The Four Zoas
Chapter One:
Seifer Almasy knew that things could be worse, but he was having trouble imagining how.
It had sounded so simple when he had first heard of the assignment four months ago in Balamb Garden, not long after he had finally been granted the title of SeeD by Cid Kramer on the recommendation of Quistis Trepe; ever since the end of the Third Sorceress War, the monsters called down by Lunatic Pandora had remained. They were savage monsters, the likes of which were rarely seen on the planet, and even the Esthar military had been hard pressed to deal with them. So Laguna Loire, the president of Esthar, had hired SeeD, on an open ended contract, to deal with the monsters. And Squall Leonhart had wanted no one else but him to lead the SeeD unit once he had finally joined up. Seifer understood the logic; his experience leading the Galbadian armies during his time when he had been under the sway of Ultimecia had made him perhaps more adept than Squall at large unit combat. Given that his other option was sitting around Balamb Garden and playing Triple Triad with Trepe or watching Squall make cute faces at Rinoa Heartilly (which bothered him more than he cared to admit) Seifer accepted the mission.
And had walked into a meat grinder.
He and Zell Dincht, the good old chicken-wuss, had command of fully two-thirds of SeeD, a power that should have been able to wipe any force that there was off of the planet…in fact, SeeD could, in Seifer's estimation, conquer the world without breathing hard. Yet in the past four months, the best that Seifer and Zell had been able to manage was keeping the monsters at a safe distance from Esthar. The monster horde seemed endless, with over two dozen species of monster not registered in the SeeD bestiary, but that in and of itself was not a danger. The fact was, there seemed to be an intelligence guiding the monsters, one species in particular standing out. This monster, which the Esthar military had dubbed the Herald, was humanoid in form, very powerful, and capable of going toe to toe with a SeeD, and they seemed to guide the monsters in battle. And Seifer had heard stranger things, of activity around Lunatic Pandora that suggested that someone had occupied it. The Esthar military was playing their intelligence data very close to the vest, but Seifer had heard about satellite imagery that showed the activity, and had asked Cid, more than once, to get that data. Cid, who ran the mission's logistics side from Esthar proper, had tried, but had been rebuffed. And so the war went on in a stalemate that seemed to have no end, he thought as he looked around the main briefing room of the prefabricated camp that was the home to the SeeD unit here. The two hundred SeeDs that were under his direct command were assembled here, sitting on folding chairs, waiting patiently for the briefing to begin. He found it odd that as he looked he did not see his old running mates, Raijin and Fujin, but Squall had assigned them to other duties in what Seifer deemed was a childish fit of pique. We work well together, so why separate us?
Of course, Seifer thought, he was assembling something of a new posse to run with. Standing behind him, organizing the maps of their area of responsibility for the next offensive, was Brian Matson, his second in command, a SeeD out of the old Trabia Garden. Brian was tall, with long black hair that he wore in a ponytail, and when Seifer had first laid eyes on him, he had thought Pretty boy. Watching Brian slice his way through a horde of monsters with the saber he carried had quickly changed that opinion for him. Brian was an okay joe, and had a good head for planning, so Seifer liked having him around. He supposed, he thought as he looked about from his position at the head of the room, that he could say the same thing about the four young people that sat in the front row. Just for vastly different reasons.
Three of them were young women, all of them rather attractive, slim, all around five foot three or so. If you looked at them, you would have been struck by how much alike they looked, and would have thought them family. And you would have been right. Two of them-the serenely lovely one with the long auburn hair and the impishly pretty one with black hair that she seemed to dye new streaks into each week-were sisters, Madoka and Hikaru Konno respectively. The third, a pretty girl with a bright demeanor and black hair cut to chin length, was their cousin, Sakura Imagawa. How three family members wound up in the same unit defied logic, yet here they were-and they were a handful. All of them possessed capricious senses of humor, and were always keeping everyone on their toes, even Seifer himself. Sitting next to them was a young man with close cropped black hair, Kai Hallen. Kai had most likely been pulled into the gyre of the three girls and their insanity by their beauty and now stuck around for the fun they generated. Seifer used Kai as something of an administrative assistant because, like the girls, he was rather adept with computers, but was less likely to cut up. Kai had told him privately that Sakura and Madoka had crushes on him, but the fact did not really interest him.
The door to the briefing room opened, and the reason why Seifer had not started the briefing yet finally arrived: General Darl Alleuce of the Esthar Army, commander of the forces that supported SeeD in this mission. He insisted on being at every major briefing, even if SeeD was a separate command that he had no real control over. He was a tall man, taller than Seifer in fact, muscular, with his black hair cut in a flat top. He nodded at Seifer and said, "Almasy," as if that explained why he was fifteen minutes late. It didn't.
"Glad to see you can remember to join us," Seifer said as he stood up. "Okay, children, a moment of your time?" The eyes of his command fell on him, and Seifer began the briefing. "Okay, this is a pretty simple operation, kids. Tomorrow we attack the monsters at the center of our advance along a five mile front." Knowing that Seifer wasn't much for doing things the normal way, Brian indicated the troop locations and dispositions with a laser pointer. Seifer's unit had gotten used to it, and knew what to do. "We will be supported by Zell Dincht's SeeDs to the north-" if the chicken wuss can keep up- "and General Alleuce's forces to the south. Correct, General?"
Alleuce, who had taken a seat at the briefing table, nodded. "We have our units set in place, and will also provide full air support and artillery, as usual."
That's nice, Seifer thought. "Okay, kids, this one is gonna be a cakewalk if we play it by the numbers. Our intelligence suggests that the monsters have pulled the Heralds back for a time, right, Brian?"
"Uh, yes, sir. Satellite imagery of the horde shows few humanoid forms in the first three arcs of their occupation."
