Hey guys, a new update. Enjoy and review.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Down One

"There should be enough ratios to last us a few days," Basch said, looking at the food the ship had, "that is if you guys don't mind surviving on healthy snacks."

Zack shook his head as he holds up a gunblade. It was slick and new and did weight quite a lot for something as small as it looked but he was quite strong himself so he was wielding it, looking it over.

"You know, I never heard of a gunblade running out of ammo," he said.

"Some strange technology," Basch said, "Thermal I guess, as long as it doesn't overheat you can still shoot things."

Zack shrugged at him as footsteps drew close to them. Glancing at the noise, noticing that it was simply Paine, the silver haired girl looking at the ammunition that was littering around them.

"What are you guys doing?"

"Checking if these things aren't damaged," Basch answered her, "We can't take off with them and not having them work when we need it."

"Here Paine," Zack said throwing a small thing at her.

Paine caught it and looked at the device. It was relatively small with some kind of blue light running through it and noticed that it could be easily attacked to the wrist.

"Manadrives," she said, recognizing it.

"Yeah, we've got around three of them," Zack told her.

"A Sentinel Manadrive," Paine said.

Basch looked up at her.

"Really? How did you know that?"

"Covered them in class," Paine told him, "I was going to be a Pilot you know. Some pilots carry manadrives with them or simply a GRAV-CON unit."

Zack chuckled.

"You know your stuff that I can tell you," he said.

Paine smiled at him and turned her attention toward Basch.

"Can I talk to you alone for a minute Basch?" she asked.

The man looked at her suspiciously with his blue eyes before nodding and followed Paine who led him away from the rest of the group until they were standing alone by one of the trees.

"Okay, so what is it that you have to talk to me about that requires so much secrecy Paine?" Basch asked her.

The silver haired girl turned toward him.

"Look, I'm going to get straight to the point," she said, "You and Vaan need to talk."

Basch sighed.

"What do you want me to say to him Paine?" he asked, "That I was doing what I was trained to do when I betrayed him and I'm sorry for it?"

"Yes," Paine told him, "You guys got to put this being you. Now it isn't about who was right and who was wrong. We are all in this mess together. We're on Pulse for Maker's sake…"

Basch looked at her squarely.

"I'll talk to him on my own terms Paine," he said, "We've got to figure out what to do and where to go first before taking care of it…I promise."

Paine frowned at him.

"I'm holding you on to that," she said.

Basch smirked.

"You won't be Paine if you don't," he said.

Then he saw something move in the trees causing him to go instantly alert. He pushed past Paine, his eyes fixed on the location he had seeing it.

"What? What did you see?" Paine asked him.

"Something was moving back there," Basch said, his hand going for the small handgun that was hanging on his side.

He aimed the weapon toward where the movement had come from but everything stayed still. Basch frowned a little, lowering the gun. Then a gray blur busted from the bushes, running on all four and Basch pressed the trigger of the weapon almost instinctively.

The echoing boom was loud and the gray blur crumbled down, instantly dead. It was similarly shaped to a Pantheron but it was a live animal as they saw blood pooling around the creature's body. Then the ground thundered around them as a larger shape came out of the bushes, drawing both Basch and Paine's attention.

Holy…

It was Behemoth King. A live Behemoth, unlike the ones on Cocoon which were all bioweapon built by people, this one was a large creature, bulging with muscles and some scars upon his form. The gray fur was matted with dirt and its eyes which were bright yellow were observing them and a growl came from the large beast.

"Holy shit," Paine whispered.

Then the Behemoth roared, before charging straight at them and Basch unloaded his gun upon the creature's form. Bright flower sized patch of red appeared upon the Behemoth's form; hardly slowing it down that Basch might have been firing paintball at it.

"Get out of the way," Paine said, knocking him down.

Basch was knocked down by the smaller body sending them both sideway as the Behemoth rammed past, narrowly missing them. Then it turned back growling at them, barring the way they had come meaning they were trapped here unless someone come looking for them.

"Can't fight a Behemoth with only a handgun," he said.

Paine cursed beside him.

