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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
- 35
- 36
- 37
Chapter Thirty-Six

A new partner? He stared at Spinosa and eyed the Clavat next to him. He didn't need a new partner he need his old one. "With all due respect, Lieutenant, I don't really want a new partner. After all I've got Lay-"
"The Crystal Bearer is currently indisposed, is he not?"
"Ah, er, well yes but-"
"Then until he is available, Blaze will accompany you during your missions. Or should I inform the High Commander you are not interested in fulfilling his contracts."
Keiss opened his mouth to respond, but twisted his lips at the Lieutenant's statement. "I want the contracts, but, I'm certain whatever the contract is, it will go much smoother with my own partner. Not with…" he looked over at Blaze, "This clown."
Blaze snorted at him, "Don't sound so cocky, Selkie."
"Oh geeze, even your voice is like a clown…" Keiss shook his head and muttered under his breath.
"I don't want to work with you either. You'll just slow me down. Like every partner I've ever had."
"Was it your partners slowed you down? Or did they purposely trail behind you so they wouldn't have to smell your breath." The fire bearer sneered at him as the Lieutenant clapped his hands on the desk.
"Keiss, the retrieval of this vessel is imperative. We have sent countless soldiers, and few have returned. The conditions and hazards of Conall Curach have bested the army. What is needed is the skill of Selkie to navigate the hazardous terrain and the power of a Crystal Bearer to deal with the monsters. Now either I am sending you to the Curach or I will find another Selkie to take the job."
Keiss smirked and pointed to the Lieutenant, "I'm the only Selkie you have available to the Military."
"I will find others." Spinosa crossed his hands across the desk, "There are more than enough Selkies in Alfitaria that crave gil. All I need is the right asking price."
The fire bearer snorted again and smirked at Keiss. The red head frowned. He could turn the mission down still. But then he'd be in the dog house with Spinosa. Half of getting Layle back hanged on being able to get in and out of Military facilities. Most of that relied on his relationship with the Lieutenant. The Lilty continued to stare at him waiting for his response. Finally Keiss smiled and slightly shrugged his shoulders.
"…So… When do I and ol' Fire Ball here, leave?"

The entire way down to the airship dock Keiss was silent with anger. It wasn't that he was angry at Blaze, he had just met the Bearer, and so his foul mood wasn't necessarily directed at the Crystal Bearer. But Blaze did add to his frustrations. He wanted to be out looking for Layle. Instead he was being roped into a foolish recovery mission and being forced to bring along a foolish looking partner.
'Power over fire…I guess that can be handy,' the Selkie thought to himself as he looked over the map he had been given by the Lieutenant. It marked out where the experimental fighter plane had gone down. Ideally, he would have flown over the swamp until he spotted the plane and used Layle's powers to pull it out and tow it. But without Layle that wasn't an option. Keiss folded up the map and stuck it back down into the bag of supplies he'd been given. "We'll take my airship to the Curach Military Outpost; from there we'll get a couple of crystal bikes and make our way to the ship, and then fly it out. Two days' worth of time spent at the most…" He turned to Blaze who was leaning up against the railing of the airship dock. "Then you and I can go our separate ways."
The fire bearer said nothing to him and Keiss frowned. "Blaze, are you listening to me?"
"I hear you, Selkie."
"Keiss," The red head narrowed his eyes. "I'm not going to tolerate being addressed as 'Selkie' for two days, Crystal Bearer."
"Look, Selkie, I'll call you what I like." Blaze pushed off the railing, "And you're not giving me orders. I'm in charge of this mission and I say-"
"You're in charge!"
"Yeah, you heard old Spinosa, you need me. So I am in charge." Blaze motioned to himself with his thumb. "And I say we'll take your ship to the ship and yank it out. Less than a day spent. Got it?"
Keiss put his hands on his hips and glared, "No. I haven't 'Got it' because we're not doing that. The Acote is not equipped for towing. We're going to go in and fly it out."
The fire bearer took a step forward to Keiss, "Are you challenging me?"
"Yeah I am!" The Selkie continued to stare him down, "Don't think that just because you have magic you can push me around. I've faced monsters with asses uglier and stronger than you. You're not taking charge of this mission and we are not flying the Acote over that swamp."
