Chapter Thirteen: The Legacy of Bahamut
Everyone was in astonish by this newcomer, was he really Shako? Before the friends had more than a second to think about it they felt a familiar presence at the back of their minds. This presence was friendly and non intrusive it waited patiently for everyone to accept it in. As soon as they did the friends were all mentally teleported to an empty white zone where Shako as they knew him stood before them.
They cried tears of joy at his presence and all ran up to hug him, Shako accepted all of their hugs gracefully and in return wrapped his wings around them all. After a minute they all pulled themselves together and Shako smiled at them as they let go of him and took a step back.
All of them were practically speechless and the only thing anyone could manage to say to him was "How did you survive that fall?"
Shako looked sad for just an instant then went back to his happy face and said, "I did not."
Before the friends could hound him with anymore questions Shako spoke up again, "After my death I ascended. My mortal body was shed and I became the avatar to Bahamut. This is my new life now so do not be sad it is part of the cycle, a part of my destiny. I only recently woke up and came over as soon as I could but you were already caught in the shadow's trap."
"Yeah shamefully he used me to get to Sam as well." Dan said regretfully. "But if he had control of me all along why didn't he attack Sam when he had the chance?"
"You fought off his initial invasion and were in total control but shadow Bahamut was still in part of you waiting to jump to Sam. As soon as Sam's heart started to waver right before your speech shadow Bahamut leaped into Sam and very subtlety took control of him. And then when you saw Sam struggling with control your heart weakened enough for Shadow Bahamut to link you two into the same nightmare."
"But I don't understand why didn't shadow Bahamut take control of me in the first place?" Sam asked.
"Perhaps your heart was just too strong for him to begin with." Shako said smiling at Sam. He then turned his attention to Dan who was still upset about what he did. "Dan your heart may not have been as strong as Sam's is, but when you felt shadow Bahamut was threatening your friends you immediately wrestled control back and went to Sam's aid. You will always be the wall standing between your friends and any enemy eager to hurt them.
Now then our time is almost up, in here time may move much slower than in the real world but Shadow Bahamut is fast and is almost finished putting himself together so here is what were are going to do. I will take him on head to head at the far end of the tunnel doing my best to keep him distracted and pushed back. Now this temple was made specifically to seal in Shadow Bahamut so his only exit is the doors behind us.
Ella you are going to stay several paces behind me at all times in your behemoth form. If Shadow Bahamut manages to slip past me even a little bit you push him back anyway you can, do not worry about anything else. And Shaun you will remain at the entrance standing in the middle of the doors; you are our last line of defense. If Shadow Bahamut manages to make it past me and Ella you throw up a barrier surrounding the entire doorway, I know it's a large area but if he escapes then it is all over for everyone.
Right now he is not yet at full power so we still have a good chance, and Sam, Andy, Dan you three will be our attackers. Dan your light sword can launch pure energy projectiles if you will it to do so but you only get four shots until you will be completely drained, same goes with you Sam; your arrows follow your will. And Andy, you will attack from the ceiling so levitate up their and wait for an opening; remember you have been using another's power for so long you forgot how strong yours is. You must now believe in yourself, your power comes from no one else but you."
After Shako was done talking the friends returned back to their bodies and were in the temple again. At the far end of the temple where he was before the first time they fought him, was shadow Bahamut, this time he was real and much, much larger. He was so dark that his skin looked like an oily black color; just looking at him was difficult. Shako let out a loud and quick roar before charging at shadow Bahamut with impossible speed; the friends took their positions and readied themselves, the battle had now begun.
Josh arrived at the hospital out of breath and threw his bike down as he got off it and bolted to the entrance. He was breathing heavily now but pushed on, he ran straight for the elevator and hit the button. It took what felt like an eternity to josh just for the elevator doors to open and he ran inside then pushed the button leading to his friend's floor; he would have taken the stairs but he was too tired to run anymore though. While the elevator slowly rose up Josh caught his breath and tried thinking positive, he would get up there his friends would all just be waking up and the doctors would only be alerted to the scene sometime after josh got in there.
