Chapter 10

Branded Together

Year of the Realm 873/311 AC

Jarden smiled as he looked out over the training yard, watching his new recruits test their mettle against each other. Six years he has had to enjoy this posting. Six years to milk the town of gil and receive no endless amount of praise for his men keeping the empire safe. All it took was for him to put that Rosarian upstart in his place. Unfortunately, none of the residents who witnessed the branding were agreeable to him. Most of his men kept it to themselves, but what really irked him was the Dame refused his advances. He couldn't figure out why. One day she would change her tune, but today was not that today.

Today was a different day. Today was a gift from the gods themselves, and he was going to collect. Out in the yard, his finest were going through their drills. All of them shining examples of what it meant to serve in the legion. Off to the side however…was his greatest achievement, having a chat with the other upstart Philippe. Jarden frowns as he watches the only man under his command that he could not be rid of easily talk with the Branded scum.

"Tell me…what exactly made you think that I would believe you? That the Emperor himself would send a Branded soldier to me, wanting to recruit one of my own Branded for a battle?" Jarden slowly turned on the blonde man beside him, the brand on his left cheek clear as day "Branded like you should know better than to lie to their superiors so blatantly."

The man doesn't respond. He simply pulls out a piece of parchment bearing the royal imperial seal. "The Emperor does not tolerate disobedience. My orders allow me to recruit one Branded soldier from any garrison or legion I choose. And I chose yours. Is there a problem?"

Jarden scans the missive, eyes narrowing "No…there's not." He shoves the parchment back into the man's chest "So…just which one do you want, Tiamat, was it?"

Tiamat gave him a glare as he points to the one that he wants "That one. He's the only one that could give us an advantage over our target."

Jarden followed his arm, eyes widening as he sees who he has indicated "You want him?! Of all the Branded whelps here, you want that one?" he throws his head back and laughs "That might just be the best news I have ever heard, even better than the day he was given the Brand. You want him? Truly? You can bloody well have him! Oh, this day can't get any better…so, what unit did you say you were from again?"

"The Bastards."

Jarden felt his blood run cold "The…Bastards? To think one of you assassins would be gracing my garrison for a time…hang on a second. All your missions are supposed to be highly dangerous, only ever a few of you survive, if any. What sort of mission would require that one Branded as a secret weapon?"

"Intelligence reports that the Iron Crusaders are moving east into Dhalmekia. Should they arrive where we believe they will, then the Republic will engage with their army and no doubt bring Titan with them." Tiamat smirks "Our target however is Shiva's Dominant, and with him…we can do our job and eliminate one Dominant in the same stroke."

"Foil the Crusaders and eliminate a Dominant as well? Very well, take him off my hands and kill him for all I care. Long as he is not in Northreach when you do the deed, I don't much care." Jarden smiles "But for doing me this service…I'll be sure when I write up my report to the Imperial command to inform them of just how respectful you were, a real proper soldier."

"You are…too kind."

Jarden laughs as he walks off, the sarcasm at the end of the conversation going over his head. Today looked like a good day for him. And perhaps if it continued like this, he might even grace the Dame with his presence. Tiamat however just frowned as he made his way down to the yard. None of the unbranded soldiers paid him any mind, nor did the Branded mostly. It was not until he approached the pair that things grew tense. Clearly from how Clive reacted to seeing him this was not the first time someone had orders for him.

"What will it be today, Sergeant?" he asks with disinterest while Philippe eyes the Branded man before him with distrust.

Tiamat silently appraises Clive. Not too trusting, but not vocal enough to speak out of turn either. Good. "Your new orders. I have already spoken with your captain; you are now under my command Wyvern and will be expected to do as I say. Is that clear?"

"Understood."

"Hold on!" Philippe got between the pair "His name, is Clive, not Wyvern."

"His name, is whatever I say it is." Tiamat brushes the angry knight aside "He is now part of the Bastards, and we bear no names but those of dragons. He no longer has an identity, is that clear?"

Clive puts his hand on Philippe's shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze, silencing his friend's protests. "Sergeant. What's the mission?"

"We leave immediately for Dhalmekia. Our other two squamates will be arriving at our destination within the coming days. Once there…everything will be explained."

"I'll wait for you at the southern gate," Philippe grit his teeth as the two walked off. One without a care for who he crossed, the other without a care as to who tried to stop him from leaving.

