Humanity's Resolve

Brought to you by the Taleteller of Wilhelm.

Extrication from Adolescence.

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"Mommy! I think the sky go boom tonight!" An almost three year old Squall Loire vigorously motioned toward the window with a chubby finger, his bright blue eyes illuminating with childish fear.

"Squall," Raine chuckled softly, "Daddy's watching over you, I don't think there's anything to worry about." If only she could back that with truth, she could at least set her battered soul to rest. Her sleepless nights of horrific nightmares of her beloved Laguna giving his very last to the Peltzeri monster's, and the ever-present life that filled her womb; Her two sons would never have the chance to truly know there father, yet only hear, and read of his bravery.

"Raine! Squall!" The familiar buzzing sound of a motorized wheelchair echoed through the sickeningly white hallways. Soon following the cheerful face of the family friend; Kiros Seagill. His wounds from the events of almost nine months before had seen the end of his military career, yet he still had a promise to keep, and he was fulfilling that to the best of his abilities. "Big storm on the way, I've turned the generators on, so we shouldn't lose power if it gets too bad." At that moment the sky roared, the pitch black sky suddenly illuminated, and for an instant it tricked the eye into believing that daylight was upon them.

"Kiros! I'm scared!" Squall, and Kiros' adopted son Zell both shrieked in unison, and scurried to the overwhelming comfort of the dark-skinned man.

"Now now boys, there's nothing to be afraid of." He cooed in a gentle voice, running his fingers through both heads of hair. The sky raged once more. The multiple streaks of lightning tearing apart the sky, one touching the ground not even one hundred yards from the house, sending blinding ripples if light arching in every direction. There was an involuntary shriek from everyone in the room, and suddenly the lights started flickering. That wasn't the most exciting thing to happen that night...by far. "Boys, I think it's past your bedtime." Kiros proclaimed in a sing-song voice, and before long he was escorting them to the room they both shared.

Raine took a nearby seat, smiling at the site of the young boys scampering away from the closest thing to a father figure they had. She was glad for his hospitality in the state she was in, openly accepting her and Squall into his house, and treating them as if they were his own flesh and blood. Raine smiled, rubbing her stomach affectionately, as she happily thought of her unborn baby boy, and how great of an older brother Squall would make, and all too soon Squall's face turned into Laguna's, and her heart lurched, her eyes changing from pooled tears of joy to grief, she would never have another baby with Laguna...she would never have another baby, ever. Her eyes welled with bigger tears, and it seemed as if the sky was sharing her agony, as the floodgates of heaven itself opened upon their house, the oversized drops of water ineffectively boring into the warm depths of the humble home.

She suddenly gasped in horror, raging pain surged from her undercarriage, along with a mixture of water and blood. An excited gasp sounded from the doorway, Kiros knew as well as her that the birth of her second child was going to be this night. "Deep even breaths Raine! I'll call the hospital." His military drilled smoothness through excitement seemed to calm her wits. He tried to activate the vidphone several times, but the signal was blocked for some reason. The storm raged, it's intensity increasing with each passing second, the rain pounding harder with every labored heartbeat that beat in Raine's chest.

"Kiros! He's coming!" She screamed loudly, and for the first time in Kiros' life, he was left completely clueless. He had never witnessed a birth, he had never wanted to, yet his neverending friendship to Laguna called for his loyalty once more. Thunder sounded louder and faster, the storm, he knew, was hovering right over them.

Kiros quickly propped Raine's legs up on two different chairs, and with great reluctancy lifted Raine's dress, and suddenly, in one ear-pounding act, thunder roared, Raine shrieked, and blood exploded from between her legs. Raine knew something was wrong, it was too hard for her to breath, and she could see that she was losing far too much blood. "Raine! Push! Push!" Kiros' steady voice was lost to a roar of thunder, lightning followed through by touching the ground only inches from the walls of the house. "Push! The worst is almost over!" Kiros urged her, grasping her stone cold hand for some form of encouragement.

Raine screamed, she shrieked, and pushed with all her might. Still she couldn't hear that cry of life, and she clenched her teeth once again, pushing with what strength was left from her fatigued abdomen. Still no cry, her tears ran down her face, her last part of Laguna; other than Squall was going to meet the same fate of his father. Once more Kiros urged her for one more push. "I can't!" She muttered through clenched teeth, her torn body was shutting down, she had lost too much blood, and she had almost given up hope for the life of her second child.