"Good to hear. Now, look…I'm getting tired of being down here in Esthar. I got some serious fishing to get back to in Balamb. So let's try to make tomorrow the day we broke these bastards, okay?" The briefing continued, Seifer and Brian assigning platoons to specific regions of their area of responsibility, for another half-hour, but it finally broke up. During that time Alleuce barely spoke, and Seifer wondered, for about the millionth time, why he even came to these meetings at all. The girls and Kai walked by the table, Hikaru calling impishly "Hiya, Seifer!" as she passed. Madoka and Sakura grabbed her and hurried her along. Seifer almost smiled at that. Alleuce left without a word as was his custom, and that drew a comment from Brian. "Talk about useless," he said.
"Alleuce? Yeah, what a putz. Still, could be worse…could be in a position of authority." Seifer stood and stretched. "Hope this shit goes well tomorrow. Later, Brian."
Brian, who had a good idea of what was going to happen next, nodded. "Later."
Seifer's office was bare and spartan, just a desk, some chairs, and a desktop computer with a digital camera on top of it. Seifer was not much for decoration, after all. He sat down behind the desk, booted up the computer, and when the time came, placed a video call to the closest thing to a secret he had. After three rings, the monitor lit up with the image of a remarkably beautiful woman. She had short blue black hair, impossibly lovely violet eyes, and the kind of lips any man would love to kiss. She also, Seifer knew, had the kind of body that stopped traffic. "Aiko's, how can I help you," Aiko Hayashibara called. Seeing who it was, she smiled. "Hello, Seifer. Don't tell me your gunblade needs work again." Despite her relative youth-she was nineteen-Aiko ran a weapons shop in Esthar that specialized in rare weapons such as his gunblade. And for some reason Seifer thought about her a lot.
"Nah, its fine. It's just that, well, tomorrow we start a two day offensive, so I'll be busy. Just wanted to say hi."
"Glad you called. I won't insult the legendary Seifer Almasy by suggesting you be careful."
Seifer laughed. "Good thing. We'll have leave after this is over…mind if I bug ya then?"
Aiko shook her head. "I don't mind…oh, darn, a customer, gotta run. Call me when you're in town!"
Aiko disconnected, and Seifer wondered, again, why he cared. Getting soft in your old age, Almasy, he thought. Then he steeled himself for the battle that was to come.
The world stretched before him, pale and dead.
Eric Alfredsson was not much of one to dwell on his surroundings, but even he would be forced to admit that the Great Salt Lake was a desolate, sad place. He had heard that, long ago, the people of Esthar had drained the lake in the days that they used hydroelectric power, before they had thrown up the distortion field that hid their land from view. Eric was not certain if he believed that, but he had heard stranger things. He moved from ridge to ridge, his power carrying him superhuman distances as if he was a normal person walking up a flight of stairs. It had been a week since he had left the Centra Ruins, and only once, hitching a ride on a fishing trawler heading into the Fisherman's Horizon, had he used transport of any kind. He was not fond of his power, but it did have some uses. One of its uses was the ability to sense the distortion field, which he was moving parallel to, about a half mile away. Eric had already passed two locations where he could have entered Esthar directly, but he was more cautious than that. Despite the dangers, Eric intended to cross the plains of Esthar on foot and secretly enter the city that way. His dreams had told him that there were many dangers in Esthar, and he did not intend to walk headlong into them.
He had not dreamed of the angel-girl, or heard the voice that he had heard at the Centra Ruins, since he had left there, but at night, as he had slept for a few brief hours, his mind had filled with images. Chief among them were the image of a powerfully built man, black haired, in the uniform of the Esthar Military, a man that Eric believed was some sort of scientist, and the blond man who he had seen in his vision wielding the black sword. But there were others that haunted him and drove him; the image of a beautiful, familiar girl with short blue-black hair and violet eyes, and puzzling him, he saw a grouping of young people that he did not really know. Chief amongst this group were three girls, two of them resembling each other so much that Eric realized they were sisters, the other with a close enough resemblance that Eric gauged her to be some sort of relative, and a young man with close cropped hair. All of them were in SeeD uniforms, so Eric assumed that they were assigned to the Esthar mission, and he tried to dismiss them. One, however, seemed to not be so easily dismissed. The third girl was haunting him for some reason.
Mostly in was something in her brown eyes, in the smile she had that seemed to light up her entire face; rather irrationally, Eric wanted to see that smile in person. He stopped and took a drink of water from the canteen that he had bought back at the Fisherman's Horizon; that, and a few supplies that he carried on his back in a backpack, was all that he currently owned. You're getting soft, he thought. A pretty girl shows up in your dreams and you get all warm and fuzzy.
Eric almost laughed at that, and would have if it were not for the fact that his powers, on occasion, granted him access to future events. The young SeeDs would have some bearing on his life, he knew; it was up to him to figure out how to deal with it. The best that I can, he thought. Best that I can.
Eric moved on, covering twenty miles in ten minutes, nearing the point that he would turn towards Esthar and penetrate the field. He was planning his approach to the city when, in mid-leap, something smashed into his mind with such force that he lost control of his jump and crashed into the ground, his speed causing a crater. His power protected him from the impact, but it could not protect him from what he saw in his mind's eye….
(the smiling girl/Sakura/running from a monster/her [cousins/] in danger she can't let them die/she raises her crossbow and shouts as she fires/the monster turns her way, a mouth all jagged teeth/the red pain as she dies…)
"NO!"
Eric looked at the distortion field and realized that he was very close to where this was to happen, for it had not happened yet, and without fully realizing he had done it, his power exploded around him and he ran for the field, his previous speed a turtle's pace in comparison. He covered the distance to the field in instants and burst through it and onto the plains of Esthar, driven by a desperation he did not fully understand. No one dies in my mind if I can help it, he thought, racing towards where he had sensed the attack was to be. His speed sent dust clouds into the air like a wake, the ground shaking every time he jumped. He hoped he would be in time even as he wondered why he cared in the first place.
