Filling In The Blanks
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy IX or any of its characters.
Chapter 119: If There's a Way
"Oi!" a voice shouted from below, "Who's that up there on the bridge!"
Both of them froze, eyes wide and afraid. No allies, no backup, no way to escape.
"Show yerself!" he continued, raising his torch, though to no avail. The only thing stopping whatever soldiers were near from attacking was the sheer fact that it was too dark to correctly identify who was on the bridge.
"I bet it be the resistance!" someone shouted from the side; both of their heads whipped in the dark direction of the voice. "They be comin' back lookin' for their friend they so rattishly left behind!"
"Who?!" Beatrix whispered, near hysteria. Her head was spinning.
"Keep quiet," Freya commanded lowly. Her arm was out protectively in front of the brunette, who nearly looked like she was going to fall over.
They had abandoned one of their friends. Though not too long and Beatrix and Freya would be in the same boat.
Her stomach turned while her ears lay flat against her head. Her companion was pale, and they were being lured out by these foolish, soft belly soldiers blabbing on about a captured resistance member. Real? Or a lie?
"We have to trust they can take care of themselves," she said through a slow breath.
"Freya they could die! What if it's Dagger, or Vivi or –"
"it is resistance members!" The voice was far closer than they anticipated and now a torch was being held to them, showcasing the two women off for all wandering eyes to see.
"Fuck," Beatrix murmured, reaching behind her for her sword.
"Buy me five minutes. I have a plan." And with that, she leapt, feeling the wind rush against her cheeks and the world below her disappear.
Beatrix stood, perplexed and afraid as she watched her friend launch away into the sky. It didn't take long to lose sight of the Bermecian, and while she did trust that the dragon knight surely did have a plan, a part of her felt angry – angry that she was so disorientated and left to fend for herself.
Five minutes?
People began shouting below. More people were climbing the wiring to reach the bridge, and she was going to be trapped if she didn't get her head around soon.
It felt like it could be a millennium before Freya came back.
There were only a few things that could console Beatrix in the midst of a battle.
As grudging as it was to admit, not to mention strange, it was the sound of Steiner's armor. It was old and he would never admit it, but she suspected it was starting to get rusty with all of its age. He had always been very adamant about the sheet metal suit of armor, clinging to what was left of the life of Captain of the Pluto Knights. She could have argued to him a million times that even in their prime, Captain of the Pluto Knights, rival to the Captain of the Rose Brigade, the use of a sturdy breastplate and lighter armor would be more effective and the clear ability bridge between his knights and hers was proof.
He would never listen to her of course, and she supposed he could always throw in her face that she'd been stabbed once or twice. Steiner was usually the least injured of them all. A wry smile found its way to her lips whenever she thought about it.
That horrible grinding of metal rubbing metal as he fought onward was a rather inspiring sound, and when she sat around to think about it, she quite liked hearing it when she wasn't fighting either.
But Steiner wasn't here. She would admit only to herself that he had become quite the crutch for the ex-knight and army general. Though, in many more ways than one, she didn't regret allowing herself to become soft with the knight. Not anymore.
The last comfort she had left was the weight of her sword in her hands. The way that her gloves clapped around the metal handle of her sword gave off a satisfying smack that was familiar through her many, many years of service.
This, she would hold with her so long as she always had her sword.
Save the Queen was quite the feat. The metal was sturdy and beautiful, always sharp and always clean and massive in size. One of the first questions ever asked of Beatrix as she became more renowned in her duty and position, was how on Gaia she ever learned to wield something that was half the length of her.
She always smiled, finding a strange delight in changing her answer every single time she was asked.
Now here she was.
That clap had just rung out. Before her were shouts and commands, the blaze of more and more fires to give away her position, and maybe it was the concussion or the nostalgia one feels before they truly believe they are going to die, but all she could hear was that clap of her gloves on her sword.
"Five minutes…" she murmured to herself, her vision swaying in front of her. "Five minutes," she repeated.
And just like that, all of the sounds she had been blocking out to find some comfort came rushing back to her on a spiraling wave.
Blindly, she swung her sword, hoping that in all of the commotion of coming back to reality, she might land a hit.
Nothing.
"Again," she said to herself, imagining a time before Dagger was born, before Alexander had died, before her and Steiner. She was training to become a knight and that was the most common word in her vocabulary.
She hoisted the sword up, leveraging its weight against hers as she gave another powerful swing.
Still nothing.
"Again," she said.