"Damn it, Clive!" he curses, making a run for the Veil. If anyone could stop Clive or better yet save him from this suicide mission it would be the Dame. Philippe barely made it through the door without incident. Fist banging on the door to her office like a man possessed. "Open up!"

The Dame opened the door, a firm glare in place as Philippe froze mid swing. "You have my attention, Philippe, but speak quickly before I decide instead to have you thrown out on your arse."

Philippe gulps "It…it's Clive."

Her expression softens "Inside, quickly."

Nysa Defile, Year of the Realm 873/311 AC

Clive sat by the fire; eyes transfixed as his mind wandered back to that night thirteen years ago. To Phoenix Gate, to the Night of Flames, where everything was lost. The last few days had helped to keep his mind distracted. Biast, as he was called, mostly helped with that. He was the joker of the bunch. More willing to break the ice and keep spirits high. Aevis…poorly named as any of them, was Tiamat's second in command and skilled enough to earn Clive's willing cooperation.

All four operated under simple rules. Follow orders from Imperial command, and don't get killed. Simple as any life and death mission could be. The sun was rising as Aevis returned from his scouting, exchanging a few words with Tiamat before their leader for this mission approached the fire.

"You all know the target," he begins carefully "Shiva's Dominant. And only the Dominant."

"No one else?" Biast asks with a laugh "Where's the fun in that? Sergeant, how do we even know the girl will be among them?"

"Our kind do not question orders, we follow them, try to remember that."

Biast looked a little put out by the response he got. Tiamat wasn't a man of pleasantries and polite conversation. He was a man of action, and right now the action was about to start. Biast got up, shaking his head, and muttering about the injustice of it all, and brought his hand over the flames. Clive frowned as Biast doused the flames with his magic, the familiar heat going away faster than he would have liked.

"Wyvern!" Tiamat calls out as Clive gets to his feet "No dallying today, focus!"

"Yes Sergeant."

From up here in the plateaus of the Nysa Defile, the group known as the Bastards could see everything in the valley below. Aevis and Biast were already in position as the Dhalmeks, and the Crusaders gathered. Clive had never seen a clash between the kingdoms on such a scale before. The Crusaders blindly charged forward into the Republic's frontline while Dhalmekian catapults pelted their enemy with explosive chunks of crystal. Clive could even see their cavalry, all mounted on chocobo's, riding off into the Crusaders line and cutting them down with ease. A veritable blood bath.

"These Ironblood are more beast than man," Aevis was in awe of the Crusaders, if Clive had to guess it was their stubborn ferocity and not their skill that had him like that "Not properly equipped and yet they still are so formidable."

"Way this is going, they won't need that new Dominant of theirs," Biast laughs, the sound cut off as he catches the eye of Aevis and Tiamat "What? Look at them. The Dhalmeks are just delaying the inevitable without Titan around to save them."

"Let's move. Before either appears, we must be as close to the Crusaders lines as possible." Tiamat took the first step off the ledge "Move! We won't see our mission done by standing about gawping at the battle."

Aevis followed without hesitation, Biast followed with a shake of his head. Clive cast one last look out over the battlefield before following his comrades. If he were lucky then perhaps this Dominant of Shiva or even Titan himself would put him out of his misery. The plateau provided all the cover they needed to progress forward, the question in Clive's mind was whether it would lead them into a trap just as easily.

"Quick and clean?"

Tiamat smirks "As always lads. Wyvern, take the vanguard. It will be your talents that see us through the day. Do not disappoint me."

"Yes, Sergeant," Clive slowly pushed past them, guiding them through the pass. There was a slight pressure he felt in his head, not like the headache's he used to suffer with and certainly not like Phoenix Gate. "Wait! Something's not right…there's something coming."

The path ahead trembles, rock and dust being thrown around as Clive is knocked onto his back. A large hand grasps the upper edge of the canyon. A giant man made of rock and gemstones, towering over the land instilling the awe that only a god could. "They've summoned their Eikon!"

"Eikon!?" Biast shouts in alarm "That thing is a bloody mountain!"

"Titan. So, the Dhalmeks have finally gotten tired of being slaughtered," Tiamat pulls Clive to his feet "Wyvern, we cannot stay here any longer, we have to go, now!"

As Titan rises to his full height, a low rumble shaking the land with his first step, Biast catches sight of something up high in the air. "And look who's here to greet the bastard!"

