Chapter 18: A GF called Griever
'Ifrit? Are you ready?' Squall inquired, he wasn't so sure he himself was.
(I'm ready, what about you, think your up for it?) Ifrit asked him, he was apparently anxious to be in battle. He never understood why Ifrit was so anxious to fight, he was almost blood thirsty. Ifrit constantly wanted to fight, he'd summon himself he'd felt like he'd gone to long with out doing so.
'To tell the truth, I don't know, because I don't know what to expect.' Squall wasn't worried, or scared, it was just that what they were about to do was big, really big.
No one else could stop Ultimecia, at lest not from this time if anyone was still alive. Soon Ultimecia would achieve complete time compression, for what reason was unknown, but Ultimecia would be invincible, the ability to control all of time was a powerful force. The only way to save…well, everything, was to stop her now.
It was easier said then done, this was nothing like what they had ever faced in the past or ever would again, the fate of existence was in their hands. That was an overwhelming pressure, Squall was nervous and Ifrit knew it. Ifrit wasn't one that could give words of encouragement easily. In a way, he was just like Squall. But he had to think of something to say. Honestly he wished Squall could be like him some times, Ifrit never thought about anything when he fought, just on himself and his enemy, It would be so much easier just to do that. But you can't give instincts.
This was the last check before heading in to the master room, every stood out side the door, checking equipment, weapons, items, and junctions.
All trying to figure out what junction was best for what, and more importantly, what element and status defense should they have. Irvine was best suited for both areas sense Cerberus was basically 3 GFs, and the brothers were 2. He was able to junctioned about everything to status defense. They also found that Pain magic probably wouldn't be very useful in battle because Ultimecia was sure to be immune, it was better junctioned.
And Esnua could be replaced by a remedy now that items were unsealed, so it also was better left junctioned. Irvine did have to admit that it looked silly, everyone running around, literally running around, trading, swapping, organizing. Practically doing it right in front of Ultimecia, if the situation wasn't so serous, this would have been laughable.
'Bahamut, you think your up for this?' Zell asked, his own fears put aside for the concern of his partner.
(Yes, I can handle it.) Bahamut was weak, tired, and heavily injured, but determined to fight with his at times stubborn will. Which is what got him in this condition in the first place, wanting to fight Taimat alone. But every bit of help was needed, and even at his worst Bahamut was still a big asset.
(Don't push it, you need some sleep.) Carbuncle told him, though more concerned about Bahamut had just went through then his physical help. Learning that you are destined to go mad and become a horrible killing machine couldn't help your concentration. (Why don't you just sleep, me and Zell can handle it.)
'Really Bahamut, you should sit this one out….' Zell sounded more worried then ever. (
(I can't do this, this fight is everything. I can't just leave you in the middle of it.) Bahamut said. He was right, this was battle no one could miss if there had ever been one. But Carbuncle suspected Bahamut was trying to regain his lost pride, and with a person like him that was paramount over physical health.
"Alright, this is it, everybody ready?" Squall stood in front of the door to the master chambers, staring at it ominously as if something would burst through. Everyone gave some type of response that was agreeable whether it was a nod or grunt or a yes.
Squall slowly placed his hand on the handle of the door, giving himself one final confirmation before opening the door. "...You can't be serous." Squall lifted a hand to his head, he felt a headache coming on already.
"What Squall?" Rinoa leaned over his shoulder, wondering if he'd seen something they hadn't or maybe something was coming their way. None of the above unfortunately.
Squall tried the handle again, but just as before he couldn't open it. "The door is locked."
Everyone moaned with annoyment, this was certainly a buzz kill.
Squall backed up a little, about to kick the door open when Zell stopped him with a soft hand on his shoulder. "Squall, allow me." Zell said. Squall looked at him for a second then moved over out of his way. With an unobstructed path, Zell stood in front of the door, delivering a well placed kick in to the center in between the handles. The door flew open, nearly off the hinges and Zell was the first to walk in, Squall right next to him.
If what happened before was a buzz kill, this was enough to revive it.
Ultimecia stood waiting for them, on a large throne like platform that rose above the ground. She had long white hair, two colorful horns on her head, a pair of rather thin black wings stretched from her back and she was wearing a long red dress.
The sorceress looked over the group, able to see everyone of them down to the junction. "...SeeD... SeeD...SeeD... SeeD, SeeD, SeeD! Kurse all SeeDs. Swarming like lokust akross generations. You disgust me. The world was on the brink of that ever-elusive 'time compression'." Ultimecia spread her wings and jumped from the raising platform, landing before them.
