Chapter 9 – Three Hours
"Damn, I can't see a freakin' thing in this darkness." Zell's voice breathed out as he bumped into something in front of him. "Hey, I think I ran into a monster!" he added quickly as he was ready to punch the beast.
"Heeeeey!" Selphie squeaked out. "Watch where you're going Zell! That hurt." She began to rub the back of her head.
"Ohh, sorry Selph. I thought you were a monster."
"WHAT! Now you're in for in mister!" the energetic girl yelled as she lunged for whom she thought was Zell.
"Owww. Selphie, watch who you're hitting!" Irvine squeaked out, rubbing his cheek.
"Oopps, sorry Irvy!" she chuckled.
Quistis frowned despite the fact that no one could see her face. "Everyone, hold on." The Instructor then slowly reached for her pocket and pulled out a small flare. She lighted it up, which almost illuminated the whole room.
"Hey! Good idea." Zell replied as he pulled out one of his own.
Irvine looked around. They had not gone too deep into this hallway when the lights suddenly stopped shining. As he looked up ahead, there was a fork in the road, splitting the once single hall into two more passages. "Now what shall we do? I don't think it's a good idea to split up, since the monsters so far are like, super powerful. Any bright ideas?"
"Uh………well I was going to suggest we split up, but you do have a point there, Irvine." Zell commented.
"Hush!" Quistis fiercely whispered. "I think I hear someone coming from behind us. Quick, turn of your flares!"
Zell instantly turned his bright flame off and Quistis did the same. The two of them back up against the wall and squatted down to their knees, hoping to avoid any contact with the incoming voices. "Listen to them carefully, they might say something important." Quistis murmured.
"Damn, these stupid lights go out all the time. I wonder why someone doesn't replace them." the first voice said. "Can you see where you're going?"
"Yea, yea, just hold on to me. I memorized these passages by heart. I think that the power core might be running low on energy. We better charge it up before we lose too much power, and those lousy kids take advantage." the second voice replied.
The first voice stayed quiet for a minute. "Ok, fine. Hey, aren't there two passages to take here. I never knew which one leads to the power core. You?"
"Damnit! I think that piece of brick falling on your head did something to your pathetic brain, knucklehead! We take the left passage! And don't forget it! And if you do happen to forget, you'll die, because if you take the right passage, it'll lead to Weapon Y, remember?"
"Ohhh yeaa……… Ok, lets go." the first voice responded, as they took a left turn.
The four SeeDs waited till they knew for sure that the two monsters weren't coming back. What seemed like forever to Zell, felt like two seconds for Quistis, so they waited for five minutes. "Ok, you heard the guys. We take right!" Quistis commanded.
"Weren't you listening! That's where Weapon Y is. We go left!" Selphie shouted in a whisper to her.
Quistis grinned. "Good, I see you have been improving on your listening skills Selphie. Ok, be prepared for anything." she directed to everyone. "Everybody junctioned properly?"
"Yes." the other three answered in unison.
With weapons in hand, the four of them walked slowly into the left passage, not sure of what to expect. Zell took the lead, punching the air in front of him constantly, not taking any chances. If there were any monsters in front of him, it would be knocked down. Quistis followed with Selphie behind her and Irvine taking the last position, constantly firing Silent Ammo behind him, just to make sure.
"Damn, this passageway is long." Selphie grunted out. "Hopefully we didn't miss any other passage along the way, or else everything is lost."
"We haven't. I've been checking the walls with my hands." Irvine said reassuringly. "If there's another passage, trust me, we'll know about it." he added as he grabbed Selphie's hand. To his surprise, she accepted the grip and held his hand tight too. 'Score!' Irvine smiled into the darkness.
"Hey, I see light." Zell mumbled out quietly, after ten minutes of walking.
"Ok, everybody ready?" Quistis asked again to make sure.
"Yes." both Irvine and Selphie replied.
"Let's go kick some ass!" Zell added as he cracked his knuckles again. "By the way, what's the plan?"
Irvine and Selphie also nodded, wanting to know how they would attack. Quistis never really thought about it. She always hoped an opportunity would present itself and they would take advantage of it. But then again, the power core was already low on energy. This was their opportunity. "We're busting in!" she answered as she cracked out her whip.
"Finally, some action." Zell and Selphie hooted out in excitement.
