Okay, I'm 4 chapters in and I'm finally getting around to an author's note. And all I have to say is I'm surprised how well Balthier and Penelo talk to me, and utterly disappointed at how hard it's been to get Vaan, in his currently possessed state, to talk to me even a little. So piss on him, I'll let the monster talk for a bit. ;P Maybe Balthier can coax him out to play…
Disclaimer: They aren't mine, primarily because the universe is an unjust place. Nuff said.
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Ark of the Nethirym
Chapter III
The door, so to speak, was open when Balthier and Fran made it across the brief expanse of grassland between the two landed ships. They walked quickly up the gang-ramp and into the belly of the Galbana, calling for its inhabitants along the way.
They heard Penelo's footsteps ringing through the corridor before they saw her. A moment later, she rounded a corner out of breath, looking exhausted and desperately glad to see them. "Thank Raithwall you're both here!"
Then Penelo brought herself up short, composing herself as best she could--still catching her breath. Suddenly the two years seemed like a decade of distance and she felt every day of it in the awkward air. Time had brought so much change to her and Vaan, what had it brought to the people standing before her? Fran and Balthier stood there looking nearly just like they had the last time she'd seen them. But Penelo wasn't sure she and Vaan could even call them friends anymore.
Even so, she was glad they were there. Being alone with Vaan in his current state was just too awful.
Balthier took in the image of the shaken up girl as she stood there peering at him and Fran. She seemed unharmed, if a little rough around the edges. But that was to be expected. He didn't know how she'd managed to get the two of them out of the temple, but he would be sure to get that tale from her, and soon.
He caught another furtive glance from her, and knew he was being assessed in turn. Despite her initial joy at seeing them, it was obvious she was torn. He didn't know whether or not to be insulted by the warring emotions flitting across her features. But if Balthier was being completely honest, he couldn't exactly say he blamed her. So he waited, watching. Penelo had indeed become a sky pirate, he noted. Or rather, she had taken on the look. The bright colored, fanciful clothing, the tattoos, the piercings… Though one look at her open face and Balthier doubted very much she was capable of the more mercenary behaviors of the average pirate, sky or otherwise.
Yes, Penelo was just as he thought he'd find her, a young woman playing at piracy.
Ignoring the uncomfortable yawn of silence between them, Balthier took it upon himself to approach the girl, knowing with certainty that Fran couldn't be relied upon to help break the ice. He pulled out a handkerchief and bowed deeply, formally offering it to Penelo just as he had when they'd first met. "Hold onto this for me, would you? Just until I bring Vaan back…once again." Balthier smiled as earnestly as he could, hoping to ease the moment.
As olive branches went, it was very well received. Penelo peered at Balthier intently for a few leaden seconds. Then she laughed at the obviously nostalgic maneuver, and threw her arms around Balthier's neck--earning a surprised grunt from the senior sky pirate. She knew in that instant she'd forgiven them both. "It's really good to see you," she said softly into his shoulder. Then Penelo turned to Fran and smiled more shyly. "It's good to see you too, Fran. Welcome aboard the Galbana, both of you."
"Thank you, Penelo." Balthier inclined his head and smirked, pretending not to be terribly relieved that their reunion had so far been free of acrimony. Of course, it was also only half complete. "Now, I believe we have a ship's captain to get reacquainted with?"
Penelo's pleased excitement drained away completely. "He's…uhm…well, I put him…" She took a deep, bracing breath, releasing it in a huff. "Vaan's in the infirmary." She shifted her eyes uncomfortably up the belly of the ship.
"Is he now?" Balthier rubbed his chin thoughtfully, noting her intense unease. This wasn't likely to be pleasant then. He quickly rejected another stab of guilt before it could settle into his chest. "Has he gotten any worse?"
"Worse? I'm not sure what worse is. He's definitely got an extra passenger, if you know what I mean. And I suppose you do." She rocked back and forth on her heels nervously. "So…I don't suppose you're ready to fill me in?"
