Zell walked into the Garden Training Academy with his top knuckles on, a new design called the Tintor Fin created at Fisherman's Horizon. It was a deep yellow with black slashes, and the knuckles themselves were more like curved, ridged claws. That was enough to let even a beginner take down a Buel or a Bite Bug in one hit. Reaching the actual forested area, he immediately looked for Squall. After all, Squall was the one who'd called this meeting, and there had to be some reason for it...
Squall could have heard his voice from a mile away in the middle of the Esthar Mall. Only Zell's querying voice could sound so hyper, subdued, and loud at the same time. Rather than individually, he decided that he would tell them as a group. After all, he had summoned them, and since Zell was the last one to arrive, it was time for him to address the reason for the summons. Getting them all to quiet down, he started to start his statement when Hyne walked in. He smiled. Thinking to him through his newly acquired powers, he said,
Glad you could make it.
He thought back a response, although she had a far harder time with it than he did.
Wouldn't miss it.
He quieted down the groups that had started talking after he had gotten distracted and started talking to Hyne, and he calmed them down again. Sometimes, he wish he could have cast a silence on all of them to get them to stop talking, but that probably would have been brushing on immoral, forcing someone to do something against their will. That would be like forcing Rinoa to kiss Zell. That thought disqusted him.
"I called an assembly of the training group because, as you have probably guessed, of my new powers."
He raised his gloves, Mavericks that Zell had given him, up in the air to show them the Lionheart symbol on his palm that was glowing through the Maverick.
"Here in the training center?"
Quistis asked, stepping forward.
"Yeah, Squall. I mean, I've seen your power and you'd tear the place down, you know?"
"Affirmative."
"I don't want you tearing down the Garden now that I just became a SeeD a month ago."
Squall smiled. He hadn't thought of that, but the solution wasn't difficult to come up with. He raised his hand over his head and imagined the ground, the foggy mists that had formed. The plants and Bite Bugs... he was straining to form the psychic picture in his mind. He encompassed his sudden psychic energy field to encompass everyone around him, and he found himself and all the others in the middle of a field right out of Balamb Garden's repulsor field.
"Does that answer your question?"
Raijin wasn't convinced yet.
"I've got a question, you know. What do you want us to, you know, do?"
"Fight me. Try to kill me. Summon your GF's. Use your Ultimas, your Meteors, your Blinds. Don't skimp out on your attacks. From what Hyne has told me, I can create draw points for you to recover. One thing, though. Don't use elementals. I absorb all elemental attacks. Even Holy."
Zell's jaw dropped open.
"You must be joking. Look... you're powerful and all, but having all of us here to fight? I mean, you have the man who killed Odin in one strike, a sorceress, the ORIGINAL sorceress, a crackshot with an advanced gun, a hand to hand combat expert, a whipmaster, and Selphie, the self proclaimed nunchaka expert. Combined with our GFs, I'm not sure..."
Squall laughed and raised up his hands. Suddenly, a mass of thunder and lightning, far more powerful than even Quetzacoatal's blast when he first came into their group, blasted straight at Squall, slamming directly into his hand. When everyone else was able to look again, they saw all this energy focused into a single pinprick of energy that Squall thrust into his body as it seemed to flood his system, powering him.
"Any questions?"
All of them now had their jaws open, along with Zell. All, of course, except for Hyne. He simply laughed and agreed with him, though she had a lingering question.
"You do know that you won't really gain ALL that much training from fighting us with the power that you have."
"I know. The training is mostly for you guys."
Everyone was quiet at first. Then, all of a sudden, Seifer shot forward, his gunblade that he had now named Holy cross lifted over his head to strike Squall. Squall made a leap into the air and hung there, summoning energy in his hand. Suddenly, a wave of magic attacks came at him. An Ultima hit him head on, several meteors struck out of nowhere and slammed into him. Through the dust kicked up from the Ultima, he could see Rinoa and Selphie closing their eyes, putting their hands to their forehead. However, he could sense the Guardian Voice that echoed out from them. When the dust settled, several of them gasped as he came out uninjured, his bare chest still dry. He hadn't even broken a sweat. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Siren came from her dimension, carrying her harp over her form, playing smoothly. Then, the smooth playing seemed to change shape, and even though the sound was the same, it lashed out in waves at Squall and the others, as though it was a monster, trying desperately to kill its victim. Several of the wave reached his outstretched palm and stopped there, evaporating. Seifer came in from behind him, slashing his sword down towards his skin. He was barely able to phase out of his matter before the sword slashed through his ghosted self.