The one thing that one could never properly estimate in battle on the Plains of Esthar, Sakura Imagawa thought as she ran for her life, was when one of the local monsters would join in.
The second day of the offensive had gone very well, with Seifer Almasy's unit pushing their way a full mile into the Lunar monster advance, coming within twenty miles of Lunatic Pandora, the closest that anyone had ever gotten. The fact that Seifer was doing so well brought a secret smile to Sakura's face: she knew that what she felt for him was simply a crush, yet that still did not change how she felt. That her cousin Madoka Konno felt the same way for Seifer she sometimes dismissed. Thoughts of crushes had evaporated, though, when three Malboros, probably protecting their territory, had charged into the fray, attacking both sides and generally turning the order of battle into a free for all. There were few monsters in the SeeD Bestiary considered more dangerous than the Malboro; while a few were more powerful and could take more damage, the Malboro's lethal status attack, Bad Breath, was nearly impossible to stop, leaving one helpless as he or she was torn apart. As Sakura and her squad had fled the Malboro that had turned their way, she had seen more than one SeeD rendered helpless by the attack and torn to shreds. This sucks, she thought eloquently.
She looked to her right and saw her cousins, Madoka, the eldest, and Hikaru, still older than Sakura yet the younger sister, as they fled the Malboro. Madoka was carrying the gunblade that she was technically not allowed to use-her weapons rating was for edged weapons, but gunblade was a separate classification-and Hikaru the chain whip that she insisted was not out of any admiration for Quistis Trepe. On her left, Kai Hallen was running for his life as well, his combat staff moving up and down as he ran. There was no cowardice in fleeing a Malboro, Sakura knew: a Level 9 SeeD like her was no match for a Level 100 monster. It did not mean she enjoyed it however.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hikaru stumble for a second, Madoka grabbing her to support her, and the Malboro, with the cruel instincts of a predator, moved in, the tentacles of it's legs moving with an impossible speed. Sakura tried to shout a warning as the Malboro's mouth opened and the foul cloud that was Bad Breath spread towards her cousins. Instantly it took affect, sending Madoka and Hikaru into spasms of pain and confusion. Sakura knew they had seconds as she turned to the monster and screamed at it, firing a crossbow bolt from her hip. The bolt took the Malboro in the jaw and it whirled on her, roaring. "Kai!" she shouted, "help Madoka and Hikaru!"
The Malboro charged at her, and she knew that if Kai was to get close enough to either use a Remedy or cast Esuna, she would have to occupy the beast. She reloaded her crossbow and realized that she was staring her death in the face. "Come on you bastard," she growled, and fired again, the bolt striking one of the fleshy protrusions that surrounded its mouth. The Malboro closed on her, and she could see Hikaru, still in the grip of Bad Breath, shout "No, Sakura!" as it drew nearer…
And then her world filled with a blinding blue light.
Something blurred into being in front of her, the shock wave of its arrival knocking Sakura fifteen feet back and off her feet. She saw a blue aura of power that surrounded something man-shaped between her and the Malboro, and she realized that the Malboro had been driven back as well.
The light faded, and Sakura saw a man, no, a boy, really, standing there. He was dressed in black, black jacket, black pants, and boots, and he was slender to the point of being slight. His black hair blew in the breeze, and as he turned to look at her over his shoulder she saw that he was handsome, no, beautiful in fact, if a man could be said to be beautiful. His brown eyes fell on hers and he said "Get back," in a calm tone.
The Malboro roared, and lumbered toward the boy, who did not move except to raise one arm. Sakura sensed great power in him, yet she did not cast a Scan spell to see what kind of power he had. She believed the answer would scare her. The blue field surrounded him again, and the Malboro slammed to a halt. That's impossible, she thought. The Malboro howled with frustration, then the boy moved his arm forward, and the monster slid backward one hundred feet. No one's that strong, Sakura thought. Not even Seifer.
Kai had cast Esuna on Madoka and Hikaru, helping them to their feet. "Don't thank me, ladies" he said.
"We weren't going to," Hikaru quipped. Like everyone anywhere near the battle, her eyes were locked on the boy. Where did he come from? she wondered.
The boy dropped his hand to his hip and a globe of power filled his palm. As the Malboro oriented itself, he threw the globe at it sidearm. It rushed at the Malboro and detonated against the side of its head, greenish blood exploding out. The boy raised his arm again and his aura grew more powerful around him. "Goodbye," he said only Sakura close enough to hear it.
The Malboro seemed to come apart in instants, disassembled by some force that was unseen. In seconds, one of the most feared monsters ever recorded in the SeeD Bestiary was nothing more than scraps of flesh and green blood on the rocks. "Oh my God," Sakura said under her breath. "Who are you?"
The boy turned, and Sakura's heart jumped once. "You should be more careful in battle, miss," he said quietly.
"I'll…I'll do that," she said. She smiled at him. "Thank you. For saving me."
The boy did not speak, just looked over her shoulder. She followed his gaze and saw Seifer, Brian Matson at his side, marching towards them. "I didn't do it for you," he said, and just like that he disappeared in a blur of motion. Sakura looked around, at a loss for words, as Madoka, Hikaru, and Kai arrived. Who was that guy, she thought as, in something of an uncharacteristic move for her, Hikaru hugged her, fiercely. "What was that for?" Sakura asked.
"You little idiot, you nearly got yourself killed for us! If that guy hadn't been here we'd be burying you tomorrow!"
"I think that's Hikaru's way of saying 'Thank you,'" Madoka remarked. "I wonder who that was, though. He's not a SeeD."
Further discussion on the matter was tabled when Seifer and Brian arrived. Seifer looked at the remains of the Malboro and then at them. "Who the hell did that?" he asked incredulously.
