Final Fantasy: Space Opera (Original Content)

[Xero Key]

Orbiting the star Ramuh, is the simple world of Tresian. Once the capital of a great empire, it has since fallen to a historical tourist site. Upon this world, in the shadow of the once glorious Pinnacle of Heavens, is a bustling city-world. Towers of metal overtaking the Pinnacle in heights, piercing the upper atmosphere with their peaks above the clouds.

The upper city of Tresian is one of dazzling, gleaming lights and sounds. Beauty brough from all across the galaxy, where the people of great means bring wealth and glory to share with those of like minds. It is here that the average goer of the galaxy will come and relax, always obeying the warnings of tourist agencies to never drop below sight of the clouds. That, they are told, is where the criminals are unfortunately found.

Thieves, brigands, and all the twisted beings of the galaxy short of the Arrklan and the scavengers of the wild spaces. It is common to hear the tales of the unlucky to venture below the safe and protective warmth of the upper city, never to be heard from again. Such run rampant across the seedier parts of the galaxy, but no more so than the under-city of Tresian itself.

"Come one, I heard something this way!" The water spilled from broken pipes cast an ever shifting reflection of the harsh flashing neon of police cruisers. The standing puddles disturbed by ratted shoes followed by the boots of the law. One officer paused and raised their rifle, firing a clean blue shot of sparks at their suspect.

The suspect ducked behind a corner of the alley, the shot missing their pink hair tail by centimeters and harmlessly impacting on the concrete wall in a burst of static. The officers continued chase, radioing ahead to cut off any access point to the alleyways. "Freeze!" The headlamps of their helmets pierced through the darkness and captured their quarry before a wall rising several stories. "Nowhere to go now punk." The lead officer growled, stowing their weapon and drawing energy manacles.

The suspect raised their arms above their spiky haired head. They turned to reveal themselves to the officers, a young male with pointed and scarred ears. The most prominent thing about him were his eyes, pale white iris set in optics so blue they practically glowed even with the blinding lights from the officers' lamps. The young man had a smirk on his face, even as the lead officer grabbed his arm and turned him back around, face flat against the wall. "What seems to be the problem officer?" He joked even as the manacles were put on his wrist.

"Don't get smart with me, azure. You know what you did." The officer growled, pulling him off the wall and leading him to the others. "You aren't getting away this time."

"Really?" The man slyly asked, before giving a sharp whistle and jerking his head back into the helmet of the officer. The sudden movement forced the officer to let him go, a mistake as a new person dropped down from above on top of them. Others grabbed the officers at the mouth of the alley from behind, pulling them down to the ground. The one who dropped down pulled a small cylinder off of the officer and inserted it into the manacles, making them drop. "Took you long enough Wedge."

Wedge shook his head. "You were the one who went off the plan, Tutel." Tutel shrugged, his confident smirk never leaving his face. "Come on, Biggs and Poh are waiting."

The two ran off after their comrades, ducking into one of the many large tunnels decorating the under-city. They found Biggs and Poh crouched behind one of the overflow junctions, Poh waving at them to keep low. "Patrol ahead." She pointed out, the trails of headlamps visible in the stale dusty air.

Tutel looked around and smiled. Just beyond them was a waste management closet. "Cover me." He ordered as he snuck over the junction and into the closet, ignoring the whispers of aggravation. Inside he saw shelves of tools and bit his lip in indecision, before grabbing a bident used to remove trash from the water ways. He snuck back out of the closet and behind the officer patrol. "Excuse me!" The officers turned in shock as Tutel confidently held the staff point behind him. "Looking for someone?"

The officers batons and charged Tutel, who swung upwards with his staff, knocking two of them away and forcing the third back to avoid the bodies. Shifting his grip, he bounced forward in a downward stab that caught on the officer's breast plate. He winked with a smirk before sliding down the pole and pinning the officer down with his weight. He looked up and saw more officers heading his way, so he flung himself to the stop of the staff, and used his momentum to carry himself forward in an arc, completing it by pulling the staff along with him.

The officer yelped as they were picked up off the floor and flung towards their comrades, hurling all of them against a wall. Tutel chuckled and rested the bident on his shoulders, casually walking towards them, kicking the batons scattered along the ground away as he did so.

