Author's Note: Yay! Vanille and Sazh! I've missed you since chapter 4. :D
Thank you, Joshua Chung, for making me laugh when I wasn't in the best of moods. :)
S o S t a r s t r u c k
Chapter Twelve
Hellfire
Little did we know that we were walking into what seemed like the pits of Hell.
Lightning led the group off the ship, after dragging Balthier away from the controls (he was convinced that he wanted to stay aboard the transport), to the center of the small hangar. As soon as they paused for a few seconds, sirens rang out all around them and soldiers ran into the small area.
"Code Red! Repeat: Code Red! Attention all crew: this is not a drill! Code Red!"
Balthier watched with curiosity as the soldiers aimed their guns at them, wondering if there was some way they had known that they would be coming. "Welcome aboard, indeed," he murmured, putting a hand on the hilt of one of his sheathed swords. He looked toward Fang and Hope, then to Snow and Lightning, the latter nodding to him. He then drew both of his swords, smirking when he saw the soldiers become tense.
"All right!" Snow yelled, "Let's tear 'em up!"
"We're here for Vanille and Sazh," Lightning reminded them, also giving away their plan to their enemies. "Stay focused!"
She ran forward, taking out two of the soldiers in one attack. Snow followed suit, as did Fang, and they disappeared amongst the soldiers. Hope hung back with Balthier, the two of them casting magick to aid their allies. Hope focused on curative magicks while the sky pirate cast mostly black magick on their enemies, despite how much he may have disliked doing so. No one else may have noticed it, but he was casting magick on only the enemies that were targeting Lightning.
Once most of the soldiers were dispatched, Balthier gave up on magick and ran toward the other three, standing close to Lightning once she'd taken care of any soldiers nearby her. She gave him a confused look, but he merely winked at her.
"No need to fret," he told her, a cocky smirk on his face. "Your real hero is here."
She glared at him, but as soon as she glanced behind him her eyes widened. Before she could warn him, a soldier clubbed Balthier in the back of the neck with their gun, and he fell limply to the floor without another word.
The next thing he knew, Lightning was tilting his head back and forcing the contents of a potion vial down his throat despite his weak protests. He reluctantly swallowed the vile tasting liquid, coughing as soon as she let him go. Snow, Fang and Hope were fending off the rest of the PSICOM soldiers, but from what Balthier could see through his blurry vision, more soldiers arrived soon after more were killed.
"Looks like they wanna play!" Fang exclaimed, not minding the seemingly endless battle. Hope, on the other hand, looked as if he was going to collapse if he was forced to use up any more magick.
"No kidding," Snow replied, cracking his knuckles. "So, where to?"
She pointed toward an elevator-lift above their heads. "Right up there."
Lightning begrudgingly pulled a slightly dizzy Balthier to his feet, her scowl strengthening when he leaned against her for support. Why was it that potions always made him feel drunk, he wondered. "Then let's go," she called out to the others, draping one of Balthier's arms over her shoulders so she could help him walk. "Fight who you must and leave the rest!"
The others understood and rushed toward the elevator, knocking down any enemies in their way. Lightning and Balthier followed soon after, and as soon as they were on the lift with them, Fang kicked the lever and sent them up further into the air ship.
"This is turning out to be a damn good rescue," Balthier muttered, rubbing his forehead when Lightning pulled away from him. "If I get knocked unconscious one more time, I may just kill someone."
"Tch, you're not the only one to complain," she said out of the corner of her mouth. "We're the ones stuck taking care of you whenever you're down."
He stared at her for a moment, then looked across the way to the sky outside the window. Something about Lightning confused him to no end. Whenever they were alone, she treated him as if they had known each other all their lives, comforting him whenever he needed someone to talk with. But whenever they were in battle or on the move, she acted as if she didn't care if he lived or died.
Women. He'd never understand them.
"What do we do now?" Hope asked the other four when the lift stopped moving. They must have arrived at their destination. "If they knew that we were coming, they're bound to catch us sooner or later."
"We'll figure things out as we move," Lightning snapped, walking out the doors as soon as they opened. Balthier sympathetically patted the young boy's shoulder as he walked past, shaking his head.
