Chapter 7: Challenge
Nida had called Squall up to the cockpit of the garden with the preemptive that this was an emergency. And it was. "Squall, we have a big problem on our hands." With one hand still clinching the overly large throttle, Nida handed Squall his high precision binoculars. "Take a look."
Squall lifted the binoculars to his eyes and peered out the cockpit window with Zoom magnifying his vision. He could see something oddly suspicious, it must have been what Nida was talking about. A far distance off on the cost near the orphanage they were approaching he spotted Galbadia Garden. Zooming in even closer he could see the Galbadian army lining the front entrance, very suspicious. He'd have to be a moron not to figure it out.
Nida reclaimed the binoculars, setting them aside while awaiting Squall's answer "What do you think?"
'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' Ifrit asked knowingly.
(They probably know we're here, too. If not, we'll make the first move.) "The battle is inevitable." Squall replied.
"The sorceress is with them, huh?" Nida let out a sigh, partly from nervousness but mostly from anxiousness. "So this is going to be the final Battle?"
Squall gave a passive nod to the fellow SeeD. "I hope so."
He knew he had to make a statement, get everyone ready. (What should I do first? I have to give orders to everybody, It's my responsibility, I have to try to keep it simple. If I give out too many orders, it could lead to chaos. What should I say? Come on think! There's no time!)
'Squall, calm down you'll do fine.' Ifrit reassured him. 'Just tell them what's happening and to get ready.'
Nida handed him the microphone , "Give out orders when you're ready."
Squall reluctantly took it, thinking for a moment on what to say.
"This is Squall speaking." He finally got it together. "This is an emergency so listen carefully, We're going into battle against Galbadia Garden. 1st and 2nd Class Sabers, assemble in the parking lot, Those with MG Rank 3 or above, head for the 2nd floor deck and await instructions. Be sure to warm up. Quistis, Zell, Seiphie, come up to the bridge right away."
Before he could think of anything else, Dr. Kadowaki came up the lift, and Squall instinctively handed her the microphone. "This is Dr. Kadowaki, I'd like to make some additional requests. Students who have Student ID numbers ending with an 8, please take care of the junior classmen. Is that alright with you, Squall?" She handed him back the microphone when she gained a positive response.
"The enemy will probably come aboard, we must concentrate our forces at the front gate and the quad. If your Student ID number is even, report to the quad. If it's odd, report to the front gate."
He gave the mic back to Nida, giving him a small instruction to wait before he headed down stairs. Irvine, Quistis and Seiphie were waiting for him, minus Zell who he headed for the quad to look for.
!- ! - !
"S'up, Squall! I got this place covered." Zell announced on Squall's arrival
Squall made a quick decent of the small line of stairs in the quad's entrance. "I thought you were sleeping."
" Oh...! Yeah, y-your announcement woke me up! My student ID is even, so I'm supposed to be here, right?" Zell rubbed the back of his head, nervous about something... "Yo, Squall come here for a sec... It's about your ring, this might not be the time, but…"
Squall looked at him questingly, then down at his finger where the ring in question rested. "………What is it?"
"Give me your ring, will ya? I just wanna borrow it for a while, I won't lose it or anything. C'mon, what do you say?" Zell looked at him in the most pleading face he could make.
"Why do you need it?"
"Uh…" Zell looked away, trying to think of an answer "……I can't tell you that. C'mon, just give it to me. You can trust me."
(What the hell... I like this ring... I...guess it's all right if he just wants to borrow it...) With a bit of hesitation he removed the ring from his finger and handed it to Zell . "Don't lose it."
"YEAH! THANKS MAN! I didn't think you were gonna give it to me, Rinoa is gonna be so happy!"
"Rinoa?"
Zell smirked proudly "Alright, Squall! Leave this place up to me."
! - ! - !
Squall was called back to the bridge where Nida informed him that Seifer was in charge over at Galbadia garden. And they got the upper hand by attacking first, the Galbadian Soldier launched themselves on motorcycles over to Balamb Garden as Galbadia rammed in to them mainly to move their troops. In the battle of strength Balamb was losing. Wave after wave of Galbadian solders were launching in to Balamb and the students were barley holding them off.
