Draco: I completed Chapters 1 and 2 on the same day, but waited until post-midnight to submit Chapter 2. I also completed Chapters 3 and 4 on the same day, but waited until post-midnight to submit Chapter 4. This arbitrary attempt to maximize the likelihood of my fic being noticed becomes a lot less necessary when I realized that the most recent fic in the Agito XIII category* which is not mine was updated on May 19th.

*based on the default loadout when opening the category page.

Final Fantasy Type-0 © Square Enix

Lifting Hearts

=Gelumens XXIII, 841 RG=
Valley of Monsters
Northern Valley

"It's about damn time!"

Sice's foul utterance caught the attention of the entire Class. Deuce quickly made her way to the cave's entrance to see the silhouettes of six skyverns blotting out the stars above the Northern Valley. With a sigh of relief, she raised a hand; amidst the darkness of night, the glow of dominion magic waiting to be cast could be seen for miles, and once the dragons began to descend Deuce blasted a Fire RF at the valley wall.

Karia dismounted the lead dragon in short order. "I apologize for the delay," she told the cadets. "We were met with some unpleasant complications and needed retreat to recover."

"Join the clubs," Sice muttered, "we're missing a ten."

Deuce gave her a sharp elbow to the ribs before turning to Karia. "Don't worry about timing," she insisted. "Let's just head back to Lorica."

"Very well." The dracoknight stepped aside as the dragons took positions to be mounted. "Same partners as last time, if you please."

+x+x+x+

Thirty-six hours earlier...

Ace opened his eyes.

The blast from Cater's magicite had been strong enough to take a large chunk each out of nearest wall, the floor, and the roof of the war room. The gambler found that his handcuffs hand been blown off from the blast, and his Camouflage Cloak was smouldering; in trying to move, his hands brushed against the floor, drawing a cry from Ace's lips.

With some difficulty, Ace managed to get to his feet, forming a card in hand. There were two men in imperial officer uniforms, both of whom had been ruined by the blasts. The backs of their uniforms were ashen, but the fronts bore gold streaks; a golden mask was crooked on each of their faces, meant to frame their eyes. The gambler stepped forward, finding his left leg refusing to support him with the same strength as his right; consequently, he stumbled slightly to the left and had to correct his steps as he approached the two officers, kneeling between them; with weak hands, he managed to draw the masks, casting them aside.

Then he reached to each of their faces, and closed their dead eyes.

Footsteps from outside the nearest door had Ace getting to his feet as quickly as he was able. He tried to raise his card, but his body refused to so move; he settled for glaring at the door as something pounded against it. Once, twice, thrice; then a slow set of steps away, and a faster set before the door was thrown open.

Eight tumbled into the room following his flying kick.

Ace sighed as his Classmates rushed into the room. "There's a hole in the wall," he told the brawler with a why-didn't-you-take-the-easy-way-in tone.

Cinque gave a horrified yelp on seeing him - his cloak was burned away from the waist down, making the crimson stains on his leggings obvious, and there was a trail of blood just past his left eye. As he started to stumble forward, Deuce rushed up to him, throwing his arm over her shoulder. Ace realized in short order that they were short two; "Where's Queen and Nine?"

"Queen's lucid," Trey explained. "She's been tearing up Militesi left and right. Nine is watching the gate."

Ace shook his head. "If she's gone lucid, we can't leave her here," he insisted. "The moment she comes down, they're gonna-"

"Hey, yo!" Nine's voice came through the phantoma link. "Queen's outta warm bodies! Her freak-face is gone, now she just looks scared, yo!"

King triggered the link the moment his voice faded. "Get her behind cover. We're on our way out."

Sice growled. "Great," she muttered, "the meganekko gets the massacre."

Deuce shook her head. "There is no way she killed enough of them to make this escape easy," she insisted. "We're gonna need you to bring up the rear. Once they notice us, start reaping."

A grin rose on the reaper's face, and she formed her scythe in hand - and everyone noticed the faint red glow along the edge of the weapon's blade. "How long do I get to kill?"

"Until they stop following us, until you start getting hurt more than you're hurting them, or until you run out of tiger."

