Penelo jerked awake startled to find herself laid out on the smooth deck floor. The faint smell of salt lingered on her skin from the countless shoes that had tracked sea water in to the cabin. Brushing away the peppery white film from her clothing, she looked around. Nothing but emptiness met her eyes and nothing but the dull hum of the ship as it hovered in auto pilot greeted her ears. She sat in solitude, listening for sounds of the ship's other passenger.
Where did Balthier go? Penelo thought, eyes furled in growing confusion.Lifting herself off the ground, she made a quick check of the controls, calming her fear that the ship had veered off course during her slumber. To her relief, the ship had stayed true and they were but a brief hour from Mt Bur-Omisage and the wise council they so desperately needed.
"Balthier?" Penelo called, heading up to the deck. The bright sun washed the rest of the sleep from her and for the first time in days, the youth was surprised at how energized she felt, as if a weigh had been lifted from her slender shoulders.
"You know," She said aloud, tilting her head thoughtfully to the side, "I wonder if it has anything to do with being around Balthier? He can be so demanding sometimes. It can be so draining." Yawning, but unable to help a soft smile, the girl grinned out to the expanse of sea before her. "I don't know why but I feel so happy all of the sudden...and I'm talking to myself!" She laughed. "I guess without Vaan around constantly chattering at me, it feels lonely with all this silence! I really should find Balthier though." With a light hearted sigh, the girl quickly made her way around the small ship. There weren't many places to check and given what she knew about the sky pirate, she didn't think him to the type to play hide and seek. It seemed that he was really and truly gone off the ship and yet...
And yet she knew that he wasn't. Deep inside her mind, in the space that tittered on the edge of the mist and the waking world, that part that connected her to something greater than herself, was the pressure of a second mind, a second being entire.
But before she could focus on this odd and disturbing awareness, a small chime sounded from the far radar. Confused, Penelo watched as a small blink quickly move closer towards the 'X' that indicated her ship.
"Oh no." She muttered, quickly sitting herself in to the pilot's chair. "They sure did find us quick enough." With fast, well trained movements, Penelo took the ship off auto pilot and started up the main engines. They were going to have to move and move fast.
~.~
"There they are!" Vaan shouted, pointing at the ship that lay just ahead of them. Fran tossed the youth an unfriendly expression. "Eyes I have." She said, flicking the engines in to gear. "We'll have to move quickly. If we have spotted them than-" before she could finish her sentence, the ship in front of them bucked wildly, diving in to the thick clouds.
~.~
"Balthier, I could use some help here!" She muttered, biting her lip. The Strahl was pulling up beside her much smaller ship in what she recognized as a basic pit maneuver. The larger, faster ship didn't need an advance tactic to forcer her down.
Penelo knew she'd never pulled out in time to avoid the oncoming ship. They would nudge her hard to the right and then continue riding her until she lost the necessary speed to hold altitude and from there they could either board or force a landing.
"Balthier!" It was a long shot, but having nothing to lose, Penelo closed her eyes. If Balthier was here, he could take the controls! He'd be able to out run his own ship, no problem! If she was right about what had happened to the sky pirate than this would work. Summoning him would bring him back. If she was wrong, well - half of her sorely hoped nothing would happen because that meant he wasn't an Esper, just the victim of his father's plotting as he kept insisting.
~.~
A single drop of rain fell against the black surface of what looked to be a never ending lake, stretching out forever against the ebony sky. The rain drop sent ripples out across the surface but instead of losing momentum, it gained. Each tiny wave grew bigger and with more force until massive waves stirred.
Balthier was floating, trapped in the world of mist, far beneath the turmoil of the surface. Ever since his connection with Penelo's physical world had been dismissed, he had been unable to swim his way up, to emerge from the water. Instead, he had waited in the unnatural silence, wondering why he could breathe, wondering if he was finally in truth, dead.
