Before I begin this chapter, I'd like to say thank you to all those who've added 'Memories of Water' to their favorites. I'll do my best to keep the story that way!

This Chapter: Lots of explaining, the plot thickens, and Destiny dreams.

(Note: I had to put this into webpage format for the italics and bold print to stand out. ^_^; I hope this works.)

Chapter Fifteen: Dreams of Treachery

  ~*~*~*~

  My eyes shifted from one side of the darkened docks to the other, watching as a small boy silently approached them. He was clad in a purple robe that flowed behind his as he walked and his tan face from view. He stopped, and turned, looking straight at me, and for a moment I thought that he'd seen me, but he wasn't looking at me. It was more like he was looking through me. I turned as heavier footfalls came and saw a familiar face. It was Ryuu, looking slightly disgruntled. A creature walked beside him, flowing like liquid. It would have been invisible had it not been for the electric blue stripes that ran the length of its slender body. Sapphire eyes stared calmly at the robed boy, and with a shock I realized that I'd seen that creature before.

  "Sorry to keep you waiting," the tiger said in a frighteningly serene voice, "I believe that we had business to discuss?"

  The robed boy nodded. "Yes, I have a.. a small job for you two."

  The tiger snorted. "Ironic it is, you asking me for help."

  The boy frowned and said, "It will benefit you as well."

  Ryuu looked around moodily. "May I ask what you two are going on about?"

  The tiger slammed one of his claws down into the man's foot, issuing a small yelp and a whimper from the man as a glimmer of red shone through his boot. "Keep your mouth shut. Bahamut and I will do the talking, you just keep your ears open and try to catch something, nitwit."

  I felt my eyes widen. Bahamut? But Bahamut was my friend, wasn't he? Why was he asking them for help? All of a sudden I was extremely interested in what the small group had to say. Perhaps Ryuu and his little pet tiger weren't as bad as they came off to be.

  Bahamut chuckled. "You do know that when you rebuke him for his faults, that you are actually accusing yourself of being a nitwit, don't you?"

  The tiger hissed impatiently. "Get on with it, Dragon, or I'll simply leave. With that great golden oaf hanging around I've started disliking your kind more and more."

  "I presume you mean Guardian, King of the Seas? He's the reason that I came here," Bahamut stated, turning towards the ocean, which was calm and placid under the twinkling stars. He appeared to be looking at it accusingly. "Though he's not the only one that I came to see you about."

  The tiger's ears pricked forward, and his tone became soft and malicious. "You wanted to see me about the Golden Dragon? What might your favor be?"

  Bahamut looked as though he might be ashamed of himself and hesitated, but he began to speak in his strong, clear voice only a second later, seeming to shake off any doubts. "I want to hire you as an assassin."

  Ryuu started. "You want us to slay an aeon? Well, now this is interesting. Aeons pitted against aeons. Getting jealous that Golden Dragon is stealing all of your glory with his little acts?"

  Bahamut sneered. "It is not his acts that are the problem, it is the fact that he exists! He is an unwelcome aeon, created through a false process and now trying to change Spira to his likings. Not only that, he is now defying everything that Spira has become by bringing his Human here, that girl, Destiny."

  The tiger frowned. "I thought that the girl's existence was all your doing. The Guardian brought her here?"

  "Precisely," Bahamut said.

  "May I ask why?" the tiger purred curiously.

  Bahamut looked up into the innocent stars. "He wishes to undo the past. He believes that he can fix this world, that he can make the people happier. He's an optimist who dwells on the past and looks too far into the future. He refuses to see that this world is dark, that Death will always exist, and he refuses to accept the fact that he doesn't belong here!" Bahamut's voice cracked slightly as he shouted the last portions.

  Ryuu frowned. "I don't see why you're worried. No one can undo the past, not even a giant sea dragon."

