The various characters from 'Battle of the Vampyres.'
(They are from video games and movies including various Final Fantasies, SO2, and The Bouncer, and movies like the Matrix.)
Sion Barzahd – Originally from 'The Bouncer.'
He is a student from Balamb Garden and Dominique Cross' boyfriend.
Squall Leonhart – Originally from 'Final Fantasy VIII.'(I shouldn't really have to explain that…)
He is the commander of Balamb Garden, Xu's boss, and Rinoa Heartilly's boyfriend.
Rinoa Heartilly – Originally from 'Final Fantasy VIII.'
She is Squall's girlfriend and occasionally steps in for Quistis as the person in charge of War affairs.
Cloud Strife – Originally from 'Final Fantasy VII.'
Yet another student at Balamb Garden and Aeris Gainsborough's boyfriend.
Zidane Tribal – Originally from 'Final Fantasy IX.'
Another Balamb Garden member and Princess Garnet Til Alexandros III's (Also called Dagger) boyfriend.
Yuna – Originally from 'Final Fantasy X.'
She is a student at Galabedia Garden and Tidus' sweetheart.
Gippal – Originally from 'Final Fantasy X-2.'
He is a master of the machine gun, and a student at Trabia Garden. He is also Rikku's boyfriend.
Baralai – Originally from 'Final Fantasy X-2.'
He is sweet on Selphie Tilmitt (Of Final Fantasy VIII) and a student at Galabedia. He once visited Balamb and that's how he met Selphie.
Ashton Anchors – Originally from 'Star Ocean 2.'
Ashton is a student at Trabia Garden.
Rena Lanford – Originally from 'Star Ocean 2.'
A member of Balamb's Garden Festival and a student at Balamb Garden.
Neo – Originally from 'The Matrix.'
A teacher at Galabedia Garden's new add-on, The Annex.
Adam Minamoto – Originally from 'Power Rangers.' (Although his last name was Park and I've changed his appearance a little bit. And he's only a character; there are no Ranger transformations or anything like that.)
A newly transferred student from the unheard-of school called 'Ainaveltsac.' He transferred to Balamb Garden for unknown reasons.
Dominique Cross – Originally from 'The Bouncer.'
The sweetheart of Sion Barzahd, she disappeared from the halls of Balamb Garden at midnight. Rumors have spread that she has been transformed into a vampyre.
Aeris Gainsborough – Originally from 'Final Fantasy VII.'
Once competition on for Tifa over Cloud, Aeris now attends Balamb Garden comfortably with Cloud Strife.
Tessa Chuck – Originally from 'My imagination.' (No, that is not a television show or an anime or a video game or a movie. It is literally my imagination. I made her up.)
A student at Balamb Garden. She recently transferred from 'Ainaveltsac' as well, and not much is know about her except for her blood type.
Dagger (Garnet Til Alexandros III) – Originally from 'Final Fantasy IX.'
The former princess of Alexandria, she now attends Balamb Garden with Zidane. Lately she has been acting strange and has skipped quite a few classes to go to an unknown place.
Tidus – Originally from 'Final Fantasy X.'
Yuna's missing boyfriend. After returning to Spira, he came to Galabedia's capital, Deling City, then disappeared.
Rikku – Originally from 'Final Fantasy X-2' and 'Final Fantasy X.'
An all-too-perky student at Trabia. She is Gippal's girlfriend, and she was about to make a transfer to Balamb Garden to train as a SeeD when she disappeared at midnight.
Selphie Tilmitt – Originally from 'Final Fantasy VIII.'
The leader of the Balamb Garden Festival. She was Quistis' most perky pupil, until she was kidnapped at midnight.
Damien Kragen – Originally from 'My imagination.' (Yep, that again. Actually, the last name 'Kragen' is from an R.L. Stine book called 'Bad Moonlight.')
Damien attends Balamb Garden currently. He is a lone wolf, as all the former pupils from 'Ainaveltsac' are.
Claude Kenni – Originally from 'Star Ocean 2.'
He is somewhat sweet on Rena. He currently goes to Galabedia Garden.
Author's notes: These character profiles may not be very reliable, because I don't have everything written down, so their pasts and the Gardens they attend may change.
Battle of the Vampyres
Chapter 1: New Blood
Squall Leonhart leaned back in his stuffed leather chair.
(My work is finally done…)
He sighed and closed his blue eyes, gathering his energy to leave for his dorm room, where Rinoa had most likely fallen asleep waiting for him to return to her.
The door burst open, and Xu ran in, carrying a stack of papers.
"Sir!" She thrust the pile onto his desk. "We have an urgent message from Private Sion Barzahd!"
"Sion…?" The tired Commander of Balamb Garden frowned heavily, not wanting to think anymore.
"He is on the Vampyre battlefield." Xu reminded her boss.
"Have they decided to ambush us again?"
"No, actually their leader has been slain. We can now strike at them."
"Xu, the Vampyres are smart. They have spies and followers all over the world. Nighttime is their time. They'll have the ritual for a new leader done by morning."
"Then tomorrow we should conquer their nation. They'll be powerless to stop us." Xu's voice rose in pre-estimated victory.
"Have you forgotten that they have spies even here, in Balamb Garden? Even if we delete all of the Vampyres that have made themselves visible, whatever forces they have here will retaliate sometime at night. And we'll be the powerless ones." Squall angrily replied, his bitter words almost accompanied with a cattish 'hiss.'
