Chapter 15: Harsh Reality

"That was perfect sir! Amazing, sir! You're the best, sir!"

Watts was showering the praise on Squall and his team as they were rechecking their equipment in preparation for what Rinoa called "serious negotiations" with Deling. The President was no doubt completely unaware of the fact that he had been kidnapped, unless he looked out the window. But even then, Squall doubted he'd realize anything was amiss unless he tried moving between cars, which was unlikely.

Squall had already conferred with Zell and Selphie. They were going to rush in quickly, to secure the train against any possible threats inside the President's car. Watts had already warned them Deling carried a powerful pistol for self-defense, and they didn't want to go in with their guard down.

"Are we ready?" Rinoa asked, to which Squall nodded.

"Good. We've waited so long for this confrontation with Vinzer Deling . . . ." A mixed expression of both anticipation and anxiety was apparent on Rinoa's face as she finished strapping a slashing crossbow to her forearm. The weapon looked kind of like a metal, bladed disk mounted on a small crossbow. The device, oddly enough, included a laser sight and some kind of tracking equipment. It was reffered to as a Pinwheel, a kind of lock-on crossbow that would strike its target like a slashing sword before returning to its wielder. It was decidedly expensive and extremely high- tech, from what Squall knew concerning weapons.

The group armed and ready, Squall opened the door into the Presiden'ts car. Moving quickly, the three SeeDs charged in, securing the room. A quick sweep showed the car was empty, save for the President himself, who sat calmly in his chair, seeming completely unsurprised at the sudden intrusion. Squall stood over him, the tip of his Revolver aimed at the dictator's throat, but judging by the smile on the man's face, Deling either didn't realize the danger, or he didn't care.

"Disarm him," Squall ordered, and Zell stepped forward. He quickly patted the President's coat, and found the small but deadly pistol concealed in its pocket in his jacket. In the meantime, both Selphie and Squall stood tensed and ready to move if Deling even twitched wrong. Deling watched it all with a seemingly detached amusement, a faint and unusual twinkle in his eyes.

"Are you children done yet?" he asked, his voice full of contempt, and a degree of impatience. Squall was somewhat taken aback by the President's calm and collected demeanor, as if the man was not only unimpressed by the SeeDs, but as if he had been expecting them the whole time. Squall glanced back and forth between the rest of his team, and they too seemed equally confused.

"Is he secured?' Rinoa asked from the entrance to the train, to which Squall nodded. She took a breath and closed her eyes for a second, as if collecting herself for the task at hand. Then, moving as deliebrately and calmly as she could, Rinoa crossed the car and stood in front of the President. Squall took the gunblade away from Deling's throat and stepped back, but stood ready to strike and slice the dictator down.

"President Deling," Rinoa began, looking down at the man, her eyes meeting his. "If you don't resist . . ." Rinoa began faltering, Squall noticed. Her voice took on an almost unsure waver as she appaerently engaged in a mental fencing duel with the dictator. Deling just watched her, meeting her eyes and maintaining that odd smile of his.

"If you don't resist," Rinoa continued. "You won't get hurt." She took a quick and surprised step back as Deling suddenly began shaking in laughter.

"And if I do resist?" Deling asked, looking Rinoa dead in the eye as he continued laughing. "What would you do . . . young lady?"

Squall caught a sudden change in Deling's posture and eyes. They turned a darker color, the whites transforming into a dull yellow as a scowl appeared on his face. Rinoa took another step back in shock, and Squall's fingers tightened around the handle of his gunblade. He shot a glance to his teamates, who were also tensed. Something was defiantely not right here, and they knew it.

"Oh, boo-hoo," Deling stated, still laughing. He stood from his seat, oblivious to Squall's raising of his weapon or the SeeDs sliding into combat stances. "All these resistance groups in Timber. Pass along a little false information, and they fall for it . . . how pathetic. Seems there are nothing but amatuers in charge around here."

"Ama . . . tuers?" Rinoa asked, shaking her head in denial. "No! We still caught you, Deling!"

