Chapter 14: Take down

The ship came head on at the Lunatic Pandora, two machine guns on both sides roaring with continuous fire. Sending out a spray of bullets, that were stopped by an invisible force before they could reached the Pandora itself.

"Shields!" Irvine warned, but Seiphie kept going head on in a collision course with the large machine

"WHOO-HOOOO!" With that, the Ragnaork crashed in to the shields with guns blazing and a violent spasm in the cockpit. Inch by inch, the broke through the green energy of the shields, bursting into the steel walls of the Lunatic Pandora in a monstrous ruckus and making a large hole.

(Well it worked, You ok Squall?) Ifrit asked, while Squall picked himself off the ground, unable to keep balance through something like that.

'I'm fine.' They managed to shatter every window in the cockpit during there 'entrance', the good news was that it was now much easier to get inside.

Zell and Rinoa joined Squall, who was the first to group to climb through the now open windshield frame and go inside.

! - ! - !

They climbed down out of the Ragnaork, ending up in an immensely large room that led up a short but wide series of steps to a hall way, their path relatively uninhibited by the wreckage scattered around the room they'd caused.

They herd a familiar voice echo from the hall when they were just about halfway there.

"Big sound, this way. It's probably them ya know?"

Followed by another familiar voice "THEM? NO, IMPOSSIBLE."

'That voice………' Squall immediately recognized them, they could only belong to……

"Ahhhhhh! It IS Squall, ya know?" Raijin gasp with surprise as he ran into the room, approaching them immediately,

He was followed by Fujin, who didn't seem as surprised "SHOCK. GOOD. CONVENIENT."

"That's right." Raijin raised his staff, pointing to Rinoa. "Hand over Rinoa, ya know?"

Squall looked back a Rinoa, who looked back at him. "No! I'll never hand over Rinoa! And we're taking Ellone! I won't let you resurrect Adel, either!"

"You're greedy, ya know! Not fair, ya know?" Raijin said, a little annoyed.

"You can't be serous." Zell said, lifting his hand to his forehead and shaking his head in a very Squall like manner.

"PERSUASION, USELESS. SEIZE." Another unavoidable battle began, Fujin lifted the bladed projectile, throwing the saw like weapon along the ground. In a trail of dust it rolled along the ground up Rinoa, slashed her as it launched off her head and boomeranged back to Fujin. Angrily, Rinoa lunched the projectile on her wrist, striking Fujin on the shoulder as it passed by.

Squall ran up the small flight of stairs at Raijin, holding the newly upgraded gunblade Lionheart just above his shoulder with both hands. Bringing it down on Raijin with enough force to knock him back a few steps. Raijin thrust his staff in to Squall's stomach, pushing him back with the wind nearly knocked out of him.

Zell directly after, punching Raijin in the chest before he expected it, and sent strong punch to the stomach before Raijin pushed him away, stumbling backwards again. Rinoa headed off the second wave of attacks by casting a flare spell on Fujin, the rush of blood red energy gather around her with enough volume to give her body the appearance of a red tent and distorting the air surrounding her body, followed powerful combustion of the energy with a shockwave that threw her on to her back.

"Anger!" Fujin pushed herself on to her knees and rose from the ground, countering the flare spell with a Tornado spell of her own. Quickly forming, quickly intensifying winds blew around the three, engulfing Squall, Rinoa and Zell in a whirling cyclone that drew them from the ground and tossed them around in the confusion of the localized tornado. None of them could count how many times their body's collided with each other or some of the large chunks of steel already scattered at the ground before the wind ceased and finally dropping them painfully to the ground.

Shaking off the last spell, Squall cast reflect on Rinoa, surrounded her with the barrier while Raijin charged at Zell, he slammed his staff in to Zell's chest. Zell managed to knocked a way the head staff with his arm before it could connect and leaving Raijin wide open. He brought up his right arm with one fail swing and punched Raijin across jaw, followed by a quick strike of lighting from a thunder spell cast by Rinoa. The strength they'd acquired was enough to take him down.

Raijin stumbled backwards until he felt his body run into a wall and he let himself sag on it, one hand rest on his stomach. "I ...I lost again, ya know…"

Fujin soon followed, being finished off by a final strike from Rinoa's projectile while she had been focused on Raijin.

" CALLOUS... RETREAT. TEMPORARY." Fujin growled, backing up until she was side by side with Raijin, then she grabbed him by the arm and retreated into the hall which they'd come from.

"R-R-Right! We're not through yet, ya know!" Raijin shouted back, before turning his back on them completely and bursting in to a full sprint.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"I wonder do Fujin and Raijin know what their doing?" Rinoa asked thoughtfully, while wondering through the maze like halls composing the internals of the Lunatic Pandora, led by Zell who'd been here before.

"What do you mean?" Squall asked, Looking down at the transparent floor of the tunnel that lay above a seemingly endless pit. He wondered what was down there.

"Don't they know what they're doing to the world? I mean, they already helped revive Adel." Rinoa started. "They seemed nice before, I just can't believe they're doing all of this."

"It's Seifer, they're determined to follow him, I don't know why though." Zell replied with light musing in his tone.

