The Forgotten Guardian Force
Prologue: Mysterious Shadow
A nice breeze was following the floating Garden of Balamb over the sea. Sometimes, the wind was blowing stronger over the Quad, messing with two young men's hair. Especially the brown haired one considering it was longer then the blond one's.
Both wielding their gunblade, they ran to each other, the metal loudly clashing on each other's.
"You're slow, Squall!" the blond accused. "You're not being easy on me now are you?"
Squall raised his weapon over his head and brought it down, slashing the air just in front of his opponent.
"Of course not!" he answered. "We've never been soft in our fights before, even in training. I'm not gonna start now because you're dating my sister!"
He roughly pushed his friend away. When they were fighting, there was no such thing as friendship or family relationship. But it was the first time they were fighting each other since Squall discovered the existence of his twin sister. Bigger surprise: she was a Sorceress! It has been quite a story, but thank goodness, it was over. For a few months only but it seemed like yesterday for most of the people who found themselves involved in this story against their will.
"Come on, Seifer!" Squall commanded. "Show me what you got!"
"You asked for it!"
The blond guy dashed the younger one and hit him hard, sending him on his back and sliding to the edge of the Quad. Then he ran to him, his weapon in hand with a frown on his face and slashed. Squall turned to his side to dodge but Seifer hit the edge on the other side to prevent Squall from going away. He repeated that move some times then stopped, putting his blade down. Squall was catching his breath, his back against the edge. Seifer smiled.
"Guess I won this one, huh?"
"I guess," Squall answered smiling back.
Something cracked when Squall tried to push himself away from the edge of the Quad. He froze and stopped breathing. Seifer lost his smile and stopped breathing too.
"What was…" Squall started.
"Think I over-hit. Don't move."
Squall did as he was told but it was still lightly cracking. Seifer slowly stepped forward, getting closer from a nervous growing Squall. The blond boy was afraid the edge would give way if he would step closer so he just outstretched his hand for Squall to catch.
"Here! Give me your hand, quick!"
Squall outstretched his hand to Seifer's, slowly. The edge kept cracking and a cold sweat started rolling down Squall's face.
"Come on," Seifer said. "Just a little more."
Their gloved hands were just an inch from each other's but they couldn't get closer. Clenching his teeth, Squall tried harder when a final crack preceded the fall of the damaged part. Leaning against it, Squall fell backward. Horrified, Seifer made a desperate move to catch his friend but his hand only caught thin air. Lying on his front, Seifer could only watch his friend fall.
"Squall!!" he yelled his hand held out down.
Squall rolled over himself and hit his head against the wall before falling in the water. A chance it wasn't over ground he would have hit the wheels spinning around Garden and surely die.
Seifer kept calling Squall's name, never leaving his eyes off the spot he disappeared in the sea.
With force calling, the others came out, wondering what was wrong.
"Yo, Seifer!" Zell called jokingly. "What did you do to him?"
But seeing Seifer constantly looking down, then getting a sight of the broken edge, they started worrying.
"Seifer?" a brown haired girl looking just like Squall called.
Seifer turned to them looking very worried.
"Make Garden stop! Squall fell overboard!"
"What?" the asian girl exclaimed with fear.
"I'll tell Nida!" the cowboy told.
He ran back inside while the others all ran to Seifer. Squall's twin and the asian looked into the water along with Seifer.
"Where?"
"There!" Seifer indicated pointing a spot way behind them.
"Why isn't he surfacing yet?" a blond girl asked.
"I think he hit his head on the way." Seifer answered. "He might be unconscious, oh, Coran, Rinoa I'm sorry!"
"Not your fault," the twin answered. "Judging from your calls, you tried to catch him back."
Seifer nodded silently when Garden started slowing down. Then it stopped before slowly going backward.
"I can't take this!" Rinoa exclaimed getting up.
"What?"
She lowered her head and closed her eyes. She was enwrapped in a white light and two white wings spreaded out of her back. It was her limit break Angel Wings. But she wasn't in a limit break state. The others stared at her.
"Rinoa?" Seifer called.
Without answering, Rinoa jumped over the edge and dove down, traced by the others.
"Rinoa!!"
She flapped her wings to break her fall just over the water and scanned it, calling out Squall's name.
"She won't do it alone," Coran said.
When Seifer turned to her, he saw her jump over the edge too, falling down.
"Coran!!"
She was enwrapped in a reddish aura as she fell for the water. She slowed down until she was just over the water. Circles formed in the water just under her as she was levitating. She floated farther to scan more space. Both Rinoa and her were calling for Squall. But no sign of him...
Deep under the surface, Squall kept sinking. His eyes were half closed and he couldn't move. He was paralyzed. Probably from the hit on his head. His mind was as blurred as his sight. His arms refused to move just like his legs. He could still hold his breathe but what for? He couldn't get back to the surface. His lungs started to burn. His chest was stirring. He tried to move but his head was hit too hard. It was like he was in state between uncounsciousness and awakening. Awake so he could guess he would die and uncounscious he couldn't move.
That's it? I'm a fighter and I'm gonna die drowning underwater?
A huge shadow suddenly appeared coming his way. But his sight started to fill with red so he couldn't guess. When he blacked out, he could hear Rinoa's voice ring in his heart as she was calling out his name with tears of fear in her voice. He couldn't see the shadow creature stop by him and couldn't feel it grab him into the depths of the sea.