Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Birth of the Bahamut ❯ Heading into Battle, A Time of Thought ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 6: Heading into Battle, A Time of Thought.

The small plateau, which had been the battleground between Cloud, Red, Shia and Bahamut, was devastated. Trees were uprooted and dirt was sprayed as far as the enclosing fog let Shea see. There was no sign of the Golems outside of the bodies that she had killed. They were crumpled on the ground, blood still dripping from the fatal wounds. But Shea was oblivious to all of this.

"My son…" Shea said her voice catching. She looked mournfully towards where he had landed so violently. "How could this have happened? Why?!" She jumped to her feet to go after her son, even though she knew it was certain death. Then she caught sight of something that made her stop. Red XIII! He was lying down in front of the prone form of Cloud. His soft red fur was charred in several places and blackened. She went to his side and he moved his head, his whiskers quivering in pain. Shea choked, feeling something that hurt more than her own wounds and she fell to his side, tears rolling down her smooth nose.

"My..p..pouch, eli…elixir….." Red managed to get out of his throat. He rolled onto his side, grunting painfully as she sniffed through the pouch, bringing out a bottle of sparkling deep blue liquid. "Poor…it over, my wounds…" Shea did so, pouring the liquid onto Red XIII's body. The liquid bubbled softly as it ran into in his wounds and trailed off into the ground; leaving the wounds bleeding still.

"Red! It's not-huh?" A blue light suffusing around his body interrupted Shea. She stepped back and whipped her head around at the scent and now sight of Kayin standing tall, his hands ablaze with magical light as he moved them in intricate patterns. The majestic Synnoria stood behind him, looking worriedly at Red XIII, pausing every now and again to peer far into the forest that the dragon Bahamut had crashed into.

Kayin smiled slightly, knowing that this was going to severely strain his powers that were bestowed upon him by the magic of Synnoria. "As long as we are together, our power is shared." He murmured softly to Synnoria. Kayin's hands brought Red XIII back from death but he was still far from full health. "Shea, the elixir you have, put it on Cloud, he was shielded enough by Red for it to cure him the rest of the way. Red XIII's injuries are too severe for simple elixirs now."

"My head feels like I've just been run through…" Cloud moaned, sitting up.

"What happened?" He shook his head as if to clear the fog and remember the details of what had just occurred.

"You very nearly were" Shea told him as her wet nose pressed against his back, steadying him. "If it weren't for Red-Hey! Sit down, you're still too weak!" The magical properties of the liquid were now diffusing as they shed their healing power on Cloud. He had already stood up, albeit unsteadily and to Shea's surprise Cloud moved over to Red XIII's side and fell to his knees. As Kayin lent his own energies to saving Red XIII, Cloud did so as well. Using up his reserves of magic, Cloud gave Kayin his own energy until he felt Red's consciousness return once again to the world of the living. Thus relieved, Cloud let the relative safety of sleep take him once again, sure that Red XIII would soon join him in the fight again.

Cloud breathed a sigh of impatience as they cruised through the otherworldly surroundings of the teleportational plane. Although it seemed as though they were simply floating in place, he knew that they were covering ground at phenomenal speeds. As they neared their objective, Cloud pondered several things. For instance, there seemed to be a connection between Bahamut and Shea, but what was it? And how was she able to make the dragon leave? He smiled to himself. "After Sephiroth been conquered, I thought that I would be free of such violence. And here I am, less than one year later, in the midst of another battle. I still feel fit, but could that just an illusion? Can I survive yet another brush with death?"

"You know Cloud, within the teleportational plane, we can all hear your thoughts." Remarked Kayin thoughtfully, a smile playing about his lips. "And it is my opinion that you are a superb and honorable fighter. You will survive this battle and all others that may fall into your path." Cloud could feel his face clouding up in embarrassment as a general agreement went around, echoed by a soft croon from Synnoria.

