…

DUN'T KILL ME! *cowers* I was VERY busy with school lately, what with the teachers handing out lots of assignments. That and the final exams are in three weeks. ._.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the previous chapter and I REALLY hope that this chapter will make up for the shortness the second one had. I was also working on other stories in order to keep my writer's block away. It was successful.

AND PLEASE RE-READ CHAPTER 2, NEAR THE ENDING, I HAVE MADE AN IMPORTANT CHANGE IN THERE. PLEASE RE-READ IT! THANK YOU! (P.S. - you don't have to re-read the entire thing, only the flashback.)

Chapter Title: Chapter 3 / Awakening
Description: Lady Gaia must be on their side today but something new about Kirit is revealed.
Warning: Fighting scene, some curses, nothing big (to me at least)
Characters: Barheim Passage Party, Kirit, and Mercade
Disclaimer: All characters and settings in this story belongs to the creators who made this awesome game, except for my characters.

-----

"So… you said you hunt?"

The owner of the voice glanced down to the girl next to him. Grey eyes looked up to him before ascending back on the dirty path.

"Yes," she finally replied. "One of my hunts are on the way to the Highwaste."

"WHAT?!"

The merchant almost fell off his Chocobo and the fact that it is now squawking and veering off path didn't help at all. Once he got the Chocobo clamed down, all he got was a hard glare and stare from the Chocobo and the girl, respectively. With a cough and a small 'sorry' (though for the Chocobo, it took lots of Gysahl Greens), they continued their venture. The male chanced another glance at the girl and stared.

And stared.

"How the fuck can you wield that thing?" The elder remarked, forgetting that the girl was young and wasn't to be cursed in front of.

The pole that rested on her back was more than twice her size and it looked heavy. Very heavy. It was brown but it faded to tan toward the top. The merchant had observed how she fought with it. First she would grasp the middle (near the bottom) and swing it around to the front, hitting the fiend. Second, she would jump more than two feet and slam the side down onto the monster's head, causing a great headache for the creature. Recover and repeat from this point on. Once it fell, (this part was the confusing part for the merchant) the girl would act like nothing happened and return it on her back.

"It's hollow," the girl answered. "That's how I can hold it without wearing myself out."

"Oh," he mumbled, feeling stupid already now that he just noticed a hole traveling through the pole from the top to the bottom.

Silence. As they treaded on, the young would beat down an occasional Python before taking whatever it had for good use. The male kept one eye on the road and the other on the girl, making sure that she doesn't get hurt badly. It was then he realized that for two weeks, he didn't know her name.

"Hey!" He called out to the nameless girl, making her turn around. "What's your name?"

"…" She eyed him for a moment before calling back, "It's Mercade."

-----

"Wha-…" Kirit mumbled, slowly rousing from her sleep.

As she blinked stupidly at the sparkling blue crystal in front of her, she felt a side of her abdomen was dry and itchy. Lifting a hand to find the cause of the itchiness, she felt something indeed coarse on her side. It was dried blood from her previous endeavors. As Kirit shifted around, she felt no pain, indicating it was healed by the crystal. She looked around to thank the party but they weren't in sight. A yell echoed through a tunnel to the front of her and she tensed. What happened? She faintly noted that her cloak was discarded, torn and useless, leaving Kirit in her previously hidden garments. Her metal boots, reaching halfway up her shins, clinked on the railway as she stood up. Something big must be happening because her hair occasionally got ruffled by the breeze emitted from the tunnel. Another yell resounded and Kirit scrambled to the arch of the tunnel. What she was expecting wasn't supposed to be big. And metallic. And having four legs.

When she laid her eyes on the… metal thing, she felt her face become taut. It must be towering over twenty feet and it was glowing rainbow. Now when Kirit said 'rainbow', she didn't mean the soft pastel color you see on a sunny day after it rained. No, she meant a rainbow bright and electrifying enough to burn one's eyeballs. She wondered how Basch and Vaan can see anything when they were that close to it. Vaan seemingly to have remembered Kirit's advice and was occasionally blasting it with Blizzard while standing at Basch's side to bring it down. Balthier was standing off to the side along with Fran, aiming at the beast with incredible accuracy.

"Nice of you to join us," Balthier remarked from across the room.

"Were you planning to leave me here?" She questioned as she appeared at his side, defending him from any powerful blow from one of the creature's legs.

"Wouldn't do for a leading man to leave a woman in a rundown mine, now would it?"

As ridiculous as that sounded, Kirit managed a small smile but that turned into a grimace as she blocked a hit from the thing. She groaned as her side screamed in pain as the wound reopened, leaking blood. She swayed on the spot, having lost enough blood already, but sucked it up and blocked yet another attack. The battle seemingly had ended as the giant Mimic swayed and collapsed on the side of the round room, its lights dimming to black. The tiny Mimics scrambled for shelter but their efforts were futile as many large blocks of stone collapsed on them, crushing them for good. Kirit groaned once again as she tried to run but she's running out of energy. More blocks fell and she felt herself forced to lean on a shoulder as the person dragged her, carefully but in a hurry, to get Kirit out of there. Her world spun and spiraled into a blur.

She blacked out.

AGAIN.

-----

Kirit once again found herself in the same predicament in the Passage, staring at a blue crystal on her back. The sand on the small plateau shifted as she sat up, hearing soft snorting to her right. Kirit sharply snapped her head to the spot and the two Seeq immediately shut up. One was leaking drool but he quickly slurped it back into his mouth. She slowly stood up, unnerving them with her stare, and looked around the clearing. Once again, the group isn't here. She again whipped her head to the two Seeq and one of them squealed as he fell backward off his seat.

