Chapter 23

Stormbringer

A solitary Esthari aerial pod flew above the highway that cut through the flaming bluffs of Winhill. The road wound on a southerly curvature between the mountain pass and the blazing town, which was now barely recognisable. The beetle shaped craft had malfunctioned some time ago. Now operational again, it was on course to rejoin the swelling force to the southeast of Winhill, which was massing near the former missile base across the estuary.

The three airmen on board did not have a care in the world as the autopilot carried them to their pre-programmed destination. One of them was sampling porn on his sat phone, the second was half asleep, and the third was in the pilot's chair, looking absently at the blazing flower fields.

'I guess there wasn't any other way to deal with the inbred scum,' the one in the front said.

The other lucid airman was glued to the porn.

'They'll be thanking the Empress in the end,' he continued. 'Once we lay the foundations for Baron.'

For Baron was the name of the metropolis that the Empress envisioned rising from the ashes of these backwater settlements, in the heart of the most fertile part of Galbadia. Half a century from now, Baron would be a Province in its own right.

A floating green shape appeared ahead, moving across the pilot's vision. Its eyes brimmed with intelligence in contrast to the stupidity of materialising directly in front of the pod's path.

'What in Hyne's name?' the one in front muttered.

The jewel between the being's eyes begun to shine. The other two looked up, the napping one slower than his shamelessly aroused buddy.

'That looks like-!'

The flash that followed was searing, causing them all instant retinal pain. The windscreen was supposed to filter intense flashes but was evidently ineffective against a GF. The crew fell from their seats, cowering as the autopilot continued, though they felt no impact as the craft passed through where Carbuncle had just been. Nothing happened for a few moments. Then there was a wrenching noise, and the sounds of the outside pervading the pod informed them that the side hatch had been ripped from its hinges.

Rinoa simply flew to the side hatch. Sacred channelled an ungodly amount of strength through her slender body, and she was able to tear the hatch open. Moving calmly into the craft, the Sorceress could see that the three airmen were incapacitated. She bound all three of them with a series of gleaming white rings and took their voices. Her angelic wings withdrew into her body, and she moved to the pilot's console. Rinoa lifted a glass cover and brought her fist down on a red button labelled for an emergency landing. Immediately, the pod slowed and descended.

Within a heartbeat of the pod touching down, Damian climbed aboard and dragged the nearest soldier outside. Xu and the others swiftly appeared, the chocobos behind them. Damian lifted the Esthari to his feet and pushed him roughly against the side of the craft. The Neo-SeeD pressed a half-moon blade against the soldier's neck, firmly enough to draw blood. Blind and disorientated from Carbuncle's flash, the airman could not stand still, and his face creased with his head pain. Rinoa removed the ethereal bonds and restored his voice.

'Who led the attack?' Damian demanded. The airman's mouth opened, but only a desperate whimper came out. Damian moved his face closer. 'They call me the Wraith of Winhill, and my townsfolk cry out for retribution from the netherworld! Tell me who led the attack and I'll make it quick! Who did this?'

'P-please!' the soldier cried. 'I wasn't there!'

With a snarl of rage, Damian stepped back and swung at the Esthari's leg, cutting deeply above his knee cop. The airman howled as he fell, rolling on the concrete as he clutched the grievous wound.

'Who led the attack?' Damian demanded again.

'Zebalga!'

Satisfied, Damian ignored the airman's pleas and made good on his promise, beheading him. He moved to re-enter the pod, but Rinoa stood in his path, shaking her head.

'We're not butchers, Damian,' she said firmly. 'We'll leave the other two by the prison.'

Damian groaned and wheeled around. 'When I find that Zebalgan child fucker, he'll be meeting the same fate!' he vowed, clutching his bloodied axe with both hands.

Raine spoke gently. 'You're no match for him, Damian, not without a GF. Leave him to someone else. He'll get what's coming to him soon enough.'

'Raine's right, Reno,' Xu said sternly. 'I'll avenge your people if I cross Zebalga. Sabin and Cid, too. You have my word.'

Damian stubbornly shook his head. 'Your word's not good enough, Xu! I'll remove his head myself, or die in attempt!'

'Then you shall die,' Gerra said. 'I too desire to confront someone upon the battlefield, but I fear I am now no match for him. Instead, I'll be fighting skirmishes that I know I can win.'

'Who might that be, turncoat?' Damian spat.

Gerra hesitated. 'His name is Leo.' He sighed. 'You're the only one here that doesn't know, Damian. I'm not from Esthar. I'm from the future, and Leo followed me here.'

Damian tilted his head a little. 'The future?'

