A Word From the Author: Here's it: READ.

Chapter Fourteen: Memories of a Dragon

Bahamut flew high in the skies, his long, scaly body undulating behind him gracefully, the argent light emanating from the stars silvering his dark cobalt scales. Flying had always been one of his greatest pleasures, but it was difficult to find joy now in the wild freedom of soaring, unfettered, high in the heavens forbidden to all but celestial creatures like him, when the threat of yet another war loomed over Gaia like a black thunderstorm about to break at any given moment.

The blue dragon took a moment to remember the long ago time when men and Guardian Forces had flown side by side in harmony. Bahamut heaved a sigh of acute sorrow and regret over those lost times. His memories were still sharp and clear, retaining their vibrancy and color even over the passage of the ages, and even now in his mind's eye he pictured the winged silhouettes of the sorceresses and their knights swooping past and beside him.

Then had come the terrible war that had stripped men of their power of flight and sorcery, including their immortality, left them chained to the ground, staring longingly into the clouds at what could never be theirs again. Many died from the pain of that loss or fell at the claws of the monsters roaming the land, unsure how to defend themselves without their magic, or from starvation. Hyne forbid his Guardians to come among them and give aid, and so they had watched from the sidelines, grieving, for the numerous friends and comrades laid out among the dead.

But men were a hardy race, and they pulled themselves back from the brink of total extinction by their very bootstraps. Spurred on by their shortened lives, they began to search for a new force to ensure their survival. At last they found it – technology. As their lives changed drastically by the discovery, they turned their back on their history, attempted to erase their past and look forward to a future that at last held hope. The past was a broken thing, stained with too much blood and tears. The Long Wars were stricken from the records, and the new generation of humans grew up unawares of their heritage. Over the centuries men forgot that their ancestors had once flown with the Guardian Forces and talked with Hyne. The last remnant, the only sign, that mankind had ever been more than it was now was the existence of the sorceresses, who possessed within them a mere fragment of what their ancestors had wielded, but regarded powerful and mysterious in this age, for Hyne had never intended that his First Children should one day forget magic – a tragedy that would be, indeed.

Always there existed two sorceresses, some benevolent, some cruel, who bent their powers towards whatever purposes they wished. Through the years humans had either sided or opposed them. Through a fluke, Rinoa Heartilly, participant in the Second Sorceress War had inherited dual powers from Adel and Edea, so now there was only one.

Bahamut heaved another gusty sigh that echoed through the emptiness about him. Far away, affected by his dark mood, a strong wind assailed the citizens of Coruthary, then a brief, stinging rain that soon halted. The dragon sensed her presence, a black blot upon the surface of his beloved world, a blight that spread disease and distrust whenever it passed. Once upon a time, in a world still populated with sorcerers and sorceresses, he had allowed her to ride upon his back, talked philosophy with her, enjoyed her wit and intelligent comments. Those were the days before the insanity infected her mind, clouding her judgment and twisting her originally well-meaning intentions. He had been proud to know her, honored to crush her enemies and further her cause. He had been among the Guardians who had helped Adele craft her holy blade, Masamune, and bind it to her soul, enhancing her already formidable spellcraft.

What had happened? He didn't know, except that Adele had changed abruptly in a short period of time. She grew obsessed with the notion of power, began to delve more deeply into experiments, prying into secrets best left alone. She went forth on bloody, senseless campaigns, supposedly in the name of Hyne, bringing down those she claimed were not devoted enough to the Church. She was ruthless, merciless, and as the death toll mounted, Bahamut began to doubt the woman he had once admired so much.

Sometimes he wondered if it had all been an act. Had Adele merely fooled them all before, using her charisma and beauty to win them over to her side, to lull them into thinking she was harmless before she struck from behind like a snake? Bahamut tended to think not, when he remembered what Adele had once been. Exquisite, compassionate, just and innocent. He half shut his golden eyes as more images sprang to vivid life in his mind, of Adele in a garden...

(Age of Magic, 109 BA—Before Apocalypse)

Bahamut lazily yawned and twisted his long neck about to gaze affectionately at the two humans nestled in the curve of his tail. One was a slender violet-haired beauty with eyes that matched the brilliant gold of the dragon's own orbs, while the other was a lanky black-haired male with amused gray-blue eyes. The temple gardens were in full bloom, and sweet fragrance of roses, chrysanthemums and lilies seemed to float on the musky summer air, adding to the three companions' lethargy.

