"Transcending Reality" by: Emerald Eyes
Okay, here it is: Chapter 4! It's strange. It
turned out completely different than I had planned. But… I ended up liking it.
O yeah, thanx for reviewing my fic, peoples! You have no idea how much
that boosts my self-esteem. I would really like to thank Flayme for
reviewing for every chapter and for mailing me. Anywho,
I'm not making any gil off of this story. Instead I'm making Reno—er, um…
nevermind. :)
"I was
searching for some answer in your eyes. I find malicious laughter, hate, and
lies… fucking lies!" –Stabbing Westward
Chapter Four: Rivals
Squall stood staring at the man before him. With hostile eyes and venom in his voice, he spoke, "What are you doing here?"
Seifer sighed. "Great," he said under his breath, "It's Puberty Boy… just what I need."
Although he was quite surprised to find the leader of Balamb Garden standing before him, he covered it up with one of his usual caustic remarks, "Leonhart," he smiled, "Nice to see you!" He frowned, "Hey, where's Chicken-wuss?"
Squall remained apathetic during Seifer's sardonic comments. Instead of replying, he focused on the other blonde who had entered the room with the ex-knight. He then turned to the redhead standing beside him, "Do you know him?"
The bewildered Turk nodded, "Yeah, he's my boss…but…" he trailed off, gawking at Rufus.
"But what?" asked Squall.
Reno shook his head out of frustration. "He shouldn't be alive."
"Oh?" Squall asked, looking slightly curious, "And why is that?"
Rufus hung his head. "Diamond Weapon…" he whispered.
Reno, the only other one in the group to react to his words, looked slightly uncomfortable. Squall and Seifer stared blankly at the ex-president.
"Um…" began Seifer, "…you mean Omega Weapon…?"
"…or Ultima Weapon?" Squall finished.
"Ultimate Weapon?" Rufus pondered for a moment, "Yeah, something like that. It shot some kind of energy blast towards my company's Headquarters in Midgar. Unfortunately, I was in my office on the 70th floor at the time…"
"So that's why you were going senile on me…" Seifer wondered out loud. Rufus shot him a look that could kill. "Uh, I mean, I would go crazy too if I got fried by some Weapon thing and I woke up to find myself half-dead and in a place I've never been before." he replied acerbically, "I would definitely start to doubt my sanity."
"Wait," a confused Turk asked, "You mean…? Was there some dude with a weird looking gizmo?"
Rufus shook his head, "I don't know. I don't recall anyone else being there."
Squall immediately snapped to attention at hearing the Turk's words. "Wait a minute. Reno, I saw a man in a trench coat… he said something about showing me 'reality' or something like that."
"Yeah," Seifer commented, "Same here, but I was with Fujin and Raijin when it happened…"
"Hmm," Reno frowned, "I was with Elena and Rude…I wonder if—"
"—Hey!" came a high pitched voice from beyond the door, "I saw someone, too!" A girl with violet hair walked into the room, "He had on weird clothes and he was dressed all in black. And he also had some weird looking thing with buttons on it."
"Eiko, I told you to wait outside!" Seifer scolded.
The girl chose to ignore the ex-knight's reproach and instead proceeded to run curious eyes over the rest of the room and its contents, including Squall and Reno.
The Turk and the SeeD turned their heads to stare at the young visitor. Reno blinked, "Who's the kid?"
Rufus looked like he was about to introduce her, but before he could say anything she began to talk, "My name's Eiko Carol… And I'm not a kid, I'm a lady!"
"Whatever," Squall said, seemingly uninterested in the child that stood before him.
Reno, however, studied the girl curiously, "Where do you come from, Eiko? I've never seen anyone with purple hair before. And how'd you get a horn on your head?"
The girl looked more than happy to explain, but a rather irritated Seifer interrupted, "Look, the only reason why I'm here with any of you is because I want to find out where the hell I am, so talk later."
Squall stared menacingly at the ex-knight, "Shut up, Almasy!"
The two ShinRa employees watched with great interest.
"Why do you two hate each other so much?" Reno asked.