Hearing the voice of Shea clearly, Cloud wondered why he could understand her and not Synnoria. Carefully, he voiced his thought to Kayin. "Because Cloud, Synnoria's native language is far more complicated than most people can grasp. Maybe that's why I am the sole rider of Synnoria, I can understand her." Cloud looked over in Kayin's general direction and could see him, in the form of streaming light that they all took in this plane. He shimmered in a blue-white stream of particles and he noted that it was a beautiful pattern, almost hypnotizing. He assumed it must have been the same for his own body but Red XIII interjected his thoughts smoothly.

"You aren't Cloud, look at me…" Cloud looked over and was surprised to see that where Red XIII's body was, there was a stream of red and black particles instead of blue and white. He looked around and saw that Shea's was blue-black and glancing beyond Kayin, he saw a stream of pure white particles, representing Synnoria.

Cloud looked back at Red XIII and voiced his thoughts once more. "It's beautiful, too bad that Tifa couldn't be here to see this." His smile dimmed at the thought of her, he knew that she had desperately wanted to be by his side but due to the limitations of their magic, she could not join them. He closed his mind to the others and resigned himself to his private thoughts once again.

Red XIII was looking on to this battle with some trepidation. He felt in the bottom of his mind that this was going to be more dangerous than his last battle, not only because the enemy was of an unknown quantity. He checked his items and materia once more, making sure that he was fully equipped. He knew that there was a lot riding on this battle and it wasn't just their lives; although their lives were certainly in a great deal of danger! But he felt that something even more precious than that was at stake. He looked at Shea, affection in his mind. He kept it hidden well from her, even in this plane of psychic communication. He was canine, she was feline and although such pairings were possible, they were rare. How could he possibly tell her? * Sigh * Red knew how to keep his thoughts private and he supposed she did too. Then, what was Shea thinking?

Shea was thinking the exact same thing as him. What was he thinking about? She herself held a deep respect and yes, affection for him. She had respected him as soon as she found out that he was the last survivor of Cosmo Canyon and she wondered how he had survived so long without others of his kind. But as she had traveled with him, her respect deepened until she knew that she truly did love him. But likewise, she did not want to hurt him by forcing him to make a choice between her and his friends. She saw the deep friendship he had with Cloud and it had touched her. But before Shea could talk to Red about her feelings, she knew she must rescue her son Thanu. Raising him on her own had been a hard trial since his father had died during a human raid. It was for his sake that she had left the tribe to find her son and kill his kidnapper. And that was Belios, she knew that he was responsible. She also knew that she would help kill him. She would be a fool to take this demon on her own but Red would prove a staunch ally. Red, she though, what an odd name. Even for a canine of Cosmo Canyon.

Kayin's thoughts, like the others, were on a somber note. Kayin was reflecting on the past few days of his life, which had been hectic and full of change. The appearance of Synnoria had certainly been unsettling. "He smiled, a note of joy forming in his mind as he heard the indignant squawk of Synnoria. He never could hide his thoughts from the majestic bird and now was no exception. But his thoughts soon returned to his more somber topic, his father, Shoji. Why had he died? "Dammit, I need him!" He thought viciously. "I wish my father were here to give me advice…" But he told himself that his father couldn't be with him to give him advice but there was something that he could do about his father. And that was to avenge his father and destroy the dragon that killed Shoji.

Yuffie sat in a tree, sitting comfortably amongst the upper branches. These trees give me a creepy feeling, she thought. They didn't move like ordinary trees, they were deathly still. I'm not surprised that this is where that demon lives. It all reeks of evil! Shuddering, Yuffie shifted around in the branches, thinking of things that had happened in the past week. The one that was most surprising was her meeting the young leader of Fort Condor. She had saved him from the dragon and he had in turn saved her but when she was talking to him after and he kissed her hand so shyly, she felt lightheaded! Just like when she had that crush on Cloud, but this was lasting much longer. Yuffie couldn't wait to see him again even though it was to fight together against an enemy who may very well kill them!

