[center][h3]Ms Fortune[/h3]
[b]Level 2[/b] Nadia (18/20)
[b]Location:[/b] Limsa Lominscuttle Town – The Drowning Wench (Dinnertime)
Blazermate's [@Archmage MC], Bowser's [@DracoLunaris], Ace Cadet's [@Yankee], Hat Kid's [@Dawnrider], Frog's [@Dark Cloud]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 630[/center]

Maybe he was just trying to reassure her, but Nadia found that Link's words set her a little at ease. She didn't know much about fate or destiny, but if anyone knew what awaited Linkle, it had to be the man who shared both her name and world of origin. Plus, Nadia figured that things simply must work out for Linkle in the end. If such a nice and well-meaning girl truly met a dismal end purely on account of her own desire to do good for other people, it would just be too cruel.

Frog appeared as Bowser left, the King Koopa no doubt headed to find the new friends still stuck at the Pirate's Cove. Peach wanted to help them as well, feeling guilty even for listening to Nadia's story of her travails in the Dead Zone and getting something to eat. Bowser ended up heading for the bar to get food to go, so she found herself with a moment to answer the amphibian. “Well, uh...it was pretty easy,” Peach admitted. “Most people we come across and manage to free recognize what's been done and want to set it right, or at least take their revenge. So we end up pooling our resources, and before you know it we've got a whole army.” With some boxed chow on his person Bowser made for the exit, and the princess stood up to follow. “Sorry, I've got to go. I'd like to get to know you better sometime. I'm Peach, by the way.” She gave a brisk wave at everyone present, then hurried to join the sea monster on his trip across the city.

The sight of Link nearly spitting up his milk made Nadia giggle. “Nyahaha, guess not! Least, not in my world's sense. But eatin' bugs can't be good for ya. Yuck, fur-get that!” He went on to make the logical connection that she possessed a parasite of her own, but Nadia rewarded his hypothesis with a shake of her head that sent her platinum blonde hair swinging. “Nuh-uh.” She dropped one hand, which proceeded to crawl across the surface of the table in a circle, and rested her head in the other. “It's the Life Gem that keeps me alive! Took it off those bastard Medicis, and boy were they pissed. If I didn't swallow it I woulda died when they hacked me to pieces, but here I am.” Her tone grew uncommonly vehement when she mentioned the Medicis, but it quickly faded to ruefulness. “I was gonna use the Skull Heart to bring back my family. The Fishbone Gang. Raised me ever since I was a kitten...” In her current state she couldn't suppress her emotion. Her increasingly tremulous voice broke, and she could feel tears welling in her eyes. 

Because of the choice she made today, she would never see their faces again. Never see their smiles or hear their raucous laughter. Never share a meal, and never watch another sunset. Though they died years ago, she never came to terms with that reality, always figuring that the long-sought Skull Heart would bring them back. But now they lay forever beyond her reach. Nadia blinked back her tears. “Bah, look at me makin' a mess. If they saw me like this they'd laugh until they were cryin' too.” With a final sniff she shook her head, then extended her step. Muscle fibers lashed out to sink into the end of her hand and reel it in to smack into place. She gave her hand a playful spin as if to tighten it into place, flexed her fingers, and stood. “Ya know what, I think I'll get seconds. Who knows when I'll get another chance, right?” She planned to get order another helping of seafood.

[center][h3]Edge of the Blue – Limsa Lominscuttle Town (After Dinner)[/h3]
[@Zoey Boey][@DracoLunaris][@Archmage MC][/center]

The sight of an Abyssal Water Princess sent both Brineybeard and Shippy into a panic, with the vessel in particular growing visible angry as it turned to face her way. But the former pirate did not issue any orders, instead watching Bella like a hawk. Neither her words nor their tone escaped him, and Junior's declaration did not go unnoticed. Bella's concern -fear, even- seemed genuine, and though wary and uncomfortable he let her be. Keeping one eye on the Abyssal he leaned over Shippy's railing to get a better look at Sakura's condition. His expression did not inspire a surge of confidence. “She be concussed most like. Bruised 'n battered too.” He disappeared, but returned soonafter with a bottle he left his ship to present to Junior. The trepidation with which he approached Bella made it quicker for the prince to come to him. “Vulnerary,” he explained as he handed the medicine over. “It'll do 'er good, but she's gotta rest to let 'er brain recover.” 

“Merci, monsieur!” Bella thanked him. Though rising from a kneeling position presented great difficulty, with the support of her tail she could do it, and gave the captain a bow. “I owe her my life. She is...extremely precious to me. If there is anything...” with a gasp she descended back to her knees. “Nuh...er, anything I can do. Please let me know.”

The clomp of feet on the wooden pier heralded Ranger's arrival. Brineybeard squinted. “Hmm...settin' aside that twisted metal...ah! Ahoy Ranger, my apologies fer not recognizin' ye at first.”

“Oh hey, Mr. Beard. Been a while,” the ship smiled.

Bella looked between the two. “You know each other?”

Nodding, Ranger told her, “Since I'm a teacher, and records are a mess, I make sure to try and get as much information as I can for my students. He's an excellent source on all sorts of old-timey topics, mostly maritime. The last pirate...”

Brineybeard rubbed his head. “Arr, I ain't a pirate no more, lassie, I been keepin' me work honest.” He turned his attention to Sakura. “Be she lookin' any better?”