Clive felt the heat return to his body as his gaze was cast skyward. Eyes narrowing on the large crystal of ice forming in the sky, growing ever larger before shattering, revealing the form of a woman with skin as white as snow. "Shiva."

"Enough standing around, we have to go!"

Tiamat's shout got his men moving again. As the two Eikon's began their clash, shards of ice and pillars of earth tearing apart the landscape, Clive kept moving amongst his comrades. At one point the earth beneath his feet split open, a large chunk of rock breaking free from above. As the shadow cast by the rock engulfed his body Clive felt the heat within flare up as he shifts to Biast and avoids meeting an untimely demise.

"Nice move! You alright Wyvern?"

"Yes…we need to be more careful with those two around."

Biast laughs "I don't know how we can, they don't look eager to stop fighting any time soon."

"I'd watch what I say if I were you," Clive warns "Overconfidence or even foolishness will see you dead Biast."

"Whatever you say Wyvern, whatever you say."

To the general bystander watching two Gods clash on the field of battle…this was a sight of divine intervention. To the nobles who ran the kingdoms this was just a show of force done by their kingdom's greatest weapons. To the Dominants themselves…this was just business from two very different perspectives.

"You'll have to try harder than that to knock me down little girl!" Titan roars, a single punch shattering the icy barrage sent his way "Is this all you have to offer!?"

To the soldiers below, what followed was a nightmare. Shards of ice falling from the sky, Titan's rumblings shaking the ground before with a single footstep he splits open the earth beneath their feet. From the looks of things not even Shiva was spared as the Eikon flew at Titan and attempted to go on the offensive. The Eikon of Ice constructed a shield out of her element as the Eikon of Earth threw another punch and sent her flying back.

"You may be a Dominant, but you are not strong enough to be one of us!" Titan threw another punch, striking the ground with such force the landscape around the impact site was upheaved.

"I won't fail."

Titan tilted his head "Oh?"

"I won't fail them…not again!" From out of the dust came Shiva, the Eikon of Ice, flying around Titan akin to an annoying insect. "I will do what I must and stop you here!"

Titan swats at Shiva, missing the smaller Eikon every time. A loud groan comes from the giant as the ice witch freezes his left arm at the elbow, locking it in position. "Insignificant worm!"

Shiva dodges a swipe of her foe's free hand. Shards of ice impacting his stone skin body as she flies past his head. This would be a glorious battle to any on the ground and at their mercy. To them it was only a game of cat and mouse. Shiva was too weak from the Crusaders treatment of her to fight at full strength. All she could do was dodge and hope one of her attacks would injure Titan enough for her to be triumphant. As the Ice Eikon avoids a punch from Titan her body tenses up, a spasm rippling across her body and providing Titan with a clear shot.

The resulting punch sends Shiva to the ground, the impact reverting her back into her Dominant. Fortunately for her, Titan did not see the point in fighting someone who was too weak to be a threat to him. His job complete, Titan too reverted back while the Republic's army pushed the remaining Crusaders into a retreat.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Tiamat says as Clive comes to. "Glad to see that Shiva and Titan's little spat didn't render us completely useless today."

"Biast?"

Tiamat shakes his head "If you want to say your goodbyes, go right ahead, the boulder hasn't moved any."

Clive hazard a glance at the bloodstained rock. Another life he had failed to save it seemed. "What's the plan?"

"We kill the Dominant. Soon as Aevis is back, we'll proceed."

Clive grabbed his sword. The minutes ticked by until Aevis returned with the news. The Crusaders were in retreat, and as luck would have it the Dominant was still with them and close by. All they would have to do is skulk about the plateau from the rear, and hope that they would find their target with minimal guard about. Easy, in their heads anyway. Not so easy in practice.

"Down there," Aevis points to a clearing. A band of Crusaders standing watch over the unconscious form of who they can only assume is Shiva's Dominant "We can take them out, and then eliminate her right after. Quick and clean, just like you said."

"Nothing about this has been 'quick and clean' Aevis." Clive scowls, thoughts drifting back to Biast being crushed by a rock. "This will just be another trial for us."

"A trial or a mission, our job is to eliminate the girl, not to question our own chances of survival." Tiamat gave Clive just as fierce a glare as he was receiving from the Rosarian "Wyvern, if you get the opportunity, can you kill her?"

"I have yet to ruin my sword…three strikes is about all I can manage though, so I'll have to make them count."

