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The Crystal Rule	By : QueenDraggyofSwords Category: Final Fantasy Games > Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Views: 956 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy: chrystal Chronicles, any of its characters nor am I making any profit off of them.

Chapter List
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Chapter Thirteen

It was about the middle of the day. The crystalvision had the weekend's Kickerball game on and on the table a pizza had been left unattended for the past thirty minutes. Food and sports were not really top priority at the moment. For Keiss the first thought on his mind was keeping his partner pinned to the couch. And for Layle, it was deciding how much longer he could last without air.
For others, the idea of not breathing just to prolong a kiss must seem absurd. But those people had probably never kissed Keiss. And the Selkie was a great kisser.
From the way his lips felt to the way his tongue twisted and fought against his to remain in control. Trying to push back against Keiss only made him worker harder to keep him down. Sucking, biting, and holding onto his shoulders to keep him from flipping them. It was hard for the Clavat to tell if Keiss perceived this as making out or a power struggle. It was probably both. And with such brief moments of actually letting their lips part, he was hardly getting any air. It had to have been three minutes since the last time the red head let up.
Perhaps dulling the mind of through lack of air was part of what made him a good kisser. Maybe Selkies are supposed to be trained at this too? That's an absurd thought. But as the red head moved one hand from Layle's shoulder and dragged it down his shirt, pressing his body beneath the fabric, and using his fingertips to memorize the lines of Layle's lean muscles, his mind was full of absurd thoughts.
Like the taste. By now he had determined with was not the alcohol, it's certainly there. It plays a part in it. Like using Rainbow Grape Wine to cook with. It's an accent, onto a unique flare Layle was content to devour for most of the day. And by the time Keiss' roaming hand had found its way under his shirt, the taste was the only thing on his mind. The taste, his partners tongue, the saliva running down side of his chin.
And then air. He needed air. His brain was telling him he needed air!
Layle snapped his head back over the edge of the couch gasping for air. Keiss licked the side of his mouth and watched him.
"Dying?"
"Air…Air!"
"Can't you hold your breath?" The Selkie chuckled.
"I can hold my breath…" He rolled his head forward again, "But I need to breathe to live."
The Selkie chuckled and continued to pull at his partner's shirt and lean in for another kiss. Just as Layle felt their lips touch again, the faint sound of letters being pushed through the mail slot could be heard. And without fail, a switched was flipped in Keiss' brain. He yanked back from Layle and nearly fell off of him trying to get to his feet.
"Really?" Layle threw his hands up in the air. "Can't it wait!"
"I am expecting a letter from Spinosa today! It cannot wait!" The Selkie had picked up the mail and was walking past Layle flipping through them. The Crystal Bearer sighed and lay back down on the couch.
"Making out with a workaholic is a job all on its own."
"Hey-" Keiss continued to pace around the room, "We had a whole week. A little mission won't kill you."
"No but it seems like a week without a mission is killing you…"
"Whatever…Junk. Junk. Bill. Junk…" The red head started to sound off the mail. Tossing the junk into the waste basket and bills onto the table. "Junk. Junk. Ooo~. And A contract!"
"Wait a minute." Layle sat up, "The 'Ooo' wasn't the contract?" He watched as Keiss walked over to the table and set a blue envelop down and kept his back to him. "Then what was it?"
"Something I've never seen before…" The Selkie tore open the envelope and turned around to face Layle. He had one hand poised to take out its contents as he smirked at him, in the usual Selkie smile. "It's a letter addressed to you."
Layle stood up and reached out with his powers instantly. He grabbed the envelope and yanked it back, but Keiss held onto the letter and started to unfold it. "Keiss!" The Clavat rushed to the other side of the room.
"Dear Layle!" Keiss saw him out the corner of his eyes and started to run around the table to keep them apart. "You still won't tell me if you're coming to the Moonlit Starry Night Festiv-" He turned his body to the side as he felt the letter try to jerk form his hands.
"Keiss! Stop being a brat!" Layle jumped over the table at him reaching for his arm. The Selkie backed up and hit the fridge. He was still trying to read but lost his place and started form a new line.
