The Flames Within Us
By: V-Dawg
Chapter 11: Return to Civilization
"Run! Run!" Tibarn had bellowed to the group, consisting of Mist, Ike, Ranulf and Leanne.
While they would have liked to think they had a fighting chance, the sad reality was that it wasn't true.
The group, besides Tibarn were worn out from the six to nine months of disappearance, as well as a lack of food, water and clothing.
They all clearly looked dirty and roughed up from the fight with the Begnion troops, alongside everything prior.
Ranulf's hair was longer, his headband was missing, and his body was covered in scraps that, while looked like they had healed, the scars were there.
Mist looked traumatized and tired, with signs of physical torture on her shoulder and abdomen.
Leanne was the only one who seemed fine for now, but Tibarn could tell from her facial structure that she had lost weight, something everyone else clearly had as well.
Ike was a whole different story, according to Tibarn. He had the scars like Ranulf and Mist, but he also seemed different, as if he was tortured psychologically. The wings on Ike's back were a testament as to what Tibarn was dealing with after their disappearance. It was now just an unusual problem
It wasn't bad, but considering how Tibarn met Ike, this was strange.
Currently, Ike had two arrows stuck in him, protruding his left shoulder and hand, rendering his arm useless. Luckily, Tibarn knew from experience that unlike other birds, their wings were a limb connecting through their shoulder pads, separate from their arms, meaning Ike's wings were still working normally.
Ranulf was bleeding near his eye, while Tibarn had been struck by an arrow on his wings, limiting his flight capabilities.
Mist and Leanne were the only ones who seemed okay from any current injury, but they clearly still looked exhausted.
Tibarn was insistent on getting the group back to civilization. After his blunder, which he still thought was responsible for their month's long disappearance, he wasn't giving up any chance.
And it was thanks to all of these factors did Tibarn knew the Begnion soldiers would capture them.
Even though their mobility was poor, they would ultimately catch up, and Tibarn knew he needed a miracle to happen. Maybe if he hadn't told all of his tribe to notify Gallia, maybe they'd have a better chance.
However, it seemed that miracles could happen, and a bird-like shout was heard. Tibarn, and everyone in his group looked up, and despite the dark, they could clearly see how was there.
"Naesala?" Leanne asked, which softened the blue-haired raven laguz.
"Leanne..." He said, his eyes not believing what he was seeing.
But before he could ponder, or even notice the wings on Ike's back, he heard the sound of Begnion troops.
Sighing, Naesala, looked to Tibarn, "Did you send all your tribes away?"
Tibarn shook his head in frustration, ashamed he required assistance from his rival group, "Yeah I did, but I didn't mean all!"
"Sure." Was all Naesala said, before ordering his clan to attack the troops, using the height advantage to catch them off guard.
Ike, Tibarn and Ranulf made sure to deal with the archers, in order to ensure that none of the raven's flight were limited like Tibarn's.
"Grah!" Ike yelled, as he felt a primal strength surge through him, as he slashed at a Begnion soldier with his katana, a light blue tinge radiating off of Ike, that was only noticed by Mist, who looked at her brother in concern.
A nearby archer attempted to snipe Ike at his wings, but Ike moved them out the way as he dodged, the arrow striking his shoulder again, the sound of the arrow embedding itself clear to Ike, as he hissed in pain.
Quickly, before the archer could knock back another arrow, Ike dashed forwards, striking the archer, Ike's sword embedded right in the archer's chest, before pushing it down violently, killing the archer instantly.
Before he could relax, Ike pulled the arrow out of his shoulder, alongside the one in his arm, as he gasped in pain, collapsing from pain.
"Ike!" Mist exclaimed, tossing Ike a vulnerary Naesala had with him in supply.
Ike took the vulnerary and applied it quickly, the pain from the arrows fading away, which allowed Ike to sigh and breathe in relief.
Most of the Begnion soldiers had retreated after seeing reinforcements, and they group could relax.
If only it was that simple, as the rumbling from Ranulf was loud enough for anyone to hear. With Ike, it was a strange feeling as he hadn't expected it, but knowing his hearing, it was probably a product of Izuka.
Shaking his head out of that twisted demon, Ike walked forwards, approaching Naesala, who looked at Ike, his eyes widened in shock upon looking at him.
"What the heck happened to you?!" Naesala asked in pure shock and concern, as his eyes were clearly on Ike's wings, which Ike had accidentally extended, showing them in full fashion.
Naesala hadn't seen something like this. Someone going missing coming back with wings, it was as if Ike was a laguz. Naesala couldn't believe it, and it wasn't until he felt Ike's wings, did he confirm there were actual and fully functioning.
