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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
- 49
- 50
- 51
hapter Fifty

Keiss had a good lead on the boats that were perusing after him. He planned to use his little speed boat to lead them on a chase through the various micro islands that surrounded the area. His intent was to lose them through the maze of straights and waterways.
However the further he went the more and more his ship became slowed down by the weight of the water it was taking in.
"Damn that idiot, Regal." The red head held his arm close to his chest as he continued to jerk and turn the wheel of the boat this way and that. He could already hear the sounds of the Military's boats racing along trying to catch up to him around the scattered islands. There was no way he was going to be able to clear the rocks and landmasses jutting out of the water with a good enough lead to avoid being seen. Not to mention it was now more than likely he'd sink not long after.
The prospect of swimming back to the Guild was unappealing at best, impossible with his injury.
"…I have to crash this thing and hide." He looked over his shoulder as he turned the boat again and made his way closer to the volcano. It was a risky idea, but if they thought he was dead, they'd give up searching. He could easily let the boat smash into one of the smaller islands, and with the lead he had now, make a break for the Kilanda volcano.
Just thinking about it was making him sweat even more. Either that was, or it was from the strain of the bullet wound in his arm.
"Alright," Keiss turned the wheel again and started to steer toward the volcano. "Let's get this over with." There was a good sized mass of land just ahead of him. It was built up from years of lava and boulders rolling down the sides of the volcano and colliding with the cold ocean water. The red head dug into his bag and pulled out one of the computer parts he'd swiped from the base. He forced himself to use his other hand, aggravating the wound, to hang onto the wheel while he used his good hand to jam the component into the gaps at the base of the wheel, keeping it from turning.
Having to hold the wheel steady strained his muscles and got his blood pumping again, only making him bleed more.
He subconsciously hoped he wouldn't pass out while hiding on the volcano's island from the heat and blood loss. "Okay!" He let go of the wheel and looked up. The island was approaching fast. Keiss backed up and moved to the side of the boat; as soon as he was clear of the rocks he was speeding by he planned to jump out.
The former Guild Member put one leg up on the side of the slowly sinking boat and clutched the bag to his chest with his injured arm. He was set to jump as soon as the last rock whisked by, however instead of seeing clear water ahead of him, he spotted another boat clearing the rocks on the other side. And to make matters worse it was being driven my Regal.
"Selkie!"
"Son of a-" Keiss ducked down at the rose haired Lilty opened fire on his boat. The pink haired Lilty from early was also in the mercenary's ship. She reached over and grabbed the wheel as the other man became occupied with trying to put more holes into Keiss. The red head stayed down listening to the sounds of the gun fire. He was going to crash any second and he was still in the boat.
Suddenly he felt the ship shake violently. His mind instantly told him he'd crashed, but he was still moving.
Keiss looked up and over the edge of the boat to see the Colonel was ramming their boat into his to knock him off his collision course. He wasn't sure if he was grateful for that or not. Regal took the opportunity of her ramming his ship to jump over to his side. The Lilty stumbled a bit before turning to face Keiss with his gun.
The red head was already up on his feet, swinging his bag at the man's face to knock him off balance. It connected with Regal's jaw as he fired off another shot grazing Keiss' left cheek. The Selkie flinched and turned his head as he swung up his leg to kick the gun from Regal's hand. The weapon was tossed up into the air just as Sherry rammed the boat again. The sudden movement of the ship knocked them out from under its fall, causing it drop into the sea.
"Damn it, woman!" Regal hurled himself at Keiss, hands raised trying to grab him. "Quit rocking the boat!"
The Selkie pulled back and used his bag as a weapon again. He struck the Lilty in the chest as he reached out for him. The mercenary kept moving forward grabbing Keiss' shoulders and forcing him back. The rushed backward step caused him to stumble and fall down putting his head at the edge of the boat. He tried to use his good arm to push Regal off and struggled to move his wounded one. All the fighting and sudden movements made his arm feel like it was burning.