"Insolent fools! Your vain krusade ends here, SeeDs. The price for your meddling is death beyond death. I shall send you to a dimension beyond your imagining. There, I will reign, and you will be my slaves for eternity. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
The prospect wasn't too good if they were knocked out. That's was it, they were gone, with no chance of revival. That put a serous handicap on them, some if not all of them were going to get Ko'ed at one point. But they stood, not afraid for a second, each confident that it wouldn't be them. It couldn't be worse then what would happen if Ultimecia succeed…………right?
"Whom shall I exterminate first? I'll start with you three!"
! - ! - !
Irvine, Quistis, and Rinoa. They were the starting party, the first to have to stand against Ultimecia. And in this type of situation, the best offence was a good defense, and defense could take a while.
Irvine started summoning Cerberus, while Quistis and Rinoa attacked until then. Ultimecia raised one hand, it was like something invisible forced a strong impact on to Irvine. It was unexpected and caught him off guard, knocking him to the ground.
Rinoa cast bio, engulfing their enemy in a raising series of green bubbles, filled with some type of toxic liquid. The bubble spasmed and twitched before bursting, leaving Ultimecia poisoned from the toxins inside..
Quistis used a Flare spell, washing a flash of red explosive energy over the sorceress. Irvine's summon took effect right after before the sorceress could attack, three rays of light came threw the ground, covering them inside, and creating a triple effect. 'Thanks Cerberus.'
Ultimecia raised her hand, fading away with an insinuating quake spell. The burning red cracks shot through the ground, splitting it apart in jagged separations, a red light flashed threw the fissures. Directly afterwords the ground shot up, each part of it pulsating differently, painfully smashing them in-between. After a few seconds of this, the ground dropped, returning to it's former position. And leaving them to fall from a considerable height.
"Ow, that hurt………." Irvine got to his feet with a momentarily shaky stance, holding his back for a second. Quistis shook her head, rubbing it for a second to recover from the last attack, then used triple to cast protect. A blue shield came over her first, then over Rinoa and Irvine last.
Rinoa cast a triple shell, covered the three of them with a pink shield and Irvine cast Reflect, bringing a red shield over them. Doing it just in time to as Ultimecia cast Thundaga with a wave of her hand, directing it toward Rinoa only to have it reflected back on to her, sending a large pillar of golden lighting streaming down over her body.
Quistis unrolled her whip from her waist, swinging it at Ultimecia and lashing her across the face hard enough to draw blood. Ignoring the wound Ultimecia lifted her hand above her head, using Maelstrom. Black energy drew in from all sides, forming above her hand in an orb and propagating over the group.
Recovering from the attack with out anything too serious, Irvine, aiming carefully, fired a scattered shot in to Ultimecia's torso, she countered with another invisible impact attack on to Irvine before casting Dispel on Rinoa, stripping her of her defenses.
'Oh crap!' Rinoa scrambled to re-cast reflect, just making it in time as Ultimecia cast one of her inhumanly strong spells, Firaga, reflecting the fire spell back on to her with a sudden combustion of flames that swept over her. But also unfortunately reflecting the Cureaga spell Irvine had just cast direct to her on to the Sorceress, bad timing.
Ultimecia cast reflect on her self after words.
With out any dispel spells, Quistis took another lash at Ultimecia with her whip seeing that she had no physical protection. A long slash was torn across the other side of her face, with a strong wince Ultimecia lifted her hand to the cut angrily, almost immediately that side of her face was covered in a sheet of blood. But she started to smile, not the reaction they were expecting.
"What are you so happy about?" Irvine asked, firing another shot in to Ultimecia's torso. She took the blow in stride, silently raising her hand again. She cast a holy spell on herself, and it reflected on to Rinoa, by passing the reflect barrier.
'Uh oh...' White orbs surrounded and rotated around her waist, drawing in rays of holy light from the placid sky. She was knocked off her feet by the rain of light bearing down on to her, landing unconscious on the ground from the powerful attack. Before anyone could revive her, a small angel came down from the sky in a ray of white light, thrusting his hands forward.
The ray of light shined over her body, she was swept away like dust, swirling way in to the light. Zell took her place. "What the hell?"
"Rinoa!" Quistis looked around, seeing if there was any trace of her left, Ultimecia had apparntly made good on her promise. She was gone completely "What did you do to her!"……pushing Quistis to her limit break. Clinching the whip tightly, she thrust her arms forward, casting Mighty Guard.
