AN: Ya know, for all Harena admits her faults... she doesn't seem to do anything about them O.o heh – evil is blind and all that ne?

Rating: R maybe PG-13 (R in standing with ff.net's policy of picking the highest rating)

Disclaimer: SG characters are (c) MGM (thankie to Morrigan for that :p).  FF8 characters are (c) Squaresoft, original characters are mine – ask nicely and I might let you play with them, s'long's you don't break them...

Warnings: SxS Maybe angst (I do like to torture my characters sometimes :p), language (prob nothin u ain't heard b4, but still...)

~Chapter Thirty-One: Impatience~

Her most pressing task did not take long, but required a great deal of her horded strength.  Overriding someone's will was much harder than merely influencing their words or actions.  Still, she accomplished her goals to her satisfaction, and in less time than she had expected.  Harena did not intend to waste the time she saved, and quickly bent her mind to summoning herself an army.

She killed the first monsters that answered her summons, Imps both, too petty in her opinion to be useful alive, but their screams revitalised her, giving her the greater strength she needed to summon the monsters that she really wanted – the Ruby Dragons, Malboros and Toramas.  Even a few which should not have been in Esthar - she realised they had fallen astray during the Lunar Cry – such as Iron Giants, Hexadragons and Behemoths appeared, attracted by the tantalising aroma of the Imp blood she had spilt.

They flocked to her in droves, filling the planes around the Sorceress Memorial as far as the eye could see.  A seething mass of assorted powerful monsters.  At last her control over the dangerous horde began to become tenuous, and Harena ceased her call.  Her army waited obediently for her orders.

Harena smirked.  The smirk became an open sneer, then a chilling laugh.  Her mind sought through the masses for a suitable mount.  Slowly the crowd between her and her chosen beast cleared to make way for their queen's mount.  It was, in truth, a new monster, a hybrid of several of those that had existed previously on the planet.  It was not so much to look at, although quite a daunting sight.  The dominant mix seemed to consist of Cockatrice, Mesmerise, Ruby Dragon and Torama.  In a way it was similar to the legendary Griffon – it's front legs those of the Cockatrice, hind legs and body of a Torama, and the wings of the Ruby Dragon – with only the Mesmerise's head to say it was not the beast from legend.

The beast pranced forwards, turning so that Harena could mount it's broad back.  Once she had settled herself comfortably, it rose into the air, obediently heading for what would be the front of her army.  The monsters turned to follow as she passed over, leading the way towards Esthar...

***

The SeeDs arrived in Esthar just as the monstrous army was spotted approaching the city's East side.  Immediately they deployed themselves in teams of five and six, spreading the more experienced SeeDs as evenly as they could.  The entire Esthar army had deployed already, warned beforehand by a message from Esthar, and the civilian population had already been escorted to the heavily barricaded city centre.  All that remained was for the SeeD teams to take their places, bolstering the weakest points of the Estharian line, and further securing the most strategically important areas.

They were barely ready in time.

A rippled murmur, a slight drawing back of the foremost ranks, and then the first wave of the army fell upon them.  Instantly the line was alive with the flashing lights and sounds of magic.  Fireballs hissed and cackled, booming as they impacted with hide and hair, or extinguishing with a damp fizz where they impacted against the damp and slimy skin of a Malboro.  Ice magic creaked and groaned, splintering with glassy tinkles that sounded all too cheerful for the life and death struggle occurring.  The ground trembled, shattering and roaring as the SeeDs began to use the more powerful area-affecting spells on monsters further back.

The line bulged and swayed in multiple areas as the attack continued, monsters no sooner dying than being replaced by another from behind.  And still the mass pressed forwards, those at the back eager to reach the slaughter they could smell ahead.  Further behind, attracted by the sound of combat and smell of fresh, hot blood being spilt, more monsters flocked to Harena's army.

