BROTHERS IN ARMS
by Digintegrated - Hunter Bill
Disclaimer : All of this is Squaresoft's property, but this won't prevent me from thanking all these Japanese people from making such outstanding FF games. :-)
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CHAPTER 7
PROGRESS AND CONFIDENCES
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"Tell me, Irvine, have you really got an inborn mania to touch everything?", Barrett asked.
The three companions had arrived in a small underground, round-shaped room, with stone walls, lighted by lanterns. As odd as it looked, a moat, filled with cloudy water, was going across the room, cutting it in two parts. The water was slowly flowing in it. On each side of the moat, there were two iron doors, almost diametrically opposed and both having a small barred window. A stone bridge was linking the two halves of the room, and near the bridge was a metal lever. Irvine was curious to know what this lever was for, and had pulled it to him. This resulted in the complete emptying of the moat. Not a single drop of water was in it. A bit later, Irvine noticed that the lever was operating the small lock in the moat, located near the bridge, between the two doors.
"How could I know?", Irvine answered.
"You really have to be careful, man. You never know what could happen to us.", Barrett continued.
"Hey, stop! You're not going to argue for this, right?", Selphie broke in.
The two men said nothing.
"Should we go on the left?", she then asked.
"As you wish, Selphie.", Irvine answered.
"Okay.", Barrett nodded.
They opened the left door and entered the next room. But at the moment when the three got in it, the door shut and locked itself! The group was stuck in a cell, with stone walls too. According to the gloomy appearance of the room, it could be nothing but a dungeon.. A small bunch of straw was laying around the ground, with a skeleton. The door they opened to come into the room wouldn't open anymore, the other door Barrett had noticed on his right after he came in was locked from the other side and wouldn't open too, despite the juggernaut's efforts.
"And now, what?", said Barrett with a raging voice.
Selphie was blushing. She was afraid of having made a mistake by leading them both and herself into the dungeon. Nevertheless she had noticed in the back of the room a statue of a man, laying on the ground and raising a hand carrying...
"A key!", she suddenly said, excited. "We might be saved!"
She rushed on the key but as she was about to take it, doubt came into her mind, as it had come while she was in the room with the bell. What if it was it a trap? "After all", she finally thought, "if a servant of Ultimecia turned up here, we would indeed have to eliminate him before we could continue. We must do it, right?"
"Erm... watch out, you never know...", she announced as she put her hand over the key.
Barrett and Irvine could hardly believe in what their team mate said but they drew their weapons. Selphie took the key. At the very moment, a purplish smoke sprang from the centre of the room and took a gigantic form. The form solidified, thickened and turned into a humanoid creature, three times bigger than Barrett, who was nevertheless impressed by the monster's stature. It was so big that his head almost touched the ceiling of the cell. Moreover it had an enormous sword and hugely muscled limbs, that made it exactly looking like the Iron Giants that Squall and his team had formerly encountered in Esthar's plains after Lunar Cry. His armour, however, was crimson instead of the usual navy blue.
"Damn..." Barrett thought.
Selphie had already drawn her Nunchaku out. The creature talked to the three friends with these words:
"I am Red Giant, and you will face my wrath for seeking your sealed power."
~~
Meanwhile, the seven other fighters were back in the entrance hall. Squall took the opportunity to show Quistis the artefact he found on the balcony.
"Yes, you are correct. It's indeed a Power Generator.", Quistis confirmed.
"Let me see!", Cid asked.
Squall handed the glowing stone to him.
"Weird.", the spearman remarked. "This thing shines like a materia but it ain't one..."
"Whatever...", Squall answered. "We're looking for this kind of item to do other things that your materias can't do, in fact."
The Gunblader thought for a while and asked:
"Cid... You seem to know about mechanics, physics, chemistry and so on... could you have a look at this?"
He took out of his leather jacket a magazine. It was a Weapons Monthly. He opened it and show a page to Cid who drew on his cigarette and read with attention.