"Thank you for attending my ascending ceremonies, Bahamut," Adele said in a sweet, lilting soprano, gently giving the dragon a pat on his blue armor. "I can't tell you how much it means to me." She smiled, the last rays of sunlight still illuminating the depths of her golden eyes.

"You have ever been a friend of the Guardians, Adele. It is only fair that we return the favor," Bahamut replied warmly, baring his teeth in a draconish smile. "So many of your kind treat us as only animals to be summoned and used at will. But you see us as intelligent creatures with feelings."

Adele leaned her head against the dragon's side, her hand caressing the massive scales. "Now that I am High Priestess, perhaps I could change the rules to benefit you more. Would you like that?" She sounded eager, hopeful, like a little girl despite her thousand years in the world.

"Thank you," Bahamut replied quietly.

Her knight stirred a little from beside her. "That's just you, Adele," he said with a smile that did much for his chiseled features. "Always thinking of others."

Adele laughed, her eyes crinkling at the corners. "Well, I like to think of myself as a good person." Her eyes turned mischievous. "Though, not always..." She leaned towards her knight and whispered something in his ear. Quinn sputtered and his ears turned red. She moved away and said with an air of studied innocence, "After the feast, let's go back and...celebrate...properly, shall we?"

Quinn just grinned sheepishly, the tips of his ears still flaring scarlet. With Adele's rise to High Priestess, as her knight, he was now among the elite Guard of Hyne, charged with the duty of protecting his sorceress.

Bahamut, who was able to, with his mind-reading ability, pick up some of Quinn's and Adele's surface thoughts, chuckled inwardly at the antics of his two friends. Sometimes he regarded them as his children, though they were over a thousand years old and officially adults. Bahamut, however, had lived far longer than that, being the second of the created Guardians, and compared to him the couple were still rather young.

"Bahamut," Adele said softly.

"Yes, Adele?" the dragon rumbled.

"There is still some time before I have to make my speech. I would like to fly. Would you join me? After I say the vows, I won't have an opportunity like this again because I will be too busy to fly for leisure. But for now...I would like to be a child once more before I have to grow up." Adele's expression was one of wistfulness as she gazed at the silver bracelet on her wrist that marked her as a priestess-in-training, soon to be replaced by the platinum armlet of service.

"Of course."

Adele closed her eyes and called upon her sorceress form. Her body was outlined in gold light, and white wings burst out of her back, the feathers pure and soft as swan down. Her feet hovered above the ground. Quinn emulated her, and silvery wings unfurled and bore him aloft beside her. His fingers thickened and curved into claws, a trait shared by most knights. Bahamut spread his own wings and rose, the wind from his beating wings causing the duo to stagger a little before they righted themselves and edge away from Bahamut.

They launched into the air, with Adele and Quinn flying above and slightly to the left. The faerie lights illumining the temple below shrunk to dots of burning colorful lights. Adele had flown many times before, but tonight she looked especially alive, her face lit up with something deep within that only made her seem lovelier.

She and Quinn embraced and sat on the dragon's back, smiling at each other, lost in their own fantasy. The dragon fanned his powerful wings, smiling to himself. For Adele he would have stayed in the same position all night and more. For he knew she would have done the same for him.

"I love you," Quinn told Adele, his heart in his eyes. It was not the first time he had said that phrase, but he never tired of speaking it, for each repetition brought renewed joy to Adele's eyes.

"I love you too," she answered, solemnly. Her hand found Quinn's, and he squeezed it very tightly.

"I want you to have something," he said a little breathlessly. "A token of...of what I feel for you." He fumbled at his throat with his free hand, and the heavy platinum pendant that he wore around his neck at all times came loose. It was a family heirloom, very old and valuable. It was cast in the shape of a lion's head, fangs bared in a ferocious, frozen roar. Quinn had once told her, at her query, that it was in the form of Griever, the First Guardian, King of the Second of Hyne's creations. He put it in Adele's hand and closed her fingers over it.

"I want you to have it," he whispered.

"I can't, Quinn!" Adele exclaimed in horror, gazing at the necklace cradled in her palm. "It's been your family for ages, it belongs to you. Your parents wouldn't be pleased you just gave it away like that."

The sorcerer kissed her knuckles lightly, and Adele blushed. Quinn smiled at her, the moonlight turning his eyes a dark, steel blue. "True, it's a heirloom," he said. "So when our eldest son comes of age, you can give it to him."

