Chapter 9: Out of Time
Squall, Rinoa, and Zell arrived at Ultimecia's door after more than two hours of intense combat. Their limits had been tested, taken within an inch of their breaking point. Fighting back exhaustion, Zell and Squall leaned over their knees and caught their breath. Rinoa, however, seemed to take it all in stride and moved around. Due to her unnaturally strong magic, the candidate for sorceress didn't have to exert as much energy as the boys did with their physical attacks.
They had been the first team to reach this far. The SeeDs had split into two groups shortly after entering Ultimecia's Castle. The idea was they would equally take on the guardians of the dark citadel and make it through in half the time. It was tough on everyone having to operate under half their normal fighting power, but Squall wanted to make sure that his friends had enough guardian forces to ensure their survival. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea though, and at the moment, the leader was becoming slightly worried. Irvine's group still hadn't shown up and it should have been more than enough time to defeat the large yellow robot Trauma and the relative of the behemoth family, Catoblepas. Both were very devious and nasty, but that was no excuse. Squall placed his trust in Irvine and knew he could do it. He waited for another half hour, and was able to recharge all his energy before seeing any sign of the other group.
Out of the castles cold mist walked Quistis, dragging her deadly whip Save the Queen along her side. The heavy metal end of the weapon screeched along the ground like fingernails against a chalkboard. Squall's former instructor looked haggard and frail from flight through the gauntlet. Quistis blew the hair in front of her eyes out of her face and collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Her usual beautiful hairdo was sticking out at the sides and becoming frizzy instead of being held up in a bun or ponytail. Rinoa could see that her hair wasn't the only thing frazzled. The teacher's emotions and patience were wearing thin too. Passing out on the ground, Quistis stretched out every aching limb on her body on the cold stone walkway.
"What happened to Irvine and Selphie!?" Squall uneasily asked.
"Don't worry," Quistis replied, short of breath, "They were right behind me. To make a long story short, we hit a snag during the fight with Catoblepas. Irvine thought it would be cute to try and take out that horrible beast as quick as possible with his fast ammo, but during the confusion Selphie was hurt. Nothing major, just a scrape on her leg from the spines on the monsters tail, but Irvine felt really bad about it. He offered to give her a ride on his back and that is why they were so far behind me," After a few moments, her story was backed up. A cowboy in a tan trench coat walked into view, carrying his adorable love, Selphie on his back and shoulders.
"Are you okay?" Rinoa asked.
"Irvy was sooo brave!!" Selphie replied, stealing the cowboy hat from his head as he trudged along the dark stone path leading to his friends, "He saved us when we went up against that nasty Cato . . . Catop, well that big bad beast!"
"Catoblepas," Quistis finished for her, wiping stray strands of hair from her forehead.
"Yeah. Quistis and I had been backed into a corner and that monster was closing in on us. Irvine used some fast ammo to save us but then it raced toward him in a rage. If he hadn't of used Apocalypse, we'd all be history."
Irvine let his girlfriend down gently to the ground, but a soft groan of pain still escaped her lips, "You'll be okay baby," he said as he adjusted the makeshift bandage on her right leg. The blood had darkened the material torn from Irvine's coat but it still held tightly to the upbeat girl's leg.
"Thanks Irvy," Selphie cooed as he checked her injury out. When he rose back up, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek in thanks and placed the borrowed hat back on his head.
Rinoa had listened to them and tried to seem interested, but Squall knew better. It wouldn't be one of those "I'm glad you're okay situations". Irvine always fools around at the wrong times and gets himself into trouble. The fact that this time people were hurt made his transgression ten times as worse. Selphie seems to encourage him into that type of behavior, but that would be no excuse. Irvine's actions screamed immaturity and showed that he just needed to grow up.
Squall looked over his friends, sighed, then put down his foot to the couple, "Okay, let's drop the crap. There is no time for you two to be flirting during a time like this. We came here on a mission, and I expect that all of you act as you would on an official operation. Got it? We aren't mercenaries for hire anymore, do you guys understand that? What happens here will determine our existence!"
"Squall, it isn't a problem . . ." Irvine defended himself and his girlfriend.
"Damn it Irvine, IT IS a problem!" Squall shouted angrily at his friend. He became serious because of their situation, and adamantly stood up for the principles of SeeD, "Get your priorities straight. You will listen to me during this mission and completing our task ALWAYS supercedes everything else. You got that?"
The swordsman with the heart of steel caused the Galbadia Garden sniper to snap to attention, "Sorry sir, didn't mean to upset you," Irvine was tired of the big man attitude Squall dragged along with him everywhere, but what could he do about it? Flashing his superior a sarcastic smirk, Irvine took his long, silver rifle from its holster and began loading shots into it. With a loud snap he pumped the first shot into the ammo chamber, "Locked and loaded sir, ready to go."
"That's more like it," the cold-hearted leader took the high powered weapon that Irvine had presented him with and checked it out. After a quick run- through he handed the slick looking Exeter back to its owner," Now if you are ready, let's get this over with."
Squall left Irvine alone and headed towards the final destination: Ultimecia's Door. Zell paced alongside his good friend and spoke up, "Dude, don't be so rough on him. We all make mistakes, right?"
"Don't tell me how to do my job," Squall shot back angrily, "Are you ready? Let's get this mission done with already . . . I want to go home."
Zell nodded in agreement, taking his leader's gesture as an invitation to kick the door as hard as he could. His first attack rattled the bulky hinges of the entrance and created a few cracks where his foot hit. On his second try, both of the huge mahogany doors fractured and splintered along the hinges. The powerful fighter wound up again for a backwards roundhouse kick and put all his weight into a final hit. It connected in the same place the first two attacks had and his foot exploded through the other side of the door. Zell feverishly pounded away at the remaining boards of jagged wood and cleared the way into Ultimecia's domain.
He walked through the broken doorway, unaffected. Squall, Rinoa, and the other followed right behind his lead and were met with a nasty look from the sorceress of Time. Ultimecia stirred uncomfortably in her ornate throne, watching Squall's friends' every move as they walked before her. She tapped an aggravated finger on the armrest, showing her dislike of the intruders, "SeeDs! Kurse all SeeDs! The world is on the brink of the ever- elusive Time Kompression. There is no way for you to stop it . . . it is inevitable. I will kill you all for trying to oppose me!"
