Me: Just to let you all know, each of the BEAST-crew will have three chapters devoted to them. The first being before the transformation, the second after and during, and the third being the aftermath. Also, some may be longer than this, and some may be shorter.

Bahamut: ... (Stares at Me)

Me: What?

Mewtwo: We're just wondering...

Bahamut: What are the other Beasts anyway?

Me: (Smirk) You'll have to wait and see.

Poupoko: Chaoaocha?

Me: Oh sure you can know before these guys.

Bahamut & Mewtwo: WHAAAAAAAT?


DISCLAIMER: SEE FIRST CHAPTER.

B.E.A.S.T.

By Corvus no Genmu the Prince of Slumberland

Chapter One: The Monsters Within

Part Two: The Dragon's Heart

The beast was beyond furious, these mortal scum had tried to harm his Guardian! The very pedestal that held the beast's life into existence. He would not allow them to escape his wrath unscathed, even into death. Though that did not mean the beast would not kill them after he had caused the blood in their veins to flow like the crimson rivers of ancient Babylon. The beast growled angrily as he slowly stalked towards the mortals on his two shaking legs, still unused to his incomplete form. However, the beast had enough of its original body to do what was needed to teach these humans what fools they turned out to be.

Without a sound, the beast charged forward and slammed a large, featherless wing at the first human, sending it up into the air before the beast's tail wrapped around its legs and tossed the human into the opposite wall where it collapsed face first onto the hardwood floor. The beast was quick to use its spinning momentum to knock the second human up into the air where it crashed into the steel rafters and desperately clung to them. The beast growled once more and with a mighty flap of his large wings, flew upwards to snatch the human from its meager perch and simply let it drop to the ground where it landed with a loud thump.

The beast then turned to look down at the third and final human with a feral grin at the sight of the human's fear. The beast would have liked to have drunk himself into a stupor with the human's fear, but this was not a matter of sustenance but a matter of complete and utter vengeance!

The beast dove downwards and slammed down onto the paralyzed human, pinning it to the ground easily. The beast snarled as saliva dripped down from its large canines onto the human's pale face. This was the one, the beast knew, this was the one that had tried to harm his Guardian, the one who would be the first…

The first to die!

The beast reared back his head and prepared to clamp down and rip away the human's throat when a sharp and near unbearable pain appeared between and above its two eyes. Roaring and clutching his head in pain, the beast backed away from the now unconscious Uriah.


'Where… Where am I…?' There was nothing around him, no sound, no light, nothing to help Bastian figure out where the heck he was. Though there was nothing that his basic five senses could discern, Bastian's sixth sense was not unaware of the strange energy that coursed about him. As though aware of his revelation towards its existence, the energy bent and twisted upon itself before appearing before Bastian in the form of two oval-shaped windows. Confused and a little freaked out by this, Bastian nonetheless moved towards the windows and peered into them.

Through them, Bastian could see a scene of utmost horror as Uriah and his gang were being attacked by a ferocious beast of some sort. Bastian could not tell for sure what so of creature it was that was attacking them since the windows only allowed Bastian to see the beast's arms and—'Oh god… please no…' Bastian had suddenly realized just what was attacking Uriah and his hoodlums.

It was Bastian himself.

'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'


Bastian roared in agony before dropping to the floor as his pupil-less eyes faded back into familiar emerald. Panting breathlessly as his body quivered from the pain he was feeling until, with a very agonized hiss, Bastian stood on his two hind legs and looked at the work his body had done. With his psychic powers Bastian was able to tell that Uriah and his gang, though severely beaten, would live, but their health was not important, Will's was. Carefully moving towards Will on his dinosaurian feet, Bastian looked over her with his now enhanced vision but was unable to truly see what they had done to her in the dark gymnasium.

Bastian sighed through his snakelike nose and carefully placed a clawed hand on Will's neck, but the thickness of his dull brown scales prevented him from feeling her pulse. It was only the steady rise and fall of Will's chest that assured Bastian that she was still okay enough to breathe on her own. However, even though she was okay, Will and Bastian had to leave the area before Uriah and his stooges awoke or, worse, the cops decided to investigate the noises Bastian's smack down had caused.

Bastian quickly knelt down and gathered Will in his arms, being mindful of his claws, before racing off into the fading afternoon light, totally heedless of the multiple pairs of gleaming red eyes that were watching not his rapidly departing form, but the unconscious Uriah. However, Bastian was quite aware of the eyes of Will's friends, all of whom had grown worried at the absence of their friend and had decided to double back to check on her and Bastian.

