First, I'll say that I'm sorry that this took so long to get written, but I just couldn't seem to get this to be the way that I wanted it to be. I spent quite a bit of time, as well, considering the exact direction that I wanted to take this arc, and it took me a while to figure out the ideas and style that I wanted to use for the upcoming chapters. Now that I have that sorted out, I think things will proceed a bit more smoothly.
Also, we're finally in Book II now, titled Outbreak - I still can't believe I've made it even this far, let alone how much more I have planned for you guys.
Begin!
Book II, Part I: Outbreak - Vector's Gambit
Chapter I—Open Wounds
[July 10, 2152 | Trabia Garden, Third Floor, Hallway | 11:17 AM]
Darius Devalle was pissed.
He'd been mad before, the kind of angry where people seem to instinctively shy away out of fear that they will be the next targets of the wrath, where small children are frightened simply by being in the same room. Many had seen the best and worst of his myriad moods, most often his brothers, but only Katanas had seen Darius in the kind of mood he was in now as he stalked towards his father's office, fire in his eyes and a glare on his face that would have made even the most stalwart officer hesitate to approach him. He'd nearly petrified Ein over the GLD's connection when he requested the meeting, and he was sure that Ein had warned his father of his present state, though he was equally sure it mattered little to the Senior.
Not that he cared. He was far too furious to be concerned about something so minor as his father's opinion of his outrage. It was justified, in his mind, and he would have answers one way or another.
Darius paused for a brief moment as he came to stand in front of the doors of his father's office, considering exactly what he would say when he walked in. Seconds passed, his idle stance only letting his rage simmer, and he finally reached out and grabbed the handle of one door, swinging it open in a satisfying and forceful movement.
It was time to face his past once again, one that he had thought long ago he'd come to terms with.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Darius' father looked up at his youngest son from behind his desk, his expression calm and collected in the face of the boy's rage.
"It wasn't necessary for you to know at the time," the Senior replied, seemingly unconcerned.
"Wasn't necessary?" he asked, seething. "You didn't think it was necessary, or even a courtesy given what happened, to tell me that you had a new lead on Lindsey's murder?"
"The information is just that - a lead.Investigation takes time, as I'm sure you know from your own dealings."
"And I could've been helping you for the past two days! You found out that Vector Industries had some kind of connection to Lindsey - a place that I just got back from - and you didn't even think about asking me to help investigate this!"
"With the way you're acting now, is it any wonder?" Darius' father stated, an edge to his voice. "You'd want nothing more right now than to go down to Esthar and rip Vector apart looking for answers, damn the consequences of it all. If you can't keep a cool head on your shoulders, you've no right helping us investigate anything, ties to your past girlfriend or not. Your actions would have far-reaching consequences in a number of ways - economic, political, and personal. Have I taught you nothing?"
Senior had more than a mere lead, of course, but he wasn't about to tip his hand by revealing what he did or didn't know concerning Lindsey's disappearance. That went against every facet of his business savvy nature, and he wasn't about to betray that tenet on account of a youngster's anger. The Headmaster was nothing if not imperturbable, and it was exceedingly rare for him to lose his cool over anything, no matter how shocking or sudden it was.
Darius paused for an instant, momentarily cowed by his father's words, but stood firm. The emotional aura of rage that his body language held seemed to dim slightly, but the dark glare remained firmly on his face as he continued to stare down the Trabian Headmaster.
"Fine. Then give me a SeeD mission to find out more. Give me a team to keep me in check if you have to, but let me be a part of this. I...owe it to her to find out."
"You're still not going to Esthar," Senior said, casually beginning to peruse a small series of papers.
"I wasn't planning on it," Darius replied, somewhat defensively. "Not when there're better places to start."
"You'd go back to Galbadia, then?"
"It only makes sense. It's been years, but I'm sure I can still track down someone that had connections to the killer. Galbadian police couldn't find a wayward chocobo if the rest of the flock was in their parking lot, but SeeD is trained better than that."
Internally, the younger DeValle was ever-so-slightly hesitant at the idea. When Lindsey had first been killed, he had done everything in his power to find something, anything to track down the one or ones responsible...only to come up empty-handed. None of his business contacts, back alley dealings, even outright criminals that he...persuaded...to give up information had led him to anything more than a bunch of dead ends and shattered ideas. Now that he was a full-fledged SeeD, the head of one of the largest economic guilds in the world, and nearly as savvy at under-the-table dealings as his own father, however...
