"Any news on him yet?" A feminine, yet authoritative, voice called.
"None at all." The second, just as cold but more masculine voice said.
"We need him for Ressurection." The feminine voice said again
"I'm aware of this, but at the present moment we don't have any clue as to where he is." The second voice replied
"Ten, we need to find him immediately. The time is almost here." A third voice said, much deeper than the other two.
"I know, Jett."
The three heads of the Order were arguing over something. What it was no one was to know besides them, as they were speaking in an empty room in hushed voices. Jett was carving something into the table, Ten was pacing the floor, and the third was reclining against the wall, apparently lost in thought. It was storming outside. The raindrops were pounding against the windowpane, which caused a loud echo all across the former Balamb Garden.
"What about the other one? The one who attacked us the other night? He seemed to be even more powerful than the one we're looking for now." Jett suggested, looking up hopefully at Ten.
"Almasy? True enough, he does have power. But he lacks the Key. He can't be the one we need, because we would have been able to sense him when he was coming." Ten said, taking his sunglasses off and wiping them off on his sleeve.
"More than that, we know that he's useless. We both know who we come from, and we both know that he's the fourth Key that we need." Zeru said, not looking up at the other two, but instead out the window. The other two nodded their heads, and Ten shot a look that said "stupid" at Jett, which he apparently missed. The thunder crashed outside and the compound in which the Resistance resided was in clear view. Ten stared at it for the brief second it was viewable, and then raised his hand quickly, pointing at it.
"Tomorrow!" He shouted, the other two looked up at him. Both of their eyes were just as silver as Ten's, even Zeru's who were in plain sight through the hood. "Tomorrow, we'll launch an attack. We will crush the Resistance tomorrow, then we'll hold his fiancèe hostage. He'll come for her, I know he will. He'll give us what we want if we hold onto her for a while." Ten said, his eyes reflecting the lightning outside, an evil tone in his voice. The other two looked out the window, apparently liking the idea of crushing those who were hindering their plan. They continued to stare and Ten excused himself from the room, preparing to alert the other members of the Order of the plan.
The storm had ended late into the night. Seifer awoke just as he would any other morning: Fell from his bed, lazily drinking his coffee, hoping to catch a glimpse of Fujin coming out of the shower (which he once again failed at). What separated this day from the others, however, was what was waiting for him just outside compound. Zell stood with a large grin across his face. Behind him was an army of ten thousand soldiers, all wearing the Esthar emblem on their right arm. At his side, was the familiar face of Laguna Loire.
"Commander Seifer, good to see you again" Laguna called, walking over to him and smiling slightly. Seifer, for some reason, was stunned. He was sure that he had seen the face somewhere before, although not on the face that he was on the man who was before him.
"...Good to see you to, Laguna." Seifer finally replied, deciding that his eyes were just playing tricks on him.
"I see you finally passed your SeeD exam." Laguna said calmly, nodding at the SeeD badge Seifer had sown on his jacket. Zell had to ponder this comment for a moment, what did Laguna mean by that? It then hit him, he remembered the first time that Seifer took the test, he had failed while both Squall and Zell passed. Zell covered his badge with his hand, because it showed that Zell had seniority over his commander. Seifer noticed what his former toy was doing, and became red with anger. Laguna, however, seemed obvlivious to this and began to speak of how well-prepared his soldiers were.
Prepared or not, Seifer was treating them just like all the other soldiers. The hours were spent in intensive training, with the soldiers from Balamb fighting against those from Esthar. Swords were crashing, guns were thundering, fists were flying. Anybody who could fight, was now. The sweat fell and created a small pool. Selphie complained to Rinoa at how dirty it was, yet Rinoa paid it no mind and continued her training. Seifer had assigned all those who fought with Squall during the Sorceress War a troop. Zell was teaching his troops the fastest ways to take a man down. Irvine was showing them the best guns and how to use them. Selphie (who had the smallest troop) was teaching them some rigorous stretches. Rinoa, on the other hand, was working them like dogs. She told them to come one at a time at her, and she would take them all down. She insisted that she was teaching them, but instead seemed to be bullying. She had replaced her blaster edge with the chain whip which her friend Quistis Trepe once used. Each of the troops were extremely tired, and desired more than anything a rest, but things soon only became worse for everyone in the compound.