This time Adele really blushed, turning a rose pink in color. "That's really sweet of you, Quinn.," she said, her words coming out in a rush.

Quinn positively beamed. "So you're accepting my proposal?"

"Of course, silly." Adele said easily. "What made you think I wouldn't? You're my best knight."

"I'll help you put it on," Quinn offered, his nimble fingers gliding across Adele's neck, causing her to shiver with delicious delight. He stroked Adele's long, straight violet hair as he fastened the clasp, his breath warm on her skin. "My heart will forever be with you," he said sincerely.

"I know." Adele tilted her head upwards, her amber eyes staring deep into Quinn's. She suddenly smiled wickedly. "Come here, you. Don't keep a girl waiting."

Bahamut heard nothing but silence for a few minutes after that. Then Adele and Quinn flew down from his back, both grinning in a very dazed, foolish fashion, as though they had drank several bottles of champagne straight in a row without pausing.

"Had fun?" the blue dragon said cheerfully.

They simultaneously made rude signs in his direction and began to descend. Laughing, Bahamut followed them back to the ground, where Adele hastily grabbed her script and headed towards the dais where the new priestesses were being sworn into the order. Bahamut stopped Quinn as he was about to hurry after her.

"That's one amazing woman you've got, lad. Don't let her get away."

Quinn chuckled. "I certainly won't! See you later, Bahamut, after the ceremony."

At that time, he, like everyone else, had expected a perfect fairy tale ending for Adele and Quinn. Even a blind man could see the great and tender love they had for each other.

But it had not worked out. Of all the persons who suffered in the Apocalypse, Quinn had the worst of it. So many years later, Bahamut still remembered the gentle breeze during that night, the night of Adele's initiation. The only difference that Adele's twinkling laugh had become dagger blades, slicing at his flesh. Every time he had fought Adele, Bahamut saw the sorceress he had revered so much, in Adele's cold and unfeeling face. It must have been painful for Quinn, who had loved her and housed so many expectations, gone unfulfilled.

Quinn's anguish still tore at his heart. "I loved her. Why couldn't I have saved her from that monster with her face? I, alone, knew her best. I should have known something was wrong. Instead of leaving her to deal with the growing darkness in her soul on her own, I should have tried to help her see the light," the sorcerer had said, once, weeping in his guilt and sorrow.

Bahamut had experienced nothing but relief and sorrow when he heard that Adele was dead and vanquished. With her death came the end of the Long Wars and the Age of Magic. The world had repaired itself, was at peace once more.

But now she was here again.

How? Bahamut continually asked himself. He dreaded fighting her again; he had long lain her to rest in his heart. He had grieved for Adele, but rejoiced in the fact that her passing, had, in a way set her tortured soul free. He was dismayed at the fact that he had thought wrong for such a long period of time, that he had only been believing in a lie.

Did Hyne know about her continued survival? He wondered, wishing that Hyne was still present to guide him. But Hyne was gone to tend to another of his creations, and he, Bahamut, was alone, and he had to act in the way he thought best, unguided.

And now, with the absence of Hyne, their only hopes rested on the shoulders of a young man from another world, supposedly, somehow, the scion of Adele, bearing her sword and her power. Adele had grown frighteningly in strength over the years while the Guardian Forces had relaxed, grown complacent after twenty years of peace. Odin, too, would do his best to stop her, but, knowing how potent Adele's magic was, Bahamut knew that he would prove no match for her.

So far, Bahamut had vouched for the young man—Sephiroth, his name was. His Guardians were aware of the source of his hope, and though they were skeptical and thought him foolish, he was after all still their king, and they obeyed and respected his wishes.

Ten generations ago, a sorceress gifted with the power of Seeing was born, and she could often make minor, though sometimes useful, predictions about the future. If there was a flood, or a famine coming, she would make the appropriate warnings, and a disaster was averted, and thus she was much welcome among the local folk.

