I HOLD NO CLAIM TO ANY OF THE ORIGINAL FINAL FANTASY 8 CHARACTERS! NOTHING! :(
Chapter Twenty-Four
Saving Rinoa, Part 1
The duo hadn't even made it three steps from the President's room before an alarm began to blare and lights went crazy.
"What's going on?" Squall cried, looking all around.
"You don't think that the three of them are in trouble, do you?" Lucia asked.
"We're about to find out," Squall commented as Ellone burst out of a room further down the hall. She spotted them and ran to them.
"What's wrong, Ellone?" Lucia demanded.
"I'm not sure! Rinoa just…I don't know! Lurena told me to get out of there!"
"Rinoa?" Lucia went to move but Squall grabbed her shoulder.
"This could be a trap. You take Ellone and go wait for me and your sister in the control room."
"What?" Lucia sounded upset. "But Lurena-"
"I'll get your sister; and Rinoa. Just go and wait for me, Lucia!" The teen gave a mix of a grunt and a sigh before grabbing Ellone's hand and dragging her off to the control room.
Squall watched them for a moment before heading for the room that Ellone had just left; before having to take a jump back just in time to have Lurena come flying out, slamming into the wall in front of him. "Lurena!" He moved to help but the teacher waved him away, pushing herself up to her feet. "What happened?!"
"I don't know! She just…stopped moving. She had crumbled to the floor before turning into…that."
'That' was Rinoa now, walking strangely, almost like a zombie past them all, the ones close to her being flung away like they had been hit with a pole and tossed aside.
"Rinoa…what happened…" Squall repeated, but didn't have an answer as they just watched the girl moved slowly down the hall, knocking them and anyone away when they got too close. "This has happened before," He then commented.
"What? When?" Lurena asked him.
"In Galbadia. This is why Lucia, Irvine and myself had to leave our post before. The Sorceress has put some kind of spell on her…"
"Ultimecia? But how do you know?"
Squall ignored her though, going through his thoughts. ~If they couldn't control Lucia then of course they would go after another one that they knew they could control. So now they're using Rinoa to get to Adel. But if we can't get close to her how are we going to stop her? We have to keep them from succeeding, but how?~
A set of grunts knocked Squall out of his thoughts. He and Lurena followed Rinoa back to the control room and whatever it was that Ultimecia was using as a barrier on her had knocked the ones inside all away from her; Ellone and Lucia included.
"What the hell-?" Lucia cried out.
"It has to be Ultimecia," Ellone told her.
"But how can we-"
"No!" Ellone cried out, cutting her off as Rinoa moved for the controls. Lucia ran forward, trying to grin Rinoa a second time but she was blasted away just like before, this time landing fiercely against the controls, making them malfunction.
"No! That's Adel's deactivation device!" Piet cried out. The machine powered down, leaving the seals that were holding the Sorceress to deactivate.
At that, Rinoa's body turned and left the room again, knocking everyone out of her way. Lurena hurried over to check on her sister but her eyes had been caught by something else on the screen before them.
"The moon's surface is changing!" She cried.
Squall moved closer for his own look. "It's overflowing with monsters."
"It's finally starting," Piet grunted from his own place on the floor.
"The Lunar cry," Squall let slip through his lips.
"If that's the case, we definitely have to stop her. If she plans to free Adel, she'll have to go out there. The Level 2 seal is located on the Tomb itself."
"But how can we stop her if Ultimecia has her grip on her?" Lucia commented, rubbing her head.
"The same way we did with Edea," Lurena replied. "We beat the hell out of her."
"Ellone, you stay in here," Squall told his sister. "We'll be back soon."
She gave a nod. "Be careful." Lucia led them through the halls, leading them to the port to take them out into space to stop Rinoa but they were caught in the path; it was the moon again.. The black clouds of monsters had finally come together as one and formed a reddish-orange like cloud now, before a large beam began to pellet towards the earth, signaling danger for everyone and everything on it.
"Dammit!" Lurena growled, moving after Rinoa again. They arrived to the portal just in time to see Rinoa exiting in a space suit. Unfortunately, there was only one left.