Balthier didn't answer, but rather he put a hand to the small of her back and amicably gestured for Penelo to lead the way. He caught Fran's glance for a moment, searching her dusky face for input. In a traditional fit of equivocal aloofness, the Viera merely shrugged. Balthier rolled his eyes at his partner's unhelpfulness and followed Penelo deeper into the belly of the ship. "First things first, Penelo--I just realized, I need to see your ship's bridge so I can let certain concerned parties know we met up with you on schedule."
Penelo's indelicate snort echoed through the long deck. "You just want to avoid Vaan chewing your ear off." Left unsaid was that it only mattered if Vaan was himself when they got there. And that wasn't likely.
"Hardly, my dear," Balthier gestured dismissively. "Leading men never avoid a good conflict."
It was Fran's turn to roll her eyes.
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They were nearly to the bridge and Penelo couldn't help digging for more answers. "Balthier, you still haven't said where you've both been? We've been all over the continents searching for you. Vaan's been worried into knots." She hadn't meant to sound so accusing, but there they were, talking like no time at all had passed. Like Balthier and Fran hadn't been missing for two years. Like she and Vaan hadn't torn their hearts out searching for them for what seemed like forever.
Balthier had been hoping to put this off, as he wasn't yet ready to face all their questions. The answers rang too loudly of culpability and he hadn't as yet, wound the rationale around to a comfortable perspective so he wouldn't feel as though he were condemnable for his actions. A smart man never went to trial when he was guilty. And Balthier considered himself a very smart man. "It's no simple thing to explain, my dear. Nor can I speak of everything, as yet. But I can tell you we've been performing some very vital, if unofficial services for particular Royalty."
"Larsa?"
"The very same." Balthier climbed into none other than the Captain's seat, ignoring Penelo's sharp look. He gestured airily. "You and Vaan aren't the only ones to have maintained an acquaintance with our young Solidor," he observed dryly.
Penelo crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him defiantly. "Yeah, well. You'll forgive us if we didn't realize, since you were hiding out from your friends along the way."
Alright, he thought. So the would-be-piratesse has teeth after all. Balthier caught Fran's amused expression, it seemed to scream 'I told you so'. He contemplated this might not be as easy as he'd hoped. Balthier's welcoming truce with Penelo apparently required careful treading, and Fran was satisfied to let him wallow over that minefield without support. He'd been a fool to think it would be otherwise. Balthier ignored Fran's clicking tongue in the background, shaking his head. Few would believe how much the Viera liked to tease him. She insisted it was for his own good, and maybe it was. However, that didn't stop his dear partner from enjoying every fallible moment. That was his Fran, ballast for his fly-away ego, herald of his every shortcoming.
Balthier stowed away thoughts of evil, evil recompense and reached for the long range communicator. He was about to call the capitol, when the door to the bridge opened. An instant later he heard Penelo gasp.
Balthier froze, watching said girl's shocked expression from the corner of his eye. He took a fortifying breath, squared his shoulders and casually swiveled his seat about. Peripherally, Balthier noted with no small satisfaction that Fran had her crossbow at hand, loaded and cocked. 'Good girl,' he thought. Now if he could just get the Arcturus to position, without causing a fracas...
First things first. He took a good long look into a face he hadn't seen for nearly 2 years, except in his dreams.
It was both worse and better than Balthier had expected. The younger man had grown a bit, and filled out some. He was dressed more befitting his vocation as a pirate as well. Balthier could only think that under normal circumstances, the lozenge patterned blue doublet would have suited Vaan's coloring very well. This was, however, hardly normal circumstances. Vaan was on his feet, and that was very nearly all Balthier could say of his health. Though perhaps it was starry-eyed nostalgia that made the changes seem so wretched. For anyone who didn't know the desert born youth, nothing great might have seemed amiss. Balthier took a harder look, taking in several subtle changes, none of them good. The glowing blue eyes, the oddly sallow, sweaty skin--so unlike the sunny adolescent he remembered. But the menacing tilt to the pale head, the expression of nonchalant cunning, that was perhaps worst of all. Penelo had been right to gasp.
