Chapter 20

The Wraith of Winhill

Damian, who knew the forested plains of Timber as well as Rinoa, led the party of six on their western trek over the next couple of days. They continued travelling through the day, sheltering within forest edges at night.

They were witness to countless brigades of imperial troops as well as other instruments of the Esthari war machine. There was uncountable aerial attack and reconnaisance pods, tanks, and mobile artillery cannons. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, human and cybernetic, were transported on hovering transport craft down Timber's highways. Just one of these huge vehicles took up six lanes. Alternatively, endless trains full to the seams of soldiers dominated the country's efficient rail network. This way, half a million troops could be moved to the border with southern Galbadia in a couple of days.

When Sorceress Reina moved on her enemies, she did so with frightening efficiency. They also saw many herds of imps, turtapods, toramas, behemoths, elnoyles and iron giants. All products of the last Lunar Cry, now enslaved by Reina's crowns. These would be mostly comprising the vanguards of both land invasion forces.

Xu had to admit it was unnerving. 'Fighting Galbadia wasn't half as bad,' she said, while they rested around a fire after the first day. 'Even though they were ruled by a Sorceress. If Esthar had joined the conflict, it would have been over a lot sooner! And why the hell didn't they, apart from one sea skirmish in Centra? Laguna was after Ellone, too, and he turned out to be Squall's old man! I wasn't surprised that Squall and Laguna didn't see each other much, even after Squall learned the truth.'

'It wasn't easy for Squall,' Rinoa said. 'He figured out Laguna was his dad before Kiros and Ward started dropping hints. But Laguna hadn't been around for his whole life, and Squall always ignored any invitation to meet with him socially. To this day, they've never had the conversation about Raine.'

Raine's namesake murmured. 'After a while, Grandpa accepted there couldn't be any reconciliation with Uncle Squall. Not after leaving Grandma to die - even though no one could have foreseen that. But he got to reconnect with Mom after returning to Galbadia, and he's always been there for me, Raiden and Edea. Grandpa's always been proud of Uncle Squall, though.'

Thalassa knew the family story but made no comment. Damian was from Winhill and had heard many different versions, though it did not particularly interest him. Gerra said nothing, and Damian was the only one unaware of his identity. The Neo-SeeD was wary of the Esthari double agent and had spoken to him very little. But that night, Damian had acted on the extended silent to change the subject.

'So,' he said curtly. 'The war's been going well for you, Esthari, and you've almost got the western continent. You outnumber your opposition by at least two to one. Why switch sides now?'

'The Empress cannot rule,' Gerra replied flatly. 'If she does, it would be the end of the world as we know it.'

The trenchcoated man did not sound like an Esthari, Damian had already noted. He spoke more like a Centran. Perhaps he had started out as a child labourer in one of their mines, later recruited as a junior soldier, as he knew that Seifer and Fujin's daughter had.

'How so?' Damian pried.

'She seeks to subjugate the GFs for their life force. Doctor Odine told me the world will fall into ruin if this happens, that the fundamental balance of elements will be distorted, causing chaos.'

'Doctor Odine!' Raine exclaimed. 'Is he still alive?'

Xu answered first. 'Odine's so famous, I'm sure that Esthar would have made an announcement if he had died. Even if Reina killed him.'

'He's alive,' Gerra said firmly.

Damian had heard from Commander Leonhart that Odine was all but a prisoner in Esthar. He was well known as the chief researcher during Loire's presidency and the twilight years of Adel's rule. Odine was also best known as the father of para-magic, and it was commonly believed that he had worked with Edea Kramer to develop it – along with his storied anti-Sorceress artefacts. Although Odine's family had managed to escape Esthar during Sorceress Reina's ascension – largely due to Seifer and Fujin – Odine himself had been apprehended. He was presumably forced to serve Reina to this day, and would be over seventy years old.

'Carbuncle said as much, about the GFs,' Thalassa mentioned. 'Esthar's cyborgs were trying to capture him when we met. Some of his brethren have already been taken. Tiamat, Ramuh, Leviathan, to name a few.'

Damian held his tongue, which was an effort for him. He knew that Leviathan had been Zell Dincht's GF. Gerra continued, his eyes fixed on the fire and the flames reflected in them.

