Chapter 4 – New Found Hope

"DIRECT HIT!"

A smile came across Raven's face. "That was almost too simple." he said as he left for Dragoon's chambers.

The henchmen went wild. "That's all the Earth has to offer? A couple of pathetic teenagers who did jack shit? Damn, I'm surprised they were able to beat Ultimecia. Then again, if it wasn't for us, Ultimecia would still be terrorizing their world." Booze and food was followed.

"Give me your report Raven!" Dragoon commanded.

"My Lordship, our attempt to completely destroy the SeeD was a success. The beam was a direct hit. Our spies have found no trace of the airship, leaving us to believe our predictions. The beam collided with the airship and burned it to ashes. All we were able to find was a few measly tools the Earthlings use to fix things." A smile came across Raven's face, 'Maybe he'll finally see me as what I am, the best of the best.'

Dragoon studied Raven's facial expression during the whole report. It took ten minutes, but Dragoon finally let out a huge laugh, followed by laughing throughout the whole base. "Good work! You truly are the best Raven. At this time, I have no choice but to promote you to head of the army, after me. You are dismissed." Raven smiled devilishly as he left for his own quarters.

He slowly walked into Sapphire's chambers, who was sleeping at the time. Right when Dragoon leaned down for a kiss, Sapphire woke up, "NNNOOOOOO!" Dragoon flinched back for the moment, and curiously wondered what she was dreaming. After Sapphire regained complete consciousness, she then noticed Dragoon and flushed deep red. "I'm sorry, my lord. I was having a dream that you were being beaten up by the SeeDs" she lied quickly.

Studying her for awhile, he finally accepted the lie, "There is no need to worry my love. We just burned those SeeDs to crisp." Dragoon leaned down to try another kiss, but Sapphire turned her face quickly, giving the excuse that she was in a mess, and needed to get cleaned up before she could fully enjoy what Dragoon had to offer. With a smile, Dragoon left.

Sapphire looked out through her window. The dream she just had was not of Dragoon, but of the blond haired figure that have been haunting her dreams, if you could say that. The fields of endless flowers had once again shown up, and she was running towards him. It seemed like an endless amount of miles she had to go, but when she finally reached him, he had disappeared, only to say, "I'm sorry Rinoa, I guess I couldn't keep my promise after all." 'Who is Rinoa?' Sapphire quietly thought to herself. "Is that……...me?" Just then, the tiara on her head once again began to glow a ruby red and in a few moments, she lost all memory of the dream. She slowly got up and went into her bathroom to refresh herself up.

-----*****------

"It's been four weeks, Elly………" Laguna began to say sadly, "………and still no sign. There's gotta be something we could do. I know it doesn't seem possible, but I just know Squall's alive. Dr. Odine could not have searched everywhere………he just couldn't…..." He was cut off.

"I know they are alive. Squall, Zell, all of them, I just know it!!! I just don't know why my powers aren't working!! Then I could know what actually happened." Ellone shouted, all the while tears flowed down her cheeks, soaking her dress that she had on.

Laguna believed in her – he had to be alive, Squall was his son after all, but sadly enough, his conscious just kept telling him that the evidence pointed the other way.

Kiros then walked in. "I know that this may not be the time for it but, Dr. Odine said we have less than a month to do something about Dragoon. We are planning to send up all the Ragnaroks we have available, loaded with bombs, and hopefully we can blow up the place. However, if we connect, we will blow up the entire moon, and we still don't know what type of effects it may have on Earth, but Dr. Odine claimed he has already prepared for that, or so he says." Kiros looked upon Laguna and Ellone as he finished his report. He left the room, leaving the two alone in their sadness.