"Commander, commander!" One of the SeeD screamed as he ran towards Seifer, panting like a mad-man. Seifer threw down one of the soldiers he was sparring with and turned to the exhausted man who appeared behind him. "Commander. Coming this way. Thousands of them...They're here. It's the Order."
Seifer's eyes widened and the compound became silent. He turned to his soldiers and ran up the steps to the roof of the compound, taking out his pocket telescope and looking out into the forest. Thanks to the fire, Seifer could clearly see them. The Order was marching towards them. His soldier had been wrong, however, there weren't thousands of them. They were nearing the Hundred Thousands, each of them dressed in a black coat and holding their weapons in hand. Seifer lept from his post and ordered the soldiers to take their positions.
Chaos engulfed the compound. The soldiers, exhausted from all the training they had been doing, picked their weapons up lazily and reported to their captain's. Rinoa ran up to Seifer and Laguna, who were apparently planning out the attack.
"Let's go." She said, pushing the two men apart. They stared in awe at her next movement. She threw her arm over her shoulder and hopped off the 50-foot roof, landed gracefully on the ground, and stood firmly waiting for the Order to arrive. Further shocking the men, her troop marched towards the gate, prepared to fight behind her.
"She's crazy. She's only got 400 men, she can't possibly stop them" Laguna said, running down from the roof and ordering his troops to old their positions.
"...Rinoa" Seifer said, looking up at the impending doom.
"How nice, the welcoming party." Ten said as he approached the front gate, standing infront of all his soldiers, each of which had a vacant expression on their faces.
"I'm going to make you pay for what you did to Quistis." Rinoa spat at him, swinging the whip above her head.
"You mean the whore who's face I smashed in?" Ten replied coldly to her. "I'll tell you what," He turned back to his soldiers. "None of you kill her, okay? You let her come at me." He said as he slipped into the back of them, letting them all charge out at her.
Rinoa threw her arms forward and her men exploded from behind the gate, tearing like crazy at the army which clearly out-numbered them. Rinoa ran in the center of them, swinging her whip so fast that no one could tell what she was doing with her hands.
The battle had begun. Rinoa was swerving between soldiers, taking them out with hard strikes to the knee's. They fell, and the soldiers who ran behind her would swiftly kill them as they fell. While she was breaking one of them, however, she turned back and saw the one's who had recently fallen rising from the ground, marching again to the gate. She had no idea what was going on, so she tore back and began whipping them again. Once again, even when they had been shot by some of her soldiers, they rose and continued marching. Rinoa kept knocking them down, and they kept marching forward. Even worse, she saw, was the one who was running up to her. It was the big man of the group. Jett had his blades ready, and was pointing one directly at Rinoa. He laughed as he lunged at her, yet suddenly fell back on his hindquarters. His attack had been deflected by none other than Laguna. The rest of the soldiers had broken out of the compound and were slicing and shooting down the Order. Laguna had already gone on ahead, pulling Rinoa with him (who trampled Jett under-foot). Jett rose, a large footprint on his face, and cracked his neck. He turned around and aimed one of his blades at Rinoa. Suddenly he felt something pressing against his neck and on his shoulder. It was a blade resting on his neck, and a harpoon on his shoulder.
"It's not very nice to shoot someone in the back." Kiros Seagill said to the man in black, at which Ward Zabac nodded. The three men engaged in combat, with Jett being over-powered. Kiros was blinding him with speed, and Ward kept knocking him away with strength.
Seifer and Irvine were back to back. Seifer was cutting down the soldiers that approached him, and Irvine was happily shooting away at them.
"One, two, three, four." He said in a sing-songy voice, counting how many soldiers he was taking down.
"Cut them down like a wild boar." Seifer sang back, slicing one of the soldiers in half.
