Chapter Seventeen - Nightmare Reborn
The clanking of metal and the thud of feet making contact with the floor caught the attention of the older boy and girl, as well as the younger boy also. Zell cast a worrying look in the direction of where the mechanical spider lay, quite peacefully before shrugging in a carefree gesture, and rubbed his hands together. Irvine dropped down beside the martial arts expert being the last to make it out of the ventilation shaft.
"Time to kick some butt, right?" Zell asked with a hopeful look that even he couldn't deny.
Some serious butt, Squall mentally corrected but then caught himself. Being around Zell was resulting in deterioration of his own peace of mind! Not that it was a bad thing to have a person like Zell around. Squall was grateful. Sure, the mohawkish haired boy was loud... at times annoying... that was a definite benefit for a person such as himself. A miserly... depressing... too serious-for-a-teenager adolescent. Stop that! He snapped at himself, his lips now set in the all too distinct, familiar no-nonsense expression he was renowned for.
"Once we're out on the hallway no hesitation should be made to locate where Odine is hiding. Whichever group does so first, take him out and get as much information you can get from him. If Ultimecia be resurrected... well, let's hope it hasn't come to that stage yet.
Hope? Seifer echoed what the dark-haired voice said in his mind. You mean pray! Pray like you've never damned prayed before! He personally had not fought Ultimecia in hand to hand combat with the additional aid of magic, and Guardian Forces, although the GF's had almost rendered useless against the powerful sorceress, if only it was to buy them time to heal.
Pulling open the latch of the door gently with a black gloved hand, Squall cautiously peered out into the corridor and recoiled back slightly into the room when the brightly lit fluorescent bulbs struck his eyes with an uncanny intensity. Trying again, this time taking care that he didn't directly expose the rods and cones of his eyes with bright light, Squall stepped out and glanced in both opposite directions. Motioning the others to join him, he instructed Seifer and his group to take one directions, whilst himself, Selphie and Zell took the other. Silently, the two groups moved.
The doctor was having a very good day today. He was pleased with himself, and marvelled with glee at the amount of work he had been able to achieve. He knew that the interfering little busy-bodies, also known as the SeeDs would try to intervene and spoil his plan to revive what had been the fragmented pieces of Ultimecia and to bring a new dawn to the mundane world he currently resided and existed in. No fear, Ultimecia would take care of that. She had the capacity and aptitude to do such a thing - no sweat for the ultra powerful sorceress from the future. Except Ultimecia was in the here and now, and only a matter of time before she became a living, breathing, human? No, thing was what best described her. A living, breathing thing, just like everyone. Except any normal person did not go on a rampage, going to great lengths to achieve the goal of world domination. The phrase itself was beginning to be a bit cliché, that it no longer had the desired effect - only because so many people tried, attempted to do such a thing. Pointless, unless you had the power...
Odine strolled over to a collection of computer monitors, scanning each screen to ensure all was going well - to ensure that he was in control. He then strolled over to the giant cylindrical glass casement that held the form of Ultimecia, across the room and beamed at her, at it. Odine was happy, was content with the reassurance that there would be no dinky little SeeDs to foil his plans, plans that were carefully mapped out and organised during his absence of a year. He had devised his scheme so well, so intricately. Had it not been for those damned, infernal SeeDs, Odine was sure that he would not have been identified as the culprit, the brains behind this ingenious plan.
After the downfall of the sorceress formally known as Ultimecia, people around the world had expelled huge sighs of relief at the end of her reign of terror. How wrong they had been, how he had been to assume that the worst was over. How very wrong he had been, how everyone had been. Now Odine knew he should never assume anything. Not even in this imperfect world, not ever. The calling first came to him in a faint whisper, almost an inaudible voice that Odine very readily admitted that it was nothing, that he had been deceived by his own ears. Except that faint murmurings did not occur in a laboratory, minus any other breathing thing. Had in been out in the open, somewhere in the Abadon or Alclaud Plains, fair enough, but...
The next time Odine had heard the whisper had been in his laboratory once again, this time the whisper was bolder, clearer, yet he had not been able to establish who was haunting him, in the sense that no physical body could be seen attached to the voice. From there, 'the voice' invaded his thoughts, and even his dreams. It would continue to torment him until he was forced into submission, forced to retreat and find solitude in the deep confines of the Research Facility, far, far away. The voice had instructed him, had guided him to seek refuge from the world he called home. After that, he became mentally insecure, and nobody, not a soul heard of him since... until now.
Although her physical form had been destroyed, her spirit, her very bad essence of her being had not. For a year she had floated around the earth she promised she would conquer someday, scouring, searching for one that would serve her turn, who would be loyal and able enough to carry out her work... Ultimecia had found that in Odine. And with only the power of what was barely left of her, Ultimecia, with a mouth and lips that could hardly be called so, laughed a high pitched shriek - savouring the harsh wind that gradually built up around her.
Perhaps reuniting Edea and the girl had been an unwise and foolish decision. The SeeD, the one who possessed a gun-blade with an impressive lion - Griever - etched on the steely blade, he was rather attached to the girl in blue, was he not...? Singularly foolish of him to not see the flaw, the error that the part of his grand scheme had.
"Ah, well that iz someting I need not vorry about", Odine assured himself. The boy and his petty followers were disposed off now, he knew because the triggering mechanism was connected to the set of computer panels he had in Lunatic Pandora. Technically he had been a witness to their death. As for back up, well X-ATMO92 would have taken care of that.
