Chapter 15: Time compression
The floor dropped, becoming like water, Squall, Rinoa, Irvine and Zell fell through. On the other side they actually found clear blue water.
"Where are we supposed to go?" Irvine asked nervously, looking around at the new world he was sinking into
"To Edea's house!" Squall told them, grabbing on to Rinoa.
"I'll... Probably disappear…" Rinoa said fearfully, noting that she could breath in this water.
"Just stay by my side. I won't let you disappear!" Squall reassured her with a tight grip.
But still despite that hold that they inanely started to drift apart a little, not enough to cause alarm though. Bird like creatures flew in a distant flock that surrounded them, swirling about them in a hypnotic manner, the next thing each of them knew they really were separated. The creatures formed a spiral around them like a drain to the water, reaching the center from there they fell from a placid sky at sunset.
(This place………I have a strange feeling about this.) Ifrit thought, looking through Squall's eyes.
'This place is creepy, I have no idea what's happening…..you think we can make it?' Squall asked, not realizing how fearful he sounded at the moment. It didn't mater, he was scared and he couldn't hide it from Ifrit, but who wouldn't be scared going through something like this.
(We came to far not to make it now.) Ifrit told him strongly, he was ready for whatever came next, Squall, didn't know if he was or not. He didn't know what to expect, but with Ifrit, he knew he could handle it.
(This is so Cool!) Carbuncle shouted, apparently he wasn't worried at all. Zell didn't exactly see it that way, he found it dizzy and nauseating.
Large bubbles began to rise from below, each holding the image of a time period, each moment was something Zell remembered
Clearly.
One of them held the first time he met Carbuncle, another held when he met Bahamut. Things so on and so forth past that, some that he'd forgotten or didn't know he'd ever known. "Oh man! I'm gonna be sick!" Zell fell until the bubbles ceased and he saw a bright light.
When he emerged he was back in another familiar place, the commencement room in Deling city's presidential palace, the place he'd first met Carbuncle... Squall and Rinoa where with him, Seiphie, Quistis and Irvine appeared a few seconds later. The whole atmosphere seemed to be fogy, residing in a haze of bright light. At the head of the room was a chair where 'Edea' sat with her back turned to them, behind them was a regular save point. Which Rinoa realized wasn't there the first time she came here.
"..." With slow steps she walked up to it, touching it carefully with her finger. It reacted some how, doubling, tripling, replicating until they covered the room. "What?" She looked around at all of them until her eyes wandered over the chair at the head of the room again. 'Edea' stood up, lifting her head.
More strange things began to happen, sorceress began to fade into existence. They were dressed in strange, brightly colored garments, appearing because of time compression. They weren't very strong though, it wouldn't take long to beat them.
What was more distracting was the effects of time compression on everything around them. The commencement room changed to the city of timber with a bright light. The buildings the ground, everything seem to melting, being destroyed and decomposed by time itself, a very powerful force, another reason Ultimecia wanted to control it. But god it was creepy, so very creepy, especially the continuous sound of steel buckling it was creating.
'I don't know about this, I still think I'm going to fade or something like that' Zell thought, looking around with even more fear in his eyes. 'What if I start melting like that? Oh man, is that why I'm feeling so sick!'
(We wont let you, remember that.) Bahamut told him. (If you just relax then you won't feel this way.)
(There's no way were going to let anything happen to you, now let's go already!) Carbuncle was excited, anxious to say the least.
'Ok..., Ok.' Zell lifted his hand, using a Haste spell on himself, while Squall cast Triple. Rinoa fired the projectile on her wrist, slicing through one of the two Sorceress with a drilling weapon, after one hit, her body started to twist and spiral, finally fading away.
A ray of light came from the sky, another sorceress descending in to her place, exactly identical to the last. The light spread when she landed, basking everything in a red tent that cause the air to distort into spirals and ripples. When it faded, they found themselves in a forest, not sure which one. It also was under the same effects timber was, everything around them melting as if in a strong heat.
"Ok? That was strange….." Zell said looking around with more nervousness, still hoping that he didn't start to melt like his surroundings.
"Don't think about it, just go." Squall charged at the second sorceress, lifting his sword above his left shoulder and swinging downward, slashing through her at about the waist line and causing her to fade away. The remaining sorceress let out a strange laugh, casting a Firaga on Zell. A trail of flames ran along the ground from her feet, surrounding Zell and erupting in a swirl of fire around him. He only fanned away the remaining flames after the initial eruption.
Zell attacked another sorceress, delivering a sharp uppercut in to the stomach and another blow to the chest. The sorceress faded and disappeared from the strong blows, allowing another to drop down and take it's place, and with it the location changed. This time they found themselves in another forest, this time one covered in snow.
