Ch 32 – End Game

Entering the base was simple – just slip through the hanger doors and face off against a few hundred soldiers.

The SeeDs paused at the entrance, looking like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar. The Heart soldiers, most of them not even wearing their armour or carrying weapons, looking back, looking shocked, looking surprised.

The hanger was filled with equipment and stock – the walls covered in shelves of boxes fill with miscellaneous gear. As well as the loading and housing bay for the Heart Ragnaroks, this must've also been where the Hearts always deployed their infantry. A massive Arch sat at the other end of the large hanger beside the double doors marked 'Entrance'. The SeeDs would have to fight their way past the soldiers to get to the double-doors.

The two factions stood there for a second, staring at each other – before the SeeDs charged, Squall's LionHeart blazing through the air as it cleaved straight through one man and decapitated another before he blew another man apart with the pull of the trigger, body parts and blood spraying in all directions.

Then chaos erupted.

Zell literally threw himself at the enemy, taking down scores of them with his attacks. A punch let fly which smashed a man in the chest, shattering his breastplate and sending him hurtling back through the crowds – before Zell pulled his hand back and thrust it forward again, fire blazing from his palm to scorch and roast a good number of the foes. Surrounded by men Zell twisted his body, his fist slashing out to take three men across the chops and sending them spinning to the floor, then kicked one in the guts, causing him to fly forward, tripping several who advanced forward.

Dee fought alongside her mother, the two women proving their mettle. Approaching a soldier Dee let off a devastating combo, her fists smashing his face and stomach before she let go with a kick to the crotch, sending him to his knees – which was when Angel grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him at the other soldiers, the man sending five to the ground like a bowling ball hitting ten-pins. As soon as they were down, however, they were overrun by the men behind them, the Heart soldiers trampling their comrades without a second thought.

Turning to her mother and grabbing her hands, Dee swung her around by her arms, Angel's legs slashing out to smash a number of men down before landing on the balls of her feet – then swinging Dee, the teen wiping out ten men in one swing.

Rinoa stood to the back of the room, picking off anyone who strayed too far and tried to flank her friends. Seeing a group of men sneaking around the scrum that had erupted, she levelled her Blaster Edge and fired. The weapon consisted mainly of two parts – the launching mechanism attached to her arm and the massive, razor-sharp disc loaded on top of it – the Shooting Star, a jagged-edged disc that was so sharp it almost cut through anything on earth. Levelling the weapon at the men she pressed the stub near her elbow – and the Shooting Star blasted from the mechanism, whirring through the air – to slice straight through the group, arms and torsos falling apart before the disc ended it's arc and flew back for Rinoa to catch with the mechanism, a precision mark by the Sorceress. The disc span in the mechanism dangerously, a sharp whirring sound emitting as it cut through the air around her arm. It had been a while since she'd used it – but she was smiling at the kills. She hadn't lost her touch.

Grabbing a man by his face and hurling him into his friends Zell turned to smash his fist into a jumping soldier, knocking him away before grabbing the breastplate of another and cracking his head into his with a vicious head butt, knocking the man stupid – before picking him up by his neck and groin and, spinning like a hammer-thrower, used him as a battering weapon, crushing the Hearts with one of their own, the bodies falling around him and screams erupting as bones were broken and tendons were torn free from bone.

Finally finishing with his now very limp weapon, Zell threw him away in the general direction of the blazing blue light that was slicing and dicing enemies – to watch as the body was cut from the air with a flash of blue light. "Squall!!" Zell yelled, watching as the entrance doors opened, grabbing a sword swung at him with his gauntlet and ramming the butt into his attacker's face before spearing the sword into another Heart's chest. "More company!"

Squall's LionHeart cut a man to ribbons before the SeeD turned to look at the door, the gunblader clutching the sword with both hands, his clothing splattering with the blood of his enemies. Another platoon of soldiers were coming out of the doors – but these weren't your standard issue soldiers.

These guys were covered head-to-toe in Orihalcon. If they were hoping to get to the Queen in a fighting-fit state, they'd have to deal with them quickly.

Drawing his eyes from the new Hearts for a second, Squall cut a man in half before crying out an order. "SeeDs, GF 37B!"

GF Thirty-seven B. Basically a protection manoeuvre, allowing the GF user time to call upon a GF who was reluctant to be drawn, by using his SeeD comrades to provide a distraction.

Zell blinked. He had never been one for studying the SeeD Handbook – but he knew the tone of voice for 'cover me' when he heard it. Ignoring the enemies surrounding him for a split second, Zell suddenly jumped high into the air, his Uber Ehrgiez gauntlet raised high – before he slammed it into the ground, the concrete crumbling with the force of his blow. "Quake!"

As if he'd set off a nuclear bomb underground, the concrete around his fist suddenly undulated out in ever-growing circles, disturbing the floor and rendering it to rubble and tossing Hearts in every direction imaginable, the magical earthquake shaking them to the very core, even causing their muscles to tremble sporadically, armour and weapons being shaken right off their bodies. Even the men clad in Orihalcon had trouble keeping their footing as the ground rumbled violently underneath them, some actually falling over as the War World earth split and cracked.

Squall held his LionHeart out before him before drawing his left fist from the hilt to his chest, closing his eyes as he called upon the GF he had within him. The GF he was calling was a rarely used one – mainly used for creating confusion as well as massive property damage, this GF was usually junctioned to Selphie – but, seeing as she wasn't going to be directly fighting, it was only fair that Squall borrow it for the mission.

That didn't mean it had to like it, however.

Angel, seeing that Squall needed more time to negotiate, also stepped forward, the only other person understanding the command – actually understanding it, not just winging it like Zell did. Drawing her little fists back and balling them tightly by her sides, her hands trembling as the air around her grew hot, breathing out almost all the air in her lungs, she shoved her hands forward in a sudden gesture – then the air before her turned crimson with flame as her Flare raged forward, the super-hot charge of magical energy blazing forth to wipe out and disintegrate many of the initial Hearts who had been in the hanger, their unprotected bodies turning to ash easily. The lucky few who managed to put Shells up before the Flare engulfed them were knocked into a daze by the unbelievable force of the blast, the left men tottering on their feet for a second as the Flare finally died down.

That was plenty of time. Squall's GF had finally decided to co-operate, and suddenly throwing out his left hand disappeared in a puff of logic – as well as the other SeeDs.

The Hearts, picking themselves up off the floor and trying to figure out just where the enemy had just disappeared to, blinked suddenly as a large purple object slammed in through the roof of the hanger and landed on the mass of men, crushing them under-foot. Watching as the humanoid figure, about the size of a ten-ton truck and just as wide, turned to them and opened what seemed like a valve on it's head area, the Hearts instinctively began to scatter – not that it would've done much.

Pandemonium opened the flaps on flesh on it's cheeks, the small bag hanging off it's back twitching slightly as it's purple skin shivered – then steeled itself as the bag grew smaller, blowing all the air out – before a gigantic vacuum sucked in every small shred in the hanger into itself, everything not nailed down released from gravity and sent flying into the air and into the Guardian Forces' maw.

Heart Soldiers, scrap metal, Ragnarok equipment, the Orihalcon squad – everyone was drawn into the bag on it's back, the bag beginning to grow to a stupendous girth as even the ruined ground, the rubble made by Zell's Quake and Angel's Flare, was sucked up and swallowed by the large Guardian Force. The men in the Orihalcon armour were screaming as they were lifted off the ground be the incredible suction and pulled through the air into the 'mouth' of the strange creature, being swallowed into darkness. Within the bag the Hearts that weren't protected by the Orihalcon were quickly being reduced to pulp by the masses of debris Pandemonium was sucking up, their bodies being assailed in all directions. The men in Orihalcon tried not to puke in their helmets as they were tossed up and down by the bag, not worrying about the debris as it pinged harmlessly off the nigh-to-indestructible armour – but more worried about the motion sickness they were getting.

Pandemonium's chest was beginning to puff out as it drew on the last dregs of it's breath, the powerful suction even tearing the panelling off the walls and roof, these being reduced to serrated metal as it was all swallowed by it's indestructible maw, the distended bag on it's back wobbling dangerously, beginning to overload with the quantity of stuff it had within – before Pandemonium finally stopped sucking and began to eject it all.

Every single scrap of rubble, metal, human or otherwise was blown out of the now wide-open mouth, spraying in all directions as the GF switched from suck to blow, every shred that had been draw in now ejected in a powerful jet of air. The force of the wind actually blew a section of the wall of the hanger down, letting the men and debris scatter out far and wide across the War World's blood-red plains. Rocks, limbs, crushed bodies, flashes of Orihalcon – it was all spewed out and blown away, tossed off into the distance and forgotten.

The bag finally hanging behind it, void of anything but a few dusty pieces here and there, Pandemonium shook itself a little, much like a dog did when it was wet – before simply dissolving from the head up, melting away to go where GF's went when they weren't called upon.

Squall and the others reappeared suddenly, simply popping back into existence to see the utter destruction around them.

Dee was flabbergasted. She had no idea what had just taken place – one second she had been punching some guy's lights out, the next she was standing in what looked like a hanger stripped bare. Everything that had been scattered around was gone, the walls and roof stripped of their panelling – even the floor looked like it had been sucked up by something. "What the hell was that?!" She breathed.

Zell smirked and patted her on the shoulder. "I'll tell you later, hon. Lets keep going."

Irvine shook the massive Minigun angrily, the engine on the turret squealing and ejecting lubrication fluid in protest. "Dammit! Jammed!!" He shouted, dumping the weapon to the ground and reaching behind him – to pull his Exeter from it's back-sheath, the long shotgun gleaming in the red War World sun as he swung it around to jam into a Heart's face – before pulling the trigger, the ammunition blowing the man's head clean off and spraying the rest of the men behind him with blood and brains, Irvine's teeth gritted as his arm took the massive recoil in stride, almost blowing him off his feet.

Regaining his composure and pointing the gun at another man, Irvine pulled the trigger again, the power of the shell kicking the man right off his feet – as well as rendering the gun empty. Snapping the weapon open Irvine reached into his pocket for more shells – before being barrelled off his feet by a mass of men, his body crushing under their collective weight.

The good thing about the Minigun was that it sprayed lead like water from a hose and had torn apart scores of the Hearts in almost no time at all. The bad thing was that it made you one hell of a target. In war – in any battle – the main objective is to win with the least losses. That meant taking out the largest threat and working your way down there. And, judging by the screaming masses of men running towards Irvine, he had been rated by the Hearts as a pretty big threat.

Nonplussed by the men Irvine swung the Exeter across the face of the man on top of him before kicking him off, rolling back and to his feet, reloading two new shells into the open breech of the gun – then snapped it shut with the flick of a wrist and levelled it at the men, bracing himself by stamping his feet into the ground for friction and gritting his teeth – before pulling the trigger.

The shot rang out over the screaming crowd of warriors like a sonic boom, a massive wave of men dying under the sheer destructive force of the Pulse ammunition, the concentrated force of an Ultima destroying the rest of the advancing Hearts with literally no resistance. The bullet had punched straight through ten warriors before detonating, the explosion of Dark energy expanding in less then a second and swallowing anything that got in it's way and de-atomising it.

Irvine was punched off his feet by the extraordinarily strong kickback, the stock of the weapon smashing into his shoulder and dislocating his arm with little effort, the blowback throwing him through the air and back into the Universals surging forth behind him. Screaming out curses and threats and things about the Heart's mothers, Irvine was helped to his feet and quickly healed by one of the thousands of medics scattered around the war ground – before being shoved back into battle, holstering his Exeter until he needed it again – those Pulse rounds were expensive and rare!! – and letting his Vincent Valentine handguns slip out of his sleeves into his hands, the handguns flaring wildly as he began to fight again.

Seifer, having recovered from the GF use quickly, was right in the thick of it, his Hyperion slashing and cutting wildly, blood flowing and limbs flying in all directions as he twisted and whirled, not a Heart being able to touch him as he executed each and every one who reached him with almost no effort.

Major Almasy kept Seifer covered perfectly, the Doppel from Earth having discarded his M16A1 and having to pull out his P90, the stubby sub-machine gun's barrel flaring as the shell-less 7.62mm NATO rounds spewed from the gun at an alarming rate. He had given up on spraying the enemy a long time ago – now he kept back in the midst of the Universals, sniping any men who seemed to get the jump on a fellow soldier with a quick burst from the P90. He followed Seifer, however – something in him told him he might need his help, and besides, nobody wanted to see themselves getting killed, even if it was just a Universal Doppelganger.

Seifer had been working his way forward, the bodies flying away from him in all directions as he pushed through the ranks of the Hearts quickly, the line beginning to bend inward to stop him – and allowing the Universals to form a arrow-head attack, the Gaian and Te'Get soldiers suddenly running forward with increased stamina, guns shots and voices screaming out as the break in the Heart's line grew at an alarming rate.

Seifer's gunblade flashed forward – before the Heart before him simply fell to pieces, the SeeD kicking the still dropping body out of the way to allow him space to move and slash his sword down at another nameless Heart, this one also wielding a gunblade, the two blades slashing up and down towards each other – to crash together in an explosion of sparks, the Heart having stopped Seifer's genocide melee with one strike!

Seifer blinked in amazement, stumbling back before steadying himself again. It had been the first time in almost two hours that anybody had actually fought back decently.

The Heart before him held his gunblade with excellent form, his stance perfect. His body and face were covered by a long white cloak, stained with the blood of the Universals that lay around him – soldiers who had run up with Seifer, keeping him covered from the sides. The Hearts surged forward, seeing the Universal hero stopped, and the two warring factions found themselves in a stalemate as the two sides clashed.

Swords chinking and gunshots raining around them, the Heart before Seifer took off the hook of his cloak to reveal a familiar shock of blond hair, piercing blue eyes, a sharp nose and a square jaw. Seifer's eyes widened. He'd seen that face. He saw it everyday, reflected in the water or a mirror.

It was his face.

"I've been hoping to find you on the battlefield." The Heart Seifer called over the sounds of battle, shoving the body of a dead Heart away from him as the man's head exploded beside him.

Seifer growled menacingly, his Hyperion slashing forward as two Hearts leapt at him, their clubs raised – before flying right past him, their bodies falling to pieces as they hit the floor, Seifer's gunblade coming to a stop before him, the tip pointed at his Doppel. "You want a piece of me?!"

"We'll see!!" The Heart Seifer cried, throwing himself forward to meet the SeeD head on.

Almasy levelled his P90 and let off a short burst, the bullet tears a man's head from it's shoulders before the Major slammed his boot forward to kick the body down – and blanch at the crowd of men racing forwards at him.

Running backwards he jammed his finger on the trigger and swung the P90 to the right, perforating the men quickly and messily – before the gun ran empty, a hollow and ominous clicking noise emitting from the clip atop the gun.

Blinking for a second, the Major ripped the new clip from the top of the weapon, trying to watch the men advancing on him as he fumbled for a new clip on his webbing – before one of the Hearts leapt forward and stabbed his knife straight into Almasy's chest.