*Foomph!*

Tutel turned his head to the left, where another officer was shaking in their boots behind a transparent hexagonal wall. "You won't get out of here thief!" They choked out, hands outstretched to maintain the Barrier spell.

Biggs, Wedge, and Poh ran up behind Tutel, who was completely unconcerned. "Don't police have to know Shatter in case a perp blocks them in?" He questioned idly, shifting the bident back and forth on his shoulders. Everyone looked confused, until the officer leaned forward and jerked back as they got a good look at Tutel's eyes. "Try not to think about it!"

Tutel eyes lit up with an ethereal light, opening fully. The officer felt as if they were being dragged into the white void of their eyes. Surrounded by an infinite web of their own thoughts, they desperately tried to focus on anything. But the web caught them, dragged them through the Barrier spell held within their own mind and into the training behind it.
"Shatter!" Tutel swung his bident forward and the Barrier exploded into magical specks of dust. He followed it up by knocking the blunt end into the officer's helmet, sending them to the ground. He turned to his companions. "Pierce aint waiting forever!", pointing down the corridors of the tunnel with his staff.

++++​

As the four approached the warehouse that they had made their home, Tutel saw someone exit from the side dressed in a cloak. He put it out of his mind when got inside and saw his friend and leader, probably just a minor job. "Well this is a fine time to come home, innit?" Tutel looked up to the makeshift throne of engine parts under the banner of a chocobo with sharp teeth. The speaker's single row of spiked green hair contrasted with eyes that matched Tutel's own.

"Aw Pierce, don't tell me you're going all mother hen on me?" Tutel shot back, to which Pierce smirked.

"As long as the job was done, 'mommy dearest' isn't going to say a word when the chikadees are out of the nest." He hopped off the throne and and saddled up to Tutel, gently avoiding the bident as he placed an arm on his fellow mage's shoulders. "And is the job done?"

"Poh!" Tutel waved over. The girl took a pack off her back and opened it on the ground. "One Hi-Grade refinery, all for the Bokos."

Pierce laughed and slapped Tutel on the back, then gently picked up the device. "Oh yeah, this is gonna make jobs a lot easier. No more thrifty hands, just bigger jobs." He handed the refinery back to Poh and pointed to the kitchen. He patted Tutel on the chest, then eyed the bident on his back. "Just no more extra trips. Promise me that and you can have the first Potion out of the thing."

Biggs coughed. "Hey, Pierce? We got any extra gil?"

"Not unless you've been stuffing your pillow with chips." He said more than asked.

Biggs shook his hands in front of him. "No, no, no! It's just that the Alignment Festival is coming up and…"

Pierce clapped his hands. "Damn it, that's right! Listen, I've got something big planned for the Festival!"

"Like a float?" Biggs asked innocently.

"A job." Tutel said, slapping Biggs on the side of the head. "Though I'm not sure about doing one Pierce. All the big wigs of the galaxy are going to be there."

"Pfft." Pierce scoffed and waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry, it's just gonna be a prank! We do this, and the Bokos are going down in history!"

The rest of the gang cheered as their leader climbed back onto his throne, though Tutel clapped much slower. He focused on Pierce's eyes, but his leader was noticeably avoiding eye contact with his fellow blue mage.

 

[Xero Key]

Tutel yawned as he slipped out of his hammock, tied between two pipes in the old warehouse the Bokos made their home in. He picked up his bident and used it to stretch his arms and torso, removing the annoying constrictions still in his back. "Gonna need to tighten the ropes on that." He mumbled to himself, securing his bident on his back as he went into the kitchen. On the center table was a bottle full of green liquid with his name on it. "Huh, Pierce kept his promise. Gotta admit, that's a rarity."

He pocketed the potion and went into the main floor of the warehouse, finding Pierce lounging on his throne in a state that could only charitably be called 'awake'. "You know, you'll have more back problems than me if you keep sleeping on that scrap heap!" Tutel called up towards his leader.

Pierce responded with a raised middle finger, rubbing his head with his other hand. "Long night coming up with the plan."

Tutel frowned. "Are you sure about this? Anything big, our heads will roll."

"Relax," Pierce said, pulling something from a box on the side of his throne. "You think anyone is going to give us more than a couple of days over a whoopie cushion?"