+x+x+x+

In fairness, there were a lot of dead soldiers lying about - most of whom were little more than piles of blood to show that Nine had extracted their phantoma - but the guntowers were still manned, there were soldiers coming out of the barracks, and Cinque's trick with the automated weapons had only extended to one warehouse. Nine and Queen were waiting outside the camp, in the shadows of one guntower; the swordswoman was leaning against the structure with a look of horror on her face. Moving quickly was not an option with Ace trailing blood on the sands (though whether that could be considered fortunate or unfortunate was largely a matter of opinion); Cinque grabbed Queen's hand and began leading her as Class Zero started to the west.

They had managed to get about a third of the way to the Berith Tunnel before the Militesi renegades started approaching them. Sice didn't hesitate; the moment they could hear the sound of Strikers stepping on the sands, she brought herself to a halt, turned round, and prepared her magic. The first Striker to get in SHG range got a blast of Thundaga for it, and Sice was already swinging by the time the MA stopped twitching.

Exactly two soldiers were in position at the Berith Tunnel, but Seven was able to take them out with a few swings of her whipblade; then Class Zero started through the tunnel.

"Why would they even have someone watching this place?" Cater murmured. "There's nothing in the Northern Valley."

"Most likely it's simply an act of overcaution," Trey observed. "Being as they were defying orders from the Militesi army, they would want to ensure that their former comrades could not attack. Given Ingram's position relative to-"

"Tre-Tre," Cinque warned, "you're rambling again."

Cater rolled her eyes. "That one's on me," she admitted. "I made the mistake of asking."

"Keep your eyes out," Eight warned. "If they had someone on the Berith side, they'll have someone on the Valley side. The last thing we need is someone catching us off-guard."

"Don't suppose you could give 'em a flying kick if they do?" Jack joked.

Eight glared sideways at him, not even turning so he could see the jester. "That guy was three steps away from me. If they see us down the tunnel, even I can't run that fast."

Cinque gave a worried shout that brought the Class to a halt. "Queensy's out!"

"What?" Deuce turned around, inadvertently dragging Ace around with her.

Trey approached the collapsed Queen, kneeling next to her. "Mother usually finds her isolated and huddled up after she goes lucid," he recalled. "Resting her body. Keeping her moving must have overexerted her."

Ace groaned in a combination of annoyance and overexertion of his own. "Damn it," he muttered, "I'm slowing you guys down enough with these wounds. Those renegades are gonna be on us any-"

"Guys?"

Everyone looked up to see Sice standing there, with all of one injury - a light cut on the back of her weak hand - and her scythe glowing with so much red that it was a wonder they hadn't noticed her sooner.

"I ran out of tiger."

Deuce raised an eyebrow at Ace.

Ace pointedly ignored it. "Eight, can you carry her?"

+x+x+x+

Fortunately, the renegades didn't have someone on other end of the Berith Tunnel. Unfortunately, Karia and her thunder of dragons were not flying around the Northern Valley when Class Zero got through. With the Valley having quite literally the strongest monsters in Orience, none of the Class was particularly inclined to wait around in the open, and so they elected to wait in the tunnel until they got notice, staying a good bit in to ensure that nothing picked up their scent.

Queen hadn't even woken up yet when they heard a shout from down the tunnel; everyone turned to see a man in a supersoldier uniform charging towards them, wearing a large pack that seemed to be for communications - despite the fact that he was also carrying a rifle.

"There you are, you bastards!"

Eight turned to Sice. "I thought you said you ran out of tiger."

"I did!" Sice protested. "It's not my fault this one guy was further behind than the rest of them!"

Jack chuckled, preparing to draw his katana. "It's just one soldier," he insisted. "Easy gil."

The soldier's hand moved.

Functioning pistol or not, Cater had the sharpest eyes in the Class; she quickly grabbed Jack's sword arm on seeing the device their opponent was holding. "Don't! That's a deadman switch!"

"Go on!" the renegade taunted. "Try and cut me down! I'm wearing more explosives in one uniform than you've got in the whole dominion!" He aimed his rifle one-handed at the cadets. "Pull your magic, pull your swords! You'll still be close enough for me to blow you so hard the Azures will feel it!"

King rolled his eyes, stepping forward - and forming his revolver in hand, causing the soldier to stumble back.

"We have guns, too."

"Wha-?!"