When she first began training, she was consistently picked on. When she was young, it was still unsaid whether a woman could possibly be effective as a knight or not. They were known as black magic users, white mages, red mages and assistants to thieves. Never as someone as gallant as a knight.
She spread her feet wide and angled, perfect for an offensive stance, before swinging.
Nothing.
"Again!" she shouted, lurching forward with the frustrated anger she recalled so clearly as she clawed her way to the top. She found that despite her natural talent, the boys her own age hardly gave her a chance to prove herself to her superiors.
This time, as she swung, she tipped, keeping her hard grip on her sword as she whirled in a complete three-sixty spin.
A man creeping up behind her was closer than she had expected and was luckily hit by the sword. He let out a squelching cough, the sword having sliced right through his abdomen. He was dead in seconds.
His body fell backwards and Beatrix saw it, her concussed head pulling the event into a near slow-motion. His hollow eyes stared drearily at her, the life rushing from his face as he fell back on his comrades.
More shouts. She didn't have time to think about it anymore. She squeezed her eyes shut and swung. There was no less dignified way to fight this battle, but there was no more she could do.
"The bloody damsel is wounded! Somebody just get her!" Someone from the ground was shouting orders, and she heard this in the midst of the bustle.
A surge of emotion struck her, and she overpowered a knight with two swords and kicked him backwards. He tipped over the bridge, yanking two comrades with him and nicking another behind the knee with his sword.
"Who is it that you have?!" she demanded, while she knew it was futile. "What do you mean you've got a friend in custody!"
"Wouldn't ye like to know, eh?!"
She glared at the man who answered her, forcing him off the side of the bridge too.
And then it happened.
As she struggled with him, grunting and shoving and trying her best to ward off enemies as she pushed people over the side of the bridge, hopefully hard enough so they wouldn't scamper back up to her in the strange glow of the fires, a man struck out, his sword short and blunt, but enough.
It caught underneath her corset of armor and cut raggedly into the flesh of her back. She ground her teeth, refusing to cry out as she whirled around, her damp curls slapping her in the face. Her sword sliced ruthlessly through his neck, the precision almost dead on. Blood spewed everywhere and she grew dizzy from the smell.
This somewhat gory display had some soldiers losing their nerve. They were only peons – nothing like the gold-knighted goons that Kuja payed more attention to. They back pedaled into each other, causing a stir of rallied shouts and grunts and soon everyone was fighting each other. Some were yelling about being pushed away from the lone resistance member up for grabs, some were yelling about abandoning their duty (both sides of the argument, she cared to note), others were yelling at her and she found herself hollering at others too, sometimes just about the fight and sometimes an inquiry of who the hell they had captured.
She felt the fire from her wound lick up her back. It was making her sweat. Knowing that whenever they got out of this, she would not even have the relief of white magic made it burn all the hotter. Stitches without a tick of numbness – that's where she was headed.
But Beatrix was starting to feel tired. The surge of energy that came with all of that emotion and the euphoria of an underdog battle was washing away. It had certainly been more than five minutes.
Just as doubt began to consume her, the wind came swirling up around them. The fires were instantly swept away and the howl of the wind bellowed below their feet. A shiver ran down her spine, but she figured it was a lot worse for those who did not know what was coming.
The glint of Freya's spear in the moonlight sent through her a wave of relief so powerful she almost fell to her knees. Or maybe that was just the concussion talking.
It came down fast on the man immediately in front of her, slicing through the side of his torso, should and collar bone. He cried out, stumbling back from the spear as though it had bitten him, and tipped over the side of the bridge. Beatrix felt that the thud he made on the ground was harder than others.
She tackled two more scared looking younger men on her way down. Her clawed feet scraped into their chests, as they hadn't risen the ranks high enough to get effective armor that was cool enough for the desert. The leapt back in fright, effectively knocking back a few others in the process.
"I thought five minutes meant five minutes!" she gasped.
"It's Quina," Freya said, ignoring her comment. "They have Quina."
"What?"
"I saw him, from up above as I was gathering for my attack. Beatrix –" she turned to look at the other woman, teetering where she stood. "- Beatrix, I believe he saw me. He started yelling. It was difficult to make out, but I believe he told us not to worry about him."
"What?!" That was all she could muster.
"They rendered him unconscious due to all of the noise. But we have to trust –"
"We can't leave him behind!"
"Beatrix, we do not have a choice –"
"No!" She wailed to no one in particular. She continued striking out with her sword, but more and more men were scurrying away in all of the chaos.