"Who taught you your nursery rhymes, Almasy?" Irvine said, running forward to protect Selphie from an attack to the back. Seifer lept into the air, slicing down some of the Order's soldiers who had become airborne.
Zell was playing tennis. He and his troop were throwing the soldiers to each other and taking turns knocking them down. The battle was in the favor of the Resistance, and it looked like the war may soon be over. The winds soon changed, however, as Zeru and Ten simultaneously raised a hand in the air, and darkness covered the area. Lightning crashed all around, and then light shot out from the darkness.
"Oh...shit" Irvine said as he dive-rolled out of the way of a giant metal object which had just crushed several soldiers of the Order and the Resistance.
Ten and Zeru hopped onto the Guardian Force Alexander as it began to blast away at the soldiers, killing many and giving the fallen members of the Order time to heal and rise again. Dust shot in every direction, the captain's were ordering their troops to swerve out of the way of the behemoth. Irvine had narrowly avoided one of the object's blasts when he saw her. Selphie had been hit, and was flying in the air, back into the roof of the compound. Irvine screamed out and began shooting like crazy at the object, the bullets bouncing off and killing whichever poor soul happened to be in range.
"You...killed Selphie. YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Irvine fell to his knees and began crying, throwing his gun aside and waiting for one of the soldiers to come and slit his neck. None of his friends seemed to notice what he had done, as they were all busy trying to stay alive. He turned and saw several of the Order coming towards him, blades in hand. He lowered his head to embrace his fate, when suddenly he felt something brush by his ear. The opposing soldiers fell in half, and Irvine's gun had suddenly been kicked back over to him. He rose and looked up to see what had just saved him. He couldn't tell what yet what it was, and only saw rips in the air everywhere.
"I'm sorry, dear. We didn't count on you being so strong. It looks like you're going to have to settle with dying by my Guardian Force." Ten said, pushing his sunglasses up his nose, which served as a signal for Alexander to lift it's "leg" and crush Rinoa. She lifted her whip and prepared to fight until the bitter end, when suddenly she was out of harm's way. Ten's eyes widened at who he saw standing next to Rinoa.
"I found my jacket under a pile of leaves. I didn't think you'd be that mad at me." The familiar voice said to her. She froze in place at who had spoken. It was him. The one who had been gone this entire time. "I guess next time I should take it with me." He continued. His gunblade flew through the air as he ran up the side of Alexander. It was Squall Leonhart. He had come back, now sporting a small stubble, and with tears all over his clothes. He was much quicker than before, and was slicing Alexander up like butter. Finally he came to it's "head", lept, and sliced it clean off. He landed gracefully on the ground as the head fell behind him. He rose quickly and began slicing at the soldiers of the Order. Those who realized he had arrived were in awe at what was happening. Not only was he not being touched by the Order, but when he sliced them, they died. Even more in the favor of the Resistance was what happened next. While Squall was knocking the enemy down like bowling pins, a familiar red aircraft was shooting them down. It was the Ragnarok, and inside it was Selphie Tilmitt and Cid Kramer. They had been rebuilding it since the Sorceress War, and decided to take it out for a test run. The soldiers of the Resistance shouted out with glee as they began to fight behind their rightful commander. His friends circled around him, aiming at the remaining twenty thousand soldiers.
"Nice of you to join us, Squall." Zell said, knocking one away with a swift punch.
"Here I was thinking you'd gone on a vacation." Irvine said as he broke the jaw of one of the soldiers with a spinning gun maneuver.
"If you survive this battle, I'm going to kill you when it's over." Rinoa said as she knocked down three of the soldiers.
"I'll keep that in mind." He replied as he ran forward, slicing down many of the soldiers. The Ragnarok was good on ammo, so it was taking Order members as quickly as they rose. It was at that moment that Squall received his second scar from Seifer Almasy. Atop of the shattered body of Alexander, Seifer was dueling with Ten. The one who held the upper-hand was easy to spot. Seifer was on one knee, slowly parrying Ten's onslaught. Ten was furiously pounding on Seifer, and suddenly it happened. Seifer's gunblade flew out of his hand and Ten's sword struck. Blood shot out from his chest and he fell off of the Guardian Force, hitting the ground with a thud.