Squall sensed a surge of power nearby and threw Seifer down to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. Suddenly, in the space above him, he saw the dark sphere. The air seemed to cackle with powerful time-space energy and Diablos, the Lord of Space and Master of Time, came down. Reaching up into his dark sphere, Diablos pumped it full of energy, and then, before Squall could even know what was coming, brought it down on him. He had never felt the sudden twist of mind and soul that came with that attack. He felt as though his body was being twisted into hundreds of different shapes. Through the agony, he summoned a flare and blasted it out towards his dark opponent. At first, the magic seemed to struggled against the dome that encircled him, but when it cleared free, Diablos had no time before he was hit square on with the blast. From his feet to his head, he started to tremble as a tremor in space time was created and Diablos was sent back to the other dimension. He should have been happy that Squall didn't kill him. He didn't have too much time to think about it, though, because Rinoa's boomerang weapon suddenly came in, arcing at him. He grabbed it quickly. About to destroy it, Squall remembered how expensive it was, so rather than break it, he teleported it into the Garden. Raising a hand, Rinoa launched an Ultima at him at her most powerful magic, her eyes closed, eyebrow furrowed. As she summoned her power, Squall felt something give.
His entire world seemed to fall out from under him, and he was suddenly teleported, but this world was not real. It was not the realm that Hyne had brought him to, either. It was different. The sounds of screams and agony reached him, but he could not see anything. It was as though a blind was put over his eyes. He summoned as much power as he could, and he watched in satisfaction as the air lit around him, but the satisfaction didn't last long. All he could see were several gnarled, rotting trees, and a gate. Suddenly, from the gate, he saw six red eyes peering at him.
"Cerberus?"
Suddenly, the creature exploded out of the gate with its teeth bared. Squall raised his arms in a defensive posture.
"Cerberus, are you nuts?!"
The three headed beast attacked him, bringing his three jaws to bear on him. He created a field around him that threw all three back. Then, he remembered something Hyne had said.
My enemy...He controls the Guardian Force. He IS the Guardian Force.
Squall finally realized what that meant. His words meant that Cerberus was now under the enemy's control. He raised his hands, forming a magic shield in his arm that would repel the attack while he conjured up a plan. Cerberus was a fast creature, because it had three heads. He wouldn't dare kill it, either. Irvinne would be crushed if that happened. Cerberus was his pet, and not just his Guardian. With his other hand, he formed a rift, hoping that his sudden plan would work. Rather than wait for Cerberus to attack him, he had come up with a new plan. When Cerberus struck again, he brought the rift between the two of them, and while Cerberus had his head trapped in it, Squall transported to the back of him and kicked him.
"Get in there, you mutt!"
There was only a single yelp/roar as the huge beast descended into the rift. Using up only a little of his power, Squall moved the rift to the inside of the gates, closed the gates, and sealed Cerberus there by casting a stop. However, it wasn't a stop beam, but a field. If Cerberus tried to escape, he would be stopped in his tracks. Allowing Cerberus to escape, he suddenly felt his world twisting again.
This time, he found himself in a deep cave, but there were no Guardian forces here. There were only a group of white-clad figures perched on the cave walls. Somehow, though, Squall could see through the disquise of white. These beings weren't pure, and their essence sure wasn't pretty. The closest feeling he could remember to that was facing Sorceress Adel in the eye and seeing the madness there. Except this time, there were over 100 of these Adels, and Adel would probably have cowered in fear at the power of just one of them. At his calm, several of them sneered through their white hoods. One of the jumped right behind him, landing almost an inch from the right of his face. This being had a queer, devious smile on his face at first, but when he noticed that Squall hadn't even sneered, he reached up his claws to strike him. Rather than take the hit, Squall expanded his vitality and spirit fields outside of his body, blocking the strike. Several of the others suddenly hissed.