After a source of inspiration from in unexpected source, and a quite daring rescue, Squall and the others decided to cut the problem off at the source. Now all they had to do was get in.
With Zell and Rinoa with him, they rushed out of Balamb Garden from the quad into the heat of a battle fierce. Even Nida had his hands full in the cockpit since Galbadia solders had made it up there in an attempt to do the same thing they were, cutting the problem off at the source. "Whoa! Look at this place." Zell gashed, the area between the Gardens, which had taken a short reprieve from physical battles of power, was filled with fighting students from the two faculties. The sounds of screaming, clashing weapons and explosions sounded in an overwhelming volume. Magic detonated around them, bullets flew past them, all of the students clashed together in a desperate fight, it was complete chaos. And they ran directly through the middle of it, barley making it across in one piece.
Finally they entered through the front gate, making it in to Galbadia garden.
! - ! - !
They wandered through the mix of halls, monsters and blue clad solders until they entered the main hall where all the corridors convened...
"What is that?" Squall looked ahead to the center of the circular room, staring in amazement at a large gray beast with three dog heads and red streak going across it's side, standing in gold light that shined down from the ceiling obviously emitted by it and not by any other light source.
Zell waited apprehensively behind Squall, noticing that it wasn't attacking them but it no doubt had noticed... 'Carbuncle, you got any idea?'
(It's a GF…)
'MORTALS, WHAT DO YOU WANT." It spoke in a voice that was actually normal, just sounded deep and loud, booming actually.
"Uh...What are you doing here?" Zell asked.
"FOOLS, LEAVE." The GF growled
"Uh? No..." Zell curiously walked past Squall, heading towards the dog creature with careful steps.
"What are you doing?" Squall asked in a chastising voice.
"He's a GF right? I wanna challenge him."
The GF snorted and laid down, resting his heads on his paws. "MORTALS, YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN DEFEAT ME?"
"Come on Zell, We don't have time for this." Squall objected.
Zell dropped his head with a sigh, as much as he wanted to try this he couldn't. "I guess your right." Disappointedly Zell turned around and rejoined with his other two team mates. " Sorry, we'll have to do this another time, wait for me. Ok!" Zell flashed a grin, gave a quick thumbs up then ran back to the previous hall, going up the steps toward the third floor.
! - ! - !
Squall, Rinoa and Zell waited at the elevator that headed up to the next level... "Well this is it, Seifer's up there." Squall told them, loading his gun blade.
"I've been waiting for this for a long time." Zell pounded his fist in to his hand, waiting in anticipation.
"Your that anxious to fight?" Rinoa asked.
"Seifer, yes, Matron, hell no."
The elevator dinged, rolling it's doors open. "Alright this is it, get ready.
! - ! - !
Seifer was waiting for them just as they had expected, Edea waiting behind him who was content to watch from their . "Oh, you guys shouldn't have... I was gonna come visit you at my old home." Seifer said with a fake graciousness.
"Shut up." Squall growled.
"Did you guys come to fight Matron? After all that she's done for us?" Seifer shook his head, glancing at Zell from the corner of his eyes. "Hey Chicken-wuss. Lot's happened between us, eh?" He laughed.
"Yeah! I'm dyin' to get even!" Zell was the first to get with in fighting distance of Seifer, tightening his gloves.
"Rinoa, what are you doing here? You gonna fight me, too? Come on, remember a year ago we…"
"Stop it!" She yelled.
Squall lifted his gun blade "It's too late, Seifer, you can't mess with our minds. To us, you're just another enemy, like one of those monsters."
"You're comparing ME to one of them? I ain't no monster, I'm the sorceress' knight. And look at you, attacking like a swarm, you guys are the monsters."
Zell started off in limit break from pint up furry, running at Seifer, drawing his fist back and throwing a strong punch to his stomach. Making him arch over with an audible grunt. Zell thrust his fist upward and punched in the chin, then sending blow to the right side of his face. He jumped back a few steps, lifting his foot above his head and hammering his heel down on Seifer's head, knocking him to the ground.
