Irvine watched as Quistis hit the wall of the hospital room in a manner eerily similar to the way Squall was tossed into Rinoa's hotel room wall. Then again, its almost the same exact situation, only much more dangerous. Quistis collapsed onto the ground like a puppet who's strings were just cut as Zell and Selphie cast Shell Spells. Irvine did the same and with a well-practiced signal, he told Zell to get Natalie out of there. He looked at Selphie and the look she returned told him, as always, he could depend on her no matter what. Swallowing hard, Irvine took out his Exeter rifle as Selphie drew her Nunchaku from behind her.
Rinoa was currently throwing a lightning bolt out of her hand at Zell and Irvine raised his rifle. He set it for a single shot and pulled the trigger. Rinoa's hand went up before he had even finished and the bullet stopped in mid air a half foot from her palm. Good, I have her attention. He knew that the single shot wouldn't get through to Rinoa. After all that they had went through 4 years ago; he knew she had enough control over her sorceress powers to stop that. A pair of fireballs hit his Shell Spell as Zell exited the room quickly with Natalie in tow.
Irvine felt the backwash of the magic hitting his protective spell and felt himself white out for a moment. When his vision returned Selphie was already moving around to Rinoa's side. During all the training Rinoa had done with them, he knew her weakness was trying to keep up with multiple targets. The stories they had heard from Edea told them that Rinoa's abilities would improve to the point that she could concentrate fully on casting at many people at once, but Rinoa had run from garden before she had gotten there.
Rinoa waived her hand and the temperature in the room dropped. Irvine readied his Shell Spell with more concentration and quite quickly jagged shards of ice flew up from the ground and hit it. Before he could do more, the room lit up in a spectacular ball of light as he was hit by a Flare Spell.
Irvine felt himself white out again, and forced his total concentration on keeping himself conscious. He felt his shell spell collapse without concentration, but he could not do anything about that at the moment. Heat washed over him and he felt his hair stand on end and suddenly he was on the ground spasming. Thundaga. Rinoa raised her hands and more lighting bolts flew from her hands, hitting him and forcing his body into more spasms. Irvine's world exploded into a painful oblivion for what seemed like hours. In reality it was just a few seconds.
When his vision cleared again, he saw Selphie rushing Rinoa out of her line of sight. GO SELPHIE! Selphie raised her weapon to strike Rinoa and swung.
She never made it.
Rinoa swept out a black wing and knocked Selphie aside, then reached out with her palm, sending her sprawling back with a Telekinesis Spell. Selphie had her Shell Spell up at full strength, so she did not get pushed back very far, but Rinoa quickly began assaulting her with one high-powered spell after another. When did her wings become physical? As far as Irvine knew, the white wings she got when she Angel Winged were only visual, translucent images, not actual physical manifestations.
Irvine slowly reached for his rifle. His hands were still shaking from the electric torture he had endured. Don't cast another Shell Spell, she will sense it. He slowly grabbed it and flipped it to automatic. I'm sorry Squall. Irvine raised the rifle, but before he could aim and fire more shards of ice exploded from the ground, slicing into his skin and his hand felt frozen cold. His right hand and trigger were both covered in an inch of ice. He looked at Rinoa, who was still pummeling Selphie. One of the medical orderlies found the courage to pick himself up from a fearful huddle on the floor and charge the raging sorceress, but was hit by more lighting from her fingertips and quickly knocked down for the count. The rest of the medical staff was quickly hit by various successions of wind, fire, ice and lighting Spells and they were unconscious, all without Rinoa ever taking her eyes off the poor girl in the yellow dress, still assaulted by spell after spell as her defensive magic weakened. This could be a problem. She's improved or something.
Irvine closed his eyes and concentrated on a Curaga Spell. Slowly the ice inflicted cuts on his skin closed and his hand unfroze, but his trigger house was still frozen solid. He cursed. Changing tactics, he cast another Shell Spell then a Firaga Spell at Rinoa. Rinoa's hand went up again, and she didn't even turn to face him. Suddenly the ball of fire was flying back at him and was scorching his mind with magic backwash. A second Firaga hit him and his Shell Spell collapsed again as his world turned white once more.
A loud crack brought his mind back into reality to find Selphie unconscious. She was badly burned from multiple Firaga Spells and Irvine was sprawled on his back. However one thing looked to his advantage. Quistis' whip was coiled around Rinoa's neck and the tall blond pulled with all her strength, bringing Rinoa to her knees.
Rinoa pulled with all her might against Quistis, and her wings flapped furiously as she struggled to free herself. Spell after spell hit Quistis, but her Shell Spell held for the moment. Irvine reached out and cast reflect on the blond woman and suddenly three spells hit Rinoa, weakening her further. Rinoa's hand went up and more lightning played out of her hand, frazzling him. He collapsed in pain.
Rinoa's black wings flapped again as a miniature tornado hit Quistis and she lost her grip on her whip. In quick succession, a Flare and Telekinesis Spell hit her and sent her sprawling into the wall again, this time unmoving. Irvine was still immobile from the assault he had sustained, and Selphie looked in no condition to even be conscious, much less fighting. Irvine had one inescapable conclusion. Rinoa had just defeated three of the most powerful SeeDs in the world, with barely a scratch.
However, her next actions startled him. Rinoa fell to her knees again, this time in front of the bed that Squall's body lay on. Her face fell into the medical gown that squall was wearing on his chest and she cried freely into it. With one last burst of power, a light swept from the corpse and the sorceress outwards, and passed Irvine. Immediately, he felt himself renewed with energy and picked himself up quickly. Quistis and Selphie were doing the same.
Little sparkles played across the sorceress and her love, and then the black as night wings slowly faded. Rinoa lay there crying freely into the shirt of the body; in exactly the same position as before her scream of anguish and vicious assault on everyone in the room had started. He picked up his rifle and looked at Quistis, who only nodded. Irvine quickly rushed up behind Rinoa and smashed the butt of the rifle into the back of her skull. Rinoa went out like a light and collapsed on the floor. Irvine and Quistis quickly scooped up her arms and started dragging her limp body out of the room as Selphie retrieved the purple box that held Squall's engagement ring, now never to be used.
Once they were out into the hall way, Irvine stopped and re-hung the Exeter Rifle on his shoulder then gingerly picked up Rinoa. He could feel the life beating inside her and hoisted the unconscious woman over his shoulder, and they quickly made for an exit. One small advantage of Rinoa's magical tantrum was that the entire hospital had been evacuated at its start, and now they only needed to avoid the Galbadian troopers that were just now entering the hospital.
The three SeeDs broke into the open air of the night without further incident and made their way back towards the hotel. They needed to regroup with Zell and Irvine knew he was heading there with Natalie. No one spoke one word as the three slowly made their way across Galbadia City.
More medical orderlies helped the fallen doctors onto their feet. The room was quickly cleared and taped off as evidence, though it was hardly needed. Quickly everything and everybody was cleared by the Galbadian soldiers and the room was emptied. The room was quiet and dark as technicians talked outside in hurried tones about the happenings in the room. So busy were they that no one looked into the room, and no one saw a spark from the heart monitor as it reactivated, and started to beep as normal. It continued this for five seconds before sparking and fizzling out again.