Quick oneshot, because I had recently fought the Wyvern Lord without any quickenings and soon learned that I was probably a moron for not killing the Mark in one fell swoop. Of course, I cannot WAIT until I fight the Mind Flayer, and I have spent many a night crying myself to sleep because they changed its name to Piscodeamon, copyright infringment or not.

Also, the disclaimer here is not only that I don't own FFXII (Duh?), but also I was playing this a while back and still haven't beaten the game, which means I haven't really seen all the character's personalities at their height. Which means that as I wrote this, I kept going, "GAH, everyone's all OOC!" Of course, I still am the only one who seems to think that compared to everyone else who's read this.

Uh... yeah... um... anyway, without further ado:

READ ON!

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The Wyvern Lord:
The Hunt's Great Battle

The Sand Sea was filled with screeches that clear, dry afternoon, and a huge wyvern, the lord of his kind, swooped down with talons preparing to rake flesh. He barely missed his target, a dashing young sky pirate, who instead hid behind a rock, groaning a bit at the twinge in his neck. He cracked it and began loading up his gun, "Fran!" He called out, cocking the Vega, "Can you tell me again, WHY we're out here?"

A humanoid woman, with the long ears of a rabbit and the face of a rodent dropped down next to him, almost appearing out of nowhere. She began stringing an arrow into her longbow as she replied, "Do you not remember, Balthier? Vaan accepted the hunt to fell this Wyvern Lord, and we followed him out here."

"Yes yes yes yes yes," Balthier said quickly and dismissively to his partner, who popped up from her hidden location to shoot her arrow and duck back down next to him, "I know that! But why are WE here? A leading man is never in THIS much danger!" He hopped back up, shot a critical blow at the enemy, and dropped back down to reload the gun, "We're Sky Pirates! Not Mark Hunters!"

"I do believe you agreed to accompany Vaan because the Imperial Guard who posted the bill promised a great treasure and enough Gil to compensate our troubles," Fran replied.

"Oh yeah…" Balthier muttered, thinking again about that moment. After another moment, he cocked his gun again and continued, "But remember, Fran. The next time that boy asks us to go on another suicide mission, remind me to ignore him."

"Shall I remind you before or during the battle that will most likely cost us our lives?" Balthier's partner asked. The sky pirate blinked at his partner, and placed a cocky smile on his face. He swore that the two could read each others' minds at points in time.

"During, if you will," He replied, knowing that even if Fran didn't smile, she glowed with amusement at that answer. The two were interrupted when they heard a feminine scream, and Balthier kicked back into gear. Young Penelo was in danger! He leapt up and rushed from his hiding location, watching as the blonde teenager rushed away from the monster, her bow practically abandoned as it bounced on her shoulder. The wyvern extended his talons; there was no way HE could get to her in time. However…

"Vaan!" The sky pirate shouted. Fran seemed to have disappeared, and instead of the monster capturing a young woman's succulent flesh his talons, there was a powerful shield wielded by a young orphan blocking the strike. Vaan glared daggers at the monster.

"Don't you dare hurt her!" Vaan shouted, slashing at the wyvern as Penelo turned around and fumbled with an arrow and tried to fire at the enemy. The wyvern flapped his mighty wings and flew out of range of Vaan's close range strike. Balthier cursed.

"Who else has a long range weapon other than Fran, you and I?" He asked Penelo as he walked towards her. The woman couldn't bear to see Vaan being attacked that fiercely, and was closing her eyes as she fired. She blinked at the sky pirate, and shook her head.

"I think Princess Ashe has a few Black Magicks… but no, no one else…" Balthier sighed. HE was the one with the Black Magick…

"Well then, take a rest." Penelo blinked at Balthier even as she disappeared and Fran approached by his side, "You and I, Fran, are going to be the only useful ones in this fight, it seems."

"Well now…" Fran murmured as Balthier winced from the wyvern's brutal treatment of the male teenager (He wondered if that was Vaan's liver across the way…), "I wouldn't say that…" Balthier looked at Fran, and she prepared to fire, "Just follow my lead. We'll be able to do this if we all work together."

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"Hey! Hey big, bad and scaly! Come and get me!" Dalmasca's Royal Knight, Basch, waved and taunted the monster, "Your mother's a Cockatrice!"

The wyvern attacked the man as he hid behind his shield, and the sky pirates prepared to shoot a little ways away. It was almost sad to see the knight being used as a human meat shield, but really, they were called "tanks" for a reason.

"Now what do we do?" Balthier shouted as Basch dropped, and Ashe rushed into the fray to avenge her knight's death, "Libra says it's only at half health, right? We just can't fight like this! We don't have enough meat shields!"

"It certainly does look bleak…" Fran agreed. She suddenly looked up and called to the princess, "Lady Ashe! Shell! Cast Shell!" The princess cast a questioning look at the Viera, but nodded and cast the desired spell. Not a moment too soon, as the wyvern cast Aero and knocked her off her feet. Without Shell, she might have flown off into the Sand Sea.

"Let's try this, one more time…" Balthier murmured, firing away as Ashe cast Protect and prepared herself for the long battle…

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"Can I help?" Penelo asked as she arrived next to the sky pirates. Fran looked downcast and Balthier was loading up Vega again.