"Then do so," Tiamat casts his gaze down at the Crusaders "We have the time…let's finish this before more of them show up."

The trio slide down the slope, pushing off at the end and landing amongst the Ironblood Crusaders. Clive counted just six men. Not nearly enough to push them back and defend the Dominant at the same time. If he could just shift to her then he could end this in one move. The Crusaders shouted something in their native tongue, Clive didn't need a translation to know a fight was at hand.

"No quarter!" Tiamat barks out "We kill them, then we get the girl!"

Aevis and Tiamat charged forward. Clive shook his head at the standard Imperial training methods they displayed. Charge in, attack the enemy and hope your sword is stronger than his. Six men would be nothing. Tiamat and Aevis already had cutdown one, which means Clive only had four to worry about as he shifts into the crowd, driving his sword through on means chest. Make that three men he had to worry about.

"Nice move Wyvern!" Clive brushed off Tiamat's praise, swinging his blade and catching one Crusader in the stomach.

"We'll handle these two, you just kill the girl!"

Clive gripped his sword tight as he stalked over to the downed woman. The heat within his body was building up, more so than usual…it felt like he was the fire as he got within ten feet of her. Suddenly, there was a deep chill as ice encased the landscape around them. He could faintly hear two bodies dropping but dare not look back to check if it was the Crusaders or his comrades that had fallen.

"Oh fuck," he mutters as the woman begins to stand, her cold eyes glaring at him "Well…guess it won't be easy then."

Clive swung, giving his best war cry as he made his attack. His blade would go right through her slender neck, it would be quick, it would be…nearly painless he hoped. His eyes widen while she just smirks at him.

"Now we're in for it," Aevis groans "What do we do Sergeant?"

Tiamat frowns. The Dominant sidesteps Clive, leaving the man frozen in a solid block of ice. If Wyvern was out of commission, then this mission was a failure of the highest order. "We fight…either she dies, or we do…and I do not plan on returning empty handed just to be executed for my failure, do you?"

"No sir…but I doubt she will care."

The Dominant of Ice glared at the two as she stepped towards them, left arm raised as shards of ice formed in the air around her. The two assassins had different reactions to being blasted by ice. Aevis proceeded to dodge, duck, and weave out of the way of the projectiles while Tiamat took to fighting back by swinging his sword and intercepting the shards before they could hit him. All the while, frozen in ice, Clive was little more than an ornament for the battle.

Clive was conscious through it all. He could hear and see everything, but he could do nothing to help. Nothing to resist the cold. He closed his eyes, steadying his nerves as he just let go.

"The flames of the Phoenix burn within you," he heard Lord Murdoch's words in his head. A memory from a time he longed to return to. "Now let them burn without."

His body shook, the ice slowly cracking as the heat within enveloped him, warmed him, from his ice prison. Tiamat battered another shard with his sword, panting as the woman before him just looked so coldly at him. He'd reprimand Biast for influencing him with a joke if the man wasn't little more than paste decorating the underside of a boulder right now. The Dominant's attention was focused on him, something that he wished he could say was untrue.

"Aevis…can you still fight?"

"Yes sergeant…but not for long."

Tiamat chuckles "Then we've lost. Without Wyvern…we don't stand a chance."

There was a sharp crack. The Dominant and the Bearers both turned to the source. Clive was breaking free. With a shout of his own the ice came free, being blasted all around as flames erupted from his left arm. The First Shield of Rosaria turned, glaring at the woman as she attempted another ice spell.

"Not this time," Clive says as he dodged the ice shard and unleashed a stream of fire from his hand "Now, burn!"

The flames scared her off. The woman moving back and to the side, launching another few shards of ice at him. The heat was so intense coming off his body that the ice never reached him. The shards melted just three feet from Clive as his flames slowly drew closer to his target. The woman however was not out of tricks just yet. She forced what Aether she could into her legs and jumped, leaping over the flames, and came back down with her saber ready to stab home into Clive's chest.

"Neat trick," he mocks, vanishing in a burst of flames. "Here's mine!"

The Dominant of Shiva felt her eyes widen, pulse quickening as she looked up just in time to see Clive's flaming fist come down and impact the rocky ground at her feet. The resulting blast knocked her back, and out of the fight. Clive frowned as the heat began to subside. The Dominant wasn't healthy, he could see that much during the fight. Ironblood no doubt tortured her for who knows how long, left her withering away unless they required her services.

