CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Balthier! Do you understand exactly what is you're doing?"

"Please Balthier, you mustn't die!"

"Please Balthier, come back."

"Balthier!.."

"Ashe…"

The first thing that registered in Balthier's mind when he came to was pain. Every part of him hurt and hurt intensely. There was a sharp throbbing at both the front and back of his head that was causing him to feel nauseous and he was having trouble breathing. After a second he was able to identify the pain in his chest as one familiar with a broken rib. Balthier wondered exactly how many had been broken to be causing him this much trouble.

His eyes hurt, every single inch of him felt bruised. Keeping them closed, he made to lift his hands to his head and that was when he realised he couldn't move his right arm. It felt like it had been strapped up all the way to his shoulder, possibly broken as well. He tried to wiggle his feet, searching for more damage and discovered his left leg was also bandaged.

'I feel lopsided.' He managed to think before his mind gave way to sickness once more. Groaning, he raised his left, still working hand to his eyes and let out a hiss as his fingers brushed his temple, uncovering the partial source of his headache. There was deep and nasty gash in his forehead. Touching it very gingerly, he found that it had been healed in part with a spell but by someone with much less experience with them than any of his friends. Wherever he was, it wasn't with them.

He was able to open his eyes, though his vision was blurred. His mouth felt horrible, leading him to question just how long he'd been unconscious for. He needed a drink. He very slowly tried to sit up and let out a cry of agony in the process.

"Easy! Easy now. Shh, try not to move." A female voice, kind but unfamiliar, spoke to him. Balthier's eyes had closed again, trying to blot out the pain, but he opened them again to look for his carer. She was sitting next to him as she had brought a bottle to his lips and was gently lifting his head to aid him drink.

"Here, drink this. It will help." She said kindly and Balthier obeyed. Slow, steady sips at first before eagerly finishing the whole bottle. It was a potion of some kind and it didn't take long before his afflictions had dulled into a tolerable ache. His sight had cleared and he was able to get a proper look at his nurse.

She didn't look all that much older than him, five years at the most. She had long brown hair which she kept off her face with a scarf headband. Her face was tanned but not heavily, allowing her green eyes to stand out more and she wore a friendly smile. She was pretty, but in a sweet way - the same way he found Penelo pretty. He tried to smile at her.

"Thank you." He croaked. The lady seemed happy to finally hear him speak.

"You're welcome." She said. Her accent was interesting. She sounded Archadian (though not from the capitol) but there were distinct Rozarrian and Dalmascan notes in there. She was clearly a traveller.

"My name is Camille." She continued. "I'll try and tell you what I know."

"My cousin and I are part of a Caravan of merchants. We travel all across Ivalice, through the main routes between Rozarria and Archadia. We had been passing through Dalmasca when, five days ago, we came across a crashed airship. That's where we spotted you, hanging out of the airship door."

As Camille explained, the memories returned to Balthier. He remembered being on The Bahamut after just having defeated Vayne Solidor once and for all. He and Fran had left The Strahl and the others and were attempting to fix the monstrosity's glossair rings to prevent it falling on, and destroying Rabanastre. He had heard his friends and the Marquis Ondore all questioning his actions as he suavely played the 'Leading Man' card. He called to Fran and had to keep his worries in check when he saw she had been hurt by falling debris. The window for getting out safely was closing fast and he had to get them and as he carried his injured partner from the engine room, he could hear the Princess's desperate pleas for his to return to them.

To her.

Balthier hurried through corridors of the crashing sky fortress, desperately searching for a means to escape. Something exploded behind him, throwing him forward and nearly landing on Fran in the process. As he got to his feet he felt woozy and became aware of the warm trickle of blood running down his face. He hadn't even felt the blow. Not caring for once, he wiped the blood away with his sleeve and went to retrieve Fran, grateful she was unconscious. He would never hear the end of it if she knew that he had dropped her.

Thankfully, the next corner he turned led him to a landing bay, similar to the one he docked The Strahl in, and small ship in which they could escape in. He sprinted down the gangway into the little vessel, bringing the engines to life before securing Fran down on a bench in the cockpit.

"Hang on, Fran." He remembered telling her as he lifted away from The Bahamut's column. Before he could fly out of it's rings however, something fell from above, striking the small ship and sending it spinning. Balthier managed to regain control but whatever it was the had hit them had damaged the craft's wings. He couldn't turn and they were flying away from the fleet, out over the desert. He tried the radio but nothing seemed to be getting through.

Spotting an auto-pilot switch, Balthier hit it and ran between the ships engine and control panel, trying different things in an effort to fix the problem. He didn't think they'd been in the air that long when he realised with horror, they were loosing altitude. Whatever had hit them had done more damage than initially thought and the engines were failing.

