Disclaimer:why do I bother putting this?
Notes:This chapter doesn't really hold any purpose in my saga as a whole. It's just a filler between the last chapter and my Revelations chapter (that's #6 and it's finished. YAY!) I introduced Zell again for no reason, except so that he could fight Tifa. Described murals on the ceiliing just to have a little semi-blatant foreshadowing in this story and the next. Gave Zell a Keitaro moment (hey, don't we all, okay, maybe not.) Should you skip this? HELL NO!!!! I flexed my action-sequence-writing muscles in this one, so check it out.
-silversquall
Final Fantasy 7/8: Lord of Weapon
Chap 5: Duels
Flashback to the Research Center
Squall grabs a piece of paper from the pile scattered across the floor. He picks it up and wraps it around the doorknob to avoid touching the red sticky substance that coated it. Everyone else except for Cloud and Cid follows him. They have entered an office; desks decorated the sides of the room with stacks of papers. The group splits to different parts of the room, trying to find any information that might explain where the Garnet Weapon came from. The papers only contained observations of rock formations or radiation tests from deep down on the bottom floors. The detailing of various chemical experiments could also be found in the notebooks lying around the room. At last, Rinoa discovered a slip of paper that had symbols on it. She called out to the others. Beneath the first group of symbols was the word Garnet.
Break to reality
Tifa sighed as she rolled back and forth on the bed. Finally she rested on her back while staring at the ceiling. I knew that being in an alien planet would be weird. But, with all these coincidences and now this whole Garnet Weapon thing, what's gonna happen next? She gazed upward, trying to decipher the symbolic meanings of the three magnificent frescoes that decorated the ceiling. She hadn't cared to examine them up to this point, but she was too lazy to get out of bed. Analyzing the works would be a perfect excuse. One showed a red and silver lion wrestling with a black and yellow demon. It was a playful struggle however, for both creatures were smiling as they fought for supremacy. Oddly enough, the demon didn't look quite demonic. What the hell is this supposed to be a picture of? Hmmm, I wonder if it's saying that war is actually nothing more than simple bickering between comrades. Tifa shook her head. No, that can't be it. Tifa turned to the next picture. It showed the lion and the demon once again; now they were fighting alongside one another against a white dragon. Tifa squinted to look at this one more closely. Each of the dragon's claws had another, but smaller, dragon standing on it. She continued on to the final picture. It showed the two now fighting against a man. Except the human looked very demonic with green light emanating out of his hands. His eyes bore a crimson glare. This time, the lion and the demon did not look tough, but rather, scared. Who drew these? He made the dragon a weaker enemy compared with the human. Must be a misanthropist. I have to ask Laguna later about the artist.
It had been only 12 hours since the incident at the Deep Sea Research Center. The weird markings that Rinoa had found were transcribed from a stone tablet found at the site. It too was hidden under a clutter of papers. The scientists had probably removed the stone after seeing the mysterious language; the extraction must have disrupted some sort of energy flow in the ground, awakening the Weapon. At least, that was the current belief.
After they had gotten back, Tifa, Cid, and Cloud had spent the night in Esthar, awaiting the translation. Laguna had told them the symbols were of an ancient dialect of an already ancient race known as the Centra. After updating Balamb Garden with news of the recent events, Squall and Rinoa decided to stay as well and wait for the results.
At last, Tifa got up from her bed, seeing how it was nearly time for breakfast. Immediately after opening the doors to her suite, Tifa heard a loud "OW!!" Instinctively, she pulled back the door a little and slid out to see the one she had hit. A blond, young man who seemed to recently break out of his teens was sitting on the floor and rubbing his head. He had a peculiar marking on the left side of his face. As he slowly raised his head upward, he said, "What the hell did you hit me for? That really hurt, ya know?" Before he could see where he was looking, he moved up his hands in a fighting stance, misjudging the attacker's width. The palms of his hands, curling into fists, mistakenly clamped over Tifa's breasts. "How dare you," said Tifa with fire in her eyes.
"Whoa, that was an accident just like your door.. I'm Zell, and I even have a girlfriend. Wait, maybe I shouldn't have said that."
"You unfaithful pervert!' Tifa skipped backward, immediately shifting into a fighting stance. "I'm gonna teach you a lesson."
"I'm innocent, I swear—"
Zell quickly evaded a haymaker. Tifa immediately followed up with several punches aimed at various vital areas. I knew it. This girl is a fighter. I don't want to hit a girl, but if I don't do something, I'll be in pieces.
Tifa continued her unrelenting barrage of blows, as Zell shifted left and right to dodge the hits. Finally he grabbed her right hand as it was slamming toward his right shoulder. With his left hand, Zell grabbed her left arm, causing their arms to form an 'X'. "Look, you have to stop."
Tifa grinned. Guess he's not a pervert after all. But he is one hell of an opponent. Can't pass this up. He really reminds me of grandpa with his playfulness that never seems to get offensive. With her arms and hands locked, she yelled, "Somersault!" She made a flip, breaking Zell's grips and kicking him in the face at the same time. Afterwards, she landed in the same spot on her feet, continuing her attack with a left jab.
To Tifa's surprise, Zell stopped the attack an inch short of his face. "You're pretty good. Take this, Mach Kick!" After pushing her entire body backwards with his hand, Zell followed up with his attack, which was grabbed immediately with Tifa's right hand. With a snigger, she swung his leg to the side, unbalancing him in the process.
"Is a girl too much for you?" asked Tifa with a smile as Zell struggled to remain standing.
"That's not fair. You're an alien."
Tifa paused for a moment, taken aback by the strange comment. Then she remembered.
"Oh yeah, you're one of those soldiers who welcomed our arrival to this planet."
"Yeah, the name's Zell Dincht. SeeD, first class."