The Major skidded back with a cry, his feet catching on the bodies strewn about on the ground and causing him to fall back – to kick his feet into the Heart's chest and flinging him up and over his body back into the Universals, the Major rolling backwards and into a crouch – and expertly drawing his Desert Eagle on the fly, the .50 calibre handgun's booming making the P90's almost insect-like chatter seem miniscule. The large bullets flew out of the handgun and straight into the rest of the advancing group of Hearts, the impact of the bullets blowing them right off their feet and drilling straight through their body armour. The Major was screaming as he stood and walked forward, the Israeli-made gun jumping in his hand as all fourteen rounds went straight into the enemy before the hammer clicked on an empty chamber, the slide locked back, the clip empty.

His breathing wild, his finger still pulled the trigger on reflex. Never in his ten years in the Marines had he ever been so close to Death and felt the exhilaration of brushing past him. The noise of explosions and gunshots fell onto deaf ears; the only sound the roar of his blood and his hyperventilating breath and the click of the hammer hitting the slide ominously.

A hand was placed on his shoulder in the midst of the sudden reflexive period, causing him to swing the massive handgun around – to be caught by the blades of what seemed to be some kind of spiked Frisbee held in the petite hand of Fujin, her one cool grey eye looking up at him. Her cold voice stabbed straight through his frozen mind, bringing light to his darkened shock. "Calm." She whispered, the hand on his shoulder glowing brightly for a second, the Dispel moving through his body – before he blinked.

The Major's breathing slowed, and he looked down at the white-haired woman. The barrel of the Desert Eagle was placed on her forehead, the blades having only just stopped it from being jammed into her remaining eye. If the gun had still been loaded, he would've blown her head clean off. "I…I'm sorry…I don't know what came over me…" He said, his voice full of shock as he tried to apologise…

She removed the blades of her Chakra from the Desert Eagle and walked past him. "Forget." She stabbed at him before running back into the battle.

Finally back in control of himself from the Berserk, the Major looked down at his Kevlar breastplate – to see the knife the Heart had stabbed at him jutting out. The Kevlar had saved his life, the tip of the blade only having nicked his skin – just enough to automatically cast the magic on him. Grabbing the knife he tried to pull it out – but gave up after a few tugs. It was wedged in tight. Ejecting the spent clip from the Desert Eagle instead, he reloaded the large handgun and turned to follow Fujin, collecting the discarded P90 as he went and reloading it as well.

The two Seifer's faced off a few meters away from the Major's scene, the SeeD snarling at the Heart for a second, slashing the Hyperion through the air once more – before launching himself at him, the large gunblade held high above his head as he leapt straight through the air at the Heart – and slammed the sword down onto the Heart's gunblade, their swords sparking furiously as the Heart buckled under the attack slightly – then jumped back.

The two men were suddenly lost in a flurry of attacks, the sounds of their blades ringing out as they fought within their warring factions, the Hearts slamming straight into the Universals with little relent. Their gunblades flashed in the red War World sun, glinting menacingly with each blow as sparks flew from the edges, each man screaming at the other with unsurpassed fury from behind their weapons as the modified swords crashed into each other again and again.

The SeeD Seifer slashed his sword out suddenly, having jumped back and swung the sword across like a baseball bat, the edge glinting as sparks flew when the Heart Seifer lifted his gunblade to stop the Hyperion from taking his head clean off – before the SeeD pulled the trigger on his gunblade, the tip booming and flaring and causing the Heart to bellow in agony as the flare burned his face and the bullet blew off his ear, sending the little piece of meat and skin flipping off into the distance followed by a gout of blood.

Shoving the Hyperion away from him the Heart skidded forward, his gunblade lancing forward to stab Seifer in the chest – but Seifer managed to slap the gunblade away from him with his free left hand, causing the Heart Seifer to stumble up to the SeeD – and receive a fist to the face, the SeeD's hand following through with the swing out to swing back and slam into the Heart's cheek in a perfect left hook. Sweat spilled off the Heart's face and blood spewed from his mouth as a few teeth were dislodged – before he replied in due force, his own free hand rocketing out to slam into Seifer's face in a perfect right hook.

Seifer span in the air with the powerful blow, landing on the ground with a bloody snarl on his face – then rolling to the side as the dusty surface was blown apart from the Blizzards being shot at him by the Heart, the shards of ice stabbing into the ground around him like unholy rain. Rolling away and flipped up to his feet Seifer twirled his sword to cut the remainders of the Blizzards aimed at him from the air – then pushed his own hand out, the Aero he cast blowing the Heart off his feet and sending him flying back into his comrades.

Spinning the Hyperion in his left hand and pulling it back, he shoved his right hand forward and spread his legs wide – and screamed a battle cry, a threatening stance for anyone who was faced off against him. He looked like a wild man, his tattered white coat flaring in the War World wind, his face and shirt drenched in sweat and blood. He was in the zone, focused, intense, deadly.

The Hearts shoved their Seifer to his feet, the Heart shaking his head to rid himself of the wooziness imparted by the sudden, saw Seifer's victory stance – and snarled a rattling growl, spitting some blood out of his mouth – then bunched his free fist together, drawing it close to him and smiling wickedly at his Doppel as four green balls with fire within them appeared and circled his body – before his fist slashed up, two fingers pressed together stabbing up into the sky at Seifer.

Then his disappeared.

And the ground exploded upwards, a massive figure looming up from the earth and staring down at the SeeD.

The Major was advancing forward with Fujin, his P90 and Desert Eagle flaring periodically to tear the Heart's to shreds, Fujin's Chakra slicing into the enemy equally well.

The Marine was about to ask Fujin how she could get the Frisbee to fly back to her so well – it looked like something out of Mad Max, but more spiky and evil – when the massive figure loomed up before them, seeming to just pop out of the ground and stare down at them all.

"What the flying fuck is that?!" The Major shouted, stamping his foot down on the man he'd just jumped on and putting a .50 calibre bullet into his brain before looking up at the monster again. First a big sea snake and now this?! This is like something out of some kinda fantasy video game!!

The massive creature looked like a human – except for its gigantism, that was. It stood almost ten stories tall and was covered in masses of what looked like Japanese armour, a gigantic Katana and Wazikashi stuffed into it's belt to it's left side. The helmet the massive monster wore had a faceplate of smooth glass upon it that glinted in the sunlight – no, not glass, a mirror. The mirror reflected whatever it saw immediately, and it was turned down to look at Seifer standing alone in the battlefield, tiny compared to the GF.

The Hearts immediately began to pull back, some of them screaming in horror. "Tetsu-Ko, Testu-Ko!!"

Irvine stepped up to stand beside the Major. "My guess – Tetsu-Ko, whoever that is." He muttered, popping the spent clips from his Vincents and reloading them calmly. His bloody blasting had somehow gotten him to make his way to Fujin and the other Seifer, which was fine by him. The Universal army had seemed to take a collective step back, uncertain of the proceedings now that there seemed to be a gigantic humanoid in the centre of the battlefield. "A Guardian Force."

"A Guardian what?" The Major whispered in confusion, also reloading his own guns whilst he had the chance.

Quistis walked up from behind Irvine, wrapping her Save The Queen around her forearm absently. "Guardian Force. Next time I'd suggest reading the Gaian notes you were given, Major – they might just save your life if we ever need you in battle again. But to fill you in, a Guardian Force is a monster summoned by a person to help them in battle – with very destructive results." Lifting her microphone to her lips she spoke quietly into it, ordering the Universals to pull back until the monster was destroyed.

The Major grimaced. "Guess these Hearts had big guns after all…" He muttered, before pressing the stud on his own microphone. "Willis, what condition are our tanks in?"

"They're all fucked, sir!! They weren't made for being swamped by masses of men!"

"Shit…" The Major growled, lowering his wrist-mic. "Well, what do we do?"

Quistis sighed. "Well, standard procedure is to attack before it's prepared to attack itself…" She said, removing her glasses and looking over to him, flashing a brilliant smile underneath the red dust covering her face. "You might want to stay back with the rest of the army until we're done."

"Y-you mean you've beaten something like this before?! All by yourselves?!" The Major gasped in amazement.

Irvine shrugged, letting his Vincent's slip back into his sleeves and reaching behind him to pull out his Exeter, snapping the weapon open and catching the remaining shell that flipped out before reloading it with different ammunition. "Yeah, a couple of times…" He muttered, flipping the large shotgun shut and leaning it against his shoulder, looking over to Quistis with a grin. "Shall we?"

Quistis nodded with her own smile and they both walked forward walked forward, the two SeeDs picking their way through the fallen bodies and ruined ground to the only other figure in the battleground – Seifer, seemingly miniscule in size compared to the massive creature before him.

The Major tried to stop them, stepping forward with his hand outstretched – before Fujin boldly stepped past him, silently making her way after the two SeeDs. Looking back to watch the army retreat to a seemingly safe distance, Almasy swore again – before following after the SeeDs.

Seifer looked up at Testu-ko and grimaced. He hadn't expected his Doppel to pull a cowardly stunt like that. He wasn't so sure about this GF – he'd never seen anything like it. Was it an elemental? Non-elemental? Was it going to use those big swords in its belt, or did it do something with that mirror? That's the problems with GFs – they're unpredictable.

"It's a non-elemental." A woman's voice called. "It'll use that big sword for it's main attack."

He turned, blinking, to see Quistis walking up behind him, her eyes glowing the green of a Scan. "I thought I told you to stay away!" He growled, looking back.

"I love you too." She muttered with a sarcastic smirk, moving to stand beside him as the green glow left her eyes and she replaced her glasses. Although she didn't have Seifer figured out most of the time, she did know when he was uncertain of something. He probably wouldn't have figured to use a Scan – hell, he probably hadn't figured on his Doppel using a GF. Letting her golden whip fall she flicked it out, the wicked tip flicking out at before her to rest against the ground. "The mirror reflects what it's going to attack, and the attacks are instant – so make sure to keep out of its reflection."

Seifer grunted in reply.

Irvine walked up to him, standing by his side and looking up at the creature. "I wonder why it hasn't moved yet?" He asked, frowning up at the creature, seemingly unconcerned as he let the Exeter drop into his hands from it's lean on his shoulders.

"Afraid?" Fujin asked, walking up beside Irvine.

"Or maybe it's just waiting for the right time to strike." The Major put in, appearing beside Quistis, his P90 in one hand and the Desert Eagle in the other.

The five Universals looked at each other and shrugged – before Quistis, Seifer and Fujin advanced suddenly, Almasy and Irvine dropping to one knee and unloading their guns at the creature.

Zell and Squall moved forward through the base slowly, ready for anything, the girls taking up the rear.

The base seemed to be in chaos. Messengers ran through the corridors haphazardly, soldiers rushing to and from unseen places, warning klaxons blaring and red lights flashing. It seemed the Quake had put something of a panic into them – being buried under tons of rock wasn't a happy prospect for the Heart soldiers, it seemed.

The SeeDs slipped to and from the shadows and ran down corridors, dispatching any soldiers that stumbled across them and weaving their way through the facility. It seemed that the Heart Base was exactly the same as the SeeD base, layout and everything. The only real difference were the purple streamers that seemed to be hung in every corridor and off every roof, as if some kind of parade was happening.

Dee looked about with mute confusion, seriously not knowing what was going on. "Are we expected?" She asked, looking up at a camera and throwing a ball of ice at it, the camera breaking with the contact of the Blizzard.

"I'd say so." Squall muttered, stopping at a corner and shifting to look around it…before giving the all clear. "We weren't exactly subtle with our entrance."

"As long as we find the Queen." Rinoa whispered, following after Squall. "The Hearts will crumble without her. We need to find and get rid of her as soon as possible."

"Yeah." Zell agreed, coming to another corner and looking around it – before reaching out with his gauntlet to grab a sprinting messenger, yanking him off his feet by the back of his shirt and lifting him up to face Zell. "G'day buddy. You reckon you could fill us in on the location of your Queeny?"

The messenger looked at the five SeeDs and paled.

The elevator doors opened, Zell and Squall walking out slowly, Zell with his fists up, Squall with his LionHeart ready, walking onto a small platform which expanded into a massive catwalk lining the walls of the area they were in. They had been instructed by the messenger to go to the very lowest level of the base, deep in the bowels of War World. The SeeDs were going to use it as a bomb shelter, the lowest level literally a massive underground cave filled with stalagmites and little pools of water, the cavern gargantuan in size. It was the last line of defence if the Hearts ever got that far – a massive layer of bedrock lay between the bottom man-made level and this natural basement, and the elevator was the only way in or out.

It seemed, however, that the Queen had used it for a different purpose.

Lines upon lines of artefacts were placed in stacks that filled the main floor, making the area look like a subterranean library, the shelves filled with what looked like Angel ruins and sculptures.

A gigantic Arch sat at the other end of the cave, seemingly hewn from the very rocks itself. Unlike the other Arches so far, this one seemed to be made from the rock – not as a stand-alone item. Purple light spewed from it, energy crackling from the reflective surface in the form of black electricity, causing ripples to flow along the watery edge.

Zell swore as soon as he saw it. "Damn! Do you reckon she's buggered off?"

Rinoa stepped forward, passing him, her brown eyes slightly narrowed. "No…no, she's here somewhere…" She whispered. "I can feel it."

Zell blinked. "Oh…okay then."

Squall took charge. "Everyone keep together. If she's in here that means that she's got to be waiting for us, and that means she'll have protection. Stay sharp."

The SeeDs nodded as one and took a step forward – before something behind them chimed electronically.

Zell looked back at the elevator as the doors closed, his eyes widening at what he saw strapped to the sides of the elevator box – before grabbing Dee by the shirt and curling his arm around Angel's waist, running forward and throwing himself off the catwalk to hurtle to the stacks below, pulling his screaming loved ones with him…

…As the elevator was consumed by flame, the explosives strapped to the sides detonating and turning the elevator into scrap metal.

Zell tried to shield the girls with his body as the metal and fire rained down around them – before hearing a loud thud beside him, seeing Squall carrying Rinoa in his arms and landing beside them, also huddling Rinoa close to him, protecting her with his own body. "A trap!" Squall shouted in anger over another explosion, this one higher up the elevator shaft, causing the shaft to crumble and fill with debris, sealing the one and only entrance off.

They were now trapped.

After making sure Dee and Angel were all right, Zell stood – and punched the nearest wall, his metallic fist making a loud 'ding' as the rock crumbled. "Dammit!!" He shouted.

"Shhh!!" Squall hissed angrily, placing Rinoa down. "Be quiet!"

"Why?! We may as well called out introductions when we came in! Friggin hell, what dumbasses!!"

Squall scowled at Zell, leaving him to fume as he stood, walking over to where the LionHeart was jutting from the ground, pulling it out and checking it over. He'd thrown it away, with no time to flick it off, and picked up Rinoa with enough time to jump off the catwalk and away from the explosion. Thankfully the weapon was not severely damaged – a few scratches here and there, but nothing major it seemed.