  Bahamut smiled in an odd sort of way. "No, Guardian himself can't, but I sense the presence of another aeon that should've accepted their fate long ago, one that just might have the power to throw the Dragon, his Human, and whoever else decides to tag along back far enough for him to rewrite history according to how he thinks it should be. This aeon is totally prepared to assist the Guardian. It has no concern for Guardian himself, but it has an attachment to one of Destiny's other companions, an attachment so deep that it would do anything for them."

  Ryuu seemed to accept that answer, and turned around, his yellow eyes searching the darkness, making sure that their conversation was not being overheard. He was unable to see me, the spirit that had wandered in the night. The tiger frowned at Bahamut. "I have a small concern myself," he said, "I've been sensing something within that Oryon man, the fighter. Could he be who I think he is? Is he the one that will assist the Guardian in his proposed time-travel?"

  Bahamut smiled grimly. "He may be who you presume, but he isn't the time aeon. He's simply keeping an eye on things; I believe it was a job assigned to him by the Guardian. He has no idea, but he's very insightful, from what I've seen. He'd be able to figure out things easily enough with all of the right clues."

  The tiger nodded, and all of a sudden hissed angrily. "I want to kill them all now! Revenge is tickling my paws." His claws appeared and then disappeared in a flash as he swiped at the air with one of his massive paws in a furious rage.

  Ryuu frowned. "I don't anticipate killing the girl. She attracts me. She's powerful, strong-willed, and if I'm not mistaken, slightly aggressive. Those are strange traits in a female, but she's a lot more interesting than most of the foolish women who hang about me."

  Bahamut grunted and dismissed his statement. "She takes all of her traits from the Guardian, ignore her. She doesn't love you anyway. She's much too stubborn to love someone like you.

  "Well, then," Ryuu said, smiling and drawing a dirk from the belt latched around his waist, "I suppose she'd be better off in the Farplane."

  The tiger laughed, but the laugh came out more like the giggle of a child anticipating an exciting new activity, then he straightened himself, seeming to catch his error. He looked at Bahamut curiously for a moment, and purred in his malicious tone, "Tell me, Dragon, what do the other aeons think of your little escapade?"

  Bahamut suddenly became his dragon self. He grinned down at the tiger threateningly, seeming to challenge him. "They are unaware as of yet, and it will stay that way, or you will both suffer. Just remember your jobs and meet me here again tomorrow. We will discuss the manner of doing what must be done. You will both sate your hunger for the Guardian's blood, and I will rid Spira of his nonsense for eternity."

  The tiger smiled. "It was a pleasure doing business with you, Dragon, may we meet again in good health and good spirits. Good times are surely ahead!"

  Bahamut began to disappear, and I saw a small look of disgust flit across his face, as if he had just realized how barbaric a task he had assigned to the two, but he was soon gone, leaving a deceitfully smiling aeon and a perplexed Ryuu in his wake.

~*~*~*~

  My eyes opened quickly, and I blinked at the sunlight filtering in through one of the Inn's windows. My mind was still trying to digest all of which I'd heard in my intricate dream.

  It can't have been real.. I thought to myself, staring at the ceiling and trying to sort out all of which I'd heard. Bahamut had said that 'the Guardian' was his enemy, a nuisance. I frowned. Guardian was my Golden Dragon, the aeon that came at my summoning and vanquished enemies in a great display of valor, or so I assumed. Why wouldn't Bahamut be happy for Spira to have such a protector? I laid my head back down on the pillow and sighed, wishing that I understood more. If Bahamut and Guardian were enemies, then that made Bahamut my enemy. I had once admired the great black dragon, but now all of that admiration was seeping away. I had heard Bahamut order two of the most despicable creatures that I knew to kill me! I was all of a sudden frightened. My world had just been turned upside down, and I was silently hoping that the dream had been just that, a simple, harmless dream that had resulted from my wild imagination. I shivered under the blankets that lay on top of me. What was happening?

  A soothing voice at once spoke up in my head. Worry not, Destiny, it's your imagination.

  I didn't believe the voice for a second, and said so in my mind.

  You want me, come and get me!