Snow led the way through the long hall, with Lightning and Fang following close behind, and stopped as soon as they reached an open area. He peered around the corner just as Hope and Balthier caught up to the rest of them, and saw a small group of soldiers already waiting for them. Not thinking about what he was doing, he yelled out to them, "Let us through! Block our way, you die!"
Fang gaped at him, narrowing her eyes. "You trying to get 'em angry?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest. Balthier had to agree with her - that man didn't seem to think before he acted.
"Thought maybe they'd run. There's been enough blood spilled."
Lightning sighed angrily and turned toward him. "You thought they'd run?" she snarled, "Let me refresh your memory. Those soldiers think they're protecting Cocoon from l'Cie. The fal'Cie have them all brain washed."
He slammed his fist into the wall, gritting his teeth together. "Fal'Cie...I have had it! We cannot let this go on!"
An alarm sounded off around them, and a voice on the speaker soon followed. "Attention all crew: Code Green! Repeat: Code Green! Security forces stand by! Hostile forces on board, Code Green!"
"See what you did?" Lightning yelled at the blond man, glaring at him. "Now they really know we're here!"
"What do we do now?" Hope asked, looking at all of them with worry.
Snow looked toward Balthier with a focused look on his face, and the sky pirate, in turn, nodded. "Let us heroes handle them," the taller man stated. "You guys go ahead after Sazh and Vanille. We'll distract them."
"A distraction? Lovely," Balthier said under his breath before running off after Snow down the hall way. Lightning watched him as he left, an almost surprised look on her face. Fang walked up behind her, tilting her head in question.
"You okay, pinky?" she asked, glancing between the other woman and where Balthier had just been.
Lightning blinked as if to regain her composure and nodded, looking a tad bit flustered. "I'm fine," she coldly stated, "Let's go and let them be complete fools on their own." She walked past Fang down the other end of the hall with Hope following close behind.
The black-haired l'Cie rolled her eyes, sighing loudly. "Figures. Now what would he say to that? 'The leading man always gets the girl', eh?" Laughing weakly, she took off running after the others.
Balthier cautiously peered around a corner just as Snow caught up to him, and he scowled when he caught sight of a large group of soldiers in the meeting room. He raised a hand to stop the taller man from walking forward and quietly told him, "Stay right here."
"What-" He stopped talking, seeing the odd glint in the sky pirate's eyes. He nodding in understanding, pulling out his heart-shaped crystal from his pocket and handing it to Balthier. "You be careful, all right? I'm not sure if they'll listen to anyone else but me."
"That's the fun in it, Ice," Balthier answered before casually walking out into the meeting room with a crooked smirk on his face. He then held his arms up, pretending to surrender to the PSICOM soldiers, who had just noticed that he was there. "Here's your intruder, men," he told them, "L'Cie, outsider - whatever you want to call me. However, as an outsider, I am able to command some magick of my own." He threw the heart-shaped crystal into the air, then yelled out, "Shiva, to me!"
He then grabbed one of his swords and threw it at the crystal, shattering it in mid air. The entire room grew cold, and in the icy wind the Shiva Sisters appeared in front of him. With a wave of their hands, they summoned an ever stronger wind and sent it toward the soldiers, ice crystals forming around them and freezing them in place. Snow whistled, walking out from behind the wall and standing beside Balthier.
"Nice show you put on there," he commented, grinning. "'Here's your intruder'? Even I believed you were surrendering."
Balthier smirked. "What can I say?" he said, just as the Shiva Sisters blew him a seductive kiss before fading from sight. "The leading man is always ready to entertain."
Laughing weakly, Snow nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."
Knowing that they'd held off the soldiers for a short time, the two of them ran off in the same direction they'd come from, all the while hoping Lightning hadn't left them behind. But, to his luck, Snow had gotten lost at some point during the time they were on the run. Either that, or Balthier himself was lost. At that point in time, he didn't really care. As long as it was quiet enough for him to be able to think up some plan of escape, he was perfectly fine with being alone.