Rinoa looked down at her Blaster Edge and sniffled. She hadn't been so lucky, throwing her arm up to deflect a random piece of debris, the metal hitting the mechanism and crushing it, rendering the weapon useless. Unstrapping it from her arm she placed it on the ground, wiping the tears from her eyes sadly. She'd just have to get a new one made. It was no big deal. It had only survived straight through everything they'd been through, including numerous Sorceress battles. No biggie.

Dee stood up and helped Angel to her feet. "You know, I could'a jumped away like that too…"

"I know, Dee." Angel said with a smile. "Zell has a tendency to rush things and be protective over what he finds dear, that's all."

"Quit it, I'm getting all misty." Zell muttered with a sheepish grin, turning to look back at them from looking over the stacks. Looking over to Rinoa he cocked his head at the rows upon rows of shelves. "What do you make of these, Rin?"

Rinoa blinked, stepping forward. "This…this is just like Earth…this must be a collection of all Tidus related material…including reference material on the Angel Race…" She whispered, walking forward to one of the shelves and running her hand over one of the stone tablets stored there…before turning to Squall. "Julius was right. This is all we'll ever want about the Angels and the Tidus'. We need to keep these stones as undamaged as possible."

Squall nodded, looking over the tablets lining the shelves – before looking down the centre of the stacks to the base of the Arch. "Well, that all depends on our hosts." He muttered…

…As he watched Queen Heartilly and Azel stand from their seats and looked down at the SeeDs, their bodies tiny before the gigantic Arch.

"Outta ammo!!" Major Almasy shouted, throwing down his P90 and pulling out his Desert Eagle, wiping the sweat from his brow as he threw himself away from another earth-shattering attack, the massive GF's sword shrieking as it cut through the atmosphere with blinding speed – to slam into the ground, the bedrock crumbling around them as a shockwave shattered the rock and shook them all off their feet.

Finding his footing quickly and cracking open the Exeter, the two smoking shells flying off over his shoulder, forgotten as he slammed two fresh ones into the chambers, Irvine flicked the massive silver shotgun closed and snarled at Almasy. "What do you want – a cookie?!" He shouted angrily – before levelling the gun to his shoulder and, setting his footing into the crumbled rock and wincing prematurely, pulled the trigger. The Exeter's muzzle blew out a five foot flare as his gave the monster a double-barrelled blast of Demolition Ammunition – the second strongest ammo beside Pulse. The sheer force of the blowback literally blew Irvine off his feet and screaming through the air – to slam into Fujin, their bodies tumbling away into the dust that had just been kicked up by a freak storm.

The sand storm blew harshly around them, getting into their eyes and mouths and ears, the monster's legs being shrouded by the clouds of crimson dust. There was an inhuman wail, however, as the GF tottered on it's long armoured legs, it's breastplate smoking from Irvine's attack.

Seifer picked himself up from the last attack he'd just barely dodged, the massive sword lying right next to him, it's blade still stuck into the earth, and looked up, wishing, praying that the monster would fall. The battle had only gone on for less then ten minutes – but already his lungs were burning, his muscles feeling like dead weights, the Hyperion heavy in his hands. It was taking all his skill and luck to keep his barrage of attacks up – plus he was running out of high-level magic.

The monster teetered back slightly, the armoured beast's reflective face turning to look up at the raging red sky – before falling back, rocking on it's heels to fall like a tree…

…Only to be stopped by the hilt of it's massive sword, the Katana sheath sticking out from behind it and acting like a prop, keeping the monster on its feet.

"Dammit!!" Seifer shouted.

"Fuck!!" Major Almasy grunted, lifting his Desert Eagle to take a bead on the creature's features – before looking left, spying something in the rubble – and smiling.

Testu-ko seemed to shake it's helmeted head and lifted it's free hand to brush over the crack in it's armour, feeling the charred edges as well as the scorch marks of many a magic blast and slashes from whips and Chakras – then began to push itself back to it's feet slowly, reaching forward to grip the hilt of the sword stabbed deep into the ground and beginning to pull it out, the massive edge rumbling loudly through the dirt as it was drawn out as easily as a person pulling a knife out of a jar of peanut butter.

Watching the massive sword beginning to move up, Quistis ran forward, tired of attacking from the ground with her whip, where she did little damage – she could not stand to watch Seifer risk himself any further. Racing up to the sword's edge as it began to taper to the wicked tip, the blade three times larger then her, she slashed her Save The Queen out, the golden length wrapping around the sword's blade and holding fast – and yanking her up into the sky!!

"Quistis!!" Seifer screamed, watching her be pulled away from him, powerless to stop her.

Testu-ko looked down at the woman on its blade as she crawled up to stand on the flat of the blade, the face of the GF reflecting her perfectly – before the face flashed.

Quistis' eyes widened behind her spectacles – before she threw herself forward, Save The Queen unfurling itself from the blade and being pulled along with her like a golden demon's tail as the part of the blade where she had been standing just moments ago burst into flame, the edge of the blade growing hot from the light mysteriously reflected off the mirror. It was the monster's most deadly attack – once you were reflected, you had less then a second to dodge before a powerful light was shone from the heavens and reflected off the GF's face-plate to scorch you into cinders.

Quistis rolled with the leap, coming to her feet – and racing forward, running up the edge of the blade as the monster drew the sword close, trying to tip her off the edge as well as roast her with it's Reflection attack. Dipping and swerving, ducking and diving, trying desperately to keep to the edge of the gigantic sword, Quistis finally ran right up to the hilt and leapt up and over it, landing on the armoured hand – and began to scramble desperately up the monster's arm, running past the knuckles and wrist guards and clambering over the fore-arm padding, looking like some kind of tiny bug crawling up a Knight's armour.

The GF lifted it's free hand and tried to slap her off, it's massive gauntlet slamming into it's own arm again and again.

Seifer screamed out in rage, the Hyperion dragging behind him as he ran forward, sparks skittering off the metal gunblade as it jumped and rocked off the rocky ground – then swung it around, attacking the monster's right shin, the Hyperion slamming into the armour and bouncing off – to slash into it again and bounce off once more, the Hyperion's barrel flaring as bullets pinged off the seemingly indestructible protective exoskeleton.

Tetsu-ko, still slapping his arm as Quistis kept managing to avoid it's attacks, pulled it's long thick leg out of Seifer's sword-reach – and kicked forward, collecting Seifer up on it's boot and sending him hurtling into the air and off into the distance, booted out of the fight as easily as a soccer-ball.

"Seifer!!" Quistis screamed, watching as Seifer's white-coated figure disappeared into the dust-clouds – before looking up at the monster's hand as it came hurtling down at her, it's palm filled with blue light – before it simply exploded, the hand just blowing apart and sending tree-trunk sized fingers and shreds of palm in all directions.

Quistis stood and looked up at the monster's mirror-like face with her burning blue eyes, her Blues now in full effect as she ripped off her spectacles – and raced forward, still clambering up the monster, now reaching it's shoulder. In a few minutes she would be on its collarbone, and then she would have an easy shot at its armoured head –

At least, she thought she would have. Her hand lifted up to grasp a piece of armour – before the bloody stump of Tetsu-ko's wrist slammed into her, crushing her to it's armour like a fly being swatted to a person's shirt. Her shrill scream echoed out around the battlegrounds as purple GF blood splattered over her like a flood, mixing with her own as she looked down to see her crushed legs, flattened and tattered against the monster's plated armour and stuck to it like squashed fruit pressed against a wall.

Tears flowed out of her blue eyes as they lost their magical glow, the blue irises lifting up to look at the stump, stained with purple and red blood, lifting high up into the air, preparing to finish off her painful existence. There was no hope of fighting back now. Her legs were destroyed, her whip lost from the shock of the pain, her hands gripping the edges of the armour in terror, unable to move. She could only close her eyes and try to picture Seifer's face one last time as she placed her head to the armoured plating and prepared herself to meet the Gods…

"Eat it!!"

A gigantic explosion sounded right after the screamed words, the shockwave almost blowing her off her hand-holds, her eyes springing open – to see the mirror shattered and smoking, scorch-marks of a detonation all over the reflective surface as the GF lifted it's stump to brush across the mirror in obvious shock, as if trying to rub something out of it's eyes.

Looking down in amazement, Quistis blinked in utter surprise at what she saw.

Major Almasy lowered the Stinger Missile Launcher, the smoking tube resting on his shoulder having just launched its Surface-To-Air missile at the monster – and with destructive results.

He'd been fighting with the rifles and handguns, even tossing a few grenades at the monster's feet, but had been feeling stupid the entire time. Sure, his bullets hit all their marks – but they did nothing, pinging off the armour with no effect, even ricocheting off the mirrored faceplate with no results. He'd been wishing for a rocket-propelled grenade for the entire time – and his prayers had been answered when he'd watched Irvine fly away from the blowback of his weapon – and spied a USMC trunk, it's metal warped and twisted, lying in a small crater not a few meters away.

It was a Stinger Launcher, obviously blown out of one of the Abrams or APCs that had been sent into battle, and had been thrown this far into the battleground. Little miracles…

Seeing that the monster still hadn't fallen, the Major grimaced and ripped the tube from the stock, reducing the weapon to little more then a trigger and a shoulder-rest, and reached down to the open trunk to pull out another tube, slipping it into the stock and locking it into place, the Stinger's aiming module springing into life – before he lifted the weapon back onto his shoulder and aimed high, looking through the aiming module and at the target he'd 'painted' on the monster's head a moment before with a Laser Aiming Module, locking the LAM onto the Stinger to make doubly-sure it would fly true.

The monster was rocking to and fro, the first missile having seriously done some damage to it's 'eye', and getting a steady shot wasn't easy – but then, he didn't need the gigantic thing to stand still. It was moving towards him, however, it's feet slamming into the ground and making the earth tremble causing him to almost lose his footing – but he kept his resolve, fighting desperately to stay rigid. Waving the Stinger with the monster's rocks, keeping his sights firmly locked onto the monster's mirror as it stepped closer and closer, it's boots becoming dangerously close, he waited – before hearing a dull buzzing noise, the Stinger confirming a lock-on.

He pulled the trigger, the tube releasing a long white missile, which flew up to the monster's head with a tail of white-hot flame.

Quistis could not believe her eyes. Seifer was rescuing her. Her Seifer was trying to save her.

He was wearing strange clothes…and he was using a very strange weapon…but he was trying to save her.

She was drunk in pain and terror, unable to speak or cry out, only able to watch in sheer awe as the missile flew up towards Testu-ko's head, about to collide with the mirror and detonate once more…

…Before the monster swerved awkwardly to the left, the long white missile with it's blazing tail of fire flying right past it!!

Quistis cried out in desperation then, looking down at Seifer and wishing he would not just stand there and reload the strange weapon – before her ride rocked violently once more, pitching forward this time. She looked up at the monster's head, feeling the shockwave rocking over her body again – and gasping.

The vapour trail of the missile showed it's path past the monster's head – and it's curve back, swinging around to fly right into the back of it's head!! Magic!! Quistis thought dizzily.

Testu-ko's path forward had no sheath to protect it this time, and it fell forward to the ground, Quistis' blond hair ruffling in the harsh red dusty wind as she braced herself weakly for the crash – which came very abruptly, sending her to the floor, her legs peeling off the armour and going with her.

Picking himself up off the ground from the shockwave of the halted descent of Testu-ko, Major Almasy shook his head groggily and stumbled about a bit, trying to figure out what had just happened – before being spun off his legs by a flash of red and white.

Seifer raced up to the fallen monster as it put out its good arm and it's stump and lifted itself off the ground slightly, trying to push itself to it's feet. His body burned with the magic of a Haste, every muscle jumping as his body moved at sub-sonic speeds, covering the mile he'd just flown in less then a few seconds – to leap at the monster's throat, the Hyperion flying up with him – to stab deep into the soft flesh beneath the cracked armour-plating, purple blood spraying down onto Seifer as he severed an artery, the Hyperion lodged deep into the monster's throat.

Opening his mouth and screaming out a scream that would've chilled anybody within ear-shot, Seifer pulled Hyperion out of the wound, more blood spilling forth to drench him – before stabbing it back into the throat – then ripping it out – then stabbing it back in, the Hyperion flashing silver as Seifer's arms flew up and back, the gunblade firing as it was slammed up and then ripped out, the bullets blowing great chunks out the back of the monsters neck, the smoking brass being ejected and flying off to tinkle to the ground, fifteen rounds in all, fifteen great holes in the back of the monster's thick neck with over thirty stab-wounds around the wide throat.

The GF tried to breath – before Seifer crouched and leapt, his Hyperion flashing up and out – before he landed atop the massive creature's back, covered in purple blood, his breathing erratic, his eyes wide and white beneath the purple liquid caked on his face, the Hyperion held out wide from his body, his arm stretched taught, the barrel of the gunblade still smoking…

…Before the GF's neck simply fell from the body, slipping off the shoulders, the monster's great corpse going limp.

Seifer had decapitated it in one strike!!

Zell and Squall moved forward slowly, trying to keep their composure in their own ways. Here they were – the two people so dear and also so hated between them. Azel – killing Zell, and causing Squall so much grief – and the Queen, looking like a friend and a lover, but being something so opposite to those feelings. The girls moved behind them, keeping up easy, ever ready.

Azel was, as usual, dressed in his Orihalcon armour, the armour shining brightly in the purple light of the activated Arch, following the curves of his body so easily, showing off the taut muscle, so similar to Zell's own body. Angel and Dee could not help but gasp at the sight – indeed, if they were put side-by-side, they would not be easily told apart. Even the tattoos were the same, right down to the curve of the black mark as it licked over Zell's cheek.

"It's not me…" Zell whispered, not taking his eyes off Azel, his Uber Ehrgiez Gauntlets held at the ready. "He may look like me but he'd not. So stay sharp."

"R-right…" Angel whispered back, fighting back the awe and focusing.

"Welcome to the final chapter, SeeDs." The Queen called with an even smile, stepping forward and brushing a lick of raven-black hair from her eyes. "So good for you to finally arrive."

Rinoa fought the need, the want, the enticement of throwing herself at this disgusting rendition of herself – but also felt the fear of having to fight another Sorceress, this one so much more powerful then anything they'd faced before, supposedly more powerful then herself. Keeping her hands balled tightly at her sides and following right behind Squall, so close her chest touched his back, she whispered into his ear, her voice wavering between fear and rage. "Just tell me we're almost there…"

"We're almost there. And when this is all done," Squall muttered, keeping the LionHeart firmly between him, her and the Queen, "I'll take you on the best vacation you've ever been on."

"…Better then WinHill?"

"Yes. We'll go…sailing. On the White SeeD Ship. Anywhere you want."

Rinoa squealed happily behind Squall, which made him smile – she was so easily distracted…

…But then he saw the look in the Queen's eyes as they were fixed upon him and Rinoa. Her eyes were cold, viciously cold, beyond the revenge of her dead Knight – almost a wanting, lustful gaze mixed with seething contempt and hatred. Where…where have I seen that look before…He thought.

Azel stepped forward, cracking his knuckles beneath his armoured hands, smirking at Zell as he moved into the light of the Arch. "My Gods…you are one tough son-of-a-bitch to kill."

