Author: Shiva Darkwater | Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII | Rating: PG-13 | Summary: Some sacrifices must be made for the greater good, but how far must one go? | Status: Chapter One | Email: melancholy@sunrise-sunset.com | Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VIII is copyrighted by Squaresoft. I'm nothing more than a meagre fan. | Warnings: Violence, mature language and some other not so pleasant things throughout… Proceed with caution? | Author's Notes: This is my first multi-chaptered piece of FFVIII fiction. I have a lot of dreams for this. If things ever don't make any sense, I promise you they will get cleared up for you!
Interstellar Soul"Five minutes to detonation. Emergency locking system activated."
There was no time. There was no time to get everyone out of there. They were trapped. Locked inside the underground construction between a slowly vanishing freedom and a huge, obscene creature that none of them would be able to take down in only five minutes.
They were utterly trapped. And it would all be Squall's fault if they never made it out of there alive.
He felt the heat rise from his left, Selphie trying the best she could, though exhausted as she was, by casting multiple Flares in the direction of the gargantuan beast. Irvine to his right, who was reloading his firearm with the quick and deadly pulse ammunition that he kept in his stock, looked rather worn out as well. They were all beat. A quick scan had proven useless against the monstrosities intelligence, and its strength was phenomenal.
It was certainly a beast that none of them had ever seen before. More grotesque than a Behemoth, similar somewhat to a Hexadragon and yet there was something about it that was nothing like any of the creatures they had faced, not even in Ultimecia's realm. Strange, how when knowing that something must be sacrificed in order for escape, the mind suddenly becomes rather detached from the task on hand. But then, Squall rationalized to himself, when had he not been detached?
The large beast reared onto its powerful hind legs and Squall immediately shifted into a more defensive position before he lunged forward, hoping to get a good solid strike in before the monster countered it, like he knew it would. They didn't have much time.
"Three minutes… Storage bay lock… Confirmed… Entry lock, checking…" There had to be a way out of here.
"Squall!" the petite brunette shouted out over the hideous roar of the creature. Her deep green eyes were large, and she looked to Irvine helplessly. Understanding reached Selphie's eyes then and she turned back to watch their squad leader fall to one knee in fatigue. "Squall… the doors… the—"
She was cut off with Squall's terse command. "Go," he told them, gesturing his head towards the elevator that was so close, yet so far out of his reach. "Go on and get out of here; I'll hold this thing off."
"You've got to be crazy Squall." Irvine protested, insistent as always. "If you think we're just going to leave you here to deal with some uncharted, mutated inbreed and face an explosion when this place detonates you're insane. How heartless do you think we are?"
"Go! Go before it's too late!" Squall's storm-like eyes flashed. They were completely unreadable, frosted over with Shiva's breath. "I know what needs to be done. I'll get out as quickly as I can. Just go!"
"One minute to detonation. Shut down in final stages… Lock down almost complete." The computerized voice spoke, sounding indifferent to the group's whole struggle.
Irvine took a step back, powerless to stop anything from happening. He couldn't force Squall to change his mind. No one could. The only one that was able to wasn't there. "Selphie, let's go…"
"But… we can't! Squall! Hurry up!" Selphie refused to budge, even when the gunman pulled on her arm. "No! We have to help Squall! I'm not leaving!"
But if Squall heard her, it was lost in the reverberating roar of the monster. Blood pounded in Squall's ears as he raised the glowing edge of his gunblade, charging at the massive beast to unleash several severe blows to the fiend's midsection. At the same instant, the programmed voice sounded out the seconds that the trio had left to evacuate.
"Forty-three, forty-two, forty-one, forty…"
Irvine tugged hard on Selphie's arm. "C'mon! We've got to get out of here! There's no more time!" His violet eyes watched Squall combat against the hideous beast, hoping that Squall would be right. He'd get out of there; he'd make it… He had to. Squall had the whole Garden depending on him.
