//By Wonderful Failure and Julie (yaoifantasy)
//rated R for horror, gore, death, and cussing
// yaoi hints
//Disclaimer: Don't own Final Fantasy 8 (not the characters/world/etc) -- I wish, but it just isn't happening. And the movie "Pitch Black" - don't own that either. Just ~borrowing~ for creative out-lets.
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Two hands selected a reddish metal shotgun shell from a box. They pulled the shell open, and removed a glass ampule hidden on the inside. They dropped it into an injection syringe. The syringe touched an eager arm vein.
"Who are you? Really?" Zell asked, looking into the room.
Seifer looked up, without a shirt, a strange smile on his lips.
"You ain't a real cop, huh," Zell continued. "Jus some…mercenary who goes around talkin' bout the law like-"
"I never said I was," Seifer said coolly.
"Never said you was a hype, either."
Zell moved closer, his blue eyes focusing on what Seifer was doing.
Seifer rummaged through his stuff brazenly. Zell saw a shit-load of red shells with hidden ampules.
"You have a little caffeine in the morning. I have a little morphine. So what?" Seifer replied.
"An' here ya got two mornings everyday," Zell replied. "Shit. Were ya born lucky?"
"Hey, it's not a problem unless you're gonna' make-" Seifer began, but was cut off by Zell.
"You made it a problem when ya let Xu die like that!" Zell cried. "When ya had enough drugs to knock out a fuckin' blitz ball team."
"Xu was already dead," Seifer said. "Her brain just hadn't caught onto the fact yet."
"Anything else we should know bout ya, Almasy?" Zell inquired, his voice rich with disgust. "Hyne, here I am, lettin' you play games with our lives when-"
Seifer grabbed Zell's hands, moving them around his body, forcing him into an unwanted embrace.
Zell's hands were placed near Seifer's spine. A jagged purple scar was right beside his spine.
"My first run-in with Squall," Seifer replied. "He went for the sweet spot and missed. They had to leave a piece of the shiv in there. I can feel it, sometimes… Pressing against the cord."
Seifer gave Zell his hands back, a strange look on his face.
"So maybe the care of my nerve endings is my business," Seifer finished.
"You coulda' helped," Zell began. "An' ya didn't."
Outside, the remaining Trepies were jabbering Japanese, calling out "Captain, Captain…"
"Yeah, well look to thine own ass, first. Right, Captain? It cuts deep," Seifer growled.
And with that, Zell and Seifer moved outside. All the others had already gathered. Their eyes were all locked on… a mysterious arch, climbing across the sky.
Luminous, ominous, and brighter than a morning dawn, it grew out from the horizon. Like an ethereal bridge of some sort.
"What do my eyes see?" Nida asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
"It's starting…" Zell trailed off.
They watched, as if hypnotized, looking in awe as the arched rose. It inched eagerly towards the two suns.
Rinoa shook out of the trance first.
"If we need anything from the crash ship," Rinoa began. "I suggest we kick on. That sand-cat's solar."
*******
The group prepared hastily, desperate to race against the eclipse blooming in the sky.
Rinoa cranked the sand-cat, making sure it was ready for the journey.
People gathered lights, water, and ropes.
The two Trepies piled aboard the sand-cat.
"Let's get those cells!" Zell cried.
The sand-cat started to move, being driven by Rinoa. Nida and Stephen were running, catching up to the small vehicle.
"We'll stay together!" Rinoa yelled. "C'mon!"
"Where's Squall?!" Stephen asked.
"Leave him!" Nida said.
Squall then jumped onto the rear bed, looking to Nida.
Nida tried to fight off a look of fear. "Thought we lost you..."
Seifer turned away from Nida.
Seifer doubled back, grabbing his shotgun shells. Then he swung out the door, catching up to the sand-cat.
Squall reeled him aboard.
"Don't wanna' miss this," Squall said to Seifer.
"Look-at-it," Stephen declared. "Look-at-it!"
Stephen pointed eagerly at the explosive lights in the sky. A luminous arch crawling around a planet, acting as it's rings.
The sand-cat stormed through a vast canyon. It passed through the massive ribcage in the bone yard.
Stephen was still awe-struck by the beautiful lights in the sky.
"Watch your head," Squall said calmly to the young boy.
Stephen turned, looking at how low the ribs were compared to him. He ducked down just in time.
The roll cage smashed out some low-bridge bones.
The sand-cat finally reached the crash ship. Various bodies leapt off.
Nida steals a look at… The rising planet. It cruelly threatens to block out the suns…The skies…The universe.
In the battery bay of the crashed ship, Seifer yanked out the first power cell. He drug it over the deck. Squall yanked a second cell and, carrying it on his shoulder, passed Seifer with a 'kiss-my-ass' grin. Seifer shouldered his cell and stumbled after.
