Disclaimer: I own only Bahamut and Umbreos and anything non-canon. Characters, gender-bent or otherwise, are not mine to claim.


It'd been three months since our voyage began that I started to write this down. Soren was a bit suspicious…well, more than a bit suspicious since I wrote it in English, which wasn't a language known to Tellius. She'd tried to read it over my shoulder (being the creepy self-proclaimed cousin she was), but I threw her off the trail by claiming I'd made the language up to write letters to my father without anyone being able to uncover the contents. She bought it, thankfully, but she still tried to figure out as much as she could from sight alone.

She didn't get far. Thank Umbreos.

"You're welcome"

"Heya Pyscho! What're you writing?" Ranulf asked. I'd (thankfully) heard him coming. Unlike Lyre, he doesn't tend to sneak up on me.

"Just a journal recording the important stuff. Haven't had much to write about before now," I replied.

"So you included Lyre's new accessory?"

"Ranulf, if I don't know the customs of Gallia, how could I know whether or not that would be important?" For the record, Lyre made a bracelet out of little fish bones from a fish I'd caught her a few weeks prior. I had also made note of the leather choker she was wearing, which seemed identical to Lethe's in that it was a bit thicker in the front than at the back.

Lyre'd made me one too, but it had been destroyed in the ensuring catfight between her and Lethe. All I could understand was that Lyre was calling Lethe a hypocrite and Lethe was insisting that Lyre was rushing.

Oh, right! I forgot to mention that in addition to teaching me how to fight, Mordecai had begun to teach me how to understand the beast tribe's natural communication methods. In return I'd been tutoring him in speaking, reading and writing Tellian. It was a lot of fun and I'd learnt some very interesting things about posture and animal sounds.

Mordecai and I got along so well that even Lethe was less hostile to me. It was really amazing. Mordecai was working hard to bridge the gap between the Laguz, Branded and Beorc and it took a while to realize just how dedicated he was. The man was a saint and a great friend who I didn't even really need to speak with anymore. It was part of the teaching actually, I had to learn to read him like a Laguz would. I had a tough time at first, but the subject had piqued my interest and I worked very, very hard at it.

I realize now that I have always been much closer to the Laguz than the Beorc involved in this sordid tale, which was rather odd considering that Branded are supposed to be treated with scorn and hatred by any and all other living beings, even each other in some cases. It really shows that the remaining ten percent is worth fighting for that I've ended up surrounded by the majority of the people who don't actually care. I'd bet King Caineghis wouldn't mind me too much either.

Tibarn was someone I feared meeting though. He was a combat enthusiast after all, and if Branded are stronger than normal humans…

Speaking of which, Lethe and Lyre fought a lot during those three months. They still got along pretty well the rest of the time, but there were a lot of moments where everyone cleared the deck and let the two beat out their differences. Usually they seemed to happen whenever Lyre was trying to spend time with me or when Lethe began to 'spar' with me at Mordecai's request.

I mean talk about throwing your student to the wolves, er, cats so to speak.

It was about then that I had the revelation that Lethe was a tsundere. I even mumbled as much. What surprised me was that Ranulf was genre savvy enough to know what that meant and he seemed surprised I'd noticed it. Lethe was embarrassed when she found out and was likely going to threaten me, before Lyre interrupted with a sisterly hug that ruined the warrior's reputation on the ship for a while.

Then Lethe decked Boyd for some reason that escapes all male comprehension. That set things back into their natural order.

That's not to say we didn't have any trouble. We did still get stuck at that spot on the Goldoa coast, but instead of giant birds, ordinary human pirates attacked us. That was a fun experience let me tell you.


I ducked under the swing of a battleax and drove my left fist into the under-protected man's gut, forcing the wind out of his lungs, before spinning around and hooking my left leg around his neck to force him to the ground. I snapped his neck with a split second of hesitation. Then I moved on.