Sniggering, Odine allowed the muscles of cheeks to pull back. His snigger became an evil grin, and then the grin formed into a menacing scowl and then developing into a full-fledge, ominous snarl. "I am in control!" he bellowed to the laboratory, his hands clenched into fists, turning the knuckles of his hand to white. "No more SeeDs!! No - more - SeeeeeeeeeeeDs!!!" Odine began to laugh manically.
Squall and his group had been on the prowl for quite a while now. Indeed it had been quite a while since they last saw the interior side of Lunatic Pandora, and yet clearly he had underestimated the sheer size of the structure. Squall, Zell and Selphie had hiked up so many stairs, that he had lost count, and stealthily walked down so many corridors that Squall was ready to admit that they were lost.
A shuffling sound caught the attention of the seventeen year-old boy, to which he froze in mid-creep at the sound. Yes, a definite shuffling sound or more than one pair of feet coming from the direction they were heading towards. Could it be soldiers patrolling Lunatic Pandora? Signalling for the other two to follow his lead, Squall pressed himself against the wall and crept forward, stopping every time at the slightest squeak or creek. Drawing his gunblade, Squall braced himself for battle.
Seifer was pissed, in the sense that he felt his temper rising at every door they had opened had been as unfruitful as the last. They had come up with nothing. Hadn't located Odine - nada. Willing himself not to lose it in front of Quistis, even more so in front of Irvine, Seifer continued walk down the corridor they were currently at, purposefully. The three of them had grown weary at the go-find-Odine tirade, that their ability to walk properly had slackened to mere shuffles. Still, they remained alert and vigilant as ever.
Rounding up on a corner, Seifer found himself yelling and jumping several centimetres from the squeaky clean floor, his gunblade swiftly unholstered when he nearly collided into Squall. Squall, taken-aback by the sudden appearance of Seifer and realising who he nearly sliced with his attack at the last minute, cursed loudly and put away his weapon. Fazed by the unexpected 'surprise', Seifer continued to grasp the butt of his gunblade, trying to steady his nerves and calm his furiously beating heart. He hated surprises.
"Fu..." he tried to say, but was still breathless. "Bl... The hell's wrong with you, Leonhart?!!" Seifer eventually managed to say, holding no feelings back.
The younger boy grinned sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry?" he offered lamely and received a mutter and guttural growl from the older boy.
"Take it you guys weren't too successful either, huh?" Zell said, addressing Instructor Trepe and Irvine.
"Nothing, 'cept nearly gettin' sliced and diced by Mr. Lion-heart!!" Seifer growled.
"Hey, shush a sec!" Selphie said, silencing everybody with a gesture with her hands. They all shushed and listened, and heard.
"Looks like we got him," Irvine said grinning broadly. A nod from Squall sent everyone running in the direction of the insane giggling that ceased to stop. The game was up.
Odine could not stop himself, would not let him stop himself. He was basking in his triumph against those adolescent teens, and it felt good to laugh, to celebrate his glory against them. He paused for moment at a sudden thought, shrugged and discarded the minor worry and continued laughing like a raving lunatic - this time adding little skips and prances to highlight the happiness he was feeling. Happiness that instantly burst when the metal sliding door to his private laboratory exploded, and gave way upon impact with an Ultima spell.
Startled, the deranged doctor ceased his laughing and watched on with horror as the dust and metal debris from the explosion settled, and six silhouetted figures emerged all wearing pensive faces. Odine blinked once, then twice.
"How-?!" he began, then pulled himself short of showing his fear. How is it possible? They cannot be alive. The set bomb, X-ATMO92... How?! he demanded crazily from himself.
"A laugh fest, and you never told us?!" Zell said in mock sadness.
"You wanted us to miss out on all the fun!" Irvine derided, pushing up the rim of his hat with the barrel of his Exeter.
"Infernal SeeDs!! SeeeeeeeeeeeDs!!! Kurse you SeeDs!!!" Odine raved madly and stamped his foot repeatedly.
"That's who we are, don't wear it out!" Selphie piped.
"You're one stuck bastard, you sorry son of a bitch, huh?" Seifer leered at him, enjoying the expression of fear on the eccentric scientist, almost as if someone had cast Break on him. The expression stuck. "Thought your dinky bomb, and dinky robot would get rid of us, eh?" It nearly did, he reminded himself. "You've messed with the wrong bunch o' kids."
"Alright Odine, games up," Squall said, stepping towards the cowering doctor.
To this the short man cast a dangerous glare at them, one which contained an evil gleam. He scuttled backwards and produced a pocket device from his extremely baggy orange and blue stripped pants. Not giving the six teenagers time to react, Odine quickly flipped the casing to the device and rammed a finger at the red button that was revealed. Squall and co. watched on with silent horror and astonishment as the device triggered the opening of several unseen doors that were well hidden - their colour blending with the rest of the lab.
"This is not over yet!" Odine declared, getting behind a set of different control panels, and typing instructions into it furiously.
Squall eyed the slowly opening metal doors worriedly. What had Odine have in store for them now? More mechanical robots. If anything, the doctor looked mad as hell.
"Say hello to The End, miserable, meddling SeeDs!!"
"Whoo boy, he's pissed!" said Zell, stating the all too obvious.
"Hey... don't look now guys, he's brought major reinforcements!!" Irvine shouted over the loud stamp and rumble that followed; his hand pressed down onto his hat in the fear that he would lose it.
