"Please don't take this the wrong way Mr Leonhart but I had hoped we wouldn't be meeting in places like this anymore."
"None taken. And call me Squall."
Duchess Li Nuo looked up at the suspended metal corpse and shook her head. She was dressed in a simple black-jacketed ensemble whose sharp lines and tailoring gave off a slight whiff of a military uniform. Even if the training was still there Li had shrugged off her SeeD identity and returned to the world outside the Garden, only a small enamelled badge on her lapel and a familiar blade sheathed over her shoulder the sign she had once been part of the elite mercenary unit. She turned away from the body (if we can even call it that) and looked him in the eyes, something she could never have done while she had still been under his command. Now, at least, they could talk as equals. "You're sure this isn't just some trick? He was a smart monster if nothing else." She glanced towards the centre of the room and the small patch of steel flooring that was just a little bit darker than the rest. All that remained of Melanthios and whatever desperate scheme he had fled here to plan.
Squall shook his head and stepped back to allow a Dolletian soldier passage into the room. He couldn't quite bring himself to stay inside the huge chamber. It had more than a passing feeling to a tomb. He felt like he was exhuming a body. "Alexander fought with us in the Sorceress War (if you can count standing well back and shelling the enemy from a half-mile away 'fought with' he didn't say). We only met in person a couple of times afterwards but he's not the kind of man you forget. Forgot." Shit.
The sound of banging and heavy machinery came from behind them, back in the main laboratories. Squall and Seifer had waited on the surface as the quiet but powerful military vehicles had rolled up to the surface entrance and disgorged troops and scientists, followed by the Duchess and her retinue. Leonard had given a small nod to Squall and blended into the background, so well Squall sometimes forgot the man was there. Irvine would be proud. After halting at the gruesome threshold of the inner labs the technicians had swarmed over every surface they could find, collecting papers and machinery in a whirlwind of action, until finally they had reached the central chamber and stopped dead, either in horror or awe. He hadn't asked which.
"What the hell do we even do about this?" Seifer asked as he checked his watch. "We're wasting daylight, I don't want to still be down here at sunset."
Three nights since they had made the dangerous trek back to the surface, confused and not a little scared Esthar soldiers grouped around the tall electric lightpole outside the laboratory like it was some kind of protective talisman. When they had reached the city again Squall had made a single phonecall.
Laguna? We've found something.
The reply had been instant. Like the man had just been waiting on his confirmation of things he already knew to be true:
Help is coming.
They'd spent the next two nights in their Galbadian hotel rooms, days spent trying to work their minds around the enormity of what they had seen, nights spent keeping watch, every gentle sound outside the window making them wonder what could be crawling over the parapet and down to them, every car or truck backfire having them reach for their weapons and every sudden wind or drop in temperature making them look around with suddenly-nervous eyes expecting to see Shiva leaping out of them from any blind corner. Civilians on the streets did their business with haste and then left to scurry back behind their own doors; businesses closed and put down their bars for the first time since the Esper War ended. Galbadian soldiers shifted nervously at their posts and held up every unknown shape passing by them, their dislike of the invading Estharian forces forgotten in gratitude for the lights the Esthar soldiers brought with them. Deling City was wrapped in misery. Finally on the third night Li had arrived with her contingent. She hadn't asked how bad it was. She could see from the shadows under their eyes.
Squall looked up at the giant metal carapace. What happened to you Alexander? How did they manage to chain you down here in the dark? "Anything?" he asked the woman in the white dress and golden pendant. Siren stood next to the corpse staring up forlornly at the remains of the great Guardian. "We shouldn't stay down here too long."
Siren ran a hand down Alexander's chest. "No, there's nothing," she said, the grief in her voice plain. "He's gone."
Li coughed. "Lady Siren, I'm sorry for your loss, but Squall's right." The young woman, still in her teens, took a deep breath before she continued. "What I believe our rather stoic partner is too polite to say is that your brother's suffering is over. I don't doubt that you will make your own arrangements for…burial, but we need to concern ourselves with our own lives now." Li stared into Siren's cool gaze and went on. "We need to leave, now, before night falls."
