Chapter 13: The Presidential Palace
Cloud looked at the watch on his right wrist next to his Escort Guard, it was 22:30 precisely, he had plenty of time to be in and out before anyone noticed him. The ex-SOLIDER briefly wondered why no one was outside on the streets at this time, not that he was complaining or anything, the less witnesses about, the better it was for him.
He glanced up at the building in front of him, to his Mako enhanced eyes, the world was entirely blue, as though he was swimming underwater, he was glad that he had the sunglasses on, else anyone looking would have seen his eyes glowing in the darkness. The building he was inspecting was the Presidential place, he was stood at the back of it, being the only way in that he knew of. The Ragnarok was still in the docking bay and Cloud's back was turned to it. He had been keeling behind a shrub, hidden in the shadows, for about half an hour and there was still no movement in any window, there were obviously no security guards, but that didn't mean that there were other types of security devices in there; cameras, trip wires, motion and sound sensors.
Cloud sighed, 'time to go'. He silently slipped away in such a way that would make even Vincent proud, and glided over to the door. Once there, he tried the handle…locked…he glanced around, the road was still empty, he took out a lock pick from his pocket and cautiously inserted it into a small opening under the door handle, after a few seconds of careful twisting, he heard a soft click – the door was unlocked. Cloud wondered for a moment why such a high-tech building had a normal door on it; he guessed that the crime rate was so low no one bothered to have proper protection against intruders. The ex-SOLIDER now-assassin slipped through the door and closed it behind him; the lock pick went back into his pocket. Keeping to the shadows, Cloud made his way through the building, meeting no one as he went, and quickly found the entrance to the President's office, it being the only place he knew in the building.
Laguna yawned, it was getting late, he hated paper work, and was supposed to meet Kiros and Ward at the Monster Hunter's Pub an hour ago. Maybe he should cancel and just go another night, they'd probably left anyway. He stretched his arms above his head and looked around his office, it was only small, but was still one of the biggest in the building. The walls all had wood panelling (most people is Esthar thought that he was weird for having them, but let it slide due to the fact he was 'an outsider'). The floor was misty green coloured glass, but the ceiling was made from clear glass letting him see the clear night sky above. A large window covered one wall, and showed all who entered a perfect birds eye view of Western Esthar at night, it twinkled and glowed in a way that no other city did, and made him proud to be an honorary Estharian. On his desk sat a huge pile of papers, a couple of reports, a new laptop and a duel picture frame of Raine in one slot and her first and only child in the other, a boy aged only a few months in the picture. He wished for what seemed like the hundredth time that he had a picture of the boy at his current age, but that seemed very unlikely to happen any time soon…
Laguna abruptly realised that the only light in the room was his lamp, which he vaguely remembered switching on hours ago, just how long had he been sat here working? The laptop Kiros had leant him bleeped as an e-mail arrived. Laguna ignored it and leaned forward onto his desk, with his head resting on his folded arms, his eyes started to close as let himself be taken away to the land of sleep. But something wasn't right, his old, yet still keen, fighter's senses told him something was defiantly wrong, he quickly jumped out of his chair with all the speed from his youth, and dived across the room. A loud THUD, crack, then another thud followed by the sounds of things been broken and smashing was heard. Laguna quickly stood up and looked over to his desk, where his head had been moments before a huge sword now was, it had split the table in half, and the contents of it were all over the floor, the lamp rolled away and pulled its wire from the plug socket, plunging the room into darkness, the only light now was coming in from the moon and street lights outside the window and roof.
Laguna looked at the sword that was now turning to face him 'Now that is the biggest sword I have ever seen in my life! What sort of He-man could carry that, never mind use it?' Laguna's eyes followed the blade upwards, a small boy of about 16 or 17 was carrying it, he felt his eyes popping, 'How the hell can a small boy like him carry such a huge sword?!?!'. The boy's hair was a brilliant blonde, and seemed to defy all laws of nature and gravity in its style, he was wearing some strange clothes that Laguna didn't recognise and wore dark sunglasses, that some how made the outfit ominously complete.
The boy let go of the sword and managed to hold it in one hand while he took off the dark sunglasses and put them into a pant pocket. Laguna thought that if his eyes popped out anymore they would come out of his head completely and would be rolling around on the floor by now – how could anyone hold a weapon that big with only one hand?
"All the better to see you with, my dear." The boy grinned as he replaced both hands back onto the hilt of the huge weapon.