They had heard it all before and were ready for it. If they waited and fought in threes, it would draw out and somebody could possibly get hurt. This battle called for a new strategy . . .
"We can defeat her if we all attack at the same time," Squall ordered. He pointed to each group member and then motioned for them to take positions around the evil being atop her throne. The SeeDs used discretion to move and encircle Ultimecia so she didn't realize their tactic. It was easy to surround her, because the entire time she kept her stare locked solely on the leader, Squall. He was the general of this small army, and the general always leads the attack. Ultimecia knew that he was no different from the warriors that had tried to stop her in the past. Each of those masters of strategy had crumbled under her power, and Squall would do the same. She crossed her hands behind her back and hid her first attack from her assailants. Reddish-black flame swarmed around her fingertips and spiked out wildly. Ultimecia smiled confidently in her readiness and waited.
With a tight grip of his sword and a sudden shift in focus, Squall began just as she thought he would. In one movement he put away his sword and turned his body to the side, outstretching his open hand towards his target. White swirls of wind were vacuumed towards Squall's body as he readied himself to summon the god of all guardians, Eden. His strain became apparent as his arms shook under the intense power transferring into his body from the mighty summon. It took every ounce of concentration in his body to maintain the focus needed for such an attack. Selphie quickly called forth the power of Bahamut, and Irvine tried to usurp her support with the hell flames of Ifrit.
"No, no, no," Ultimecia teased as she moved her free hand's index finger back and forth. Her hidden hand swept through the air, creating a deadly mist that distorted space and time as it sought out the overpowered beasts being summoned by her assailants. The semi-solid spell impacted against Squall, causing him to stumble back and fall on his back. White flame consumed Ultimecia's left hand as she commenced a consecutive attack against Selphie whose summon was even further along than Squall's. Under such instantaneous conditions, the flame was drawn to her body like a moth to a flame and it sucked all of the life from the lord of dragons.
The ground began to quake as both Squall and Selphie shook off the after effects of summoning. Irvine had managed to release the demon beast from the pits of hell and it was now breaking through the floor in the throne room. Ifrit's crooked, hardened horns poked through the stone and ripped it to shreds. When he was fully into their world, he leapt into the air and called forth a fiery boulder from his home with just a motion of his hands. The rock hovered a few hundred feet above the battle field with Ifrit not to far away from it, glowing and covered in an undying fire. Irvine watched on with amazement as the hell beast's roar spilled flames from its mouth and shook loose parts of the castle. Ifrit clasped his fists together and slammed the boulder with one mighty punch, causing it to barrel towards Ultimecia at an incredible speed. The trail of fire from the falling asteroid burned brighter the faster it fell and unleashed its wrath onto the sorceress.
The classy, scantily clad witch turned her attention away from the fighters for merely a moment and let go wave after wave of magic from her palm. Her goddess-like magic ripped through the small terrestrial object and turned it into gravel before it could even touch her . . . It was fruitless. The summoned guardian force monsters never had a chance. Their power just couldn't stand up against that of the great sorceress.
Burning with the rage of frustration, Zell recklessly jumped into the middle of the action, "Damn, enough of all this! We don't need to be playing with you!" The hand to hand fighter drew a Triple from his spell bank which sped up the recharge time on his magic and then cast Meteor. The atmosphere of the arena around everybody suddenly grew dark and mimicked the depths of outer space. Through the confusion of nebulae and clouds of gas, huge rocks fell sporadically around Ultimecia and against her body. She was pounded from left to right every few seconds in an endless barrage of meteors that drained on her energy. Her speed allowed her to miss some of them, but ultimately she was subdued by Zell's awesome attack. Ultimecia became temporarily weakened as she regained her strength and left her body open to whatever vicious attack Squall's group could think of.
'This is it, THIS IS OUR CHANCE!' Squall thought to himself.
"Finish her off before she gets back up!" Quistis told Squall as he shook off his earlier daze. Before he could process what was happening, Rinoa had cast Aura on him, blanketing his body in a warm golden glow. The spells effect soon took hold of his most primal emotions, causing his anger to surface without a hint of past wrong being done to his body. Countless techniques of the Renzokuken sword art filled his head now, but one repeated over and over again in his thoughts . . . Lionheart. Squall looked to his target with gleeful intent as his translucent blue sword glowed brighter with his fury. His eyes narrowed and muscles tightened as the sorceress queen got to her knees. Squall erupted forward from his standing position, seemingly flying across the ground to attack Ultimecia who had managed to catch a glimpse of this general coming to do battle with her.
She held out her hand, trying to summon a quick spell to deter Squall, but he was too fast. His body seemed to fade in from left to right, making targeting his body impossible, and his speed was simply amazing. With a single upward slash, Squall detached the sorceress' arm at the elbow, and then knocked her body back with a trio of cuts to her abdomen and chest. She seemed to fall back in slow motion as the furious frontal attack continued. Squall's attacks came swifter and more precise, slicing deeper into her body from all directions before her body could land on the ground from the initial attack. The deadly combo was unavoidable, and with one final upward slash, Ultimecia's bloodied body was hit high into the air. The glow from Squall's body faded, and his hair settled as he walked away confidently that his job was done. The space behind him was empty, the throne obliterated, and long, deep gashes had been left in the stone floor. There were no screams, no moans of pain as Hyne's descendant slammed into ground creating a small crater. Ultimecia slumped against the destroyed throne room floor, wounded badly from Squall's finishing move and wholly defeated. The SeeD general could barely make out what she whispered to them next.
"The most powerful GF" she breathed, coughing up blood, ". . . You . . . shall . . . SUFFER!" Ultimecia screamed aloud with renewed strength. She raised her dying body off the ground and hovered over the heroes. Dark, black blood seeped from the witch's wounds as she presented herself, totally defenseless, to the SeeD's.
"Not again! I thought she was dead!" Irvine yelled.
"Brace yourselves, you know what's coming next!" Rinoa added as a noise grew in the background.
