Dorik took out his gun, "I think you will."
"No way!" Karol shouted.
Rita stepped in front of them, "Take just me... Please, " Rita pleaded.
Dorik grabbed her, and the guards cuffed her arms behind her back and put shackles around her legs.
Raven pulled the knife from behind his back and lunged at Dorik, aiming for his throat.
Dorik moved back but still got a gash on his chest. The guards tackled his assailant.
Dorik picked up Raven, "Technically, you aren't one of the ones that were requested to be left alive."
Dorik drew one of his blades and held it to Raven's neck, the rest of the party watched in agony.
"Enough!" Estelle shouted, "I'll come quietly if you let him go."
"Estelle..." Flynn groaned.
Dorik released Raven and then closed his eyes in concentration. Aer flowed through his Blastia and healed the gash in his chest.
Dorik snatched Raven's knife away from him, "You won't be needing this."
The guards threw Raven back in the cell with the others, taking just Rita and Estelle.
The two lovers looked to each other as they were marched down the hall, and out of jail, every possible threat had been taken care of by shackles and bondage.
"I'm sorry..." Estelle told Rita.
The two began to cry.
"It's going to be ok..." Rita told her.
•••
"Why on earth would you attack him?" Yuri asked, "Do you have a damn death wish?"
"On top of that, you lost the knife!" Karol shouted.
Patty removed her other hairpin. Her other pigtail came down.
"This is the last one, use it wisely, " She told him.
Smoke covered the pin, and once again, a knife appeared.
"What would we ever do without you?" Raven asked.
She handed him the knife and the key. He went back to work, carving it.
•••
Dorik lead the two girls to the statue room, where Yuri and Estelle had first made their escape.
Dorik grabbed ahold of the statue and pulled it away, revealing the passages to the sewers that were utilized in the Princess's first escape.
The guards lowered them down the ladder, and Dorik followed, closing the statue behind them.
The sewer was quiet. Only the sound of dripping water from the ceiling could be heard.
Rita and Estelle tried to look at each other as much as possible for comfort, but they were separated and shoved down different paths.
"Rita!" Estelle shouted.
"Estelle!" Rita shouted back, "I will find you! It's going to be ok!"
Dorik escorted Estelle down the hall, alone.
The further they walked, the darker it got.
"Where are you taking me?" Estelle asked, demanding.
"You're going to meet a doctor, " He told her, menacingly.
"Do you think you'll get away with this?" She asked him, "Do you think you'll escape this alive?"
Dorik sighed but said nothing.
They came to a dead-end, nothing but a stone wall.
Dorik pressed his hand against the wall for precisely four seconds, and it opened.
Inside the hidden room was a dungeon, lit by dramatic, dim, flickering red lights.
Dorik shoved her in, and the stone door closed behind them.
"Doctor, " Dorik spoke harshly.
A chair spun around, revealing a 3 foot tall, deformed bald man.
His skin was gray, his eyes were purple, with a slight twinkle.
Estelle gasped at the sight of him, backing off.
"Doctor," Dorik told him, "Chain her," he commanded.
Dorik tossed him a communication disk, "Do exactly what I say when I say it."
The evil doctor licked his lips, "Yes, sir."
Estelle resisted as much as possible as her limbs were chained to a table, suspended half a foot off the ground, but upright so that her face could be seen on the screen.
Dorik returned to Rita, who was still being held near the exit.
"What's this all about?!" She shouted, "Return Estelle, and I promise I'll make your death painless!"
Dorik ignored her and pulled out his hologram, unlocking it to show Rita the princess in shackles.
"What is this?" She asked nervously.
"This is why you're going to do exactly as I say."
"No way!" Rita shouted.
"Do it," Dorik told the hologram.
Electricity pierced Estelle's nervous system, making her feel like someone had cut her.
"No!" Rita shouted, bursting into tears.
Dorik left the hologram on long enough that Rita could watch Estelle breathe slowly and cry in recovery.
Rita sobbed and dropped to the ground as he shut off the hologram, "What do you want me to do?"
Dorik crosses his arms, "We are going for a quick flight to a tower."
•••
Raven carefully carved the key, finally getting to each nub.
"I don't mean to rush, but we have no idea what They're doing to or with Rita and Estelle, " Judith told him.
"And I don't mean to stop being a pervert, " Raven said, "But could you stand somewhere not in my sight? You're distracting me."
Judith sighed and walked over by Yuri and Flynn.
Yuri sighed deeply.
"What's the matter, Yuri?" Patty asked him.
"There are things I still don't understand, " Yuri said, his eyes closed in deep thought.
"Like what?" Flynn asked.
"Dorik said that he wasn't one of the ones he was told to leave alive."
"So... Then..." Karol started.
"So we don't have the full story, " Judith finished.
"Is someone in cahoots with him?" Patty asked.
"I think its more likely he's working for someone, " Flynn said, "With the way, he was talking."
"So someone hired him as muscle?" Judith asked.
Karol jumped up, "I know where they're taking Rita!"
Everyone looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
"Yuri, your suggestion about the tower of gears must be correct, " Karol said, "They must need Rita to get it up and running!"
"What about Estelle?" Flynn asked.
Karol looked down for a moment, "Dorik and whoever he's working for needed a bargaining chip."
The party's spirit sank.
Repede whined.
"Poor Estelle..." Judith said.
"So, what's the plan when we get out of here?" Patty asked.
"I guess we fight our way out of the castle?" Yuri asked.
"No, that won't work, " Flynn told them.
Everyone looked at him.