"Just…just who are you, Spiky? What do you think you're doing? You completely destroyed my desk! Kiros is gonna kill me, you've just sliced his laptop in two, never mind my paperwork that I've been doing for like FOREVER!" Laguna said angrily, trying to stall for time as he thought of a way out of this unexpected confusion. The boy's eyes glowed blue in the semi-dark, 'I wonder where he got glow in the dark contact lenses? Shut up Laguna, don't think of that, its not important, now where did I put my gun?' Laguna glanced around the room, keeping an eye on the blonde boy while trying to remember where his weapon was. He silently cursed the fact that these upper floors had no security guards, and few people ever came in after normal working hours, there would be no help coming from outside that door until morning.
"To answer your questions I am simply an errand boy, and I'm here to carry out an errand from my boss." Spiky said with a knowing smile.
"And so, erm…what's your errand?" Laguna felt like slapping himself on the forehead, his rifle was strapped under his chair on the other side of the room how could he have forgotten? Ok, so it wasn't as good as his trusty machine gun, but that was at home with Ellone. He just hoped it still had rounds loaded in it…was his leg cramping up or was that just him?
"To kill you."
Laguna head snapped back to the boy as he focused again on the conversation, and said the only thing possible at that time "Huh?"
'Spiky' suddenly launched himself at Laguna, who somehow managed to dive away again, using the leg that was still functioning normally, before the impossibly huge sword that Spiky was swinging in his direction sliced him in two. Laguna mentally checked his magic stock as he reached his chair and groped for his rifle, all he had were a couple of Triples and a Demi, 'What a load of crap this is, what am I suppose to do with two triples and a Demi?!?!?! Demi magic NEVER works, why didn't I keep up training with drawing and magic?' he moaned to himself. There was only one thing for it, as Spiky slowly started to make his way over to Laguna who was currently sat on the floor next to the chair, he shouted, "Draw!" Beams of light shot out of Spiky and into Laguna, who was surprised to find himself with 7 Ultimas, 'What sort of person carries around Ultimas? Never mind Full-life, Flare and Death magic that were there too, what have I got myself into?'
Spiky had stopped in his attack; he had his right hand to his head which was shaking slightly, the left still clung onto the sword "What did you just do?" The boy's eyes seemed slightly unfocused, but it was hard to tell in this poor light.
Laguna blinked, the boy had obviously never been drawn from before, it wasn't the most comfortable of experiences but most people got used to it after a while if they were drawn from enough. While Spiky was cradling his head, Laguna's hand found the weapon attached to the underside of the seat, and ripped it off the straps that fastened it to the chair; he held it up and pointed at the 'errand' boy. Spiky shook his head, his eyes cleared and focused on Laguna, the glowing blue eyes narrowed, Laguna could tell that the boy was wondering where he had got a rifle from.
"Seems like we're on equal footing now." said Laguna
"Hardly" he laughed
Laguna frowned, what did the boy mean by that? Spiky raised the broad sword and charged once more at the man, not stopping as a round from Laguna's weapon hit his right shoulder and passed straight through it, hitting the window behind him and causing the glass to shatter, but still to stay in its frame. Spiky smashed the side of Laguna's head with the flat side of the sword, causing blood to trickle down his head as he fell to the ground, bright dots danced around the room to his eyes as he fell.
Laguna pushed himself up off the ground, and stayed there on all fours, breathing heavily as his head spun, he could feel Spiky walking over to him, and could shortly see his reflection in the glass next to him as the boy raised up the sword.
"Triple!" He yelled, casting on himself, and rolled away before Spiky could strike. He wondered briefly if Spiky was playing with him, but quickly pushed the thought out of his head, no one would be playing at a time like this, 'but then why didn't he hit me with the edge of his blade and finish it right then?' he glanced up and look at the boy, he was grinning, blood pouring down his right arm. Laguna could feel the power of the triple spell within him that allowed him to cast three spells, and hardly having a choice of which ones he could cast he shouted "Ultima, Ultima, Ultima!" and held out his palm to the blonde boy, who looked slightly confused once more.
The boy's look turned to shock as he was covered in a shimmering green light that flashed into the room, it seemly pulled itself apart as it glowed in an eerie radiance that was filled with dancing lights and sparkles. As the light faded, Laguna could still see the boy; he was still standing where he had been before the attack had started, but before he could take more than one step forward the second Ultima attack occurred, shortly followed by the third. 'Strange, I always thought that Ultima looked different from that.' Laguna thought as he started to get up off the floor.
When the final Ultima cleared, Laguna was standing upright, although a bit wobbly from the previous blow to the head, his leg had stopped cramping so he was able to move over to the door as quickly as he could. He risked a glance backwards and saw the boy glaring at him, his clothes were defiantly the worse for wear, being ripped and scorched in several places, his shoulder was still bleeding heavily and he looked incredibly pissed off. Laguna's hand froze on the door handle, their eyes locked together, cold glowing blue eyes locked on laughing grey, and for the first time Laguna realised that his eyes were actually that colour, they weren't fake at all.
