Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters.

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Chapter 10 – Prisoners of War

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"Holy!" Rinoa yelled out as a pure white light emanated from her body and blasted through ten monsters at once. The once sorceress grinned widely as she viewed what she had done. 'Yep, still have the touch. Three years and still going!'

Selphie and Quistis were taking turns blasting the monsters with a series of Thunders, Fires and Blizzards, always hitting the mark dead on. "Hey Quisty! I still haven't found any illusions. Could they all be the real thing? I mean, I haven't seen any of my attacks going through any one of those filthy creatures."

The instructor attacked a random monster with her whip, but only found out to have it go through it completely. Not believing her eyes, Quistis attacked once again and had the same consequences. "Selphie! NO, there are some illusions. I just…………"

At that exact moment, the illusion monster fired a meltdown blast straight towards Quistis. Not expecting it to actually hit, she just stood there, but soon found out to be a huge mistake, as she felt her skin becoming burned to the crisp. Completely exhausted, Quistis immediately fell to the ground, barely able to kneel on her knees, let alone, stand up.

Rinoa whipped her head around just in time to see her friend fall to the ground. "Selphie!! Quistis needs help!" she yelled as she shot her Shooting Star at a monster, only to have it go right through it. "What!? That was a complete hit! I don't believe…………"

The monster that Rinoa just shot her weapon at, aimed a powerful Thundaga spell towards her. Like Quistis before, Rinoa stood her ground, thinking that since the monster was an illusion, the attack would not hit. The Thundaga spell hit dead on, and for some reason, Rinoa fell instantly to the attack. Through blurry eyes, Rinoa could make out the orcs coming in all around her. Her breathing becoming heavy, she did the only thing that came to mind. "Sqqquuuuaaalllll!" She then passed out.

He was in the middle of unleashing a power Meteor spell when the yell reached his ears. Instantaneously, he whipped his head around to find his love plummeting to the ground as a Thunder spell hit her dead on. His oceanic blue eyes burned with rage at the sight. He quickly looked over to Selphie, only to find her barely holding her ground.

Squall then looked over to Quistis, who was barely up, straining to cast her next spell, just to defend herself. 'Shit, no time at all. If I want to save them, I need to find the leader, and fast.'

Knowing he only had a few sacred seconds to spare, Squall quickly roamed the battlefield over with his eyes. Each orc monster he passed looked exactly the same. There was no difference. 'DAMN! Where the hell is he?'

Casting a simple Fire spell at a nearby orc, it was then Squall's oceanic blue eyes had found his prey. There he was; the leader Orc who was standing at the edge of the battlefield, smirking to himself as he watched his minions and illusions do his job for him.

Once again, Squall desperately took another glance at Rinoa, who lay unconscious on the ground. Selphie was losing her handle on things, and Quistis definitely had her better days. With one loud battle cry, Squall leaped into the air.

Faster than the naked eye could comprehend, Squall had unsheathed his mysterious gunblade, sliced the leader Orc in half, and re-sheathed just as quickly, never looking back. If anyone had been paying attention to him, all they would have seen was a flash of light.

Time seemed to stop still as all the orcs stopped in their tracks and turned their heads towards their leader. Shock filled all of their faces as they witnessed their leader, the strongest of their group, cut in half faster than a blink of an eye. With the snap of Squall's fingers, time resumed once more, and in the same second, three fourths of the orc monsters suddenly disappeared without a trace of them anywhere.

As for the remaining orcs, once glace towards Squall's face, especially his eyes, gave them the message to run away as fast as possible.

With the enemy gone for the meantime, Squall dropped his guard and stopped to regain his breath. 'Damn, I didn't want to use that attack so soon.' Before he had more time to think upon it, Rinoa's condition quickly popped into his mind. Cursing himself for forgetting the most important thing in his life for even a second, he quickly ran over to his love, to find her breathing normally, but still unconscious. Sighing in relief, he cradled her in his arms before walking over to Selphie and Quistis.

