Happy Mid-December all!
First, allow me to apologize for the LONG wait between chapters. My Betas went MIA and without their feedback, I was and still am, a bit at a loss.
This chapter is NOT complete. It needs some editing and of course, it leaves off without much of a conclusion. I will be going back later this weekend to rework it and to give it the proper tie over in to the next act.
In light of not having an active Beta – feedback, comments, questions and concerns are all that I have to go off of at the moment. I thank you all for the WONDERFUL comments I have received thus far. It keeps me going. And now, the first half of Act 5.
"He stole my ship." The young man commented flatly for the umpteen time that day. Pale blue gray eyes watched the clouds float lightly past the window, painted pink with the coming dawn. It was hard to keep still in the passenger seat - his hands itched for the controls of the familiar ship, however Fran would not hear of him driving the Strahl.
"A ship he has." She answered him again. The dullness in her voice informed of an argument that had been taking place since the Viera had picked up the brash young sky pirate from the aerodrome at which he had been abandoned. "And willing is the crew that flies her." She continued. "He has no need for your ship nor a crew taken under duress."
"And I'm telling you I know what I heard." Vaan shot back in a sour tone.
Fran shook her head, causing her thick stock of white hair to caress the top of her shoulders. "You are very young to believe fallible senses over fact that you know to be true."
"Look!" Vaan said with a sigh of aspiration. "I know, ok? I know! Penelo clearly said Balthier's name! She would never do something like this! She knew we had a meeting with Ashe AND she left me behind!" The young man was suddenly on his feet, gesturing with passion towards the open skies. "You said so yourself, Balthier's been missing since you left Bhujerba!"
Unfazed by the display of emotion, the Viera reached overhead, making an adjustment to the ship's guidance system.
"Two days," She pointed out, "He had been gone for two days when you hailed me. Even sky pirates cannot overcome such a great distance in so little time and an impossible task would it be if the pirate left his own ship behind."
"Then why did you agree to help track my ship down? You said that Penelo spoke as if Balthier was with her when she contacted you over the com!"
"I feel something is not right. Your missing ship and the missing sky pirate – there is truth in the connection between them, though you are too eager to draw unfounded conclusions." She indicted the tracking screen with a tilt of her head. "Time will see your ill begot logic to rest. Close we are to the Revenant. We will see her sails before the morrow is out."
Vaan sighed as he slouched back down in his chair next to Fran, defeated. "I don't care what you say, he did steal my ship." He finished under his breath.
The constant hum of the engine filled the uneasy silence.
Or, at least it was uneasy on Vaan's end. He wasn't sure anything got to the Viera.
He when had hailed her, screaming about stolen ships, kidnapped navigators and backstabbing friends, he had expected her to dismiss his claims as outrageous. Part of him hoped Balthier would answer the com himself, calmly offering to help him track down the imposter that had taken Penelo. Instead, he had been greeted with more questions than answers.
Wistfully, he watched the horizon, willing his ship in to view.
Hold on Penelo, I'm coming for you.
Though he had not slept since the run in with Cid, only now did Balthier notice that he hadn't felt tired, hungry or for that matter, thirsty. The thought of fine Dalmastican wine and a tasteful spread with fine fair didn't excite the least interest. Under other circumstances, Balthier might have celebrated the lack of such physical weaknesses, or at the very least, lamented the lack of such physical cravings as were appropriate for a man of the world, but instead, he felt…nothing.
Nothing at all. There was an emptiness in him that, like a great gapping hole, sucked away any emotion or thought that ventured too close to it.
Balthier knew he should be upset, knew he should, in fact, be raging. But the most he could muster was a determination to find out what his father did and how to correct it. He would have to trust that once he was no longer the walking…whatever he was, his fury would come back along with the rest of his senses and he'd be given to revenge.
Coupled with the discovery that he no longer had physical needs, a very unsettling fact occurred to him which brought him back inside from up on the deck. When he wasn't around Penelo, within sight, sound and easy touch of the youth, his body quickly became more distant and the sky pirate felt a chill that the early morning sun could not erase.
I suppose I should be grateful it was Penelo and not that foolish Vaan that broke open the old man's damned cryst. Balthier shivered with disgust at the thought of being bounded to the young man. I should prefer the endless dark.
The sky pirate took one last wistful look at the expanse of clouds before heading in to the dimly lit hallway.
"There are better places to sleep."
The clearly not amused voice pulled her from her dreamless sleep. Straightening herself with what little composure she could muster, Penelo fought back a blush. "I'm sorry. It's been a long day." She glanced back to Balthier, who was standing in the entrance way to the cabin, arms crossed. Giving him a half hearted smile, she turned her eyes to the sky, picking out the sun that told her only an hour or so had been lost. "What have you been doing?"
Unprepared for the question, the sky pirate uncrossed his arms and walked to the control panel. "Things that hardly concern a navigator that can't stay awake at the wheel."
He wasn't about to tell her his private thoughts. However, he quickly found that it didn't matter. As soon as the distance closed between them, the connection that bound them to one another opened like a blooming desert rose.
He felt her fatigue like a fine taste on his lips; her embarrassment flushed his skin with warmth the morning sun paled to. For a dizzying second, he couldn't tell which of the thoughts ebbing at the edge of his mind were his own. Doubt, anger, arrogance and a desire to be seen as useful filled him, as if he was an empty glove and her will was the solid hand he was cut to fit.
