V
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
--Sun Tzu

Zell threw one of the grappling lines off the side of the raised railroad platform, leaving Irvine to deal with the three soldiers already on the rails. The soldiers--clad in bulky dusk-blue armor strangely remeniscent of an Iron Giant with a faceplate of tinted plastic and armed with a pistol and a short knife each, without discernable insignia or any marks or association or affiliation--were putting up a good fight. Good for them, at least. Definitely not good for Zell and Irvine.

"Dammit!" Zell yelled as another grappling hook hit the side of the track next to him and he struggled to extract it.

Irvine gasped as a bullet embedded itself in his shoulder, reeling as searing pain shot through him. Making an elaborate gesture towards his opponent, he watched a massive pillar of ice rise from nowhere and felt the intense cold of the Blizzara spell. The soldier he had targeted staggered backwards, hairline cracks racing along his armor, and fell.

"Who are these goons, anyway?" Irvine called to Zell as three more grappling hooks landed.

"Minions of hell!" Zell cursed as Irvine loaded a cartridge of armor-piercing into his gun and fired it at the enemy, who abruptly keeled over. The last enemy took a look at the other two and fled, leaving Irvine alone with Zell and the grapplers.

Pulling the knives from the two dead bodies, he tossed one to Zell. "Just cut the ropes!" he said. "They'll just throw 'em back up if we just toss 'em down!"

Zell caught the knife easily, and went to work sawing at one of the lines. Irvine took another, and soon all four ropes were cut. Just to make sure, Zell threw a Flare spell down at the boat below, yelling "Booya!" as it listed, taking on water. "So, now what do we do?"

"We should get to the tier," Irvine said. "Squall and Quisty might be in trouble."

"Hey, yeah," Zell said, stretching. "Come on! We gotta go!"

-

Quistis ran after the men who had Selphie, uncoiling her chain whip from her side as she ran, readying magic, and hoping she wouldn't have to use either. Frantically, she followed them around one corner, another, moving towards the heart of the city and the mayor's house.

"Quisty!" yelled a voice to one side, and she half-turned to look. Zell and Irvine ran up to her, worried expressions on their faces. "What's the matter?" asked Irvine. "I thought you were going to the tier?"

"Selphie--" Quistis managed to get out, pointing after the backs of the four men carrying the girl.

"Sefie?" Irvine demanded. "Where? C'mon! We have to get her!"

The three of them ran, ran all the faster because it was slightly downhill. The four carrying Selphie couldn't move as fast due to the bulky armor, and the small SeeD force was closing.

"Watch out!" yelled Zell as one of them turned, sending a bolt of energy flying at the three. Quistis, not quite fast enough to dodge, caught it full in the stomach--it tore her off her feet, tossing her backward to land hard on the ground several metres away. Irvine hastily cast a triple-Protect on the party, while Zell searched his brain for a way to kill the guards without hurting Selphie. He finally cast Shell on Selphie, yelled for Quistis to Curaga her, and summoned the powerful Meteor spell on his opponents. Each took heavy of damage, though Selphie's Shell glowed a searing pink as it warded off the force.

A blue glow surrounded Selphie as Quistis healed her, though again the Shell glowed pink and blocked some of the magic. Two of the guards had collapsed, leaving the one who had shot Quistis in the first place and the one who was watching Selphie. Irvine cast Flare on the first one, yowling as a Reflect shield seemed to appear out of nowhere and sent the Flare screaming back at him. The second man cast Demi--but not on any of the SeeDs.

The rift opened beside him, hissing as it displaced the ocean air. Grabbing Selphie as the hole reached its widest point, he stepped through--distorted, shimmered, and disappeared. The first soldier followed suit almost immediately, leaving the area deserted except for the two dead bodies and a dropped Phoenix Down.

"Damn!" Zell stormed, looking at where the to men had been. "Got away... "

"Where's Squall?" asked Irvine as the thought occurred to him.

"At the tier," Quistis said. He wanted to question the leader."

"And you left him there? Alone?" Irvine demanded.

"Ifrit! He's going to get himself killed!" Zell said. Quistis paled.

"Move!" she said and, once again, ran.

-

Squall wished he could tell Diablos to keep his enemies away, but he knew he couldn't. Even if he had the GF--which he didn't, as Irvine was looking after him--it wouldn't have done any good; Diablos had been silent and unreachable since the Demi spell had turned on him. Squall's hand tightened on his gunblade as he asked every god and GF he knew for good luck--not that he really believe that now, luck would be the deciding factor. Slinking along in the dubious protection of the shadows, he tried not to make a sound as he moved towards the tier. He passed several heavily-armored guards on his way, each one meaner-looking than the last. Finally he caught sight of what he thought was the Lieutenant--a man in burnished, silvery armor, no helmet, with a heavily bearded face and a nose that looked like it had been broken several times. Two brownish horns rose from the armor on his shoulders, and the metal tips on each gleamed in the sunlight. None of the guards were in sight, presumably out of fear and respect for their leader.

Squall watched him for a moment from behind a pile of nets, then, readying his gunblade, stood up.

"Hey," he yelled, walking down towards the Lieutenant. The huge man looked at him, folding massive arms across his chest. When Squall stood about three paces away he stopped, glaring at the Lieutenant in a challenging gaze. Not proper negotiatign tactics--but then, he had no illusions about this being a negotiation.

"Who are you?" rumbled the man.

"Where's Rinoa?" asked Squall instead of answering him. The man blinked.

"You know a lot," he said cryptically. "The Sorceress is in a safe place."