The elevator stopped, its doors opened up and everything seemed to go in slow motion to Josh. All about the floor were nurses and doctors running, all of them running to the same place Josh was going to; the coma ward. Josh was still tired and still catching his breath but he didn't care he started running after the doctors and nurses. Finally when he got to the room where all his friends were at some nurses were blocking the way but he pushed past them determined to get in and see his friends.
Everything was still in slow motion to Josh and there was a pair of doctor and nurse at the bed of all his friends. One by one they started to wake up as their pulses began to rise, and one by one they all turned their attention to Sam. Josh too found himself looking away from his friends that were waking up and looking in the direction of Sam's bed but there were two doctors and three nurses surrounding Sam.
The heart monitor hooked up to Sam to check his pulse was running a flat steady line, where there should have been a jump in it every quarter of a second. One of the doctors started pushing down on Sam's chest in rhythm, but when that didn't work they brought in a defibrillator and tried using that; but to no avail. The last thing Josh saw was the saddened look on his friends faces as they were all in tears, and the last thing Josh heard before being pulled out of the room was "Time of death 6:05 a.m."
Shadow Bahamut was prepared for Shako's charge and threw himself out of the way at the last second. Sam immediately released his arrow with a golden burst of light aimed at Shadow Bahamut as he began his course to dodge Shako. The arrow came just inches form Shadow Bahamut's neck as it turned its head up towards the ceiling to avoid the arrow while simultaneously avoiding Shako's initial attack.
Andy noticed that Shadow Bahamut's eyes seemed to find Andy the moment it tilted its head up to dodge Sam's attack. Andy was still chanting in demonic language preparing for a powerful spell but Shadow Bahamut, after removing himself from any way of immediate attacks; opened his mouth and a burst of purple flames shot out at Andy. Andy was able to swiftly teleport out of the way avoiding the flames entirely, but he was forced to let go of all the energy he'd been summoning for the massive spell. Andy silently cursed to himself; Shadow Bahamut wasn't going to give them enough time for something big; they would have to hit him with something small the instant an opening showed up on shadow Bahamut.
Shadow Bahamut who was now completely recovered from the attack on him, was standing on the far end of the temple and only briefly glanced his eyes towards the exit when a massive arc of white energy soared through the air aimed at him. Shadow Bahamut was caught partially by surprise and despite his immense speed the attack grazed his left shoulder and sliced off a chunk of his wing left wing; which fell to the ground and began dissolving into black smoke. Shadow Bahamut let out a massive scream of pain for a brief second but was silenced when Shako slammed him into the wall with his body.
Shako had one hand wrapped around Shadow Bahamut's neck and the other around his mouth keeping it clamped shut. Shako without the use of his hands tried his best to keep Shadow Bahamut pinned to the wall but Shadow Bahamut didn't wait long enough for even Sam to aim his bow, as he drew up a force of will power and energy and in a blast of invisible energy pushed Shako off him and made him go tumbling across the temple grounds. Andy didn't hesitate as he rained down small balls of white fire all over Shadow Bahamut; Sam must have had the same idea because at the same time the fire began raining down on Shadow Bahamut so too did an arrow of golden light launch at him.
But despite their speed and instant actions, Shadow Bahamut proved to be faster and well prepared. As the attack came at him he covered himself in a black oily like dome of energy that blocked the attack entirely; the dome then fell apart after the attacks were finished but Shadow Bahamut was nowhere to be seen. In a moment of panic Sam and Andy looked behind them to see if he might have teleported, but Ella and Shaun were still at their spots watching the battle intensely prepared for any sign of danger that came their way.
Sam and Andy looked back in front of them in time to see a huge arc of white lighting being shot at a random area in the temple form Shako. The lighting hit its mark halfway across the temple revealing Shadow Bahamut's location as well as pushing him back towards the throne violently. Shadow Bahamut soon enough recovered form the attack and began eyeing Shako with great anger. While the two glared off at each other the friends noticed that Shadow Bahamut's wing span that had been sliced off from Dan's attack was now completely grown back as if it never happened.
Sam hesitated briefly wondering if they were at all hurting him enough to do any real damage or if these were just miner scratches that would mean nothing in the long run of the battle. The hesitation nearly proved to be Sam's undoing as Shadow Bahamut, who seemed to have an omnipresence suddenly turned to face Sam and lash out with an enormous stream of purple flames that closed the gap between the two almost instantly. Sam did not have enough time to dodge out of the way as he threw his arms in front of himself as a desperate shield.