Rinoa wheeled the sand-cat around, getting clearance between it and the ship.
The Trepies lashed a scrap-metal sled to the sand-cat.
Squall dropped the first cell onto the sled, Seifer doing the same with the second.
They were racing the eclipse and each other.
"You'll wait for me?" Nida asked, scurrying towards the cargo-cabin that held his belongs. It was 35 feet away from the main crash site.
"Where are you going?" Rinoa asked, frowning at the man.
Nida turned from his half-run pace. "Just to get a few things!"
"Alright..." Rinoa said, watching him then turning back to look at the fading light.
The rings of the planet eclipsed the yellow sun, blocking out the light. The sky turned to dusk. It was as if Hyne had just closed a blind. The daylight slowly dimmed. The change in light brought a growing high-pitched sound from the sand-cat.
"Don't stop, don't stop…" Zell pleaded to the solar powered vehicle.
Stephen simply couldn't help himself from looking at the Spired hills. Where Irvine died. Where Zell was almost killed. The spires. Those horrible, horrible spires.
As the rings eclipsed the red sun, a second darkness sweeps over the survivors.
Now all of them stopped, beholding spired hills. The deep dusk.
Something started pouring from the spire-tops.
Back-lit by coronal light, it first seemed to be smoke or ash of some sort…but soon they all realized it was living things. Hatchlings…squealing in delight over their first nightfall.
"Hyne," Seifer whispered. "How many can there…"
They just kept coming. They filled the sky with thick waves.
Mercifully, the screeching hatchlings seemed to be moving away. But then one wave cleaved from another…and did a quick about-face.
"Just a suggestion," Nida began, yelling from the doorway of the cargo-cabin, someway away from the others. "But perhaps you should flee?!"
"Cargo hold!" Zell cried. "Everyone! Get into da' cargo hold! Les' go, les' go, les' go!"
Rinoa paused, still sitting in the drivers chair of the sand-cat. She breathed, unable to move. She forced herself to speak. "Shit!" Swallowing, she jumped from the vehicle, finally starting to run in a full sprint towards the cargo-cabin.
They ran. Ran away, desperately from the tiny beasts. Most of the group reached the cargo hold, turning back to see Squall and Rinoa still coming.
They heard the squealing wave of hatchlings descending upon them.
Squall and Rinoa hit to the dirt. The baby monsters torrent just inches overhead.
Rinoa was terrified. She was having trouble breathing. It was as if she were underwater. The fear was just too much to handle.
Squall just watched in awe, no more frightened than a kid lying on his back, looking up at a beautiful starlit night.
Experimenting, he eased a bone-shiv into the hatchlings. Instantly it whittled down to nothing. It was like a river of razor blades.
The hatchlings just kept coming.
Rinoa whipped a panicky look at the cargo hold.
Could she make it?
Should she even try?
"Tell her to stay there," Stephen murmured. "Stay down…"
Rinoa started worming, eager to make it to the cargo hold.
"Rinoa!" Stephen cried. "Stay down, Rinoa!"
Suddenly, the hatchlings vanished. Was it safe?
Rinoa got to her feet and started in a sprint to the cargo-cabin.
"No, no, no, no, no…" Zell whispered.
Then the wave returned, enveloping Rinoa.
Rinoa gave out a desperate scream, falling to her feet. The baby monsters bit at her, clawing at her. They didn't want her to escape.
Giving out a grunt of effort, Rinoa tried desperately to escape them. She tried moving, yet more and more continued to claw onto her.
The survivors watched in pure horror, amazed at how many beasts there were.
Rinoa couldn't fight any longer. There were just too many hatchlings. They lifted her away, and her screams became more and more muffled.
Then, the others looked away, hearing Rinoa's horrified screams as she was ripped in half. Her screams rang out, sending chills up their spines.
A sea of blood fell from the sky, landing on the ground.
Rinoa's blood.
And then the hatchlings flew away, taking Rinoa's mutilated body with them.
Still on the ground, Squall checked left and right like someone about to cross a busy street. He got up, smacking his hands clean. Then he ran for the hold. Behind him…A rising gang-clicking noise.
Zell knew that sound better than anyone. That horrid fucking sound…
The spired hills, outlined by the shadowy dusk.
The spires were crumbling, being torn down from within.
Squall reached the cargo hold, and then turned around for one last look. He shed his goggles, looking at the world with his jeweled eyes.
In degraded images, he could see the predators – adult versions of those flying hatchlings – emerging from the spires. They were large, mammalian, hammer-headed. With razor-sharp claws… They clicked with echo-location, sounding out the world they hadn't inhabited for 31 years.
"What is it?" Zell asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "What's happening out there?"
Squall continued to watch the terrible beats. The predators launched themselves from the hills, gliding, sounding, searching.
"It's like I said," Squall replied. "It ain't me you gotta' worry about."