This chapter's not so bad considering I only spent about two or three days on it. Hopefully I got Izuka right but I doubt that. Anyway just one more to go! It'll pretty long so it may be a while but my goal is to get it done before next month so lets hope for the best.

Chapter 12: Twisted Tower

Though his muscles protested he used what little strength he had and pushed the giant bird away. It cawed at him and began another attack, talons fully open.

Kratos went on the defense again but his body refused to do so. The wound the laguz gave him was in searing pain. He couldn't let this be the end.

So he threw himself to the ground, narrowly missing the giant talons.

"First Aid," Kratos cast under his breath. He was really pushing the limits of his body but the soothing feeling washed over him as the healing art took effect. His wounds would no longer hinder his movement but fatigue was whole other story. Jumping to his feet, Kratos held his sword ready to swing at his opponent. But the crow was nowhere in sight.

Damn, that thing's dark feathers are blending in perfectly in this miserable night. He closed his eyes and with his angelic hearing he would be able to hear the laguz approaching. From behind he heard the beating of large wing flying rapidly toward them. Just before the crow attacked Kratos pivoted toward it and swung upward; slashing deep into its chest.

The crow tumbled to the ground but quickly stood back up. Though the crow didn't fly back into the air it stretched its black wing in order to look more menacing. The laguz was ready for another round. The only thing though Kratos doubted he could.

Just then a hawk's cry ringed though the trees. Then just as suddenly the crow came, a giant hawk appeared. But instead of attacking either of them the hawk just flew in-between the two.

Then the hawk transformed into a large man with great brown wings. Kratos remembered this laguz. He was the hawk king, Tibarn. What was he doing here of all places?

"Both of you open your eyes!" the hawk king bellowed. "We're all on the same side!" His eyes flickered over to the crow. "Well… for the most part," he murmured.

The crow suddenly transformed into its humanoid form. A man in all black, now with a large bloody cut across his chest, black wings and bright blue hair. Though Kratos couldn't remember his name he did know he was the king of the crow laguz.

"You really need to learn not to butt in, Tibarn," the crow sneered. "I was just about to get rid of this Deain dog."

Tibarn scowled, "Stupid crow, this is the beorc with angel wings. I was watching the fight and I thought I might let the beorc just go on and kill you, Naesala. But then I thought you might be useful as a decoy since I assume you here for the same reason as I am."

"If you don't mind my asking what are the two of you doing here?" Kratos asked as he leaned all his weight against a tree.

The two bird laguz focused their attention on him. "You remember the heron laguz you and your friend rescued in Serenes Forest?" Tibarn began by asking.

Kratos nodded as the rain continued to pour down on them all. "Well those damn Deain bastards managed to kidnap her and brought her here to this place. Just by looking at it I can tell she won't last long." Tibarn explained then looked to the crow. "So Naesala I can assume your spies told you what happened?"

Naesala scoffed but he didn't deny it. "So what is you're doing here winged beorc?"

So Kratos briefly explain about the man in Deain who stole Exsheres and brought them to the tower before them. Both of the laguz kings looked horrified at that news. "You don't think they'll use those things on Leanne do you?" The crow asked out loud.

"I think it's safe to say she is safe from those stones," Tibarn said. "But I can't just sit by now that I now those things are nearby. Kratos, it looks like our goals have merged."

"Now hold on Tibarn," Naesala interrupted. "I don't recall agreeing to join this little group."

"I could care less if you help or not Naesala, but if you get in our way I swear I'll rip your wings off!"

It'll be a miracle if any of us survive this, Kratos thought. He knew if he had any chance of succeeding in retrieving those Exsheres in his state he was going to need the two laguz's help. But it would prove difficult if these two were ready to tear each other's throat out. "Look, it's almost morning. Our best beat is to infiltrate the tower under the cover of night. If we're in this together we need to move now," Kratos told them.

The two laguz looked at each and seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement. "I'll go look for an entrance for us," Naesala announced and walked off.

"Why you?" Tibarn eyed him.

"My black feathers won't be as noticeable as yours, Tibarn," Naesala said gesturing to his wings before disappearing into the dark.

Kratos took this opportunity to sit down for a moment. "How were you expecting to get in and out of there in your condition?" The hawk laguz asked.

"I'm just making this up as I go," Kratos answered. "What about you, how can you work with someone you obviously don't trust?"

"Your right, I don't trust that crow. But he'll do anything to protect the heron siblings. That I can trust."