"I am sorry," Freya's voice was low as she kept an eye on her dragon, sweeping around to the oncoming men with her attack. "But you do not have a choice."
For a moment there was a sharp pain in her head, but it slowly spread out, crawling underneath her skull as a dull throb. Whether Freya knocked her unconscious or she finally collapsed from exhaustion she would never know.
"It seems quiet here," Amarant commented as Blank investigated the scuffle at the edge of the broken cliff. "We were moving as slow as possible and nobody has beat us here?"
The vein in Blank's forehead threatened to burst with irritation. He narrowed his eyes and whipped around, an accusation on the tip of his tongue. Amarant was a huge guy – not somebody too easy to carry.
But the true look of seriousness that overtook the generally grumpy expression that the older redhead usually wore had him clicking his teeth shut in compliance. He was absolutely right, after all.
Blank turned back to the cliff and peered over the side, seeing disturbed paths of dirt on the way down. "If anyone was here recently, maybe they fell down into the pit," he stared out over the abyss, filled only with huge, thorny vines. Even the calm moonlight could do nothing to make them look less frightening.
"Maybe we should backtrack… Look for somebody further back on the trail and hope –"
"There!" Amarant hollered, heaving himself up to throw a few disks at his unknown target.
"Wait!" they heard a small voice cry.
A dagger clanked noisily against the disks, sending them spinning back towards the redheaded duo. They spluttered in their pin-straight line and clattered to the ground twenty feet away.
The approaching party finally got close enough, bodies sunken low into a stealthy, crouching position. Amarant and Blank realized who they had nearly killed.
"What the hell are you three doing sneaking up on everyone?!" Amarant demanded as Dagger bounded over to Blank and gave him a hug.
"Thank Gaia you're alright," she said, her hands leaning heavily on his shoulders. She looked about as exhausted as he felt.
"What are you doing throwing weapons around when you're expecting your teammates!" Zidane barked back, but the look of relief on his face said more than his words.
Amarant grumbled and rolled his eyes; Dagger's face pinched at his awkward posture. "You're wounded."
"I'm fine –"
"Don't be so proud," she scolded him, pulling his arm lightly to have him sit on the ground. He heaved a rather dramatic sigh and complied. "I'm so glad we've found you."
"Have you seen anyone else?" Blank asked, his eyes sweeping over the blonde, making sure he was alright.
Vivi shook his head, "No one."
"No Steiner or Beatrix, huh?" he muttered, turning in the direction both parties had come from, "Strange…"
"I hope they're alright," Dagger sighed, leaning back on her hands as she finished healing Amarant's ribs. She turned to the duo they'd just met, "Vivi discovered something fantastic."
"Vivi did?" they turned to him, and if they could have seen his face, he would have been blushing.
He clutched his hat, closing his eyes and squeezing them shut. He hated having to relay information, and he certainly hated everyone waiting on him to tell something exciting and important. "It was really Zidane. He was brave enough to go up to them."
"Who?!" Immediately, they were both on alert.
Zidane shook his head, taking over when he realized Vivi didn't know where to start. "Some chocobos found Vivi and lead him to safety while he was the only one here. We found him when we fell down that cliff," he pointed to the spot that Blank had investigated earlier. He let out a laugh of disbelief. "I rode a chocobo."
"You what?" Blank didn't sound very impressed.
"I can't believe it either." He ran his hand through his hair, pieces falling messily out of the now-dried ponytail. "Communicating with them, it's not like anything else. They're so intelligent, but have a completely different way of going about things!"
"Probably because they're a different species," Amarant pointed out with an eyeroll. He was ignored.
"Anyways, before we were leaving, they started scratching in the dirt," he gestured to Vivi, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "He said that Eiko showed him some of the ruins the moogles use to communicate with the chocobos, since before the village was destroyed, they were pretty intermingled. Basically, the chocobos found a way to speak with the moogles, and the moogles taught Eiko –"
"Yes, yes, move on!"
"They want to come aid the resistance!"
"You recruited a bunch of chickens?" Amarant asked flippantly.
Blank's lips puckered. His eyes narrowed as he stared down his best friend. Zidane's chest was rising and falling quickly, excitement clear on his face. He recalled how many times he'd seen a chocobo during the war and tried to remember what they were doing. Always on Kuja's side – always an inconvenience because the gold adorned knights were always riding them. Faster. Always on higher ground.
"That's actually pretty badass."