But the blood being spilt was not only that of the monsters.  All along the line soldiers and SeeDs alike were taking hits, both from magic and physical attacks.  Yet the more experienced SeeDs, those who had fought such monsters as they were facing, knew that this was just the beginning, the warm-up.  Soon the Malboros would begin to unleash their breath attacks, along with the various dragons, and then the SeeDs would begin to use their GFs in earnest, clearing great swathes in the ranks of the monsters, but rendering their lines vulnerable for the long moments whilst the GF shielded them from its attack.

Then she came.  Harena, riding the Griffon-like steed, had dropped to the back, letting the monsters take the brunt of the resistance, but she had not anticipated SeeD support.  Esthar's first warning should have been when they saw her army appear from amongst the low rolling dunes and scrub of the great planes, but somehow they had been prepared, and now her attack was stalled.  Sensing her control of the monsters weakening, and knowing that they would drift away should she lose it completely, Harena urged her mount forwards.

It was a wounded SeeD who saw her coming.

Kerrece had been struck in the leg by a Behemoth, effectively putting him out of action as far as physical fighting was concerned.  But he had retained his GF, Gem, so that he could magically snipe, and add his defensive strength when the real fighting began.  As a level 25 SeeD he was one of those few who knew that so far they were simply being tested.  Still, until the real attack began he had little to do, except watch the skies and repel the few flying monsters who had attempted to circumvent their positions by flying over them.  Thus it was that he saw Harena's approach.

He knew instantly what she was.  Who else but a sorceress would be riding a monster after all?  He also had a fairly good idea of what she intended.  The attack was clearly, if only temporarily, stalled, and sorceresses were not famed for their patience. 

"Fall back!"  Kerrece knew they stood little to no chance against a sorceress in their current formation.  They were stretched too thin.  The sorceress could quite easily blast a hole in the line of defenders, allowing the monsters through to first surround, and then eliminate those who remained.  Obediently the line began to fold in on itself, becoming thicker, ceding ground to the monsters slowly, but surely.  It was an ordered manoeuvre though, and despite a renewed fury in their attacks, the monsters were unable to inflict any fatal wounds.

Harena screeched, a terror-inducing cry of victory and anger.  Anger because she had been denied the chance to wreak her vengeance on the SeeDs herself.  The cry ended abruptly as she realised that, far from denying her that vengeance, the formation change had, in fact, increased the number of those upon which her wrath could be delivered.  Laughing quietly to herself, Harena urged her mount closer to the ground, summoning two great burning balls of energy.

Kerrece watched as the SeeDs pulled back and the monsters advanced.  It was past time for him to be gone from his vantage point, if he wanted to make it behind their lines and to safety.  But he had fought in the war against Ultemecia.  He knew that the sorceress was unlikely to give up, and he knew he had the means, however temporarily, to protect the city's protectors from her wrath.  His gaze turned briefly to the advancing monsters, now with nothing between himself and them.  But they had not yet noticed him.  They would, he knew that, he knew he was a dead man, but then, even if he died, he could perhaps have held off the real threat long enough for others to formulate a plan against the sorceress.

His gaze turned back to Harena.  She was closing once more, and in her hands were two large glowing balls.  He doubted she was about to put on a firework display for them.  Clearing his mind of extraneous thoughts, Kerrece bent his mind towards the GF he had junctioned.  Gem responded promptly, as he expected.  They had been partners since he had become a SeeD, not like most, who tended to swap their low level GFs for more powerful ones as soon as they could.  But he had found a benefit to keeping the same GF until their compatibility was perfect.  He could talk to her, and she could deviate from her defensive ability, mutating the ability to defend several with a limited invulnerability, or to create a shield against incoming magical attacks.  It was the latter he wished to create.

Harena swept down towards the bunched defenders, never even noticing the lone SeeD on his hilltop vantage point.  She launched both energy balls with a deft flick of her wrists, sending them in a graceful arc towards the still-unaware defenders below, turning her mount away to soar back into the skies, confident her strike would land.  It was that confidence that saved her...  Or rather, saved her mount.