"I told you before – I aim to please." Zell retorted.

"Of course. I welcome you. We'll have to see how much you've advanced in the month you've been…incapacitated."

"You'll see."

Dee stepped forward, her face twisted into a confident smirk as she brushed past Zell and stabbed her finger at Azel. "You think you can take on my father? He'll wipe the floor with you, you bastard! You're not even half the dude my father is, you ass-wipe!" She shouted – before Angel grabbed her and pulled her back, shushing her.

Azel's grin grew wider. "That's your daughter, huh?" His eyes widened slightly, filled with a sadistic light. "She's got our temper."

Zell kept his eyes on Azel – but was cursing inwardly. He saw the look in Azel's eyes and recognised it instantly – opportunity. "Angel – get Dee and yourself away from here! Hide in the stacks! Go, now!!" Zell shouted, waving his arm at them to make them shy away.

Angel shook her head firmly. "No! We're seeing this through to the end, with you!"

Azel's smirk remained on his face but he did not advance any further, the light from the Arch behind him gleaming off his armour – he simply stepped back, moving to stand beside his queen. Queen Rinoa hadn't moved from her spot, her hands balled by her sides, hidden within her flowing purple robe. Her eyes were fixated on Rinoa and Squall, flitting between the two, the rage, the enmity she felt for the two of them palatable in the air. As she opened her mouth to speak it was like her melodious voice was filled with needles of ice that stabbed deep into the SeeD's ears. "This is it – no running. No chances. I will do what I have to do and then everything will be as it should be."

"Bull." Zell spat, cracking his neck to the side. "We've lost way too many people to let you win, bitch. You are so dead you don't even know it."

The cruel twist of her lips made Squall blink as she smiled. "You think so?"

Suddenly she raised her hand, placing it on Azel's shoulder, resting her fingers lightly on the shining armour – before his body began to shake and shudder, violently twitching as the Queen's hand glowed with a dark purple light, his body doubling over with a cry as some type of magic filled his entire being, flowing through his muscles and organs, twisting into his brain and behind his eyes…

…Before Queen Heartilly removed her hand, placing it back within the folds of her skirt and stepping back, allowing Azel some space.

Zell felt his breathing quicken as he watched his double twitch erratically, the purple glow now all over his body. It was obviously a magical augmentation of some kind, but Zell couldn't tell how it would help Azel in any way. He was supposedly stronger then Zell now anyways – right?

Unless there's something we've missed…Zell thought as he watched Azel drop to a knee, unable to support himself any longer, his fists pressed into the floor of the dais as he placed his head to the floor, his helmet clattering away from him to land beside Zell's foot…

Before his twitching suddenly subsided, stopping as suddenly as it had begun, the purple light receding. Azel's body heaved, the sound of his breathing clear on top of the bubbling sound emitting from the Arch, his head still hanging as he pushed himself to his feet…and lifted his head, revealing his eyes. Gone were the baby-blue irises – instead both eyes emitted a fierce purple glow, the light covering his face as he twisted his head to one side, the sound of his neck cracking echoing throughout the gigantic cave as he moved his skull around on the base of his spine, letting out a slow, almost pleasurable sigh.

"What a rush…" He whispered, closing his eyes and drinking in the power that flowed through his entire body.

The Queen began to step back, her voice carrying over the sounds coming from the Arch, pointing at the SeeDs, and stabbing her finger at them as she spoke. "His strength, speed and stamina have been increased ten-fold! This is where you die!"

Seifer's eyes were wide as his breathing kept his chest rising and falling, almost hyperventilating as the massive body of Testu-ko began to slowly dissipate beneath him, causing him to stumble to the corpse-filled ground, falling unceremoniously to the ground with little resistance. The red fire of Haste slowly licked off his body, allowing his breathing and heart rate to return to normal.

Major Almasy picked himself up and groaned, rubbing the back of his head. "…Anybody get the number of that bus?" He muttered, having been bowled over by a Hasted Seifer, before picking himself up – and gasping at the sight of Quistis lying beside him.

"Oh Jesus…oh God…MEDIC!!" He screamed, running over to the woman and falling to her side. Her legs looked like limp pieces of meat and it was obvious to the Major that she was in a great deal of pain. "MEDIC! I NEED A MEDIC OVER HERE!!"

But there were none. All the personnel had retreated, as ordered, to the other side of the battlefield during the battle with the GF. It would take a good fifteen minutes to get a decent medic over to them in time…and, judging by her wounds, Almasy didn't think she had that much time left.

Coughing a little, Quistis turned her blue eyes up to Almasy, her beautiful face etched in pain as she smiled at him. "…Did you…see me fight…my love?"

Almasy blinked, looking down at her. What the hell is she talking about? "Yeah, yeah, of course I did…" He whispered to her, lifting her head so she could look at him better.

She smiled a great smile. "…Are you…proud?"

"Very."

Azel turned to see Seifer, his entire body covered in blood and muck, standing by her side, looking down at her, his Hyperion held loosely in his hand. "I'm very proud in you, Quistis." He said quietly, the world around them suddenly deathly silent except for the sound of the wind and the ruffle of Seifer's coat.

Quistis didn't get it. She was seeing double now? The pain was excruciating…she was obviously going into shock. She welcomed it. "…I saw you fighting…I didn't see the big deal…" She said with a smile – before coughing again.

"Shut up! Save your strength!" Almasy almost shouted to her, looking up at Seifer with wide eyes. "Well?! Do something!!"

Seifer looked back at the Major blankly, his cold blue eyes as dead as the bodies surrounding them. "I'm out of cure magic. And casting a Life on her would be pointless now, since she's dead."

"You're just going to let her die?!"

"It wouldn't be the first time."

Quistis smirked suddenly with a giggle, letting her head go limp. "…Debating with yourself…as always…" She whispered – before she giggled again. "Oh look! Now I'm seeing triple…"

Seifer's eyes went wide as he span to see the Heart Seifer lunging towards him, his gunblade aiming directly for Seifer's back as Seifer desperately threw himself out of the way – and shouted in anger as the Heart's gunblade went off, hitting the Hyperion in the trigger and destroying the handle, rendering the weapon useless.

Slapping the Heart weapon to one side, the SeeD smashed his fist into his face, sending the Heart reeling back, stumbling over the bodies – then finding his footing again. Obviously still dazed from drawing such a powerful GF, the Heart shook his head to clear it of the chocobos dancing over his vision – before gripping his gunblade with both hands and charging again, screaming out wildly –

Major Almasy's Desert Eagle reported loudly, .50 calibre bullets punching into the double's chest and blowing great chunks out of it, the Heart flying back from the sheer force of the bullets as the Major he stood from his crouched drawing position and stepped over Quistis, a bullet for each step as he walked right up to the Heart and put fourteen pieces of lead into his body. Watching it slump to the ground, Almasy ejected the spent clip from his DE and slammed in another one, letting the slide hit home with a 'ka-chik!' – before putting three more rounds into the man's head, blowing it to pieces. Then putting the rest of the clip into the body, just for good measure.

Popping the clip from the heavy handgun the Major slide another one in as he walked back to Seifer, his face blank as he let the slide slam home with a 'ka-chik!'. "That's how we settle a 'dispute' back home." He muttered to the SeeD.

Seifer smirked at him, before kneeling down beside Quistis, picking her up in his arms. "She's fallen unconscious." He muttered, cradling her in his arms. "We'd better move if we want to get her legs healed."

"Okay guys, this is what we do…" Squall muttered, turning his body slightly to look at them all better, his sword held up towards the glowing Azel – before the sword was suddenly sent skittering from his hands and the Orihalcon elbow of the Heart warrior slammed into Squall's chest. The attack was so sudden, so brutal, that the look of surprise was etched on his face as his body was thrown back away from his attack into a stack, the massive shelving buckling under the sudden impact and collapsing around the SeeD Commander.

Rinoa didn't even have time to call out as Azel span on his heel, the back of his fist slashing across her face and sending her spinning to the ground, skittering across it to slam into the side of the massive cavern, her trip lasting less then a few seconds and coming to an abrupt end.

Angel had enough time to put up an arm as Azel moved towards her like lightening, her hand coming up to shield her chest – before the Heart span to the floor, swiping her feet out from underneath her. Her body twisted to the side in mid air, the visage of shock on her face as her ponytail flew out behind her – before Azel span through with his first attack, moving to his feet – and swinging his fist forward, smashing it straight into her face, causing her body to flip around through the air down the middle walkway through the stacks, her body tumbling and rolling as it hit the floor, rolling to a stop.

Dee simply tried to escape, jumping straight up into the air with the intention of grabbing onto one of the stalagmites hanging from the cavern's ceiling – but was halted mid-jump by a metal-covered glove. She didn't even have time to eep as Azel twisted his body around and swung her down, her lithe form slamming into the stone floor, the stone crushing under the force of her impact, leaving her in a Dee-shaped crater as Azel turned and threw himself to Zell…

…To have his fist suddenly arrested, Zell's hands slamming into the stomach-punch, the momentum of his Doppel making him skid down the middle path of the stacks, his boots squealing in protest as he grit his teeth with the exertion, smirking as they both came to a stop to look up at Azel with a victorious gleam in his eyes – before Azel suddenly leapt up, twisted his body to slam his knee into Zell's cheek, the blow spinning Azel out of Zell's grip and causing Zell to stumble off into the stacks, landing on his head and rolling across the floor…

To flip to his feet – and block a left hook, a right hook, a straight jab to the sternum, a kidney punch, two left jabs and a roundhouse kick – before a straight-kick slammed into his chest, blowing him off his feet and onto his back, flying across the floor to slam into a shelf, the contents shaking on their perches precariously as the sound of Zell's stocky body hitting steel reverberated throughout the cavern.

Groaning, Zell rolled to his stomach, rising to his hands and knees to clutch his chest, tears in his eyes as he tried to breath. He's broken it! His mind screamed as he gasped like a beached fish – before a hand grabbed his short-blond hair and pulled him from gravities grasp to fly up into the air, skidding off one stack and ricocheting off another to slam into a cavern wall, his body crunching into the wall and causing the entire cave to shudder.

Pulling his head from the crater, Zell ripped his arms clear too – before he fell back the two stories he'd flown straight to the floor, hitting the ground with a grunt. So fast…He thought to himself, rolling to his hands and knees again, gulping in some air, trying to regain himself…

Movement to the right!

Gritting his teeth, Zell suddenly pushed himself off the ground as Azel's boot slammed into the stone where Zell's head had just been, Zell's body spinning through the air from the sudden surge of strength only adrenaline supplied – before twisting his body one last time to slash his hand out, palm up, fingers splayed – to douse the area where he'd just been with Firaga, the flames shooting from his hand in a magical burst as he sailed through the air –

To have his hand smashed aside from a glove within the flames, Azel literally running out of the blazing inferno that Zell had just created – to jump up and slam his knee into Zell's airborne stomach, the Heart's arms lifting high into the air as Zell's body buckled under the sudden and vicious attack – to smash his fists into Zell's back as he removed the knee, the king-hit sending Zell rocketing to the ground so fast he bounced as he hit the stone.

Rolling over to spit out some blood, Zell gasped – before receiving two metal boots to the guts, Azel's glowing visage sneering down at him as he pin-dived from his attack straight into the supine Zell.

"How's that feel?" Azel growled with a grin – before a lithe shape suddenly flew from behind him to slam into his back, Dee's athletic body blowing her father's Doppel off him and through a stack, the massive shelf full of stone monuments creaking back – to slam into the next one, then the next one, then the next one – before the entire block of shelves were felled to the ground in a dominos effect, Azel's body buried under the rubble.

"Daddy…" Dee whispered, kneeling beside him to help him sit up, Zell's body wracked with pain as he coughed up a little blood, spitting it from his mouth and wiping his lips.

"Thanks Dee…" He grunted, getting to his feet a little uneasily – but holding fast, his breathing heavy but his stance sure. He felt like someone had taken a steel girder and smashed him around with it. How can someone be that strong and that fast at the same time?! His mind screamed. It's impossible!!

As soon as he'd managed to find his footing, however, the stack which Azel went through was suddenly knocked back onto it's foundations – before rocking forward, sailing straight down to crush Dee and Zell!!

The Dincht's moved fast, Zell's fist sailing up as Dee's leg did the same – and cut their sections of shelving in half from the power of their attacks, the metal buckling and crunching together before flying right over them, hitting the floor with a resounding boom, dust flying in all directions – before Azel was in their faces once more.

Going straight for Zell, Azel's left fist slashed out once more – to be captured by Zell, now prepared for anything, Zell's right hand grasping the fist and spinning around so their backs were touching – to slam his left elbow into Azel's head, sending the glowing Doppel staggering forward as Zell let go of his hand – right into Dee's pile-driver, her body springing up to thrust her legs out, her feet smashing into Azel's face and sending him flying back – straight into Zell again, the SeeD falling backwards to both his hands as he swung his legs up to smash them into Azel's side, the Heart sent flying straight towards the next stacks behind them –

- Before Angel suddenly leapt over the stacks to ram her elbow into the flying man's back, the force of her attack crunching Azel into the ground before he hit the stacks before flipping off him – and allowing Rinoa to blow the stacks down with a Aero, the powerful gust of wind sending the entire block of stacks onto his body, his armoured body disappearing beneath the shelves of metal, the floor shattering under the introduction to the sudden weight.

Rolling with his attack, Zell jumped to his feet, a grin on his face as he began to hop from foot to foot, brushing the blood from his nose with the swipe of a thumb. "Wheyhey! Teamwork!"

Dee giggled – before crying out as the shelves moved suddenly, shifting to one side slightly – before being lifted up, bits of metal falling off the pile of rubble as Azel stood from his crater, his teeth bared as a cut on his forehead bled crimson, one arm holding the pile of rubble suspended above his body as he shook his head, droplets of blood flicking out to splatter into the crater beneath him.

Shouting out in frustration, Angel leapt forward – to be backhanded away, her body sailing past Zell and Dee as the two flew towards the now off-guard Azel to smash their fist and foot respectively into him, his body flying back out from beneath the suspended rubble, the massed of metal and stone beginning to crumble down – before hanging in mid-air by an invisible force.

Rinoa.

Dee's attack had left her underneath the levitating rubble, and looking up to see Rinoa holding her hands out and trembling violently, she scrambled out from beneath it – before it suddenly smashed down to the floor with a resonating boom.

Zell kept up with his attacks, blasting Azel from beneath the rubble and continually pounding him, his Uber Ehrgiez Gauntlets flashing wildly in the poor light as his fists pummelled Azel's stomach, Azel's body rocking with each shocking blow before Zell pulled his fist back and launched it forward, his fist screaming through the dusty atmosphere – to be caught by Azel's hand, the Doppel suddenly grabbing Zell's hand and spinning it around, twisting Zell off his feet to the floor, Azel's hand still grasping Zell's wrist, pulling the fist-fighter's arm up at an unnatural angle as he lifted his foot, intending to stamp down on Zell's head…

Before spinning, lifting his free hand to block Angel's kick, continuing the block to grasp her foot and pull her from her footing, swinging her around – to slap her into an advancing Dee, the girl and her 'mother' smashing into each other in mid-air and skittering away from Azel and Zell – as Zell suddenly span on the ground, twisting his arm back into a usable position and cutting Azel's legs out from underneath him, his double dropping to the ground beside him – before Zell was on top of him, his arm curling around his neck and applying pressure, his bulging bicep pressing right into Azel's wind-pipe, cutting off his air supply and causing him to start choking.

