Chapter One: When Angels Deserve To Die
"Noooooooooooooooooooooo." A girl screamed as she held her face in an effort to stop the tears from showing, it wasn't working. Two of her friends came to her side and lead her by the shoulders to her desk in the class, they too felt her pain but they had to be strong, for their friend's sake and for the instructor still watching them.
"Please tell us it isn't true Instructor." Said the crying girls male friend.
"Please." Pleaded the female friend. All three had fallen to their knees in front of Quistis Trepe. It seemed that the Trepe's were still going strong, despite the fact that Quistis had lost her Instructors licence a year ago, and although Balamb gardens new headmaster reinstated her as an instructor, she had taken a lot of time off after the incident with Ultimecia and hadn't been around the Garden much, she was surprised to see that they still existed. Quistis looked at their expectant faces, half wanting to lie as to not hurt them.
"I'm sorry but it's true." She said, "as of Monday I shall be leaving Balamb and becoming the headmistress of Galbadia Garden." She finished. The crying girl got up off her feet and managed to stay up for a two second sprint before falling at Quistis' feet, grabbing at her skirt the girl screamed "WHY?" Quistis had to clutch at her belt to stop the hysterical girl from pulling her skirt down. "Don't we mean anything to you?" Asked the hysterical girls female friend.
"What did we do to make you hate us?" Asked the male.
The Trepe's scared Quistis; while it was a fantastic ego boost to know that you had your own fan club, with a vast amount of members; her groupies did have a habit of scaring her, especially episodes like this, but this was just the tip of the iceberg. People sent her that was exactly her size, she received death threats from angry ex's whose boyfriends and girlfriends could not continue the relationship because their heart belonged to another, and there were the things that made her ill, like when she had gone into a students dormitory, trying to find him as he hadn't turned up to a detention, and instead found a calendar featuring her head superimposed onto naked bodies, surrounded by crusty tissues. What scared her the most was that the bodies were male.
"I'm sorry." Said Quistis, slightly unsure as to how to react in a situation like this. "It's not you." She continued believing that she should treat this as if she were breaking up with them. "I just have to move on with my life, and it's always been a dream of mine to run my own Garden… You wouldn't want to stand in the way of my dreams now would you?" She asked.
"No." Said the girl who was no longer grasping at her skirt; she was however still on the floor sobbing to herself.
"Are you guys going to be o.k?" Asked Quistis.
"Yes we'll be fine... we just need some time alone." Said the male as the three of them went towards the door looking as if there were a funeral dirge in front of them.
Once the groupies had vacated the area, Quistis let out a sigh, not of sorrow but of relief. "Well that was mildly abnormal." She said before tidying her desk away, glad that it was lunchtime.
…
A year had passed since the incident involving Ultimecia, and Squall, Quistis, Zell, Selphie, Rinoa and Irvine had taken an eleven month long break from doing anything, well that wasn't strictly true as much had happened in that year.
Quistis had been reinstated as an instructor and had recently been offered the position of headmistress at Galbadia garden, which she had accepted gladly, despite the fact that she would be losing her friends.
Zell had been made an instructor; he was put in charge of all the lessons that took place in the training centre. The problem with this he found was that many of his students kept getting injured, this was entirely because of the fact that one of his female students had been sent to his room by Selphie after he was late for another faculty meeting, she had seen him getting out of bed and made the discovery that he was rather . Now all his students were always to busy trying to check out his package to notice the Grats that were about to pummel them.
Seifer was pardoned for everything he had done, after the discovery that he had been under a similar form of brainwashing to Edea during the entire Ultimecia affair, and although a unanimous vote from the faculty had earned him a place back in Balamb Garden, many SeeDs and students did not find the return of Seifer all that welcome, and although Fujin and Raijin, who were once again the disciplinary committee kept any violence from happening everyone knew that Seifer was not welcome in Garden.
Selphie had changed very little, her personality had somewhat calmed but she was still the same girl at heart, she and Irvine had broken up a few months after the Ultimecia incident had blown over, Irvine being himself would flirt with any piece of skirt that went past him, and although Selphie knew he would never stray she couldn't help but find her self incensed, with an urge to kill every time it happened, so they mutually agreed to just be friends.
Selphie like Zell had been made an instructor, and took care of teaching people the most effective way of using magic, they found that more people turned up to the lesson then ever before when she was teaching it, she put it down to her making the lesson fun, everyone else put it down to her little yellow dress.
