Hello, everyone! This fic has been posted on AO3 too, but I wanted to also publish it here, so here it is! Lots of romance, a harem for Bam, sex scenes, awesome fighting scenes, and so on! I wish you enjoyment!
The turning point for Bam was when he successfully freed Jinsung Ha from the Nest, only to be confronted by Lo Po Bia Traumerei's arrival into the Nest. Learning how the 10 Great Family Leaders had been interested in Bam for some time, Traumerei revealed they had come to an agreement to use the Nest to lure Bam and have him prove his worthiness.
Traumerei offered two of his children, the Lo Po Bia Princess Twins, without caring for their will, and Bam, despite facing overwhelming odds, could not possibly join forces with such a man. He had refused, but of course, Traumerei did not care about what Bam wanted as he started to threaten the lives of Bam's allies and friends. However, salvation arrived when Poe Bidau Gustang's voice spoke to Bam in his mind and asked Bam if he would be open to cooperating with him if he could ensure the lives of all those he cared about. Having met Gustang before, Bam decided that rather than cooperating with Traumerei, and so he agreed if Gustang promised he would ensure everyone could leave the Nest alive.
As soon as he had agreed, Gustang arrived into the field just as Master Jinsung also arrived. Master Jinsung was very much wary of the situation as two Family Heads were facing each other, but Gustang told Bam to stay and watch just how much he still had left to grow. Gustang and Traumerei confronted each other, where Traumerei questioned Gustang's motives for all his deeds, and Gustang responded by giving a rather impassioned speech about how discontent he had grew with the state of the Tower, realizing how wrong the decision to seal away the door to the 135th Floor was.
He stated he chose to help Bam because Bam was the only one who could defeat Jahad and the other 10 Great Family Leaders, and even mused that the reason why some of the Family Leaders chose to allow Bam to keep climbing and even protect him was because they believed Bam had the potential to show them something new, because not all of them were as complacent as Traumerei and Jahad might think. Bam couldn't help but wonder, as he watched the Poe Bidau and Lo Po Bia Family Heads face off and argue about their respective ideals, if not all of the 10 Great Family Leaders were as evil as FUG depicted them. He hadn't known them much aside from how his parents had been part of the Great Warriors once, but he wondered just what had they been through to become as they were now.
Such thoughts were soon interrupted, however, as Traumerei, deciding Gustang had become such a threat, chose to fight to the kill, starting a fierce battle that was to be the first of many series of battle between the "gods" of the Tower. It was, at that time of Bam's level, an utterly mesmerizing sight, as he watched the two Great Family Heads traded legendary blows, even if it lasted for about only 20 minutes, as Gustang ordered Bam to start falling back in a slow manner along with the others while he defended against Traumerei.
Traumerei manifested dozens upon dozens of shinheuh with power that could easily take out even Top 100 High Rankers, all which meant nothing to Gustang normally as he casually unleashed blades to tear them apart, burned them with fire, or smote them down with lightning. Sometimes, he even created spears of pure shinsu and used it to decimate Traumerei's animals with contemptous ease. Any attack they could launch, he easily dismissed by creating powerful barriers that seemed impenetrable to anything they tried. What dozens of Top 100 Rankers struggled to do was done so effortlessly by the Poe Bidau Family Head, which further made Bam realize just how powerful the 10 Great Family Leaders was and how far he still had to go if he wished to threaten Jahad.
Bam, Master Jinsung, and the others were also struggling against the Lo Po Bia Branch Heads, Kallavan, and Poe Bidau Lyborick Khun, especially with Kallavan having gotten even stronger. Even Khun Maschenny herself also stepped in as she realized she could not afford to with the fact that two Family Heads were there. Fortunately, Baam and his allies soon received backup as Gustang arrived with Poe Bidau Dumas and Poe Bidau Tiara, two powerful warriors from the Poe Bidau Family, evening the odds as they continued to retreat towards the warp device that would allow them to escape the Nest.
It was also at this battle that Baylord Yama would eventually kill Lo Po Bia Yasratcha, as Yasratcha decided he might as well as die at Yama's hands rather than be captured by Traumerei again.
While Yasratcha had defeated Yama before, Yama acquiring more and more experience with the true power inside his body that came from the unmatched strength of the "Fangs of the Beast" as well as experiencing some of his father's memories allowed him to finally overpower Yasratcha with some help from his brother, Doom, as he was able to further master the true power of Transformation and combined with his own raw power, although struggling against Yasratcha's superior experience as well as skill, Yama was able to put an end to Yasratcha using Wild Wave Blades of Rage after he managed to trap Yasratcha briefly using External Transformation before he unleashed the attack, hitting Yasratcha and dealing a mortal wound.
The death of Yasratcha allowed Doom to help out against the other High Rankers, finally turning the tides against the Lo Po Bia. Yasratcha, in a one last dying act, granted Yama all the information he had about the power of Transformation, the Beastkin, and numerous other researches he did, stating he should become a better man than his father ever was, before immolating himself using a device, choosing to die now that he had finally made peace with himself. Although Yama hated Yasratcha before, now he mourned Yasratcha's death at the realization of how tragic his life was and decided to honor his wishes and become a better Beastkin than Baylord Wangwang ever did.
