They were cutting their way trough a mob. Most loyalists had dispersed in the meantime, after they had paraded with him trough Caraway's mansion with Squall's sword in his neck. They had than brought him to the radiostation, where Caraway and his staff were stationed. Caraway had laughed when they had shown up. Clearly accepting that his daughter was in the thick of battle. "If these officers would've learned ANYTHING in their fancy schools about urban warfare, I'd let them handle the details and get down myself." When he heard that Deling had been using, wasting, his house, his eyes went a little harder. Squall had a feeling Deling would soon be wishing Squall had beheaded him. They had than left and decided to look for the leaders of the Cult of the Moon. They ran into a battle between soldiers and Knights, and the soldiers seemed to be losing, pressurized by the deathdefying knights. Rinoa inmediately had jumped in, cutting the head of a knight clean off with her Angel Wings. A soldier had lifted his arm to cast fira on her but had suddenly found a Galbadian soldier's sword in his belly. And so Squall and Rinoa had joined the battle
Squall had fallen back to the psychologiacal trick that his old fighting teacher had told him. Never see hostile people, just see the threat. Don't kill people, neutralize threaths. In Squall's mindseye there was hardly blood showing. There were merely targets with target areas, dangerous objects and many attacking forces coming his away. Sometimes when he thought about it, he doubted whether this was something he should do, stucking his hand in the sand over all those dead. He had never considered how many monsters and people he had killed, untill he had felt Tonberry's fire. It had felt like all his 'neutralized targets' had come back and had been clawing at his legs. He had fainted back than, unable to stand the pain, and it hadn't been the last time. But how else could he remain concentrated when his word just ripped trough one knight's heart, while another knight was sitting on his knees, holding his guts in with one hand and weakly raising his mace in the other. How was he to ignore the pleas of a dying soldier begging for a moment of his time, that he couldn't spare, for a curaga. He dodged a Thundaga that had been coming at him, but felta Blizzara chilling his back. In the moment he stood still, a knight armed with a knife lunged at him, making him fall. The man put his knee on Squall's right arm andstabbed at him. Squall couldn't get his sword in position, and he couldn't use magic. He raised his left arm, and grunted as flesh ripped. The man raised the knife again. Squall's arm slid down powerlessly. All soldiers were already fighting for their lives, and losing. So this was it? After defeating Ultimecia he would die on a Galbadian street with a kinfewound trough his chest? And leave Rinoa? And Squall felt fear.
Rinoa had been in the back as much as she could, her projectile slicing trough the enemy ranks and returning. She was capable of dispatching the one soldier that could break trough to her, but she couldn't fight dozens of people at once. Squall was much better in that. She looked at him, just as Squall was overwhelmed. Her eyes grew big with fright. She felt the shock in her arm telling her the Angel Wings had returned to her wrist. She aimed them at the area where she had seen Squall fall. She couldn't see him. Than she saw a blood soaked nice with a piece of black fabric on it. She shot. The hand with bloody knife tumbled as it left thearm. The man raised in pain. Rinoa tore of the Galbadian helm. The knife had been red. Squall had fallen. She felt the power flow within her. Sorcery. For a second it looked that she had big wings at her shoulders. She pointed at the man. Her voice was ice. "Death" The man didn't scream. He just fell down. Some people looked at her in wonder. She didn't care. She just pointed to another person and repeated the word. That person too, fell down. The knights now started to back down. The soldiers initially tried to take advantadge but than followe the gazes of their opponents and looked in shock as their general's daughter walked slowly forward. Killing people word by word on every step. Than a knight jumped out of the croud and kneeled before her.
"Forgive us, you highness. We didn't know"
Rinoa pointed at a point before the man and the ground melted.The man didn't move an inch
"Please your Majesty. We are at your command. You need not fight us."
A second piece of stone in front of the man molt. It was awfully close. The man's eyes filled with tears of regret and terror.
"We only want to be your knights!"