This wasn't Vaan.
Balthier was about to inquire of whom it was he faced, when a voice that was both Vaan's and not, spoke. "This child recognizes you." It wasn't an observation so much as an accusation. The voice was a duality, composed of a lyrical core that was Vaan's, overlaid by something far darker--something distinctly non-hume. The entity looked keenly at Balthier, cruel amusement reflecting in it's blue, blue eyes.
Penelo made a strangled noise, and Balthier caught a glimpse of her covering her mouth in horror. "Easy Penelo, stay calm," he gestured for her to remain still. The girl needed not to lose it here. Now was not a good time. He'd let her break apart later. He'd even play the gallant and hold her while she did it. But right now, he needed no distractions, no surprises.
Balthier shifted his stance a bit, to start making the Arcturus more available. "The boy would recognize me. We're comrades." He didn't know where he was going with the embryonic conversation, only that talking bought him time.
His stomach dropped sickly when Vaan's lips spread slowly in a disturbingly rapacious grin--very unlike anything he'd ever seen before on the boy's features. "No," came the eerie two-toned voice. "No comrade of his. The child lies in the dark, dreaming of betrayal." Vaan's unnaturally bright eyes narrowed at Balthier. "Dreaming of abandonment."
Balthier scowled deeply. "Now you're just fishing," he scoffed. "Let Vaan go. It won't serve you to keep him captive." Balthier had his gun free now and brought it around to sit upon his lap, the most casual of threats. "I won't forbear acting against you just because of him."
"Balthier!" Penelo cried, jumping up.
Immediately, the creature in Vaan's form tracked her movement, eyes narrowing in a calculating fashion.
"Be silent and don't move!" Balthier hissed at the girl, internally cursing her inability to recognize the danger she was putting Vaan in. If the creature took after her, he would be forced to shoot it--and therefore Vaan--to protect her. Because if… No, he wouldn't contemplate failure... When Balthier got the young sky pirate out of this mess, Vaan would be horrified to know he'd hurt Penelo while possessed. So Balthier would be forced to protect Vaan from her rashness, even if that meant putting a bullet in the boy before he did something he couldn't live with later.
Thankfully though, Penelo obeyed--albeit reluctantly, and slowly backed down.
After a moment, the creature languorously shifted its attention back to Balthier, periodically giving Fran a curious glance. "You, hume, are not skilled with this desert child," it said at length. "We know his mind. Despite his anger, the child has such lovely faith in you. You won't harm him, not even to harm us. This we know." The entity smiled smugly. It closed its eyes, inhaling deeply, seeming to savor something. "Trust… It has been long since last we felt it so achingly true. This one shines pure, indeed--a lovely vessel." Then it's eyes snapped open, pinning Balthier with a challenging leer.
This wasn't going at all as Balthier had hoped, not that Balthier had possessed a firm plan when he arrived. He had to gain control of the situation, fast. The creature was startlingly intelligent, already using Vaan's memories against them. "The boy can't get you what you want. You may as well give him up."
"And go where? Do what, head-blind child of the sky?" the creature snarled, glowing eyes flashing for an instant. "You, who cannot even see within yourself know nothing of our wants, or the desert child's role in them."
Balthier recognized an impasse when he saw one. He'd feared this very thing when he first learned of Vaan's plight. "This is getting us nowhere, and it's grown beyond tiresome. So let me put it another way." Balthier brought the Arcturus to bear, pointing it at the creature's head--locking away his heart to the potential cost if this went awry. "Vaan would prefer death to being controlled by a monster like you. This, I know. So you will let him go, or I will shoot."
Penelo started to object but he silenced her again with a stern, warning look.
