Beuce's frustration grew with every word in the trial. He'd suspected it was going to be rigged, but he never realized just quite how obviously it was going to be rigged. If they were planning on just locking them up and throwing away the key regardless, and being extremely unsubtle about that being their intentions, why bother with the trial at all? Who was this for? He looked to AJ as he spoke. "Seems like Alexander is the only real actor up there. The other two can't be bothered to even try to be subtle about it." The next trial was about to start. At this point, there wasn't a whole lot that could be done during the trial. The most they could do was try and figure out a way to get them out. If he could just summon his keyblade, he could unlock all the doors and get them out of their cells. He could probably even unlock their bracelets.
Beuce gave a deep sigh as "bob" left. Why did they always attract people like this? He made a mental note to ask about Quill's homeworld, but Kel seemed to have mostly finished that conversation before he had much chance to interject. He nodded at the man to reaffirm his agreement. Beuce deeply inhaled through his nose. The trials were about to start. He knew there wasn't going to be anything fair about them, but he needed to get his friends out nonetheless. He looked to Kaida, who was first on the chopping block. "We'll be there." He left the room without another word and headed to the elevator, ready to attend the trial.
Beuce raised an eyebrow at this stranger. He clearly didn't know the group very well. "They're one of the reasons their homeworld was destroyed? Yeah they'll fit right in the club then. Look Bill, I don't know who you are, but you are incredibly shady, approached us out of nowhere at a time when we need to watch our backs, and come giving us cryptic hints about 'I know who the mole is'. Which, I don't know if you'd know this, but it's exactly what the people we're against have been doing. Case in point..." He gestured to Vanitas. "And if you do know who the mole is, or hell, that there was a mole in the first place before this conversation, it likely means you're working with them. So there's literally no reason for us to trust you." He said frustrated. Their enemies were growing by the hour. Not to mention the circumstances growing worse. "Right I almost forgot.." He looked to Kaida and nodded to the grim looking fellow in the cage nearby. "Who's he?" They could use all the allies the could muster it seemed.
Beuce glared at Vanitas, who seemed to imply that the traitor was in the room with them. Even if he were telling the truth, it wouldn't change anything he did. Besides, he trusted Kaida. He didn't think she would ever betray that trust. Eventually, Faust and one of the other prisoners were let out. He didn't know the other one, but Aux seemed to and instructed Kel to watch over him. Beuce was honestly lost on that whole series of events and had too many other things to do to figure it out now. He made a mental note to ask Kel about it later though. The newly released prisoner who he did have business with though, was Faust. The man walked up to him and asked for more information about Karina. "Yeah, that's her. about yea high, black hair, blue eyes." He did feel that need to warn him, though. He couldn't in good conscious send him on a suicide mission like this without it. "Oh and...I should warn you, she'd probably in a particularly foul mood right now, so make sure you're ready to duck. She might cave your face in if you don't. If you get back, I'll treat you to somewhere the next time we get the chance." He smiled as he gave a sincere offer. "Oh, that reminds me. One last thing. We're currently entirely unarmed. I don't know if you'll ever need if, but better overprepared than underprepared." He reached deep into his pocket and withdrew from it a sharpened stick. "I once beat up an old lady with this thing. It's not much, but it should do the job in a pinch." He handed the makeshift tool of destruction to Faust, before being promptly addressed by one of the strangers in the room. The other person visiting. "...And you are...? Someone we should be concerned about overhearing things?" He said suspiciously. This guy was incredibly sketchy, but if he were working for any of their various adversaries, he was either incredibly confident or not very bright. In either case, Beuce didn't want him interfering with anything, and resolved to take care of him.
Beuce's eyes widened as Kaida began to be electrocuted at her outburst. "Holy *Kupo* Man. I knew this place wasn't good but I didn't think it went this far." He said concerned. Beuce lowered his voice into a whisper. He assumed they were being listened to and didn't know if this would even work, but it was worth the try. "I do see your point though. Spot on impression, by the way. We can't summon our keyblades, even those of us on the outside, so I can't imagine she can. If we had our keyblades I don't doubt we could fight our way out of this, but we don't. Karina is strong, but she's not so strong as to rip her way out of this bare-handed. Which means she's still on the ship. I need to attend the summit and your trials soon, so I'm going to send Faust to look for her." He raised his voice once again. "Try not to die in here before we get you out."
"Well, There's Kel and I here. Earlier we were with Luna, Ananta, and AJ. We suspect that there's been some foul play with Karina, though. Her father is here and seems to be one of the head honchos on the ship." Beuce frowned at the thought. "I don't know how much you know about him, but that isn't good news. According to him, Karina trashed the place and ran away." Beuce turned to Faust. "It's not all bad news. According to him, you're being let out as a show of good faith. The rest of you will have to wait for the trial, but don't worry. We'll prove your innocence beyond even a rigged trial." Beuce squinted at the prisoners "Unless you're the mole that is..." His expression brightened up again. "No but seriously though you'll be fine."
