God-fucking-dammit I hate you guys... Nah just, kidding, but I am very unhappy right now with you. WHY WOULD YOU GUYS LEAVE SUCH NICE REVIEWS?! They made me post this chapter waaaay sooner than I originally planned. This was already written when I posted the prologue, so don't think that the third chapter will come as quickly as this one. But if I don't post the next chapter in a fair amount of time (let's say about during this year), feel free to send a message and make my conscience cry blood. That usually works.
Anyhow, warnings and pairings are on the prologue and I still don't own Tales of Vesperia. And still un-betaed.
0o0o0
Steps away from Heaven (I'd rather be with You)
First Chapter
Come Hell or High Water – Any difficult situation or obstacle
0o0o0
Karol was having a nice dream about Nan when somebody decided to bang a pot loudly next to his ear. The loud, and rude, wake-up startled the young guild leader enough to make him shoot up from his sleeping bag, flailing his feet and hands while doing so.
"Ah, the eggbears are attacking!" he shouted, blinking rapidly while looking around. The only thing he saw somewhat clearly was Yuri's amused face plus a stick and metal pot in the swordsman's hands.
"Wakey wakey Cap, today's an important day!" the older man announced. Karol rubbed his eyes, now able to see his surroundings much clearer. After the last of the fireworks had been shot, they camped on a small hill, just outside the gates of Zaphias and now it was clear, sunny morning with a few white clouds adorning the azure sky.
A delicious smell of bacon and eggs hit the young boy's nose and Karol tried his best not to drool. On his left, there was a small campfire lit up and above it somebody – Yuri most likely – had set up a well-used frying pan with slices of bacon and sunny side up eggs. Next to the camp fire were Repede, who was staring at the stirring bacon unblinking and Rita, reading one of her many books while nibbling absentmindedly a piece of toast.
"You better get up before old man smells the food," Yuri stated, pointing at the older man couple meters away, snoring loudly and completely unaware of his surroundings.
Karol crawled out of his comfy sleeping bag and approached the cracking fire. Grapping a metallic plate, the guild leader sat down next to Repede and started piling food on his plate. When he was about to eat the bacon, Judith appeared with Ba'ul, the former riding on the whale-like monster.
"Where were you two?" Karol asked as soon as the couple reached their campsite.
"Just stretching our legs," the bluenette smiled, stroking Ba'ul's scales tenderly. The levitating monster let out a sound that sounded slightly like a purr.
Suddenly, Rita closed her book, "Now that everyone is here..." she stood up, picking Karol's drinking bottle and without any word, marched to the sleeping man and poured ice cold water on the archer.
"Imma drowin', drowin'!" Raven spluttered. Rita ignored him and tossed the now empty bottle back to Karol. "We need a plan."
0o0o0
It was truly a beautiful morning – birds were chirping, the sun was shining and the clouds were pure white.
The weather was somewhat like what commandant Alexei was feeling. He was standing by a large window, looking down at the city were people were preparing for the coming day. Small people, ignorant people.
Yesterday had been a good day, the silver-haired man mused, a corner of his lips twitching upwards.
"Ten years..." the words felt good. Double-digit amount of years. Good amount of years. An amount of years that made people think. It was good, he needed people to think. Especially one certain person.
A row of knocks interrupted Alexei's thoughts. "You may enter," he called out, returning to his work table. The door opened, revealing a knight. "Sir, his highness wants an audience with you," the soldier stated, saluting to his superior.
Ah, speaking of the devil...
"Do let him in," the commandant answered, hiding his delight under a cool expression. "Prince Ioder, how can I help you?" he asked when the blonde young man entered the room.
"I apologize the sudden interruption, commandant," Ioder said, " I assure you, this won't take long but... I need to ask your option about... something." the prince said the last bit quietly. Alexei waited for the younger man to continue, though already aware of what Ioder was going to say.
The blonde man took a deep breath. "Yesterday got me thinking... well, it made me think about it more than usual," the young prince walked to the window, looking down at the market place where people were setting up their stalls. "Where do you think she is now?"
Alexei studied the wistful look on his prince's face. "Personally, I think she is dead, your highness," he said blankly. He knew the prince, he knew where the line was, how much he can say, what he can say without any damage.