"The job's taken"
Rinoa stopped her hand and turned around. Squall was getting up after getting off the now one-handed man's corpse. His chin, helm and suit was covered in blood, and his left arm was limp. Rinoa inmediately casted 3 curaga's on him, healing Squall's arm completely after the first one. Than she hugged him. She tried to kiss him but bumped her head on the helm. She grumbeled something and turned to the Knights.
"You will obey my orders?"
The knights raised their swords. "TO THE DEATH"
Rinoa nodded. "Than you shall obey the orders my father gives. When he speaks, consider it like it's me speaking. And fight the other militia."
The Knights roared in appreciation of getting orders from a sorceress. The fight had stopped and people started healing eachother. Squall took his helm off. Rinoa hugged him again. She whispered in his ear.
"I was so scared."
Squall whispered back.
"... Me...me too."
His face was as stoic as ever. If it wasn't for the blood he might as well have been reading a book. But Rinoa knew that Squall wouldn't fake feelings. He'd hide them. Squall broke the embrace.
"Come on. There's more fighting."
.
They ran further, followed by the soldiers and the knights. The soldiers had decided that they'd recognize the couple as their leader too. They ran trough the city as a spear. A few Cultists with monsters were easily dispatched, and fifty GAMMA soldiers scattered when they were bombarded with magic attacks The soldiers had long since stopped trying to take prisoners. This weren't riots anymore. This was civil war. . Some knights they encountered started to charge them untill one of their knights explaine the situation. Squall had whispered Rinoa to go with some knights and soldiers to get more knights to their side . Rinoa had done that. She hadn't complained, realizing that her city needed her. She had merely traced her finger over his helm, following the scar underneath, and had whispered him to be carefull. Now they were walking in a street. Squall saw almost a hunderd corpses on the ground. Young Revolutionaries. Some had their weapons sheated. Squall saw that many of them had been hit in the back or the side.
"HALT. Assume a defensive formation."
The soldiers inmediately obeyed. The knights hesitated. After a glare of Rinoa they held their weapons ready. 4 seconds of silence passed. Than the enemy arrived. From two side streets 6 dozen armed men and women. Dressed in darkbblue clothes, mimicking the clothes of Garden students. 'SeeDs'. The knights and soldier's loosened a barrage of magic and projectile weapons, killing some soldiers, but not nearly as much as the GAMMA soldiers had lost. Squall recognized the training He had followed it himself. The ambush was straight out of the books he had read. Where would these people have gotten their training? Than he saw two familiar faces. And two familiar uniforms. The man wore a grey suit with blue at the shoulders. The woman wore a grey suit and a short grey skirt. Rodan Antilaz and Delina Findora. Two students that had been failed their last possible examn at 21. They had left inmediately after the examn however, without returning their GF's. In the meantime killing two SeeD's by surprise and stealing their uniforms. It had happened when Squall was 15. It had been a scandal. Cid had put a bounty and a promise for a raise in rank for their capture or even their heads. Their pictures had been everywhere. And now they were here. Rodan with his scythe, and Delina with her crossbow. And they were running their own 'Garden'
As the two battlelines ran into eachother Squall saw the students had been trained well. Both the ones that fought in close quarters as the ones who fought with missile weapons as the magic users. But than, Rodan and Delina HAD been good. Rodan was an excellent fighter with his scythe and seemed to have a natural resistance to elemental attacks. He could have been much, but he was arrogant and had a cruel streak. Every time again he had been kicked out of the examn because he had not been able to control his sadism. He had known he had blown his last chance when his instructor had seen him kicking a wounded Timber soldier. (The contract back than had been for Galbadia against some rebel soldiers) That instructor had been one of the two that were killed. Delina was a crackshot with her crossbow, a master in using magic and had a high endurance for wounds. HEr drawbacks had been her impatience and her hedonism. She had accidentally wounded a student while trying to shoot an enemy behind him. Later witnesses claimed that she had been drunk at the time, sipping every few minutes from the bottle of whisky at her side. She was sober now, firing bolts, and not caring if it accidentally hit one of her students because he had moved between her and her target. Rodan was fgrinning wildly as he slashed up soldiers, revelling in their screams. Squall casted a Thundaga in front of him and slashed his way trough the rest of the enemies that formed the battleline. He felt a disgust for the pair, that soiled the name of SeeD with their murderous rampage, eventhough he was no SeeD anymore. He went for Delina. She saw him and swiveled her crossbow at him and fired. Squall didn't even bother to dodge it or defend. It was a clear miss. He reached her and cutted her in her belly. He didn't feel the sickening yet reassuring feeling of innards being cut open, but the strange toughness that his own skin had shown. Of course. Delina had her GF equipped. His sword leaved a thin red line on her belly. Her fist slammed in his face. He flew back. Though Delina was frail she had junctioned magic in her strength.