We'd been stuck on something for only a few minutes when they came out of nowhere. A fog had rolled in with the pirate ship and kept us from seeing too far away. I was helping to clear the deck of any who got aboard while the heavy fighting occurred on the gangplanks between the ships.

Soren had kept the Laguz back since the pirates might've been after them. We hadn't exactly been subtle about having Laguz on board and with each day we got closer to Begnion, home of Laguz enslavement.

Lethe wasn't going to have any of Soren's logic until Mordecai took charge and glared at her until she agreed. Kyza seemed a bit uppity that Mordecai was usurping Ranulf's authority, but the cat didn't seem to mind. In fact, he actually asked Mordecai to take charge of them for the fight since he was the most sensible.

"Hey! Let go of me you brutes!" Lyre's voice rang out from nearby. My blood froze in my veins and time seemed to slow as my eyes pierced the fog and found her being bound and gagged by two leering pirates.

Something snapped in me. Audibly. The pirates looked surprised to find me falling on them from above with murder in my eyes. They released Lyre, believing her to be sufficiently incapacitated, and moved to deal with me.

The one guy thought impaling me through the stomach with his lance would stop me, but it just made me angrier. I was in another blood rage.

I grabbed the wooden shaft of the fairly shitty lance and crushed it with a twitch of my fingers. A part of me distantly regretted not wearing my blue breastplate or chain mail that day, but training with the stuff on was harsh enough to begin with.

Besides, I needed the extra speed to kill the two pieces of human scum.

I left a large portion of the lance stuck in me, jutting out of my stomach, and pulled the man in close, crushing his trachea with a powerful right hook and then slammed both my palms against his temples. I finished him off by grasping the top and bottom of his head and twisting so fast I wouldn't have been shocked if his head had torn off.

"One down, one to go. Prepare yourself knave," I said to the remaining pirate. The man looked at me as though I were a demon and began to back away, waving his sword in the air between us as though it would keep me at bay. I didn't have enough blood left after being run through to posed much of a threat though. If it weren't for Lethe ripping his throat out with her teeth after jumping him from behind I wouldn't have lived much longer.

I collapsed to the deck, mindful of what was left of the lance, and lay in a growing pool of my own blood. Sounds grew distance, colors bled out until there was just black and white and so much red…

A sharp pain made fighting to stay conscious much, much harder. I suddenly realized that the lance was gone, removed from my body, and I could only thank the heavens that the thing hadn't been barbed. Voices grew in number around me but all I could find was a pair of yellow catlike eyes filled with tears and a faint purring sound.

I drifted off into a healing slumber just in time to miss Kurthnaga's big entrance.


I woke up to the scent of fresh forests and wildflowers on the deck of the ship. I'd been laid out in the shade it seemed. I blinked my eyes blearily and didn't try to move all that much given what I last remembered.

"Hm? Oh, you're up!" Lyre suddenly invaded my field of vision, getting right up in my face. "Don't do that again!" she suddenly commanded, her pupils dilating into thin slits.

"I can't exactly make any promises…I wasn't really fully aware of myself at the time," I mumbled, still somewhat sleepy. My words only seemed to make Lyre sad though so I flashed her the best smile I could manage. "Glad to see you're okay though."

"O-oh, um, yeah. Thanks by the way…" Lyre blushed; she seemed so embarrassed that she'd forgotten why I did that in the midst of her fretting.

"You know, she hasn't left you alone since things came to a head earlier," I heard Ranulf comment somewhere outside my field of vision. Meaning somewhere Lyre wasn't.

Lyre instantly moved aside as though burned when she heard his voice and fixed a glare on Ranulf. "Don't do that captain! You startled me!"

That just got a hearty chuckle out of the blue cat.

"Captaaaaaain…" Lyre was now doing her level best to give Ranulf a death glare.