"Damn beasts," he mutters as he approaches her body, sword drawn "Couldn't even treat a prisoner properly."

"Wyvern! Is she dead?"

Clive lightly rolls her over with his foot, frowning as she looks almost peaceful in the dirt "I don't think so Sergeant!"

Tiamat curses "Well, go on then, kill her and lets be done with it!"

Clive aligns his weapon with her throat. "The man who gives the sentence, swings the sword Jon. For our way is the old way." He winces, shaking his head as memories of so long ago return to haunt him.

"Not like I am of your lands any longer…you have no hold over me, Father." Clive raises his blade high "And these are not your lands, this is not the North."

Clive's eyes catch a faint movement of the woman's lips, a word softly spoken but all the more visible to him and there streaking down her cheek was a tear. Unbidden, thirteen years of memories and of promises made and failed came back to him as he stared down at the woman's face. That shade of gray hair he used to look for in a crowd…that nose which would crinkle whenever Joshua complained about vegetables at dinner…the delicate cheeks that so often would puff when he had played a joke with Rex.

"Clive? Can you promise me something? Can you promise me that if you see a bright star you will think of me? Because no matter where in the world you are, chances are I will be looking at that star too."

A tear slowly trailed down his face as he whispered that answer which he gave that night all those years ago "Always."

"Wyvern? Wyvern!?" The sound of his sergeant shouting for him broke Clive from his trance "What are you waiting for!? Do it now!"

"I…I can't."

Aevis rolled his eyes, pushing the frozen man out of the way, and raised his sword "To hell with it, I'll do it then!"

Clive stumbled to the side just as the world seemed to slow down around him. At first it was panic that gripped him as Aevis raised his weapon up high but then it was anger as an axe struck his comrade in the shoulder and brought him to the ground. "Aevis!"

"Damn it all!" Tiamat shouts, moving to engage the new group of Crusaders as they approached.

Clive kneeled by the fallen man's side, pulling the axe free and applying pressure to the wound "Aevis? Aevis! Stay with me, just a little longer," he urges, tossing the axe away and fishing out a hi-potion from his medicine pouch "Drink this! It'll repair your shoulder, but if you don't then you will die here and now, do you understand!?"

"T-thank you…W-wyvern."

Clive stood, turning his angry glare on the Ironblood as they approached. He counted seven of them this time. All of them big, burly, savage brutes. He would not show them mercy today, nor any other for this. "You people…you did this…to her!"

Tiamat froze as a large ball of fire shot past him, engulfing a Crusader, immolating the man alive. He could still hear his screams even as Clive shifted into another and ripped his blade free of his neck. Something had set him off but for the life of him Tiamat couldn't determine what it was. Clive was on the warpath as he went about cutting down the Crusaders. Got so bad Tiamat lost track of if he had killed one of them. When it was done, Clive shifted back to Aevis and the woman. He gingerly scooped the woman up into his arms and began to walk her over to a small alcove in the shade.

"Wyvern…Wyvern you put her down right now and take her head or I swear that I will-"

"You will what, Sergeant?"

Tiamat froze, mouth agape as Aevis got to his feet slowly. "Did you just…who do you think you are talking to Wyvern!?"

"You, Sergeant."

"Do your duty Wyvern," Tiamat tried to maintain his composure "That is an order!"

"I refuse. I will not kill her, orders be damned."

Aevis was shocked, not nearly as much as Tiamat was. It had never happened in either of their careers serving the Empire that anyone would defy an order from a fellow Bearer. Rebellion wasn't unheard of when the commander in charge was a regular. But a Bearer? They stuck together usually. Mutual assistance and safety was the main reasoning, but this was…it was unheard of. It never happened.

"Wyvern…where is your loyalty?"

Clive scoffs "Loyalty? Loyalty to what? To whom? Loyalty to an Empire that stabs its own allies in the back? To an Empire that can't even conquer its former allies after thirteen years at war with them? Loyalty to the very people that killed my friends, my family? Loyalty to the Empire that Branded me for saving a Bearer's life!?" Clive gripped his sword so tight he felt he might just snap the handle off "My servitude may have been given when I was taken prisoner, my honor and my name stripped from me when this brand was wrongly forced upon me! But my loyalty…my loyalty has always been to her, and that is something that you and your precious Empire will never take from me!"