"You guys okay?" he asked sincerely.

Selphie nodded. "Yeah……just...out…of…breath."

"Ditto." Quistis acknowledged as she struggled to get up.

Squall frowned at the condition of his party. They were clearly worn out and they didn't even face the meat of Dragoon's army. 'This is definitely not a good sign.' he said to himself.

'You know, you could have summoned me out and I would have taken them out in one shot.'

Rolling his eyes, Squall offered Quistis a hand while cradling Rinoa with one arm somehow. 'I know I could Bahamut. But you're my trump card. I can't summon you against regular enemies. Then Dragoon will know our strongest surprise.'

Bahamut couldn't help but to smirk at Squall's statement of him being the strongest. 'I understand master, but still, look at your friends.'

'I know Bahamut, I know. I guess I'm going to have to give them some pointers about battling these monsters. They are definitely not the same as regular Earth monsters. I suppose three years of peace could tone down one's fighting skills. After all, I've been fighting for my life all those three years.'

Bahamut nodded. 'You're going to have to find a safe place to rest.'

Squall nodded at the Guardian Force's words as he slowly scanned the area. All the huts that once belonged to Shumi Village were all burned save for a few, here and there. There was no cave in sight.

Knowing he needed to find a rest area fast, Squall settled on the closest hut, which was about a few hundred feet away. "Can you two walk?"

Selphie nodded. Quistis, on the other hand, hand trouble even staying up. "Looks my legs don't want to." she said with a somber smile.

"I'll help." Selphie replied as she put an arm around her friend, trying to help her balance on her two feet. Squall held Rinoa in his arms. He could have shifted her onto his back, but at the moment, he wanted to see her angelic face. He wanted to know she was safe, and resting peacefully. Starting their brief journey, Squall looked towards the sky. 'I hope you guys are having better luck than we are………Seifer, Zell and Zack.'

-----*****-----

"C'mon chicken wuss, can't you go any faster!?" Seifer yelled out as he turned around to find Zell a good distance away from himself and Zack.

Zell looked up, responding to Seifer's call and finally noticed how far apart he was from the other two. He quickly jogged up to them and waved his hand. "Sorry guys. I suppose my mind is some place else, if you know what I mean." he stated rhetorically.

Seifer answered anyway. "Yeah, whatever. Just try not to slow us down again. I……well…understand man."

The martial-artist looked towards Seifer in surprise then shrugged, dismissing the comment. "Yeah…"

Seifer grunted in return as he looked over towards Zack. For some reason, the black-haired warrior gave him the feeling of insecurity. He kept too much to himself. "So raven head, why are you so quiet?"

"Who? Me?" Zack asked innocently.

"Well, who else here has black hair? Yeah! You! What's bothering you?" Seifer asked, already annoyed with his people in his party.

Zack just shrugged as he kept on walking. "Well, to tell you the truth, what I'm worried about is the fact that since this Dragoon guy supposedly has sooo much power in his hands, he could unleash a full-scale attack upon the Earth anytime he wants to. I mean, what's stopping him from actually doing that?"

"The Sorceress's powers." Zell replied casually as he finally caught up to the other two.

"Huh?" Both Seifer and Zack asked in unison. "Isn't that what makes him the ultimate being at the moment?" Zack said, voicing out his thoughts.

Zell nodded. "Yeah, that's true. But from what I hear of things, Dragoon is having a hard time controlling those powers."

"Care to explain further, chicken-wuss?"

Zell gave an annoyed glance towards Seifer before continuing. "Well, you guys probably already know that the powers of the Sorceress usually are contained within a female's body. I overheard Cid talking last night that since Dragoon is a male, and not a female, the powers, for some unknown reason, are having a hard time completely adjusting to his body. My guess is that the powers of the Sorceress have been used to a female's body for so long, that it has trouble with the male's body."

Both Zack and Seifer stood quiet for some time. Seifer had a thoughtful look upon his face while Zack had an expression that resembled current thinking and a hint of annoyance, which went undetected by Seifer and Zell. "Makes sense." Seifer and Zack replied after some time.

