Chapter Twenty One – Angel Wing
Quistis gasped. She was lying on the floor, tired after exerting herself in the battle with Leviathan. She gaped at the woman in the centre of the room, at the woman she had killed all those months ago. Her hand found her mouth as she tried to hide her surprise; she was too sound to gather herself once more and get to her feet.
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Irvine had his Exeter trained dead on the sorceress. His hand shook slightly and sweat stung his eyes, but he resolved to leave her no chance to get out of his sight. He felt Diablos get comfortable in his mind and junctioned him immediately. They would not fight her again, not today. He would carry out the Sorceress Assassination he started in Galbadia over a year ago.
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Seifer snarled. His eyes were dauntingly white, the iris shrinking with rage around an already miniscule pupil. His jacket flailed out behind him as he swiped Hyperion at his lifelong adversary, his lifelong rival. He waited only for the command from his mistress, only for the permission to rend Squall's head from his shoulders.
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Selphie shook her head. Half shocked, half sleepy. The bubble had been hurting her – sapping her life – as it had hurtled upwards at an astounding rate. The bubbly SeeD was disoriented, unsure of where she was or who was with her. Siren was helping, but she was scared. She knew only that Squall had called someone Ultimecia. And ice gripped her veins.
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Aeon, miraculously still in aura, had his shriuken in hand and was on Squall's right hand side ready for whatever this woman threw at them. So this was the woman who had tried to kill them all. This was the woman who had tried to end the world. The woman who had been killed by Squall. He was confused, but determined to fight. Phoenix, Aeon's most loyal GF, nudged his mind affectionately as way of apology.
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Zell looked down, feeling helpless. Without a GF he could not cast magic down on Seifer of the sorceress. Without a GF protecting him a jump from this height would surely be the death of him. He stared silently at Squall, willing him to find a way out of this, willing him to find a way to end this quickly. He couldn't bear to watch his friends' face her again without him by their side.
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Squall and Ultimecia's eyes locked. His a glorious honey colour, hers a disastrous crimson; because she was angry, livid.
"So....Some magic, you have on your side..." she began, her voice shaking slightly, but her mouth turning sharply into a dangerous smile. Another snarl left Seifer's throat. "...Shhh..." Ultimecia said, her voice steadying, as she put an arm on Seifer's back. "...We have time enough to deal with this ourselves..."
Seifer's breathing relaxed at her touch, but his face remained as focused and as disgusted as before. When would Ultimecia turn him loose?
"I wonder what it is that helps you...Commander..." Ultimecia mused, beginning to pace in a small circle around her knight; she seemed not to care that Irvine's crosshair lined up perfectly with her head "...Never before has my GF manipulation failed..." She eyed him curiously, her smile growing and her eyebrows arching in both surprise and unwilling respect. She thought quickly, her eyes dancing maniacally as they returned to a less imposing shade of red. "But I am forgetting that I am dealing with – the SeeD who someday kills me, the SeeD that someday ends my reign." Her eyes flashed violently for a moment, in anger. "But...I wonder if I shall remember this day when you defeat me. Remember the day that I defeated you..."
She grinned at Squall.
He kept quietly so as to keep Ultimecia from gauging him, his thoughts, his emotions. He knew that his voice could betray all kinds of information about him with even the most careful whisper, and he took no chance against a sorceress with the power to resurrect herself....
"...I hope that when I die I remember that I have already claimed a victory over SeeD. I hope that by the time my reign is over, the common people remember that they're heroes were slew, regardless, by their fallen queen."
She raised her hand silently above her head; Irvine's Exeter rang out, but the bullet seemed to swerve to avoid Ultimecia, and instead narrowly missed Zell as it was turned upwards. She kept smiling as the familiar blue light began to shine once more above her head.
"Knight, clean things up here. Don't disappoint me, and don't forget my promise..." Ultimecia began to fade, her body becoming transparent as the blue light shone brighter "...Don't forget where I will be; meet me when you survive this battle..." Seifer dropped to one knee, his head resting on the hilt of Hyperion as he paid homage to his mistress. The air became heavier somehow, a chill wind ringing eerily throw the room as she steadily disappeared. She had almost faded completely when her voice rang out once more.
"GREIVER!"
The blue light filled the room, knocking everyone to their knees as it sent a pulse in all directions – only Seifer remained in place – and filling Squall with a brief feeling of emptiness, of loss. Someone in the room screamed, a man, but it was short and ended abruptly.
The light faded, and Ultimecia was gone.
Seifer had stood now, and he glared menacingly at Squall. He stood in his favourite fighting posture, his gunblade stretched before him, and pointing at his target as he swayed slightly on his feet.
"Draw your weapons, SeeD!" he commanded, speaking the last word through violently gritted teeth.