'I hope that recruiting the free GFs will turn the outcome of the battle. If the Empress can be beaten back in Galbadia, the free people of the world will have a fighting chance. Like it was with her mother, Reina's rule is based on power, fear and control. If the war begins to go badly for her – as it did for Adel when Edea stood up for the west – resistance to her will flare up the world over. Especially in Esthar.'

'Hmph,' Damian grunted, running a finger along his axe head. 'I'll have to see about getting a GF, myself. Damned if I'll sit on the sidelines while Raine fights with you guys!'

The Neo-SeeD looked at Raine. When standing, Raine was half a head taller than him. He had always been attracted to her and was not a fan of her boyfriend, Liu. The constant silence of the reticent martial artist creeped him out. The more boisterous Zhang he did not like for wholly different reasons, in no part due to the homophobia Damian had been accused of in the past. He simply did not like anyone as smug as himself.

'I'm a SeeD,' Damian said boldly. 'If a cadet can get a GF, it should be a cinch for me!'

Xu looked annoyed. 'It was no easy task getting our GFs, Reno. Raine did really well, and she'll be made a SeeD as soon as we get back to base.'

'Glad to hear it,' Damian said dryly.

Raine stared at him. 'Unless you plan on getting a GF in the next few days, Damian, there's a chance you'll have to follow me in battle. Now if you're done making comments, I wanna get some sleep.'

Memnon was at the head of his vanguard as it reached Winhill. His aerial units had bombed most of the major buildings and he had sent iron giants and behemoths to ruin any that were still standing. Most of the town's chocobos had been captured and the vast flower fields were all aflame.

Resistance was scant, with most of the townsfolk evacuated. All that remained were elderly and invalid, along with a few young townspeople that could not bear to leave their loved ones to be butchered in their beds. The Zebalgan had no sympathy for these backward people, subsisting in their wooden shacks. All of them were killed within the hour. The Empress would build anew from the ruins here and drag rural Galbadia into the current century.

In the middle of Winhill's market square, Memnon looked around the broken and burning buildings around him, of which only a large tavern remained intact. The sign informed him that this was the infamous Raine's Pub; birthplace of the Lionheart, and deathplace of the robust cub's mother. Memnon believed the reverence behind the legendary SeeD leader was unsubstantiated. After all, he had fought the Lionheart twice and lived, leading some within the Empire to call him the Liontamer. Reina's Favourite Demon was an alternative moniker.

Summoning Doomtrain, he commanded his GF to launch through one of the supporting walls with incredible speed. As the tavern collapsed, a stocky man with greying hair and a double-headed axe dived through the open door. He deftly rolled over on his shoulder, like a small boulder, on his feet in an instant.

The axeman bounded forward and cut through three of his cybernetic soldiers in as many seconds. In response, the more distant cyborgs fired their gunblades at him, but the plasma dissipated harmlessly off his projectile shield. Memnon assumed that this was Jacques Reno, both from descriptions of his appearance and his weapon. He was one of the last SeeDs from Cid's generation, now the town's Mayor. The man took a fighting crouch as he was surrounded by the General's cyborgs.

Two attacked him, the first cut cleanly above the line of his light-armour, through its artificial neck. Its head rolled through the air like a thrown ball after being parted from its body. The second's head was cut in half with the same ferocity. Evidently, Reno knew how to deal with the androids. A third's wild pickaxe slash was parried, and it found a half-moon blade deep in its thigh. This would not ordinarily impede a cyborg more than giving it a limp, lest the limb was hacked off. But Reno sent lightning para-magic down the shaft of the weapon, causing the cyborg to go rigid as it short-circuited.

Broad, jagged daggers of lightning lit the near-darkness as clear as day, as Reno willed his para-magic to explode out of him in a near suicidal attack. Dozens of androids were destroyed outright, many more a distance away going haywire. and it was enough to knock Memnon from his feet. The SeeD fell to his knees, panting with exhaustion.

'Enough, Reno!' the General yelled, furiously getting back up. Doomtrain's aura now surrounded him as he surefootedly approached the SeeD. 'Impressive, SeeD! Kramer did sow a fine batch of warriors; I'll give him credit!'

'My son,' Reno breathed, speaking between heavy gasps. 'Damian... he will hound you... to every corner... of the Empire!'