Squall got up. He heard a chuckle behind him. He raised his sword. Sparks flew from the Lionheart. His arm strained and Squall grimaced. He had magic junctioned in his strength too. Squall would have paid good money for a GF right now. He jumped up. Rodan smiled at him.
"Well, well, well... seems like there's someone worth the air they breath after all. I'm gonna have fun with you"
"Whatever" Squall said and slashed at him.
Squall had a hard time. While the scythe was cumbersome Rodan had his speed improved. Squall had to jump and duck to keep his body in one piece. He slashed back, and got in some hits, but eventhough the lionheart was sharper than a razor, his arms just missed the strength to pierce the flesh. He jumped back just too late and the scythe slashed his leg. He hissed. He realized he was losing this battle. He needed a plan. He took a glance to the soldiers. They were holding out, but they couldn't help him. The only reason that he wasn't dead yet was that Rodan had the tendency to fight in a fixed pattern and become predictable. Squall knew he was the better fighter but he didn't have a GF. He rolled beneath a vicious slice at his head and saw Delina looking at the fight, enjoying it inmensely. He had a plan. He backed away, slowly moving towards her. He knew she wouldn't be shooting him in the back. She was having to much fun watching her partner kill him off. Squall casted a Blizagga on Rodan. It paralyzed him for merely a second but that was enough. As he felt the ice crack behind him he ran towards Delina who braced herself for the coming slash. The smile didn't leave her lips however, untill she felt his on hers. There was absolutely no love in that kiss. Squall would have bitten if he thought his teeth could draw blood. He really loathed her. But this was the only way to get them to act his way. He jumped back and started running to the side, limping a little. As he had expected Rodan went Berserk and flew at him with his scythe. Squall braced for impact. He hoped he had gambled right, if not he was dead. Suddenly he saw the scythe that was coming down at him halting a second and coming down with less power. When it reached him it was still powerfull enough to press his sword back and make a cut in his side. Squall saw the bolt. He had hoped it would have killed the man, but it had only struck him in his underarm. Rodan tried to remove it, but couldn't bear the pain. His scythe hung useless in his hand.
"DELINA, LOOK WHERE YOU'RE BLOODY SHOOTING!"
She sneered. "YOU look where you're walking. But don't worry, I won't miss him this time"
She reached for another bolt. Squall didn't wait however and ran towards her, his leg screaming for mercy. She was about to let the bolt fly as his sword caught the weapon and took it from her hands. Squall put his hand to his helm and spoke.
"Firaga"
The crossbow exploded into hunderds burning or molten pieces. Delina punched Squall in his side, just on the wound, he buckled over and she kicked him against his chin. He started to get up. He didn't like to fight unarmed or wounded opponents, but in this case he doubted whether he would win even without it. He grasped his sword and prepared to charge her, when he heard the sound of magic behind him.