"Who are you, Heart of Lionssss, that you do not fear usssss."
The sound of snakes that came with their voice reminded him of some of the more disqusting creatures he'd met in his journeys. In fact, it was something between Gerogero, an Abyss Worm, Elvoret, a Forbidden and... and a little bit of Abaddon.
"I am Squall Leonheart..."
On a hunch, he finished it up with a,
"I was chosen to be your destroyer."
The entire assembly exploded in hissing and anger. Suddenly, a single figure walked from the other side of the room.
"Calm down, my servants."
He looked at Squall, and said with a coy smile,
"You are not our destroyer. Another has been chosen for that. You, my friend, are simply an overblown messenger of the Creator."
Squall's anger started to rise as he stepped forward.
"I wouldn't say that..."
"Call me Darkness."
"All right, Darkness. I wouldn't say that, Darkness. You will find yourself destroyed by the very one you are claiming is nothing."
The chuckle that came from Darkness started to ease the tension of the other beings.
"No. You will not destroy me. There is a time for that, but it is not now, and it will not be you will be my destruction."
One of the other figures came up, this one with wings.
"Sir. This Leonheart nearly sent Anikion to the other plane without sustaining any damage..."
Darkness raised a hand, which Squall suddenly noticed was clawed, towards the one who now spoke, and a wave of energy so powerful that Squall could barely look at it struck the being, dissipating him. The entire room became deathly quiet.
"Do you think I couldn't do that and more, Lionio?"
He said to his once servant.
If he's that easily angerable, than that means... that means that he may kill all of his servants before I can touch them.
"I won't justify that with an answer, Speaker from the Creator."
Apparently, Darkness could read his thoughts.
"I will allow you to leave this place in your blissful ignorance now, Heart of Lions. Do not intefere again, or you will find yourself fighting Darkness myself."
Suddenly, the world shifted again and he found himself back in the field with everyone else. It took him a moment to regain his balance, even while several of his friends came to assist him.
"What...Whe... Where'd you go?"
Zell asked. Before he could respond, Hyne walked up, his small hand steadied on Squall's shoulder.
"It's very simple, Zell. Squall has met my enemy."
Squall could have heard his voice from a mile away in the middle of the Esthar Mall. Only Zell's querying voice could sound so hyper, subdued, and loud at the same time. Rather than individually, he decided that he would tell them as a group. After all, he had summoned them, and since Zell was the last one to arrive, it was time for him to address the reason for the summons. Getting them all to quiet down, he started to start his statement when Hyne walked in. He smiled. Thinking to him through his newly acquired powers, he said,
Glad you could make it.
He thought back a response, although she had a far harder time with it than he did.
Wouldn't miss it.
He quieted down the groups that had started talking after he had gotten distracted and started talking to Hyne, and he calmed them down again. Sometimes, he wish he could have cast a silence on all of them to get them to stop talking, but that probably would have been brushing on immoral, forcing someone to do something against their will. That would be like forcing Rinoa to kiss Zell. That thought disqusted him.
"I called an assembly of the training group because, as you have probably guessed, of my new powers."
He raised his gloves, Mavericks that Zell had given him, up in the air to show them the Lionheart symbol on his palm that was glowing through the Maverick.
"Here in the training center?"
Quistis asked, stepping forward.
"Yeah, Squall. I mean, I've seen your power and you'd tear the place down, you know?"
"Affirmative."
"I don't want you tearing down the Garden now that I just became a SeeD a month ago."
Squall smiled. He hadn't thought of that, but the solution wasn't difficult to come up with. He raised his hand over his head and imagined the ground, the foggy mists that had formed. The plants and Bite Bugs... he was straining to form the psychic picture in his mind. He encompassed his sudden psychic energy field to encompass everyone around him, and he found himself and all the others in the middle of a field right out of Balamb Garden's repulsor field.
"Does that answer your question?"
Raijin wasn't convinced yet.
"I've got a question, you know. What do you want us to, you know, do?"