Deep rumblings started to shake the ground beneath everyone's feet and tiny fissures spread out from a central point underneath Ultimecia. Soon the small battlefield was turned into an unstable spiderweb of stone. They could see the horrible intent in Ultimecia's eye, they could see the hate that seemed to boil from within the sorceress' bloodshot eyes and blood covered face. White energy filtered out of the cracks in the earth and dispersed itself high into the air, but this was only a diversion. The real purpose of the light show was the horrendous monster it came from. Deep from within the broken castle it came, roaring and pounding the walls and supports of the fortress as it closed in on the battlefield. Its name was Griever, and in all its unheralded rage, it blasted through the delicate ground beneath Ultimecia and loomed ominously above everyone. The group was obviously unnerved. No matter how many times you see this horrible animal, you can never truly get used to its nastiness. The group had however beaten it before, and shook off their shock in a matter of moments.
Noticing her friends' nervousness, Rinoa tried to keep the mood a bit lighter than what it was becoming, "Come on guys, he's nothing but a big grumpy pushover!" The young sorceress raised her arm to shoot her boomerang weapon, but her friend in the pink dress lifted her hand to halt her.
"Something's not right here," Quistis pointed out as she grabbed her whip taught across her chest. Upon closer examination, she realized that the body of Griever had undergone drastic changes since their last encounter. Every part of the once tame looking beast seemed to have mutated and modified itself. Griever's two angelic wings had become leathery in appearance, almost bat-like with talons at the ends, and its skin was metallic black in color, as though it had fused with some unknown material from out of this world. What had caused the beast to gain these demonic features?
Griever had transformed from a wild beast into the personification of the Angel of Death. Spikes and scales glimmered across its body, making its image even more intimidating and letting off a dark glow. Quistis approached the monster with reckless caution, still unsure of the power it might hold within. Before she could utter another syllable, Griever cocked back its head and roared as loud as its vocal cords could sustain. With alarming speed it twisted its body around and swung its tail towards the former teacher. Quistis countered the pre-emptive attack with a snap of her whip that connected across Griever's arm. A thin red line appeared where the attack had hit and the monster roared in annoyance at her attack. Quistis snapped her whip again towards the animal's maw to shut it up, but the beast somehow managed to grab the flail on the tip of Quistis' Save the Queen. She tried to yank it free from the monster's grasp, but Griever jerked the weapon forward, causing the light-weight SeeD professor to be flung forwards. For her stubbornness, she flew straight towards Griever. Quistis held fast to her weapon just as Griever had suspected and was set up for one nasty little trick.
He threw his other fist forward and met Quistis' body straight on. Sickening crunches were heard from the impact as the blow shattered dozens of bones in her body and redirected her body back the other way. Paralyzed with pain and shock, she flew through one of the outlying windows of Ultimecia's throne room and crashed through a three foot thick stone wall, defying all laws of physics. Shards of glass had embedded themselves deep inside Quistis when she flew through the windows, gouging vital organs and cutting life giving arteries from her heart. Blood from the wounds flowed like water, creating a red pool on the ground beneath Quistis' body.
There was no way she'd be continuing this fight, no matter how hard she tried to get back up. Her pink slip dress was in tatters, soaked with blood, and it took the sight of her own mangled body to give into the pain and fear. The tough exterior the teacher had shown her students was crumbling away. She cried tears of fear and called out to her friends with disconnected vocal cords. Clutching her slit throat, more tears fell from the corner of her eyes, mixing with blood. She was alone, unable to call out to the ones she loved and cared for. Life was slowly dripping away from her, and darkness was growing I her eyes. 'Is this . . . is this what death feels like? I'm . . . so cold, so scared . . .' Just as she slipped out of consciousness, her body crystallized and scattered. Divine winds came down from the heavens and blew her apart, sucking everything into a dark vortex.
Rinoa began to run towards her fallen sister but Squall held fast and jerked her back. He lowered his head dejectedly and shook his head. Tears began to form before she knew it and she buried her face into the detached bomber jacket of her lover.
"Quisty?!" Selphie said, blinking in disbelief, "QUISTY!!!"
The sunken eyes within Griever's skull grew lighter in color, squinting as his twisted gaze looked for another victim. The eerie, turquoise hue emanating from his dark orbits burned with a new fire, much angrier and evil than before. The monster had changed . . . Griever had grown more powerful, more methodical . . . more intelligent.
"There's no way this is the Griever we fought before," Irvine said, gripping the pump gauge on his shotgun tightly. He knew something but wasn't going to tell for fear of another new, horrible reality that god had dealt them. The last attack was full of malice and delight, emotions a beast doesn't have on its mind.
"You're right," Squall agreed. Still waning in thought, Squall came to an epiphany, "that's because it's not Griever, that thing . . . it has to be Sephiroth."
"What the hell!!!" Zell screamed, jumping back with a look of terrified amazement on his face, "How do you come to that conclusion?"
Bowing his head down, searching his feelings, Squall replied, "I know those eyes . . . those cold, piercing eyes. When that blade of Sephiroth's sliced through my chest, he stared at me. There was no emotion in his eyes, no satisfaction. Our gazes locked in battle and all I felt was a soulless void," Squall told his friends. That look, that stare that drained his life from him . . . he'd never forget that, "I don't know what's going on. Cloud and the others, their actions must have changed this new reality. That maniac must have already merged with this world . . ."
Squall was never allowed to finish his thought, in one heart dropping moment he let out another thunderous roar, readying his claws and showing his fangs in contempt. A chill went down everyone's spine as the roar gradually turned into a sadistical laugh. Their greatest fears were now realized.
"Ha, ha, ha!" Griever laughed uncontrollably, smashing the floor with his fists and destroying the walls around his body with his tail. It was the last laugh you hear when an enemy knows that he will destroy you, an almost arrogant, content laugh that would serve as the harbinger of death for Squall and his friends. The floor trembled before this mutated beast, shaking away at the edges with each passing moment. Griever was compiling energy for his devastating Shockwave Pulsar technique, and at any moment all would perish from the planet.
"Griever's new power is remarkable," Squall conceded," but that shouldn't keep us from finishing our job.
"Right . . ." Rinoa replied, aiming her barbed boomerang, the Shooting Star at their enemy.
As the others prepared themselves for their first encounter with the monster, Griever suddenly went quiet, letting only a hiss leak out amongst the whistling wind. The ground had stopped quaking, and everything became dead still . . .
"What's . . . what is it doing?" Selphie hesitantly asked, grabbing her long nunchucku's handles hard.