Zidane nearly cheered, ecstatic that they had another on their side about the chocobos. If nothing else went right that night, at least they had made some new friends.
They were resting again.
The itch of anticipation grew within Steiner like a fire and being the reason why they were taking another break on the longest walk to the Iifa Tree of his life was no help. He puffed in frustration with his fingers laced together in front of him, elbows on his knees.
He was cursing his heavy armor.
His charcoal eyes moved to Eiko, who sat across the path in the dirt, her fingers spread wide in the grass with her weight leaned back onto her palms. She was staring into the sky, the stars shining like small bursts of white flame. Her eyes were wide and unbothered. Anyone else and they probably would have yelled at him for taking so long.
His muscles ached and his skin crawled with a familiar uncomfortableness of wet underneath his armor. The girl looked like she had completely dried, her hair slightly puffy from the humidity. He was grateful now that it was Eiko he was with; the wipeout from the city took more out of him than he cared to admit.
"You aren't at all bothered by our speed?" The question poured out of his mouth before he could stop himself.
She shook her head, her lips protruded to create an expression of nonchalance. "We'll get there. That's what's important to me."
"What if the others are in trouble?"
"Right now, there's nothing we could do. I couldn't take on any more than one or two soldiers by myself and you aren't in any condition to fight." That was another phrase he suspected she had picked up by listening in on Beatrix's conversations. "I need to deliver you alive! That's what I can do best right now."
He sighed, truly annoyed that he was the cause of their long journey. But it was also a sigh of content as well. She made a good point – a point that put him a little more at ease.
"My only concern," he started to admit, "is that we will not get there fast enough and the others will leave to look for us."
"If they go looking," she pointed out, gesturing at the ground in front of her with a flippant index finger, "and don't find us, they'll just go back to the tree."
He opened his mouth, hellbent on arguing, but slowly shut it again. He would let Eiko's words console him for now. If he never had to prove her wrong then he wouldn't, but he would wait until he had to.
"Something tells me they're okay anyways," she said, determination filling her soprano tone. "They can all take care of each other!"
This had been a commonly occurring theme in their conversations all night. Eiko was very sure that everything would turn out alright, and Steiner was starting to believe her. However, there was certainly something that was stopping him from fully committing to that belief, but obviously he could not pick out exactly what it was.
And so their journey continued.
Usually, Eiko chittered away, humming or talking about subjects so fast that Steiner could hardly keep up. But tonight she was quiet, and it made him wonder if she was tired. She led them down their starlit path with an unpausing energy, but he saw the way, after a while, her shoulders drooped forward in exhaustion.
The moon was high in the sky when they finally rounded the last corner to the clearing before the canopy of the Iifa tree. It hadn't been light enough to see it's large trunk in the distance, but he would recognize the ominous thicket of roots and vines, even in the dark. Eiko's gloves traced the canyon wall; they stayed close to the left in case soldiers were to appear instead of their friends.
What they saw when they stopped was the small group, three of them huddled together on the ground, Amarant sleeping a little ways away and Dagger sitting in the dirt with her eyes on the sky.
Steiner scuffed his feet in the dirt to alert her to their presence. She jumped, and her eyes darted to the direction of the noise faster than he would have thought. She was paying more attention sitting there on the ground than he gave her credit for.
A deep sigh left her as she pushed up with her left arm and shot off the dirt towards them. Eiko's eyes brightened, a strange, glowing periwinkle in the moonlight. Dagger held out her arms and captured both of them in a tight hug.
"I'm so glad you're okay," she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut. Steiner felt his heart constrict. He had been more worried about the girl than he recognized.
"Sorry for the hold up," he muttered to her, but she shook her head insistently.
"You showed up. That's all we could ask."
"Who else?"
She pointed behind her to Amarant on the ground, "Amarant and Blank arrived after we'd been here for a little bit. Zidane and I found Vivi under the vines, just off the cliff." He gave her an odd look, but chose not to pursue it as she was here, alive and well, in front of him.
"Beatrix? Freya? Quina?"
She bit her lip and shook her head. "Quina… When the alarm sounded, the three of us were trapped in the market, because soldiers were racing in and out from every entrance. He gave us the distraction we needed to escape the shop, but after that I am unsure what happened to him."
He shook his head, "I did not see him in our dash to escape."
"Do you think he's still in the city?" Eiko asked, worry in her voice.
Dagger smiled, "Quina is strong, and despite what we may think, he can be quite clever when he wants to be. I think he will be okay, no matter where he is."
