Chapter Twenty-One
Raine breathed slowly as she faced her father, Gunblade in hand.
"Here we go…"
"Doomtrain!" Zell called. Balls of green fire swirled up around him as he started to cast the summon spell.
"Silence!" Celes snapped. Zell staggered, cut off mid-cast. Quistis lashed up with her whip towards I.J., who jumped back.
"Cerberus!" Squall said, summoning the three-headed Guardian Force.
"No G.F.s!" Raine hissed. Tapping into her sorceress powers, she cast a spell preventing Squall and the others from summoning their Guardian Forces. "Magic and physical skills only!" She lunged towards Squall, who blocked her first strike.
"Squall!" Quistis whirled around. Before she could aim her whip at Raine, something wrapped around her wrist and gave it a powerful yank.
"Uhuh. You're mine!" Celes said. Meanwhile, I.J. had quite efficiently shut down both Selphie and Irvine, and was now dealing with Zell.
"Sorry Mom, sorry Dad." He whispered under his breath. "But if you knew…I'm sure you'd understand."
"Stand still!" Quistis snapped. Celes danced around, skillfully evading her soon-to-be mentor's lashes, and returning blows with equal strength.
Squall, in the meantime, was dealing with a problem of his. While fighting, he and Raine had ended up on a walkway outside of the castle. But that wasn't the problem he faced right now. No matter what move or blow he threw at Raine, she was able to anticipate and block them all.
"This girl knows all my moves! But how?" Jumping back, he surveyed the girl.
"Can't call G.F.s…she did something to block that. Magic's no good, she just jumps out of the way. Where's her weakness?"
"He's good. I'm lucky I paid close attention when he taught me to use this, or else I'd been French toast by now!" Raine thought. "In fact, the only thing that's saving my skin is that I know his moves!" Hissing, she jumped back as Squall swiped at her.
"Who are you?!" The older teen demanded, advancing forward. The two Gunblades met, sparks flashing, Raine straining to block Lion Heart from breaking through her defenses.
"I wish I could tell you…but I can't! Just believe me when I say that I'm not your enemy!" She said.
"Are you with that sorceress?" Squall snarled. Raine shook her head vigorously.
"No, I'm not!" Raine cried. Squall's eyes narrowed into blue slits.
"I don't believe you!" With a sudden burst of energy, Squall slashed viciously at Raine's defenses, knocking the Revolver out of her hands and sending the younger girl backwards.
"Uhhh!" Raine landed sideways, her Gunblade clattering to the ground several feet away. "Ow!" Feeling a presence over her, she looked up to see Squall above her, Gunblade held high.
"Whoa!" She rolled to the side and jumped up just as Lion Heart's tip dug into the ground where she had been. "Boy…he's playing for keeps!" Two steps and Revolver was back in her hands. "I'm gonna have to turn it up another notch if I want to survive!" Sheathing her Gunblade, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A red-gold light surrounded her as she triggered her Limit Break.
"Angel Wing!"
Celes's head snapped up as she heard Raine's cry.
"Ohoh."
"What is it?" I.J. asked.
"Raine. She just activated her Angel Wing Limit break!"
"Well, what do you suggest? We got our hands full here!" I.J. snapped, firing off two shots at Selphie, who had recovered, along with Irvine. Celes bit her lip, and then her eyes widened as an idea hit her.
"C'mon! I got an idea!"
"What?"
Squall watched with a mixture of fascination and shock as Raine summoned her Limit Break.
"Did she just say Angel Wing? Accckkkk!" He threw up a hand to shield his eyes as light flashed.
Raine slowly bent down from the waist as light surrounded her, hiding the girl from view. Her jacket disappeared as wings suddenly appeared on her shoulders, folding around her body. As the light faded, Raine straightened, the wings going back and extending to their full length. Then they vanished from sight, leaving a scattering of white feathers behind.