The four of them ran the rest of the way, ready to take out anything that stood against them. And if worst came to worst, they knew they had some very powerful GF's to back them up. When they finally reached the lighted room, they were expecting to see hordes of monsters working on recharging the power core. Instead, they only found a huge blue crystal right in the middle of the room, with wires attaching to the base of it, with a strange white fluid flowing into the crystal.
"What the hell? This is just too easy." Zell remarked as he stared into the shining blue crystal in front of him.
"I agree." Irvine and Selphie added.
Quistis also nodded her head. 'Zell's right. This is just too easy. Something must be up. Where did those two monsters go that were in the passageway earlier?'
Just then, two huge arms came and hit both Selphie and Quistis into the far wall, leaving them unconscious, and totally oblivious to what just happened.
"Selphie………!" Irvine began as he ran after her, only to be stopped short by a huge arm. "What the………"
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" a voice called out, as if from every direction.
"Show yourself you fuckin' coward!" Zell yelled, still staring at the huge machine type creature that was blocking them from the crystal.
"Hey, c'mon now chicken-wuss! Is that a way to greet an old friend?" the voice boomed out.
Zell's face turned upside-down as shock ran all over his face. "You've got to be kidding me! I thought I took you out."
The room instantly lit up with a sudden bright flash of light, as it blinded the two remaining SeeD's momentarily. As they slowly regained their focus, they looked up, only to be greeted by Raven. Irvine immediately blasted out three AP bullets straight at Raven, but with a wave of his hand, they stopped in mid-air and dropped hazily down to the ground. "C'mon guys. I thought we were all tight!" he boasted out in laughter. Almost instantly, he regained his composure. "Anyway, I've been given strict orders to take you guys out, and until I do, don't think I'll rest – I suggest you remember that!" He once again took a look at them for awhile and started to laugh. "Man, you guys are SO gullible. To think, the top-ranked SeeDs of the pitiful planet Earth, fooled by two worthless monster decoys. How sad.………"
Zell and Irvine rolled their eyes and quickly took a glance at their fallen comrades behind the huge machine monster. 'They seem ok from the outside, just unconscious.' Zell slowly stated in his mind, reassuring himself they were still alive.
Irvine on the other hand, rushed for Selphie on more time, but was again, blocked by the huge arm from the unknown creature in front of them. 'Hang of Sefie, I'm comin'!' Irvine then raised his gun at Raven again, but didn't shoot, knowing it would be a waste.
Raven smiled at them. 'That sympathy will be their downfall!' he bellowed to himself. "Well, I see you pathetic losers are very concerned about your unconscious friends over there. Hey, I got an idea. Make it easy on you and just let my pet kill you, and then I'll think about releasing your friends, eh?" he asked curiously.
"Fuck off!" the duo replied instantly.
"Very well, then." the general snickered out. "Allow me then to introduce you to my pet here, Weapon Y. We've haven't given him a formal name yet, but I think the title SeeD Killer can be an appropriate one, don't you think?" The monster then raised its huge arms and brought them down with intense speed. Nipping Zell on the shoulder, the SeeD warrior was instantly tossed to the ground, but quickly got back up, clutching his injury and moved out of the way. Irvine on the other hand, was able to dodge the arm successfully and began mercilessly attacking the monster with his shotgun, but to his surprise, it didn't even dent his skin.
"Shit, we're in trouble." he nervously pointed out to Zell, who sadly agreed.
-----*****-----
After what seemed hours to her, Rinoa finally fell to the floor in exhaustion. "Squall, we've been looking for hours and there is no way out!"
Squall took a look at his watch. "Actually Rinny, we've only been looking for ten minutes."
Rinoa however, instantly got up and ran right in front of Squall. "What did you call me?" she asked with a twinkle in her eyes.
Squall stepped back a stepped. "Uh………what? I called you Rinoa, didn't I?" he answered unknowingly, not quite sure what she was referring to.
"You called me………Rinny!" her eyes lighted up even further in happiness and delight as she closed the distance between them. "Is that a name out of………love?!" she asked shyly as she folded her hands in back of her and looked down onto the ground, moving her leg around.
Squall's face was a look of embarrassment, shock, and love put together. 'I called her that? I never meant to say that out load. Sure, I always thought it sounded kind of cute, but still, I never wanted to say that out loud…'
"Mister Commander! If you always keep your thoughts to yourself, I'll never know what you're thinking!" she once again said smugly. "So, is it?"
