CHAPTER XVI (A): EVEN MORE OF THE PAST
Vies was still telling Zack, Amber and Selphie about Jacky's past.
"Wow." Amber muttered, "So much happened?"
Vies let out a sigh of grief, "Yeah. So much."
Zack was in shock and at the same time, disbelief. He was shocked by how Jacky's past was and he could barely believe that it was when he was only 7.
"How far did Sorceress Adel lead the children off the path of normality?"
~~~~~~~~~
FLASHBACK: JACKY'S PAST - PART 3
Jacky was now in one of the large rooms in the Esthar Presidential Palace. He was sitting quietly and lonely on one of the couches in the room. Sorceress Adel had teleported him and Vies back to Esthar. Once there, Vies was brought to a doctor to have a health check-up and some treatments for his injuries. Although knowing how much Vies suffered when he was in the prison, Sorceress Adel was going to drop a punishment unto him after his recovery. The punishment for being caught by the enemy was to return to the basics of Sorceress Adel's training, but since Vies didn't reveal anything about Esthar to the Galbadian, his punishment was lightened to only accomplishing some of the most difficult training tasks.
Jacky, however, won't be that fortunate to have his punishment lightened for trying to lie to the sorceress. Although the sorceress has yet to reveal his punishment, an indirect punishment seemed to have been dropped on him. As he was sitting quietly, his mind was constantly thinking through the possibilities of what the punishment may be. Although he wouldn't admit it to anyone, it was easy to see that fear has swallowed the boy. His friends may have to return to training. Sophia might be forced to as well. Or if it was worse, his parents may be executed. Jacky just could not bear to think about all this.
Just then, the only door in the room slid opened. Two Esthar soldiers slipped through and stood at the side of it after roughly shoving the bare- bodied Calv in. To Jacky's shock, Calv's body was covered with bruises and there were a few wounds here and there.
"Uncle Calv!"
Jacky wanted to go to his uncle but froze when he noticed the two red eyes piercing through him from the door. The figure of the sorceress slowly showed its form as she walked in. She smiled her devilish smile widely as she looked at Calv, who was kneeling on the floor weakly.
"This is his punishment for trying to lie to me," the sorceress said.
Though it was meant to be in disgust, she said it as if it was pleasure. And with that, Jacky was the one who was in disgust.
"What do you want?" he cried.
Hearing that, her eyes pierced through him, frightening the little boy.
"It seems that I have you tight in my grasp," the sorceress said before softly laughing to herself.
Jacky had nothing to say. Fear was going into him through Sorceress Adel's eyes.
"Your punishment." Sorceress Adel suddenly spoke, ".shall be exile."
Jacky was shocked at that, but she wasn't finished.
"However, it won't you who is exiled," the sorceress continued, "It will be your father."
"Father?"
Just then, behind her, a man appeared, accompanied by two other soldiers behind him.
"Father!"
Jacky ran towards his father, but the sorceress wouldn't even let him to be close to his father. With a wave of her hand, a magical force suddenly blew Jacky to the floor at the back of the room.
"Your additional punishment is not to have a final moment with your father before he is exiled," Sorceress Adel spoke.
Disbelieving what he heard, Jacky got off the floor and tried again to get to his father. Already predicting that would happen, Sorceress Adel quickly created a ball of electricity and threw at the boy. The ball hit Jacky, shocking him painfully when it did. As it shocked him, Jacky couldn't move body but his head faced right towards the sorceress and his father. He was able to see the sad look on his father's face as he turned around to exit the room, followed by the sorceress and then the two earlier soldiers. Calv was left in the room. Although still in pain, Calv tried to look at Jacky, whose body was still covered with electricity. Even with the bright, sparkling blue light blinding his eyes from time to time, Calv could still see the tears rolling from Jacky's desperate face.
"FATHER!!!!" Jacky cried with his remaining energy before the electricity suddenly died and he collapsed to the floor.
*********
Opening his eyes, Jacky could see that he was laying on his bed in his room now. Just then, he remembered about his father and quickly rose up from his back, but then suddenly, pain went through his body, stopping him from moving for a moment.