Seifer growled in anger, shaking his ruffled hair back into place "You little asshole!" He jumped to his feet with a trust of his arm out and forcing Zell to stumble back with a wave of upward rising fire. Then lifting his gun blade he charged at Zell, slashing him across the chest with an upward slice, he spent around, cutting him again with a spurt of blood that splatter across the ground. A strong wind surrounded Zell as Seifer picked up speed in his turns, striking him over and over. Zell was lifted in the air as a raging Tornado surrounded formed around him. Zell groaned in pain as Seifer continued to strike the same place over and over until Finally Seifer stopped, the winds ceased, and Zell fell to the ground hard.
Squall was waiting for Seifer as soon as he landed, swinging his gun blade at him. The first attempt missed, but Squall pulled it back up raked the silver blade across his shoulder. Rinoa followed with a Demi spell, causing a black whirl of gravity to wash over Seifer in an oppressive force. "Ahhhaa...!" Seifer cringed, clinching his chest in an attempt to keep himself from falling to the ground, letting out a breath of relief when the force subsided.
Seifer cast triple on himself, then a Thundaga spell on all three of them.
A pillar of lighting slammed down from the ceiling in a blinding light, sending an uncountable number of watts surging through their body intense enough to leave behind a small flame and scorch mark on the ground. Squall and Rinoa fell to their knees where Zell absorbed the lighting strike from some mix of junctioning, countering with Firaga spell
A burst combustion of flames erupted loudly over Seifer, throwing his ignited body into the wall along side Edea and sliding to the smoldering to the ground. He seemed unable to get back up...
"Worthless child." Edea lifted herself from her seat, giving one last disgusted look Seifer's way before she started to approach the three. Or so it seemed she would, but instead she unexpectedly began to sink through the ground as if only an illusion .
"What the hell?" Zell looked around frantically, half expecting a surprise attack to come. But it was apparent that none would come.
"The auditorium is under here, let's go!" Rinoa, being the first to realize, waved them to the elevator, leaving Seifer behind.
! - ! - !
Wasting no time, they made their way to the auditorium.
"Huh? She's not here?"
They looked around the large room and the high volume of seats and a podium in the center, all surrounded by large screams, they found nothing.
The large screens shattered all at once, and Edea floated through in mid air being held by some invisible force, surrounded by a spray of glass shards that rained over the three. Squall lifted his arm over his face, just barely able to lifted his head enough to watch the sorceress. "So the time has come. You're the legendary SeeD destined to face me?"
Squall shook the stray glass from his hair, lowing his arm. (What is she talking about?)
"I must say that I am impressed. ...An impressive nuisance." Edea landed agilely on her feet before them. "Your life ends here, SeeD."
Before they could engage in battle, a familiar sound came from behind them. Edea shook her head and rolled her eyes in annoyment. "Worthless fools." Edea said with a roll of her eyes, watching Seifer make his way to her side and stand before her.
He was barely standing, struggling to keep from falling face first to the ground. "I'm the sorceress' knight." He called out, his voice weak and strained. "You'll never...get past me!"
"Seifer, what the hell is wrong with you!" Zell got in to a fighting stance, wondering what could drive some one to be so persistent.
It didn't take much to defeat him. An attack from Zell and Squall was enough in succession took him down. What ever little fight he had left in him had faded "Ughaah! ...Damn, I'm disgraced." He dropped to the ground and drifted out of conciseness.
Edea steeped over him, looking down at him with even more annoyment then she held before. "Defeated... Useless fool." She turned to them, "Enough play. SeeDs must die!" She lifter her hand in to the air, with powers as a sorceress flowing a Black whirl of energy appeared in an orb form, it forced itself to expand like a wave, cover them in black energy. Squall was blinded by it, Zell was poisoned and Rinoa was silenced.
"Oh man What the hell was that?" Zell reached in to his back pocket, retrieving out a remedy, holding his nose he drank the bitter liquid in one quick swallow and tossed the vile aside.
A quiet Rinoa placed a bottle of Eye drops in Squall's hands who was able maneuver them into his eyes while he continued his summoning of Ifrit. Edea continued, casting triple on herself.
The group faded seemingly out of existence as Ifrit exploded out of the ground on the large meteor. Squall boosted him with through the junction as Ifrit stretched his limber body back and hammered his cuffed fist into the burning rock, sending it crashing down on Edea.
