Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VIII, its characters, plot, and content don't belong to me.
Since I had no e-mail to reply back to your question, this is the explanation for Diablos/Pandemona.
Nlkfmn: You obtain Diablos by rubbing the Magic Lamp Cid gives you when you leave for your Timber Mission – after that, you are able to obtain Brothers (Tomb of the Unknown King), Carbuncle (Draw from one of the monsters attacking Rinoa) and finally Leviathan (Draw from NORG) before you fight Fuujin and are able to obtain Pandemona.
I hope that explains your confusion.
Chapter Eleven
Boundless Caravan; Chu Chu!
"We were… all asleep?"
I notice Squall has finally gotten up moments after me, and is looking around in confusion. I pick myself off the floor and pat down my cloak and hair before turning to face my companions.
"Maybe someone released some sleeping gas? There's lots of people who resent SeeD," Zell suggests, but I shake my head slowly more so to myself than to the others.
"Somehow, I doubt it…" My mumbles go unheard, thankfully.
"Am I missing anything?" Selphie quickly does a check of her own before frowning slightly. "Anyone hurt?"
"Nope," I answer and Squall raises and lowers one shoulder in answer.
"I don't think so," He replies and we settle ourselves back into our seats.
"What a relief!" Our bubbly brunette gives a giggle and stretches her arms over her head. "Hee! I had such a nice dream!" I consent with her, there. Somehow, watching the bumbling Laguna is always fun.
"Same here!" I agree, feeling a wide smile split my face.
"But seriously… Sir Laguna was soooo cool!"
Zell's and Squall's heads snap to Selphie simultaneously, and the blonde's eyes widen while Squall's narrow. "There was a Laguna in my dream, too!" Zell cries, sitting up straight. "He's a Galbadian soldier, right?"
"Laguna, Kiros and Ward…" I voice, watching in slight amusement at the many emotions passing over my comrades' faces. "Think we all dreamt the same thing?"
Zell frowns in answer while Selphie just shrugs. "Who knows."
"This is too confusing…" Squall mutters, bringing a hand to his forehead in frustration. "Let's forget about it for now and focus on our first mission. I'll report it to the Headmaster when we get back."
Problem is, Squally, it'll be a long time before we get back.
---
---
The rest of our lengthy ride goes uneventful, the only activities available being able to watch the ocean pass us by as we cross it underwater. Selphie manages to start up her train song again, while Zell and Squall leaf through a few random magazines.
I, personally, choose to loaf around and think upon what will be happening in the future.
Yo, Eriol, you in there? I haven't spoken to the boy in what seems to be a long time and I have a few questions left unanswered. Strangely enough, he seems to know a lot more than I do on this whole ordeal.
"Might I question who this 'Eriol' character is?" Diablos voices his question pleasantly while I await an answer, causing me to start up slightly.
"Eh. Promise to keep a secret?" I declare, as the devil-like Guardian shrugs his winged shoulders. "Well, if we have to start from the basics, I'd have to say this first – I'm not from Gaia."
He raises a hardly-visible – maybe even non-existent – eyebrow at the statement while Shiva just nods. "You see," I continue, "I lived on this other universe/planet/whatever where all of this was just a game until I got hit by a car – most likely dying in the process – and had this weird person I later found out was named Eriol send me here.
"I was thirteen at the time, and soon found myself at Balamb Garden's Infirmary, under the care of Dr. Kadowaki. There, I met most of the friends I have now." My explanation is finished and I await patiently Diablos's answer, pondering on how he'd take it all; I think I sound like a complete lunatic.
"That explains some things," he finally answers and I stare in confusion at him until he sighs and waves an arm around. "For example, you don't seem to be surprised by what has just happened to you and your fellow SeeD members."
I find the interpretation reasonable enough so I stay quiet, settling for yawing and stretching my hands over my head.
"Still tired?"
I turn sheepishly to Zell, who's looking at me with a grin and a quirked eyebrow. Smiling, I nod. "I guess so."
He just chuckles. "I suppose what happened can't really be considered sleep, could it?"
"Yep! So if you don't mind, I'll be taking a real nap now."