"Jacky! You've woken up."
Jacky looked up. Rushing through the door was his sister.
"Where's Father?" Jacky asked, still tired, "I've. I've got to see him."
Jacky tried to get off the bed but then the pain forced him not to move.
"Don't move, Jacky. You've not yet recovered from Sorceress Adel's magic," Sophia said as she pushed Jacky back to bed.
"Where's Father? I want to see him."
Sophia was silent, but by her face, Jacky knew that he would not see his father again.
"Sorry, Jacky, but while you were still unconscious, Father was sent off to space," Sophia explained, tears were welling up in her eyes.
"No." Jacky muttered, "This is all my fault."
"No, Jacky, it wasn't your fault. You didn't do anything."
"Yes, I did! If it weren't for me, Father would not have been exiled," Jacky, crying as he spoke.
"It's all right, Jacky," suddenly a warm voice sounded.
Jacky looked up to see his mother. She slowly walked over to his bed and sat on a chair beside it. She was smiling warmly but in her eyes, there was a hint of sorrow.
"Your father understood the situation you were in, and he wanted me to tell you that it wasn't your fault," she continued.
"After all, Jacky, you saved your friend." Calv said, appearing through the door, ".even though you knew there would be a hard price to pay."
Tears were still rolling down Jacky's cheeks.
"I knew there would be a price to pay, but I didn't thought that it would cost Father to go!" Jacky said, crying harder now.
"Hush, my child," Jacky's mother spoke softly, hugging her crying child and softly patting his back, "Your father will never blame you for that. He never even thought bad of you."
Jacky's crying has lessened now. Hearing his soften sobs, Jacky's mother released her hug and looked at her child's face.
"Although your father was exiled, he was still proud of you." she continued softly, ".as his only son who has already learned the value of friendship."
Jacky continued crying, though less now. He sobbed loudly as he wiped his tears from his cheeks. Seeing that, his mother smiled warmly and hugged Jacky. Jacky gave her a hug as well as Sophia leaned in and hugged both of them while Calv just stood at the end of the bed and watched the three.
~~~~~~~~~
. Uncle Calv continued to be one of Sorceress Adel's prime ministers. No one knows why Sorceress Adel did not strip him of his power, even until now. Some time after Jacky's father was exiled, the sorceress called for Jacky for another mission. His new mission was to infiltrate Balamb Garden," Vies recalled.
"So, that's when Jacky came to Balamb Garden," Amber said.
"Yeah," Vies said, "Since he left Esthar for Balamb Garden, we never heard from him."
"So, that's all you know about Jacky's past?" Zack asked.
"Yeah, that's it," Vies answered.
Selphie, who had been listening carefully to Vies, looked towards the horizon.
"The sun's setting. Squall and Rinoa should be heading to the Presidential Palace. Let's go."
==========
CHAPTER XVI (B): THE LABORATORY INCIDENT
Jacky is now seated on a comfortable couch. His father and mother sat beside him, together with Sophia. Surrounding the couch were some of Jacky's friends he knew when he was young, most of them being the ones that had shared the same past as him. They were telling Jacky about what had happened in Esthar in the past years he had gone for Balamb Garden. Each one of them told their side of the story, but either way, Jacky listened to them with great interest.
Somewhere along the time when Jacky wasn't in Esthar and after Sorceress Adel's fall, an unidentified space pod was coincidentally found floating around in space by a group of space explorers. Everyone was surprised when they found out that the people inside the pod were the people who were exiled by Sorceress Adel at the time when Jacky's father was. The pod was immediately brought back to Esthar without hesitation. And that was how Jacky's father returned to Esthar. Just then, Squall and Rinoa entered the room.
"Squall? Rinoa?" Jacky, surprised they appeared.
"Sorry to interrupt anything, but the sun has already set and we've said that we'll be here again at that time," Rinoa explained.
"What? It's sunset already?" Jacky exclaimed.
While he was together with his family and friends, he completely lost track of the time and it had seemed to him that it was for only a short while. Just then, Zack, Amber, Selphie and Vies appeared through the door behind Squall and Rinoa.