Steiner nodded, hoping to further reassure the young girl that her cooking friend would be okay, "Quina has always left us and come back. We have no reason to worry about him."
"Beatrix and Freya?" Eiko challenged, her tone heavy.
Dagger looked at him, biting her lip with her eyebrows knit together. It was clear that this was one of the times that, despite being the technical leader of the resistance, she hadn't any idea what was the right decision for all of her comrades.
"If they do not appear by first light, we shall scale back towards the city to find them. Eiko, is there another route we could take?"
She nodded and pointed to the canyon cliff, "It's a lot harder to trek, but there's a high road that's mostly grown over now, but I still know the way," her ears turned pink, "Mog and I used to use it when we were sneaking supplies out of Conde Petie."
"That's perfect," he nodded in approval, despite what she just admitted. "We cannot risk running into soldiers on the main road, but they could need help. For now, we must sit tight and wait."
"It's still my watch for another hour or so. Why don't you two try to get some sleep?"
Eiko nodded, not needing to be convinced that she should try to sleep. They watched as she trotted over to Amarant and nearly toppled on top of him. He gave a grunt and one of his eyes peeked open. At first, his eyebrows furrowed in annoyance, but upon seeing the purple-haired girl curled up at his side, his face relaxed and he closed his eyes again, curling his arm protectively around her.
Dagger shot Steiner a grin and ushered him to the ground.
He stared around at the sleeping figures. Vivi's head was closest to Zidane's, the tip of his hat inches away from tickling the tip of the genome's nose. The blonde had his back against Blank's, who was facing towards the drop off into the roots of the giant tree; Steiner recognized this as a common practice to protect one another's back, even while resting.
He decided to bridge the cap between Amarant and the rest of the crew by positioning himself next to Eiko, but on his back. It felt good to stretch out his body a little. He laid there for only a moment, however, before he got back up and began shucking pieces of his armor. His helmet, shoulder pads and bracers came off and were tucked into a gentle pile behind Dagger's back. Then he pulled his breastplate over his head and stood frozen for a moment, needing to appreciate the breeze the rustled his damp shirt. He placed the remaining piece of armor to her side and gave her a soft smile before laying back down, splayed out like a starfish. He wouldn't normally sleep in such a vulnerable position, but for once he felt like the others would have his back and make sure he didn't get hurt.
Just as he was drifting off into sleep, he felt pressure on his hand. His eyes fluttered open sleepily to see that Eiko had reached out her tiny arm and clasped his hand in her own. He closed his fingers around hers and realized just how small of a touch she still had. He was reminded once again that she was only a child being tried as an adult every day of her life. Having that small reminder of how brave she was at such a ripe age nudged him off of the edge and into a very restful sleep.
Zidane's eyes opened when the first light of day touched the tips of the sky. It started as a heavy purple, and he knew that if he succumbed to the soreness of the day before, the light would win the race they were about to start.
He sat up slowly, taking the time he never used to, to stretch out his limbs. His neck cracked and his shoulders protested as he wound them in large circles. Steiner and Amarant were already awake.
The blonde could hear their mumbled voices as he leaned forward, grazing the tips of his fingers against the toes of his dusty boots. His thumb pressed his right foot to the side, stretching his still-recovering leg uncomfortably. With a bout of determination, he rolled back on his tailbone before rolling back forward, using the momentum to help him spring to his feet.
Steiner turned towards him at the sound and nodded. "Nice to see you on your feet," his voice sounded stressed and strained and Zidane figured it was the reality crumpling upon him that Beatrix and Freya were still missing and they had to leave the rendezvous point to go find them. Dagger had filled him in when she woke him for his watch, her eyes shining in the darkness.
"When did you get in?" he asked conversationally, his head lolled back to see Eiko curled up next to the black mage who was slowly blinking himself awake.
"A few hours ago," he nodded slowly, taking in the genome's posture. "Will you be able to keep up today?"
Zidane stiffened, though he tried not to. The comment certainly didn't bristle him like it would have Blank or Beatrix, but clearly Steiner was noticing more of his mishaps than his advancements.
"I got my fair share of sleep," he retorted, turning towards the rest of the group, "we should probably wake them…"
Steiner sighed, his shoulders drooping. "I shouldn't be taking this situation out on you. I apologize."
Zidane turned back around, his eyebrows so raised they hid under his long, dirty bangs. "What?" he asked dumbly, though he had heard Steiner perfectly.
