AN: Well, here goes for the final chpt of this fic :) Don't panic tho, the 'Last Sorcerer' arc continues (or will continue) in Battle Lines ;p Gomen for all the fic jumps, I just didn't want this to be a monster of what, 58 or so chpts ;) see – said I'd got this behemoth plotted out already :p
Disclaimers: final fantasy belongs to Squaresoft and not bawls eyes out to me... However, I have (so far) gotten away with hijacking the characters and locations for my own, and (hopefully) others' entertainment. The plot and original characters are mine, and I'm not so generous as to go offering them around, so unless you ask, you shall not receive! ;p
Warnings: Well, not really as befits the last chpt of a fic, this kinda ends on a leeeeetle bit of a cliff... Um, that in itself probably rates it for teaser status, general warnings of SxS and language, maybe a bit of Rinoa bashing. Only other thing worth mentioning is the QxZ relationship :) Just seemed to sneak in there, arigato to whichever muse pointed out that people might find QxZ slightly icky ;p nothin hot and heavy, although fluff may go flying!
Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Thirteen ArachnophobiaAs Seifer set to work on the lock of the door, Squall made his way over to Quistis and Zell. The former instructor was cradling her husband's broken form, and Squall knew, the instant he laid a bare hand to Zell's forehead, that this was serious.
"Curaga..." But he already knew it would take much more than a mere Curaga spell to heal Zell's injuries. "Curaga." Squall repeated the spell, this time using it as a cover for his own, more powerful, magic.
Zell drew in a new breath with a harsh rattle, his back arching off the floor as his ribs moved back into place, healing along with the damage to his lungs. Warm liquid was dripping slowly to his bare chest...Quistis' tears. Slowly he opened his eyes, tried to summon the energy to tell her not to cry, that everything would be alright. Not that he knew everything would be alright. In all likelihood the sorceress had probably just healed him so that she could inflict more pain... Zell found the energy to form a faint frown. The sorceress wouldn't allow Quistis to be so close...didn't trust either of them – with good reason – so who in Hyne's name had healed him?
Quistis recognised the hand that was suddenly resting on Zell's forehead. Or at least, she thought she did. A brief glance upwards to see unruly brown hair, along with the voice that spoke the Curaga spell, and she was certain. Squall. But he was too late. She knew that, deep down. Zell was beyond the help of any Curaga spell. Only a sorceress could undo the damage that had been inflicted.
"Curaga." He spoke again, and Quistis let the tears fall. Squall, so stubborn and determined, even when all hope was gone he would refuse to give up. He was that kind of person. It was that determination, the sheer drive to prove that everything could end well, which had seen them successfully through the war against Ultemecia. But it would not see them through this...
Zell gave a gasping breath and arched upwards from the ground, and suddenly Quistis' hope leaped anew.
"Squall...?" How could this be? Quistis wondered, barely realising she had said his name out loud. Zell was beyond Curaga magic, beyond anything except a sorceress's healing...
Without thinking Squall looked up as Quistis gasped his name...
Yellow eyes stared into blue...
Then Quistis was scrambling away, mouth working soundlessly, torn in two by leaving Zell in the hands of the sorceress, and yet too afraid to do anything but run. Squall dropped his head again, blinking fiercely to prevent the tears that threatened to spill over onto his cheeks. It hurt. Hyne how it hurt. He'd known from the moment he became aware of his true nature that this was what awaited him. That his closest friends, what few he had, would turn from him as if he had the plague itself. Only Seifer had shown his assumptions to be a lie. Only Seifer had been able to accept it, and in doing so had become his lover and his knight.
"Squall? Quisty?" Zell was more than a little perplexed. He knew he'd been close to death, knew that something had just happened to save him, but he'd seen Squall pull miracles out of thin air almost every day of the sorceress war, what was one more? "What's going on?" He demanded, struggling to sit upright. Squall seemed almost, subdued, whilst Quistis... The blonde SeeD was as far as she could physically get from Squall, and looked like she would still be running if not for the wall.
"It's her..." Quistis hissed.
"We're here to rescue you Chickenwuss." Seifer snorted at the same time. Zell casually flipped a finger at the blond, but otherwise ignored him.
"What do you mean Quistis?" Zell asked in confusion. He looked from Squall to his wife and back again. "It's Squall, and Seifer." He conceded the glowering blond's presence. "Why are you acting like this?"
"Because of what I am." It was Squall who answered. But it didn't sound like Squall. He sounded small and broken, an echo of the child who lost his Sis all those years ago. Slowly, without raising his head, or moving anything other than his arms and hands, Squall removed the Griever pendant that he wore constantly. Seifer's stance changed, altering so subtly that it was barely noticeable until the chain was off, and he seemed to loom over Squall, protecting him from anything that might attack.