"-hope you're not getting into much trouble. But since you give few details on your jobs I imagine they are dange-" Keiss slid down the fridge as Layle had gotten off the table and tried to slam into him. While the blond recovered from hitting the hard, cold door. His partner slid across the floor and resumed on another line. "-sending so much. Are you sure you have enough for you to live on? I'm sorry I don't ever write back mu-"
This time Keiss was cut off by Layle grabbing the back of his hair and yanking him backward. He snatched the letter from Keiss and glared at him as he pushed him forward and let him go. Keiss turned around still smiling. Even in the face of Layle possibly trying to beat the tar out of him he just smiled and took a few deep breaths before asking, "Who's Lyra?"
"…Go to hell." Layle walked around him and headed for the door.
"That's the name at the bottom right? Lyra? Do you have a girlfriend? Is that way you were so adamant about avoiding my advances!" The Clavat grabbed his coat and didn't say a word. Keiss watched as he slammed the door and left. He let out a sigh and walked around the room surveying the damage. He then stopped and picked up the envelope. No return address.
"I guess I can't write her and ask her who she is…"

It was a good couple of hours before Layle came back. Keiss didn't ask him where he went. He figured he either went out goblin bashing or down to Chime's to cool off. And he didn't pester him when he didn't talk after coming back either.
In fact Layle came back to the apartment, took some food out of the fridge only stopped to ask Keiss what time he had to be up for their next job before shutting himself in his room. In truth, he was still pretty upset about Keiss taking his letter. And he would have stayed out later, if it weren't for the fact he was hungry and had left his wallet at the apartment. He could have gone to Chime's, but he didn't feel like dealing with any Selkies at the moment. So he sat in his room eating a sandwich wondering how it was things were always so volatile with him and his partner.
"One minute we're fine… The next I can't stand him…" He took out his letter and reread it. He had at least been able to write a response and mail it off, with the instructions not to write back for a while. "It's probably all the secrets…" He took another bite and eyed the letter. Half thinking he should just go out there and tell him where he sends money to. It isn't a big deal. But at the same time, he refused to tell him, so long as Keiss kept his secrets too.
"Why should he get to hold all the cards?" He finished off his sandwich and sucked on his fingers. The meal was good, but suddenly felt a craving. And not for any food. Layle leaned back and put his hands behind his head, his mind reeling. Thoughts going back and forth between being upset, wanting to put it all behind him, and wanting have another go at attempting to top the Selkie. All that thinking made it hard to sleep.
In the end he found all he wanted was air.

The 'mission' Keiss and Layle had received was more a recommendation. Spinosa had suggested the boys continue to take side work for Oides in between when he needed them. Needless to say, Layle wasn't thrilled. However, as the Lieutenant's requests were sporadic and with indefinite amounts of time between them, they did indeed take up work for Oides for the next few weeks.
And those past few weeks had been something of a whirlwind. Keiss had his desired contract with Lieutenant Spinosa, however that often meant the boys were left working with Sir Regal. Not their favorite person in Alfitaria. So between 'Sir Rosebush', as Layle had taken to calling him, and Oide's insane idea to 'cure Crystal Bearers', the Clavat was hardly ever in a good mood. Not to mention that the past few missions for Oides had been troublesome and they had failed to complete them. Due to complications
Today was one of those missions for Oides. And like for every other mission they went monster hunting on, that complication had shown up . Like, well, Clockwork.
"LAYLE, CATCH HER!" Keiss raced behind his partner across the rolling hills of the old Cathuriges Way. Out here, about a hundred miles from the town of Marr, were a series of old underground tunnels and pits. In the ancient days they were a mine. Now they were just a death trap people feel into if you were so stupid enough to explore out here. However it was were miasma streams that Bombs inhabited originated from. It was way south of Alfitaria, out pass the Clavat farms and railways and any parts of civilization. The ground was too unstable to build on.
And again there were the Bombs. Today's task was to collet six Bombs. However the creatures explode upon death, so they had to be collected alive. Not an easy task. And it was made even more complicated by having a monster stealing, Crystal Bearering, interfering Lilty thrown into the mix.
Layle didn't get the chance to answer Keiss' screams as Clockwork had sped up a nearby bomb and kicked the poor creature his way. It was already on its last limb, and when it struck he ground in front of the Clavat it exploded, sending him a good six feet into the air before he landed with an undignified thud.