In Pierce's hand was, indeed, a classic square whoopie cushion with the Bokos' logo and name crudely drawn on the rubber. "A whoopie cushion."

"Yep."

"You want us," Tutel waved his arms around at the warehouse. "To play the most singularly juvenile of pranks. At the Alignment Festival."

"Ah ah ah." Pierce wagged a finger, smiling. "Not just 'at' the Festival. On the head honchos of everything!"

"The Matriarch."

"Yep."

"The Premiere."

"Uh huh."

"All of them?"

Pierce clapped his hands, causing the whoopie cushion to expel. "All of them!" He hopped down from his throne, tossing the prank behind him. "It's simplicity itself!" He said, wrapping an arm around Tutel. "In 50,000 years at the next Alignment, the whole galaxy will still remember the precocious gang of pranksters who dared to get everyone laughing at the snobs running the show!"

He pulled Tutel in close. "Think about it. No one will be hurt, besides their pride. And it will prove that we are worth something!" Pierce gave Tutel a little shake. "Wouldn't it be nice if they offer us some 'community service' shoring up security after we get out?"

"Why the hell would they do that?" Tutel asked incredulously.

Pierce sighed in aggravation. "Because to do this, we'll need to get through everything they have set up. And since we won't hurt anyone, they'll ask advice to fix things. Duh!" He leaned in closer to whisper in Tutel's ear. "And if a couple of azures get that kind of respect…"

Tutel stopped, then smiled. "That is why you started the Bokos." He admitted while nodding.

"Exactly!" Pierce let Tutel go and spun his way back to his throne. "We do this and every blue mage in the galaxy will be looked at differently!" He pulled a notebook from under his pillow when Wedge, Biggs, and Poh walked in. "Okay, I've got the plan right here. Poh, you'll be in charge of keeping the idiots on task."

"Yes sir." Poh saluted. "And does that include Tutel Pot-Breaker?"

"Hey!"

Pierced barked a laugh. "Especially him!" He sat down at the foot of his throne and opened the notebook. "Alright, here's what we are going to do…"

++++​

The four Bokos made their way through the sewers beneath the festival grounds. Poh held up a hand to stop the others, then pointed down the drainage way. They heard rustling, water dispersing by a larger object. "We got monsters." Poh nodded to Tutel, who drew the bident off his back and crept along the passage.

Crawling along their bellies, large tails gently splashing against the water, where reptilian creatures with elongated necks. "Mini-Draks." Tutel mumbled to himself, holding up four fingers to those behind him, then clenching his fist twice. They moved in, readying their weapons, and together they pounced on the monsters. The largest of the Mini-Draks raised its head and spewed forth a torrent of glistening white smoke.

Tutel dodged out of the way, then made eye contact with the monster. He felt his eyes begin to glow, the Mini-Drak shaking its head in a confused vertigo. Tutel thrust his palms forward with a cry "Frostbite!". From his hands, a matching torrent of smoke came forth and enveloped the monster. He felt the cold of his attack seeping into his fingers the longer he kept the spray going.

Quickly becoming exhausted, Tutel rushed forward and jammed his bident down the Mini-Drak's throat before it could unleash another wave.. He flung the monster to the side, letting the others stab it to death as soon as they finished with the smaller ones. "You okay man?" Wedge asked, then looked down at Tutel's fingers. "Shit."

Tutel cringed and shakingly reached into his pocket, pulling out the Hi-Potion. With his teeth, he pulled the lid off and then chugged the healing drink. Immediately he felt the numbness of his fingers fade away. "That will do. Come on, we still have a job to do. Poh?"

Poh stepped forward and looked around, then up. "Here's our junction." He stepped back to let Wedge and Biggs form a tower to open the latch in the ceiling. Poh then climbed onto the tower and gently opened the latch enough to see, the other two starting a slow sway underneath her. "Okay, two guards. Me and Biggs will handle them while Wedge gets the door." Opening the latch further, Poh climbed out and put a hand down for Biggs to climb with. The two snuck up behind the guards and choked them out.

Tutel stuck his bident into the latch, holding it open and giving Wedge a boost to get through. Wedge then opened it all the way so Tutel could jump to the ledge and pull himself out, then rushed to the door of the building and pulled out a device. Hooking it into the security lock, Wedge opened the door. Biggs wired the communicator on one of the fallen guards into one of his own, the light on it turning orange. "Okay, I got their frequency." Biggs said proudly. "As long as we stay close together, any guards we might run across can't call for backup."