He quickly drew a magazine from one gun and hurled it forward as hard as he could; the moment it was in range, he shot it with the other, blasting the renegade - and setting off the Militesi explosives. Unfortunately, the Berith Tunnel was not particularly stable; as the supersoldier blasted, half the class nearly hit the dirt when the tunnel began to shake.

"Damn!" Nine's roar spoke for all of them. "Run!"

Fortunately, they had prepared for a quick escape out of the tunnel. Ace and the yet-unconscious Queen were not five paces from the Northern Valley entrance; the gambler was able to drag the unconscious swordswoman out, even still wounded as he was (Ace had insisted none of the others waste their magic on healing him with the possibility of remaining Militesi pursuers). Coming out behind them were Eight, Cater, Seven, Cinque, Deuce, Sice, Trey, Nine, King- Jack nearly got buried under the rubble, but managed to slide under the collapsing stones at the last second, the hood of his Camouflage Cloak catching on the rocks.

The jester quickly pulled the cloak off of himself. "I don't even wanna think about how close that was," he insisted.

Everyone in Class Zero glanced out over the region. Northern Valley was pretty barren; no greenery nor body of water to be seen, only a maze of twisting canyons - in which could be seen several massive creatures that most of them recognized as a particularly violent behemoth subspecies.

Cinque groaned. "We can't stay out here!" she protested. "The monsters are gonna get us!"

"There is a cave in this region where we should be able to make camp for the night," Trey informed them. "But it lies in the canyons. With two of us wounded, it will be difficult getting there past such fierce creatures."

The words were hardly out of his mouth before Seven turned to Sice. "You are not going to try and reap a King Behemoth," she reprimanded preemptively.

The reaper scoffed, dismissing the scythe that no one had seen her draw. "You just wanna suck the joy out of everything."

Ace groaned, glancing around - and he was quite surprised when he saw a feathered figure not far away. "On the subject of joy..."

"Huh?" Deuce followed his gaze to see a pale chocobo approaching them - and nobody could act to stop Ace before he had pushed himself towards it. "No, don't- Ace!"

The gambler had more than a few trick cards up his sleeves, with their uses both in and out of battle. One of those was a projectile that would warp him wherever it landed, which was more than enough to compensate for the pace of his wounded limp; a thrown hand later, Ace had managed to intercept the bird, and it only took one more card, set carefully into the feathers of its back, before he was astride the chocobo. Predictably enough, it started trying to shake him off, but Ace managed to hold on - an impressive feat, considering his wounds - until the bird had calmed on realizing there was no predator attacking it.

Despite himself, Ace loosed a light chuckle. "Gotcha, chocobo."

He rode the bird back towards the gathered Class, most of whom had levelled unimpressed glares on him. Cinque had a cheerful smile, Jack wore an amused grin, and Deuce only shook her head.

Ace pointedly ignored all of them. "If I distract any behemoths in the way," he asked, "can you guys get Queen to the cave?"

"I reckon, yes," Trey admitted.

"Then let's go piss off a king."

+x+x+x+

The twisting canyons of the Northern Valley were not all interconnected, and consequently, there was exactly one behemoth that Ace needed to keep busy. In his retreat to the cave, the beast managed to trip up his chocobo, and Ace was - regretfully - left with little choice but to abandon the poor bird as the King Behemoth began rending it. When he arrived, he found Sice pacing at the cave's entrance.

"About time you showed up," she spat, cross.

"Sorry," Ace groaned. "It got the chocobo."

"What chocobo...?" Sice shook her head. "Whatever. Queen's up. Why don't you go play Chronobind with her or something. We don't need her rocking on her feet all night."

Ace knew better than to try and argue with Sice when she was like this; he could see the red tinge around her hands, and he knew she needed some time to let the malice out of her system. He quickly stumbled inside to see his Classmates were scattered about; none of them looked like they were in anything resembling a positive mood.

Trey was pacing, muttering under his breath - Ace caught snippets of what sounded like a passage from the Nameless Tome that Mother had made them all read from before. Queen was sitting against the cave wall, sheet-white, her eyes unfocused. Eight seemed to be faring the best, considering that he was offering Cater his hands to punch in frustration. Jack had gone back to his usual lighthearted self, and was cracking jokes at Cinque and Deuce, who both looked worried; a nasty red mark on his face implied that he had tried it on Sice already. Seven was fidgeting - digging at the earth, feeling around the walls, flexing her whipblade, and just generally keeping her hands busy. As Ace glanced around wondering where Nine was, the lancer charged back from further in; his foot caught on a ridge of the wall, and his yelp drew everyone's attention as he fell to the cave floor.