Xu lowered her head, her face dark with the realization that the war with the Vampyres could go on for eternity.
"Yes sir." She saluted and began to leave the room, pausing at the doorway. "Oh, and sir, you can leave those papers for tomorrow. They aren't as urgent as the news of the Vampyres." With that, she left, leaving Squall in the large and hollow room, now seemingly empty and lonely.
(There is nothing I can do. Until the identities of all of the Vampyres here are revealed, I can't act on any disadvantage of theirs, even one such as this.)
The young 20 year old stared at the heap of papers on his desk and sighed. He picked up the small phone near his elbow with great effort.
"Rinoa?" He said after dialing a number that was fully familiar to him. "I'm sorry, I'll be staying late tonight."
With that, he hung up and dug into his work.
Around 2 A.M, the Commander had fallen fast asleep, obviously dreams of Rinoa filling his exhausted slumber. A silluetto of a man stepped up to the boy slumbering upon his desk. A glimpse of a pale hand slipped two sheets of paper onto the desk. Then the intruder slipped through the window, as quietly as they had come.
The next morning, Squall awoke to find two sets of papers, both the same. An application for Balamb Garden. Both of the forms were written in flowery, drifty handwriting, but they were for two different people.
(They're both coming for interviews at 2000 hours tonight. I guess I'd better have a good sleep by then.)
Squall stifled a yawn and grabbed his two stacks of papers he had gone through the previous night. He dropped them onto a table for Xu to take care of and stifled another yawn before heading to the door.
As he walked sleepily through the hallways, he spotted a few familiar faces, but he was much too tired to wave to them.
He neared the dormitory, aware of the students rushing to get to their destination as quick as was possible. A few stopped to salute Squall, but he dismissed them as fast as they had come.
Fortunately for him, Xu wasn't able to find him, so she couldn't bother the sleepy Squall with petty papers or a question that Cid would answer better.
(Sometimes, everyone relies on me too heavily. They should know I'm not a superman. I know I'll mess up sometime. When I do, everyone will get discouraged and disappointed and they'll all say: "If Squall can't handle it, no one can." I'm not perfect, and they've been trained to know that. Maybe, when a new leader is appointed, they forget about all of the grievous training they've had to endure their whole lives and then they have to be retaught.)
At last, he'd reached his destination, his dorm room, tiredness drooping his blue-gray eyes and weakening his normally strong stance. Squall rushed inside, eager to fall into slumber and forget about everything in existence, to wallow in images of Rinoa.
His bed's appearance made it clear that Rinoa had once been there, but she was there no more. Of course, that was obvious, as she had classes and the like. Since he was sure Rinoa would return sometime during the day, he scribbled a note to her in his thick and bold handwriting:
Rinoa, I have a meeting tonight at 2000 hours, so I'll be sleeping, but I'll be having lunch at 1200 hours, so if you would like to join me, you're 'heartily' welcome to.
Love,
Squall.
The Commander smiled at his private joke and taped the note to the inside of the door.
(The last time I taped a note to the outside of the door, Rinoa and I had the entire academy at our lunch table. I think I'll spare us both the grief of having Selphie snoop around our business. I think we'll both have a better day that way.)
Satisfied with his work , he quickly called Quistis to notify her of his absence from her classes all day. Of course, she understood and told Squall that she would send his work with Rinoa.
(Did I forget anything?)
Squall quickly glanced about his small dorm room. He spotted his gunblade, the tip down to the middle covered in fresh Grat blood.
(I guess I should clean that off before it dries…)
He picked up his gleaming crimson gunblade off the floor and carried it down the hallway to the bathroom. He didn't mind doing this job, as his gunblade, along with his necklace and his ring, were his most prized possessions. If they fell into disrepair, he was quick to fix them. In the past two months, he had used up three large jars of silver jewelry cleaner and five large jars of gunblade cleaner.
In the bathroom, he rinsed the blood off of his gunblade, watching the water turn red. He yawned half-heartedly, turning off the water and drying the blade carefully. He sighed as he watched the waterdrops that had rested on the shiny silver disappeared into the plain white paper towel in his bare hand. Then he carefully set his gunblade down, threw the paper towel away, and slipped his black leather gloves on, gazing at himself in the mirror before grabbing his sword and placing it into its holster, knowing full on it would just be pulled out again.
Back in his room, he pulled off his gloves and set them on his bedside table, next to the latest copy of 'Weapons Monthly.' He set his gunblade in its case, the box that rested against the wall near the entrance. After gazing longingly at it, he pulled off his boots and his jacket, setting them on an empty shelf at the foot of his plain bed. He opened the window slightly and watched out the window, feeling the beginnings of spring, feeling the beginnings of summer. Then he sat down onto his bed, rubbing his forehead almost robotically. Lying down, he turned over to face the wall and closed his eyes, preparing to dream. Almost instantly he fell asleep.
Author's Notes: This chapter was to show how dedicated Squall is to his work and to completing whatever he needs to before he gets even an ounce of sleep. Seriously, I think Squall would do something like that, not sleep until all of his work was complete.
Oh, and if you want the battle to start soon, it will. Just not until later, because I'm taking advice from my other story, and I'm building up on the character's personalities and the plot. Don't worry; I'll get to the battle eventually. Hope you liked this chapter, and I hope you like the next one even better!