Tutel nodded and slowly entered through the door, the others behind him. There were many guards, but the few that did catch them were both no match for the team and were unable to have reinforcements. Eventually they made their way to the dignitary booth, currently with its curtains closed. Tutel snapped his fingers and Poh pulled out the whoopie cushions. "Alright, one for each of the big chairs...maybe two for the Matriarch." Tutel said, looking at the much larger throne of the religious leader.

As they gently placed the cushions in the chairs and covered them, Bigg's device began to buzz. He pulled it off his hip and noticed it was flashing between orange and green. "We gotta move! They're starting to get around the scramble!"

Tutel placed the seat of the Matriarch's throne back on and the four raced out of the building and back into the sewers. High fives were passed around as they celebrated their mission. "Okay, Pierce said to enjoy the festival. The big wigs won't be pranked till the fireworks are set to go off." Poh said, leading them out of the sewers by way of a maintenance tunnel. "Just make sure to be at the ceremony so we can take our bow!" Poh took Wedge's hand and the two ran off towards the lights of the festival.

Biggs looked at Tutel, who crossed his arms with a raised eyebrow. "I am not holding your hand." The two chuckled and followed after the couple, enjoying one of the few times they can see the sky without being on a job. Games, dancers, puppet shows, everything was very archaic to Tutel but it was meant to be. Some sort of hold over from the days before the last Alignment.

"Ooh, a battle arena!" Biggs rushed over to a circle with a fence, a barker standing in front of it.

"Who thinks they have the might to take on the toughest in the galaxy?" He asked and the crowd cheered, a few folks even stepping forward. One of them, a very muscular viera woman, was thrown out of the ring by her opponent almost as soon as the bell rang. "Ooh, that's gotta hurt!" His eyes locked with Tutel's bident. "You sir! You look like you've been in a few scraps. Wanna try?"

Biggs nudged Tutel from behind, who shrugged and got into the ring, pulling off his bident and readied himself. First, a couple of off-duty officers armed with stun batons were sent flying by Tutel's bident, then he stabbed down on small monsters like Flans, flinging them at some Colibris. "Tutel turned and smirked at the barker. "Don't tell me that's all you have?" The ground shook as something landed in the arena opposite of him. Tutel turned and then looked up.

And up.

A large, stone man cracked his knuckles as he stared down at Tutel with a glare on his blocky face. "Okay… that's good." The golem made the first move, bringing his fist down towards Tutel's head. The blue mage rolled out of the way, but was struck in awe by the cracks that formed from the golem's impact. "Yeah, can't copy that." The golem lifted a leg to stop down, and Tutel swung his bident at the opposite leg, swinging around the trunk to grab the pole at two points.

Tutel twisted himself to jump forward, moving the leg enough that when the stomp came down, the golem lost his balance and toppled over. Tutel flipped onto the golem's back and hit him in the back of the head with the blunt end of his bident. The golem tapped out, knowing that a real fight would have left him dead.

Tutel jumped off and basked in the cheering crowd. He smirked and spun his bident in his hands, then around his neck and letting it rest across his shoulders, his arms casually draped over the pole. "Thank you, thank you! You are such a kind audience!" He called out to them as he exited the ring, giving the golem he beat a thumbs up, which was half-heartedly returned. "Well that was fun. What else they got?"

Biggs looked around. "Hmm, looks like they got some Rift Horde tables."

"I don't have a deck." Tutel admitted, then blinked when Biggs held one out in his palm. "Biggs?"

"Look, I suck at it okay!" Biggs said with a pout. Tutel rolled his eyes and took the deck, walking over to a table short of a person.

The host of the table smiled like a shark. "Well, I was wondering if any were going to try." He tossed a four sided pyramid in his hand. "I assume you know the rules."

Tutel almost responded with a similar smile as he sat down. "Well, my big sister wanted to teach me but never got around to it. So take it easy on the new guy."