Only, he wasn't alone. Without knowing where he was going, he had stumbled upon a group of soldiers in some sort of break room.
"Dammit, Snow," he cursed, "Must you always disappear at times like this?"
The alarms went off again, and as expected, a soldier spoke over the speaker, "Intruders on board! I repeat: intruders on board!"
Balthier nearly grinned. "Must be doing the right thing, then. These PSICOM fools are getting nervous already." The soldiers pulled out their weapons, cautiously walking toward him. "Ah, you want to dance?" he asked them, pulling out his swords. "Then let's dance!"
Not even giving him a chance to fight any of them, a gun was pointed at his head from behind and a gruff voice told him to drop his weapons or die. Balthier did as he was told, with reluctance, of course.
"Might as well play along for now," he stated, allowing himself to be led away to the brig. He only hoped the others were having more luck than he was...
The soldier shoved him into a seemingly empty, but large cell, and Balthier fell on his knees against the hard floor. Some of the soldiers laughed as the door closed, saying, "Won't be long till we find the rest of you, l'Cie!"
Out of habit, Balthier stood up straight and yelled to them, "For the last time, I'm not a damn l'Cie!" But the door had closed before they could even hear him, so he gave up protesting any longer. As he turned around, however, there was a high-pitched squeal and his vision was blocked by a blurr of red hair as arms tightly wrapped around his chest.
"Balthier!" Vanille cheerfully cried, burying her face into his chest. "You're all right!"
Still confused about what on earth was going on, he patted the top of her head, feeling the slightest bit awkward. He looked around, nodding to Sazh, who sat on one of the benches on the other side of the cell. "Unfortunately," he told her, "I won't be for much longer. As soon as we reach the city, we're to be executed. All of us are."
She let go of him, wiping the hopefully happy tears from her eyes. "The others will find us, won't they?"
Sazh scoffed. "If he was caught, then no doubt the others will be, too."
"I allowed myself to be caught," the sky pirate corrected, "Snow was with me earlier, but we were separated. With his luck, he'll stumble upon this place in no time."
"Well, then let's hope you're right."
Vanille told him of what had happened to both her and Sazh: how they'd found the man's son in Nautilus, only to watch him turn to crystal, tamed Sazh's Eidolon, and were captured by the PSICOM colonel, Jihl Nabaat. How they managed to stay alive for that long, Balthier would never know.
After he'd told of what had happened to them, her eyes went wide when he mentioned Fang. "You were with her?" she excitedly asked, and he feared that she would hug him yet again out of joy. Luckily, she kept to her side of the bench.
"She's here now, with Light and the others," he replied, "Fang's more than determined to find you, so it's likely that nothing will stop her until she finds you."
"Oh, if only we could get out of here and find them!" Vanille pouted, slouching against the wall.
As if it was a miracle, alarms sounded yet again, and the door of the cell opened. Soldiers bursted into the room, and one of them went toward Vanille and Balthier. "Get up! You're being moved!" he said to them, grabbing at Vanille and pulling her to her feet.
Of course, Balthier strongly disliked seeing a young girl being manhandled by brute soldiers. He pushed the man away from her, protectively standing in front of her and glaring at all the soldiers that had surrounded them. The same soldier that he'd knocked down to the ground stood back up, charging right for them.
"L'Cie scum!"
Out of nowhere, a baby chocobo flew at the man and clawed at his eyes before he could strike Balthier. Taking the chance, Balthier hurriedly cast a Flare spell and sent it directly at the group of soldiers, and they were all burnt to a crisp. He shook his head at the charcoal smell, and looked over to Sazh once the smoke had cleared. The chocobo chick was on his shoulder, happily chirping at the other two.
"A chocobo?" Balthier stated, surprised that Cocoon even had them. Perhaps their worlds weren't so different, after all.
"Oh! You have them in your world, too?" Vanille asked, smiling up at him.
"Yes, though I've never seen one so small before..."
The chocobo chick flew into Sazh's afro, most likely where it had been hiding all that time. "All right, time to split," the black man stated, looking over to them. "Not run. There's a difference," he made a point of saying to Vanille.