The lilac sporting girl stood over him, flower petals falling from her hair and smiled, "You must be some sort of…masochist, Clavat. You keep losing, yet you keep trying to catch me."
Layle growled at her and raised his hand. All at once a gravity field encircled the girl and he tossed her several feet into a rock face. The girl extended her hands and within Layle's powers cast her own to slow down her fall. She made sure to make sure the fields didn't touch, preventing the cancelation affect. Clockwork landed on her feet and smiled at Layle. The gravity user got up and cursed at her.
"You can't keep running for long!"
"Shows what you know." She cast haste on herself and took off. Keiss came to stand next to Layle and pointed.
"Come on, Crystal Bearer! Get her!"
"What do you think I'm trying to do!" Layle raised his hands and created a stream that encased the Litly. She stopped running and started to struggle. "Got ya!"
"Finally!" Keiss raced forward to take hold of her, and the girl pointed at him. The Selkie felt his body slow down instantly. Even though he was running he moved at a crawl. She then turned and pointed at Layle.
"Alright…let's try this again!" As she started to cast slow on him, Layle raised his other hand and intercepted her spell with one of his own. So far, his past few attempts to control Clockwork's powers had failed. Either nothing happened or the spells died out as usual. Layle twisted his arm and yanked at her spell. Slowly the silver light tracing back to the girl started to turn in color. And what was once a slow spell became haste. However, Layle could not control were it went. The two spells repelled each other as gravity speed up time knocking the Clavat back and causing the spell to wrap around its original caster.
He stumbled back and watched as the girl raced toward him- seemingly faster than her original haste spell could. Layle raised his hand to grab her but she was on him in an instant and shoved him to the ground. "Nice one!" She said as she ran over him. She stopped just a few feet away and scooped up the boys supply bag with the live bombs in it. "I'm not sure what you did!" She turned back to Layle and ran at him again.
Once more he found her in his face faster than he could react, "But you seem to have accelerated my magic! Good job!"
The Clavat reached out to grab her. Clockwork steep back and put her foot in his chest to knock him back down. She then ran over to Keiss who was slowly picking up speed again. "Thanks for the boost." She winked at him and ran forward. Layle gave chase running past the near immobile Keiss. He followed the girl as she raced along the grassy knolls. Pass drifting bombs and roaming ogres. She finally came to a crevice in the land, and looked down into one of the many old mine shafts. Layle shouted at her to stop, and she glanced over her shoulder at him and smirked.
"Drop the bag!"
"Sure thing, Clavat." She dropped it, right into the gaping hole in the ground before waving and taking off. Layle ran up to the edge to see if he could spot the bag. After all he didn't hear it explode so it could be okay. But he had no such luck. At the bottom of the crevice was a stream.
The bag of bombs hadn't exploded because it was being swept away by the water.
"Wonderful…" he looked over his shoulder to see the time wielding Lilty still using the Hastega spell as she ran out of sight. "Well, damn it…"
"Damn it, what?" Keiss came up behind him, finally free from the slow spell. "Where are the bombs, Layle?" Before the Bearer could answer, the stream suddenly gushed, followed by a loud rumbling. The Bombs finally exploded, causing it to rain water on the two mercenaries.
"….They're gone." Layle said with a smile. But Keiss was not amused.
"That is it, Layle. Tomorrow, you are going to Oides for training!"
"Oh come on!" The Selkie shook his head and turned away. "I don't need to go."
"Yes, you do! That's three missions we've- no you've botched! Because you can't handle that girl. You need training."
"I don't see you catching her…" Layle followed hands in his pockets.
"I'm not the one who said I could handle it."
"You volunteered me to 'handle it'." Layle shook his head, letting the water fly from his locks.
"Because you reassured me you could do it…And three times she has shown you up, Crystal Bearer." Keiss pointed at him as they walked back to the Acote. "So either you go to training, or I start doing missions solo."
Layle grumbled. He could tell Keiss was not going to let up on this. "Fine. I'll go to the stupid training…But I will not like it."
"So long as you get the job done, I don't care."