"Oh my God…that's almost like Rinoa's own!" Squall thought. "She's a sorceress!" But before anything could happen, a sudden explosion had him whirling around.
"Ooohhh…" Celes moaned. "That is defiantly gonna bruise in the morning!" She thought. Beside her, I.J. lifted up his head.
"Celes…what did your parents, MY parents, Raine's parents, Sabin's parents AND Aunt Quistis say about using your Nova Blue Magic attack?"
"Don't use it until I get control over it?" Celes answered. I.J. groaned. The force of the non-elemental explosion had thrown them onto the end of the walkway where Squall and Raine were facing off.
"At least we got outside." This remark elicited another groan from I.J.
Raine groaned inwardly.
"Oh man…right now she used that Nova Blue Magic attack!" She thought. Her eyes tracked back to Squall just in time to see him lunge at her. "Protect!" Squall hissed in frustration as his Gunblade came up against a wall. Jumping back, he threw a Blizzaga spell at Raine, who quickly cast a Reflect spell to counter it. Behind him, Celes and I.J. nervously grouped together as Zell, Quistis, Selphie, and Irvine advanced on them.
"Raine? No offence, but I think we need to make like bananas and split!" Celes thought. "If we keep this up, either one of us or one of them is going to get seriously hurt!"
"I know that, but I don't know if my father's out of the danger zone yet!" Raine thought back.
"Judgment call, girlfriend. If you ask me, I say there's a 50/50 chance we just saved your dad, or we just delayed whatever is going to happen." Sabin thought. Raine bit her lips at that.
"Sabin's right…judgment call…" Half a minute passed by before Raine mad her decision.
"God…let this be the right choice…Guys! We're heading for Trabia Garden, so hang on!" She raised her right hand in the air and brought it down hard. A flash of light engulfed the area, and when it cleared, Raine, Celes, and I.J. were gone.
"Squall! You okay?" Irvine called. Squall blinked, trying to get rid of the dots dancing before his eyes.
"Yeah."
"That was the same group we saw at Balamb Garden!" Zell said. "It's got to be a sorceress trick!"
"I don't think so…" Selphie said slowly. Zell shot her a look.
"Why not?"
"Cuz…it's hard for me to explain, but I'll try…Did you notice that the girl with the whip and the boy with the shotgun…"
"Had Quistis' and Irvine's moves." Squall finished. He looked at them. "The girl I fought…she had my exact same Gunblade technique. Only I know those moves." Quistis gasped.
"But the sorceress…she doesn't know us that well to…"
"Create monsters or doppelgangers that can mimic us. Rinoa said that there were ways of creating a identical copy of a person…but she didn't know them, because it dealt in the darker parts of her magic, and that was something she didn't do." Squall replied.
"I just had a thought. Those kids…is it just me, or didn't they look like how ours would be if we had children?" Zell said. This earned him stares from both Squall and Quistis.
"I noticed the similarities between Squall and the person he was fighting, but all that the girl I was battling with had was my technique with the whip!" Quistis said.
"I meant for Squall and the guy we were fighting." A shrill scream had them all whipping around.
"That was Selphie!" Quistis cried. The trio ran back inside the castle.
Irvine had his arms wrapped around the shuddering girl as Squall and the others ran up to them.
"The room…the one we were gonna go in before we got attacked…" He said, jerking his head towards the door. Squall, Quistis, and Zell immediately headed through the door.
"Oh my…" Quistis said.
"My God…" The room was a wreck. What little furniture had been in there was completely shredded. There were huge holes in the walls, as if someone had slammed a fist into them repeatedly. The rugs were in a mess, as something dark was splattered in smears all over them. Zell bent down and touched one.
"I'm praying that I'm wrong…but I think this might be blood!"
"Squall…" Quistis said.
"I know." Squall replied, his eyes hooded. "If we hadn't run into those three…"
"Then…if they're not some trick from the sorceress…" Zell said, his voice trailing off. His eyes met Squall's own. Before the brunette could say anything, Quistis let loose a high-pitched scream.
