Living underground with mostly men for over a year had taught her that being nice won’t help at all in a war. Ashe used to be the type of woman who couldn’t turn away from a person that needed help. She felt it was her duty to help a needy person, but ever since so much had been taken away from her that year, she became lost, not knowing what she should do. Her heart was full of doubts, and of regrets.

The Resistance became the only source of family, or the closest to being a family, to her. She didn’t consider herself to be their leader most of times, because they were her family, and in a family everyone gets their part in leading. The experiences that she had made her a tough woman, who was both strong and independent. Ashe did not rely on anyone to do anything for her. Therefore she did not like to take any obstacle being thrown at her, and would rather would deal with it her own way. She wouldn’t let the nightmare of everything taken away from her haunt her soul again, not anymore.

A woman could gain a lot by losing everything.

Ashe had been walking for about ten minutes now; she was trying to find a way back to the streets of the run-down city of Rabanastre. With the trusty blade at her side, she was ready for anything.

Suddenly, Ashe heard footsteps of what sounded like metal armors clanking against the cement of the sewers. It turns out that a small number of Imperial Guards had followed her down to the Garamsythe Waterway when she didn’t notice.

The five men in armor surrounded her as she turned around. To her instinct, she instantly pulled out her sword and put on her battle stance.

“Now we have her!” One of them yelled out.

She angrily slashed at one of the soldiers; he dropped from the ledge as a result.

“Who would be next?!” She cried. The soldiers came closer to Ashe as a group; she thought of fighting the four of them but realized that she was outnumbered.

“Close ranks! Bring her down!” The soldier closest to her yelled, making them approach Ashe even closer, forcing her to almost fall off from the ledge to the ground fifteen feet below.

Suddenly a voice called out, “Jump down! Hurry!”

She looked back down and saw a teenage boy with blonde hair who was accompanying an older man and a beautiful Viera. Ashe hesitated for one second as she wasn’t sure if the boy would be able to catch her or not, but this was no situation to think. She quickly jumped down from the ledge, and was safely caught by the boy, though he slightly stumbled.

Ashe blushed as she quickly remembered that her skirt was short enough to let anyone standing below her to see underneath. She flushed with embarrassment as she looked into the boy’s eyes when she was still on his arms. She wondered if he had looked ‘underneath’ when she was jumping down, and her face was clearly giving away her embarrassment. The boy had no idea what was happening or why the young woman was blushing terribly. He let her down and the guards came towards them, forcing them to engage in combat.

“Our ranks grow by the hour,” the Viera remarked.

“And our troubles with them.” the older man added.

The soldiers and the group engaged in a four-on-four fight. The group quickly emerged victorious as the soldiers were no match for them.

The teenage boy came up to Ashe, “You all right?” he asked.

“Thank you.” Ashe replied. She looked at her allies to see that the boy wasn’t too much younger than she was. The older man seemed like he was a little older than her by three or four years. She had no clue how old the Viera was, because she never could tell a viera’s age before, and she wouldn’t be able to right that instant either.

“I’m Vaan, and this is Balthier and- hey!” Vaan stopped short on his sentence as the man called Balthier was silently turning the opposite direction, trying to walk away from them. Ashe did not mind Balthier’s action, because clearly he wasn’t interested in her company, or was he?

“What’s your name?” Vaan continued. Looking at the young man’s face, she knew that he was longing for an answer. She wanted to tell him her real name. Ashe, she thought inside her head when Vaan asked. However, she quickly recalls the advice Vossler gave her when she first went underground with the Resistance. “Majesty, you must remember to never use your real name, not to anyone but me.” Ashe nodded at his words then, and now she must stick with it.

“Amalia.” She responded, giving him the alias she had been using for the past year. “Amalia, huh? Nice to meet you.” Vaan praised.

“There were others with me.” Ashe informed them, a tone of sadness was presented in her voice.

“I’m sorry.” The Viera replied. She was slightly comforted by the apology the Viera gave her. Ashe still didn’t know her name, however.

“No…” she sighed as a sign of guilt when she left her allies up at the palace garden.

Suddenly, the magicite in Vaan’s hand started to glow, giving a faint radiance.

“Huh?” he inquisitively said to his own surprise.

“Oh, now isn’t that impressive?” Balthier raised one of his eyebrows when he saw the jewel glowing.

Vaan frowned at Balthier, “Don’t get any idea, I said it’s mine.”

Balthier gave Vaan a smirk and replied, “I think the jury’s still out on that one.”

Ashe noticed that the stone was one of the Palace treasure, she remembered seeing it when she was a child.

“You stole that?” Ashe hissed, she wasn’t really fond of thieves, at least not the ones who stole from her palace.

“Yeah!” Vaan excitedly exclaimed. Ashe gave him a frustrated sigh and looked away.

“Have you finished? When the guards don’t report in, they’ll come looking for us,” the Viera told the party.

“If they haven’t already.” Balthier interrupted.

“You should come with us, rather than being by yourself.” Vaan told her. She did not like thieves her whole life, to start now would be a little late. However, being in the situation she’s in, she will need as much help she can get. She didn’t want to bother them, but she had no choice since she did not know the ways around the sewers.

“Very well.” Ashe stoically remarked and walked past between Balthier and Vaan.

“What’s wrong with her?” was all she heard Vaan said, she faintly smiled because of Vaan’s childish company and Balthier’s witty one. She still couldn’t figure out the quiet Viera who was accompanying them, though she knew that the Viera was quite a nice lady.

The party soon approached Ashe, she turned around and reported, “The situation requires I accept such help I can find, though it be from thieves.” The comment earned her a squint of the eyes from Vaan. “I shall accompany you until we find my companion. No longer.” She continued, resting her chin on a fist.