Recently Selphie had left Balamb Garden and had gone to oversee the rebuilding of Trabia, the group had not seen her since, although they were informed that she had been offered the position of headmistress at Trabia.
Rinoa was now a fully-fledged member of SeeD, and although she was not yet an instructor she was waiting to receive her licence or a memo saying that she had failed her test soon, and was officially considered a substitute teacher in Garden. She and Squall had broken up, much to everyone's shock, they had discovered that without Ultimecia they really didn't love each other that much, and after several months of driving each other crazy, they decided that the only way they were going to remain friends, was to not keep dating.
Irvine had turned down the offer of instructor after becoming a member of SeeD and instead slept with half of the female students in the Garden before settling down in a relationship with the library girl whom had given up on Zell.
Squall had had the proverbial stick removed by his friends it seemed and had actually become fun, he had settled down rather well into his headmaster's duties and was now actually socialising, he was also still managing to be the most sort after person in Garden, and with his sultry looks everyone in Garden who fancied men, wanted a piece of him, and had fantasised about him at least once in their lives.
…
Quistis left the classroom, and heard the sounds of sobs in the distance, her heart sunk when she realised that she had two more lessons after lunch and that both of them had Trepe members in them, slowly and morosely she slowly made her way to the elevator that would take her to the newly installed faculty room on the third floor, with her shoulders hanging low she trudged her way along, until she heard a familiar sound, a familiar and rather unwelcome sound. "Not now!" she thought, "not when I'm so close to the elevator." She turned her head back towards the classrooms and her suspicions were confirmed, there charging towards her was a ravenous stampede of Trepes hungry for blood and explanations, being tipped off as to Quistis' antics by her previous three assailants Quistis assumed. Her only chance for survival was to make a break for the elevator, which luckily for her had stopped on her floor, she ran into the door and hammered the button as many times as possible, then she stood poised ready to summon Shiva if she needed to. Luckily for the students the doors closed just in time to save them from the ice maiden, they hammered on the door, their tear drenched faces contorted with pain screaming for an explanation behind what their three friends had told them, but their cries drifted away as the elevator left them wounded on the floor below. Quistis let her grip of the bars at the back of the elevator loosen as she reached her third floor destination, she gathered her composure and walked into the teachers lounge, where luckily for her only Instructors were allowed, although some exceptions were made to certain SeeDs (Rinoa and Irvine).
Quistis let out a sigh of relief; this place was a sanctuary to her, the only other people to occupy the room at the moment were Zell and Xu.
"When I move I'm definitely not going to miss the Trepes." Said Quistis, throwing herself onto an unoccupied three-seater couch.
"Were you mobbed again?" Asked Xu.
"No, I was saved by the elevator." Said Quistis.
"I don't know…" Said Zell, "it would be kinda cool to have my own fan club." He finished.
"Take them, be my guest." Said Quistis massaging her temples.
"And besides Zell…" Said Xu, "you already have you own fan club." She finished.
"I do?" Asked Zell perplexed.
"You mean you don't know?" Said Quistis getting up from her laying position to join in the conversation that had just gotten more interesting.
"No what?" Asked Zell now getting mildly anxious as to what everyone knew except him.
"You have Nida." Said Xu.
"Exsqueeze me?" Asked Zell.
"Hadn't you heard? He's finished trying to convert Squall and you're next on the list." Said Xu.
"Bloody hell!" Exclaimed Zell. "That guy fancies anything with a pulse." He said.
"Actually I think you'll find he fancies anything with a relatively large peni…" Quistis started but was interrupted by Zell before she could finish.
"Yes thank you Quisty." Said Zell.
"Is it alright for us to be talking about this?" Asked Quistis. "Isn't Nida upstairs?" She Puzzled.
"Nah." Said Xu. "The Garden isn't moving so he took a break." She explained.
"Aren't we in the middle of the ocean?" Asked Quistis.
"Yeah but we stopped the Garden to do some work on the engines." Xu Explained.
Now Quistis was just about ready to push her luck with Zell, as she and all of their friends had been doing for quite awhile.
"Any word from Selphie?" Said Quistis testing the air.
"No." Zell said solemnly looking away. Xu looked around the room uncomfortably, looking from Zell's melancholy to Quisty's mischievous luck pushing, she was sure the temperature had just gone up several degrees.