The host didn't stop smiling for a second, he fell for it. "Sure thing kid. First we pay our entry fee, mine's covered by the festival, and I roll this die." He held up the pyramid. "See the icons on it? That determines what icon on the card we are measuring against each other." He rolled it and one of the sides had a circle with a five-pointed curved star inside at the top and fully upright. "See, that says we are playing with Magic. Now place your deck down and draw four cards."

Everyone did so. "See at the bottom that you have three boxes. A sword, a shield, and the star I just rolled? Those are Power, Stamina, and Magic." The host placed one of his cards in his hand face down in front of him. "Now you do what I just did, and starting from my left we bet on if we think we won." The person to the host's left only put in a single gil chip, to which Tutel matched, and so did the nervous looking woman next him. "Now flip your cards over."

They did so, Tutel having a Shiva with nine while the others had a six, four, and eight. The host blinked in surprise. "Huh, looks like you win this round kid. Not bad for a beginner, but luck isn't everything."

Tutel's mouth became a small smirk. "We'll see. Last man standing right?" The host and other players looked confused. A few turns later and they were yelling as Tutel walked back to Biggs with more money in his pocket than he started, the table having none.

"You done with the card shark thing? The ceremony is about to start." Biggs ran ahead, leaving Tutel to wander through the alleys to the grounds at his own pace.

*Pfft*

Tutel looked down where he stepped, slowly raising a foot. There, with his shoe print clearly on it, was a whoopie cushion. A whoopie cushion with the Bokos logo crudely drawn on it. "Looks like they checked the seats. One of us must not have put them back well." He scratched the back of his head. "Man Pierce is gonna be disappointed."

He shrugged and continued on his way, joining the crowd in front of the dignitary pavilion waiting for the curtains to open. A child started crying and he looked to his right, a girl being held by her mother was reaching down towards the ground. Tutel looked down and saw a Cait Sith doll. He picked it up and held it out to the child. "Oh, than-" The mother's smile dropped as soon as she saw Tutel's eyes, and held her child tighter as they walked away without the doll.

"Yeah." He stuffed the doll into a pocket. "Might be worth a couple gil at a pawn."

Trumpets blared. The curtains pulled back, and the dignitaries from the five major factions of the galaxy arrived, standing before their respective thrones. The Premiere of the Galactic Allied Confederacy, a pompous looking man with a large mustache. The king of the Arkklan, a woman dressed in furs and light armor. An aged person who seemed androgynous from the Phenex Consortium. The current chair of the Unaligned Council from the disparate systems, a nervous looking man.

And finally the Matriarch of the Order of the Stars. Technically head of the religion worshipping the Astrals and ruler of Tresiana and the Ramuh system, she was a matronly woman who's motherly smile did not reach her eyes. She stepped in front of her grandiose throne and addressed the crowd. "Thank you all for joining us today. Today we forget our strife and conflicts with each other," The Premiere shifted awkwardly in his seat. "And enjoy a time of unity and celebration. 50,000 years ago, we wished to know we are not alone and the Astrals granted us all the ability to join the stars and meet."

She spread her arms wide. "And now, as the Astrals begin their alignment again, we celebrate and pray that our wishes be granted!" The crowd cheered and the dignitaries clapped politely. The Matriarch sat in her throne as the fireworks above the festival began.

But the first large explosion did not come from the sky.

The dignitary booth became engulfed in a flaming shockwave, one that sent much of the crowd flying backwards. Tutel hit the ground on his back, but he could feel that his face was bleeding above his eye. His ears rung like cathedral bells and he could hear the crying screams of the people as if from a distant tunnel.

Tutel pulled himself to his feet, and shook his head. Shrieking laughter surrounded him. All around him were floating balls of flame. "Bombs?" He blinked, then readied his bident. "Bombs!" He raced through the explosive monsters, finding more all around as well as monsters of various kinds.

"Help! We need help!" Tutel raced towards the cry, finding a girl in priestess robes attempting to lift a fallen pillar off of someone. "Please, they're trapped!" Tutel looked down and froze, his pocket feeling heavy. It was the mother and the child from earlier.

He reached down and helped the priestess lift the pillar off of them. "Come on, come on!" Don't give up on me!" He begged as he held the mother's head. She mouthed something but the words would not come out. The mother reached over to her eerily silent child, as choked sobs escaped her throat. She turned her eyes back to Tutel and gently prodded his face. "No, no, no!" Unconsciously, he felt his eyes light up.