"I'm sure we'll see them again, why not ask them then." Squall suggested, it wasn't a bad idea, it was better then just wondering.

"Speaking of Raijin and Fujin, guess who's back." Zell stopped, causing his two teammates to stop in tern. They were standing just ahead bellow a arching frame housing a short pair of steps and a doorway it lead to.

"We meet again, ya know? We'll take you on, ya know?" Raijin shouted confidently. They had to admit, even after losing that Raijin and Fujin were persistent.

Fujin placed a hand on his chest just as he stepped forward and pushed him back. "NOW, NO FIGHT, NEXT TIME."

Raijin seemed disappointed at first, dropping his head and glaring at the three like a scolded puppy...then his face glowed with the spark of realization as he just remembered something. "That's right! We have a surprise, ya know!"

Raijin and Fujin turned back and headed through the door, leaving them alone, or so it looked at the moment.

"Oh great, it's that thing again." Zell looking up to the source of a slowly growing shadow...

"What?" Squall looked around and didn't see anything.

Zell crouched lightly, raising his hands in a ready position. "Here it comes."

A large steel machine dropped from the ceiling, where ever that was, in a complete blur. It was almost human in shape, except it was much larger and it had no legs, the guard Mobile Type 8.

"What do you mean 'again'?" Rinoa asked, staring up at the ominous looking machine.

"This was the thing that threw us out of this place the first time. Guess it's pay back time." Zell pounded his fist in to his hand anticipantly, watching the two orb's on it's shoulders dispatch.

Squall cast a Triple spell on himself while Rinoa did the same. Fighting this thing once before, Zell gained a good sense of when to attack it and when not too. So he waited, beginning the process of summoning Carbuncle.

The left orb began to move, firing a blue laser out of it's lenses that swept across all three of them, causing a trail of geysers like explosion out of the ground. The right orb fired out the same beam in succession, resulting in another explosion that propagated across the three of them

A little weakened, Rinoa cast Protect spells on all three of them, Squall cast shell directly afterwords. 'Carbuncle, wait a minute.' Zell said mentally.

Carbuncle didn't ask why, he just agreed (Ok.) The two orbs along side Mobile Type 8 returned to it's shoulder, while a red beam fired out of Type 8's head. Now the body was attacking directly, that had to mean something.

It scattered around them, burning a design along the ground in a Mandingo attack. Each line glowed, radiating a red light that covered them. At first nothing happened, but then the light started to burn and an intense pain followed forced all three of them to drop to the ground.

(Squall? Are you alright?) Ifrit asked.

Even though he could barley move, he managed to say his usual discarding 'Fine.' Wondering what type of an attack that powerful had been.

Rinoa cast a set of 3 haste spells on each of them, while Squall used a megalixir to heal them. With strength regaining, Zell rose off his knees 'Alright Carbuncle go now.'

(Right!) A black hole appeared in the ground in front of them and Carbuncle jumped out, launching himself high in to the air uncurling from the ball he'd emerged from. Taking a quick look over the three of them to make sure he was facing the right direction, Carbuncle lifted his paws to the jewel on his forehead. Cringing lightly with a strained grunt as he shined a bright red light out of it, the light covered them, surrounding them with reflective magic before falling into the ground again.

Zell knew it would probably counter a physical attack, in fact, the machine's whole tactic was to counter. So he warned his friends to take a different approach. 'Ready Bahamut?'

The dragon mentally nodded with an anticipant growl (Yes!)

With a loud roar, Squall, Zell, and Rinoa faded and Bahamut descended from the darkness above.

Spreading his wings, Bahamut fired a round of smaller blast, surrounding the Machine in smoke and flames. Bahamut roared as a white smoke mist poured from his opened his mouth, drawing in energy and firing out his limit break Mega Flare. The chrome blast plowed into the Mobile Type 8 and erupted in a powerful explosion that rattled the floors and walls.

Fading back in to reality, they found the machine was still in flames, but they quickly died off. A flare spell came from the machine, sending an rush of fire and energy over the three before a combustion of the red followed. The three faded again, and Ifrit came rising up out of the ground, standing a top a large meteorite.

Ifrit looked down on the machine, noting the orbs on Type 8 were separating from it's body again. Ifrit floated off the rock, using his flexibility to bend back and pound his cuffed fist in to the rock. Sending the burning mass plummeting towards the ground and smashing in to the Machine.

It had a good resistance to fire so the damage was minimal, but still caused a good amount. The three faded a third time in succession, this time Rinoa summoned Alexander. The large holy beast towered above mountains in some distant place that didn't seem to exist anywhere. From his shoulders, Alexander expelled projected rays of holy light into the sky.

They appeared in the Lunatic Pandora, as if coming from a mirror of reality or a portal of some type. Each ray struck the machine with great accuracy, The holy light tore through the machine's armor easily, destroying it with an increasingly growing sizzling. Leaving behind a burning shell full of holes.

Looking ahead to the small stairway, they knew Seifer were there, and with that security sentry out of the way, they came one step closer to their goal "Guess this is it………" Rinoa said solemnly, a little nervous at the responsibility that lay ahead of her.