"Doesn't seem like it, unless you're holding back."
"I don't like to fight girls."
"Sure..."
Both just stood there, silent with an expression of satisfaction on their faces. Both knew, and knew that the other knew, the other had restrained his/her full power, simply allowing a respectable modicum of their fighting potential, the bare minimum for an interesting duel.
"Are you up for round 2?" asked Zell.
"Actually, I was just going to get breakfast. Wanna come along?'
"Now that you mention it, yeah, let's go. Lead the way."
Tifa walked forward in the corridor as Zell followed behind. They strode through the huge extravagant corridors of the Esthar City Hall. The walls were very futuristic in nature, with a recurring blue that illuminated the designs. Zell walked without any sign of interest, carrying the same goofy expression on his face.
"Are all of the architecture of your planet this advanced, Zell?"
"Well, it's a long story. Basically Esthar closed themselves off after the sorceress war and ended up evolving technologically centuries beyond the rest of the world."
"Right." This place has a whole lot of a history. But then again, just like Midgar. "Oh! Here we are."
The only hint that could have possibly told a stranger that this was in fact the eating area was the presence of several tables and benches. And that could have only happened under the occasion that the visitor had interpreted the golden-rimmed and silver-patterned furnishings as contraptions intended for dining purposes. As with the rest of the building, everything was lavishly designed. It was a little too fancy for Tifa to feel comfortable. She had already eaten here the previous night, but she had yet to warm up to the place.
"Hey! Over here. We were just about to look for you guys," shouted Rinoa from a distant corner of the room.
At one of the larger, circular tables in the room, Rinoa, Ward, Kiros, and Laguna were seated together. There were still four seats left.
"Hey," Laguna said, "You finally arrived, Zell. Where's Squall and Cloud? We assumed they were with you, Tifa, to meet Zell at the landing zone."
"Actually, I just got out of bed," said Tifa.
"I hitched a ride on one of those air taxis to get to this building," said Zell.
"I'm getting worried, Laguna," spoke Rinoa. "What if they went to check on the Garnet arm in the labs, and..." she gulped, then continued, "and something went wrong, and now it's Resident Evil all over again?"
"That's the most paranoid thing I have ever heard. Besides, if anything were to go wrong in any of the Esthar laboratories, this device, "Laguna said as he held up a black, square-shaped contraption the size of his hand, "would light up instantly. It began glowing red and vibrating as soon as Laguna finished his sentence.
"Just like—. Wait, what the hell?" He pressed a button on the gadget and brought it to his mouth. "Laguna here. Over."
Mr. President, Squall and that alien are fighting next to the shopping mall. Over.
"Why? Over"
We don't know. They might destroy anything at any second. Please come quickly as possible to resolve this situation. Over.
"Alright, I'll be there. Over and Out. I guess our questions have been answered. Unfortunately, we have a host of other questions as well. Let's go people."
The group of six began running toward the City Hall exit, thinking the worst.
Over in the Esthar Shopping Mall
"Take this, Fire 3!"
Cloud launched a flame attack toward Squall who simply stood to take the hit. To Cloud's horror, Squall absorbed the attack completely.
"Try this, BLIZZAGA!"
Soon Cloud was frozen, and slammed by a massive iceberg. After the sleet fragmented away, Squall saw Cloud standing, unscathed by the spell.
"You're not the only one who can absorb elemental spells, Squall."
"Damn. Time for the old-fashioned way." Squall clutched the handle of his gunblade and dashed toward the blond swordsman. In an instant, Squall had slashed three times, and pulling the trigger three for three. The first was a downward cut, followed by a diagonal cut to the upper-left, finished with a horizontal slash to the right. To Squall's amazement, Cloud strafed sideways to dodge the initial strike, ducked below the second, and finished with a backwards jump to evade the final attack. Without a moment for Squall to catch his breath, Cloud jumped in the air, and cut straight down with his massive blade. Squall slid out of the way just in time to be knocked off-balance by the thunderous vibrations caused by the blade. That's my cue, Squall thought to himself. The blade's size limits multiple hits. Squall lunged his gunblade's tip forward, aiming straight for Cloud. Realizing his weakness, Cloud decided not to attempt picking up the blade, and instead he jumped up again, holding the handle of his sword. He didn't actually pick up the blade but managed to twist it so the flat faced Squall and flipped it over, catching Squall's point. The laws of inertia forced the blade downward over Squall's gunblade, knocking Squall's body forward. He quickly sliced to the left, taking the blade out of the falling metal slab's path. Cloud, seeing this as he stood in the air holding the handle still, pressed his hands against the blade gaining the momentum to perform a somersault. As he spun through the air, he finished with a kick to Squall's right, knocking the SeeD to the ground. Reflexively, Cloud reached backwards to his sword, ripping it out of the ground, and swept overhead and was about to set it down on Squall—
"I'm not through yet!" yelled Squall.
when Squall tossed his gunblade as thought it were a throwing knife, striking Cloud's hand and removing his grip of the blade. The Ultima Weapon and the Lionheart fell between the two warriors. Then both of them started laughing.
"ARE YOU TWO INSANE? First you attack each other in my peaceful city and now all you two do is laugh! What the hell is wrong with you two? One of you is my guest on the planet and the other is my son. Good Hyne..."
"Calm down, Laguna. I was just showing Cloud Don Juan's junk shop when we decided to duel."
"That's no excuse, and—." The walkie-talkie device started blinking red again. Everyone turned to Laguna.
Mr. President. We have finished translating the tablet and analyzing the Garnet sample that you took as well. Please come as soon as possible. This is urgent. There are things that you must be aware of immediately. The planet is in grave danger. And so may be another planet located in star system 391. You know, the one with nine planets. Over.