Scrabbling for purchase, Azel managed to slip his glowing hand up into the crook of Zell's elbow, slowly pulling the SeeD's arm away from his throat, his teeth gritted from the effort – before he suddenly thrust his head back, the back of his skull slamming into Zell's face and causing him to cry out, his pressure relaxing – and allowing Azel to thrust himself away, jumping to his feet and turning to face Zell…

As Rinoa's Meltdown suddenly blew him off his feet, his body caught off guard as the powerful magic blew him straight through the rows of shelves they were fighting amongst, the metal shelves and the stone monuments contained therein becoming obliterated by the sheer power of the magical beam of energy, the beam screaming it's power and causing the walls to shake, rocks crumbling from the ceiling and sailing down to shatter on the floor.

The battle was intense. Ruthless. Everybody was focused on Azel. He was only the entrée before the big meal – if they could take him out as quickly as possible, they still had a chance…albeit a slim chance.

Squall opened his eyes groggily, his vision blurred. It was like he was looking at the world through glasses as thick as his wrist – everything was a fuzzy, random blot of dark colour swimming through the sharp shards of light being emitted from the fixtures all around the cavern.

His mind tried to re-figure itself, put itself back together. His grey eyes narrowed as he tried to think, having to put physical effort into the process. Cavern…trapped…Queen…Azel…power-up magic…

Someone suddenly called his name to him softly, a blob of colour kneeling before him. "…qual…ual…Aq…" Her voice sounded like it was from far, far away, being spoken through a pillow – muffled almost to the point that he could not understand. But he knew. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew.

…Rinoa…

He lifted his hand to grasp Rinoa's slim shoulder, his gloved hand squeezing it gently. "Azel…he surprised me…knocked me out…" He mumbled, still slightly incoherent for the moment. Placing his hand on the stack that had collapsed on top of him, he pulled himself out from beneath the shelving, groaning as he felt his right leg shoot pain signals into his brain. "…Oh Hyne…" He gasped, falling back into Rinoa's arms.

He closed his eyes then as he felt her soothing touch on his brow, stroking his hair as his head lay in her lap, feeling her revitalising magic flow through him, the leg's severed muscle knitting together, the shattered bone reforming, the torn skin pulling itself back into shape. His fugue also began to melt away with the feeling of the Curaga, his grogginess dissipating as his body was mended.

Opening his eyes, he smiled up to the brown eyes smiling back down to him, lifting his hand to brush his fingers gently along the beautiful chin…

"Just lay still, Aqual." The Queen whispered softly as he stroked her chin, pulling the Well to their side and placing her hand on the lid. "You'll be alright in no time…"

Squall could do nothing but widen his eyes in shock as she opened the Well, the sudden revelation becoming known to him in his cured state…

…But by then it was too late.

Suddenly leaping forward, Zell slashed his fists down on Azel's head, the Heart leaning his head to one side to allow the attack to slam down onto his shoulder, his teeth bared as the pain shot through the metallic armour – but grinning as he slammed an uppercut into Zell's face, knocking him flying back into the air – only to be replaced by Dee's whirling body, her hands and feet stabbing and swinging wildly, keeping the Heart on his toes as he ducked, dodged, manoeuvred and slapped aside each and every one.

Everything the SeeDs threw at the man seemed fruitless. Even Rinoa's Meltdown had seemed ineffective – having been blasted into the wall, Azel had simply pulled himself out and picked up a piece of the stone floor, throwing it at her with the speed of a bullet, the Sorceress only barely able to throw up a Protect at the last minute.

In fact, the only people seeming to hold their own against the fighting machine was Dee and Zell – Rinoa kept back, healing periodically and throwing the occasional magic his way, and Angel simply didn't have what it took to cut it, and it showed.

Her movements had become sluggish within the last few minutes of the fight, her swings going wild and easily being countered or dodged by the Heart. Indeed, he didn't even seem to pay much attention to her – only if Dee, Zell and Angel all fought together against the man did he seem to seriously retaliate against any of her fatigued attacks, and then it was a simple kick to the ribs or punch to the face to send her sprawling to the floor for another minute of wheezing.

Zell burned with rage every time Azel hit either Dee or Angel – but was also relieved the Heart saw his girlfriend as a waste of his energy. It meant Zell would be able to concentrate on defeating his opponent without having to worry about her being hurt – that is, until she got back up and threw herself at him again.

She knows she can't fight him…so why is she trying?! His mind screamed as he stepped forward into Azel's thrusting fist to spin around it and slam his elbow into the man's stomach before Dee jumped up to ram her knee into the back of his neck, causing the Heart to double over – before springing back upright and back flip, taking Dee down by jumping on top of her as she landed and upper-cutting Zell away from him to slam into some more shelves, this one full of books which rained down around the SeeD.

He had little to no time to speak – taking time out to talk meant revealing a brief moment of weakness that Azel would exploit to it's fullest potential – just like he had done against Squall at the start…

Squall.

Zell looked up through the rubble in which they had created during the fight, searching for Squall's body – before suddenly having Angel thrown into him, her body crashing into his, the sudden impact causing pain to explode throughout his body – as well as sending the two of them through the shelves once more, exiting from the back in an explosion of ancient, yellowed pages and dog-eared hard-back covers – to ram into the elevator platform where they had first entered this hell, the stone plateau seeming to rock along with the rest of the cavern from their sudden and abrupt stop.

His breathing heavy, Zell looked up to see Dee grappling with Azel, the Doppel laughing as the smaller girl seemed to size him up – before ramming her fist into his stomach and upper-cutting him so hard he rocked on his feet – before bringing a chop down to her shoulder and smashing a right-hook into her chin, knocking her to her knees then to the ground. Zell looked down at Angel – blissfully unconscious now – and pulled her off him gingerly, placing her down gently, trying to move quickly yet tenderly.

She looked like she had been through hell. The constant Cures had taken their toll on her body, the magic not affecting her as well as it should have been – her full lips were split, her soft white skin bruised and bloody, her SeeD Uniform in tatters. Her left arm also lay at an unnatural angle – it had been broken for a while, yet she had kept on fighting.

"Why…" Zell whispered, pulling her ponytail from her face and brushing a few loose locks from it as well, the red dust caking her body as much as the blood did her face.

It was then that she opened her eyes, her big beautiful eyes, and smiled up to Zell. "…Nobody hurts my babies…" She whispered – before falling back, unconscious once more.

Nobody hurts my babies.

Zell stood up quickly, looking back to see the glowing Azel holding Dee up by the throat, her legs feebly kicking at his torso as he began to choke her, her fingers scrabbling at his hand clutching her neck, her face beginning to turn blue as her pretty mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish…

Zell ran forward quickly, yelling as he pulled his fist back and suddenly thrust himself forward with it, the sheer force of the launching attack propelling him right off the ground and towards Azel like a missile intended on it's target – before Azel suddenly turned, his free hand reaching out beyond the fist and grabbing Zell's face, pushing him back with such force as to cause him to roll head-over-heels backwards to slam into the wall next to Angel again.

Dammit…He's too strong… Zell thought feebly, slumping forward from his seated position. His body was also wracked with injuries, cuts and gashes lacing his body, his clothes a shredded mess. …Too fast…too strong…

Giving up so easily? A dark voice whispered in the back of his head. C'mon. Just because he cut your head off last time doesn't mean you should give up now. Just because he beat you utterly and completely last time doesn't mean he's going to now.

Come on, Zell… A silent voice murmured in the back of his head. You have all the power you'll ever need to beat him. He's got to have a weakness – nobody is invincible.

Zell raised his head slowly, sniffing some blood back up into his nose as he watched Dee's face turn more blue, her scrabbling defence growing weaker, her kicks lessening in power, Zell's own face copied in a sneered look as it watched her life drain slowly from her body, the purple glow glinting off his armour ever more now, the metal Orihalcon not having one scratch, one dent, one mark on it's shining surface…

The armour, human. A fiery whisper burned in the back of Zell's head, causing his heavy lidded eyes to spring open.

Suddenly she raised her hand, placing it on Azel's shoulder, resting her fingers lightly on the shining armour – before his body began to shake and shudder, violently twitching as the Queen's hand glowed with a dark purple light, his body doubling over with a cry as some type of magic filled his entire being, flowing through his muscles and organs, twisting into his brain and behind his eyes…

Zell had thought that she had cast the magic on Azel himself…when in actuality it had been the Orihalcon she had been casting magic onto, strengthening, making supple, allowing Azel complete movement and an uncanny ability to dodge and weave through even the most intricate attacks, whilst being able to sustain extreme damage without harming the wearer.

His breathing was heavier now as adrenaline pumped through his system, his eyes flitting around – to see her!!

Rinoa, having been slapped aside a while ago, picked herself up from a pile of rocks, whimpering slightly as she held her bleeding mouth, tears pricking her eyes as the pain began to become unbearable. Where are you, Squall? She telepathically whispered feebly. You need to protect me…you're my Knight…why cant I feel you?

The only real answer would be if he were dead. Which meant she needed to find his body to revive him. But she couldn't desert her friends to be left to the mercy of this monstrous copy…and at the same time she could not survive under the constant barrage of attacks the other seemed able to put up with. She'd only survived the attack so far through use of Protects – she was just thankful he hadn't used any magic yet…

Listen to yourself! She chided mentally. You're a Sorceress! He's a peon compared to your power!!

But if she used her Angel abilities within the cavern, the tons upon tons of rock above them would collapse upon them, crushing and burying them all. Even her power could not save them all under those extreme circumstances…

It was hopeless. There was no hope. They were fighting a losing battle, and they had not even come against the Queen yet…

Sniffling, tears welling in her eyes and rolling down her cheeks as she looked up to see Dee being held up by the monster, she raised her hands slowly, her hands shaking as she prepared to cast some magic, anything to distract the demon just long enough for it to come after her. At least then the girl would survive…

"Wait, Rinoa!!"

Rinoa's eyes suddenly went wide as she watched Zell race up to Azel, his feet smashing into the ground as the fiery red of a Haste burned around his body – to suddenly crash-tackle the Heart off his feet, dropping the gasping Dee to the floor upon reflex as the two Zell's rolled across the ground, through the rubble of the Angel Artefacts.

Zell's Haste allowed him to divert even Azel's awesome speed just enough to get the drop on him, taking the both of them down and rolling through the debris – to have Zell come out on top, his hands wrapped around the Heart's neck, his thumbs pressing into his windpipe, trying to crush it with his gauntlets.

Azel's face was going beet-red, his arms pinned under the glowing-red Zell's legs. He was literally lifting the stocky SeeD off the ground with his arms – but because of Zell's position, he had no real purchase to grab a hold of.

Zell's finger dug straight into Azel's neck, twisting under the Orihalcon armour to grasp around the Adam's apple and pinch, trying to squeeze the voice box into a tiny mush of meat within his neck…

Realising what Zell was trying to do, Azel lifted his entire body up suddenly, rocking Zell enough with the sudden jolt that his hands were thrown from his neck and his body was lifted into the air – which was enough time for Azel to move like greased lightening, his hands slashing up to grab Zell's lapels and smash his head into Zell's face, the head-butt ending with a sickening crunch and launching Zell off Azel's body, flailing back as Azel swung his legs up and flipped to his feet, coming up with a confident sneer on his face, the tattoo on his face twisting with the sneer, seeming to make him seem even more evil…

Before the sneer was wiped off his face as the Orihalcon covering his torso went limp without warning, the metal sliding off his body and falling to the floor with a wet plop…as well as the glow of the armour, the purple light fading from his body as quickly as the loose substance sluiced from his body.

"Now!!" Zell screamed desperately from his position on the ground on his back, looking back to Rinoa as she suddenly sprang to her feet, her hands blazing as Azel looked up to her with shock in his eyes…

The Flare lit up the entire cavern, every single shadow reduced to nothingness as everything was bathed in red light. The rubble underneath the flaming blaze of paramagic was reduced to sloppy red goo, rock and metal melting alike melting under the extreme heat, puddles bubbling briefly before turning to steam, and the steam to vapour, then the vapour to nothingness. The brunt of the massive fiery ball of flame bore down upon Azel quickly, the Heart having little time to react – but using that time well, as he rolled forward, towards the flaming mess – and scooping up Zell in the process, holding the SeeD out before him as the flames bored down on the both of them.

"If I die, SeeD…" Azel screamed over the roar of the flames into Zell's ear as Zell watched in terror as the flames bore down on the both of them, "You do too!!"

There was no time. No time whatsoever. Even without the power boost, Azel was too strong for Zell in his current, weakened condition, the Orihalcon armour having taken all the damage the SeeDs had inflicted on the Heart.

And so Zell and Azel were engulfed in searing flames, twin screams being muffled by the ear-splitting roar of the Flare as it obliterated everything in sight…

Quistis opened her eyes slowly to look up at Seifer sitting beside her, his body and ruined Hyperion covered in purple blood. His spiky blond hair was matted in it, the white coat with the red cross in the chest now a purple coat with a red cross in the chest. He sat beside her in what seemed like a metal chamber, his head bowed, his hands hugging the ruined weapon to his chest. The trigger and handle had been shot off – it was nothing more then a blade now.

Quistis moved to sit up – before Seifer put out his hand, placing it on her shoulder. "Wait." He muttered, his voice as cold as usual. "It will take a while for the Full-Life to settle into your body."

She nodded slowly before making herself lie back down on the cot. Her lilted voice managed to speak, barely a whisper, but she knew he could hear her. "…Where are we?"

"An Earth transport. We managed to get you back here to get you healed."

"…What about…the war?" She asked softly, blinking in dull shock as it slowly sank in.

There was no sound. No battle cries, no death rattles, no gunshots or cannon booms, no singing swords or cracking bones or shattering clay. Everything was deathly quiet – indeed, it seemed almost…peaceful.

His voice was dull as he explained to her. How after the Testu-Ko was felled and the Heart-Seifer was killed, the Universals moved back out into the battlefield – to be met with emptiness. Every single Heart soldier still able to move had retreated, and had retreated fast. They were all now holed up within their base, fortifying their positions for a last stand.

"Normally we'd just rush in like we've been doing so far…but…" Seifer sighed softly, looking away. "We haven't had any contact from Squall or Selphie. The Ragnarok's beacon fell off the screen a while ago, when it was fighting the Heart copies…and Squall's team has also fallen off radar. All we know is that they're within the Heart Base…" He lifted his hand to rub the bridge of his nose. "Along with about two million Heart soldiers, the Queen and Azel."