In a soft voice, Kirit asked, "where did they go?"

The other Seeq, who was currently helping his friend get back up, dropped him (emitting another squeal) and pointed to the desert span. Kirit looked where his finger was pointing and it was aimed at a boulder, but he quickly moved his arm to the left. Far to the left. To the south-eastern exit to Rabanstre.

-----

"But-"

"No buts, Vaan," Balthier interrupted, turning to meet the boy midway. "That woman is dangerous and it is best to leave her behind."

"Dangerous?" Vaan was in shock, he could not find anything in the woman that could be deemed fatal. "I don't think she's dangerous."

The two pirates (wannabe in Vaan's case) was drawn in a glaring contest before someone spoke up.

"We'd be going soon," the Viera softly brought up and successfully ended the heated contest.

"No, Vaan," the brunette interjected before the said boy could say anything else.

Vaan sighed and the three males walked on with the female trailing behind. Fran paused and turned her head to behind her, gazing pass the village to the towering walls of clay. Through that, a sharp wind whistled through and shook her hair. Blinking once from the pressure, Fran turned back and caught up with the men easily with her large strides.

-----

"Montblanc," a feminine voice called out just as the door closed behind her.

"Ah, Kirit!" The said moogle chirped and bounced on his spot on the railing, "You are back, kupo!"

Kirit lips were tugged at the corner at the sight before her but she repressed it. Kirit looked around the space and noticed that no one were here and she voiced the question.

"Kupo! They are all busy with many big marks, kupo!" Montblanc replied, "Don't you have any marks you want reported in? Kupo? "

"Yes, I do."

She knelt and waited for the moogle-boss to come downstairs before taking out a small brown book. Her clan primer. Every monster she had fought had been recorded here automatically by some magic even she doesn't know. She separated the cover from the first page and the individually numbered papers flipped to each important fiends she had felled.

"Kupo…" Montblanc stared in amazement as the pages flipped to the Mimic Queen, "Kupo! You want the rewards then?"

"…" Kirit squinted at the Mimic Queen and mumbled, "No…"

"Kupo?"

"No, Montblanc," Kirit spoke again in a clear voice. "There was one other with me. Vaan, I think, is his name. He's a newbie, probably a day old in this kind of stuff. Invited by Tomaj and approved by you, no doubt."

The boss nodded slowly, the pom waving slightly, as Kirit closed her book with a snap.

"How did you know, kupo?"

"Let just say that Vaan isn't humble with his clan primer," Kirit chuckled quietly at the memory of Vaan checking it every five minutes.

Both of them shared a quiet but comfortable silence but all was broken when Kirit heard the door's lock click. Turning her head to the door that was opened a gap but stopped its movement, Kirit could hear her hunter friends talking.

"I'm telling you, I did most of the work!"

"Nuh-uh, I did."

"Shut up, go inside. They are staring."

The female hunter sighed and turned back to Montblanc, everything going in slow motion. Kirit could see the individual strands of fur brush against each other as she ruffled his cheek. Hazelnut eyes slowly blinked, sliding down and back open. The door slowly creaking open inches by inches. And all of a sudden, time moved just like it had never been stopped.

"I'd best be going."

The moogle nodded once and she disappeared into a blur of whites just when the door slammed open and a Viera stormed in with a Seeq and Bangga in tow. The arguing pair immediately shut up as the Viera fixed both of them with a glare. Ktjn smelt something in the air and recognized it as someone familiar but said nothing as she met the eyes of her boss.

The shine was there once again just like a certain white haired hunter was never gone.

-----

Fran gasped and sniffed the air silently but no one else but a certain pirate saw it.

"What is it, Fran?" Balthier asked as she stood up, hands on the table.

"I need to go to the… ladies' room," she inclined her head as she left, leaving Balthier alone.

"I got to say that Viera is sharper then I expected," the voice startled Balthier but not enough to make him jump. Kirit separated herself from the shadows in a corner and sat down at where Fran was sitting. She leaned onto the table on her lower arms and spoke in a soft voice, "Look, I'm aware of you avoiding me. I have been seeing this… kind of clues here and there. And let me tell you one thing. I'm not planning on to rip you off or- or killing you and your partner. I'm only following you to be close to Vaan," Balthier quirked his eyebrow at this and Kirit smirked slightly. "Don't get me wrong. I'm few years his senior and he still have to work on his charm. The point is… I need to be close to someone Vaan will be tailing throughout this… event. Someone who Vaan wants to be. And that's you, Balthier."

Balthier tipped his drink to one side, watching it all the while as the light yellow liquid moved fluidly. He stopped just as the drink was about to spill and brought it up to his lips. He paused and stared at the woman who was awaiting an answer.

"As long as you don't rip me off."

He took a huge gulp, finishing his drink, and left the balcony.

Kirit sighed and asked just before Balthier was about to leave the tavern, "I'm allowed to kill you then?"

Balthier left but the wind from outside carried his last words to Kirit's ears.

"Leading men don't die."

-----

A/N: Well, this is actually five pages long with size ten font. So… am I forgiven? I hope so. 'Cuz, I actually posted a fourth chapter that is actually longer than this. Enjoy the next one! The next will be moving a bit faster, I swear.

…

I like the ending. :d

Again, if you spotted my typos, or are confused about a point in this chapter, review or send me a message, I'll fix/reply as soon as possible.