Zell shrugged. "Yeah, well, anyway, we should be concentrating on finding some clues rather than talking. Irvine could be anywhere in this run-town village, and we have to find him."

"Yeah, yeah, hold on to your pants chicken…………" Seifer couldn't finish his sentence as an earth-shattering loud roar stopped him from doing so. "What the hell was that?"

Automatically, Seifer and Zack unsheathed their gunblades as Zell readied a Meteor spell.

All three fighters waited patiently as they heard the roar coming closer and closer, but from which direction, none of them could fathom. "Where the hell is it coming from?!" Zell exclaimed as he whipped his head three-hundred and sixty degrees.

"Have no clue." Zack replied as he was mimicking the same motion with his head. "Just be ready to attack or defend."

"That's obvious, Zacky boy!" Seifer yelled.

The ground started to rumble softly, then vivaciously as cracks started to form throughout the ground quickly, going to the extent of it splitting apart.

Then it appeared.

A monster that towered over the three fighters easily. To Zell's judgement, it was at least thirty feet high. And to make matters even more mysterious, it appeared from behind them.

"What the hell!? How did that piece of shit manage to appear from thin air!? We should have seen it coming from miles away!"

Zack nor Seifer had no time to answer Zell's question, for they were too busy making sure they would not become flattened like pancakes.

"Ok, scratch that question. New one! Got any ideas on how to fight this thing!?" Zell yelled as he rethought his strategy of attacking with a Meteor Spell. 'Knowing his size, meteor will only be pieces of rock, making him tickle or something.'

Seifer gritted his teeth as he clenched his gunblade, the Hyperion, harder. 'Damn it, well, here goes nothing,' "TRIPLE-FIRAGA!"

The humongous monster was soon attacked by three huge fiery explosions that covered his whole body. Before they could see the results of Seifer's attacks, dust covered up the monster instantly, forcing the three warriors to play the waiting game.

As the gray clouds slowly dispersed, the three comrades expected to see the monster still standing there, with at least some form of damage upon its body. However, the disappeared smoke only revealed empty air.

Seifer's eyes went wide. "What the fuck! Where the hell did he go? How the hell could he have just disappeared like that?!"

"Keep your guard up!" Zack yelled as he tightened his grasp upon his rose red gunblade. "He could be anywhere."

"No shit sherlock!" was the reply from Seifer.

The three of them waited for what seemed like forever. Sweat perspired down their faces like there was no tomorrow. They didn't even move one step, for fear they might fall into some trap. The clouds in the air passed by slowly and peacefully, signaling that there was no disruption in the air. Birds chirped their songs as a flock of ducks flew overhead.

It wasn't until a full five minutes had passed when Zell began to get restless. Thinking the monster might have just been an illusion that Squall had been talking about, he let down his defenses and relaxed. "Hey guys! Maybe that monster was an illusion of some sort." And with that last thought, Zell took a step forward………

…………………………..

………and soon found himself dangling in mid-air, held by one huge hand, on his leg, by the monster who had suddenly reappeared itself from an invisible blanket of air.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Get me off this piece of shit!" Zell yelled in the air while being swung like a child's toy.

"Shit!" Seifer cursed out as he retreated a few steps back to a safety zone. "What now!? We can't risk attacking. We could hit Zell!"

"I don't know!" Zack yelled as he went into a defensive stance. "I just don't know!"

"Damn!" Seifer looked around himself to see if anything could be used to his advantage, and to make things even worse, the land was so barren, that there was barely anything around, let alone a few trees and upright cottages. "Zell! Can't you do anything!?"