"Mmmm... If I've understood it well, these are instructions to forge your kinda gun-sword, your Gunblade as you say, right?"
Squall nodded.
"Adamantine, Dragon Fang, Pulse Ammo?". Cid hesitated and said: "I perfectly understand the set up instructions but I hope you have the right items for it because..."
"Don't worry, we have some...", Rinoa said.
"We will have some.", Squall precised. "These Pulse Bullets are made by Irvine, thanks to this..." (he showed the stone) "and our Guardian Forces' intervention."
"...thus making a refining, right?", Cid added.
"Exactly.", Squall answered. "But I don't know where Irvine is to be found right now. I just know that he's gone by the right side of the entrance hall."
"So you intend to find him back... I'm coming with you, Squall. I'm also wondering where Barrett is to be found. I hope he hasn't been too violent with your companions, he's the kind of man to get angry for nothing."
Tifa and Cid were a bit surprised, but Cloud was right. Squall shared his point of view too. He knew it well that, unlike himself who was naturally cold and calm, "Mr Machine Gun", as Irvine named him, could hardly control himself.
"I suppose it's time to part again.", Zell said.
They had all started to go up the stairs leading to the balustrade.
"We're taking the upper left door.", Quistis declared. "Good luck."
Upon these words, Quistis, Zell and Cid went there, while the other two couples, determined to find their three other mates, went out by the right door. However, Cloud seem to be concerned about something.
"What's wrong, Cloud?", Tifa asked.
"That bird that talked to us in the entrance hall.", Cloud answered.
"The bird?", Rinoa asked. "Eden?", Squall precised.
"Yes, erm... your Guardian Force, this creature that went out of your body.", Cloud resumed, talking to Squall.
"So?", Tifa continued.
Cloud didn't know how to explain it, but he finally said:
"That voice recalls me of someone... her voice..."
~~
The Red Giant was even worse than Trauma. Barrett and Irvine had to sustain so many times the blows coming from his huge sabre. Selphie was much thinner than her other two team mates, no matter how hard she struck the Giant with her Nunchaku, she was down to the floor two blows later. Irvine was desperately attempting to protect her and was retaliating with a burst of AP Bullets, Barrett was shooting without a break but they were hopeless. The scarlet juggernaut was implacable.
"Wait a moment, people.", Selphie said suddenly. The girl was shuddering.
"I think this time is the good time.", she resumed.
She got back up and made many gestures with her weapon.
"What's she doing?", Barrett asked.
"Stay cool...", Irvine said, as he seemed to know what Selphie was preparing.
She froze, holding the side-pieces of her Nunchaku raised in the air. A white bolt surrounded the team. Then, coming from nowhere, a magic wall crashed down between them and their red enemy, then vanished.
"Woohoo, it works!", Selphie shouted, delighted.
Her Full Cure and Wall spells were indeed operative; Selphie had succeeded, although she never did it before, in casting them both at the same time.
Barrett, regenerated, shouted in a triumphant voice: "It's my turn now!" and shot so fast that the monster almost rocked. His machine gun nearly got jammed. But this wasn't enough to dispose of Ultimecia's minion.
The battle was far from being won. The three friends, protected by the Wall, could fight more easily, but the monster didn't seem to be weakened. The creature didn't stop his taunts as the team's attacks were inefficient. Five minutes later, they were all three knocked to the ground, exhausted... Irvine had no more special bullets left. Selphie couldn't move at all. Barrett was staring at the creature with a hatred-filled look. "You won't make me change my mind.", he shouted. "I will never surrender."
"Really?", Red Giant replied. He had raised his sword in the air, ready to assail its three opponents when a voice from nowhere said:
"Hey you big gizmo! Catch this!"
Two black-gloved hands came from the small slit of the door and unleashed a Demi spell. Two black balls sprang from the door and struck the Red Giant head on. The monster exploded, imploded and yelled:
"AAAAAAARRRRGH! No more Demis please!"
"Hey, you don't seem to appreciate?", another voice replied. "Wait, we're going to cast it over..."
