Phenomenon

No Turning Back

The two Squalls kept at it, their battle growing more intense as they continued to duke it out. Their confrontation was in a dead heat, both fighters displaying amazing proficiency as they would strike and block each other's attacks in rapid succession. Although the SeeD's efforts were great, the clone remained one step ahead, his speed and precision working to his advantage and making it especially difficult for Squall to land a proper blow.

Still, Squall kept going, thoughts of Rinoa his driving force as he managed to hold his ground effectively. No matter how hard the situation appeared, he wasn't going to quit, not until he had won the fight and could finally save her. It was the one thing he had promised her, the one goal he had set for himself since this all began...and nothing was going to stand in the way of seeing it fulfilled. He fought his hardest, his great resolve feeding the flames of his aggression and giving him the needed endurance to continue on.

In a bid to undermine Squall, the clone suddenly changed his plan of attack and went for a low blow. To his surprise, however, the SeeD wasn't so easily outwitted, almost instantly turning his blade at a downward angle and parrying the attack. Now in another gridlock, both fighters quickly thrust their weapons to the side in unison before bringing them around to halt upright. Their weapons still locked together, both Squalls glared at each other in absolute spite, neither willing to back down.

Finally seeing a chance to best the clone, Squall made his move: thrusting upward on the clone's weapon, he was able to push him back and broke the hold. Then, taking advantage of his opponent's vulnerability, he quickly followed up with a heavy strike from his gunblade. Momentarily stunned from having been outplayed for once, the clone was hit by the blow and stumbled backwards.

Regaining his footing, the duplicate then looked towards Squall in a moment of shock. The SeeD stood in place, gunblade down at his side while breathing heavily from the endless struggle. Though their attributes were almost perfectly matched, the clone's speed and skill had still proven exceptional, nearly uncanny, and his stamina was practically inexhaustible as he bore no sign of lethargy even now. To Squall's dismay, however, he could feel his fatigue beginning to catch up to him – and though he had held his own well against the clone so far, he found himself having to wonder how much longer he could go on. As much as he hated to admit it, even he knew he couldn't fight forever.

In spite of his current condition, Squall did his best to overcome his weariness, glaring back at the clone fiercely while he stood ready to fight some more. He didn't care how impossible or trying the battle seemed - he had come here to save Rinoa, and he had no intentions of stopping until he had succeeded.

The clone sneered at the scene before him. While he found himself pleased by Squall's determination, he also couldn't deny how pitiful the SeeD looked. Even though their struggle was clearly beginning to take its toll on his body, he still couldn't bring himself to accept defeat, willing to continue on despite the situation now working against him. It truly was laughable. Squall was far too stubborn for his own good.

"Feeling weak, are we?" he taunted.

Squall didn't reply, his answer, instead, coming in the form a single swing with his gunblade before going into a fighting position, his eyes still glaring intensely at the clone.

The clone scoffed again, finding himself forced to admire Squall's valor as he cocked his head. He then rushed toward the SeeD, employing two consecutive blows to either side of his body. Despite his lack of energy, Squall managed to block the strikes and the clone quickly followed up with a strong, horizontal swing from the right. This third attempt succeeded in overpowering the tired SeeD Commander, and he fell backward onto the floor with relative ease.

Squall lay still for a moment, trying to recover his stamina while the clone stood over him, proudly. Without warning, he suddenly slammed his gunblade down on the SeeD mercilessly, forcing Squall to expend further energy as he acted quickly to defend himself from the fatal blow. Their weapons locked together again, the clone then bore down heavily on Squall while he lay on the ground, the latter garnering all the strength he could muster to in order to fend off the assault.

Zell, Selphie, and Irvine stood staring up at the interchange of gears before them, still no ideas gracing their mind while they considered all of their options thoroughly. They certainly couldn't climb the system, and as they had no ideas where the malfunction might be, they wouldn't know where to look anyway.

They were completely stumped, the clock rapidly ticking away for Garden while they remained dormant. The longer they stood there, the closer Lunatic Pandora approached, and the faster they were sealing their fate. Time was a luxury they didn't have.

"What are we gonna do?" Irvine asked, a worried tone in his voice. His question was met only with disappointment, unfortunately, as Selphie shrugged, and Zell didn't even acknowledge that he had spoken.

Zell scrolled his eyes up and down the complex mechanism for a moment, lost in deep thought while he pondered their predicament. Within moments, his doubt turned to ecstasy, the SeeD smirking proudly as an idea struck his mind. Without uttering a single word, he quietly threw his hand out in front of him and cast "scan" on the gears. Standing there in silence, he then carefully examined the mechanical tower, looking closely for any signs of damage or disruption while his two companions looked on eagerly.

