Final Fantasy XII

Disclaimer: I don't claim to own Final Fantasy 12 or any other game by Squaresoft.

A Man From Nabudis

By: Mage-Alia

Chapter 9: To Bhujerba

Summary: Prince Rasler was said to have died, the night Nalbina Fortress fell under the Arcadian attack, but it was all part of a carefully prepared design. Now months after his supposed death he meets a young street rat named Vaan and it's from there that their adventure begins.

AU, Main Pairing Vaan/Rasler, Mild Ashe Bashing, implied past Basch/Rasler.

The sight that met them upon entry to the Sandsea was one they hadn't been expecting in the least.

The balcony of the bar, usually occupied by a group of sotted Imperials, was playing host to an argument, and all of the players present, were familiar faces.

"-I know you had something to do with this! You were the last one seen speaking to her and so help me you will fix this!"

Migelo's blue hide was stained purple in rage as he all but shouted at the lounging forms of Balthier and Fran.

"As far as I'm concerned it was all a great big Misunderstanding." Balthier waved an airy hand, pointedly turning in his seat to look at Fran as he did. A clear dismissal that Migelo was ignoring.

"MISUNDERSTANDING!? What I am UNDERSTANDING is they took PENELO because of YOU!"

Wait, what?

Without even thinking, Vaan had let go of Rale's hand and charged up the stairs, past an upset looking barmaid and a stern looking Tomaj, only to skid to a stop beside Balthier's table, face stormy.

"What was that about Penelo?" Gods only knew Penelo annoyed him. But once upon a time she'd lived with them on the streets trying to eeck out a living. She'd been his responsibility and even though she'd found her way into Migelo's trust and care, she was still one of his.

Migelo lit up the moment he saw him and without further delay, his arguments were repeated.

"Oh, Vaan! They've taken Penelo! And the was a note- A note for this Balthier! 'Come to the Bhujerba Mines', it said." He wrung his hands and now that he was closer Vaan could see all the signs of stress in the Banga's expression.

Down on the floor below, safely anonymous amid the crowd, Rale recognised the look on Vaan's face.

"Damn." He swore, making for the stairs.

"It's Ba'Gamnan." Fran commented in an infuriatingly airy tone that was a shared trait amongst the Veira. "He was in Nalbina." Migelo bristled and angrily started in on the pair of pirates.

"If anything were to happen to that sweet Child- Why, I've her Parents' memory to consider! You're going to go to her Aid, and that's that! It's what you sky pirates do isn't it?!" Balthier sneered ever so slightly.

"I don't respond well to orders. You do know that the imperial fleet is Massing at Bhujerba? Personally I would think it prudent to avoid such a place, wouldn't you?"

"Unfortunately for you Sky Pirates that's precisely why we'll end up there." Rale interceded, slipping past before anyone could stop him, making the occupants of the balcony freeze, all for different reasons.

Vaan was very aware of how Rale had never knowingly spoken to any of his friends since the day he'd stumbled upon his hideout. He'd told him long ago that of all the people to recognize him, Migelo, as the owner of the storehouse that accessed the bolt hole, had been close to the top of the list. Migelo though couldn't see past the veils on his face, but the appearance of someone he'd never met put him on edge while Balthier and Fran were more than a little wary.

Balthier's eyes narrowed.

"This wouldn't happen to have anything to do with a certain songbird we made acquaintance with in the sewers would it?" Vaan started, remembering the conversation between the resistance members and Basch, and couldn't quite hold in his sneer at the thought. Rale did the same behind his mask.

"Hardly, but as much as I wish to say otherwise, that songbird is important."

"Still an old flame then?" The pirate mocked, Rale just crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes.

"She'd probably wish so. I just want to get on with life." He shifted subtly toward Vaan, the move being noticed by many of those observing the ongoing pissing match, although not entirely understood. Migelo however was looking between them both with narrowed eyes.

"You keep interesting friends, Vaan." The Banga said, reminding everyone that they had an audience. "Will you go find Penelo?" Vaan closed his eyes briefly, looking for all the world like he was counting to ten in the back of his head before he opened them and set Balthier with a Look.

"We'll set out in the morning." Rale took his cue and retreated to the top of the stairs as Vaan gave the pirate a brief glare. Balthier rolled his eyes.

"Fine, fine." He surrendered. "Meet us at the Aerodrome and we'll set out from there." Vaan nodded once and then before the upset Migelo could get a word in edgewise he retreated back to the stairs just as the familiar form of Basch came striding past them, eyes intent on Balthier. Rale and Vaan booked it, it wasn't hard to guess why he was there.

The markets in the west were busy as the morning finally dawned. Mornings were the coolest part of a desert day and thus, the time where everyone carried out their business before it got too hot to work. It was to the sounds of the bustle that they made their way to the aerodrome by the west gate. The structure was massive taking up a large chunk of the upper city with docks that could fit large merchant ships and small imperial cruisers. The larger imperial Dreadnaughts hadn't been seen once over Rabanastre during the war, being far too large to make dock, but their presence over the fortress of Nalbina had been deterrent enough. Balthier, Fran, and the unsurprising addition of Basch, all waited in the arrivals hall by the door that lead out to the privately maintained ships and their hangars.

