"The Ultimate Guardian Force"

By Jessica Espinoza

General FF8 Fic.



Chapter 1

"We're lost!" Selphie cried as everyone looked around outside of the large Esthar vehicle.

Squall looked over at Rinoa, Quistis, Selphie and then at Laguna. He sighed and thought to himself, 'I knew I shouldn't have trusted Laguna with a map.' He couldn't believe they were lost in the middle of nowhere. 'Just when I thought this day couldn't get worse,' he told himself when he recalled everyone's fight over which person had the coolest Guardian Force. Of course, he sat outside of that conversation, congratulating himself for drawing Eden from Ultima Weapon. Squall definitely wasn't the type to brag, but he knew in his mind that he had the greatest Guardian Force, he just didn't want to get worked up supporting himself. He thought that to be simply pointless.

Laguna scratched his head. He apparently had no idea where he went wrong, Squall could tell by the look on his face. He found it almost amusing how innocent the man looked, scratching his head with such honesty and confusion.

"I don't know where I went wrong," Laguna told the others, unknowingly letting Squall know just how right he was. "It says right here that we were supposed to make a left turn about 50 miles back," Laguna continued, raising his right arm and pointing in that direction.

Everyone's eyes widened and they all yelled out his name at the same moment. Laguna turned back, looking at them all, his long hair following. He scratched his head again and he said, "Oh...I think I know what happened now."

Squall smacked his forehead in disbelief, thinking, 'And this man is my father? He doesn't even know which way is left!' With a sigh, he threw his arm suggestedly to the side and said, "Well, perhaps we can still find our way," and then he looked at everyone and noted their agreement.

"If we go in the other direction for a while, we'll come across it. If not, we'll eventually bump into some place and we can ask for directions from there," Quistis suggested when their hope quickly fell.

Squall looked away and thought sarcastically to himself, 'That sounds confident.' He then glanced around and then said, "Lets just get back into the car and go along with Quistis' theory." After they've all gotten into the vehicle, he thought to himself, 'Quistis' theory? God, this is never going to work.'

Chapter 2

Zell glanced around and said "Where the heck is Squall and the gang!? I hope they didn't run into a Malboro or something!" He then looked over at Irvine, who was leaning against the map of the garden, his cowboy hat tilted toward the ground, to make his presence even more imtimidating than normal. Zell looked around the room, apparently curious of the ladies walking around near them. He occasionally caught Irvine glancing up and winking toward them, tilting his hat to them with admiration. Zell forced a quiet chuckle when he noticed a few of the women waving back at him. He began to wonder if perhaps he should follow his footsteps; or bow to him. Zell didn't think of himself much as a cowboy wannabe; he wasn't even into western movies, but when he watched Irvine's near magic with the ladies, he almost wanted to become a cowboy himself. He could never picture it, though. 'The martial arts will get me my girl,' he thought to himself confidently.

After a few minutes, Squall, Rinoa, Laguna, Selphie and Quistis finally arrived and walked up to them. Zell jumped to his feet and said, "What took you guys so long!?" After the others glanced at eachother for a moment, Rinoa finally said, "Laguna got us lost!" Laguna looked over at her and snapped, "You're just jealous because I have Leviathan!" The two began yelling back and forth in the background as the others talked.

"So what's up, Zell," Selphie asked, looking at him and then at Irvine. Irvine tilted his hat back up and stood next to Zell.

"Headmaster Cid said that there's some SeeD dance tonight, and that everyone's welcome; even Rinoa and Laguna," he replied with a grin.

"So then, why don't I show you to your room so we can change into uniform, Selph?" Irvine asked, putting his arm around her. She squirmed away from him and replied, "Yeah, right, Irvine."

Squall smacked his own forehead, thinking, 'Why does he even try?' He then looked at everyone, holding back a snicker when he realized Rinoa and Laguna were still arguing.

"At least I don't have one earring! It looks so rediculous, anyways," Rinoa snapped at Laguna. "And what guy lets his hair grow that long!?"

Laguna was astonished. He replied, "Hey! This is a cool earring! And don't mess with the hair! You know you're talking to the President of Esthar, right!? You're just some pathetic member of some stupid organization that barely even exists anymore! In fact-"

"Guys! Settle down," Squall interrupted. "I can't have you two arguing the entire time!" He threw his arm to the side again, trying to get them to shut up and listen to him. "There's a SeeD dance tonight. Headmaster Cid said you're both welcome to come." With that, Squall walked off without another word. He heard Laguna mutter to Rinoa, "You have your father's attitude," as he walked away from her.

Chapter 3

Zell walked into the large room, glancing around and already enjoying the pleasant music in the background. He saw a small crowd of SeeDs and walked up to them suriously, asking, "What's going on?" When a few people moved out of his way, he noticed Quistis signing autographs for giggling wannabes and snickering men.

"Hey, Zell," Quistis greeted, bored out of her mind. "I thought I could escape most of the Trepies here. I guess I was wrong," she said with a giggle. "Oh well," she continued, "Ya gotta be good to the fans, I guess."

Zell looked at her strange. He then chuckled at her for being such a damn egomaniac. She was like a celebrity to those people. He couldn't believe she was actually writing autographs. And the look on the faces of those men? That was even more laugh-worthy. He shrugged it off. He had to admit, he found Quistis quite attractive. It was never anything mentionable. Just simple, lust? 'Whatever,' he thought.