"Squall? Cloud? Is that you?", Barrett asked, surprised by this miraculous turning-up of the two swordsmen.
As an answer, he saw a huge black ball shooting from their hands and wrap the big red creature. This gravity shock was such that the floor and ceiling of the room waved and were almost to meet each other. The Red Giant was dilating, contracting, yelling, agonizing. No matter how resistant this monster was, he couldn't stand his own weight. The gravity inside the Demi was forcing him to be crushed by eight other selves. That was too much for him, way too much...
When the prison went back to its original size, the Red Giant rocked, fell to the ground with a dreadful noise, dismantled and went into dust.
Barrett was astonished.
"So that was his weak point?", he said.
"Seems it was.", Cloud answered from the other side of the door. "But... how did you come to lock yourselves in it? The door's blocked!"
"It actually has shut and locked itself.", Irvine precised.
"To my opinion, we couldn't get out of this place without taking the key and beating this big red thing.", Selphie added. "Luckily you've come here right on time, guys. Thanks!"
"You're welcome", Cloud answered.
Squall remained silent but didn't think less than Cloud. He didn't know the reason why but, even though it was not in his habit, it was natural for him to help other people.
"Squall? Something's wrong?", Rinoa asked, worried.
Squall took some time to answer calmly:
"I'll talk to you later about it."
"Strange", Rinoa thought. "He don't usually stand talking about his personal matters. Is it another trick to avoid contact?"
Selphie had unlocked the door with the key she found in the cell, then she opened it with another "Woohoo!". Barrett and Irvine got out of it, limping.
"Phew... I hope we won't have to fight for while", Irvine sighed. "Moreover I have no more special ammunition."
"Barrett? Are you wounded?", Tifa asked.
"Hmpf... could have been better if that monster had not stunned us with his damn big sword.", the giant answered. "Couldn't you give us a hand?"
"Right now.", Cloud accepted.
The swordsman cast a Regen All upon the three team mates who progressively got healed from their serious wounds. During this time, Squall came to Irvine and showed him the Power Generator. Irvine was astonished.
"The thing that makes Pulse Ammo by refining? Man, that's been a long time I was expecting to see an artefact like this!"
"Me too", Squall added.
"Yeah, it's true. The ultimate Gunblade, isn't it? Wait, I'm going to check if our Guardian Forces are operative. I've tried to summon them many times to craft some ammo, but I failed."
Irvine took the green crystal in his hand, twenty empty pellets in the other and concentrated. The crystal, then the pellets glowed, floated then came into contact, letting out a bright glimmer. Ten seconds later, the crystal had vanished, and the pellets were filled with its energy.
"Hey, that didn't work a while ago!", the sniper exclaimed. "After all... This is for me..."
He put eight bullets in one of his pockets.
"...and this is for you.", and gave the remainder to Squall.
Barrett was definitely interested by Irvine's Guardian Forces' abilities.
"Outstanding!", he said. "Merely outstanding! Irvine, if you ever have the time before we meet Sephiroth and your Sorceress, don't forget to do the same with my ammo if you can."
"Very well, I'll think about it.", Irvine answered. The gunner had another idea in mind... He returned to the cell, followed by Cloud and Squall, and after a quick refining, found himself with his favourite ammunition, the AP Bullets. He reloaded his shotgun.
"Stand back, it's gonna rock!", he told them and pointed his gun to the left door, still blocked.
He shot. Irvine had some problems to stand the recoil provoked by his gun shot. The door was smashed down by a remarkable explosion. Nothing was left of it. Irvine and the two swordsmen rushed into the passage. It was a stone wall corridor, with a small slope but no lighting. Moreover, after each step they took, the ground seemed to become muddier and muddier. Nevertheless, this passageway was quite short. The three young men quickly got out of it and found themselves in a kind of moat outside the castle. They were located at the foot of the left tower, with its stopped clock and its monster statues.
"I wonder what we're doing here, Irvine.", Cloud asked.
Irvine, without saying anything, proceeded through the moat and saw a key, set on a piece of rock. He took it and gave it to Cloud.
