Chapter Fifteen

The imperial city, Archades
Year 707 of the Old Valendian Calendar

"That was such a waste of time!" Vaan said with a moan, folding his hands behind his head as he walked. Big buildings and the bustling streets of Archades sprawled around the five of them.

"Yeah, who's idea was that, anyway?" Ziafer said.

"It wasn't mine," Cara said.

Balthier sighed and glanced back over his unhappy companions. "It was a joint decision, alright? And it wasn't a totally waste." He eyed Vaan, who had started this fest of bellyaching.

"Yeah, but…" Vaan sighed. "I expected something… more than a few paragraphs!"

"Like what?" Balthier said. "A big red arrow pointing the way? A list of instructions detailing what we do next? You're forgetting the man's who's notes we were reading had his own purposes for nethicite. Razner's were secondary to him; we were lucky to get what we did."

Balthier had expected his father to be quite nosy about someone who might be after his nethicite. That much had been apparent from the reports they'd read. But there had been things Balthier hadn't expected.

Like that Venat would tell Dr. Cid to stop nosing around. That that Occuria would've told his father that Razner's revival project was unimportant despite its 'obvious relation' to their goals. That Doctor Cid would've penned down in his notes that he suspected Venat was hiding something…

Balthier shook his head, trying to disperse the lingering misgivings. Razner had worked with Dr. Cid to free Venat from the Midlight Shard. This Razner had known all about Venat's plans. He had offered to help, offered use of his 'specimen' in reaching 'Venat's end goal' and been turned down.

"Well, those reports didn't tell me anything I didn't already know," Ziafer said, lifting his nose. "We need to bust our way in and give Razner a whipping!"

Balthier heaved a sigh. "Oh, yes, I suppose there's always that. You do know there are actually subtler ways of dealing with things?"

"Yeah! Where we don't have to hurt anyone," Penelo piped up.

Ziafer just scoffed. Balthier sighed and made a beeline for the tall archways etched deep in his memory.

"I'm sure our dear princess is tired of waiting by now," Balthier said. "Come on."

Inside, they checked in at the desk. Balthier got a familiar thrill asking for the private airship the Strahl, like that schoolboy who'd always dreamed of having his own airship. Since no one else could tell, he enjoyed the feeling fully.

"…Yes, that's here," the attendant said, scanning over her papers. "Someone was admitted to the hanger a few hours ago. A Viera? She said no one was to be let in under any circumstances."

Good idea, Fran. That precaution would probably slow down YPA if they came calling.

"That sounds like friends of mine," Balthier said. "I know why she'd say that, but seeing as I'm the one who actually checked in the airship, I'm sure you can make an exception?"

The attendant glanced down at the paper, then up at him. "Um, of course. After we confirm that with papers."

And a few painful minutes later, Balthier was marching up to the hanger door. Through the round window, he could just see Strahl, white and gold and navy-blue glittering in the hanger spotlights. Oh, that looked like home sweet home a thousand times more than Draklor ever did. Balthier was almost looking forward to that little girl's voice in his brain, complaining that he didn't come himself to guard her.

"There she is," Vaan said, peeking over Balthier's shoulder. "Guess those lab people didn't want her back that bad."

"Oh, they'd have to try very hard for that," Balthier agreed. He pushed the door open and prepared to reach out to Strahl, but broke off.

Balthier could see what he hadn't seen through the window: boxes and tools scattered about, a hazy cloud of smoke collecting in one corner.

Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no…

"What the-? Hey!" Vaan tramped past Balthier, head turning back and forth.

"Someone's been using spells here," Cara said, pulling her cloak tighter.

Balthier scanned the room, dread settling in the pit of his stomach. His heart sank even more at what he saw.

"Fran!"

In a scattering of charred crates, the Viera lay on her side, silver ponytail flicked in a mess over her face. Balthier knelt beside her, got an arm under hers and lifted to a sitting position. He had to hold her limp form there.

Fran's brown eyes flickered open a crack, dispersing a little of Balthier's panic. "You…" She barely breathed the word.

"Fran! Fran, what happened?" Balthier said. He shook her. "Where's Ashe?"