The President shook with more laughter, his voice seeming to change slightly, taking an almost unearthly tone as he spoke.

"Don't you get it?" he asked, his voice now a snarl. Squall caught cracks in his voice, as the pitch of his words began rising and falling oddly.

"Rinoa, get back!" Squall warned, putting his free hand out and pushing her away from the President . . . or whatever the hell he was.

"I see your hired goons understand," Deling said with another strange laugh. "I'm not really the President. I'm what they call a body double. A little misdirection goes a long way, wouldn't you say? Even now, Deling is safely entering Timber through another route, while I deal with you." The clone creature patted his rear, and snarled again, taking a step towards Rinoa.

"My butt hurts from all this sitting," he complained. The faux Deling's body began twitching and his skin started crawling in a strange and sickening way. "So, what did you have in stORE for for me had I resiSTED?" The thing's voice rose and fell strangely, mutilating the words as they came out of its mouth. It advanced another step, and Squall saw strange black drool coming out of its mouth.

He had seen enough. Whatever this thing posing as Deling was, it was dead.

Squall exploded into motion, the Revolver rising over his head in an overhead cleave. Zell attacked as well, scooting forward and low for a sweeping kick to the thing's side. Selphie fell into spellcasting.

To Squall's amazement, the faux Deling shot an arm up and caught the gunblade on its blocking forearm. The sharpened edge cut rather deeply in, but despite the blackish goo splattering out, the fake President seemed uninjured. The thing shrugged off Zell's kick as well, though the powerful blow should have killed an ordinary man.

That, combined with the slam from its uninjured arm that took Squall in the chest and hurled him across the cabin, told the SeeD that this thing, whatever it was, was definately not human in any sense.

Zell came in with another strike, a rapid pair of jabs to the monster's face, but it blocked one, took the other in its face with a smile, and returned the hit with bone-crushing force. Zell was tossed back like Squall. It spun to Rinoa and laughed again in its strange, crackling voice, ignoring Selphie, who continued casting her spell.

"QuiTE aMUsing thouGH . . . . " it said, stalking towards her. "For beING such amAtEurs! HoW daRe YOU InSUlt tHe presIDent!" It suddenly rushed forward and threw Rinoa to the ground with a swift backhand. She let out a cry as she fell and hit the wall of the cabin. The President took another step forward, drooling and towering over her. It raised its hands to slam down on her, and then the arms descended.

Only the hands stopped in front of Rinoa's face, blocked by a shimmering transparent shield that materialized over her, intercepting the blow. The false President growled, and turned its attention to Selphie, who had cast the Protect spell over Rinoa. It took a step towards the small SeeD, but then spun around as Squall rose from his location and charged.

The SeeD swiped hard with his gunblade, but the President once more blocked with his forearm, the gunblade cutting in but doing no apparent harm. The President punched at Squall, whose free left hand rose up and crossed over his gunblade, catching the fist and holding it. The two were locked in a stalemate for a moment until Squall heaved against the false Deling, shoving him back and pulling way. He stopped immediately, leveling his gunblade at the imposter.

The fake was caught off-guard for a second, and prepared to charge at its retreating foe, when Zell's incoming flying kick caught it in the back and hurled it forward, the monster flying at Squall and his ready gunblade.

The faux Deling impaled itself on Squall's extended weapon.

Amazingly, though, the creature still thrashed. It turned its blackened eyes up towards Squall, and to Squall's complete surprise, it grabbed onto the front of the gunblade and pulled it in deeper, growling and spitting black goo, at the same time getting closer to Squall. The creature leaned forward, lunging and biting at Squall's throat, but he leaned back, getting his vulnerable neck out of range.

For an instant, Squall tried to pull the gunblade out of the monster's gut, but he instead dropped his left hand to his side. Drawing his backup knife, Squall jabbed it into the monster's face, sending black ichors oozing up around the blade. The creature screamed and thrashed, but Squall's knife hadn't seemed to do more than blind the monster with its own fluids. But that was fine; Squall had really just been trying to keep the thing from biting him for a moment. His hands tightened around the Revolver's handle, and he squeezed the trigger.