Squall raises his head for a moment from some weapons magazine in his hands. "We'll be at Timber soon," he says blankly and I shrug.
"Well, you'd rather have me drowsy than dead tired, right?" When he stays silent, I smile gleefully and settle down on the couch, using my arm as a pillow. "Thought so."
It's the beach again; the beach with the little girl and boy. Wait, rewind: again? I've… never seen this place before. I would think I'd remember if I did.
…Right?
"—sure?"
I whirl the full 180 degrees at the voice coming from somewhere far off behind me, squinting to make better sense of who the three figures are. Two seem to be full-grown adults, while the other is shorter – a child, maybe? They're walking closer to me, snatches of their conversation carrying over the small breeze.
"…attempted before…danger—child." I am able to make no sense whatsoever of what they are talking about, but somehow, it sounds frightening. Shaking my head in resignation, I turn to face the horizon.
"…"
Somehow knowing there's just someone standing beside me, I peek out of the corners of my eyes, an odd sensation of calmness indulging my senses. The person raises a brow at me, as if daring me to say something. Remarkably, I am not able to recognize the person at all. It's as if I don't even see them.
I open my mouth to speak, head full of questions.
"Wake up."
Hold up; that's not my voice. It doesn't even resemble my voice! For one, it's much deeper. Second, it's close to my ear, and not coming out from my mouth.
"Damnit, Kira. Wake up."
I open my eyes and glare half-heartedly at the face of Zell, who's staring at me in mild frustration. "What do you want?" I growl, upset at having the very interesting dream of mine interrupted.
A ding suddenly sounds above us, and the cheery voice of the conductor falls to our ears.
"We will be arriving in Timber shortly. For those getting off, please be sure to have all your belongings."
Zell points a finger towards the speaker on the ceiling, still crackling from its announcement. "…That." Groaning, I grudgingly sit up and wipe my eyes to rid myself of the drowsiness before smoothing my hair to make it look at least somewhat presentable and hopping to my feet to exit the SeeD cabin and the train in general with my friends.
In truth, Timber is not much to look at if you are used to extravagant sights such as the ones in Balamb and Garden. The main color theme seems to be greens and blues, grey pavement paved on the ground and little houses here and there.
"Our first mission, baby!" Zell whispers, pumping a fist into the air and scanning the area with his eyes. "Get pumped!"
Selphie giggles and I roll my eyes, Squall in turn ignoring the lot of us and starting to head down the cold stairs. We follow him, looking around the place curiously. To me, the place kind of resembles a dump.
"Most likely, it's like this due to Galbadia. A long time ago they waged war on Timber and it finally fell, resulting in this." Silently, I'm wondering how Zell knows all this, since I can't recall any mention of it from Garden. Maybe I was sleeping in class when this was mentioned…? Well, what do you know – learning history in Garden actually proved to be useful.
"That was the time where our 'dream' took place, right?" The hushed conversation carrying on behind me proves to be too intriguing and I turn, leaning backwards slightly doing so to answer.
"I'm betting my Gil on that. Weren't Kiros, Ward, and Laguna Galbadian soldiers going to 'fight a war'?" I smile foolishly. "That is, until Laguna decided to return to Deiling."
Us three giggle at that particular detail, quickly snapping to attention when Squall sends us a glare over his shoulder. We finally come to rest by two little shops, one being marked as a 'Pet Shop' while the other being a gift store.
A guy wearing a too-large bandana on his head watches us suspiciously out of the corners of his eyes before approaching us. Thanks to my awesome memory (when really it's supposed to be rather bad) I am able to recognize him as Watts of the Forest Owls – the troublesome group we are to assist.
"The forest of Timber sure have changed," he comments off-handedly, and I have to wonder exactly how that is not a giveaway. I mean, some random guy just comes up to you and starts babbling about forests in a place where there are almost no trees, and not to mention that not many people are aware of what happened a long time ago.
Selphie and Zell exchange looks while I am off in la-la-land, but Squall remains ever-so-stoic and gives the guy the once-over. "But the owls are still around," he comments dryly, probably finding the password not up to his standards.