"Hey there, everyone!" Selphie exclaimed loudly, "We're back!"
"Are you done with everything?" Squall asked Jacky.
"Yeah, I guess I am." Jacky said disappointingly, "I do wish to stay with my family and friends a little longer. but there'll be other times."
Jacky walked slowly towards Squall, Zack and the others when suddenly an Esthar soldier rushed into the room and collapsed to the floor, surprising everyone in the room. Panting heavily, the soldier stayed still on the floor.
"Sorce. Sorceress. Ul-Ultimecia." the soldier muttered in between his panting.
"What?" Selphie gasped.
"Dr Od. Dr Odine. s-sorceress. his. lab-laboratory." the soldier continued, again in between his panting.
"Let's go!" Squall exclaimed to the others before rushing out the room, followed by Rinoa, Selphie, Zack, Amber and Jacky.
*********
Following Squall, Rinoa and Selphie, all six of them were able to get to Dr Odine's laboratory in minutes. The six stopped when they saw a man in a red robe, panicking in front of the laboratory.
"Help! Help! Sorceress Ultimecia! Dr Odine! Help!" the man cried while running around, panicking.
When the man saw the six, his face quickly lightened up as he ran towards them.
"Thank goodness! Please! Help Dr Odine! Sorceress Ultimecia is inside with him!" he begged Squall.
"Yes, we know," Rinoa said calmly.
"Now, move aside and let's us take of her!" Selphie exclaimed before pulling out and swinging her weapon, a nunchaku, Strange Vision.
As if by signal, everyone else followed suit - Squall drawing out his translucent-bladed sword, which had been combined with a silver-plated revolver at the handle of the sword, his gunblade, Lionheart, Rinoa arming her saber saw-like weapon that was wrapped around her right arm, her blaster edge, Shooting Star, Zack drawing out and preparing his Ultimega Sword, Amber arming her Star Achiever and Jacky with his Sahara Side- bladers. Prepared for a battle, the six rushed into Dr. Odine's laboratory. Inside, the six immediately saw Sorceress Ultimecia, hovering high above the bare floor, carrying Dr Odine by the front of his purple shirt off his feet with only one hand. He seemed scared out of his mind, struggling helplessly in her hand.
"SeeD's!" the sorceress hissed when the six entered.
"Let go of Dr Odine!" Rinoa shouted.
"What do you want from him?" Squall asked, his face serious as ever.
The sorceress piercingly stared at him for a moment. She surprised the six when she suddenly threw Dr Odine across the room, to the wall. Dr Odine immediately fell unconscious once he landed on the floor.
"Nothing. anymore," Sorceress Ultimecia said, "He is of no use to me now."
With that, she slowly floated up higher. Squall knew immediately that she was leaving and quickly charged towards her. Reaching only a few feet from her, the sorceress suddenly blew Squall back with only a quick wave of her hand, sending him sliding across the floor back to the group. Rinoa quickly squatted down beside him.
"Are you alright, Squall?"
Squall didn't bother to answer as he slowly got back up. Seeing this and having the terrible grudge against him for defeating her the last time, Sorceress Ultimecia sent another powerful force against Squall, pushing him back to the floor.
"Squall!" Rinoa gasped, rushing to him again.
The sorceress grinned a small smile of satisfaction when suddenly, a bullet flew through her left shoulder, which forced her to drop to the floor. The sorceress had let her guard down for a moment and Amber had taken the advantage to shoot her. A thin line of red blood streamed down her right hand that was covering her bullet wound. The sorceress glared up at Amber, who was still pointing her gun towards her. Glaring back at the sorceress, Amber tried difficultly to stay brave.
"Silly little girl." the sorceress muttered, wincing a little at her wound though her face still stayed the same - angered and evil.
Glaring at Amber, who was starting to tremble a little, the sorceress continued, "You'll regret that."
As she said so, she let go of her wound and started gathering some kind of magic in her right hand, which was still smeared with her blood. Before Amber could react, Sorceress Ultimecia shot a dark-blue thunderbolt towards her. Suddenly, the bolt was halted as Zack quickly stood in front of Amber and blocked it with his Ultimega Sword, forcing the bolt to spark to other directions, away from Amber and barely hitting Zack himself.
