FFVI-5 Ch10 A False Song

You're not going anywhere," Deegor teased, hurling another lightning ball of Thundaga at Bartz.
Bartz however was far less concerned for his own safety while dodging the bolts of lightning. There were still houses close by and people in danger.

"Sabin, snap out of it!"
Sabin had began to feel disorientated and could barely keep focus anymore. Kateran looked at him menacingly. "Prey is so easy to manipulate if you leave it standing long enough. While I'm here now, unveiled to all those filth human scum, I may as well get my duties done,"
Deegor began charging another Thundaga between his wings, this time not at Bartz, but at a group of people fleeing some distance away. Bartz simply couldn't stand there and watch. "I won't let you hurt innocent people!"
"Right now at this moment, humans are being tortured. Think you can save them too!?" Deegor growled before launching the blast of thunder. Bartz leapt in the way, with his sword held out to block it. As the Thundaga spell hit the sword, the impact threw Bartz from his feet, skidding some way across the ground, rupturing some wounds to his body. A huge smoke cloud enveloped him from the soldering remnants of the spell, and Deegor stood there and smiled.

Without warning, Bartz burst through the clouds with his sword out "...I can make a difference here!"
He threw his sword down on the suprised dragon and the metal hit his armoured head with a clang. But the sword did not even pierce his hard armour, despite the dragons small size.
"What!?" Bartz cried in disbelief.
Deegor then used his strong wing to grab ahold of Bartz's wrist and threw him onto the ground. From the floor, the dragon's small size seemed to ovettower Bartz. "The earth looks good on you," Deegor continued to cackle "But your energy and spirit pleases me. You would make a fitting candidate for the blighted," He continued.


Without warning, a huge bolt of lightning from the airspace startled Deegor, causing an explosion behind him. He looked up to the air, distracted, allowing Bartz to get up. In the air, he saw the Tritoch that had fled earlier, and riding atop of it was Krile. Bartz wasn't too sure what was going on, but he smiled anyway. "Krile!"

The flash and sudden noise awoke Sabin to his senses and with the diversion, Bartz used the opportunity to leapt over Deegor and confront Kateran with Sabin this time around.

"So failed one has decided to come," Kateran giggled, before looking over Bartz at Deegor "Master, do the honour of releasing my seal so I can kill them quickly?"

Deegor nodded in approval "I have other areas to blight right now. This time there will be no problems, knowing our mistake so I will entrust your original powers to you,"

Sabin looked shocked "Kateran...?" He still refused to believe the character was not his wife.

Lady of the False Song. Guide the souls of the dead, SIREN!

The words of incantation boomed from Deegor, before he flashed with light and disappeared. Tritoch gave another scream of anger before landing, the young girl still mounted on it's back.

"Krile, translation!?" Bartz cried back,

"It says that that dragon used an incantation that reveals an Espers true form!"

Great, brightly coloured wings had sprung from Katerans back as she began to well with her original powers. "Kateran died long ago Sabin. I devoured her soul shortly after you wed and used you as a tool to fufil my duties. It's a shame not all my plans had worked out as i desired however," Siren veered menacingly.

"What!? How could you?" It came to Sabin he had been under her spell longer than he had thought, which made him furious.

"What better way to convince my role than to enslave months to forge a trust to make you believe I was her. After devouring her soul I was given her thoughts and memories, making it ridiculously easy,"

"So Sabin's wife was already dead long ago..." Bartz felt saddened.

"You bitch!" Sabin threw his fist "So that trip to the cavern, losing Celes, that was all a trap!?"

"Absolutely. After such a long period of trust and blinded love it would be hard to think such a trivial errand would be a malicious lie!"

"So Celes... Celes may not still be alive because of you!"

Without warning Tritoch hurled another attack at Siren, startling Krile, but the winged fiend gracefully leapted aside. "Wait what?" Krile heard that name again from Sabin below causing suprise.

"Missing?" The Siren laughed at Sabin "My dear, honey that bitch was blighted. A failed one at that,"

Bartz had already heard that same word from Deegor "Blighted this, blighted that, what is this blighted business?"

"To be purged from humanity, back to the source of all magic," Siren began to walk towards Bartz before turning her back to him and facing Krile.

"The Raven that commands the elements of three. Tritoch,"

"...does it make sense to you now?" Siren asked.

Bartz had figured it out, But he couldn't even begin to put it in words. The events flashed quickly through his mind.

