TemporalStorm

Chapter 3

Rescues

Squallwas awoken by a voice in his head calling his name. At first it was almost too hushed for him to make out, then it started to get louder and pleading until it was an almost scream. The last one was what had him fully awake enough to just roll and dodge his own weapon as it was swung down towards his head. His attacker cursed and stepped back. She dropped the gunblade and put a hand to her head.

"Shut up! You made me miss!" Squall's attacker hissed. "You should not even be conscious! Hurry up and fade away!"

He knew that voice. It was impossible though. It's owner should be dead. He jumped out of bed and dove for his weapon. He then stood and looked around the room. Not seeing Rinoa caused him to start panicking, although he didn't show it on his face or in his stance.

"Ultimecia! Where is Rinoa!?" Squall exclaimed.

A dark laugh come from Ultimecia as she stood straight and looked at Squall with delight. She then put one of her oddly long fingered hands on the bare part of her chest.

"She is in here. We are one now. I am she….and she is me." She almost purred.

"No! You're lying!" he growled.

"Look for yourself. Do you see her? Wasn't she with you when you fell asleep? Wasn't it her voice that woke you from your slumber? Savor those words you heard. It will be the last time you hear her voice…ever. Soon she will fade away and this body will belong to me alone." She explained.

"Then….Cloud was telling the truth! He wasn't crazy, just confused! You were using Rinoa to go to the infirmary at night." He growled.

It all made sense now. He had thought that the man had just finally snapped, but it turned out, Cloud was trying to protect himself thinking Rinoa was the sorceress.

"Very good. Maybe you're not as stupid as you look. I'll return later for you. I see now that I will have to get rid of this girl before I can rid myself of all of you SeeD." She said.

"We beat you before! What makes you think we can't beat you now!?" he exclaimed.

"I have a new power source now. It's more than enough to handle you all. I was careless this time, thinking I could kill you so quietly and easily. I won't make that mistake again." She said before disappearing.

"Wait! Ultimecia! Come back!" he yelled, but it was too late.

The sorceress was gone, and she had hijacked Rinoa's body.

VII/VIII

He was strapped down to the cot in his room by strong leather binds that was chaffing his arms as he tried to twist and turn to get free. Not that he was doing too much of that. He was still feeling rather numb from his shock treatment and was also sedated. Any movements he made were really just small twitches and twists as he tried to get his body to obey him and struggle for freedom. He let out a weak groan before just laying still. He stayed like that for what felt like hours as the feeling slowly started to come back. The tingling and pins and needles feel was moving up his body as his nerves woke up.

He was starting to get use to the unpleasant feeling when he felt something else moving up his body. It wasn't until it was moving up his chest that he understood it to be a hand. It moved from his chest, to his neck where it caressed the skin almost tenderly. It moved on up to his cheek and gently turned his head so he could look into the cold golden eyes of the sorceress.

"Y…you." He managed.

"It seems that my plan has backfired. I had tried to kill the SeeD while he slept, but the stubborn girl refuses to fade away. I need a boost of energy." She said as he eerily long fingers reached his hair and began to play with a long strand of it.

She moved her mouth close to his and started to draw out energy from him. After five or so minutes, she pulled away. She watched him with a small look of amusement as he seemed to reel even though he was strapped down. His eyes had nearly rolled to the back of his head and he was panting for breath. After a few moments he was back to semi normal though still panting for breath.

"You've been so useful so far. You were once the puppet of a man. Now you will be my puppet." The sorceress said as her hand moved from his hair and back down to caress his cheek.

Her hand traveled back down his neck causing Cloud to shiver a little, before stopping at his chest. She pulled her hand back a little causing her nails to rake across the fabric of his shirt before stopping when the tips of her nails ended up pressed right in the middle of his chest. Dark purple and black energy seemed to pool around her finger tips and mover down to make a small puddle like on Cloud's chest. The sorceress smirked as she drove her hand into the puddle sharply, getting a grunt from Cloud. She made a quick movement that caused the blond to feel pain to the very core of his soul. He let out a piercing cry of pain as Ultimecia pulled her hand back out. The puddle disappeared revealing no blood or wound. Though, in the Sorceress' hand was a small red glowing orb.