"Oh is that the time." She said looking at her wrist, even though all three knew she wasn't wearing a watch. "I have to…" She paused to think of something, not caring whether or not it sounded plausible. "Look at the controls." She said running to the platform lift that took people to the controls. "You can never see the controls enough." She said as the elevator went upwards.
"So you know where the others are?" Asked Zell, changing the subject in no uncertain terms.
"The last time I checked Squall was in his room being anal retentive and making sure that there wasn't a single speck of dust on his floor. Irvine said he had to do some work on the Garden, so he's probably down in the engine room as we speak; I think Rinoa went with him. Nida is probably luring some poor unsuspecting straight boy into his parlour black widow styli. Fujin and Raijin were helping Seifer move into his dorm." In was now that Quistis paused for a moment. "Fujin was getting in a RAGE every time Raijin dropped a box ya know." Now Quistis decided that she would really sink her teeth in. "… And the last time I checked Selphie was in Trabia." She said and waited for his reaction. His face and shoulders fell as if gravity had just decided to be extra hard on him.
"Zell you've got to stop beating yourself up over this." Said Quistis. "Selphie is in Trabia, she's not dead, and you will see her again." Quistis was trying her best to encourage him, but it wasn't working because he simply refused to receive it. Zell shrugged his shoulders, and gave off the fakest laugh that Quistis had ever heard.
"Don't worry Quisty, everyone totally had the wrong idea." He lied. "I never felt that way about Selphie we were just friends." He continued his fabrication, the problem was however that even a deaf, dumb and blind phlidamite could tell that he was lying. Quistis folded her arms and sighed, with the concerned face that an interfering mother would have when prying into her children's lives.
"Ok so I'm madly in love with her, I have been for about a year, it won't go away, and now that she has gone it feels like someone has ripped out my heart and kicked it into a whirring blender." Said Zell. After he had finished his little tirade, Quistis found herself unable to do anything apart from stare, on the upper hand Zell had finally admitted his feelings for Selphie, rather descriptively in fact, on the lower hand she wasn't sure if that was such a good idea anymore. Zell sighed and folded his arms in the way that a male who was nearly twenty would when he wanted to have a tantrum but simply couldn't because he was nearly twenty. Quistis however wasn't quite done with him.
"Actually I'm really annoyed with her." Said Quistis continuing the conversation that Zell never wanted to start. "She took the headmistress job at Trabia and hasn't even told us, not even a phone call." She said.
"Well Trabia was in a bit of a state, she probably hasn't had the chance to... "Zell drifted off when he saw the look Quistis was giving him, she had that look that you would get when a puppy just did something very cute. "…What?" He asked.
"Your defending her, how cute, perhaps its true love." Said Quistis. But this time she had pushed Zell too far.
"Look will you just ing stop it." He yelled and after pausing just long enough to get his breath back and for Quistis to wipe the spittle from her face he started again. "I am sick of every one telling me to embrace my feelings for Selphie, I don't ing want to." "I want to curl all of my shattered dreams up into one little ball and push it deep down inside of me." "And I don't give a whether or not it's healthy." He finished. Quistis however, unaware that her friend had finished his rant was talking to herself.
"Healthy rhymes with Selphie." Quistis then looked at Zell's blank face staring at her. "Did I say that out loud?" She asked. Zell then turned and left the room, screaming at his friends amazing lack of tact.
…
Several feet (the measurement not the limb) below the Garden, Irvine was and greased up; working on the Garden engines, next to him was his c.d. player that was pumping out American Badass by Kid Rock, much to Rinoa's displeasure.
"Please Irvy?" Begged Rinoa hanging off his arm desperate to get her way.
"No!" Said Irvine. "I refuse to listen to that cheesy pop crap." He said pushing her away from his c.d. player. "Go listen to it on your own damn c.d. player."
"I would but mine is broken." Complained Rinoa. "And it's not cheesy pop cr…" She paused mid sentence for a moment of thought. "Well it's not crap anyway." She finished, despite Irvine's disbelieving glare.
Irvine was having none of it, so she decided to go for approach number two. "But Irvy you know what it's like to be a musical outcast, I mean nobody else apart from you likes Kid Rock, so you get forced to listen to it away from human companions." She said.
"Not going to work Rin, you are not polluting my airwaves with…" He looked at the c.d. "Justin Timberlake, I would rather listen to the Fast Food Song." Said Irvine.
Now all that Rinoa had left was approach number three, the mildly degrading approach, but still needs must as the devil drives and all that.