He ran a hand through his hair. Even Steiner, who was usually so well-groomed one might suspect he lived in a regular home, was growing his hair longer. Instead of its usual short cut, the very tips fell before his eyes, many months since there was enough stability in the resistance to worry about a thing as silly as a haircut.
He looked exhausted.
"You did not urge us to go to Conde Petie," he bit his lip, "you did not trip the alarms, you did not summon a tidal wave that swept us out of the city. You have done nothing but survive with your injuries and doubt from those who should be supporting you. You have come out uninjured and without complaints. I should not be reprimanding you for doing as you are told."
"No one could have foreseen how this was going to go," Zidane tried to shrug it off, though this admission was a huge step forward from their explosive argument when Zidane first found out about Blank's petrification.
"Regardless," Steiner said, though didn't finish. He turned towards the ones still in a tight slumber and began towards them.
Zidane gave him a lopsided half-smile, a bitter taste overpowering his mouth despite the praise he just received. This was not the circumstance he wanted it in.
The genome turned his head lazily, giving up on analyzing Steiner when they had so much day ahead of them. He caught wind of Amarant, who stood strangely erect, his head held high. Zidane assumed he was listening for something but approached anyway.
"Hear anything out of the ordinary?"
"If I did, you certainly wouldn't be helping."
The blonde nearly rolled his eyes. However, instead of arguing, he stood next to the redhead, focusing.
He was lucky Amarant had barked at him. Lucky that he hadn't been talking when the distant yell rang out, someone shouting over something on the side of the path.
Their heads whipped towards each other.
"They found the path to the Iifa Tree," Amarant commented, stumbling to turn around. "Steiner," he said, careful not to raise his voice.
The man turned, having just finished his conversation with Blank and Dagger who still sat on the ground. Eiko's eyes were open, but she hadn't moved.
"We need to leave now. Men are coming."
"And we are definitely not looking for any men," Zidane agreed.
Eiko leapt up, seeming ready for acting all this time. She yanked her backpack up and onto her shoulders, shaking her head to rid herself of the grogginess she must have been feeling. "Let's go now. We can rest again when we're higher up."
The others scampered, grabbing all of their things. Vivi was the only other one to have a pack, and he slung it onto his shoulders before picking up his and Dagger's staff. They clanked together with a sharp thud, and everyone winced.
His eyes went wide in apology, though he never spoke and Eiko fluttered to the side of the high cliff, flouncing around in close inspection.
"What are you looking for?" Dagger asked in a harsh whisper. Steiner threw on his helmet, slicking the hair out of the way first, and clutched the hilt of his sword, eyes never leaving the path. The voices were clear now, even in their haste.
"We need a sturdy enough vine to pull ourselves up. The Iifa Tree's roots extend upward here," she pointed to the edge of the ridge they were on and Dagger saw the way the thicket of vines and roots entangled themselves upward onto the next ledge above them. "But I can't reach anything."
Amarant pushed past them and stretched out, the toe of his shoe hanging over the edge. Dagger bit back the urge to warn him. He wobbled, grunting as his hair fell in front of his face and the dirt started to give way underneath his boots. Eiko and Dagger grabbed at his vest and belts, yanking him backwards.
"Fuck!" he growled.
Eiko began patting down the wall again, searching for something that was perhaps hidden.
Dagger stared at the vines, so close to them but not within reach. She glanced back at the group, looking helpless because there wasn't enough room for everyone to search. Blank looked like he was ready to dive into the thicket himself.
With a wave of bravery, she took in a sharp breath and raced for the edge, leaping at the last second. For a moment everything slowed and she felt herself fly through the air, her legs treading beneath her.
"Dagger!" Steiner cried out. Everyone lurched forward.
And just like that, her glove caught on a vine and she tightened her grip with all her might. Her weight dragged her down some, but she caught it. Her head whipped back around, hair hitting her in the face. Her eyes were wide and her cheeks were flushed, pieces of hair clinging to her lips where she had licked them in nervousness. She dangled awkwardly, pressed up against the cliff.
"Come on, there's no time to waste!" Her moment of dishevelment was over and her poise returned as the girl began climbing restlessly to the top of the cliff.
"You heard the girl," Zidane said and he and Blank leapt towards the vines, their tag-teamed jump a little more daring. Clamoring up the side, they kicked a shower of sand and rocks towards the others, but made it up in no time.
"Do you need help to –" Amarant started, trying to be nice to Eiko. But before he could say anything, she leapt.