"AAAIIIIEEEEEE!!!!" The two friends whirled around. Quistis tore over to Squall, burying her face in his chest, crying.
"What the…" Zell walked over to where Quistis had been standing. Then he jumped back.
"WHOA! WHAT THE…"
"What is it?" Squall asked.
"Oh God…" Prying himself away from Quistis, Squall strode over to where Zell was. Then he gasped.
"What the…" More dark streaks met his eyes, not only on the rug, but also all over the wall. The wall itself had a large, gaping hole, as if someone had dug their hands into it and tore out the blocks. Scratches lined the woodwork alongside the window, which was shattered. But the major eye-catcher was the large steel bar embedded into the floor. The upper part was barely hanging on to the lower end, dangling only by a thin strand of metal. But it was hard to miss what the bar had impaled first.
"Jesus!" Squall said, crossing himself involuntary.
"Uh huh." Zell said, swallowing. "It's a really good thing we didn't go in here." Squall blinked as a thought hit him.
"That girl…did she know about this? Is that the reason why she and her friends fought us?"
"Squall?" Zell asked. Squall shook his head.
"Come on. Let's get out of here."
After making sure that Selphie and Quistis were okay, the group headed deeper into the castle. To their surprise, they met with little resistance as they got closer and closer to Julia.
"This is too easy…" Irvine muttered.
"How many ways can you say trap?" Zell grumbled.
"Despite that, we still have to continue." Squall said. All too soon, they were standing in front of a set of double doors.
"This has to be it." Quistis said. Squall turned and faced them.
"Alright. We need to get her down to the first floor."
"How are we going to do that?" Selphie asked. Squall turned to Irvine.
"I know you don't have the gun for this, but can you find a place where she can't spot you and shoot from there?"
"Yeah…but why do you want me to do that?"
"Rinoa says the best place to disable a sorceress temporarily is by attacking her wings once she has them out. Following that…"
"Shoot her in the wings, and she won't be able to fly." Irvine said, understanding. Squall nodded.
"It'll also give the ones who are fighting a chance to run."
"Wait. You want her to chase us?" Zell asked.
"I noticed when we were coming through here that there's some sort of rain gutter leading from where we are now down to the first floor. If we get on it…" Squall replied.
"We can get down to the first floor a lot faster!" Quistis finished. Squall nodded.
"Right. Once we're down there, the two people who aren't fighting have got to get out of here and head back for the Ragarnok. The rescue party should be either there, or heading here. Bring them back as fast as you can."
"What about the people who are fighting?" Selphie asked.
"…They're going to have to disable the sorceress as quickly as possible." Squall said. "If all goes well, we'll be able to get to Esthar and the Sorceress Memorial."
"And to Rinoa." He thought, but didn't say that aloud.
Selene watched as Squall and the others made their plans.
"God…they've got all the cards stacked against them…even if the rescue party does get there in time, will they make it to Esthar? They're in a no-win situation…and Julia's original powers are returning to her fast! They can't possibly get out of this alive…"
Squall strode up to the doors. Looking behind him, he saw his friends ready themselves, weapons out and looks of determination on their faces.
"Here goes nothing… The doors opened, and Squall and the others went in…
Lady t: WAIIII! IT IS UP!
Valefor: Hey! I thought you said this would be the second to last chapter!
Lady t: Well…it was supposed to be. But I couldn't slam all that action into it! That would wreck it!
Bahamut: That makes sense, Mistress.
Valefor: What? You two know something I don't?
Lady t: Oh man…should have left her in West Palm…anyway, God bless and R&R!
Lady t: Oh, almost forgot…prepare yourselves for chapter 22. The mother of all my surprises in this fic will be dropped! It will be memorable, I promise you! Muhahahahahaha!!!!!!
Valefor, Shiva, and Bahamut: o.o;