Rinoa followed with a Pandemonium summoning making them fade again before they completely reappeared. The large and colorful wind guardian inhaled deeply, sucking Edea in to his large pouch, tearing at her with blade like winds. Then he forced her out in a rushing tornado.
Edea landed with a wince o pain... "Fools" She lifted her hands again, casting 3 Flare spells by using the triple in effect, the rush of a red force exploded on to them. Again the energy came on to them before they had a chance to recover, them backwards in a mixture of different cries of pain. The third exploded on to them, this time knocking out Zell.
Zell had a higher physical defense and speed, but his magic defense was weak just as Squall's was high in HP and strength. Squall was able to stand the attack because of his HP. Rinoa had high magic defense and by a single HP she was luckily able to withstand it.
Squall quickly rustled around his inventory for a phoenix down, using the Phoenix's feather on Zell when he found it, reviving him with a red light.
With her last bit of strength Rinoa used her limit break... Angelo Cast invincible moon on the three of them, giving them complete immunity to all attacks.
After that it was easy to win with a round of summoning attacks, just barley doing it before the effect expired.
! - !- !
It seemed that they had won, but it apparently wasn't over. A bright light, white light...it was shining, growing, so intense that none of them could see, they had thought they went blind when everything whited out and they both feel lifelessly to the ground.
(What happened………?) Squall... couldn't feel anything, as if he was completely detached from himself. Maybe he was, he couldn't even feel the constant presence of Ifrit... (My………Body………) Squall strained, finally breathing a small sigh of relief when the whiteness started to clear away. He couldn't move, but he could see a fogy vision, he could see Rinoa.
(Rinoa…………………!Riona………Seifer.)
Seifer weakly made his way over to the Rinoa who stood up as if in a complete daze, her eyes weren't even open... She whispered something in his ear, then collapsed in a lifeless pile on the ground...
By the time white completely cleared away Edea was standing over them, looking confused as ever... "Squall, Quistis, Seiphie, Irvine, Zell?... You've all grown so much... and become so strong... I have waited for this day to come, and also feared this day would come. Is today a joyous day? Or an odious day?" Her voice suddenly became frantic... "Where is Ellone? Have I protected Ellone?"
(I don't understand.)
He didn't have time to comprehend it all before Quistis ran in to the room, helping him on to his feet with a light pull. "Squall! It's Rinoa…"
(...Rinoa? What's wrong with Rinoa?)
! - ! - !
! - ! - !
Squall carried Rinoa, who for some reason wouldn't wake up, and escorted Edea along with Quistis. Zell was the last to leave.
He sat in the center of the auditorium, Carbuncle standing in his lap, helping him heal up. He had few physical wounds, mostly just one's caused by magic, and magic wounds were easy to heal with potions and other magic.
"Your sure your alright?" Carbuncle asked.
Zell rubbed his head, finally regaining the rest of his senses after 20 minutes of waiting. "Yeah, I'm fine." He was fully healed and ready to go.
"Zell!" Irvine's voice rang in to the large room from the hall, echoing off the walls enough to make his direction unclear.
"I'm here!"
Following Zell's voice he made his way into the auditorium, resting the double barrels of his shotgun over his shoulder. "You alright?" He asked, looking at the two.
"Yeah, fine." He nodded a knowing hello to Carbuncle who nodded back.
"We were going to go fight that GF downstairs, you wanna help?" Zell asked, standing to his feet with Carbuncle wrapped in his arms.
"Oh, that's Cerberus, sure I'd love to."
! - ! - !
"Hey! Did you miss me?" Zell jumping over the banister from the second to the first floor, Irvine taking the stairs instead .
"FOOLS, I DIDN'T THINK YOU WERE STUPID ENOUGH TO COME BACK."
Irvine was the first to get in fighting range, seemingly knowing what he was doing. "Wow, your mighty confident of yourself." He tipped his hat upward then lifted his gun.
With Carbuncle junctioned Zell was the first to attack. Using a Thundaga spell and causing a white stream of electricity to streak down from some place unknown in large enough volumes to engulf Cerberus's whole torso with a powerful electrocution.
"Watch it, he's going to use Triple." Irvine warned, knowing how quick the three headed beast could be.
"How do you know so much about it?"