"Zack!" Amber shouted, surprised as she watched Zack from behind.
The bolt was a lot more powerful than Zack thought as he struggled hard to block the bolt. When the bolt finally stopped, he dropped his sword to the floor and collapsed onto his hands and knees, breathing heavily.
"Are you alright?" Amber asked anxiously when he did.
This was the first time Zack ever did such a thing. His hands were feeling numb as several sparks of the bolt had been able to affect them and the pushing force of the powerful bolt against his sword has left Zack's elbows aching.
Sorceress Ultimecia hissed, "Stupid boy. I kan now expect you to be destroyed before you kan destroy Thora's plan!"
Zack was silent; he didn't know what to say. He wasn't the type with much confidence to do everything.
The sorceress slowly got up to her feet and then started to hover off the floor again, "After what I've seen, I'm konfident that you won't succeed to do anything!"
Just as she was done, a quick movement caught her eye as she quickly flew back, dodging two swift and lethal slashes. Jacky landed back on his feet and cursed at his double miss as he looked up at the sorceress. With his right blade weapon repositioned to follow the flow of his left blade, he had charged towards the sorceress and tried to attack her with a clockwise- twirling double slash, in which his blades would work like the blade of a working chainsaw around his body.
Sorceress Ultimecia was angered even more by Jacky's attack when suddenly, something blasted through the ceiling of the laboratory, sending several amount of debris onto the young group. Seeing the falling debris, Zack quickly pulled Amber to the back and Jacky hurried to protect Dr Odine, who was still unconscious. Luckily, no one was harmed. When everyone recovered from the event, they realized that the sorceress has disappeared. Looking up at the ceiling, they saw that there was now a large hole in it.
"She must have escaped through there," Selphie exclaimed.
"No point chasing after her," Squall said, "Everyone alright?"
"I'm alright," Zack answered, "Are you okay, Amber?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Jacky?" Rinoa shouted.
"Yeah, I'm alright!" Jacky answered, standing up from behind the small heap of the debris that has formed in the middle of the room, "Dr Odine seems alright, too, but he's still unconscious."
Just then, the man earlier, in the red robe, rushed into the laboratory. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw Dr Odine laying still on the floor.
"What has happened to Dr Odine!?"
"Everything's all right," Rinoa explained, trying to calm the man down, "Dr Odine has only fainted. He isn't dead."
Hearing that, the man let out a loud sigh of relief, "What a relief!"
"Let's get him to a doctor," Squall said, kneeling down beside Dr Odine.
"Oh, I'll lead you to the doctor then!" the man said, "Follow me!"
Carrying Dr Odine up in his hands, Squall followed the man as he hastily exited the laboratory. Following behind Squall were Zack, Amber and everyone else.
*********
Outside Dr Odine's laboratory, the young group could be seen exiting while following the man in the red robe. Watching them quietly, high up in the sky, were Sephiroth and Sorceress Ultimecia. Seeing the unconscious Dr. Odine being carried off by Squall, Sephiroth slowly shook his head in disappointment.
"You are so reckless, aren't you?" he says calmly, turning his head to look at the still angered sorceress.
"Why did you stop me? Why did you force me to retreat?" the sorceress questioned angrily.
It was Sephiroth who had caused the blast through the ceiling of the laboratory earlier. As he did, he quickly forced Sorceress Ultimecia to escape by grabbing and pulling her out through the hole in the ceiling.
"Thora would not have wanted you to continue," Sephiroth said confidently, watching Zack and the others again.
"But I kould've easily killed them!"
"It isn't yet the time to face them!" Sephiroth suddenly snapped, his face scowling angrily at her.
Sorceress Ultimecia was silenced.
"You still have a role to play in, Sorceress Ultimecia. Don't forget that."
The sorceress just shrugged before looking at the group again before Sephiroth does.
"We'll meet with them again." Sephiroth said softly, ". in another time."