'Yes,' Gerra confirmed. 'Sorceress Reina becomes Ultimecia; the very Sorceress the Children of Fate killed following Time Compression. I'm here to stop Ultimecia from ever achieving world domination.'

'Great fucking Hyne,' Damian said slowly.

Thalassa spoke. 'That's why SeeD have been racing to junction with the GFs again. The course of the future is decided by the coming battle.'

Damian walked to the chocobos without another word, cleaning his axe head. They reluctantly let the chocobos go. Carbuncle and Minimog touched their minds, and the big yellow birds started their leaping run in the opposite direction of the Esthari troops, towards a forest at the foot of the southern mountains.

Raine had missed a call from Squall. Momentarily ignoring several messages from her mother, Raiden, and Liu, she called her uncle back.

'You're to proceed to Galbadia City,' Squall said after the preliminaries. 'General Biggs has asked me and Captain Kurin for GFs bearers to bolster his force. I'll be sending everyone except for myself, as Bahamut will be needed at sea.'

'But, Uncle, I'm not a SeeD yet!' Raine responded uncertainly.

There was a pause. 'I'm making you a SeeD now, Raine. I inducted Liu and Zhang yesterday, but there's no time for you to have the ceremony before the battle starts. And now, I'm giving you your first mission.'

Raine was stunned. She had never expected to be inducted this way, but if the Commander deemed it acceptable to do so over the phone, then a Neo-SeeD she was.

'Uncle, I…'

'You'll get your ceremony once we've defeated Reina, I promise,' Squall assured her. 'I've organised your private cabin, and there's several uniforms awaiting you there. The contract for you to assist the Galbadians is in front of me.' He paused again, and Raine held her breath. 'Now, I need Rinoa and Xu to go to the Monterosa Plateau, to join with Quistis and Raijin. Nida's group will be joining them, too. You, Damian, Thalassa, and Gerra will proceed to the Galbadian camp southeast of the capital. Thalassa will receive her own instructions from Kurin.'

Raine said, 'Understood.'

'Can you give the phone to Rinoa?' Squall asked, then added, 'And, Raine? I'm really proud of you, and so are your folks.'

After speaking with her Knight, Rinoa passed the phone to Xu. Xu's tone then changed in pitch, as she spoke in the old tongue of Balamb. Raine assumed that she was talking to either Liu or Zhang. Liu had taught Raine some phrases in the language, but Xu was speaking too rapidly for her to understand. She approached Damian about their Commander's orders.

'Congrats, I guess,' Damian said, then added, 'But I can't see what good I will be to the Galbadians, without a GF! I should be fighting with the Lionheart! By the sound of it, your uncle be exposed at sea, with or without Bahamut!'

'I'm sure he has a plan,' Raine replied.

When Xu ended the call, she walked towards them, offering Raine her phone back. 'Awesome job, Raine!' she said. Xu held out her arms for a rare sentimental embrace, then took Raine's hands in her own. The much shorter Xu had to tiptoe to whisper something in Raine's ear, as Squall was not present to do so himself. 'You've got a good heart. Ensure your enemies don't see it as weakness.'

Raine nodded once in acknowledgement, the message being meant for her alone.

They all climbed into the pod, moving the two remaining airmen to the farthest corner. Xu set a north-eastern course for the Monterosa Plateau, across the Dingo Desert. Xu remained in the pilot's seat, but did not need to operate anything. Gerra had a faraway look in his eyes. Damian had climbed aboard last, moving to the opposite side from Gerra. The Wraith kept the man from the future in his peripheral vision, as well as the captured Esthari. Raine was speaking on the phone to Liu, and doing her best to keep her voice low for the others' benefit.

Thalassa checked for any more messages from her leader, Kurin. The White SeeD Ship had joined with Battleship Island to the north of Galbadia, in what was to be a daring ambush of Esthar's approaching fleet. One that she would not be part of, as she had been given another assignment. Kurin had given her the personal number of the highest-ranking member of the Galbadian army Thalassa had met previously, which was Colonel Wedge. She was to contact Wedge at the earliest convenience.

Wedge answered on the fourth ring. 'Hello?'

'Hi, Colonel,' she said. 'This is Thalassa Dincht. I trust you're well.'

'Of course, Dincht!' Wedge said, in a cheerful tone that Thalassa knew was not feigned. Conditions within the G-Army had improved vastly since the Deling regime. 'We're very busy right now, as I'm sure you're aware, so please keep it short.'

'We'll be heading for your troops from the Monterosa, tomorrow,' the White SeeD explained. 'We're in a captured Esthari pod. We don't want a green on blue, sir!'

Wedge laughed. 'We'll try to remember! So, there's four of you? Yourself, and three from Leonhart?'

