Chapter 8: The Dark Hunter Catches Its Prey

"AAHHH! Missile incoming! Missile incoming!" Selphie yelled again as the Ragnarok swerved to the side alarmingly, trying to avoid the missiles, the ABS alarm screaming on the control panel.

Up ahead, two missile heads loomed at the speed of rockets into view. As fast as it came, one flew inches above the windscreen of the cockpit, and the sounds of grating metal screeched loudly above joining together with sounds of the fizzing missile. The other one shot through beneath the jet-wing on the left, nearly hitting the jet engine as the missile whizzed away from the airship.

A few moments later, calm returned to the place as the two white blinking missile disappeared from the radar on the control panel.

"Phew…thank Hyne…" said Selphie, wiping her forehead with her free hand for any sweat. "I thought I'd almost die there..."

"Yeah, and you did a pretty good job…" rasped Irvine, coming to his feet and helping Quistis up from the floor. Rinoa had clung onto the Squall the whole time, but both had fallen onto the floor, and a muffled groan came from Squall who happened to be lying beneath Rinoa. Rinoa in a haste quickly got up and helped Squall back up to, who muttered a silent thanks. Zell who lost his hold on Selphie's seat was swearing away as he get up from behind her.

"Control, Selphie…damnit, try to CONTROL the airship properly…" Zell muttered.

"Sorry, guys! Anyway, whatever happened to the dragon now?"

A warning sign beeped on Selphie's screen-board. It showed the same two white dots, this time advancing towards the Ragnarok from behind.

And they were zooming in on their target at an alarming rate.

"AAAAAAAHHH! The missiles are BACK!"

"Selphie! Launch two more missiles, targeting those two!" commanded Squall who recovered his cool composure as he made his way towards Selphie's place. Selphie nodded feverishly and immediately smashed her fist onto two huge red button which would launch another pair of missiles from the Ragnarok.

On the screen-board, two red dots suddenly appeared, and were flying towards the incoming two white missiles. A heavy cloud of silence filled the cockpit as everyone held their breaths and watch whatever it was gonna happen. Selphie kept on driving, hoping to fly as far as possible from the place of impact before the Ragnarok itself would get consumed in its devastative wake. Imagining the scene, Selphie shuddered slightly and pushed that thought aside, forcing herself to keep cool and concentrate on her driving.

Outside, the missiles met dead head-on, and on the screen, the missiles collided into one another.

Immediately, a very loud explosion resonated from the outside, its impact sending the red Ragnarok way off course its track, crashing though several huge thick clouds as huge thick smoke emanated from the point of collision of the missiles. Fortunately, everyone had braced for the impact and found their balance holds, gripping onto seats for dear life. Selphie was almost thrown off her seat, but she managed to hold on, fingernails digging deep into the black velvet seat.

As everyone tried to recover from the shock and get themselves oriented once more, Selphie groped around the control panel dizzily and having found the required switch, she quickly brought the Ragnarok back to its central latitude position. The Ragnarok righted itself, and made a slow U-turn back towards the point of impact, although keeping its distance between the two.

A few seconds later, Selphie saw the red blinking words TARGETS ELIMINATED flashed fiercely on the board. The bouncy brunette gave a whoop of joy from her seat. "Yeah! We did it!"

"Yeah, but whatever happened to the dragon?" asked Irvine, pointing down at Selphie's currently blank screen-board.

"You're right, Irvine! Where IS the dragon?" Her short-lived celebration-mode ceased abruptly as everyone wondered where the dragon could have flown.

Quistis then spoke up, "We were thrown off-course…so…"

A familiar anguish cry interrupted her and brought everyone's attention to the outside of the cockpit.

"Don't tell me…" Selphie tried to bring the Ragnarok towards the source of the cry, and under her control, the airship turned swiftly and smoothly towards the right, roughly assuming that that was the location where the cry came from.

Suddenly, a glossy-black airship that looked similar to their Ragnarok shot out from behind a thick cloud with a blast, making an abrupt entrance that the Ragnarok immediately swerved all the way to the right, due to the ACS installed in the Ragnarok.

Selphie tapped a few buttons to regain control of the airship, and while doing so, the screen-board suddenly flashed another warning, but this time it did not pose a good sign.

RAGNAROK OVERRIDEN.

"WHAT!" Selphie cried in exasperation as she feverishly typed away at the keyboard, but to no avail as the warning sign was still there, a bad omen to Squall's crew.

Just then a glossy-black airship suddenly shot out with a blast from behind a huge thick cloud, creating a wave of broken tufts of cloud in its wake as it flew in a half-circle before coming to a perfect mid-air pause directly in front of the red Ragnarok, dragon-heads meeting head to head.

But the black Ragnarok had something else.

If it weren't for the sun's hot rays and the bright streak of something blood-red, nobody would have notice an unconscious form of a serpent-like creature which hung limp in the black Ragnarok's extended metallic arms, grasped tightly in its hold around the creature, leaving no opportunity for it to even struggle and try to escape.