"I left my weapon back at camp," she said.

Yep, Basch knew they were in some deep shit.

Tifa paused slightly suddenly turning her head at a direction at the same time, Éclair did so.

"Did you…" she started.

"Yeah," Éclair said, narrowing her eyes, "Gunshots."

Tifa gasped.

"The others," she said, "They must be fighting something."

"Let's go help," Éclair said running

The two started to run as quick as they could.

Meanwhile

Back at camp, Vaan approached Zack, looking around slightly. He was sure Paine had told him he was going to be here. He glanced down at the content in the box and picked up the Sentinel manadrive, examining it.

"You like it?" Zack asked.

"It's alright," Vaan said, "It's the same design as the one Basch had, say Zack, you seen Paine?" he asked.

"Yeah," Zack said, "She was just there a minute ago. She and Basch had something to talk about I think, they went that way."

He pointed at a random direction just a numerous sounds of gunshots started to echo, drawing their attention and the Colonel, who was simply seating a little way than them, had sharply glanced at the same direction also.

"They must be in trouble," Vaan said.

The Colonel was already running past them, drawing her gunblade as Zack and Vaan followed, both of them all the while putting on the manadrive upon his wrist, quickly pressing buttons.

"GET DOWN," Basch yelled.

Paine threw herself down on the ground as Basch unloaded more bullets upon the Behemoth King. He knew he was at a disadvantage here, facing a Behemoth without being properly armed. This was a suicide mission at best.

"Paine, go warn the others," He said, "I'll keep him busy."

"What?" Paine yelled, "And leaves you here to die…no way?"

Basch growled.

"JUST GO," he yelled, turning his attention toward the silver haired girl.

That action turned out to be a fatal mistake for at that moment, the Behemoth King lowered his head, and charged with the horn that was on top of his head and Paine's eyes widened in horror at what was about to happen.

"BASCH WATCH OUT…"

The time Basch turned his head toward his attention toward his opponent before he was run through with the horn, and yelling out in pain. The Behemoth roared as it raised itself on his two back legs with Basch hanging on the horn.

"BASCH," Paine yelled, feeling terror and horror at her friend.

Then with a shake of its head, the Behemoth removed Basch from where he was stabbed sending the man flying in the air and Paine's eyes followed him in slow motion seeing the man's body falls down on the ground, unmoving.

No, don't be dead, she thought, not like this.

Then a shing sound caused Paine to return her attention back toward the Behemoth who had pulled out a spinning saw thing which was attacked to his back and with the yellow eyes fixating upon her, Paine knew that she was the next target.

Her entire body was shaking in fear as her eyes followed the weapon that will likely going to kill her in one hit. Feeling tears in her eyes, Paine screamed closing her eyes, hearing a familiar voice yelling her name…

CLANG!

Paine opened her eyes, wondering what she wasn't dead yet, noticing feathers flying about her causing her to blink a little.

Feathers…wait…

She glanced at her savior and found herself looking at an armored figure that had a sword blocking the saw of the Behemoth attack.

"Crazy girl," she whispered.

The woman yelled as she pushed the saw thing back and spun her blade around getting in a battle stance.

"Let's even these odds," she said.

"Paine," another voice said.

Tifa, she thought.

It really was her sister, alive and was breathing heavily as if she had been running. The young woman took hold of her arm.

"Teef…" Paine whispered.

"Tifa, get her out of here," Crazy girl yelled as she launched a lightning bolt at the Behemoth pushing him back even more.

"Right, Éclair," Tifa said, "C'mon Paine."

Éclair charged her magic through her blade as the Behemoth King roared at her and launched an attack at her. The young woman swiftly dodged it and jumped toward the unprotected side of the Behemoth.

"Sparkstrike," she yelled, slashing the side of the creature.

The Behemoth let out a yell of pain but it was still standing. Éclair jumped back sliding slightly as the creature slashed with his weapon, the attack missing her by inches. Then it came back again as Éclair blocked it with her sword and the strength behind the attack send Éclair back, the woman rolling upon the ground on impact.

