North-South Junction & Terminus No. 4

North-South Junction

Fran: The Mist seethes.

Balthier: It reeks. Something’s close.

[Basch picks up some armor and a sword from a skeleton lying nearby and makes a few practice swings.]

Balthier: Nice moves there, Captain.

Vaan: You mean “traitor.”

Balthier: So they say. But I didn’t see him kill anyone.

Vaan: My brother did.

Basch: Reks. He said he had a brother two years younger. I see. He meant you. Your brother. What became –

Vaan: He’s dead.

Basch: I’m sorry.

Vaan: It was you who killed him!

Basch: I give you my word: that was not the way of it.

[Flashback; we see random images and hear various snatches of dialogue from the night of the treaty signing]

Reks: Reks, sir. My name’s Reks. He’s two years younger than I. Living in Rabanastre.

Vossler: It’s time, Basch! Save the discussion for later.

Reks: But if we arrive after he’s signed the treaty –

Reks: Sir! We have little time! You must go to the king!

Vossler: It’s as I feared. They’re slowing us down.

[Now we see images of the real Basch, being held by Imperial soldiers out of Reks’s line of sight, while a man who looks exactly like Basch - and the same Judge who interrogated him in the Oubliette - is eyeing him smugly.]

Reks: Captain, why? Our King… what have you done?

????: His Majesty was a traitor.

[End flashback]

Balthier: A twin brother? Fancy that. But still, the pieces fit. I’ll give you that much. And he did look like you.

Vaan: I don’t believe you.

Basch: Of course not. It was my fault that Reks was there. I am sorry.

Vaan: My brother, he trusted you. He trusted you, and he lost everything. How can I believe you?

Basch: Not me then. Believe in your brother. He was a fine soldier. He fought to the last to protect his homeland. No. Surely he fought to protect his brother.

Vaan: You don’t know anything!

Balthier: Believe what you want to. Whatever it takes to make you happy. What’s done is done.

Terminus No. 4

[The party encounters the Mimic Queen. After defeating her, her death throes induce an explosion that causes the room to cave, and the party escapes as the walls crumble.]