Beuce sighed at Kel's question. "Well, there's a lot to be done. Obviously our first priority should be to get them out, but I also need to attend the summit meeting. There's...someone I know there. My clash with them has been a long time coming, and it looks like it's finally getting close. I suspect they'll be there. So that's something. Really, it depends on how much trouble we need to go through. We still need to find Karina as well, but I don't think there's really a whole lot more we can do for her at the moment." He said to his blue-haired friend. Finally, the elevator doors to the prison cells opened and he walked inside. The cells were barred at the front and divided fully to the sides. It didn't take him long to find the people he was looking for, as they were mostly toward the entrance. "There you are! Is everyone alright?" He rushed over to the nearest cell containing someone he knew, being Kaida. "Hey. Glad to see you're not dead. They didn't hurt you did they?" He looked across the other cells to see who was accounted for. Each of his friends that was confirmed took a bit of weight off. They weren't in a good position, but at the very least he knew where they were and that they weren't dead. "We'll get you out. Don't worry."
Beuce stared in at the destroyed room. It was certainly a thorough trashing of the place. He thought about what could be the cause of it. Initially, one might think that it was very in character for Karina to destroy everything and berserk her way out, but Beuce knew better. She wouldn't just leave them. Not after the conversation, she'd had with him. She wouldn't just up and leave them. If she did though...Beuce began to wonder if it may have been his fault. If she'd run off due to his apprehensiveness to accept her confession. He resolved to have more faith in her than that, but there was still a shadow of doubt over his heart. "Well, you're the most well equipped to find her. I'd be more than happy to search, but we'd essentially be running around aimlessly. Please, let us know if you find her." He said to Alexander. He didn't mean a word of it. He didn't believe Karina had run away. And if she had, he didn't believe the man would let them see her. For now, he had other things to worry about. He couldn't abandon the others in the SOS now. "For now, would you be willing to show us to the prison?"
Beuce listened with intent at the list of crimes. The charges seemed wildly varied in severity. Stratos' being in particular strange, especially given that Meso, a name he recognized from Stratos' recounting of his homeworld, was also there on the exact same charges. Then finally, he got to Kaida. Beuce narrowed his eyes. If he were to assume they were true...That would imply Kaida was, in fact, the traitor. The keyblade master didn't know what to make of this, and so his only real option at that point was to assume it was another of Xeres' tricks, made to sew discord into the group. He'd look more into it later, but for now, he had a more immediate goal. He approached the locked door and took a deep breath. It was time to find out if there was a trap behind it or not. He raised his glass arm and knocked on the door, make three distinct chiming sounds as the mystic glass collided with the door. "Karina, if you're in there, it's me. Kel and I came to see you." He said softly. He honestly didn't truly believe she was even there, but deep down he still hoped that she was. He would be able to see that she was safe. That her father hadn't whisked her away to some dungeon somewhere. But more than that...He just wanted to see her.
Beuce walked beside Karina's father as the pretenses all fell down. Beuce sighed. So Faust was in prison as well. How many of their friends were detained? "Well sir, with all due respect, It has less to do with what was said about us and more what was said about you. You must understand the opinion we'd have of you starting out. You don't exactly have a stellar reputation. I said that as much to see your reaction as you brought it up in the first place to see ours. You should understand the merit in sizing up an unknown party before putting everything on the table. Though it seems you've already done your research." Beuce said, relatively respectfully. At this point, he had to assume he was on the back foot. The general clearly knew more about the situation than he did, but he couldn't have had all the answers. Otherwise, why would he need to size them up like that? He didn't know what the general needed to figure out, but he knew he had to keep him from doing it. "You said...Faust was being detained? How many of us are down there, and what did they do? If Aux is with them, I understand that. He wasn't in control of himself at the time, and circumstances have changed so that he'd no longer a danger, but you may not have been aware of that. You see when...When..." Beuce stopped his his tracks. What did happen to change Aux...? Beuce's face filled with immediate concern at his inability to recall those events, not even looking at the general anymore. 3/30
Beuce mentally cursed, Xeres having declined his invitation for a trick. He spouted more lies about how he wasn't the bad guy Karina made him out to be. He knew what they must've thought of him, and knew his lies were unlikely to get through to them. The chances that Karina was actually in the upper barracks were very slim, but they had to investigate all the same. AJ seemingly joined in on their mental game, but Beuce wasn't entirely sure they were even doing the same thing. It was like someone bringing uno cards to a poker tournament and expecting to win. The boy passed him some sort of hidden message about the parlor tricks being...from the mountains... The conversation grew silent for a solid ten seconds as Beuce just stared at AJ, trying to grasp any semblance of meaning behind the words. His brain felt like it was about to short-circuit and fry if he continued any longer, so he turned back to Xeres. "Yeah I'll go. Kel, why don't you come with me. These three need to prepared for the summit meeting anyway. Oh, speaking of which, we're not holding you up are we? I'd hate for you to be late on our account." 2/30