The Crystal Bearer snarled and raised his hand to Keiss, a fire ball clutched in his hand. As he raised it to attack Keiss' own hand reached down the sides of his armor flap and retrieved his pistol. Before Blaze could toss his fireball the Selkie had his gun to his nose. The Clavat hesitated looking down the barrel of the gun at the agitated red head.
"Go on," Keiss smirked at him, "Toss it. See if you get to live long enough to see it hit me."
"…" Blaze slowly lowered his hand but Keiss didn't lower his gun.
"We're flying to the Curach outpost, and then we're going to the ship on land, and then we are flying it out." Blaze nodded slowly but Keiss pushed the gun forward, "Say it, Blaze. So I know we have an understanding…"
The Clavat sneered as he spoke, "We're taking your stupid shit ship to the Military base…We're going to take Crystal Bikes through the swamp… We'll fly the busted ship out."
"Very good." Keiss pulled his gun back and spun it once around his fingers before putting it away. "Now get in the crow's nest so we can get to the outpost before nightfall." He waited and watched the Crystal Bearer climb up into Layle's old seat. Keiss couldn't help but sigh as he got into the cockpit. Blaze was going to be annoyingly stubborn the entire trip. He could tell. The fire bearer was more like every other Crystal Bearer he'd ever met a cocky, arrogant idiot who thought he was superior to anyone without magic.
"At least Layle was just cocky and arrogant." He pulled down the communication pipes opening and shouted up to Blaze, "You all set up the-" His sentence was cut off by the sound of music coming down the pipe. Keiss ground his teeth. That radio that Layle had Cid install was the worst idea ever. "Blaze! Blaze you idiot I am asking you a question!" Keiss shouted over the music until he heard a loud cracking noise followed by a series of pops and fizzling. The music slowly died out the sound distorted and mangled. "…What in the world was that?!"
"Your controls up here make no sense, Selkie. How am I supposed to talk to you if the radio only plays music?"
"W-what the- The pipe you idiot! I'm talking to you through the pipe! Just leave the radio alone!" He could hear blaze snort and chuckle.
"Don't worry about your radio; I don't think anyone's going to be using it for a while."
Keiss closed up the tube and shook his head. Layle's not going to be happy about that… Oh well, at least Blaze proved he could be useful for at least one thing.

The boys had arrived at the Connal Curach Military Outpost in the mid afternoon. And as Keiss had said they would, they acquired two crystal bikes from the facility to cross the swamp to its far end where the experimental fighter had gone down. Keiss set his bag of supplies from the Lieutenant on the back of his bike and dug through them. "Alright Blaze, you've got the bag with our rations, make sure it's secured on your bike nice and tight."
"I know what I'm doing, Selkie."
"Sure thing, Crystal Bearer." Keiss pulled out the map and a pistol that had been given to them. It had a note attached to it from Oides. The red head unfolded the paper and read over it carefully. It was a note explaining that the gun had been designed just for this mission. The monsters of the Curach cast protective spells over themselves that made them nearly invincible and in some cases invisible as well. Their dark magic fed into the stories of old that the swamp was cursed with vengeful spirits. However to aid them, Oides had crafted this gun with rounds of bullets that contained Holy Spells, the only thing known to break through the defenses of the Curach monsters. Once their protective spell was broken, they could be dispensed with by any magical means.
Keiss opened the bag further to find, as promised a case filled with ammo for the pistol. Each bullet's body was clear with a small vile of Oides crystal solution inside. However the ammo was limited.
"We'll have to save these for if there's any real trouble." Keiss tucked the gun and its ammo into his armor and climbed onto his bike, "Ready to go, Fire Ball?"
Blaze snorted. "I've been waiting on you to quit reading your love letter this whole time." He sat down on his bike and started the engine, "I'll see you at the ship, Selkie." Before Keiss could say anything Blaze took off towards the swamp. The red head rolled his eyes and sat down on his own bike.
"Let's just get this over with quickly, so I can go back to looking for Layle…" Keiss rubbed the side of his neck cursing. "Great. Without Layle her to talk to himself I'm talking to myself…"

For two hours the duo rode through the swamp without an incident. Keiss trailed behind Blaze, keeping his eyes open for monster and shouting at the Crystal Bearer which way to turn according to the map. The ground of the Curach squished and oozed underneath the crystal bike's tires. The bikes had been outfitted with special treads to keep them from sinking into the soft and muddy swamp grounds.