The blonde man laughed humorlessly. "Yes, that's the most logical option." Ioder stated. "But why, who, where? Who could do that to a small, innocent child?" there was a hint of anger in the prince's tone.
Just like he had predicted, Alexei thought. The number ten... it got people thinking – recalling the incident and making people reconsider the theories.
The knight kept his calm face. "Your highness is well aware of my personal belief in that subject," he replied smoothly. It was true, he had made his option clear, by using subtle hints, trying to plant his belief in the prince's mind – but without any success. This time, the blonde man turned to face his commandant, a ghost of a smile plastered on his face.
"Yes... but I cannot believe that they would do such a thing – despise their dislike of the Empire."
The silver-haired man just nodded, having accepted people's ignorance and foolishness a long time ago. Yet there always was a spark of annoyance every time he heard a reply such as Ioder's. "Excuse me your majesty, but I have to go trough the Scifo's Brigade latest reports..."
Ioder blinked. "Oh yes, I apologize for taking your time with such foolish blabbering," he approached the door, hand on the golden knob when he halted. "Any progress with the assassin?" he suddenly asked.
"Not yet, Your Highness," Alexei shook his head. "They must have been from a professional assassin guild... an amateur couldn't be able to defeat Captain Scifo." he said quietly, not certain if his annoyance was heard in his voice.
"Yes, I agree," Ioder muttered. "Have a good day commandant," he said before closing the door.
Alexei nodded. "You too, Your Highness."
As soon as the prince's footsteps could no longer e heard, the tanned man let out a slightly frustrated sigh. Ioder was a naive fool who couldn't see the bigger picture – just a mindless marionette doll, but with a hint of a stubborn spine, just a small hint that annoyed Alexei the most.
However, it wasn't all in vain, Alexei smirked. He had seen it, the uncertainty in Ioder's eyes. The question 'what if'. What if Alexei and most of the Council is right? What if the Princess Estellise's disappearance was caused by Guild Union?
For years the Imperial and Guild Union had fought about the fate of the disappeared princess – whatever it had been a work of a guild or the Imperial itself. But without no evidences, people had not been able to do nothing more than speculate and form their own options of the happenings. Neither the Imperial or Guild could prove their innocence, leaving them unable to trust each other.
And now, there was ten years amount of doubt and tension, bottled up and ready to be released. To start a war between the Imperial Knights and Guild Union.
A war between the Imperial and the Guilds... Alexei felt a jolt of pleasant shivers going up his spine. Tension led to war. War lead to a chaos. And that was what he needed – chaos.
Soon he would be able to take the next step, Alexei smiled. Ioder's expression had confirmed it. The boy sure wore his emotions in his sleeve, a quality not fit for a future leader – which he was never going to be, obviously. But now he needed a push, a spark to create the domino effect.
But what?
0o0o0
The members of Brave Vesperia were gathered around the map of Zaphias. "The easiest way to get inside is by the sewers," Raven announced grimly.
"Hell no," Rita said with a disgusted tone. The looks on Karol and Judith's faces said the exact same thing.
"Well, not only it's the easiest way," Yuri butted in, "It's our only way to get in. If old man here enters the castle by front door, it's gonna cause ruckus, you remember?"
"Hey, hey, hey – don't push all the blame on the old man, will ya?" Raven whined, giving nervous glances at Rita's – who was glaring the older man with a murderous look – direction. "Ya got a name yerself in the city, right Yuri?"
The dark-haired man just shrugged. "Maybe, but I'm not the great Captain Schwann Oltorain," he rolled the last words slowly, enjoying the mortified look on Raven's face.
Like Yuri, the older man had once been a part of the Imperial knights. He had even become a Captain of his own Brigade. But years ago, even before Yuri enrolled, he had left because of his disagreements with the Commandant.
"But that was a long time ago," the ex-captain whined. "They don't probably recognize me anymore!"
"That's unlikely," Judy spoke up. "Thanks to his becoming a part of a Guild Union, Schwann is blamed for being a traitor to the Imperial – something like that isn't easily forgotten." she tapped her chin with thoughtful look on her misty eyes. "What if we send him to go by the sewers?" she pointed at Raven.
Karol shook his head. "No, we need to stick together."