"I think it has something to do with the Sorceress's Knight thing," Rufus explained.
Squall happened to overhear this comment, "What? Sorceress's Knight?!" He glared at Seifer, "So, I guess you didn't learn, did you? You helped some crazy sorceress from the future destroy the world and now you're bragging about it. You're lucky I didn't kill you as soon as you walked through that door!"
Seifer smirked coldly, "I don't think you can kill me."
The Squall drew his gunblade. "You'll regret that statement later," he growled.
Eiko shot a worried look towards the ex-President, "You don't think they're gonna fight in here, do you?"
Rufus, who was absorbed in the scenario taking place before him, only shrugged.
Seifer laughed callously, "You want a fight, Leonhart? I'll give you a fight!" He drew his own weapon and advanced in on his nemesis.
^_^_^_^_^_^_^
The tiny room was suffocating. Berk lifted his head from where it lay on the table. He stared absently at the monotone black and white television screens.
Being a security guard for Squaresoft wasn't as interesting as he has originally thought. Maybe it's because all the real action takes place in the Tokyo building, he mused, and instead, I'm stuck in America. But what did he care? He couldn't speak Japanese anyway. And I'm sure they wouldn't hire a lazy-ass like me to work there anyhow.
Berk looked at his reflection in the nearest screen. Almond colored eyes stared back. His light auburn hair was disarrayed and out of place and there were bags under his eyes. He had been sleeping.
Berk stifled a yawn. He proceeded to check all the monitors. "Don't want to get fired," he said to himself, "…not yet, anyways." Screen after screen, boring black and white monotone, and no movement whatsoever. "Damn," he complained, "this job does suck!"
He was about to lay his head back down and continue his nap when he noticed a monitor in the far corner. Huh? he wondered, What the fuck is this? He got up out of his chair to take a closer look.
Maybe he was still dreaming, and his hopes of this being an interesting job were mocking him… or maybe it was just his own wild imagination, but what he saw was impossible. "Shit!" he exclaimed, "This is unreal!"
He was wide-awake now, watching the two very familiar faces battle with gunblades on the tiny monitor. Just to make sure it wasn't a dream, Berk pinched himself. It hurt.
"Dude, this is too freakin' amazing!" He stood frozen, gaping at the tiny screen. "Squall and Seifer from Final Fantasy Eight," he said in awe. He then noticed the others, "Eiko from Nine… Reno and Shinra from Seven."
Berk was ecstatic. He abandoned his post in the tiny room and ran towards the elevator.
Dude, I have got to see this for myself!
^_^_^_^_^_^
A man in a trench coat walked the vacant halls, his eyes glued on the device he held in his hand.
I know they're in here somewhere. Of all the places they could have showed up, it had to be at a Squaresoft building. How ironic. He frowned at the contraption he held, But it shouldn't have brought them here. Something must be wrong… That thought made him shudder. He didn't want to imagine what kind of horrible disasters it would cause if something were defective.
Black hair fell into his eyes annoyingly as he tried to
figure out why the device was failing to pick up any of their signals. I
don't understand why it's not working!
His undivided attention centered on the device, he failed to notice the ecstatic man running in the opposite direction. They collided with each other and the over-exuberant, shorter man crashed to the floor.
The man in the trench coat ran curious eyes over him. He appeared to be dressed in some kind of uniform. A security guard? I wonder why he's in such a hurry?
"H-hey!" the guard said, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"Looking for someone," the other man replied curtly. He ran his dark azure eyes over the guard before him. His eyes nervously kept on staring down the hall and he was fidgeting, obviously anxious about something. "You seem to be in a hurry. Is something wrong?"
"N-no! No, nothing's wrong," the redhead lied, "I, uh, just need to check up on something…"
"Hmm," the raven-haired man mused, "I would let you get back to work, but I need to ask you a question first." When the auburn-haired guard nodded, he continued, "Have you seen anyone else in the building tonight? Anyone who…distinctly resembles any Final Fantasy characters, perhaps?"
The man's eyes widened, "You mean you've seen them too?"
The other smiled. Bingo.