Quistis blinked, biting her bottom lip. The situation looked more then grim for Squall and the others. "…Then what's the plan?" She asked softly.

He looked down to her then, his cold blue eyes filled with something they had never been filled with before – sadness. "The Earth delegates have just revealed their 'trump card'. Something their soldiers call a 'nuke' – it sounds like it makes an Ultima look like a drop in the ocean."

Quistis frowned. "…And what are they going to do with tha – "

"If we don't hear anything from Squall and the others in the next hour, they're going to launch three and wipe the base from the planet. We've already got our soldiers moving out, and – "

"Wait a moment! What about Squall?! Zell?? We can't leave them!"

"It's been decided, Quistis. It was decided before we entered the portal."

"What about Rinoa?! If she dies we might never be able to get back home!"

Seifer's sad gaze was locked onto Quistis' shocked face, telling her the answer without words.

Better they be sacrificed then allow such grave evil to run rampart throughout the known universes.

"…I…I cant believe this…" Quistis whispered, rolling over in her cot painfully and drawing the small blanket around her tightly, trembling on the tiny bed.

Seifer watched her roll over before bowing his head once more – before his body rocked as the transport began to roll out.

Back in the cavern, Rinoa's hands remained steadfast, locked totally on where Azel had just been, the flames slashing out of her hands obliterating everything in sight, the Flare annihilating everything within her line of sight with extraordinarily good results – before hitting Azel as he lifted up Zell!!

Keeping the paramagic going, unable to stop the cast now, Rinoa could only groan in protest as the magic bore down on the two men – before hitting them, slamming into their bodies and engulfing them both in the flaming, searing heat.

Zell, no!! Rinoa thought as she tried to think of a way to stop it…but it was no use. As soon as the magic was cast, there was no avenue except to release the paramagical build-up. She could not move the beam of fire out of the way either – blowing out the roof might cause a cave-in, where keeping it on it's current trajectory would only make the cavern slightly bigger.

Suddenly hearing a cackled laugh behind her, Rinoa turned her head – to see the Queen standing before the glowing Arch, laughing hysterically as Rinoa obliterated both Zell and Azel, her laughter full of mocking triumph.

Gritting her teeth, anger and rage beginning to poison her mind, Rinoa's slender arms revealed their muscle as she fought against the sheer power she had within herself, trying desperately to pull her hands apart – before she ripped them out, her arms flinging wide as the Flare finally broke off and flew forward into the hole it had bore into the wall of the cavern…before a resounding boom rocked the massive cave, rocks and stalactites shooting down from the ceiling to pierce the now-soft and smoking ground as a burst of flame followed a powerful shockwave as they ejected themselves from the opening of the new cave, flashing through the cavern and forcing everybody to the ground.

Picking herself up from where she'd thrown herself, the Queen laughed again, looking over the destruction before her.

The fight between the SeeDs and Azel had rendered the stacks un-useable, almost all of them destroyed from the battle, metal and shattered tablets, statues and old weaponry spread hap-hazardly throughout the cavern. Craters and human-shaped holes covered the floor and walls. Tiny spot fires littered the floor, a massive smoking trench, the bottom still glowing a hot red, leading into an equally glowing tunnel in the wall, which spanned the entire height of the cavern. The only two SeeDs visible were Rinoa, her fists balled by her side and quivering in rage as the Queen's laughter echoed around the room, and an unconscious Angel, thrown by the shockwave to lie in a pile of rocks, unmoving.

All in all, the Queen had plenty to be happy about.

"Sh-shut up!!" Rinoa screamed, stamping her foot. "Stop laughing!!"

The Queen's laughter continued, tears running down her eyes as she kneeled down to pick up the Well of Souls, shaking her head at the Sorceress before her as she spoke, her voice full of confident humour. "Oh my…talk about teamwork."

Rinoa screamed out with rage, filling her hands with electricity to throw a ball of Thundaga at the Queen – who simply lifted her hand to stop the magic mid-flight, still chuckling slightly before sighing with a smile on her beautiful face – Rinoa's face. "Why bother trying? You have no more cards to play. Your team is wiped out, your Knight gone, your sanity slipping even as we speak."

Please… Rinoa pulsed, her face twisting with defeat as she watched her Thundaga burn out in mid-air, never coming near to its target. …Squall…please be hiding somewhere, ready for a sneak attack…please be alive…

The Queen smiled, seeming to read her mind as easily as Rinoa could read another person's, turning her head to an upheaved load of rocks. "Come out now, my sweet…"

And Rinoa's eyes widened as Squall walked out from behind the rocks, his body flashing with purple electricity, the light flowing around his body, his hands hidden behind him, an uncharacteristic smirk adorning his face as he looked down to Rinoa, speaking in Squall's dead voice…but not being Squall at all. "Yes, my Queen?" He asked the Queen before Rinoa, crying out almost in physical pain, dropped to her knees with tears running down her cheeks.

"A good thing to do would be for you to take care of her now, my Aqual." The Queen ordered with a grin, before turning back to the Arch, walking towards it…before placing her Well down beside her and picking up the chair she had been sitting on when they arrived, dusting it off causally before placing it down and sitting down on it, smiling in satisfaction – before looking up at Squall. "Give me her soul, my love."

"…Squall?" Rinoa asked softly as she watched Squall step down from the ruined steps leading to the massive dais on which the Arch stood. As he approached her his hand moved from behind him – revealing the LionHeart stock, Squall's gloved hand gripping it loosely as the purple static continued to flash over his body. "…Squall…please…" She whimpered as his thumb seemed to trace the activation switch lovingly – before flicking it on, the beam-sabre flashing to life, spilling blue light onto the rubble-covered ground, his boots crunching against the rocks as he stood before her and span the sword around, loosening his wrist as his smirk disappeared from his stony face.

Rinoa's tears flowed freely, her mind unable to comprehend. Nothing made sense, nothing was right. Zell and Dee were now dead…Angel unconscious…Squall taken over. The mission was a complete and utter failure…her friends killed by her own hands…her lover and Knight stolen.

Squall's empty hand reached out to stroke her cheek, a tear being absorbed into the material of his glove. "…You kneel before your Queen." He said quietly in the non-Squall voice. "For your respect, you can choose where your lover's sword pierces your flesh."

Rinoa gulped, fighting through the tears to slowly pull her face away from his touch…

Zell and Dee dead…

…Before lifting her hand to touch her left breast. "My hearts…make it as it feels…"

Squall's passive face twisted into a small smile as he nodded – before lifting his sword suddenly, twisting it around as he twirled – to stab it deep into her chest, the weapon sluicing straight through her hand and slicing her heart in half, blood pulsing from the mortal wound as Rinoa's eyes widened in shock, her body convulsing one on the blade…before her eyes slowly slid shut as a thin trail of crimson ran from her beautiful lips down her chin to drip onto her bent knees, her body held up by the sword penetrating her chest.

Lifting his boot, Aqual placed it on her shoulder and pushed her off the energy blade, her body slumping back as he lifted his sword, impressed by the craftsmanship. "Her blood is evaporating…" He said softly, watching the thick rivulets of blood covering the energy beam slowly vaporising from the heat of the weapon. "…Fascinating."

"…Indeed." The Queen muttered haughtily.

"Did I do something wrong?" Aqual asked, turning to look at his Queen, framed by the light of the bubbling Arch.

The Queen shifted on her seat, obviously irritated. "…You could have chosen a different place to kill her. Cutting her head off would have released her soul quickly. Now we have to wait until her soul tries to leave the body…then it'll be ready to relinquish it's power."

Aqual smiled as he walked up to her to kneel before her, taking her hand in his as he switched off the LionHeart. "You have waited this long…you can stand to wait a bit longer, my sweet…"

She shifted in her seat, looking away from him as he kissed the back of her hand. "If you were anybody else, I'd kill you for displaying that kind of insolence…" She looked down to him then, her free hand moving to stroke his thick brown hair and caress his cheek. "…It's good to have you back."

He smiled as he looked into her eyes, feeling her fingers as they ran themselves through his hair gently – before his eyes widened…

The rock had been thrown from the other side of the cavern, the small chunk of red granite whistling through the air – to smack into the Queen's hand as it ran through Aqual's hair, causing her to scream out in pain as she ripped her hand away from his head to cradle it to her chest, wailing in agony.

Snarling, Aqual leapt to his feet, the LionHeart burning into life as he slashed two more rocks from the air, protecting his Queen as he watched three shapes move out from behind the smoke…

Zell, Dee and Angel walked forward slowly, Zell's tattooed face filled with a grin as his two loved ones flanked him, Dee on the left smirking as she tossed a rock up and down in her hand, Angel on the right smiling also, her hand tossing a rock up and down as well. "Nice shot babe…" He said to Dee as they stopped their approach.

"Thankyou Daddy."

He cleared his throat before turning back to the Hearts. "It ain't over till someone kills the fat lady!" Zell called with a grin, crossing his arms over his chest, pointing to the Queen as he did. "That would be you, if you didn't get it."

He looked surprisingly unburned for a man who had just been incinerated to ash, and was revelling in the unbelieving look in the Queen and Aqual's faces.

Queen Heartilly's eyes were filled with tears of pain and rage as she looked at the three SeeDs incredulously. "Are – are you calling me fat?!" She screamed, standing on her feet, her hand clutching her other one as pain still shot up it. It was obviously broken – she was too shocked, angry and indignant to bother healing it.

Zell's eyes twinkled as his grin grew. "You're not the only one here with special powers, Queeny."

The Queen roared in anger, stamping her foot down as she pointed her uninjured hand at them. "Kill them!!" She brutally ordered to Aqual.

Snarling, his pearly-white teeth bared as he walked down the steps, Aqual slashed the LionHeart around his hand to loosen his wrist – before spinning around, the energy-sword sizzling as he slashed it around with his momentum at Zell – to blink in surprise as the SeeD simply ducked, the blade sailing right over his head as he bent down low – to slam his gauntlet into the stomach of his old friend, causing him to cough in surprise and stagger back, clutching his belly with one hand whilst his other held his weapon up to ward off anybody who advanced…

…Which they didn't as Zell looked over to Angel. "Babe, get Rinoa up and going."

Angel nodded to the order, jumping with a yelp as he tapped her ass before running over to Rinoa's dead body, placing her hands onto her chest and casting a Full-Life, the white light surrounding her body as a single feather dropped from the ceiling of the cavern and slowly floated down towards her body…

"No!!" The Queen screamed, pulling her un-injured hand back to thrust it out, massive slivers of Blizaga ice forming as she launched them towards the kneeling Angel and the dead Rinoa – to blink in furious shock as the ice shattered against an invisible bubble, the Barrier flashing once before disappearing from view once more.

The Queen looked over to Dee slowly, her gaze on the teen intense – as she looked into glowing blue eyes, Dee smiling at her and waving. "Hello!"

As Azel and Zell had been consumed by the Flare, Dee had managed to struggle to her feet, gulping down air through her bruised windpipe – and quickly cast her Barrier Blue on Zell, his body protected by the unique paramagic – but not Azel's, his body engulfed by the immense power of the Flare.

It was after that, with Dee pulling Zell from within the massive tunnel in the cavern and the two of them finding Angel, that Zell decided to change the battle-plan.

Aggressive doesn't work…so I guess it's time to play smart! He'd said to his loved ones.

He knew Rinoa would be able to feel him – their connection as friends was strong – and also knew that he would not let her be lost to the Hearts – thusly allowing herself to be baited and lull the Queen into a false sense of security. Now that security had been rudely torn from her, the woman was flustered, angry and confused – everything that had looked so good a few minutes before now starting to taste sour as she thought of all the things she could have done to wipe them out herself instead of exploiting their weaknesses.

Growling at the teenager, the Queen lifted her hand, the darkness of an Ultima forming in her palm – "Lets see your Barrier withstand this!!" – before bringing her hand down in a throwing motion –

To have her hand stayed by Aqual's hand, his fingers gripping her slight wrist in his vice-like grip. She looked up at him with an incredulous expression on her face – before blinking as he looked down at her pointedly, realising what he had just saved her from.

Casting such powerful magic within the cavern would cause a cave-in in an already unstable area. They would all be crushed.

Her own trump card, played out against her Universal double, was acting as the proverbial double-edged sword. If Rinoa cannot use her full magical potential…then neither can I.

With Azel dead, that only left her Knight to protect her in these conditions – and she was not going to lose him again. Looking up at him, she blinked hard, trying to think – before snarling at the SeeDs, bending down to pick up the Well quickly before turning to the Arch. "Come on, Aqual! We'll leave these fools to their death."

Zell narrowed his eyes as the two walked through the Arch, looking back as Dee and Angel walked up to him, a newly revived Rinoa between their arms, being held up by them, her arms draped over their shoulders. "You alright, Rin?" Zell asked the Sorceress, his tattooed face full of concern.

Rinoa's pretty features were drawn but steadfast, her eyes determined. "…She stole Squall from me, Zell…"

"I know. We'll get him back, I promise." He sighed softly as he looked over the destruction around them, the stacks Rinoa had said to keep 'as intact as possible'. "…So much for keeping things together…we almost didn't make it…"

"It's not over yet, Zell." Angel said softly, hefting Rinoa up slightly. "We've still got the Queen to worry about."

"Yes…we have to go. She might be destroying the arch on the other side – we'll be trapped then!!" Rinoa said urgently, wincing as her chest twinged, her soul still trying to resettle within her body.

"Yeah!" Zell said, blinking, before turning to face the Arch's glowing portal. "Lets move it!"

On the other side of the Arch, the guard posted outside the Arch doorway sighed softly. It wasn't the fact that he wasn't out in the field, fighting beside his friends and comrades – he didn't wish for glory all that much. And it wasn't because he was missing home – although he did miss home quite a bit.

He sighed because he knew he was going to get it from that man when he got back from the mission with the Commander. The guard had already been bumped down from a nice cushy medic rank to a lowly post guard – that man would seal his fate by really letting him have it.

The guard sighed again and wondered if it was not too late to go off and join the others in the field…he'd die quicker that way. You couldn't blame him really. His only weakness was pretty women. And if they didn't give in easily, well…

That was just their fault for not enjoying the love he gave freely.

A loud boom suddenly made him jump, the butt of his rifle to his shoulder instantly as he looked about himself – before blinking, turning around to face the door he had been guarding.

He frowned. Nobody is supposed to go through the Arch until the mission is over…He thought to himself, lifting his hand to the radio strapped to his shoulder. "Auron, I'm getting activity here…"

"I know, the Tidus just blinked into life and two people walked through…it looks like Miss Heartilly and the Commander…although Miss Heartilly is dressed kinda weird…" The voice said over the radio, confusion in his voice – before the radio suddenly sparked and exploded, the guard yelling in fright and pain as his hand and chest were scorched from the blast.