"You two stay here," Squall told the sisters and he began to pull it on. "Get ready to return to earth and stop the monsters. I'll bring Rinoa back with me."
Lucia opened her mouth to reply but stopped herself, just giving a nod and grabbing her sister's hand, yanking her behind her as she moved back into the halls. She was worried beyond belief in what could happen to Squall out there, but she had to have faith in him; but it seemed like there was nothing that he could do. He came running up behind them, cursing.
"I couldn't get through! The force from the Lunar Cry was too strong. Rinoa's already out there." His voice was barely heard over the alarm and the shouts of panic from the scientists as they cried for escape pods. But one voice did catch Lucia's attention.
"Forget about me. Just go!"
"Please, sir, we must hurry!" The Aide cried.
"President Loire!" Lucia called out, moving forward as the Aide's grabbed the man in the spacesuit.
"Lucia!" The President glanced at her as he was being dragged away. "Where's Ellone?!"
"Don't worry! I'll take care of her!" She called back, hurrying towards the Control room again.
~Loire?~ Squall thought to himself as he and Lurena moved after her. ~Where have I heard that name before?~
"Oh gosh! The Lunar Cry is starting," Ellone was mumbling to herself, her eyes fixed on the screen. "Rinoa is going to be swallowed by the flood of monsters."
"Dammit! The seal's gonna be broken," Piet cursed.
There was nothing that they could do except watch through the screen as Rinoa's body floated towards Adel's seal and break it. Lucia's eyes grew wide as the woman's body began to glow a dark red, her eyes as well, before she regained the use of her body back before she was engulfed by the monsters of the Lunar Cry. They could see Rinoa's body being shoved away, flipping through space, away from the monsters.
"Rinoa!" All three of them cried out.
"Come on. We have to evacuate!" Piet told them. "Now!"
"We can't leave Rinoa," Lurena growled. "Kieran would kill us. We have to do something!"
"But how? How can we save her?" Squall demanded. Lucia was silent though, watching as the red Lunar Cry hit Earth before Piet grabbed her arm and dragged her away to an evacuation pod after the rest of them.
"I can't do this! We have to save her! I can't just let her die!" Squall growled. "Ellone, take me to her past! I can stop this from happening!"
"I don't know if I can, Squall." The woman glanced away.
"You have to try! WE have to try!" Squall told her.
Starring at her brother, Ellone was silent for a moment before giving in. "Okay."
"Come on! We have to go now!" Piet cried.
As the pod headed towards Earth again, Ellone and Squall tried several times to reach Rinoa but none of it seemed to work. And then…Squall moved from his spot and began to head up towards the door, claiming he knew what he had to do.
"Squall! What are you doing!?" Lurena cried.
"Fool! He'll never get back!"
"It's all right," He called back down as he moved closer to the exit. "I know what I'm doing. Trust me."
"Squall, be careful!" Lucia called to him as the pods shut again. He was the only one with a space suit here…he was the only one that could go out and give saving Rinoa a final chance. "Please," She clutched her hands together. "Both of you…come back safely."
~I don't want to touch you
Too much Baby
'Cuz making love to you
Might drive me crazy~
"I don't know how, but he did it."
"I know…I'm surprised as well."
"Pah. I knew he could; all along!"
"He better have. If he hadn't, I would have killed him! This is my sister that we're talking about!"
"A sister that you despised until about three days ago."
"Shut it, shortie!"
As the voices all spoke, Squall felt his senses coming back to him. He remembered leaving the pod to save Rinoa; finding her floating there in space. And then there was a space ship that swung towards them. He remembered her thanking him…and then those monsters. Slowly everything came back to him and his eyes opened, raising a hand to block out the light in his face.
"Welcome back, dorks."
"Kieran," Rayna gave her bother a swift whack in the arm.