"And Shiva returns?"
"You'll have all the help of Dollet in discovering who's behind all this Siren," Li said, and the anger simmered just under the surface. "We'll help you get those bastards and save Shiva, whoever's pulling the strings. But we should leave. Now."
The sky blazed shades of orange and red as they came out into the smog-choked air of Deling. A cold front had moved in from the north and descended onto the city without warning and the fog it brought was like a thick soup. Squall could hold a hand out in front of him and beyond it see only the rough outlines shapes of men and vehicles beyond the security perimeter set up by ghostly Dollet and Esthar soldiers.
"Where's Rinoa?" Li asked as she climbed aboard the middle craft and held out a hand to help him on.
"Back in a hotel," he answered. She hadn't taken their discovery well.
"I want you three with me inside our HQ," the Duchess said in a clipped voice, looking out beyond the mist, and he could see the young woman felt the same nervousness and hesitance as him. "I don't want you out here alone if Shiva – or whatever Shiva is now – is hunting for you."
"Yes, your grace," Seifer replied with a grin and an exaggerated bow.
Li blushed as she realised how she had been talking to the pair, men her senior in both years and experience. But only a small blush. "Good, then let's go get Rinoa and then get behind a nice thick steel wall."
As the trucks winded their way through the city Squall looked out through the slits in the metal hull of the APC. Some men and women glanced up at the Dolletian vehicles as they passed but most kept their heads down and hurried on to their destination as the last vestiges of light faded from the sky. He was distracted from his reverie by the sound of fists on metal and turned to look at Li.
"What's happening Squall?" she asked as she waved a sheet of paper in her hand. "One of my men handed this to me as we left." She ran her eyes down the page. "I don't even know what to think, or I do and I just don't want to believe it. What the hell were they doing down there?"
"Someone was trying to create Guardians," Seifer said through gritted teeth as Squall opened his mouth to reply. "By taking normal humans and injecting and torturing and experimenting on them until they were monsters."
Li fanned the paper in her hand. "All these sheets are copies Squall." She let go of it as if her disgust was too great to keep hold of it, and it drifted to the floor where it lay there like some accusatory piece of evidence in a monstrous crime. "The originals are gone."
He felt his heart sink as Li went on. "Galbadia – or at least Melanthios – was experimenting on creating artificial Guardians, and they were using Alexander to do it. Now someone's decided to take over that project, and they're cleaning up the old bosses and have enslaved a very powerful Guardian to do it with. Am I right so far?"
Squall sighed and when he spoke he found he couldn't put any emotion into his voice. "Yes. That's about right."
Li sighed and Squall saw the weeks of late nights reflected in her tired eyes. "All I wanted was a quiet life."
"I thought you wanted to be a SeeD," Seifer said.
"All I want now is a quiet life." She rubbed her hands together, the golden band on her ring finger still new enough to chafe. "All this saving-the-world stuff looked much more glamorous from the outside."
Squall shrugged. "Welcome to the club. We had t-shirts printed." He swayed in his seat as the APC came to a stop in the gathering darkness. "Trouble?"
Li waved him back. "Well?" she asked the driver. The whispered reply came back and she sat back down with a shrug. "Just a checkpoint." She sat back and closed her eyes.
Later on Squall wouldn't be able to answer Li when she asked him what made him do it. Maybe his new lack of magic had heightened his remaining abilities, or some unnatural movement from beyond the APC's slotted gun-ports. Whatever force he acted on saved his life as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up and his nerves started shouting something's not right, there are no military checkpoints inside the city-
He was already diving for the steel floor as something flew across his vision almost too fast to register, leaving two neat holes in the APC's bulkhead. He could see Li and Seifer in his peripheral vision, her already ducking down out of the line of the eerily silent fire and Seifer slamming his boost against the rear hatch so hard it almost flung back into his face on the rebound. "Out!"