"Your almost there! He's almost out!" The head was protruding out, but the face was not yet visible. "Push one more time Raine!" He knew that if only she could hear the cry of her newborn, she could complete the birth. Thunder roared louder than ever, it's peak at the extremity of the storm, would have had anyone wondering if the storm wasn't caused by some power other than natural occurrence. Raine gritted her teeth, her abdomen contracting with all the strength that a desperate mother could conjure, and finally, the weak cry of her baby boy sounded; what a delightful sound after such agony. Kiros urged her once more, she was only half done with the whole business, and her baby could still die.

Even in such chaos, three year old Squall, and his four year old companion could still watch with a calmness very uncommon to toddlers of their age. They both watched the whole scene with serene quietness, yet with intensely raging fear, quietly shivering at every sound of thunder, and sniffling back tears at every painful shriek that exuded from Raine. "Why does mommy look so sad?" Squall wondered, his innocent mind not understanding the reason for his mother's cries.

The baby was almost completely out, but was giving weak cries, and Raine wheezing with alarming weakness, both were foreboding signs of failure in Kiros' mind. "Raine! You can't give up, you have two wonderfully handsome boys that need your motherly sensitivity!" Her wheezing slowed, her eyes moved slowly to stare at his, and he could instantly see her agony, burning at her conscious state, rapidly fighting to claim her.

"Mommy!" Squall ran from his shelter, his tears falling for no childish reason. He didn't want to be too late for his mother.

"Squall, you be good, take care of your brother...I..love.." Her head rolled to the side, her last breath wasted away with the unfinished sentence, that would be the worst torment of her sons' conscience forever. Her eyes turned from squall to rest on Kiros in a last desperate reminder of his promise to the Loire family. Suddenly the sky roared to life in the most dazzling display of a lightning storm, it had claimed it's victim, but it's hunger still yearned for more. Kiros had fresh tears rolling down his face, tears that had not shed for even his best of friends, his promise was shattering to pieces in a triumphant display that he was not in control of his own life. The beautiful creation of God weakly twitched in his bloodied hands, a sheer twist of evil had the infants eyes staring lifeless at him, accusingly holding empty grudges that tore his heart from his chest.

"Mommy!" Squall's frantic screams for his mother had been ringing, involuntarily unnoticed through his senses, and only now did he realize. The lifeless infant rolled from his shaky hands, that seemed lined with rigamortis. The pounding thump of the beautifully ruined infant reaching the floor, sent his head pounding with migraine, his very skull shattering apart with such agony. He finally stood, hands outstretched to the sky, which seemed to be conjured to his very spot. Lights shattered, windows shattered, the roof of the house shattered, and finally the tormented soul of Kiros Seagill laid to rest in a shattered hulk of lifelessness. That same spot was unrelentingly attacked over and over by streaks of lightning, until the house was such a raging mess of fire, blood, and screaming, that only your worst nightmares could try to come close to such work of evil.

Both Squall and Zell were unmoving, both helplessly sobbing for their respective parental figure, and yet the storm raged on, striking one last blow to the broken home. Faster than the eye could follow, the final act of violence that the storm could muster sent one last streak of lightning right into the caged generators, pouring thousands of volts of electricity into the machinery. The explosion that sounded off was the equivalent to a bomb being dropped at that exact spot. The generators overheated, sending too much electricity into the house, frying every circuit, and starting blazing fires in multiple spot in the house.

A dark figure hurried through the brush surrounding the house, his mission was clear; the Loire and Seagill boys. He found them in pathetic shape, both boys huddled together sharing their tears of anguish, and surrounded by smoke, and tongues of fire just daring them to come closer, and having the same cruel intentions that the dissipating storm seemed to have. He soon found that the thick glass door was locked, barring him from the doom of the young boys. He pounded on the glass door, calling out to his targets, but they only stared at him with fear openly apparent in their eyes. He finally stepped back, and drew the weapon he was famous for using.

It seemed to be a mid-sized broadsword, with a peculiar hilt. There was also a trigger that was a fully functional part of the weapon. With awesome speed, the dark stranger aimed and pulled the trigger, the thick glass cracking apart. He immediately followed through with a string swipe of the blade, and entered into what seemed to be an oven. His skin boiled, and the screams of the two boys gave the man an imagined feeling of what hell might be like. He quickly scooped the toddlers from the floor, and turned to see that his entrance was now blocked by the malicious orange flames. He turned, and fell backwards through the wall of flame, trying to shield his charges from further danger.

The coolness of the wet grass was such a welcome feeling to the three survivors, their soot soiled faces masking the true shade of white that their skin held. Squall knew he had lost his mother in the tragic event taking place before his eyes. "You boys were lucky I seen that lightning strike." The stranger said; matter of factly, while fitting glasses back onto his face.