Love.

Fear.

Worry.

...Nothing.

"We can't do anything for them now." The priestess grabbed his arm, pulling a trumpet off her hip. "We have to move before the monsters overwhelm us."

Tutel nodded. "Right… I know somewhere safe. In the under-city." The girl tensed her grip, before relaxing as she nodded. Tutel led her away and into a maintenance shaft. "I'm Tutel, by the way."

"Crystallia." The girl admitted nervously. "...I'm the Matriarch's daughter."

"Oh."

 

[Xero Key]

The neon lights of the under-city brought Tutel no comfort. Slowly he guided the daughter of the Matriarch, the new Matriarch, down below any sight of the sky. Both were on edge, waiting for the slightest noise to break them into a run. Monsters lurked around every shadow, rioters and looters hung in every door frame. The under-city of Tresian was not a safe place for the unprepared at normal times.

A war ready waged above them was distinctly abnormal.

"Um…" Crystallia shyly spoke behind Tutel. "I have heard stories about… down here."

Tutel scoffed, barely glancing behind him to acknowledge her. "You and the rest of the galaxy." The two continued on in silence. "Damn it. Every lift is locked down."

"Perhaps it would be better to go up to the surface? If we can make our way to the Pinnacle-" Crystallia offered, but stopped when Tutel fixed her with a glare.

She shrank into herself and Tutel sighed. "We'd never make it, not in that insanity." He gently pulled her along by the shoulder. "I don;t know what they tell you up top about monsters, but we deal with them down here a lot. They're drawn to chaos, destruction, panic. The Pinnacle may be the safest place on the surface, but nothing else is."

Tutel placed a hand along the walls, stopping and pulling out his bident when he found a small door. "Down here, unf! We're used to danger." He said, prying the hatch open. The hole was deep and dark, and Crystallia hid herself behind Tutel as she gazed into it. "The monster's aren't going to be as busy the lower we go, because we won't be panicking as much." He gestured down into the hole.

"Are you serious?I am not going down there." The Matriarch-rising complained.

"Well, I'm not going to be responsible for probably the last leader in the galaxy being monster chow." Tutel picked Crystallia up by the waist and jumped into the hole. He caught himself on the rung of the ladder with his free arm.

"How dare you!"

"Hey, you asked me for help, remember?"

Crystallia pouted and found her own grip on the ladder, climbing down after Tutel. The dark seemed to swallow them as they climbed, only the faint glow of Tutel's eyes illuminating anything in the chasm. "Here." He proclaimed, prying open a hatch then crawling through. Behind him, Crysallia winced as sudden light shone down from above after so long in near pitch conditions. A hand fell in front of her face.

Looking up she saw Tutel reaching down from the street above her. "Thank you." she said as he pulled her out. The flickering lights above, once giving comfort to the vagabond Tutel, only highlighted the danger now. The surface, a place that once was a place to mock for being above them, now was even more dangerous.

Tutel led them into the Bokos' warehouse, where even from outside they could hear the sounds of someone tossing metal about and inarticulately yelling. Pierce was tearing his throne apart, twin hatchets modified with stun batons on his hip. "DAMN IT!"

"Pierce!"

Pierce looked up in shock. "Tutel! You're okay!" He hopped off the remnants of his throne and wrapped Tutel in a hug, sobbing against his chest. "Wedge, Biggs, Poh… they didn't make it!"

"You were up top?" Tutel pushed his friend off his chest, gripping him by the shoulders. "I didn't see you."

"I was waiting to make my grand entrance when the bomb went off." He pulled himself out of Tutel's grip. "It wasn't supposed to be like this…"

"What are you talking about? What was not?" Crystallia interjected. Pierce looked at her, then her robes, and stumbled backwards away from the two. "Did you kill my mother!?" She looked at Tutel, stepping back in disgust. "Did you?"

"No!" They both exclaimed. Pierce swallowed a lump in his throat. "We had set up a prank, a simple harmless prank. Embarrass you noble types and get in the history books!"

"It was just whoopie cushions…" The person in the cloak! "How did you come by the gear to get us in Pierce?" Tutel's hand drifted to the bident on his back, fingers beginning to curl around its pole.