Three Dollet soldiers stared up at the sky, neat holes drilled through their foreheads, and Squall looked away before he saw something that would ruin his appetite forever. Flickers of…something…were coming out of the night and finding their marks with unnerving accuracy as the screams of the soldiers surrounding the APCs fell to the silent barrage, only the distortion of the air the sign of anything happening at all. Black shapes moved in the mists beyond, but Squall could see faint outlines through the fog and it shocked him to the core.
We're being attacked by Esthar soldiers? Impossible.
Squall turned to shout a warning to Li and Seifer before realising he didn't have to. The only sound in the black night was the sharp bang of the Dollet soldiers as they defended the vehicles and a sharp-eyed Leonard calling into his radio for any help, any at all. The attackers made not a sound. "Seifer!"
"We have to get out of here!" Li said quickly. "We're boxed in if they have a squad behind us."
"Agreed." Squall risked raising himself up. "Hey! Let's go!" Dolletian soldiers turned at the sound of his voice but it was Li they were looking towards, and they only moved when she nodded. Boots scraped against the road as they leapt up and ran for the streets. Squall made sure he was the last and found himself the sole person looking out on the scene. Solid-steel APCs built like miniature tanks (hell they were miniature tanks) looked like someone had systematically taken a heavy drill to them, perfect circular holes dotted around them, bodies left behind the same. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Seifer looking disbelievingly at him.
"What the hell man, let's go!"
Squall nodded and ran into the side-streets to catch up with the others as the dull footsteps from the street came closer, the shapes of black-armoured Estharian soldiers coming out of the evening mists towards them.
"Where to?" Seifer asked as they rounded a corner into a dank alley. "We can't stay out in the dark."
Li nodded. "We can get to the Esthar camp from-"
"No," Squall said whip-fast. "First we go get Rinoa."
Li looked doubtful. "Almas is with Rinoa Squall, I don't think-" She stopped talking as she saw the look in his eyes.
"First, we get Rinoa."
She could feel it like a miasma seeping through the hotel windows, like a poison gas so thin it was almost absent but still tickled at the edge of her senses. She could feel something pull at her from the city outside her window and paced nervously, the opulent room unable to calm the nerves that had been steadily mounting up as the night went on. She walked to the window for the fifth time and looked out over the soup-like air covering Deling. "They should be back by now. Where are they?" she asked the silent figure sitting alert on the chair by the door.
Almas shrugged. "Maybe they got lost in the fog. It might-"
CRASH
Almas leapt from the chair the same second Rinoa spun around as the smash of glass sounded from below. She gestured over at the other woman. "Stay up here." Before Rinoa could even open her mouth to protest she had already slipped through the room door and locked it behind her. Her eyes ran across the corridor to see nothing except a scared eyeball peeping out of a barely-open door. She dropped her gunblade to point at the ground and waved her hand in a warning and whoever was on the other side slammed the door without a word. She crept towards the stairs, keeping her blade poised to swing at anything that tried to rush her. The silence in the empty hotel corridor, the absence of any noise at all, encroached on her eardrums until she felt like she could have heard a pin-drop in the next building. She didn't have to look that far. Sounds like a car backfiring came from far below, but no car engine backfired that many times. Almas' mind shouted in frustration and she let her body take over as she dashed to the stairwell just as-
The man came up over the banister fast, thin blade extended and already stabbing forward to pierce her heart as she threw her weight backwards, hands already outstretched behind her. The tip of the sword and the rest of the man practically sailed over her and she had one second to see the lack of surprise on his face before she spun around and came up facing the Dollet (what?) soldier as the man did the same, his long blade carving through the narrow corridor walls, and as they faced off Almas finally got a good look at him.