As the Lo Po Bia and Jahad forces were pushed back, Traumerei had finally started to fight with all his power, mixing in shinsu attacks along with his Shinheuh and even manifesting his share of artifacts, and it was truly such an awe-inspiring sight as the Battle of the Nest would be concluded as the focus became solely the one last round between Gustang and Traumerei, both now truly going at it.
For the remaining 7 minutes, Gustang and Traumerei both fought fiercely as Bam was forced to stay behind by both Dumas and Tiara while his Master was shoved into the warp device and swiftly taken out of the battle along with the rest of FUG by. As Bam protested, another High Ranker from the Poe Bidau Family, Richemont, arrived with a recording of the Poe Bidau rescuing Aguero and the others to assure Gustang had kept his word, but also reminded Bam he had agreed to cooperate, causing Bam to reluctantly stop arguing.
Traumerei and Gustang both made use of dozen forms of shinsu manipulation, be it thousands of baangs, fire, wind, lightning, or simply pure shinsu energy, with Gustang clearly having the edge over Traumerei in terms of pure Wave Controller skill but Traumerei's shinheuh allowing it to be a fairly even struggle as he also complimented his shinsu techniques with the powers from each animal he had. To counter Gustang's blades, Traumerei used spears of his own right, throwing each weapon with accuracy beyond the realm of High Rankers even as the other could easily dodge or simply neutralize it, either by catching the weapon that made through or destroying it.
Traumerei even tried to engage in close-combat, moving at speeds Bam couldn't even see, but despite being famous as a Wave Controller, Gustang also had immense reflexes as he managed to dodge Traumerei's attacks and proved skilled enough to hold back Traumerei's onslaught, be it with hand-to-hand or the use of weapons, until he could disappear and even the few damage he took with a powerful shinsu skill.
Finally, after having had enough, Gustang proceeded to create a thick cloud of mist over Bam and his three Family members, which quickly shifted into the four of them being transported into the Mothership of the Poe Bidau Family with Gustang following suit, straight at the room where his friends were allowed to stay in, a meeting room of sorts. Gustang was decent enough to allow him and his friends to enjoy a comfortable dinner after the fierce life-or-death conflict, and Bam was happy to see all of them survived. Master Jinsung was also safe at the moment, so Bam could rest easy.
After finishing dinner, Gustang had then matter-of-factly told Bam that he could no longer climb the way he did before, now that the Jahad Army and the other Great Families would be after him harder than ever. He went as far as to show various conspiracies plotting to either use or kill Bam, and then gave Bam two simple choices: He could work with Gustang and have his safety along with the rest of his friends secured, or he could go back to FUG and be slaughtered along with the rest of the organization.
Needless to say, it was at least better than being a mere figurehead for the Lo Po Bia as Gustang promised him intensive training and the chance to make changes to the Tower, so Bam chose to accept it, at the condition Gustang would also guarantee the life of Master Jinsung. With that, Bam and his friends were welcomed into the Poe Bidau Family, and Gustang then pointed Bam to Rachel.
Apparently, Rachel was responsible for delivering certain artifacts Gustang had wanted, but as he now had Bam, Gustang didn't really see the point of keeping her. He gave Bam the option of killing Rachel and Ha Yura for revenge over Prince and Arkraptor's death, revealing them as the true murderer while White just ate their souls, or sparing them. Needless to say, Bam still was hurting from the deaths of his two friends, and having come to the decision that he would sever ties with Rachel, he chose to kill them instead.
It was a bittersweet, painful yet hopeful, experience as Gustang teleported Bam to Rachel's room, and Bam had, without sparing any words, simply killed Rachel by stabbing her in the back before Rachel even noticed his presence. Ha Yura's cry of anger was swiftly silenced when he slit her throat, causing her to bleed out slowly. Rachel had pleaded for her life as Bam stared at her with clenched fists, even accusing him of ungratefulness and cursing his existence.
He felt no real satisfaction at the sight of the girl who he once used to care for so deeply dying like this, and a part of him even felt tempted to spare her, but in the end, he could not. Gustang had made it clear she would never stop trying to win over him, and he couldn't endanger his current friends. So he only had those words to say.
I loved you once, Rachel, and I will always love you for the girl you used to be, even if maybe all of it was a lie. I owe you everything for the person I became, for the friends I gained, and for that, I cannot hate you. I don't know how your life was on the Outside, but I do hope your next life will be better.
And so he left, returning to the side of his friends, with just a few tears on his eyes as he confessed what he had did. And they understood, pitied him, and promised to always be there for him. Vicente also swore to help Bam, as he had learned that Bam was the key to creating a new future for the Tower, and Bam had accepted his help, having made peace with Arkraptor and Prince's deaths after killing Rachel and Ha Yura. Meanwhile, Hwa Ryun was oddly accepting of this path, stating she just needed to "tweak it a little bit", but above all else, she congratulated him for breaking free of the shackles of the past. Bam just smiled tiredly.
Was all this a victory? Yes, bittersweet though it might be, but there was still many more hardships to come.
Still, Bam thought he could endure it as long as he had his friends, as Gustang dragged the corpse of Rachel and Ha Yura and Bam just told Gustang to burn them, eyeing the pyres as their bodies turned to ashes and were scattered to the wind for a while before firmly standing up, accepting Gustang's "schedule" for him.
He slept more contently than he had did ever since his Master was taken.
Now, this fic won't have any character dialogues, but I do hope the details are good enough for you! There will be plenty of new make up lore, and I DO NOT OWE TOWER OF GOD!