The creature smiled again, that unflatteringly calculating smirk that Balthier was growing to hate. "Monster?" it echoed, amused. "A quaint term. No monsters are we. We are the first children. We…"
"LET HIM GO!" Balthier was done jousting with words. He cocked the gun and took a step forward. Fran brought up her crossbow as well.
"Balthier, no!" Penelo jumped ahead of him, intent upon getting between them. "You can't!"
"I can and will. Now stop interfering!" He grabbed the girl by the wrist and yanked her hard behind him, taking aim.
Hardly the response Balthier had hoped for, the creature seemed even more amused. "We will meet again, child of the sky." And then the unnatural blue glow faded from Vaan's eyes and he took a stumbling step forward before his knees buckled beneath him and he crumpled to the floor.
"Vaan!" Penelo gave her wrist in his grasp a vicious yank and Balthier finally let her go. She skidded to the the floor beside Vaan's prone form, swallowing a sob.
Balthier gave Fran another look. This time he saw all he needed. The Viera appeared oddly spooked, her long ears laid back, twitching expectantly. "Be careful, Penelo," he warned. Balthier stowed his gun and stepped forward, kneeling down and feeling under the fallen youth's chin for a pulse.
"Get away from him!" Penelo cried out, shoving his hand away. "You were supposed to help him, not try to shoot him!" She was at the end of her rope with everything. How had Balthier, of all people, been ready to kill Vaan?
Balthier was about to argue the point, but again found himself disinclined to either defend his actions or trade words. "Fran, a little help here," he said in a disgusted tone, gesturing to the girl.
Fran could sense what the encounter had cost her partner. Nonplussed as he appeared, he was deeply affected by what he'd gambled. For the moment, Balthier needed temperance not confrontation with the young hume. She'd always possessed a certain rapport with Penelo, so it wasn't long before she was coaxed aside, making room for Balthier to gently untangle the boy's limbs from their awkward sprawl. "Balthier will not harm him," Fran assured her. "In that the Nethirym speaks true."
"Nethirym?" Penelo asked, staring desperately at the first person to give her more than empty platitudes.
The Viera gave her a solicitous pat and then moved to the other side of her partner. Balthier had drawn Vaan up against him, inspecting the desert youth's slack features. "The creature within him is Nethirym," Fran explained in her oddly clipped accent. "An ancient race of creatures who once tried to consume the Sun-Cryst and were changed by it forever."
"The Sun-Cryst?" Penelo couldn't fathom it, having once witnessed the stone's sheer power. Not that she was able to fathom any of this so far. She waited, watching Balthier's normally sure hands skate across Vaan's still form.
Satisfied that Vaan hadn't injured himself in the fall, Balthier's patted the youth's face to rouse him. He drew his fingers back, surprised by the heat in the sallow cheeks. "He's fevered, Fran." Balthier tried to sound casual, but wasn't banking on how successful he was.
If his voice carried a strong thread tightness to Fran's sensitive ears, she chose not to acknowledge it. Instead she momentarily met his eye, her clawed fingers fleetingly brushing the back of his neck. A touch to ground and strengthen.
After a moment, Balthier turned his gaze on Penelo. "How long has he been this way, far too warm?"
"Well...uhm, I noticed he was warmer right after he first touched the stone. And later, whenever the…the Nethirym took over." Penelo was at least glad to have finally been given a name for their trouble. Anything with a name could be defeated, Vaan always had said.
She only hoped he was right.
"Did his temperature drop any, after the creature receded?" Balthier found the unnatural heat radiating off the boy disturbing, to say the least. A fever like that could consume a hume, in no time.
Unfortunately, Penelo didn't have any more answers for him. And Balthier didn't push. The young woman was frayed enough as it was.
Vaan jerked in Balthier's grip just then, announcing himself with a hoarse groan. The sky pirate smiled guardedly. "There you are. Can't keep a good pirate down, eh?" But Vaan didn't seem to be finding consciousness easily. The older pirate patted the boy's face firmly. "C'mon Vaan. You can't lay about all day."