The entire ride back to Alfitaria neither Keiss nor Layle said a word. This was one of those times were Layle wondered how it was they could go from being a perfect fine to perfectly displeased with each other. He sighed; figuring at least this time it was nothing Keiss had directly done to upset him.
As soon as they landed in the airship hanger a Mail Moogle was present, waiting for Keiss. The Selkie took the letter and scanned over it as Layle climbed down the ladder. "What's that?"
"A letter from Spinosa…He wants me to come by immediately to talk about our next job."
"Great! Then that means no training for m-"
"Uh, yeah, No. Go to Oides. Meet me at Chime's latter." The Selkie pointed at him as he walked off, "I'm writing the Doc right now! So if you don't show I will hear about it!" Layle crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.
"Wonderful…"

Keiss had said Layle needed to go to Oides from training. He didn't say when he had to be there. So the Clavat lingered as much as he could. He got something to eat, walked around with a drink for an hour or so. And then walked as slowly as possible to the Doctor's building. Once he entered the secretary smiled at him and let him know Dr. Oides was expecting him on basement floor six.
As Layle got in the elevator he wondered what the hell they could be doing in the basement. Six floors under no less.
He stepped off the elevator into a cold, concrete hallway. There were no doors on the side of the wall, just one at the end. AS he walked along his footsteps echoed around him. He had wondered if he should be nervous about this situation. Something that only crossed his mind after he entered the door.
Before him was wide octagon shaped room, with a high ceiling. Along the upper parts of the wall were windows with pale white light coming from them. They were the previous five floors of the basement. But that's not what bothered him. What bothered him were the pipes. The walls were covered clear piping. And rushing through all of it was that blue crystal fluid. "Oh, no." Layle turned on his heels and put his hand on the door knob, just as he did he heard Oides calling his name, though it sounded filtered.
"Ah! Layle! You made it." The Clavat cringed and turned around. He didn't see Oides anywhere. "Up here!" he raised his head to see the doctor in one of the windows. He was speaking into a microphone. "Please, step forward so I can explain how this wo-"
"Yeah! About that!" Layle walked forward rubbing the back of his neck, "I don't think I can do this today. How's about reschedule for the thirty-first of never and I'll see you then!"
The doctor's head tilted and he spoke into the microphone again, "I'm sorry, Layle I'm afraid I can't hear you."
"…Of course."
"Please, Layle, we can talk afterward. I had wanted to talk to you face to face before we got started, but you took so long. So I came up to the control panel to warm the equipment up."
Layle looked around the room at the fluid rushing over head, "I'm going to die if any of those pipes burst."
"Layle! Layle!" The Clavat looked back at the doctor's window, "Ah, good I have your attention…Now, this room is shared with me the Crystal Research and Development team-"
"Fantastic. Now I know it's not safe."
"Now I have Professor Piper's permission to use their equipment to help you. They too are curious about how it will stand up against your powers. I've told many of the researchers here about your unique skill…So I'm going to record our training session for them to study."
"Am I being trained or experimented on!"
"Hmn…? No I don't know why he always keeps that hat on." Layle hit himself on the forehead, "Now, to explain this in simple terms. I will be operating the machines from up here in the booth. I will be casting some basic spells on you, I wish to see how you handle them."
"You'll be casting?" Layle looked confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Are you all set?"
"No! What are you talking about! What do you mean casting!"
"Excellent! Let's begin!" Layle watched as he could see the doctor moving over something next to him. Suddenly the sounds of loud machinery filled his ears. He turned around where he stood to see panels in the walls opening up. And out of them came odd mechanical arms and a few large cannons. They were connected to the walls and panels by wires, steal, and more of that piping. The Clavat stared at the nearest arm. The 'hand' on is whirled back and forth. It had a clear tube connected to his metal base, filling it with the crystal fluid.
"Why in the world does it need that?" As he stared at it, the hand spun faster and faster. Suddenly it started to glow a bright orange. Layle heard it making a straining sound, and he started to back up, just as the hand reeled back and shot of a fire ball. "Holy shit!" He jumped to the side as the fireball hit the ground where he stood. He looked over at the ground. It was scorched.