The energy balls smashed into a magical barrier half-way through their descent, exploding impotently against a defence that, rather than shattering under the attempt to stop the explosion dead, *flexed* and diverted the explosion's energy against the attackers.  The shockwave exploded outwards, flattening the first few ranks of monsters and buffeting Harena and her mount as they flew away.  The sorceress reeled as the forceful blow passed her, momentarily losing control of the ranks of monsters below.  The army of creatures faltered, giving the SeeDs and soldiers the few vital moments they needed to reform their defences.

It also gave the SeeDs time to see where their salvation had come from.  Time to stare in horror as the monsters advanced once more, cutting off Kerrece from any hope of safety. 

As for Kerrece, he was content.  They would be able to hold off the sorceress for a while more, perhaps those few vital minutes it took for the scientists and technicians to finish their work, repairing the sabotaged generators that would enable Esthar to vanish from outside events behind an impenetrable barrier.  It didn't matter that he wouldn't be there, on the inside, able to see the relief and weariness of his battle-worn comrades, able to see and laugh at the dirt, sweat and blood that would be covering them all, able to compare notes on magic used and the reaction of various spells on various monsters.  None of that mattered, because it was the thought that there might be some left alive to do that, because of his sacrifice, that mattered.  It didn't matter that he would die, as he surely would beneath the onslaught of the plague of Malboros now heading in his direction, because he would forever be remembered as giving his life for the greater good.  The way every SeeD wanted to die.  A blaze of glory at the forefront of a battle, not as an anonymous corpse in some shadowed alley, the victim of a mission gone wrong, but as the hero of the moment, the knight in shining armour who had given their life to save the day.

***

In the heart of Esthar the scientists feverishly worked to restore the generators that would be their salvation – if they could get them working in time.  The technician – who had apparently gone insane and wrecked them – hadn't even been missed until they received the message from Centra telling them to activate the shields.  It had only been then that anyone realised the poor girl was missing, and she had been found, hunched in the corner of the room, rocking frantically back and forth, muttering incoherently to herself.  She had been taken away, shown to Dr. Odine, and the doctor had quite accurately diagnosed her as having been possessed.  Unfortunately there was nothing they could do for her.  Harena had destroyed her mind forever.  But the scientists and technicians patching the great machines back together had no time to spare for sympathetic thoughts.  Those would come later, if they lived to be able to be sympathetic.

Each worked in pairs, a technician half-lost within the bowels of the machine, surrounded by wires and with only a flashlight and headset to keep them company.  Outside each technician had a scientist reading instructions from complex charts and diagrams, speaking through the headset in rapid technical jargon that no outsider could hope to follow.  They were well aware of the pressure that was on them, for whilst the soldiers and SeeDs above could hold the monsters temporarily, they could not hope to hold them forever.

Beneath the too-hot lights and in the oppressive silence of broken machinery, they worked on.

***

But on the outskirts of the city, Harena wasn't having it all her own way.  The mortals, who should have crumbled and been overwhelmed by her monstrous army were, barely, managing to hold their own.  So far their only casualty had been a lone SeeD, injured earlier, and cut off as they had retreated.  She had not even been able to take advantage of that retreat.  A barrier, GF magic from the stench that now pervaded the air, that should not have stood against her magic, somehow had.  What was worse, the little ground that she had gained now wavered on the verge of being taken back as the SeeDs, striving to make Kerrece's sacrifice a worthy one, fought with renewed vigour, beginning to use lethal combinations of area attacks and magic stones.

Harena herself was too weak to think of launching another attack, at least yet.  The screams she could hear were barely enough to allow her to maintain her control of the monsters beneath, and if she drifted lower, she knew any extra energy would be expended as she was forced to defend herself.  She would do well to remember, she chastised herself, that many of these SeeDs had fought against Ultemecia – a not insignificantly powerful sorceress, if not as powerful as herself.  Well, not as powerful as she *should* be.

There was really only one option left if she wished to destroy the Other and take this world for her own.  With one last, furious burst of energy, she sent the army blindly rushing forwards, no longer trying to fight the defenders, but to crush them in a stampede.  The forward surge was like a ripple running through the massed monsters below, and, like a tidal wave, it gathered momentum and force.  The front ranks of fighters never stood a chance.

