Hey there readers! Here is one of my favorite dungeons! So dangerous, though, hope no one dies! Keeping fingers crossed... long journey through the dimming tunnels, longer chapter results. Here we go!
Chapter 8: Blackout
After the crash, I came to only to find I couldn't see anything, even with my eyes open. Was I... blind...? No, things are just ridiculously dark. This was very much Barheim as I would imagine with the lights out: too dark. Slowly my eyes adjusted, until I saw that everyone else was still out cold. I saw the old bangaa Burogh down the stairs near a lit candle, and went down to ask for the fuse to power the place. When he heard me coming, though, he looked at me with surprisingly bright eyes and uttered a gasp of fear.
"Dey've foun' me! Ohhhh I'm-a done fer, ain't I? Well, I'll give ya a reason te r'member de name o' dis ol' bangaa, or dat name ain't Burogh Gar Gainsay!" With that the bangaa merchant leaped up, a Knot of Rust in each hand, and prepared to throw them at me. Before he could, though, I backed away, ears flat and hands up in surrender, as well as slowly lowered myself to my knees to show no ill will despite my appearance.
"Please, there's no need for that, now is there?" I think what floored him the most was that I could speak at all. "I simply wanted to ask about the fuse you are carrying in your pack. Could it light things up down here?"
Slowly, Burogh sat back down and pulled his pack off of his back. Never taking his eyes off of me, he took the fuse out and laid it on the ground. "Ah s'pose it mought. Wha' 'bout it te yeh, o creature o' de dark?" He still thought this was some trick. I rolled my eyes and my tails swished impatiently against the ground.
"It's everything to me. I'd like to light the place up so my hume comrades can escape. My humblest apologies for the crash earlier that removed your usual route out of here. That was me and my friends." This intrigued the bangaa. "I would pay you whatever price you need for replacing it." With that, I pulled out of my pockets several pouches of Gil the soldiers had dropped. This cinched it for the bangaa that I was no monster out to eat him.
"Ain't no monster understan' bid'ness dat ah evah knew. Go on, ye ken 'ave et fer free. Ah ain't got no use fer it or Gil 'till ah'm outta 'ere." He rolled the fuse towards me and I took it with a quick word of thanks.
[Music theme: Barheim Passage, Hitoshi Sakimoto FF12]
I quickly plugged the fuse in, and the dim electrical bulbs flickered to life, though a few burned out right away from misuse. The rest of my group awakened then, and the crystal in the corner sparkled to life as well. Maybe the light contained a form of Mist for the crystal to feed off of...? No matter, we all returned to Burogh, who explained the situation.
"Now dat fuse ain't too strong, now. T'will run down as 'lectricity gets a-used, like wid dis 'ere gate, which id our way outta here. Why don'cha pull dat dere levah to d'monstrate, lad?" Ace pulled the lever and the lights dimmed as the gate raised. "Now, ah'm a-gonna steh heah 'till ah got mah en'gee back. Iffin' yeh wan' an'ting, ah'm a-willin' te sell yeh stuffs, gotta keep bid'ness runnin', yeh know?" All of us agreed, and bought a few potions and, at my request, some Eye Drops and Antidotes for the off chance we ran into some spell slinging Skeletons.
Just then, the lights flickered and went dimmer, reminding me of what lay in the next room. We all headed into the passageway in full, to behold the ugly features of a Battery Mimic. Ace, being the clueless one this time, asked the obvious question. "What IS that thing?"
Balthier, being the expert, gave the obvious answer. "That is a monster that is very fond of electricity. Should it find a source, it will suck it dry."
"And? What then?"
"Lights out, and things are worse in the dark." Just then the lights had gotten almost so dim as to be out, and a zombie came from out of one of the shadowy corners. Quickly, I slashed it down. "Of course, if you ask nicely, it may give the power back."
I interrupted, being unable to resist stealing his next line. "Sticking it with a sword helps." I then pulled out my diamond sword and shoved it between the two plates that separated the head from the body. Sparks flew out and it fell down. Most of the sarks arced back to the conduit, sealing it shut, and so the lights grew bright again. Our victory was short-lived, though, as they immediately grew dimmer again at a steady rate. Running downstairs, we quickly dealt with the Battery Mimic there, too. Again, the lights brightened, and again, the lights continued dimming. I sighed, realizing there was going to be no rest until all the conduits were safe from Battery Mimics.
[Music theme: Zi-Zi's Journey, Lindsey Stirling]
We quickly ran out into the next area, a place containing rail tracks down a branching tunnel. Following the sound of crackling electricity, we went to the next conduit to find the Battery Mimic and dealt with it. Basch was really quite powerful, even without any armor, weapons, or nourishment. As a matter of fact, he actually kept up with Tim and I with relative ease. I was very glad to have been able to save him.