A fire ball. An honest to god fire ball. That machine just cast magic at him! He heard the sound again and looked up to see the hand shoot a second time. This time Layle rolled back onto his feet and raised his hands. He caught the fireball in the air and redirected it. It sailed through the air before it was extinguished by and arm casting water. The second arm flicked a whip of water his way and Layle created a shield to block the attack. As he did so, one of the cannons fired. He couldn't see the attack, but he felt it. A blast form an aero spell sent him flying. The Clavat rolled to a stop and felt a bit dazed.
"Okay, Layle…Let's get it together." The Clavat stood up, watching the two arms and the cannon turn his direction. As the fire hand got geared up to blast at him again, he made a run for the water hand. He came within a few feet of it before having to back off to avoid the fire spell and another lash form the water whip. This time the aero cannon fired two shots. One he avoided and one sent him sailing into the wall. Again Layle picked himself up and grumbled. He watched as the Aero cannon fired another round and he raced at it head long.
With a gravity barrier to shield himself this time, Layle allowed the spell to collide with him. But it lifted him up as if giving him a boosted jump. From up in the air he heard the fir spell be shot off. With his powers Layle reached out and took hold of the opposite end of the water whip and yanked it forward. He used the water as a shield against the oncoming spell. The water casting hand yanked its spell back, dragging him with it. He hung on for a moment longer before letting go and landing on the fire hand.
The water whip swung out again, and he jumped off. It crashed into the opposite element and the hand shorted out. He turned to get ready to take out the cannon but Oides' voice filled the room. "As I expected, you have a great control over your own skill… And a good understanding of your ability to shift the directions and pulls of other spells. Now we just need to focus getting you to use your gravity not against other magic, but with them."
"What does he think I'm doing?" Layle turned as the water whip came his way again. And again he grabbed it and started to pull it where he wanted it to go.
"You're still working against it!" The spell from the hand increased and was no longer a whip, but a stream of water. It sent him crashing into the wall. "The idea is not to force it to do what you want to do…but to work with it."
Layle grumbled as he stood up. "I hate this game." As he got to his feet two more mechanical arms and another cannon came out of the wall.
Oides' voice flooded over the speakers again, "We will keep this up for a while."

By the end of training, Layle was beat. Two hours non-stop fighting. And he was sure the only reason Oides stopped was because his magic was starting to weaken from fatigue. Layle wasn't really sure if he learned anything, other than that the old man is definitely a sadist that takes out his desires on Crystal Bearers. However he did have to admit, at one point, he latched himself onto a water spell and let the whip pull him about the room. At first he was just hanging on because he was tired, but the longer he hung on the more his gravity field seemed to distort the stream. And he found that when he pushed his magic into the other, it compressed it. The stream itself was smothered out entirely.
It was cool. And reminded him of when he tried to push his magic into Clockwork's…Only she got the better of him.
"Too be fair, she is another human being. Machines cannot try to fight back against you." The doctor and Layle rode the elevator up to the ground floor. "And she sounds quite experienced in her magic."
"…Hey, Doc..."
"Yes, my boy?"
"Those machines…How were they casting magic?"
"Ah!" The doctor beamed. "Amazing wasn't it! Well as I told you before, my stasis fluid can remove magic from biological beings. Well, upon further study I noticed that if the spiked concentration of magic was focused, a temporary free magic affect would take place. Depending upon what element it had absorbed the most, they resulting affect would match. I shared my research with Pipe and her research team-t his was back before he was head of the department- And he began studying samples of my work."
"…So…Piper developed those machines?" Layle stood still in the elevator, his hands in his pockets.
"Yes, he did. He's been testing them out in the basement for a few months now."
"Isn't he…Doesn't he make weapons for the military?" The elevator stopped and he stepped off. Layle turned back around to face the doctor as he answered.
"Why yes he does…But my boy, at the end of the day we are all working toward the military's effort." The door closed on Oides, and Layle watched the numbers as it continued up without him.
"…Fluids that steal magic…And weapons that run off the stuff…I need to talk to Keiss." The Crystal Bearer turned on his heels and walked as fast he could out of the office. Once out side he started to run to the shuttle.
He could not get to Chime's soon enough.

A/N: This one is long, eh? I thought about shortening it...And instead ended up adding sentences to those opening paragraphs. XD
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The Crystal Rule