And then they were there. The teleportional tunnel in which they had been travelling in, convoluted and Red XIII and the others were on solid ground again. Cloud pulled out his great sword in smooth motion, scanning the area for enemies but not a thing moved in this desolate place. "Hi guys!" The sudden sound made them jump up and twist around. Only Shea and Red XIII were unaffected because they had caught wind of the teenage ninja as soon as they had left the teleportational plane. She leapt down from the tree in which she was in and came up to Cloud and Red. "I've scouted out the area. Nothing! Absolutely nothing except for one magic shield down in that pass over there, though the shield is too strong for me to take it down." Yuffie indicated a small cleft in the sheer walls about 200 yards away. "Besides that, there are no sentries, no soldiers, no monsters…no nothing. Either this guys thinks he is incredibly stupid or he's incredibly powerful."

"I would have to say he is probably the latter Yuffie." Red spoke, his hackles rising. "And I believe that he does in fact have sentries, look over there!" Swiftly Red XIII pointed, and as everyone else looked, they saw a Golem, much like the ones they had fought earlier. It was pitch black, meshing almost perfectly with the withered trees. It's eyes were open wide, it had apparently noticed that they had noticed it and with a small squeak, it dove into the underbrush.

Kayin however, had ignored the small golem and was moving towards the shield. He put his hands out towards it and the magic of barrier crackled. "It is very powerful, but I don't think that it is the only way in. If this is indeed where the dragon resides…"Kayin said this in an ominous tone. "… Then there would have to be another entrance to let it in. So I think that Synnoria and I should take the high road and look for that second entrance. What do you think?"

Cloud, standing beside him, nodded his head in approval. "Yes, maybe we can take the advantage of surprise if you come in from the top. So we'll get rid of this shield and continue on until we reach the enemy. I don't expect to meet any opposition considering he doesn't have any out here. But this magical shield, it is still a formidable barrier, I don't know how we can remove it."

Synnoria creened suddenly and she moved over to the barrier. Kayin, who was sitting atop Synnoria half-rose, startled. The great bird closed her eyes as she concentrated and her feathers began to give off a pure white glow that blinded the others. Cloud squinted into the light, trying to see what was happening.

"I think this is why the enemy wanted Kayin dead. Then Synnoria wouldn't stay in our plane of existence and we wouldn't be able to take this shield down, and not to mention, we wouldn't have found the weapons so far out to sea, yes, I think our enemy has planned this very well…too well." Red XIII said grimly.

Cloud could feel the strength of the barrier lessening, the bright light was still blinding but his hair was beginning to settle back against his skin. Finally, he could open his eyes. The shield was nowhere to be seen, and Synnoria was standing beside the tunnel breathing hard. "Way to go Synnoria!" Yuffie broke the quiet stillness with her shout of glee. She ran down to the bird and threw her arms around it. Synnoria was not at all ruffled by Yuffie's grapple. She bent her head down and rubbed it against the joyful teenage ninja, giving a soft keen of pleasure. Kayin, watched the young ninja hug the bird with a smile on his face. But that pleasure was short-lived, less than five-minutes later, Cloud and company were ready to go on.

Red XIII took the lead, his senses being far better than the others did. The young ninja was just behind Red, meditating slightly to ready herself for the upcoming battle. Cloud too the rear. He hefted his sword lightly, checking his materia for the last time before he would use it in battle. Shea was following farther behind as rear scout. Outside the cave, Synnoria and Kayin were getting ready to lift off, her wings glistening with the resonating power of the barrier. As the party head into the dark tunnel, the light slowly dissipating behind them, Kayin conversed with Synnoria.

"What are our chances?" Kayin clung to the majestic bird's back as she lifted off, winging over the first mountain. She replied in the manner of her celestial kind. Her words seemed to be strands of light in Kayin's mind, moving so intricately and so smoothly. He could see why very few people could understand these mysterious beings and he had learned from his mount that there were others of her kind, in other worlds, in other forms. A fleeting image of a powerful canine, standing protectively beside the fallen form of a young girl in a burning house, slipped across Kayin's mind. "Who is she?" He asked. And Synnoria replied that it was someone of who also had a great destiny, a great destiny that may sometime entwine with his own.

The thoughts of the young girl, protected by a spirit of kin to Synnoria, were swept away by a gaping blackness as Kayin flew over the dark entrance into the mountains. Synnoria rested a moment above the hole and then folded her wings, slipping into the black depths like a feather arrow shot from the bow of heaven, borne towards an undying evil.