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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
- 33
- 34
- 35
Chapter Thirty-Four

The next morning the boys were out and about on the streets of Bridgetown just after sunrise. They had picked up breakfast on the go, and Keiss was still eating a biscuit from the café as they made their way back to Cid's workshop.
"Hmn-Alright! We're going to check on the Acote, then cross back over the river to head up to the higher buildings," the red head popped the last crumb of his meal into his mouth and turned to walk backwards. He chewed for a few second before swallowing and pointing at Layle, "Hm-Hn! –We'll be off to the doctor's!"
"You know," Layle followed behind him, one hand tucked in his pocket and the other running through his hair as he chuckled, "You can wait till you finish eating to lay out the day's plans."
"Bah!" Keiss waved his hand to smack his partner's shoulder but the blow fell short when he started to tumble head over heels back onto the grated pathways. A Selkie child had run directly behind him and the two collided, causing Keiss to fall over. The kid was just fine, as he scrambled up to get away leaving Keiss on the ground. Layle started to laugh at. Keiss started to check his pockets on instinct and cursed. "Don't just laugh you idiot! Grab that kid! He's got my wallet!"
"Hmn?" Layle turned to look at the kid running away, "Figures. I guess no Selkie can ever really 'accidently' bump into someone." He tried to reach out and grab the kid with his powers however he couldn't get a decent hold on the fleeing youth. Keiss got up and groaned. He started running down the metal walkway motioning for Layle to follow.
"Keep trying to grab him, damn it!"
"I am!" Layle followed occasionally extending his hand in several attempts to catch the little thief, only to have his energy field break apart every time the kid rounded a corner. The boy led them back around through the towns many interconnecting pathways; upstairs, across squares, downstairs, around shops, until finally Keiss stopped.
"Alright, you keep following him! I think I know where he's going!" The red head pointed down the path, "I'll cut him off, you stay behind him!" Layle watched as Keiss grabbed the railing of the path they were on and jumped down. He leaned over the side and shouted after him.
"How do you know you're right!"
Keiss started to run and shouted over his shoulder, "When am I ever wrong?"
Layle took a step back from the rails and shook his head, "Is that a trick question?" He looked back down the path and started after the thief again. It took him a few minutes to catch back up to him. The boy had stopped running and was looking through Keiss' wallet on one of the upper paths. The blond stopped under him and grabbed the wallet with his magic to wretch it from the child's hands. As it went flying over the side, Layle held out his other hand and caught it with a smile. Above her could hear the kid shouting about magic and calling for a guard.
"Oh, just great…" Layle looked around and started to run. Above him the kid was running the same direction down a flight of stairs. He turned and made his way north to the from square of the town. The Crystal Bearer ducked under the stairs and followed the kid trying to take hold of him to stop him from calling for the guards. Despite all of his shouting, none seemed to come.
Just as the boy was getting ready to descend the final walkway down to the town's ground level, a hand shot out from the shadows and grabbed him. He shouted and started to kick and scream while Keiss pulled him toward him and gave him a few shakes. "You little brat! Who taught you it was okay to steal from other Selkies!"
"Let me go! Let me go!"
"I'm asking you a question!"
Layle leaned up against the railing and watched Keiss shake the kid, "That's not going to fix anything, Keiss…"
"You're with a Crystal Bearer! It's fair to take from you! They're evil!" The kid started to swing his feet in an attempt to hit Keiss' legs.
"Evil? Who says?"
"Everyone says! The signs say!" The boy finally stopped kicking and hung his head, "They are all over the square! Turn in the evil rouge Bearers!"
"All over the square?" Keiss looked down the end of the path to the boy's destination. "…It was your intention to lead us here?" The red head dropped the boy and he fell to the ground with a thud. Layle pushed off the railing and walked around him as Keiss moved forward. The boy stood up dusting himself off and insulting them in Selkie slang, but they weren't really paying attention.
The boys entered the square where a few of the town's people had gathered and were clustered around the billboard signs. There were still a few guards walking around with large rolled up sheets of paper they were hanging up and getting ready to take to other parts of the town. Keiss directed Layle over to a poster the guards had just finished hanging up. There were only two other people standing before it making it easy to read. Though once they saw it neither Layle nor Keiss were sure they wanted to.
