Saviors
Chapter 2 – The Beast Within
“Alright, ya scurvy dog!” bellowed the bearded man, garbed in a very
stereotypical pirate captain’s clothing.
“Round up all the landlubbers and get ‘em up here. Then, have ‘em empty their pockets!”
“And don’ try anythin’
funny!” his first mate, dressed in an equally stereotypical pirate’s outfit,
added. “Otherwise we’ll see ya walkin’
the plank!” He made a threatening jab
at nobody in particular with his cutlass.
The
captain of the ship that was being boarded, a skinny, white bearded old man,
cowered, but motioned to his crewmates to work with the pirate crew in
gathering the passengers. They sighed
and began heading towards the passengers’ cabins, along with the smirking
pirates. He clearly wasn’t pleased about
it. Cowards… This is a pleasure cruise. I’d be shocked if even one person on board
has the slightest idea how to defend themselves. As it happened, there was one person on board who knew how to
defend himself very well.
---
“Umm… Sir?” a nervous sailor began, knocking on
door 14, “Would you please step outside?”
“Yea! And bring all ya’ money and stuff!” the
pirate chose to add, killing any chance of catching the occupant by surprise.
Without
a word from within, the door opened, and a very confused muscular man stepped
out of the room, to find a cutlass thrust at him. He instantly sidestepped the blade, before punching the surprised
pirate in the face. The sailor’s eyes
widened as the pirate went down. “Oh…
my…”
---
“Huh?”
the pirate captain asked as the blonde, muscular man ran towards him and
promptly laid him out. The pirate’s
first mate gawked at this, before sinking to his knees and begging to be
spared. “Ah’m sorry! Ah’ll never hurt anyone again! Just don’ hit me!” The body-builder considered this, then smiled and said,
“Alright. I won’t. Can’t speak for the sailors, though...”
While the ship’s crew bound the hands and legs of all the pirates, most of
which were unconscious by that point, the man walked towards the captain, passing
sailors who paused in their work to salute him.
“Ah!”
the captain exclaimed, seeing his approach and breaking away from a
conversation with one of the sailors.
“I can’t thank you enough for saving this voyage! If there’s ever anything I can do to hel— ”
“Well,” the pony-tailed man
interrupted, “I was going to ask you something earlier. Think you could stop by Narshe’s continent?”
“Hmm?” the captain asked,
surprised and somewhat shocked. “Why do
you want to stop by there? Nothing but
beasts and outlaws in that place.” He
shook his head. “No, I’m afraid I
can’t. Too many of the passengers would
complain if we stayed there for too long and I couldn’t live with myself if I
knew I abandoned someone near there.”
The blonde man glared. “No reward at all for the guy who saved your
cruise, then? It’s not like anything
would come on board, anyway. Just stay
off the coast. I don’t mind a
swim.” The captain considered this for
a moment. “Hmm… Well, it goes against my better judgment,
but… I guess a brief stop wouldn’t be
too big of a problem. Just try not to
stay more than an hour or so.”
---
Sabin approached the small
cottage in the woods with a grin on his face.
It feels like so long since I’ve seen him… I should have stopped by right after we got Kefka. Oh, well.
I can still invite him to that party at the castle. He knocked on the door. “Master Duncan?”
“Sabin? Izzat you?” asked the familiar gruff voice
from within. “Yeah,” Sabin
replied. “Ahh. Well, what’re you waiting for? Come on in, my boy!”
Sabin walked in… and was
nearly hit in the face by his master’s fist.
His smile widened, both at the fact that he could avoid his master’s
strike and that the old man was just as he remembered. The gray-haired man whose eyes still sparkled
with life smiled back at Sabin, as he saw his fist, caught in his pupil’s
hand. “I’m glad to see you’ve improved
so much,” he said, chuckling a bit. “If
I could get you with that as easily as that last time at the Sabil Mountains, I
would have kicked myself for not going after Kefka myself!”
Sabin laughed along with
him, then released his instructor and sat down where Duncan indicated. “So…” Duncan began, “Did you just want to
see your master’s face, or was there a real reason you stopped by?”
“Ah.” Sabin remembered the reasons he had
come. “Right. You said my training was complete with you, but—”
“And so it is. I can tell that you’ve mastered all of the
Blitz techniques that I could teach you.
I’m very impressed about that, by the way: you mastered them all long
before I did. But your training in the
style is not quite finished. You must
gain greater wisdom of the world, and to do that, you must awaken the beast the
slumbers within you.”
“Hmm?” Sabin asked,
surprised. He had never heard his
master speak in metaphors before. “And…
how do I do that?”
Duncan chuckled. “You’ll find a way. It may not take you too long to do so,
either. When I was teaching you the Bum
Rush, I could feel the beast stirring, greatly aiding you in combat. However, your beast appears to be quite
lazy, as not even seeing the Bum Rush made him wake up. Still, even with the batting of its paws it
did while dreaming, I had to struggle with all my might to avoid your more direct
blows. One of those would have taken
even me out of commission for a while.