We ran for the next Mimic with all haste, but I quickly headed down one path for a chest containing a few Motes and a parchment paper with a warning on one side and a symbol on the other. The warning spoke: "Beware, death awaits the one who acts the hero in here." It was signed Gerald. Who the heck was that? The symbol on the back actually turned out to be two new Kanji for me: Ice and Shadow, a strange combination. Shrugging, I continued back to my comrades, who had dealt with the next Mimic without me. This one, however, had let out a shriek that attracted all the Steelings and Seekers in the area, so the entire tunnel was a-flutter with the batlike creatures' wings. Steele quickly blasted a few that got too close, then generated a shield for the rest and pushed them back. We ran deeper in, and came across a crystal and a skeleton with armor, fortunately not animated. The bat creatures were still after us, but now we might be able to defeat them. We turned, Basch grabbing the Iron Sword from the skeleton to assist him in battle, and began to take their numbers down, one bat(or more) at a time. A psychic blast took out several steelings, plastering them to a wall. A flash from Balthier's gun, and a bat fell, headless. Several flashes of steel and a frozen wind later, many Seekers were flash frozen, then shattered by my rapid motion. Still, they came in droves. There seemed to be no end to them, and the lights were still dimming. We needed to end this, FAST. I looked at Steele and Ace, and they nodded. Time for another intense move combination.
"Howling Eclipse!"
"Slashing Winds!"
"Psychic Burst!"
"Festival of Dancing Blades!" Our techniques all blended with magnificent grace as Ace's Howling Eclipse fused with my air blades to form a swarm of cutting shadows, which Steele's Psychic atack grabbed and caused to swirl around us and suck in many Steelings, slice them up, and spit them out. Slowly, the blades split away from the maelstrom to strike the few survivors, and then it was over. Steelings and Seekers littered the ground. We were all tired, so we refreshed with the crystal, and decided to take a physical break. Basch took the rest of the armor from the fallen soul on the ground, and we conversed.
[Music end]
"So, O Kingkiller, tell us your story. Certainly one would want to make a confession after all these years about what happened." I wish I could have told him I believed he didn't kill his king, but I had already set myself upon this path, and so I must walk it.
He glared sadly at me again. "I did not kill the king. That's just what they want everyone to believe."
"Oh-ho! Is that so? Do explain, then, why your face was the one the witness recognized then? Was he bribed by the Empire?"
"No. Rather, I have a twin, one who looks exactly as me, who lives to serve the Empire. As I was taken away, he took my place in the ranks that night. As soon as he reached the king, he slew all 'his' men and then the king."
Balthier cut in "A twin brother, what a tale... what would make us believe you?"
Basch sighed. "Nothing. You will simply have to trust me."
"Well, you know what?" I felt I had let him believe I hated him long enough. "I actually believe you. And I could forgive you were I to be wrong in doing so, so know I do not hate you any longer." Basch visibly relaxed, and I felt a rush of relief myself. Good, that was over. Just then, I realized the shadows were still growing longer and darker.
"I believe we have rested long enough. Quick, we still have a few power suckers left to kill!" And so our hunt for the remaining Mimics began.
[Music theme: Shadows, Lindsey Stirling]
We raced into the next area, where two Mimics were at the conduits happily sucking away the remaining power. It was nearly too dark to see, and the zombies and skeletons were coming out of the shadows like hornets. Quickly, Steele psychicaly grabbed the nearest Mimic and literally squeezed every ounce of electricity out of its body back into the conduit, bringing the power back to nearly full somehow. Meanwhile, I figured out that Spirit plus Ice formed a pretty and powerful crystal shield for a short time. This shield had Reflect on it, so the mass of spells the skeleton monsters slung bounced off to take out a large number of the undead horde. "Winter Mirror"
The remaining horde crashed against the shield, cracking it. A quick flash of steel, and they all lost their heads to Saving Grace, my katana. Heading back to my friends, I found a chest Mimic with a note stuck between two joints. After dispatching the mimic, I read:
"Do not say I didn't warn you. Signed, Gerald."
Who was this Gerald? What did he want with me? My ears flattened to my skull with the thought of this person. Enough thought on this, we needed to move on before the queen spawned enough energy suckers to steal all our power and seal us here forever... well, almost forever. We would find another way out, but it would be very difficult.
Moving to the gate switch, I waited for the others to kill the last Mimic and return, then threw the switch. We all headed in as the tunnel quickly grew dark yet again. We used the crystal, leaving a memory so that those who came here saw us, just in case, and headed for the lair of the Queen Mimic.
Inside, the Queen was as large as the room, reaching a magnificent height of at least 15 feet tall. Underneath it, a set of small chest mimics lay freshly spawned. Almost as if waiting for our arrival, the Queen roared and the chests sprang to life, running for the many conduits all around the terminal, and so began the fight of our life.
