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In this fic, I only own a copy of the game and Venier.

Now, BACK TO THE FIC!

Chapter 4: Nalbina Dungeon

I awoke to find myself in some sort of dungeon, although, when I looked up, I could see there was some kind of broadcast going on. The screen zoomed into someone of the Archadian Army

"We will have order!" The guard shouted "I give you your new Consul, His Imperial Highness Lord Vayne Solidor Commandant of the Archadian Empire's Western Ar-" The soldier cut himself off when the camera focused on this 'Vayne' character. He looked so familiar. "Your Excellency!" the imperial called out. Vayne walked out and stood in front of this guard, where everyone could see him.

"People of Rabanastre!" he called to the public "It is with hatred you look upon your consul? With hatred, you look upon the Empire?" This angered the crowd more, and shouts came out

"Spit on your empire!"

"Go back to Archadia!" Vayne looked around and sighed

"There was little point in asking." he said more to himself. He raised his voice again. "But know this: I harbour no idle hopes of frustrating that hatred. Nor shall I ask your fealty. That is the due of your fallen king, and rightly so. King Raminas loved his people." the noise in the plaza quietened down a bit. "Strove to bring you peace. His was a rule worthy of your devotion. Even now, he remains among you, protecting you. His ardor for the peace and weal of Dalmasca falters not. I would ask only that you do your king honor. Together, let us embrace the peace His Majesty would surely desire. Two years now divide us from war's bitter end. Yet still its shadow looms over all, stifling the infant peace. A pall only you may cast off! Achieve but this one thing... and your hatred of me, and of the Empire, will grieve me not! I will stand fast. I will endure your hatred, suffer your slings and arrows. I will defend Dalmasca! Here I will pay my debt! I swear it now!"

"What debt is he on about?" I asked myself.

"Though King Raminas and Lady Ashe be gone, they stand ever at the side of their people." Vayne continued "In honoring peace... yo do honor to their memory, and to Dalmasca. What I ask, I ask plain. My hopes now rest with you." He put his hand to his chest and bowed. Though, I only had one thought running through my mind.

Why have I heard the name Ashe before? It sounds so familiar. Maybe it's something todo with my childhood? I started contemplating before I heard a racket. About five Imperial guards came around the corner.

"C'mon then Your Majesty. You're coming with us." The one said, stepping forward and taking the chains off of the wall. "We have someone for you to visit."

"Majesty?" I asked, "What are you on about?" Istarted to struggle and one guard looked at me

"So you're amnesic are you? Well, let us trigger your memory." They took me out towards another dungeon, and I found a cage hanging. The man inside looked dreadful. "We'll let you two get to know each other. Have fun Venier, Basch." the guard said before leaving.

"Basch..?" I pondered, the man in the cage looked up at me. His blue eyes stared into my hazel ones. His blonde hair was falling down to about halfway down his bare back. His beard was grown out, and he had a scar going down above his left eye.

"Lord Venier! You're supposed to be dead!" I stared at the man in front of me for minutes. Then I felt something. Something triggered inside of me.

"The King intended all along to sell Dalmasca to the Empire. His majesty was a traitor." I watched in my mind as a man turned to move around Reks. Reks himself turned and a blade was protruding from his gut. That caused a spark as I recognized the man before me.

"You bastard! You killed Reks! You killed the king! You handed our country over to Vayne. Do you have no Honor!" I shouted, "The last I heard, Marquis Ondore announced you executed! What are you doing here?"

"I should ask the same of you." Basch replied "They said I killed you as well."

"Well looks like you did a lousy job of it." I shot back at him. He shrugged a little. "Why are you all looking up to me? Why are you and the guards calling me 'Majesty' and 'Lord'?" I asked.

"Don't you remember?" He gasped

"I'm the one asking questions here, Basch." I said. "You all apparently know who I am. So how come I don't know? Why haven't I been told? Tell me. Who am I?"

"I don't know why you don't know. How could I? I've been locked in here ever since the assassination of the King, and apparently, you. Why haven't you been told?" He pondered over the question. "Because maybe the ones you were with never knew."

"So you were locked up in here for killing the king... good. I don't care about who you murdered. That doesn't answer my last question. Who am I?" I asked. Basch opened his mouth to speak when the door opened.

"Time's up!" A guard shouted, grabbing my clothes and dragging me out of the room.

I was escorted somewhere entirely different, and I found myself in some kind of clothing room. I stood in the middle of the room, confused as guards puzzled around the room.

After about five minutes, I found myself wearing a fabric shirt, covered with a tunic as well as a kind of robe and leggings. I was able to keep my boots and gauntlets though.

"There. A look fit for a prince." The guards sneered. The others laughed and left. Puzzled, I looked around the room. I found a large pile of items, so I brushed them all off and found a fully armoured manikin. I felt the armour and it was light, didn't clank against itself and was pretty strong. I was about to put it on when I heard a noise. I walked around the corner to see a pair of Bangaa fall in front of someone, and the Bangaa were closely followed by a couple of Seeq that had clubs I soon recognized that someone as Vaan, and before I had chance to do anything, I saw Vaan try to stop the Seeq beating the Bangaa, when another Seeq dropped down and knocked my friend out. Then I notice the sort of Arena in the centre. The three Seeq took their time before dragging him into there. I stopped and stared at another man across the way, he was wearing a kind of vest over a shirt, and he had a slight smirk on his face, I also noticed that he had short brown spikey hair. They dragged Vaan in and the cages shut. Then this strange man stepped forward and peered down at them.

