Dark Horizon
Griever
Chapter 1: The Mission
Disclaimer: We only wish we could own even a taste of Final Fantasy 8, if we did wouldn't be writing fanfics on it. Squaresoft's the one who's got it.
Dollet, District 5
The room had one occupant, a redhead in a blue suit sitting down in a chair next to a coffee table, his hand holding a cup. Other then that, the room was completely empty, no sort of decoration, ornament or any form of uniqueness. The only thing that stood out was the door on the wall. And that door opened to reveal a man in a black trench coat, wearing sunglasses and black gloves. The only visible feature on him was brown hair and two scars, a cross on his cheek and one across his nose between his eyes.
"Are you the client?" asked the scarred man in a low voice.
"Yes", replied the figure who was seated, "My name is Jacob Str—"
"Doesn't matter", interrupted the scarred man, "What is the job?"
Jacob narrowed his green eyes and smiled. "As professional as they say eh? Good, we wanted the best mercenary for this job and apparently Lionheart, you are the best."
No comment followed the compliment but the scarred man was annoyed. He did not come to chat. "What is the job?" he asked again.
Jacob was still smiling when he replied, "Your target is Dave Brown, the Galbadian Head of Peace and Preservation. He will be giving an open auditorium speech on pacifism and weapon disarmament in the southern district of Deling City. You are to eliminate him in some sort of Estharian guise."
"How much are you offering?"
"The payment will be 10 billion gil, five when you arrive in Deling City and five after you complete the mission."
"Where do I collect?"
Jacob pulled out an envelope from his suit coat and held it out. Before he knew it, the man known as Lionheart had taken the envelope and was back in his position. Jacob hadn't even seen the action and was still holding out his hand when he realized and swiftly pulled it back. The redhead took a sip of his drink and eyed his
visitor as he read the contents of the envelope. The mercenary resealed the envelope and looked at Jacob. "Mission accepted."
Jacob's eyes sparkled for a second as he said, "Good, we're hopi—"
He then stopped talking when he realized the door was ajar and the man had already left. "Bloody hell, how the fuck does he move that fast?" Standing up, Jacob finished his drink and crushed the cup, dropping it onto the table. He straightened his suit and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Ten minutes later, the room exploded along with the small house it was attached to. Jacob was five blocks away and holding a pay phone as he watched the explosion.
Turning back to the phone, Jacob dialed a number and said, "This is Strife. Lionheart has accepted, am reporting back to headquarters in three hours."
Jacob hung up and walked away.
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Deling City, Southern District: Deling Theatre
5 Days after the Meeting
"We must convince every world government including Esthar and ourselves to undergo total disarmament! The world has been in a constant state of war for as long as we can remember. With this new generation and the end of the fear of Sorceresses, let us change this history! To do this we must stop fighting, come to an understanding and achieve total and complete disarmament. We must achieve total pacifism!" Dave Brown's speech was rewarded with applause from the audience. Dave's hopes had become those of many among the world and his ideals have gotten much attention.
However, too much attention was never good and the Galbadian government was worried about their cabinet member and had to hire professionals to protect their head of peace and preservation. At the moment, the best known protectors to be hired legally were the mercenary group called SeeD, and two of its best members were here.
The first was Irvine Kinneas, a Rank 29 SeeD who was a crack shot and could easily shoot any assassin that tried to attack Dave Brown. Irvine was seated in the second to last row, looking around for any suspicious looking characters. Seeing no one and looking at his watch, Irvine observed that it had been 15 minutes and he should contact his partner. Leaning forward, Kinneas spoke into the transmitter pinned to the flap of his brown trench coat and said, "Irvine here. Nothing to report. Everything seems clear."
Irvine's partner was seated in the second row, the team leader and a Rank A SeeD. Though his face was unfamiliar due to extensive makeup and contacts, Seifer Almasy still held a cocky nature that anyone who knew him could use to easily identify the former Galbadian general. During missions however, Seifer was completely serious and focused, not wanting to make the same mistakes that he made 5 years ago when he was the misguided little boy who thought himself a knight. Ever since he was given a second chance, Seifer had risen to the top in SeeD and earned the title that only Squall Leonhart had ever achieved, commander.