Suddenly, violently, Balthier was jerked from his thoughts. Invisible strings seemed to attach to his limbs, for they started to move on their own violation, pulling him, causing him to shoot quickly to the surface.
Around him, rain began to fall, thick heavy drops that felt like small rocks against his bare arms. A great wind rose up from the mist, guiding his hands – no – rather guided by his hands! He was calling a storm, acting as a channel between the world of the mist and his own.
No! He cried, though no words would form on his lips. How many times had he summoned an Esper, battling side-by-side with it, watching as it called forth strong magic's from the mist itself. Never once did he stop to consider what it would feel like to be used as such, ordered to cast and be forced to obey blindly before being cast back in to the void like a well used tool.
The man desperately tried to make his arms stop the blurring motions they signaled out in front of him spelling out runes of power. But Balthier could do nothing, his body was not his own, his actions not of his doing. Some one had called for the power inside him and he bowed to it like a well trained dog.
On the surface of the lake, untouched by the waves crashing around it, standing as if on solid ground was a suit of armor. It was a judge's suit, clearly meant to intimidate enemies of the empire with thick plating and a head piece that gave no hint of the Hume that wore it. Balthier caught sight of the armor as it slowly started to walk across the lake towards him. His body still frantically casting, he couldn't react to the sight as he wished. The sky pirate wanted nothing more than to draw his gun and fill the hated thing with as much lead as he carried though he knew it would not stop it's steady pace.
Balthier knew the suit of armor was empty, that only magic or some hellish force was giving it life now. He knew that because that was his judge suit, cast away years ago, destroyed with everything else from his past.
On the gentle whisper of the wind, Balthier heard, ever so faintly, …I am The Empty…
~.~
Outside of the ship, black clouds gathered over the Strahl with unnatural speed. Penelo had just enough time to feel the drain of a summoning before the sky cracked open, spitting lighting and thunder. Directly above the Strahl, a thick funnel cloud began to spin, catching up the ship and spinning it, slowly at first and then faster, pulling it tight in to the center of the storm before slamming it down through the clouds.
Just as quickly as the storm appeared, it vanished and the Strahl was no where to be seen.
"Well that was a stroke of luck." Came a calm and strangely detached voice. Penelo heart nearly stopped as she spun around to face the sky pirate who seemed to appear out of nowhere next to her.
He looked pale, betrayed and... and looked what Penelo could only think of ice. As if he was causing the temperature of the cabin to drop. There was no hint of the familiar humor in Balthier's face.
"Luck?! How can you say that?! Vaan and Fran were on board! They could be hurt! We have to go back and help them!"
The sky pirate rolled his eyes, "That was the Strahl, little navigator, not some half-crafted piece of trash. I doubt that little display has done more than buy us a handful of minutes to get out of their navigation range. I suggest you use it to our advantage."
Taken aback by his cool demeanor, Penelo was about to give him a piece of her mind when she noticed a shaky Strahl begin to rise from the clouds far behind them. It had not gained back the altitude it needed yet but Balthier was right, it wouldn't take them long to be back on them if she did nothing.
Penelo took the controls and quickly drove higher in to the clouds, speeding up to put as much distance between them and their followers as she could. Shaken and in shock, Penelo's mind was in utter disarray. Balthier appeared out of nowhere! And that storm, it was exactly like a summons… that can't mean…but it must… Swallowing and trying to force her mind on to a topic the young woman could understand, she turned her emotions towards anger. "You could show some concern! Don't you care about her?"
"I'll pretend you're asking about someone other than Fran, for the sake of my continued belief that you're an apt and able thinker." Came the even, cold reply.
"I'm serious! Don't you care at all?"
"That question has little weight when asked by the woman that is using all her skill to put as much distance between herself and her beloved captain."
"Look! What I feel for Vaan is none of your business! Just because I'm not "in love" with him doesn't mean I don't care! It doesn't mean that I want to cause him pain! You have no right to mock me." She shot back.