Thalassa hesitated. She did not know how Squall or Kurin had explained Gerra's presence.

'Yes,' she said.

'Excellent!' Wedge replied. 'The four of you can lend your strength to the Garlands! Two Guardian Forces will be a welcome addition, and Deling would be honoured to have you fighting with his Troopers!'

Ballad Deling, Thalassa recalled, had been internally nominated leader of Garland after displaying much gallantry in Timber. He was the sole son of the former dictator, just eight years old when his father had been publicly murdered. Although many ascertained the only thing Ballad had in common with Vinzer Deling was his surname.

'I look forward to fighting alongside the Garlands again, sir,' Thalassa said truthfully.

They ended the call.

'Garland, huh?' Damian said smugly.

'Don't go running your mouth around them, Reno,' Xu said. 'We both saw them in Timber. They're tough, created to rival us after we kicked the G-Army's ass in the last war. But for now, SeeD and Garland have a common enemy.'

Ultimecia, Thalassa thought.

It was time for the captured airmen to depart. Xu activated the pod's cloaking device as they neared the D-District Prison. Overriding the auto-pilot, she banked the craft so the missing side hatch was facing west. Rinoa had put the airmen into a deep sleep, and now used a levitation spell to lower them to the entrance of the northernmost tower. The two standing prison guards were bewildered, but swiftly cuffed the two airmen before they awoke, marching the lethargic men inside.

Checking her encrypted messages on the dark web, Thalassa saw that she had some from Tyris. Her heart rate quickened as it always did when she had rare contact from her old friend. The first message was typically to the point.

I'm with the Dollet force. Domitian and Basch are dead, Hikaru Akechi has command, and we're about to enter the Monterosa on foot. We'll be on the other side in two days. My parents are with other SeeDs somewhere above us. Their GFs took out our van.

There were two more messages, sent shortly after.

We were marching with a sellsword called Leonidas Christophe in Trabia. Reina did a mind contact and invited him back to the capital. I don't know where he is now.

The third read, I'll turn on Esthar as soon as I can.

Thalassa read the last message repeatedly. It was finally going to happen, after all these years! Tyris was coming home! Thalassa moved to where Raine was sitting, showing her the last message.

'That's great news!' Raine remarked, smiling. 'I just hope Ty turns sooner rather than later. The three of us can fight together with our GFs, just like we always playacted as children!'

'The thing is,' Thalassa said, 'her desire for revenge will probably cause her to charge Zebalga, whether we're with her or not. Or Reina. I don't think Tyris will settle for spilling the blood of common soldiers. She's waited too long, like I have. But I know I couldn't defeat Reina on my own.'

'Nor could I,' Gerra said suddenly. 'But I'll lend my sword to the Children of Fate when the time comes.'

Damian laughed. 'What? Without a GF? You'll just get in their way, Future Boy, crushed before you can even breathe!'

'That reminds me, Gerra. Leo has met with Ultimecia,' Thalassa informed him, showing him the message. She remembered he was a slow reader as he squinted at her phone screen.

'Hynedamn it,' he said quietly. 'Then we shall certainly cross swords in Galbadia.'

'Who is this Leo?' Damian asked. 'Was he Ultimecia's Knight in the future, or something?'

'No, he wasn't,' Gerra answered. 'But he is likely her Knight now.'

Less than a hundred cyborgs had made it to the treeline, most of them swiftly torn apart as they were set upon by waiting wendigos. Enraged and anxious after the attack, half a million troops had taken out their fury on Yaulney Forest, Tyris and Hikaru reining them in with only limited success. Ochus were killed by the dozen; wendigos and cockratices by the hundreds; and bite bugs and funguars by the thousands. The rear of the force set fire to the forest in its entirety as it cut through. There was probably not a single creature remaining within its boundaries as the Esthari left, the collapsing trees burning furiously and plumes of thick smoke blackening the sky.

Though the monsters had not gone down without a fight, the Esthari had had a gross advantage with their plasma weapons and had not lost as many troops as Tyris would have liked. Even so, every loss sustained reflected on Hikaru's ability to command. Hikaru was leading the force that had committed these genocidal acts, right after losing the vanguard, and she would always be remembered as such. She looked to be reaching a breaking point, shaking with strained emotion as they led the rear contingents onto the plateau.

It took a whole day for the force to clear the forest, massing on the arid land of the Monterosa, which was similar to the terrain in their homeland. Growth was sparse here, any reaping hard won, but Galbadia Garden had shared its advanced agricultural methods with the surrounding communities, improving the local economies now that Garden was not permanently here to sustain them. Their airborne scouts had confirmed that all settlements here were mostly evacuated, with any citizens remaining unable to pose a threat. Unlike Zebalga, Hikaru had decided to ignore them. The plateau's exit lay southwest through a narrow pass, filled with a moderate town called Locomota, which boasted a largely disused rail station once serving all corners of the continent.