As though it was an answer to her query, Griever lifted both of his giant, clawed fists above his head and drove them into the ground in front of him. The shockwave traveled swiftly and discreetly underground before it revealed its true purpose. Immense quakes shook the battlefield, dislocating the ground around everyone into a much more personal combat arena. In a matter of no time, the group had been lifted high into the air, far above their beginnings at the castle entrance and to the throne room. Squall's and the others surroundings were now the gray, brooding clouds.
The floating rock eventually came to a stop, and any feeling of safety was immediately disregarded when Griever started its all-out attack. Swiping madly at Selphie, the monster narrowly misses, allowing her to duck and roll out of the way and think of a quick counter attack. In one fleeting moment, Selphie's enchanted weapon sails out of nowhere and stings the face of Griever, its arms flailing from the sudden pain inflicted onto it. Seeking to exact its own revenge, the beast calls upon its greater powers, beckoning the living atmosphere around the battlefield to aid in the battle. The color of the clouds shift darker and seem to become heavier until they become rough puffs of empty black. Without warning a golden aggravation swarms in the bellies of each cloud, discharging deadly lightning onto the ground where the heroes stand. Multiple strikes pulverize the stone where Squall and Zell stood only seconds before, barely missing.
Sprinting wildly to outrun the bolts of energy from the clouds, Squall and the others regroup together in front of Griever. The remaining warriors set up protective magic around their bodies to ward off any further damage from the lightning and poise themselves for an overdue counterstrike. During the confusion of spell casting and lightning strikes, Griever soars towards the heroes and takes another swipe at Selphie, this time his razor sharp claws mauling the girl's left side, spilling blood into the air and sending Selphie's body precariously flying towards the edge of the floating arena. She slides to a halt, churning up dirt as her fragile body slows itself down dangerously close to the rim of the giant boulder. Fumbling, clinging to whatever she could to keep from falling, Selphie inadvertently got closer to the beast that was stalking her. The evil monster gazed down at the disoriented SeeD almost amusingly as her friends ran from the other side to save her. The dazed girl from Trabia Garden managed to finally stand back up, only to be met by Griever's hot, rotting breath as it filled her nostrils. It bared its knife-like fangs in a show of power before preparing to strike.
"IRVINE!! HELP ME!!" She helplessly cried out. Gripping her weapon tightly in front of her body in a defensive posture, Selphie braced herself for the next attack and waited for what seemed like an eternity for her knight in shining armor to arrive.
"SELPHIE!!" Irvine screamed as Griever raised his claws high into the air. No matter how fast he ran, it didn't seem fast enough. Time slowed down, his feet and arms became heavy. Irvine could see it all happening as though he was outside of his own body. Squall, Rinoa and Zell were far behind, unable to match his speed. He watched himself unholstering his silver shotgun, filling its chamber with bullets at the speed of light. The flash of his barrel came next, small explosions coming one after the other as the bullets found their target. Each fiery piece of shrapnel hit their mark, ripping skin and bone away from Griever's shoulder, but still . . . in all his fury and marksmanship, the claws still came down onto Selphie. The beast's talons ripped through her weapon like paper, connecting with her body and forcing her over the edge. Her head slowly dropped below the horizon of the edge and her feet angled farther up with each second. Gravity took hold, pulling her down. With one bloody hand she reached for Irvine. His body tensed up, he suddenly felt cold with anxiety and fear.
"NOOOO! SELPHIE!!!" Irvine painfully cried out as he reached the outskirts of the rock. He extended his hand as far as he could but missed her flailing leg by less than an inch. Nothing in Irvine's life was ever more horrible then what he had to watch. The girl he loved, the girl that loved him . . . falling, fading slowly into the clouds. He watched with dread as Selphie disappeared, all the while his eyes fixated on Selphie's horrified face. Her entire body cried out to him . . . yet he could do nothing. He was helpless to do anything to stop it and that helplessness began to tear him apart on the inside. She tried to say something to Irvine in her last moments, but through the clouds below the battlefield her cries became inaudible. The silence that followed was maddening. Irvine still gazed downward, retracting his outstretched hand from the edge. Slowly he stood up to his feet with his head still locked on the ground. With all resemblance of life gone from his tortured soul, Irvine turns towards Griever and lifts his head.
Irvine's fragile little existence had just been thrown into the pits of hell.
"Bastardddddd!!!" Irvine wails at the top of his lungs as he rips the Exeter out of the sling from with in his coat. With bravery you'd only see from a man facing certain death, the sniper jumps up the beast's body and onto the neck of his nemesis. His mind hell bent on vengeance, he starts pumping the animal's face full of burning lead. Blowing off the horrible abominations jaw and mouth first, Griever's cries become automatically muted. Its arms flailed in both pain and astonishment as Irvine valiantly grabs onto a horn and mercilessly shoots round after round into its increasingly demolished face. Blood covered the trench coat of the would-be savior of Selphie, soaking it quickly and turning it purple.
A bullet tears through Griever's eyes, juices pour out of its orbits . . . chunks of skull and brain matter are dislodged and splinter into the wind. In a matter of moments . . . it's all over. Brain dead, every part of the monster shuts down. The body of the once vile and nasty Griever falls limp to the ground.
Overcome by sadness and filled with sin, Irvine doesn't stop shooting. His bullets ran out some time ago, but his finger still pulled on the trigger with conviction, "Die you mother fucker . . . die . . . just die . . ." he whimpers.
Empathetic to the pain, to the angst that Irvine must feel, Rinoa collapses in tears at the sight of her broken comrade. Zell finds it hard to deal with the hell that they are being put through.
"Squall . . . I can't . . ." Zell fails to put his feelings into words, and instead squats to his knees and looks sadly to his friend that is in anguish.
Squall lowers his head and shakes it unbelievingly, realizing the amazing loss of life they would all have to cope with when this is all over, "How . . . how did it all come to this? Why didn't you TELL US!? WHY!!"
Irvine had since collapsed into the red pulp that remained of Griever, his sidearm lost inside a bloody carcass of a once mighty monster, "Without you . . . I am nothing. Without you, I don't exist . . ." he cries silently to himself. Streaks of tears pour from his eyes, collecting heavily on his chin. He lays in thought, deducing, contemplating. The others are standing back up, waiting for him, hoping to console him. He takes one look at his friends, his kind, understanding friends, and then one look at the edge.
Irvine's mind was made up. Seconds later he feels the clouds against his face, the moist, cool air covering his body, and the thought of again being with Selphie.