"…Though you need more Moogles here." I've no idea where that came from – probably some part of my brain reacting by what it remembers of the game – so the four send me odd looks and I shrug. Hey, it's true. Moogles make the world go round and round!
Watts however shakes it off and grins widely. "Welcome to Timber, sir. Come with me, sir. Please, please, this way, sir!" Wow, three too many sirs, don't ya think? We follow the practically-bouncing man towards some train tracks and a platform, where a train soon comes up to wait for us.
…What makes me so amused is that in large, bold letters the side of it reads 'FOREST OWLS'.
Really, what are these guys? I've never actually admired them too much, seeing as how they almost didn't know anything of what they were doing, and now being able to see them in real life… it's no better. Trust me.
We pile in and the metallic door shuts tight behind us, most likely locking us is. Another man greets us with a large smile on his face. "So, you guys are the SeeDs?" He asks and we nod in answer.
"I'm the squad leader, Squall. This is Zell, Kira and Selphie." Squall introduces us, motioning with his hand as our names are said.
"Nice to meet ya. I'm the leader of the Forest Owls, Zone." Zone introduces, to which he sticks out his hand for Squall to shake. The brunette ignores it and just nods silently.
"So, let's get on with it. What do we do?" As always, right up to the point of business, aren't you Squally?
Zone chuckles slightly in answer and moves back. "Just take it easy. Here, let me introduce you. Looks like you already met Watts." He and Watts exchange glances. "I guess it's just our princess then."
"It's the princess's nap time, sir." Watts informs his leader nervously and I raise one of my eyebrows. This was actually one of the parts that I didn't get. I mean, why would you refer to Rinoa as 'princess'? Well, unless they mean her being the daughter of General Caraway, it really doesn't make any sense.
Zone sighs and looks back at us almost pleadingly. "Ahh, man... Hey Squall, sorry, but could you go get the princess? She's in the last room, up those stairs. Some of our other guys are in the room on the way. Ask 'em if you get lost."
"...Were we hired to run errands?" Squall's eye almost twitches at the prospect and Zone visible shuffles back a few centimeters. "Well?"
"A-Are you angry!?"
Giving an almost inaudible groan, our leader brings a gloved hand to his head in one of his signature moves. "This is the last time for this kinda thing," he informs him icily and starts to walk off down the hall where Zone pointed earlier.
I notice as Zone winces and crouches down in one of the corners, holding onto his stomach, mumbling ""OwOwOuccchhh" continuously while Watts just turns to us and stares for a few seconds.
"So…" he begins, eyes switching from Zell, Selphie and I. "Anyone up for a game of Triple Triad?"
---
---
Selphie manages to win off quite a number of cards from him including one with an adorable picture of a dog, which I'm guessing is Angelo, until I get bored. Sighing, I sit up from leaning against the cold floor beside Zell.
"I'm going to check to see if Squall hasn't gotten lost yet," I say at the inquiring looks and give a small wave, heading down towards Rinoa's room. On the way I manage to get stopped by another three people who give me a small lecture on the Forest Owls, complete with a show of their hidden cameras around the town, curtsey of the computer in the corner.
They inform me that Squall had just left minutes before, so after hurriedly saying good-bye to them I pace faster towards the end of the corridor.
"So. What are you doing standing here?" Squall whirls at my voice from where he is standing, staring at the door with a slightly confused look on his face.
"…She's asleep." He informs me after a few seconds and I stifle a small laugh.
"Of course she is," I say, gripping the doorknob and turning it. "We already know that it's her 'nap time'. Or are you too much of a gentleman now to come in and disturb a lady's beauty sleep?" He glares at me at the remark but I choose to ignore it, instead settling for observing the room.
There's one word to describe it: Pink. I'm serious. The floor, the walls, the ceiling, and even the furniture are some shade of pink. Now, I have nothing against the color (not much, anyway) but seeing so much of it gathered in one place really makes your eyes hurt. Squinting my eyes and wrinkling my nose, I push Squall forward before me.