Unfortunately, despite the SeeD's best efforts, his search remained fruitless, not even the slightest indication of any kind of tampering able to be found. His face dropped at the unsettling discovery, a look of defeat quick to form and he stared at the gears in alarm.

"That can't be possible." he remarked, his tone low.

"…What is it?" Irvine asked. His voice bore a hint of hesitation, the blonde's words having ignited a heavy fear within the sniper.

"I can't find anything," Zell answered, "Either "scan" can't detect it somehow, or…there's nothing here."

Irvine and Selphie looked at each other anxiously, their stomachs dropping immediately at the unexpected news.

Zell stared up at the gears for another moment with a troubled expression, still holding a bit of doubt towards the situation. He had certainly expected some form of sabotage at the hands of the Galbadian Army, and the fact that the operating system for Garden's flight mode was unresponsive only served as further evidence. Now, however, with their endeavors to counter such actions proving pointless so far, the unruly blond found himself wondering, second-guessing himself, and their predicament, once again. He was perplexed, disturbed even by the unnerving turn the events had suddenly taken. If the soldiers truly hadn't tampered with the system…then what exactly had caused it to suddenly stop functioning?

"So, what do we do now?" Selphie asked. It was obvious she had tried to maintain her composure while speaking, but the intensity of the moment had still gotten the best of her, the fear she felt hinted strongly in her voice.

Zell didn't respond, the SeeD's eyes still locked on the interchange while he studied it closely again. He still wasn't convinced. Nothing had been wrong with Garden's controls until Galbadia had invaded, and the system certainly wouldn't have stopped working for no reason. Something about the situation just didn't add up. There had to be something, a clue or idea that they had somehow missed.

Selphie and Irvine stared at Zell, awaiting some form of response from the SeeD while the blond remained quiet, continuing to focus his full attention on the controls while trying to come up with a logical explanation for their ordeal. His silence only furthered the concern and doubt of his two companions. Zell was the most skilled with machinery out of all of them, and it was rare he was met with a technological challenge that was too grand for him to handle. The fact that even he seemed unable to figure this one out, left their stomach in knots, and they feared for the result.

Still stooped in silence, the SeeD slowly stepped towards the controls again. His eyes locked on absorbedly, Zell examined the system closely while Selphie and Irvine looked on in wonder, doubt and anxiety high within the latter from their friend's odd procedures.

His investigation this time still proving inconclusive, Zell then found himself drawn to the back of the console. Carefully leaning over the top of the controls, he looked down the back and was finally met with the source of their problem: the backside of the system had been violently bashed in, and the wires had been cut and severed.

"Bastards…" he muttered, his teeth clenching hard while an intense glare formed in his eyes. Anger swelling within, he balled his fist, nearly banging it against the controls before stopping himself short. Aggression wouldn't get them out of this situation. Despite his immense fury towards the Galbadian soldiers, they couldn't afford to be reckless, and he fought to contain his emotion, relaxing his fist and standing straight again.

"What's wrong?" Irvine asked, taking note of the blonde's actions.

Zell turned his head, emotion still fighting to win him over and he gritted his teeth again. Too consumed with ire to go into full detail on the matter, he got right to the point, uttering a simple, yet vague response to his confused companions.

"…We've got a problem."

Squall still sat hunched the floor, bracing himself hard against the clone's force, their weapons remaining locked together. Though unwilling to admit to such, the SeeD Commander could feel his strength fading further now. The battle had already begun to take its toll on him, and his remaining energy was rapidly depleting in this endless deadlock. As disgraceful a thought it was, he knew it was only a matter of time before his ebbing vigor gave way completely.

Still, he fought, pushing against the clone's weapon as hard as he could in hopes of somehow breaking out of the unyielding hold. His face clenched and a faint grunt emitted, the consistency of such a sound further illustrating the SeeD's dire struggle.

The clone stared back at him with that undying arrogance, a haughty smirk forming at the edge of his mouth, once again, at Squall's expense. It was a most gratifying sight: the "powerful" Commander of SeeD actually overtaken in battle, nearly hanging by a thread as he fought to hold on with the last bit of strength he had. All that was left now was to hear Squall beg for mercy, just before the clone delivered the final blow. He couldn't even begin to describe his ecstasy at such a thought.

"Why don't you just give up already?" he scorned, "You can't beat me. It's over."

Squall ignored his words, the SeeD still fighting his hardest in spite of his condition. He didn't care what claims the clone made – he wasn't backing down until he was sure he couldn't fight anymore. The clone was only convincing him to try harder.

Nevertheless, as his fatigue continued to grow, Squall knew he could only hold on so much longer. Against the clone's limitless resilience, and his own waning potency, the SeeD Commander was, unfortunately, unable to deny the obvious disadvantage he faced. If he wanted to make it out of this, he needed a plan…and fast.