"I won't complain when I catch you staring at my cleavage." She tried, and although Rinoa tightening the string on her coat, which accented her chest, momentarily swayed Irvine he still would not relent. Rinoa then went to the corner and allowed herself five minutes to sulk, but then returned to Irvine to continue the conversation.
"So how's the library girl?" Asked Rinoa.
"She does have a name you know?" Irvine rhetorically asked in reply.
"So when do we get to meet her?" Asked Rinoa, as none of their lot had met her other than Zell.
"When she gets over her fear of you all." Said Irvine.
"Fear?" Asked Rinoa.
"She finds the prospect of socialising with the people who saved the world daunting." Said Irvine.
"So she can't even talk to us, but she can sleep with you?" Asked Rinoa, puzzling over how this girls mind was working.
"Nope, sorry nothing on that front." Said Irvine, looking mildly peeved, inadequate and forlorn at the same time.
"So she still hasn't been impregnated with the demon seed yet?" Asked Rinoa.
"I would prefer if you didn't refer to sleeping with me as being impregnated with the demon seed." Said Irvine.
"Damn I lost the bet." Said Rinoa.
"Bet?" Asked Irvine.
"Oh we were all betting on how long it would take before you got her in the sack." Explained Rinoa.
"That's… offensive." Said Irvine.
"Don't worry only Quistis, Squall and Xu are still in." Said Rinoa.
"Oh only." Said Irvine. "Who else was in on this?" He asked.
"Oh hundreds," Said Rinoa "This is the third most talked about thing in Garden."
"The top two being?" Irvine asked.
"If it's possible to revive Aeris, and whose better Tifa or Aeris." Said Rinoa.
"Tifa definitely." Said Irvine.
"Just because she has an abnormally large chest." Said Rinoa.
"What about you?" Asked Irvine.
"I'm more of an Aeris person." Said Rinoa.
"They should be bringing Final Fantasy Eight out soon shouldn't they?" Said Irvine.
"Yeah I can't wait." Said Rinoa, she then looked down at her watch, "oh well I'd better go and stop in on Squally before his lesson starts." Said Rinoa. "Seeya around Irvy." She finished and walked off towards upper areas.
…
Zell was walking around Garden, being solemn, and quietly contemplating death and avoiding anyone who knew him so as to avoid questions about Selphie. Just staring towards the floor, watching as his feet overtook each other he aimlessly wondered all the floors in the building, avoiding all human contact until he walked headfirst into someone, well at least he assumed it was someone because of the flesh, but it did feel remarkably like he had just walked head first into a brick wall. He fell backwards landing uncomfortably on his back, hoping he hadn't made too much of a fool of himself.
"I'm sorry it was my fault, I wasn't looking." He apologised feeling particularly stupid.
"Hey chicken wuss, long time no see." Said a very familiar and equally unwanted voice.
"Please no." Thought Zell as he raised his head slowly towards the owner of the voice, "If there is a god it won't be him…or better, someone will smite him with lightning." The last thing that Zell wanted at the moment was to meet up with Seifer, he didn't think he could take it; even Seifer's voice annoyed him with its arrogant and y, yet surprisingly charming tones. Even though he wasn't Ultimecia's lapdog anymore he still managed to tick Zell off supremely.
" off Seifer." Said Zell pushing past him, he wasn't in the mood for anything Seifer had to offer him, so he picked up as much speed as he could without making it look like he was trying desperately to get away. Unfortunately for him, Seifer had longer legs and was by far the faster walker.
"Hmm, you seem angsty, normally you would say what did you call me and start punching the air." Seifer said easily matching Zell's walking pace.
"Well I'm not in the mood today." Said Zell dismissing Seifer and trying his best to ignore him. But it wasn't going to happen, Seifer stepped in front of him and grabbed his shoulders forcing him to stop. Zell looked at Seifer ready to push him off, when he saw something that actually scared him; there was concern in Seifer's eyes.
"It's Selphie isn't it?" Seifer asked, although it was more of a statement than a question. Zell was quickly becoming unnerved, there was concern in Seifer's voice to, and it was almost like he was worried about Zell, Seifer was the last person Zell had ever imagined would comfort him in any situation, let alone a situation where Zell was vulnerable to any insult that could be thrown at him.
"This is going to sound strange coming from me, but if you ever need to talk I'm here." Said Seifer. This was the most serious that Zell had ever heard the blonde being, and his eyes were starting to well up.