"We wish we knew, sir," Kai quipped.
Seifer stared daggers at him as he considered the situation. Me and Squall together would have a hard time killing a Malboro by ourselves, he thought. And I only saw the one kid leaving. So who the hell did that alone? He turned to Brian. "Get them back to the base camp. Cid's gonna want a report on this, same for that General Alleuce." Brian saluted and collected the foursome as Seifer studied the remains of the monster. What kind of power does that? Nothing that a SeeD uses. He felt in his soul that he and the others were going to find out, and turned to follow them back to base.
Standing in midair five hundred feet up, Eric smiled thinly to himself. His power was not telepathy proper, but he could see, on occasion, in the minds of others, and as he had considered the situation, Seifer Almasy had dropped his guard, and Eric had seen something that was important to him there-important and ironic. "My life is never dull," he said, sadly, trying not to think of the fact that he had seen the young SeeDs in his dreams, nor of the beauty of the girl-Sakura, he somehow knew-and the grateful smile she had given him. Then he moved on towards Esthar, towards whatever it was that waited for him.
Seifer held the briefing of the quartet that had directly witnessed the destruction of the Malboro in the prefabricated building that was the field HQ for SeeD out on the plains. Video and audio recording devices were taping the briefing for the benefit of Cid Kramer, Squall, and the Esthar military. Seifer was not certain if the boy was an enemy, but he certainly was a wild card. The problem was that Seifer did not have much to go on. Sakura had told her story, of the boy defeating the Malboro with a mere wave or two of his hands, not even moving from the spot that he stood on, and that was that. Not exactly what you'd call a high quality briefing, Seifer knew, tapping his fingers against the surface of the table he sat at. Sakura, Madoka, Hikaru, and Kai stood in a line on the other side of the room, at not quite attention but a bit past parade rest. Seifer sighed. "You guys picked a hell of a time to run into this, what with us getting leave in Esthar tonight." Hikaru smiled, thinly, and Seifer wondered what was up with that. "Did anyone think to cast a Scan spell on him?"
"We were kind of busy, sir," Kai said. "Madoka and Hikaru were under the effects of Bad Breath, and I was helping them. Sakura was about to get squashed."
"Squashed?" Madoka asked Hikaru.
"He's so well spoken, after all," Hikaru replied.
Seifer was beginning to doubt that anyone could calm the essentially crazed nature of the Kanno girls for long. " So what it boils down to is we have a person who possesses the power to kill a Malboro with absolutely no effort, no one knows where he went or how powerful he is. That's just damned great."
"We're sorry, sir," Sakura apologized. "Things happened too fast for us."
Seifer looked across the table at Brian. "Okay, get this sent off to Alleuce, Kramer and my boy Squall. Copies to Trepe and Xu as the usual." He stood up and collected his gunblade from where it laid against the table. "All right, you're dismissed. The rest of the night is yours, but be back at the base by 0830, okay?" Seifer left, seeming, to Sakura at least, that he was in a hurry. She wondered why as she followed the others out of the HQ building. "Well, that wasted some time we needed," Hikaru remarked. "You going to town with us, Kai?"
Kai seemed taken aback. "After that 'truth or dare' thing you girls did the last time? No thanks-I'm perfectly capable of embarrassing myself all alone." Kai headed off for the barracks, whistling an odd little tune.
"Guess daring him to kiss that bartender full on the mouth was a bad idea," Madoka mused.
"Well, he didn't have to, now did he?" Hikaru grinned. "All right, we got to hurry if we're gonna check out this rumour about Seifer."
"What rumour about Seifer?" Sakura asked.
"Man, girl, are you out of it or what?" Hikaru leaned closer to Sakura and said in a confidential tone. "Seifer's going into town to meet a girl. "
Sakura's jaw dropped and she turned to the person who shared her crush, Madoka. "Is that true?" she asked.
"We don't know, Sakura. Hikaru heard that Seifer has been seen a lot going to this one store in the Commercial District, and that he talks to a clerk there a lot."
"That doesn't mean anything," Sakura said. She should have been upset about this-she believed that she loved Seifer madly, passionately, yet this only nagged at her. She wondered why. "What should we do?"
"I know where the shop is," Hikaru said. "No matter how quick Seifer left the HQ, there's one undeniable fact he can't escape: the next transport to Esthar doesn't leave for an hour." Hikaru grinned. "Ladies, I think we have a mission."
"Agreed," Madoka chimed in. "Sakura?"
Sakura only had to think about it for a second. "I'm in."
Night fell over Esthar, the lights of the city battling against the oncoming darkness and succeeding, Eric saw; after long ages of being able to look up and see the constellations, all he could see was the glare of the city. He found that he missed the comfort of the stars above. From his position atop one of the tallest buildings in Esthar, Eric could see most of the city, and his eyes fell on the commercial district, miles away. "Aiko," he whispered. "Coming to see you." It had been two years, since that day on the Island Closest to Heaven, that he had seen his closest childhood friend, and he was actually looking forward to it. Eric bounded off the rooftop, clearing the gap between the two buildings in one leap. He jumped again as soon as he touched down, part of him thinking about what he had done earlier on the Plains. The power that he possessed was monstrous compared even to the strongest SeeD, and displaying it so soon, well, he might as well sent out a beacon to anyone looking for him: Here I am. Still, he could not have let that girl die, not when it was in his power to prevent it. I have this power for a reason, to protect those who can not help themselves. He just wished that he could forget her smile.
Eric arrived over the commercial district a few minutes later and instantly sensed the unique, familiar aura that was Aiko's power, after all these years, still the same. He realized exactly how much he missed her then, and a rare wave of emotion washed over him. Aiko, he thought. I'm back. He fell out of the skies then, gliding for a landing in an alley behind the street her shop was in. He wondered how much time he had.