The message from his partner was heard within his earpiece and Seifer accepted it by replying in the transmitter on his own white trench coat. "Acknowledged Kinneas, I don't see anything suspicious here either. Report back in 15 minutes."
"Yes sir."
Seifer continued to listen to Dave talk about total pacifism and how it would benefit everyone. He himself wasn't sure if he agreed with it or not. 'Pacifism, no more fighting, its impossible isn't it? Not everyone will be willing to stop fighting. It's in human nature to fight. If total pacifism did happen though, what would I--'
Seifer's train of thought was interrupted when his eyes saw a flicker of movement on the upper levels of the theatre that were dark in the night sky. Looking up, the figure moved out of his line of sight. Talking into his transmitter, Seifer said, "Suspicious character sighted Kinneas, look up on the upper floors."
The SeeD sat straighter and prepared to do his job.
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"Suspicious character sighted Kinneas, look up on the upper floors."
Irvine quickly snapped to attention when he heard this and looked around near the upper seats. Taking his Exeter out from his coat pocket, Irvine made sure no one saw and quickly slid on a cylinder that made his shotgun shot more accurate. He didn't want any unnecessary deaths if he needed to fire and making the blast radius smaller would be a good idea. Taking another look, Irvine's precise sniper eye searched for any movement and found one. A figure was quickly running through the upper seats and running to the back area, right on top of where Irvine was seated.
Irvine hastily talked into his transmitter and said, "We gotta suspect, team leader. He's wearing an Esthar soldier's uniform and running towards my way. Look to upper floor C."
After saying this, Irvine jumped up out of his seat and jumped into the row of steps leading to the stage. The crowd gasped when they saw him pull out his shotgun.
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Seifer reacted instantly to Irvine's message and thanks to his junctions, his speed was much faster then usual. The Rank A SeeD had the best reaction time in all of Garden and knew that if he went into combat with the perp, Seifer would be the victor. Leaping out of his seat similar to the way Irvine did, Seifer landed neatly onto the stage in front of Dave. His orders were to let Irvine handle any situation so he could watch the Head of Peace and Preservation.
'How ironic', Seifer thought as he pulled out his gunblade, 'People who use weapons professionally like us protecting a guy who wants to get rid of all weapons and promote total pacifism.'
"What's going on?" shouted Dave.
Frowning, Seifer turned to him and said, "We've been hired by the Galbadian government to protect you in case any problems occur. A problem has just occurred."
"No, stop. Put your weapons down!"
'Idiot', thought Seifer. "I have my orders, now get down."
Seifer cast a silence on Dave and pushed him down behind him and watched as Irvine confronted the perp. He could see the gunman was shooting at some figure on the top seats but was amazed at the fact that Irvine missed all of his shots. Kinneas was the best and fastest shooter in Garden and was a crack shot, the perp should've been hit once by now. Looking up, Seifer could barely trace the speed in which the figure was moving. He was a second late in noticing the figure had jumped down from the rafters and had landed on Irvine.
'Looks like I'm gonna be up soon.' Seifer held his gunblade with both hands and prepared to face the target In case Irvine failed in subduing him.
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The Lionheart did not like the uniform. It was an Estharian Soldier uniform, elite rank, and it also limited his gunblade arm. It did however cover his face with a mask and that he did like. From the top floors, the mercenary looked down at the audience and his target. He did not have to worry about security as he had killed every guard that was stationed. All he had to worry about now was what was in front of him. Casting a scan spell, the Lionheart identified the man on stage as Dave Brown. Getting ready, Lionheart also scanned every member of the audience to check to see if he would have any opposition. He was slightly surprised to find that two SeeDs sitting in the crowd, Seifer Almasy and Irvine Kinneas. 'Hmm, they won't be a problem. But I should take care of them first before going for the target. They provide too many negative variables.
'Leonhart, let me speak you damned mortal! I may be stuck inside of you but I will NOT be ignored! RELEASE ME LEONHART!'
Lionheart winced as the voice echoed through his head. He didn't expect Bahamut's next tantrum to be this soon. Taking a case from the holster where a gun should be on the uniform, the mercenary took out a small bottle filled with pills. Opening the bottle, he pulled out two and swallowed them. Putting the bottle back in the case, he holstered it.