Black goo splattered out the monster's back as the concussive shell went off, but amazingly, the monster still lived. Squall pulled the trigger a second time, then a third thime, then a fourth. Each shot blew more of the creature apart, but somehow it still held on. Gritting his teeth, Squall continued pulling the trigger, counting the number of blasts it would take to drop the damn thing.

Finally, after nine shots, the monster stopped moving and fell limp. Squall planted a foot against its stained and torn jacket, and shoved the dead thing off his blade. The body fell with a dull thump, and Squall looked up at his squad. Selphie was helping Rinoa stand, while Zell had positioned himself between them and the monster, ready to stop any attacks the creature would have made at either of them.

"I'm good," Zell responded to Squall's unanswered questions. "Knocked me around a bit but I'm alright."

"We're fine too," Selphie said to Squall as Rinoa stood. She looked down at the dead fake Deling, and visibly shuddered, her eyes still wide with shock and confusion.

"What?" she shook her head. "What was that thing?" Squall shrugged, though he had his suspicions now that he'd thought about the monster. He remembered classes he'd taken about a certian type of monster, a form of reanimated dead creature, entities that lived on the power of death itself.

"Whatever it was, its dead now," he replied, walking over to them. "Though now-" The sudden surprise on both Zell and Selphie's faces stopped Squall in mid-sentence. He spun around, the Revolver rising into a guard . . . .

And Squall just stood there, staring at the remains of the clone Deling, or rather, what remained of those remains. The clone's corpse was boiling and changing, steaming black goo erupting from tears in its skin. The body shook and twitched, and from somewhere within, something began growing.

Squall watched in openmouthed shock as the body broke down into steaming mush, and from that, a monster rose, like a twisted version of a butterfly erupting from its cocoon.

"What the . . . ?" Squall asked, totally shocked by the bizzare and hideous creature that emerged.

It was humanoid in only the vaguest sense, with a vaguely humanoid skull. Its white, peeling skin was sickly and pale, with blueish veins running throughout its body. A long flap of the thing's skin stretched from the left side of its skull down to a massive, deformed left arm, the hand like a bloated, green and blue growth, tipped with green and blue claws. Its left leg was massive, overgrown and swollen, almost like the trunk of a huge animal's leg as opposed to a human's limb. Its right arm and leg were almost of normal proportions, except skinny and emaciated. A bright blue tumor-like growth was on its left hip, the purpose unknown, but still disturbing as it writhed like a seperate entity. The creature glared at the SeeDs with its dark blue eyes, full of malice, as it began to stumble forward, its torso swaying back and forth oddly.

"Selphie, Rinoa, stay back and support! Zell, you're with me!" Squall shouted, organizing his small group. "I go high, you go low!" Zell nodded, and he broke into a charge alongside Squall. As per his orders, Selphie and Rinoa stayed back, Rinoa lining up the monster with her crossbow while Selphie began casting a Fira spell. Rinoa may have been his superior for this operation, but she deffered to Squall when it came to tactical combat.

Squall reached the monster a second before Zell, who was behind and to his left. The creature took a swing at Squall with the over-sized limb, but he ducked beneath the attack and countered, the Revolver coming across in a cleaving slash. The blade bore into the monster, and Squall pulled his trigger, blasting the creature. Black goo erupted, but aside from a slight shudder, the monster seemed unaffected. Its normal right arm shot across in a punch, catching Squall across the jaw and tossing him back with surprising strength.

The attacks left the monster open to Zell's low, spinning kick, which struck the monster in its normal right leg, the kick impacting with its knee. The joint popped with a sickening crunch as Zel's hit shattered the kneecap and bent the leg in a direction it was never intended to go.