Squall winced inwardly, but remained composed outwardly. "Take me to her," he demanded.

"By Dyne--" the man said, squinting at Squall. Reaching his right hand out to his side, a dark, bladed quarterstaff shimmered into existance in it. Bringing it in front of him, parallel to the ground, he growled "you're the SeeD!"

The man charged with surprising speed, and Squall only barely managed to dodge the man's thrust. Spinning around to face the younger combatant once again, the Lieutenant lunged and stabbed wildly. For all that the other man's style of attack was haphazard--manic, even--Squall found that he was having a much harder time countering the blows that he thought he would.

The Lieutenant forced Squall backwards one step at a time, towards the edge of the platform and the boundless sea beneath. Squall found he couldn't concentrate enough to summon a GF or even cast magic, the Lieutenant's attacks were coming too quickly. He was quickly beginning to wonder if he had bitten off more than he could chew.

(Dammit! Quistis, Zell--anybody--!) he thought. (Help--)

The Lieutenant suddenly grabbed both ends of his quarterstaff, ready to bash Squall with the pole itself. Seeing his chance, Squall brought his gunblade down on the pole hard, expecting to cut it in half--

There was the sound of twisting metal, and the blade snapped off the handle, leaving Squall to drop the hilt in pain as the harsh vibrations traveled up its length. The Lieutenant grinned, and hit him with the broad side of the pole hard enough to send him back to balance on the edge, where a punch to the face sent him falling over. It was only by the sheerest luck that he found something to hang onto, but from there he was helpless...

The Lieutenant laughed, and swung the quarterstaff down to finish the job. Squall tried to turn to one side, twistign against his shoulder and his arm, but the sharp blade cut down his face--it was a mockery or a miracle that it hadn't cleaved his skull in two. Pain shocked through him, and he gritted his teeth as blood ran from the wound. The man raised it and swung it downwards and sideways in an arc, digging the point into Squall's side.

(I can't die here...) he thought desperately as th gore flowed into his eyes, ignoring the fact for the moment that paradoxically, these weren't killing blows--

The last thing he saw clearly was the Lieutenant raising his staff high above his head.

"Hey!" snapped a voice from somewhere. There was a sound of surprise, the clashing of metal, and a loud, pained grunt from somewhere above him. Blood was beginning to flow down his side, and his fingers were beginning to cramp--and had he any clarity of thought, he would have wondered why those discomforts were the ones he was most aware of. Wondering how long he would have to hold on, he tightened his grip.

For some reason Squall didn't feel a blade sliding into his chest, and he tired to blink the blood away to see why. He saw the Lieutenant go flying past him and into the ocean, and then he couldn't make anything out. Someone grabbed his arm and pulled him ashore roughly, affording no consideration from the way the gouge in his side ripped and stretched with the force--the same someone took Squall's arm and threw it across his shoulder. A hand gripped him just below his opposite arm, and Squall leaned heavily on his invisible rescuer for support as the person moved off, hauling him along. Then, from shock, exhaustion, and loss of blood, he blacked out.

-

Quistis led the way back towards the tier at a dead run, Zell and Irvine trailing behind. Taking all the back streets and alleys so as to avoid attack they made a pace rather slower than what they could have--but finally, arms at the ready, they reached the section of the city that Squall had headed towards. They burst in loose formation through the gap between two buildings, spreading out at once, ready to help Squall in any battle.

He was nowhere to be seen.

Fearing the worst, Quistis searched the area for a sign, any sign as to what had happened to him, when there was a low moan from Irvine. Quistis turned to look as Zell held up both halves of a broken gunblade--the hilt still with a silver lion's head medallion attached by a thin chain to it. Zell had recognized it immediately--he had once made a replica of the lion for Rinoa, and used a ring much like this medallion for the model.

Quistis rushed over, looking around the ground by where Zell was standing. Slowly, her gaze drifted to the edge of the platform, where a few flecks of blood gleamed from the edge. Bending down, she touched one of the drops--it was still wet.

(No...) she thought as she closed her eyes. Forcing herself to open them and look down again, she saw the ocean water was tranquil, except for the usual small waves. There was no sign of a body.

"Quisty?" Irvine said hesitantly. Someone grabbed her shoulder as she closed her eyes again, a tear escaping from her tightly-clenched lids. She turned to throw her arms around Irvine, shaking. The three remained in silence for some time, Fisherman's Horizon forgotten.

"He was... a good friend," Irvine said lamely. He and Squall had never really gotten along, but he felt he should say something to Quistis to cheer her up. She shook her head, remembering something.

--they were in Galbadia Garden's waiting room, after receiving the news that Seifer had (supposedly) been executed. The feelings ran from stunned surprise to regret to sadness to grief, but Squall hadn't said anything. He just stood there, listening, seeming to get angrier and angrier, yet trying not to show it. Quistis had asked him what was wrong, and he had yelled "I won't have anyone talking about me in the past tense!" and ran out of the room. No one had said anything about it later; they had let it drop so as not to make Squall uncomfortable. But it was still a reminder that Squall was only human.
Only mortal--

"He didn't want anyone talking about him like that," Quistis said, brushing away the involuntary tear. "We--should get back to the Ragnarok."

"What about the city?" Zell said, gesturing to the dark shape of the Mayor's house. "They need our help!"

Quistis was tempted to say (Forget the city! Let them handle their own problems for once,) but she didn't. Standing up slowly, she tried to summon rage to banish the sorrow. A fierce light gleamed in her eyes as she tightened her grip on the whip at her side.

"Let's get them," she said, voice shaking.