Well, speak of the devil. No sooner had they finished their discussion on what to do about Karina's father, the man showed up. He certainly didn't seem very menacing at first glance but Beuce knew full well that it was most likely an act. He knew the kind of abuse Karina had to suffer at his hands. He listened to his words with skepticism but tried his best not to outwardly show it. As the man listed off their names, it was clear he knew a fair bit about them already. Even so far as to be able to identify their faces. Karina wasn't the type to go into that much detail about them, especially with someone she hated. She had a hard time talking to the people she did like. If that was the case, he probably got the information he had on them from their files. The unfortunate thing about that was it meant they had no way of determining exactly how much information he had on them, or even what Karina had actually said about them. They had to assume he had more information than them. Although, they did have a single advantage. The way he was lying to them meant he was trying to see their reactions. He was trying to probe them for something. If that was the case, it meant that this conversation had never been that in the first place. It was a war for information. The conditions for victory were to catch the other in their lie. Beuce cleared his throat. "Yeah. That's me. You scared me for a second there. I thought she forgot about me. Oh, and just for the record, it's actually traveling magician. I know real magic too, but I specialize in parlor tricks. Sleight of hand, that kinda thing. Do you want to see some?" And with that, it was Xeres' move. 1/30
Beuce turned back to Luna, who seemed to be the voice of reason at the moment. He gave a heavy sigh. "You're right. We need to be level headed about this. We can visit Stratos and see about getting him out at the proper time." Beuce heard a slight 'clink' sound on his right wrist. That was odd... Beuce turned to AJ to answer his question. "Luna is right. For now at least, they've given us essentially free access to most of the ship. If we go around breaking their rules, they might revoke that and it'll make everything a whole lot harder for us. First things first, we need to find Karina's dad. If anything I know about him is true, we likely won't be able to see her. But we might be able to find out where she is. If nothing else, we can find him at the summit meeting. He'll likely be representing her world."
Beuce narrowed his eyes at the nurse as she listed off the answers to their questions. His scowl grew more and more frustrated with every bit of information she told him. First, there were people from Riven here, but far from the ones he'd hoped. He would have to confront Sorenia eventually, and he knew it. He just had too much to deal with right now. If he had to face his destiny right now, he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle all of it. The weight of the situation was crushing down on him and he felt like his knees were about to buckle. Then there was Karina. If she was with her father, that wasn't good news. They had to go and get her out of his custody, and back with them. Finally, the last thing made him snap at her. "Don't call him a criminal!" He yelled, drawing the attention of everyone else in the infirmary. "Don't...say that about him. He's innocent. I know it." Beuce said before pushing past her and out of the room. "We're going to get our friends out of trouble. All of them." He stated bluntly to Luna. Once in the hall, he took a deep breath. Well, one thing at a time. Karina was likely the more immediate concern, so he figured he'd start there.
The nurse was being surprisingly helpful, given their circumstances and the fact he wasn't exactly being polite about the way he asked. "My name- Wait, Kel, your last name is Siegend? That's cool as hell." Beuce interrupted himself before turning back to the nurse. " Beucefilous Ulysses Alexander. I'm the last surviving member of Umbrae, the lower half of Riven. If there are any people here from there, i'd certainly like to meet them." He said almost jokingly. He knew there were no survivors from Umbrae, but there a small piece of him that still hoped. "Besides that, do you know where the others that were with us are? Karina Xeres, Stratos Jern Himmel?"
Beuce listened to Kel's words as he shook away the other two. "It seems like we were captured somehow. Some kind of sleeping darts and an ambush." Once he'd awoken all four of the others there, he looked over to the nurses off in the distance. "It looks like we're not alone. I'm going to go get some answers. Anyone whose feeling up to it, come with me. Be ready. We don't know what's going on, so we may have to fight our way out." As he walked over, he found a nurse not attending to a patient and tapped clasped them on the shoulder. "Hey. What's going on? What is this place? Where are the others?" The man said sternly to the unfortunate woman he'd decided to interrogate.
Beuce's bleary eyes opened to a fuzzy light. He lay for a moment, taking in the softness of the bed. It wasn't luxury by any stretch, but it was a far sight better than anything he'd slept on in recent memory. As the recent events returned to him, he sat up abruptly. He was in a hospital bed. He turned to the IV awkwardly in the corner to his left, a line leading into his arm. Once he turned to his right, he saw a row of beds, each with an IV on the right. On them were several companions who had yet to awaken. The closest to him being Luna. Rising from the bed, he took the IV from his arm and briefly winced at the pain. He put his glass hand on the girl's shoulder and shook her awake. "Hey, Luna. Are you alright? Do you know what happened?"
Raising strength and magic to 67 6 crowns remaining
Beuce, having successfully felled the rock titan, turned to see how the others were doing. Three of the titans were successfully felled, and so he took off to help with the last one. "Come on, Kaida specifically among others! We're almost through!" Arriving Luna and Ananta's corner of the tenth-dimensional super arena that somehow contained all four of these giant monsters in isolated areas, Beuce swung his keyblade at the monster. Beuce used Zantetsuken, Titan Slash, and Gravedigger since we're allowed to attack other titans I guess.
Beuce used Aerial Slam, Gravedigger, and Paradigm Shift: Excalibur