Squall, Rinoa, and Zell arrived at Ultimecia's door after more than two hours of intense combat. Their limits had been tested, taken within an inch of their breaking point. Fighting back exhaustion, Zell and Squall leaned over their knees and caught their breath. Rinoa, however, seemed to take it all in stride and moved around. Due to her unnaturally strong magic, the candidate for sorceress didn't have to exert as much energy as the boys did with their physical attacks.
They had been the first team to reach this far. The SeeDs had split into two groups shortly after entering Ultimecia's Castle. The idea was they would equally take on the guardians of the dark citadel and make it through in half the time. It was tough on everyone having to operate under half their normal fighting power, but Squall wanted to make sure that his friends had enough guardian forces to ensure their survival. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea though, and at the moment, the leader was becoming slightly worried. Irvine's group still hadn't shown up and it should have been more than enough time to defeat the large yellow robot Trauma and the relative of the behemoth family, Catoblepas. Both were very devious and nasty, but that was no excuse. Squall placed his trust in Irvine and knew he could do it. He waited for another half hour, and was able to recharge all his energy before seeing any sign of the other group.
Out of the castles cold mist walked Quistis, dragging her deadly whip Save the Queen along her side. The heavy metal end of the weapon screeched along the ground like fingernails against a chalkboard. Squall's former instructor looked haggard and frail from flight through the gauntlet. Quistis blew the hair in front of her eyes out of her face and collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Her usual beautiful hairdo was sticking out at the sides and becoming frizzy instead of being held up in a bun or ponytail. Rinoa could see that her hair wasn't the only thing frazzled. The teacher's emotions and patience were wearing thin too. Passing out on the ground, Quistis stretched out every aching limb on her body on the cold stone walkway.
"What happened to Irvine and Selphie!?" Squall uneasily asked.
"Don't worry," Quistis replied, short of breath, "They were right behind me. To make a long story short, we hit a snag during the fight with Catoblepas. Irvine thought it would be cute to try and take out that horrible beast as quick as possible with his fast ammo, but during the confusion Selphie was hurt. Nothing major, just a scrape on her leg from the spines on the monsters tail, but Irvine felt really bad about it. He offered to give her a ride on his back and that is why they were so far behind me," After a few moments, her story was backed up. A cowboy in a tan trench coat walked into view, carrying his adorable love, Selphie on his back and shoulders.
"Are you okay?" Rinoa asked.
"Irvy was sooo brave!!" Selphie replied, stealing the cowboy hat from his head as he trudged along the dark stone path leading to his friends, "He saved us when we went up against that nasty Cato . . . Catop, well that big bad beast!"
"Catoblepas," Quistis finished for her, wiping stray strands of hair from her forehead.
"Yeah. Quistis and I had been backed into a corner and that monster was closing in on us. Irvine used some fast ammo to save us but then it raced toward him in a rage. If he hadn't of used Apocalypse, we'd all be history."
Irvine let his girlfriend down gently to the ground, but a soft groan of pain still escaped her lips, "You'll be okay baby," he said as he adjusted the makeshift bandage on her right leg. The blood had darkened the material torn from Irvine's coat but it still held tightly to the upbeat girl's leg.
"Thanks Irvy," Selphie cooed as he checked her injury out. When he rose back up, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek in thanks and placed the borrowed hat back on his head.
Rinoa had listened to them and tried to seem interested, but Squall knew better. It wouldn't be one of those "I'm glad you're okay situations". Irvine always fools around at the wrong times and gets himself into trouble. The fact that this time people were hurt made his transgression ten times as worse. Selphie seems to encourage him into that type of behavior, but that would be no excuse. Irvine's actions screamed immaturity and showed that he just needed to grow up.
Squall looked over his friends, sighed, then put down his foot to the couple, "Okay, let's drop the crap. There is no time for you two to be flirting during a time like this. We came here on a mission, and I expect that all of you act as you would on an official operation. Got it? We aren't mercenaries for hire anymore, do you guys understand that? What happens here will determine our existence!"
"Squall, it isn't a problem . . ." Irvine defended himself and his girlfriend.
"Damn it Irvine, IT IS a problem!" Squall shouted angrily at his friend. He became serious because of their situation, and adamantly stood up for the principles of SeeD, "Get your priorities straight. You will listen to me during this mission and completing our task ALWAYS supercedes everything else. You got that?"
The swordsman with the heart of steel caused the Galbadia Garden sniper to snap to attention, "Sorry sir, didn't mean to upset you," Irvine was tired of the big man attitude Squall dragged along with him everywhere, but what could he do about it? Flashing his superior a sarcastic smirk, Irvine took his long, silver rifle from its holster and began loading shots into it. With a loud snap he pumped the first shot into the ammo chamber, "Locked and loaded sir, ready to go."
"That's more like it," the cold-hearted leader took the high powered weapon that Irvine had presented him with and checked it out. After a quick run- through he handed the slick looking Exeter back to its owner," Now if you are ready, let's get this over with."
Squall left Irvine alone and headed towards the final destination: Ultimecia's Door. Zell paced alongside his good friend and spoke up, "Dude, don't be so rough on him. We all make mistakes, right?"
"Don't tell me how to do my job," Squall shot back angrily, "Are you ready? Let's get this mission done with already . . . I want to go home."
Zell nodded in agreement, taking his leader's gesture as an invitation to kick the door as hard as he could. His first attack rattled the bulky hinges of the entrance and created a few cracks where his foot hit. On his second try, both of the huge mahogany doors fractured and splintered along the hinges. The powerful fighter wound up again for a backwards roundhouse kick and put all his weight into a final hit. It connected in the same place the first two attacks had and his foot exploded through the other side of the door. Zell feverishly pounded away at the remaining boards of jagged wood and cleared the way into Ultimecia's domain.
He walked through the broken doorway, unaffected. Squall, Rinoa, and the other followed right behind his lead and were met with a nasty look from the sorceress of Time. Ultimecia stirred uncomfortably in her ornate throne, watching Squall's friends' every move as they walked before her. She tapped an aggravated finger on the armrest, showing her dislike of the intruders, "SeeDs! Kurse all SeeDs! The world is on the brink of the ever- elusive Time Kompression. There is no way for you to stop it . . . it is inevitable. I will kill you all for trying to oppose me!"