Squall walked into the room and glanced around, admiring the glass ceiling again, remembering his moment on the dance floor with Rinoa not too far back. He noticed right away his father, Laguna, sitting at the miniature bar. 'That's what the military does to you, I guess,' he thought to himself with a snicker. He saw Zell and Quistis attemtping to talk to one another in a cloud of Trepies, so he didn't bother to join them. When he began walking forward, someone tapped his shoulder. He turned around to see Rinoa, in her lovely white dress. The same as the last time.

"Hey there, Squall," Rinoa said, moving her foot innocently like a shy child.

"Hi," was the only thing Squall said. Unlike Irvine or Laguna, he wouldn't let beauty mess him up. Squall glanced over at Laguna, still in disbelief that he was looking at his father. He wondered why Laguna was twenty-seven and he was seventeen. He shrugged it off, telling himself, 'That'll only make me think too much.' Squall hated when he thought too much. One thing would lead to another, and before he knew it, he was thinking of something way off of what he was thinking in the first place. Just thinking about how he thinks threw him off. He shook his head.

"Squall! How is everything," Headmaster Cid called out and waved once, nodding to Rinoa as if to excuse him from interrupting. If he even was interrupting anything. "Sorry if this was such late notice to you all. Something just came up and I figured, 'why not handle this with a party?' Haha..You kids probably don't understand. Oh well," he said, and he simply walked away.

Squall wondered why the headmaster was always like that. Always talking and never really explaining himself to people. 'I guess it's because he doesn't have to explain himself to people,' he thought. He turned back to Rinoa. "Shall we dance," he asked her with a smile."

Rinoa and Squall danced together, for what seemed to be directly below the stars. It wasn't a waltz this time, so they had time to talk.

Chapter 4

Laguna was bored out of his mind. He glanced around, still occasionally glancing at the bartender, who was pre-occupied wiping the bar table.

"Hello, Sir Laguna," he heard Selphie call to him. He couldn't help but to chuckle at how she called him Sir Laguna all of the time. He hated to recall his brief moment as an actor, how he had to fight off the Ruby Dragon with a sword until Kiros could help him out. 'Damn director,' he thought to himself.

"Say, Laguna, wanna help me out with the next Garden Festival!? It'll be so cool this year," she told him confidently, with a smirk on her face.

Laguna tried to think as fast as his slow mind would allow. He glanced around quickly and looked back at her. He lied, "I have this really important thing coming up...You know how Presidency can be...right?" He was amazed that she actually bought it, but as she was thinking of who else to bother, he slipped out of the dance room.

'Thank God,' he thought to himself. He thought it was great that Selphie found a hobbie, but the Garden Festival Committee went straight to her head! Laguna glanced around at the balcony and sighed with boredum.

Chapter 5

Squall opened his eyes. He couldn't believe it was morning already. He turned to his other side and thought, 'I'm going to sleep all day,' not ready to face the morning. He had to admit, he did enjoy the way the air flowed into the room slowly past the curtain, raising it occasionally, bringing in more sunlight. The sound of the birds outside made the moment even more serene.

Squall rolled back to his other side and sat up. After wiping his eyes and getting out a final yawn, he stood up and took his gunblade in his hand, planning to go to the Training Center. When he walked out, he saw Zell walking down the hall towards him.

"Hey, Squall," Zell happily shouted to him, "I was just about to get you! A couple of the guys were bored and they wanted to know if you wanted to take the Ragnarok to Deling City and hang out at the Shopping Arcade or something."

Laguna, Rinoa, Squall, Zell and Selphie hopped into the Ragnarok and sat down in their seats. Squall noticed that Rinoa and Laguna were still exchanging cold looks to eachother. Rinoa even muttered, "I am NOT like my father," to Laguna. Laguna couldn't help but laugh at her.

Selphie stood up. She looked at the two and said, "GUYS! Stop the violence! We all know that my Guardian Force, Bahamut, is the best!" With that, Squall glared at her. He expected her to make an attempt at actually getting the two to shut up. He didn't need to have his father and girlfriend arguing back and forth for weeks like this. 'And Selphie's no help,' he thought to himself.

After looking at Squall, Zell couldn't help but to join the argument. He argued, "Yeah right! You remember how easy it was to defeat him! I was laughing during the entire battle!" He continued, "Besides! It was only easy because I used my GF Doomtrain! So you wouldn't even have your GF if it weren't for mine!"

Squall slapped his forehead, thinking to himself, 'Not this again.' He almost thought they all gave up on that rediculous argument. 'At least Quistis isn't here to argue over Shiva being the greatest,' he told himself. Squall was so sick of the argument that he wanted to stand up in the Ragnarok and tell them all to shut up, because Eden is the ultimate Guardian Force. He neared it at that point, but he never did it.

Instead of arguing, Squall set the auto-pilot to the Island Closest to Hell. No one noticed until they all stepped out of the spaceship and noticed that they were on an island full of monsters.

"Equip your damn Guardian Force," was all Squall said to them. They glared at him and did as told. After they had all equipped their GFs, Squall dragged them into a battle with a Hexadragon.

Squall had Initiation and Auto-Haste junctioned, so he was able to make the first move, and he summoned Guardian Force Eden. Eden's single attack wiped out the Hexadragon, to everyone's surprise.

"I have the best Guardian Force," Squall muttered, and walked off with his Lion Heart on his shoulder, mumbling, "Just shut up, already."

Fin.