Quickly I ordered an extermination of all the Tiny Battery mimics, which Basch and Silver quickly set about doing. Meanwhile, Balthier, Ace, and I all took on the Queen herself. Libra noted it was highly weak to ice, so I quickly set a seal for the same element on my blade, then sealed that on with Spirit. "Ryu Blade: Winter Form." my Saving Grace took on a frigid air, and frost formed over it to make a sheathe of Ice. Swinging at one of the legs to bring it closer to the ground for me to strike its body, I then focused my energy and fired a stream of ice out of the tip of my sword. "White Blade Burst!" The impact caused a large explosion of Ice and frost now coated the Queen's body.
While I did that, Ace ran up another leg to its head and dug his blade deep into it. The Queen roared in pain and a massive electrical discharge was released from its body, striking everything. This was actually enough to revive some of the Tiny Batteries, so they resumed their feast on the conduits, making Basch and Silver have to kill them yet again before they could help us. The queen, realizing something was on top of her, shook herself violently from side to side, striking the walls and causing a tremor that further destabilized the deteriorating terminal. Chunks rained down from the ceiling, and we all had to dodge them to avoid being crushed. Several struck the Queen and her own spawn, helping us along with defending the conduits and also severely harming her. However, a small chunk did strike Ace and knock him unconscious. He fell, and Basch ran up and caught him. After setting him down in a corner out of the way, Basch ran back in and struck the Queen in a vital area. The gigantic creature let loose a final wail, and its death throes began, causing the terminal to begin collapsing on top of us. Basch managed to grab Ace, when a swarm of skeletons and zombies came at us. Basch ran up to me, handed Ace over, and wordlessly went back to fight them. Among the crowd, I could see a man, wearing a mask over half his face. As I locked eyes with him, he shook his head sadly, as if telling me it was hopeless to try stopping Basch, who seemed intent on... acting... the hero... my realization gathered a sense of horror in me until it simply was too much to bear. I called out to Basch.
"No, Basch! We are almost free! They won't follow us into the daylight!" The dishonored knight turned to me, and was struck from behind by an Immobilize spell from one of the skeletons, sealing his fate. He was doomed for sure to perish, and so he simply turned back and yelled over his shoulder.
"Go! I am doomed, you can save yourself! GO!" I had no choice, Immobilize forced you to stay in a small area of space until it wore off, and if I got caught, I would face the same fate as Basch. Cursing myself the entire way, I turned tail and fled the collapsing cavern, knowing that not even Phoenix Down could save him now.
[Music end]
Outside, everyone looked at me anxiously. I was upset, and it showed in every fiber of my body language. My tails drooped, only to swish agitatedly on occasion. A constant growling whine escaped my throat with every exhalation, and my ears laid flat against my head, occasionally flicking like they were warding off flies. I wanted to know who that man was. Was it that mysterious Gerald? Was it something more sinister? Who was Gerald anyway? One thing was for sure: he would pay in full for this. He had killed Basch as surely as having slung the spell himself. Sure, he warned us, but it wasn't enough to save us from this terrible tragedy, and I blamed him for not doing more. He was next, as soon as we could, he was mine to hunt, and there would be no escape.
"Come now, there's no need for that! I'm right here!" Looking up, I saw the masked man standing on top of the entryway. He flipped down, landing legs crossed into a bow. "Gerald (pronounced jAr-alld), at your service!"
I glared daggers at him. "You." He must have felt confident to show himself so soon. "You killed him, even if you hadn't Immobilized him yourself, you KILLED HIM!" I snarled that last part, my anger finally over coming me in conjunction with grief. Basch had been one of my favorite characters, and for this man to warn me of death and watch as I stood helpless to save the knight was too much. I pulled my shortsword. "You must pay for this."
The man gave a smile, and jumped onto the railing. "Now, don't be so eager to fight. You'll get your chance, but not yet. For now, ta-ta!" I rushed forward fully intent on ending him, but he did a backflip off the railing, spun like a corkscrew, and disappeared into a dune of sand. Not a trace of his existence remained.
I stood there, my hackles raised and a constant growl in my throat. The others looked at me in concern, and Ace stepped forward.
"Uhhhh... Grypinh? Are you okay? You seem a bit agitated, what is the problem?" I turned to him, my face a mask of hatred and grief, an he backed away in shock at this unrecognizable side of me. Seeing him scared seemed to knock me into my senses, though, and I quickly calmed down, feeling a strong feeling of lethargy and depression escend upon me. I couldn't stop the tears this time.
"Basch is dead, crushed under the collapsing terminal. He died protecting us, and that man warned me of it, yet he made no motion to interfere. I blame him for this..." my voice broke, and i spoke no more. Everyone looked at each other, then came to lend me their comfort. Even Balthier couln't harden his heart against this spectacle. We stood there for a long time, mouning the death of yet another pillar in this world.
Ohhhh snap! Another main character down! That's not good! Who is this Gerald? And what does he want with us? R&R, plz!