With that, the two disappeared in a flash.
Vies was still telling Zack, Amber and Selphie about Jacky's past.
"Wow." Amber muttered, "So much happened?"
Vies let out a sigh of grief, "Yeah. So much."
Zack was in shock and at the same time, disbelief. He was shocked by how Jacky's past was and he could barely believe that it was when he was only 7.
"How far did Sorceress Adel lead the children off the path of normality?"
~~~~~~~~~
FLASHBACK: JACKY'S PAST - PART 3
Jacky was now in one of the large rooms in the Esthar Presidential Palace. He was sitting quietly and lonely on one of the couches in the room. Sorceress Adel had teleported him and Vies back to Esthar. Once there, Vies was brought to a doctor to have a health check-up and some treatments for his injuries. Although knowing how much Vies suffered when he was in the prison, Sorceress Adel was going to drop a punishment unto him after his recovery. The punishment for being caught by the enemy was to return to the basics of Sorceress Adel's training, but since Vies didn't reveal anything about Esthar to the Galbadian, his punishment was lightened to only accomplishing some of the most difficult training tasks.
Jacky, however, won't be that fortunate to have his punishment lightened for trying to lie to the sorceress. Although the sorceress has yet to reveal his punishment, an indirect punishment seemed to have been dropped on him. As he was sitting quietly, his mind was constantly thinking through the possibilities of what the punishment may be. Although he wouldn't admit it to anyone, it was easy to see that fear has swallowed the boy. His friends may have to return to training. Sophia might be forced to as well. Or if it was worse, his parents may be executed. Jacky just could not bear to think about all this.
Just then, the only door in the room slid opened. Two Esthar soldiers slipped through and stood at the side of it after roughly shoving the bare- bodied Calv in. To Jacky's shock, Calv's body was covered with bruises and there were a few wounds here and there.
"Uncle Calv!"
Jacky wanted to go to his uncle but froze when he noticed the two red eyes piercing through him from the door. The figure of the sorceress slowly showed its form as she walked in. She smiled her devilish smile widely as she looked at Calv, who was kneeling on the floor weakly.
"This is his punishment for trying to lie to me," the sorceress said.
Though it was meant to be in disgust, she said it as if it was pleasure. And with that, Jacky was the one who was in disgust.
"What do you want?" he cried.
Hearing that, her eyes pierced through him, frightening the little boy.
"It seems that I have you tight in my grasp," the sorceress said before softly laughing to herself.
Jacky had nothing to say. Fear was going into him through Sorceress Adel's eyes.
"Your punishment." Sorceress Adel suddenly spoke, ".shall be exile."
Jacky was shocked at that, but she wasn't finished.
"However, it won't you who is exiled," the sorceress continued, "It will be your father."
"Father?"
Just then, behind her, a man appeared, accompanied by two other soldiers behind him.
"Father!"
Jacky ran towards his father, but the sorceress wouldn't even let him to be close to his father. With a wave of her hand, a magical force suddenly blew Jacky to the floor at the back of the room.
"Your additional punishment is not to have a final moment with your father before he is exiled," Sorceress Adel spoke.
Disbelieving what he heard, Jacky got off the floor and tried again to get to his father. Already predicting that would happen, Sorceress Adel quickly created a ball of electricity and threw at the boy. The ball hit Jacky, shocking him painfully when it did. As it shocked him, Jacky couldn't move body but his head faced right towards the sorceress and his father. He was able to see the sad look on his father's face as he turned around to exit the room, followed by the sorceress and then the two earlier soldiers. Calv was left in the room. Although still in pain, Calv tried to look at Jacky, whose body was still covered with electricity. Even with the bright, sparkling blue light blinding his eyes from time to time, Calv could still see the tears rolling from Jacky's desperate face.
"FATHER!!!!" Jacky cried with his remaining energy before the electricity suddenly died and he collapsed to the floor.
*********
Opening his eyes, Jacky could see that he was laying on his bed in his room now. Just then, he remembered about his father and quickly rose up from his back, but then suddenly, pain went through his body, stopping him from moving for a moment.