A moan barely escaped Fran's lips. Penelo dropped to her knees beside her and took Fran's left arm; blistered burns ran up it.

"Hold on; you'll be alright," Penelo said with a forced smile. She spread open her hands, and milky light flowed.

Fran's eyes flickered open again, unfocused, barely conscious. "They didn't… take me…"

"Fran, can you hear me?" Balthier said.

"They had a mage…" Fran closed her eyes again, this time in a wince. "I have never seen… a human with such… ability…" Fran shook her head, then tried to sit up on her own, pushing against Balthier's helping arm.

Not convinced she could stay up on her own, Balthier held onto her. "What about Ashe?"

Fran gave her head a single shallow shake. "He… took her. Red Fangs. I tried…" Fran broke off with a wince.

"Why weren't you on the Strahl?" Balthier said. "I told you to just take off if anyone showed."

"We were… They… He cast a spell that froze the engine… They came on… board…" Fran squeezed her eyes shut in a wince; her weight slumped against Balthier as she gave up trying to sit up herself.

"Blast." Balthier hissed the word through clenched teeth. He reached out to Strahl; so much for a happy reunion. "Strahl? Did you see anything? Where did they go?"

"Balthier? Oh, I'm so sorry! I couldn't-"

"Where did they go?"

"I-I don't know; out of the hanger. But that guy with the metal arm, he said something about… Dr. Holdre. Balthier, I know that name! Dr. Holdre works at YPA."

"YPA…" The word came out of Balthier's lips. He lowered Fran to the ground and stood. Vaan, Ziafer, and Cara stood back, watching with horror.

"Cara, you said the Red Fangs have worked with YPA before?" Balthier said.

Cara shifted her cloak. "Yes… I did."

"If Razner's come all the way here, he's not going to bring Ashe back to their base," Balthier thought aloud. "So he'd need scientific facilities here in the city."

"Razner does know their director very well," Cara said. "Some people theorize he's used them for operations without Errol's knowledge, it's true."

"Splendid." Not that their situation was, but at least they'd gotten somewhere. "Have you been inside, Cara?"

"Yes." Cara replied.

"Well, how can we get in?"

"Well…" Cara hesitated. "The building has two entrances. There is a large public one; that one will be guarded, and there will be a lot of people there. And there's a hidden back entrance that leads directly into the labs. That's the way we usually come in. It's locked with a code, but I've never seen it guarded. Holdre said they were short on people."

She spat the name Holdre. Balthier grimaced.

"Not a fan of Holdre either?"

Cara lifted her shadowed face. "I hate him."

"You hate a lot of people, don't you?"

"Only people who deserve it."

"Um, sneaking in sounds best to me," Vaan chimed up.

Balthier sighed. "Agreed. But we don't have the code. Although I do know someone who might. For the right price."

Ziafer narrowed his eyes. "Who?"

"And in case that doesn't work…" Balthier turned to Vaan. "You take the bludgeon and his simmering sister and see if you can't get ahold of Lord Larsa. If we get him involved, we can just strongarm our way in."

Vaan pulled a salute. "Roger."

"Hey, where are you going?" Ziafer jabbed a finger at Balthier.

"You ask too many questions," Balthier glared at him. "Princess Ashe is in danger, remember?"

Ziafer scowled. "Yeah, yeah."

Balthier turned to face Penelo, who leaned over Fran, gushing radiant white light.

"Is she going to be okay?"

"I think so," Penelo said, glancing back quickly.

"Good. We'll meet back here. Now let's go!"

Vaan in the front, the three royal messengers sprinted out the hanger door, and Balthier trailed behind them. Just as he mounted the steps, a voice tingled the back of his mind.

"Hey, Balthier? You're going into YPA?"

"Oh, you heard that, did you?"

"Boo. You'll beat them up, right?"

Balthier scoffed. "Don't tempt me."

…

Balthier wasn't sure how much time had passed when he returned to the hanger. The smoke had cleared by then, and Fran was asleep, lying where they'd found her. Penelo sat on a crate nearby, kicking her legs and looking awkward. Vaan, Ziafer and Cara hadn't gotten back yet.