This time, he'd let nothing stand in his way. He'd rip apart the Galbadian countryside, tear a swath through Esthar's borders, whatever it took. Nothing would deter him this time, not when he had a second chance to pull off something he'd swore to himself long ago he would not rest until he'd completed.
"...Hm," Senior murmured, reaching over towards a cup of coffee on his desk and taking a sip from the contents. "You've a plan, then."
"The beginnings of one."
"You want a team, I assume?"
"I'll need a decent-sized team to pull this off. At least two - Andréa, and Revolver."
Senior's curiosity mounted at that proclamation - Revolver and Darius were like oil and water, almost never seeing eye to eye on anything. The two preferred to stay away from each other's company as much as possible, given Darius' penchant for getting things done in any way necessary and Revolver's more honorable, duty-bound way of viewing things. For Darius to be willingly requesting for Revolver to join him spoke volumes as to how far he was willing to go and how serious he was about this.
"Andréa is the leader of her own SeeD team now," Senior said. "What would you suggest we do with the others in her team?"
"Add them into mine, then," Darius suggested. "I know that the Ishida boy and that Remiere girl are capable, and Silvia is an excellent choice too, with what she knows about Estharian businesses; she could probably dredge up a lot of things from her father's files, I'd bet. And if I'm not mistaken, isn't Powell a little...incognito at the moment?"
Senior let a barely perceptible frown cross his face. Katanas had been doing a rather fine job of quietly dealing with the issues that had arisen due to the cadet's recent loss of control in the courtyard, and had placed him on administrative leave under the cover of a priority mission of high secrecy...which was really just a way of hiding the fact that he was dealing with some rather more important issues.
"That leaves six people, counting myself, which is a good number. We can split up to investigate without being weakened substantially if something does happen, and there's a wide variety of skills there both in and out of combat. Plus, there's no problem with Andréa not having a team to lead - her team's all with me."
"Revolver won't be happy at you making him leave his shop like this, let alone to spend that time helping you," Senior commented wryly.
"Let him," Darius retorted with a snort. "He needs to get out more, anyway. All he does is beat chunks of metal into pointy shapes all day."
His rage, Darius found, had cooled into something a bit firmer. The determination that he had during business deals to come out on top, to always be the one getting the best and most out of a plan, was coming back to the forefront, all directed on a single goal. With the people he'd have along with him this time, there was no way that he'd fail again. It hurt enough that he'd lost Lindsey, that he'd failed to track down her killer at the time when it meant the most...
...but delayed vengeance would still be just as sweet.
[July 10, 2152 | Trabia Garden, First Floor, Dormitories | 11:17 AM]
"It's just me. Can I come in?"
Naoki put down the magazine that he was examining onto the table in front of him, leaning forward just a bit as he looked over at the door.
"It's open."
The door to his room opened, letting Sumiko step in quietly and shut the door behind her as she moved. She'd changed into a simple outfit, just a short-sleeved tan shirt and forest green pants that reached her calves, and from the sweat that could still be seen on her face, Naoki guessed that she'd been doing some kind of exercise not long before.
"Just got back from a jog," she stated, wiping some sweat from her face and answering his unasked question. "Thought I'd come by, see how you were."
"Catching up on some reading," Naoki replied, relaxing back into the soft couch again. "Going to stay a while?"
"For a little while, if that's fine with you," Sumiko said, letting a small smile cross her face. Naoki had made it clear that she was welcome anytime; they'd been friends for so long that it was understood between the both of them, but Naoki felt the need to state it anyway. Naoki simply gestured for her to sit down beside him, and she crossed the short length to the couch easily before taking a seat. As she did, she glanced over at the magazine he'd been reading, then picked it up for a moment to look at the front cover.
"The Strahl-Miyazaki Journal?" she asked, looking over at Naoki curiously. "You've taken an interest in finance now?"
"I thought you knew I've always had an interest in that," he remarked, not expecting the question. "I considered joining Merchant's Alley for a time, actually, but decided against it." Sumiko nodded lightly, putting the magazine back and re-opening it to the point where he'd left off.
"Why didn't you join, then?"
"I wanted to get an idea of what it was like to be a SeeD, first. I may still go back and try to join later - who knows."
"I see..." she said quietly, pausing for a moment and leaning back into the couch. "How's your family? Is Masaru doing well?"
Naoki chuckled quietly - Masaru was his younger brother, only eleven years old. He sent letters to his family almost every week to keep in touch, and his parents had happily recounted how his brother was finally starting to grow into his rightful place as a clan member. He'd started learning some of their clan techniques and practices, and his father was especially proud of how far the younger boy had come ever since Naoki left for Trabia.