"Shit!!" Seifer cursed. He so did not like what was appearing from behind the secret doors.
"I told you not to look!!" Irvine snapped.
"A thing that big, it's pretty hard not to look!!" Seifer bit back.
"Uh, Squall? I think we're in serious trouble," Quistis said, tugging at the younger boy's black jacket.
What now?! "Double shit!!" Squall swore he couldn't help it. The situation had just become dire and things were not looking good.
"...The hell did they come from?!" Zell questioned his mouth open in aghast.
"The theme of today children: RESURRECTION!!! Give a heart-felt welcome to your deepest darkest, nightmares!!!!"
Quistis shrieked in terror at the sight of what only could be a very big mechanical spider lumbering towards her. She squeezed her eyes shut and prayed that when she next opened her eyes, the metal arachnid would be gone. Of course it didn't, which only led her to pray even harder than she possibly could imagine.
"We're seriously out numbered, man!!" Zell shouted over to Squall who was experiencing great difficulty in believing how many enemies they were going to have to fight.
"So we kill 'em," Seifer said simply.
Easier said that done, Squall thought grimly, surveying the chaos that was erupting before their very eyes. A Sphinxaur monster followed by Trauma, Tri-Point and Red Giant - the very monsters that Squall and his vigilant team of friends had fought and defeated in Ultimecia's Castle - loomed into view; that was when Squall began to worry.
"Make sure you have a good stock of high powered spells, and Aura and Meltdown!" Squall barked over the loud rumbling sounds. "Selphie, Zell, with me! Seifer, I'm counting on you!"
"No sweat!" Seifer returned, lacing his gloved fingers and stretching. Ready to rumble time.
"Lock 'n' load!" said Irvine raising his Exeter and taking off the safety catch as he readied himself for the big confrontation - a wave of thrill and excitement shooting through him.
With a single nod from Squall, the six of them were thrust into battle.
Automatically, the GF Odin was summoned into battle - not through the junction system, but randomly. A good thing it was too for Squall and his team. The spacious laboratory darkened and rain began to pitter-patter onto the linoleum. The clatter of thunder out of nowhere reverberated in the room and the clatter of horse hooves rose in the heat of battle. The Norse mythological god of war, wisdom and death rose from the sudden darkness that cloaked the lab, riding on his trusty eight-legged steed Sleipnir. Furls of smoke arose from the horse that breathed fire, its eyes ablaze: Odin had come to hunt.
Holding his mighty sword aloft, the Norse god charged with tremendous speed at the assailants, lunging with his sword and leashing his awesome Zantetsuken attack. Without a moment's hesitation, Odine hacked and sliced at the Red Giant and Tri-Point monsters whom Squall, Selphie and Zell had to face, reducing them to nothing more than ribbons of muscle and bones. This battle was over. Score one for SeeD! At least it made their job of eliminating the rest of the monsters easier. Or not.
The constant ringing from Irvine's Limit Break: Shot, using Pulse Ammo, resulting to Hyper Shot, hurt Seifer's ears. At his feet, the empty shells from the used up ammunition began to build up, as everyone of the bullets Irvine targeted, hit home into either of the two monster they were fighting. Silently Seifer watched, mentally criticising the cowboy's style and flare for battle.
With his turn up, Irvine took a step back, preparing himself for his next turn. Seifer was quick to hand out commands to ensure that this battle was a short and sweet one.
"Quistis, you Double on magic? Cast Meltdown on these pushovers, we got bigger fish to fry."
Defiantly, Quistis did not pay heed to the blond boy and instead went with her own instincts, instincts that she had homed and perfected through many years of experience at Garden and in the battlefield. Deliberating with herself on what Blue Magic she would use, Quistis finally let rip with a barrage of bullets in quick succession each after the other - it could only have been Gatling Gun. Quite efficient it was too, removing 9999 from the Spinxaur's HP, which was beginning to dwindle.
Furious, Seifer glared over at the instructor, who returned his glare with a cool sapphire stare of her own. When it came to decisions such as these, Quistis knew which choice to make.
Amongst the clang of metal and weaponry, they continued to fight.
Squall had left Selphie and Zell to finish off the Krysta monster they were fighting. He knew that they were more than capable of handling this beast, despite its tendency of countering every attack with a particular nasty one of its own. That was where the Limits came in. Checking to see that they were coping well in their battle, Squall was just in time to see Zell execute the My Final Heaven move, one of the attacks that had to be learnt, for his Limit Break: Duel. According to his opinion, Zell thought and found that it was one of the most difficult moves to perform - as well as the most visually stunning. This time Zell did manage to pull the attack flawlessly, and quick enough to sneak in a Burning Rave which concluded Krysta's worthless life. Luck was on their side for once.
Amidst the broil of battle, Odine had managed to escape to a far corner of the laboratory, seeking refuge.
For all his life was worth, Odine was nothing short of a coward. He hid underneath a table that was over flowing with electrical wires and bits of scrap metal with a look in his eyes that contradicted the big attitude he had just displayed. Hiding behind mummy's skirt was what he was doing, and he didn't mind. He admitted that he wasn't much of a fighter - he left that to the monsters - yet he was 'the brain' behind Ultimecia's masters plan, and he'd flaunt his brilliance for everyone to see.