Startled, the sky pirate took a quick step away from the navigator – giving himself the distance he sorely needed to collect himself. If Penelo noticed his sudden discomfort, she said nothing. Her steady glaze never left the control panel, so set was she on redeeming herself for having fallen asleep, but it was not to last.
As the adrenaline quickly faded from her veins, Penelo's exhaustion, greater than it should have been even given the amount of time she had gone without rest, claimed her.
It was the half drawn yawn that alerted Balthier to the young woman's intentions, seconds before she slipped off the side of her chair.
"Hey now!" He managed, as he made to grab her falling form. Enclosing her in his arms he was stunned to see how real, how warm and solid she felt to a man that previously could not even feel the air in his own lungs.
For a full heart beat, he held her in his arms, safe and secure, before he was overcome by the oddest thing sensation. It wasn't unlike casting a float spell, only he wasn't floating, he was falling, weightlessly against and into Penelo.
It took him half a second to put two and two together.
If Penelo was his anchor to this world, than surely he was draining her energy to stay. It was probably not in his best interest to let her become exhausted.
Before the young man faded completely, he laid Penelo gently on the deck floor. Had he time, he would have crossed his arms in distain at his own actions. All Balthier managed, however, was the single thought:
It wasn't my wisest move to wake her up, I now see.
Penelo was dreaming, of that she was sure. For one thing, she was standing out on a dock in a port she had never seen, under the hot mid-day sun. For another thing, she was floating with the ease of flight, being drawn towards a scene that played out like something remembered, but from whose memory, she could not be sure. All she knew was that it was not her own.
She spent a few moments watching the clear blue water lap against the posts of the dock before being drawn from her reflections.
A young man, dressed sharply, with extremely short, dark cropped hair and an easy grace moved past her. It was clear, he, like the rest of the passersby, did not see her. Penelo's eyes found his face. The recognition shocked her to the core.
It was Balthier. Younger, yes, but that was not what caused the navigator unease. Dark circles rimmed troubled eyes – eyes the like that Penelo had seen only once. It had been the first and only time she had gone to visit Vaan's brother in the hospital after he was found to near death in the palace.
They were the eyes of someone who was seeking death, having found life bitter and empty. Not Balthier, surely, even in a dream, a man whom always seemed to her to be the embodiment of strength and passion, never could such eyes rest with such comfort in his face.
Forgetting this to be but a dream, she reached towards Balthier as he walked, only to stop upon recognizing towards whom it was he was approaching.
He approached the Viera, confidence in every easy step. "You're new around here."
"What of it?" She asked with a toss of her ashen ponytail.
"Where are you headed?"
Hesitantly, the viera looked back to the drunk that she had laid out like last night's garbage, who was making pitiful noises about his nose being broken. "Away from here." She answered after a thoughtful moment and with a look of disgust.
"What a coincidence, I'm headed there to." Smiling at her, he extended his hand. "I know where we can get a lovely little ship."
"Your help is neither merited, nor asked for."
"Of that I have no doubt." She watched as he gave the prone body of the drunkard a nudge with his foot. "But what of my company? Surely I can hold a candle to your current companion." The smile never faltered but the tone became serious. "Cities can be overwhelming for even the most well traveled of us. It would be wise for the two of us to travel together, at least for now."
"Very well Hume, I will travel with you till we quit from this city. I will depart from you when –" She struggled to find the correct word for the dirtiness she felt. "Horrid place is behind me."
The scene shifted suddenly, the dock and the pair falling away as Penelo drifted far out and over the sea. Landmasses and cities alike drifted past with such speed, the youth couldn't distinguish where she was headed. Images flashed past her, places events. A few lingered in the afterimages of her mind; the first was two princes being executed by a power hungry brother and a very young man, no more than 16 years, tossing away a suit of black worked armor.
And a cave… Her head spun and her vision thickened. A cave, it's opening a ruin of caves in and mist but enough remained of its once wide mouth to show the deep darkness inside. All her nerves lit up at the sight of the cave – Penelo's senses screamed that she should wake up now, before she approached closer but she was powerless to stop her slow pace towards it.
Each step caused the scene to shift, ever so slightly. Rocks tumbled upwards, the mist lightened and the sun began a quick, reversed path through the sky, taking with it days and weeks of time until most of the cave mouth was now clear of rubble and the mist was all but gone.
This did nothing to relive the feeling, nay the certainty that horrible things lurked inside. Please wake up, come on Penelo! She urged herself, fighting to slow her pace.
A hand gripped her shoulder, firm and so real she was sure for a moment she dreamed no longer.
"You know what they say about what happened to the curious cat, I should think you'll not fair better." Came the low and humorless voice.
Spinning, Penelo faced Balthier, looking the same as he had when she had last seen him. "What…what is that place?" She asked, unable to repress a shiver.
"That?" Feigning disinterest, Balthier rolled his eyes. "That is where a former Judge-turned sky pirate became an enemy of the empire and that," he said with finality, "is all you need know of it. Now, if you're quite done, you might consider waking up. I, for one, am certain I am not currently flying the ship and I must question your skills at doing so while sleeping. If you'd be so good to see your way back to waking before we crash, much obliged."