The monster, however, didn't even seem to notice, and its own countering blow, a massive sweep with its clawed forearm, hurled Zell away. It moved to pursue, but an explosion of fire tore at its skin, burning chunks away. For the first time, the creature seemed to really have been hurt by that attack, and it turned a baleful glare at Selphie, right in time to catch a spinning blade that slashed across its face. The monster roared in anger as the returning blade of Rinoa's crossbow arced back to her waiting hand. She caught it deftly and began to reset the weapon in her crossbow.

The monster completely ignored Selphie and focused on Rinoa. It glared at her, then arced its head back. The head then shot forward in a snapping motion, and a black mist spewed forward at Rinoa. She looked up to see it incoming, and was then shoved aside as Selphie hurled herself at Rinoa. They both fell down and away from the mist, though Selphie caught a lungful of the dangerous substance. She began coughing and hacking, one hand going to her chest as it and her throat and nostrils burned. She tried standing but fell back to the floor, her nunchakus slipping from her grasp.

Squall rose to his feet, and looked their way to see Selphie down.

"Poison!" he shouted to Rinoa, who nodded in understanding. Squall glance Zell's way to see the martial artist standing back up. Zell shook his head, shaking off the effects of the hit. He glared at the monster, and then glanced at Squall.

Squall signaled for him to hold back and act as support, and then he charged. Zell fell into his own spellcasting as Squall closed with the creature. He made to strike with his gunblade, but as the creature spun to face him and raised its arm to strike, Squall suddenly stopped and leaped back, his left hand dropping to his belt.

Zell blasted the creature with another Fira spell, and it spun to face him, hate and death in its eyes. It took a step towards Zell, but then had to turn as Squall charged it again. Only this time, Squall wasn't raising his gunblade for a strike. His right hand still held the Revolver, but in his left he held an open vial. Before the monster could attempt to swing at Squall, he hurled the vial at it. The small bottle struck the monster across its face, and the fluid inside, a curative potion, splashed across its face.

Normally, one drank a potion of that type, which resulted in a very quick healing, but one could also ingest the potions by merely splashing it across their skin. That was a far simpler and less efficient method of healing, but it worked in a situation where one couldn't drink the fluid.

However, in the case of this creature, and all others of its type, that healing potion did nothing to mend its wounds. To the contrary, the monster began thrashing and screaming, its normal hand rising to its face, clutching at the head, which seemed to smoke as if acid had been applied to it.

Squall nodded, confirming the monster was undead. Undead creatures thrived off the energy of death itself, of unlife. From this, they drew the energy that allowed them to live while not truly living. Being not truly living entities, the energies of concocted curative potions or magic actually brought harm to the undead.

"Hit it with healing magic!" Squall ordered, reaching into his mind and calling forth the energies of curative spells. He began casting a spell, only to suddenly inhale a black mist that the monster spewed his way. He coughed and spit, trying to force the poison out of his body, but to no effect. However, unlike the mist that had poisoned Selphie, the tainted cloud Squall had breathed did not burn his lungs or steal his strength. Instead, Squall found his vision clouding over, a grayish pall covering his sight.

Realizing his sudden disadvantage, Squall instead focused on hearing, and on his other warrior senses. He could hear and feel the pounding on the train car's floor as Zell charged, could sense the train moving over the tracks and dirt below. He could faintly hear Rinoa whispering to a coughing Selphie and opening a vial, doubtless of an antidote for the poison. Squall also sensed the presence of the undead creature. A sound like the pounding of steel bars on raw meat sounded, as Zell attacked, a four-hit combo blasting the monster. Squall then winced as he heard an even louder version of the same sound as Zell was backhanded away, and then the crashing sound of him slamming into a wall, the intervening structure bending under the impact.

He then sensed an incoming attack as the monster shifted its attentions to the blinded SeeD. Squall felt the air disrupted by the incoming arm, and his gunblade shot up, slicing a chunk out of the attacking claw. However, the brunt of the attack still got through, smashing into Squall and hurling him back. He crashed into the floor, dropping his gunblade, and rolled, coming to a stop against something soft and warm.