Shaking his hand, he began to back away from the massive foot-thick doors, his rifle discarded as he clutched his bleeding hand – before crying out in shock once more as a rending noise came from behind the thick barricade. "Oh gods…" He whispered as the door was suddenly peeled back from the hinges, like the flap of a tent was folded back, to allow the entrance of a woman and a man, the woman clutching an ancient looking bucket in one hand, her other glowing slightly from Cure magic, her robes billowing out around her as she moved into the light. The man was clad in dark leather and wielded a glowing blue sword – he stepped out from behind the woman to approach the guard, the tip of the sword resting on the guard's neck in an instant, the energy-blade sizzling as it rested on his flesh.

"Your elevators?" The woman said simply, her beautiful face dead blank as the guard gaped at her, swooning both from her beauty and deadliness. Narrowing her voluptuous eyes she reached out to grab the guard's testicles, squeezing them hard as she spoke in strained tones, having gotten his full attention. "Now, you peasant, before my Knight becomes over-zealous – and tries to stop me from hurting you."

"No I wouldn't…"

Zell was launched from the Arch, his body flying through the air to slam into the wall, his body wracked with pain as he curled into a ball, his eyes squeezed shut as his teeth ground against themselves.

He had forgotten about the initial Arch that they had walked through, way back at the beginning of this quest – the burning pain that had seared the mind as well as warped the body. It seemed the Queen had also performed the same magic upon this Arch as well.

Wincing as he heard someone else step from the portal, he felt cool hands touch his brow before rolling him over – to see Dee, Angel and Rinoa looking down at him.

"Zell, Zell, Zell…" Rinoa chided, placing her hands on his body, letting her Cure magic flow into him. "What have we learned?"

"…Never leap into strange Portals…" Zell gasped, feeling the pain melt away before sitting up. "…Why aren't you guys in pain-central?"

Satisfied that her father was all right, Dee had gotten up to move to the door, easing through the destroyed barrier as Angel smiled to him. "Rinoa was about to follow you when she realised there was something funky about the portal, so she did something to it to make it user-friendly."

Zell stared at Rinoa, his face deadpan. She shrugged with mute apology. "Hey, don't look at me, I didn't know it would be hurtful…until you walked through it, of course."

Rolling his eyes he leapt to his feet, shaking his body to get loose before placing a hand to his neck, pushing it to the right with a satisfying craaack. "Well, we can't hang about. We gotta get a move on before…"

Suddenly a klaxon began to wail, warning beacons dropping from the ceiling and rising from the floor, following the corners of the corridors and casting revolving red and yellow lights in all directions.

"Warning, non-recorded Meta-Human present within the central base. All personnel evacuate to the surface. Repeat, uncertified Meta-Human presence has been recorded within the centre of the base. All personnel are to evacuate to the surface of War World immediately."

"What the heck is that?!" Dee cried, running back into the Arch-Room as the warning was blared out from the command speakers within the base, filling the entire compound with it's deathly warning.

Zell looked about him for a moment, finally gathering his bearings – before swearing. "Shit! We haven't been sent to another damn universe! We've been sent to our own damn base!!"

The elevator doors opened – to allow the Queen and her Knight exit into the screaming masses of men and women rushing for the stairs and the elevators, the masses pushing madly to try and exit the compound. Although the entire army had moved out to take the fight to the Hearts, the thousands of analysts, recorders, couriers and general staff had been left behind in the relative safety of the base, far far away from the battle.

The Queen snorted as she watched the masses suddenly recognise her, the group of men and women suddenly stopping dead in their tracks and gawking making her smile giddily – before leaning forward to blow them a kiss, winking at them saucily.

The flirtatious gesture gave her the reaction she wanted – mass panic. Instantly the twenty or so Universals at the front of the group tried to backtrack, ramming right into the hundred or so people behind them who wanted to go forward. Panicked screams and cursed yells filled the corridor as the terrified met the confused, and hysteria broke out as someone pulled out a knife and stabbed someone else to get through…

"Interesting." Aqual said with a smirk, watching as the mob suddenly began to drop back as quickly as it had been pushed forward, bodies being trampled and crushed in the throng. "They run for nothing."

"Well, they are only ignorant masses…" The Queen replied, leaning her head on her Knight's shoulder, breathing in his smell as her hand reached down to stroke the Well in his hands, given to him within the elevator. Now she had room to act, she did not have to protect it so – her Knight was with her, after all.

"Can we destroy them?"

"…Well…we should be getting to the surface so I can rid this base of their putrid souls…"

"…Yes. We must hurry."

Smiling up at him, she leaned up on the tips of her toes to kiss him – as she held her hands out in both directions of the corridor, her palms glowing with white light before the air was filled with magic…

A massive explosion suddenly rocked the corridor Zell and the others were running through, large cracks appearing in the walls with great rumbling tearing sounds, red dirt showering them in their pursuit. "Bloody hell, what the crap-sticks was that?!" Zell yelled as he rammed into an elevator, rebounding off it to press the button.

"Holy…she just let off a Holy within the base!!" Rinoa cried, blinking hard as she tried to push away the feeling of para-magical power wafting over her. "…Hyne…what power…"

"Holy? What magic is that? Is it powerful?" Dee asked, unsure of why Rinoa was cringing so.

"It's a Forbidden magic, Dee…" Angel answered, looking at the elevator and silently wishing that it would hurry up and arrive already.

"You didn't answer my question…and what's that noise?" Dee asked again, hearing a whistling noise coming from the elevator shaft…

Before Zell turned from his repeated pressing of the 'up' button and threw himself on the women, the elevator he had been trying to call abruptly arriving with explosive consequences, the elevator doors buckling outward as the carriage slammed to the bottom floor with a resonating boom.

Red dust flying all over them finally dissipating, Zell picked himself up from the ground where he'd tried to shield the girls, patting himself down as he sighed. "Well…the elevator's here…" He muttered. "But it's not going anywhere." He looked down to the girls, Dee and Angel sitting up with worried expressions on their faces, Rinoa staying where she lay. "We're going to have to find another way up…Rin? You alright?"

Rinoa's body lay supine on the floor, a thin sheet of red dust covering her already mud-caked and blood-stained flesh and clothing, her raven-black hair stained in it, her small fists clenched and trembling. "No…no Zell, I'm not alright." She said quietly, her voice trembling. "She's getting away with my Knight, and every second we spend down here is wasted." Slowly she pushed herself to her knees, her long thick locks shielding her face from the others as she spoke again, her voice slowly becoming stronger, thicker, meaner. "And every second wasted is a second with her having him. And I wont have that."

She looked up suddenly, her deer-brown eyes slowly milking over, the tears cutting clean channels through the dirt and blood on her face suddenly beginning to glow with a fierce light. I wont have that.

"Oh shit – bail!!" Zell yelled, grabbing Angels arm and running down the corridor away from Rinoa, Dee being dragged along by Angel as the corridor behind them suddenly exploded, feathers and debris flying around the three Dincht's as the sheer power of the shockwave blew them off their feet – before they were suddenly sucked back by an implosive force as a winged creature flew straight up…

Seifer sighed angrily, slamming his fist into the metal of the radio, the radio shattering into pieces with the force of the punch. Ignoring the glass and buttons pinging off his stained-purple coat, he grabbed the infantryman with the comm.-box by the lapels and got right into his face, his ice-blue eyes searing daggers into the boy's brain. "Listen up you Te'Get piece of crap! I want the base back online right the fuck now before I begin to remove body parts from your lower waist, understand?!"

The Te'Get radioman, quivering in his over-sized boots, replied meekly. "But Commander…nobody can reach headquarters. All their radios went dead ten minutes ago."

"Bullshit! Nothing can block our communications, it's all encrypted and land-based, being bounced over relay-trucks on the surface of the planet! Even if they destroy one of the trucks, the others can still send a signal – so don't give me that bullshit!!"

"Sir, the signals from the trucks are coming in loud and clear – it's the signals from the base that has stopped dead." The man replied quietly, not really understanding why the Commander was getting so worked up.

Seifer blinked suddenly, a chill running up his spine as he froze, his hands still gripping the confused Te'Get's fatigues as he looked up slowly, looking through the eye-slit on the side of the tank he was in towards the Heart Base. Calm. Pristine. Soft clouds of dust rolling over the crater-marked landscape.

"Get Kinnes and the others!" Seifer shouted to a soldier as he vaulted from the tank and landed in the body-littered ground, not paying much attention as his boots crunched into the lifeless corpses beneath him. "We need a helicopter ride back to the main base immediately!!"

The hanger doors slowly opened wide, the blood-red skies and crimson dust-clouds of War World welcoming the Queen and her Knight as they walked out of the Universal Base, looking about them curiously.

The remaining Universals that had managed to make it to the surface were now huddled in a large group before the hanger doors. There seemed to be at least two thousand of them, all of them obviously frightened out of their wits. A small team of men stood before the large crowd, two standing out from the rest and speaking to them, trying to calm the crowd.

As they stepped out of the hanger the Queen reached into the folds of her skirt and pulled out what looked like a palm computer. Pressing a few buttons, a view of the planet came into focus on the tiny screen in her hand – before pressing another button pulled a waypoint of their current position on the globe onto the planet, a tiny winking purple light showing their location. She smiled, content that it was still working properly, before pressing another button – and bringing up a second, green waypoint up onto the screen, this one moving slowly over the globe towards the purple waypoint.

"Interesting…they managed to destroy two of our Ragnaroks with their one…" The Queen said with a small smile. That was unexpected, to say the least. The pilot of the Universal Ragnarok must've been extraordinarily skilled…but obviously not skilled enough. "The Green one will be here in less then half an hour…so we've got some time."

Smirking, Aqual raised his LionHeart – to let off a Plasma round, the bullet flying straight into the air as the sound of the gunshot echoed into the sky. "Bow to your Queen!!" He shouted with a sharp laugh.

The two-thousand Universals all jumped as one, several screaming shrilly as they saw where the gunshot had come from – before the screams were cut off immediately by a barked command from one of the two leaders, the man shouting something to the crowd – then turned to his comrade, speaking in low tones.

The Queen narrowed her eyes, watching the crowd and the men, allowing Aqual to gloat over them for the moment. They were all weak, not even worth putting in the Well – they would die along with everybody else when the time came…

…Then her eyes widened, a small smile growing on her full lips. "…Finally…"

Aqual turned to his Queen, frowning. "What is it?" He asked, watching her flip the palm-pilot closed and push it into the folds of her robes quietly - before looking up as the two leaders slowly began to approach them.

The men were old – one round and fat, looking more like a school-teacher then a warrior of any kind, with his neatly pressed suit and wire-frame spectacles perched neatly on his kind face, the face now grim. His companion, also looking grim, looked more the warrior – his shoulders broad, dressed in leather trousers and a dark-blue shirt, his gloved hands holding what appeared to be a sub-machine gun. His dark hair, with a silver of grey at the temples, was set loose, his grey eyes set on the two Hearts with firm determination.

Cid strolled right up to the Queen, ignoring Aqual as he stood not a few feet away from her. "Madam Heartilly, I request that you cease this universal genocide immediately and allow the souls of the dead to pass on as they are supposed to be, to allow them their final rest. I also request that you leave and never again threaten or harm the Universes of Te'Get, Gaia, Earth, and any other universes you have visited in your time."

Queen Rinoa smiled sweetly at the old man, stepping forward lightly to cock her head to the side slightly, reaching out to grab the old teacher's chubby cheek and give it a slight squeeze, like an old lady would give a child. "And why would we do that, mister?" She asked quietly, brushing the old man's tweed coat down delicately and straightening his tie for him. "Genocide serves my purpose. And threatening other universes is fun, too. Why should I listen to you?"

Cid sighed, showing the ut-most restraint and composure as he allowed this bastardisation of the sweet Rinoa to touch his clothes. "Because…we will be forced to retaliate."

"Like you did with your army?" The Queen asked him quietly again, pulling his coat tight around him before letting it fall to see if it was fitting him snugly. "All you did with them was provide me with fresh souls. You knew this from the outset but you did it anyways, trying to scare me out. But you know what?" She looked up into his calm eyes then, smiling that sweet smile she gave, the beauty hiding the horrible truth within her. "I'm not scared. I'm not afraid. Because I'm almost done and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Laguna stepped forward then, his Desperado pointed to the floor as he watched his son step forward and activate his LionHeart – but move no further, the energy blade sizzling in the dusty air as a warning. Laguna could tell it was his son as only a father could – but he could also tell that this wasn't his son. "We can stop you." He said firmly, his fist tightening around the handle of the machine-gun as he spoke.

"I'd like to see you try." Aqual muttered with a smirk, his gunblade pointed to Laguna's feet.

Cid sighed then, stepping away from the Queen as his hand reached up to pull off his wire-frame spectacles. "Very well." He whispered, folding his glasses closed and pushing them into his coat-pocket…before green balls filled with flame suddenly flew around him – before he disappeared in a puff of logic, half of the crowd behind him disappearing with him.

"…I'm sorry Squall." Laguna said – before the green balls also flew around him…

Aqual's gunblade flashed out then, slicing straight through Laguna's torso and cutting him in twain – or so he thought. The after-image of Laguna's body vanished with a puff of logic, along with the rest of the survivors, the orbs filled with flame rising up into the crimson sky – to vanish.

The Queen sighed with irritation. She had been enjoying herself, mocking those men of obvious stature. Now they had to go and do something foolish like call upon Guardian Forces.

It would be a distraction when she arrived.

Turning to Aqual, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek before walking back into the hanger. "Take care of it." She called over her shoulder, disappearing into the confines of the base, the warning lights still flashing around her.

"It'll be my honour, my Queen." Aqual called back, turning to face her and bow –

As a massive monolith suddenly erupted from the ground behind him, the gigantic beast seeming to leap into the air before crunching into the ground behind him. The creature looked like a massive suit of armour, long plates of metal gleaming red in the War World sun with a gigantic helm perched atop the torso, a long red. It's gigantic body was supported by two large legs situated on either side of it's torso, the legs slamming into the ground and crunching the rock and bone into dust. All things considered, you could call it a giant robot – except for the fact that it seemed to emit a holy aura, the metallic armour gleaming brightly even in the dusty atmosphere, not even smudging in the muddy grounds.

Simultaneously the clouds within the sky began to grow, lightening slashing out between the thunderous collections of evaporated sweat, blood and water, the clouds smashing together and creating sudden surges of energy as a winged being flew in from the heavens. Sliding out through the thunderous clouds, the bird-type creature flapped it's massive wings hard, the encumbering winds picking up boulders and sending them flying to smash into the walls of the base. Its lime-yellow skin was a stark contrast to the scarlet red surroundings; blue lines following the smooth contours of it are inhuman body to come to a point at the head. Static electricity slashed over its smooth skin, from the point of it's smooth head to the wicked tip of it's long tail, crackling and sparking as it came to hover besides the armoured being that had just appeared.

The two creatures seemed to just sit there, waiting for Aqual's next move. Alexander, the Holy Sword, menacing with its extreme size. Quezacotl, the being made of plasma energy – a form of pure electricity – flapping its gigantic wings beside it.

Aqual watched them appear with muted amusement, a hand on his hip as the Guardian Forces appeared before him. He shook his head with a small smirk as he lifted his hand slowly. "Two monsters…" He muttered with disappointment, green balls filled with fire circling his body as he looked up suddenly, clenching his fist, "…to fight a god!"