A blue energy surrounded the group, swirling around them like a liquid before hardening into a barrier, creating Protect, shell, reflect, regain, float, and haste all in effect at once.
Zell charged at Ultimecia, driving his fist in to her stomach and sending another blow across her jaw where the bloody cut still resided.
Ultimecia stumbled back, holding her face with a light gasp to try and reclaim the wind knocked out of her. It seemed as though she would attack again, but she didn't, instead retreating an interesting ring from her pocket. It looked familiar even from that distance, the silver band with the lion ensigna engraved in it. "Hey? Isn't that Squall's ring?" Irvine asked, pointing to ring in question.
Zell looked closer…. "Yeah, that's it…..But what is she doing with it?" Zell watched as she held it up.
"The most powerful GF...You.. shall...SUFFER!HAHAHA..." The ground in front of her started to glow with a white light and something large came burning through. She was using the ring to summon something, just as the Solomon's ring summoned Doomatrain. The white light intensified as it burned through the marble floors, grow stronger until it was blinding.
The ground quaked in the wake of something powerful, but they couldn't see what was happening. The sounds of something smashing and sliding could be heard through the blindness, until finally the earthquake subsided and the light cleared away.
The ground had burned away to just a large rock island that they were standing on now, above them was the same placid sky. Behind them lay a wall of black clouds blocking any exit, below them a dark abyss. And ahead of them a large creature, a GF.
"Oh man! Tell me I'm not seeing this……."Zell lifting one hand to his shaking head, he could tell things were about to get a lot worse, and would continue getting worse.
"Is that……Griever?" Quistis said unsurely, only recognizing the monster by things that Squall had mentioned about him, she cast a scan spell to make sure.
"That is definitely it." Irvine wasted no time firing a shot at the large GF's torso, it apparently was under Ultimecia's control. The shots ricocheted off , but it did leave a substantial bruise with it.
Griever cast Triple on himself, even though Ultimecia was controlling him he was still the one fighting.
Zell looked down over the edge of the cliff, he could make that jump……..Zell ran forward, using his speed plus haste to leap off the edge and send himself flying at Griever, he ran into the large GF, grabbing a hold of his neck and sending a sharp punch in to his stomach. Then planting both feet on to his chest and kicked off with a flip off, landing easily back on land.
Griever retaliated, flying at Zell with a gray blur of speed and slashing him with his claws. The powerful claws ripped through his shirt and in to his chest, leaving bloody cuts where he had attacked and pounding him down to the ground with a loud cry of pain.
(Zell? Are you alright?) Carbuncle asked.
'Fine.'
(Zell)
'I'm on it Bahamut.'
Zell wasn't too sure about summoning him, but still, Bahamut was needed so he started the process. Quistis use tornado, sending a swirl of wind around Griever that engulfed him in a wall of black currents, ripping at him and throwing him back down head first.
Griever managed to catch himself with outstretched wings, turning himself right side up again. He didn't attack just yet though, at lest not directly. A low growl created light purple rays of light around Irvine, plunging in to him from all sides like daggers. They didn't hurt to his surprise, but Griever's attack did have an effect. It blew away all of his Flare spells. "Aw Damnit." Irvine groaned, there was nothing he could do about it now.
Irvine, Zell and Quistis faded from reality as Bahamut dropped from the orange tented sky. He fired 5 smaller blast that exploded around Griever, forcing him to wince and block as best he could. Bahamut opened his mouth wide and pulled in more energy with a deep breath, forming it in to a silver ball, then with a strong exhale he fired Mega flare.
With a quick flash of light, the beam exploded on to Griever. The rush of energy engulfing the GF was forcing him back. But he managed to hold his ground against the attack.
A orange beam came down from the sky like sunlight burning on to Zell, this wasn't from Griever, this attack came from Ultimecia who was awaiting in the sub-dimension used when summoning. But the attack didn't hurt him, it hit Bahamut instead. (Bahamut! Are you alright!) Carbuncle shouted, the only response he got was a low growl then silence.
'Bahamut! What happened!……….Bahamut?' Zell called, still getting no response, it was no use, the attack had knocked him out…..Bahamut was weak to begin with, so the extent of damage wasn't known. Zell began to wonder how there was something that could attack through a junction, he wondered it worked both ways.