"Does it answer your question?", he said to him, smiling.
"It does, in some way..."
~~
Tifa and Rinoa have taken themselves away from the group for a while. They were sitting on a stair, in the room next to the art gallery.
"Cloud and Squall seem to get on well. Quite amazing.", Tifa began.
"It's odd but I think exactly the same. According to his friends, Squall isn't the kind of person to sacrifice himself to help anybody... until I met.", Rinoa continued.
"So you think it comes from you?"
"Could be... I know he's worried about me."
"Cloud is the same. It's like this since his childhood. I remember when we were younger... He was 14, I was 12. We had arranged to meet ourselves in the main square, near the well. He had been waiting until I came, but he was despaired. It was normal since everyone there was making fun of him. Poor him... he was attempting to do everything to surpass himself."
"Then?"
"Then I turned up. A bit late but I turned up. He confided to me about his project: being an elite soldier in the ShinRa armed forces, like Sephiroth... It's at that time that he swore to come and help me every time I needed. In the beginning, I could hardly believe him, but when he came back, two years later, he kept his promise. He keeps it in a remarkable way, I really like him for this but I don't know how to say this to him."
"Two years later, that means when your village was burnt down?"
"Yes... indeed..."
Tifa sighed.
"Now we have nowhere to go but as long as Cloud is here I'll always feel happy. Of course there is Barrett, Cid and the others... I also thank them for what they did but Cloud..."
"I understand you, Tifa.", Rinoa said with a faraway look. "I understand... because Squall has promised me almost the same thing."
"Really?", Tifa asked.
"He did this because of a nightmare I had. I wanted to meet Squall but he was nowhere to be found. I've been around the entire world but in vain. I told him about this nightmare and this has astonished me, but he understood my state of mind. Even more, he promised me to wait for me here ... well, there... his former orphanage. There's a wonderful flower field there, the very place where he made his promise to me."
Rinoa was thinking again about the flower field and what Squall has told her.
"Wait there, you mean he's an orphan?", Tifa asked.
"He is, indeed... me too. He never knew about his parents, and my mother died when I was 5. All the other people are orphans who spent their childhood there. Besides we are near the peninsula where the orphanage is located."
"Coincidence, isn't it?"
"Yeah, you may say so!", Rinoa answered, laughing.
Tifa thought for a while and continued:
"Cloud and I have lost our families during the fire of Nibelheim, but most striking of all is when we came back, the village was as if nothing happened! Even its inhabitants seemed not to know about the catastrophe. The ShinRa... Sephiroth... it's all their fault!"
"That's why you have no more home now... I don't really have a home too... I don't want to return and live by my father's after all that happened since I met Squall, around fifteen days ago, but I'm not feeling easy in his academy, Balamb Garden... Maybe one day I'll get used to it. Maybe you two will also be able to find your promised land."
The words "Promised Land" echoed in Tifa's ears. She was there, dumbfounded, frozen. These two words were very familiar to her, or even too much familiar...
"Tifa? Have I said something stupid?", Rinoa asked, surprised.
"No, no, you've reminded me of somebody when you've said these words...", Tifa replied.
Author's note : Yeah, don't worry, we're got plenty left to see, but I got so much to do that my work advances very slowly.
Mega greetings go to:
Lady Aliena, The Umbra, Brenton Braswell from the Final Fantasy Forum, especially B. Braswell for his nice detailed rewiews.
Rosa Heartilly and Sadia Fiore from the CBB. How's it going down there for you fellow Booyakans?
Saian Girl, Race Ulfson, Valerian, Raven: enjoyed the interaction between the characters? Wow... I'd never thought you could appreciate that much. I know there are many crossovers made mostly to make fun of characters or bash them... since I don't master that kind of humor I wanted to make a serious crossover fic. I'm glad you enjoy it for this reason though, I'll try to keep it good till the end. Thanks again.
For now, have friendly feelings from
~~ Digintegrated Hunter Bill ~~