"Oh relax Lyre. Why don't you just focus on your 'patient', hm?" Ranulf reminded her. Lyre's eyes snapped back to their usual optimistic shine and refocused on me. "After all, Bahamut, you weren't predicted to wake up for a week at least. You lost a LOT of blood."

"Hehehe…yeah, I did kind of mess that up, didn't I?" I weakly chuckled.

"On the contrary, you made Mordecai rather proud. You managed to fight even with a lance in your gut. That's kind of a big deal, especially since a few major arteries got sliced up. Plus you saved Lyre. We owe you one for that. Lethe's already paid her debt to you by killing the pirate who was left so he couldn't gut you like the other one nearly did, but the rest of us still owe ya," Ranulf stated. I was going to tell him they owed me nothing but the look on his face told me that Gallians take their life-debts seriously. Save one member of the pride, you might as well have saved them all.

And all the Laguz on this ship was what made up Ranulf's pride, both figuratively and literally.

"I'm honored," I responded, opting to close my eyes for a moment since moving seemed too difficult and tiring a task at the moment. It seemed to suffice for a traditional bow.

"Glad to hear it, hero. Now you'd best get some sleep," Ranulf playfully commanded before walking off.

"He has a point Bahamut. You still need rest. That Rhys guy may have healed your wounds but you need time to fully recover. Even magic has its limits," Lyre commented, a worried glint to her normally cheerful eyes.

"All right," I smiled, "I'll get some more sleep in. Thanks for watching over me…" I mumbled as I drifted off. The last thing I remember was something a little rough and a bit damp brushing against my cheek.


I woke the next morning to find Lyre propping me up to feed me some light breakfast. "Morning, Lyre."

"Good morning Bahamut; sleep well?" Lyre idly asked, giving me time to either fully wake up or fall back asleep.

"Yeah, but then again, you'd know if I didn't right?" I playfully asked as I looked around the deck, totally missing the faint blush on Lyre's face that appeared after she registered what I'd said.

Boyd was being made to do his practice swings, as per usual, by Titania. Soren was poring over some book on ancient languages. Ike, Mia, Zihark and Oscar were training their swordsmanship together. Kieran…I realized with a jolt that I'd never seen Kieran aboard the ship. Did that mean he was dead?

I noticed Nephenee off in a corner with Brom, chattering and watching the seagulls. They looked like they didn't belong with a group of violent people like us. They didn't ask for this, just like me. Ike and the mercenaries, fighting was their way of life. Mordecai, Ranulf, Kyza, Lethe and Lyre were all warriors by trade as well. They did their homeland proud too.

I hadn't asked for this so much as been put into this situation, but I was who I was and I am who I am. I didn't regret any of it. I wish I hadn't had to kill as many as I had, but sometimes these things are inevitable.

I wish what would ruin both my own hope for a normal life and Jill's chances of returning home didn't have to happen.

I was drawn out of my thoughts on the others (those bits about the future are my current thoughts, not the ones I had on the ship) by Lyre holding a spoon in front of my face with what seemed to be food while saying "Open up. Aaaaaah."

"Aaa-mph!" I found a spoonful of some nasty herbal remedy being shoved down my throat like it was supposed to be food. I fought the urge to gag and just coughed a bit. Lyre was a bit less eager after that, thankfully. My irritated glare may have had something to do with it though.

The sound of someone clearing her throat drew our attention pretty swiftly, however. Lethe was standing a few feet away, shuffling awkwardly. She seemed to want to be anywhere but near us. "Thank you, Pare-Bahamut," Lethe ground out, holding herself back from calling me what Laguz generally saw my kind as: Parentless.

It was a stark reminder of why I'd likely never be able to freely visit Gallia. Or any of the Laguz nations for that matter really.

"You're welcome Lethe. And thank you for saving me in turn," I responded, my voice respectful and grateful. Lethe eyed me with suspicion and a small amount of confusion before looking to Lyre. Some kind of sisterly telepathic conversation occurred and Lethe glanced at me again before turning around and stalking off.