With night already fallen, the front of the force had already made camp, and the rear followed. Most of the troops were restless, singing war ballads and eager to engage Galbadia. They were completely ignorant of the order to retire to tents at last light, with no cyborgs remaining to impose it. Many of the troops were shamelessly intoxicated on smuggled spirits or substances, lighting the sky with plasma fire. Hikaru, with little will remaining, retreated to her tent.

Allow me, sounded a commanding voice in Tyris' head.

Now that she was not wearing her magicite, Tyris had been able to free Ramuh from his voluntary imprisonment. The Old One was freely junctioned with her, as he had been all along.

Ramuh's immaterial form left her and ascended unseen to the clouds of black smoke. Torrential rain began to fall, immediately dampening the spirits of the camp and swiftly silencing the unremitting laughing, shouting, and singing. Carefully placed fingers of lightning struck open spaces of ground, knocking many Esthari onto the ground. These bolts were immediately followed by deafening thunderclaps, drowning out the resulting screams. Above them, the smoke was filled with dancing lightning, which enlarged at regular intervals, threatening to lance down once again. With screams of terror, the troops ran for their tents. Tyris saw that dozens of soldiers were only partially dressed as they emerged from hiding places, having been interrupted midway through sex acts. Those already inside tents dared not stick their curious heads outside an inch.

Ramuh returned to her. Tyris let the Old One's power jut from her palms, and she vaulted herself high above the camp on two columns of lightning. Many of the Esthari could see her as many rings of lightning rotated her body. Her eyes shone with a light blue. They all knew who Lieutenant Pandemona was, having all heard the tale of the Thunder Plains, and would think twice about disobeying her now. If not Hikaru.

Very pleased, Tyris would have renewed vigour at first light, even if Hikaru did not. Many of the troops would be nursing their heads when they had to break camp. If she had to fry a few of them as an example, so be it. Ramuh spoke to her mind again as her feet returned to ground.

The Thunderstroke crosses Galbadia astride the Feathered Snake. He will have joined your parents on the morrow. You and Raijin will be drawn to one another on the battlefield, he warned.

'Uncle Rai,' she whispered.

The Two Halves of Gaia are also nearing the plateau. I can sense their rage at the destruction of one of their finest creations, the emblem of beauty we have just beheld the burning of. May the earth swallow many of these accursed Esthari! More of my brethren approach; the free Guardian Forces have been rallied! I believe the righteous Descendants of Hyne could also be present, but they can veil themselves from me.

Just make sure they know we're on their side, Tyris thought back, as she stopped by Hikaru's tent.

As she entered, Hikaru was drinking from a metal flask with an engraved Balambi symbol. Tyris could smell the rice wine on her.

'Thanks, Ty,' she said. 'But we both know what this means. I'll be demoted! My family cannot bear the shame; Mitsuhide will have to dismiss me, and I'll shunned be like a whore or slave!'

'Hikaru, I'll do everything I can to defend you,' Tyris said consolingly, sitting next to her.

Guilt gnawed at Tyris for the barefaced lie. If what Ramuh had just informed her of was true, the free world had a fighting chance at victory. In that case, Tyris was not planning to be anywhere near Esthar after the coming battle. Not until the time came for the united free people of the world to converge on the Heart of the Empire. Even if Hikaru was found not guilty of any incompetence, her family steadfastly followed the archaic customs of indigenous Balamb. The Lieutenant would feel obliged to resign from her post and would indeed end up a divorcee.

Tyris spoke again. 'Mitsuhide's a decent man. He may understand.'

'He will understand,' Hikaru said. 'But it won't change anything!'

Hikaru offered Tyris some rice wine. Tyris had tried it once, while on sabbatical on one of the Albatross islands, and politely turned it down.

'The next time the grunts look at you funny, Hikaru,' Tyris said, 'just fire some of Jumbo's needles up their arses. Ramuh got them in line within seconds. They're terrified of GFs now, after what happened to the van.'

Hikaru looked deadpan. 'I shouldn't need to resort to that. Mitsuhide needs no GF. General Zebalga and Colonel Vlahos would never need to do that, either. They command obedience naturally.'

'Every Esthari soldier respects the name Vlahos,' Tyris countered. 'As for General Zebalga, there's few that don't fear him.' She rose. 'Try and get some sleep, Hikaru, and don't drink anymore.'