Squall screamed out as he saw his old rival die. He ran towards Ten, holding his gunblade at his side. Suddenly something was in his way. He could not see right away what had stopped him, but after stopping an inch away from it, he realized what it was.
"So you did make it." Zeru said, raising a hand and smacking him away with ease. Squall rose and slashed at him, yet for some reason the slash missed and only managed to cause a rip in the air. He slashed again, and still nothing could happen. Squall became angry and threw a powerful kick into the groin of Zeru, yet nothing seemed to happen. This time he knew that Zeru had not used magic, as the hit definitely hit him. Then he realized what it was.
Zeru removed the hood, and there was the face. It was a woman's face, silver and blue hair pulled behind her ear. Zeru raised a hand and knocked Squall away, laughing as she did. Squall rose and began to slash at her again, this time actually making contact. It was a small cut, barely on her cheek. But the blood fell and it was then that Squall realized she was different from the rest of the Order. No one else bled, yet there she was. She became angry and looked up at Ten, who shook his head at her and the anger in her eyes grew to catastrophic proportions. She closed her eyes, and Squall could not breathe. He saw the world flash, and then it was over. The soldiers which he had killed were gone, and the few who were still alive remained, but the three who Squall had just met, yet already hated, were gone. The final few soldiers fell, and Squall looked around to see what the damages were. There were only a handful of soldiers now, but the Order had been completely annihilated. Squall walked over to the body of his old rival, picked it up, and silently towards the compound. Nobody spoke.
That night was reserved for celebration. The Order had been defeated, and the Resistance still stood. The scent of alcohol could be smelled all throughout the compound, and loud music pounded through the night. Selphie had been dancing with Irvine all night, and Zell was stuffing his face with hot dogs. Outside the celebration, however, Squall and Rinoa were cremating their old friend. Rinoa was crying on Squall's shoulder, who was looking intently at his burning friend. He gently pulled Rinoa off of him and walked over to the tree which had Seifer's gunblade resting on it. Squall picked it up and a tear fell on it. He walked over to the burning corpse and tossed the gunblade into it.
"I'm sorry I left, Rinoa." Squall said as he turned to her.
"..." Rinoa found herself unable to speak. Was it rude of her to be happy that he was back, while a man lay burning infront of them?
"I did what I had to do. I knew what was coming. I knew I wouldn't be able to fight them in my present state." Squall said as he turned away from her. Her arms fell around his shoulders. He turned around and put his arms around her waist.
"I know what they want, Rinoa. They want to revive Him."
"Who is He?" She asked, the shaky voice no gone and replaced with the one Squall had remembered.
"Griever." He replied to her, her eyes fell to the necklace he had on.
"According to legend, in the land that would become Balamb, there was a deity known as Griever. He was, as you know, a mystical lion. What you don't know, however, is that he was terribly alone. So he created seven other lions to give him company. However, he created them almost as powerful as he was, and they became blood thirsty. Each one wanted the control of the world, and they began killing each other for it. Griever, very depressed from what he saw his children doing, rose up and destroyed each of them. Now he was more depressed than hever. He had become extremely powerful in the battle, but now had no one to play or talk with. It was then that he decided that instead of creating lions as powerful as he was, he would sacrifice all his life force to inhabit the world with all it's creatures, and watch over us. The Order wants to ressurect him in the hope that they may convince him to give them his power, so that they can destroy or enslave the world as they please." Squall said to his fiancèe, who was in shock to hear all this.
"Why would they want to do this?" Rinoa asked, totally perplexed.
"I don't know. At the moment, I really don't care. They're going to pay for what they did to Quistis and Seifer." Squall said as he looked up at the moon, whose light made Squall's face seem as white as Rinoa's. He looked back down at his fiancèe. They stared deep into each other's eyes, and their lips met.