She nodded. "Gotcha!"
The three of them headed out of the cell, and much to their surprise there weren't any soldiers around there to stop them from where they were going. They reached another elevator lift, and Balthier stopped to examine its controls where Sazh and Vanille talked amongst themselves. Just like before, an alarm rang throughout the ship and the voice boomed out, "Code Purple! I repeat: Code Purple! Security breach! All units on alert! Code Purple!"
"I suppose that's our cue to leave," Balthier murmured, turning back toward the lift controls. "We'd best make for the upper level of the ship. No doubt that's where the others are headed."
"You seem to know what you're doing, so I'll just follow your lead," Sazh answered, and Vanille nodded in agreement.
They took the lift up to yet another hallway, and despite the multiple soldiers and machines they came across, they managed to reach what seemed like a door to the starboard section of the Palamecia. Unfortunately, it was locked. Balthier took a risk and cast another Flare spell at the door, forcing it open with a large and loud explosion. He calmly walked through it, fixing the gloves on his hands, and found himself looking right at the stunned faces of Lightning and the others.
"You sure know how to make an entrance, pirate," Fang said with a low whistle. "Where the hell have you been?"
"You should be thankful," he answered her, turning back and looking toward Vanille and Sazh, who had just walked out of the destroyed doorway. "I found something rather important to you."
Vanille practically ran to her friend, embracing her. Fang held the young girl close to her, burying her face in her hair, and after a moment she let go of the redhead and got down on her knees. Without warning, she lifted up Vanille's skirt to look at what was hopefully her brand (no one was certain, at first). Balthier, embarrassed for once, turned his head away from the pair, his gaze meeting with Lightning's. Unfortunately, she didn't look too happy to see him.
"You've still got time," Fang murmured, standing back up.
"Fang...There's something I need to tell you," Vanille weakly said, but before she could say what she wanted Fang wrapped her arms around her again, silencing her.
"Makin' me worry like that. We'll talk later, missy."
Balthier turned back toward them, watching them with a slight sad expression on his face.
Fang managed to find what she was looking for after countless days of searching. I could never be as dedicated as she, despite all the things I wanted.
"What's wrong?" Snow asked him, raising an eyebrow.
The sky pirate blinked in confusion. "Hm?" Everyone was looking at him then, waiting for him to say something. "Oh, ah...Not a thing," he told them all, "Well, so...What's the next thing on our list?"
Snow punched his fists together, grinning like a mad-man. "Toppling the Sanctum!"
Sazh took a step back, shocked. "Seriously?" he exclaimed.
"He's serious," Lightning replied, brushing past Balthier and walking toward the rest of the party. "We're gonna take down the Sanctum and give Cocoon back to the people. The fal'Cie have called the shots long enough."
"If we pull this off, it'll be a miracle," Hope added in, shrugging his shoulders.
Fang stepped forward, smirking as usual. "Well, good thing Lady Luck's on our side," she told them with confidence.
All of the sudden, flying fiends soared above them and the air ship. One of them flew directly at them, only to pull away at the last moment back to the sky. Snow groaned in annoyance and murmured, "You know, this is getting really old." Balthier figured that before he and the other two had showed up, the rest of them had done battle against one of those dragons.
Fang ignored him and ran forward with Vanille close behind her. "Check this out!" she exclaimed, pulling out her lance. "A miracle - Gran Pulse style!"
The rest of them could only watch as the other two l'Cie managed to tame one of the dragons by using some sort of technique that even Balthier was envious of. He made a mental note to ask them to teach him that trick once everything was over. Fang stabbed her lance into the back of the fiend, grinning as she looked over to the rest of the group. "C'mon, you lot! Haven't got all day, you know!" she yelled to them.
Vanille grabbed Balthier's hand, despite the annoyed look Lightning gave the two of them, and pulled him along with her as she ran. "Let's get on!" she happily cheered, grinning up at him.
Again, he wondered: what had he gotten himself into?
Woot, the gang's back together again!
I feel sorry for Balthier. He just gets dragged from one mess to another...Haha!