"The Knights will be swarming this place. We couldn't take the Cumore brigade on even with our weapons, " Flynn said.
"So, we sneak out, then?" Patty suggested.
"We need a mixture of both, " Flynn started his planning, "They evacuated the towns to prevent the civilians from getting in our way, an order like that had to come from a council member or higher."
"So, you're saying the council could be involved?" Yuri asked.
"I prefer to think that Dorik would've just forged the order, but I've been proven that there is always corruption in politics, " Flynn stated, "So, yes, it's possible."
"Where do we go from this cell?" Judith asked.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I'm almost done here, " Raven told them.
Flynn stood up, "We need to ambush one of the lieutenants. They're the lowest ranking knights that would be issued a letter."
Flynn looked out of the bar and down the hall, "We'd just need to lure one here, ambush him to find out where the order came from, then go to that particular office."
"Why do we need to go to a particular office?" Karol asked.
"Because that office would be the most straightforward place to send a message to Sodia, " Flynn said, "Any letter coming from that particular office likely isn't going to be opened."
"We give it to one of the guards, " Flynn kept going, "They send the word out, and then we wait for the reinforcements."
Yuri sighed, "Guess that means I'm playing a knight again, huh?"
Flynn nodded, "Your body type is the closest, and your voice isn't as recognizable as mine."
"So, recap, " Yuri said, "Break out, beat up guard, sneak to office, send a letter, and then wait."
Flynn nodded, "We need to get a high ranking knight down here first."
Raven held up the key, "Done!"
He reached through the bar and inserted it into the hole, twisting it slightly.
"Hang on, " Raven said, jiggling the key aggressively, "It's just a little tight, but it'll work."
"Hey!" A knight shouted, running over to the cell, "You can't do that!"
The lock clicked, and the door opened.
The Knight turned and ran the other direction, Repede chased after him and knocked him out.
They walked over to the Knight's body.
"Hey, this one is a lieutenant!" Judith said excitedly.
"That was lucky, " Karol said.
Flynn reached into his pockets and pulled out a letter. His eyes widened upon reading it.
"What is it?" Patty asked.
"Evacuation notices of the sectors we were attacked in... From the desk of his highness, Löder."
The party gasped.
"No way, Dorik was around him always, he could've faked that easily, " Yuri said.
"I don't know..." Flynn said, "Maybe he resents us for stealing the Blastia?"
Yuri shook his head, "No way. But let's just focus on getting to his office."
Yuri dropped his orange prison pants and shirt and began dressing in his Knight costume.
"A little warning next time?" Karol asked.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't know privacy was a concern during our jailbreak that involves breaking into someone's residence."
Judith laughed, "I think it's cute."
"Cute?" Yuri asked her while putting on the Knight's pants.
Judith smiled and laughed, "Let's get going."
•••
Rita watched the flying ship descend to the bottom of the inactive tower, remembering the time she had helped deactivate it.
To her surprise, they set the ship down at the base of the tower, and not at the top.
"Hey, I don't mean to tell you how to do your job, but don't you think we should be heading to the top of the tower?" Rita asked Dorik.
"The Aer flow has to come from the bottom for this to work," he replied.
"I can't work in these cuffs," Rita told him.
Dorik sighed, "Your arms will be released when we land, but don't try anything."
"I'll try my best," she told him.
They landed, and Rita was shoved off by Dorik, they stomped through the sand to get to the inactive tower.
She gazed up, "I've never seen it when it was accessible from the front door."
Dorik pushed her more, "Get a move on; we're in a hurry."
Rita was greeted with the sight of inactive gears, dozens of knights were overseeing slave laborers, and this was just the first level.
Dorik pointed toward the base of the Aer tube, "We need you to build a Blastia, but this time it needs to be massive."
Rita scoffed, "That's impossible, you'd need an incredibly large version of what we used to make that Blastia, and the metal is incredibly rare.
Dorik snapped his fingers. Several slaves wheeled in a large version of the device, several crates of coal, and a single crate of rare metal.
Rita stood in awe, "There's so much... How did you...?"
"Don't ask questions, " Dorik commanded, "The point is, these are the resources, now build it."
"You want me to help you raise an army of the dead?" Rita asked him, "Do you really think I'll do this?"
Dorik opened the hologram, Estelle was chained up, exhausted.
"Rita..." Estelle said, "I know you can hear me. Don't do whatever they want you to. One life can't stand in the way of potentially the entire world."
"Double dose, " Dorik commanded.
"No!" Rita shouted. Estelle was electrocuted with the force of dozens of hot knives digging into her skin.
"Stop it!" Rita shouted at him.
"Only if you decide to work, " he told her.
"I'll do it! Just stop it!" Rita begged him, falling to her knees.
"Cease, " Dorik commanded.
The Princess's face was now soaked in sweat and tears. Her tired body hung from the upright table.
"Rita... it's ok..." Estelle told her.
Rita sobbed, "I'll do anything you ask..."
Dorik maintained his look of neutrality.
Rita sobbed drastically, her face coated with tears that had mixed with dust and sand.
"Do you ever show emotion?" Rita hollered at him, still on her knees.
"Do you smile?!" She shouted, "You're not even enjoying this. You're hollow inside. You feel nothing!"
Dorik sighed, and his neutral frown dropped for a split second before he turned around and walked away.
"Make sure she builds the device properly!" He shouted at some of the knights.
The Knights surrounded her, "Get building, scum," One of them commanded.
"I need these handcuffs off... " she said, still recovering from the tears.
They removed her handcuffs, and she began coordinating the work for the design of the giant Blastia, fully cooperating.