"Hyne!" Zell's exclamation was low and heartfelt as Squall raised his head, allowing the blond to see his eyes clearly for the first time. "You're a sorcerer?" Zell's emotions weren't sure where to settle. They danced between fear, which was calmed by his absolute certainty that Squall would never harm any of them, and confusion. There weren't any sorcerers, were there? But the evidence to the contrary was staring at.
Zell frowned, understanding Quistis' reaction, but this was still Squall, still his friend. He was sure it was Squall. Besides, how many times had Squall done the seemingly impossible and saved his life, saved all of their lives, during the sorceress war? Now, with this additional knowledge, those miracles seemed ever so slightly more believable.
"There are no sorcerers Zell!" Quistis' voice sounded like she was verging on the hysterical. "It has to be her in disguise!" Zell hadn't lost eye contact with Squall, and now he shook his head.
"How long have we known Squall?" He asked, not waiting for an answer before he continued. "This is Squall, but... if you need proof. Squall, you remember when you sent Selphie, Irvine and me to the missile base, and then later I cornered you about it in FH." He barely waited for Squall's faint nod. "I asked why us three. What did you tell me?" Quistis laughed suddenly.
"She'll just read the answer from your mind!"
"Kylari couldn't and neither could Squall." Seifer interrupted for the first time since saying they had come to rescue the two SeeDs. "There aren't many people whose minds are open enough for a sorceress or sorcerer to read. Not in this time. From what Squall's told me, which isn't a lot, there used to be a lot more. It seems to be hindering Kylari in this time, for which small mercy we are grateful." Abashed, Quistis closed her mouth on whatever she had been about to add.
"I said..." Squall frowned for a moment, eyes defocusing as he remembered. "I said that I could say I'd sent you three because you were the best, but in reality Selphie had decided she was going. Irvine was a sniper, and I didn't trust him without knowing his measure. You I sent because you demonstrated a knack in the deep sea research centre. I knew you'd be able to do something to at least delay the launch."
"It's Squall." Zell grimaced. "How can you remember that word for word?" He muttered.
"The GFs never took my memories." Squall replied in a similar mutter. He had just fastened the pendant back around his neck, and the yellow was already fading from his eyes. Zell simply grunted. After discovering Squall was a sorcerer, discovering that he had never really forgotten anything was of little concern.
"Instructor..." Quistis looked up, and realised with a start that Seifer was offering her a hand up. Hesitantly she took it, barely noticing that Squall was standing and offering his own hand to Zell. "Listen very carefully to me Quistis." Seifer's voice was quiet, but quiet in the way the drawing of a sword was quiet. "You hurt him more than you'll ever know when you ran from him." It was clear whom Seifer was talking about. "If you do anything like that again. I'll kill you." Then the blond knight, and Quistis realised with a shock that Seifer was Squall's knight, in a way that he hadn't been Ultemecia's knight, released her hand and turned away.
"She can't have summoned that nether-ghoul without a book. It's too complex." Squall had the set look on his face that Seifer was coming to know all too well.
"If the book's that important she'll have taken it with her. She's not an idiot Squall. Either that or there's more of those things, or worse." Seifer knew he was arguing in vain. There was no dissuading the brunette once he got that look on his face. The end of the world could be coming, but if Squall decided it wasn't, and got that look on his face to go with the decision, Seifer wouldn't back Hyne herself to see the end of the world happen. It would only take the flat glare added to the look, and Seifer knew he would find himself throwing his arms in the air and agreeing to go look for the book. "What about Quistis and Zell?" It was his last argument, and not much of one at that.
He got the flat glare.
Quistis and Zell, despite being weaponless – or as weaponless as Zell ever got anyway – had opted to join Squall and Seifer. Seifer thought he could understand. Better to venture into the unknown of your own free will, and to be doing something, than to be doing nothing and waiting for the unknown to find you. Besides which, there was nothing wrong with having two more sets of watchful eyes.
"Here." Squall suddenly stopped at a door, seemingly just like all the others that the sorcerer had ignored. "It's in here. I can feel it." He licked his lips, suddenly dry with anticipation. There were no wards on the door, no traps. A gentle push with Lionheart proved that it wasn't even locked. Kylari had either been too tired to set any guards, or had simply not bothered for some reason. Inside the room was a different matter. At least as far as the book was concerned. It was a large tome. Old and dusty. The lack of fingerprints suggested that Kylari had been using her powers to turn the heavy pages, either to protect it, protect herself, or out of sheer laziness. Whatever the reason, the book was swathed in traps and wards to prevent anyone who wasn't Kylari from even touching it.
Squall straightened from his intense examination of the tome and shrugged.
"I'd need at least a week to unravel that lot, as well as to be sure that there weren't any other surprises lying in wait." He sighed. "But maybe..." He suddenly seemed to be staring inwards.