Naesala looked to Tibarn who sighed, "I wish I knew as well; I was as shocked as you." Was all he said, before he walked in a direction, which Naesala could tell was towards Gallia.
Before he could let the hawk leader leave, Naesala tapped him, "Get on."
Tibarn looked in shock, "Excuse me?"
"You clearly won't be able to fly from that arrow for a bit, and we were sent by Caineghis to fetch you all." Naesala said at last.
"So, my hawk tribe mad-"
"Yes, now hope on, Ike, can you fly?" Naesala asked, turning to Ike, who sighed.
"Why does everyone think I can suddenly fly after this..." Which only made everyone laugh at the reoccurring theme they noticed.
Sighing, Ike found himself being brought up, alongside Mist and Ranulf, by a large raven.
Leanne, who transformed into a heron, chose to fly alongside the group, as they made their way towards Gallia.
Ike, as much as he wanted to sleep, couldn't, and he couldn't but his mind to it.
But he eventually concluded it was due to the casual argument of Tibarn and Naesala.
"Why are you so heavy?" Naesala remarked, which Tibarn scoffed.
"Don't blame me for being bulky!"
"But you're a hawk! You're not supposed to be!"
Ike shook his head; his wings Ike could see out of the corner of his eyes for now.
He simply sighed, as much as you would think it's cool to have wings, Ike felt weird with them. As if he wasn't meant to be there, and everyone around knew well.
To an outsider, Ike looked like a simple bird tribe laguz, but to Ike, he knew he wasn't supposed to be one.
It felt weird, and Ike knew it would truly take some time for him to adapt.
Before he could think more, Ike fell asleep.
"Greil No!" Ike heard a female yell, as Ike looked up to see what appeared to be his mother.
But Ike wasn't looking at her, but rather looking at the figure, standing in the middle of what appeared to be hundreds of bodies.
As much as Ike himself wanted to yell, he knew he couldn't. He was paralyzed, just like his state after those trials.
But soon afterwards, Ike gasped in shock as he saw an explosion of blue and purple flames around his father.
His sword in hand, he began to slaughter everyone, in the vicinity.
Friends, enemies, random soldiers Ike didn't know why they were there, Greil slaughtered them all.
"No..." Ike exclaimed, as he saw his mother run towards his father. The action slowing down dramatically the closer Elena came towards Greil.
Suddenly, the environment changed, and Ike found himself in a strange forest, with a bunch of what appeared to be soldiers, similar to just now, Ike realized.
However, something was different, he quickly realized.
Slashing and hacking towards enemy soldiers, Ike swung his katana yet again at an archer, who managed to hit Ike with an arrow to his shoulder.
"Argh!" Ike yelled, but the sound more of anger, rather than pain.
Before he knew it, he felt a strange sense of primal strength surge through him, and he easily found himself slicing down the archer.
But that wasn't it, he suddenly saw a strange blue strike of flame-light hit the nearby group of soldiers, killing all of them in an instant, and Ike could see, despite him not knowing what he did, the terror in the soldiers.
It was then Ike realizes even his closer friends were looking at him, in terror.
It was then Ike looks down at his arms, and even he was terrified to find blue and purple flames engulf his figure.
He found himself searing in pain from the flames, as they became too hot for him.
"Kff!" Ike hissed as he dug his nails into his hands, and his teeth on his tongue, as he felt an odd sensation to smile.
Ike didn't know what was happening, but what he saw next terrified him.
He was black light shroud his figure, trying to fight with the blue-purple flames, and in a terrifying display of aura, Ike's figure was surrounded by blue-purple flames and what could be best described as black aura.
Ike did his best as he felt both sides trying to take him apart.
Before he knew it, he felt the flames taking over, and Ike let out a scream.
Immediately followed was red light in Ike's vision, before he dashed towards what appeared to be Ranulf.
Ike woke up with a startle. He looked around frantically before seeing himself in a strange area.
It looked really modern to Ike, as he got up, and began to feel the material around the walls of this building, which was clearly a mix of basalt and metal, something he was well known of feeling considering he spent nine months around nothing but cold metal.
The thought of that wretched place terrified Ike, as he felt his breathing peak.
This was not good.
Ike tried to get his mind off of that experience, by looking at his friends, Ranulf, Leanne, and his sister, Mist, all of which were sleeping comfortably, covered by a sheet of warm fur.
That calmed him down as he knew he knew they weren't back in that building. They never had blankets for anyone.
Ike sighed, as he also looked at his surroundings, a weird feeling of warmth taking over Ike, that he liked.
He saw a door nearby, and his curiousity got the better of him. Walking quietly, trying his hardest not to wake up Ranulf, Ike knew it was futile, as he saw the cat laguz's ears move.