The Lilty mercenary pressed the palm of his hand against Keiss' face forcing it down. "Now, Sherry! Do it now!"
Keiss continued to struggle with Regal, out of his peripheral vision he could make out the side of the other boat racing next to them. There was no way in hell he was going to get his head crushed. Keiss raised his knee and rammed it into Regal's gut. The force of the blow knocked the breath out of the Lilty. While he was winded, the red head pushed him off and pulled his head up, just as the boats' sides collided. He wondered if Sherry actually timed that, or if he just got lucky.
He got to his feet and kicked Regal across the jaw just as the boats rammed together again. This time the force was so great it knocked him off balance.
The red head fell backwards over the edge of his boat and into the one driven by the Colonel.
He looked up surprised and the woman turned her head to look at him with a smirk. She then turned her attention back to the rose haired Lilty, "Regal! Look out!" She jerked her boat to the side away from the other. Keiss looked up to see why.
Just ahead his ship was on another collision course with an island. Sherry had to turn her boat to get out of the way. Regal scrambled up and over the sides of the boat just before it hit the magma made formation. The Lilty with the cherry braid kept turning her boat and raced around the island as his ship exploded into flames and smoke.
Had she been bumping them into an island intentionally?
Keiss started to stand up and she shouted at him, "Stay down, Selkie!" The woman kept her eyes ahead. She was speeding around the islands toward the volcano. "I'll let you know when to put your head up."
"…Why are you helping me?"
"I told you!" She smiled looking ahead, "I want Spinosa to fail."
"All this just to make you the High Commander's favored officer? Do you expect me to believe that?"
"…" She looked over at Keiss, "Did Villosie send you?"
"Who?" His face slightly scrunched in confusion as he asked.
"I guess not." She turned her attention back to the path she was taking. "Look, Selkie, I don't know who hired you to mess with this project, or if the Guild is just doing it for the sake of doing it. But the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Keiss stayed down on the bottom of the boat. That name sounded familiar. "Who is she? Villosie?"
"An old school mate… She studies Crystal Research and development in Marr. This kind of thing, it's right up her alley."
"What? Is she studying you or something?"
"You mean the thunder?" The pink haired Lilty reached up and pulled down the turtle neck that stuck out of the top of her uniform. Keiss could see yellow crystal on the back of her neck shaped like a star with a long tail. "She's the one that told me to use it or sign myself up for the cure." The pink haired woman let go of the piece of fabric and flipped her hair over her shoulder.
"Well, I guess I should be glad you took her advice." Keiss pat the bag of computer parts at his side. "But I still don't trust you."
The woman laughed. "I don't need you to trust me. I just need you to get out of here in one piece."

"-And why do I even have to still be shackled?" He raised his arms up over his head, which effectively meant he was lowering them to the floor, since he was lying with his head hanging over the edge of the bed. "I mean I'm not going anywhere. Certainly not like this." His blond hair was dangling from his head, the black and white cat that belonged to his partner sat a few inches in front of him.
She was purring incessantly and slowly lifting her paws to bat at his locks.
"I mean I know Keiss said he was lying, manipulative, controlling and all that, but geeze. Isn't this too much! Maybe I understand why he wants to leave so bad…"
"Wow," the orange hair Selkie sat with her legs crossed on the mattress. "Layle, you have not shut up for the past three hours. Did you know that? I don't even have to prompt you…"
"Can't you give me something to put me to sleep, Nadeen? This is getting exhausting."
She shook her head, "No. It's not a good idea to mix drugs. Goodness knows what will happen to you. You'll just have to pass out on your own."
"I don't feel tired though. I feel wired. And annoyed. And pissed. And-"
"Okay," Nadeen held up her hand. "How about we pick a topic, a safe one and you can ramble on about tha-"
"Kei Nam." Layle said it before she could finish.