Griever roared, using Triple to cast three Demi spells in rapid succession and high concentration, Griever was able to focus attacks that generally hit all on to one person. The first spell hit Quistis, pressing on her from all sides and then pulling at her, she felt as if she'd be crushed and ripped apart. By some manner of her strength she wasn't, dropping her to her knees weakly. The same happened to Zell and Irvine, the spell treating to implode their bodies, but they managed to withstand it and push through. The reflect spells had already warn off before they even realized it.
(Zell summon me already!) Carbuncle shouted forcefully, seeing that they all could use reflect.
'No, wait…..' Zell looked over to Quistis who was about to summon Quezacotl and Irvine who was about to use Cerberus. Just as Zell expect, the orange beam came from the sky as it had done with him, striking them and taking down both GFs in one blow. 'No way, it's too dangerous! If I do it, your done for.' Zell thought worriedly
(Alright…) Carbuncle at first seemed to accept it at first, but he had too much impatience for that. (……..Damnit! I'm stuck here? I can't do anything?) Carbuncle yelled angrily.
'Look's like that's it for now.'
Griever again started working on their magic, blowing away Zell's stock of Ultima. Then Griever charged at Irvine, slashing him with his claws at close range. Irvine grunted loudly, watching a flash of blue from his protect spell still in effect, holding back some of the attack, but Griever still managed to draw more blood. He couldn't keep taking those attacks. 'He's strong...'
A golden aura radiated out of Irvine as he was pushed his limit break, 'I need something strong, I'll never get through this unless I use my best.' Irvine thought, opening the chamber of his Exertor to load in his remaining Pulse ammo, closing it again and pull the slide resting bellow the gun's barrel. With the silver weapon raise he fired the first shot, it was covered in an outlay white light from it's energy, leaving a quick streak of white light in it's wake, the bullet struck Griever in his chest. It was the only one he'd fired able to penetrate, unleashing the stored energy a second after entering his body.
Another shot of the special ammo struck Griever on his broad chest, bursting in to another blast of unleashed white energy that knocked the GF backwards in a stream of blood. The third round struck his right arm, sending out more of the thick liquid that was evaporated along with released energy.
The fourth shot struck in the same arm around his elbow, forcing griever to hold his weakened arm with a pained growl. The fifth and final shot missed it's intended target and hit the blade at the end of his tail, pushing Griever in to Limit Break as well in his weakened state.
Ultimecia's voice came from the sub dimension again, echoing around them "The GF's true power………Allow me...To show you...!Griever! Make them bleed" The ground started to shake violently as Griever charged his attack...
'What is he doing?' Zell mentally shouted on full alert, catching himself with a few staggering steps and barely managing to keep from falling to the ground.
(I don't know, but it's gonna be big…Oh fu)
'Carbuncle!'
Griever roared with an booming out cry, attacking with Shockwave Pulsar. An almost transparent white force surrounded them, forcibly lifting Irvine, Quistis, and Zell in to the air and thrusting them into a cloud white energy that formed above them during Griever's charging. The next thing they knew they where a surrounded by a vortex, it seemed to be two of them conflicting against each other. One below them rotating clockwise, and another twisting the opposite way above them.
In the center of it all lay a large metallic like ball of compressed energy, that started to radiate with thick beams of light as all of it was released . A huge shockwave propagated from the orb, carrying a blinding white light with. From there on, everything was completely silent, unexpectedly bringing about the real attack. An ear deafening explosion came from all sides as the shockwave of released energy paused over them from the center, giving Zell a cold, numb feeling through out his body that only came and lasted a for a recognizable second before a great deal of pain was inflicted.
Which is what he got, too many different feeling running through his body. He felt like he was being electrocuted, burned from the inside out, drowned by the energy surrounding him. Along with this throbbing pain, and the feeling of something cutting every point of him. And the pressure some how pressing down on him coming with the pull that tried to turn him inside out. He was in too much pain to make a sound, not that he would have heard it.
Finally it stopped after what seemed like an eternity, Zell felt himself falling to the ground and knew that was what he was doing when he landed, hard. The first thing he found was that his ears were ringing to the point that it drowned out everything around him, and the attack left behind a strong stinging feeling.
(Zell? Are you alright!) Carbuncle asked frantically.
Zell placed his hands behind him and pushed himself up right, climbing off the ground weakly. He couldn't hear a word Carbuncle had said because of the overwhelming ringing. Irvine seemed to make it out of the attack alright too, but when Zell looked toward Quistis, he saw her body dissolve and being pulled in to a ray of light from a small angel. Squall took her place.