"You would throw away your life, your freedom for this…for this woman!?" Tiamat couldn't comprehend it all "This…this is treason Wyvern! You will die for this!"

"You will try."

Tiamat was absolutely fuming. He brought his sword up, ready for a fight as Aevis stood nervously by his side. "Head up Aevis, we kill the traitor and then we kill the woman."

"Sergeant…are you sure this is the right decision?"

Tiamat eyes him dangerously "What was that?"

"It's just…Wyvern slaughtered the Crusaders with ease…if anything he'll kill us before we can even blink. Would it not be best to just…retreat for now?"

Tiamat's shoulders sagged slightly "Do not worry Aevis, he will not kill us both."

Aevis relaxed. The man was ready to call it a day, call it a mission, and just return to the Imperial territory to rest. Let Wyvern have the woman, she'll kill him at the first opportunity no doubt and then the job would take care of itself easily enough. That was the last line of thinking to go through Aevis' head before his body hit the ground. Clive glared daggers at Tiamat as he returned his focus to Clive. Aevis body lay in two pieces, cut in half at the waist by the very man he had followed so blindly into battle after battle for years.

"If you are going to appeal to my better nature about this and claim he had a future, that he had some wife waiting for him…don't." Tiamat chuckles "We both know that Bearers like us are not given the chance for a normal life like that, it's fantasy, and I will see it finally put to rest with you. Wyvern."

"I would never waste my breath on you with words meant for more noble men, Tiamat," Clive's expression changes from anger to one of pity "But There's one thing you did not think to learn about me."

He vanishes in the flames. Tiamat gasps as his body hits the ground, eyes locked on a snarling expression on Clive's face as his blood taints the land. He didn't even have time to react. Just as Aevis said…it was over in the blink of an eye.

"I am not a Bearer; I am First Shield of Rosaria!"

Clive sighs as he pulls his sword free. This was not how he expected this day to go. He certainly wasn't thinking it would be this bad either. Biast…Aevis…they did not have to die the way they did. Crushed beneath a boulder. Cut down by their own Sergeant. Both men may have been Branded, but they were not some lowly bands of bandits to be killed for a bounty. They were honest men just trying to survive.

"If only Tiamat had seen that," he mutters as he approaches the woman "And you…why did you have to be here of all places? I swore an oath, I've kept my end of the promise…now you milady, must go on so that it may never die."

He reaches for his medicine pouch, frowning as he checks the contents and only finds a handful of potions and one elixir. The elixir was a gift from the Dame for an emergency. Clive took great care to never use or show it to anyone. Not even Philippe had seen it. But if saving her life was not an emergency then Clive did not know what was.

"Milady…Jill…please, drink this…if you can hear me, you must drink and recover." He gently brought the uncorked bottle to her lips, supporting her the best he could so her head was upright as he tipped the bottle up, gently. In the distance he could hear the Crusaders approaching, running towards them. Only half the bottle had gone down as he heard them shout something at him. As she got the last of the elixir's contents Clive eased her down to rest as he stood to confront the new arrivals. "I don't know who you are or what you just said to me…but I'm in a very poor mood today. So, if you value your lives, you will march back to your islands and never set foot in these lands ever again!"

The Crusaders laughed. They could clearly understand him, but the feeling was not mutual. The leader raised his axe, ready to charge, as Clive brought his weapon up. Before either party could make a move there was a crack and a boom of thunder overhead. Clive had to shield his eyes as bolts of lightning struck down, scorching the Crusader band before him. As the last of the bodies dropped, Clive went on guard.

"Well…that was a little flashier than I had intended. Sorry about that," The speaker was male. Their voice was rough, it grated on the ears much like the voices of those old smoking sailors in Port Isolde would.

Before Clive could even see the speaker, he heard a bark. His weapon never left his hand as a large hound bolted from the cloud of smoke and dust, practically jumping as it circled Clive. "What in the world is…" Clive's eyes locked on a patch of white fur atop his forehead "Torgal?"

The hound barks, panting happily as it looks upon him. Clive drops to his knees, staring somewhere between shock and awe as he reaches for the dog's head. Torgal nuzzles his hand, cozying up to him much the same way he had as a puppy. The walls that had been built up over the years broke down in an instant as Clive laughed, hugging the big beast that his little puppy had become.

"Oh, it really is you!" he cries "Look at you…thirteen years and you still remember me boy?"

"Another happy reunion I see," the speaker from before steps out of the dust "Clive Rosfield…you are a difficult man to track down."