Apparently to harass Jill in some way if the indignant yells and loud commotion were any indication.

A few minutes later a heavily bandaged redhead joined Lyre and myself. "Tried to hide some injuries from yesterday, eh soldier girl?" Lyre playfully asked, her expression very content and pleased at her sister finding out and evidently feeling a need to tell the rest of the lot about it. The bandages were self-applied, something I'd learned to recognize compared to when Rhys or even Mist applied them – there was a difference in the tightness and the angles of the wrappings. That meant that she'd been avoiding the others for a while.

I took note of Lethe looking very lost and disoriented and Ranulf spiriting her away below deck. Likely to help her figure out what her problem was. She'd been harassing Jill in small ways over the course of the entire voyage. Not a day went by that Lethe didn't bump into Jill at the very least.

"Yeah. But your nosy sister sniffed me out. I thought I'd hidden the scent well enough and I even treated and dressed them myself! I know how to treat wounds in the field. I was my squad's emergency medic after all," Jill mumbled indignantly.

"Why did you think the scent was covered?" I asked.

"Well Ranulf, the Big Guy and Mr. Straight Lace didn't call me out on it. Ranulf's too nosy not too if he knew, Big Guy's too kind to leave anyone wounded and alive be unless it's an enemy, and Mr. Straight Lace is too strict to let it slide. So how did Lethe catch me out? She wasn't even near me! I was halfway across the deck," Jill huffed indignantly.

"Well, I can see two options Jill. Either Lethe's just that much more familiar with your scent than the others or you dripped a bit somewhere and she recognized it as yours. What was all that commotion about by the way?"

"I bet sis pounced on you and started to rip your armor off, huh?" Lyre jokingly suggested and I laughed with her at that before I started to cough a bit. I hadn't fully recovered yet after all.

"Actually…yes, that's exactly what happened. Once she had she seemed torn between the wounds she could see, at least letting me have my dignity, and ripping the rest of my clothing off. Brom and the Big Guy had to drag her off of me," Jill groaned, embarrassed by what had occurred.

It made sense since she wasn't wearing her bright pink armor anymore, just a red shirt and dark pants. With lots of bandaging visible.

"Then Mist got a hold of you, huh?" I felt a bit bad for Jill. Mist was only just starting to learn the healing arts and Jill had been a convenient test subject.

"Yes, yes she did. The girl may be my best friend but she scares me at times like that. She's just so intense when it comes to healing people. Its like she doesn't want to lose anyone, ever." Jill's voice had gone soft at the end, as though remembering something. It took us a minute to realize she'd drifted off.

Lethe popped up out of nowhere again and dumped a blanket on Jill before stalking off.

That was about when Lyre and I saw the feisty cat stalk past a woman in an orange dress with vibrant green hair. Elincia was on deck for some reason. We quickly went back to what we were doing, me eating and Lyre feeding me. It still tasted nasty, but i'd stopped complaining - the taste actually grew on me a bit.

I noticed Zihark eyeing an island a ways off in the distance and started when I realized it was Kilvas. The crows were easily visible in their approach and it was clear we'd been targeted.

Zihark suddenly threw something shiny overboard pretty damned far in the general direction of Kilvas. The bottle.

I decided to focus on something else, lest Soren get suspicious. "Say, Lyre…about the battle. Did I say something odd? I remember speaking in some language I didn't recognize."

"Hm? Oh yeah, come to think of it, you did start speaking in the ancient tongue when you were fighting those guys who'd managed to get the drop on me," Lyre responded. "Say, Bahamut?"

"Yes Lyre?"

"If…I ever get caught again, would you save me? I'll do the same for you, okay?" Lyre held my gaze with an intense look in her catlike eyes. I couldn't look away.

"Sounds like a plan to me. I'd save you regardless though," I responded.

"Oh really?" Lyre smiled mischievously.