"You wake her," I say dryly, stepping back a few paces and watching in amusement as the brunette gunblade-wielder looks uncertainly at the sleeping figure on the bed. He turns back to me for a few seconds with a look that almost pleads 'do-I-have-to?' but I shake my head and grin ruefully.
Sighing, Squall takes a minuscule step forward. Thankfully for him, it's just then that Rinoa's body twitches and she sits up, rubbing at her eyes before blinking at the frozen figure of Squall.
"Hey... You're...! You know, from the party... So...does that mean... You're a SeeD!?" She finally says, now staring openly at him in what seems to be awe and amazement. Squall hesitantly nods in affirmation.
"I'm Squall, the squad leader." He suddenly turns and motions to me from where I'm standing by the wall, trying to blend into the pink that is there without any help of my dark clothes. Rinoa looks at where he's pointing and I give a smile and a wave, to which she smiles back.
"She's Kira," He finally introduces me. "There's two others with us."
Rinoa's eyes brighten visibly and her smile widens into a full-blown grin before she hops up and hurls herself at Squall in a hug. "YEEESSSS! SeeD is here!"
I choke on my laughter at the bug-eyed look Squall is giving her before he untangles her arms from where they are around his neck. "Take it easy."
She smiles sheepishly at him before staring to pace the room. "It's just that, I'm so happy! I've been sending requests to Garden forever, but nothing..." She gives a relieved sigh. "I'm so glad I spoke to Cid directly!"
"Oh... So you were looking for the headmaster at the party?"
She nods. "You guys know Seifer?"
I decide to contribute to the conversation so I nod. "Yep."
"Well, he's the one who introduced me to Cid. Cid is such a nice man." I listen half-heartedly to her ranting, not particularly interested in hearing about how nice our Headmaster is. "I really didn't think SeeD would come out to help a measly little group like us. But after explaining our situation to him, Cid gave the go ahead right away! Now that you guys are here, we'll be able to carry out all kinds of plans!"
Squall walks over to her when she pauses for breath, and she takes note, cocking her head to the side.
"Yes?" She asks and Squall motions with his head towards me then to the door.
"We're goin' back to the others," he informs her and she smiles.
"Ok, let's go!" She hesitates after taking a step and turns meekly towards us. "Umm, Squall, Kira. Is 'he' here?"
"…He?" I ask, watching her curiously and feeling a funky feeling stir in my stomach. …Jealousy? Shizit.
"Seifer."
Squall shoots me a look, probably because of the way I suddenly freeze up in the doorway. "... No, he's not a SeeD."
Rinoa sighs. "...Oh, well. Oh yeah, my name's Rinoa. Very pleased to meet you, Kira, Squall." She smiles brightly to me before turning her attention back to Squall.
"SeeD members dance quite well, don't they?" She teases and Squall stifles a groan, choosing to pour out a whole bunch of information at her instead.
"Approach your target inconspicuously at a dance party... There may be missions requiring this sort of subterfuge. It's expected of SeeD to learn various skills."
Wait, it's expected? What do you mean? Is there some sort of handbook of rules for this? …Why wasn't I informed of this?
"Relax," Shiva giggles in my head, finally making an appearance after what seems to be forever. "I believe your SeeD Manual is lying somewhere in your room back at Garden."
"Wait… so there is a manual!" I cry to her, feeling slightly panicky. "Why didn't you tell me!? I believe that I have to read it!" The ice-queen and Diablos roar in laughter together and I decide to block them out, now focusing on the matters at hand.
"Ohhh... So it's work related. That's too bad..." Heehee. She sounds disappointed. Who knew she was starting to like him this early? I mean, she has barely even met him… Romance works in funny ways.
A dog that looks like a mix between a Saint Bernard and a German Shepherd suddenly walks in, weaving through my legs and almost making me loose my balance. He stops in front of Rinoa and gives a small whine, making her smile and start scratching him behind the ears.
Seeing our curious looks, she bends back up and starts explaining. "This is Angelo; he's my partner." Angelo gives a bark at his name and I can't help but grin at the cuteness of him. "He's really smart, believe me. But more on that some other time." She turns back to her dog.
