Chapter 25 Betrayal
When Vaan last left the Leviathan he had no desire to ever return. He had not enjoyed his last stay on the Archadian warship and after almost getting killed on several occasions in their search for the dawn shard was in no such mood to handle such treatment again. However there he was, on the bridge, with his hands in some uncomfortable handcuffs. And just to top it all off, there was Judge Ghis, smiling triumphantly, covered in bandages but still striding up and down with enormous self satisfaction.
"Such a tremendous honour to be graced with your presence a second time majesty." He began, his voice dripping with glee. "You left us with such great dispatch upon our last encounter that I must confess, I had begun to worry we may have given some cause for offence." Ashe scowled, offence was not the word she would have picked.
"Such a heartfelt display of remorse." She replied with no attempt to disguise her sarcasm. "Now what do you want?" Ghis strode forward to stand in front of her.
"I want you to give me the nethicite." He said simply. Penelo stiffened, Ghis noticed and rounded on her. "Ahh, you know of it do you." He said plucking the little bottle from her hand, then his face fell. "No no no." He said impatiently throwing it aside. "I don't want this incomplete specimine, that base imitation. I seek Raithwall's legacy, the ancient relics of the Dynast King. Deifacted nethicite." Ashe snorted.
"If you are refering to the three shards left by King Raithwall, then you should know that three fist sized stones will not win a war for you." Ghis shook his head and chuckled.
"For a true descendent of the man himself you know surprisingly little about his legacy. Did you not think to tell her captain Azelas." At once Fran and Balthier made the connection but Ashe took a few seconds to understand, and a few more to believe. Vossler shuffled forward.
"Majesty, he speaks of the dawn shard. That is the nethicite." He said quietly. Ashe did not react, it was as if she hadn't heard him. "Please understand." Vossler continued desperately. "What I did, I did for Dalmasca, for the empire your father built." Ashe whirled round to hit him but Basch got there first. Injuries forgotten he struck Vossler in the jaw with his foot sending the huge man toppling over backwards, bellowing with rage Basch sat on Vosslers chest delivering blow after blow to his face. Vossler grabbed the smaller man's hands and hurled basch of him, the knight rolled over twice and was back on his feet.
"Vossler!" He roared, "Have you gone mad!" Vossler shouted back at him defiantly.
"If we are to save Dalmasca then we must accept the truth, I will fight this profitless battle no more." With another war cry Basch leapt at Vossler, Ashe looked at Ghis to pull them apart but he seemed quite amused at this fight. After fifteen minutes the two of them stood apart, panting and bleeding. Basch finally looked up at his old friend.
"It breaks my heart," He breathed. "That people call me traitor when you are right before them." Vossler fell to the floor, as if the words had cut him as deep as any blade. Sensing the fight was over Ghis continued with his lecture.
"Captain Azelas has struck a wise bargain. Permit lady Ashelia to reclaim her throne and the kingdom of Dalmasca to be restored." Ashe stood with eyes unseeing, lost in her own thoughts of misery. Ghis tried a more kindly approach.
"Think on it." He said gently. "An entire kingdom for a stone, more than a fair bargain I'd say."
"And when all is said and done your master will have another pet." Even Ashe reacted as Balthier's voice carried over the silence, this was the first time he'd said a word since they entered the room. Ghis smiled sourly at him.
"My lady." He said to Ashe. "Let us take him for the people of Dalmasca. You majesty wallows in indescretion on peril of their heads." With that he promptly thrust his sword under Balthier's chin. Balthier didn't flinch.
"Well at least your sword is to the point." He said, smirking. Ashe hesitated, then slowly handed over the dawn shard. Ghis took it with more than some satisfaction.
"To think that the Dynast kings relics were deifacted nethicite." He thought out loud. "Dr Cid will be beside himself." Balthier bristled, but only Fran felt it.
"Captain," He adressed Vossler. "I'm finished with them, take them to Shiva." A group of soldiers led by Vossler began herding them out, a thought crossed Ghis's face. "And Ffamran." He called out, no-one turned round. "I'll let you go this time, for old times sake." Vaan drew level with Balthier who was unnaturally still.
"Who's Ffamran?" He asked. Balthier paused for a long time before answering him.
"Someone he used to know."
Ghis marched into the ship's laboratory like an emperor proudly presenting his prize to the head scientist.
"I want to assess it;s power." He said sternly, the young man looked uncomfortable.
"Um, sir? Were we not instructed to return the stone a soon as possible for testing. Besides theres only the engines we could...." It took the scientist a moment to remember who he was talking too. "Yes sir." He finished Lamely. Ghis marched back to the bridge and sat down in his chair, it was good to be a judge he concluded. Mind you, it would be better yet to be an emperor. Strange and rebelious thoughts stirred in the judge's head. If this stone proves to be genuine, he would have the most powerful millitary weapon in the history of the world. He had always been ridiculed by the judges by being the head of politics and economics. Spending hours training when his job was talking to fat old men who thought the world of themselves. When did he get what he deserved, he deserved Gramis's chair and with this stone he could. But only if it checked out. He listened over the comunicator as the stone was carried over to the engine energy input.
The prisoners were shunted over to the Shiva, a light assault cruiser designed for deepstrike and blitzkrieg warfare. It had played a central role in the destruction of the republic of Landis by striking the eastern front almost single handed, the famous swordsmanship of the inhabitants was no use from a mile in the air. Now however it was overshadowed by the mighty leviathan, cruising an easy three miles off her port bow. Vaan looked unimpressed at the interior. Shiva was in essence an artillery vessel and as such the interior was little more than a shell to protect the mass of powerful artillery, little more than a slim gangway protected them from a very nasty drop to earth. However the group had to admire exactly how much this ship could deal out despite it's lack of armour. As the skiff stopped in the hanger and the passengers dissembarked, Vossler walked along side Ashe who did not react to him.