"Nice going there pervert!" Rita muttered angrily. "Thanks to you we get to crawl in a fucking sewer! Again!"
"Any monsters down there?" Judith asked before Raven could answer back to Rita.
"Just some reeeeally annoying and smelly monster rats," Yuri replied, recalling his encounter with the said creatures when he had been a knight. "Not to mention the knights in the castle," the young man sighed. "Seriously, what the hell is going inside Don's head? Breaking in the Commandant of the Imperial knights' office doesn't sound like a good way to ease the tension to me."
"I hear you," Karol sighed, feeling dread and panic settling in his stomach. While the boy admired and respected the Don with all his heart and soul, he failed to see the reason of this suicide mission. And why had he given the mission to them – of all guilds? Such a huge task should be given to one of the Master Guild!
Suddenly, Raven groaned, grabbing his messy hair and gaining everybody's attention. "Aww crap I knew I had forgotten somethin'," he exclaimed.
Rita was the one to ask the question everybody were thinking. "What haven't you told us this time?" she asked slowly.
The oldest member of the guild considered his next words carefully, looking at the rest of the group with a serious look. "Zagi escaped," he said finally, his response meeting a heavy, shocked silence.
"What?!" Karol shouted, eyes wide with horror. "How, when, what?!"
Raven buried his head in his hands. "One month ago," he said. "But I found out about it just two days ago, just before we left Dahngrest!" Raven quickly added.
"A month!?" screeched Rita, her eyes holding fear and rage in them. "He has been on loose that long without us knowing about it! Fuck, think what he could have done..." she stopped, replaying her words in her mind. "Wait a minute..."
"Indeed..." Judy said, frown on her beautiful face. "Why hasn't he done anything?" she wondered aloud. Capturing Zagi – a trained assassin who had completely lost his marbles – had been the biggest achievement that Brave Vesperia has ever done. But as a result, the lunatic had gained an obsession with the small guild. According to one prison guard, the assassin spend his days by planning how to kill each one of them.
"Don believes that someone hired him," Raven replied. "That's how he escaped too."
"Wait, somebody hired that lunatic willingly?" Yuri raised his eyebrows.
"Not just anybody," the oldest member of the guild stated softly. "The prisoner next to Zagi's cell told us that he had become agitated days before the escape. The dude had been muttering a lot to himself – since he loves the sound of his own voice. But instead of talking about how to make our innards go outward, he kept repeating 'mission', 'Imperial' and 'Alexei'."
"Seriously," Rita groaned. "We're gonna bust Alexei's office – which can't end that well – only because a criminal claims that a fucking lunatic has maybe muttered about him?"
"Don's really that desperate?" Karol whispered, eyes wide with worry – the seriousness of all this finally sinking in the young boy. A heavy silence fell over the guild, each one of them wondering the situation.
It wasn't a secret that the Commandant of the Imperial Knights disliked the Guilds and the only reason why the war hasn't started yet was the crown prince Ioder and some of the Council. But there had been a peace – if you didn't include the tension – between them. All of them had been thinking that, while Alexei was very powerful man, he was all talk and no action – at least in this situation.
Finally, Yuri sighed, rubbing his temples. "Well, we won't start a world war by sitting here, let's go."
0o0o0
The explosion was the last thing Flynn heard before the foul sewer water surrounded him. The heavy metal armor he was wearing was pulling him deeper towards the bottom. The bastard had been planning this from the beginning, he realized, cursing himself for falling in such an easy trap. A trap that forced him take off the armor – if he didn't want to drown and die in such a dishonorable way.
Breathing was becoming more and more like a chore so Flynn was out of alternative options. Forcing his eyes open, he began to unbuckle his iron gauntlets. They came off easily, slowly falling towards the bottom as Flynn took off his chain mail as quick as he could.
Flynn was fully aware that each lost piece of armor decreased his chance of winning. Unlike him, the assassins were trained to fight in light armor, sacrificing their defense for speed. But knights... the mere core of their training was to have enough strength to have high defense so that enemy could attack them without doing that much damage. To lose that defense for a knight like him – especially while fighting against an assassin – it could be fatal.
For a lunatic, the assassin was quite smart.
Kicking off his boots, Flynn started to swim towards the surface.