He saw Squall disengage himself from battle and saw with a tremor of fear he was edging dangerously near his hiding spot. His crystal coloured blue eyes glinted with an air of sharpness, as Squall scanned the rubble of junk in front of him. No sign of the clown over there. Odine let out a sigh of relief and dabbed at his brow with the frilly sleeve of his clothing. Then he frowned and shook a fist at Squall's retreating back. "Kurse you! Kurse all you SeeDs!!" he muttered darkly, stopping briefly to regard the battle he was losing miserably. "And now for the Grande finale..." he whispered, pressing the hidden switch beneath the controller he held. A beam of infrared light zoomed up to the ceiling, making contact with an infrared sensor that sealed a secret chamber. With the chamber unlocked, a huge shake that sent the metal and pieces of junk atop the table he hid beneath, erupted, the hidden chamber giving way to something very big, something very, very big.
"What now?!!" Zell demanded furiously. He wanted to kick Odine's butt, but all the monsters he released were preventing him, the team, from doing just that. Stamping his foot in an enraged manner, Zell stood hands on his hips, unaware of trap door that was slowly opening above him. He ignored the falling bits of debris and rocks, holding his ground until he found out what was happening.
Seifer saw what was happening, he saw the gaping hole in the ceiling and didn't stop to ask questions. He'd do that once he was clear of the landing radius of whatever was going to come out of the chamber above him. Grabbing Quistis roughly by the hand, he pulled her and himself to safety, and yelled over to Zell who remained standing where he was like a sitting Chocobo, waiting to be flattened to a pulp.
"Dincht! Move your friggin' fat ass outta there!!" Seifer shouted, noticing with concern the steady and more constant fall of material from the ceiling. Still, Zell remained oblivious.
Irvine, more quicker to react - what with him being the "Best Shooter in Garden" - saw what Seifer was desperately trying to get across to the hot-dog loving boy. He's gonna be a flat-dog if he doesn't move himself. Irvine thought, tearing himself apart on whether he should take a chance and grab him from the centre. Except he was too far from Zell. There would be two flattened Chocobos, one wearing an equably more flattened cowboy hat, if he attempted a running dive. Irvine was fast when it came to shooting, that he was confident of. When it came to the action hero type of thing that he left to the likes of Squall - who, despite all his skill as a mercenary, was the reluctant hero. Their fearless commander however was just as oblivious to what was happening around him as Zell was.
Clenching his jaw, and tightening his fist, Irvine Kinneas dragged Selphie by the hand to the other side of the laboratory, vowing never to forgive himself if Zell didn't survive.
Odine, with great anticipation watched with wide shining eyes at the increasingly resonating rocks and stones that were practically hailing down - and, for a fleeting moment, Odine thought the laboratory would cave in. He reminded himself that the rooms couldn't cave in even if they desperately wanted to. Every single room, staircase in Lunatic Pandora was reinforced with a strong metal skeleton. Looking on, Odine witnessed three things happening, in what felt like slow motion: Squall yelling, Zell swearing, and a blur of white rushing at the person in the centre.
Squall, at the feeling of a fist sized rock brushing the back of his head, turned around and stared up with large blue eyes, in what could only be interpreted as fear. His head whipped away from the ceiling to where Zell was standing, his mind registering that he was in serious danger of be crushed to smithereens - in Selphie's matter of speaking. He screamed almost in reflex when he saw the big shadow cast over Zell's figure, each single heartbeat of his pounding as loud as his voice.
"ZELL!!!" Squall shouted.
At the same time, Zell looked up and instantly wished he hadn't. He swore, and froze in his place. What he saw was the underside of a seriously humungous beast rushing down towards him, and he thought he saw he life flash by in a brilliant white colour - when in fact he mistook the whirr of white for a grey/white trench-coat. And the flash of red, Zell thought he registered as his blood? No, that was simply the red of the cross-sword imprint on the coat.
Seifer's curse coincided with Zell's and almost laughed out loud at the insane act his was going to do, had not it been for the grave situation at hand. Shaking his blond head, Seifer left Instructor Trepe's side who had her gloved hands covering her eyes, and ran like he did against the clock in Deep Sea Research Facility.
If Dincht lives, if we both live, he is gonna owe me big time, were the thoughts that ran through the boy's mind upon diving at Zell and pushing them both clear of the descending monster that landed with a massive thudding sound that refused to end. Seifer felt something tear from the dive, immediately ignoring the trivial problem for later. Zell and Seifer continued to roll steadily away from the centre of the laboratory, until they slowed to a stop.
Rolling away, Seifer breathed heavily and began to laugh flat on his back. That was the second time he had saved somebody's life, and wondered whether he'd get an honorary medal or something, for that. I'm too nice. Waay too nice, he told himself, a grin plastered across his face after he had finished laughing. The instructor, then chicken?? Man that's two already! Who's gonna be next, Leonhart? The little messenger girl? Kinneas?
Zell groaned. Seifer's dive may have saved him, but it also knocked the wind out of him too. He sat up coughing and sputtering as Squall and the others run to where he and Seifer lay. Bruised and scratched, but otherwise, still intact.
"Awe, man..." he groaned again, wincing at the pressure he applied to his knee. He wondered if he broke anything vitally important, if he had then that was him out of any upcoming battles. Dr. Kadowaki certainly wouldn't allow him out of the infirmary, until her say so.
"Zell, you OK-?" Squall began to ask as he hurried to his friend's side. Duh! Does he look OK?! He changed the question. "How bad are you hurting?"
"Uh... not too bad," he lied. "Kinda trying to get my breath back." After a while, Zell spoke again. "Seifer... saved me?" he asked, awkward as it may seem... for him.