"Squall?" Rinoa's voice, directly overhead, spoke.

"Blinded," he explained, scrabbling for his gunblade. "Vial on my left side. Marked as eye drops." He could sense Rinoa's hands fumbling with his belt, grabbing at one of the pouches on his left side, and also felt something moving nearby, rising off the floor.

"Selphie?" he asked.

"Yeah," Selphie replied, an odd, uncharacteristic growl in her voice. "Curative magic, right?" Squall felt his pouch opening and Rinoa removing a vial.

"Yeah," Squall replied as he heard the vial opening. He also felt the impacts on the floor as Zell rose from his prone position and charged the monster again, in a seemingly suicidal charge, but intended to keep the monster busy. Rinoa's hands wrapped around his gloved ones as she slid the vial into his hands. He gulped down the tasteless contents quickly, as Zell landed as solid and no doubt painful blow on the undead creature. The creature responded with an even more solid and doubtlessly even more painful hit, and as the grayness dissappeared from Squall's vision, he heard another impact with the wall.

Squall made out Selphie, twirling her nunchakus oddly as she focused. He then glanced around, and spotted his gunblade a few feet away. He dove for it and rose, his gunblade up and ready as he scanned the car. Zell was lying in a crumpled heap directly beneath yet another dent in the wall, but was rising shakily. Squall had to hand it to the martial artist; he was as tough as he was stubborn. Then Squall focused on the monster as it plodded forward.

Once more, Squall fell into spellcasting, calling forth the magical energies of curative magic. Even as he focused, some part of his mind wondered why Selphie hadn't cast any spells yet. Even as he continued calling up the magic, he flashed a glimpse back to Selphie, to see her stop twirling her nunchakus.

Reddish light erupted around her as she raised her weapon up high, holding them as far apart as the chain would allow.

Rippling magical energy came forth, washing over the undead creature. It let out a sudden pained scream, clawing at itself as the magic seemed to rend it apart, tearing it to pieces, melting its skin. Within seconds, the energies broke the undead monster down, robbing it of the very energies of death that empowered it. Lifeless and collapsing into mush, the creature fell over, and lay limp.

Squall turned back to Selphie as she sighed, and smiled.

"Limit?" he asked, to which she nodded.

"I call it Slot. It really weird," she explained as Zell rose up to his feet. "Generates random magic. I can control it, but it keeps changing the energies I can use. I have to wait until it gives me something useful." She gestured to the dead undead. "That was an odd magic. I call it Full Cure, totally heals injuries. Or, in an undead's case, kills it instantly."

Squall nodded at the explanation, and looked over to Zell, who was rubbing his bruised face.

"You okay?"

"Dandy," Zell replied, giving Squall a sarcastic thumbs up. He looked over at the decomposing mass of undeath. "Unlike today, I guess." Squall nodded in agreement.

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"A fake!" Zone said with a shake of his head. "I can't believe it! The President was a fake!" The SeeDs and Rinoa nodded. The small group had gathered in the planning room once more for the debriefing on their operation. For the most part, it had gone off without a hitch . . . excepting the monstrous fake President. If nothing else, Squall had to commend Deling on his creativity.

"Info!" a voice shouted from outside. The door flew open, and the SeeDs momentarily started, hands dropping to their weapons, or in Zell's case, fists rising into a guard. However, they stood down as they saw it was only an overly excited Watts. He ran in, looking almost like a kid that needed to go really badly, and looked around. "New info, sir!" he shouted again.

"What's the news?" Zone asked immediately.

"Its big!" Watts responded, getting even more excited. "The real reason the President's in Timber is because he's going to the Timber TV Station for some kind of announcement! Security's really tight, though. Looks they've got at least a company of soldiers around the Station, and there's lots more patrolling the streets."

The group of SeeDs and rebels looked back and forth at each other, considering this news.

"The TV Station?" Rinoa asked, shaking her head in confusion. "Why here? They can just as easily broadcast from inside Galbadia. The only difference between the Timber station and any in Galbadia is that we still have radio systems."