She remembered a picture from her childhood, going to the doctor for some childhood scrape. Frosted-glass partitions had divided her from the physician and she had been able to see through them. The clouded glass had twisted and distorted the simple instruments until to her child's eyes they looked like torture devices and the doctor himself an ill-defined ghoul, fuzzy at the edges and with shadows and reflections falling in all the wrong places. She had fought with her father to leave until her noisy panic had brought the doctor back around the partitions and he had turned back into a human being, holding only an innocuous thermometer.
The soldier facing Almas had no face or any features beyond a vague outline of a Dollet uniform. Lines broke and faded around his edges and it appeared to vibrate with constant motion. His skin looked like one huge black uncertain bruise; the skin of the creature looking like some cancerous force had sucked the colour away and left only a black stain. Where his face should have been was only a black slate, two cavernous holes for eyes, and just the barest hint or red buried deep inside. A nightmare image.
"RINOA! WE'RE LEAVING!" The ghost soldier swung it's blade as she shouted leaving black scores in the plaster walls. Almas parried with her own gunblade and heard the horrifying sound of steel cracking. She pushed forward and stepped back as she repelled his first strike and drew back her own sword to swing before her mind caught up with her eyes, and her blade thunked into the wall.
"Almas, what-" Rinoa gasped as she caught sight of creature that spun at the sound of her voice as she emerged from the room. It took one step forward and as Rinoa watched a silvery shard of metal emerged from its chest as Almas took her moment and stabbed forward, almost jumped the distance to get to it before it could raise its blade against her guard. With all her strength she heaved upward and the sound the creature made as her sword went through its ribcage, throat, skull, out the top was indescribable.
She danced backward a step wary for any further shock, but the soldier slumped to the floor without a sound. Almas steadied herself against the wall and took a moment to wipe sweat from her eyes and hide her shaky legs before looking up at Rinoa. "What the hell?"
Rinoa wasn't looking back. "Almas, look."
The young woman turned to look back at the corpse as it wavered before their eyes in a manner they were all-too familiar with. "You're kidding." Before she could say another word though Rinoa was already past her and running down the corridor. "Hey, hey!" She leapt after Rinoa as she took the stairs a floor at a time and was near to collapsing when they arrived on the ground level to see-
"Squall!"
Squall turned away from the terrified man at the desk and to Almas' eyes the worry seemed to drain from his face. The couple ran towards each other and embraced in the centre of the lobby, Squall's voice seemingly stuck on repeat: "Thank God, thank God." He looked past the embrace for a second and nodded at Almas. Thanks.
"We were attacked by-"
"We were ambushed by-"
"Is this some parting gift of those two Esper bastards?" Leonard asked after they had all had a chance to catch their breath.
Rinoa shook her head and looked thoughtful. "We were attacked by something that looked like a Dollet soldier, not Galbadian."
Li's head snapped around from the entrance to face her. "Dollet?" Rinoa nodded once. "Show me."
"I know this man."
The group stared down at the figure of the dead soldier, even though 'figure' was no longer apt to describe it. It reminded Almas of an ice-sculpture left too long in the sun. Hard edges had melted away until all that remained was some obscene sculpture in the shape of a man.
The others looked at Li, who stared down dispassionately at the disintegrating figure. "Li I hate to ask but…" Seifer began.
Li just shook her head and pointed at a patch of darkness just a little more regular and less dark than the rest. "The red sash is – was – Dollet livery of a guard in a noble's household. The sword is a veteran's. This man was my father's bodyguard." She shook her head in confusion and kept staring, as if somehow merely looking at the corpse would produce answers. "I remember it from when I was a kid, but-" Her foot lashed out and she kicked the body. "He died years ago."
An unwelcome thought began to worm its way through Squall's brain. "Rinoa," he asked in a whisper, "did you recognise any of the Galbadians in those soldiers hat attacked us? Rinoa shook her head and he could see she didn't understand. He turned to Seifer. "Did we get any prisoners?" Leonard shrugged. "Go and check." He looked out of the window, out over the dark and noiseless city. "Almas, go with him, take the Dollet soldiers downstairs with you. We're still a long time away from sunrise, don't do anything alone."