0o0o0
The medic – an old, over-weighed woman with stern face – removed the bandages with professional and firm moves. Flynn tried to figure out what the woman was thinking, but other than few grunts, there were no signs of expressions on her face. She poked Flynn's shoulder with a sharp needle. "Did you feel that?" she asked, staring straight into his eyes as the captain nodded.
"That's good..." the medic muttered, more to herself than to Flynn. "Very good..." The blonde man stayed silent, staring at his reflection from the glass doors of a huge cabinet.
He looked absolutely pathetic, Flynn decided gloomily. He was pale with a hint of gray on his face and the coal dark rings under his blue eyes made him look like a walking dead. His blonde hair didn't have its usual shine and the lack of Flynn's usual everyday training made him look thinner and more fragile.
It also might be the fact that his right arm was missing.
There was knock on the door, which interrupted both the medic and captain's thoughts. "It's open!" the woman shouted. Soon after, Witcher entered the room, carrying a large box. He glanced around the examination room and when his eyes met with Flynn, he said "Captain," and saluted, eyes staying on Flynn's right shoulder little longer than necessary.
"Witcher," the blonde captain gave him a nod. The mage approached the medic and Flynn before carefully placing the box on the floor right next to the examination bed, letting out a relieved sigh.
"You came just in time," the medic stated, arranging weird looking objects on a metallic tray.
"Oh, so we can- umm..." Witches muttered, pointing the box.
The only woman in the room nodded sternly. "The wound has been recovering well – no signs of infection or any other complications. The nerves of his shoulder respond to a touch and pain, though slightly slowly – but I am not concerned about that," she paused, glancing again Flynn's right shoulder with calculating look. "What concern me, however, is the possibility of Captain still having leftovers of that poison in his bloodstream. The poison was a nasty mix of fungus powder and filifolia leaves... rather dangerous combination, especially for humans..." she said quietly.
'So, I may still die,' Flynn thought but kept his mouth shut.
There was a heavy silence between the trio. Suddenly Witcher coughed, "I'm certain everything's fine, Captain," he exclaimed, though his expression said differently. None of them were certain of the future and the Captain's fate.
"Is that my new hand, Witcher?" Flynn awkwardly changed the subject. He was looking at the box that Witcher had been carrying when he entered the room.
The mage blinked, his eyes following the direction of Flynn's gaze. "O-Oh yes, Captain!" He mumbled and clumsily opened the box. "This is the latest Hermes model," the mage pulled a man-made arm out of the box. Flynn studied the artificial limb, relieved that it was just what he had requested.
Since Terca Lumieres was a dangerous world with a high monster population, man-made limbs weren't that rare – especially among soldiers and merchants. Because of this, there were two different kind of extra limbs that a person could gain – depending on their purse, of course.
Limbs with Bodhia blastia were usually favored by fighters and soldiers. Instead of being modeled after a normal limb, they were planned to work like weapons, thanks to the blastia core they had. But this made them clumsier, both in appearance and everyday chores. That hadn't been what Flynn wanted, he wanted to be strong thanks to his hard training, not because of an artificial weapon. However, most Imperial Knights, that had experienced the same situation, owned a bodhia limb and the blonde knight hadn't been sure if he could get a hermes model – despise being a captain of his own brigade.
"It's not like those Bodhia arms with extra skills – these Hermes models are just like normal limbs and take the energy from your spinal cord instead of aer. They are also ready to use right after it's attached – though it takes a while until you'll be able to master fine motor coordination – such as pincer grip, so writing might be a challenge at first..."
"What about fighting?" Flynn asked immediately.
The green-haired youth blinked behind his glasses. "Umm, Captain is right handed, correct?" he asked and the blonde man nodded. "W-Well, technically as soon as the arm is ''planted'' but compared your old skill it won't be nowhere as high as it used to be," the mage winced by his own words, like it was he who had lost an arm, "a-a-at least for now on... And it'll be impossible for you to have a firm grip over a sword handle, at least until you'll get use to it..."
'Well,' Flynn thought, 'It's better than not being able to fight at all.' The thought wasn't all that comforting. Maybe he should try to learn how to handle a sword with his left hand.
If Yuri could do it, so could he.
Flynn mentally slapped himself. He had been able to avoid thinking of that subject for weeks and now that the Pandora's box was open, all the thoughts of his childhood friend rushed into his mind.