"Come on!" the lax security guard said as he ran down the hall, "They're this way!"
^_^_^_^_^_^
"Stop!" Eiko cried, "You're gonna kill each other!"
The two from Balamb Garden chose to ignore the young girl's pleading cries.
Squall swung his weapon in a wide arc, narrowly missing it's target.
Seifer jumped back and prepared to strike, but then thought of a better idea. Smirking, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the Ice materia that he had absconded from Rufus earlier.
"Ice 3!" he said, concentrating on the SeeD in front of him. Magical, razor-sharp shards of ice slammed into Squall, knocking him to the ground. Seifer laughed.
Eiko watched in horror as the Sorceress's Knight pulled his weapon back and prepared to strike. "Stop!" she pleaded, "Please stop it!"
"Fuck," Reno cursed. He was too far away to stop the blonde man with any kind of physical attacks, and the only materia he had with him was a Cure materia…and it wasn't even mastered. Even if he could cure the injuries the ice spell made, it was too late to stop Seifer. Squall was as good as dead. I highly doubt a Cure spell can help a dead man.
"Seifer!" Rufus yelled to no avail.
Seifer began to bring his gunblade down on the defenseless SeeD, the deadly blade descending in on Squall.
"No!" Eiko screamed in a terrified voice just before the gunblade met its target.
"Holy!" the girl screamed. A bright, white light made of pure energy filled the room. A scream was heard: not Squall's, but Seifer's.
When the light receded enough for everyone to see, they found the Sorceress's Knight sprawled out on the ground, unconscious.
Reno shook his head in wonder. "Damn, girl," he said to Eiko, "Remind me never to piss you off."
^_^_^_^_^_^
The dark man ran down the halls, following the exuberant security guard. Before long, they were standing in front of a plain, gray door.
"They're in here," the auburn haired man said. He reached for the doorknob.
"Wait a minute!" the other ordered. He frantically searched his pockets for the tiny green orb he needed. After several seconds, he had found it: Time materia.
"Stop," he said, casting the spell. The security guard froze in place, hand still reaching out towards the door.
With the problem taken care of, the man reached for the doorknob and entered the room.
"Holy!" a voice screamed.
Oh, shit! He felt himself being pulled into unconsciousness by the potent spell.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself staring into the faces of four very angry people. Well, he thought, at least I found them. He glanced around the room. Some of them, at least.
Then his eyes fell upon Rufus. Rufus Shinra!? What's he doing here?
"So," an irate Turk started, "You're the bastard that brought us all here… What's your name?"
"Alexander," the man coughed out. "Where's everybody else?" he asked, "There's four people missing. And you"—he pointed to Rufus—"I didn't bring you here. How did you get here?"
"I don't know where the others are," said Squall, "Why don't you tell us?"
Alex suddenly remembered the device he had hidden in his coat pocket. He pulled it out and examined it. It was working now, but it was only picking up five people: the five in the room with him. "I don't know," he said truthfully.
Reno glared at him, "Hey, that's the thing that brought us here, isn't it? That means it can take us all back, right?" It wasn't a question, it was a threat, and just to make sure the man understood the message, Reno brought his nightstick into view.
"What are you talking about!?" Alex retorted, "I liberated you!"
"Is that so?" Rufus asked pensively, "Then tell me, Alexander. What, exactly, did you liberate us from?"
Alex shook his head, "It's a long story."
Squall glanced askance at him. "Go ahead and tell us."
"Yeah," Eiko agreed, "We have the time."
End Ch. 4
Whoa! Like, major plot twists! I'm tired. It's,
like, 2:30 in the morning. I just finished typing this. Sorry it took me so
long to upload. I know there's some pretty unbelievable junk in this story, but
bear with it, okay? It's fiction. It doesn't have to be
believable. If you're gonna flame me, please don't do it for the plotline. Oh,
and thank you so much for reading! And keep a look out for
Chapter Four of Transcending Reality, "Another
Time, Another Place." I should post it within
a few weeks.
Oh, yeah! E-Mail Me: spookyfox1@hotmail.com