Chapter 7: A Battle, Followed by the Truth
Two of Slater's drones have entered, as Slater turned to face them. "Take the humans down to the lab, and lock them in." it ordered. "No!!" Marianne cried as they rushed up behind the metal slab tables to press some buttons. The locks came off their wrists and around their feet as they slid to stand. Before the two could run off, the drones grabbed a firm hold of them, dragging them out of the room. "You will not get away with this! I swear!! You twisted piece of garbage!!!" Marianne yelled towards Slater, who was busy at the computer to respond. Squall was concentrating, on bringing up one of the GFs he had in possession. Shiva.
Marianne and her only friend in this place were struggling all they can. Within a minute, Shiva appeared and froze the robots, and everything within the room around them, as they pulled into a safe limbo during the Diamond Dust attack. When they were back, Marianne acted in surprise. "I forgot about that!" she said. "This situation was a definite emergency to use Guardian forces." Squall nodded. He kicked the drones back as they shattered into a thousand pieces. Slater, on the other hand, had broken free of his ice prison before they had time to react. The cyborg carefully stood on the ice, avoiding to slip. "Thundaga!" Squall chanted, and placed his hand to his forehead, and a huge lightning attack had struck Slater. This didn't affect him. "Your powers do little use of damage to me." Slater told Squall, in that never changing monotone. "I have no choice but to stun you two and take you to the lab myself." "You'll have to battle me first." Squall challenged.
"Now you will see why I am known as Blade Slater…" The right armored arm began to change. The shape of the arm had turned to a blade shape, as holes appeared, showing a pattern of scattered seeds. The blade was glowing a bright orange. "Squall! Be careful." Marianne warned him, fearful of what was to become of them. Squall nodded and told her to stand back. The ice was so slippery, that Marianne had to be careful walking all the way to the right wall as the battle began. "I do not wish to harm you, human, but I have no choice." Slater forewarned. "I'm not afraid of you!" Squall fumed, and cast another Thundaga spell.
Two gun looking things popped out from Blade Slater's shoulders and shot bullets towards Squall. Marianne was rooting for him. "Cast the Flare! KICK HIS ASS!!" Squall hissed in pain, but knew what she was talking about. He cast Flare and it did a really good amount of damage on Blade Slater. "Impressive power. I underestimated you." the cyborg mused and began to rush toward him, but slipped on the ice. Squall and Marianne laughed in response. Slater rose to its feet slowly and used the ice to slide and slash at Squall with its glowing blade arm, causing him to scream at the burn of it. His right arm was singed badly. "You MONSTER!" Marianne hollered, and threw a hunk of metal at the evil machine, not wanting to be helpless to watch. The metal came into impact with a loud clang against Slater's helmet-for-a-head.
This gave time for Squall to summon Diablos, which was a little slow coming, and Marianne kept covering his back by throwing pieces of a broken metal table at Blade Slater. "Persistent humans." it mused as Diablos gave the cyborg one hell of a beating with his gravity attack. "Wow!!" Marianne exclaimed in excitement in seeing one of her favorite GFs in the flesh. Diablos looked to her, nodded, and disappeared into a bunch of flying bats, flying through and inside Squall's body. "Whoa…" commented Marianne with a look of awe as the two looked back to Slater.
The robot had collapsed onto its knees now. "Dude, that was quick." Marianne had to say in reaction. "Yeah, I would have expected more," Squall said. "You…win… The rest…of the…drones…are at…your command." Slater managed to say as sparks flew onto the icy floor. Squall cradled his arm as they headed through the door. Marianne slipped and skidded towards him. "You're hurt." "Cure…" Squall said through the pain as the burn had vanished. "Not anymore." he said as the two embraced, relieved to be free and alive. "Let's go find your gunblade, and tell those robot jerks to destroy the dam," she said, a little out of breath from all the tension of the battle. That and throwing the pieces of metal at Slater, who was suffering now.
They walked out of the room, so see a few drones standing outside. "You freakin' heard him! Go and destroy the dam !!" Marianne commanded at them angrily as the three were running. "One of you, lead us to my gunblade!" Squall called as one of the drones stayed. As they were following the drone to the right of the corridor, a gentle female voice rang out, sounding mechanical. "I am Cleo." "What? The psychic lady?! This WAY weird!" Marianne yelled, really freaked out. But this voice didn't sound like the Cleo she knew. The voice was soft, a little higher pitched. "No, I am the essence of this planet, and needed your help. " "Stop!" Squall called out to the drone, who silently stopped. Cleo fell silent.
"You have some explaining to do Cleo, and right now!!" Marianne hollered, wanting the information from her right away. "It's true. I did make you connect within here. After searching the galaxy for so long, I found Earth. And within Earth I had found you and Squall. The two of you were in trouble, I realized that, and I decided to help you Marianne." "…What? About my coma?" Marianne asked. "That's right." "But why me?" Squall wanted to know. He was looking around, trying to locate where the voice was coming from. "Why did you bring me here too?" "Marianne had brought you here in the process of me bringing her essence here. Subconsciously, she needed a hero like you." Marianne scratched her head. "Okay…" was all she could say, surprised. "So I was right." A second robot drone in the hall had walked towards Squall, holding his gunblade. Squall took it, and slid his weapon into its sheath. Its home.
"Blade Slater was destroying me and my world, and I had to do something. Now that he is defeated, I can send you both back to where you belong." Cleo said. Marianne and Squall looked at one another. "No," she said, looking at her friend. "I want you to bring Squall, all those he cares about, and myself to my world. You think you can do that?" "I'll do it, in return for what you have done for me." Cleo told her, grateful for what she had done for this planet.
Just then, Marianne felt a shock of pain on her head and her left side. Her face said it all. She was about to fall over when Squall caught her in his arms. He watched in horror as Marianne said through the extreme pain, "I think it's happening…We're going back…" Her eyes were growing heavy and closed as Squall saw her eyes grow swollen, a bandage appearing around her head. "Marianne!" he yelled, his face all written with horror. The world around them flashed like a hologram on and off, fast like a strobe light. Cleo said her last words…
"I know this has brought the two of you closer. Peace be with the both of you, according to what is said within Marianne's religion. May the two you be granted happiness toward one another. Marianne, get well… Squall, take care of this fragile spirit. She needs you… She needs your love…"
"What's happening to her?! Stop this!!!" Squall yelled out to Cleo's voice. The mysterious essence of the planet connected to Marianne. "She's connecting back to her body on Earth. It will be alright. Farewell, brave Marianne Markham and Squall Leonhart…"