Prologue Chapter 5 The Empire's plot

Reks looked around for an escape route, none. He wheeled back around and to his dismay found the black haired knight had gone and Basch was now advancing calmly on the approaching troops.

"Look out." Reks yelled, but the enemy was upon him. In a flurry of steel Basch drew his sword and killed the two soldiers at the front cleanly slicing open their gut. The second and third went down with quick controlled thrusts, the next three tried to surround him but ended up hacking each other to pieces and the last one was skewered against the wall. Basch quickly wiped his sword and sheathed it. Reks stared in awe at the skill of this man. He just took care of an entire unit by himself. Basch seemed to notice his unrest.

"Steady Reks," Reks jumped back to reallity for the third time that night. "Keep your wits about you and you'll make it."

The small unit of surviving soldiers lead by Basch was running through the deserted Nalbina hallways while Basche explained to the ragtag group the situation.

"The king is here to sign the surrendor treaty but he was allowed no soldiers to accompany him. From the minute the wax on his seal is dry they wont need him anymore. And where is Vossler, he said he would meet us here?" Reks assumed that Vossler was the black haired knight.

"Maybe he's already dead sir." He suggested. Basch turned to him furiously.

"Don't spout such nonsense, vossler has laughed in the face of death too often to stop now, men like him don't die in places like this."

Rex bit back a retort as the emerged into a short bridge across a courtyard, tired from his ordeal he noticed the tonberry too late.

Getsu thought it would be another night on hover duty, the rules were simple. Hover there in a tiny cockpit for a few hours and if someone unauthorised comes along then shoot first ask questions later. This kind of duty was otherwise known as gruntwork. As Getsu saw the small group running across the bridge his first conclusion was the return of the squad the higher ups had sent after the insurgents. However on closer inspection of their uniform he realised that these were the insurgents and that in the middle of all his depressing duties the gods had given him some action. Muttering a quick prayer of thanks he grabbed the controls, and began to radio his commander.

"Tonberry to command hostiles sighted, preparing to engage."

Before any of the soldiers could react the skif was upon them. With a single sweep of it's guns two soldiers fell dead, the rest feebly trying to cower behind pillars. Reks could only hide and pray that someone had a ranged weapon but from the looks of things it was all swords. Only Basch stood facing the machine, by some miricle the bullets had missed him. Suddenly Reks felt something in the air, as if it were thickening. It could only be one thing, magik. he had heard stories of mages and powerful magiks, but never seen it. He was scared to watch but could not turn away as the world seemed to be sucked into the man before him. In one swift motion Basch brought his hands up and shot from them a jet of Black and green flame. This struck the side of the tonberry melting off almost the entire rear section. The craft gave a lurch, jolted for a while and flew off as best it could smoking and flaming. Basch watched it go and then gave the order to continue. Reks thought it better not to ask questions and followed suite.

The small group was in tatters. They had already run into another group of soldiers, this time too many for even Basch to deal with. As a result the team was now racing up the stairs two at a time while the hounds of the empire were hot on their heels.

"How far are we from the throne room?" Reks panted as they reached what seemed like the five hundreth floor.

"Not far." Replied Basch, "Perhaps if we leave a rear guard..." But that was as far as he got, for at that moment there came the all familiar shout of,

"There they are." Reks cursed, if this kept up they would never reach the throne room in time. Only one thing to be done, without warning Reks stopped running and stood his ground on the stairway. Basch tried to go back for him but Reks shouted back to him.

"Sir there is little time, you must get to the king." Basche looked doubting for a moment but then acceptance filled his face.

"Fight well." He barked at him from the top of his stairwell.

Reks struggled up the last stair. He had three empirials attacking him at once and he had an injured leg. He was almost there, he could actually see the throne room. By now he supposed the captain would have dealt with all the trouble, oh well. He'd had his moment of glory, and with a warm heart he pushed open the door.

Out of the room, poured the stench of death. Reks's mind went blank as he took in the sight before him. The company of soldiers, slain. Reks swallowed hard as he saw blank face after blank face trying to calm down. But then his eyes wandered to the end of the room where sitting at his throne, Raminas the second, the king of Dalmasca, was dead. Reks fell to his knees before his king in despair.

"Your majesty." He breathed trying to stand but the effort made him sick. Unable to bear the sight anymore he turned away, only to come face to face with none other than captain Basch Fon Ronsenburg. They stared at each other for a fews seconds, only then did Reks realise he had a blade in his gut. A blade that still had Basch's hand on the hilt.

"Captain," He gasped, suddenly finding it difficult to breath. "Why?"

Ronsenburg patted him on the shoulder as if trying to encourage him.

"The king planned all along to sell Dalmasca to the Empire," He said simply. "His majesty was a traitor."

Reks could see the darkness eating away at his eyes, descending into darkness both physically and mentally.

"Captain," Reks rasped as he felt consciousness slip away, "I..." But he got no further, as he fell to the floor a group of Empirial troops burst through the door. Reks no longer had the energy to speak but could see it all happening. The soldiers subdued Basche and brought him before their commander, a tall thin man with long black hair. As Basch struggled and the commander adressed him, Reks felt the last of his strength leave him and tried to focus his mind on the one thing that mattered most to him.

"Vaan."

Well thats that. I am writting the next chapters but I'd like to know what you think before I put them up so reviews are

welcomed.