+-RT-+

Well that was a quick response! I'll try to be faster on my feet with the updates. Now that I know that the alerts are no longer paging me when I get reviews, I'll just have to come into the site proper every few days. As for the offer of Beta-reading Eric G, I'll think about it, mainly at the moment I'm running back here after a long hiatus, as the dates on my other stories show, so I'm a bit out of sorts. I've always been self-sufficient, but I'll look back and see, though if I do see I need a bit of help now, I won't hesitate to ask.

But, I have to re-play the game again for some reference. Oh Joy.

Stratch above Look below.

This update was delayed! Why? Hurricane Sandy. = / Lost power and lost a lot else. Only have just gotten myself back up, that also means that I had to scrap re-playing the game and just work off memory. Oh well…who needs play by play game script anyway? FanFICTION this is.

((Each story of mine has a code it follows, usually depicted by those little symbols "+-XX-+". There are two of them for each story. It shows how long it has been that I forgot for about half a minute what RT stood for.))- Finalage.

+-LSRA-+

Chapter Four: Aval

"Still with me? No, don't touch that, it used to be one half of a Holy Sword, one of the noblest weapons in existence. Hmm? How does something so "noble" get melted in half? I'm getting to that. Yes, that plays a part in my story. No, I cannot skip to the good part for you; you get what you pay for! You paid me nothing, so you get nothing in the way of control. Don't give me that pout; I can do much better than you can in that area. Ahh! You're weak against puppy eyes! Hee hee...you remind me of Louie…poor Louie. Ehh? What happened to him? Why don't you just sit down and listen to the rest of my story and find out?"

"A-Arma!"

The chamber was dull, that much was certain. A no-nonsense square of corroding concrete slab rock walls and an equally corroded floor of the same material; it was all awash in the color of wet slate, and just about as slippery as it to boot. Louie kept his footing only by splaying himself in a kind of fencer's stance. Opposite him, a dull flicker of recognition crossed through Arma's eyes, but it was quickly squashed by and overriding force. She was compromised…almost to the core.

"Recette…"

+-1-+

Aval watched from his vantage point, a giant screen upon which all that the mech saw was his to divine upon. He spoke with the golem's voice, saw with its eyes…he WAS this magnificent specimen that held sway in the dungeons. Besides him, slumped in his chair, the man who had done this for him looked on with rage in his eyes.

Just looked on, ineffectually, for his neck had been laid open at the back, paralyzing him chest down. If looks could kill…it was as if he could read his mind, for Aval spared him a glance and laughed.

"Ahh but looks can't kill my friend. You just stay there and rest. Your breath won't come to you anymore, it will all be over soon, just stay and rest…I have business to attend to. This girl…is becoming a thorn in my side, if only with her nagging. However, she has been quite useful, and continues to be so. She is trying so hard…and bringing me exactly what I want all the while…"

With a secret smile, he turned back to the screen in front of him, and picked up the controls. It had been years since he had ever picked up a doll. Well, let's see how well he could play with them…

+-2-+

"Everything in this world has a balance. Tweak the price of something here, and the price of something over there crashes, twist the flow just like that…and an item will cost three times as much as it once did. I'm fairly certain that you know this; I've seen you do it. Perhaps your friend does not realize you do so, but many of those "careless mistakes" you still make that you are called upon…the result is not luck, is it?"

Attacked from a friendly face, a face that always came in to buy maiden's bracelets…and with such a commanding voice…it did not take a genius to figure out where this was going, and lucky for Recette, she wasn't one.

"You're…not Arma."

The figure opposite Loiue shifted about, as if trying to get a clean shot at Recette, but Louie planted himself firmly in the way. Useless. They were behind a barrier, as soon as the fight started, they would disappear. Still, it was fun to goad the gullible, and the adventurer in front of him was the definition of gullible.

"Why, how very astute of you. Since you are so sharp, you might care to tell me who I am then?"

Silence followed that. Behind the girl, the fairy could almost be visibly seen struggling internally with herself. She knew. Or she guessed and it was driving her mad. The doubt, the suspicion, the conflict of loyalty…no matter, her usefulness as anything but a body had run out anyway.

"Hm. Arma suffered a bit of a, ahh, malfunction shall we say. I am in charge of her at the moment. However, she seems to have shut herself off from the main core. Thus until I fix the connection I cannot control the dungeons to the extent I would like…but don't worry, she will recover her full abilities. I do have a job for her after all. However, I must thank you, Recette."

"Hewah?"

The golem smiled a curious smile. The kind that sent shivers, not of pleasure or happiness, but of cold dread; racing down her spine.

"It was you who first proved my hypothesis of how the market works correct, and showed me on a small scale how a push here can affect the world at large. Tell me, how IS the swords market now a day?"

Recette clamped her mouth shut. So that was it…treacherously, Louie's brand new, borrowed Holy Sword sparkled in the dim light.