If you could fully rouse it and learn to control it, the power at your
disposal would be… beyond phenomenal.”
“… OK…” Sabin said, not entirely sure how he should feel about this
discussion. “But, Master, why do you
say it like that? You’re talking as
though it were actually a living thing within me. And if I was tough enough to stand up to Kefka, why would I have
to get even stronger?”
Duncan remained silent for a
moment. “I can’t answer your first
question with complete confidence. All
I can say is that, when I sparred with you last time, I got a feeling that I
had never felt before. A beast within
you is the only real way to describe it.
As for why you would need to become that powerful… Do you remember what I told you the first
day we began training?”
Sabin nodded and recited the
advice from memory, “No matter what, there’s always going to be someone
stronger than you. But that’s no excuse
to give up. Just keep honing your
skills until you become even stronger than them. Then you’ll be ready when someone more powerful than them comes
along.”
Not the most eloquent of my
speeches, but it gets the point across. Duncan
nodded and continued, “Precisely.
Suppose someone even more powerful than Kefka appears. I know it doesn’t seem possible, but don’t
you want to be ready to defend this world if that should happen? Besides…
You’re the only other person who fully knows the Blitz style now. When I pass on, which may be soon for all I
know, you’ll be this style’s Master. I
want you to teach your pupils all that you can, so that, even if evil doesn’t
rear its head in your lifetime, they will be prepared.”
Sabin nodded. “I probably should have guessed that. …
So… How can I…” he felt a tad
silly saying it, “… ‘Awaken the beast within?’”
“Go meditate. I’m sure that the answer will eventually
reveal itself to you if you meditate for a while.” He stood and stretched a moment, as did Sabin. “Well, goodbye Sabin, and good luck. I… have a feeling I won’t be seeing you for
a while.” He patted the young man, who
was like a son to him, on the shoulder.
“Make me proud, ok?”
“I… I will… Master Duncan,” Sabin said, feeling
sad as he headed towards the door.
“Goodbye.”
Before he had gotten more
than two steps outside of the house, he hit himself in the forehead. Damnit!
The party! He ran back
inside. “I almost forgot! My brother’s throwing a party at Figaro
castle in a few days. I’d… like it if
you could be there…”
Duncan smiled at him, then,
after a moment, chuckled. “You’d have
to get really dressed up to attend, right?”
“Umm… Yeah, I think…” replied Sabin, who hadn’t
really thought about that. He suddenly
thought he might hate going to the party.
“Then I’m afraid I can’t
go. I don’t have any suits that would
work and I wouldn’t let you pay for anything for me.”
Sabin felt slightly
disappointed, but understood his Master.
The two of them said nothing for a few moments, then chuckled as they
were both struck by an amusing thought, which they simultaneously voiced: “You
wearing a suit!”
---
Sabin felt like an
idiot. He had been meditating in the
Sabil Mountains for over a day. And he
didn’t even really know what he was supposed to be focusing on. When he had done it with Duncan and Vargus,
there seemed to be some kind of a purpose, because he knew what to do. When he was working on how to perform
un-mastered Blitz techniques with the group or when wandering the world alone,
he had had some idea of what to go for, as he could recall what Duncan had told
him when they were demonstrated.
For all the insights I’m
getting, I might as well be jumping up and down in South Figaro wearing a
chicken costume and shouting about the local bar’s new dish! He then opened his eyes as he imagined that thought. …
I’ve been by myself for too long…
He stood and stretched the legs and arms he hadn’t moved in hours. He looked at the full moon in the sky and
realized how late it was. He felt
obligated to go to the party the following day, thanks to his brother’s
insistence. He thought he should get
some sleep, but he wanted to feel something before he left the
mountains.
“Just give me some kind of a
sign!” he shouted, alarming a nearby mountain goat, which hopped away in
fright. “Geeze… I’m losing it… Do I really expect the world to make some divine light shine on
me and give me a clue?”
Irony was in the air as he
found himself bathed in a white light.
“… Umm… This is new.” He soon noticed that his feet were no longer touching the ground,
which caused some panic, but he managed to maintain his cool, freaking out only
slightly when he noticed that the fleeing goat had frozen in mid-hop. “OK.
Remain calm. Time has frozen,
you’re floating into a lot of light against your will with no idea what the hell
is going on and you’re completely alone.
You’ve seen worse. … Wait…
No… No, you haven’t. …
…” At least Cyan and Shadow
were with me on the Phantom Train…
He then began letting any who could hear him (in other words, nobody)
know exactly how much profanity he could levy at some disembodied force that
was abducting him via a white light.
His shouting was cut short as the light engulfed him and he lost
consciousness.