Inside the weapons shop that she had, with considerable guile, wrested away from its owner at a very young age, Aiko Hayashibara's head suddenly snapped up.
She had just gotten off the phone a half-hour ago with that decidedly interesting SeeD who had seemed to be so smitten with her, and she was considering closing up the shop early to see the sights. It was sort of, well, cute to watch this hard-bitten man soften up around her, and she was going to try to loosen him up tonight…he was seriously good looking. She sat behind the counter, wondering if she should change out of the simple blouse and pants she wore into something more sexy, when a presence that she had not felt in her mind appeared like a bolt of lightning. Eric?! Is that you?
A moment later, an answer came, in images as much as words. Yes, Aiko, it's me. I'm close.
I can tell, heh heh. What are you doing here, Eric?
Eric did not reply for a long moment, then he finally sent: I'll be there soon, tell you then. But, Aiko, it's bad. Really bad.
It usually is with you. Get here quick, I was kinda going out tonight.
I know. Seifer Almasy. You always were the man magnet.
How do you know that?
Eric seemed to laugh in her mind. Call it fate if you wish, Aiko.
Weird of you to acknowledge fate. Aiko's mind closed, and without realizing she meant to, she burst into tears. "Oh, Eric, you poor thing. You poor thing," she sobbed.
The CORE Group's headquarters were, by design, unobtrusive, a sprawling complex on the northern side of the Presidential Palace, a cluster of two to four story buildings that held most of the administrative offices and some of the lower security research labs. Most of the important research laboratories had been destroyed along with the Lunar Base, but CORE's work continued. In the main administrative offices, in an office that rivaled the President's in size, Heinsrich Bruetel read the text version of the report that had just been sent from the SeeD base camp with something approaching awe. Standing in front of his desk were two young people, one a tall, muscular blonde in the black and silver uniform of CORE's Security group, the other an exotically beautiful auburn haired girl with the kind of figure that one noticed from miles in a short, form fitting blue dress. Bruetel finished the report and said, "That was certainly interesting. Do you have any insight on a man who killed a Malboro by just waving his hands at it?"
The girl, who was named Kasumi Ichiro, smiled, a sultry, sexy smile. "He's here," she practically purred.
"You can't be certain," the blond man said.
Kasumi's smile turned his way. There was mischief in that smile, and malice as well. "I'm certain, dear Michael. It's Eric. He's come at last."
Bruetel scowled. "I wouldn't mind an explanation. Alleuce will want my report on this, of that I'm certain."
"Eric Alfredsson," Michael replied. "He's a fighter like myself, and the others in the Cadre."
Kasumi snorted laughter. "You wish. Eric's power is beyond measure. Certainly beyond anyone in the Cadre." The Cadre was the code-name for the elite security team that Bruetel had built in the hopes of matching SeeDs GF-enhanced power, and all of them were trained in the fighting style that Michael Cross used.
"I beg to differ," Michael said.
"I'm sure you do." Kasumi turned back towards Bruetel. "I'm certain of his destination, though. The Hayashibara woman that we've been watching. They're childhood friends."
Bruetel noticed a pained expression cross Michael's face, and wondered just what he did not know about his strongest fighter. "What do you suggest, then?"
"Send two members of Cadre to attack him and gauge his true power," Kasumi replied. "He isn't coming to Esthar by chance. He knows something is going on."
"Perhaps. But public attacks by the Cadre? The President already suspects our involvement in far too much, Kasumi. We'll wait on that issue. I want any data you have on this Alfredsson man ASAP. You're dismissed." Neither Kasumi or Michael saluted, or behaved in a military fashion, they merely left. Once outside, Kasumi looked up at Michael and said "Who are you sending, then?"
"I have my orders. We aren't to attack Eric."
"So you'll wait for him to come to you. After what you did to him, what you did to that poor girl…"
Michael suppressed his old rage and fear. "Eric isn't stronger than me, Kasumi. You know why."
"Only because you accepted what he was unwilling to." Kasumi put her arms around his neck. "Send Oliivares and Kawada-they're strong enough to make it interesting. And perhaps some of the lower level Cadre fighters as well."
Michael wanted to resist, to tell Kasumi to forget it, but he could not resist her, which was perhaps the problem. "All right. I'll do it." And be damned, he thought.
In his office, Bruetel looked at his computer and called up the CORE Group's main computing entity, represented by the image of a pale, cold featured woman with slitted eyes. The entity had begun life, so to speak, as a ROM construct approximating the personality of the sorceress Adel, but now the construct, Adel-prime, served Bruetel as his assistant. "Adel-prime. Access the records on what we have on Michael and Kasumi. Try to determine the true importance of this 'Eric Alfredsson' by making comparision data searches."
"I shall, Dr. Bruetel," Adel said lifelessly. Bruetel wondered, not for the first time, if he had hitched his wagon to a star when he had joined forces with Michael and Kasumi-while they served the cause well, their power was dangerous. Still, he thought, one uses the tools one must to achieve the goal.
Sakura, Madoka, and Hikaru reached the commercial district of Esthar just as it really started jumping, so to speak.
Esthar was a confusing city for the natives to navigate at times, and even using the floating transport system to move from point to point, it was easy to get lost in. So it was not a shock that even though they had seen Seifer leave the transport depot when they had arrived in Esthar, they lost him. "Not to worry," Hikaru said cheerfully, "I know where to go!" She produced her PDA and called up a map that she had downloaded earlier from the Esthar Public Information Database. "Let's see, quickest route to the weapons shop that Kai told me about…"
"Kai told you about this?" Sakura asked.
"Of course he did. Kai went with Seifer to this shop…apparently he needed his gunblade worked on."
"So all that means is he needed work on his gunblade," Madoka said.
