"Oh Squall, I'm so glad to see you! Zell, Quisty, Sefie, Irvy and Rinoa too!" Ellone ran towards them, giving each of them a hug. The Ragnarok had landed only a few moments ago, and Ellone had come out to meet them.
"Hello Sis. So how's the situation like now? Have you heard from the 2 SeeDs?" Squall asked.
"Still as serious as ever, Squall. Alright, let's talk in my office." They walked into Centra Garden, heading for Ellone's office.
Inside her office, Ellone briefly told them everything they had found out so far.
"About a week back, our scouts found something strange on one of the cliffs in Centra. From here, you can see that beyond the cliff lies the ocean, but the view from the cliff itself –" she broke off and pushed a button on the keypad on her desk, and a display screen was lowered down against one of the walls.
"The scouts managed to capture a video of the view from the cliff. Here, take a look yourself." She pulled out a keyboard from under her desk and quickly entered in a command, playing the video.
They saw a barren wasteland on the other side of the cliff. At certain points in time, it would flicker, and the ocean would be there again, at other times, it would show the wasteland moving like the waves of the ocean.
"We are assuming that this is some sort of visual camouflage device, similar to the one in Esthar, which is what leads us to believe that it is probably hiding an entire city. Something must have caused their camouflage device to malfunction, causing the view from the cliff to look like that."
Ellone paused and took a drink from a glass of water on her desk, beforing entering another command on her keyboard. Two photos were brought up on the display; one of the photos was of a man of about nineteen, with short, black hair, dark, well-tanned skin and brown eyes. He was wearing a SeeD uniform. The other photo was of a woman, about seventeen, with long, blond hair, fair skin and blue eyes. She was also in SeeD uniform.
"Kerv and Maria. These are the the two SeeDs I sent four days ago. They have yet to return, neither have they made any communication of any sort with us. I fear something bad has happened to them."
Ellone slumped back into her chair and sighed. It was only then that Squall noticed the large eyebags under her eyes. He stood up.
"I see you haven't been sleeping, Sis. You should go and get some rest, leave this matter to us; we know what to do. Quistis, escort her to her room, make sure she's comfortable, then meet us back at the Ragnarok. Irvine, Selphie, go over to Centra Garden's supply centre and get a fresh stock of supplies – Hi-Potions, Elixirs, Holy Wars, the usual stuff. You should roughly know what we will need. Zell, get back to the Ragnarok and prepare it for launch. Rinoa, follow me; we will go over to the training centre and get the instructors here to transfer to us as much of their magic as possible, we will probably need a healthy supply of Auras and Curagas and other spells."
Ellone smiled weakly.
"Thanks Squall. I knew I could trust you with this." Squall smiled.
"Oh, by the way, Ellone, just out of curiosity, why did you send your two scouts out in the first place? And why didn't you use your ability to find out what happened to the two SeeDs?"
"I was wondering when you would ask that, Squall. Actually, I sent the two scouts to capture a Chocobo back to let some of the children ride on; and I did try using my ability to find out what happened to Kerv and Maria. I could follow their memories only right up to the point before the entered the wasteland though. Whatever's hiding the city is blocking me from seeing whatever's on the other side of the cliff too."
Squall pondered for a moment. Something about what Ellone had just said was nagging at him, but he couldn't pin-point what. He would give more thought to it later.
"Well, we're off Sis. See you soon."
"Thanks again. Good luck to all of you."
* * *
"Kerv, wake up. Thet
are coming again." Kerv opened his eyes. Maria was looking down at him.
She moved back to let him get up.
"How's your leg? Can you run?" she asked.
"It's not like I have a choice, but of course I can't run;
my entire leg bone is shattered. How far away are they?" he replied. A
loud roar answered his question.
"Damn-it, they can't be more than a kilometre away. C'mon,
let's move." Kerv cursed as he pushed himself off the ground. Immense
pain rushed through his entire left leg as his body weight came down upon it.
He bit his lip and tried to endure it. He squinted his eyes, and then pointed.
"Let's head for there. There might be a cave there that we can hide
in." He swung his pack over his shoulder and started limping. Maria followed
close behind him, adjusting her sling. Her right arm was also broken. The two
of them had been injured badly, but at least Maria could still run; Kerv was
at a great disadvantage.
"Fuck, if only I had at least one bloody Curaga spell!" Maria sweared.
They had used up all their life magic and items after their first encounter
with the two Weapons. A second encounter had left them badly injured, and they
have been on the run for the last four days.
Kerv cursed silently to himself, as memories from the last four days flashed
through his mind. After entering the wasteland, they had run into two huge monsters.
Upon casting Scan, they realized that these two monsters, Toma Weapon and Doma
Weapon, were completely out of their league; they had HP counts of over three
million, and were immune to all magic and poison attacks. Their attack power
could not be determined through the Scan magic, but it was unnecessary; they
had already gotten a taste of it. They had somehow managed to dodge all the
more powerful attacks, and were only hit by minor attacks from the two Weapons;
and even this had left them heavily injured. Knowing they would not be able
to defeat these two monstrosities, they had been on the run for the last four
days, avoiding the Weapons and trying to find the cliff that they had come from.