"He's doing fine, from what I've heard. Father says that he's put quite a bit of effort into his training and schooling lately, ever since we left, and he's well on his way to finally being able to perform some of our first techniques."
"The Gokakyuu?"
"That, and Housenka as well," Naoki stated with a quick nod. Both were the most basic techniques of his clan - easy to learn the principles behind and execution of, and only requiring simplistic levels of control and power to begin with.
"You learned that at, what...nine?"
"Ten, actually. He's a little older than I was when I started practicing. Mother always was a little more protective of him than me," he answered with a chuckle.
"That's certainly the truth," Sumiko remarked. "I don't think it was for lack of trying, though - she certainly worried about you a lot, from what I remember."
"Agreed. What about your family? Have you talked to them lately?"
"Not all of them. Mayu's been in Esthar for a while, and so I haven't heard anything from her lately at all. Koichi's started to take an interest in all the leadership and politics, from what I've been told...and Kiyoko's still getting babied by everybody, as usual." She said the last part with an amused look on her face, causing Naoki to laugh again at the thought. Unlike Naoki, Sumiko came from a larger immediate family - she was the second-oldest of four. Mayu, her older sister, was four years her senior, while Koichi, her only brother, was only two years her junior at seventeen years old. The youngest, Kiyoko, was only ten, and all three of her older siblings - Sumiko included - still treated her like the child that she was no matter how much she tried to act like she wasn't.
"Koichi wants to go into clan politics, despite not being able to have a seat on the council?" Naoki asked, curious. The Remiere clan council was unique in their hometown of Areyn for the sole fact that only females were allowed to have seats; it was the only clan in the village for which that was true, as all other clan councils were comprised of both genders.
"He's aware - his reasoning is that just because he can't have a formal seat, it doesn't mean he can't go to the others and talk with them about suggestions to make things better. A sort of liaison between the elders and the rest of the clan, you could say."
Naoki nodded. "Makes sense. What about Kiyoko? She hasn't found something to occupy herself with yet?"
"According to my mother, she's learning music, actually. Flute, if I'm not mistaken."
"Weren't you learning to play the flute a while back?"
"I was, but...let's just say that I don't quite have the musical aptitude for that," Sumiko said with a smile, shrugging. "I could play a few songs, but nothing impressive. I haven't had a chance to hear Kiyoko play, but I've heard that she's quite the natural at it."
"Maybe we should go back for a weekend, to catch up on things?" Naoki asked. "I'm sure both our families would like to actually see us for a change, instead of simply reading pieces of paper."
"A good idea," his companion replied. "I'd like to hear Kiyo's playing with my own ears, actually."
A soft chime came from the table in front of them, and Naoki reached over to pick up his GLD, recognizing the sound of an incoming message. Almost at the same time, the GLD in Sumiko's pocket let out a similar tone, and she looked over again at Naoki as she reached for it.
"Maybe our plans will have to wait for a while, hm?"
"It seems so," he remarked, eyes skimming over the message. "Did you just get the same message?"
"If you mean about reporting to the Headmaster's office for a new mission, then yes. So soon after the mission from Esthar?"
"Things seem to be quite fast-paced around here, I've noticed...especially lately," Naoki said, replacing the GLD in his pocket as he moved towards the small rack that held his katana and weapons pouches. It only took him a few seconds to attach the sheath and pouches to his belt, and he turned back towards Sumiko. "Do you want to go back for anything?"
"If you don't mind, I'd like to stop by and get my rapier, at least," she stated, standing up from the couch and walking around the table towards the door.
"We'll stop there, then head to the Headmaster's office, then," he remarked, heading over beside his older companion and opening the door for her. "After you."
"You're such a gentleman," Sumiko said, lips spreading into a faint smile as she walked out of the room. Naoki followed, closing and locking the door as he exited, then falling into step beside her as they headed towards her dormitory room to prep for their apparent next mission.
[July 10, 2152 | Trabia Garden, First Floor, Revolver DeValle's Shop | 11:51 AM]
Darius pushed open the door to Revolver's shop lightly, hearing the faint chime of a bell as he entered and nodded to the clerk on duty behind the counter. Instantly, he was hit with the smells of metal and a haze of heat, both of which he pushed aside with practiced ease. Revolver's shop was always a bit hotter than the other areas of Garden due to the fact that he practiced some of his forging in the shop itself, and the temperature combined with the worked metal gave the shop a very gritty, dry smell and feel to it.