Kratos missed the rest of what the laguz said as he nodded off. He woke up once Naesala returned. He wasn't sure how long he had been out but the small rest helped a lot. It wasn't raining as hard now and Kratos could see the sun was struggling to rise. But there was plenty of darkness to hide them.

"There's an opening at the top with little to no guards," the crow informed them.

"It's time to move then," Kratos said as he revealed his wings. Hopefully he would be able to flew that small distance.

The three of them flew high into the sky and began circling the tower until they found an opened window at the top. They entered into a large spiral stair case. As soon as Kratos flew in he realized just how soaked he was. The dry air caused his wet cloths to chill him. But there was nothing he could do right now, besides it wasn't like being wet would kill him.

"Where to start?" Naesala murmured.

"You two go on down, I'll check up and make sure Leanne isn't there," Tibarn said as he began climbing his way up the stairs.

Naesala just let out a huffed breath as he stocked his way down the stairs. Kratos couldn't help but think this was the best idea, neither of them could stand the other and Naesala wasn't exactly trustworthy.

The two of them proceeded down with caution and reached the bottom to a door. Just when Kratos was about to grab the handle, the door opened wide revealing two Daein guards right in front of them.

It took both of the guards a minute to realize their situation. Before they could react, Kratos had already cut one of them down while the Naesala punched the other one out. The two of them quickly pulled the two guards into a dark corner so they wouldn't be as noticeable, then entered to long dark hallway.

"Shit," Naesala said under his breath. "This damn tower is too cramped for me to fight in my bird form."

That could be a problem, Kratos now wondered if Tibarn would be alright on his own. But it was too late to worry now, time was of the essences.

With little to no windows it became difficult to judge time. Both of them did their best to avoid detection and succeed for the most part; surprisingly there weren't many guards around. But everything looked the same Kratos felt he was he and Naesala were going in circles. Halls, stairways, doors, everything looked the same.

Just when the two of them were about to round yet another corner both of them heard hurried footsteps heading right for them. Both of them slide against the wall and waited. Kratos gripped the hilt of his sword, ready to decapitate the enemy as soon as they walked by. As the footsteps came closer Kratos began to question what he was hearing. They were footsteps, no doubt, but there was something else, like a ruffling sound. Soon Kratos released his hold on his sword and walked around to come face to face with Tibarn.

Tibarn sighed with relief on seeing him. "Glade I ran into you. This place doesn't look all this complex on the outside."

"Any luck finding Leanne?" Naesala asked.

The hawk laguz shook his head. "Not a feather laying anywhere. But I was able to find one of the things we were looking for." Tibarn handed Kratos a small bag.

Relief flooded though him as he saw it; he finally found the Exsheres. But it quickly vanished as soon as he took the bag in his hand. It was light, too light. So he poured to contents out in his hand. The red surface of the gems reflected the torch light making them much more cruel looking.

1, 2, he began counting, 3, 4, 5, 6…7. That wasn't near enough. He saw, with his own eyes, the strange man take more than enough to equip a whole army. Did he distribute them on his stops? No, he kept all of them I just know it. But where are the rest?

"What's wrong?" Tibarn asked seeing Kratos expression.

"This isn't all of them," he told the laguz kings.

Both of them looked wide eyed at him then Tibarn added, "I did hear some of those beorcs saying something about 'leftovers'."

"Leftovers? From what?" Naesala failed to hide the worry in his voice. Obviously he feared on of these red stones may have reached Leanne.

Don't tell me I'm too late again.

Suddenly the three of them heard voices coming down the hall Kratos and Naesala had come down. They quickly hide behind one of the large pillars and peered around to see who it was that was going to pass them.

"Gahhhh, His Highness should know how hard it is to keep one of these little birdies healthy!" One of the voices raved. That one that spoke Kratos recognized as the strange little man who took all those Exsheres back at Deain Keep. His greasy looking hair was pulled back and wore pale purple robes.

Behind him were two guards and walking next to him was a man a head taller. His hair was short and green and had on mage's robes. "I'm telling you Izuka; if we were to embed one of those stones on her it would undoubtedly make her stronger and keep that frail body healthy until the king needs her," the green haired man said.

"Stupid Heddwyn, did you not see how those other filthy beast reacted to those blood stones," the man Izuka spat.

Heddwyn huffed. "It's only a matter of time until we unlock all the secrets of these stones."