"Well you took your time didn't you." Balthier sniffed in a put off manner. Rale responded with a shrug as they entered a hangar, revealing a small Airship that sent Vaan off into a fanboy daydream. A quick glance made sure the younger blonde was occupied before he responded. "I couldn't decide what to pack. A gag for you and your attitude or Vaan when he saw an Airship." Behind him and to the left where Basch had fallen into a flanking position the ex captain gave and incredulous snort. Fran was giving both the affronted Pirate and former Prince amused looks as Rale continued. "Then of course I had to decide the type..."

Thankfully Vaan disrupted them before he could go into mortifying detail, babbling about the airship and its specifics. Balthier was hard pressed to keep up with the questions. The teen had been dreaming of becoming a sky pirate since he was young and he'd eagerly horded knowledge on the airships and their maintenance from the mechanics and pilots that passed through the Sandsea. Rale just watched them, bewildered. His education had taught him about the workings of airships, but not in so much detail. He was a Warrior, not an engineer.

They passed the moogles that had been running the airship's maintenance, boarding the Strahl, and as Vaan bounced in his seat and harness they took off, the rooftop of the hangar opening to allow them out and into the sky.

He varied between silent awe and babbling excitement for the entirety of the five hour flight and by the time the floating Magicite isles came into view, Balthier had been ready to strangle him and in spite of the many Imperial's charging around in the mist laden isle's they all were glad to be off the boat.

Bhujerba was a state to itself ruled by the Marquis Ondore and made up of a number of islands powered by magicite. It had been said that one day the magicite in the earth had become too much to hold so it had just lifted itself up and floated away into the sky where the magic had all the space it needed. With the discovery and development of Airships the Islands had become accessible and they'd spent the last few hundred years carefully mining out the stone that made the city float above Ivalice. Sky stones mined on Bhujerba were amongst some of the most powerful in the known world.

Passing out amid the crowds of people they were cheerfully notified by a nearby aerodrome attendant that all flights had been suspended due to the movements of the Imperial Fleet.

"Joy." Balthier drawled, his tone sarcastic. "So we'll be trapped here as well, I like this trip less and less."

Basch gave him a dry look and surveyed the terraces and bridges filled with families and wayfarers. "So little has changed since I was last here." He gestured them along. "And even if we are to be stuck, we should make haste. The mines will likely be under guard with the Imperial presence."

"You go to the mines?"

A young voice behind them took the group by surprise and Rale and Fran were the only two not to jump.

"Ehhh." Vaan looked down at the kid, automatically taking in the deceptively fine clothing and clean skin. The kid was dressed almost like a prince in comparison to the children he usually dealt with. He'd tried to dress down, Vaan would give him that, but he hadn't been a pickpocket in Rabanastre for so long without learning how to spot the rich ones. However even as the clothes screamed wealth the boy's bearing said something else.

At one hip he wore a thin blade and the air around him spoke of hardships and tension. Vaan had seen the look in runaways often enough.

"Yeah, we're headed there now." The platinum blonde street rat finally responded to the question. "A friend of ours is... waiting for us." The kid raised an eyebrow.

"Waiting for you in the mines?" He asked, obviously noticing that it wasn't the whole truth. Vaan shrugged.

"It's not like it's safe out here anyway, what with all the imperials." He answered. The boy's expression flickered with something unreadable.

"Well I am Lamont, and I find myself in need of an escort to the Mines. I have business there, and since you are already headed in that direction, Mr...?" Vaan frowned back at the address and half turned to look at his companions. Fran and Balthier had hung back, their stances non-committal as they tried to be as unobtrusive as possible. Basch looked at the confrontation with the air of the wary while Rale just shrugged. It was obvious the boy had an alterior motive and Vaan was smart enough to read people.

Vaan nodded.

"Vaan. Just Vaan, and extra sword might not hurt." He said finally. "I've heard the mines are dangerous so we may as well group together." Lamont smiled back at him, the tension in his face almost melting away as he left the relative safety of the railing and sidled up to Vaan.

Almost everyone kept their eyes on him as they traversed the path to the mines, taking extra care to notice when the boy shied away from the imperial patrols. That more than anything seemed to reassure the others as they entered the dark tunnels where Magicite was found. Monsters almost as old as the mines themselves leaked out of the cracks in the walls, old shambling workers and anything else that could be reanimated by the sheer amount of energy given off by the rocks.

After witnessing a conversation between a visiting Judge and the Marquis of Bhujerba and having seen no sign of Penelo they made their way deeper in until they were standing in a cul de sac. The path foward blocked they could only assume that the girl they were after wasn't there even as Lamont split away to study the stone.

"I don't like this, not one bit." Balthier breathed to Fran under his breath, knowing well that the Viera would have no trouble hearing him. The woman nodded peering down the path from which they'd come.