Even though they were just words printed on a grainy paper, it felt like someone was shouting them in Layle's ear, 'From hence forth, the Kingdom of Alfitaria calls upon its citizens to help end the plight of the disease of Bearing a Crystal… Those afflicted with the disease are requested, but not required to seek medical treatment at any Military run medical establishment to be cured of their Crystal infection… Bears found to possess unstable powers, breaking the law with their powers, or in possession of spells dangerous to other citizens are to be immediately turned into the Alfitaria Military for immediate mandatory treatment… Rewards will be offered for the assistance of capturing a dangerous Bearer….Anyone found harboring criminals will be-'
Layle's eyes were suddenly pulled away from the poster and directed at the floor as his head was shoved down. He started to put his hands up in protest and shout but a hand was clamped over his mouth as well.
"Layle! What did I tell you about trying to speak with your throat sore like that!" Keiss rubbed the top of Layle's head but kept it pushed down preventing him from looking up, "Come on now, we've got to get you home so that cold doesn't get worse. I am sure all these lovely Alfitaria Guards don't want your cold. So shut up- and follow me!" The Selkie started to walk away from the crowd and kept his hand tangled in Layle's hair until they were outside the square.
The Clavat looked up and spun around to look back at the crowds reading the signs. Keiss on the other hand was looking ahead at the guards now hanging the signs up in the streets.
"So…About going to the doctor…"
"I'm not." Layle looked over his shoulder at him.
"Yeah, it's probably not the best idea any more…"

Cid was in the middle of cleaning up the ground floor of his workshop when the door opened. The Lilty researcher looked up from where he was picking up blue prints to re-file to see Keiss and his partner came into the shop.
"You boys are here later than expected!" He smiled at them, but Layle walked right past him to the stairs without so much as a hello.
"Yeah…We kind of had a short detour," Keiss watched his partner climb the steps and frowned. "Cid, is the Acote ready to go?"
The Lilty also turned his head and looked up at Layle's disappearing image. "It is, but I thought you all were going to the medical facilities in town first."
"Plans changed. Lots of them changed…" He looked back down at Cid, "The Military has started offering Odies Bearer Cure today."
"Offering!" Layle shouted from the upper floors, "More like subjugating!"
"It's a voluntary treatment!" Keiss shouted up the stairs.
"Unless you a deemed 'dangerous'!" The Bearer leaned over the railing, "Which is vague as hell! What makes someone dangerous! Just because they deem they are! Anyone could be fucking 'dangerous'!" Layle pulled back from the side rail of the stairs and continued up to the top floor.
The Selkie rubbed the sides of his head and turned to Cid, "As you can see we need to go to Alfitaria immediately.
The old Lilty nodded to him and started to make his way up the stairs, "I thought you boys said that that treatment was still in the development stages."
"It was!" Keiss sighed, "At least I thought it was…I was just in Piper's office, there was no indication they were ready to start treating people. Just that…They had been testing it out."
"Well something must have changed to make them start administering it to the public."
They stopped on the top floor where Layle was busy pacing about. He stopped and crossed his arms to glare at his partner, "Well no matter what made them change their minds, we're going there and we are going to get answers."
"…Layle…" Keiss shook his head, "I keep telling you, just storming in and demanding an explanation isn't going to work. You can't just do that with these people."
"Well doing it your way is just going to get every Crystal Bearer in Alfitaria wiped off the face of the planet!"
"Do you not trust me!" Keiss pointed at him, "Even a little bit! I said we would fix it and we will!"
Cid cleared his throat and the two turned to look at him, "If you boys are going to go, then I suggest you may want to get on your way as soon as possible. If they are already issuing a voluntary cure here in Bridgetown, then it is most likely already a mandatory treatment in the Capital."
Keiss and Layle stared at Cid for a moment. The Selkie nodded; that did seem logical. His partner however made a sound of disgust and turned to head for the airship.