Balthier then explained to Vaan that unlike Fran or himself, she won’t be taking orders from anyone, and will leave when she pleases.

So Fran was her name, Ashe thought.

“I doubt we’ll find her wanting in valor, being such an upstanding member of the Insurgence.” Balthier continued explaining to Vaan.

“Resistance.” Ashe quickly corrected him.

Minutes later, the four continued deep into the Waterway, with Vaan leading and Fran right behind him, Ashe was the third and Balthier was right behind her.

Watching her from behind, Balthier couldn’t help but make a comment about Ashe’s clothing, or more likely the very short skirt she donned.

“Interesting attire,” he remarked.

“Meaning?” Ashe replied, not turning around.

“Interesting attire.” He repeated himself, this time emphasizing the word “interesting”.

Ashe rolled her eyes in respond to Balthier’s comment, All men think alike, she thought. This had happened before in the Resistance, where many men had commented the way she dressed. It wasn’t really her fault since Dalmasca had such a hot climate. She didn’t want to get all sweaty inside the long clothing when she fights, that’s why she had chosen to wear this instead.

She then started to walk slower than Balthier so that he was in front of her. Balthier understood that he had offended her, he then put his hand on his forehead and shook his head, smiling.

“How did you know that I was in the Insur-err, Resistance?” Ashe questioned him.

“Seeing as how you are alone, fighting enemies to protect yourself, I can tell.” Balthier replied. Ashe smiled at his words; she liked how he thought of her as an independent person. “Plus what would a citizen be doing fighting Imperials in the Waterway anyways?”

“Why are you down here in the Waterway? Is it because you came to the palace to steal?” She asked, tilting her head to one side.

“Well, I am a sky pirate after all,” he said, “However, I only steal from ones who deserve it.”

“So you think that the palace deserves to be robbed?” Ashe gave an awkward look towards Balthier.

He closed his eyes and smiled at her words, shaking his head, “No, it’s the Imperial that deserves to be robbed,” he resumed, “They have taken away so much from the innocence, of the people as well as of the royals. Therefore it’s only fair that we take their treasure and claim them as our own.” Balthier explained, he then continued, “Of course, if you think about it, they wouldn’t really lose anything because it wasn’t even theirs in the first place,” he shrugged his shoulder, and raised a corner of his mouth, forming his usual smirk. “Don’t worry, Amalia, I’m sure that I hate the Empire as much as you do, if not more.”

Ashe was surprised that even though she and Balthier think about the Empire differently, they both hate it equally. His words made Ashe feel good inside, because to her it was better to have someone whom she can share her thoughts with, rather than being alone and not have others to talk to. Loneliness was what Ashe hated the most. She was lonely once, not very long ago.

“Thanks,” she replied with a smile.

When the party opened the gate to the Overflow Cloaca, the Mist gathered, generating heat. Ashe jumped at a fireball flying near her. Fran then put a hand on Ashe’s shoulder, calming her down. “Thank you,” Ashe said.

“Are you prepared to fight?” Fran asked her. Ashe nodded her head and smiled at the Viera.

The fireballs soon merged together to reveal an enemy called Firemane. None of them expected to encounter a fire element enemy in a Waterway. The battle was quick, but Ashe had bore minor burns from the battle, she took care of that as she readied a Cure spell.

To everyone’s surprise, a voice called out from the upper floor, “Stand where you are!”

Ashe looked up and saw that an army of Imperials have surrounded them; Vayne Solidor then stepped out from behind the soldiers. Ashe quickly gasped and stepped up, Balthier immediately grabbed Ashe’s arm, holding her back. She knew what he was trying to do so she didn’t resist.

“Now is not the time.” Balthier said to Ashe. She turned her head around half way and looked into his eyes, giving him a signal that she wanted to go and attack Vayne. Balthier looked at her and shook his head.

Ashe then quickly remembered that Vayne was supposed to be at the palace, where Vossler and his men were. If Vayne is here, then Vossler… Ashe quickly stopped on her track to try not to think of negative thoughts.

Her eyes burned with rage when she looked into Vayne’s eyes, he gave her a smirk, but it wasn’t like Balthier’s; Vayne’s smirk had full of evil intentions written on it.

The Imperials soon came down to arrest the party, and then they escorted the four to Rabanastre. They were cuffed and forced to walk in front of spectators, pointing and talking about them. Ashe couldn’t help but overhear some of the conversations.

“They’re the thieves who stole into the Palace.”

“Is that the commotion last night was about?”

Ashe couldn’t believe it was already early morning of the next day, but the most unbelievable thing was that she was mistaken for a thief. She didn’t understand how the people of Rabanastre did not recognize their princess’ face, but in truth, she thanked God that they didn’t, because if they did it would only lowered her advantage of going into hiding.

“They think me some common thief.” She complained.

Balthier then stepped back from where he was, leaning his head back toward hers, “Better than a common assassin,” he replied, pointing the remark to the Imperials.

A guard then roughly pushed Ashe in front of the group, forcing her to walk. She looked back at the guard, “These people have done nothing. Release them!” she commanded the soldiers.

“What are you doing?” Vaan asked her.

She turned her head to face Vaan, “Don’t interrupt me, I’m thinking.” Ashe impatiently said to Vaan, she felt kind of guilty that she treated the boy like that, but in a situation like this there is no time for guilt. Vayne was just walking right behind her, she tried her best not to look at him, and she carried a frown of hatred on her face.

Ashe was then escorted, or rather forced, into an airship that looked vaguely familiar to the Ifrit, but it was actually called the Dreadnought Leviathan; a sky prison created by the Empire.