"This place smells of a trap."

Vaan only half listened to them as he drifted closer to Lamont, stopping short when the odd stone in the boy's hands made the treasure hidden on his person sting him.

"So the materials came from this mine after all..." Lamont murmured under his breath.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" He asked, making the boy jump. The boy took a moment to realise who he was before he could respond.

"This is what I came here to see." He waved at the visible vein of Magicite imbedded in the wall as his other hand pulled an object out of his shirt. Vaan felt an angry sting of magic in the air as the boy compared it to the magical stone in the walls.

"What is that?" The blonde couldn't help but hiss.

"It's nethicite, Manufactured Nethicite."

"Nethicite...?" Vaan didn't understand the difference, only that there was one. The boy saw his look and endevoured to explain.

"Unlike regular Magicite, Nethicite absorbs magickal energy. This is the fruit of research into the manufacture of Nethicite. All at the hands of the Draklor Laboratory." The dark haired kid said the words like he'd been dying to tell someone... anyone about what he knew. Vaan thought it over as Lamont stood, but their crouched conversation hadn't gone completely unnoticed by the others, Rale stood not too far off, keeping a sharp eye on the exit while Fran inspected the blocked off door... but Balthier...

"Errand all attended too?" There was an edge to his voice and Vaan found himself standing again, warily watching the sky pirate and the boy. Instinct told him as much as the look on Lamont's face that the boy was getting ready to bolt.

"Yes, thank you for allowing me to joi-" He'd tried to address Vaan, to turn the conversation away from the older man, but Balthier wasn't having anything of it.

"Save it!" The pirate cut him off. "We've got enough trouble already without worrying about runaways. So who told you fairy tale's about this "Nethicite"? And where did you get that sample anyway? What do you know about the Draklor Laboritories? Tell me! Who are you?" The questions came without pause and Lamont's eyes grew wider with every word until they looked like they might pop out of his head.

"Balthier..." Vaan started warningly, but before he could interject on Lamont's behalf another problem rolled into the room proceeded by a shout from Basch.

"Hey!"

"You kept us waiting Balthier!"

They all turned as one to see a group of Bangaa slinking toward them and Fran all but sneered.

"Ba'Gamnan." She named the leader as her long fingers reached for her bow.

"You slipped away from us in Nalbina." Ba'Gamnan snorted "We missed you!" He eyed the group and almost immediately zeroed in on the already spooked Lamont.

"Well, well, first that Judge out there and now a boy. This whole affair is starting to smell like money don't you think?" He asked a Bangaa beside him and she leered at them.

And that was all it took for Vaan to finally open his mouth.

"A Bangaa with a taste for small children now?" The words spilled out with barely any thought and everyone turned to look at him, mortified. "I didn't realise it was something done by the entire species and here I thought the ones in Rabanastre were just special! Where's the girl you kidnapped? Where's Penelo, long-snout?"

The leader bristled angrily at the old slur and the female was the one to speak.

"We turned the bait loose, but maybe we should have kept it to teach you a lesson, we'll carve our bounty out of your hides!" They went for weapons and their group might have as well if it wasn't for Lamont and what he did next.

He threw the Nethecite as hard as he could at the lead Bangaa's head.

There was a flash and a yell as a spell that had been half cast suddenly flashed out of existance but in the split second it took to happen Lamont was already on the move, he darted over to where the Nethicite had fallen and snatched it up, using the opening to rush past and back out into the mines proper. Balthier didn't seem to need any prompting to follow and Vaan didn't either as he shoved a bounty hunter out of the way, the others following in his wake as they tore off after the kid.

Only problem was, the kid was fast. They quickly lost him in the maze of tunnels and had no choice but to keep running as the Bounty Hunters after Balthier's head came charging up behind. Eventually the Bangaa peeled off from the pursuit and fell back leaving them with a clear shot to the entrance of the mines.

Panting for breath they finally emerged out into the plaza but the sight that met them stopped them dead. It was instinct that made Vaan and Rale push the others into hiding before anyone could see them.

A judge Magister loomed over the forms of Penelo and Lamont as they stood beside the workers fountain.

"... But I was not alone." Lamont was saying, his voice in a very different tone to the one he'd been speaking in before. "I was with this young lady. Come along Penelo."

"So you say, Lord Larsa."

And with that he swept out of the plaza, the Judge Magister only a step behind.

A/N: I think I've gone and made Vaan a little bit of a badass... but I kinda like the thought of him being a little bit of a badass. Gotta admit, from a story perspective it took serious guts to do what he did and get so deeply involved even if he was virtually ignored and dismissed by a great percentage of the fanbase.

I had some serious trouble getting into the swing of this chapter, I guess it's becoming a bit of a struggle to write now that I've pretty much moved on in interests... kinda. Guild wars 2 completely usurped wow for my favorite all time game (They made fun of Tybalt. One does not make fun of my Tybalt. *grumbleface*).

Anyway... I'll try to work a bit to at least finish out what I have before I abandon it completely. :)

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Cya