"The red materia is summon, right? I have created my own. I will call it Cloud. You will be at my beck and call, day or night no matter what. You will have no choice, just as the creatures you have summoned have no choice. I find this fitting, no?" she asked with a chuckle as she manifested a gold chain to attach to the materia.

She then put the chain around her neck and wore the materia like a necklace. She smiled at the pendent and held her hand to it looking every bit like a young woman with a new favorite piece of jewelry. She then surprised Cloud by moving to actually kiss him in a deeply passionate kiss. While she was distracted, he felt something. A small touch to his mind. His mental state had never been that great and he doubted he had any kind of mental abilities, but still he tried to touch whatever it was back with his own mind. When he did, it was like something grabbed on to him for dear life.

When the Sorceress ended the kiss and pulled away, whatever had latched onto Cloud was left with him. Ultimecia didn't seem to notice it's absence though. She only licked her lips and let out a dark chuckle before disappearing. Cloud was left alone in the room and trying to figure out what had seemed to have attached it's self to his mind. After a moment or two, it seemed to fade, but a calmness come over his soul letting him know that whatever it was, was still there.

"Help. Help me. Please. Help me help Squall." An almost tiny voice said inside his mind.

It was small and feminine and though he didn't know how, he knew who it was. It was a small fragment of the woman who used to own the body Ultimecia now controlled. It was all of the woman that could escape from the sorceress to keep itself from fading out of existence.

"I…I can't." Cloud murmured.

"Please…please…"

VII/VIII

"You want us to do what!?" the psychiatrist exclaimed as he looked at the Balamb Garden Commander as if he'd lost his mind.

It was mid day, hours from when Ultimecia had tried and failed to kill Squall and then had visited Cloud. Squall had spent all morning getting things taken care of for Cloud to be released back to him.

"I want you to release Cloud. He's not crazy. At least he was right about the sorceress. A sorceress has appeared and she's taken over the body of Rinoa Heartilly." Squall explained.

"He may have been right about that, but the man is clearly disturbed." The psychiatrist said.

"I'm the one who admitted him, so now I want to let him out." Squall said with growing annoyance.

"As his psychiatrist, I have to say that I don't think that's a good idea." The doctor said as he started to size Squall up a little.

"Really?" Squall asked as he put his hand on the hilt of his gunblade.

"Yes, but as you said, it is up to you I guess. As long as you have the proper paper work." The psychiatrist said after clearing his throat.

Squall nodded and pulled some folded papers from his pocket and handed them to the man.

"Everything's signed. I'll wait here for you to bring Cloud down." He said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

The psychiatrist nodded and left the room grudgingly. He hadn't wanted to let Cloud go. He was still pissed at the blond for punching him in the face and making the comment about him being a quack. There was nothing he could do about it though. Squall had gone through the right channels and gotten the right papers signed, so Cloud would be set free or at least be put in Squall's custody.

VII/VIII

"Are these yours?" Squall asked as he held out a bag to Cloud.

Cloud was leaning against the wall of his cell still weak from all he'd been through. He took the bag from Squall carefully and looked inside. His bangles and pauldron (metal shoulder armor) were in the bag. Cloud just nodded and took them out, then started to put them on in their rightful places.

"Thanks…" he murmured.

"Do you know where she went?" Squall asked.

He wasn't going to waste time. He was going after Ultimecia as soon as possible. He knew Cloud understood who he was talking about and wouldn't have to worry about having to explain who he meant.

"No. She didn't tell me anything." Cloud responded.

"Let's go. The others are waiting outside." Squall said as he turned and headed out of the cramped cell with Cloud right behind him.