"Um, uhh………" 'Time to confess Squall, you're not getting out of this one.' Squall once again regained his composure, but was still blushing faintly. He still was not used to openly revealing his feelings to anyone, even with Rinoa. "Whatever………." he calmly stated in a confessing but in an indifferent tone of voice, trying to suppress any emotion but had a hard time trying.
Rinoa, on the other hand, could tell Squall was having a hard time saying that he loved her. Sure, she knew that, but he had yet to say it in those three little words she had been waiting to hear from day one. 'I suppose it's a start…' she thought. The innocent angel smiled and gave Squall a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you." she whispered.
Squall smiled and as Rinoa was walking away whispered, "Your welcome" in a low voice so she couldn't hear.
After another ten minutes of futile attempts to find an exit out of the room, Squall pulled out a small explosive out of his pouch. "Well, I was going to save this for later, just in case, but I suppose this is a good of time as any to use it." Squall then walked toward the center of the room and placed the explosive down. He then ran over to Rinoa, and covered her up. "Cover your ears." he commanded.
Rinoa nodded and did as she was told. Squall then casted a Protect shield over the both of them and then pressed the ignite button in his hand. The little bomb erupted into a huge explosion, shaking the foundations of the room vigorously. Squall bent down and hugged Rinoa, trying to protect her from any debris that may come their way. The force of the explosion threw the two of them into the wall, Squall being the first one to hit, took most of the damage and fell to the floor, with Rinoa on top of him.
Minutes later, after she was sure the explosion ended, Rinoa immediately got up and faced Squall, who looked unconscious. "Squall, get up!" she said forcefully. However, the body didn't budge an inch. Tears started to flow out of Rinoa uncontrollably as she tried to wake up her love with all her might. "SQUALL!" she cried out as tears landed on his eyelids. With that, he finally moved his arm and squinted his eyes open, only to reveal a crying Rinoa. He smiled as he wiped away the tears from his angel's face. "Relax, after all I've been though, I'm not going to leave you both of you now." he softly reassured in a fragile sounding voice, pointing to her stomach.
Rinoa buried her face in his chest and still cried uncontrollably. "I thought I………we………lost you………again………" she blurted out, noticing Squall cared as much for the baby as he did her.
The knight smiled as he ran his hair through her raven hair once again, while hugging her. "Didn't I tell you to relax? And remember, I promised."
With that, Rinoa looked up and into his eyes and smiled brightly with tears still falling from her face. Squall gave her a quick kiss on the lips before he got up, helping Rinoa up as well. "Ok, let's find our friends."
Rinoa smiled and took a hold of Squall's hand as they carefully climbed down the rocks that were leading to the floor beneath. She knew that they were going to get out of this place alive………all three of them with their friends.
-----*****-----
Irvine and Zell were able to dodge the second arm attack and in no time, were backed up against the wall. "Quick Irvine, scan it!" Zell commanded.
Almost immediately, Irvine pointed out his hand and unleashed a small aura around him. To him, time seemed to freeze as every bit of information about the monster slowly entered his mind. "Got it!"
*Creature name: Darkened Bahamut. Element: Flying/Machine/Dragon. Weakness: Lightning/None. Description: A flying machine, type monster built exactly like the real Guardian Force, Bahamut. Although he is a machine, he has a wicked heart of a real ruby dragon.*
"Damn! Why do all the monsters here resemble our Guardian Forces? Its just seems so strange." Irvine added as he spat out the information he gathered.
"No time to talk Irv………" At the moment, the mechanical dragon unleashed a huge beam from its mouth, aimed directly for the two SeeDs. Irvine immediately casted up a Protect Shield, which only caused him to stumble a few feet behind up, however his shield was cracked open. Zell, on the other hand, was not as quick and was hit with the blast head on, sending him flying back into the wall twenty feet behind them, where he quickly landed in the rubble, barely holding on.
'Shit, that was my fault! Shouldn't have preoccupied him with the question.' Irvine quickly blamed himself in his mind. Irvine instantaneously casted down a strong Thundaga spell, which hit Darkened Bahamut head on. "Take this you piece of SHIT!" he yelled as he quickly ran for Zell.
The injured warrior slowly got to his knees and casted a Curaga spell, curing him of most damages to his body. 'If I'm not too careful, I'm going to run out of cures…' With the thought running in his mind, he got up and managed to see the spell Irvine used that seemingly hit the adversary dead on. "Great job Irvine! Now, let me finish it up!" Zell bent his knees and extended his right arm, "Alexander, show him what you got!!!"