Éclair was quickly on her feet again, still holding her sword as the Behemoth was going to attack again but an ice bullet slammed straight into his chest causing him to roar again. Then she was joined by Lightning, Zack.

"Alright," Zack said, "Let's show him what we're made of."

Éclair feel a smirk on her face as she stood side by side with them and Lightning quickly took control of the situation.

"Full Assault, while it's still staggered," she yelled.

Éclair launched spells after spells at the Behemoth while Lightning was sending some kind of white balls at the creature and Zack was using the gunblade in his hand firing and slashing at it. Then the Behemoth launched its weapon at them, and Éclair jumped out of the way hearing the thing make contact with the ground.

She launched herself forward and on the other side, seeing Lightning charging forward also probably having the same idea in mind. Then she jumped her sword at the ready toward the exposed side of the neck, burying her sword into it. On her side, Lightning had gone for the face…or most likely an eye, stabbing the Behemoth straight through it.

The Behemoth roared in pain, staggering backward until it falls upon the ground, and Éclair was thrown off at the fall rolling upon the ground. Lightning herself was crouching upon the fallen Behemoth's chest.

"And down he goes," Zack said approaching the fallen Behemoth.

Éclair approached and kicked the beast. It didn't even stir.

"It's dead," she said.

"ÉCLAIR," Paine's voice yelled and the woman can hear the fear in the young woman's voice.

She ran toward where Paine was followed by the other two and stopped short at the sight of what he was seeing. Basch's side was covered in blood, the red substance pooling all around him. Paine was pushing down where the bleeding was, both of her hands covered in blood. Vaan was beside them, an unrecognizable look on his face as he watched the man on the ground.

"Éclair, hurry," Paine said, and she can see the tears in the girl's eyes when she looked up at him.

"Oh, no…Basch," Zack whispered.

Éclair came running toward the man, kneeling down beside the fallen man, already noticing the pale face and blue lips. The bleeding side was covered with some clothes, probably Paine had tied something to suppress the bleeding.

"Heal him," she said.

Éclair extended her hand, the green glow appearing around her hand working upon healing him, when her eyes widened in shock.

Don't tell me he is…

"W…What?" Tifa said, noticing her expression, "Why aren't you healing him?"

Éclair looked up at the girl, but her mouth wouldn't move. She couldn't believe that had actually happened. But how to tell the others…

"No," Paine said.

Éclair's eyes suddenly snapped toward Paine, noticing the girl's grief stricken expression. She might have figured it out from her expression.

"No, he can't be…" Paine yelled.

"I…, I'm sorry," Éclair whispered.

"No…Not him," Paine continued, unable to stop her voice from breaking, "Not like this."

Éclair simply removed her hands from Basch's prone form. She knew it wouldn't be any use since healing spells don't work upon those who are already dead…

And Basch…he was already dead.

She quickly looks up at the sound of running feet, and everyone saw Vaan running away from where they were.

"Vaan…" Zack whispered.

Éclair stood up.

"I'll go after him," she said.

She followed where Vaan had gone. The young man hadn't traveled far, as he simply stood alone beside a small lake of water. Éclair approached him.

"Vaan…" she said.

"When Dad passed away," the young man said, "I was only thirteen…and Basch had looked out for me. He was supposed to be getting married when he got the news. But he came all the way back the Palumpolum to reassure me that everything will be alright. That I have a big brother looking out for me."

Éclair stepped closer; she can see the young man's shoulder shaking.

"Everything that happened to me was because of him," he said, choking on his sobs, "He…He helped me whenever he got the chance…he's always given me advice…He…we may have fought…but I still loved him…Now how…how am I su…Suppose to live…without him?"

Vaan falls upon his knees.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," he yelled slamming his fist against the earth, "He wasn't suppose to die…it's my fault. It's my entire fault."

Éclair kneeled beside him, and put her arms around the crying young man. She couldn't imagine what kind of pain he was going through, but all she can do is give him comfort.

Yeah, Basch died. I had originally planned to have him died on Coccoon but i decided to let him live till now. But he had died...

Next time: Lightning's Despair.

Jacques0 out.

R&R