"Not much else we can go to for help," He replied as he cocked the gun. He pointed to a mush of red on the ground, "That's all that's left of Dalmasca's princess."

Penelo looked like she was going to be sick, and spoke even as her face turned a lovely shade of green, "Oh no! Do you think we can win?"

"We will if we want to live," Fran replied, firing an arrow. The Wyvern Lord approached the three, and the Viera took a deep breath. She seemed to be in thought, and she finally made up her mind. She would enact her plan now, "Balthier," She addressed her partner, "I would be glad to see you fly high without me. I won't be seeing you again." Balthier didn't realize exactly what she meant, but he understood the moment she applied Protect to herself and rushed into the fray, "Goodbye…"

"Fran! What are you doing?" He rushed after the Viera as she rushed towards the wyvern, drawing the enemy away from the two living people, "Fran! Fran, come back!"

He was held back by Penelo, who grabbed at his silken sleeve, "Mister Balthier, we should flee! I have Raise! We can bring them back later!"

"We've gotten this far, if we don't finish it…" Balthier hissed, and cocked his gun, "We're taking him down. Fran! I'll avenge you!" He pursued the enemy and Penelo rushed after the pirate. He fired again, and again, and stopped when he heard a sickening scream, and a squelch sound.

It was then that the wyvern turned around and bore down upon the two, one of Fran's ears held tightly in his clutches. Balthier's blood boiled and he fired one more time. That was the only one he could do before it reached at him and snatched his arms up, yanking hard in an attempt to rip him in two.

Penelo gave a cry and turned away, and her heart beat faster and faster, trying to shut out the screams of the pirate. Soon, she would be subject to that torture as well. She felt hot, and adrenaline pumped through her veins. She was going to die, she was going to die…

No, you won't. A voice that entered her mind confessed, calming the young woman down. I swore to protect the Dynast-King, and now I swore to protect you and your friends. You will not die. Call me.

"Call… Call…" Penelo nodded, "I understand!" She stood up and grasped at her breast, closing her eyes and concentrating, "Belias, the Esper! Come to me! I summon you!"

A magickal ring surrounded the woman, and time itself seemed to have stopped. It was just as well that way, for the pirate's screams had threatened to interrupt her casting. It was at that moment, a gigas appeared as if from the bowels of hell itself. Time resumed, and Penelo saw that to protect her friends from the danger of Belias' attacks, they had all (or what was left of them) disappeared. All that was left of the still living Balthier was his arm, which had been wrenched from its socket by the wyvern. Penelo felt sick.

The wyvern dropped the arm after realizing his prey had disappeared, and flew down to pick up the young archer. He never made it that far. Belias swung his great axe at the monster, and the Wyvern Lord barely dodged the strike. Penelo crawled under and past the Esper to safety, and watched as the battle between beast and Magickal creature began.

The great Esper began to cast. In only a moment, his firey attacks knocked off tons of the monster's health. Penelo simply watched, eyes wide, as the Wyvern Lord tried in vain to claw the Esper apart. It didn't work, and the Esper finished his job by casting Hell Fire. Creating a huge ball of fire and adding its power to him, he cracked a huge chasm in the ground that drew up fire from Hell itself. The fire erupted from the chasm and seared the Wyvern Lord, and with that, it dropped to the floor, writhing a bit before disappearing into the desert sky…

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The last thing Balthier remembered while in the clutches of the Wyvern Lord was white hot pain, and the next, he was sitting on the floor, staring numbly into space. And then white hot pain again. He felt something pressing on his shoulder, and he tried to reach out and grab at it, but a soft, fuzzy hand batted his hand away, and a familiar female voice chastised him, "I thought I said, 'Good Bye'. I did not want to see you look like this…"

He turned to look at Fran, who was reattaching his arm with Cura. He didn't reply all too quickly, as it still seemed too surreal, like a dream, "Are we really all alright?" Fran didn't reply, but let the sight of Vaan being tended to by Penelo while Princess Ashe prepared to Raise Basch be enough to answer the question. Her partner shook his head, "It's all wrong! It is hardly fit for a leading man to be saved by a young woman!"

She finally released his arm and started to reattach her ear, and she finally spoke, "The Gods truly are smiling upon us this day. We are alive. We will fight another day."

"Hey Fran?" Balthier said, making the Viera blink questioningly at her partner. He suddenly laughed aloud, "Next time, remind me NEVER to go on these quests again! The next thing we'll be doing is fighting against Wild Malboros or something!"

Fran glowed with amusement, "Funny you should say that…" Balthier swerved to glare at his partner, "Vaan recently accepted the bill to slay a Cluckatrice. He said to pick up some Gold Needles. We're going to need them."

Balthier groaned and pouted in the sand, "Strike that, just remind me to wring the boy's neck in his sleep."

Fran placed her hand on her hip, "I shall remember to remind you, my partner…"

The End!

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Whee the end! Yeah, it's called a "One Shot" for a reason, although after I kill that Mind Flayer, I may want to write another Mark fic and whip it up. sigh I love Belias so much. So cool...

Anyway, reviews may be nice. If you find that the group is OOC, PLEASE tell me. Don't sugar coat it, doctor, thanks.