"Jacky! You've woken up."
Jacky looked up. Rushing through the door was his sister.
"Where's Father?" Jacky asked, still tired, "I've. I've got to see him."
Jacky tried to get off the bed but then the pain forced him not to move.
"Don't move, Jacky. You've not yet recovered from Sorceress Adel's magic," Sophia said as she pushed Jacky back to bed.
"Where's Father? I want to see him."
Sophia was silent, but by her face, Jacky knew that he would not see his father again.
"Sorry, Jacky, but while you were still unconscious, Father was sent off to space," Sophia explained, tears were welling up in her eyes.
"No." Jacky muttered, "This is all my fault."
"No, Jacky, it wasn't your fault. You didn't do anything."
"Yes, I did! If it weren't for me, Father would not have been exiled," Jacky, crying as he spoke.
"It's all right, Jacky," suddenly a warm voice sounded.
Jacky looked up to see his mother. She slowly walked over to his bed and sat on a chair beside it. She was smiling warmly but in her eyes, there was a hint of sorrow.
"Your father understood the situation you were in, and he wanted me to tell you that it wasn't your fault," she continued.
"After all, Jacky, you saved your friend." Calv said, appearing through the door, ".even though you knew there would be a hard price to pay."
Tears were still rolling down Jacky's cheeks.
"I knew there would be a price to pay, but I didn't thought that it would cost Father to go!" Jacky said, crying harder now.
"Hush, my child," Jacky's mother spoke softly, hugging her crying child and softly patting his back, "Your father will never blame you for that. He never even thought bad of you."
Jacky's crying has lessened now. Hearing his soften sobs, Jacky's mother released her hug and looked at her child's face.
"Although your father was exiled, he was still proud of you." she continued softly, ".as his only son who has already learned the value of friendship."
Jacky continued crying, though less now. He sobbed loudly as he wiped his tears from his cheeks. Seeing that, his mother smiled warmly and hugged Jacky. Jacky gave her a hug as well as Sophia leaned in and hugged both of them while Calv just stood at the end of the bed and watched the three.
~~~~~~~~~
. Uncle Calv continued to be one of Sorceress Adel's prime ministers. No one knows why Sorceress Adel did not strip him of his power, even until now. Some time after Jacky's father was exiled, the sorceress called for Jacky for another mission. His new mission was to infiltrate Balamb Garden," Vies recalled.
"So, that's when Jacky came to Balamb Garden," Amber said.
"Yeah," Vies said, "Since he left Esthar for Balamb Garden, we never heard from him."
"So, that's all you know about Jacky's past?" Zack asked.
"Yeah, that's it," Vies answered.
Selphie, who had been listening carefully to Vies, looked towards the horizon.
"The sun's setting. Squall and Rinoa should be heading to the Presidential Palace. Let's go."
==========
CHAPTER XVI (B): THE LABORATORY INCIDENT
Jacky is now seated on a comfortable couch. His father and mother sat beside him, together with Sophia. Surrounding the couch were some of Jacky's friends he knew when he was young, most of them being the ones that had shared the same past as him. They were telling Jacky about what had happened in Esthar in the past years he had gone for Balamb Garden. Each one of them told their side of the story, but either way, Jacky listened to them with great interest.
Somewhere along the time when Jacky wasn't in Esthar and after Sorceress Adel's fall, an unidentified space pod was coincidentally found floating around in space by a group of space explorers. Everyone was surprised when they found out that the people inside the pod were the people who were exiled by Sorceress Adel at the time when Jacky's father was. The pod was immediately brought back to Esthar without hesitation. And that was how Jacky's father returned to Esthar. Just then, Squall and Rinoa entered the room.
"Squall? Rinoa?" Jacky, surprised they appeared.
"Sorry to interrupt anything, but the sun has already set and we've said that we'll be here again at that time," Rinoa explained.
"What? It's sunset already?" Jacky exclaimed.
While he was together with his family and friends, he completely lost track of the time and it had seemed to him that it was for only a short while. Just then, Zack, Amber, Selphie and Vies appeared through the door behind Squall and Rinoa.