"Yep. Can't let someone so cheerful get locked away from the world. People like you are too important. There's too many people like me. The world needs people like you."

"Thanks Bahamut," Lyre said. Then she leaned over and gave me a playful little lick on the cheek. "And that was for saving me," she smiled brightly.

I just blushed, more than a bit embarrassed. I hadn't expected that. Even if it was just a little lick. Best to ask Ranulf if that was part of some kind of tradition or custom later.

"Hey Lyre, can you come help with something over here?!" I heard Ranulf shout from the stairs leading below deck.

"I'll be back Mr. Hero. Bye," Lyre winked and walked off, a sway to her hips and a pep to her step. I couldn't help but stare, confused and slightly aroused, as my self appointed caretaker went across the deck.

"Damn that woman has a nice ass," I mumbled to myself. After I said that, she even seemed to put just a little bit more sway to her hips and her tail twisted around behind her in a way that can only be described as pleased.

"Agreed. You know she heard that, right?"

Shut up Umbreos.

With that matter settled I decided to take a page out of Jill's book and drifted off to get some more shut eye in.

I completely forgot about the attack by the ravens of Kilvas, though that was mainly because there wasn't one.


A few days later Rhys declared me and my new best friend Jill cleared for duty.

After Jill had taken (and hidden the wounds from) a blow meant for Mist and then another meant for Lethe and another meant for Ike (the last two being eye-witness testimony from one of the sailors), she had become far more widely accepted. Even more-so when everyone realized her wyvern had died to sink the attacking ship to prevent the cannons from firing on us in some desperate revenge.

Jill had known that he wouldn't be back. She was upset. That was an understatement. Oddly enough, Lethe was the one to help her out of her funk, not that Jill was supposed to know. The Cat Laguz had gathered up the remaining scales the wyvern had molted and somehow fashioned them into a pretty choker with some leather and then she'd dropped it on Jill in the middle of the night.

Jill hadn't been awake but Ranulf was quite the gossip sometimes.

As an additional result of her wyvern's sacrifice and her actions during the pirate attack, those being her more-or-less saving the entire ship by stopping the pirates assigned to damage the sails and the aforementioned hit-taking, the mercenaries were treating her with respect and acceptance and the women were very friendly with her even outside their spontaneous gossip circles.

I found out what happened with Kieran by the way. He died to save Elincia's uncle from capture. The man was apparently rallying the scattered POWs I'd freed last time the Greil Mercenaries had seen him.

I feared the Kieran may have become the one to lose his mind to Izuka's sick drugs in the man's stead. With two beacons of hope for the people of Crimea to rally around, one leading the resistance and the other gathering aid from other nations, things were looking up it seemed. Well, they had been already, I just didn't know. Until, of course, I found out one tiny piece of information.

"My father isn't dead. He was captured by Daein," Ike responded. I'd just asked him about the name of the mercenary company and he'd told me about his father, which had led to the topic of where his father was. I'd assumed the man was dead.

That he was alive and likely in Izuka's hands was so much worse. Greil could slaughter hundreds on his own if he was in the mood and had his sword hand restored.

I couldn't bring myself to tell Ike about Izuka. Not at first, but I did manage to talk myself into pulling him aside after dinner and calling Titania over. I didn't think it my place to tell anyone else without conclusive evidence.

"Have you two ever heard of Feral Ones?" I quietly asked, the sorrow and pain at the mere thought of them showing in my eyes.

"Feral Ones…I thought that they were a myth until this war," Titania sadly concluded.

Ike said nothing, having figured out what a Feral One was judging by my worried glance at the now alert and - staring right at the three of us - anxious looking Laguz.

"They are real. A Daein madman is making them real at least. The effects of the drug he uses to do it…when given to a Beorc…they're equally devastating. I didn't want to tell you about this yet. I'd hoped the man would kill himself in his experiments by now but I can't let the risk of you encountering what's left of Greil and dying because you tried to reason with or save him stay unanswered. Ike…I'm sorry. But it's almost certain that Izuka would have…have…" I couldn't finish. I lowered my eyes in shame.