"Made it!" Maria breathed a sigh of relief, as the two entered the
cave. Hopefully they would be safe from the Weapons here. Kerv sank to the ground;
his left leg was already bleeding faster. He took a drink from his water canteen.
Maria sat down beside him and he put his arm around her shoulders.
"Don't worry, we should be safe here."
Suddenly, there was a large bang and the cave trembled. A loud roar came from
outside the cave. Kerv pulled out his daggers from his pack and got up. Ignoring
the pain in his left leg, he limped to the mouth of the cave.
"Go as far back into the cave as possible, Maria, and stay there. Hopefully
you will be safe there. I will try to hold them back for as long as possible."
"But –"
"No buts Maria. Just go. I will try to push them back a little, then I
will blow the cave entrance down. Try and find a safer spot further back in
the cave, and set up some light there. I will get there as soon as I can. Now
go!" Kerv watched as Maria ran down the cave. He turned to face the mouth
of the cave again, and started limping towards it. He could see the two Weapons
just outside the cave. Silently, he casted Aura on himself. Ignoring the pains
from his wounds, he launched himself at the two Weapons.
* * *
"Ready guys?"
Selphie questioned.
"Let's do it!" They replied in unision. The Ragnarok accelerated
past the cliff. Immediately, they were caught in heavy air turbulence. The Ragnarok
shook violently as strong winds tried to push it back to the other side of the
cliff.
"It looks like we won't be able to fly here! I'll try to land!"
Selphie shouted. The Ragnarok dived towards the ground and ploughed through
the sand before coming to a stop.
"We'll have to search for them on foot." Squall said. He clipped
his gunblade to his belt and slung his pack over his shoulder and walked out
of the Ragnarok, with the others just behind him.
* * *
Kerv jumped back, avoiding another blast of energy from the Weapons, before launching a series of kicks at their heads. Toma Weapon smacked him back onto the ground and pounced on him. He stabbed the underside of the Weapon numerous times with his daggers, but the blades could not penetrate the thick hide of the Weapon. He felt its teeth sink into him as the Weapon lifted him up with its mouth. He was thrown to the side, and his head hit against the ground. He got up again, and a trickle of blood dripped over his right eyelid. He charged again, but Doma Weapon slammed him back against the rock surface. He could no longer endure the pain. Kerv sank down onto the ground, his world turning black.
* * *
"What the hell? Weapons!
And those things are bigger than Omega Weapon!" Zell shouted.
"There's someone there! Oh God, he's going to be slaughtered,
we have to help him!" They ran towards the two Weapons.
Shortly after leaving the Ragnarok, they had heard sounds of a fight and headed
towards the source, and discovered the two Weapons fighting Kerv. Pulling out
their weapons, the six SeeDs launched into battle.
"Cerebus!" Zell summoned the three-headed dog, who dashed into the
fight and pulled the unconscious man out.
"It's Kerv! He's in very bad shape!" Zell took a quick
look at the victim of the Weapons' ferocious attacks.
"Eden!"
"Tonberry King!"
"Jumbo Cactus!"
"Doomtrain!" Rinoa, Selphie, Irvine and Quistis summoned their Guardian
Forces. The two Weapons were hit numerous times.
"Aura!" Squall casted the spell on himself and jumped in, performing
his Renzokuken attack on the two Weapons. Rinoa summoned Eden a second time
and attacked one of the Weapons while Squall struck the other with his Lion
Heart attack. The Weapons roared one more time before retreating from battle.
Quistis casted Scan on them before they were out of sight.
"Oh God, we barely scratched them! Their statistics completely surpass
Omega Weapon!" she exclaimed. The six SeeDs sat down on the ground, panting
hard. Why had Toma Weapon and Doma Weapon retreated from the battle, even though
they were at an obvious advantage? They could have easily taken out the SeeDs
with their strength.
"Kerv! Kerv! Damn-it, I shouldn't have left you, you idiot!"
A woman came running towards them. She was Maria. She knelt down beside Kerv,
crying.
"You said you would come as soon as you could, you liar!" she sobbed.
Quistis and Rinoa sat beside her, trying to calm her down. Squall casted multiple
Curaga spells, healing Kerv's wounds.
"Maria, I presume? Ok, now that the both of you are here, I think we should
head back for the Ragnarok. The search for the hidden city will have to wait,
and with the two Weapons around, we wouldn't want to stick around here
much longer anyway. Let's get you two back to Centra Garden." Squall
said. With Irvine and Zell carrying Kerv, they headed back for the Ragnarok.
Back inside the Ragnarok, Squall introduced himself and the others to Maria
and Kerv, who had finally regained consciousness and was back on his own two
feet. Kerv described to them about the events from the last four days.
The flight back to Centra Garden was rather quiet, as most of them were still
recovering from their shock after the encounter with the two Weapons.