Seven, who was closest, only shook her head. "Nine," she reprimanded, "what are you doing?"

Eight just snickered, raising his hand to catch another of Cater's punches. Nine noticed; he grabbed a decent-sized rock nearby, and with a roar of "What are you laughing at!?" he hurled it at the brawler. Eight only stepped aside, following it with his gaze as it shattered against the wall.

Ace only shook his head, stepping - or rather, limping - forward before things escalated. "Enough," he insisted. Eight only gave Cater his focus back as Ace approached the lancer. "Anything further in?"

"A bunch of mandragoras, yo," Nine insisted. "And I think I saw a malboro a bit deeper. Nothin' else."

"We shouldn't have anything to worry about," Trey observed. "For the most part, these caverns are too narrow to permit a malboro's movement, and mandragoras prefer to-"

"Trey," Sice roared from the cave entrance, "you're rambling again."

Ace only shook his head. "We shouldn't have anything to worry about," he echoed. "That's all we need to know." As the archer went back to his scholastic pacing, Ace turned to Seven to find the whipblade artist was picking at the wall. "Find something?"

"No," she insisted, pulling her hand away. "I'm just... anxious."

"That makes two of us, yo," Nine admitted. "This was supposed to be a quick mission. We go in, we cut some fangs, we get out. Code Crimson don't get easier than that, yo. Now we're campin' in the Valley of Monsters because Kairi and her dragons ain't shown up. If I didn't know better, I'd be askin' Sice for a spar just to kill some time, hey."

"Karia," Seven insisted. "Her name is Karia."

"Does it matter, yo?" Nine demanded. "I remember she's got a name at all."

Seven let her gaze hit the dirt. "Yeah," she admitted. "If we remember who Karia is, that means she's still alive. So why isn't she here like she promised?"

Nine scoffed. "You think she turned on us, hey?"

"I doubt it," Ace assured them. "Not with an attitude like that."

He stepped away as Seven went back to scratching at the wall. He found Jack stepping away from Deuce and Cinque and knelt down where the jester had been, grunting lightly when he connected with the floor.

Deuce realized why. "Oh no, your wounds," she murmured. "I can't believe you were playing decoy for a behemoth in that state."

"I wasn't walking," Ace insisted

"Didja crawl?" Cinque asked as Deuce cast a Cure on Ace. "I don't see how that would work much better."

Ace glanced between the two of them, concerned, before he realized what he had forgotten. "I was riding a chocobo," he reminded them.

Cinque blinked. "Wha...?"

"It got eaten," Ace insisted. "It wasn't fast enough to outrun a King Behemoth for too long. I was lucky it lasted as long as it did."

He shifted his weight testingly, finding himself still a little sensitive, and Deuce prepared another round. "Right," she murmured, "your memories..."

Ace chuckled. "That's hasn't got so much to do with it," he assured them. "A swipe of a behemoth's claws had enough force to kill a chocobo right then and there. I got thrown off its back just far enough that the monster decided it would rather have chicken than veal."

One more cast of Cure was enough for Ace to move without limping. He quickly got to his feet, leaving the two of them alone and making his way towards Queen.

"Hey."

The swordswoman turned towards him, but otherwise didn't much acknowledge him.

Ace knew better than to ask about her session; rather, he sat down before her, reaching into his pocket and drawing out a deck of smaller playing cards. "Care for a bit of blackjack?" he asked.

Queen's gaze shifted to the deck.

The gambler followed her gaze to see that there was a hole torn straight through the cards. "Woah, okay, then," he admitted. "Hold on." He slipped the flap of the box open and drew out the deck, shuffling through them carefully.

"Took out some of the designs," he observed, "but the numbers are still good." Casting aside the joker; "And there's not enough fraying to stop me from shuffling."

His comment only prompted Queen to lower her gaze.

Uncertain how to take that, Ace decided to deal; he gave the cards a quick shuffling and dealt hands; Queen ended up with a five and a four, while Ace had a six face-up and a nine hidden. "Whatever you lose," he offered quietly, "I'll call void. Whatever you win is your profit. I'll pay when we get back. Twenty gil to a round?"