"When we return to Dalmasca we can announce you are alive and well." He said, desperately trying to breach the princesses mental defences. They held firm. "After that I will continue negotiations with the empire." Another layer was added to her defences, Vossler cringed. That was the wrong thing to say. "I believe Larsa is the key." He said trying to add a positive light to the subject. "We can trust him. Ashe stopped walking but didn't turn to face him.
"Who are you Vossler," She said blankly. "To talk of trust." Without waiting for an answer she walked on but Vossler hesitated for a moment.
"A son of Dalmasca." He said to himself.
In the lab the poor scientist who had been given the orders from Ghis ran full pelt into the room holding the stone before him like a bomb. Recieving many looks from the staff he sprinted to the input and placed the stone on the bed of magicite that powered the ship, before collapsing to the floor and scuttling away. A young woman sighed and shook her head before reporting through the intercom of the stone's effectiveness.
"Our equipment here is limited so we'll be using the ship's drive to make our assesment." There were noises of dissaproval from the other end but she wasn't scared of Ghis, judge or no judge. "Once we have a connection to the core the reaction should be easily measured."
It was Balthier who first noticed something was very wrong, this was often the case due to his well honed perceptive skills. Or maybe it was because he was standing right next to Fran. Either way, the vierra froze in place. Like an animal that had just realised it is being hunted. A guard approached the prisoners.
"Come on then." He said confidently. "Move it." Fran responded to this by dropping to the floor, her breath coming in ragged gasps. By now everyone else in the small convoy had noticed the hold up and were trying to investigate.
"Fran?" Said Vaan tentatively, now Fran was convulsing, her body heaving violently up and down with every breath.
"The mist..." She managed at last. "It's burning!" The confident guard tried to hoist her to her feet, big mistake. Fran's eyes turned a very deep shade of red, inch long claws emerged from her fingers. She let out an inhuman shriek and broke through the handcuffs holding her with her bare hands. Before the guard had time to react she had leapt on top of him and neatly slit his throat.
"Sixty eight hundred," The lab assistant babbled into the microphone hardly able to belive her eyes. "Sixty nine hundred, Seven thousand. This must be deifacted nethicite, the count still climbs." She could almost hear Ghis dancing with glee at the other end, mentaly of course. A judge would not be caught dancing for any occasion. This time however she was wrong, Ghis had allowed himself a little victory jig. After all, the emperor could do what he liked.
"The power of the dynast king in my hands, blood alone does not an emperor make Vayne." He chuckled to himself, imagining the various ways he could kill Vayne after his coronation.
"Wait." Crackled the intercom. "Something's wrong." Ghis storde over to the chair again, nothing could ruin his mood today.
"Hold her down!" Roared Vossler to the Imperial troops but none of them seemed to like the idea of going near Fran at the moment. She had already disposed of the entire escort and as such the resident troops of the Shiva had to clamber over the bloody corpses of their comrades and face down this wild she-beast.
"What's wrong with her?" Penelo begged Balthier, the pirate shrugged, not entirely concerned with the situation.
"I always knew Fran didn't like being tied up," He paused and stepped aside to allow a bloody corpse to hurtle past him and off the edge of the ship. "I just never knew how much." He finished. "How about you?" He asked the princess, showing her that in the confusion he'd manage to break free of his handcuffs.
"I like Fran's idea." Said Ashe firmly holding out her wrists. "Let's get out of here."
"Engine power falling rapidly." Screamed a mechanic over the Leviathan's pa system. "It's a negative sir." Now Ghis was worried, as long as the skystone was working then the ship was lighter than air and as such could fly, if the reading was negative then the ship was heavier than the air around it. It doesn't take a professer in physics to tell you that to be on such a ship several miles above the earth is a pretty bad location to be.
"What's happened?" He bellowed at the science lab mike.
"The nethicite is draining the ship's power sir," the head of the lab squealed back.
"Dissengage it at once." Ghis suggested sarcastically.
"We've been trying, it's not working."
Vaan's hopes of getting out of this situation alive were very slim as it was, and they had just got a lot slimmer. Right in the way of the escape pods, was Vossler York Azelas, sword drawn, standing ready.
"No farther." He bellowed. "Sky pirates, the future of Dalmasca will not be stolen." Every word he said seemed to cut him as deep as a knife but he stood his ground. Ashe stepped forward.
"Vossler, if any loyalty to Dalmasca remains in you, stand down." She spat at him. Vossler shook his shaggy head.
"What I do now is for Dalmasca my lady." He insisted, "No one is to leave this ship"
"Highness." The new voice seemed out of place considering who it came from. Basch Fon Ronsenburg stepped forward through the group, but his voice was quiet and gentle. "I don't believe any words will solve this argument." He tore off the makeshift bandages around his torso and retrieved his sword from a dead guard. Vossler patiently waited for him.
"You saw this coming didn't you Basch." He said quietly. "Ever since the first day I met you you said yourself this is how it would end." Basch nodded.
"I never said I was happy about it." He retorted with a bloody grin. Ashe watched helplessly as the two greatest knights she had ever known, and the only two people to really be called her friends stepped into an arena only one would step out from.
"I warn you," Said Vossler suddenly. "I will kill you." Basch smiled, memories stirring.
"A knight should give no warning." He replied.
Right, since I know that another hiatus like last time is bound to happen again at some point I am doing my best to churn out chapter after chapter. But I havn't gone back on what I said before. I will not give up on this until it's done.