"Ahh, so you DID do it out of design, and not out of ignorance! Delightful! You PURPOSELY crashed the market by buying most of the metal stock when it was low priced and then pooling it with your own stocks, resupplied it all at prices designed to make the supply so much greater than the demand…"

Delighted, he watched as the clamped mouth drew into a tighter line.

"You successfully crashed the swords market and then used the advantage and your available income to clean out the materials needed to craft…ahh, that specimen in front of me that the boy is holding. You also did it at a time when metal was low priced anyway, so in effect, your hit hurt nobody, and so there was no undue fuss. The heist went off beautifully…

"No one noticed the titanic shift of the market from the tiny push you performed; you were the perfect item, invisible and devastatingly effective. The result was that you acquired several antique and powerful relics in metal, which you hid away to be sold later…while you seemed to fail at keeping your stocks and losing heaps of money, you actually had a relatively small dent placed in your business, received sympathy business AND managed to store away pricy relics to be sold later at tens of times the price you got them for."

Recette suddenly had a horrible image of a pair of incredibly rare, sparkling claws standing up and making a shadow puppet of a laughing jester on the walls. They were mocking her. Her mouth thinned further. So? She's learned the trade tear taught her. Maybe she had tried something to see if it would work so she could save her house…she tried to make sure she wouldn't hurt anybody…she tried to ignore the gape Tear's mouth was making. It was a tiny o, but for a fairy it was large, and fair sized enough for a bee to get in there…and it looked like a bee would be too big for her to swallow.

"Hmm, but if you really want to save this golem, you'll have to find me. But first…let's have some fun, hm? Are you worthy enough to save someone? To protect a person…you must have strength. Let's see yours."

Aval, as Arma, wasted no more words. The golem launched itself at Louie, shoving a drill arm forwards. Louie barely had time to shove up his shield. Sparks danced off it harmlessly, but impressively.

Taking a step back, "Arma" began a series of covering fire shots, forcing Louie to get out of her range. Arma had a surprise for him however, for the multiple bullets were a ploy to hide the firing of a missile, which exploded very near to Louie, knocking him sideways and into a wall. Instantly the golem was on him, peppering his downed form with bullets, Louie had to roll and dodge behind her to get away.

He was loath to harming her but he pivoted on the spot and slammed his blade home into her back, pitching her on her face. He followed up with a full circle swing and was about to bring the blade down on her head when she rolled away and tossed a reciprocating saw at his face, forcing him to skive off and dodge it, twice; for it came back after bouncing on a wall.

Bouncing saw boomerangs. Not fun. Definitely going on his list of least favorite things; pronto. Louie beat a retreat while firing off his traveling slashes, and he met little resistance until Arma stayed in one place, seeming to take a few of them in the face before he saw that she was…glowing. His eyes widened as he saw a huge scope lower down and train on him.

"Holy Walnut Bread!"

Ducking to the side, he beat a hasty crab like run and still only barely managed to get out of range as a piercing laser blasted into the wall where his body was moments before. Lasers. He thought he had seen the last of them after Griff dang it! That was another thing that was ALREADY on his list! Catching a loaf of Walnut Bread in his hands, he juggled it as he grimaced at the disappearing face of Tear.

"I DIDN'T MEAN THAT LITTERALLY!"

Her only answer came in the empty air, making him wince.

"Still, that will be 50 pix Louie, and you know Recettear accepts no tabs."

She was CHARGING him for it?! That heartless dragonfly! He threw a nasty look where he hoped Tear was and stuffed the bread in his mouth as he swept up a shield to receive another drill aimed to make him into Swiss cheese. Arma was still in this. She followed up her drill with another unit attached to her arm, lightning like in changing them. Louie's shield was still there to receive the blow from a punch unit, but the sheer force of it blasted him back.

This was going nowhere, and fast. Arma was way stronger than her size made him first believe. He had to think. His mind was changed though, when a stream of fire came his way, making him duck and roll. No. He didn't have TIME to think. He had to react.

Barely dodging a well-aimed missile, Louie slashed low, forcing Arma to jump. His slash continued however as he twisted his sword and forced his arm upwards, aiming to cut Arma in half from bottom to top. Quick thinking was the only thing that saved her as she forced her punch unit downwards. She was sent reeling backwards from the blow, but not in two pieces. Her punch unit however, was not so lucky. It was sheared nearly in half, and the automaton shook off the sparking mess in disgust.

One weapon down, who knew how many others to go. Louie rushed at Arma, stopping a step short from colliding with her with his body twisted and his sword already halfway to her head. At such close distance, the unit Arma had on now, her flamethrower; could not be used so effectively, she had to improvise it as a shield. Louie let the sparks fly, but he didn't commit to the contest of strength. Instead his sword was already whistling through the air for Arma's side. His opponent thwarted this by stepping back and letting her arm drop to her side, blocking the slash…but Louie had not come so far by being so easily thwarted. It was a feint, and his blade twisted mid slash to turn into a stab, catching Arma in the chest and knocking her down.