"Confuse"
Squall just ahd the time to say "Damn" before the magic hit him. His thoughts started to tumble. He couldn't focus his eyes on anything. Different sounds, thoughts and sights demanded his attention and made him make involuntarely movements. Where was Rinoa. He had send her away. He had to save her from space! No he had done that. He heard something about people discussing. "Seeing who could summon his GF the fastest." Squall didn't care. He had to solve this problem. Ultimecia. He swiped his sword thinking of her. Seifer, was he still his enemy or not? Fire erupted within his thoughts and Squall vaguely took notice a building started burning. That wasn't important now. Why were those two people laughing? They were irritating him? Maybe they were enemies? But what if they were not. The world was so hard to understand. What was rright? Maybe he should hurt himself. Pain might bring clarity. Everything was so complicated.
Than an instinct in Squall flared up. If the world is complicated, simplify it. Squall had a feeling those two figures were targets. He erased any other thought. He and the target. The rest was illusion. He had picked his target. He had to damage it a lot, so it would be neutralized. He said the first words that came to mind.
"Renzokuken"
He stormed at the figure, the pain he felt in his leg and side was background noise. Irrelevant. As he felt his arms finding their way on instinct to the good positions his mind cleared as he cut further and further. He noticed it was a woman he was slashing at. The name came back to him. Delina. The memories came back at him. His attack slowed. He gathered his strength and slammed her a last time. She was bleeding seriously, Squall saw, but not dead yet. She sneered at him. That was hard as one slowly loses control of one's own body while summoning a GF. Squall gritted his teeth. He thought of what Galbadians would say in years to come. Talking about the attempt of SeeD to take over the city. His sword started to glow again.
"Lionheart"
He ran towards her and hit her in the under her chin. As she flew in the sky he jumped after her. The world simplified again to accomodate only him and his target. When he saw everything clear again he was on the ground and heard something fall beside him. It was a head, in front of him felt an arm. The pieces fell down. Squall looked at Rodan. There was a deep sadness in his eyes. But he didn't have enough control of his body anymore to do anything.but look sad. Than his body dissapeared. Squall tried to remember what the name was of the stolen GF. He opened his eyes. It seemed like a robot with a big cannon to his right arm. He could hardly think straight anymore. The confuse spell had released his grip, but his mind was still sluggish. Suddenly he felt that there were lots of sharp objects coming his way. He weakly tried to defend himself, but it was to no avail. The nails, ninja-stars, glasshards and other sharp things ripped at him. The pain started to overwhelm him. A particularry big piece knocked of his helm. The magic was gone. He protected his eyes with his punctured arm. Than the storm of pain stopped. The things were gone, but the wounds stayed. Squall tried to keep awake, but being awake meant pain. Unconciousness was so peacefull. His survival instinct was muted by pain and lingering effects of the mind-affecting spells. Squall fell over backwards.
Rodan slowly walked up to the one that killed his love. He didn't want pain anymore. He just wanted vengeance. He raised his left hand with the scythe. Suddenly, he felt another hand grasping it. HE looked back and saw one of his students holding his hand.
"WHAT?"
"Excuse me sir. But isn't that Squall Lionheart? the famous SeeD?"
Rodan raised his eyebrows. The fight was concluded. The soldiers had retreated, the knights had all fought to the death. Rodan hadn't been in Deling city when the famous SeeD had attacke the sorceress. The descriptions were vague and always overrated. Could this be him. He was Delina's killer. That's all what counted to him.
"No of course not. Not when I got my mission in Balamb Garden."
One of his soldiers checked the bleeding and barely breathing body of the SeeD.
"Hmmm, a wallet with no identification. It could be him. I don't know for sure. Never seen him myself. Hey what's this?"
He took a small piece of paper.
"It looks like something for a final exam. ... I, Cid Kramer hereby award Squall Lionheart the tirle of SeeD rank 5? And all numbers. HEY, this is Squall. This is his graduation proof."
He looked oddly at Rodan. "Why have you never shown yours Rohan?"
Rodan started to sweat. "I ... threw it away."
The SeeD's started to circle him. "What do you mean?" The whispers started to become louder. Rodan cursed. Lying had been Delina's strong point. He stuttered for an explanation. The eyes of his soldiers turned hostle. He was too weak now to fight them. He tried to order them to fall back in line
, but his voice seemed to lose power. He than tried to run, but someone tripped him. He fell on the ground.