"But he keeps going back," Hikaru argued. " I think Seifer needs work on his gunblade, all right."
"Hikaru!" Sakura giggled. "That's…kinda gross."
"Don't tell me you haven't wanted to pull his trigger," Madoka said.
A blush started at Sakura's ankles and crawled up to her face. "No comment."
"Thought so," Madoka said, "Let's go, Hikaru."
"I'm on it, girls," she called cheerfully. "This way!" She led the trio of girls, all dressed in the short skirted uniforms worn by female SeeDs, into the crowds, her PDA held before her like some kind of magical talisman showing her the way. Which, Sakura supposed, was an accurate description. She wondered if it really made any difference if Seifer had found a girl here in Esthar to one such as her. The difference in their ages was not all that great, but his experiences had aged him in terms of maturity, him and the others SeeDs that had been involved in the affair with Ultimecia. For some strange reason, though, her mind kept drifting back to the boy who had saved her that afternoon-well, not strange, since he had saved her life. But the threat of the Malboro had faded, as did all the horrors that she faced in battle. The boy, though, lingered. And not just because, well, he had been beautiful. She could not put a word on it, but there was something that she had sensed about him, something, well, sad. She followed her cousins, laughing at their jokes, admiring the same cute guys that Madoka pointed out (she might have carried a torch for Seifer but she was not blind after all) and thought about the boy.
"There he is, girls!" Hikaru pointed at a shop about half a block ahead, and, sure enough, Sakura saw the familiar form of Seifer walk up to the storefront and walk into the store. "Okay, now we go and find out what this girl looks like. Kai says she's hot but then he thinks you're cute-cute, Sakura."
"You're a laugh riot, Hikaru."
Aiko's head snapped up as the door opened a few seconds after her contact with Eric ended and was surprised to see Seifer walk in. He must have called me from here in the city, she thought. She found herself smiling anyway as he gave her a little wave and said "H'llo, Aiko." They're so cute when they're shy.
"Hi there," she said, wondering how the hell she was going to explain Eric to Seifer, especially since Eric already knew of their informal association. "How you been?"
"I had the craziest day," Seifer said, walking over to the counter. She could tell by the way he moved that he carried his gunblade, Hyperion, which was a slight violation of the regulations involving SeeDs on leave in Esthar but not the sort of thing that Seifer cared about. "Can't tell you about it-classified, y'know-but it was weird."
"You weren't the only one," she said, and impulsively she gave him a light kiss on the lips. Maybe the first time I've kissed him will make him accept Eric that much easier. She doubted it.
Seifer's eyes went wide, and he seemed taken aback by what had happened. "Aiko? What was that for?"
"If you have to ask, then maybe I'm wrong about you, Seifer."
Seifer smiled. " I don't think so," he told her.
Sakura was about to step forward when she saw something that her eyes could scarcely credit. Coming out of an alleyway beside of the weapon's shop was someone who was a dead ringer for the boy who she had just met on the Plains of Esthar. Without looking around, he walked into the same shop that Seifer had gone into. "Was that…?" she asked.
"Was that what, Sakura?" Madoka asked.
Sakura shook her head. "Never mind. Let's go."
The bell that signified that a customer had come into the store rang just as Aiko's lips were about to brush Seifer's again, which Seifer thought was a case of abysmally bad timing. He was about to turn to address whoever it was when the person said, "Am I interrupting something, Mr. Almasy?" Seifer turned and to his everlasting amazement he saw the boy who had saved Sakura this afternoon, standing there larger than life. Seifer's combat instincts roared into action, and Hyperion appeared in his right hand as if conjured there. The boy did not seem impressed.
"Who the fuck are you?" Seifer snarled. "You following me, boy?"
"Unintentionally. I know Aiko, you see."
Seifer shook his head. "Why is it I doubt that?"
"I can see why you'd think that…Aiko?" Eric realized that in the past two years, Aiko had grown to be a very beautiful woman, and he felt a twinge of jealousy that she was interested in Seifer.
Aiko reached over and laid a hand on Seifer's shoulder. "It's okay, Seifer. He's an old friend…his name is Eric Alfredsson."
"An old friend, huh? Why are you here, then, old friend?"
Outside of the shop, Sakura sensed more than saw the blur of movement out of the corner of her eye, and, instinctively, she knew something terrible was about to happen. "Get down!" she screamed, just as the storefront of the shop exploded apart.
Inside the shop, Seifer threw himself over Aiko not out of concern for her well being but out of simple instinct, his Junctioned speed and trained reflexes reacting the second that he sensed the same movement that Sakura had seen. An explosion rocked the store, and Seifer knew that he and Aiko were in trouble…until he felt a force hammer the walls that dwarfed the power of the blast. Standing in the center of the holocaust, Eric held the explosion back by sheer dint of will, then he turned and waved an arm at it. The ruins of the storefront and the fireball of the explosion raced into the skies, held together by Eric's power, until he gauged that it was safe to release the force he had contained. At an altitude of twelve hundred feet, the explosion that he had, against all probability, stopped, started again. Seifer looked over the counter of Aiko's shop and studied the scene, the twisted metal and broken glass of the storefront, and the boy, standing there as if it had meant nothing to him. "Holy shit, what was that?" Seifer asked.
Eric turned and looked as three figures appeared out of thin air in the street. All three wore black clothing that resembled body armour, and all three were of a considerable size. The third was gigantic, perhaps six foot seven inches tall and over three hundred pounds, his head shaved bald; the two that stood in front of him were only small in comparison. Each one was about six-three and well over two hundred pounds, and you could sense the power that they possessed merely by looking at them. Eric gauged all three of them and asked "Who sent you?"
One of them, black haired, his face that of a ferret, stepped forward. "I am Officer Kawada of the Cadre. The CORE Group has determined that your power is a danger to the citizenry of Esthar."