Her fingers reached out and she grasped the vine, studying herself with the mentality that her tiny weight wouldn't break the plant. She shot Amarant and the others still on the ledge a grin before scampering up the vine.
Amarant grumbled a little before leaping himself. It was a careless leap, as he hardly had to jump. The vine had almost been in his reach anyways and it looked more like an awkwardly long step than an actual dive.
"Come, Master Vivi," Steiner ushered, finally giving the vines his full attention. The soldiers were getting loud now, their banter distinguishable.
"O-okay, if you're sure I'll make it."
"You will do just fine!"
Vivi took a breath and jumped, clumsily going to far, the vine smacking him in the face. He gripped at it a few times before getting a steady hold. He would be lying if he said he didn't struggle up the vine, his arms shaking in fear because he was taking such a long time and Steiner was still behind him.
Their makeshift rope suddenly swayed dizzyingly, and he might have fallen had Steiner's encouraging voice not reached him.
"You cannot fall. You'll make it, because I'm behind you. Be brave, Master Vivi!"
He sucked in a breath and pulled himself up with all of his might, his boots slipping on the canyon wall. But his little body continued to endure. At the last moment as he was scrambling up the edge, Steiner's hand thrust itself into the sole of his boot, and he toppled over.
Zidane and Blank yanked him hastily, pulling him safely out from where Steiner followed suit, toppling over in his heavy armor.
The time for celebration was still delayed. They all laid perfectly still, chests rising and falling too quickly, adrenaline pumping into their blood. Vivi was face up in the grass, wide eyed and afraid.
"Oi, I thought I 'eard something ova this way," a man called out, smacking some roadside snack as he spoke. "Maybe we'll find a clue!"
"It don't look like anyone's been here for a li'l while," another pointed to the scuffs in the dirt, his armor creaking with the gesture. Steiner closed his eyes painstakingly, wishing he would have been better at erasing their tracks from the edge of the cliff. "These tracks are stale!"
"Thank Gaia, he's such an idiot," Blank mumbled, barely audible to the rest of them. The man was clearly inept at tracking, but the others seemed to be taking his word for it. This gave the small clump of resistance members hope that Freya, Quina and Beatrix were able to slip away and not be followed.
"Well there ain't anywhere else to go ova here," the first man said, still smacking something thick in his mouth. "Let's 'ead back tha' way and see what we can, ya?"
"Yee, okay man," the other responded, kicking his boots at the dirt. "Wouldn't-it be cool if we caught 'em? We'd be heroes!"
"There's still hope!"
Slowly, their voices fell away as quickly as they had come, giving the team the shot of motivation they needed to make it onto the high path. Eiko was the first to stand, her little head of purple hair poking up from the long grass she had leaned into.
"As long as we stay quiet and don't walk too close to the edge, we should be safe up here. Nobody will be able to see us."
"First good news in a while," Blank grumbled, helping Vivi off the ground.
"Great job, guys!" Zidane said to Vivi and Steiner, who had pulled a disappearing act at the very last moment they could. "Let's just find the others and get the hell out of here. I think we've done enough team building now to prove a point."
"Right as always," Eiko said with a fond smile. She turned her head up the path, seeing the long grass stretched out in front of them. "Don't let the grass trick you. It gets pretty rocky."
"Let's get a move on then."
They tried hard not to talk on the trek. Eiko was right when she said that it got tough. There were large and small rocks scattered all about, most unstable, and many times their thin path on the canyon wall was the only thing left; where the road should have been to their left had fallen away, leaving deep ravines below.
It also seemed to take them a slightly different direction. Sometimes when they peered over the edge, they didn't recognize the path. But this didn't seem to bother Eiko, and the only thing they could do is put their trust in her that she would lead them to whoever would make it out of Conde Petie alive.
The day was hot. Back was the vicious dry heat, burning their skin and prickling uncomfortably between their clothes and skin. Steiner could feel the sweat dripping down his neck off of his hair, plastered against his dangerously hot head and stuck under his helmet.
He knew he was making the most noise out of everyone. While the others were lighter on their feet with more heat-friendly armor (and less of it), he clanked when he walked and every time his armor creaked he flinched. Perhaps it was time to start listening to Beatrix and scale it back, at least a little bit. His heart was beating rapidly and his breath was coming in shallow, the day's weather was not being kind to him.
Other than Steiner's struggle with the heat, the rest of the trip was moving by surprisingly uninvolving. It was easy to lose yourself to the concentration the hike took. Zidane's brow was creased and his eyes were focused downward, squinting through the grass for most of the trip.