"But Squall! We can't leave!" Selphie struggled against Irvine's hold, screeching when he eventually just picked her up easily. "Irvine, stop it! We can't leave!" Receiving no response, she began kicking wildly, her green eyes wide and frantic. How could she leave Squall here, to fight, to die at the hands of the terrible, grotesque monster? And even if he did kill the thing, the place would surely explode before he got a chance to escape. "SQUALL!"
She wailed then, drowning out the roars from the beast and the monotonous voice of the computer system that counted down and mocked their exertion. "Twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven…"
"Irvine, stop this instant!" Selphie wriggled in Irvine's tight grip, struggling to get away from his protection and run to help Squall. But Irvine wouldn't even think of letting Selphie run back out onto the battlefield. With a swift pull on the lever to the side, the elevator doors slammed shut and they began their ascent to the surface.
The ride to the top was silent, aside from the short gasps and sniffles that emanated from the back of Selphie's throat. Irvine's back was pressed against the metal siding of the lift. His cowboy hat was tilted forward to hide the guilty, grieving look in his eyes, unable to watch Selphie pound her small fists against the metal flooring. "Why… Why?" her voice sounded accusing, but towards who, even she didn't seem to know.
"I'm… sorry…"
The voice was softer, yet still fairly audible as it counted. "Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one…"
Silence followed and Irvine tipped up his hat a little, hoping for the detonator to malfunction to save the dark-haired teenager that was still down there. His lips moved in a soundless prayer, fingers at his neck, idly fidgeting with the beaded chains there. It couldn't have worked… Something had to have messed up.
Selphie's sniffles subsided; instead she opened her eyes, listening carefully, as if examining the silence. She turned her head, her large tear streaked green eyes gazing over into Irvine's. Neither said a word, yet they both knew what each other were thinking. It was as her lips finally parted, to speak, that they first heard it.
A small crackling in the system, almost like a disease. A ripple of energy shuddered through the air; a thick, heavy silence that nearly swallowed them whole. It was twice the size of a demi, yet about the same effect, both having the power to suck the life force out of someone unless they held their breath. If it felt this bad for them, far away from the source and ascending… how must it feel for Squall who was down there still, in the heart of the bomb?
The power died away with a low rumble, and faintly they could hear the obscene ululating of the monster that they previously had such a struggle with defeating. Leave it to Estharian technology to create one of the most muted, deadliest bombs in existence.
When they finally reached the surface, the two were stone faced and quiet. All the tears they possessed had been spent on the never-ending journey to the surface. The mission had been carried out; everything had gone almost according to plans. Yet, one failed to return with them. Dying for the sake of the mission, wasn't that Garden Code 46.A? Irvine would have to check. But leave it to Squall to take the mission so seriously that he would actually sacrifice himself for it…
Selphie huddled up in the back of the electric blue vehicle that they borrowed back in Esthar. Her petite body curled up, shutting everything out, like a clam. Everything seemed to be taking forever, slowed down and somehow irreversible. Was it the silence that made everything slower? Or was it the fact that the last thing Irvine wanted to do was enter the President of Esthar's palace one person short of a proper team? He could just imagine everyone's faces when they found out… He could see the heartbreak in all of the other's eyes… Maybe that was why he was driving slower than usual: under the speed limit and then some…
"Everyone will hate us…" he heard Selphie think aloud in the backseat of the car. His violet eyes gazed at her by means of the rear-view mirror. "Everyone will think that we just left him… And we did Irvine! We just left him there!"
Irvine's heart broke at the tears that once more trailed down the usually so bouncy girl's cheeks. But, what was he supposed to say? It'll all be okay? We'll make it through together, just like before? No one could predict the future really, although he always liked to wish he could. Although he wished to wipe those tears away from her eyes, kiss her to stop the pain. He couldn't. It didn't seem right, not now…
"We'll always face things together… we'll survive, because we have each other," he murmured, more to himself than Selphie. She continued to weep silently, tears staining her cheeks, while Irvine mourned wordlessly for all the things that were gone, and were never his in the first place.