"Stay away. I am your senior officer..You must obey me.... NO"
...
Sqall slowly woke up. He licked his lips. He tasted Phoenix down. Than he felt the reassuring tingling of a Cura spell. He opened his eyes. A man was looking down on him. He raised his head. The first thing he noticed was a corpse hanging by his neck. Rodan? But how? The man answered.
"I realize this may sound strange sir. But we are at your orders."
Squall just nodded. Explanations would come later.
To be continued.
Squall had fallen back to the psychologiacal trick that his old fighting teacher had told him. Never see hostile people, just see the threat. Don't kill people, neutralize threaths. In Squall's mindseye there was hardly blood showing. There were merely targets with target areas, dangerous objects and many attacking forces coming his away. Sometimes when he thought about it, he doubted whether this was something he should do, stucking his hand in the sand over all those dead. He had never considered how many monsters and people he had killed, untill he had felt Tonberry's fire. It had felt like all his 'neutralized targets' had come back and had been clawing at his legs. He had fainted back than, unable to stand the pain, and it hadn't been the last time. But how else could he remain concentrated when his word just ripped trough one knight's heart, while another knight was sitting on his knees, holding his guts in with one hand and weakly raising his mace in the other. How was he to ignore the pleas of a dying soldier begging for a moment of his time, that he couldn't spare, for a curaga. He dodged a Thundaga that had been coming at him, but felta Blizzara chilling his back. In the moment he stood still, a knight armed with a knife lunged at him, making him fall. The man put his knee on Squall's right arm andstabbed at him. Squall couldn't get his sword in position, and he couldn't use magic. He raised his left arm, and grunted as flesh ripped. The man raised the knife again. Squall's arm slid down powerlessly. All soldiers were already fighting for their lives, and losing. So this was it? After defeating Ultimecia he would die on a Galbadian street with a kinfewound trough his chest? And leave Rinoa? And Squall felt fear.
Rinoa had been in the back as much as she could, her projectile slicing trough the enemy ranks and returning. She was capable of dispatching the one soldier that could break trough to her, but she couldn't fight dozens of people at once. Squall was much better in that. She looked at him, just as Squall was overwhelmed. Her eyes grew big with fright. She felt the shock in her arm telling her the Angel Wings had returned to her wrist. She aimed them at the area where she had seen Squall fall. She couldn't see him. Than she saw a blood soaked nice with a piece of black fabric on it. She shot. The hand with bloody knife tumbled as it left thearm. The man raised in pain. Rinoa tore of the Galbadian helm. The knife had been red. Squall had fallen. She felt the power flow within her. Sorcery. For a second it looked that she had big wings at her shoulders. She pointed at the man. Her voice was ice. "Death" The man didn't scream. He just fell down. Some people looked at her in wonder. She didn't care. She just pointed to another person and repeated the word. That person too, fell down. The knights now started to back down. The soldiers initially tried to take advantadge but than followe the gazes of their opponents and looked in shock as their general's daughter walked slowly forward. Killing people word by word on every step. Than a knight jumped out of the croud and kneeled before her.
"Forgive us, you highness. We didn't know"
Rinoa pointed at a point before the man and the ground melted.The man didn't move an inch
"Please your Majesty. We are at your command. You need not fight us."
A second piece of stone in front of the man molt. It was awfully close. The man's eyes filled with tears of regret and terror.
"We only want to be your knights!"
"The job's taken"
Rinoa stopped her hand and turned around. Squall was getting up after getting off the now one-handed man's corpse. His chin, helm and suit was covered in blood, and his left arm was limp. Rinoa inmediately casted 3 curaga's on him, healing Squall's arm completely after the first one. Than she hugged him. She tried to kiss him but bumped her head on the helm. She grumbeled something and turned to the Knights.
"You will obey my orders?"
The knights raised their swords. "TO THE DEATH"
Rinoa nodded. "Than you shall obey the orders my father gives. When he speaks, consider it like it's me speaking. And fight the other militia."
