Chapter 8 Resistance Commander

Vaan opened his eyes and found himself staring at a bright light surrounding darkness.

He thought perhaps this was the fabled light at the end of the tunnel you saw before you

died. Then noises started to come through, muffled booms like listening to cannonfire

underwater. But something was wrong, he didn't imagine the light to be orange, like fire.

Then something hit him very hard on the head and everything swam into focus much

quicker. He was lying on his back in the middle of a cold wet passage, the light he was

seeing was an enormous whole in the ceiling which he later recognised as the bike's entry point.

Fire blazed above them and cannons sounded. Vaan shook his head to clear the last of the

smoke from it and noticed his surroundings a little more. The two intruders who had saved him

were currently behind him working on the ruins of their bike. The object that hit Vaan on

the head happened to be a broken spanner that the man threw away. Both were now standing

over it shaking their heads.

"Well nothing's wrong with the mechanics." The man sighed, his vierra companion turned away.

"Our hover didn't just stop, it vanished." She said bewildered. "It's as if all the power in

the stone was sucked out." The man held his hand up to stop her.

"Even if we could fly the Ifrit is playing with fire and I don't want to get burned. Nope, we'll go the old fasioned

way." He said gesturing down the tunnel. "That means you too thief." He barked at Vaan, startled

that he knew he was awake.

"Great," Said Vaan to himself. "Another trip through the waterways."

As the little team salvaged what they could from the wreckage Vaan took a particular intrest in

the vierra. He had never seen one this close, of course he had heard tales of the vicious rabbit

people of Golmore Jungle but this one seemed rather docile compared to Migelo's stories.

The vierra seemed to notice him staring and cleared her throat.

"Did you want something?" She said blankly. Vaan jumped at her sudden and rather unfriendly conversation.

"Well," He began nervously. "I've heard a lot about your people." The vierra chuckled softly.

"And what people would that be?" She asked. Taken aback by her laugh Vaan pressed on.

"Y'know, other vierra like you." At this comment she immediately stiffened,

"They are not my people." She snapped back at him. Vaan, confused was about to continue but

a loud clatter from the bike interupted him.

"Not many vierra where you come from thief?" Came the Archadian as he dismounted his broken

vehicle. Vaan scowled.

"It's Vaan!" He retorted. If they were going to make fun of him they would do it by name. The man raised

an eyebrow but continued.

"Well Fran is special in that she'd deign to part with a hume." Fran, still annoyed from Vaan's conversation

gave him a scathing look.

"Oh, like a sky pirate who steals through the sewer?" She said knowingly. At once Vaan was on his feet

and already his mouth was moving.

"Pirates? Your sky pirates? Do you have a ship? Is it..."

"The name is Balthier." Said the man, striking Vaan out in mid question. Satisfied the little

annoyance had been silenced he strode towards him. "Listen thief. Sorry, Vaan. If you ever want to

see your home again you'll do exactly as I say. Until we get out of this we are a team. Understood?"

Vaan sighed, they weren't leaving him much choice.

Amalia ran, she had been running for the past half an hour. Probably because the guards had been

chasing her for half an hour. After the first shot from the Ifrit the resistance had scattered down whatever cracks

they could find. Captain Azelas had been all for staying and fighting but soon it came clear the soldiers

were taking no prisoners and no-one liked their chances against the palace guards and their air support.

Sadly she hadn't been fast enough, no less than seven soldiers were chasing her. Her heavy Dalmascan

armour clanking as she ran she weaved through the cascading streams and waterfalls until finally her luck ran out.

A dead end, horrified she turned to meet her attackers as they rounded the corner. Now she had a choice

between a squad of soldiers or a 40 foot drop. She looked down, it was a foot of water and then solid rock,

not enough to break her fall. She looked back just in time to see an axe rush towards her head.

Vaan panted as he struggled to catch up to his two traveling companions. It was bad enough he only had a knife,

but in the waterway there were dangerous creatures and so far all he had killed was time. It was only to obvious,

these people were much better than him. Then he heard something, muffled but there. Balthier stopped and looked around.

"Something wrong?" He asked matter-of-factly. Vaan held up a hand to silence him, there it was again. The unmistakable

sound of metal against metal.

Crash went the axe against the insurgent's head and the soldier watched triumphantly as the helmet went flying through the air.