"Who are you?" Zell asked, he hadn't realized the full extent of what had just happened. "and where's my daddy."

"Boys, now is a time to be strong, now I believe you'll be coming with me, there's nothing left for you here." the stranger took both boys by the hand, and led them to the nearby road. "Just call me cid, looks like I'll be your new caretaker." cid smiled first at Zell, then at Squall.

"Hi Cid, I'm Zell, where are we going?" Zell's hyperactiveness was starting to show from all the excitement. Squall kept silent when cid turned to him with the same question, he found himself staring into the stranger's eyes, trying to hold back tears that he didn't feel comfortable shedding without his mother's comforting arms around him.

"Zell, Squall," Cid turned to each boy. "You'll be safe at the Garden," He hadn't thought that maybe the young boys wouldn't know what he was talking about, leaving Zell and Squall to exchange puzzled faces. Squall turned to give one last look at his home, and all he had known until now. It was diminished to rubble in one violent act of fate, his life was his own now, he could live the way he wanted.

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Red sirens screamed to life, flashing crimson light in all directions, with a piercing sound that would wake the dead. Squall silently rose from his bed, immediately rushing to his gray uniform in his dorm closet. It seemed the Peltzer's from almost two decades ago were having the last laugh. They had planted thousands of animal producing pods into the earth. It was impossible to locate every one, but at least the monsters themselves could be taken care of.

Zell rushed into his room just as he was strapping his gunblade around his waist, and shoving large slugs into pouches on his belt. They silently exchanged glances, and exited into the plain white halls of the mobile military academy, which had been the only home they had known since young childhood. "Squall! Zell! The headmaster wants you on the main deck!" Xu, the commander's personal secretary caught up with the two men, just before the doors of the elevator clamped shut.

"What is it this time?" Zell sniffed in disgust, hoping that it wasn't an easy uprising.

"There are Behemoth's on the loose on the outskirts of Timber city, but that's all I know." Squall perked a little at the sound of behemoth's, something more than the T-Rexuar in the training center. The elevator came to a silent stop, one calm bing was the only indication that the elevator had stopped, and suddenly chaos killed the serenity. Zell and Squall gave a quick nod to Xu, and both parties split.

Headmaster Cid was studying a large map laid out over his large desk, red and blue markers scattered all through Galbadia and Timber. "Ah! Boys, just the two I wanted to see." Cid greeted them with a delighted smile, but instantly became serious. "There are several attacks on the cities still left on ground level, Grendal's are attacking Deling, and surrounding townships, and there have been startling reports of Behemoth's attacking Timber city." Cid slowly walked to the nearby wall, and pushed a switch. The room was instantly black, except for a projection on the wall to their right, showing detailed slides of both attacks. "There are already some teams in Deling, and I'm still assembling teams for Timber. I want both of you to go ahead of us, and at least get a stronghold in the city, we'll be following you shortly." Cid pursed his lips like he always did after finishing a business affair, and without seeming to do it, rushed both men from his office.

"You both have access to X-Mark 357's," Xu smiled, and handed each an access card to the hangar, and the vehicles they would be traveling in."Try to come back in one piece." She smiled, and turned back to her computer.

The sirens had stopped awhile back, but they only now noticed, as they entered the elevator once more. "Why do you think they always send us on these kind of missions?" Zell asked, somewhat angrily.

"Would you rather escort some kind of politician?" Squall countered, he especially disliked that part of his job.

"Well no, but they could at least send more cadets than just us." Zell rubbed the back of his head in thought, and suddenly the elevator doors burst open. "Come on, lets blow." Zell motioned for squall to follow. They both hurried through the heart of Balamb Garden, finally coming to the hangar.

"Do both of you have clearance this time?" The officer asked skeptically, checking the passes thoroughly.

"You bet! Those are strait from the headmaster's office." Zell answered enthusiastically.

"Hmm...that's what you said last time." The officer replied sourly. "Ok, looks like everything checks out, the cards are active, the X-Marks are just over there, and they have extra cell packs for if anything happens." The officer explained with more than one bored sigh, and they were hurrying to the ships.

"Wow Squall! Look at these, I bet they can go really fast!" The sleek shape of the small ships gave them the appearance of standard fighter ships. Both entered the two assigned, warmed the thrusters, checking for any problems with the engines, and soon they were two small dots to any that was standing idle in the busy hallways of Balamb Garden.

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Hey guys, sorry for taking so long, and the update being so short, I've been swamped, I hope you enjoy the chapter though, and I'll try to make the next chapter longer, thanks for reading!

IronicEnding: thanks for the review, I love hearing from people who like reading my work, hope you read and enjoy this chapter.