The Knights roared in appreciation of getting orders from a sorceress. The fight had stopped and people started healing eachother. Squall took his helm off. Rinoa hugged him again. She whispered in his ear.
"I was so scared."
Squall whispered back.
"... Me...me too."
His face was as stoic as ever. If it wasn't for the blood he might as well have been reading a book. But Rinoa knew that Squall wouldn't fake feelings. He'd hide them. Squall broke the embrace.
"Come on. There's more fighting."
.
They ran further, followed by the soldiers and the knights. The soldiers had decided that they'd recognize the couple as their leader too. They ran trough the city as a spear. A few Cultists with monsters were easily dispatched, and fifty GAMMA soldiers scattered when they were bombarded with magic attacks The soldiers had long since stopped trying to take prisoners. This weren't riots anymore. This was civil war. . Some knights they encountered started to charge them untill one of their knights explaine the situation. Squall had whispered Rinoa to go with some knights and soldiers to get more knights to their side . Rinoa had done that. She hadn't complained, realizing that her city needed her. She had merely traced her finger over his helm, following the scar underneath, and had whispered him to be carefull. Now they were walking in a street. Squall saw almost a hunderd corpses on the ground. Young Revolutionaries. Some had their weapons sheated. Squall saw that many of them had been hit in the back or the side.
"HALT. Assume a defensive formation."
The soldiers inmediately obeyed. The knights hesitated. After a glare of Rinoa they held their weapons ready. 4 seconds of silence passed. Than the enemy arrived. From two side streets 6 dozen armed men and women. Dressed in darkbblue clothes, mimicking the clothes of Garden students. 'SeeDs'. The knights and soldier's loosened a barrage of magic and projectile weapons, killing some soldiers, but not nearly as much as the GAMMA soldiers had lost. Squall recognized the training He had followed it himself. The ambush was straight out of the books he had read. Where would these people have gotten their training? Than he saw two familiar faces. And two familiar uniforms. The man wore a grey suit with blue at the shoulders. The woman wore a grey suit and a short grey skirt. Rodan Antilaz and Delina Findora. Two students that had been failed their last possible examn at 21. They had left inmediately after the examn however, without returning their GF's. In the meantime killing two SeeD's by surprise and stealing their uniforms. It had happened when Squall was 15. It had been a scandal. Cid had put a bounty and a promise for a raise in rank for their capture or even their heads. Their pictures had been everywhere. And now they were here. Rodan with his scythe, and Delina with her crossbow. And they were running their own 'Garden'
As the two battlelines ran into eachother Squall saw the students had been trained well. Both the ones that fought in close quarters as the ones who fought with missile weapons as the magic users. But than, Rodan and Delina HAD been good. Rodan was an excellent fighter with his scythe and seemed to have a natural resistance to elemental attacks. He could have been much, but he was arrogant and had a cruel streak. Every time again he had been kicked out of the examn because he had not been able to control his sadism. He had known he had blown his last chance when his instructor had seen him kicking a wounded Timber soldier. (The contract back than had been for Galbadia against some rebel soldiers) That instructor had been one of the two that were killed. Delina was a crackshot with her crossbow, a master in using magic and had a high endurance for wounds. HEr drawbacks had been her impatience and her hedonism. She had accidentally wounded a student while trying to shoot an enemy behind him. Later witnesses claimed that she had been drunk at the time, sipping every few minutes from the bottle of whisky at her side. She was sober now, firing bolts, and not caring if it accidentally hit one of her students because he had moved between her and her target. Rodan was fgrinning wildly as he slashed up soldiers, revelling in their screams. Squall casted a Thundaga in front of him and slashed his way trough the rest of the enemies that formed the battleline. He felt a disgust for the pair, that soiled the name of SeeD with their murderous rampage, eventhough he was no SeeD anymore. He went for Delina. She saw him and swiveled her crossbow at him and fired. Squall didn't even bother to dodge it or defend. It was a clear miss. He reached her and cutted her in her belly. He didn't feel the sickening yet reassuring feeling of innards being cut open, but the strange toughness that his own skin had shown. Of course. Delina had her GF equipped. His sword leaved a thin red line on her belly. Her fist slammed in his face. He flew back. Though Delina was frail she had junctioned magic in her strength.