The dark hunter had caught its prey.

Suddenly, the intercom in the cockpit blared to life, snapping everyone into attention as a man's voice addressed the group, "Greetings, the crew aboard the red Ragnarok."

"Who are you? Why did you capture the dragon?" Selphie demanded. "Let it go!"

"How come you had a black Ragnarok?" added Irvine.

The man chuckled, giving out a dry, raspy laugh. "That is none of your business. All I know is, my mission is to capture the black dragon for my boss, and nothing else." The voice laughed again. "Whoever's driving your airship, look's like you can handle that Ragnarok of yours pretty well. Nevertheless, you are no match for me in battling in the skies. What a pity." The man gave a sigh.

"How dare you-" fumed Selphie.

The voice continued. "I shall now leave you people in peace, but you shall have to do the same for me in the future. Till we meet again, goodbye and God bless." The line closed with a definite beep, and looking out, everyone watched the black Ragnarok started moving away, taking together the black dragon with it.

"Let's go chase it-" suggested Selphie but Squall cut her off in mid-sentence.

"No. We have to let him go."

"But-why!"

"Coz if you don't, he's gonna blow OUR Ragnarok into pieces," said Zell. "You heard him. We're no match for him when it comes to air battle. Look what he had done to our Ragnarok." He pointed to the flashing red warning on Selphie's screen-board.

"But-"

"Just…take us back. To Esthar. Now," Squall said with a resigned tone. The weary in his voice startled everyone, and they watched in silence as their commander shuffled silently towards the slid-doors, which slid open to admit him, and clanged silently back to a shut as Squall made his exit, without even a backward glance to his startled comrades.

"What…the…?" Selphie frowned, concerned at Squall's sudden cold reaction.

"I think I'll go check on him," Rinoa said. She got up and quickly ran towards the door.

And outside, the black Ragnarok started its triumphant descent, and vanished below the clouds without a trace, taking its prize together.

A million eternities later (or about 3 hours)…

The dejected crew aboard the Ragnarok finally made its way back to Balamb after Selphie finally managed to get the Ragnarok back under her control and the crew had settled everything at Esthar. Selphie drove the Ragnarok in silence while Quistis and Zell talked in muffled tones. Squall and Rinoa sat at the back, watching everyone else. Irvine tried to comfort Selphie with his sniper jokes, but she was just not in the mood to humor him back. It was gloomily quiet in the cockpit.

"Squall…why…is all of this happening?" asked Rinoa quietly, turning to him, only to find him asleep, his eyes closed, his head leaning tiredly onto one side. Rinoa gave a small smile as she gazed up at his peaceful sleeping face. His brown bangs covered partly of his face and as Rinoa reached out to gently sweep it aside, her hand brushed against his warm face. As she did so, Squall stirred slightly in his sleep; she quickly redrew her hand back as Squall opened his tired eyes and turned to her, asking in a soft voice, "Rin?"

"Sorry…I…woke you up…" Rinoa clasped her hands together. She felt his hand on her shoulder. She looked back and saw Squall's piercing blue-gray eyes on her.

"It's alright…just…tired..." Squall shifted his position and leaned back tiredly, closing his eyes. "So much has happened…"

"I'll wake you up when we reached Balamb Garden," Rinoa promised, holding his hand in hers. "So, rest yourself for now." She saw Squall nodded his head, and slumped to one side once more. Taking care not to wake Squall up again, she gently placed his hand back on the armrest and slowly got up to make her way to the front.

"Yo, Rinoa," said Zell. Rinoa quickly made a no-noise motion, then pointing at Squall, mouthing, "He's asleep." Zell got it and nodded. Irvine looked up and waved at her. She waved back.

"So…where were we?" asked Zell in a hushed tone.

"I told you, I've read something about the Five Spheres in the Library. We might know something from there," replied Quistis in a whisper. "I just hope the book is still there…who wants to go with me later?"

"Count me out, I'm sooo not looking for old, thick books in the Library," said Zell.

"Rinoa? You wanna come?" asked Quistis.

Rinoa paused as she looked back at the sleeping Squall. She turned back and shook her head. "He's tired. I wish I could come, but…"

"It's okay. Take care of Squall for us," said Quistis. "We don't want to lose our leader." Rinoa smiled and nodded.

"That leaves…Irvine?" Before she could ask him, the cowboy automatically turned to her and said, "I'll go with you no matter how far it'll take me to."

Quistis blinked in surprise and slowly said, "Okay…whatever you say…"

ABS - Air Brake System
ACS - Air Control System

WHAT! It's been 2 years since I've last updated!

'''''' Eheheheh...the ficcy's been laying dormant in my comp gathering pixel dusts...but now I'm back! Expect major revamps in the next upcoming chapters and the language might change a bit (but story will stick to its original direction).

But-ooooooh, next chapter's gonna beinteresting. The man who has been missing for a really long timewill beback grins Until the next update! Ja