"Damn you." Thought Zell "I am not crying in front of Seifer."
"Thank you." He said to Seifer, but his eyes were threatening to overflow at any second.
"Zell." Seifer managed to say before Zell's resolve had shattered and the tears were flowing freely. Then Seifer did something that neither of the two ever thought to have been possible, Seifer hugged him. The embrace was certainly unexpected, by both parties, but the more surprising thing was that the hug was surprisingly nice, despite the fact that neither of the two had ever imagined or wanted such an embrace to happen.
Time seemed to have stopped moving, until the two disengaged the unanticipated entanglement.
"I miss her so much Seifer." Said Zell.
"I know Zell." Said Seifer. "But I also know Selphie, don't worry she won't be gone long." He finished.
That sentence struck Zell as rather odd, he knew Selphie, since when did he know Selphie, as Zell recalled the only time the two had spoken was when they had fought Seifer just before their second battle with Edea, but the way he said it, it was like they were best friends.
"Why are you being nice to me Seifer?" Asked Zell determined to solve this puzzle.
"It's not for you chicken." Said Seifer smiling, another thing that shocked Zell, this was a genuine smile, not the sadistic I'm about to torture you Squall smile that he had given before. "It's just that Selphie would kill me if she knew that I had let her friends stay miserable."
"You're such an arse Seifer." Said Zell, to which Seifer replied with a wink. "But what's the deal with you and Selphie?" He asked.
"Didn't she tell you?" Asked Seifer. Zell replied with a vacant stare. "Me and her were like best friends after the whole Ultimecia thing blew over, she even asked me to move in with her when I got back into the Garden." Said Seifer.
Zell spent a while in thought over Seifer's words, and now that he mentioned it Selphie was the first person to reinitiate Seifer back into the group, she talked about him more then anyone else did, and sometimes she would disappear to Balamb for days on end to see a friend, Zell just never assumed that the friend was Seifer.
"So what makes you think Selphie will be back?" Asked Zell, hoping to get more reasons to be happy from Seifer.
"Just trust me on this one." Said Seifer.
…
"NO Rinoa." Squall said sternly, blocking Rinoa's way to his c.d. player.
"Oh please Squally, just one song?" Pleaded Rinoa, bettering her eyelids and pouting her lips.
"No I refuse to listen to Justin Timberlake, and will you stop calling me Squally, how did I even get that nickname?" Squall yelled.
"Well I added a y onto the end of your name… It wasn't that taxing really." Rinoa replied sarcastically. Squall's reply to her was to glare darkly at her and growl deeply, but she glared right back at him. They stayed like this for a minute or two, Squall waiting for her to make her move. Until suddenly with the agility of a cat Rinoa pounced on Squall, pinning him to the floor and then leapt towards his c.d. player.
"Nooo." He yelled as he got up and leapt through the air towards her, not managing to stop her initially but as he hit the floor he grabbed at her legs.
"Ahhh." She screamed as she fell to the floor, just to the right of Squall. "Get off me Squall." She yelled as she slapped the hand grabbing onto her ankle.
"Oww." Said Squall as he recoiled in pain long enough, for Rinoa to get up and continue her sprint. She turned on the power removed the previously inserted Sepultura c.d., put in her own closed the c.d. tray, skipped to the selected track and was about to press play, when a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her away from the ever elusive button.
"NO! I was so close!" Said Rinoa, trying her best to squirm from his iron grip. "Let me go." She yelled.
"Not likely." Squall replied, throwing her onto his bed. At this point the door to Squall's room slid open and in walked a mildly annoyed looking Quistis.
"Do you mind?" She asked the two wrestling figures on Squall's bed. She was going to rant to them about the noise that they were making when she got distracted by the image of Rinoa wriggling under Squall. "You two did break up right?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey Quistis." Said Squall.
"Quisty help! Squall is trying to have his way with me, and the only way to stop him is to go to the c.d. player and press play." Yelled Rinoa, Quistis stared at the two blankly.
"You dare Quistis and I kill you." Said Squall. Quistis continued to stare at the two blankly.
"So why are you here?" Asked Squall.
"I can't remember." Said Quistis, she then tried to put the last few minutes deep inside her mind never to be seen again.
"Oh yes." She said as she remembrance dawned upon her. "Shut up." Said Quistis.
"Were we making a lot of noise?" Asked Rinoa.