They had heard it all before and were ready for it. If they waited and fought in threes, it would draw out and somebody could possibly get hurt. This battle called for a new strategy . . .
"We can defeat her if we all attack at the same time," Squall ordered. He pointed to each group member and then motioned for them to take positions around the evil being atop her throne. The SeeDs used discretion to move and encircle Ultimecia so she didn't realize their tactic. It was easy to surround her, because the entire time she kept her stare locked solely on the leader, Squall. He was the general of this small army, and the general always leads the attack. Ultimecia knew that he was no different from the warriors that had tried to stop her in the past. Each of those masters of strategy had crumbled under her power, and Squall would do the same. She crossed her hands behind her back and hid her first attack from her assailants. Reddish-black flame swarmed around her fingertips and spiked out wildly. Ultimecia smiled confidently in her readiness and waited.
With a tight grip of his sword and a sudden shift in focus, Squall began just as she thought he would. In one movement he put away his sword and turned his body to the side, outstretching his open hand towards his target. White swirls of wind were vacuumed towards Squall's body as he readied himself to summon the god of all guardians, Eden. His strain became apparent as his arms shook under the intense power transferring into his body from the mighty summon. It took every ounce of concentration in his body to maintain the focus needed for such an attack. Selphie quickly called forth the power of Bahamut, and Irvine tried to usurp her support with the hell flames of Ifrit.
"No, no, no," Ultimecia teased as she moved her free hand's index finger back and forth. Her hidden hand swept through the air, creating a deadly mist that distorted space and time as it sought out the overpowered beasts being summoned by her assailants. The semi-solid spell impacted against Squall, causing him to stumble back and fall on his back. White flame consumed Ultimecia's left hand as she commenced a consecutive attack against Selphie whose summon was even further along than Squall's. Under such instantaneous conditions, the flame was drawn to her body like a moth to a flame and it sucked all of the life from the lord of dragons.
The ground began to quake as both Squall and Selphie shook off the after effects of summoning. Irvine had managed to release the demon beast from the pits of hell and it was now breaking through the floor in the throne room. Ifrit's crooked, hardened horns poked through the stone and ripped it to shreds. When he was fully into their world, he leapt into the air and called forth a fiery boulder from his home with just a motion of his hands. The rock hovered a few hundred feet above the battle field with Ifrit not to far away from it, glowing and covered in an undying fire. Irvine watched on with amazement as the hell beast's roar spilled flames from its mouth and shook loose parts of the castle. Ifrit clasped his fists together and slammed the boulder with one mighty punch, causing it to barrel towards Ultimecia at an incredible speed. The trail of fire from the falling asteroid burned brighter the faster it fell and unleashed its wrath onto the sorceress.
The classy, scantily clad witch turned her attention away from the fighters for merely a moment and let go wave after wave of magic from her palm. Her goddess-like magic ripped through the small terrestrial object and turned it into gravel before it could even touch her . . . It was fruitless. The summoned guardian force monsters never had a chance. Their power just couldn't stand up against that of the great sorceress.
Burning with the rage of frustration, Zell recklessly jumped into the middle of the action, "Damn, enough of all this! We don't need to be playing with you!" The hand to hand fighter drew a Triple from his spell bank which sped up the recharge time on his magic and then cast Meteor. The atmosphere of the arena around everybody suddenly grew dark and mimicked the depths of outer space. Through the confusion of nebulae and clouds of gas, huge rocks fell sporadically around Ultimecia and against her body. She was pounded from left to right every few seconds in an endless barrage of meteors that drained on her energy. Her speed allowed her to miss some of them, but ultimately she was subdued by Zell's awesome attack. Ultimecia became temporarily weakened as she regained her strength and left her body open to whatever vicious attack Squall's group could think of.
'This is it, THIS IS OUR CHANCE!' Squall thought to himself.
"Finish her off before she gets back up!" Quistis told Squall as he shook off his earlier daze. Before he could process what was happening, Rinoa had cast Aura on him, blanketing his body in a warm golden glow. The spells effect soon took hold of his most primal emotions, causing his anger to surface without a hint of past wrong being done to his body. Countless techniques of the Renzokuken sword art filled his head now, but one repeated over and over again in his thoughts . . . Lionheart. Squall looked to his target with gleeful intent as his translucent blue sword glowed brighter with his fury. His eyes narrowed and muscles tightened as the sorceress queen got to her knees. Squall erupted forward from his standing position, seemingly flying across the ground to attack Ultimecia who had managed to catch a glimpse of this general coming to do battle with her.
She held out her hand, trying to summon a quick spell to deter Squall, but he was too fast. His body seemed to fade in from left to right, making targeting his body impossible, and his speed was simply amazing. With a single upward slash, Squall detached the sorceress' arm at the elbow, and then knocked her body back with a trio of cuts to her abdomen and chest. She seemed to fall back in slow motion as the furious frontal attack continued. Squall's attacks came swifter and more precise, slicing deeper into her body from all directions before her body could land on the ground from the initial attack. The deadly combo was unavoidable, and with one final upward slash, Ultimecia's bloodied body was hit high into the air. The glow from Squall's body faded, and his hair settled as he walked away confidently that his job was done. The space behind him was empty, the throne obliterated, and long, deep gashes had been left in the stone floor. There were no screams, no moans of pain as Hyne's descendant slammed into ground creating a small crater. Ultimecia slumped against the destroyed throne room floor, wounded badly from Squall's finishing move and wholly defeated. The SeeD general could barely make out what she whispered to them next.
"The most powerful GF" she breathed, coughing up blood, ". . . You . . . shall . . . SUFFER!" Ultimecia screamed aloud with renewed strength. She raised her dying body off the ground and hovered over the heroes. Dark, black blood seeped from the witch's wounds as she presented herself, totally defenseless, to the SeeD's.
"Not again! I thought she was dead!" Irvine yelled.
"Brace yourselves, you know what's coming next!" Rinoa added as a noise grew in the background.