Okay, so maybe they wanted to spy on them more than anything, but they had grown worried especially now that Will was seemingly in the arms of a beast. However, before any words could be spoken between Bastian and the girls, Will began to stir and awaken in his scaly arms. A soft moan escaped her lips before her blinking eyes focused upon Bastian's green reptilian ones.

"EEEEEEEEEEK!" Will's shriek startled Bastian enough to cause him to drop her unceremoniously onto the ground before jumping back and away from her. His large wings spread out as wide as they could, instinctually reacting to Bastian's fear of Will's reaction, which was not very flattering to so the least. "What the heck is that!"

"We were hoping you could tell us!" exclaimed Cornelia as she and the others quickly moved to stand beside Will even as Bastian tried to make himself appear less intimidating, it did not help that he easily towered over the girls at a stunning eight feet.

Bastian tried to tell them who he was but all that came from his fanged mouth were deep growls and faint hissing that served to only put the girls on edge enough for Will to call out the words that they all had become all too accustomed to hearing.

"GUARDIANS UNITE!" A small orb that glowed with a powerful light emerged from Will's chest and exploded into a rainbow of bright light that separated and conjoined to the five girls, wrapping them in glasslike orbs that shattered within seconds of touching the ground, revealing to Bastian the slightly aged forms they girls had changed into. The only true word to describe Bastian's reaction would be gob smacked. All the draconic teen could do was blink stupidly as he stared openmouthed at the sixteen-year-old pixie that was his best friend. Were his scales capable of showing it, Bastian would have been blushing up a storm.

Bastian quickly shook himself out of his stunned stupor at the battle stances the five transformed girls were taking, and tried once more to try and speak to them and, again, all he could produce were animalistic noises that served to further frighten the girls into action.

"Let's get him!" Taking to the air, Hay Lin was about to create a powerful gust of Northern Wind and blow Bastian away when, suddenly, a voice cried out in pure horror from within the depths of the gymnasium. Before Hay Lin could even turn around, a dark shape burst through the wall of the gym and slammed into her, knocking her back onto the ground before quickly moving towards Will.

Will had only enough time to scream as the black shadow grabbed her within its large pincers and take off into the air. Bastian, though quite surprised by the thing's sudden appearance, reacted quickly to Will's scream and sudden engulfment of fear. With a furious cry, Bastian jumped up at the shadow-creature and slammed a fist into one of the thing's many legs. The shadow didn't even twitch as it turned in mid-air to meet an unyielding assault of fists to its midsection. Instead, it began to laugh a sickeningly familiar laugh that turned Bastian's blood into ice. Stopping his assault, Bastian slowly looked up into the face of Uriah.

"GoOdByE, lOSeR." Uriah lifted a leg arachnidan leg and shot a thin stream of pure energy into the stunned Bastian, blasting him through the unbroken part of the gymnasium wall before taking off higher into the air. The shocked Guardians could do no more than watch as the dark form disappeared behind a cloud bank and out of sight.

Meanwhile, inside the severely wrecked gymnasium, Bastian was struggling to rise to his reptilian feet, but the pain from his broken wings and ribs kept him down on the ground. However, something inside Bastian wasn't willing to allow such weakness to keep him and it down.

Strange foreign feelings were shooting across Bastian's mind as another presence desperately tried to get its message across. Though he was in pain, Bastian wasn't shocked to feel another being within his mind since such things had been occurring to him for the past two years. He was, however, confused as to why the presence chose to not to speak with words.

(Who the heck are you?)

More feelings to protect shot through Bastian's aching mind until a single word burned behind his eyes. GUARDIAN.

(What Guardian? I want to save Will!)

The Presence seemed to grow angry at this and sent several images through Bastian's mind, all of which served to only horrify him further. Startling images of bizarre shaped shadows drawing in large masses of humanoid beings and spitting out what could have been bone had the remains not disintegrated within moments of expulsion. Then Will's smiling face danced across his eyes only to meet the same fate as the humanoids.

(NO! I refuse to let that happen!) Bastian gritted his fangs painfully as he dragged himself along the ground towards the hole he had made. Instead of focusing on the intense pain coursing through him, Bastian focused his thoughts on Will and everything they had done together. He focused on the good times alongside the bad, the laughs and the tears, but most of all, he focused on his love for her and used to as the fuel to keep himself going. Unbeknownst to Bastian, The Presence that had communicated with him had seen all of what Bastian recollected and felt Bastian's love for the Guardian of the Heart.

Feelings of confusion speckled their way across Bastian's mind, asking a silent question that held no words but Bastian understood nonetheless. Bastian flinched as his left wing bumped against a piece of large rubble before continuing in his pitiful attempt at movement.