Raven smirked. "Not this time………"
Once again, the huge machine-like creature rose up from the mountains and rested its two massive feet right between Darkened Bahamut – as if it was David versus Goliath, with Alexander having the size advantage. He started down the evil machine and unleashed a barrage of rays around Darkened Bahamut.
"NOW – Finish him off Darkened Bahamut!" Raven ordered loudly from his position, above the action.
The flying-machine creature went to the air as Alexander was initializing its attack and opened his mouth, only to reveal a huge ball of energy forming at the surface. "Quadra Flare!" it announced as the energy ball shot straight from its mouth and collided with Alexander heavily, shaking the whole room dynamically.
Zell and Irvine shielded their eyes in shock, thinking that the Thundaga spell casted by Irvine earlier damaged the enemy, but unfortunately, did nothing to stop his onslaught. As the duo once again waited for the smoke to clear, they nervously readied themselves with both Protect and Shell shields. "I have a bad feeling about this Zell." the cowboy squeaked out.
"Please don't remind me." his friend replied in a depressed voice.
The smoke rose from the battlefield, only to show Zell's and Irvine's worst fears. There was no sign of Alexander, only the enemy monster who was slowly descending from the air, onto the ground, right in front of the duo. The monster again opened his mouth, gathering up energy for his next attack.
"When I say now, you do what we planned earlier!" Zell commanded again, and didn't wait for a reply. Irvine nodded to show he heard and took an awkward stance, as if to run away. Darkened Bahamut unleashed another Quadra Flare at his opponents, which headed toward them in great speed.
'Wait for it………wait for it………' "NOW!" Zell yelled as he took to the right while Irvine ran toward the left, both successfully dodging Darkened Bahamut's attack. "Ok, lets gooo!" Zell followed up as he ran behind the monster and jumped onto his back, unleashing series of Thundaga spells onto the monster. Irvine took a sharp turn towards the enemy and slid under beneath him, where he fired his special Thunder Bullets into the monster's chest. Both warriors, after using their respective attacks, quickly got out of the way of Darkened Bahamut as he started to cry out in pain, clutching a spot where a heart would have been.
"Well Raven, it looks like your monster was not as invincible as you hoped it might be." Zell said with a smirk.
Raven looked upon his dying creation as it collapsed to the floor and exploded into rubble. His facial expression revealed only shock; 'How the hell did two amateur fighters take down one of my strongest creations?!' The general wide opened mouth turned into a small smiled as he started to clap his hands. "Bravo – it seems you guys are more powerful than I thought you were. Anyway, I have more important matters to attend to, like destroying your planet. And oh yea, before I forget, good luck in finding your friends, you'll need it." Raven then disappeared into thin-air.
Irvine and Zell frantically looked around for their fallen comrades, but there was no trace of them anywhere. "FUCK!" Irvine screamed out as he slammed his fist into the wall as hard as he could. "Selphie!! Where are you!?" he yelled out as he broke down in tears.
There were too many things on his mind. The planet, Squall, Rinoa, Irvine, Quistis, Selphie; hell, he wasn't even sure of himself. 'Hyne! Please, guide us!' Zell roared out in his mind, and as if almost on cue, part of the wall fell down revealing a secret passage, which seemed only to lead higher up into the castle.
Irvine looked up between sobs as the wall cracked open. Without any words, both warriors nodded, mutually agreeing that this passage was the next destination.
-----*****-----
"Are the remaining airships ready for the launch?" Laguna choked out.
"Yes sir!" was the reply.
Ellone was holding on to her uncle's arm, still trying to beg him not to give the order to launch the airships that were fully filled with explosives. "Laguna! They are alive. I KNOW IT!" she cried out in despair, collapsing on the ground as her knees went weak.
Tears flowed out of the old man's eyes. As much as he believed her, he couldn't turn back now. 'I'm sorry Elly………' "Launch the ships………"
Dr. Odine nodded as he signaled for the launch confirmation to the workmen.
The time that felt like an eternity was only twenty minutes later when the airships were launched for the intended crash onto the moon. Dr. Odine slowly walked toward the exit, only to stop and whisper something to Laguna and Ellone. "If they are alive, they have onzly three hourz."