"Something stinks in here all right." he said, I raised an eyebrow at him. "I've changed my mind. This is no dungeon, it's a sty." the Seeq and Vaan all turned to see the speaker the one Seeq made a few incoherent noises, but the man seemed to understand them. He glanced at me before looking back down at them. He turned ad spat on the floor beside him "I siad you're the one that stinks, Hamshanks." he cracked his knuckles "Hear me now?" He simpply vaulted over the bar and made ready to fight. It was two against three, and neither of the two Humes had weapons. "You all right, Vaan?" he asked he grinned at the Seeq and indicated them to go at him. To my surprise they managed to go and defeat the two weaker Seeq, but the third, strongest one seemed to be giving them trouble. I could see this man and Vaan start to become weak. I quickly vaulted over the railing myself and kicked the Seeq in the face as I landed.

"Leave one for me." I said. Vaan looked at me and I had a strange look off the other. The Seeq looked at me and growled. I chuckled as I ran forward and floored it, dropping it on the floor before knocking it out. We heard sounds of movement above us, and the man, Vaan and I backed up against a wall, a few imperial soldiers walked in with a small group of Bangaa Headhunters. Our new companion groaned

"Great. They just don't give up, do they?" he said. I shook my head no as the Bangaa started getting pretty violent "Now is looking like a good time for us to leave." I stayed silent but looked to the side and saw a strange woman stood there, with some sort of rabbit ears. I recognized her as one of the Viera as soon as she spoke.

"Through the oubliette, there's a way out. Only-"

"Only you sense the Mist. Then we'll need weapons." The man cut across her, the three of us climbed under the gate, but we heard some voices above us

"What did you call me? Say that again!" the head soldier shouted to the lead headhunter

"What, you couldn't hear? I merely said that the lot of you were incompetant fools. If you've the sky pirate in your hands, where is he?" came the Bangaa's reply.

"You'd have done better, Ba'Gamnan? By your own words, it was the Imperial army who caught this sky pirate of yours. We've done your job for you! We don't require the assistance of filthy headhunters. The Empire will restore here." The soldier retorted. Ba'Gamnan stepped forwards

"Eh? What's that you say now? Maybe I'll whet my blade on you... before I kill Balthier." he said, advancing towards the guard.

"That's enough Ba'Gamnan." came a voice, we looked up and the viera spoke

"A Judge"

"Judge?" Vaan asked. The man -I now guessed to be Balthier- shrugged.

"Hmph. The self-proclaimed guardians of law and order in Archadia. They're the elite guard of House Solidor. Which effectively makes them the commanders of the Imperial army. If you ask me, they're more executioners than judges. Not a friendly lot, at any rate. What are they doing here?" he asked himself we were about to leave when we heard something interesting.

"Where's the Captain?" The judge asked.

"We have him in solitary, Your Honor. We're ready to begin our interrogation." they said before walking off.

"Time for the hare to follow the fox." came the sky pirate's voice along with the squabbling Bangaa above us.

"Huh?" asked Vaan.

"The Magicks binding the door to the oubliette are quite strong. Too strong even for my talents." the Viera explained

"That's why we'll get them to open it for us." Balthier replied to his friend

"How is going deeper into this place-" Vaan started before the pirate interrupted him

"What's wrong? You don't trust her? Viera's noses are sharp. If she says there's a way out, there's a way out."We left and proceeded to make our way to the armoury. We almost ran past it when the Viera stopped

"Look." she said. Balthier backtracked and looked inside the room.

"Ah! The prison repository of wrested relics and armaments." he said

"So out things are in here?" Vaan questioned.

"That's what I said." I walked straight up to the armour and quickly put it on with ease. All the time I felt like I was being watched.I grabbed a few weapons and items for the journey, when I saw Balthier staring at me.

"What are you looking at?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. You have a distinct look about you that is vaguely familiar." he replied. I shook my head and we left. We only just managed to get through the oubliette in time, as the doors were closing when we got there. We had a few close calls, but managed to follow the judge and his soldiers with almost perfect sneakiness. An Imperial Magus opened the door with magicks, and I recognized where we were.

The four of us moved up to see what was happening. The judge had taken off his helmet, but we couldn't see his face.

"You have grown very thin Basch." I heard a gasp from beside me as the Judge Magister spoke. "Less than a shadow. Less than a man. Sentenced to death and yet you live. Why?"

"To silence Ondore. How many times must I say it?" came the response of the chained man

"Is that all?"

"Why not ask Vayne himself? Is he not one of your masters?"

"We've caught a leader of the insurgence. She is being brought from Rabanstre. The woman Amalia. Who could that be?" the Judge asked. No reply "Such a faithful hound to cling so to a fallen kingdom."

"Better than throwing it away."

"Throwing it away? As you threw away our homeland?" The judge and his compnay left, the four of us walked forward and Balthier looked down.

"This the place?" he asked, ignoring Basch.

"The Mist is flowing through this room. It must be going somewhere.

"You! You're no Imperials. Please, you must get me out-" The captain started, but was interrupted by Balthier

"It's against my policy to speak with the dead. Especially when they happen to be kingslayers- oh, and not to mention the rumoured murders of the prince also." Balthier replied

"I did not kill them."

"Is that so?" Balthier looked at him "Glad to hear it."

"The prince is stood right next to you. Please, get me out. For the sake of Dalmasca." Everyone stopped and Vaan snapped, jumping up at Basch's cage

"Dalmasca!? What do you care about Dalmasca!? Everything that's happened is because of you! Everyone that's died, every single one! Even my brother-You killed my brother!" Vaan shouted.

"Quiet! The guards will hear!" Balthier warned

"I'm dropping it." The viera stated, kicking the lever. We all jumped onto the cage as it fell.

"Pirates without a sky." Balthier said with a sigh before the cage crashed into the floor.

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And that's all for this chapter! Join me soon when I'll have yet ANOTHER exciting chapter! V929 is out, see ya!