BREAKING THE MIRROR
Disclaimer – I don't own any of the FF8 characters etc, but I do however own some original characters that are going to be included in this story, and the imagination I have to give them life. Hope you like it…
Also huge thanks to Michael Kenny for letting me use a technique he invented (will use it in due time! Oh, and read his fics. Top notch!)
Chapter 15 – Irvine Vs Mirror
'Revenge is a dish best served cold'
(The Tower Of Deling City – Floor 14)
The lift goes up, it seems to take an age. No one says anything. No noise is made except for the occasional sniff from Irvine, and the lift going up.
"Who is going to be next, you think?" asks Quistis, breaking the silence. "I am sorry I could not help."
Squall shakes his head. "There's nothing you could do, the glass wall we were standing behind, we couldn't break it, for fear of spells rebounding on us. Or the magic might die, as we saw with Irvine's Full-Life."
"So what now? Quistis has a point, who's next?" asks Seifer.
Squall shrugs. "I don't know. Even worse thing is, we can't dictate who will fight next. They have the say on that."
"Me, I'm going to kill him," snarls Irvine. Squall places a hand on his shoulder.
"If you fight him next, which looks likely, but remember, he will try to take advantage of you because of your emotional state. He will know to use that against you, your anger will cause you to make a mistake."
Irvine snarls, then closes his eyes. Settling down, the lift stops. He walks quietly out the lift.
The room is similar to the one below, in terms of light and shape. The walls are again, windowless. Mirror stands there at the far end, finger resting on a button. Squall guesses that the room will show the weapons that will determine who is next. But the most alarming thing is the fact that Mirror appears unharmed from his fight with Selphie. In fact, it looks as if he hasn't fought anyone yet.
Squall steps forward. "Mirror, cut the crap, I know you want me and Seifer, so just take us on and be done with it."
Mirror smiles. "No Squall, I was promised a fight against each and every one of you individually. It was all I wanted, and also one of the reasons why this tower was built."
Seifer snarls "you know damn well you couldn't take us all."
Mirror face falters slightly. Ignoring Seifer, he gestures to one of them with a finger.
Irvine.
"Come, gunslinger, you are next."
Irvine nods his head, and walks forward. The others go to follow but again, the glass wall appears, blocking them. Irvine turns to them.
"Don't worry about me, I'll see to it he doesn't get the chance to heal this time. It's the least I can do."
Squall nods, and watches as Mirror presses the button. Again, parts of the wall flip around. Various guns adorn the walls. Ammunition line one of the walls in racks. Irvine takes no notice. He never takes his eyes off Mirror. Studying him like Selphie did before, he notices the two Exeters on either side of Mirrors legs. Irvine makes a mental note of this.
"Are you ready to die, my friend? I'm sure Selphie would like the company."
Irvine does not react. He let's his 'assassin' nerves take over. The nerves he uses whenever he lines up a shot. It keeps his body still, calm, quiet. All mental and physical action is blocked from his mind as this kicks in. A form of tunnel vision comes to his mind, and Mirror is at the end of that tunnel.
These nerves have only faltered once, when he went to assassinate Edea.
He has never faltered since.
"No talk? Fair enough. I know what you are doing," Mirror finishes then too falls silent. He copies Irvine as his right fingers twitch slightly, ready to draw.
Irvine never takes his eyes off of Mirrors. There is absolute silence in the room.
His hand is a blur as he goes for his Exeter. His movement almost unnoticeable as he grabs his weapon with his left hand and tosses it to his right. Letting rip as soon as it touches his fingers…
Squall and the others watch as the room flies ablaze with gunfire. Bullets stick into the glass wall and then falls, leaving little holes where the bullets were. Squall watches the wall, rather than the fight. A thought crosses his mind, it was just a matter of trying to relay it to Irvine…
Irvine's hands are a blur as he lets rip with his gun, Exeter twirling in his hand, firing at all angles. Trying to hit the blur that is Mirror. Mirror does not have Haste on, but the bullets fail to meet their target, just missing him instead. It is then Irvine's turn to dodge as Mirror pulls out his other Exeter. Leveling the two guns at him, he lets rip. Irvine tears around the room, dodging the huge blast that comes from Mirrors guns. A fiery glow flashes from them. Irvine recognizes this as Fire ammo.
Running alongside the wall, he quickly swaps his gun from his right hand to his left. Still firing, he grabs some ammo off the wall. Looking down he sees it is Fast ammo. Mirror sees nothing but a blur as Irvine jerks his gun open and loads it. He quickly throws up his arms and casts Protect, crossing his two guns over each other. Irvine aims his gun and holds the trigger down. The bullets fly out his gun at an incredible velocity, hammering into Mirrors Protect. Mirror grits his teeth and dives to the floor, rolling forward and moving to the left, circling Irvine, his plan is working as Irvine moves away from the wall with the ammo. He then quickly tosses one of the Exeters away and grabs some ammo. Not looking to see what he loaded, he prepares to fire. One bullet flies out and blows a hole in the wall, just where Irvine was. Mirror verifies this as AP ammo.
As Irvine circles round more, he hears Squalls voice.
"Irvine, try to get Mirror to hit the glass wall with his AP, do it!"
Irvine pretends not to hear, but flicks his left hand, a SeeD way of signalling yes. Irvine stops firing. Mirror levels his gun at him, smiling.