"Just some tech, nowhere important." Pierce rubbed the back of his head and would not meet Tutel's eyes.

"Someone was here, just before I got back from the refinery job. I saw them leave." Tutel took off his bident and pointed it at Pierce, one of the prongs poking him in the nose. "I didn't think about it but that tech got us into a secure government building, one of which was a comm jammer! So where did you get it!"

Pierce raised his hands and backed away slowly. "Okay, okay. That person was the one who gave me the idea. They wanted to rub the big wig's noses in the dirt."

"You helped them kill my mother." Crystallia pulled up her horn from the tie on her waist. "For a prank?"

"It wasn't supposed to be like this!" Pierce whined.

If eyes like Crystallia's were capable of murder, Pierce would have been sent to the heart of a star. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, they were filled only with righteous anger and not murderous rage. "Come with me up to the surface. If you explain who hired you, I can guarantee a lesser sentence.:

"What? No way, no way!" He pulled out his hatchets, holding them reversed in each hand. "Do you not see my eyes. Tutel's eyes!?" He shook his head, panic clear in his eyes. "They'll just blame us for everything!"

Tutel got ready for a fight. "Don't do this Pierce! She's the Matriarch's daughter, she can do it!"

"No, she's gonna toss us away as soon as she can!" Pierce sprinted forward, an axe pulling back to gouge Crystallia. Tutel jumped in front of her to block the blow. Tutel pushed Pierce back and stood protectively in front of Crystallia. "Are you kidding me!?"

Pierce raced forward again, but a melody came from Crystallia's horn. A sense of lethargy briefly passed over Tutel before fading away. He looked over at Crystallia, who had an intense look of concentration on her face. A shoe slapped against the floor. Tutel looked over and his eyes widened in surprise. Pierce was moving towards them as if he was inside a pool of water. Even now, Pierce's foot had barely reached the ground despite how fast he must have been moving when he started.

"Slow." Crystallia said as if it explained anything. "A white magic capable of altering the speed of the target." Pierce's footsteps started to come closer together and Crystallia winced, beads of sweat forming on her face. "I cannot hold it forever! If you intend to stop him, now is the best time!"

Tutel looked to Pierce, his bident, then Crystallia. "Can't we just run?"

Crystallia screwed her eyes shut and shook her head. Pierce continued to accelerate. "Now, I must hold the spell for it to affect him. Hurry!"

Tutel looked back at Pierce and shut his eyes. He bounced forward, focusing all of his mana into his landing, and used it to propel himself upwards. He gripped his bident tightly, pressing his feet against the curve of the prongs and pushing downwards. He heard Crystallia gasp and Pierce stop in his tracks.

Impact.


"AAAAGH!"

Pierce fell to the floor, pinned by the bident in his shoulder. "Y-you…" Tutel calmly, solemnly, stepped to the floor and pulled the bident out. "Argh!" He grabbed the wound with his arm, rolling to the side. Through tear and pain filled eyes, Pierce watched Tutel walk towards the Matriarch. "You… son of A BITCH!"

Tutel never stopped walking. Numb to the world as if another bomb had exploded in his face.

"You'll pay for this! Tutel! You hear me! You'll pay!" Pierce's cry echoed through the darkening warehouse and down the darkened streets of the under-city. "TUTEL!"

Crystallia and Tutel walked, making their way higher in the city. Despite his earlier protests, he did not argue when Crystallia directed him that way. He didn't do anything beyond following her orders. "Tutel…" she started as a glimmer of daylight shown between the buildings. "I meant what I said. I will do everything I can to lower your sentence."

Tutel didn't answer. He slumped himself against a wall and slid down it, his bident clanging against the ground as he did so. He reached into his pocket and shakingly pulled out the Cait Sith doll.

Love.

Fear.

Worry.

…

Tutel began to sob. His wails echoed far and wide as he clutched the doll to his chest. A deep ache coursing through every fiber of his body. The explosion, the numbness at turning away from a friend, none of it compared to what he felt now.

Countless innocents were dead. Hundreds of thousands of star systems were without their leaders. All because he tried to play a prank.

"It's all my fault… all my fault…"

Crystallia knelt next to him and pulled him into a hug. And there they laid, a boy sobbing into the chest of a woman he barely knows. Sorrow and pain shared by both of them.