"Rayna? Kieran?" Rinoa sat up, rubbing her head. "Am I…are you…"
"You're not dead, Rinoa," Kieran replied. "Not yet, anyway. But I swear you scare me like that again and I'll-" His words were cut off at his younger sister buried her face into his chest. He was still for a moment before giving a small smile and rubbing her back; Rayna smiled herself, watching her siblings.
Squall glanced away. They were still on that ship. It appeared that Squall and Rinoa had fallen asleep on their trip. Rayna and Kieran were here, but it seemed like only them and Lucia and Lurena were there as well.
"That was a dumb situation to shot yourself off into," Lurena told the man laying beneath her. "What would the two of you had done if this ship wasn't there?"
"Good to see you again too, teach." Squall gave her a grin.
Lurena looked surprised at his smirk before one spread of her own. "Don't do that again, you hear?"
"Yeah, ye-" He was cut off by Lucia wrapping her arms around his neck as he tried to sit up.
"I was scared," She whispered.
Squall was still for a moment before hugging her back. "You shouldn't have been."
"How could I not have been?" She cried.
He gave a grin and pulled back from her. "I made a promise, didn't I?"
Lucia stared at him for a moment before hugging him again.
"This is sweet and all, all of you," Lurena sighed as she stood up. "But we still have a problem outside."
"You mean the Lunar Cry monsters?" Squall asked as they all exited the ship.
"No, them." Lurena paused at the sight of the group of men before them, a hand on her hip.
As they stepped off the spacecraft, a man approached them. "Sorceress Rinoa. Hyne's descendant."
Another stepped forward. "Come with us. We must seal your power for the sake of the world."
Squall glanced at Lucia as Rinoa agreed. Did they not know about her powers as well?
"This sealing business," Kieran began. "Just what do you plan on doing to my sister?"
"No harm will come of her."
"Bullshit,"
"Kieran," Rinoa looked at him.
"Rayna," the man glanced at his twin. "What do they plan on doing to her?"
Exactly what they did to Adel during the great Sorceress War. Seal her powers and cryogenically frozen."
""Bullshit again," Kieran growled. "I'm not letting you do that to my sister, so you can just-"
"Kieran, it's all right," Rinoa's voice cut her brother off, leaving him in shock. "As long as I have my powers, Ultimecia will keep using me. I can't allow that to happen."
"But there has to be another way," Rayna began.
"It's all right," Rinoa moved after the scientists. "I'll be okay. I'm just…I'm glad that I was able to get you guys back after all this time." She turned and left them behind, her tears barely visible.
"Dammit." Kieran growled.
"Where are the others?" Squall asked. "Where's Ellone?"
"I'm not sure. She was gone when we regained consciousness after the pod set down," Lurena answered him. "There were signs of a struggle, though, so they might have taken her to be sealed as well."
"Then why not you?" Squall glanced at Lucia.
"Well, only Ellone, the President and I really know…" She scratched the back of her head.
"Know what?" Lurena glanced at her sister.
"Look, can't we talk about this another time?" Lucia sighed, dropping her hand. "We have to worry about Rinoa. We're not just going to let them freeze her like that, are we?"
"It's what she wants," Squall replied.
"I don't care about what she wants," Kieran told him. "I care about what I want and I want to save my sister, damnit!"
"I never thought that I would hear those words coming out of your mouth, big guy," They all turned to see that the rest of the group had finally decided to join them. The cowboy gave a grin. "I'm surprised. You've grown up."
"You should learn from him," Alena grunted; but she was wearing a smile herself, no matter how small it was.
Lucia wore a smiled, listening to Zell as he explained to them what had happened while they were up in space. The Galbadian Army was controlling the Lunatic Pandora, the thing that called the monsters down from the moon, so that meant that Ultimecia and Lucas still had a hand in all of this.
"And Adel's down here now, too." Zell finally said.
"Nothing from her yet, right?" Lucia asked him.
"No, not yet, but still…"
"Good, then that can wait for a little while," Quistis told them.
"Wait? For what?" Selphie asked.
Exchanging a look with Lurena really quick, Quistis then locked eyes with Kieran. "Before we do anything else…let's go save your sister."
PLEASE REVIEW :)