"Or, you can be nosy like Keiss…"
"Well it's something I can't talk about. But you can. So you talk, and I listen. And then I don't have to talk."
"You act like you're terrified you're going to say something you don't want to. I already know about all of your missions."
"It's not the missions I'm worried about."
"I already know about what you do after missions too, you know."
"It's not even that I'm worried about!" He snapped at her.
"Well then what? What don't you want to say?"
"Look I don't want to repeat to you what I already said to Vaigali about how I fe-" Layle sat up shouting. "Just tell me about Kei Nam will you! Damn it!"
The Leudian girl pressed her lips together to hold in a snort of laughter. "Okay… okay… Just cool it, Crystal Bearer." She watched as Layle let out a groan of aggravation and fell backward again. His hands went with him causing the metal shackles to clang on the floor. The nose startled Lotta who jumped away from him before quickly walking around to the other side of the bed. She promptly took to toying with the Clavat's dangling feet.
"Where do you want me to start?"
"At the beginning."
"Well, a long long time ago, the Great Crystal began to shine. And in its light-"
"Nadeen, I will gladly go back into a cell for punching you." Layle heard the Selkie girl laugh again.
"I can only tell you what my mother told me, okay? I wasn't there. It's just what I know…" Layle listened to her as he looked up from where he was hanging. He was looking at the wall with the picture of the green haired Selkie woman hanging on it. "Before there was an Izmyael, and before Vaigali was a great pirate lord, he just had a stolen fishing boat and a handful of men. One night they took up port on a Selkie outpost island, just after robbing a Lilty merchant ship. A thief snuck on board and started to raid the vessel."
"Kei Nam?"
"That's right," Nadeen leaned forward, "She thought everyone was off the boat, but Vaigali was still on board. They got into a sword fight. It lasted so long, that his men came back to the boat to see it happening. She ended up slicing open the side of his face and tried to get away, but the men chased her down. It was their intent to kill her but-"
"…But?" Layle slightly raised his head.
"You're looking at her right up there on the wall. And I'm sure you saw her in Vaigali's office." Nadeen looked down at him, "He offered her a spot on the crew, because she was so good with a sword. She became the first mate and was one of three women that would serve on the ship." Nadeen started to count them off on her fingers, "Kai Nam, Milka, and my mother. The first mate, the lookout, and the navigator."
"Milka worked with her? Like, she actually enjoyed her?"
"They all worked together. They were great friends. At least that's what my mom told me. There were other women on the ship, but they weren't permanent fixtures. Not part of the crew." Nadeen placed her hand over the top of her chest. "Before she joined the ship, Kei Nam wasn't a permanent fixture anywhere. She was a roamer. Her tattoo of a seagull means that. That she goes where she wants and takes what she feels is hers."
Layle sat up all the way now and pulled his legs up onto the bed to sit with them folded before him. "But Milka said she was dead?"
"…The night the ship crashed." Nadeen sighed. "Kei Nam was the second best swordsmen on board. She was smart. She was daring. She was commanding. That's what my mom said. Before the ship crashed, my mother got off in Leuda with me, I was still a baby, too young for pirating. She wanted me to grow up on land. At the time Vaigali was racing another pirate lord towards a treasure he'd been hunting down for ages. Milka was to go too, but she was injured from their last fight. So she was left behind in Leuda too. Kei Nam should have gotten off as well."
"Why?" Layle interrupted her.
"She was on the verge of going into labor." The Selkie stopped and stared at him. Layle blinked a few times. She was certain that he was going to say something due to the Ochu Nectar, but the blond said nothing. He could only say what he was thinking and his mind was blank from the statement. "She went with Vaigali, everywhere. Every treasure he ever found on the Izymael they found together. So she wouldn't leave. And I- well- no one really knows what happened or why. During the fight with the rival ship, there was a storm. They were fighting in the shallow waters just down the coast from here. And the ship took a lot of damage. I guess it was stress, or there had to be some sort of complication-" The orange haired girl rubbed the back of her neck.