Andy moving faster then anyone thought he was capable of, was in front of Sam countering the onslaught of purple flames with his own white flames. Andy's flames were holding back the purple ones but just barley, he was giving it everything he got to keep them at bay and was losing ground fast; he knew that if he didn't do something soon the flames would overrun his, and he would be nothing but ash.
Dan didn't know what Shako was waiting for, maybe he was recovering but as he stared at the spectacle of Andy shielding Sam with his flames he knew his friends were in grave peril if someone didn't act fast. Like the first time, Dan called up as much energy as he could and pictured releasing it with one powerful swing of his sword. After he had the picture fixed in his head again he spun around on his feet giving his sword a good arc for his attack. The white energy soared on the form of his sword swing aimed for Shadow Bahamut's entire mid torso.
Shadow Bahamut didn't have enough time to stop the flames and dodge the attack and for a moment Dan thought he had him. However when Shadow Bahamut did stop the flames his body suddenly turned into a wisp of thick black smoke that took the same shape and form of Shadow Bahamut as Dan's attack passed through it harmlessly.
After the purple flames let up Andy dropped his attack and fell to his knee's gasping for air. Sam rushed over to make sure he was alright, he was, but he was also exhausted and completely sweating. For a moment Sam thought Andy was going to be alright when the sudden realization that demons do not sweat without exerting almost everything they have in them. Sam touched Andy's bare hand; that he noticed was shaking uncontrollably, and felt that it was cold as ice. Andy saved Sam's life but exhausted every store of energy he had in him, he was probably struggling to stay awake at this point. Sam took off his cloak wrapped it around Andy and kneeled down next to him and put Andy's arm around him as he helped him to his feet and carefully began retreating back. Andy would become deadweight and a hostage in the front lines now, so Sam had to get him back to Ella and Shaun where he would be safest.
Almost immediately after Shadow Bahamut had returned back form the smoke form to his normal form, Shako was charging at him. He stumbled only in the first step and recovered instantly but that small gap of time gave Shadow Bahamut enough room to dodge the charge and bolt straight for the exit wings flapping so fats they looked like nothing but blurry dark colors around him. Ella prepared herself for the charge but like a person swatting an annoying fly out of its path, Shadow Bahamut back handed Ella without any appeared effort or slowing down. Ella was sent sprawling all the way into the wall on the other end of the temple.
Shaun had enough time to brace himself for Shadow Bahamut's charge and put forth everything he had into his barrier just in case. Fortunately Shaun hah held nothing back because when Shadow Bahamut came into his barrier it almost shattered instantly. To Shaun it felt like a normal person trying to stop a runaway locomotive with his bare hands only doing so by some divine miracle.
Shaun could feel his energy draining so fats that in less then a second he stopped feeling it drain away and he began going numb; but still he held his barrier strong. Shadow Bahamut after having rebound from the invisible barrier starter wailing at it with his fists; Shaun stayed strong keeping the barrier up ignorant of the blood trickling down from his nose.
Shadow Bahamut was so focused on the barrier that he failed to notice Ella coming at him with extreme force until it was too late. He tried to stop her in a vain attempt that sent both of them sprawling on the ground wrestling for control from one another. While Shaun was glad for the reprise, as soon as Shadow Bahamut was no longer in his direct line of sight he collapsed to the ground, still awake but completely numb.
Ella was losing the struggle for control while wrestling with Shadow Bahamut and the first opportunity she got, she used a combination of her raw strength and wind magic to launch Shadow Bahamut off of her and high up into the air. Shadow Bahamut took a second to straighten himself out in the air as the wind magic was still pushing at him trying to prevent just that. He flapped his wings once to straighten out and face Ella, her wind magic now nothing more than a gentle breeze to him.
Shadow Bahamut was prepped for a counterattack against Ella now when he finally realized the massive energy that had been charging up from the opposite end of the temple's entrance. Shadow Bahamut turned just in time to see a massive blast of silver energy coming right at him. Shadow Bahamut prepared every bit of last minute defenses he could but they only delayed the inevitable. The blast smacked against his shields and magical barriers but shattered them almost instantly and literally ripped him into shreds.
