Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Birth of the Bahamut ❯ The Forces Gather. ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4: The Forces Gather.

Thanu moaned as pain roared through his body, he could still feel sharp stabs of pain where the ice spell hit. He tried to open his eyes but could not; his nerves seemed dead except for the pain. Then he saw the child walking away from the glade. The thought of his objective in easy reach roused him enough to turn his head towards his prey but his legs would not respond. The dragon's head fell back down to the ground and he gritted his teeth in pain and anger, as if to separate his mind from the pain. Then suddenly, he heard a voice in his mind, "Stop! The boy will not be harmed!"

"Who are you??" Thanu asked. Then suddenly he howled in agony as the far more intense pain of Bahamut seeped through to his mind. He felt the near dead conscious of the proud dragon, reeling in pain from more than a spell wound. He realized that he, Thanu, was the usurper here. He had taken the body of Bahamut and pushed the eternal spirit to the side, uncaring of the damage caused to him. But there was nothing he could, he was little more than a pawn!

"I am Bahamut, I am a guardian of the Earth. You may usurp my body but you can not usurp my will! The boy will not be harmed!"

"What? Who is Bahamut? I don't understand! I have to capture the boy, or my mother will die!!" Thanu cried out, trying to get a hand on this impossible situation and being overwhelmed by the ageless thoughts of Bahamut.

"No, he has another destiny. You cannot interfere, I will not ...!!!" Thanu felt a wave of pain shoot through his mind as a familiar, far more sinister mind asserted itself over Bahamut. Suddenly the tangible spirit of Bahamut was gone, his words echoing in the ominous silence. "He has another destiny..."

"Who's there?" Thanu asked, somewhat frightfully. He could feel that lurking presence and it unnerved him. Like the Ice Spell, it seemed to draw the strength from his very bones. He felt the strength of it and he knew who it was and that was more unnerving than anything else was. "You…"

"Yes me, but who I am is not important, what is important is that you must get away. Return to the glades. Quickly!" The presence left, leaving Thanu alone in the night. He tried to rouse himself and to his surprise, he was able to. He got up, spreading his great leathery wings. Thanu leapt up. A rush of wind whistled through the night as he pumped his wings, gaining speed. He soon disappeared into the night, moonlight glinting off his metallic scales.

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The Highwind slowed gracefully to a stop at a distance from Fort Condor and all were amazed to see the fabled Condor, poking her head out from the nest at the peak of the fort. "Sir? Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" The pilot asked Cid, speaking for the rest of the crew.

The cigarette dropped from Cid's mouth, causing another stir through the crew, he stooped down, picking it up, and he looked at it, poking it. "Looks like a ordinary smoke, hmmm..." He looked up again and saw that the Condor was still there, blinking it's eyes sleepily.

Cloud took charge as usual and began walking down the slope towards Fort Condor; slowly the rest of the group began to walk forward, following him. As Cloud reached the plateau, a soldier came out, yelling for identification. Cloud yelled in reply, "My name is Cloud and we're here looking for Yuffie Kisaragi and a Red XIII!"

The soldier brightened, and beckoned for them to join him at the doorway as he motioned to someone inside. Soon, Red XIII and Yuffie came out, accompanied by another animal and a young boy who appeared to be of some importance. Yuffie yelled over the plateau, "Hey guys! We got a whole bunch of stuff to tell ya!"

Cloud and the rest of the party reached the plateau and soon were caught up on the situation. "But where then, is Bahamut?" Tifa asked, motioning towards the rockface where he had lain the night before.

"A soldier noticed that the body was gone this morning and raised the alarm. Yuffie and I went to the site and I cast a spell to see when he left but he left a long while ago, too long ago for me to have tracked him." Red XIII said.

Then the voice of Vincent piped up above the rest of the questions of the party. "You seem to have made a few new friends Red, you must introduce us." He smiled as Red XIII's dark fur went a shade deeper and Red moved over, revealing Shea.

"This, my friends, is Shea and she is one of my own people, although from a different tribe. I met her while exploring this region. She has traveled with me, helping me to get here to help Yuffie." And then he pointed his head over at Kayin, "This is the new chief of Fort Condor, his father died while saving him from Bahamut, he is also the rider of Synnoria the Condor."

"You certainly seem to be getting around Red," Cloud smiled, "But Shea, what do you have to do in all this?"

"She is trying to get her son, who has gone missing and may be in danger. She has an idea of who might have abducted him but she does not know his name, and he was not much more than parts of legends before her son went missing, now she fears he is real. She is not able to talk to you because she communicates through the mind and human minds are somewhat different from our kind." Red XIII filled in for her.

"And the Condor?" Cloud asked, with another glance at the nest where the Condor was settled down.