Squall ascended the short stairway, pushing open the doors "Let's get this over with." Squall was the first to go on ahead.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

The next room was an deck open to the outside where they found Seifer standing on a platform before they open sky with Raijin and Fujin by his side holding Ellone. "We've come to take back Ellone." Squall announced, his sword lifted threateningly.

"Looks like we got company, Show'em your hospitality." Seifer directed arrogantly... but Raijin and Fujin looked at each other, then up at him with light uncertainty, apparently they were having second thoughts. Raijin sighed, looking as he was about to act hostilely toward Squall.

Fujin declined. "RAIJIN, STOP!"

"What's up?" Seifer peered down over the railing, looking down at the two.

"We had enough, ya know…" Raijin looked him in the eyes, rubbing his head nervously.

Fujin released Ellone, giving her a small, prompting push. "GO." With out hesitation, Ellone moved away from the two, realigning herself safely behind Squall.

"Wait outside. Laguna should be here soon." Squall told her, she nodded and headed for the ship.

"Hey, hey... Come on people." Seifer looked at the action with an quirked eyebrow , trying to figure out what was happening.

Raijin just shrugging. "Seifer, we're quittin' ya know? Don't know what's right anymore, ya know…"

"Exactly my thoughts. I thought we were a posse." Seifer's voice held a questioning tone down at his friends.

With a heavy heart Fujin said "POSSE... We are. We always will be, Because we're a posse, we want to help you." None of them, except for Raijin and Seifer, had ever heard her ever used normal speech patterns, so it was surprising. "Whatever it takes to fulfill your dreams, we're willing to do But... You're being manipulated, Seifer, you've lost yourself and your dream. You're just eating out of someone's hand, we want the old you back! Since we can't get through to you, all we have now to rely on is Squall! It's sad... Sad that we only have Squall to rely on... Seifer! Are you still gonna keep goin'?"

Seifer lifted his gunblade, lifting one foot onto the railing in preparation. "Raijin, Fujin! It's been fun!" Apparently not, it seemed he'd keep going with this, not even seeming to care that he'd lost Ellone. With a sigh, Raijin and Fujin left, giving a small passive look to the three on their way out.

Squall prepared his own gunblade. "Are you going to continue with this knight thing?"

"The knight has retired." Seifer gave a passive wave when he said this. "I guess you could call me a young Revolutionary." Seifer jumped down from the platform, landing before Squall.

"What do you think you're doing?" Squall shifted his gunblade defensively, placing a foot back to farther ready himself.

Seifer began to size up the three. "I've always gotta be doing somethin' BIG! I don't wanna stop.

I'm gonna keep running! I've come this far... I'm gonna make it to the end, to the goal! There's no way I'm sharing it with you!"

Just as the fight started, black clouds formed above them, creating a heavy rain inside of the towering rooms. Odin appeared, riding his horse down from the sky in an surreal manner, holding his large sword extended at his side. The red eyed stead charged forward ominously at Seifer, Odin ready to slice him in head. "Is that the best you got!" Seifer shouted, pulling his sword out to his side and slashed outward at the passing Odin just as Odin lunged the massive weapon at him. The clash of an attack that happened in an unseeable flash echoed outward, followed by the cry of Odin's horse slowed to a stop a few feet behind a completely still Seifer.

An arrogant smirk crossed his lips, raising his sword again as a completely severed Odin fell to the ground, his sword, long since knocked from his hands was sent flying upward. Slicing through the clouds disappearing past the walls of the Lunatic Pandora……….

"Still wanna fight?" Seifer asked.

"The hell If I'm backing down because you got lucky!" Zell shouted angrily, obviously furious at what had just happened.

(Zell! Wait!) Bahamut warned, but Zell was already charging head first at Seifer with his fist drawn back. But he faded just as he was about to strike.

Seifer blinked questioningly. "What?"

A man garbed in a red cloak appeared in their place, another man who had become a GF as Odin did, Gilgamesh stood before him with 3 swords embedded in the ground around him. "You were the one that did this?" Gilgamesh didn't sound as if he was asking, holding Odin's sword before him with light examination. Seifer didn't answer, Gilgamesh really wasn't paying attention to any answer he could have given any way, he was more focused on the sword.

Dropping it behind him, the white eyed man lifted Sephiroth's masune. Gilgamesh came at Seifer with great speed, slashing him across the chest with the blade and passing him by before he even expected it. "!" He was sent flying backwards with a bloody gash appearing across his torso, landing hard on his back and rolling to a stop from relinquished momentum. He didn't get back up though.

Sheathing the blade, Gilgamesh turned away saying something that didn't seem to make sense. "Where is the cliff of dimensions…?" Before he faded away and the three returned in his place.

Squall looked at the defeated boy just shaking his head 'Seifer'.

With a loud grunt he suddenly scrambled to his feet, as hurt as he was. "Not yet! It's not over yet, Squall!" Seifer shouted persistently, charging forward, roughly grabbing Rinoa with one arm around her neck and pulling her away. It was so unexpected she didn't see it coming until she was trapped in his strength, she only complied.

They waited a moment before going after her, Seifer was making the plan easier then expected…….