Rinoa again fired her projectile, slicing through the new sorceress, and again another similar one came from the sky, changing there location to an eerie Windmill. It was even stranger here, there was absolutely no sound, not even due to the time compression destroying everything around them.
Squall rushed another sorceress, plunging his sword in to her and watching her fade and distort around his blade. This time a different sorceress came in her place, with long robes and different headgear. They changed locations to the Galbadian missile base.
The new type sorceress cast a Blizzara spell on Rinoa, thick icicles came at from all sides, surrounding her in a block of ice. Then it shattered, leaving her with more damage then the last sorceress could have done.
Zell struck the old sorceress with a strong blow to the head, Bringing his other elbow down on her, she faded before she could hit the ground. Letting through another sorceress identical to the new one.
This time when the location changed they where outside the garden this time, at the exit of the parking lot by the front gate. It was even stranger to see this place start to melt.
"I'm so going to be sick..."Zell moaned, holding his stomach "Damnit...Is it just me or is everything spinning."
(It's just you.) Carbuncle gave him a mental kick (Stop thinking! Your good at that ...I mean that in the best possible way.)
'Hey!'
(No, I mean like when you fight you...Uh, I can't explain it.)
The new sorceress made a strange laugh while casting Tornado. Winds came from both sides, swirling around them and pulling them in along with a large chunks of ground under them. Finally they were thrown to the ground, it wasn't one of the hardest Tornado spells they had had.
Rinoa cast the same spell, pulling the sorceress from the ground with violent winds. By the time they fell to the ground, both Sorceress were fading.
Another new Sorceress took place the previous one's, changing the location to Dollet in a wavy red haze. The second sorceress came down, changing the location again to the fire cave. Now this was a problem.
'It seems hotter this time…' Squall thought feeling the scorching heat surround him, even this place seemed to melt if at all possible, and the molten rock surrounding seemed to be getting hotter.
(I'll cover you) Ifrit took over in a low level physical junction, enough to take any damage and be ready to summon. In turn, Bahamut took the heat damage for Zell, and Alexander took over for Rinoa, it was enough to keep the humans from passing out.
It seemed like the heat would be enough to kill the enemy off before they could but they weren't so lucky, seeing the sorceress could take the heat Ifrit summoned himself. This time he emerged from the large hole at the center of the cavern where he'd used to reside, pausing to take another look around at his old home. With a fierce roar, Ifrit thrust his hands above his head in turn erupting a geyser of lava around the island of land. Then the torrent fell on hem like a wave, incinerating them before it even made contact.
The location changed again, this time they ended up on a large island of a rock, that was plummeting downward at an amazing rate. A strong energy radiated from the bottom, it was so bright that you couldn't look at it directly. They didn't need to, they had a much large problem ahead.
Another variation of the sorceress, but this one was a large monstrous creature like a snake with arms.
It lifted it's long arms and struck Squall, making him stumble back, almost falling off the platform.
Squall, Zell and Rinoa faded from reality again, this time as Bahamut summoned himself, dropping from whatever darkness lay above the falling island. With out stretched wings Bahamut caught himself just above the monster. Opening his mouth, Bahamut fired a volley of 5 smaller explosions that erupted around the Sorceress.
The Island didn't hold up to that, it broke apart before Bahamut could even fired the mega flare, and let the sorceress mutation fall through. The down said was that Squall, Rinoa and Zell reappeared to find nothing was under them anymore.
"Whooaaaa!" Bahamut swooped down under Zell, catching him on his back in-between his wings
. Ifrit drifted in to reality, wrapping his arms around Squall from behind, while Siren took care of Rinoa.
! - ! - !
Everything was white, a blinding white that seemed to take an eternity to tone down to an acceptable level. Squall and Ifrit found themselves outside Edea's house in the back, over looking the beach and the ocean. Zell and Bahamut where in side the house, finding themselves by the closed back door, and Rinoa and Siren where around the side in the field of that lay be side it.
Seiphie found herself outside the front door with Cactuar, and Irvine ended up in the bed room with Cerberus. Quistis and Quezacotl where near Squall, right outside the back door.
It seemed like they all made it through.
They all met up with Squall, just coming out of Time Compression, by the time all of them arrived he was knelling down near the body of a white SeeD, who was draped over a steel stake, and though dead he was holding a thick black chain that led up to a floating Castle. "We're fighting across generations………" Squall realized it as soon as he saw the sight, just loud enough for everyone to hear. This was why all those sorceress appeared.
The stake was nailing down large steel chains, all connected to a floating island holding a Castle. 'Think this is it?' Squall gently tugged on the chains, they looked stable, and they seemed to be the only way there...
(I'm pretty sure.)
With the final battle nearing ominously, the group made there way across the chains, all fears of heights pending, to Ultimecia's front door. They were so close to ending this whole thing, it was practically staring them in the face, though they had a few obstacles waiting for them.