Then he noticed something wrong, there was no head inside it, as he stood there dumbfounded he failed

to notice the flash of sandy blonde or the sword speeding towards his chest. The soldier gave a little groan and dropped

at Amalia's feet. The others were a little taken aback, apparently the rebel they had been chasing was a girl

no older than 20. She had also dropped one of the biggest men on the squad with a single blow. Amalia stood tall,

her shoulder length hair falling neatly into place.

"Who would be next?" She barked, sounding a lot braver than she felt. The soldiers quickly recovered from their

stupour and began to advance.

"Close ranks, bring her down." Ordered the commander, keeping a fair distance himself. Now she was in trouble,

she couldn't hold all of them. From the various soldiers came jeers and cat calls.

"Should have stayed home to do your embroidery girly!"

"Stay tight lads, this one's a fighter."

"Jump!" Everyone looked around for the source of the new voice echoing off the walls, but Amalia saw it first.

A young boy was waving his hands wildly from the water bellow her. Now she knew it wouldn't be a wise

idea to jump of a ledge into a total stranger's arms but certainly wiser than facing down this many Impirials.

She turned round and jumped.

Vaan saw her leave the edge of the platform and looked a little sheepish, did she expect him to catch her.

He though he meant just jump down, well he had to try now. He'd seen this done a few times by lovey dovey

nobles for romantic gestures, he gingerly put his arms into roughly the right position. Not that this was a romantic

gesture, he thought to himself. Merely helping out someone in need, I mean he'd just met her but... Amalia colided

with his arms, Vaan, surprised by the weight couldn't hold his balance and fell backwards into the sewage.

Amalia got off him stiffly and dusted herself off.

"How gallant!" She said dryly.

Fran and Balthier meanwhile had just emerged from the tunnel in time to see Vaan's disastrous attempt at

rescuing a damsel in distress, a subject that would keep them entertained for a very long time. However

they were more interested in the column of soldiers that had found a way down from the platform and were

now advancing on the little group.

"Our forces grow by the minute." Fran muttered as she drew her bow.

"And our troubles with them." Balthier agreed.

Chaos echoed off the walls. Vaan drew his knife but knew it would be little use. Amalia was already free of him

and had both her sword and shield at the ready. More soldiers poured from the pipes all around drawn by the noise.

Balthier and Fran moved like lightning as if they had done this all their lives, Fran's bow firing arrows that rained death

upon the advancing soldiers. Balthier, slower but the gun could blow heads off. Vaan watched incredulously as a pile of corpses

piled up around the pair, so much so that he almost missed the soldier heading staight for him. He jumped and clumsily threw

his knife, the spinning blade was caught on the soldier's weapon. Now he was weaponless. The soldier removed his helmet,

he was ugly as a wolf he grinned at Vaan sadistically, Vaan could only watch as slowly the grin turned into

a grimace of pain and he fell to the floor with a sword his back. Vaan stood dumbstruck as Ashe pulled her sword free.

"Well," She barked at him. "Take his sword." She got no further as another soldier came at her. Vaan hesitantly

picked up the heavy broadsword, the thing handled like a three legged slaven. How did the soldiers carry these.

He gripped the sword with two hands, and charged. The soldier he had charged finally took notice and swung his shield,

Vaan was dragged to one side as the sword was deflected straight into the wall where it broke in half. Vaan groaned,

another sword gone. Suddenly he noticed everyone had stopped fighting, even the soldier he was fighting had backed

off. He looked up and saw the reason, the platform surrounding the area was now covered in archers. He sighed, dropped

his sword and stood next to the girl he'd saved.

"Thank you for trying." She said gently.

"Can I ask your name?" Vaan whispered back. She looked withdrawn for a while then answered.

"Amalia." Both smiled while Balthier dropped his gun.

"And that's the final curtain." He grumbled.

As they were led out of the sewer in shackles Amalia grumbled.

"They think me some common thief." She hissed, but Balthier reminded her.

"Better than a common assasin." Vaan looked at the crowd, all those dissaproving faces.

"Vaan! No!" Someone shrieked. Vaan hid his face, this was the part he wasn't looking forward to. Penelo pushed her

way through the crowd until the soldiers stopped her, Vaan took one look into her tear strewn face and tried to

make a carefree face.

"Sorry Penelo, that dinner'll have to wait." He said sheepishly. She only shook her head.

"I told you." She started struggling and screaming. "I told you, I told you!" She was dragged away through the

crowd.

"Oh, lookout." Balthier yelled, but Vaan was too preoccupied with his friend to notice the club aimed at his head.