Keiss sighed and watched as Layle climbed the ladder up to the crow's nest, "Thanks again, Cid."
"Don't mention it, Keiss." The old Lilty made his way over to the wall to open the roof access as Keiss climbed into the Acote's cockpit. Cid turned to them and shouted, "Oh and, Keiss! I installed something little extra that Layle asked for!"
"Extra?" Keiss strapped himself in and looked over the control panel. Nothing seemed new to him. It didn't matter; he didn't have time to think about it now. As soon as the roof was open the Selkie mercenary fired up the engine and took off. Luckily Cid had cleaned up a majority of the blue prints and paper work lying about, so not all of it was blown into the wind when they took off.
As they pulled up higher and higher into the sky, Keiss opened up the communication tube, "Hey, Layle, you okay up there?"
"…I suppose." The Crystal Bearer sounded even less enthusiastic than he had last night.
"Look, I know you're worried. But you have to trust me, okay? We're partners! I really do- I really am looking out for you, Layle!"
For a few minutes the Crystal Bearer didn't say anything. Finally Keiss heard him barely utter an 'I know' to him. The Selkie sighed.
"…So what did you have Cid change about the ship anyway?"
"Oh, nothing. Just something I wanted to help keep my mind from wondering…"
"Something you wanted?" The red head rubbed the back of his neck, "And just what did you wa-AH!" Keiss' sentence was suddenly cut off by the sounds of loud music coming down the communication tube. The noise was so loud he nearly jumped out of his seat. He scrambled to close the tube and stop the noise from banging against his ear drum and shook his head. "A radio… Crystal's Light, like it wasn't hard enough to keep your attention before!"

'Just trust me.'
For one week now, these were the words Keiss had been uttering to Layle. To trust him. To have a little faith in him. And it wasn't that Layle didn't. No, over the past week, Layle quickly found that of everyone involved in this Military mess, he trusted Keiss the most.
It was himself he didn't trust any more.
To be specific, it was his powers. One week ago they had arrived back in Alfitaria to meet with Odies, Piper, and Lieutenant Spinosa about this 'cure'. As Cid had warned them, in the streets of Alfitaria it had basically been made mandatory to receive treatment. And it was then that Keiss proved how much he wanted Layle to trust him. It took them three hours and arguing and a lot of running, but they made it past guards and patrols to the Spinosa's office to speak to him without the guards attempts at carting Layle off to a medical facility.
And it was Keiss' persuasion and influence of the Lieutenant that got Layle a free pass on having to be tested for treatment. Yes it was annoying that everywhere with the Capital walls he had to show the guards he was employed by the Military and therefore exempt from treatment. But it meant he always had to risk them finding out he couldn't control his powers any more.
Yet knowing that they were hiding the fact, just made him feel sick. He couldn't do anything within the city, and he had to trust himself not to. A task that was proving hard to do with each passing day, as Layle just felt more and more tempted to break up a group ofg guards keeping Bearers in line on their way to the hospitals. Or his growing desire to rip down signs explaining the general populous the supposed 'hazards' of being a Bearer. Not to mention how every conversation they had had with Spinosa over the past few days had made him want to toss the Lieutenant out of his office window.
In addition, his growing agitation wasn't helping his powers improve. It was more like they were degrading all over again. The more he had to silently seethe within the city, the more things involuntarily reacted to his emotions. Flipped desk, knocked over people, a tram suddenly losing power.
But he did have Keiss to cover his tracks.
He did have Keiss to keep sneaking into offices and stealing information and plans and test results for them to look over.
It was true if he didn't have Keiss he wouldn't know where to go next. The Clavat owed his partner a lot. More than he could really fathom at the moment. While they hadn't been able to get to the Rebena Te Ra Research Facility, Keiss had managed to get the plans for other Military experiments. All things that dealt with Odies' research and the cure and they had spent the past seven days keeping up appearances with Spinosa by day, and snooping through secure Military grounds at night. And while the missions should have been easy, with Layle's haywire magic they were unnecessarily risky.
Their last exploit took them through the Moogle Woods.