"That might be it," Selphie said, sudden understanding appearing on her face. "I think the Dollet Communication Tower may have something to do with it. What do you think?" Squall shrugged, while Zell rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"The comms tower?" Zone asked, not understanding. "What's that?"

"Dollet has a communications tower that can transmit and recieve radio waves," Squall explained. "Its been abandoned for years, but the Galbadian army got it up and running a few days ago." Zone nodding, understanding the connection.

"And Timber's TV Station is the only one around that can still handle radio broadcasts over the air. Everyone else uses HD cable."

"So," Rinoa asked. "What does that mean?"

"They're using radio waves," Zone explained. "They must be trying to broadcast to regions that don't use cable."

"I know that," Rinoa replied, shaking her head. "What I want to know is what the President is going to broadcast. There must be something they're trying to say to the whole world, but what?"

"I know!" Selphie responded, hopping up and down. She held her hands out like she was hugging someone. "They want to tell everybody! Love! And peace!"

Doubting glances came back from the assembled group.

"I doubt that, Selphie," Squall replied. Selphie, not really deflated by their skepticism, simply shrugged.

"Hey, it sounded like a good suggestion," she replied, still smiling.

"If I remember correctly," Zone spoke up, interrupting them. "Radio hasn't been used in seventeen years."

"Its been that long?" Rinoa asked, surprised. "Wouldn't it be great if the first broadcast was Timber's declaration of independence?"

"Hey!" Zone replied, nodding. "That could work!"

"Let's come up with a plan!" Rinoa said, and Watts and Zone nodded. Rinoa glanced over at the SeeDs. "Give us a minute, would you?"

Then to Squall's absolute surprise, the three of them just dropped to the floor, sitting or squatting, and began conferring among themselves.

"They call that a strategy meeting?" Zell muttered, shaking his head. Squall couldn't help but agree. He watched the three for a moment as they continued whispering among themselves, making imaginary maps with their fingers and the floor. A tap on his shoulder got Squall's attention, and he looked back at Selphie.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Can't we go home now?" she asked, her voice and expression somehow reminding Squall of a pleading kid. "We did the job. What about our contract? Shouldn't you check it?" Squall nodded, surprised he hadn't thought about it. He walked over to where the Forest Owls were "planning" and stood over Rinoa. She noticed his shadow and looked up.

"Oh, good timing," she said, standing up. "We've got a plan."

Two minutes, and they'd come up with a plan for liberating Timber? Squall looked down at the floor for a second, not wanting Rinoa to see his disbelieving expression at the absurd notion. After a moment, he looked back up.

"I want to see our contract," he said simply. Rinoa nodded, and bent down, looking through a nearby crate filled with papers. A couple of seconds later she stood back up, holding a folder and a sheet of paper. Squall took it and began reading it.

"What's it say?" Zell asked as he and Selphie came forward, crowding around their leader. Squall shook his head, not exactly sure. The thing was steeped in legalese that he could barely comprehend, and probably would require a trained lawyer to decipher.

"Oh, yeah," Rinoa said, recognizing the confused expression on Squall's face. "That one's pretty confusing. When I told Cid I didn't understand, he gave me a new one." Rinoa took the confusing document out of Squall's hands and handed him a new, much shorter, and much more understandable one, this written in clear print with Cid's almost illegible signature at the end.

To the Forest Owls,

This SeeD deployment contract will last until Timber has achieved independence from Galbadia. Please make good use of each SeeD member. I wish you the best with your objective. Please understand that this contract is an exception, and no replacement of any SeeD members can be made.

Balamb Garden Headmaster Cid Kramer

It was short, but simple.

"Until Timber's independence?" Selphie asked, shaking her head. "That is soooo vague!"

It was that too.

"Hey, you're paid proffessionals," Rinoa responded, putting her hands on her hips. "No complaining!"

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Yeah, this chapter ended abruptly too. But hey, no complaining, you're the guys who are reading this! :P