(More than my own life.) The Presence was silent for such a time that Bastian had thought it had broken connection with him until its reptilian voice spoke its first and final word.

(PROTECT.) The pendant that had recently adorned his once human neck slowly lifted up from the ground and floated beside him, glowing with a strangely familiar gold light that eased away Bastian's pain just by looking at it. Suddenly, a small orb of light with a strange rune adorning its surface shot forth from the pendant and enshrouded him within its warm light.


"We gotta go after them! Who knows what that thing is going to do to her!" exclaimed Irma. Taranee frowned and looked up at Irma from where she was kneeling next to Hay Lin, who was just coming to her senses.

"That thing happened to be Uriah, Irma, and I think we both know what's he's going to do." Cornelia shivered and rubbed her shoulders.

"Okay, we gotta move. Now."

"How?" asked Hay Lin, rubbing her forehead in discomfort, "I'm the only one that I can fly and I doubt the rest of you are light enough for your wings to support you alone."

"Hey, it works for bumblebees!" exclaimed Irma irately. Cornelia opened her mouth to say something sarcastic but was interrupted by the beams of golden light shooting out from within the gymnasium and the strange gong-like sounds that followed in their wake. Once the beams of light had died away into the setting sun's red light, a large shape slowly emerged from one of the holes decorating the gymnasium's side. The Guardians could only stare in openmouthed shock as the jade-scaled Dragon gently walked towards them. Large reptilian claws dug into the earth as wings seemingly composed of rainbows spread themselves wide above the Dragon's back. His great head, resembling that of the ancient dragons of China's past, looked up into the darkening sky before his fang lined maw opened and released the gong-like bellows once more. Though the sound was a bit frightening to the girls, the way that the Dragon's roar sounded more like a symphony of gongs made them more at ease than afraid.

Human eyes, as green as emeralds, turned from the sky to focus on the girls, startling them out of their relaxed stupor. Slowly, a third eye opened above and between the primary two, and a voice that was strangely familiar to the girls began to echo in their heads. (Will you help me to save her?) Their own hearts gave the Dragon the answer he needed to hear before their mouths could even form the words. (Thank you.) The Dragon's third eye began to glow magenta, a glow that soon appeared around the four Guardians shortly before they and the Dragon himself took off into the air in pursuit of their friend and the monster that Uriah had become.


Will glared up into the pimpled face of Rachiah with utter hatred. Uriah, or the creature that had taken over Uriah, Will couldn't really tell which, had taken them to the Heatherfield Bridge. With the setting sun behind it, Will could easily see how much more defined the shadow had become. It now had definite skin which was made in a way that reminded Will of ancient armor except for the extra pair of arms and legs that made the thing more spider-like. Its head rested above Uriah's giving the punk teenager the appearance of being nothing more than an accessory to the thing. Its eyes, or what Will gathered to be eyes, were staring at her with something that sent shivers throughout her body.

Hunger.

A tongue dripping in smoking saliva slowly slithered out from the things head as Uriah's own began to speak. "JoIN uS WilL! BeCOmE OnE wItH US!" As Uriah spoke, the shadow's tongue slowly began to draw closer to her face.

"Oh heck no! You keep that thing away from me you pizza-faced jerk!" A sudden roar punctuated her statement. Uriah had no time to even turn about before a large jade-scaled Dragon slammed into him feet first, effectively knocking Will from his shadowy claws. Before gravity could take hold of Will, a magenta-colored aura surrounded her and gently moved her to land beside her friends.

Rachiah growled angrily and shoved the Dragon off and moved to grab Will once again, but the Dragon quickly knocked Rachiah onto his back again with his tail. Not sparing any time, the Dragon quickly bit into one of Rachiah's legs and lifted him up into the air before slamming him back down onto the ground. The Dragon managed to repeat this several times before Rachiah's remaining limbs wrapped themselves around the Dragon's neck, choking him severely. Just as the Dragon was losing consciousness, the sand around him and Rachiah suddenly gathered up and formed crude clubs that began to beat against Rachiah's solid form. Finding Rachiah's grip suddenly gone, the Dragon quickly took off into the air. Seeing this, Rachiah began to roar in rage as his shadowy form began to quiver before a pair of insectoid wings emerged from his thorax. Chuckling, Rachiah quickly took off after the Dragon, his four arms ready to tear him limb from limb.

Seeing his opponent's sudden gain of advantage, the Dragon turned in mid-air to meet Rachiah's charge. Organic claws met those composed of shadows as both combatants began a fight befitting that of primordial beasts. Though Rachiah had the advantage over him, the Dragon still managed to hold its own even though Rachiah's strength steadily rose to match the pace of the sun's descent into the horizon.