Memnon grunted with amusement. 'We'll see about that! Your time's up, Reno! You're going to die the same way as your Headmaster, on your knees!'

At the mention of his founder's death, and remembering who had killed him, Reno got to his feet with every ounce of his will. But even without his exhaustion, the General's enhanced speed and strength meant the SeeD could not hope to avenge Cid. Memnon lazily blocked the desperate swing, disarmed Reno when the axe head was within the curve of his khopesh, then cut him deeply through the chest. The SeeD fell to the ground.

With the largest settlement in southern Galbadia taken, Memnon gave the call for the rest of his force, led by Colonel Vlahos with the captured Sorceress Selphie, to proceed. When it arrived, Vlahos met him in the market square.

She was with the leader of the Adel Unit, Mitsuhide Akechi. Akechi was shorter than Vlahos and wore black armour that was indistinct from his bodysuit in the night. His eyebrows were thick, and his eyes were slanted in the way of the indigenous Balambi people. But his lighter skin and tied brown hair suggested mixed ethnicity. The Adel leader followed that ancient Balambi code of honour and possessed a natural strict discipline. Akechi was regarded as the finest swordsman in Esthar, something that had always irked Memnon. He had repeatedly declined invitations to serve as a Praetorian, electing to remain head of the Adel Unit. Very taciturn, Akechi usually spoke little.

Sorceress Selphie was there, partially visible in the shadows, her slave diadem winking in the firelight. The Empress had given Vlahos absolute command over Selphie, aware of Memnon's sadistic tendencies and his undisguised lust of Selphie's slight body. The Zebalgan had repeatedly leered at Selphie with hunger in Trabia. Memnon had been one of Reina's first supporters as she had sought a pact with the Kakashbaldi tribes, and she had tolerated him over the years for his unwavering loyalty and military mind. But Selphie's diadem was not invincible, and the Empress would not jeopardise her advantage so Memnon could satisfy his urges.

It mattered not. Before the war's end, Memnon would fulfil his worth as commander of the largest land army ever assembled. Despite his reputation as a dealer of agony, punishment, and misery, the General was respected professionally by majority of the armed forces, having never hesitated to lead his forces from the front.

Memnon addressed his subordinates. 'We rest here tonight, but I want the entire force across the river by tomorrow afternoon. We'll camp by the old missile base and should reach the Galbadians on schedule.'

'Are we still ignoring Wilburn, sir?' Akechi asked quietly.

'Yes!' Memnon snapped. 'They cannot muster a significant force there if they have any chance of stopping us on the plains, and you know that!'

The Adel leader made no sound or gesture, but Vlahos protested.

'Sir, we can still put Wilburn under siege with a fraction of our troops! There could be SeeDs there! If anything, it will stop them attacking our rear on the march!'

The General would not be swayed. 'If they do send a handful of chocobo riders to sally us, I'm putting you in the rear, Vlahos. You can deal with them.'

That would get under her skin. Vlahos wanted to live up to her grandfather's legacy, and this campaign would be the final one of the war. Likely the last great battle for generations to come; certainly the last within her lifetime. After, Memnon was content to let her freeze leading the siege of Shumi Village, while he retired as Governor of a Province of his choosing.

'Wilburn will be taken after the capital,' Memnon said. 'It is not worth the dirt upon which we stand.'

Forty-eight hours after acquiring the chocobos, Gerra's group reached the plateau that split the earth, marking the natural border between Timber and Galbadia. They were going to have to go straight up, as the two broad highways splitting the plateaus were full of Esthar soldiers.

'So, we're climbing?' Damian asked, with thinly veiled apprehension. 'You gotta be shitting me! It'll take all fucking night!'

Xu smiled sarcastically. 'Nope, you'll see. We don't have all day, Reno. We need to overtake the invasion force, and it'll take too long reach the other end. Even on chocobo back.'

'I can make my own way back to base, Xu,' the Neo-SeeD replied stubbornly.

'How? By the highway?' Xu asked. 'Sure, get yourself an Esthar uniform and hitch a ride on one of those personnel carriers. I'll give it ten minutes before one of the soldiers pisses you off, or a behemoth farts in your face, and you blow your cover!'

'Hynedamn it!' Damian snapped. 'Do you and the Commander really think so low of me? Is this why I've spent the last two years eating funguars and sleeping in wendigo shit with the Fox, while Raine, Liu and Zhang get to go on adventures!'

