Disclaimer: I don't own FFXII
A man in fancy, expensive clothes strolled confidently into the room. "Quite a performance."
"Who are you?"
The man walked further into the room, his voice assured, his tone relaxed. "I play the leading man, who else?" He smirked. "Fran, the magicite."
A distraction! Vaan turned quickly. There was an exotic woman behind him, recognizable as a Vierra. She held her out her hand imperiously. "Now then. I'll take that."
Vaan slowly backed away from her. "No you won't. I found it. It's mine."
The man leaned on a fancy chest. "And then when I take it from you, it'll be mine." He crossed his arms. The Vierra moved to stand next to him.
Vaan kept slowly backing away from them, stalling. He knew he would get nowhere. The only way out was blocked by the man and the Vierra.
They stared at him, waiting.
There was a racket beyond the door as the sound of men shouting was heard. The two people looked toward the direction of the sound for a moment. When they looked back, Vaan was gone.
The creak of an open door drew their attention. Apparently the thief had found another way out. They looked at each other.
The man shrugged. "Exit stage right."
The Vierra replied, "The gods do not smile on us."
The man made a pompous hand gesture. "I like it better that way."
Vaan ran into a small courtyard near a garden. He ventured forward but quickly backtracked when Imperials ran past the pillar he was behind. He glanced around for another way out.
Vaan turned when a voice spoke in his ear. "Follow me, I'll lead you out of here safely." The ghost floated over toward the stairs. "Quickly, it is faster to run across the ballastae than through the corridors. The emergency escape passage is not far."
Vaan went. The worst that could happen is that he gets caught, which was likely to happen anyway if he tried to get out of the Palace on his own.
He ran after the ghost without a thought until they got outside. He'd never seen so many soldiers. He hurried to hide in a shadowed alcove close to the door. The ghost made no such effort. He glided over to the wall in front of several soldiers who didn't react to his presence.
Vaan absently wondered if anyone else could even see the ghost. The two people in the treasury and now the guards didn't seem to be able to.
The ghost glided back to Vaan's hiding place. "It is safe to come out, the guards will not notice you in this chaos." He floated away from the men.
Vaan swiftly followed him down the ballistae, avoiding the few guards he encountered. He paused when he reached an empty area and leaned over the waist-high wall to see what was happening. "What's going on?"
There was an explosion from an airship and Vaan was thrown backwards.
The man from the treasury ran up to him, looking at the airship in the sky. "The Ifrit, eh? That's quite an entrance." He looked at Vaan on the ground who had only just regained his breath. "Impeccable timing. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they were waiting all along."
The ship fired again at the Palace.
The man held up his arm to shield his face from flying debris.
Vaan had used the man's distraction to slip away again.
There was a yell behind him. "Stop running!"
All of a sudden a hovercraft with the Vierra astride it flew in front of him, blocking his way. He was forced to stop. The man spoke from behind him. "End of the line." He stretched his arm toward Vaan and beckoned with a finger. "You have something that belongs to me." He started confidently walking towards the cornered thief.
There was the sound of mail clanking around the corner. The man chanced a glance back to look and cursed. "Damn!"
A small number of Imperials rounded the corner and spotted the three of them. "More this way!" They gave chase.
The man ran toward his partner, who was steering the hovercraft. "Fran! Let's move!" The Vierra took off.
The man was running straight at Vaan. Before the blonde thief knew what was happening, the man had picked him up on his shoulder. The man then jumped onto the wall and heaved Vaan away from him. "Off with you!"
Vaan let out a yell as he was thrown from the ballistae and the man jumped. The Vierra on the hovercraft swooped under them. They flew through a cloud of dust. When they flew out of the cloud, the Vierra was driving, the man was riding on the back and Vaan was dangling off the side. The man had a hold of his wrist.
Vaan squirmed, trying to free himself. "Let go of me!"
The man grimaced at the difficulty of holding the squirming deadweight by one wrist. "Keep this up and I will!"
The Vierra was visibly struggling with the hovercraft. The man looked up at her. "What's going on, Fran?"
The Vierra was still struggling with the machine and sounded distressed. "I don't know. It's not heeding me."
The man let out a frustrated sound. "I don't have time for this."
Vaan felt his stomach in his throat as he felt his wrist move in the man's hand when the hovercraft shuddered. "I - I'm slipping!"
The man grunted and Vaan saw the ground, he saw how far away it was. "Not good!"
There was yet another explosion and that appeared to be all the hovercraft could handle.
They went down.
Crashing hurt.
Vaan groaned as the first thing he felt was pain. A voice just above him startled him. It was the voice of the ghost.
"Are you alright?"
He cracked open his eyes. The ghost was leaning over him, their faces not far apart. He took a quick inventory. The others didn't seem to be conscious yet. "I think so," he whispered. "Why are you here? I thought that you'd stay back at the castle?"
The ghost hesitated. "That's not important right now. I do have some information that you may find useful, though. Along with lacking the ability to see me, I believe that your companions are unable to hear my voice."
Vaan's eyes widened as the implications of this struck him.
"I see that you understand my meaning. I can pass you information, I could act as a scout, a lookout, I could spy on them for you, if needed. This opens a vast number of options, should the need appear."
Vaan nodded as the others began to stir. He spoke to the ghost one last time before it was too risky. "If something happens that I need to know, you'll tell me, right?" He really didn't feel comfortable, nor particularly safe with those two so near.
The ghost nodded. "Of course." He quieted to watch the duo awake.
The hovercraft made noises that sounded like it was short-circuiting. Fran looked down at it. "What happened? Our hover didn't just drop - it disappeared." She seemed to be well versed in the mechanics of hovercrafts.
The man spoke. "Bah. Forget it. Even if we could fly... the Ifrit's playing with fire, and I'd rather not get burned." He looked at the two others he'd crashed with. "We'll go the old-fashioned way."
Fran looked at the man. Vaan looked at her.
The man spoke to Vaan. "Not many Vierra where you come from, thief?"
He would not let this man call him thief! "It's Vaan." He turned to Fran. "Sorry," he apologized for staring at her. Though, the man was right. He'd seen few Vierra, and only briefly. As always, he was entranced by their beauty. They were just so striking... and scantily clothed.
The man leaned forward, elbows on his knees, catching Vaan's attention. "Well, Fran is special... in that she'd deign to partner with a hume."
Apparently this was a past argument between the two as she retorted, "Oh? Like a sky pirate that chooses to steal through the sewers?"
That got his attention! "Pirates? You're sky pirates?" He looked between them excitedly. "So you have an airship?"
"It's Balthier." He stood and pointed at the teen. "Listen thief - Vaan. If you ever want to see your home again, you do exactly as I say. Myself, Fran, and you. We're working together now. Understood?" He looked at the piece of magicite in Vaan's hand.
Vaan quickly tucked the magicite away in his clothes with a slight of hand. "Don't even think you're getting this."
Balthier aptly responded. "The thought never crossed my mind."
The ghost chuckled from his position beside Vaan. His voice was heavy with sarcasm. "I've heard of this Balthier. Never crossed his mind indeed."