"Thank you. Thank you for telling us this," Titania whispered, her voice choked up with tears.

"It…he may be able to be saved," I blurted out. I almost slapped myself for saying it. "You'd have to beat him and hope he lives but once you do, so long as you don't put a weapon in his hands he shouldn't attack anyone. It would take a Heron though, and after the Serenes Massacre…but maybe I can find some other way. When we get to Begnion I'll start digging. If we can find a way to save your father Ike, maybe we can save all the Feral Ones too." I honestly felt disgusted I hadn't thought of such a thing before. A blazing determination filled me like a raging flame and I looked up into their eyes.

Both held onto that faint hope, but they were both rather pragmatic as well. They knew that the odds were slim.

But they didn't know about Reyson and Leanne. Hell, since I apparently knew the ancient language and had Sephiran as a contributor to my biology I might be able to do it myself. I still didn't know when I'd slipped into the old tongue, but if I heard it as Tellian, which I already heard and thought in after spending only a few months in this world, well...

Wait. If Sephiran is one of my parents, why am I a Dragon Branded and not a Heron Branded?

"Don't ask too many questions. Hopefully you won't have to figure out the truth."

Ike and Titania walked away, discussing this revelation in whispered voices. Soren would know within the hour I suspected.

I walked away and wandered around the deck, lost in my thoughts of ways to get the Heron royals to help Greil and maybe find a way to use their Galdr to heal the Feral Ones. Maybe we could still save Rajaion!

A hand gently rested on my shoulder, startling me from my thoughts. I realized I was staring out at the mainland with tears streaming down my face.

Lyre gently hugged me and I let the tears flow as I turned to hug her in return. Zihark and Ranulf stood close, offering silent support.

They were behind me, supporting my goals. I had a point beyond simply fighting for the war. Hell, I honestly couldn't have cared less about Crimea at that point and Grima had yet to show any direct influence over events. Having a goal was a good thing for me. I wouldn't just be drifting along like an unimportant extra character anymore - now I'd be able to step up and find a way to actually change things. Just because the game followed a certain path didn't mean this world had too. And if there were rules against it, well, they'd be broken. I'd make that happy ending.

But my tears weren't of joy for my new goal. In truth, I just couldn't handle not being able to help each and every one of the victims of that sick madman. Too many were already too far gone. I vowed to kill him before the war was over. He couldn't be allowed to see Daein's liberation.

As the sun set on yet another day at sea, I couldn't help but wonder if I'd be strong enough to save anyone at all.

You saved Lyre, you helped the Laguz reach the ship, you may have even started the ball rolling to save Greil. You saved those POWs and Zihark. You even saved those ravens who were going to attack us and any of us they may have killed. You can save more too.

"Ahoy there! Identify yourselves!" a feminine voice shouted from above. My thoughts interrupted, I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked up along with everyone else and saw someone I'd totally forgotten about, much like with Kieran. Unlike with Kieran, this person was alive. Marcia, the Pegasus Knight. Apparently, judging by the other Pegasus Knights around her, she'd never left Begnion in this version of reality.

And if the Pegasus Knights were here, that meant the Apostle was too.

Along with Astrid and Gatrie…and possibly more pirates.


All right, that's all she wrote folks. Bahamut's gotten a few new goals and a personal grudge against Izuka. Will he manage to kill him? Will Bahamut have to work with the madman in Radiant Dawn? Will he find a cure for the Feral Ones? Can Greil BE saved? Next Chapter: The Cult of Chaos and Yune's Cry! Battle at Sea and Near Tragedy!

As a side note, if anyone seems OOC, please tell me. It's mostly changes I made due to them all understanding the need to put aside their pride and petty differences if they want to survive