When he came through the wall of clouds, he was amazed to see Griever waiting for him. Even more amazed to see the damage done to him, they had gotten this far with out him, something in him didn't think seem it could happen. It was testament to his friend's strength, how close Griever was to dropping out of the sky.
'It's………Him….' Squall thought in disbelief, something about Griever felt familiar, very familiar. Squall couldn't think of what it was ,…what ...could it be?….He was so deep in thought that he almost forgot about Ifrit until the Fire GF said something.
(Squall, He's still being controlled by Ultimecia.) Ifrit had to remind him of that, this was still a fight against Ultimecia no matter what surprises she threw in to it. And this truly was a surprise, more so of one to Ifrit then anyone.
'Yeah, I know…..'
(I can't believe that this happened to him………How did he get junctioned with Ultimecia?) Ifrit sounded as if he knew Griever.
'Do you know him?' Squall asked.
(Yes, you could say, we're old friends.) Ifrit said with a fond tint to his voice that grew into something else (If you could call it that...)
Zell reached around his inventory, finding a mega potion and using it on the group. This would at lest hold them off until he could get a triple spell going again. But Griever put a stop to that, surrounding Zell with the purple rays and blowing away all of his Triple spells. 'He's not going to make this easy for us...'
Griever lifted his hands, casting a Gravija spell. A massive swirl of dark energy formed in-between them, expanding outward into a crushing wave on to the three. The force flowed around them, something much stronger then Demi with the same effect.
Finally after a few seconds of being smashed from ever side and nearly torn apart at the seams as if were, the effect's halted, leaving all of them seriously weakened again. Immediately pushing Squall to his limit break.
Squall lifted the Lionheart, watching the blue blade glow brightly. With a growing determination he charged at Griever, jumping off the cliff and grabbing on to his shoulder. (Squall!) Ifrit made it a little easier for him though, fire seemed to spread across thin air, creating a large solid surface. And because of Ifrit's junction Squall already absorbed fire, he had no trouble standing on the floor Ifrit had created, he didn't even want to think about how it was solid.
Squall used Renzokuken, slashing the sword upward across Griever's chest and bringing it back down, hitting him again in the same spot. Fluidly, Squall lifted the blade from the ground, thrusting it up to Griever with a strong uppercut. With the sword still raised, he slashed across Griever, bringing it back down.
It was working, this sword seemed effective.
Squall wasn't finished yet though, the sword and his body began to glow when he used his second limit Lionheart to finish him off. It was ironic really, using the attack against the one who inspired and originated it.
Squall jumped at Griever, reaching a height that previously would have been imposable for him had it not been for limit break. He ended up at the height of about Griever's shoulders and started slashing wildly, as soon a he finished one attack, he'd bring the sword back and attack from the other side.
Squall fell threw the air, dragging the sword down across Griever's body as he did so. As soon as he reached the fiery ground he leapt up again, continuing his attack on the way until he reached Griever's shoulders again. By the time he didn't have the energy to keep going he'd thrown at least 20 attacks, knowing he was pushing it going for 31, he planted his feet on Griever's torso and kicked off, flying backwards in to the air.
Squall drew the sword back until the dull edge was touching his shoulder as he dived outward, hoping to make it to his. The Blade glowed even more strongly now, a ring of light seemed to from around it. Some unknown force given to Squall from his Limit break propelled him a way Griever, but he was able to throw one final slash on his decent that move all the blade's energy to Griever and exploded on contact.
Squall landed on the ground behind the GF, quickly moving back to the towering rock island. 'He...won't go down?' He fell to his knees, trying to catch his lost breath, watching what ever fight Griever had left vanish after a lot of work. But Ultimecia wasn't done with him yet.
Again her voice called out from the safety of the sub-dimension. "I shall junction myself...Unto Griever!"
Griever's body was pulled and compacted painfully in to a ball, a cloudy white entering the mass when Ultimecia entered, physically Junctioning her self to Griever.
"You can't be serous…….." Irvine nearly dropped his weapon, watching the display with eyes wide. Ultimecia would not leave Griever, he'd been trying his hardest to fight her as best as he could all of this time. But he was weakened by Squall, he couldn't fight her any longer, it left him with his will just weak enough for Ultimecia to manipulate him physically.
(I………can't watch this.) Ifrit said nervously, turning away
'…….Ifrit…' Squall knew that Ifrit was alright, and he'd be mad if Squall made a big deal out of this. Ifrit just……..didn't want to see his friend like that.