This was fine for her though, as the distance was good enough for her to swing her weapon to bear right at Louie's unprotected face. Exit Louie…

…or it would have been, but something stopped her. Confused she rolled away from Louie instead, and stood at odds with him. Half of her wanted to fake a saw throw and then pepper him with bullets before using a missile and then flame him. At this distance that attack would be unavoidable for Louie's documented speed. The other half wanted to close the distance and fake a flame thrower before shooting off a missile. This attack was illogical, it left you open and the missile would obviously be dodged. This conflict of commands gave her a few seconds pause, which was all Louie needed to close in and slash her before following up with a roundhouse slash, taking advantage of her staggering to blast her with a traveling wave slash. Downed on the ground, she shot a double saw unit at Louie, which caught him unawares as he had rushed in on her. Shooting him with a volley of bullets to keep him busy, again she shot a missile and swung to flame him to death. This time, she carried through however…but something else outside her stopped the attack.

A sailing, shining band of golden green; a maiden's bracelet was flying right into the middle of the attack. Split second decision protocols kicked in, split command chains were forgotten. Arma jumped into the space between Louie and herself, knocking Louie away and grabbing the bracelet in some crazy error of logic. She tossed it out of the zone of fire just before the missile hit where Louie was…

…and where she was now.

Her own missile exploded on contact with her as her own rebounding saws flew and met their master in a place they were not supposed to meet, in their flight path. Having braved her own fire for the bracelet, this assault was too much. Her own systems shut down to prevent critical damage, leaving but a sliver of awareness to be grabbed and taken hold by the second train of command.

"Hmph. It seems my control of this marionette is not as final as I would like. Well, have your fun, you're almost there. We'll finish this later."

+-2-+

"Hmm? Why did I stop?" Can't you see I'm getting a drink? You try talking for hours on end, see where it gets you. My throat is dry…"

The young woman was indeed, rifling through a cabinet with a glass on a table in front of her. Her audience decided to take a full look at her once over, since they had not taken the time to do so before. If there had once been any of the "cutesy" aura that was advertised before, it was gone now. The impression she gave off was one she advertising being exuded by Tear. A quiet beauty; but one that had a deep fire somewhere hidden. Recette did not give off a "bookish" feel at all, but more that of a semi-tempered fighter. Passion barely bottled, energy quiet but rushing, experienced, maybe "street smart" but not to the core.

She wore her chocolate colored hair in a long, unbraided pony tail, tied to the left side of her head with two red bubbles so that it fell straight down past her shoulder to stop at her waist. It was kept in a rapier thin, straight line, and shone slightly to show it was well cared for. Her eyes were large and a warm brown, but they had a hard line in them, not exactly sad; but prepared. She wore a cream blouse that extended out by the waist with some grass toned cloth into a frilled dress. That same cloth was also used on her apron along the shoulders and the borders. She used a leather strap about chest to keep the chest covered; all in all it was a house-wife like look.

However, the skirt of her dress did not go much further than her knees, and beyond that point, her calf boots took over, light brown leather giving way to thick soles and hardy looking construction that was overlaid with bronze plating. If she kicked you with those shoes, you'd better believe it would hurt. Her apron and blouse were tied about the waist with a thin belt of plaited leather and an undecorated buckle of no-nonsense iron. Rivets were used along its length to thread in bags for money and whatever else she carrier about, but most prominent of all these assortments was a thin sheath, which the leather handgrip of a weapon protruded slightly from. Next to this, two other, shorter sheaths were arranged, but they seemed to be empty.

It wasn't uncommon for a person who claimed to frequent dungeons, merchant or not, to go about armed. It was the way that she carried the weapon that would make you pause. She carried it as if it were not there, her hand familiarly brushing by it as she arranged her belt about her waist for more comfort. That comfort with a weapon didn't come from some paranoid merchant who carried about a weapon in fear of self-protection.

That kind of familiarity meant she had actually USED that thing before.

She turned about with the usual flourish a merchant learns, and set down two glasses and two plates. One plate was empty and the other had a slice of walnut bread on it. She pointed to the empty plate and the glass of unidentifiable red liquid.

"You can put what you're eating in there if you please."

With that said; she jumped upon one of the counters, as the only seat was occupied by her audience, plate in hand and glass held firm. One couldn't help but notice HER glass was filled with water.

"Hmm? What's that in your glass? Worried I'll poison you? It's a blend of melon, apples, oranges and grapes. I suppose you could call it a fruit drink. I'm not drinking it because it's sweet and sticky, and I'm telling a story. I need a clear mouth for that, don't I? You don't like interruptions after all."

+-E-+

I apologize that this took so long, but I had no choice. Hurricanes are not under my power. I tried to see if I could improve on any "grammatical" mistakes I made here, tell me if I did well or not. ~Finalage