Disclaimer: So, yeah. Threw a penny into a wishing well and made a wish that I owned FF8...Still waiting for it to happen though.
Warnings; Oily, mucky ladders. THE WEIRDY WITCH! Possessed Edea. Flying battle fortress Galbadia Garden. Hints of Missile Base. Hints of Balamb.
A/N; ...O...M...G... YAY CHAPTER TEN! LIKE YEEEEEAAAAAH! PARRRRRRRRTAH! *finishes dancing around* Wow! *holds up award* Like I want to thank my mom for encouraging me. And I want to thank my brother for getting me into Final Fantasy. And I want to thank everyone who is following this story and have reviewed. You have kept me on the straight and narrow, kept me up until ungodly hours so I could finish a chapter and most of all, made me feel all warm inside!
Yeah, nothing going on much 'ere. Just a filler. I wanted to do a chapter where G-Garden learns to spread its steely wings and fly. The next chapter might be more productive. But I'm not going to say what just in case there's a change of plans. Oh and I have to apologize for the spelling mistakes in Chp nine. SO SORRY! I thought I got them all.
ENJOY!
Seifer decided he really hated ladders.
They were annoying, squeaky, and ugh was that oil or something else entirely? He desperately hoped it was oil, he could live with that, if it was something else like monster droppings then he might just end up washing his hands until the soap pump ran out and then maybe a few times more. Sighing in relief when the ladder finally ended, he stepped onto the slightly rusted metal floor, glaring at the spots of blackish goo littering the floor. He had no idea why Edea sent him to the MD level of G-Garden, he didn't even know that there was a floor between the levels, it seemed practically impossible because unlike Balamb, Galbadia didn't have a lift where there was a large gap between floor 1 and floor 2. But he couldn't really complain, Edea had been in a malicious mood lately, often then not several commanding officers of the army had been dragged from her chamber, bloodied and bruised.
She seemed to know that he had helped Squall and she hadn't been pleased. He was sure it was a miracle he was alive after the amount of magic she had pulsed through his body, it had been pure agony, he would have rather been stabbed by Squall's gunblade repeatedly than tortured by Edea. His only consolation, if that, was the strange dreams that been occuring. They always happened at random intervals and were of the same thing, him and Squall within the Orphanage with the faceless woman known as Matron. He always seemed to get the same feeling of safety, the sense of home within the dreams, especially around Squall, the brunette seemed so frail and lonely in the dreams that when he woke up, he felt like gathering Squall up in his arms and never letting him go.
Groaning aloud, he glanced at the bottom of his shoe, watching as the thick black sludge dripped from it, the god damn Sorceress better be grateful of her stupid powers or he would have killed her by now. He walked into a small room, noticing the big metal wheel waiting for him, it was old and mostly rusted, he would be lucky if he could turn stepped up to the wheel and gripped it hard, feeling how worn it was. The first few attempts to turn it was a total failure, it refused to budge.
He sighed in irrtation, he was down in a Hyne knows where tunnel filled with Hyne forsaken oil that smelt truly like Marlboro breath with no way out, all to find a stupid control panel that might not work.
His life really did suck.
Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the wheel and put all his brawn into turning it, it didn't move for about a second before giving in and turning. He wondred briefly if Balamb had something like this then shook his head, even if the Garden did have something like this hidden away, it wouldn't be much good now. Balamb Garden was nothing more than a hole in the ground now, just like Trabia.
Storming from the room, he nearly fell down a large hole in the floor that definitely wasn't there before. Looking round, he found a very small walkway that lead to a oh Hyne be damned ladder. Feeling his irritation grow to an angry throbbing in his temples, he climbed down the even stickier, slippery ladder, praying to everything he probably didn't believe in that if he survived this, he never had to see another ladder again.