Eric looked from one to the other before he said, "I did not just blow up a building, now did I?"
Seifer was a touch surprised, to say the least. I just sent that report to CORE and Alleuce barely any time ago. How did they determine this "Eric" guy to be a threat, let alone find him? Seifer decided that he wanted to find out. Balancing Hyperion on one shoulder, Seifer stepped forward, whistling. He played it cool, acting as if he did not care about the attackers. "H'llo. The lady's a friend and I kinda resent you breaking up our conversation."
Kawada's eyes fell on him. "You are Seifer Almasy of SeeD. Our orders do not concern you."
"No kidding, buddy. Whatever you clowns want with this guy, get in line. He was involved in a SeeD operation earlier today and we want a word with him as well." Seifer knew that the Cadre was a security arm of the CORE Group, but he had no idea that they had this kind of power.
"SeeD has no authority here, Almasy. Now please stand aside."
Seifer lowered his gunblade to the ready position. "Since I sent the report to your stinking boss and you guys someone knew how to find my friend's old friend-" he said the last in a sneer that Eric ignored "-I think that, yeah, SeeD has some questions."
Kawada sighed. "You must want to die young, Mr. Almasy."
"Better than dying ugly." He took a step closer to Eric and whispered, "Don't think that I'm doing this for you."
"Wouldn't dream of it. You take the big bald one; he's just along for the ride. The other two want me."
"And how do you know that? You read minds?"
"Not exactly." Eric stepped forward. "Mr. Kawada, Mr. Oliivarres, I believe? Would you care to step outside?"
And with that all three of them seemed to disappear.
Seifer could sense that what appeared to be teleportation was actually greatly enhanced speed, but it was a near thing. Only his GF-aided senses allowed him to see it. The last one, the bald giant, actually turned his head for a second, and that was as good a time as any, Seifer decided. He charged, attacking with Hyperion in a fashion designed to incapacitate the man-and was impressed when the man dodged him. Whoa, he's fast. The man swung a fist at Seifer that glowed with power, and Seifer vaulted it, none too shocked when the blow cratered the sidewalk in front of Aiko's shop. He swung Hyperion in an arc that should have disemboweled his opponent, yet somehow he missed. The man raised a hand, and Seifer felt a force that drove him backward twenty feet before he dug his feet in. The Cadre officer seemed impressed. "Your power is impressive for a SeeD," he said in a deep voice.
"It's just plain impressive, isn't it?" Seifer asked. He raised his free hand and beckoned the gigantic man to step forward. "You here to compliment me or fight?"
"Neither actually. I came for my target. You got in my way."
Behind the Cadre officer, Seifer noticed Aiko, watching the battle with a mixture of concern, and, he fancied, delight: her violet eyes sparkled with something close to mirth. Well, there's no way I am gonna disappoint a beautiful lady, he thought. He prepared to attack again…which was when the skies lit up with the signs of battle, albeit one that staggered the imagination.
Above, Eric soared toward the skies, his full power behind his escape. Almasy could handle the other Cadre fighter with relative ease, but these two were another matter. He landed atop a skyscraper-he could, in theory, fly, but it drained his energies rapidly-and was not surprised when Oliivarres appeared above him, hurling balls of power at him. Eric bounded away as the entire rooftop of the skyscraper exploded apart. Eric floated in midair and anticipated the next attack just as Kawada appeared behind him, his power a jackhammer blow to the back. Eric whirled and his aura erupted around him; Kawada flew backwards, smashing into the side of a building. Eric was denied the chance to follow up when Oliivares streaked down towards him. He hit Eric with a double fisted blow that sent him crashing back down to the ground, a block away from Aiko's, the force of his fall shattering glass for most of that city block. Ouch, he thought mildly.
Between the battle that Seifer was waging and Eric, Sakura, Madoka, and Hikaru wondered what they should do.
None of them were armed-they had obeyed the regs for SeeDs in the city, and with their short skirted uniforms they couldn't have hid their preferred weapons anyway-and their supply of drawn magic was still fairly low level. Seifer was handling his opponent well enough, but that did not mean that they did not want to help. Madoka looked at her sister and her cousin and said "We need to help Seifer!"
Seifer ducked under a wild punch and Hyperion lashed out, this time drawing blood from his opponent's arm. "Doesn't look like he needs much help," Hikaru offered. She realized that the street was full of people that were scrambling from the debris that had fallen from the roof of the skyscraper. "Too many people here," she said to herself. People had already been hurt, perhaps killed, and that did not sit too well with her. She concentrated and hoped that this would work, and summoned Quezacotl. Her hope was that the appearance of the GF would help to clear the streets, either out of fear or knowledge of what a GF was.
Sakura was watching down the street as her suspicions were confirmed as the boy who had saved her blasted out of the cloud of dust and smoke that his impact had created and headed back into the skies. How strong is he? Sakura wondered. She found herself not watching Seifer, but the battle above…what she could see of it at any rate.
Eric bounded off the surface of a building and closed on Oliivarres, having seen all he wanted to know. They have power like mine, but they weren't born with it. Oliivarres hurled a bolt of force at Eric that he batted aside with a wave of his arm, bringing a look of shock to the Cadre officer's face. Eric flew past him, grabbing him by the collar of his uniform and pulling him along for the ride. He carried Oliivarres to the apex of his leap and hurled him, with an assist from his power, into the ruined rooftop. Thank you for giving me a place to kill you safely at, Eric thought. He focused his power on Oliivarres' prone form and a column of pure blue light shot straight into the air, Oliivarres final words a scream of rage and desperation. He turned his senses towards the battle and found that Kawada was racing back toward the ground for some reason. Back into the fray, Eric thought.