Keiss had found plans for a transport of patients being taken from Alfitaria. All of them Bearers that lived out in the country side that had been brought into the Capital for treatment. However their magic didn't respond to the Military's basic treatment, or so their files said; so they were being transported out to Rebena Te Ra. It had been Keiss plan to intercept the transport and follow it to where they were experimenting on the Crystal Bearers.
The plan was easy enough. In fact the Selkie had speculated they'd be there by dawn of the next day.
However they weren't. Instead they were back in their apparent with Keiss pacing around the couch while Layle sat on it. Wrapping up a cut on his arm while his partner plotted and flipped through paper work.
"There's another transport scheduled in two days," Keiss tossed any paper he didn't need over his shoulder and onto the ground. Layle watched the paper's flutter to the floor and sighed. "This one goes through the Left Highlands, so we don't have to worry about any large monsters."
Layle looked down at his arm at that sentence. They shouldn't have to plan to try again. But it was a large monster that had cost them this chance. No, to be specific it was Layle's inability to deal with a large monster that cost them this chance. The hydra lurking in the water's around Moogle Woods certainly left an impression, along with a few injuries on them.
Keiss continued to speak, "It leaves early in the morning. So we'll have to think up and excuse to avoid the Lieutenant that day-"
While Keiss laid down the plan, Layle thought back to the fight. It was simple, find the transport; sneak on board; wait until they reached the facility. They had planned to get on it when it went past the lower lakes of the forest. Just before the flowing river let out into the aqueducts of the farm lands. However while they waited, Layle had been testing out his powers on the large lily pads in the pond. An act which had attracted what he mistook for a blue water snake. Nothing to work about.
His partner was on look out, and the snake wasn't all that big. It had come close to the shore, but never actually came on land so He had tried to toss it back.
"-We can get on from the Lower Westend Cargo Bay." Keiss tapped the paper with the back of his hand, "It says there are crates for supplies there they plan to send as well. We can stowaway in those-"
Layle leaned back and sighed as he listened. What should have been easy became overly complicated. What he mistook for one small monster was part of one large monster. And without full control of his magic, he hadn't been able to push it away. No instead he ended up pulling it forward, and pulling more of it out of the water. But even then it just appeared to be several, very tall water snakes surrounding the shores. Even Keiss didn't think they couldn't get rid of the creatures in a few minutes.
"-then we sneak out and wait out the trip in the storage compartment. It will take half the day to travel there, but once we approach Rebena Te Ra, we should be able to get off without being noticed. I can swipe a security pass off a guard, we'll use that to get inside the facility." The Selkie tossed a few more papers and held up a map. "Now I've got the lay out of the place right here-"
The Crystal Bearer turned his head to see the map just as Keiss was starting to focus on the next part of his plan. But all Layle could focus on was the his memory of the inside of the Hydra's mouth. Which was where he had ended up when his powers failed to repel the water serpents, and instead dragged him under the lake's surface. At any other time, even when he was first starting out with his powers, he should have been able to best that Hydra, no problem. But instead his own force had gravity were used against him. He was almost eaten!
If Keiss hadn't been there to follow him under he probably would have been eaten.
As much as he hated to admit it, it was true what the red head had been saying to him now for nearly two weeks. Layle using his powers during a mission had just become a hazard. A hindrance. Absolutely useless. The very thing that Keiss had hired him for was now something that could easily get the two of them killed. Or worse, have Layle detained for being a 'danger to society'.
He tilted his head forward and sighed, rubbing the side of his head that had been split open a little over half a month ago. The Selkie stopped in front of him and frowned.
"What's wrong, Layle?" Keiss put his hand on his partner's shoulder and smiled, "…You aren't worried are you? You don't need to be! I know this plan will get us there. We're going to get answers, I know it's taking me a bit longer than I said it would…But just, trust me okay, partner?"
"…There you go again, thinking I'm worried about you…" Layle looked up at Keiss, his expression was empty. But the Selkie still smiled at him. Keiss opened his mouth to speak again, probably another reassuring sentence, but he was cut off by Layle's last sentence.
"I quit."
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The Crystal Rule