Balthier paced. Jules had had nothing. While he was full of ways to break into Draklor, he evidently had no such information on YPA, however much gil was dangled in front of him. Balthier couldn't believe it. Every second he spent idling here was one more second Ashe was in Razner's clutches.

Razner, who wanted to 'revive' something that Venat hadn't wanted Dr. Cid to know about.

"Balthier? Did it work?" Strahl's voice chimed in his head.

"No. Now all we can hope for is the calvary to be available."

"But… If that doesn't work, then… Then I have a plan!"

"Oh you do?" Balthier couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "Why, we're all saved."

"Balthier! Look, you wanna get through the back door, right? You just need the code, right?"

Balthier let out a sigh. "I don't suppose you remember it."

"Of course not! But… What if you…" Strahl hesitated, then spoke rapidly. "What if you handed me over to them? They'd want to get inside quick, directly into the labs. They'd go through the back door, right? And I could watch, and then I could tell you what the code was-"

"Strahl!" It took all of Balthier's self-control to not shout aloud. "You want to go back to YPA? That's absurd. Absolutely not."

"I don't want to go back!" Strahl's volume rose. "But when you come in to rescue Ashe, you can just rescue me, too. Then everything will be fine!"

Balthier scoffed. "You're putting a lot of faith in my abilities."

"…Why shouldn't I?" It sounded like a genuine question, and Balthier wasn't sure how to answer. He shook his head and sighed.

"Look, Strahl, are you even sure that would work? You might not be able to see the code be put in. What if someone sticks you in their pocket?"

"Well…" Strahl thought for a moment. "You could follow me, you know, sneak-y-ly. Then you could watch for the code. I'm sure one of us would see it."

"No," Balthier said. "Strahl, no. I'm letting you put yourself in danger, too."

"But… Balthier! But… But when those people came in here and there was nothing I could do… Balthier, I want to help you! Please! What if there isn't any other way?"

"I'm sure Vaan and-"

"Balthier! Hey, did Jules have anything juicy?"

Balthier spun to see Vaan in the doorway, Ziafer and Cara behind him. Vaan thumped down the steps, eyes searching for an answer. Like he really wanted to hear something positive.

"No. The man was dry as a bone," Balthier replied. "Did you talk to somebody in authority?"

"Uh…" Vaan cringed.

"The guards changed shifts since last time," Ziafer said. "Those guys wouldn't even talk to us, just called us a bunch of commoners and said to get lost. That's what we get for trusting those Archadians anyway."

Balthier wasn't really listening to Ziafer's frustration. He turned away, not wanting to meet any of their eyes. Every moment Ashe was sitting in that building… Balthier found himself facing the massive metal form of a grand, majestic airship.

"But…" That was from Penelo, from her perch on the crate. "But there's gotta be some way! We're not just letting them have her, right?"

"No, we're" Balthier replied immediately. Strahl's voice was silent, but he could feel the buzz of her nervous suspense in his mind. He let out a sigh. "There… might be another way."

…

Familiar smells filled Balthier's nose; oil and metal and that tang of heated magicite. The grate flooring bit through his leather pants into his knees. He couldn't believe he was doing this.

Balthier twisted the last nut and felt the metal panel come loose beneath his hands. In three whole years, throughout every modification and maintenance, he'd never found reason to crack open the engine core of the Strahl. And now he was doing it with the intention of handing over the soul of his ship to the scientists he'd taken her from.

The panel came back, and red-orange light spilled out. Balthier grimaced against the rush of heat and set aside the metal sheet.

Within, suspended by dozens of wires biting into its surface, hung an orange gemstone, about the size and shape of a grapefruit. Balthier had seen hundreds of skystones during his time at Draklor, and one feature of this one surprised him: a vein of blood red snaking over the surface, slightly uneven with the clean-cut faces. Balthier frowned.

"Hi."

The skystone flashed in concurrence with the bright little voice in Balthier's mind. He sighed.

"Strahl, are you sure about this?"

"Yeah! Why wouldn't I be?" Again, the stone flashed in rhythm with Strahl's words. After all, of the whole massive airship around her, this rock was the real Strahl. Balthier couldn't pull his eyes away from that crimson streak; it looked like it'd been forged onto the surface.