As they drove through the swamp occasionally a Sahagin or two would burst forth from the muddy pools and attempt to stop the bikes. If nothing else, Keiss found it handed that Blaze's fireballs quickly cut the creatures down. Sometimes right as they were sailing through the air to land on either of them. The other monsters like the Magic Plants, and Flans, and the Gigan Toads were too slow to keep up with them. At best they just had to avoid the creatures' projected attacks.
The two finally came upon a large hill halfway through their first day's ride. The ground was solid enough for them to stop on in Keiss opinion. He pulled out the map in order to get their bearings and discern which path would be the best to take.
"From here on out, Blaze, the swamp grounds become more unstable. So it'd be best if we stay close together and ride slowly-"
"Slowly?!" The Bearer immediately spoke out against it. "And let the monsters catch up to us!"
"Look, Blaze, as the ground thins out, the monster that use dark spells become more frequent. You can't just blast them down anyway. Not to mention you can barely see them! You could drive right into on and get taken out. So we will take our time."
The fire bearer scoffed and shook his head. "You're going to keep us in this swamp for a week!" Before waiting for Keiss orders on what direction to take Blaze sped off down the hill. The Selkie called to him, ordering him to stop driving off.
"Blaze! Blaze! Get back here! Going east will just lead you into a wall!" The red head cursed and started up his bike again to take after his partner. Keiss shook his head swearing as he followed the Crystal Bearer. Blaze as a good twenty feet ahead of him, racing down the narrow strips of land that rose above the swamps murky waters. He followed him over mounds, old docks that practically sank into the water as soon as the bikes rode over them, and through muddy banks. "Blaze!"
The fire bearer turned his head to see Keiss following him and sneered. "Keep up, Selkie! We're getting to that ship today!" The Clavat turned his head and laughed. Keiss could hear him revving up the engine and watched as he accelerated. The red head shook his head cursing.
"What is it with Clavats and racing through monster filled areas, huh!?"
As the Selkie followed after Blaze, he could faintly hear the sounds of monster moving of in the distance. Subtle roars and cackles from creatures they were racing by but couldn't see. 'Fantastic! He's leading us right into a monster's nest!'
Blaze however noticed nothing. Keiss watched the Clavat continuously make dangerous turns on the narrow paths and sneered when he turned his head to taunt him. "I'll be to the end of the swamp before you! And leave you hear as I take the ship!"
"You moron!" Keiss screamed at him. "You're taking us the wrong way!" Keiss turned his bike and took a diverging path, hoping he could cut Blaze off. As he did he was certain he felt something brush past his head. However he saw nothing, and with the land thinning out, he didn't have the time to take his eyes off the path to look back and see if a monster was there or not. "I'm going to die here… All because of this idiot! And I'm never going to find out what happened to Layle!"
Keiss' path winded around and brought him up to be parallel to Blaze. He pulled out his pistol and pointed it towards his partner. "Stop driving!"
The Crystal Bearer raised his hand, a fireball clutched in his fingers and laughed. "I'll collect the earnings from this mission and all of Spinosa's future contracts without you, Selkie!" Blaze tossed the fireball forcing Keiss to slow down so it wouldn't hit his tires. As he pulled ahead he laughed manically.
"I should just leave him!" Keiss started forward again. "But he's got the damn rations!" Again, Keiss became neck and neck with Blaze, this time he didn't give a warning, and he pulled out his gun and took aim. However before he could shoot there was a loud burst and Blaze's bike flipped. Keiss came to a halt as he watched Blaze tumble through the air and land face first into the muddy waters. The red head started to laugh. A small chuckle at first that grew into a roar as the clownish Clavat lifted his head and spat out mud.
"You! You Selkie bastard!" Blaze stumbled up from the swamp flicking the mud form his face. "I'm going to roast you alive!"
"Cool it, hot stuff!" Keiss kept snickering at him, "I didn't touch you! You must have hit a rock!"