"The Condor returned and fought Bahamut. She was instrumental in defeating him, and got injured pretty badly in the process, but she seems to have an amazing metabolism for healing." Red XIII said.

Once again, Vincent's voice rose out, freezing everybody with its somber tone, "I have heard legends of the Condor. They say that the Condor will return to humanity only in its time of need, and I can only hope that I have remembered incorrectly." Vincent looked down, concentrating hard as if to prove to himself that he were wrong but the memory of Vincent was, in fact, a legend of another kind.

"Well shit, if that's true then how do we find this new evil?" Barret said, his baritone voice rumbling against the walls of the fort. He leaned against a rock as he rubbed his forehead, sighing. "I really would like to get back to Marlene. She's been through enough. God, it's only been a year since Sephiroth."

Cloud looked at him worriedly, he realized that all Barret had done to save the earth had put a terrible strain on him. And since he was one of seniors of the group, all of this must be putting more strain on him than on anyone else. But it surprised him to let everyone see the softer side of him that wanted to settle down and just be a family with his daughter. "I think..."Cloud began, "I think that we should look for this evil. Even if it is for nothing. But I must confess, I have felt a strange tension lately and this could be why. But anyone go home of course." He said this strictly for Barret's sake Barret simply spat on the ground and replied, "Whatever."

Red XIII shifted position on the smooth rock ground. He consulted with Shea for a moment before speaking, "Shea says that her people have talked of a new evil in their lands. An evil that has caused the very spirit of the land around to twist and warp itself. Her people do not venture near this place and the foolish few that have, never returned or came back with their minds horribly torn. It seems pretty likely that this could be the place, since its appearance at the same time as the theft of our materia."

"Hey guys, just curious but if Bahamut has been brought under the power of this madman, or her, does that mean that Bahamut Neo is under the same spell? I mean, `Neo is considerably more powerful so where's he?" Cid said as he exhaled a long plume of smoke from his lungs.

"Hmmm, not unless this evil being is saving `Neo for a special purpose, maybe to augment his own powers." Red spoke as he conversed with the great mountain cat. "Shea tells me that the dragon had been seen in the valley, she was about to send out a scouting party when her son disappeared."

Kayin, who had been remarkably quiet during the conversation, looked up from his thoughts and spoke to the party. "Synnoria believes that we should head out now with all speed but not to the mountains, but to the sea for there is something of great urgency there but she knows not what it is." As he spoke, a disturbance from atop the fort forced the party to look up, the Condor, Synnoria, had rousted herself from her nest and was now gliding to a smooth landing upon the plateau. "It's not the evil we want but it is important, this could also give us a bit of time to think about what to do with the other enemy.

Cloud looked at the great bird and as he made contact with the eyes of Synnoria, his decision was made. "We'll fly to the place Synnoria is talking about and then take care of this new threat." He strode purposefully towards the Highwind. The rest of the party went with him, Cid barking into an intercom.

Mitch warmed up the engines of the Highwind with the ease of long practice. He pressed the throttles upwards, rewarded by a smooth increase in the noise of the engines as they heated up. He wiped away a single drop of sweat, and frowned. He had never felt this nervous before a launch, not even when he and his captain had left to fight Sephiroth, and that resulted in the near death of the ship! He ran loving hands over the smooth pilot's console of the Highwind, knowing that he must love this ship almost as much as Cid. He made the sign of the cross over his breast, praying that nothing would harm the Highwind. "All ready here Sir." He reported into the intercom.

As the Highwind and its passengers slowly lifted off, the great Condor winged swiftly into the sky, heading unerringly towards its destination somewhere at sea. Kayin hung on to the long smooth feathers even as he conversed with Synnoria. "What could make this more urgent Synnoria? I just don't understand."

The somber thoughts of Synnoria reached Kayin with surprising clarity as she told him of the whispers of the land, whispers that spoke of a danger that was much closer than the evil lurking in the bowels of the mountain valleys. Synnoria expressed her confusion to him as well, the land had at first been overjoyed at something but then became afraid of that very same thing. She was too early in the world to be able to understand the whispers accurately. So she simply continued on to her objective, accelerating until even the Highwind was hard-pressed to keep up with the great Condor.

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Thanu woke up with great pain burning out of every joint in his body, he tried to move his head and was gratified to see that he was in fact alive as his tortured head viewed the twisted trees of SteelClaw, the valley of death. He looked farther to see the hunched form of a man, no, not a man, but a demon approaching him, his malice choking the air in Thanu's lungs.

"Who...Who are you?" he rasped as the being bent over him, its eyes glinting evilly.

"You want to know who I am? You, an animal; lying filthily on the ground and you want to know who I am? Very well, I will tell you and your dreams shall be plagued with my story...the story of... Belios..."