"Squall!" Selphie cried at the same time. She made to run a few steps before him but when Seifer's blade turned to face her, she stopped dead in her tracks; her shinobu were drawn, but she didn't feel like facing Seifer's wrath alone "....look at Zell!" She whispered, pointing behind Seifer.
Squall's heart skipped a beat. The serenity he had felt, even whilst facing Doomtrain, left him for a moment, as he forgot where he was, what was before him, who he'd just seen.
Zell, crumpled and broken on the far side of the room, lay in a heep with blood pooling around his unmoving body. His chest rose, slowly and silently, as his head lay awkwardly atop one of his legs and his arms folded themselves the wrong way. Quistis made to move closer, but with a flick of his hand Seifer sent her flying to join Squall, Aeon and Selphie before him. Before Irvine could make a move, he was tossed back too.
"Time is running out for our beloved chicken wuss..." Seifer sneered with mock sincerity, snapping Squall back to the situation. He was sure his eyes were crimson now. "...can SeeD save the day? Can the Sorceress' Knight be thwarted by the heinous rabble?" He sniggered. "Let us find out..."
He lunged forward, crossing the room in the same amount it time for Squall to draw his Lionheart – and realise with a look to his hand that his Greiver ring was missing. Seifer's blade met with a blue barrier as Quistis hastily cast Protect, quickly joined by Aeon and Irvine; making a bubble again seemed imperative to beating this magically enhanced Seifer.
Squall hesitated, overwhelmed. The ring was gone; why did it matter so much to him? Why was he so furious? Zell was so near, yet so far, in dire need of his help...Why was he so helpless? Why didn't he get up? Why didn't he just tear Seifer to peices....?
Squall lunged this time, through the Protect bubble that was forming around the others, and dragged his Lionheart across Seifer's chest. An ear splitting screech – like someone dragging their nails down a blackboard – filled the room, followed by a colossal eruption, and Seifer was sent flying to the other end of the hall.
Still standing, Seifer got a hold on the ground soon enough to stop from colliding with the wall. Looking down, he found that his shirt had been torn off, the chest plate he had worn underneath it in tatters. His torso was intact, but his anger flared.
While Seifer collected himself, Squall chanced a look at the others; they had formed a protect bubble and were buffing him with all sorts of status effects; Haste, Float, Shell, Protect, Aura, Bravery, Faith. They seemed to realise, as Squall did, that this was his fight, and all they could do was help from the sidelines.
'This was meant to happen, Squall' came that beautiful voice. 'This was meant to happen, and you're doing brilliantly...'
With the smell of sandalwood coursing through his mind, he ran for Seifer. He vaguely heard one of the others, possibly Selphie, exclaim "Let's get to Zell!" as the sound of wind whistling began to fill his ears and the sting of a stiff breeze began to nip at his cheeks. His eyes watered slightly, but it wasn't tears; it was something purple.
His blood rang with thunder and fire as he caught up to his enemy, a Seifer with a maddened look in his eye and his Hyperion already dancing, and they faught with a ferocity that Squall had never thought himself capable of. They jumped higher than anyone had jumped before, moved quicker, thought faster and slashed harder than either of them believed.
Squall threw a Holy War over his allies as they reached Zell's side, he and Seifer caught up in a flurry of Swords and magicks that sent them careering around the room.
Seifer was smiling as his eyes became bloodshot and he began to sweat; Squall saw in his mad eyes a reflection of himself – purple iris', even paler skin than usual, a determination set into his features that both scared and empowered him. This would end here.
"Give it up Commander..." Seifer called as he used the Lionheart as a springboard to jump high and away from Squall "...you've met MORE than you're match..."
Squall stopped for a moment to watch Seifer as his Hyperion danced in his hands with a gracefulness that under any other circumstance he would have found beautiful. A flame began to build in one of Seifer's hands- it was hard to tell which with the steel distorting Squall's view – and Squall's eyes widened before he took off at a run.
He ran so quickly that he was soon scaling the walls, his eyes forever locked on Seifer in the centre of the room, his peripheral vision showing his friends – and his lover – still protected by the Holy War. Thank Hyne. The flame had built to the size of a small bonfire and the Hyperion was spinning around a finger on Seifer's right hand. His manic laugh filled the room before he cried "Sorceress over SeeD; any day!"
The fire exploded. Seifer's laugh still rang around Squall's ears, but the Commander knew that he couldn't stop running. The burn was intense but the sorcery in his blood must have been absorbing a lot of the pain, and once or twice Squall heard the walls crumble around him as Seifer launched himself after him, eager to land the end blow of his attack.
Squall was on the run, and Seifer wasn't getting tired.
Time and again, the Sorceress' Knight collided with the walls, his blade narrowly missing Squall, and time after time, his laughter increased. Squall began to panic slightly; he had ran so far up the wall that he couldn't be sure how far below his friends lay, and he saw no way of tiring Seifer out before he either reached the ceiling or got hit by the end of No Mercy.