-----*****-----

He slowly trudged alone, leaving his footsteps in the dirt behind him. His eyes were completely lost, which gazed into the horizon, hoping for some kind of sign. Food and water were a scarcity, which he had been living off and surprisingly, still alive. He guessed it had been close to over a month since then, and still, everything that happened that moment was a blur…no matter how many times he rethought it, it still never seemed to make any sense…

'The beam was heading right toward us…' he said in his mind. 'Then suddenly it had disappeared, or as we soon had figured, we had disappeared from that location. We found out that the Ragnarok had indeed, somehow teleported from the predicament to another point in space. No one believed what had happened, however, everyone was still there. Zell, Quistis, and even Irvine and Selphie were alive. I was glad. But that relief didn't last long. The Ragnarok was falling fast to the moon, and as Zell soon saw, we were out of gas. My only guess was that the teleport ability must have used up all of the Ragnarok's fuel. As I turned toward Quistis, she had this weird look on her face, then what she did next is still a complete mystery to me. And then next thing I knew, I was laying on the surface of the moon, with a month's worth of food and water next to me. My only guess was that she must have casted me with a sleep spell before she tossed me over, otherwise, I would have resisted.'

He just couldn't walk much longer. The last of the food and water were gone from his last meal. There appeared to be no sign of the Ragnarok anywhere on the moon, or from where he had traveled. The area seemed like a never-ending cold desert. He took a looked towards his hand. If Dr. Odine hadn't given him this Lunar Ring, he would have been a goner for sure.

"Rinoa………please give me strength……just a little……more……and I promise……I'll come for you……" He then collapsed to the ground.

-----*****-----

The fields of flowers once again invaded her mind. Sapphire looked around, only to see the beautiful colors of the rainbow spread out on the ground. However, she was looking for something…or someone. She kept on running till she stopped. The blond haired boy was on the ground. She smiled, and walked up to him. He was lying on the ground, his face turned the other way so she couldn't see. She bent down and nudged him, but the figure did not move. She nudged him again, and still received the same result. She couldn't take it anymore, and a tear fell from her lovely face and landed onto the figure on the ground…

Sapphire woke up, sweating. The tiara on her forehead began to glow once again. After that minute, she then fell back to sleep.

-----*****-----


Squall woke up with a sudden jolt. It took him awhile to realize what just happened. He smiled and got up. He had a promise to keep, and he was not about to break it.

Squall took a look at the Earth. It was still there. His guess was that he still had some time left before Dragoon was going to make his move. He estimated about less than two weeks or so. But that was the last thing on his mind. He slowly walked…and just kept on walking. He looked ahead of him. He felt as if he couldn't walk any further, but there seemed to be a hill ahead of him. Slowly, he tramped up the steep hill, which felt like scaling a mountain to him, but finally reached the top. Actually he was right, it was the top of a mountain. He looked around, as far as his eyes would let him. To no surprise, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. "DAMN!" he screamed at the top of his lungs as he slumped to the ground and remained sitting there for some time. Looking around, he grabbed a rock. After staring at it for some time, Squall just threw it as far as he could.


What happened next was totally the last thing Squall would have ever expected to happen. As if it hit a wall, the rock bounced back and flew over Squall's head. He instantly got up. He went to the edge of the cliff and put his hand forward. But it stopped, resting on some kind of invisible wall. He moved his hands to the side and kept on going, till he felt an oddly soft portion of the wall. Slowly pushing it, the wall started to change form. The area in front of him slowly changed into a small cave. Knowing that he had no other option, Squall carefully ventured into it, having his gunblade in his hand. The cave didn't last very long, and just as soon as he had entered the cave, he sighted an exit. He walked up to it. What was in front of him was surely amazing. A huge technological city right in the middle of the moon. "No wonder no one has ever seen it before, Ellone was right. An invisible blanket covered it." Squall looked around. He noticed he was definitely at a high place of the city, knowing that he could see much of it. Carefully scanning the area with his binoculars, Squall spotted the Ragnarok at the far end of the city, which also housed a huge castle – Dragoon's castle. "Phase one completed." Squall quietly said. "If the Ragnarok is there, then most likely the others are too, including Rinoa."