·º°º·.·º°º·Chapter 2·º°º·.·º°º·
Where in Hyne's name was he?
The bed beneath him was comfortable and soft. Last thing he remembered was a fight with Seifer. A strange sense of deja vu settling over him. But when he opened his eyes he wasn't greeted with the pea soup green walls of the Garden's infirmary. Instead everything around him was white.
White walls towering up to unimaginable heights. They were adorned with opaque white draperies cascading into ripples on the marble white floor. The bed he lay in was huge, and he was covered with a white blanket. The entire room was illuminated but there was not a light in sight. He wore a light white robe flowing easily over his chiseled chest.
His brown hair stuck out like a chocolate milk stain on a pair of white pants. He climbed out of the huge bed, bare feet meeting cold marble floor. He touched his side; he remembered blood flowing there. Now there was nothing, not even a scar.
"Hello?" Squall called out peering around the room. He heard a small squeak in the corner of the room by the looming white door. He moved across the marble floor and around the bed, to reveal a tiny green creature sitting there.
The winking red gem imbedded in its forehead. Green fur covered its lithe body. Tall bunny-like ears tilted slightly towards him.
"Carbuncle?" Squall whispered. The GF nodded slightly a sage like look in its eyes. Squall moved closer in awe of the small beast. He reached out with one shaky hand and touched the glistening red gem. It was warm and seemed to move under his fingers.
"Where the hell am I?" Squall wondered out loud snapping his hand back. The GF seemed to smile at him as it turned around pushing the door open with its front legs. Carbuncle glanced over his shoulder at Squall the GF's eyes beckoning him to follow.
Squall followed it into a long corridor, glancing behind him. To his amazement the door they had entered the corridor from had disappeared. The GF ran, reminding Squall of Rinoa's dog Angelo. Suddenly the corridor ended in two huge double doors. White with roses carved into the wood that seemed to grow and move. Squall looked at Carbuncle for a moment before pushing the amazingly light door open and striding into the room beyond.
The room was huge and dome shaped the walls made of vast white arches. The openings leading into white nothingness where clouds floated. The ground was swirling white marble a golden sunburst pattern located in the exact middle. Standing before three huge occupied white thrones, in the center of that sunburst in all her cerulescent radiance, was Shiva. And she was holding his Lionheart.
Ifrit occupied the first thrown his great black horns spiraling up towards the ceiling. Black hooves resting easily on the white floor. His red hands adorned with black talons curled around the arms of the throne.
Gilgamesh graced the second throne his one eye blinking out of the red robes surrounding him. The robes pooled to the ground like spilled blood.
In the last throne was Siren. Her wings folded around her face, eyes filled with crystalline tears. Her silver-green harp sat in her lap, silent.
"I couldn't let him go!" Shiva exclaimed just as the door closed behind him. The four GF's all turned to look at him in unison. Squall cleared his throat taking a step back towards the now non-existent doors.
"No, Squall. Stay" Siren called out to him her tinkling voice floating across the room. Squall hesitantly moved across the room to stand beside Shiva on the golden starburst pattern.
"Where am I?" Squall asked looking around at the four GF's.
"This place has no name. It is everything and nothing. The home of the Guardian Forces" Gilgamesh said looking down at him with his one eye. Squall shook his head slowly waiting for further explanation form the creatures he had been summoning for so long. Shiva looked at him her blue eyes resembling sheets of glassy ice.
"You died, Squall" Shiva said her voice as cold as her eyes. All the air seemed to rush from his lungs, and he wanted to collapse. He truly had died, but why had he ended up in this place.
"Shiva has brought you here to become one of us" Ifrit rumbled his voice coming from deep with in his chest. For some reason he sounded slightly angry with her.
"A guardian force?" Squall whispered in awe looking around at the four of them. All the power he had wielded had come from them. And now, he was to become one of them.
"You can refuse, if you wish" Siren said. Squall shook his head fiercely. He never wanted to stop helping the world. And the only way to continue doing that after his death was to become one of them.
"I will join you," he said reaching out and pulling his Lionheart from Shiva's hands.
"There is a test - " Siren said her wings unfurling from around her head.
"We must finish business first!" Gilgamesh exclaimed cutting off Siren.
"Business?" Squall questioned.
"Shiva broke the main rule of GF society by brining you here without consulting the council first" Ifrit said his voice still carrying that angry rumble.
"I told you. I couldn't let him be gone from us forever. It all happened too quick" she said her voice filled with ice.
"There were ways you could have saved him without giving him the breath of life" Siren said.
"Answer honestly, why did you really do it?" Gilgamesh asked. The three of the scrutinized Shiva waiting for her answer. She hesitated the air growing colder around her.
"I did it, because I love him" Shiva said at last.
A/N: Still racing to meet the deadline, wish me luck darlings. I think the contest was suposed tp be more humorus, Sorry I'm just not funny.. I hope thats ok.