…Then he disappeared…

And a Dragon's roar filled the skies.

Within the hanger the Queen waited, sitting on a small pile of boxes, looking down at her injured hand, still unhealed. She watched as the blood oozed out of the gash in the palm, red sand and dirt ingrained in the wound. The smooth palm was already becoming an ugly purple, and as she turned it around to look at the back she could see that the purple had appeared on the back of her hand, a small blot of purple surrounded by inflamed yellow.

She kept inspecting it impassively as the front doors in which she had just entered was suddenly destroyed as two gigantic creatures obliterated them completely, the entire front half of the hanger being totally shorn off as the scaled King of Dragons sank his fangs into the neck of Quezacotl, the smooth GF's beak shooting electrical pulses randomly as Bahamut used his powerful claws to rend the creature's wings to shreds, the fangs shaking the smooth creature's body viciously to shred and tear it's glowing flesh.

The Dragon King was just that – immense, powerful, supreme. Its scaled form radiated power, muscle tiering over its black shoulders, its giant legs with their thick claws digging into the earth of the hanger's concrete floor as if it were paper. The wings of Bahamut slashed out wide, great bat-like wings that covered the sky and blotted out the sun. The Dragon stood at almost five stories tall, towering over everything in the canyon they were in.

Queen Heartilly seemed to look up casually as the two monsters fought, Quezacotl finally managing to shake free of Bahamut's teeth and flit around the Dragon King, the clawed holes in it wings healing even as it took flight – to stab it's long pointed tail at the dragon, the sharp point heading directly for Bahamut's muscled torso, the tip sparking and glowing fiercely with static energy…

…Before Bahamut's clawed fist reached out and grabbed the tail, the point bare meters from it's chest!

It's other clawed hand reaching out to grab the plasma bird's tail, holding the creature in place as it beat it's wings frantically, the Dragon bared it's fanged teeth, a guttural growl emitting from the very pit of it's belly and easing from it's gritted teeth like smoke – before Quezacotl suddenly released a burst of energy directly from the tip of it's tail, the electrical spark hammering into Bahamut's side.

Bahamut's entire body became awash with electrical energy, the scaled form flooded with static, the spider-webbing energy flashing all around it's legs and clawed arms, flowing over it's enormous webbed wings and sparking off the tips of it's sharp claws – before it looked up, it's fangs parting to let out a heavy sigh, steam emitting from within it's cavernous maw as it's claws gripped the tail so tight the flesh was squeezed between the claw-tipped fingers. It had been unhurt by the GF's attack!!

Closing its teeth together with an evil clack, Bahamut gripped Quzeacotl's tail and drew the bird-like GF closer to it, the wings of the creature beating erratically and powerfully, kicking up dust and tossing the ruined debris of the destroyed hanger away with the wind as the Dragon King reached up – to grab the creature's left wing on a downward beat, holding the massive monster now by the tail and the wing, helpless in it's clawed grasp.

Gripping the wing and the tail, Bahamut pulled the helpless Quezacotl taut, leaning back to point it at the sky – before opening it's fanged maw. Within the Dragon King's mouth, a small bead of energy began to grow, sharp flits of light escaping the world around it to be sucked into the ball, letting it grow and glow brighter and brighter…

Quezacotl tried to escape, wriggling desperately with the Dragon King's grip – to no avail. The ball continued to grow, brighter and brighter, larger and larger, until Bahamut could no longer keep it in it's fangs – and released it, the Mega Flare smashing into Quzeacotl's squirming body, the smooth pale form unable to withstand the sheer force of the impressive attack. The explosion was gigantic, the sound unbearable, the light blinding as the Mega Flare blasted straight through the GF's form and careening off into the thunderous skies.

Pulling Quzeacotl's body as it had unleashed the Mega Flare, Bahamut's clawed grip tore the remains in two, the tail in one hand and the wing in the other as the beam of paramagical concentration finally exited it's mouth. It's fangs clacking shut for a moment, the gigantic wings suddenly flapped out, spreading to their full length as it lifted it's head and roared into the sky, starting with a high-pitched squeal that rolled down the sound waves into a guttural roar, the sound making anything metallic reverberate to the point of cracking, the Queen having to hold her hands over her ears within her Protect and Shell barriers to stop her eardrums from exploding.

Finished announcing it's victory, the Dragon King threw down the tattered remains of it's victim with muted disgust – to suddenly turn it's webbed wings upwards, the black wings coming together and shielding it's gigantic body – to buckle under the weight of a thousand white lights, the explosions rocking Bahamut's body, the creature gritting it's fangs as the Holy Judgement rained down upon it.

Outside, Alexander's armoured body hadn't moved – but the tops of it's two legs had opened up, revealing hundreds of tiny holes which shot forth white beams of light, these lights arching through the air to rain down upon the hanger, demolishing the rest of the ruined building as well as blowing up half the base in Holy light.

The red dust being kicked up to immense heights by the constant barrage covering the kill zone, Alexander's multi-holed legs finally snapped shut – to allow the tip of it's helm to begin to glow, the light spanning across the entire plain, every single shadow in the area growing, lengthening, before disappearing entirely…

As the beam of light was suddenly shot forth, the concentrated Holy beam of light sizzling as it screamed through the air towards the dust-cloud that had been the Gaian base, the blinding light connecting with something furious – and detonating.

In the one of the Black Hawks flying towards the Gaian base, Major Almasy sat, still holding onto the stinger he'd picked up during the fight against Tetsu-ko. After seeing something like that, he figured he would never let go of it until he was safely back in New York, away from all this death, destruction, and five-story tall monsters.

The knife that a Heart had stabbed at him was still stuck in his breastplate. Awkward as it was, no Marine could remove it, and the Gaians didn't seem to be bothered trying – he was stuck with it until he was certain he could take his vest off.

Which he hadn't since he'd come to this world.

Sitting beside him, looking out the opening in the side of the massive chopper, sat Irvine. His neck and arms were swathed with bandages, his Earth Carbine lain across his lap. He re-checked the clip for what felt like the seventeenth time and fed it back into the loading hole, sliding it home and checking to make sure the weapon was chambered. His face was grim under his battered fedora. It was the end game, and he just knew they were going to be walking right into the shit-storm.

Quistis and Seifer in the Black Hawk beside them, the helicopters hovering at the same height, side by side. Seifer was looking straight forward, his face grim, his left foot tapping impatiently. He knew the helicopters were going as fast as they could, having come from a Gaia-set-up recon-base just a few miles away from the main battle – he only wished they could be going faster.

Quistis, having fully recovered from her previous mortal wounds, was looking forward to the horizon, squinting and furrowing her beautiful brow, her golden threads of hair loose from her bun flapping in the wind as she watched the dots of light in the distance. "Is that what I think it is…?" She asked…

…Before a shockwave originating from the dots of light suddenly slammed into the helicopters, the twin aircraft buckling and rattling under the immense pressure of the explosive power before beginning to scream to the ground…

The Holy light finally died down, revealing the devastating results.

Where the base had been was now nothingness. Clear ground spanned where the canyon had once more, flat ground for miles in all directions, ending in a circle somewhere in the vicinity of ten miles away. The ground smoked from the force of the blast, the rock turned to glass from the heat, reflecting the scarlet sky above it.

Alexander's armoured form sat in point-zero, standing erect, tall, and proud. Its metal carapace gleamed cleanly – not even the debris of the explosion had left one single mark on its holy protection. The massive hulking GF had not moved in the entire explosion, its body unrelenting in its position.

The smoke where the base had been began to blow away as the wind picked up, trying to fill the massive empty space where a building and several canyons and mountains had once been –

To reveal the Dragon King, it's gigantic webbed wings still folded over its body, protecting it from the harmful explosive power of Alexander. Amazingly – impossibly – the GF had survived the Holy Judgement with barely a scratch. It's scaled hide smoked from the immense heat that had picked up, it's body heaving as it's fangs opened and closed, gnashing together violently as it looked down to see the Queen standing underneath the winged barrier.

Her Protect and Shell finally winked off, having taking a hell of a beating during the Holy Judgement – but she too was unscathed by the attack, her uninjured hand pushing a lick of raven-black hair from her gorgeous face before she looked up to the Dragon King, placing a hand on it's massive clawed toe and stroking it softly. "My fabulous Bahamut…" She whispered, leaning forward to kiss the dusty claw, leaving her lip-prints in the black shell. "Finish it off so my Aqual can come back to me."

The Dragon king needed no telling. As soon as she was done it's massive wings had opened, flinging off the melted glass that had been thrown on them during the explosion and slashing down, the spread wings beating hard and throwing the dragon into the air, flying high into the clouds – to begin to dive down towards the armoured creature not a quarter of a mile away, it's fanged maw opened to reveal the tiny white light beginning to grow once more…

For the first time since appearing Alexander moved. Shifting it's massive torso back suddenly, it seemed to lean back, letting it's legs roll forwards to point up to the sky directly at the Dragon King – before the plates of armour suddenly flew open, revealing rows upon rows of holes once more, the holes creating a whining noise which rose in pitch as light began to shine from them…

Then the Dragon King landed upon Alexander, it's clawed legs and feet latching on the GF's feet and shoulders as it rammed Alexander into the ground with a resounding boooom, their bodies skidding along the glass-covered ground as Bahamut's wings flaring up into the air to slow their speed to a crashing halt - before putting it's snout right up against Alexander's visor, the ball of light within it's mouth growing bigger and bigger, brighter and brighter –

Before it's scaled body was assaulted by hundreds of thousands of Holy's, the explosive paramagical beams hitting the Dragon King's scaled torso, legs and arms, each blast knocking the dragon's body around, it's arms and legs twitching and jiggling as the machine-gun-fast magic smashed into them again and again and again…

…Bahamut closed it's fangs and put it's face right against the Holy GF's visor, the fangs looking like a sneer as the dragon's eyes looked deep into the darkness within the helm, as if to say I don't even feel it. Pulling back and opening it's wings, spreading the demonic plumage as the divine barrage finally began to slow, the tip of Alexander's helm beginning to glow a bright white as Bahamut opened it's massive fanged mouth – and released it's Mega Flare.

Still gripping Alexander's shining shoulders and legs with it's clawed hands and legs, Bahamut fired the Mega Flare directly at Alexander's helm, the helm smashing into the red glass beneath it as the impressive paramagical attack bore right into it's armour, causing the shining metal to buckle and rend – before finally giving way, the head of the GF blowing off it's body and being sent deep into the ground, the Mega Flare blowing straight through the planet to exit out the other side, drilling a hole straight through the middle of War World.

Standing upright and placing a foot on Alexander's scorched chest plate, Bahamut set it's arms by it's sides, the claws half-curled into it's palms as it threw it's head back and opened it's fangs once more, the roar echoing out over the desert of glass surrounding them as it's demonic wings fanned out, spreading wide as it screamed it's royal defiance to the heavens…

Back at the ruins of the base the Queen smiled, blocking her ears once more as the Dragon King roared in victory. Impressive… She thought to herself. I hadn't believed Carpenter when he had said they had the King of Dragons…now he's under Aqual's controls, we both have no equal…

No sooner had she thought that, however, a rumbling began underneath her, the very ground trembling, the glass crackling and shattering all over the floor of the ruined hanger-site – before a winged creature exploded out of the ground, it's white feathered wings beating powerfully as masses of steel, stone and debris flew up after her, depositing itself around the Queen like a fountain spraying wreckage.

"I was waiting for you to come out already, Rinoa!" The Queen called up to her flying doppel, laughing out loud as she spread her arms, her Protect flashing every time something bounced off it in the fountain of rubbish. "Look at what your Knight could do! I am surprised you didn't try for something like this sooner!"

Suddenly three figures flew out of the hole in the ground, their bodies twisting and spiralling in the air – to land hard on the glass-covered ground with thumps and grunts, the Queen letting out a short laugh as she realised who they were, yelling up to Rinoa again. "Oh my! SeeDs are hard to kill, aren't they?!"

Zell groaned, pushing himself up to his elbows from his position on his belly and rubbing his neck and head. "That sucked!" He groaned. The resulting implosion from Rinoa transforming at such speed had sucked them all up into the tunnel she'd blown through the base in order to get from what had been the subterranean levels right to the ground – and he'd been hit by every bit of rock and metal up in the process. He was pretty sure that's what a tenderising machine would feel like if you were fed through it.

Dee's eyes stopped glowing as she sat up, Angel holding onto her for dear life, her eyes wide as she tried to stop herself from trembling. "I wanna do that again!" Dee cried out in glee. Her and her mother had been protected by Dee's Barrier Blue – Dee had been unable to see Zell clearly enough through the surrounding wreckage in time to cast the same on him.

"Very well." The Queen muttered, her hand glowing for a second – before Dee and Angel was suddenly blown from the ground, sent flying out into the desert of glass to crash into the ground with brutal thumps and crunches, spinning and rolling to a stop on the hot ground.

"Dammit!" Zell yelled, punching his fist into the glass and putting his gauntlet straight through it before jumping to his feet – and stopping in his rush to attack by the winged Rinoa, her feathers ruffling in the breeze as she held her hand out to stop Zell.

Go! She pulsed, looking back to him with smoking white eyes, the glowing tears still burning lines fiercely down her cheeks. I'll hold her off and give you a chance to move!

"But what if you cant beat the bitch?" Zell asked, concern on his tattooed face as he looked over to the Queen, who was patting down her dress, as if making sure it was clean before walking into a hall filled with royalty.

I'll beat her. Rinoa pulsed positively, looking back to her double with rage in her smoking white eyes. Even if I have to beat her to death with my own fists, I'll beat her!!

"…Okay. Good luck!" Zell said with a nod before running after his family.

The Queen smiled as she watched him run, tilting her head to one side as she looked the winged Rinoa over. "Luck is what you'll need…do you feel lucky?"

Rinoa smirked a small smile, her full lips twisting into an evil little grin as she mentally junctioned all her powerful magic to her Luck. I do now.

The Queen chuckled softly before nodding. "Then lets begin."

Deep beneath the ground, several hundred feet under the core, within a cavern designed specifically for Arch transport, the Arch that the Queen had entered the base in continued to glow ominously. It bubbled and boiled, the reflecting visions of hundreds of other possible universes escaping through the rift for only a split second at a time, sending out a light which could not be described…

Before a person stepped through it.

His legs and arms covered in a scorched yet silver metal, the man cricked his tattooed face to one side before walking through the buckled doors and into the base.

It didn't take him long to find the hole with red skylight coming down. He climbed.

52 pages…25,000 words…GF usage galore…and one hell of an Azel VS Family Dincht fight. I know it's come pretty late – but with this kind of quality, how can you complain?

This is it, folks. End game. The final chapter is upon us. Will Rinoa bring Squall's soul back from the Well of Souls? Or will the Angel Race be born once more? Can Zell defeat Azel once and for all? And whatever happened to Selphie and the rest?

Keep reading and reviewing, peeps…we're almost done.