Flynn could remember when Yuri had started practicing his ambidextrous fighting style. They had been ten and Flynn laughed for weeks. He had thought it to be silly and unnecessary, just waste of time. Plus it had looked absolutely hilarious.
Of course, as the time passed, Yuri's unique technique changed from funny and clumsy into something... beautiful and so Yuri-like.
Flynn would never be able to do that.
"Can we start now?" Flynn asked politely, looking at the medic. She nodded, taking the arm off Witcher's hands. "Now Captain, this may hurt a little..."
0o0o0
"I spy with my little eyes something... dirty."
"Well that's unfair Karol, everything is dirty down here."
"Ugh, this smell... Shit, I would kill for fresh air!"
"G-Genius mage? Stop starin' at this old man like that, yer freakin' me out!"
"Well Rita, if you think this is bad – think about Repede here."
"Oh yeah. Dog's nose is much more sensitive than human's."
The dog in question only let out a small and pathetic whine as the members of Brave Vesperia made their way through the smelly sewers. Judith gave the dog a light pat on his head, "There there Repede. Just a little longer," she smiled encouragingly.
"Oy Judy dear, why won't you comfort this old and poor man!" Raven whined behind the bluenette. Just when she was about to reply, the voices of many vicious sewer rats echoed trough the walls. The group went to their battle position as a pack of rats attacked from the cracks on the walls.
"Son of a bitch!" Rita cursed, casting fire balls hurling towards the rats. "I fucking hate sewers!"
"Well, they are not that strong," Judy stated, sending two rats flying and jumping after them, "or smart if you think about it." she finished, landing on the ground with ease while the rats vanished above her.
Yuri was about to finish one when he noticed movement in the corner of his eye. "Yo Captain Karol, there's more of these behind that corner!"
The guild leader turned to look at the said direction. "I'll handle them!" he said, running after them quickly, due the lack of his usual axe.
"Oh fuck this, Tidal Wa–"
"Rita, no!" Raven shouted. "If ya summon a giant wave now, it'll get mixed with that nasty sewer water! And I would rather not be covered with that!" the archer sent an arrow flying towards a rat which was about to attack Yuri, hitting the target with perfect accuracy.
"Demon Fang!" Yuri shouted, swinging his sword and unleashing energy hurling towards his opponents. "I second that!"
Judith landed next to Yuri, giving a good kick to one rat, cracking its skull open. "Oh you guys, don't tell me you're afraid of getting little dirty?"
"With sewer water? I would rather eat old man's socks – you have no idea where that water comes from!"
Judith chuckled. "Think of it as a chance of a lifetime!" she stated, glancing around. "Oh, looks like we're out of rats to kill. Too bad," she sighed.
"Why didn't we bring more holy bottles?" Rita groaned, kicking a rat corpse just before it vanished with a loud poof.
"Umm, guys?" Karol's voice called out. "You should come here and take a look..."
The rest of the guild looked at each other, confused but did as Karol requested. "Something wrong Captain-" Yuri started, approaching Karol but halted as soon as he saw what the brown-haired boy was looking at.
The tunnel that was hidden by a corner was in a horrible condition. Half of the platform had collapsed in the water and the walls were filled with sword slashes and cracks. There were pieces of wall and platform everywhere on the floor, both small and big hunks of rock.
Raven let out a whistle. "Damn, what the heck happened here?" he wondered aloud, studying the slashes on the walls. "Must have been one hell of a fight."
"These weren't here half a year ago," Yuri stated, frowning as he kicked a rubble into the water. "Can you smell anything, Repede?" he asked.
The knife wielding dog pushed his snout to the ground, sniffing furiously the stone floor under them. After a moment of investigating, he raised his head and let out a small whine. "That's what I thought," the raven-haired man sighed.
"That means no?" Karol asked.
Yuri nodded. "The sewer air makes it impossibly to point out any specific scents – especially if the incident has happened some time ago ." he explained. "A failed assassination attempt maybe? Or just some idiot knight practicing with a sword for the first time in their lives?"
"If it's the latter, then I bet it was someone from Schwann brigade," Rita snorted. "Can we move on, every wasted minute down here makes more of my braincells commit suicide." without listening what the others' responses, she marched deeper into the sewers.