Eventually, tired eyes fluttered open and Balthier was never so relieved to see the natural, soft gray. The boy was himself again.
Vaan's gaze focused, and the incredulous expression on his drawn face was comical. "B...Balthier? Is…Is it really you?" Vaan tensed in his grasp and tried to pull away.
Balthier gripped the youth firmly, not prepared yet to let him up. He'd come too close to having to do the unthinkable, too close to loosing this game before he'd a chance to make repairation. "Don't look so surprised, Vaan." Balthier's lighthearted bravado was a thin ghost of its normal self--bogged down with unchecked emotion. "Leading men always show up, right when they're needed most."
Penelo chose that moment to cut in. "If you'd been here when he needed you most, he wouldn't be in this fix." The undisguised venom in her words meant nothing to Balthier. He was already thinking the same thing.
Vaan was barely aware of the exchange, his eyes already drifting shut again. "I... I always wondered... " His voice trailed off.
Balthier gave the youth a shake, enough to jar him open-eyed. "Enough of that for now, Vaan. Stay awake."
An vaguely annoyed look took over Vaan's features. "...Can't boss me 'round anymore. Get ov'r yourself." Vaan managed a vexed frown, even half lidded.
"Vaan, this isn't..." Balthier stopped when one of Fran's hands clamped on his wrist.
"Let him speak a moment," she said simply. Despite the grip, it was the look she gave that silenced him.
Balthier watched as Vaan struggled to gather resources--fighting down a small knot of frustration as he counted the seconds flying by. He wasn't at all happy with what the Nethirym was enacting as a cost on its host, especially this early in the game.
Penelo took her friend's hand and squeezed. "Maybe Balthier's right, Vaan. Later would be better. You're not up to this," she offered quietly, stroking his fingers.
Vaan shook his head, struggling against the pull of sleep. He had so much to say, so much to ask. It infuriated him that he was there at the moment he'd been waiting years for and he hardly had strength to speak. One thing had to get out though. "You...you owe me an explanation. Dammit... It doesn't have to be pretty," he sighed. "I just need...I need to know why."
Balthier's stomach twisted at the quietly earnest demand. So simple, so straight forward. So very Vaan. The desert youth had never been anything if not tenaciously to-the-point. One helluva poor trait for a sky pirate, in Balthier's esteemed opinion. Inconvenient at very least, but startlingly endearing all the same. "There'll be plenty of time for useless histrionics. But as Penelo wisely said, later. And only once you're not possessed by anything more unseemly than you usually are," he offered cheekily. Balthier knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wasn't ready just yet. So it was just as well Vaan wasn't either.
Vaan rolled his eyes and snorted softly. "Only you could say some flowery crap like that with a straight face," he whispered. He'd spent his ounce of stamina and had nothing left. But Balthier was really there. He couldn't refuse the small smile tugging at his lips. He'd finally found him.
"But of course, Vaan." Balthier quipped gently as he resignedly watched Vaan lean into unconsciousness. "We leading men get all the best lines."
If Vaan had intended to say anything more, it slipped away before he was able. His eyes slid closed, and what little tension was left in him drained away.
Balthier hauled the youth up, grunting under the weight, and made for the Bridge's exit. "Come with me, Penelo. It's time we spoke a bit"
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My brain tends to collate chapters into vaguely 3000 word (or so) rhythms. So it takes a while to get anywhere in a longer story that way. Ergo please forgive the drawn out pace of all this, I PROMISE it's going somewhere. I have it all outlined and everything! (Elfkin holds up the shiny outline for everyone to 'oohh' and 'aahhh' at…) I will try my best to lengthen the chapters for the sake of pacing.
And thanks to those of you who have reviewed so far! It means a great deal. I hope you will continue to want to read.