"Not even Shirley Manson telling me that she thinks she's paranoid at full volume drowned you out." Said Quistis.
"Sawwy." Said Rinoa, sitting up after Squall had relinquished his hold on her.
"And the only reason I wanted a room next to Squall's was so that I knew that it would be like there was no life next to me and I could get things done in quiet." Said Quistis, sitting down on one of Squall's chairs.
"And you told me it was because I'm your best friend." Said Squall acting out mock distress.
"So that's how you got your room…" Said Rinoa finally being brought into the light about the situation. "You manipulative bitch." Said Rinoa in a humorous fashion.
"Well I had to do something, you were sleeping with the boss." Said Quistis defending herself.
"Not through choice I could tell you that." Said Rinoa, which got a laugh out of Quistis.
"Hey." Said Squall.
"Sorry." Said Rinoa.
"And you got it wrong anyway." Said Squall, Quistis and Rinoa, unsure as to what he was talking about gave him questioning looks.
"Quistis don't you remember what Selphie called you?" Asked Squall.
"Oh yeah." Said Quistis laughing, Rinoa was still unsure was going on and looked around the room bemused.
"Me and Selphie needed Irvine to fix something, so we were doing him favours to get him to do our job first, and I won in the end by taking my bra off and giving it to him… She called me a beautiful, alluring yet manipulative she bitch." Said Quistis, slowly drifting out of her reminiscence.
"Ahh Selphie the girl who goes to Trabia to forget her friends." Said Rinoa.
"You peeved about that too huh?" Asked Quistis, and although the question was obviously rhetorical, Rinoa felt the need to add. "Just a tad."
"Well actually, that reminds me about something that I need to talk to you about." Said Quistis.
"And that would be? As if I couldn't already figure it out." Said Squall.
"Zell." Replied Quistis.
…
"Ha ha ha ha ha." Zell randomly blurted, causing Seifer and many other passers by to stare, questioning his sanity.
"What's up with you?" Asked Seifer backing away, worrying about his safety, and whether lack of Selphie's had pushed Zell over the edge.
"I never imagined that you would be the one to cheer me up is all." Said Zell, still in mild disbelief about the situation.
"I've got something that'll make you laugh even more." Said Seifer, he leaned in and whispered something in Zell's ear, so that no one apart from him could here it.
"Holy ." Said Zell, his eye's wide and he smile looking rather over excessive.
"You tell anyone without my permission and I kill you." Said Seifer.
"Sure thing." Said Zell; still quite unable to take in what Seifer had just told him. "But who else knows?" Asked Zell. Seifer paused for a minute going over all the people that knew his little secret.
"Well there's you, Selphie, Fujin, Raijin I think Quisty has some suspicions… Oh and Nida." Said Seifer.
"NIDA!" Zell almost spat, "and how would he know?" Asked Zell suspiciously, raising his eyebrow in a manner that went beyond suggestive.
"That would be telling." Said Seifer with an evil grin plastered on his face.
It was while this evil grin was scaring all who went past them that the aforementioned Fujin and Raijin came running up to the two slightly out of breath.
"Seifer glad you're here ya know." Said Seifer, towering over Zell, he had forgotten just how well built Raijin was, it was quite scary to be in this area, Fujin was the only one who didn't dwarf him, and she was scary at the best of times.
"ZELL?" Asked Fujin, as if she didn't believe that he was here, he sympathised with her, he wasn't even sure that he and Seifer were the same people they had been for the last nineteen years of there lives.
"Hey guys, long time no see." Said Zell, "What's up?" He asked.
"TROUBLE!" Said Fujin regaining her usual composure.
"Big trouble ya know." Said Raijin, and he was going to continue when the Garden's intercom kicked in and all throughout the Garden Quistis' voice could be heard.
"Zell, Irvine, Rinoa get to the quad right away." She practically yelled over the Garden. "A big ugly…" She paused for a moment there, as if she couldn't quite think of what to call the big ugly. "Angel… has broken into the quad and is in the process of destroying everything in sight, Squall's there already and he's going to need your help." Then the intercom shut off.
"Was that what you were going to tell us about?" Zell said looking over at Fujin and Raijin, Raijin nodded.
"Then what are we waiting for." Said Seifer as the four of them ran off towards the quad.