"I have some important work to do now. Be good, Angelo." She walks past me out of her bedroom car and waves cheerily. "I'll meet you guys there!" She calls before disappearing.
Squall and I stare at her retreating back for a few moments before simultaneously picking up our pace and following after her. "I like her," I comment, trying to make conversation. "It's a change after having a leader who barely speaks a word to his teammates."
Squall raises an eyebrow at that and I grin. "It's not that you're a bad leader; you're a very good one, believe me. It's just that you need more spark, you know?" When he stays silent, I sigh and start waving my arms around for inspiration. "Like… SHAZAM! Y'know?"
"I believe you've been spending too much time with Raijin," he finally says, but I don't miss the very small smile on his lips at my words.
"Hey, he's a cool guy in all." I defend my friend quickly, seeing as how we're nearing Rinoa now. "He just needs to let up on the 'y'know's. And maybe try hanging out with someone other than Fuujin and Seifer."
I get no response form my companion, so I don't know whether he agrees or not. Never less, we slide open the door where everybody else is waiting and I walk over to Selphie and an oddly twitching Watts.
"What'd you do?" I whisper to her and she hides a giggle behind the palm of her hand while Squall introduces them.
"I believe I've just won more than half of his deck," Selphie replies, referring to their Triple Triad game. I laugh quietly with her until Zone starts shooing us into another cabin.
"Just stand anywhere you want." He instructs and I choose to lean by some taped-on cutout articles in the back. We finally settle down and the Forest Owls leader begins a speech of a sort.
"This is a full-scale operation." He says, using his arms for momentum. "Our resistance, 'The Forest Owls', will be forever known in the pages of Timber's independence! Exciting, huh? It all started when we got a hold of top-secret info from Galbadia."
"I got the info, sir!" Watts interrupts, but otherwise his superior ignores him.
"There's a VIP from Galbadia coming to Timber." He continues, only to be broken off by an overly-excited Watts once again.
"Super V-I-P!!!"
"The guy's name is Vinzer Deling! Our archenemy, and the President of Galbadia."
"Vinzer Deling is a scoundrel!!! He's a dictator, not a president. Not even popular in Galbadia, sir!"
I watch in entertainment as the two go on trash-talking the president of Galbadia some more before Rinoa finally has enough and stops them to go on with the mission.
"President Deling is taking a private train from the Galbadian capital." She enlightens us, heading towards the miniature railroad complete with the trains positioned on the table in front of me.
"Our plan is to..."
Selphie pipes up at this point, efficiently cutting off what Zone was going to say. "...Blow it to smithereens with a rocket launcher!?"
The man recoils back and gives her a strange look, shaking his head. "Ahh...not quite..."
"So get to the point! Just tell us what to do!" That's Zell and I, getting rather impatient with all of this. Rinoa nods and motions for us to lean over the table, which we do so gladly.
"Shall we begin?"
By my standards, she makes all of this sound harder than it's supposed to be. Over-dramatizing, I suppose you could say. Our assignment itself is simple: kidnap the president, where Rinoa will 'peacefully' talk to him regarding the independence of Timber.
What us SeeDs are supposed to do is this: currently, our party is residing in the 'base' car, from where we will be riding on top of it going who-knows-how-many-miles an hour at breakneck speed alongside the cars of the train where the president is riding in. We jump onto the second escort car of the opposing train from this car's roof.
Two sensors are located on the second escort: a temperature sensor, held by the red guard, detects you if you stay stationary. The other sensor is the sound sensor, held by the blue guard, which will go off if we don't move quietly. The guards never check both of them at the same time, so basically, what we have to do is run if the red guard is checking his sensor and wait if the blue guard is checking his below us.
We jump from the second escort car on top of the president's car, where we can move freely since the guy doesn't like the company of guards and will be alone below. Afterwards, we have to uncouple the first escort car carefully before the first switch point, then have our 'dummy' car and 'base' car move in.
I quote, from Rinoa: "After the car is uncoupled... We'll have the 'dummy car' and our 'base' move in. At this point, our train and their train will be linked and be moving together." Easy so far, right? Right.