She, too, was well known among the Guardians, being singularly powerful in that age. She fought beside them many times, and was an able and valued comrade. And so it came to be that Bahamut loved her well enough to stand vigil at her bedside in human form while she lay dying of a mortal wound sustained during battle. Whether it was because the glimpse into the dark realm of death gave her a spurt of power in her Sight, or because it was fate or Hyne that spoke through her mouth in that moment her soul fled, leaving her body a hollow shell, Bahamut wasn't sure, but one thing he knew for certain: this prophecy was integral to the future of Gaia. To his dying day, he would never forget the harsh, whispered words she hissed at him that day in the small, shadowed room that smelled of death and sickness:

"...I see death and suffering, broken by periods of peace, a mockery of the carnage that is to come. Look to the skies, for it is from there that danger shall descend. The day will come in the future when a sorcerer will save Gaia from the Scourge with the key to the wellspring of energy deep within Gaia for there will be no one else to stop the tragedy as Hyne shall be gone. When he calls, all of Heaven shall hear him, and Hyne himself will come in answer..."

She paused, then, and said softly, a dazed expression on her face, as it always was after she had a vision, "Deliver me, Lord Hyne..."

With that, she died, with the name of her sovereign lingering on her lips.

Bahamut had never quite understood, mainly because no living sorcerer still existed upon Gaia. But now he had the answer to his own doubts and questions. Sephiroth, though alien, with Adele's sorceress abilities, could technically be called a sorcerer. He knew he was putting all his hopes into a prophecy made years before which might not even refer to the current event, but he was desperate and more than that, he believed in Sephiroth. The man bore no resemblance to Adele, but there was something of her haunted look in his eyes, of madness narrowly escaped, and the shadows of regret, a luxury no cold-blooded killer could afford. Yes, Bahamut trusted him, though he was sorry to learn that his supposedly loyal subjects weren't quite as trusting as him.

With a thought, the diamond-studded sky vanished, to be replaced by the ever-shifting chaos of the Astral Plane. Bahamut willed the chaos into a mirror, tucking his claws beneath him, he gazed into it. At first he saw only his reflection, then the surface rippled and sparkled at his unspoken command. It clouded, then the mists parted to reveal the angular face of the silver-haired youth that had arrived in Gaia under such mysterious circumstances.

For a moment the strange catlike eyes darted around and the youth's lips bowed in a frown. Bahamut held his breath as Sephiroth looked over his shoulder, as though able to sense the intrusion. Not unusual, for one of his power. Adele herself had been able to sense when she was being scried upon. Then he seemed to shrug and spoke to an unseen audience. "Yes, m'am. I understand perfectly well."

Even if no one else agreed with him, Bahamut would support Sephiroth all the way to the end, for he was firm in his conviction that Sephiroth was the key to defeating Adele, the champion who was to rescue Gaia from an uncertain fate should it ever fall into Adele's unkind hands.

The blue dragon settled down to watch.

Author's Ending Note: I hope none of you feel that Adele is being too nice to have just suddenly turned three hundred sixty degrees just like that. (snap fingers) I wrote this account to put a bigger contrast between Jenova and Adele. You know, to fulfill the 'even bad guys were once innocent babies' thing that is an unchangeable law of fandom. Also, I put in a tremendously huge clue here that I'm certain none of you will miss. (Hint, hint: It starts with a G.) Plus, I really apologize for not being able to update for such a horrendously long time, because my father changed the password on the computer (again) so I was unable to access the Internet to post this chapter. Not to mention the darned Internet kept crashing because my modem went haywire. There will be similar delays on other updates, regretfully. But for now, please enjoy my latest update.

Next chapter: The briefing, the SeeD graduation ball, and how Sephiroth discovers he prefers fighting a million dragons to dancing with a girl...( grins. How I love to torture you guys with the long wait...well, anyone would die to see Seph dancing)

Thanks to:

Noacat: Thanks! As for the comments on the Guardians, it only serves to deepen the plot. And make the story longer. Of course, the GFs will soon realize that they are in error and they WILL have to trust him after all!

tetraflash777: Why is it every time I bemoan the lousy quality of my writing someone always argues back? (wonders) Not that I'm complaining, mind you. In fact...pour on the arguments already!

Dark Feruil: Of course, there's no way I'll let Jeremy go unscathed after what he did to Laguna. (Okay, so I MADE him do that to Laguna, but that's beside the point.) IN fact, looking back on my story, I realize that I've inadvertently created loads of insanity and reformed ex-psychopaths. Is that a weird kind of reflex action or something? Maybe my love of psychos just says something about my own mad character...

Omega Paladin: Yeah, maybe, except somehow I can't picture the Garden flying all the way back to Balamb every time they want to conduct a practical examination if they happened to be situated somewhere else out of necessity. Maybe I should have put the location on the actual airship itself. (ponders new ideas)