Shadow Bahamut fell in clumps of black chunks that appeared to be dissolving into black shadowy smoke. After starring at Shadow Bahamut's remains for several seconds the friends all looked over to Shako for conformation the battle was over. Shako carefully flew over to the remains and slowly without ever lowering his guard waved his hand over the remains of Shadow Bahamut. Shako turned to face the group and nodded in an, "OK" fashion. All of them let out a large breath of relief; it was over finally, after everything they had been through it was all over.
Ella helped Shaun to his feet, putting his arm around her back and carrying almost all of his weight. Sam let Andy go as per his request; Andy struggled for a moment to stay on his feet balanced and almost fell but then caught himself and gave Sam a reassuring smile. They all gathered around the center of the temple where Shako was, everyone was exhausted but they had been worse off then they were now. Shako shrunk himself down to a figure around their height but he was still pretty massive when compared to any of them.
They all closed in around Shako with open arms, hugging him. Shako in return let out a low deep throated chuckle and wrapped his wing span around all of them. They all embraced for a few minutes, it was wonderful to have their friend back, though they hadn't known him well Shako had become like family too all of them. After they broke the embrace Dan asked, "So where do we go from here?"
Shako looked everyone in the face slowly before addressing all of them, "The power I borrowed from my lord Bahamut has almost been depleted, and opening a portal to your world takes tremendous amount of energy. I can still do it, but it has to be now, unfortunately it's not only a one way trip I also will only have the power to do so for a few more minutes and won't be returning to this life ever again; if you do not go now you may never return to your former lives again."
The friends struggled to hold back the tears beginning to blur their visions, they had pieced it together almost immediately after he said it but still someone had to ask. "What are you saying," Ella said her voice cracking under the sorrow. "That even if we stay we can't be with you, that even though we won you still don't get to live?"
"Shako smiled at her as modestly as he could and said, "I am already dead, this form is just a borrowed vessel temporarily storing my soul; it is time for me to move on from this life." Shako sounded almost happy at this.
"It's not fair!" Ella stammered no longer able to stop the flow of tears in her eyes. "You deserve so much more, after everything you have done, after all you suffered." Ella wanted to continue but had to stop herself because she was about ready to fall to her knees and cry if she said another word. Shako simply placed his hand around her shoulder and said sincerely, "My kind hearted friend have you learned nothing from your journey? This is not my story," Then Shako looked around to everyone and continued, "It is your story, I was but the humble guide and now that my role is finished I move on to my story."
"It's all my fault," Andy said starring at the ground after Shako finished speaking. "If I hadn't made that pact with Baelfien all those years ago, then we would have stopped Shadow Bahamut the first time and you wouldn't be dead, Ella is right it isn't fair to you."
"Andy, I know your life has been full of mistrust and bad decisions, but through every course you found your own way. Baelfien would have used you to kill all your friends a long time ago but you constantly fought him unknowingly; it is true his influence eventually spread through you entirely but here you stand before me all the same. I know that if you had too you would have faced your old master alone, and then done everything in your power to make things right by your friends and band together to stop the evil even without my help.
Sometimes you must fall to the bottom to see that you were far from the top of the mountain. But the bottom is not so bad, there you get to see your mistakes, learn how to never make them again, recover and overcome your greatest failure to be something greater, to reach the top of that mountain; a feat you could not have done before had you not fallen in the first place."
Andy half laughed half let out his breath and said, "So fall from grace only to fly above the clouds and into the stars."
Shako hadn't quite understood the metaphor but he did understand that Andy knew what he was talking about. "Now then my friends," Shako said in a more serious tone. "It is time for you to decide shall you return to your former lives? Or will you remain here?"
They all looked around at one another, before the answer had seemed so simple but now they were confronted with the actual question, they were unsure of what to do. Time was ticking away and they knew Shako would not be able to send them back if they debated over it; however it was finally Dan who spoke up, "We had a great run here, and have all grown so much but we came here for a reason, and that reason has been fulfilled. Just like Odysseus, we must now face our old lives armed with our new found knowledge and maturity."
Dan didn't look quite as assured as he sounded but he was right, they ventured forth to return home after saving that world, it was now time for them to return to their world. Everyone except Sam faced Shako and said, "We are ready to return home." The friends noticed right away Sam's exclusion from their decision and all faced him.