Following this we start uncoupling the second escort car, then escape with the president's car and our base.
"If all goes well, we should be able to escape with the 'president's car'." We look back to Rinoa after she finishes explaining. "After that, we'll return to our base and prepare to confront Deling. We have exactly 5 minutes to complete the described procedures. If we fail, our train will collide with theirs at the switch point and it'll be all over. Don't forget that."
Zell frowns. "Five minutes...? You sure that's enough?"
Zone nods. "According to the simulation that we ran, it should take only 3 minutes to complete the operation. Piece of cake for SeeDs, right?" …I guess.
"Of course! Too easy!" Squall doesn't say anything after Selphie's outburst, so our employers move onto the next stage of matter.
"To uncouple the cars from a moving train, we'll have to tamper with the control system of it. Squall," He turns at the mention of his name coming from Rinoa's lips. "I'll be relying the codes to you while you slide down the side of the train towards the bottom of it, where the control is located. It will have four buttons corresponding with four numbers. You'll have five seconds to enter them until they change and the ones I give you become invalid. If either you, Zell, Kira or Selphie notice a guard coming to check, you must slide back up immediately! Understood, everyone?"
All of us nod, still checking over the proto-type version of the trains. "Say…" Selphie suddenly remarks, peering closer towards the cars. "By the way...this model's nice but the president's car looks kinda shabby. ...Why is that?"
Watts suddenly laughs and comes over to looks at it with us. "Yeah, Rinoa made it. That's why. We bought everything else at the gift store."
Zell taps his chin and frowns. "Oh... I thought some kid made it. The paint job sucks, too."
Rinoa crosses her arms and pouts once hearing our conversation. "Oh, shut up! I made it look like that on purpose. It represents my hatred towards Deling."
Our blond SeeD member raises an eyebrow at that. "Hatred, eh...? Yeah...right."
"It's one of the...ugliest things that I've ever seen in my life. You must really hate him." I say to her, and all of us three burst into laughter in good humor.
"Enough about my model, all right!" Rinoa whines and we stop, though we're still grinning widely. "It's time to decide the parties for this."
Watts runs over to one of the corners, furiously waving his hands in front of him. "Gathering information is my specialty, sir!" He squeaks, and we turn our sights on Zone, who crouches down holding his stomach in fake-pain.
"Owowowowow, my stomach!" He moans and Rinoa sighs.
"All right, then!" Clapping her hands for our attention, she pauses for a few seconds before nodding. "Squall, as I said, you will be inputting the codes. Zell and Selphie, you'll be on the look-out for guards. Kira, you'll be helping me relay the cords and hold Squall up."
I blink at her and raise my arms to look at them in slight distaste. Zell bursts into laughter, understanding where I'm going. "I doubt she has any upper-body strength!" He chortles and I scowl at him, bringing one of my fists onto his head.
"Shuddup!" I cry and cross my arms back across my chest. "I am very adept at sword-wielding, thank you very much!" Selphie and Rinoa giggle at our display before Rinoa smiles cheerily.
"All right then! Let's get this show on the road! Talk to Watts when you're ready."
All of us nod and hurry off to check over our Junctions and re-equip any Guardian Forces we may have taken off. In this process I find that Selphie has still kept Siren, Squall has Quetzacoatl while Ifrit is being lent out to Zell until we get our next GFs.
"Brothers?" Diablos replies after I comment to them about our future companions. "I've heard of them. Quite a rowdy two-some bunch."
Shiva gives an un-lady like snort before smiling broadly. "They'll be perfect for him, then!"
Giggling with her, I finish my preparations and head outside with my group, where we meet up with Watts. He grins at us blindingly.
"You guys ready?" He asks, going on for a few more minutes about the 'fake president' they had made. We've no wish to see it so we say that yes, we have seen it, and that yes, we are ready to go probably to our deaths by train if all goes wrong. But those cynical thoughts aside, on we go!
Chuga-chuga-chu-chu!
Oh yes; almost forgot to mention. I have some art I've drawn of Kira and Eriol lying around, so check my profile once in a while where I'll be posting the links up at.
Don't forget to review! Until next time.