"Yeah,"
Bastard! Now I'm gonna have to owe him.
"Yeah, I saved your miserable ass, chicken wuss," Seifer managed to drawl in his best arrogant voice. "You know the price to pay?"
The martial artist let a slow grin spread and collapsed into heavy laughter. Subjected to being called a chicken wuss for the rest of my lifetime?
"Nah, haven't thought of one yet. Tell ya when I think of a really good one.," said Seifer. His body hurt from the tumble and his head throbbed - he'd live. Quistis stood worriedly gazing down on him, and Seifer really did smile, to himself. Now you've caught the admiration of yon fair lady, he mocked himself. Raijin and Fujin were going to give him a hard time once they found out.
"Uh, guys?" Selphie's edgy voice broke the relief everyone was feeling. Lately, Selphie appeared to be delivering more bad news than good. "I'm glad Zell's OK an' all, but... but I think we've got an even bigger problem to sort out." her finger pointed up and out. Everybody gasped.
Odine let out a burst of laughter at the sight of their paled coloured faces, all colour drained out of them. All because of what they were staring at. Gawking at, more like. Neither Squall or the others could tear their gaze away from the thing in front of them; they couldn't; wouldn't believe it. Odine laughed long and hard, clambered out of his hiding beneath the table and then collapsed onto the floor, laughing. They thought that they had won. Sphinxaura, Tri-Point, Krysta... they had defeated them, and they thought they had won. Fools. Let us see how well they fare with this little beauty. Little, Omega Weapon was not. Beautiful?! Uh-uh, definitely not. Big, strong and deadly, yes. Omega Weapon was strong and deadly, and didn't Squall and Co. know it - the two other SeeDs that had fought with him, anyway.
Standing at a whopping height of twenty feet or so, Squall felt like a midget cricket, standing there and looking. Shock must have overtaken their senses giving the effect of petrify, because they were, just that. Petrified. Omega Weapon wasn't the prettiest of monsters, geez, Adel was prettier and that was saying something!
With its hulking mass, black/silver plated armour, wings attached to its upper torso, and bulging muscles Omega Weapon looked like a monster that mutated through being exposed to too much nuclear radiation - gamma rays causing it to turn it into the 'swamp thing' it were. Or even better, the end product of a genetic 'freak' experiment gone horribly wrong. One way or other, Omega Weapon was something nobody wanted in their nightmares.
"I thought we killed that thing!!" Zell said, his voice rising up a notch indicating the fear. Omega Weapon had been no pushover. And they were complaining defeating Ultima Weapon was a problem with its problematic Light Pillar attack.
So did I... Squall thought, lapsing into thinking mode. Unless...
"Like my little creation?"
"Miscreation, more like," Irvine corrected flatly and sniggered at the angry look Odine shot him.
"Laugh all you want SeeD," Odine sneered. "Omega2 shall ensure all of you remain nothing but fragments of people's memories, loose pages in history books to be scattered and forgotten..."
"Yeah, yeah lovely imagery Doc Nothin' but a loada bullshit 'cos we're not gonna be beaten!" Zell stated.
Squall didn't know what it was, but it felt like pride from being a SeeD that made him silently applaud Zell for his little speech. It was words such as these that helped bring the boost of extra confidence to a person whether a SeeD or Garden student, and to strive to meet personal goals. It was times such as these that Squall considered himself the luckiest person to have such great friends and the opportunity to prove your skills and have something to work towards.
"Hope then, SeeD that you will not be swallowing your words, hmm?" Odine said. "Oh, I forgot. You wouldn't be able to swallow your words anyhow. You'd all be dead. Omega, finish them!"
"I'm gettin' first strike," Seifer said. No arguments there. "Son of a bitch tore my coat. My only coat."
"Selphie, Irvine, get Carbuncle and Alexander ready for your opening attack." Squall instructed while Seifer attacked with a dose of raining rocks from outer space. "Zell, on your turn cast Aura on me. Quistis-"
"Meltdown," she replied. Quistis knew the drill. The strategy they had used against Omega, the last time they met, proved to be quite successful. "What about you?"
"Two words," he said, his face showing no emotion when he said: "Lion Heart,"
Almost half an hour of battle and the good side were flailing with exhaustion. Squall had performed the Lion Heart attack four times already, coupled with two Gatling Guns, two Bloody Ceremonies, three rounds of Hyper Shots, and plenty of Mach Kicks, Dolphin Blows and Meteor Barrets from Zell. Odine must have boosted Omega's HP because it had already KO'd Selphie twice and Quistis once.
The Aura-Meltdown-Limit combo was a tried and tested strategy and worked quite effectively against most enemies. Except Omega Weapon couldn't exactly be categorised as being 'most enemies'.
Frowning, Squall vacantly stared at Selphie hurling an Ultima spell that exploded into a cloud rising green dust. He kept his eyes trained on the spunky auburn headed girl for a while, waiting for his mind to register why he was staring at her for so long. Knowing Selphie had been purely coincidental. After acquiring the two GFs Shiva and Quezacotl, Squall had a rendezvous with Instructor Trepe to visit the Fire Cavern. It was when he was rounding the corner to take the elevator to the first floor did he and collide, or rather she collided into him - Selphie had missed registration and needed assistance in locating the various facilities.