"I'm not "in love" with Fran, which is good for me because Fran prefers the company of women. Coincidently, I also prefer the company of women. It's made some very interesting nights for us."
With a slow dawning comprehension, Penelo flushed a deep red. "You-you shouldn't talk about those sorts of things around a lady!" She stammered.
"Of course not." He said, but it managed to lack sincerity. "Forgive my course language. I meant only to illustrate that Fran is neither a love struck follower, driven by her desires, nor is she incapable of caring for herself and the Strahl. Vaan is in the best care possible."
A sudden hardness filled Balthier's face. He stared at Penelo with a look that was unreadable. "Now. Hurry and land. I need answers. If my father truly has risen from the dead to curse me, the new Grand Kiltias will know. They are the only race more in tune with the mist and it's working than the Viera and far more accessible."
Penelo wasn't willing to agree what she already knew to be true. False hope that the Kiltias would say anything other than what had just been confirmed to her… and from the pale look on Balthier's face, to him as well, seemed worth the short walk. If anything else, it would buy her time to think and maybe Balthier some time to come to terms with the truth.
~.~
"We change course."
"What, why?! They have to be heading to Mt Bur-Omisage, it's the only thing out here for miles!"
"We change course." Fran said again firmly. "It would be a fool's errand to follow them further. I know where this chase will end. We shall move there."
"What do you mean?"
The Viera shook her head, wrapping her arms tightly around herself as if to ward off a chill. "That storm screamed of mist. What we must pursue now is the center of the storm – it is there that we might be able to help."
"I...I don't understand!"
"When first I met Balthier, he was not the man you know now. Back then he was...unsure and troubled. He'd oft give in to fits of depression where he would go for days without speaking. I did not think anything of this, knowing so little as I did about Humes.
The company of a Viera is an odd one for a Hume to keep, our emotions are not yours. Often I thought of this at first, for he preferred my company to all others. Balthier seemed comforted by my differences, my calm and my lack of the emotional display as a Hume would show it.
Only much later when I was more familiar with your ways did I begin to understand that Balthier needed my differences as a mirror in which to define his own. Never did I think to ask from what he was running and only once in passing, when too much good wine had passed between us, did he mention that he had ran at all. It is to the thing he runs from that we must now run to."
Vaan gave a thoughtful pause, hands tucked securely behind his head as he stared at the Viera. After a time, he answered, "I don't see what any of this has to do with my ship and Penelo."
"In vain glory they arose," The viera recited as she continued to change course. "But in the end, it was not the punishment of the gods that cast the Espers in to damnation. Their destruction was found from within, for who of us does not carry the seeds of our own demise? Balthier will be drawn towards what haunts him because there is nothing else he can do, in the end."
"So what you're saying is you know where they're headed and we're going to cut them off?"
"Yes. There is not much time left. He has already tapped in to the mist in order to use it as a summons."
Vaan looked out at the now calm sky. "That storm was Balthier's doing?"
The Viera nodded. "He might not know it himself but he has taken the final step and now must face judgment."
"How do you know so much about the Esper legends? I mean, up until I met you, I didn't know what an 'Esper' was."
"Your race is short lived and forgetful. What you consider 'legends' are our history and not all of us have forgotten the horrors the Espers wrought before they were brought under control." Her voice grew distant and Vaan knew that she wouldn't be willing to give anymore information.
Under his breath, he muttered, "How old are you?"
The ship took a soft turn and began traveling towards a cave, several miles away in distance and a lifetime away, hidden and forgotten, in the life of a certain captain
"A judge is a weapon of the Empire. They must be able to carry out its justice without hesitation or feeling. A tool does not question, a tool does not stop to ponder their feelings about what it was made to carry out. This is what's best for you. This is how you will serve your country and you will do it with pride. I will have it no other way Ffamran. I won't allow you to do anything that might put my research at risk."
~.~