"What's he doing?" Zell demanded. Seifer turned a cool gaze on him and shrugged, regarding Quistis thoughtfully. The blonde woman had gone from being petrified to acting as though nothing had happened. Not that it was a bad thing, just, slightly disconcerting. But then again, he thought back, remembering how he had reacted and how quickly he had recovered. Maybe things wouldn't be quite as bad as Squall feared if he were to tell the rest of them... The thought trailed off into sadness. Zell and Quistis were the rest of them. It was still difficult to believe that Selphie and Irvine were dead, and that Rinoa had defected to the side of the enemy.
"If we can't have it, neither can she." It was Squall who spoke, although the words might've been Quistis'. The book shimmered and then vanished with a small 'pop' as the air rushed to fill the sudden vacuum. "The GFs have sent it to a dimension that only the dead can reach." Zell frowned.
"But all that needs is for someone to die who supports her..." Squall grinned, but without any hint of amusement.
"The dead see the truth. No one who is dead will fetch the book for her, she cannot threaten them or control them." Suddenly both Quistis and Zell lost any and all inclination they might've had to ask exactly how Squall knew. "We should go. We've pushed our luck already."
"Uh, how are we going to get them through the caves?" Seifer wondered aloud, remembering the section where Squall had carried him.
"We're not going out through the caves." Squall responded without needing to think, clearly having already decided on their exit route. "Since Kylari's not here, we'll go through the front door."
And pray she doesn't return until we're long gone. He added privately.
Their luck held a while longer. Until they stepped out of the tower's 'front door'. Then it ran out with a vengeance. Two large, mechanical spiders were waiting for them.
"What the fuck?!" Zell exclaimed. "I thought we busted that thing up in Dollet?! And how come there's now two of them?!" Squall and Seifer didn't answer, dropping to defensive stances and eyeing the machines. "Please don't tell me that thing really did remake itself into two new things..." The realisation had dawned, slowly and horribly. Zell remembered looking at the two halves, thinking that they added up to more than one. He also remembered dismissing the idea, which seemed to have returned to bite him in the figurative ass.
"These are what you fought in Dollet?" Quistis asked, her eyes widening. Squall turned and threw a GF orb at her. Reflexes kicked in to catch the orb even before she realised what it was. "Shiva?" She looked up at Squall, or rather, Squall's back. The brunette shrugged.
"I don't know how much use her attack will be, I suspect very little against them, but it will enable you to use your limit break if you cast it on us all." Quistis frowned. Clearly Squall wanted her to use the powerful Degenerator spell, but...
"Surely Eden would blast one of those things into smithereens? And Zell told me how you defeated one of them last time, surely Seifer can do the same again?" There was a choked snort from said blond knight.
"Yeah. And next time we'd face four of these things... Or Hyne knows how many if we used Eden!" Quistis' mouth fell open in a slight 'O' of comprehension and dawning fear. "No, this time we gotta figure out how to destroy them for good - Degenerator seems as likely a way as any."
This time, however, the X-ATV61UEs were not going to wait until they were attacked. This time they began the offensive.
Like Squall and Seifer's first attacks in Dollet, the giant spiders first attacks were testing, probing. Testing their reactions, their speeds, probing for weaknesses. Zell fell back to join Quistis as the fighting started to get more intense. It was taking Squall and Seifer's full concentration to deal with both machines, and Zell suspected that they were both already drawing on their own, unique abilities, as sorcerer and knight.
Quistis was watching with as much fear and awe as Zell. Squall and Seifer were both blurs of metal, shot with the occasional burst of magic. It didn't help that their enemies could fight with two or four limbs whilst they only had their gunblades.
Considering what Seifer had said about Degenerator, Quistis reluctantly junctioned Shiva.
Squall could feel the sweat rolling down his face, slicking his hair against his skull, making his clothes feel restrictive. But still he fought, instinctively more than technically, relying on his sixth sense and beyond to dodge and counter attacks from legs he couldn't see.
The twisting and turning, straining when an attack was blocked, was taking its toll, slowly but surely. He could feel the energy loss where he'd healed Zell, an added exhaustion that he could've done without. Seifer, despite having no such handicap, was also tiring fast.
A sudden line of fire across his arm indicated the first wound taken. He felt Seifer falter for the briefest of moments before the blond began fighting with a renewed vigour. Squall was fighting almost completely on the defensive now, able to hear Quistis coming to the end of the Shiva summoning. A few seconds longer and...
AN: mwahahahahahahaaaaaaaa thus ends chpt 13 and Death's Angel. Gotta wait for 'Battle Lines' now :p Hehehehe, first I gotta decide whether to go straight into Battle Lines, or to continue Hyne's Return ;)
REVIEWS FROM VERSION 1
Reviewer: Redrum
Date: 27/03/2003
For Chapter: 10
Review: Damn, ya gotta strange way of ending a fic ;) lol
Can't wait for the sequal. I love the small conversation between Seifer and Quistis Go Seifer go! :) lol.
Author's Response: grins but my ending means you have to start reading the next one to find out what happens ;p
It's thanks to this review that this chapter is mostly unchanged - especially the small conversation between Seifer and Quistis ;) I like it too giggles