…
When Zell, Seifer, Fujin and Raijin arrived at the quad, they arrived to a scene of desolation, rubble and broken things of all descriptions were strewn about arbitrarily, and there was blood in multiple pools on the floor, there were bodies of SeeDs and Garden students, all of whom were hopefully just unconscious. There were only three people standing when the four reached the area. Squall was there with the Lion Heart, glowing with its ethereal blue colour. Irvine was the second, he was standing next to Squall holding Exeter, still shining exceptionally silver, even after a year, it seemed that Irvine took good care when it came to guns. The third man in the area was unknown to any of the group, he was and extremely well built, even Raijin didn't compare to him; it looked like he was on steroids or some other enhancing drug. He was wearing nothing but a pair of plain black trousers, but sprouting from his back was a pair of black raven wings. Zell, Seifer, Fujin and Raijin ran up to the others, Zell fitting the Ehrgeiz, and Seifer, Fujin and Raijin taking out their weapons, Hyperion, Zan and the Striking Staff respectively.
"Need a hand guys?" Asked Zell standing beside Irvine and Squall, Seifer however wasn't waiting for a reply, he launched straight into the attack, completely ignoring Squall yelling, "Seifer don't."
Seifer launched a flurry of lighting quick attacks at the "angel" but to know avail because every uppercut sideways slash, thrust and stab that Seifer could throw at him was avoided with the greatest of ease, not a single one of Seifer's attacks landed, it seemed that no matter what he did the angel had already anticipated what he was going to do, it was like he was fighting air, but Seifer wasn't giving up, however the angel was unimpressed.
"I tire of this." He said, a with one final show of precision timing and abnormal skill, he caught Seifer's blade between his hands as it came down for another strike, Seifer stood there unable to get his sword back from the angels grip, for the first time in his life Seifer was truly getting scared about an opponent, the angel was no ordinary fighter, and with a smile that could quite easily be described as evil, the angel kicked Seifer in the stomach, making the blonde lose his grip on his sword, and sending him through the air landing somewhere near his friends, it seemed along with unnatural skill the angel was freakishly strong. The angel then flipped the sword into the air, grabbed it by the handle in mid spin and pointed it towards his opponents.
"Insignifikant SeeD." He said and then let the sword drop to the floor beside him.
Squall looked over at Seifer as Fujin and Raijin were helping him up.
"I believe I said Seifer don't." Said Squall. "Don't you think we've tried that?" Asked Squall rhetorically.
"You do not koncern me, where is the sorceress?" Asked the angel, slowly advancing on the group, then without warning, the angel cried out in pain and clutched the right side of his face. When he removed his hand there was a very thin cut on his face with blood rapidly trickling from it. He clearly wasn't amused. "Who did this?" He asked his pupils focusing to the size of pinheads.
A whip cracked against the floor to the left of him, everyone turned to look. "That would be me." Said the familiar and highly welcome voice of Quistis as she walked over to the group Save the Queen in hand. Now that there were seven of them they simply couldn't lose. "Sorry I took so long." Said Quistis as all of them prepared for battle.
The angel had fear in his eyes; apparently even with his skill he was worried about a seven on one confrontation, he had to level the playing field.
"Stupid insignifikant SeeD… I do not have the time to play with you." He said. He crossed his arms across his chest and closed his eyes. "Inandantia." He said as he let his arms drop to his side and suddenly from behind his back multiple tendrils of water flew at the group with extreme force, pummelling them and managing to leave dents in the surrounding area. They were all writhing in agony on the floor as he started to advance again.
"I shall ask again, the sorceress Rinoa?" Said the angel, Irvine and Fujin stood up, all the others were still unable to; the angel had some serious power backing him.
"Who the hell are you?" Asked Irvine aiming the Exeter at the angel's head, "And what do you want with Rinoa?" He said before firing. The angel shook his head; he seemed to be disappointed; he waved a hand dismissively at the bullet speeding towards him, a sphere of water formed in the air, directly in the bullets path. The bullet flew in but never came out. The angel waved a hand again and this time the sphere dissipated letting the bullet trapped inside fall to the floor harmlessly.
"I am Sachiel." Said Sachiel answering Irvine previous question. "The first angel, the angel of water." He then started on a rant about how the SeeD were no match for his superior power, but Fujin butted in.