"I didn't hit a thin-" Before Blaze could finish his sentence he suddenly jolted forward and fell into the mud again. This time there was a huge slash through the back of his pilgrim robes. Another laugh filled the air, a horrible cackle, though there was no one else around to mock the Clavat.
"...A monster!" Keiss pulled out the gun Oides had given him and scanned the ground. The doctor's instructions told him that he could still make out the monster's shadow, if he was lucky. Blaze picked himself up form the mud again and cursed at his wounded back. He started shooting off fireballs at the sky, to which Keiss ordered him to stop. "You won't hit it that way, idiot!"
Again, Keiss could hear the monster laugh, but this time it was closer to him. The red head turned his head to the right and could faintly see a shadow on the water racing toward him. He raised the gun and took aim. Off to the side he could hear the Clavat cursing at him for aiming at nothing. However the red head ignored him. He kept his eye trained on the shadow watching it draw closer. Once the monster was just a few feet away, Keiss fired. The shot of magic from the gun forced his body backward and nearly off his bike. The holy spell connected with the monster and it let out a cry as it was stunned.
In the middle of the air the holy and dark spells crackled and sparked. Slowly a monster with the torso and face of a man came into view. In its hands it carried a lantern, much like a tonberry. However this monster floated. As soon as it recovered from losing its shield it turned and howled at Keiss. The monster raised its hand ready to slash him across the face, but before its claws could connect a fireball whizzed by the red head and connected to the monster.
Keiss turned started, ready to thank his partner but found himself ducking as Blaze was firing again. And again. Without end the crystal bearer was shooting at the monster. "A-A ghost!" Blaze hurled spell after spell after the creature. It ducked and dodged and pulled back trying to get away. "An actual ghost!"
"It's not a ghost you moron!" Keiss shouted at him from where he had taken cover behind his bike. "Stop panicking and hit it!"
The 'ghost' cackled as Blaze missed it again and again. The creature made it way around to him and charged at him come up the path. Keiss could hear the Clavat cursing and panicking. "You're not going get me, ghost!" The red head looked on as Blaze started to cast a bigger spell. The ground just in front of him started to glow red and emit an intense heat. The glow spread out until it covered a ten foot area.
"Blaze…What are you doing!? Blaze!" Keiss shouts when unheard. As soon as the monster passed over the spell, the Crystal Bearer pulled his arms up and an eruption of magma burst forth from the ground. It engulfed the ghost. It also engulfed the unstable land. The whole area shook and sloshed as the ground began to sink into the swamp. "You idiot!" Keiss scrambled to get on his bike as the water started to rise up to his knees. "We have to get out of here!"
Blaze stumbled backward; his bike was just beyond the giant whole he'd made in the ground. The water was rushing into it, and the ground was following, crumbing away. His crystal bike was slowly being dragged in. "Help me!" He turned to Keiss shouting and running, trying to use the upheavals of ground that were being pulled to cross over to the Selkie's plot of land.
"For Crystal's sake…" Keiss started his bike and tried to move closer to Blaze he stretched out his hand allowing the Clavat to leap forward and grab on. As Soon as he had him Keiss pulled Blaze forward and made a sharp U-turn. He pushed the bike to its limits racing back down the path and away from the sinkhole. "Dammit, Blaze! Those were our supplies!"
The Crystal Bearer held onto Keiss and looked back cursing. "And where do you think you're going! We need to get to the ship faster then! Turn around."
"For the love of-" Keiss turned his head and shouted angrily. "You were going the wrong way! That's why I was trying to stop you, you idiot!"
"What! You took us the wrong way! I thought you had the map!"
"I do have the map! You're the one that took off without directions!"
"Unbelievable!" Blaze looked back at the sinkhole as it vanished from sight. "Took us the wrong way, and lost the supplies! You're not better than that idiot gravity bearer…"
"I took us the wrong-!" Keiss stopped shouting. "Gravity bearer?" Keiss turned his head. "Did you just say gravity bearer?" He waited for Blaze to respond, but the aggravated Clavat never did. He kept his mouth twisted into a frown and looked back the entire time. Keiss turned his head to face forward and took a deep breath.
'No…He couldn't have said it… He couldn't mean, Layle.'
"But then again…" He muttered to himself, "How many gravity bearers could there be?"
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The Crystal Rule