As they walked through the area Cloud had tried to escape through, he had half expected the area to change like it had before, but nothing happened. Everything stayed the same though and he heaved a small sigh of relief. He could hear guards talking to one another as they passed. They couldn't believe Balamb was reclaiming the psycho that they had committed not too long ago. They were also talking about the psychiatrist who was going to appeal the decision and try to get Cloud back into custody. The blond was a dangerous psycho who didn't need to be walking around free to harm others. Or so they'd heard. Cloud decided to ignore them the rest of the way down. There was no point in listening to babbled nonsense.

As they come to another flight of stairs, Cloud looked up from his brooding to see what looked like a small aura coming from the floor right next to the stairs. Cloud walked over to it to examine it. He'd never seen anything like it and could feel an energy coming from it. Squall noticed that Cloud had stopped and walked over to where he was.

"What are you doing? You act like you've never seen a draw point before." He said in exasperation.

"I haven't. What's it do? What do you draw from it?" he asked as he looked at Squall.

"Well it looks like you can draw shell from this one." He grumbled.

"Shell? What kind of spell is that? A type of protection?" Cloud asked.

" protects from some magic attacks. What? You want to draw from it or not? If you do, hurry up." Squall said impatiently.

"How do you draw from it?" Cloud asked.

"Are you serious?" Squall asked. When he got a blank look from Cloud, he sighed and answered, "You hold your hand to it and pull the magic into your body." Squall answered.

He was getting tired of Cloud's questions and wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. The guards were now staring at them both and it was irritating him to no end. What was worse was the unsure look Cloud had given him for a moment that reminded Squall of some kid. He sighed and demonstrated how to use the draw point before then stepping aside.

"There. Now you try." He commanded.

Cloud nodded and stepped forwards to use the draw point. Energy come from the draw point and began to gather right under Cloud's hand. It didn't disappear like it had with Squall though. It formed a small ball of green light that started to form into a crystal. Squall stared in surprise while several guards started to move closer to get a better look. Cloud gasped and snatched his hand back knowing that that was not what had happened when Squall had drawn from the point. The crystal fell to the hard metal floor and rolled until it stopped against Squall's boot. Squall slowly picked the crystal up and looked at it carefully. He then held it out to Cloud.

"I don't even want to know how you did that or why." He said.

Cloud took the crystal and shrugged.

"It's materia. I don't know how I did that either. It's not something that I've ever done." He mumbled.

He held out his arm and equipped the materia into one of the slots on his bangle.

"What are you doing with it?" Squall asked.

It was his turn to ask twenty questions.

"Equipping it. It may come in handy later." Cloud responded.

"You mean junctioning it." Squall corrected.

"If I had meant that I would have said that. Didn't you say your friends were waiting?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah. Fine. Let's go." He said as he started walking again and Cloud started to follow.

The guards had something new to talk about now. The psycho may also be a sorcerer. This little bit of gossip spread quickly like wildfire around the prison.

VII/VIII

They were almost to the floor that they needed to be on to leave the prison when Squall first heard it. It sounded like water filling something up. It got louder and louder until a green glowing substance rushed up from the stairwell and from the shaft in the middle of the building.

"No way!" Cloud yelled as he saw what the substance was.

Liquefied Mako. The same stuff he'd seen in some of his "hallucinations" during his stay in the prison. The same stuff that had been in the tube he'd been in during said hallucinations. He looked around and noticed that the walls seemed to be melting into the stuff. At first he thought he was hallucinating again, but when he saw Squall also watching, he knew he wasn't. He and Squall started back up the stairs they had just come from, watching in horror as some of the guards were swept away by the rising Mako. The two continued to run until Cloud heard a rumbling and looked up. What he saw almost caused his jaw to drop. The top of the building had liquefied into Mako and was now falling right towards them. He looked at Squall who had also stopped running, then pointed a hand at the younger man.

"Shell!" Cloud exclaimed.