"Hey there, everyone!" Selphie exclaimed loudly, "We're back!"
"Are you done with everything?" Squall asked Jacky.
"Yeah, I guess I am." Jacky said disappointingly, "I do wish to stay with my family and friends a little longer. but there'll be other times."
Jacky walked slowly towards Squall, Zack and the others when suddenly an Esthar soldier rushed into the room and collapsed to the floor, surprising everyone in the room. Panting heavily, the soldier stayed still on the floor.
"Sorce. Sorceress. Ul-Ultimecia." the soldier muttered in between his panting.
"What?" Selphie gasped.
"Dr Od. Dr Odine. s-sorceress. his. lab-laboratory." the soldier continued, again in between his panting.
"Let's go!" Squall exclaimed to the others before rushing out the room, followed by Rinoa, Selphie, Zack, Amber and Jacky.
*********
Following Squall, Rinoa and Selphie, all six of them were able to get to Dr Odine's laboratory in minutes. The six stopped when they saw a man in a red robe, panicking in front of the laboratory.
"Help! Help! Sorceress Ultimecia! Dr Odine! Help!" the man cried while running around, panicking.
When the man saw the six, his face quickly lightened up as he ran towards them.
"Thank goodness! Please! Help Dr Odine! Sorceress Ultimecia is inside with him!" he begged Squall.
"Yes, we know," Rinoa said calmly.
"Now, move aside and let's us take of her!" Selphie exclaimed before pulling out and swinging her weapon, a nunchaku, Strange Vision.
As if by signal, everyone else followed suit - Squall drawing out his translucent-bladed sword, which had been combined with a silver-plated revolver at the handle of the sword, his gunblade, Lionheart, Rinoa arming her saber saw-like weapon that was wrapped around her right arm, her blaster edge, Shooting Star, Zack drawing out and preparing his Ultimega Sword, Amber arming her Star Achiever and Jacky with his Sahara Side- bladers. Prepared for a battle, the six rushed into Dr. Odine's laboratory. Inside, the six immediately saw Sorceress Ultimecia, hovering high above the bare floor, carrying Dr Odine by the front of his purple shirt off his feet with only one hand. He seemed scared out of his mind, struggling helplessly in her hand.
"SeeD's!" the sorceress hissed when the six entered.
"Let go of Dr Odine!" Rinoa shouted.
"What do you want from him?" Squall asked, his face serious as ever.
The sorceress piercingly stared at him for a moment. She surprised the six when she suddenly threw Dr Odine across the room, to the wall. Dr Odine immediately fell unconscious once he landed on the floor.
"Nothing. anymore," Sorceress Ultimecia said, "He is of no use to me now."
With that, she slowly floated up higher. Squall knew immediately that she was leaving and quickly charged towards her. Reaching only a few feet from her, the sorceress suddenly blew Squall back with only a quick wave of her hand, sending him sliding across the floor back to the group. Rinoa quickly squatted down beside him.
"Are you alright, Squall?"
Squall didn't bother to answer as he slowly got back up. Seeing this and having the terrible grudge against him for defeating her the last time, Sorceress Ultimecia sent another powerful force against Squall, pushing him back to the floor.
"Squall!" Rinoa gasped, rushing to him again.
The sorceress grinned a small smile of satisfaction when suddenly, a bullet flew through her left shoulder, which forced her to drop to the floor. The sorceress had let her guard down for a moment and Amber had taken the advantage to shoot her. A thin line of red blood streamed down her right hand that was covering her bullet wound. The sorceress glared up at Amber, who was still pointing her gun towards her. Glaring back at the sorceress, Amber tried difficultly to stay brave.
"Silly little girl." the sorceress muttered, wincing a little at her wound though her face still stayed the same - angered and evil.
Glaring at Amber, who was starting to tremble a little, the sorceress continued, "You'll regret that."
As she said so, she let go of her wound and started gathering some kind of magic in her right hand, which was still smeared with her blood. Before Amber could react, Sorceress Ultimecia shot a dark-blue thunderbolt towards her. Suddenly, the bolt was halted as Zack quickly stood in front of Amber and blocked it with his Ultimega Sword, forcing the bolt to spark to other directions, away from Amber and barely hitting Zack himself.