"What the hell! Don't you think I'm trying Seifer!?" Zell shouted back as he was being swung around witlessly. "This….monster……is….moving me…….all….too quickly…I'm……..getting………dizzy………"

"That's it! SCAN!" At once, a yellowish-aura surrounded Zack as information of the monster poured into his mind:

*Creature Name: Orgoth the Relentless. Element: Earth. Weakness: Wind. Description: A twenty-seven foot monster whose armor is stronger than diamonds or adamantine. Nearly impossible to pierce, its only weakness is its weakness against wind elemental attacks. If strong enough wind gusts, dents occur in its armor weak spots, which are pierce-able.*

"Seifer! It's weak against wind!" The black-haired warrior jumped once again as Orgoth tried to step on him. "Have anything!?"

Seifer, dodging as well, took a moment to think before replying. "Wind….wind….wind…….the only thing I got is Aero! But compared to his size and "so-called" armor, it won't do a freakin' thing!"

"Guys!!!!"

Both Seifer and Zack looked up at Zell's sudden outburst. "I………have……Pan…de…mon…a!"

"Who?!"

"Shit! Pandemona!" Seifer emphasized angrily at Zack's question. "A Guardian Force with wind power! We need to free Zell!"

"Easier said that done man!" was all Zack could say. "And how exactly do you plan on doing that?"

"Like this!!!!!!!! TRIPLE-AERO!" Seifer closed his eyes as three balls of light suddenly emitted from his hand and turned into spirals of wind. Within seconds, it surrounded Orgoth one by one until all three were swirling around the huge monster.

'C'mon you freakin' monster. You gotta have some kind of weakness.' Seifer watched helplessly as his attacks were swirling around the humongous beast, trying to lift it into the air.

Then something totally unexpected happened.

A simple, yet opaque white cloud suddenly came into existence and started to cover Orgoth. Before Zack or Seifer had any chance to retaliate against the strange thing, the cloudy substance covered the monster completely.

Both Zack and Seifer watched dumbly as the clouds started to dissipate slowly. Once it had however, both blade-warriors were wide-eyed. Both were expecting Orgoth to still be there, and at the most, cured of any kind of injury Seifer's attack may have caused. But instead, there was nothing. Just nothing.

"Where the fuck did it go!?" Seifer yelled furiously as he rammed is gunblade into the earth, tip first. "Where the hell did it go!?"

"He's got Zell…" Zack solemnly stated as he re-sheathed his gunblade. "He's knocking us out one by one."

-----*****-----

Squall kicked the door open as the inside of the hut revealed a dusty interior. After making sure everything was safe, he went back outside to signal his comrades that everything was indeed, okay. He gently picked up an unconscious Rinoa and headed back into the hut, closely followed by Selphie and an injured Quistis.

"Let's rest here for now guys till we can think of another way to attack."


Both Selphie and Quistis nodded as they made their way over to one of the two beds located in the hut. Squall laid Rinoa down on the other one. Checking her temperature and pulse rate, Squall let out a relieved sigh. 'She's only exhausted. She's probably not used to be using forbidden magic like Holy, even now since her powers are not with her.'

"How are you two feeling? Any better?"

Selphie and Quistis looked at Squall in amazement, marveling in the way he was opening up his feelings and concern towards them. "We're fine Squall, just tired."

"Yeah," Selphie reiterated. "But I do have one question for you……"

Squall kept his eyes locked on Rinoa, "I'm listening…"

"That attack you performed earlier Squall……well…I've never seen anything like it before. One minute you were there, and the next, you're on the other side of the battlefield, with your enemy cut in half."

The commander sighed as he sat down next to his love's body. He hadn't wanted to use the attack that early, or at all. Besides Bahamut, the attack was another one of his trump cards. 'I guess it wouldn't hurt me if I told them the truth about the attack.' "Well, I picked it up a year ago while I was 'away.' All I actually know about it is that it isn't as powerful as my other attack, Lionheart. But because of the speed at which I execute the attack, I usually can cut the enemy in half. But, there's one huge catch."

Both Selphie and Quistis were listening attentively to Squall's explanation. The extent of his skill astonished both of them prodigiously.

"The attack requires a lot of energy to be spent. It may not look like I'm tired or exhausted, but in the inside, it feels like I can't take another step with collapsing."