"Track down? How do you know who I am?"

The man smirks "Simple, a certain Dame of a house of ill repute sent word that you were being put in a kill team for a mission down this way. So, I just thought I would stop by and see if I couldn't offer you my support in escaping the Empire."

"You are a little late for that," he admits "I've already taken care of them myself."

"I see…tell you what, let's get her out of here and then we can discuss a more beneficial alliance later." The man stops in his tracks as Clive brings his blade up near his throat "Or we could discuss this now…at the end of a sword."

"Let me make this clear to you. I do not know you nor do I trust you. I will only go along with you because Torgal here hasn't tried to rip you apart. Is that clear?"

"Oh, Clive my lad, you need to learn to not underestimate your opponents." The man's body began to glow, lightning crackling around his body before he vanishes from Clive's sight "But to answer your question…I am Cidolphus Telamon, but you can call me Cid. So, are you coming with us or not?"

Clive whirls around, staring in shock as Cid is supporting Jill in his arms. The heat within burning fiercer than ever as he takes in that scene. Torgal barks, nudging Clive forward just a little. "Alright, alright…but if he does anything to her, I am blaming you."

Torgal gave a bark in return as Cid brought Jill over "Now…just need one more person and we can go…Goetz? Goetz!"

"Coming!" Clive felt his brow raise as a voice much higher than expected for one of this newcomer's size heralded the arrival of a large…pack mule? "Sorry Cid, but I'm just not cut out for all of this climbing and jumping."

"Its alright, just need you to help carry this one back to the Hideaway." Cid gestures to Jill, still in his arms and still infuriating Clive "Come on, before Clive here decides I might look better charred."

Clive sheaths his sword, assisting with keeping Jill secure. Why Cid's bright idea for transport was a large man with a chair strapped to his back he did not understand. Long as she was safe and would recover, he wouldn't care about the details of how they got her to safety. "Just who are you people?"

"Nothing but a couple of friends Clive," Cid smirks "Long as you don't upset the old cactus we have back home."

AN: Just want to say this has been done for a while, chapter 12 was/is in the works but as of quite literally 1:00 in the morning EST on July 29th, 2023...my laptop decided it no longer liked having a screen, thankfully I got a replacement the same day...granted a lot of hours later, and we are still in business! So expect 11 within a couple of days or so, followed by 12. Anyway…that is Chapter 10 and with this we have officially begun the story proper after doing nine chapters of prologue. From here on out, updates are sporadic; could be the same pace or it could be long waits. Idk. But again, just so you don't get disappointed when you check every two days. We've had our first Eikon vs Eikon fight. I know, I know, it was too short. I wanted to do it longer but given the circumstances of that fight there is not really a whole lot you can do. I promise that the rest will be longer than just a quick snippet. In fact, I had the first one pegged for a much bigger fight than you would expect. And no, it is not for a long while…how long idk but long enough to keep you Eikon fans rabid. Also, as some keen-eyed readers might have noticed, I did include dialogue for the Eikons. Reason is simple, in the game we hear the thoughts of the Dominants when they prime…but normal people hear nothing, we can assume anyway. So, I decided to give the grunts and groans of Titan actual meaning…consider me your Eikon translator for all of Ifrit's roars and snarls, Phoenix's caws, and whatever it is that some on my list do…whoops, spoilers! So yeah…Clive has met Cid and Goetz, we have Torgal back, I changed up the remembrance bit for Clive and Jill and I found a useful way of using some lines from the game/books/show to help show off Clive and his inner struggles. Course my knowledge on lines that would work for more are limited so do not expect a lot of it in the future. One downside of not having access to it all in one convenient place. Also...Goetz...and Gav...I am NOT doing accents. Typing out those is a killer, Word loves to keep coming in and saying its wrong, and reading it just does not feel right after spending years editing stories and having to make sure everything is spelled correctly. Won't do it. One thing I will not compromise on, I'm sorry.

Review time kiddos…and old folk…and whatever Guest Reviewer Dave is or was…is he dead? Idk. Onward!

furvustocs: What you said, that's what I like to see. Again: I am not perfect, nobody is, so if I miss something I like to know about it. Keep it up and I'm glad it's still enjoyable for you!

...kind of shocks me ao3 does so many comments but then here we get so few reviews. Oh well, can't be helped, so I'll keep doing what I am doing. Until next time!