Unfortunately, as Rachiah's strength rose, so did his intelligence with which he did not fail to fully utilize. Keeping the Dragon's claws and mouth at bay with four of his appendages, Rachiah used the spares as knives, ripping and tearing at the Dragon's wings until they resembled nothing more than tattered ribbons. Without his wings to keep him aloft, the Dragon fell out of the air and landed heavily upon the dark sands of the river. Gritting his teeth in pain, the Dragon slowly stood to his feet and looked up at Rachiah who was flying high above him and merging more with the shadows than before.

Rachiah's human face was now pitch black and the arachnidan body of the shadow that was absorbing him had altered its thorax into a large tail similar to that of a scorpion. It was with this tail that Rachiah chose a new form of attack. Increasing the speed of his wings, Rachiah hovered in place until he disappeared with the sound of his wings echoing in the air. The Dragon, startled by this, snarled and started to turn around only to feel Rachiah's needle-like stinger pierce its way into his back.

The sound of gongs breaking apart filled the air as the Dragon screeched his pain into the dark skies with Rachiah's clicking laughter following close behind. The Dragon began to buck about like a maddened horse as he tried to desperately get Rachiah's stinger loose from his back. However, it turned out to be a blast of fire that sent Rachiah, stinger and all, back into the air. Clicking his sword-like mandibles angrily, Rachiah turned to glare down at the Guardians who dared to try and stop him from having his meal. Mandibles still clicking, Rachiah dive-bombed down towards the Guardians with his stinger at ready only to heavily impact against a magenta-colored bubble that had suddenly surrounded the girls.

Rachiah turned about and glowered at the Dragon, whose third eye was open and glowing once again. The Dragon growled deep in his throat before roaring a loud symphony of gongs as he snapped his head forward, his knife-like teeth chomping down on—Air… The Dragon growled once more and slowly looked back and forth, his third eye wide and glaring as he tried to catch sight of his opponent. A sudden sharp pain in his tail made the Dragon whirl about, only to receive a face full of Rachiah's claws. Screeching in pain, the Dragon backed away from Rachiah, his now useless wings flapping in a desperate attempt to escape from the transformed teen's onslaught.

Suddenly, a bright beam of neon pink light ripped through the air, shaking the air with an orchestrated symphony of exotic music. The light bent around Rachiah's torso and ripped the large insectoid away from the Dragon before encircling the very creature it had rescued. The Dragon snarled in confusion as its one golden scale, which rested just below his collar bone, grew brighter before shooting out a ribbon-like stream of gold light. The two beams began to encircle each other until it was impossible to tell them apart from the other.

The strange orchestra of music began anew, this time with much greater force, as the lights whirled through the air around the Dragon. Time seemed to flow faster as the dark skies of the evening were pushed away and the bright blue skies appeared above the bridge. The lights suddenly twisted in place and dove straight down towards the startled Dragon, passing through the glowing gold scale on his chest and entering his body.

A sudden increase of energy gave the Dragon reason to roar his gong-like calls into the sky as his newly healed wings spread themselves wide, taking him up into the air to meet against the paralyzed Rachiah. Thanks to the beams of light from the Heart and from the Dragon, Rachiah's form was given true sustenance and was easily affected by the light of the morning sky. As the Dragon drew closer, a light began to glow deep within his throat as an aura of power surrounded his third eye.

(Eat this!) A beam of concentrated light burst from the Dragon's mouth, flying through the air and Rachiah himself. A startling scream ripped through the air, which sounded far worse than nails on a chalkboard, as the dark parasite that had taken a hold of Uriah was ripped away and destroyed, its shadowy form melting away into the Dragon's light.

Uriah, now nothing more than a mere human with a severe case of pimples, crashed to the sand, the Dragon landing not far from him. Leaning his head down, the Dragon sniffed at the pizza-faced punk and snorted in disgust before looking up at the Guardians, or to be more specific, Will who still held the Heart of Kandrakar in her hands. The Dragon smiled a toothy smile, which admittedly scared the girls a bit, and nodded his gratitude even as his scales fell away into the wind. Soon, all the scales were gone and all that was left of the Dragon was a boy by the name of Bastian Benson.

"Ba-BASTIAN?" Will's eyes were wider than dinner plates as she openly stared at her best friend who was blushing self-consciously.

"Yeah…" Will could only do what any girl would do after seeing her best guy friend change from being a dragon.

She fainted.


To Be Continued...