Cloud charged at the President, who seemed frozen to the spot, 'this has gone on long enough', he thought as he ran Ultima Weapon smoothly through the man's stomach, and stayed there, frozen on the spot, his face a mere half a foot away from the man's face. Cloud looked down; he had attacked harder than was necessary, he could only see the hilt of the sword, the entire blade had passed through the man, and the sword hadn't just stopped at him, it went through the door too. The grey eyed man continued to look him in the eyes, panic had gone from their midst, fear and pain were rapidly leaving his face as the eyes slowly lost their inner light and closed. His upper body sagged onto Cloud's, who held him there in shock; he slowly withdrew the blade from the body and door, but continued to hold the man in his free arm. What was he supposed to do now?
Cloud stepped away from the door and placed the body on the floor, he awkwardly put the sword back onto its magnet on his top using his left arm. His right arm was dead and useless now, he wasn't sure how he had been able to use it a few seconds ago, but now it was simply dead weight, he was sure it would heal though, the Mako in him would see to that in due time.
Cloud stood up and stepped over the once most powerful man in Esthar to reach the door, but before he had chance to grab the handle it started turning between his fingers, someone was turning it from the outside! Cloud quickly glanced around, there was no where to hide, the only exits where the door and the almost-shattered window, he could easily kill whoever came through the doors, but something deep inside him told him to go, that he had done enough killing for one day. He ran to the window and jumped through it, glass ripped his face and arms as he passed through to the outside, as he started to plummet towards the ground, he cast Tornado to break his fall. The wind it caused stopping his descent from becoming his death as he softly landed on the road below and raced into the night.
Kiros walked down the corridor, he still couldn't get used to the fact everything was made out of glass here and it was still warm. Ward walked silently beside him, to anyone else who didn't know them, Kiros would been seen to be talking to himself, as he interpreted his friend's expressions and gestures into words that only he and Laguna could hear.
"…but he could still be working! Its nearly 11.30, he's probably just fallen to sleep at his desk again."
"…"
"I know he's President, but he needs some fun once in a while. He hasn't been drinking with us in a long time, ever since Raine…"
"…"
"I suppose your right, but I'm still going to drag him down for a drink, whether it kills him or not!"
"…"
"Fine then, whether he kills me or not!"
"…"
"He wont, I'm sure he'll be glad to get out of that office, Ellone said that he still wasn't home when I rang, so where else would he be? Its strange that his phone was disconnected when I rang, he must have pulled out the plug to use the laptop or something."
"…"
"Yes I know you where there when I rang her, I just thought you might have forgot."
"…" Ward rolled his eyes
"Yes, I know your not Laguna, but you never know he might have worn off on you." Kiros grinned
"…"
"No, he's not worn off on me!"
"…" Ward pointed to a door, Kiros blinked, they had arrived at Laguna's door already? Oh well, he reached around Ward's arm and turned the door handle, he knew that no sound could pass through these reinforced glass walls and study doors so didn't bother knocking. He frowned at the door before walking through, there seemed to be a large slit vertically down it at about waist height, and something red was dripping down the door, he frowned at it wondering what Laguna was up to and what the point of it was. There was no way he could have prepared himself for what he saw once he walked into the office and turned on the light switch.
The desk had been sliced in two, paper was scattered all over the office, blown around by a strong wind coming through the smashed window. Blood splatter covered parts of the walls and along the floor; his eyes instantly picking out the biggest pool of blood, a body was lying face down in it. Kiros stepped back, his eyes wide in disbelief, he shook his head and put his hands up covering his mouth, he continued backing up until something solid stopped him, "No, dear God, no."
The solid thing behind him moved, and walked in front of him, blocking his view of his President, comrade and friend. "Ward?"
"…"
Ward walked over to the body, he held out his hands, and focused all his energy into the spell he was about to cast. "…" a light engulfed him and then did the same to the body. A huge wound on his back stopped bleeding so much and healed up slightly at the edges.
Kiros gasped, 'He must still be alive if his body can still respond to Curagas.' Kiros hurried over and knelt down next to Laguna, not his body anymore, but Laguna, a living breathing person, no longer a corpse on the floor. The dark-skinned blade specialist closed his eyes and started to copy Ward "Curaga!" He just hoped that Laguna would wake up soon…
Author's notes:
Sorry about that wait for this chapter, its just taken a while to find spare time to get this chapter down, exams, coursework and stuff are taking up WAY too much of my time.
Anyways, just wanted to thank everyone who has reviewed to this fic so far ^_^ without you this never would have carried on for so long, and will continue to as well! Lots more to happen!!!! (Oh yea, I am aware that Vincent and Cloud are a bit occ, but don't worry, bout it, all will be explained…) ^_^
Mako_majic