'The Forest groups mean a lot to me, and you know that,' Rinoa said, in a softer tone. 'I'm sure you've done a great job, Damian. Anyway, shall we move on?' Rinoa grew her white wings. When they were at their full span, she said, 'Or up, rather?'

Raine and Thalassa summoned their GFs, which were both capable of flight.

'You guys go up first,' Thalassa said. 'We'll wait.'

Minimog looked to piggyback Xu as it gave a hearty 'Kupo!' and wrapped its small arms and legs around her. Carbuncle flew to Gerra's back. Gerra looked at Thalassa nervously, and her reassuring smile did little for him. He had often flown on Phoenix's back in the future. While not afraid of heights, he felt extremely vulnerable being carried by the much smaller Carbuncle, knowing his life was literally in its small hands as his boots left the ground.

Hyne, have mercy, he thought.

But Gerra had long been his own biggest critic. After some of the things he had done at Ultimecia's command, he knew would get none. Carbuncle touched his mind, imploring him to relax.

He looked down at the others. Rinoa was standing behind Damian, who was watching them ascend, and started to giggle. She wrapped her arms around the stocky Neo-SeeD and they both rose into the air. Damian gave a startled cry and jammed his eyes shut as his axe clattered to the rocky surface. Thalassa and Raine struggled to keep a straight face as they watched. As tentative as Gerra felt, he guessed that Damian was feeling it fivefold, and he felt for the Neo-SeeD and his wounded pride. Rinoa rose to their level with ease, her expression making it plain she was having fun. Sweat glistened on Damian's bald head as she quickly ascended the plateau, moving out of sight.

By the time Carbuncle and Minimog went back down for their summoners, Rinoa was already on her way back up with Damian's axe in hand, having cast levitation magic on the six chocobos. Despite their wings, the yellow chocobo breed were flightless, going mad with furious 'Kweh!'s upon leaving the ground. Rinoa was quickly forced to make them drowsy.

It took only minutes for all of them to rise hundreds of feet onto the flat surface of the mesa. Damian looked furious with Rinoa, shaking now the vertigo had left him. After recalling Minimog, Raine moved to put an arm on his broad shoulder. But Damian backed away, further from the edge.

'I'm fine!' he snapped.

Raine said softly, 'Sorry you had to go through that.'

'You've got too much pride, Reno,' Xu said. 'It's okay to be afraid of heights. You don't fear much else, do you?'

Damian grunted, walking to his chocobo. 'I don't fear heights when my feet on a firm surface!' he snarled.

Rinoa made the process of relaxing the chocobos look easy, allowing them to get moving almost immediately.

The party encountered some hostile thrustaevises, several converging on them. The giant predatory birds pounded their ear drums with caws despite the open expanse of the mesa. The indigo raptors were often poached for their feathered hides. Their heads had an exoskeleton which almost looked like a mask, and they had a wingspan of eight feet.

The thrustaevises were out of sword or staff range. From chocobo, Gerra and Damian unshouldered their plasma rifles. Xu left her own, quickly taking out what looked like a shuriken. Damian sent two shots into their centre masses almost immediately, Gerra firing a needlessly long ray into a third, handling the weapon unfamiliarly. Xu expertly threw her shuriken at another's almost human-like face, decapitating it with a small explosion. As the thrustaevises got closer, Thalassa killed one with a clean cut from her Kotetsu; with a curved blade, the snub-nosed gun section of the weapon was loaded with blanks. Raine knocked a fifth out of the air, crushing a wing and rendering it flightless. The cadet drew her handgun and shot the downed raptor in the head.

The remaining three had hesitated upon hearing the gunfire. But with renewed shrieks, they swooped to attack. One was struck by another unnecessarily large amount of plasma from Gerra as Rinoa made short work of another. Xu killed the last with a single disembowelling stroke of her jian.

'Don't you fucking REMFs know how to shoot your own weapons?' Damian mocked Gerra, the encounter lifting his mood. 'The power cells will be dry in no time!'

'They're no longer effective in modern combat,' Gerra replied noncommittally. 'I've never used this model before.'

Damian gave a noisy laugh. 'Damn right! It's one of the only things you flashy bastards got right, bringing battle back to man on man, the way it should be! And may my axe split the helms of legions of you!'