***

There was no time for dignified, ordered retreat.  Those in the foremost ranks had nowhere to go, and used their last moments scattering death, meteor and ultima stones into the horde, dying as they did so, some screaming horribly, others dying in a chilling silence.  A scant few SeeDs, already on the verge of summoning their GFs, were able to do so, vanishing an instant before death took them in its icy embrace.  Great holes appeared where the GFs struck, flattening the oncoming hordes, but unable to halt the advance entirely.

It gave the few who had managed to scramble to safety, a bare handful against the oncoming tide, the time to turn once more.  The time to say brief prayers to Hyne, unaware that their goddess was the partial cause of the attack, that her return was imminent.  On the edge of the inner city, the barricades a scant hundred metres behind them, the remaining defenders prepared to make their last stand.

***

"All clear!"  The cry came from the far end of the room, the signal for levers to be pulled, buttons pressed.  The lights flickered as a new load was added to those already drawing on the main power grid.  Slowly a hum began to build in the previously silent room, a hum that quickly slid up the scale to a piercing whine.

"Activate!  For Hyne's sake do it!"  Tension burst like a pricked bubble, the words like a spark in a powder keg.  A single hand came down on an unassuming grey button.  The whine of the generators changed pitch subtly, the whine becoming a purr, a hunting cat let off its leash to do its job.

***

The barrier activated with a soft buzz, a shimmering matrix of lines briefly visible, then hidden once more.  Nothing seemed to have changed, except now only a handful of monsters advanced, the others seemingly unable to see them.  The defenders took heart, and the initiative.  Whereas before they had waited, passive, for the monsters to attack them, now they fought back, with a charge that was slowed by their injuries, but was no less powerful for its lack of speed.

The monsters crumbled before them, dying swiftly to the multiple magics and limit breaks that were unleashed.  Finally, it was over.  The defenders stood, smeared with blood and gore, sweat-dampened and exhausted, barely with the strength to hold their weapons now that the adrenaline was gone.  There were twelve, of the five hundred who had started the battle – four hundred and fifty of those Estharian soldiers, and fifty SeeDs – and only four were soldiers.  It was a terrific loss of life for a single pitched battle, which had lasted, in all, not much more than two hours.

As the survivors stared out over the carnage within the barrier, the air shimmered in several places, disgorging six small groups of SeeDs and soldiers.  They were the lucky ones, the ones who had been inside the barrier's limits when they had summoned their GFs, and they brought the survivor's total to just over thirty-five.  The soldiers who had been caught up in the summoning – all fifteen of them – were dazed, unused to the disorientating effect of being transferred between dimensions.

The others, those who had summoned their GFs outside the barrier's area of effect, were not so lucky.  They reappeared within the ranks of the fighting monsters, and were instantly set upon.  The Esthar soldiers, suffering from the same disorientation as their more fortunate companions, were little use, dying almost before they could raise their weapons.  The SeeDs were little better off, isolated from one another and hopelessly outnumbered.  There was nowhere they could run – Esthar was as surely barred to them as the monsters – and no hope of aid.

The horrified SeeDs within the barrier's confines rushed to press despairing hands against its cool blockade, unable to do anything but watch their comrades die...

***

Harena screamed with rage as the air shimmered, and Esthar vanished from sight.  The monsters below, suddenly bereft of prey in front, began to turn on one another, and she was powerless to prevent them.  That several groups of SeeDs and soldiers suddenly appeared, instantly set upon by the creatures, she cared not.  Truly she had but one option now but to seek the aid that only one other race could give.  One which was young, compared to herself, but rapidly growing in power.  Besides, if they made untrustworthy allies, she had that which would ensure their undying loyalty...

AN: ooo...  I wonder who Harena's gonna make a bargain with O.o  So sad... *sniffles*  all those deaths... *cackles*  I actually enjoyed writing the battle the best :)  Hope everyone else liked it too ;p  RxR and tell me... please?

Um... lessee...  about *thinks* yeah, bout 15ish chpts to go :)  *waves hands in air dramatically*  the end is nigh!! ^_~