Not wanting to be discourteous and not wanting to keep the instructor waiting, Squall was obliged to take the emerald-eyed girl to the first floor and to the Directory, complete with a slightly rushed explanation. He did not see Selphie again not until the Dollet mission where she played messenger girl from Squad A. 'I'm...a messenger. Name's Selphie, from Squad A.' Participating and accompanying Squall and Zell to the mission assigned to them at the town of Timber could be called the point in which her fate as a SeeD and her friendship with Squall, was sealed.
His vision blurred and then the answer that he had been seeking struck him abruptly like a blow to the solar plexus. Squall called her name and she turned to his call. Slicing Omega with an attack from his gunblade, he retreated, yelling to her over the sound of Irvine's shots. His voice failed to carry its message over to where she stood. Omega delivered a devastating blow to Seifer who collapsed in a prostrate position.
"Instructor! Get a Full-life on Seifer, stat! Selphie?!"
"Yep, Squall?!" she said, her Strange Vision pulled taught in her grasp ready to attack.
"Your Limit!"
"What about it?!"
He wanted to scream in frustration! Selphie's ignorance of her Limit Break's capabilities wasn't helping to ease the tension that was building in him. If they didn't act now, if they didn't deliver the killing blow now and end this tiresome battle, Omega was going to strike, and then it would be Game Over for all of them. Omega... Odine... Ultimecia... they would win.
"Dammit! Irvine cast Aura on her," Irvine obeyed, the yellow/orange hue of the spell engulfing Selphie, tingeing her in that colour. "Selphie, use your Limit Break!!"
"Which one do you-" she began saying and then stopped in mid-sentence, finally catching Squall's drift. "Oh! That one!"
"Selphie, just do it!!" Zell said, watching fearfully at Omega who looked like it was about to target Zell next with its lethal attack.
"Gotcha!" the girl said. Winking, Selphie out-stretched her arms, weapon in hand. She joined together the two rods of her weapon in a ritual fashion, had one of the rods one on top of the other. Turned them at an angle of 180 degrees so that they were vertical, 90 degrees until they were horizontal. Then in the loudest voice, a small girl like Selphie could do, she shouted at the top of her lungs two words: "The End!!"
Chapter Eighteen - Putting a Spell on You
Luck was seriously on their side. Selphie relied on luck as much as anybody, perhaps even more since her The End attack came randomly and the chances of her being able to use the attack boosted through junctioning magic to Luck. Her voice echoed in the room, and even when she had finished selecting the attack she wanted to the use, the scenery began to shift in real-time action. The dark, dank, oppressive atmosphere of Lunatic Pandora, almost as if someone was changing the background in a theatre production. The change in surroundings was more surreal than a change of scenes in a theatre. In Squall's line of sight, the very walls appeared to be blurring, smudging at the edges. And then the six of them were not in Odine's laboratory any more. They were in an open field, surrounded by miles upon miles of vast green fields containing pink and white flowers.
A gentle breeze stirred the quiet bliss they had entered, making the flowers dance and releasing pink and white petals into the air, falling back down to the grass like dancing, swirling confetti. Squall caught a white petal in mid-swirl and clutched it in a black-gloved hand before another wave of gentle breeze swept it away again. Rinoa... Clenching his jaw was the only thing that was keeping him from breaking down. Squall could not rid himself of the guilt that somehow he was to blame for letting Rinoa fall into the wrong hands so easily. After a year without Rinoa - then finally seeing her once again... it was damn frustrating! And it hurt.
Concentrating on the battle, Squall looked up to see Omega Weapon and its hulking weight and size in the field that represented the nicer things in life. Its presence there was like a bad colour scheme, the ink blotch in a neatly written letter. It needed sorting out - it had to be removed. Sure Squall's Renzokuken/Lion Heart attack caused a devastating effect, and sure Quistis' Blue Magic/Degenerator was unwelcome news for your regular Island nearest to Heaven/Hell monsters etc etc. But when it came to the mother of monsters, the one on the very top of the monster pyramid sittin' on the throne and wearing the crown? Well, only thing to do was bring in the 'big guns'. And not the sort Irvine handled either.
Nah. If you had something big and mean to deal with, you parry and counter every attack and then finish off with something equably as a strong and powerful. For mega butt-ugly monsters like Omega Weapon the best attack was always saved for last.
Mouth hanging, eyes staring aghast, Odine couldn't believe what he was seeing! Omega Weapon, the most powerful beast known was being removed from battle by some small girl, a SeeD!! After a year of thorough research and gathering the necessaries to complete his genetic replication of one of the finest Weapons, his year's work was dissolving before his very eyes. He wanted to scream, wanted to hurl, stamp his feet angrily and throw a tantrum like a spoilt brat. Anything to get rid of the building rage, the building pressure inside of him. Odine kicked at the table he had hid beneath, yowling like a dog when his foot connected to the leg.
Experience points all round and AP for the GF's. Everyone was happy. That was except of course, a certain flustered, cursing, pissed off doctor who remained thrashing wildly about him even when the scenery faded and changed back to the familiar surroundings of the laboratory. The six young fighters looked at each other amused. Their victory poses after winning the battle - or rather Selphie, who had delivered the killing blow - was something they all agreed, was satisfying to do. Selphie and Zell, the more enthusiastic members of the group abandoned their regular poses and went with what they felt was more of an 'appropriate' battle pose - a fully-charged, electrifying high-five slap of hands, not forgetting the very immature hoots and yells of winning a victorious battle. It was immature, so what? They had just won one of the most difficult battles against one of the hardest monsters to defeat.