"QUIET." She Said and then began to summon Pandemona. The freakish vacuum cleaner appeared surrounded by winds that could rip the average human limb from limb, and began his attack Tornado Zone. The guardian force began sucking up the area in front of him with a force so powerful that bits of the concreted floor of the quad were beginning to be ripped from their place on the ground, but the angel stood his ground. Pandemona however was not one to go down without a fight, and his suction increased exponentially, and the angel was slowly being dragged towards him, Fujin and Irvine allowed themselves to smile, could they have finally beaten him? But their relief was short lived; Sachiel it seems also knew that things weren't going well for him and so launched another of his Inandantia attacks, it hit Pandemona with full force, the G.F. was defeated, unable to hold his physical form anymore he dissipated into the air, to regain strength and to hopefully be summoned again one day.
"I grow weary of your pointless efforts and attaks." Said Sachiel, he voice perfectly accenting what his face was already showing, he was becoming very angry very quickly. "Where is the sorceress Rinoa?" He yelled.
"I'm right here." Said Rinoa standing in the entry arch the lead into the quad. She raised her right arm, took aim and fired the Shooting Star at the angel, it weaved and curved its way through the air, but Sachiel leapt to the side avoiding it effortlessly.
"You missed." He said, but he was unaware that her weapon returned to her once fired as so was shock by the searing pain he felt in his arm when a razor sharp angle wing flew by it. His eyes were glaring daggers at Rinoa as her weapon fitted itself back onto her arm. He wasn't about to be beaten by a weapon with an angel wing motif, and so gathering his power he once again went on the attack.
"Inandantia." And as the tendrils of water flew towards their target he said, "I must kill the usurper of power."
"Usurper?" Questioned Rinoa, but did not have the time to question it.
For a brief moment angel wings appeared on Rinoa's back and then the water tendrils smashed harmlessly onto an invisible shield Rinoa had conjured.
"No." Sachiel screamed, he was desperate to kill her it seemed, a desperation shown when he took off at flew straight at her screaming "I must kill you, that power is not yours, you will return in to us." He was beyond any form of reason and flying very rapidly towards Rinoa, she had no choice left but to attack.
Rinoa gathered all her power; she had not been a sorceress for very long and all the time she had been one she never needed to use her powers and so was very inexperienced when it came to her powers, but with the combined power of Edea, Adel and Ultimecia, Rinoa was quite possibly the most powerful sorceress in the world.
"Maelstrom." She said using Edea's attack on the enraged angel, he screamed in agony as the attack hit its mark, his body twisted and contorted feeling like he could be ripped apart at any second. He uttered one thing before life forsook him.
"I'm sorry farther." And with those words he fell to the floor lifeless. Rinoa drained of her power soon followed him, unconscious and breathing heavily, she had used a lot of her power to conjure that attack.
"Rinoa!" Called Squall as he Fujin, and Raijin ran up to her, Raijin picking her up as Squall yelled "We have to get her to the infirmary." The three of them ran out after that, and Irvine quickly followed them. Quistis, Seifer and Zell did not join them however, they gathered around the defeated body of Sachiel.
"Angel huh? Thought they were meant to be good things." Said Seifer, checking the body for any signs of life. Zell was shaking his head deep in contemplation.
"What's eating you Zell?" Asked Quistis.
"It's probably nothing but, something about him kind of reminded me of" He paused for a second to glance over at Seifer. "Ultimecia." He finished, although very reluctantly, most people just wanted to forget all about Ultimecia and the three of them had more reason then most to want to forget.
"Ummm." Said Quistis obviously wanting to add something but fearing she would regret it "I didn't want to say anything before, but his attack Inandantia, that was the name of one of the paintings in Ultimecia's castle." She finished also looking over at Seifer.
"Did you two hear his voice?" Asked Seifer. "It was almost the same as… hers." He finished a tear rolling down his cheek though his face showed no emotions. He still had nightmares about her voice, the voice that controlled him, made him do her bidding, bent his mind and twisted his very core, the voice that used him.
"Seifer it wasn't…" Zell started.
"Don't." Seifer said darkly, stopping Zell from comforting him, his face now showing no sign that a tear had fallen from it not thirty seconds ago.
"Your right Seifer." Said Quistis pulling the conversation back on track. "He did seem to covet the over usage of k's. And lets not forget the fact that he had wings just like hers." Said Quistis, pondering what the link between this angel and Ultimecia was.
"Look let's talk about this later when everyone is hear, we should go check up on Rinoa." Said Seifer.
"You two go." Said Quistis. "I'll get someone to clear this up." And with that they left to visit the infirmary.