"Welcome," the clerk said, nodding back to Darius. "Something I can help you with?"
"Is Revolver around? I've got something to discuss with him in private."
"He should be in the back," the clerk replied, his speech punctuated by the sound of a hammer striking metal from the rear of the shop area. "If you want, I'll let him know you're here."
"Mind if I just go back and talk to him?" Darius asked. "It should only take a couple minutes."
"Not a problem. Just be careful - if he's finishing a project, some of the metal might be quite hot."
Darius nodded in response, making his way towards the back of the shop where only a cloth covering obscured a doorway's contents from the business portion of the blacksmith shop. Sweeping aside the curtain with a hand, Darius easily spotted the form of his brother hunched slightly over an anvil, hammer in hand and a shard of metal being worked atop the anvil glowing a bright orange from the heat. Revolver noticed him an instant later as he glanced up from his work and laid the hammer down on a nearby table, removing his pair of thick gloves and setting those aside as well before addressing his brother.
"Darius."
"Revolver. Got a minute? I've got something important to ask you. It'll only take a few minutes, I promise."
Revolver's expression didn't change, but he immediately got the feeling that something was amiss in some way - Darius was being unusually serious, unlike his normal joking and sarcastic demeanor. He was long used to his brother's antics, and the absence of any such witticisms immediately brought his sense of curiosity to the fore.
"I can make some time. Is there a problem?"
"It's...not really a problem. Not yet, anyway," Darius said, keeping his voice calm but quiet. Revolver could see a change in his eyes as Darius met his gaze, speaking with quiet intensity. "It's about Lindsey."
Those three words were among the last statements Revolver expected to hear come out of his younger brother's mouth, and an uncomfortable silence fell over the pair of DeValle sons as Revolver took in Darius' statement. Lindsey Geneave, Darius' former girlfriend from Galbadia, had been killed years ago, and her death had been - in Revolver's eyes, at least - the driving reason behind Darius' decision to embrace his father's unsavory dealings and become a member of House DeValle's shady underworld business. Darius had tried to find out who had killed her for months after, but nothing that either he or the Galbadian police had found had ever led to anything conclusive, and the formal case file had been closed due to lack of leads and evidence long ago. For him to be mentioning her now, dredging up old wounds like this...
Revolver focused his full attention on Darius, his work now easily forgotten as he motioned for Darius to take a seat near the back of his metallurgy and smithing room. The marksman quietly walked over and sat down on a metal folding chair, Revolver following suit a moment later.
"Go on."
"I don't know all the details just yet, but dad found something, and it has to do with Lindsey's death. Specifically, he might have a lead on her killer, and somehow Vector Industries is involved. He's letting me take a team to Galbadia to investigate, and I'm sure he knows a lot more than he's letting on, but I'm willing to gamble on it." Darius' words were succinct and direct; obviously, this wasn't something he felt like wasting time explaining. "I want you on that team. Andréa and the rest of her team, sans Powell, will be along as well."
Darius certainly knew how to push the right buttons, Revolver thought to himself. Andréa was a natural choice, given her skill at field work and her close relationship to Darius himself, but she had a much closer relationship to Revolver than most realized. The two of them were, unbeknownst to most, in a romantic relationship, though they only really treated each other like such while in private. Darius choosing her for this mission and then asking him as well, Revolver knew, was hardly any kind of accident given the circumstances.
"How long will this last?" Revolver asked.
"I don't know. We could be there a day, we could be there two weeks. Dad assured me that time wouldn't be a constraint on this."
"I'll need time to prepare. Attend whatever else you need. I won't take long."
Revolver turned back, resuming his work. This would be an interesting assignment, and any chance to help Darius bring closure to such a life-altering event might be just what he'd need to turn back to the honorable light he'd been following before.
'There might be hope for him yet,' mused the older DeValle as the younger slipped out to assemble his team.
And with this, the first arc of Book II officially begins. First, a little bit about the arc itself.
This arc will be a shorter arc than the others, detailing more about Darius' past and his relationship with Lindsey Geneave, as well as what happened the fateful day when she was shot in then-Deling City. Along with that, this arc will prominently feature a few of the other, more 'minor' characters, such as Andréa, Revolver, and Silvia, and their relationships both to Darius and to the others in the team with him. A lot of this chapter, for example, was spent going over a bit more backstory for Naoki and Sumiko, characters that haven't gotten a lot of focus time yet in the story. I plan to change that; it's my hope that by the time the story is over, every character gets a decent amount of detail as to their story, no matter what it is, and why they are where they are now.
Until next time...