Queen remained quiet for a moment; then her hand reached forward, and she tapped her cards weakly.

Ace smiled, dealing out her next card; an eight, leaving her at seventeen. Another tap earned her a two, and she raised her hand palm-out to hold at nineteen. Ace flipped his nine to show himself at fifteen; then he dealt himself an ace, and then a two, leaving himself at eighteen.

"One round to you."

"Hey, is this an open table?" Jack's voice caused Ace to glance up as the jester sat down. "I'd like to join in."

"Sure," Ace assured him. Turning to Queen; "That okay with you?" The swordswoman nodded, and Ace started shuffling. "Twenty gil per round. Any loss is void; your winnings are profit. Keep a count, I'll pay you when we get back." He dished out cards; Queen got a four and ten, Jack got an eight and six, and Ace got a three and a hidden four. Once hit gave Queen a six, and she stopped at twenty; Jack busted with a king on his first hit, and a nine and a seven busted Ace as well.

Before long, the blackjack games had drawn the attention of the rest of Class Zero as well; Deuce needed to take a second deck to deal a separate "table" and prevent players from waiting too long. As the sun went down, even Sice decided it was too late to keep watching and joined in; by the time midnight had rolled around, everyone was in decent spirits.

"Good thing it's not our money we just lost," Cinque observed.

"I know," Jack complained, "I was hoping to make a little this time."

Ace chuckled on seeing his ploy to lift some spirits had worked. "Seven won three rounds more than she lost, Queen won ten rounds, and Deuce got one round's profit before she started dealing," he announced. "Someone remind me tomorrow."

"Yeah," Nine groaned, "I figure we oughta call it a night, yo."

"I'll take watch," Queen offered, the lingering fright from her lucid session having vanished some thirty hands before they had split tables. "Don't want us all to be asleep if Karia shows up."

They decided watch shifts; then Queen took position at the cave entrance, and the rest of the Class called it a night.

+x+x+x+

The next day was uneventful, and it was short order before Class Zero was frustrated by their continued wait. The sun had vanished before Sice's "It's about damn time!" echoed into the cave, stopping anyone from falling asleep quite yet. Deuce was quick to rush out and see the dragons flying above, signalling Karia with the glow of dominion magic, and the six skyverns arrived outside the cave.

"I apologize for the delay," she told the cadets. "We were met with some unpleasant complications and needed retreat to recover."

Sice only scoffed. "Join the clubs," she observed, "we're missing a ten."

Deuce elbowed her sharply in the ribs. "Don't worry about timing. Let's just head back to Lorica."

"Very well. Same partners as last time, if you please."

The cadets were on board the dragons in no time, and before long they were flying back over Berith Desert. Everyone was surprised to see what looked like the wreckage of a Militesi carrier had crashed into the renegade camp; after giving it a long look, Ace turned to the dracoknight perched ahead of him. "Wait, so the 'complications' you mentioned were...?"

Karia only nodded. "Yes," she replied. "Renegade reinforcements had arrived in one of the tigers' airships. My skyverns were able to fell it, but did not escape unscathed. Militesi firearms are distressingly accurate when you least expect them to be."

They arrived in the forest at the northeast corner of Lorica to find Ishme waiting there with his great tauricorn.

"I cannot recall for the life of me who was leading the renegade forces," the paladin told the cadets as they dismounted. "I take that to mean that their leaders have been crushed, and you return here victorious."

"Absolutely," Queen confirmed. "Your people no longer have anything to fear from rogues of the White Tiger."

Ishme bowed appreciatively. "Thank you, Class Zero. And you, dracoknight Karia. Thanks to your efforts, we have been spared dreadful turmoil. Rest the night here; I will send word to Dr. Al-Rashia to extract you."

As he mounted his tauricorn, Karia turned to the cadets.

"I presume you will insist that I take the bed once again?"

Draco: I know people in my fanfics play blackjack way too often, but I don't know any other card games.

Let's be a little generous with timeframes here and assume that Cater blew her magicite at noon in the previous chapter. And remember that Orience (looks like it) has 26-hour days.

I know that "Sice's residual malice" is an overused concept, and I apologize preemptively. Don't bother bringing that up.