It was around that time that movement on the other end of Pirate's Cove caught Bella's eye, but when she looked over she was relieved to see Peach, as well as two other trailing her in the manner of accomplices. The machine and the shelled seabeast certainly didn't seem like Limsa inhabitants, although truth to be told Bella couldn't say what that entailed. Rather, she supposed she noticed their eyes, and assumed them to be friends of the cause. Peach hurried over, running down the dock until she could jump aboard the Ganryu-maru. “You must be the one needing my help,” she addressed Ranger.

“You're Peach?” Ranger's visible eye filled with pleading as she thrust her hands forward. “Then please, get this out of me! Whatever it takes, I need it gone!”

Peach answered her with a solemn nod. “Of course. Hold still.”

Ranger raised her brows. “What, right he-WHOA!” She jolted as the princess thrust her fingerlessly gloved hand straight inside her, like someone reaching into a tide pool. Paralyzed, she could only wait until Peach's fingers closed around something and she abruptly yanked it out. A burst of light came off the ship as she changed back to just how she used to be, and with relief she felt the familiar contours of her typical face. “Ohhhhh, thank goodness. If I ever do that again I must be far, far more careful.”

With furrowed brows Peach peered into the spirit she held between thumb and forefinger. She also spared a glance at Sakura, noting her rigging and other changes. “Yeah, this is just a flat-out monster. Fusion means taking the powers but also appearance and personality of the spirit, so do it wisely. That matter asode...” she reached out her hand. “It's good to meet you.”

“Likewise!” The teacher shook her hand heartily. “I'm Ranger. This is Bella and Rika. After Sakura freed them, they gained a sort of new awareness, and they're on our side.”

Peach studied the two, intrigued. “I see. It might be hard to convince the navy and citizens of that. As I'm sure you've realized.”  She looked out to sea and the horizon beyond, then back to Bella and especially Rika. If they were going anywhere they needed something to wear. “Well, it's getting going to be cold and dark soon. We could spend some money to get clothes from Hawkers' Alley so you could slip up to join the rest of us at the Mizzenmast.”

For a moment Bella found herself quite overwhelmed. Where did these people get such understanding, and such generosity? “Y-you're too kind,” the Water Princess stammered. “Really. But I can't even walk. There's a cabin on the ship that would do just fine.”

Peach sent a furtive glance at Bowser. On the way over she avoided speaking to him, but if he wanted to endear himself to her, here was a way. “If only there was someone well-versed in the art of carrying fair maidens around.”

Just then, a tremendous white light filled the eastern sky. Over the peaks of the mountain ridges and the towering trees of the Dark Forest it loomed, terrifying in its size and power. Peach stared until her eyes hurt, as mesmerized as she was horrified, then averted her gaze. After a few moments Bella found her voice. “What...what is that?!”

“The bomb...” Peach breathed. “Judging by the map...that must be it.” Like the others she failed to catch a glimpse of Galeem, being at sea level and their view of the Lord of Light blocked. “Well,” she said at length. “Another one down?”

[center][h3]Edge of the Blue – Limsa Lominscuttle Town (After the Explosion)[/h3]
[@Zavazggg][/center]

Though she lingered on the edge of the alleyway for only a moment, Scharnhorst made up her mind quickly. Her, unable to brave the dark of a simple shortcut so that she might rejoin her sisters in celebrating victory all the faster? Unthinkable! “Hmph!” she sneered, her disdain purely directed at her own momentary apprehension. “I will never back down! Just you wait, Gneisenau. This vintage will blow your choice out of the water!” After tossing her exceptionally long violet hair, the [url=https://azurlane.koumakan.jp/w/images/0/02/Scharnhorst.png]eyepatch-wearing soldier[/url] couched the bottle she carried and took off at a jog between the dockhouses.

She never knew what hit her. Sephiroth's blade sank through her back as he landed on her with his full weight, driving the point through her body and into the planks below. A gasp of shock rattled from her lungs, and the wine bottle fell from her limp hands to hit the blood-speckled boards with a bump. With the last of her strength she instinctively willed her cannons to fire, but she had left her rigging behind for the party. Her head fell, with her hair strewn all about, and she began to dissolve into ash. In a few moments, only her spirit remained. The proud, warlike Scharnhorst had been assassinated without so much as a chance of fighting back.

But the noise of Sephiroth's impact had not gone unnoticed. He could hear noise in both dockhouses, and both featured doors leading to the alley. Only a scant few moments remained in which he could make an escape without things getting messier.

[center][h3]Frozen Highlands – Ice Fields Outside Snowdin[/h3]
[@Gentlemanvaultboy][@darkred][/center]

The Stranger landed without a hitch, but he quickly realized that he set down on uneven footing. At first he thought that the Skullgirl had taken leave of her senses in desperation and resorted to bombarding him with everything she had to try and take him down. When the ground beneath his feet shuddered, however, his mockery froze in his throat. Even for someone used to grappling with snow and ice, he quickly found it harder and harder to keep his balance. With a start he realized—for the first time perhaps, this girl wasn't doing something foolish after all. He glanced back at the yawning black crevasse, into which copious amounts of snow and ice chunks were falling. If she couldn't kill him, she meant to bury him instead.

He laughed, and gathered himself to jump. “Finally, usin' your brain.” In a plume of frost he leaped skyward once more, with the last of the ground beneath him shattering as he did, and a flurry circled his enemy's position. Evading it would prove no more difficult than last time, but this time she could weaken the area further with another volley of bombs. A moment later, when the Stranger crashed down, his weight and strength carried him straight through the fragmented ice. Surrounded by wintry shards, he vanished into the depths below.

For all the aching in the Skullgirl's neck, however, the ravine couldn't be that deep. If nothing obstructed his path he would surely rise again.