"Fight me. Try to kill me. Summon your GF's. Use your Ultimas, your Meteors, your Blinds. Don't skimp out on your attacks. From what Hyne has told me, I can create draw points for you to recover. One thing, though. Don't use elementals. I absorb all elemental attacks. Even Holy."
Zell's jaw dropped open.
"You must be joking. Look... you're powerful and all, but having all of us here to fight? I mean, you have the man who killed Odin in one strike, a sorceress, the ORIGINAL sorceress, a crackshot with an advanced gun, a hand to hand combat expert, a whipmaster, and Selphie, the self proclaimed nunchaka expert. Combined with our GFs, I'm not sure..."
Squall laughed and raised up his hands. Suddenly, a mass of thunder and lightning, far more powerful than even Quetzacoatal's blast when he first came into their group, blasted straight at Squall, slamming directly into his hand. When everyone else was able to look again, they saw all this energy focused into a single pinprick of energy that Squall thrust into his body as it seemed to flood his system, powering him.
"Any questions?"
All of them now had their jaws open, along with Zell. All, of course, except for Hyne. He simply laughed and agreed with him, though she had a lingering question.
"You do know that you won't really gain ALL that much training from fighting us with the power that you have."
"I know. The training is mostly for you guys."
Everyone was quiet at first. Then, all of a sudden, Seifer shot forward, his gunblade that he had now named Holy cross lifted over his head to strike Squall. Squall made a leap into the air and hung there, summoning energy in his hand. Suddenly, a wave of magic attacks came at him. An Ultima hit him head on, several meteors struck out of nowhere and slammed into him. Through the dust kicked up from the Ultima, he could see Rinoa and Selphie closing their eyes, putting their hands to their forehead. However, he could sense the Guardian Voice that echoed out from them. When the dust settled, several of them gasped as he came out uninjured, his bare chest still dry. He hadn't even broken a sweat. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Siren came from her dimension, carrying her harp over her form, playing smoothly. Then, the smooth playing seemed to change shape, and even though the sound was the same, it lashed out in waves at Squall and the others, as though it was a monster, trying desperately to kill its victim. Several of the wave reached his outstretched palm and stopped there, evaporating. Seifer came in from behind him, slashing his sword down towards his skin. He was barely able to phase out of his matter before the sword slashed through his ghosted self.
Squall sensed a surge of power nearby and threw Seifer down to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. Suddenly, in the space above him, he saw the dark sphere. The air seemed to cackle with powerful time-space energy and Diablos, the Lord of Space and Master of Time, came down. Reaching up into his dark sphere, Diablos pumped it full of energy, and then, before Squall could even know what was coming, brought it down on him. He had never felt the sudden twist of mind and soul that came with that attack. He felt as though his body was being twisted into hundreds of different shapes. Through the agony, he summoned a flare and blasted it out towards his dark opponent. At first, the magic seemed to struggled against the dome that encircled him, but when it cleared free, Diablos had no time before he was hit square on with the blast. From his feet to his head, he started to tremble as a tremor in space time was created and Diablos was sent back to the other dimension. He should have been happy that Squall didn't kill him. He didn't have too much time to think about it, though, because Rinoa's boomerang weapon suddenly came in, arcing at him. He grabbed it quickly. About to destroy it, Squall remembered how expensive it was, so rather than break it, he teleported it into the Garden. Raising a hand, Rinoa launched an Ultima at him at her most powerful magic, her eyes closed, eyebrow furrowed. As she summoned her power, Squall felt something give.
His entire world seemed to fall out from under him, and he was suddenly teleported, but this world was not real. It was not the realm that Hyne had brought him to, either. It was different. The sounds of screams and agony reached him, but he could not see anything. It was as though a blind was put over his eyes. He summoned as much power as he could, and he watched in satisfaction as the air lit around him, but the satisfaction didn't last long. All he could see were several gnarled, rotting trees, and a gate. Suddenly, from the gate, he saw six red eyes peering at him.
"Cerberus?"
Suddenly, the creature exploded out of the gate with its teeth bared. Squall raised his arms in a defensive posture.
"Cerberus, are you nuts?!"