The doctor was definitely happy not - in fact, was that a headache he felt coming on? Upon their approach he glowered at them, avoiding contact and constantly scowling at the floor.
"C'mon Odine, it's over. Your plans and Ultimecia, it's finished. Why don't you quit now while you're still ahead of yourself-" Squall said to the little man.
"You don't understand!!" Odine snarled ferociously at him. "She wouldn't be happy. She will not be satisfied until I have carried out her bidding, her plans for the future."
So, Odine had taken over Seifer's job as Ultimecia's lapdog.
Zell rudely grunted and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Awe, come off it man! What future? A future made o' clouds? We already trashed your monsters, annihilated Mr. Butt Ugly. It's over. Face it."
"She persists,"
"Persists my ass!" Zell said, knocking down Odine's pitiful excuses with a flick. From previous experience, Squall knew Zell was straining over the limit barrier. Something nasty was going to happen. "Who persists? Ultimecia? Where is she? I don't see her anywhere. Her over there?" he said, pointing to the glass casement that held the body of the powerful sorceress. "Her?"
"Zell," Squall warned in a low voice.
"She don't even blink her damn eyes!" Zell continued.
"Shut-up, Dincht!" Seifer ordered. Like a puppy, Zell obeyed. He knew he went overboard - stopping was the problem.
"Any more surprises for us, Odine?" Quistis inquired coolly.
"Surprises? With what he sprung on us? The bomb back then? the monsters and Omega? Whoo! Surprises are not my friend!" Irvine stated.
"Perhaps a few..." the doctor said, strangely smiling at Seifer in particular.
Seifer didn't like that... weird smiles from wackos like Odine always meant something bad. He'd wipe that smile off with the blade of his weapon... The opportunity never came, a funny sensation, something cold and dense was pressing against his head. Seifer shook it from side to side to get rid of it, but it still persisted despite his efforts to clear it. The blond boy frowned - his brows bunched together in an intense way. He lifted a gloved hand and pressed it against his forehead. He grunted and let his gunblade fall to the floor with a clatter. The pressure was beginning to hurt...
"Seifer... what's wrong?" Quistis asked, bending down beside him to read his expression.
"Argh! It's, it's..." his voice trailed and fell to the floor on both knees.
"What did you do, you schizo?!" Zell demanded.
"Nothing he did not do unto himself," Odine replied.
"Yeah, and that's what, translated into English?" said Zell without missing a beat.
"You're saying it's his own fault for being here?" Irvine interpreted a frown on his own appearing on his forehead.
"That is precisely what I'm saying,"
"What do you mean?" Selphie asked perplexed. "Seifer didn't do anything wrong... did he?"
"Nothing wrong," Odine agreed. "Ask him how he's feeling. He knows what iz happening to him."
"Seifer?" Selphie asked tentatively.
"No..." Seifer mumbled, holding his head with two hands. "Not... again..."
"Stop it!" Squall ordered, knocking the doctor to the ground in the hope that whatever was tormenting Seifer, would stop.
"Go away..."
Seifer, my knight... why do you resist me?
"I think he's lost it," Irvine said worriedly.
Oh, my loyal knight, Seifer. The sorceress is alive... The sorceress demands.
"Leave me alone you witch!" he shouted his arms flying blindly around him, fighting an invisible force. "Get outta my mind... I'm not going to listen to you... I won't let you deceive me... ever... again."
"It's her!" Squall realised, grabbing Odine by his unusual ruff and raising him from the ground. "Ultimecia's trying to reach out to him. Trying to control him. Isn't she? Isn't she?" Squall repeated when the scientist refused to respond.
"Yes!"
"Fight her, Seifer," Quistis urged him as he continued to shout to the person invading his thoughts, his mind.
"Instructor Trepe, better restrain him to be on the safe side. We know what he can do." Squall advised. Still holding Odine.
The strawberry blond headed girl nodded, undid the clasp that held her Save the Queen whip and tied Seifer's hands behind him.
"We'll sort this out permanently!" Zell said, striding over to the glass casement that housed the body of Ultimecia. "All we gotta do is destroy her; then she can't reach out to anybody anymore."
"Zell, wait!" Squall called. He turned to Odine, pupils dilated. "You've set up some trap, haven't you?"
"Trap? No trap," Odine replied innocently.
"We've killed all the monsters you've thrown at us, and toasted Omega Weapon. Something's up. We're spoiling your plans and you don't look too concerned about it."
The doctor shrugged his shoulders and adjusted the ruff on his neck. The breaking of glass caught all of their attention; gazes were redirected to where Zell stood pummelling the glass casement containing the sorceress.
"The problems started 'cos o' you," the boy said sending another punch at the glass, increasing the length of the crack that had formed. "Y'know, if you were bored, you could always throw a sorceress' party - uh, maybe not," the thought of sorceresses from different eras coming to boogie on down with Ultimecia was too freaky to imagine. A horde of sorceresses uniting to seek vengeance certain SeeDs from the present, was something Zell did not want to happen. "Or, or you could take up cooking..." she'd probably poison everyone, or even greater, herself! "Or, you could play with your monsters. Y'know, enemy death-match sorta thing. Whoever's still alive at the end of the match, is the winner!" Zell's long-winded talk on handling personal boredom did not end there. Pausing for a breath and another chance to punch at the glass, Zell continued on a graver note. "It's not our fault you're all alone in the future, in your oppressive dinky fortress with nothing to rule over. You wanna spread some havoc? You wanna play Ms-control-freak? Then do it in your own world! Don't come trashing other people's lives and homes just 'cos you wanna. Certain people like us aren't gonna let ya!"