"Wh-What is it? You're staring at me funny."

Balthier pulled his eyes away. "I just don't want you to do this if you don't want to."

"You want to get Ashe back, right?" An innocent tone, like her answer rested wholly on the answer to that question.

Yes, Balthier did. But he didn't want anyone else to get hurt in the process. Not his Strahl. Rather than answering, he settled on another question. "Do you know what could happen if things go wrong?"

"No. Do you?"

Balthier just sighed, then reached into the engine and started disconnecting wires from the stone's surface. After a few minutes, the gemstone dropped into his palm; it surprised him how cool it was. A strange shiver of energy raced up his arm, shortening his breath as he drew the rock out into the light.

"Whoa." Strahl gave a short, nervous chuckle. "That was funny, right?"

Balthier watched the light dance across her surface. "A little."

A few moments passed. Then finally, gripping the glittering stone tight, Balthier stood. He left the engine in pieces on the floor; he intended to be reinstalling this component very soon.

Balthier walked out the Strahl's open door and clinked down the five collapsable mesh steps to the floor. The door stayed open behind him, the whole airship quiet, dark, and lifeless.

In the hanger, Fran was sitting upright under her own power, good to see. Penelo knelt next to her. Cara had taken Penelo's position atop the crate, and Ziafer and Vaan stood with their backs to it. Balthier had given Vaan the duty of explaining thing, and given Ziafer's speechless look, Balthier decided that had been a wise choice.

"Vaan, Carks is waiting outside?" Balthier said. Luckily, the man hadn't been difficult to track down. And he'd been overjoyed that the pirate was finally willing to part with his skystone.

"Yeah, he's still there," Vaan replied. He glanced at the stone cradled in Balthier's hands. Strahl took this moment to break her spell of silence.

"Balthier, there's Vaan? And who's that guy? What's wrong with his face? Oh, Balthier can you tell them I say hi?"

"No."

"Is it supposed to be flashing like that?" Vaan said as the skystone pulsed light and warmth.

"She's talking," Balthier said. He was surprised Ziafer didn't ask any questions. "Now, come on. Let's not waste time."

Balthier walked up the steps and pushed open the hanger door. Outside, the haggard man in the lab coat abruptly stopped his pacing.

"Oh!" His eyes swelled behind their wire frames. "Is that it? Oh, hand it here." Carks stuck out a hand.

Balthier scowled at the man's sickening excitement. What were they planning on doing with her, anyway?

Seeing Balthier's sour look, Carks retracted the hand. "Oh, that's right, I suppose you want your gil. Um, here!" He fished a cloth pouch from his pocket. Why did everyone immediately assume he wanted money?

"Keep your gil," Balthier said. Even the image that he was being bribed for this was too much for him. "Let's just finish this."

Carks's brow creased, but he tucked the pouch away nonetheless. "Alright. Then, the stone?"

Balthier started to put out the hand in which he grasped the glittering orange stone. Carks put out his hand, and Balthier found it difficult to let go.

"Balthier? We… need to get Ashe, right?"

"I know. Don't you get killed."

"There's not much I can do about that."

"Oh, you fill me with confidence."

Balthier loosened his grip, and the little orange stone, striped with blood red, fell from his hand into Carks's.

Carks drew her back quickly, as if Balthier might try to snatch her away again. He held the stone up to his eyes and twisted it one way, then the other. He let out a laugh that made Balthier want to tackle him and take that rock back.

"Oh, yes, thank you very much, Mr. Balthier," Carks said with another laugh. "Now Holdre won't fire me! You've my utmost gratitude."

Carks put out his hand for a shake, but Balthier only scowled.

"Don't push it. This at least gets your bounty off my head?" Not that it wouldn't be on him again the moment he snatched Strahl back.

"Oh, of course." Carks cleared his throat, then tipped his head. "Good day!"

With that, he turned and walked away. Balthier watched him go. In his mind, he tested his connection to Strahl.

"Good luck."

"You too. Get me out quick?"

Balthier restrained himself from flying after Carks then and there. He'd have Strahl and Ashe back in just a few hours.

"I will."