The three headed beast attacked him, bringing his three jaws to bear on him. He created a field around him that threw all three back. Then, he remembered something Hyne had said.
My enemy...He controls the Guardian Force. He IS the Guardian Force.
Squall finally realized what that meant. His words meant that Cerberus was now under the enemy's control. He raised his hands, forming a magic shield in his arm that would repel the attack while he conjured up a plan. Cerberus was a fast creature, because it had three heads. He wouldn't dare kill it, either. Irvinne would be crushed if that happened. Cerberus was his pet, and not just his Guardian. With his other hand, he formed a rift, hoping that his sudden plan would work. Rather than wait for Cerberus to attack him, he had come up with a new plan. When Cerberus struck again, he brought the rift between the two of them, and while Cerberus had his head trapped in it, Squall transported to the back of him and kicked him.
"Get in there, you mutt!"
There was only a single yelp/roar as the huge beast descended into the rift. Using up only a little of his power, Squall moved the rift to the inside of the gates, closed the gates, and sealed Cerberus there by casting a stop. However, it wasn't a stop beam, but a field. If Cerberus tried to escape, he would be stopped in his tracks. Allowing Cerberus to escape, he suddenly felt his world twisting again.
This time, he found himself in a deep cave, but there were no Guardian forces here. There were only a group of white-clad figures perched on the cave walls. Somehow, though, Squall could see through the disquise of white. These beings weren't pure, and their essence sure wasn't pretty. The closest feeling he could remember to that was facing Sorceress Adel in the eye and seeing the madness there. Except this time, there were over 100 of these Adels, and Adel would probably have cowered in fear at the power of just one of them. At his calm, several of them sneered through their white hoods. One of the jumped right behind him, landing almost an inch from the right of his face. This being had a queer, devious smile on his face at first, but when he noticed that Squall hadn't even sneered, he reached up his claws to strike him. Rather than take the hit, Squall expanded his vitality and spirit fields outside of his body, blocking the strike. Several of the others suddenly hissed.
"Who are you, Heart of Lionssss, that you do not fear usssss."
The sound of snakes that came with their voice reminded him of some of the more disqusting creatures he'd met in his journeys. In fact, it was something between Gerogero, an Abyss Worm, Elvoret, a Forbidden and... and a little bit of Abaddon.
"I am Squall Leonheart..."
On a hunch, he finished it up with a,
"I was chosen to be your destroyer."
The entire assembly exploded in hissing and anger. Suddenly, a single figure walked from the other side of the room.
"Calm down, my servants."
He looked at Squall, and said with a coy smile,
"You are not our destroyer. Another has been chosen for that. You, my friend, are simply an overblown messenger of the Creator."
Squall's anger started to rise as he stepped forward.
"I wouldn't say that..."
"Call me Darkness."
"All right, Darkness. I wouldn't say that, Darkness. You will find yourself destroyed by the very one you are claiming is nothing."
The chuckle that came from Darkness started to ease the tension of the other beings.
"No. You will not destroy me. There is a time for that, but it is not now, and it will not be you will be my destruction."
One of the other figures came up, this one with wings.
"Sir. This Leonheart nearly sent Anikion to the other plane without sustaining any damage..."
Darkness raised a hand, which Squall suddenly noticed was clawed, towards the one who now spoke, and a wave of energy so powerful that Squall could barely look at it struck the being, dissipating him. The entire room became deathly quiet.
"Do you think I couldn't do that and more, Lionio?"
He said to his once servant.
If he's that easily angerable, than that means... that means that he may kill all of his servants before I can touch them.
"I won't justify that with an answer, Speaker from the Creator."
Apparently, Darkness could read his thoughts.
"I will allow you to leave this place in your blissful ignorance now, Heart of Lions. Do not intefere again, or you will find yourself fighting Darkness myself."
Suddenly, the world shifted again and he found himself back in the field with everyone else. It took him a moment to regain his balance, even while several of his friends came to assist him.
"What...Whe... Where'd you go?"
Zell asked. Before he could respond, Hyne walked up, his small hand steadied on Squall's shoulder.
"It's very simple, Zell. Squall has met my enemy."