Reaching the bottom after a gruelling five minute climb down, he found himself on another walkway, luckily this one didn't have any ladders, that he could see anyway. Sighing in relief, he walked down the steps, hearing his footsteps echo round the large room. It was larger than the Training Centre, when the walkway finished there was a small circular plate of flooring before it lead off to another walkway that then lead to a large control panel. Most of the room was taken up machinery; wires wound their way along the rooms, connecting the large ball like gears to the control panel which looked old, very old, at least twenty to thirty years old, maybe more. Seifer doubted if it still worked but the Sorceress wanted him to find it and get it working and that was what he was going to do. If he didn't do it willingly, Ultimecia would make him to do it.
He stepped up to the control panel, giving it a slightly wary glance. What did it do? Did it blow the Garden up? Allow it to grow legs and walk? Well, if Edea was intrested in it then it must do something good. Looking over the controls he realized he should have took more intrest in ancient languages. It was covered in symbols that looked more random squiggles than a language but it did look familier. Frowning he took a closer look, trying to see where one squiggly symbol ended and where the other began. After a few minutes of brain breaking translating, he realized they were more or less instructions...
He never was good at following instructions, his four attempts and the SeeD exam proved that.
The language was old Centra, a forgotten way of life that maybe the Shumi still used. After the Lunar Cry destroyed the villages on the Centra continent, the language faded until everyone near enough forgot about it. It wasn't uncommon for buildings to still have the old Centra machinery but even this was surprising. Seifer would never have guessed that Garden had this sort of technology.
Seifer followed the instructions as best as he could. He was a little rusty, he never paid much attention in Languages, finding it boring. He wanted to become a mercenary, not a linguist. He pressed certain buttons, not really all that sure that they were the right buttons.
After the last button was pressed, he plled the creaky lever to the left of him, watching as nothing happened. He felt his ire rise again and decided that hitting the control panel wouldn't be a bad idea. He bashed the centre orb like screen, jumping out of his skin when the machinery shuddered, before sharp jolts of electricity shot along the wires at the large ball shaped gears started to move, slowly getting faster and faster until the platform suddenly began to move upwards, nearly knocking Seifer off his feet.
The ceiling was getting closer and closer, Seifer was actually thinking of jumping off the platform when the ceiling began to glow and the platform passed right through it. Seifer watched as shocked students gaped in awe as he shot high above them and through the floors. He was a little surprised to find Edea standing on the platform when he passed through another floor. She stood there calmly, a sinister smirk on her lips as the platform finally stopped rising and came to a halt.
Seifer once again watched as the glowing ring above the Garden began to turn, sweeping up dust from the desert like land around them. It slowly lowered, doing the same as the platform and it passed through walls and floors. He looked over the edge, not wanting to miss anything. This was spectacular, who knew that Garden could do this?
The ring stopped at the bottom, near enough sinking into the ground before it tilted upwards on one side and then the whole building shook, like the was an earthquake going. Garden didn't seem to be doing much for a few minutes and then Seifer spotted something, they were slightly out of place on the floor, like they had moved about alf an inch which slowly began to get bigger and bigger until he saw nothing but sea.
Garden was flying!
"Exciting isn't it, boy?" Seifer glanced at Edea who watched him intently with some unknown emotion glittering in her amber gaze. He nodded his head, shuddering slightly at the smile that came to her lips. She walked towards the control panel, pressing a couple of buttons. The Garden made a humming noise before it began to turn and they slowly passed the mountains by Dollet. Seifer realized that they were heading for Balamb town.
"I have an order for you, boy. Call your lackies and then I want you to search Balamb for Ellone. Burn it to the ground if you have to." With that Edea floated to the edge of the platform, walking down the glowing stairs that appeared. Seifer felt cold and he rubbed at his arm, trying to warm the frigid skin. He took a deep breath and followed after Edea. Fuujin would understand, Raijin would follow Fuu so he had nothing to really worry about...But burn Balamb to the ground? Why? It was just an innocent town like Trabia.
He could search for Ellone, he could go back to Balamb after what he had done even if they didn't know, but what he couldn't do was burn it to the ground. He just couldn't.
Balamb was his home...
A/N; oooooh. I am so tired of ladders! They're everywhere! AH! *goes and hides* So like, I hope you liked my MD level for G-Garden. No monsters but then I'm rubbish at describing battles. Sooooorry! Please R&R. Me go sleepies under my rock now. ^-^