"Yes well until then, keep making tabs on those test subjects and do keep the little birdy alive," Izuka said as he began walking away from the group. "I'm returning to Deain for now; do be sure my pets don't eat one another."

He disappeared around the corner and the rest of the group walked through a door.

"What was that all about," Tibarn whispered.

Kratos didn't reply. He had an idea; he just hoped he was wrong.

"The 'little birdy' must be Leanne. If we follow them they may lead us to her," Naesala said and then began making his way to door. Tibarn and Kratos quickly followed him.

The door lead them into an even smaller hallway and even more poorly lit. By the smell it was obviously a prison. They stayed as far back as they could and they watched as the three Deain men stood in front of a cell and in the corner Kratos saw a white figure.

Suddenly, another guard ran into the hall, apparently there was another door to this prison. "Sir we have a problem. A strange group is approaching. We believe it's the liberation army!"

"What!" Heddwyn bellowed causing Leanne to flinch in her cell. "This doesn't make sense, why would they come here! They should be heading for the capital!" He rubbed his brow then looked at the guards. "Well, don't just stand there, go out there and kill them!"

"But sir, we're outnumbered severely," one of the guards objected.

"Don't worry about that, I'll handle getting reinforcements," Heddwyn told them as he hurried down the hall.

The soldiers hesitated a moment, then they too took off; but they were heading right for Kratos and them. They never knew what hit them as the three of them jumped out of the darkness knocking all three of the guards out. Then they hurried to the cell to find Leanne huddled against the wall. But as soon as she saw them her face brightened as she stood and walked over to them and began speaking in her strange language.

"Don't worry Leanne we're going to get you out of there," Tibarn reassured her. Then he ripped the bared door off its hinges.

"Now that she's safe I'm going after that guy. I have a feeling that he has something to do with the missing Exsheres," Kratos told them.

"Hold up, I'm going with you. I want to find those stones before they can harm anyone else," Tibarn said. "Naesala, you take Leanne and get the hell out of here."

"How I'm I supposed to do that. I doubt I'll be able to get back the way we came in," Naesala objected.

Then in a quick movement Kratos drew his sword and unleashed a Demon Fang, busting open a large hole in the wall. "Get out that way."

And so they did. Naesala and Leanne transformed into their bird form and flew away as fast as they could.

Kratos and Tibarn then quickly followed after Heddwyn. They ran down dark spiral a staircase that leads to a large open basement. Before it reached the bottom there was a platform that they stealthy sneaked on. From there they were able to see a large cage and though Kratos couldn't see what was inside he could hear the cries of wild animals. Was that what was in there? Kratos really hoped that was true. Just below them he saw Heddwyn arguing with who appeared to be another mage.

"Sir, they're not ready! We still haven't-"

But Heddwyn cut off the mage. "Why the hell do you think we spent time breeding these creatures if not for situations like these? Open gates now!"

Reluctantly the mage pulled on a lever and the gate slowly began to rise. Heddwyn position himself in front of the gate as he waited for whatever was in there. "Come my slaves! I want you to devour those Crimean bastards!" He shouted when red eyes appeared.

A paw emerged from the shadows; that was when Kratos realized that he was too late. Various laguz bird and beast emerged from the cage with Exsheres embedded in their skin. There was no intelligence or humanity left in them.

They looked rather confused but a cat laguz seemed to notice Heddwyn first then leaped into the air and landed right on him, biting into his neck. Blood splattered everywhere as Heddwyn fell to the ground. He screamed and struggled as a few of the other beast laguz began biting into him. Soon he ceased to move.

The young mage began to cower in fear against the wall. He was frozen with terror or maybe he thought he could escape through the wall. Either way he wasn't going anywhere. Soon the other laguz who weren't already chewing on Heddwyn began making their way to him. This time it was a hawk that swooped down and tore out his throat. Blood sprayed out covering the other beast as they began to stick their fangs into the mage's flesh, they true had become savage beast.

Kratos and Tibarn just watched in horror at the victims of the Exsheres. Through the darkness Kratos could see Tibarn clenched his fist in anger at what had befallen his fellow laguz. "Is there no way to change them back to the way they were?"

Kratos shook his head grimly. "Removing an Exsheres without a key crest on a human causes them to turn into monsters," he explained as he remembered what happened to Anna. "With you laguz you die instantly." On the way to this tower he had encountered another, smaller, group of the infected laguz and had experimented to see what would happen if he removed the Exshere. But as soon as he ripped the stones from their bodies they died right there.