Sure enough, Ranulf woke up and smiled at the sight of the mercenary, so much so after looking around the surroundings. He quickly got up.
"Where are you going Ike?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.
Ike shrugged, "Going to explore, it seems nice, also to look for Tibarn and Naesala."
Ranulf, however, laughed which confused Ike.
"You do realize we are in Zarzi?" Ranulf said, which confused Ike.
"We are, oh." Ike said at last, noticing the concerned look of Ranulf.
"You fell asleep quite early, but we reached the borders of Gallia before I knocked out."
Ike nodded in understanding before opening the door.
Opening the door, he saw a quiet square room with a table encompassing the center of the room.
Ike and Ranulf could hear the sounds of talking in a nearby room close to them, indicated by a door in the way.
Ike made his way towards the door and opened it, locking eyes with someone he had not seen in so long.
"Caineghis." Was all Ike said, somewhat surprised. The lion king looked shocked to see Ike in person after so long.
"Ike." Caineghis started, "It's been..." He suddenly stopped after looking at Ike's wings, and noticing Ranulf's presence.
Both of which clearly had an impact on his silence.
"Hello king Caineghis." Ranulf started, attempting to bow, but Caineghis shook his head.
"You don't need to do that right now Ranulf, your health is a priority at the moment, as well as finding out the circumstances that have occurred to Ike." Caineghis interrupted, looking to Ike, his eyes on the wings that appeared to have suddenly grown on the mercenary.
"Tibarn, Naesala, would you please?" He asked, in which the avian laguz nodded.
Once the two left, Ike and Ranulf knew they had a lot to catch up on.
For Ranulf and Ike, they knew it would be explaining the nine months of torture they went through. Whereas for Caineghis, it was the result and product of their failure to find them on time. He could already see some of the products of their failures, via Ike's wings.
"So, I guess you want to know what happened?" Ranulf asked, which Caineghis nodded simply.
Ranulf looked to Ike, who seemed to be trying to be as stoic as possible, sighed, knowing Ike probably didn't want to talk about it.
"After that incident, we found ourselves on the other side of Tellius, in a dark building where we were pretty much experimented on. The laguz, some were in cage, with lack of food to make them animalistic and maybe feral, and some were influenced by some weird magic that made them followers to a leader." Ranulf started.
"And who was this leader?" Caineghis started, which Ike sighed.
"Izuka." Ike said at last, which caused some silence among them.
"Izuka?" Caineghis said at last, his anger showing a bit.
"Yes sir, he pretty much tortured us to the point of near starvation, as long as for his experiments." Ranulf replied, which caused Caineghis to sigh.
On the one hand, Caineghis knew Izuka was a crazy, but smart scientist. As much as he saw him as a mad person, even he couldn't deny when he wanted something he wanted, with science and magic he would probably be able to do so.
He saw that Ranulf wanted to say more, so he let him continue. "He also had a sort of obsession with laguz blood for some reason. So much so that he would come in a collect some of Leanne's blood semi-daily. It wasn't until recently when we escaped did, we find his true motivations."
This intrigued Caineghis as much as if terrified him, and he looked to Ike as he seemed to have an idea what happened.
"So, what was his motivation?" Caineghis asked.
"Leanne's blood was for Mist. He was taking her blood and injecting it into Mist. Alongside some weird magic and potions, he would do these so-called trials, twice a day." Ranulf replied.
Caineghis then turned to the door behind him, "So what happened to Mist?"
"She was essentially and effectively mixed with the laguz blood alongside her beorc blood. It seemed that Izuka was experimenting different blood and genes, specifically the difference between the beorc and laguz blood, and by injecting a beorc with laguz blood and DNA, and vice versa, a laguz with beorc blood, he could essentially change species."
This was a lot to take in, Caineghis realized, but he knew that was the circumstance when dealing with a mad scientist.
But then, there was still one question Caineghis had, and he turned to look at Ike, who was mostly quiet throughout this entire ordeal.
"What happened to Ike?" Caineghis asked.
Ranulf sighed, and Caineghis knew there was a lot more of information they were missing out on, and he didn't blame them. After nine months of disappearance, Caineghis knew a lot must have happened.
A.N / Chapter 11 done. This is the interlude part of the story that separates this from the Radiant Dawn plot. We'll see what happens to Ike and Mist afterwards with the Greil Mercenaries and Elincia. Also, what about Leanne and Ranulf? Well, those two were kind of answered as the avian tribes got to reconnect with them, and Ranulf connected with Caineghis. I guess Lethe is left in that regard as well, so that will also be included.