'DAMN YOU. RELEASE ME. LET ME LOOSE! DO NOT IGN--''
The voice faded from his head as Lionheart thought, 'If I could get your damned voice out of my head Bahamut, I would, but I'm the one in control of this body, not you.'
The mercenary brought his gunblade up, and deciding to take out the SeeD's first, made a motion that caught the eye of Seifer. 'Good. Preparing to execute mission.'
Running down the floor of seats he was on, the Lionheart quickly brought his gunblade up. He saw Kinneas jump out of his seat and watched as bullets flew towards him.
To any normal man, the bullets would have been an instantaneous death if he saw it. 'Unfortunately', Lionheart thought, 'I'm not ordinary.' The experiments had increased his reaction speed to 1/4th of a second. He could dodge a bullet at point blank range if he wanted to. And as he waited for the bullets to get to him, Lionheart picked up his gunblade in a defensive position. He then swiped it a few times and deflected every bullet that was meant for him. After 10 bullets, he thought, 'Enough play.'
Lionheart sheathed his gunblade, quickly jumped off the balcony and landed perfectly on Irvine. The gunman was shocked and fell backwards as the masked Estharian soldier accurately punched his nose, breaking it. Irvine yelped in pain but by then, two more punches had been delivered, one to his solar plexus and another to his stomach. The pain knocked out the SeeD. Tossing away the limp body, the attacker watched the audience scream and rushing to run out of the theatre. Looking up, Lionheart saw Seifer waiting for him, the Hyperion drawn, with Dave Brown behind him. The mercenary drew his own gunblade, a rare one made off metals not usually forged anymore.
'I haven't had a gunblade duel in months.'
Getting up, Lionheart ran to attack.
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Watching the man run up to attack, Seifer was shocked to see that he had run across the row of stairs and onto the stage already. He quickly brought up his gunblade to parry a swipe but was caught of guard when the Estharian soldier landed another strike which pierced his left shoulder. Seifer winced in pain and jumped back, delivering a Firaga towards the Estharian. The spell didn't even go half the distance when it was somehow nullified.
"The hell!?" shouted Seifer. His opponent then ran up and swiped through Seifer's legs. The SeeD jumped and countered with a downwards swipe which was blocked.
'Gotta catch him off guard', Seifer thought, 'This guy's an expert gunblade and his reaction time's better then mine but it seems like he's dueling the old fashioned way. I have to do something he won't expect.'
After countering a few more strikes, Seifer rammed into his opponent but had the breath knocked out of him. It felt like he had just run into a wall of steel. Looking up, Seifer did the only thing he thought he could do at the moment and pulled of the goggles that came standard with an Estharian soldier uniform and was surprised even more when he saw not one, but two eye colors staring back at him, one red and one grey.
"Hmph, I'm done playing around." said his opponent.
Seifer's eyes went wide as he thought, 'This guy's only playing around??' Seifer moved back and delivered one more strike but this time, it was caught by his opponent's hand. Seifer nearly jumped in surprise as he saw that the blade was actually being held by the Estharian soldier's fingers. Trying to pull it back, Seifer found that he couldn't and shouted, "Holy shit!" when he saw the part that the soldier was holding break under the pressure of the man's fingers. Pulling back his now-defective gunblade, Seifer didn't even see the punch to his chest. He was then picked up by one hand and thrown thirty feet away by his unknown opponent.
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The mercenary picked Seifer up with one hand and flung him in a random direction. Turning his eyes to the whimpering man Squall looked down at him with his eyes out in the open without the protection of his goggles. Sheathing his gunblade, Lionheart picked up Dave with one hand by his neck and noticed the silence spell on him.
'At least he's not screaming.'
Flicking his wrist, the mercenary effectively twisted Brown's neck, instantly killing him. Tossing the corpse into the air, the mercenary shot his hand up and casted a Fire spell, burning the body in an instant.
"Mission complete."
Author's Note(s)
Ashura: Well, long time no see. Sorry for not writing those past months but I read and reread the old version of this story and I gotta tell ya, there were sooo many mistakes it was incredible. But now, me and Janus here are gonna make this story the way it was supposed to be made. Enjoy J
Janus: Keep in mind Ashura is the one writing up the chapters...I am the one giving him ideas and revising/proof-reading for him.