A magic transparent ball formed around Squall just as the Mako hit them. Squall was thrown around inside the ball and almost knocked silly as the Mako churned as if inside some sort of vortex. After a few moments, the Mako calmed down and Squall could see Cloud trying to swim through the liquid towards him. It was a good thing that the walls had turned into Mako or else Cloud would have been crushed against the metal of the building as the Mako had been churning. Cloud reached Squall and began to push the shell towards what had been a wall. They could see through it to the outside. Cloud hoped this meant that they could push through it to the outside world. Squall tried to help by leaning in that direction. It was slow going and Squall was starting to wonder how Cloud hadn't started drowning yet, when the older man started to gradually slow down. His eyes were starting to glow more than usual and they had a slight green tinge to them.

They glowed intensely for a moment as Cloud stopped pushing the shell and started to sink. The shell started to leak and flicker. Then the Mako started to churn again before violently exploding outwards and throwing everyone who had been inside it out. Lucky for Squall, the shell broke his fall, and rolled to a stop before breaking near the Ragnarok. Quistis and Zell run over to check on their commander who was picking himself up off the ground and staggering a little.

"What the hell happened!?" Zell exclaimed as he looked at the remains of the D-District Prison.

"I don't know. All of a sudden the prison filled with that green liquid, then it seemed to explode outwards." He said as he shook his head a little.

He then started to look around.

"Where's Cloud?" he asked.

"I didn't see him." Zell answered.

The three started to look for the blond quickly. The people who had been thrown out could be found in various states. The building had solidified back to metal as soon as it had exploded raining down broken and twisted metal. Some unlucky guards and inmates were sliced or otherwise impaled. A few were lucky to die from the high fall while a few only suffered from broken bones and lay moaning or screaming. A few unlucky had burning scraps laying on them, roasting them or pinning them down. There were even those who had lost limbs or even larger parts of their bodies. Some looked dazed and pale almost reminding Squall of Cloud's condition when they had found him originally. Quistis stopped her search for Cloud and went to go make a call for some help. The surviving people needed medical attention fast.

As Squall and Zell continued their search, Squall found the psychiatrist. The man was panting from pain as it looked like his body had been broken in almost every possible way.

"It was…it was his fault. He did this… He did this to punish us!... For what we did! I told you! I told you he was disturbed…I had…no idea he was a sorcerer too. Now look…I'm…I'm going to die and it's all your fault…you let him out…" the psychiatrist babbled.

"You're wrong. Cloud didn't do this." was the only thing Squall said before continuing his search.

"Squall! Over here! I found him!" Zell called from not too far away.

Squall quickly jogged over to where Zell was knelt by Cloud. The blond was awake but seemed to be dazed. His eyes were letting off a little more glow than they had, but it seemed to be going back to normal as he started to come around.

"Uh…unng…Wha…What happened?" he asked a little groggily.

"The building turned into green liquid." Squall summed up quickly.

"Mako…" Cloud murmured.

"What?" Squall asked.

"T…Told you…that spell would come in handy…" Cloud said as he slowly started to stand up and ignored Squall's question. "Where's your air ship? I have a feeling we need to get out of here quickly."

"Why? What do you think is going to…" Zell didn't get to finish as there were screams from many of the guards and inmates who were alive but pinned or badly wounded.

Squall, Zell, and Cloud turned to see what was causing it. What they saw was a large monster rising from the crater where the prison had once been. It's bulbous octopus like head emerging first revealing several sets of eyes and tentacles where it's mouth should have been. It started sending these out and grabbing the wounded people before pulling them into the hole under the tentacles. In this hole was many razor sharp teeth that it used to rip and shred the people. Tentacles flew at Zell, Squall, and Cloud, but the three jumped out of the way quickly.

Squall and Zell began to fire magic attacks at it while Cloud stood back. He had no weapon and no magic so he could not help in this. He watched the other two men go to work on the monster, doing little damage at first. They were soon joined by Quistis and Selphie though and later a man Cloud recognized as Irvine. Quistis would cast several different spells while Selphie would get in for close attacks with her weapon. Irvine fired shots from his rifle using different kinds of weapons and Zell dodged tentacles while getting in close with his fists. Squall hacked at tentacles as they tried to attack his friends. The tentacles started to try and bat him away but ere finding that they were becoming fewer in number.