'Gerra's on our side now,' Raine pointed out.

'I'd never trust an Esthari, Raine.' Damian remarked. 'They claimed to renounce Adel during the Loire regime, saying she was nothing more than a bad memory. But they quickly rallied behind a Sorceress again when their homeland was faced with destruction, slaughtering millions in Reina's name! Just like they did under Adel!'

'Gerra is Centran by birth; he spent his childhood in the mines!' Thalassa said firmly. 'I can vouch for him! If Buncle saw any duplicity in him, I would have killed him in FH!'

Gerra inwardly winced. He knew the White SeeD meant it.

Rinoa boosted the stamina of all the chocobos so they could keep moving without pause. The party ate cold rations in their saddles. About halfway across the rock table, they saw a vysage. Its gargantuan body underneath the rock, at first sight it seemed as though the surface of the rock was coming alive as a head and two rock hands appeared before them.

Gerra had met their Allfather. The Empress had kept Gargantua imprisoned like a mindless beast for over a century. It had been in a truly feral state when a teenage Gerra had stumbled upon it, his curiosity taking him around the entirety of her castle the morning after they had effectively consummated his Knighthood. But the eyes of this vysage crackled with intelligence. Both rocky hands made fists and flexed, the left moving across to cut them off.

'Allow me.' Damian said, adjusting something on his rifle and raising it to his shoulder. He fired a concentrated beam at the vysage's head. At first, Gerra thought it were ineffective, but the two hands quickly retreated to the head, wrapping themselves around it in a crude shield. 'Now!' Damian shouted, spurring his chocobo.

The rest of them followed him, able to escape. Gerra was suddenly thankful for the firearms, as their melee weapons would have been useless against the stone hide of one of Gargantua's cousins. Even Rinoa would have struggled to penetrate it. They met no more resistance before reaching the other side of the plateau.

But the sight they were met with made Damian cry out with feral rage and Raine wail in sorrow. Before them, the chiefly wooden settlements of southern Galbadia were all but burnt to the ground, plumes of thick stroking the darkening sky above. There were formations of camps, transportation crafts and weapons of war all over the landscape, stopping shy of the estuary that separated the region from the north. The flowery bluffs the area was famous for were all downtrodden and ruined, mostly on fire in an unmistakable scorched earth policy, otherwise used as munitions dump.

Damian was on his knees, his axe in both hands, quaking with rage as he beheld the ruins of Winhill. Tears had come unbiddenly to his eyes, but rather than betray a sob, his mouth was wired shut. Raine was crying openly, also on her knees with her face in her hands. Thalassa and Rinoa both knelt beside the cadet with arms on her, as the cadet fumbled for her phone in a bid to contact her family, to reassure herself they had made it to Wilburn.

Xu approached Damian. Even though she had shown dislike for her subordinate, she looked sympathetic.

'Hyne have mercy, Reno,' the veteran SeeD said delicately, putting a small hand on his shoulder. 'I'm so sorry,'

Damian snarled, brushing her hand off. Rising with a cry of fury, he turned to Gerra.

'Esthari bastard! I'll have your head for this!'

The Neo-SeeD lunged at Gerra, who reflexively leaped back to avoid the blow as though he were back in the arena.

'Damian!' Rinoa cried, rising. 'He had nothing to do with it!'

Gerra unsheathed his new sword. It was similar in length to Hyperion, but narrower. A fine weapon, but not magically strengthened as his gunblade had been, the enchantments woven into the steel by Sorceress Edea more than two centuries before still enduring.

Xu barked, 'Stand down, Reno! We need to get him to Galbadia City!'

Damian was deaf to his comrades, lunging at Gerra again, but was sloppy and overambitious in his fury. Gerra easily parried each blow, resisting every impulse to counterthrust at every opening, instead sending the stocky axeman staggering with a solid kick.

An emerald light appeared between them, followed by a silver one. Carbuncle and Minimog's presence made Damian halt his new swing. He looked at the small GFs with wild eyes, then let his axe clatter to the rock, allowing himself to break down. Damian dropped to his knees once more, this time sobbing with anguish, his eyes to the heavens. Thalassa and Raine tried to console him as Xu stepped between them, her own sword drawn.

Gerra turned toward the burning settlements, sheathing his weapon.