"Uh, Zell? You done with your lecture?" Squall inquired when the martial arts expert had ended his little tirade, and the sound of glass cracking stopped.
Zell turned looking sheepish. He went and scratched the back of his head with a hand, a self-conscious grin on his face. "Yeah, sure, Squall. Sorry, got carried away."
Selphie raised a hand to smother the smile and the laugh that threatened to expose her very unserious attitude to the situation. Still, a kind of amused smile was tugging at the corner of Squall's lips. The ghost of a smile faded - the attention was now focused on Odine who had attempted to escape unnoticed.
Zell turned, "Where you going?!" Zell demanded.
"Out of this laboratory, away from you." The doctor replied his chin raised in a defiant gesture.
"Sorry, can't do that," Squall said. "We're keeping you with us."
"It does matter anyhow," Odine said. "My part in all this is almost done.
"And you're gonna get what, huh? Nada, zip," Zell said answering the question for him.
"On the contrary SeeD, I shall be receiving a bountiful reward," Odine corrected. "Though I cannot take all the credit like I should, I am having some help." He lifted a finger and pointed past Squall's shoulder.
Seifer had somehow managed to break free from his tied position on the floor where he had been sitting. He now was striking at the half-finished job Zell had abandoned, with the butt of his gunblade.
Quistis nearly fainted at the sight of her weapon; she bit back a mounting rage and blinked back angry tears. She focused all her anger at the back of her mind, telling herself not to lose control. But it was hard. It wasn't easy. Four sharp spikes, she told herself, four energy crystals and two Malboro tentacles. Collecting those items had not been an easy task - but neither was saving the world. Something deep inside her was waiting to be unleashed, and by the day was through she'd let everybody know no one messed with Quistis Trepe - and no one ever trashed her weapon and discard it like crap. Quistis valued her weapon as much as she was sure Squall valued his gunblade, Selphie, her nanchaku, Irvine and his shotgun, and Zell with his fighting gloves.
Squall, Zell, Irvine and Selphie stood and watched in mute, shocked silence. Watching as Quistis picked up the two pieces of her weapon and stared with disbelief down at them, her eyes blinking rapidly. Zell gulped, he couldn't help but feel Instructor Trepe was going to lose her cool and lash out - well, not literally, she couldn't do that right now - but say something abusive.
She glanced up at her team-mates, they took an involuntary step back at her glare. She glanced back at Seifer who continued to hack effortlessly at the glass.
Zell turned to Odine, "How thick is that thing?"
"It iz what has to be done," Odine replied cryptically.
It iz what has to be done, Zell mimicked scathingly to himself. What language are you speaking in, man? "Heeey, wait a minute!" Zell began, beginning to sound more like Selphie. "When Seifer cracks that open, something bad iz, uh, I mean, is gonna hap-" he was cut off in mid-sentence by the interruption of another voice, who had such venom her words, that an Antidote was sure to do very little to cure the poison.
"You jerk!!" Quistis yelled out Seifer, her body shaking uncontrollably. Every single word targeted at Seifer who had his back to her - still totally engrossed in getting the casement opened. She tightened her hold on the remnants of what was once a Save the Queen, and flung the two pieces - striking Seifer across the back with a whip cracking sound.
Selphie gasped, the boys winced and exchanged uncomfortable expression. They were glad Quistis was not venting all her anger at them. Seifer turned, their eyes meeting. Blue steel clashing with blue steel.
"You, you jerk!" Quistis repeated like a petulant little girl, screaming at the 'naughty' boy who had removed the head from her favourite doll. To Quistis her Save the Queen was her doll. "Look what you've done?!" she pointed savagely at the whip sliced in two. "Two Malboro tentacles, four sharp spikes and four energy crystals."
Squall thought he saw a nerve jump in her jaw - sure that he had seen right because Quistis repeated the items that was needed to upgrade the normal chain whip to the stronger, more powerful Save the Queen, this time her voice was low and sounding extremely deadly. Good thing her weapon was no longer intact because Squall was sure Quistis would use it.
"Do you know how hard it was to get those items? Those energy crystals?"
They could all relate. Their most powerful weapons required some sort of item that was hard to obtain. Boy could Squall relate. One Adamantine from an Adamantine monster to upgrade to a Lion Heart, when all it ever gave him was crappy junk he didn't need. And four dragon fangs from a Blue dragon or a Hexadragon that hardly showed itself when Squall wanted it to appear the most.
Something wavered behind the sapphire of Quistis' eyes that stirred that funny feeling Seifer felt whenever he was with her - he could feel Ultimecia's control slipping away - for a moment he was himself again. "Quistis, I-" he started to say, stopping short when his blue eyes misted over and his true self was thrust to one side to let Ultimecia take control again.
Instructor Trepe must have forgotten it was still Seifer in the flesh, and a sub-conscious form of Ultimecia controlling his mind because a raging fire engulfed her soul, causing her to - with considerable strength - pushing Seifer a good two metres back, his spine connecting with the cracked glass. Her blue eyes widen in shock and astonishment at her violent display; a gloved hand raised to cover her slightly parted mouth. Squall and the others ran to her side, but she ignored them and continued to stare worriedly at the slumped figure, head bent forward.
She raised her eyes to meet Squall's and whispered, "What have I done?"