The group almost had the monster on the ropes when it cast a wind spell that knocked everyone back. Squall hit the ground and lost hold of his gunblade. Cloud took the chance to move and grab the weapon. He then swung it over his head before bringing the point into the ground. Several small meteors rained down from the sky to hit the monster. While it was distracted, it gave the others time to charge in and redouble their efforts.

As Squall stood back up, Cloud threw him back his weapon and continued to watch. Squall charged in and started to hit the monster with his hardest attacks, finishing off with quick sword strikes that ended with him firing off the gun part of the weapon and ripping a gaping hole in the creatures head. Even with the wound, the monster tried to continue, but Squall and his comrades defeated it shortly after, leaving a smoking mess to fall back into the crater. Selphie, Zell, and Irvine cheered while Quistis smiled, but tried to catch her breath. Squall had turned and was walking towards Cloud.

"What was that you did back there?" Squall asked.

"Meteor Rain. Sorry. I got frustrated just standing around watching." He said shrugging.

"I'm starting to wonder if maybe you aren't really a sorcerer." Squall said as he crossed his arms over his chest and eyed Cloud for a moment.

"Then you don't think I'm crazy anymore?" Cloud asked.

"No. I still think you're crazy." He said, and Cloud thought he almost saw a smirk, but it was gone in a blink, "But I don't think you're dangerous to any of us."

Cloud nodded a little and gave an almost smile back, and then looked past Squall at the others. His eyes went wide just as Selphie could be heard screaming.

"S…Squall! Quistie just disappeared!" she yelled as she pointed to where Quistis had been.

What was left were little wisps of light that soon disappeared. The remaining five began to look around for the woman but saw no sign of her. Cloud stopped looking after a few minutes and seemed to be staring off into space.

"Hey! That's not helping! Come on!" Zell called as he walked over to the shorter blonde.

"Ultimecia has stolen Quistis' time. She must have used her time magic to go back and somehow kill Quistis in the past or otherwise made it where she wasn't born. She'll keep doing it until you are all gone." Cloud murmured.

He then went wide eyed and slapped his hands over his mouth.

Zell blinked a little, the voice Cloud had spoken in wasn't his. It was far too soft and feminine. It did sound a lot like…

"SQUALL!" Zell nearly screamed to get the commander's attention.

Squall ran over to see what was wrong with Zell thinking he may be disappearing now. Seeing that his friend was fine, he was about to b-rate him for acting stupidly. He didn't get the chance though as Zell started to gesture towards Cloud.

"Ri…Rinoa's in there!" he exclaimed.

"In where?" Squall asked in confusion.

"In there….THERE! In Cloud! She just spoke!" Zell babbled.

"Did you hit your head during the fight?" Squall asked.

"It's only a fraction of her." Cloud said as he put a hand to his chest. "She got inside of me somehow the last time I was visited by the sorceress."

He looked at Squall and Zell and shook his head.

"We don't have time to talk about this though. We need to find that woman. We have to stop her from whatever it is she's trying to do." Cloud said in a determined voice.

Zell and Squall both nodded in agreement. They then went to get Selphie and Irvine so they could regroup on the airship.

VII/VIII

"Who shall I take next." She murmured as she watched the others board the airship. "The last girl? The cowboy maybe? Or go for the annoying one."

Ultimecia smiled as she plotted. Her plans were going well for now. Once she had disposed of all the SeeD members, she would be able to compress time with no one to stop her. She looked at her next target and smiled. Take away the ones that others lean on for support and the others would come tumbling down. As for the Commander, she had a special treat for him. She stroked the red pendent she wore on a chain around her neck and grinned. It would be a spectacular show. She would enjoy watching it before making the world hers.

VII/VIII

Next Chapter 4: Running Out Of Time