Squall got up. He heard a chuckle behind him. He raised his sword. Sparks flew from the Lionheart. His arm strained and Squall grimaced. He had magic junctioned in his strength too. Squall would have paid good money for a GF right now. He jumped up. Rodan smiled at him.
"Well, well, well... seems like there's someone worth the air they breath after all. I'm gonna have fun with you"
"Whatever" Squall said and slashed at him.
Squall had a hard time. While the scythe was cumbersome Rodan had his speed improved. Squall had to jump and duck to keep his body in one piece. He slashed back, and got in some hits, but eventhough the lionheart was sharper than a razor, his arms just missed the strength to pierce the flesh. He jumped back just too late and the scythe slashed his leg. He hissed. He realized he was losing this battle. He needed a plan. He took a glance to the soldiers. They were holding out, but they couldn't help him. The only reason that he wasn't dead yet was that Rodan had the tendency to fight in a fixed pattern and become predictable. Squall knew he was the better fighter but he didn't have a GF. He rolled beneath a vicious slice at his head and saw Delina looking at the fight, enjoying it inmensely. He had a plan. He backed away, slowly moving towards her. He knew she wouldn't be shooting him in the back. She was having to much fun watching her partner kill him off. Squall casted a Blizagga on Rodan. It paralyzed him for merely a second but that was enough. As he felt the ice crack behind him he ran towards Delina who braced herself for the coming slash. The smile didn't leave her lips however, untill she felt his on hers. There was absolutely no love in that kiss. Squall would have bitten if he thought his teeth could draw blood. He really loathed her. But this was the only way to get them to act his way. He jumped back and started running to the side, limping a little. As he had expected Rodan went Berserk and flew at him with his scythe. Squall braced for impact. He hoped he had gambled right, if not he was dead. Suddenly he saw the scythe that was coming down at him halting a second and coming down with less power. When it reached him it was still powerfull enough to press his sword back and make a cut in his side. Squall saw the bolt. He had hoped it would have killed the man, but it had only struck him in his underarm. Rodan tried to remove it, but couldn't bear the pain. His scythe hung useless in his hand.
"DELINA, LOOK WHERE YOU'RE BLOODY SHOOTING!"
She sneered. "YOU look where you're walking. But don't worry, I won't miss him this time"
She reached for another bolt. Squall didn't wait however and ran towards her, his leg screaming for mercy. She was about to let the bolt fly as his sword caught the weapon and took it from her hands. Squall put his hand to his helm and spoke.
"Firaga"
The crossbow exploded into hunderds burning or molten pieces. Delina punched Squall in his side, just on the wound, he buckled over and she kicked him against his chin. He started to get up. He didn't like to fight unarmed or wounded opponents, but in this case he doubted whether he would win even without it. He grasped his sword and prepared to charge her, when he heard the sound of magic behind him.
"Confuse"
Squall just ahd the time to say "Damn" before the magic hit him. His thoughts started to tumble. He couldn't focus his eyes on anything. Different sounds, thoughts and sights demanded his attention and made him make involuntarely movements. Where was Rinoa. He had send her away. He had to save her from space! No he had done that. He heard something about people discussing. "Seeing who could summon his GF the fastest." Squall didn't care. He had to solve this problem. Ultimecia. He swiped his sword thinking of her. Seifer, was he still his enemy or not? Fire erupted within his thoughts and Squall vaguely took notice a building started burning. That wasn't important now. Why were those two people laughing? They were irritating him? Maybe they were enemies? But what if they were not. The world was so hard to understand. What was rright? Maybe he should hurt himself. Pain might bring clarity. Everything was so complicated.