"One who is blighted; the wearer of the sealed crest of special ore; and the one that heralded the seal of incantation from a Dragon of the Great Five shall be erased of their former life and rebirthed in an Esper. Sadly, this one still seems to clearly remember me," Siren then turned around to Bartz with a pale face. "Your face tells all. You've figured it out already smart boy."

"In other words,..." Siren turned away, irritated at Bartz lack of words "Celes was rebirthed unto Tritoch!"

Bartz gripped ahold of his sword and charged for Siren, flooding his contained words and thoughts into his blade. Sabin felt sickened. Krile was still unsure of what was going on, and watched; confused.

Bartz swung his sword, and before Siren had a chance to react, hacked at her arm, severing it from her body. A huge spray of magical energy erupted from the wound. "Did the truth hurt!?" Siren breathed heavily before swatting Bartz away with her wing. "I would have hoped that she had lost her memories like the others and become my slave!"

"I've been so blind!" Sabin burdened himself "I failed my wife and my friends!?"

"Sadly Deegor wished to see this new boy here take her place, with the potential running through your veins," Siren hacked her free arm at Bartz, creating a magical volley of water as she did so "Since you're of no use to us now, you may as well die!"

In a flash of light, Bartz attempted to defend himself, but nothing happened. "What is this!?" Siren cried in defiance. Bartz looked in front of him, pulling away his arms from the defensive position. Siren's right arm hand been frozen alongside the torrent of water she had tried to use as an attack.

"What's that light!?" Siren screamed once more in fear.
Bartz noticed that the light was emitting from his own pocket, and proceeded to pull it out. "The Tycoon Sigil!"

For some reason, the dirty and crusted Tycoon pendant began to shine. "Just what in the heck is going on!?"

Sabin, Krile and Celes also witnessed the strange phenomenon. As Bartz tried to contemplate the situation, the same familiar voice rang through his head.

Do not forget your affinity... now ride the winds..."

Bartz felt a welling of power inside himself. He was not sure what was going on, but he used it to his advantage. He then felt a gush of energy welling into the palm of his hand, a familiar, warm feeling. He thrusted his hand forward and a huge torrent of wind ripped through Siren's open postion shattering the ice covering her into shrapnel, which cut into her body like blades, causing her to scream in pain.

Sabin looked suprised "He managed to pull off a Tornado," Krile looked somewhat unsurprised, as she herself didn't realize magic didn't work so freely in this different world.

Sabin walked over to Siren. She lay on the ground mortally wounded. "Even if I die, you'll still always be a lonely man!"
"No," Sabin replied. "I have my friends besides me. And Kateran still watches me..."
"Misguided fool... the Espers will reign over you one day...!"
With that, Siren began to dissolve into the atmosphere, leaving behind a green stone, glowing with a red energy at the heart of it.

A Magicite stone.

"For so long... I was oblivious that she was already dead," Sabin's knees fell in weakness despite his strong body. He went out to touch the Magicite stone, which felt warm.

"I will always be with you Sabin..."

"Kateran..." Sabin heard her words seem to echo from the stone before fading away. He could no longer hold the tears back. Krile stepped off from Celes and stood with Bartz. They both felt saddened too. It was at that moment, Sabin felt a warm downly feeling behind him. Sabin looked up, and saw Celes lean over at him. It was then he could feel Celes as her true being, her radiating being trying to in vain comfort him.

"She's telling you to stop crying and be a man," Krile replied, trying to cheer up the atmosphere a bit.

"So," Krile wondered "What exactly happened while I was gone?"
Bartz explained the situation that had happened to his old friend. "Do you know where the others are Krile?" He asked.
"Faris and Lenna? I don't..." Krile frowned.
"That sucks," Bartz moped "Now I'm really worried about them. Oh wait! I remember asking Syldra to help look for clues!" He cried.
Celes seemed to cry again and Krile listened with thought. "Bartz, Celes says that if there are more Espers around like that, then they could be in big trouble,"
"Oh man..." Bartz panicked.
Sabin sighed, getting up."No use getting worked up. If I help you find them, we may run into some more Espers, including that dragon again. We need to find out what's going on, and fix Celes,"
"Then we'll need to begin by heading to the coast!" Krile marched joyfully forward. Celes lifted upwards and flew behind to join her.

Bartz pocketed the gold pendant. He still wasn't sure what had happened, but whatever it had done allowed him to cast magic and beat Siren. He put it away and followed Krile. Even if Lenna and Faris were alive, there was still a high chance of them being attacked by other Espers.