"What's sunrise got to do with it?" Li asked, pointedly not mentioning Squall commanding her troops.
"Melanthios said something, before Shiva killed him." He looked over at Seifer, who stared back impassively. Both were SeeD-trained. He knew their minds would be running on similar tracks. "You said it too right?" Seifer nodded and Squall turned to Li. "Something's happening in the dark." He glanced down at the body. It remained, steadfastly refusing to deteriorate entirely into nothing. "We-" he stopped as a rhythmic thumping noise came from behind, and as one they all whirled to see a small portly man staring at them with some mixture of fear and relief.
"Mr…Mr Leonhart?"
Squall placed himself between the man's line of vision and the body of the dead creature. "Yes?"
"You have a call sir. F…from Esthar."
Squall shrugged at Rinoa's look of concern and then turned back to the man. "Did they say who it was?" The mundanity of the situation seemed absurd in the badly-lit corridor, young warriors stood around the body of the unearthly black decaying creature.
"A man called Zell sir."
Squall sighed. Of course.
"He seemed quite irate."
"How'd you know?" Zell said in surprise.
"Don't ask Zell. How many attacked?"
"'Bout ten of them just came outta nowhere and started slashing away! What the hell man?" Zell kicked the body of the creature as he held the small phone up to his ear. "At first we thought they were just rebels or some weird Sorceress-lovers still angry about Adel but – wait Rinoa didn't hear that last part did she? Phew. Anyway like I said some of them looked like Esthar special forces but a couple of others were Galbadians, swear to God. But they're weird, like they have no colour. And they kind of…er…melt, I guess is the only word. It's creeping me out."
"When exactly, Zell?"
"Just before sunrise I guess."
"This is going to sound weird but think about it: Did you recognise any of the attackers?" Squall waited for a moment as Zell replied in the negative. "Ask the others. I can't explain why."
"Hey if it's important, sure. Anything else?"
"Stay in Esthar, hold down the fort. Tell Odine to send an airship for us, we'll wait in Deling."
Zell chuckled as she stared out over the carnage. "Guess SeeD's not shut down after all huh?" But Squall had already hung up.
Irvine and Selphie stood in the light half a world away as dawn rose over Esthar, surrounded by the dark bodies of their attackers. Zell surveyed the carnage. The Estharian guards at the airship factory had died at their posts, cut down before they could react to the assault that had come from nowhere. Only Selphie's presence in the Clockworks had saved those inside as the attackers had passed through security like it hadn't existed. The first thing she had done was call him, and Irvine had been out of the door before Zell had even put the phone down. The scene they arrived at was unnatural; they had come through the attackers without a word, the black shadows falling silently as they met Irvine's bullets and Zell's crushing fists. Selphie had been waiting for them inside, along with the terrified technicians, with only a look of impatience on her face.
What took you so long?
"Just when we thought we were done," the cowboy said, and Zell could hear an unfamiliar tiredness in his voice. "There's always one more god-damned thing."
Zell couldn't resist a grin. "I never wanted a quiet life."
"So it isn't just Deling," Rinoa said as Squall put the handset down.
"Esthar too," he replied, and went through what Zell had told him. "Shadows, just under a dozen, all from different armies."
"They're attacking in the dark. Dusk here in Galbadia and dawn in Esthar was the best chance they had to get us all at the same time," Seifer said quickly. "They're going for us."
Squall shivered as if a cold wind had just blown through the hotel, so strongly that for a moment he was ready to draw his gunblade again in case Shiva should be attacking again. He quickly threw the feeling off for what it was: Fear of the unknown. "We need to get back to Esthar, all of us." He looked over at Li. "Now."
Li's gaze met his. "When Leonard gets back."
"She's got you there commander," Seifer said with a smirk. God but he wanted to punch the man some days. Most days.
"Alright, we'll wait for our comrades to get back. Then we go to Esthar." He looked out the window again, wondering if he willed hard enough could he make the sun come up. Dawn was a long way away.
Far too long.