Selphie nodded. "Wow……that must be some attack then."

"Yeah, it is." Squall merely shrugged at the comment. "But we have more important things to worry about, like you guys."

"What about us?!" Selphie wailed surprisingly. "Shouldn't we be looking for Irvine!?"

Quistis nodded. "She's got a point Squall. What about us?"

Squall sighed. "Look, it's about the way you guys were battling out there earlier. If you keep that up, you're basically going to die sooner or later. You have to remember how you guys fought against Ultimecia and use those tactics and strategies here as well."

Both girls dejectedly look towards the ground. They knew Squall was right. That was not their best.

"By the way, do you girls have any GF's junctioned to yourselves?"

"Oh my god! I totally forgot!" Selphie wailed once again as she slapped herself on the forehead.

"Same goes for me too." Quistis added dryly.

"Jeez. I can't believe you both forgot!!" The tone of Squall's voice could have easily scared away any person in the room. Both girls however, stood their ground. They almost lost their lives out there because of one stupid error that should have been a regular habit. 'I can't believe they forgot to junction. Three years of peace surely has done some damage.'

'You're saying it like it's a bad thing.'

Squall sighed annoyingly. 'You know what I mean Bahamut. They should have at least been training or something. I would have done that if I were in their place.'

'They have a life.'

'Bahamut?'

'Yes?'

'Shutup!'

"So Squall, what's our next move."

The lone wolf warrior looked up as Quistis stated her question. Truthfully, Squall had no clue what they were going to do next. From the minute they landed in Shumi Village, they had not come across one single clue or piece of evidence that would help them lead to the whereabouts of Irvine.

"I don't…………" He stopped short when something caught his eye.

"You don't what?" Selphie asked curiously.

Squall suddenly got up and walked across the room to where the object of interest laid silently on the ground. 'Yes, that what I thought I saw.' Slowly, he bent down and picked up the object.

"What's that Squall?"

"Exeter………Irvine's gun."

-----*****-----

A figure stepped out of the Ragnarok slowly, awed at the picture that stood in front of her. "Woooooooooowww! This place is huge."

Kari looked around. There were so many places to go and so little time she had, if she knew how to count time. Squinting her eyes so she could see better against the shining sun, she finally noticed a couple of cottages in the distance and decided that those would be the best place to start her investigation.

She skipped the whole way to the cottages until she finally reached her destination. Now that she was closer, she noticed that there were two cottages instead of the three she thought she saw.

Choosing the cottage on her right, she walked up to it slowly and stopped by the entrance when the sounds of voices reached her ear. Almost immediately, Kari ran away and hoped that nobody would have noticed her.

Gathering the courage she had within every fiber of her body, she entered the other cottage on her left.


To her surprise, it was empty.

She let out a surprised gasp but quickly covered her mouth, in fear that somebody might hear her. Bravely, Kari took out her flashlight and turned it own. She scanned the room with what little light her item was emitting, only to find nothing out of the ordinary besides a roughly made bed and a closet in the corner of the room.

Shrugging mentally, Kari went up to the closet and opened it.

What she found was a ladder leading down.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she carefully climbed down the ladder and once again, turned on her flashlight.

"I'm in a cave?!" She gasped despite herself.

And the next thing she saw was black.

The flashlight slowly fell to the floor with a loud 'clink' sound. A figure approached the unconscious girl and smiled devilishly.

"This is too perfect!"

Author's Notes: Well, there's chapter 10 of Reality and Illusion. When I was writing this, I wasn't sure that this was as good as I hoped it would be. I know there isn't as much romance in this chapter as there were in others, but I still feel confident it fits correctly into my story.

Again, I would love to thank ALL my reviewers and readers. Truly, if it weren't for you guys, I wouldn't be in this business. I love reading all of your reviews and all.

Hopefully I'll get the next chapter in soon.

And as always, LEAVE A REVIEW!

Till next chapter,
vindemon64