Irvine's expression shifted into a reminiscent one. "Cerberus was in the basement of this garden…"
Irvine lowered one eye to the level of the gun's barrel for more accuracy , aiming for one of the heads. "Nobody else knew he was down there except me. Yeah, I was down there a lot, I'd used to practice fighting with him." As expected Cerberus used triple on himself, but Zell was ready with a de-spell spell. The beast countered the magic, turning around swiftly enough to swing his tail at both of them, the two of them sliding back with a matching pair of bruises on their chests.
Irvine quickly picked himself up, firing a well placed bullet directly in-between the first and second heads.
Zell continued the attack, running up to Cerberus and punching the center head with strong uppercut hard enough to make the three headed dog draw back.
Apparently Cerberus liked to do three things, all off which Irvine was ready for. One, Speed himself up, two, Cast triple, three, counter. He countered everything but Irvine's long range attacks.
Cerberus cast Reflect on himself, just in time to reflect Zell's incoming Bio attack. Foul smelling bubbles of chunky green liquid surrounded Zell, coming from under him and engulfed him in venomous liquid that burned like acid, leaving him poisoned him. He coughed, holding his neck and dropping to his knees as if he was choking. "Uck.."
Irvine fired another round of ammo in to Cerberus who twitched when the hot metal intruded into his skin. With a small growl of pain escaping from one of his mouths, Cerberus cast reflect on Irvine, then a Haste spell that mirrored off of him back on to Cerberus to bypass his own reflect spell..
Zell looked around in his back pocket, finding another antidote and drinking the bitter antibody hastily enough to spill some, a few drops streaming down his chin which he wiped away. "You ok over there Zell?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Cerberus reflected three Haste spells off Irvine, each one going to one of his heads, tripling the effect.
With the new boost of speed, he rammed Zell with his shoulder hard enough to seemed the boy tumbling backwards, using his quick agility Cerberus rammed Irvine with his one of his closest heads. Then in a blur of gray the large canine jumped in the air, pouncing on Zell with his left paw stomping down hard on him, whipping Irvine with his tail just as Irvine readied another round. Zell kicked him in the stomach hard enough to ease the hold of the paw caving in his chest the rolled to the side, flipping himself on to his feet.
"Irvine! Shoot him!"
With out a word Irvine cocked the gun and pulled the trigger, stopping Cerberus for only a second but giving Zell enough time to cast a Dispel spell.
But the spell was only able to take off the reflect effect and haste from one head. It would take at lest two more spells to rid the other two.
(Zell, you guys are losing, bad. Let me help.)
With his health starting to get low, and Cerberus still too fast to handle, Zell started summoning Carbuncle.
Cerberus turned around quickly, slamming his tail in to Irvine sending him back. He came for Zell ramming him again and sending him in to the wall.
Zell scrambled to his feet, watching Cerberus running at him with fangs barred. Zell did a back flip, jumping out of the range of Cerberus and letting his back hit the wall. Zell pushed off the wall with his hands and a small kick from his feet, sending himself higher into the air. Then raised his leg above his head as Cerberus jumped, ready to counter with a whip of his tail.
Zell forced his heel down, kicking Cerberus in the head before the beast could attack. As his body plummeted to the Cerberus countered, turning around in the air whipping his tail into the side of Zell's head, then kick Zell with his hind legs.
But it felt Cerberus was hitting brick wall, a surface too wide and even to be a human body.
Zell landed on the ground unaffected by the attack, glancing toward the center of the room where Carbuncle stood with a victorious grin. The small GF jumped back, flashing another taunting grin before curling in to a ball and falling back in to the hole he'd come from after successfully using his limit break Diamond shield on Zell. Diamond Shield was an unsurpassed physical defense, most things couldn't even move it let alone get through.
Irvine opened the chamber of his weapon and loaded it with AP ammo with a skilful quickness that came from years of practice, Then closed the open chamber with a snap and started firing. "Hey, Remember Me?" Irvine knew the best ammo to use on Cerberus was AP, it went right through his defenses.
Each round had enough force to drive the GF back a few steps, pushing him in to the cracked wall he ran in to before.
Cerberus growled in pain, keeling lightly by the time Irvine finished. "YOUR STRONG FOR MORTALS…"
Cerberus silently gave up, agreeing to join. Of course he junctioned with Irvine.