Than an instinct in Squall flared up. If the world is complicated, simplify it. Squall had a feeling those two figures were targets. He erased any other thought. He and the target. The rest was illusion. He had picked his target. He had to damage it a lot, so it would be neutralized. He said the first words that came to mind.
"Renzokuken"
He stormed at the figure, the pain he felt in his leg and side was background noise. Irrelevant. As he felt his arms finding their way on instinct to the good positions his mind cleared as he cut further and further. He noticed it was a woman he was slashing at. The name came back to him. Delina. The memories came back at him. His attack slowed. He gathered his strength and slammed her a last time. She was bleeding seriously, Squall saw, but not dead yet. She sneered at him. That was hard as one slowly loses control of one's own body while summoning a GF. Squall gritted his teeth. He thought of what Galbadians would say in years to come. Talking about the attempt of SeeD to take over the city. His sword started to glow again.
"Lionheart"
He ran towards her and hit her in the under her chin. As she flew in the sky he jumped after her. The world simplified again to accomodate only him and his target. When he saw everything clear again he was on the ground and heard something fall beside him. It was a head, in front of him felt an arm. The pieces fell down. Squall looked at Rodan. There was a deep sadness in his eyes. But he didn't have enough control of his body anymore to do anything.but look sad. Than his body dissapeared. Squall tried to remember what the name was of the stolen GF. He opened his eyes. It seemed like a robot with a big cannon to his right arm. He could hardly think straight anymore. The confuse spell had released his grip, but his mind was still sluggish. Suddenly he felt that there were lots of sharp objects coming his way. He weakly tried to defend himself, but it was to no avail. The nails, ninja-stars, glasshards and other sharp things ripped at him. The pain started to overwhelm him. A particularry big piece knocked of his helm. The magic was gone. He protected his eyes with his punctured arm. Than the storm of pain stopped. The things were gone, but the wounds stayed. Squall tried to keep awake, but being awake meant pain. Unconciousness was so peacefull. His survival instinct was muted by pain and lingering effects of the mind-affecting spells. Squall fell over backwards.
Rodan slowly walked up to the one that killed his love. He didn't want pain anymore. He just wanted vengeance. He raised his left hand with the scythe. Suddenly, he felt another hand grasping it. HE looked back and saw one of his students holding his hand.
"WHAT?"
"Excuse me sir. But isn't that Squall Lionheart? the famous SeeD?"
Rodan raised his eyebrows. The fight was concluded. The soldiers had retreated, the knights had all fought to the death. Rodan hadn't been in Deling city when the famous SeeD had attacke the sorceress. The descriptions were vague and always overrated. Could this be him. He was Delina's killer. That's all what counted to him.
"No of course not. Not when I got my mission in Balamb Garden."
One of his soldiers checked the bleeding and barely breathing body of the SeeD.
"Hmmm, a wallet with no identification. It could be him. I don't know for sure. Never seen him myself. Hey what's this?"
He took a small piece of paper.
"It looks like something for a final exam. ... I, Cid Kramer hereby award Squall Lionheart the tirle of SeeD rank 5? And all numbers. HEY, this is Squall. This is his graduation proof."
He looked oddly at Rodan. "Why have you never shown yours Rohan?"
Rodan started to sweat. "I ... threw it away."
The SeeD's started to circle him. "What do you mean?" The whispers started to become louder. Rodan cursed. Lying had been Delina's strong point. He stuttered for an explanation. The eyes of his soldiers turned hostle. He was too weak now to fight them. He tried to order them to fall back in line
, but his voice seemed to lose power. He than tried to run, but someone tripped him. He fell on the ground.
"Stay away. I am your senior officer..You must obey me.... NO"
...
Sqall slowly woke up. He licked his lips. He tasted Phoenix down. Than he felt the reassuring tingling of a Cura spell. He opened his eyes. A man was looking down on him. He raised his head. The first thing he noticed was a corpse hanging by his neck. Rodan? But how? The man answered.
"I realize this may sound strange sir. But we are at your orders."
Squall just nodded. Explanations would come later.
To be continued.