Suddenly Tibarn stood up and expanded his giant, brown wings. "Then there is only one thing left to do. Don't worry my brothers, I will set you free." He dived off the platform and as he fell he transformed into an enormous hawk. His target was a tiger but on his way down he managed to slice through two birds with his talons.

The Crimean Liberation Army, Kratos remembered one of the guards saying. Most likely Lloyd is with them. He imagined his son fighting these infected laguz out on the battle field. Lloyd could take out the Deain while he and Tibarn destroyed the Exsheres. They couldn't let a single one of these laguz escape from this tower.

With this in mind, Kratos leaped over the railing and landed on a beast laguz, breaking its neck on impact.

They slashed, stabbed and tore the infected laguz but there was no end to them in sight. They just kept coming from the endless cage. The footing became difficult for Kratos as the floor became filled with blood and the bodies of dead laguz. Will it never end? Kratos wondered. He was past his limit.

Suddenly, the ground beneath them began to vibrate. All the laguz stopped their attacks and they parted from the cage. It became louder and Kratos realized they were footsteps.

Great, Kratos groaned as multiple large red eyes emerged. Three red dragons appeared looming over all of them. The one in the middle continued forward as the other two stopped. What are their warped minds planning? Then the dragon heaved in a great breath, it was ready for attack.

But it wasn't aiming at him or Tibarn.

It was aiming for the wall.

"Damn it!" Kratos said as he tried to get out of the blast range but to no avail. The fire from the belly of the dragon and the force of the destroyed wall sent Kratos hard against the floor. He was in a daze for a while but soon his sense returned only to see that nearly all the laguz were already outside. Tibarn had tried his best to fend them off but he was stuck in the middle of a four-on-one bird fight. Tibarn would be fine on his own so Kratos chased after the rest.

It was as bright as day when Kratos stepped outside. The infected laguz were all over the place, fighting not only the Deain but also people who were wearing different colors. Then he realized it was the Liberation Army. His eyes quickly scanned to the area for the boy in red but didn't spot his son. He relaxed a little, he didn't dare think about a worst case scenario. He had to keep fighting.

As the fighting continued Kratos' moves became sloppier. Every so often he would see those he once traveled with, he wasn't sure if they saw him but he didn't see Lloyd.

Soon Kratos came face to face with one of the dragons. His breathing was harder and he was covered with the laguz's blood. But he simply gripped his sword with both of his hands and dashed for the poor soul. He thrust his blade into the belly of the beast and lightning struck it, killing the laguz instantly.

Kratos pulled his sword out just in time to evade the dragon before it landed on him. As soon as it hit the ground so did Kratos.

He was done. Finished.

But he still he struggled to get back on his feet. He only managed to get into a setting position. Watching the battle unfold before him he never saw the looming shadow coming from behind. By the time he noticed it was too late.

Another red dragon was behind him when he looked over his shoulder and it was about to breath fire on him. I guess my time has come. Kratos closed his eyes as he waited for death. He could no longer move or attack. There was nothing he could do now. But instead of feeling the pain of the dragon's fire he heard the voice of his son.

"Kratos, look out!" Lloyd cried as he ran to him. Suddenly his blue Exshere began to glow. The young swordsmen jumped up and yelled "Phi Tempest!" His body began doing multiple flips in the air and his twin blades cut through the dragon as if it were nothing.

The second dragon laguz was dead no and Kratos searched for the third one but didn't see it. He assumed someone else had already killed it.

"Dad," a concerned voice said from behind him. Lloyd walked in front of him and extended his hand to him.

A smile played across Kratos' face. After everything he has done Lloyd would still call him his father. His heart was filled with joy as he accepted the hand that helped him back to his feet, not just now but all the other times as well.

/~/~/

It took the rest of the afternoon to gather the carcasses of the infected laguz and burn them along with the hellish tower. They made sure that these stones would no longer cause any more pain to the people of this world. And in a way, burning their remains was like finally setting their souls free.

At least that was what Lloyd kept telling himself. Upon seeing all the victims now disintegrating before him he felt like he was going to be sick; this is what Exshperes have done to the people of this world!

Soon this will all be over. Lloyd clenched his fist toward the smoldering mass. "Were coming for you Mad King of Deain." And all your victims of your cruel war will be avenged!

Hope you liked it. No need for a preveiw, its the fight against Ashnard and mainly because I haven't really planned it out yet. But I'll get right on that!