"Go on, cast Protect, Shell, whatever, this bullet will go through it anyway, then through you."
Irvine smiles. "I won't cast anything, but you still won't hit me."
"We shall see. Although this ammo is slow, it is also very accurate. I hope you are good at being one step ahead of me Irvine, I know how you move, everything."
Irvine drops his smile, and runs as Mirror fires, the AP ammo whistles past him and smashes into the glass wall. To Mirrors horror, the wall cracks and a hole appears. He looks up as Irvine goes for him, using the small distraction to level his gun right at his heart.
"Dodge this, asshole" he shouts as he fires. Mirror grimaces and, somehow, manages to conjure up a Protect spell. Irvine hesitates slightly as he notices something.
He didn't even move his hands! How did he do tha…?
Nothing more passes through his mind as he feels his jaw break. All he sees is lights as Mirror flies at him and uses his Exeter to smash into Irvine's face. He hits the floor, unconscious. Mirror walks up to him and presses the gun to his head.
"Say hi to Selphie for me."
Suddenly he is blown off his feet as a Flare spell smashes into him, he screams and flies to the other end of the room, skidding along the floor and bashing into the wall. Quickly coming to, he sees who attacked him.
Seifers hand sticks through the hole in the glass wall, the damage caused by the AP ammo.
"I don't think this wall is gonna save you now, asshole" he smirks, and casts Life on Irvine, who wakes up and shakes his head.
Mirror grits his teeth and stands up. Irvine follows suit. He notices Mirror is unarmed. Suddenly jerking his arms, 2 small pistols fall into his hands. Mirror looks at them with surprise on his face.
"Something told me you wouldn't know about his little trick," he says. Without hesitating, he lets rip. Mirror mutters something and disappears. Irvine recognizes the familiar purple blur of someone who has Haste on, but with Mirror, he moves unbelievably fast. The fastest anyone has ever seen. The others watch in awe as Mirror races round the room, almost completely vanishing. Irvine recognizes two medium handguns vanishing from the wall. Deciding to follow suit, he too casts Haste, and vanishes.
The others can no longer see anything apart from two purple blurs. Gunfire rips out from nowhere, from various corners of the room, even one point from the ceiling.
"Man, how can he move like that?" Zell whispers in awe.
Squall looks straight ahead. Damn, he thinks. He could keep up with me when I had Haste on, and this is him with it on? This, has just got a lot tougher now…
The world is a blur of colors to Irvine. But with his keen eyesight, he spots things no one else can, as one of the advantages of being a sniper was the ability to spot the minutest of details. Even with Haste on, and damn-near invisibility, coupled with an ability to keep up with a moving target, Irvine is able to see Mirror. His bullets barely miss him, but he feels he is missing because Mirror is reacting slightly faster than he is, thus causing him to dodge and aim wrongly at the last minute. He knows Mirror is good, but he didn't know he was this good.
Mirror sees the familiar light-brown colour of Irvine's trenchcoat burling around him. A couple of times he even managed to hit it with bullets. Irvine is proving to be more of a handful than Selphie.
A thought hits him, Irvine is moving at the same speed as me, I would cast Stop on him, but Seifer or one of the others will simply Esuna him… hmm let's see…
Irvine decides to fire just ahead of Mirror, but suddenly Mirror disappears, Irvine realizes he has stopped, and lands just in front of him. Suddenly Mirror grabs the Exeter from the wall and fires, not at Irvine, but at the glass wall. The Pulse ammo booms into the wall. And, to his astonishment, causes it to break. The ammo explodes over the wall, Irvine yells, as Squall and the others are covered in the white blast.
"Squall!" he shouts, turning to look at the blast.
That was his last act, as suddenly a bullet tears through his back. He feels a gun pressed against his back, placed precisely where his heart is.
"A true gunman never takes his eyes off his target, regardless of what is going on around him. He never leaves the target until it is destroyed."
Irvine simply closes his eyes as he realizes he made a mistake. For the second and last time.
His last thought is of Selphie, as a bullet, a plain, simple normal bullet, blasts through him at point blank range. He feels his heart stop as the bullet lodges in it.
He collapses, and lands on his back.
Mirror looks down at him, and watches him die. Then he turns and heads for the far-end elevator. The doors open, then close as he sees Squall and the others rush towards him.
Squall stops running, then looks down at Irvine, his eyes are open, but he is already dead. Quistis falls to her knees, sobbing.
"No… Irvine…"
Squall, without hesitation suddenly grabs her and drags her to the lift; she does not fight him, as she realizes it is no good.
"Squall! Let's help him!" yells Seifer.
"We can't! I assure you, let's go!" he shouts back as the lift appears. Zell and Seifer are surprised with Squalls attitude. They both run for the lift as they join him and Quistis in it. It goes up.
"Squall, how could you be so cold to Irvine! There may have been a chance to save him!"
Squall snaps at Zell "because I have my reasons! We have to stop Mirror. I know it looks harsh, but he is our biggest worry. Irvine knew what he was getting into!"
Seifer and Zell are stunned by Squalls voice. But both nod together. Squall had a point.
Squall curses his attitude, but he has a good reason, he thought of the voice that spoke to him after Selphie died. He was thinking that they weren't alone in this mission, somehow.
As soon as the lift doors close, floor 14 suddenly blacks out as it too plunges into darkness, and once again the room falls deathly silent…
(All reviews welcome thank you. Craig)