"Zack!" Amber shouted, surprised as she watched Zack from behind.
The bolt was a lot more powerful than Zack thought as he struggled hard to block the bolt. When the bolt finally stopped, he dropped his sword to the floor and collapsed onto his hands and knees, breathing heavily.
"Are you alright?" Amber asked anxiously when he did.
This was the first time Zack ever did such a thing. His hands were feeling numb as several sparks of the bolt had been able to affect them and the pushing force of the powerful bolt against his sword has left Zack's elbows aching.
Sorceress Ultimecia hissed, "Stupid boy. I kan now expect you to be destroyed before you kan destroy Thora's plan!"
Zack was silent; he didn't know what to say. He wasn't the type with much confidence to do everything.
The sorceress slowly got up to her feet and then started to hover off the floor again, "After what I've seen, I'm konfident that you won't succeed to do anything!"
Just as she was done, a quick movement caught her eye as she quickly flew back, dodging two swift and lethal slashes. Jacky landed back on his feet and cursed at his double miss as he looked up at the sorceress. With his right blade weapon repositioned to follow the flow of his left blade, he had charged towards the sorceress and tried to attack her with a clockwise- twirling double slash, in which his blades would work like the blade of a working chainsaw around his body.
Sorceress Ultimecia was angered even more by Jacky's attack when suddenly, something blasted through the ceiling of the laboratory, sending several amount of debris onto the young group. Seeing the falling debris, Zack quickly pulled Amber to the back and Jacky hurried to protect Dr Odine, who was still unconscious. Luckily, no one was harmed. When everyone recovered from the event, they realized that the sorceress has disappeared. Looking up at the ceiling, they saw that there was now a large hole in it.
"She must have escaped through there," Selphie exclaimed.
"No point chasing after her," Squall said, "Everyone alright?"
"I'm alright," Zack answered, "Are you okay, Amber?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Jacky?" Rinoa shouted.
"Yeah, I'm alright!" Jacky answered, standing up from behind the small heap of the debris that has formed in the middle of the room, "Dr Odine seems alright, too, but he's still unconscious."
Just then, the man earlier, in the red robe, rushed into the laboratory. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw Dr Odine laying still on the floor.
"What has happened to Dr Odine!?"
"Everything's all right," Rinoa explained, trying to calm the man down, "Dr Odine has only fainted. He isn't dead."
Hearing that, the man let out a loud sigh of relief, "What a relief!"
"Let's get him to a doctor," Squall said, kneeling down beside Dr Odine.
"Oh, I'll lead you to the doctor then!" the man said, "Follow me!"
Carrying Dr Odine up in his hands, Squall followed the man as he hastily exited the laboratory. Following behind Squall were Zack, Amber and everyone else.
*********
Outside Dr Odine's laboratory, the young group could be seen exiting while following the man in the red robe. Watching them quietly, high up in the sky, were Sephiroth and Sorceress Ultimecia. Seeing the unconscious Dr. Odine being carried off by Squall, Sephiroth slowly shook his head in disappointment.
"You are so reckless, aren't you?" he says calmly, turning his head to look at the still angered sorceress.
"Why did you stop me? Why did you force me to retreat?" the sorceress questioned angrily.
It was Sephiroth who had caused the blast through the ceiling of the laboratory earlier. As he did, he quickly forced Sorceress Ultimecia to escape by grabbing and pulling her out through the hole in the ceiling.
"Thora would not have wanted you to continue," Sephiroth said confidently, watching Zack and the others again.
"But I kould've easily killed them!"
"It isn't yet the time to face them!" Sephiroth suddenly snapped, his face scowling angrily at her.
Sorceress Ultimecia was silenced.
"You still have a role to play in, Sorceress Ultimecia. Don't forget that."
The sorceress just shrugged before looking at the group again before Sephiroth does.
"We'll meet with them again." Sephiroth said softly, ". in another time."
With that, the two disappeared in a flash.