---
Sabin woke up feeling very,
very strange. His head throbbed and,
well, so did his entire body. He also a
little hot, but it wasn’t particularly noticeable; especially when compared to
everything else he was feeling. He was
lying on his stomach with his legs and arms out to his side on what felt like a
cold, marble floor. He felt slightly
alarmed that he felt… as though he were naked, but decided to focus on the more
pressing issues. Such as what had
happened and where he was.
After a moment or two,
without opening his eyes, he tried to pull himself onto his hands and knees. He thought something was odd, as he should
have felt both his feet and knees on the ground, but he only felt his
feet. He also seemed to be on the tips
of his toes. At the same time, he
became aware of something… odd behind him.
He couldn’t explain how it felt and thought he’d have to see it to begin
to guess what it was.
What the hell is going on? He hoped that opening his eyes would improve things, but found
that the world was spinning too much to be of any help, so he closed them
again. He waited patiently as the
strangeness faded slightly and he seemed to feel… more natural. Not normal, for reasons he couldn’t yet
discern, but he certainly felt more natural.
He opened his eyes and was
surprised to see that he seemed to be in a circular room, in which the ceiling,
floor and walls all seemed to be made of polished marble. Sabin noticed a small pool of water,
reflecting the light of the full moon, in the middle of the room, as well as an
open window that led out onto a balcony on one side of the room and a
door-shaped hole in the wall opposite it.
Looks like I wasn’t out that long.
No idea how I got here, though…
He tried to stand, but found that his arms and legs weren’t responding
properly. He could briefly push himself
up onto his legs, but he soon found himself on his hands and feet again. Also, the weird… thing behind him seemed to
be moving in what could be called an agitated manner. … OK… Getting a tad freaked out here… Maybe a look in that pool will make things
clear. On all fours, he walked over
to the pond, feeling disturbingly natural all the while, and peered in.
He stared at the face in the
pond, trying to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. Well, that explains a lot. He saw a blonde furred tiger’s face in the water, with black
stripes running along the side of its head.
He wondered why exactly he had a tiger’s head and, obviously, a tiger’s
body as well, but knew that the key to figuring it out lay in the origin of the
strange light.
First things first: I need
to get used to this body. Everything felt natural, but
he wasn’t accustomed to walking around on all fours yet. I don’t think it’ll be that hard to get
used to. A thought occurred to him
and he was confident it wouldn’t work, but thought he might as well give it a
try. He opened his mouth, briefly
noting how different his tongue and his now very sharp teeth felt, and
attempted to say, “Hi.” As expected, he
heard a very inhuman cry come from his throat.
Looks like speech is out of the question. Oh, well. I usually just
let my fists do the talking, anyway.
Natural claws should be interesting to try…
With that thought in mind,
he looked down, seeing his paws for the first time. He focused on extending his claws and they came out with the
greatest of ease, looking more dangerous than most of the claws he had used as
a human. With another thought, they
retracted. He looked back at the pond
and saw himself grinning, which looked a tad peculiar to him, but he was
confident he would soon get used to it.
That feels really great. I
can’t wait to test them out.
Deciding to get used to his
new form, he began pacing around the room, stumbling only a few times. After making a few laps, he felt confident
in his new body, happy that it felt very sleek and powerful. He then began extending and retracting his
claws until he felt he had mastered that aspect of being a tiger, then took a
few practice slashes in the air. He
found that trying to swipe as a tiger was a different from doing so as a
human. He could feel a certain natural
strength and speed accompanying his slashes, which he found delightful. Oh, I could definitely get used to this.
It occurred to him that he
seemed to be taking his sudden change into an animal quite well. I wonder how Big Brother would cope with
this. … Heh… He’d probably whine
about how hard it would be to hit on girls. He chuckled inwardly at the thought of Edgar, as an animal,
trying to seduce a number of women in a bar.
Shaking that amusing thought
from his mind, he decided to have a look around his area. He padded through the doorway, entering a
long hallway with a number of closed doors, which Sabin realized he would have
a lot of trouble opening with his paws, and a lot of artwork, mirrors and
windows along the walls. As he went, a
thought occurred to him. Hmm… I wonder if this is what Master Duncan meant
about awakening the beast within…
He thought for a moment more. Nah. I doubt he meant it this literally. Oh, well.
If he did, maybe I’ll try to figure out how to get it ‘back to sleep’
later. For now, I’m going to see what
it can do.
Satisfied for the moment, he
continued down the hall, hoping that a chance to test his new capabilities
would present itself soon.
---
Author’s Notes:
^_^o I have a confession to make: after I wrote the first
version of this, I showed it to a friend of mine who knows Final Fantasy VI
very well, and he informed me that Sabin was really, really
out-of-character. Apparently, Sabin as
he was during the Figaro Castle scene with Edgar is how I remember him best,
which simply doesn’t suit him most of the time. I’ll try to improve that in the future, so he isn’t as
wishy-washy as he originally was.
Anyway, you can look forward to another Sabin chapter in #4. The next chapter lets us check back in with
Setzer.
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