Deep rumblings started to shake the ground beneath everyone's feet and tiny fissures spread out from a central point underneath Ultimecia. Soon the small battlefield was turned into an unstable spiderweb of stone. They could see the horrible intent in Ultimecia's eye, they could see the hate that seemed to boil from within the sorceress' bloodshot eyes and blood covered face. White energy filtered out of the cracks in the earth and dispersed itself high into the air, but this was only a diversion. The real purpose of the light show was the horrendous monster it came from. Deep from within the broken castle it came, roaring and pounding the walls and supports of the fortress as it closed in on the battlefield. Its name was Griever, and in all its unheralded rage, it blasted through the delicate ground beneath Ultimecia and loomed ominously above everyone. The group was obviously unnerved. No matter how many times you see this horrible animal, you can never truly get used to its nastiness. The group had however beaten it before, and shook off their shock in a matter of moments.
Noticing her friends' nervousness, Rinoa tried to keep the mood a bit lighter than what it was becoming, "Come on guys, he's nothing but a big grumpy pushover!" The young sorceress raised her arm to shoot her boomerang weapon, but her friend in the pink dress lifted her hand to halt her.
"Something's not right here," Quistis pointed out as she grabbed her whip taught across her chest. Upon closer examination, she realized that the body of Griever had undergone drastic changes since their last encounter. Every part of the once tame looking beast seemed to have mutated and modified itself. Griever's two angelic wings had become leathery in appearance, almost bat-like with talons at the ends, and its skin was metallic black in color, as though it had fused with some unknown material from out of this world. What had caused the beast to gain these demonic features?
Griever had transformed from a wild beast into the personification of the Angel of Death. Spikes and scales glimmered across its body, making its image even more intimidating and letting off a dark glow. Quistis approached the monster with reckless caution, still unsure of the power it might hold within. Before she could utter another syllable, Griever cocked back its head and roared as loud as its vocal cords could sustain. With alarming speed it twisted its body around and swung its tail towards the former teacher. Quistis countered the pre-emptive attack with a snap of her whip that connected across Griever's arm. A thin red line appeared where the attack had hit and the monster roared in annoyance at her attack. Quistis snapped her whip again towards the animal's maw to shut it up, but the beast somehow managed to grab the flail on the tip of Quistis' Save the Queen. She tried to yank it free from the monster's grasp, but Griever jerked the weapon forward, causing the light-weight SeeD professor to be flung forwards. For her stubbornness, she flew straight towards Griever. Quistis held fast to her weapon just as Griever had suspected and was set up for one nasty little trick.
He threw his other fist forward and met Quistis' body straight on. Sickening crunches were heard from the impact as the blow shattered dozens of bones in her body and redirected her body back the other way. Paralyzed with pain and shock, she flew through one of the outlying windows of Ultimecia's throne room and crashed through a three foot thick stone wall, defying all laws of physics. Shards of glass had embedded themselves deep inside Quistis when she flew through the windows, gouging vital organs and cutting life giving arteries from her heart. Blood from the wounds flowed like water, creating a red pool on the ground beneath Quistis' body.
There was no way she'd be continuing this fight, no matter how hard she tried to get back up. Her pink slip dress was in tatters, soaked with blood, and it took the sight of her own mangled body to give into the pain and fear. The tough exterior the teacher had shown her students was crumbling away. She cried tears of fear and called out to her friends with disconnected vocal cords. Clutching her slit throat, more tears fell from the corner of her eyes, mixing with blood. She was alone, unable to call out to the ones she loved and cared for. Life was slowly dripping away from her, and darkness was growing I her eyes. 'Is this . . . is this what death feels like? I'm . . . so cold, so scared . . .' Just as she slipped out of consciousness, her body crystallized and scattered. Divine winds came down from the heavens and blew her apart, sucking everything into a dark vortex.
Rinoa began to run towards her fallen sister but Squall held fast and jerked her back. He lowered his head dejectedly and shook his head. Tears began to form before she knew it and she buried her face into the detached bomber jacket of her lover.
"Quisty?!" Selphie said, blinking in disbelief, "QUISTY!!!"
The sunken eyes within Griever's skull grew lighter in color, squinting as his twisted gaze looked for another victim. The eerie, turquoise hue emanating from his dark orbits burned with a new fire, much angrier and evil than before. The monster had changed . . . Griever had grown more powerful, more methodical . . . more intelligent.
"There's no way this is the Griever we fought before," Irvine said, gripping the pump gauge on his shotgun tightly. He knew something but wasn't going to tell for fear of another new, horrible reality that god had dealt them. The last attack was full of malice and delight, emotions a beast doesn't have on its mind.
"You're right," Squall agreed. Still waning in thought, Squall came to an epiphany, "that's because it's not Griever, that thing . . . it has to be Sephiroth."
"What the hell!!!" Zell screamed, jumping back with a look of terrified amazement on his face, "How do you come to that conclusion?"
Bowing his head down, searching his feelings, Squall replied, "I know those eyes . . . those cold, piercing eyes. When that blade of Sephiroth's sliced through my chest, he stared at me. There was no emotion in his eyes, no satisfaction. Our gazes locked in battle and all I felt was a soulless void," Squall told his friends. That look, that stare that drained his life from him . . . he'd never forget that, "I don't know what's going on. Cloud and the others, their actions must have changed this new reality. That maniac must have already merged with this world . . ."
Squall was never allowed to finish his thought, in one heart dropping moment he let out another thunderous roar, readying his claws and showing his fangs in contempt. A chill went down everyone's spine as the roar gradually turned into a sadistical laugh. Their greatest fears were now realized.
"Ha, ha, ha!" Griever laughed uncontrollably, smashing the floor with his fists and destroying the walls around his body with his tail. It was the last laugh you hear when an enemy knows that he will destroy you, an almost arrogant, content laugh that would serve as the harbinger of death for Squall and his friends. The floor trembled before this mutated beast, shaking away at the edges with each passing moment. Griever was compiling energy for his devastating Shockwave Pulsar technique, and at any moment all would perish from the planet.
"Griever's new power is remarkable," Squall conceded," but that shouldn't keep us from finishing our job.
"Right . . ." Rinoa replied, aiming her barbed boomerang, the Shooting Star at their enemy.
As the others prepared themselves for their first encounter with the monster, Griever suddenly went quiet, letting only a hiss leak out amongst the whistling wind. The ground had stopped quaking, and everything became dead still . . .
"What's . . . what is it doing?" Selphie hesitantly asked, grabbing her long nunchucku's handles hard.