Just as his heart began to quicken, the most beautiful sound in the world filled his ears.
Let go, Squall. Let go and let your instincts take over.
Squall closed his eyes. Rinoa had never let him down before, why would she now? He placed enormous faith in his beloved as he pushed himself off of the wall and felt his body take control of itself as his mind sat back and watched.
Seifer looked confused as the Lionheart collided with Hyperion. The black steel of the latter weapon twisted somewhat, and on its surface, where the Lionheart had struck, a purple mist lingered. Squall watched as his blade decimated Hyperion, as he kicked Seifer's face and grabbed his neck, throwing him back to the ground far below. The falling knight shrank quickly from Squall's view, though he didn't seem to allow gravity pull him down; he only fallowed his prey once his body had pointed downwards in a nose dive and he felt himself shooting towards Seifer – quickly catching up with him, letting Squall know he was travelling quicker than should have been possible.
They had yet to reach the ground when Squall was level with Seifer, and another kick put Seifer the right way up just in time to collide with the ground, the impact forcing him to his knees but nothing anymore seriously. Squall felt himself smile as he gently hit the ground, and was surprised that two brilliantly white angel wings were obscuring everything but Seifer from his field of vision.
So this was Angel Wing.
Squall's hand raised itself before Seifer could get to his feet; a flame burst forth and sent the blond back a few paces. He retaliated with his own, weaker flame, that Squall's wings quickly deflected back just as his hand blasted a thunder bolt after it. They both hit at the same time, bringing Seifer to his knees once more.
The opportunity was too much to pass up. The earth started shaking as Squall cast quake, and the air developed razor sharp gusts around Seifer as he simultaneously cast aero. Seifer writhed in agony, but something in Squall told him that he shouldn't be allowed to recover even for a moment.
The earth began to settle again and Seifer toppled to his hands now; on all fours. A lapdog.
A lapdog.
Squall heard himself say the words, but they came out as an echo, filling the room even though he had barely whispered. He was sure that somewhere in the voice Rinoa was speaking as well, but before he could ponder this his body was acting again.
Both arms outstretched now, a block of ice began to gather before Squall. His mouth turned into an even wider smile. The ice emanated a blue fog, the kind that only freezing temperatures bring forth, and Squall pitied Seifer.
Just as the blond looked up, his face collided with the block that went soaring through the air, and he hand to choice but to let it pin him to the pal as it moulded to his body and forced him backwards until he found his torso and arms encased in the block, his back hard against the cold, stone wall.
The purple mist was beginning to descend now, the wings were receding and Squall regained control of his body. The smell of sandalwood and the small voice echoing around his brain however, lingered. Before Angel Wing gave up control of Squall's body completely though, it had one more task.
His hand pointed to the right now, though his eyes did not follow; he had no idea what this was cast at. Before he could begin to panic, a powerful "Esuna!" boomed forth from his voice box and by the time the echoes had fizzled out, his body was his again.
It took a moment for the pins and needles to wear off; he shook his arms and legs a few times, no longer concerned with the incapacitated Seifer despite the snarls and insults coming his way.
Squall turned to look at his friends; to look at his lover.
Zell was sitting upright against the wall, with Selphie and Quistis on either side of him administering round after round of curaga and regen. The martial artist was breathing more fluidly now, and there wasn't nearly as much blood as before (Squall guessed the Angel Wing had had something to do with that), whilst Aeon and Irvine stood, weapons drawn, their eyes lingering on Seifer and the ice that held him firmly in place.
Squall sat beside Selphie and held Zell's forehead silently; a normal temperature, with only a slight sheen of sweat.
"I think he'll be okay, Squall..." Selphie said, to which he replied with a nod.
"Your magic saved us again Squall...Rinoa's magic..." Quistis caressed Squall's arm briefly, allowing them a moment of silence (aside from Seifer's screams – "Chicken Wuss" "Coward" "Don't you turn your back on me, you bastard!") before she coughed lightly. "Squall, you need to deal with Seifer. We need to find out where Ultimecia is and what she's up to!"
Squall nodded and stood. He kissed Zell lightly on the forehead before he patted Irvine and Aeon on the back and motioned them to follow him towards Seifer.
With those three turned away from Zell, and Quistis and Selphie fussing over a few cuts and scrapes that hadn't healed yet, no one noticed Zell's eyes flicker open just for a second, revealing a purple tinge to his brilliant blue eyes.
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R&R Please as usual, I'd love to hear your views on how the story is going!
And I know this might be asking for a bit much but;
PLEEEEEEEEEEASE try to get some people interested in my story! If you know any FF fanatics you think might like it, please, please recommend it...I'll send you virtual love if you do ^^