Reality warped as the faceless, winged entity that was Quezacotl appeared in the air above where Seifer fought his opponent. It had the desired effect as those people in the general vicinity that had not fled decided that they didn't need to stick around to see what happened. Seifer had sensed the GF as it appeared and noticed that Hikaru and the other girls were there. You could have warned me, he thought as he jumped backwards just as lightning raced down at the Cadre officer. The resulting explosion was impressive, yet when it cleared, the officer was still standing, unscathed. Seifer landed beside of Hikaru and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Helping out, sir."
Seifer grinned. "I'm just playing with this guy. Time to finish him." Seifer raised Hyperion and unleashed his full skill, clearing the distance between him and the officer in one leap. The gunblade made intricate patterns around the officer, slicing at the man's knees. As he fell forward, Seifer struck him across the temple with the flat of his gunblade, knocking him unconscious. "You weren't so tough," he sneered.
In a blur of motion, Kawada appeared beside of Seifer and said, calmly, "Nor are you."
To Hikaru, Madoka, and Sakura, it seemed as if Kawada had just waved an arm at Seifer, but the force that Kawada had used hurled Seifer fully across the street. He managed to land on his feet, but it was a near thing. This guy I don't play with, he thought. Kawada looked from Seifer to each of the girls and finally to Aiko. "You chose this conflict. You could have stayed out of it."
"And miss all this fun?" Seifer remarked. He knew he was facing an incredible amount of power here, the kind that he wielded and Squall did as well, and wondered if it was going to take an extreme limit break to take him down. The fact that he was fighting a person that had a certain level of legal authority in Esthar occurred to him, and he knew Squall was likely to be irked. Fuck it, he thought. Something about this stank to high heaven, and he was going to find out what it was. "You wanna dance?" Seifer asked Kawada.
Kawada's reply was not verbal, but in the form of a raw blast of power that tore the street up as it blazed towards Seifer. The air seemed to haze, and Seifer thought Well, this is gonna hurt.
Just before the attack hit, Eric landed in front of him, one arm extended. Kawada's power blast stopped dead in its tracks and then, Eric closed his hand. "Mr. Kawada," Eric said, holding the power in place, "who sent you here and how do they know about Aiko?"
Kawada's face lined with effort as he tried to push his power closer to Eric. "I only had orders to be here, and I will not speak of my masters to you!"
Eric scowled at him. "I should tell you that my powers are psychic in nature. They allow me to see things that others can't. I can see the modifications to your brain, to your nervous system, that allowed you to imitate my power. But you aren't even a tenth of me, Kawada. Cease your battle now or I will kill you." Eric opened his palm, and a wave of pure force rushed back at Kawada, driving through his defenses and sending him flying into the wall of the building next to Aiko's.
"Thanks for not totaling the rest of my shop," Aiko called brightly.
Eric's aura erupted around him, and he bounded after Kawada as he ricocheted off of the side of the building. Time to die, Kawada, Eric thought. He caught Kawada in a web of his power and said, calmly, "This has been a good work out," and with a flick of his mind, he tore Kawada apart. Below, Sakura, Madoka, and Hikaru watched with equal parts disgust and awe, while Seifer whistled. What a bastard, he thought.
Eric landed and looked around. The entire block looked as if it had been through a natural disaster, which in a sense it had. So much for my subtle arrival. Who modified those men so they could use my power? Mine is hereditary. He decided that discretion was the better part of valor and prepared to leave when Sakura ran up and cried out "Wait!" Eric turned and looked at her, trying not to notice her beauty. "Who are you? You saved my life, you're here now-who are you?"
Eric was about to reply when the blade of Hyperion fell on his shoulder. "I was about to ask the same thing, buddy," Seifer said from behind.
Eric did not turn. "You know, Mr. Almasy, I've known Aiko my entire life. She'd hate it if we fought."
Aiko ran up and took Seifer by his free arm. "Seifer, Eric's all right. He's an old friend, like I said. "
Much to the surprise of the girls, Seifer lowered Hyperion. Man, Madoka thought, Seifer must have it bad. Of course, if I had her chest…and her legs…people might have it bad for me too. "Okay, old friend, why exactly are you here, then?"
Eric looked from one face to the other before he said, "I've come to warn you all. The world…the world is about to end."
Hikaru, not shockingly, was the one to comment. "And here I thought it would be something simple."
In the floating citadel of Lunatic Pandora, high above the pit of Tear's Point, the den of the Lunar monsters, something that looked like a man sat on a throne of ebony marble and thought about his fate.
He looked like a tall, proud man, with dark hair and piercing grey eyes, but that was an illusion, the form that he had taken when he had fallen from the Void to serve the will of Urizen. In the Void, his name was Los, but here, as the first of the Fallen, he was known as Urthona by Urizen and the other Zoas. Since "urthona" in the language of the Void meant "fallen", Los suspected it was quite the joke. At any rate, he had more pressing issues than the scorn of his brothers. He closed his senses to the world and slid part of his mind into the Void, preparing himself for what was to come. Urizen, it has begun.
Immediately, Los felt himself surrounded by the unbridled malice that was Urizen's mind, his form, such as it was in the Void, hinting at being that of a dragon. Yes, "Urthona", I sense it. The power is very close to Lunatic Pandora, is it not?
Yes. The power that can oppose us has been drawn to the battlefield. And we have yet to recover the Book of Thel, as we need.
I see. Does the Voice stand ready?
She does Urizen. Once we have the Book of Thel, we can begin.
See to it that your mortal allies deal with the Grieving Angel, "Urthona". His power could very well make the difference.
Yes, Urizen. For the Great Mother.
Los returned his mind from the Void and thought about the forces arrayed against him in Esthar. He knew that if need be he could summon enough power to destroy them all, yet he had to recall that even to a monster, a cobra could be lethal if you taunted it too much. I must be calm in my power. This world will be ours.