As though it was an answer to her query, Griever lifted both of his giant, clawed fists above his head and drove them into the ground in front of him. The shockwave traveled swiftly and discreetly underground before it revealed its true purpose. Immense quakes shook the battlefield, dislocating the ground around everyone into a much more personal combat arena. In a matter of no time, the group had been lifted high into the air, far above their beginnings at the castle entrance and to the throne room. Squall's and the others surroundings were now the gray, brooding clouds.
The floating rock eventually came to a stop, and any feeling of safety was immediately disregarded when Griever started its all-out attack. Swiping madly at Selphie, the monster narrowly misses, allowing her to duck and roll out of the way and think of a quick counter attack. In one fleeting moment, Selphie's enchanted weapon sails out of nowhere and stings the face of Griever, its arms flailing from the sudden pain inflicted onto it. Seeking to exact its own revenge, the beast calls upon its greater powers, beckoning the living atmosphere around the battlefield to aid in the battle. The color of the clouds shift darker and seem to become heavier until they become rough puffs of empty black. Without warning a golden aggravation swarms in the bellies of each cloud, discharging deadly lightning onto the ground where the heroes stand. Multiple strikes pulverize the stone where Squall and Zell stood only seconds before, barely missing.
Sprinting wildly to outrun the bolts of energy from the clouds, Squall and the others regroup together in front of Griever. The remaining warriors set up protective magic around their bodies to ward off any further damage from the lightning and poise themselves for an overdue counterstrike. During the confusion of spell casting and lightning strikes, Griever soars towards the heroes and takes another swipe at Selphie, this time his razor sharp claws mauling the girl's left side, spilling blood into the air and sending Selphie's body precariously flying towards the edge of the floating arena. She slides to a halt, churning up dirt as her fragile body slows itself down dangerously close to the rim of the giant boulder. Fumbling, clinging to whatever she could to keep from falling, Selphie inadvertently got closer to the beast that was stalking her. The evil monster gazed down at the disoriented SeeD almost amusingly as her friends ran from the other side to save her. The dazed girl from Trabia Garden managed to finally stand back up, only to be met by Griever's hot, rotting breath as it filled her nostrils. It bared its knife-like fangs in a show of power before preparing to strike.
"IRVINE!! HELP ME!!" She helplessly cried out. Gripping her weapon tightly in front of her body in a defensive posture, Selphie braced herself for the next attack and waited for what seemed like an eternity for her knight in shining armor to arrive.
"SELPHIE!!" Irvine screamed as Griever raised his claws high into the air. No matter how fast he ran, it didn't seem fast enough. Time slowed down, his feet and arms became heavy. Irvine could see it all happening as though he was outside of his own body. Squall, Rinoa and Zell were far behind, unable to match his speed. He watched himself unholstering his silver shotgun, filling its chamber with bullets at the speed of light. The flash of his barrel came next, small explosions coming one after the other as the bullets found their target. Each fiery piece of shrapnel hit their mark, ripping skin and bone away from Griever's shoulder, but still . . . in all his fury and marksmanship, the claws still came down onto Selphie. The beast's talons ripped through her weapon like paper, connecting with her body and forcing her over the edge. Her head slowly dropped below the horizon of the edge and her feet angled farther up with each second. Gravity took hold, pulling her down. With one bloody hand she reached for Irvine. His body tensed up, he suddenly felt cold with anxiety and fear.
"NOOOO! SELPHIE!!!" Irvine painfully cried out as he reached the outskirts of the rock. He extended his hand as far as he could but missed her flailing leg by less than an inch. Nothing in Irvine's life was ever more horrible then what he had to watch. The girl he loved, the girl that loved him . . . falling, fading slowly into the clouds. He watched with dread as Selphie disappeared, all the while his eyes fixated on Selphie's horrified face. Her entire body cried out to him . . . yet he could do nothing. He was helpless to do anything to stop it and that helplessness began to tear him apart on the inside. She tried to say something to Irvine in her last moments, but through the clouds below the battlefield her cries became inaudible. The silence that followed was maddening. Irvine still gazed downward, retracting his outstretched hand from the edge. Slowly he stood up to his feet with his head still locked on the ground. With all resemblance of life gone from his tortured soul, Irvine turns towards Griever and lifts his head.
Irvine's fragile little existence had just been thrown into the pits of hell.
"Bastardddddd!!!" Irvine wails at the top of his lungs as he rips the Exeter out of the sling from with in his coat. With bravery you'd only see from a man facing certain death, the sniper jumps up the beast's body and onto the neck of his nemesis. His mind hell bent on vengeance, he starts pumping the animal's face full of burning lead. Blowing off the horrible abominations jaw and mouth first, Griever's cries become automatically muted. Its arms flailed in both pain and astonishment as Irvine valiantly grabs onto a horn and mercilessly shoots round after round into its increasingly demolished face. Blood covered the trench coat of the would-be savior of Selphie, soaking it quickly and turning it purple.
A bullet tears through Griever's eyes, juices pour out of its orbits . . . chunks of skull and brain matter are dislodged and splinter into the wind. In a matter of moments . . . it's all over. Brain dead, every part of the monster shuts down. The body of the once vile and nasty Griever falls limp to the ground.
Overcome by sadness and filled with sin, Irvine doesn't stop shooting. His bullets ran out some time ago, but his finger still pulled on the trigger with conviction, "Die you mother fucker . . . die . . . just die . . ." he whimpers.
Empathetic to the pain, to the angst that Irvine must feel, Rinoa collapses in tears at the sight of her broken comrade. Zell finds it hard to deal with the hell that they are being put through.
"Squall . . . I can't . . ." Zell fails to put his feelings into words, and instead squats to his knees and looks sadly to his friend that is in anguish.
Squall lowers his head and shakes it unbelievingly, realizing the amazing loss of life they would all have to cope with when this is all over, "How . . . how did it all come to this? Why didn't you TELL US!? WHY!!"
Irvine had since collapsed into the red pulp that remained of Griever, his sidearm lost inside a bloody carcass of a once mighty monster, "Without you . . . I am nothing. Without you, I don't exist . . ." he cries silently to himself. Streaks of tears pour from his eyes, collecting heavily on his chin. He lays in thought, deducing, contemplating. The others are standing back up, waiting for him, hoping to console him. He takes one look at his friends, his kind, understanding friends, and then one look at the edge.
Irvine's mind was made up. Seconds later he feels the clouds against his face, the moist, cool air covering his body, and the thought of again being with Selphie.