He felt the pressure against him increase, his merciless foe taking great advantage, and delight, of Squall's weakened state as he pressed down harder. The SeeD tried in vain to fight back this time, but his strength had now reached its peak, drastically declining at an alarming rate and he could feel his arms nearly give in as they trembled horribly, barely able to hold anymore against the clone's force.

In those last moments, Squall was a bit embarrassed. He had intended to fight this battle on his own, using his own strength, his own skill to take down the clone. It would have just made for a more satisfying feeling to have won this particular conflict alone. However, with no other option he could see, and moments away from defeat, he felt he had no choice but to resort to such an action. It was better than suffering a humiliating loss to the likes of such a cheap and snide imitation.

"Ifrit." he grated. At the mention of the fiery beast's name, Squall's eyes shot open in a scene eerily reminiscent of one possessed. A ferocious flame burned intensely in his eyes, and the clone suddenly felt a surprisingly strong resistance against his blade.

Squall pushed upward on the clone's weapon and violently forced the duplicate back with astonishing ease, now breaking free of the hold and finally bringing an end to their standstill. In a momentary state of shock at the sudden turn of events, the clone looked towards Squall in bafflement.

"What the -?!"

The SeeD glared back at him, the aura he emitted growing more heavy and fierce with each passing second from the power he had utilized from the Guardian Force. Urged on by his anger, and the intensifying aggression he harbored towards the duplicate, Squall soon allowed the power of the flaming beast to fully overtake him: willingly sacrificing all control of his actions, he unleashed Mad Rush before hurrying towards the clone at dire speed.

Still a bit taken aghast by what was going on, the clone had no time to react as Squall immediately unleashed rapid, brutal strikes on the startled adversary. As Squall's strength was no longer entirely his alone, each blow he delivered was performed with astonishingly overwhelming power, the drastic change of tide in battle instantly causing a role reversal as the clone now found himself having to defend against the SeeD's relentless assault.

Under the effects of "haste", and caught in an infinite berserk state, Squall's newfound, ruthless aggression was clearly demonstrated as he pounded away at the clone's defenses tirelessly. The two gunblades clang together loudly, sending an ear-piercing echo ringing throughout enormous chamber.

His efforts seeming ineffective so far, Squall, heavily under the influence of Ifrit's destructive power, soon changed his plan of attack: jumping into the air, he proceeded to bring his gunblade down on the clone with all of his might. The combined strength of the SeeD and Guardian Force unleashed a devastating blow, and the clone was immediately hurled backward across the arena before brutally slamming into the wall.

He winced from the hefty impact, briefly slumping onto the floor while he attempted to shake off the aftershock. He was dumbfounded by the whole event. Just minutes ago, he'd had the upper hand, had been on the verge of victory, of eliminating the pathetic, overconfident Commander. Where had this sudden display of overwhelming power come from? And, why hadn't he been able to counteract it?

He slowly rose to his feet, lifting his head and looking towards Squall with a blend of irritation and confusion. The SeeD Commander stood a few yards away, his Lionheart held firmly in hand while he stared back at the clone coldly and ruthlessly, ready to continue on. It was almost as if the SeeD was urging him to fight more, the intense look on Squall's face gladly welcoming the challenge.

Eyeing the SeeD closely, the clone scowled at the sight as he finally reached his peak. He had taken a light approach in their battle up to now, going easy on Squall to make things more interesting, if only for his own amusement - but, now…that all came to an end at this moment. If Squall thought he was walking away victorious, he was sorely mistaken – the clone would use all of his power to make sure of that.

"Alright. I'm done playing around." he muttered.

At those words, he held his gunblade before him in a horizontal fashion. Closing his eyes, he proceeded to draw his first two fingers along the length of the blade, the brilliant, blue light of the sword shining brighter now as he appeared to be concentrating.

Within moments, a vivid, blue aura surrounded him, the clone having drawn the full power of his attributes, and the semblance of power obtained from Rinoa, in his ultimate bid to eliminate Squall. Now, feeling the colossal might surging through him, he directed his full attention to the SeeD.

The two Squalls stood still a moment, staring each other down heatedly. This was it. In the heat of their ever-intensifying struggle, only one of them would walk away from this battle. A cunning expression formed on the clone's face in the excitement he experienced. If Squall thought the battle had been difficult before, he hadn't seen anything yet - and he beamed with pride at the thought of the SeeD's imminent, and inevitable, downfall.

With both fighters ready to end it here and now, the two Squalls cast all words aside and dashed towards one another at once in their final bout.

"How's it coming along?" Irvine asked.

"Almost got it." Zell answered. His voice was almost dull in his response, the blonde's full attention focused on the mess of wires in his hands.