Racing back to the controls, Balthier did everything he could think of to allow them to land safely but it wasn't enough. The crash was inevitable and the ground was coming up fast. Instinctively, he threw himself over Fran's body in an effort to protect her. He thought of Ashe.

He heard the worst noise he had ever heard in his entire life and was thrown away from Fran. That was all he could remember from the crash itself.

When he next became aware, he found he couldn't move his left leg or right arm without blinding agony. He searched for Fran and was relieved to see she was still strapped to the bench where he put her. His chest hurt where something had fallen on it, as did the back of his skull. There was a pain in his stomach as well and he could see a rip in his vest and a small patch of blood surrounding it but he didn't have time to focus on any of these things. He had to get out of the ship and find Fran some help. He also had potentially a very angry Princess to get back and explain himself to. He had no idea how long it took but somehow he managed to crawl to the door and open it. Apparently that was as far as he got.

Camille continued.

"When we realised you were alive we got you and your friend out of there and thought it best to bring you with us. You've both been unconscious since we found you, I was starting to get worried." She saw how his face changed at the mention of Fran. "She's safe." She reassured him. "My cousin, Moes, is taking care of her. He believes she broke her pelvis as well as hurt her legs."

"But she's alive?" Balthier asked. Camille nodded and he sighed with relief. Every bone in his body could be broken and he wouldn't care just as long as Fran was safe.

Camille went on to explain his injuries which were more immediately serious than Fran's. They were both severely dehydrated and Balthier had lost a lot of blood from his stomach wound where he had been impaled by a piece of metal. He was lucky the Caravan had found him when they did and were able to heal him in time. Balthier did not want to think about the alternative.

The rest of his injuries were as he'd already suspected. He had broken at least four ribs, his right arm and hand and his left foot and fractured his knee. He had also taken a nasty blow to the back of his head in the crash. Considering how Camille described the damaged craft to him, Balthier was just happy he had gotten out of there at all.

"We've been using Magic to cure you as best we can but there's only so much potions and spells can do." Camille said. "You just need time." Balthier nodded in understanding.

"Thank you." He said again.

"Do you remember at all what happened? She asked gently. He nodded again.

"We were in The Bahamut." He explained, his voice still hoarse. "In the battle for Dalmasca. We fought with the Resistance and got caught there." He then registered her confusion. She did know about the battle, didn't she? She had to, The Bahamut alone was hard to miss. Just how far from Rabanastre did they get? Something seemed to click with Camille and she raised her hands to her mouth, gasping.

"By the Gods, you were in that thing?! We didn't know what it was, it was enormous! We had left Rabanastre four days previous and we could still see it from where we were across the desert." She lowered her hands. "That 'ship' came down two days before we found you, Gods you're lucky to be alive. Left any longer…" Camille was clearly upset by this revelation and fell into silence.

Balthier's heart sank. They were travelling away from Rabanastre. How was he going to get back there? Back to Ashe.

"Please, where are we? Where are we headed? I have to… need to get back to Rabanastre."

Camille could see his distress and felt so bad for him. "I'm sorry," she said, "but we're heading west. We'll be at the Rozarrian border in a couple of days. We're heading for a town called Allaquoia. Moes and I usually stay there for a couple of months for a rest, while the others continue on before coming back our way and pick us up. But you can stay with us, both you and Ashe, you can stay with us until as long as you need to. Until you're well enough to travel again. I promise."

Balthier was so distracted by the information that they were heading to Rozarria that he almost missed her last sentence completely. He turned to her sharply, his eyes clouded with confusion.

"Ashe?" Camille stared back at him, obviously worried she'd made a mistake.

"Your friend, the Viera?" She said anxiously. "Is she not Ashe? You kept saying the name while you were out, I just assumed…" She hesitated when she saw his face. "I'm sorry." Balthier groaned and held his hand to his eyes. The light was starting to hurt them and tiredness was starting to set in.

"Fran." He uttered. "The Viera's name is Fran. Ashe is…someone else." Camille understood.

"Ah. Someone special?" Balthier let out a faint laugh.

"A royal pain in my arse!" He declared, but then nodded. "Yes." He whispered and Camille smiled at him.

"Then we'll do our best to get you back to her." His nurse evidently had a romantic spirit but she quickly became more business-like.

"So, the Viera is Fran. Ashe is someone else entirely." She looked at him. "What's your name?"

"Balthier. My name is Balthier."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Balthier." Camille stood and placed a soothing hand on his head. "Get some rest."