Sam took a couple steps back to better address all of them, "I told you guys a long time ago my dream had always been to visit a world just like this one, to me it wasn't just some fairytale it was my future; my destiny. I promised that I would do whatever it took to see to it you guys could go home if you wanted… but this is where we part ways."
Ella looked like she was about to scream her head off in frustration at Sam until Andy put his hand over her mouth and said, "He's right, Sam did state numerously over the years every time we would bring up the thought of home that he was never going back. I'm sure he has thought long and hard over this decision and it can't be easy for him; however it is his decision and we must respect it."
"No," Ella stated. "Your coming with us even if-"
-"Friends," Shako interrupted. "It is time, I shall open the portal now and if you wish to return home simply step through it."
Then when Shako finished speaking the air in front of them began to distort and shimmer, more and more until they could see clearly another world in front of them; like looking through a slightly blurry window. They saw their young human bodies, all lying on hospital beds hooked up to machines keeping them alive. All of them then turned around and gave Sam one last hug and they all wished him the best of luck, and he to them. They looked to Shako but found that he was gone, he probably spent up his last energy making that portal and was moving onto his next life.
Sam felt a mixture of heartbreak and utter delight as he watched his friends slowly begin walking into the portal. They almost seemed to be pulled into it much like how they were sucked into the portal in the book. For a brief moment Sam was perfectly happy; but that moment was shattered when the overwhelming sense of danger flared off in his senses. Sam turned around in time to see the last bits of Shadow Bahamut now taken the form of only his head shoot out a ball of purple flames aimed directly for Andy; without even thinking about it Sam rushed forward to block the path of the flames from his friend.
Dan, Ella, Shaun, and Andy hugged their dearest friend goodbye for the last time they ever would and walked to the portal. As they got closer to they could feel it pulling them in; it wasn't as strong as the pull that first brought them to that world but it was still fairly powerful. They got closer to the other side, one more step and they would be home, back to their old lives; the pull of the portal now was so strong they struggled just to keep form being sucked into it.
All of them turned around struggling against the now collapsing portal's magnetic pull and saw Sam diving through the air, he passed over Shaun and when he got in front of Andy his body was thrown back and twisted through the air. When the front of him faced them they could see purple flames quickly burning through his chest. Sam hit the ground hard and rolled onto his side in agony to face them; he coughed out black blood trying to say something.
Andy and Shaun who were too weak to stand on their own were immediately sucked into the portal when Ella and Dan who were supporting them let go to go after Sam. Sam had no strength left in him, he couldn't speak without coughing up more blood, the fire had pierced his chest and charred parts of his heart, he knew he was dead; and so did Dan. Ella however did not, and When Sam pointed his finger at Ella who was resisting the suction of the portal to get to Sam, Dan read in his eyes what he wanted of him.
Dan was never really great at making decisions, he always let others do it for him and tried to avoid being the center of attention or any form of it all so he didn't have to decide. But after going through many trials and surviving a difficult life in a new world where every decision he made would impact the outcome of his very life and those around him he learned to become a leader and how to make the right decision.
When Dan's best friend Sam was on his deathbed, telling Dan, not with his words but his eyes, to get Ella back home to safety; Dan was confronted with an impossible decision. Dan didn't see what Sam saw but he knew it was dangerous, however Dan also knew that if he went against Sam's will that between his and Ella's healing magic they had a small chance to save Sam. Even though Dan had less than a fraction of a second to decide, his brain seemed to move so fast that it processed everything, every outcome of the situations, and paths he could take; Dan made the hard decision.
Sam watched as Dan wrapped his arm around Ella's waist turned away from him and leaped through the portal that was now no bigger than his torso. As soon as his friend's were through the portal it collapsed into nothingness and left no trace of its existence. Sam then turned on his side, an effort that was extremely painful and equally as difficult.
Sam looked over to where the head of Shadow Bahamut was but only saw a small chunk of oily black flesh that was disintegrating into black shadowy smoke. Within a second it was gone, and a third of a second later even the shadowy smoke was completely dissipated. Sam rolled onto his back starred at the ceiling while bleeding to death all alone in a world of his greatest fantasy, closed his eyes… and smiled.