"Oh dear, that's not good," chuckled Judith as she started to follow the younger girl. "Come along boys, can't have Rita lose her braincells on a critical mission like this!"
The rest of the guild followed obligingly until they came across a crossover. "Which way?" Rita asked, one foot tapping the floor impatiently.
The ex-knights looked at each tunnel with analyzing looks. "This way," they said at the same time, Raven pointing at the left tunnel while Yuri was looking at the right tunnel. A moment of silence fell over them as the dark-haired men stared at each other, eyebrows raised.
"Let's turn right," Karol announced.
"Seconded!"
"Yes, let's do that."
"Woof!"
"Oh c'mon guys," Raven whined as they moved on. "I'm not that untrustworthy, am I?"
"Do you even remember what happened last time we followed you advice – Twerp still sees nightmares about that!"
"I do not!" the boy in question tried to argue back but everybody ignored him.
"Eggbear nest, filled with just hatched and very hungry eggbears, that's what happened!" The mage flailed her hands around.
"That was just a lil' mistake on my part..."
"A mistake that could easily have cost our damned lives!"
"But-" Raven started but was shushed quiet by Yuri.
"And here we are kids," he announced, pointing at a ladder on the dirty wall. "Ladies first," Yuri stepped aside, bowing mockingly while Rita was giving Raven pointed looks.
"Oh really?" Judith said, one eyebrow raised. "Never thought you would use such sly ways to get look a of girl's undergarment." she winked slyly as the kritya was about to start climbing. "If you want to get on the second base Yuri, you only need to ask!"
The raven-haired man just gave his friend a smile. "But I have already been there and done that."
The blue-haired woman halted, looking down at her fellow guild member. "Well, this is the first time I have heard this!" she exclaimed, faking a hurtful look. "And here I thought we're suppose to share all our secrets over sleepovers and nail painting."
"Judy, I am a twenty-one year old man, did you really think I haven't done that?" Yuri asked as he followed Judith, Repede hanging on his shoulder like a potato sack.
"Well, the pervert here hasn't," Rita pointed out. "And he's fourteen years older than you."
"Hey, what makes yer think that this old man hasn't experience the sins of flesh!" Raven whined while standing on the first step of the ladder. "C'mon genius mage, women have lined up to get a piece of this!"
The youngest guild member had covered his ear with his hands. "I am not listening this conversation..." he muttered quietly to himself.
"Oh really?" Rita replied to the older man, ignoring her guild leader's agony. "Did they also cost 1000 gald per night?" she glanced up the ladder, then back to Karol. "What are you waiting for twerp, up you go!" the brown-haired girl ordered. The boy in question flinched like he had been electrocuted, quickly bolting towards the ladder.
Meanwhile, at the top of the ladders, Judith was studying the ceiling. "It's kinda dark here, what exactly am I looking for?"
"There should be a round handle somewhere, find it and rotate it counterclockwise!" Yuri said under her.
After a moment of searching, the bluenette felt the said object and with firm grip, she did as Yuri had told and soon the ceiling made crackling noises, like it hadn't been in use for a long time. "Here we go," Judith said, jumping out of the sewer.
"Finally!" Rita shouted while Karol let out a quiet "whoop!"
"Now we better shut our traps," Raven stated quietly. "There might be guards at the other side of the door."
"What a boring, sad lives they have..." Yuri mused aloud, dropping Repede on the floor. "One of the many reasons why I ditched this hellhole."
Quiet as a mouse, Repede approached the door and sniffed the crack between the door and floor. After a moment of examining, he raised his head and slightly shook it.
"No guards?" Karol asked, eyes filled with wonder. "But I thought that Imperial Knights were really paranoid about the security?"
Yuri let out a laugh, one hand on the door knob. "Trust me, some of them are," he said softly, opening the door. "Now, who wants to play hide-and-seek with Imperial Knights?"
0o0o0
So how ya lot are feeling right now? Kinda dialogue heavy, sorry about that and I generally am not quite satisfied with this chapter.
Next time, on Dragon Ball Z- I mean SafH(IrbewY): We have reunions, foreshadowing and lots of other stuff! And you'll get to read about them much faster if you leave a nice review!