"My grandmother was supposed to be with her, to help her. But she was lost during the fight. Most everyone below deck was. All my mother and Milka heard days later was that the ship wrecked. Cracked right in two and crashed up here in the cove. After all the fighting had died down, Vaigali searched the ship- some of those big holes blown in the side there. Those used to be rooms. One used to be her's. He found Kei Nam had cut herself open and bleed to death. And she had her baby wrapped up in her blue bandana"
"…And the baby was Keiss."
Nadeen nodded, "And the baby was Keiss."
Layle nodded back at her, "…You know when he said he was born on a sinking ship I thought he lied."
"It's a pretty fantastic story." She smiled slightly, "But he's got pretty fantastic parents."
"…But then why is Milka so mad? If she was Kei Nam's friend-"
"Vaigali never left this cove, remember? He gave up treasure hunting. He gave up his infamy. He lost the love of his life, his ship, the crew lost someone they honored, and Milka and my mother lost a good friend. I'm certain a lot of them have thought that- that if Kei Nam hadn't cut herself open, she'd have survived."
"Yeah but then Keiss would be dead. If she couldn't deliver him, he wouldn't have survived."
She pointed at him. "And that's the tradeoff. The one that she's so mad about. Keiss and Vaigali do nothing but fight. They're like bitter enemies. Those that left to continue pirating were already mad. Those that stayed got madder as he grew older and drifted away from them. That's why he's exiled, really. It's not so much that he wants to be High Commander. Everyone around here his age as crazy stupid dreams- It's because of what was given up for him to have that dream. They feel he doesn't value it."
"What do you feel? Do you think he doesn't value this place? Doesn't value Kei Nam or Vaigali?"
The orange haired girl leaned back and tilted her gaze up toward the ceiling.
"Keiss and you are kind of similar. You don't talk about what you're feeling. But you clam up; he just lies." She looked forward again, "When he left here, he tore down Vaigali's picture off the wall, but left up Kei Nam's. When his father cleaned the room out, he left it up too. They both really value what she gave them. They're just different about it. But I know Keiss cares. I know he still cares about this place and the people here. At Leuda I kind of-"
"Yeah I know. I heard you push his buttons." He smiled at her, "Kind of a jerk thing to do, really. Telling a guy his father is dead."
"I know- but, I have to get him to crack sometimes. To remind him that he still cares." She shrugged. "But wouldn't you say, he's a lot like her. He does what he wants. He takes what he wants. He doesn't want to be tied down… Keiss is a lot like the both of them. I mean look! He even still wears the old armor Vaigali gave him and the bandana Kei Nam wrapped him up in. Milka's very cross about it, but she and the others just can't see it."
Layle pushed himself forward and slid off the bed. Nadeen turned to him questioning. "What's up?"
"I'm going to go find her."
"…Who?"
"Milka!" He turned to her. "I'm going to go find her and talk to her."
"Oh no, no no-" the orange haired girl got up. "Don't you dare."
"Why not?"
"Layle! Milka is a pirate. Don't cross her. Just let her be bitter and angry and-"
"Look I'm just going to talk to her, okay? No fighting. Not like she could take me anyway." He crossed his arms. "I may have lost to Vaigali, but to be fair, he's like twice my size and I was tired. I can take Milka with my hands tied." Nadeen's lips twisted at the statement and glanced at the metal links between his wrist. "Come on, that was kind of funny."
"Layle, Milka doesn't need to physically fight you." The girl tapped her neck, "You saw her mark, right? The skull for murderer. The crown for queen. She is literally called 'kill queen'." The girl crossed her arms. "And she did it all from her look out nest. The woman can shoot and man dead faster than you can cast a spell."
"Well then," Layle smiled at her, "I'll just have to start my conversation off with a spell already going."
- 49
- 50
- 51
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The Crystal Rule