Selphie stepped closer, curiosity overtaking the young woman as she carefully leaned over the controls to get a better look. Examining the scene before her, the SeeD could suddenly feel her heart beating frantically in her chest. She glanced from the wires to Zell, the latter seemingly oblivious to that fact that she was beside him as he continued working rapidly on the repairs.

"…Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Selphie asked, the uncertainty she felt clear in her voice. She hated to sound as though she didn't trust him, but she couldn't conceal her lingering hesitation regarding the ordeal. She had never seen Zell perform any kind of maintenance, and he wasn't exactly the most collected person. Taking these facts into account, to see him actually attempting to reconfigure the controls for Garden's navigation system…needless to say, it made her rather uneasy.

Zell didn't respond, seemingly unfazed by her concerns as he now began to apply the finishing touches of the procedure. While aware that his particular course of action wasn't exactly the best, it would have to do. Between their race against time, and his lack of needed tools for the job, it had been the only idea he could think of – and it was certainly better than doing nothing at all. As long as they could get Garden mobile again and avoid the horde of monsters that threatened to overrun them, nothing else mattered.

"Got it!"

He quickly pushed off the control panel and returned to a full standing position. Eager to see how his efforts fared, and having no time to waste, Zell then attempted to activate Garden's flight mode again.

The machine seemed to hum at first, nearly dying almost instantly before finally coming to life once more, much to the trio's amazement. The three friends watched in absolute elation as the gears slowly began spinning in place, the machine now appearing to fully kick-in as the sound emitting from it became louder and stronger.

Just when they were willing to get their hopes up, however, the console abruptly shut off, the interchange of gears coming to a sudden stop and the room was instantly consumed with utter silence once more.

The SeeD's faces promptly dropped in response to the event, the confusion clear on Selphie's expression as she looked around.

"What happened?"

Zell didn't respond as he quickly turned his attention to the controls again. In spite of how things appeared to be turning out, he wasn't willing to accept that their situation could truly be irreversible. They had made it through much more difficult hardships just the year before – and he would be damned to watch Garden fall after everything they had survived up to now. It would just be ridiculous. This wasn't over yet – not if he could do anything about it. There was no way he was letting Galbadia win after all they had done.

Determined to get out of their predicament, he resorted to his original method: testing out every switch and trigger on the control panel in hopes of eliciting some kind of reaction. Unfortunately, much like his previous attempts, the system refused to respond, the console appearing completely dead, once again, and the gears sat dormant.

Zell dropped his head, banging his fist down on the console and muttering under his breath, cursing the whole dilemma.

"Dammit! So close… Come on!"

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fist tighter, squeezing his eyes shut as he felt those previous feelings of anger and hatred return, raging fiercely within the brash SeeD. If he thought he hated Galbadia before, no semblance of aggression he had ever experienced could begin to compare to how he felt now. He no longer simply hated them - he despised them to the very core, the very fabric of their being. He not only wanted to get them back for what they had done…he wanted to make sure they suffered horribly in the process. He had never felt such immeasurable spite before, such a desire for revenge. Somehow, those dastardly soldiers had to pay, and he wouldn't be satisfied until they had. It was the only way to tame his burning fury.

"Let's just get out of here," Irvine hastened, "We've got to warn Xu and Nida. Maybe there's still something we can do."

Zell remained silent, not even acknowledging his friend's words as he emitted a frustrated sigh. He had done everything he could think of, taken every possible action that could help them to outsmart the Galbadian Army and ruin their fatal intentions – yet, despite his efforts, it still hadn't been enough. After all the time they had spent down here in a desperate bid to save their home, and themselves, they had nothing to show for it. Even now, Garden still remained immobile, set on a course for complete annihilation as Lunatic Pandora continued to loom its ugly presence overhead. It killed him to think those lowlife soldiers could actually get away with such a diabolical plot.

Regardless of his fiery lust for revenge, however, the SeeD soon realized the truth to Irvine's words. They clearly weren't getting anything done down here, and it was useless dwelling on the matter when their very existence was at stake.

He tried to calm himself down, slowly lifting his head again and fighting to control his emotion.

He turned towards his companions, staring at them blankly for a moment before finally nodding his head in agreement, and the three of them began making their rapid ascent back to the Bridge. Though Zell hated to quit and leave Garden subject to elimination, he also knew there was nothing else they could do for now – and though still unwilling to accept such a reality, it wasn't like he really had a choice in the matter either. With their endeavors having proven futile in the end, now…it was all up to Squall – and they could only hope that, with any luck, somehow, he and Rinoa were okay inside Lunatic Pandora, and working on a way to prevent the Lunar Cry at this very moment. It was the only chance they had.