His limbs were on fire. He was doing a pretty impressive job being able to hide it, but the truth was that he was hurting. No amount of stretching could get him through this heat and no rest.
"Stop!" Blank whispered harshly, halting his jump from one stone to another and causing Dagger to run straight into his back.
"Oof!" she knocked into him and tripped backwards. Amarant caught her before she completely lost her footing.
"What is it, Blank?"
"Do you hear that?" he asked.
"Hear –" Zidane clicked his mouth shut, teeth vibrating against each other. All of them stood quietly for a moment, wondering if the noise would come back.
A high-pitched whistle.
Blank dropped into a low crouch and dared moving towards the edge of the cliff, eyes scanning the perimeter.
Along with the whistle, suddenly a whole raid of noise burst around the corner of the path. There was a group of ten men, most of them in official armor, three of them in gold trimmed armor.
"Fuck," Blank mumbled, still trying to locate the whistle. He was assuming what it was, the sound so familiar.
"There!" Zidane whispered, having joined his friend on the edge. He moved to point down behind a boulder and saw Freya hiding there, looking stressed. She was pressed up against a limp looking Beatrix who's head lulled over the Bermecian's shoulder. She was using the boulder to keep the brunette propped up.
The whistle was coming from Freya herself. It was her own established emergency call – a last, annoying pitch to find help when she wasn't sure where her comrades were. Blank knew it had come in handy for them many times since she had established the idea.
"What the hell is that noise!?" One of them men shucked his helmet and picked at his ear with a gloved hand.
Freya's cheeks were turning red, feeling like if she stopped whistling now, they would notice and suspect something. Her eyes were scanning the wall desperately, having never really looked so bewildered in all the time Zidane had known her.
But with her scanning, she spotted the duo up on the ridge, hunched down and staring at her.
She choked on her whistle, but quickly gulped a breath back in to keep it going. The guards' lack of response said they probably didn't notice the break.
Zidane nodded at the women before receding away from her view. "She and Beatrix are down there with about ten soldiers coming towards them."
"We could take them," Amarant suggested.
"But then we run the risk of someone finding them and in turn, tracking us back to Madain Sari. We cannot risk another move, and there are hardly anymore options," Dagger countered.
"What about a distraction?" Eiko asked, "One where we aren't seen at all. Could that work?"
Steiner pursed his lips, a desperate feeling clinging to his heart. "It's the only option we have," he tried to glance over the edge to see Beatrix, but was too far away. "It's the only thing we can do."
Blank sucked in a breath, sounding just as stressed as Steiner felt. "Well let's get to it then," he nodded, yanking a fist sized rock out of the ground and staring down at it intensely.
"Shouldn't we talk about this?" Vivi squeaked.
"It's now or never, Vivi," Blank said, and before he got a reply, he slung the rock as far as he could, hitting a boulder to the right of the soldiers. They all jumped, releasing their swords from their sheaths as the echo from the rocks clapping together sharply surrounded them. The ringing of metal against metal was no better.
"Let's get our friends back!" Zidane encouraged, grinning before taking a stone himself.
"Why doesn't anyone make the plan before they start it?" Vivi groaned, as the others hesitantly followed suit, surely thinking the same thing the black mage had said.
Steiner replied with the same strain in his voice.
"Why indeed."
A/N: So last chapter I sat and bragged about how I had managed to get the chapter out in a timely manner, and have fallen so far off the map now I don't even know where to begin apologizing. I think I thought it hadn't been that long, but time sure has flown by this year!
I'm currently working 2 jobs and 1 internship: 1 job 4 days a week during the day, job 2 on the weekends and some weeknights and the internship every Friday. Busy much? I would love to share my online portfolio with you guys sometime once I get it finished. I'm going to be starting my last full-time semester as a graphic design major in the fall, and I feel like it's fair for you guys to see what I'm up to when I'm rejecting my story. What do you think?
Anyways, the chapter. Sorry if it was kind of boring, but it was just the amount of tedious that we needed to get out of the way. I am ready to get on with the plot, don't you think?! Thanks for hanging in there with me! I owe you guys so much! Let me know what you think since I was so able to cram so much of this out in the last two days, I think maybe I'll keep this mentality and just continue writing so I can get you guys an update on time for once? Maybe?
I really want to get this out to you guys, so I am not going to bother editing at this time. I hope it doesn't bother you guys too much!
Best wishes
-zesty-
