Disclaimer: I don't own FF VIII or its characters.
Authors Note: Thanks for the reviews! To be perfectly honest I am not precisely sure where I am going with the story. I have a rough plan, but nothing too firm yet, working on that at the moment. Sorry for the delay, I have finals this week, and studying for them has drained most of my energy.
Chapter 4: The Weapons Facility
Squall slowly opened his eyes and looked around the room taking in his surroundings. He hadn't paid much attention last night, as all he did was collapse on the bed and fall asleep. The sleep hadn't lasted long as he was woken up by the nightmares, but he had just stayed in bed not wanting to disturb anyone by wondering about. He wasn't sure how long he had been lying in the bed before he fell back asleep but sure enough he had. He groaned, and looked at his watch. It was displaying 10:30. "Crap" he said as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and left the room.
Squall followed the path he thought he had come the night before to try and find the kitchen. "This place is huge" he mused. When he got downstairs he heard several voices and just followed them and sure enough he came to the kitchen. Sitting around the table, was Quistis, Rinoa, Zell, Irvine and Selphie all eating pancakes.
Squall stepped into the room and surveyed the people at the table. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?" he complained.
"We thought you could use some sleep," said Irvine with his mouth full of food.
"..."
Quistis smiled. "If it is lack of food you are worrying about, don't worry we saved you some."
Squall shook his head. "It's not that. Come on you two." He said pointing at Zell and Irvine. "We have work to do, we have been here too long."
Zell grumbled "can't we finish breakfast first? " waving a fork in the air.
"No." was Squall's only reply.
With heads down Irvine and Zell thanked everyone and said goodbye. "Hey wait a sec. You need to take me down to the car remember." Squealed Selphie.
"Come on then, we haven't got all day."
Selphie stuck out her tongue and ran out the room desperately looking for a pair of shoes to put on. After a few minutes, she ran back into the room. "Ready" she chirped.
All Squall said was bye as he walked out of the room followed by the other three, all looking very despondent. As soon as the door shut Rinoa started banging her head on the table. "He barely looked at me, let alone talk to me." She murmured.
"Hey, stop that," said Quistis "You will give yourself a headache. I'm getting a headache just by watching you."
Rinoa looked up. "You're right." Rinoa cheered up slightly. "So what are our plans today?"
"As soon as Selphie gets back, I think we are going shopping. If we are going to head up into the mountains later on in the week, we are going to need some warmer clothes, aren't we?".
"Sounds like fun." Said Rinoa taking a sip from her mug.
"You know." Said Quistis getting up from the table. "I wouldn't worry about it." Rinoa looked at her with a frown on her face. "Squall, I mean. I don't think he meant anything by it. Not a talkative person." Rinoa smiled weekly. She knew that Quistis was right, and she knew that she shouldn't expect anything. They had only met the night before after all.
"I better get ready then." And Rinoa left the room.
Quistis sighed and looked at the mess of dishes all around her. "I better clean this mess up then." She sighed. "Looks like no one else is going to do help me."
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Squall was sitting in the car tapping his fingers on the dashboard. * Come on Irvine. What is taking you so long?* Irvine was standing outside of the other car on the other side of the street saying his goodbyes to Selphie. Squall looked at his watch and gave up it had been fifteen minutes. He hit the horn a few times to get Irvine's attention. When Irvine looked around Squall jerked his head to the car signaling for him to come hurry up.
Irvine saw the look on Squalls face and decided that perhaps he should hurry up so ran back to the car as quickly as possible and got into the back.
"Sorry mate" he said closing the door. "Just saying my goodbyes, you know." Squall rolled his eyes
"Whatever."
Squall pulled away from the curb and drive along a few roads.
Irvine pulled himself forward so his head was between Squall and Zell. "So what's the plan for today?"
"We are going to the weapons facility. I want to try and get in there and look around, see whether there is anything obviously illegal going on in there. According to rumors the facility is selling some of the weapons on the black market, instead of giving them all to the government as they should."
"Sounds great." Said Zell cracking his knuckles. "I hope we get some action in there."
"Let's hope not. We want it to look as if we were never in there, we don't want to cause trouble."
A frown crossed Zell's face. "Shame, I was looking forward to some real fighting."
It didn't take long for Squall to get to the weapons facility on the edge of town. He parked a few streets down from it. "Come on, we need to scope out the area, work out a plan so we don't have to go barging in there."
The three men steeped out of the car and casually walked past the building. The large concrete building didn't seem to have many guards about. There were a few at the entrance, but there didn't seem to be anymore around the fence, covering the area. Once they had walked round twice, Squall signaled to head back to the car. They all got in, glad to be back in the warmth.
"So what do you think?' Said Irvine rubbing his hands together trying to make them warmer.
"Doesn't look too bad. The only thing we have to worry about is the security cameras. They might pose a problem." Zell said, "Maybe, we should just wait until the nighttime."
Squall sat there thinking for a second. "No, can't do that. There will be more guards about and that is what they will be expecting. Look like we are going to have to steal some uniforms and pretend we work there. How many men were there at the gate?"
Zells forehead creased. "There were two of them outside both holding pretty big guns. There is bound to be at least one more inside the gatehouse. Checking for trouble."
"If you are right, then there are enough uniforms for the three of us. Irvine, you are going to have to sat at the gate while we go into the building, someone has to be around to not cause a lot of suspicion."
Irvine looked upset, but knew there was no point in arguing the issue. "Alright then. What about your gunblade? You can't just walk in with it, that might cause a bit of trouble."
Squall contemplated this. "I will have to leave it behind. If we get into trouble, I will just have to rely on these." He indicated to his fists. "Ready then?"
Zell and Irvine nodded, and got out of the car. The three of them headed towards to the facility and confidently walked to the gatehouse, where two of the guards approached them suspiciously.
"What do you boys want?" One of them asked.
"We want into this place." Irvine said nodding to the building.
"Hmph, that's not going to happen, so get out of here, alright?"
"Sorry but we can't do that. You see we want to go in there." Irvine was looking fiercer now.
The second guard, who had been listening to this, pulled his gun from the holster.
Before the guard could blink, Zell was over by him, and had his hand on the mans wrist. "I don't think you want to do that." He said shaking his head. He twisted the mans hands pulling the gun up and easily pulled it from his hands. He lifted the gun up and with handle down brought it down on the guard's head. While this had been happening, the first guard had pulled his gun out, and had it pointed at Irvine.
"Now leave!" He barked.
Irvine smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if the gun pointed at his head was not a big deal.
Squall, who had been standing at the back the whole time, ignored the threat and punched the guard in the face, knocking him out instantly.
Squall picked up the firsts guards gun and started walking over to the guardhouse. He tapped on the door lightly.
"What!" screamed an angry voice from inside, and as he opened the door he was greeted with the barrel of a gun pointing directly at his forehead.
Squall kept the gun aimed right at the mans head and walked forward causing the man to stumble backwards. Luckily no one else was in the guardhouse and Squall just needed to concentrate on the one mad. Squall nodded towards an empty chair and indicated to the man to sit. Irvine and Zell came in dragging the two-unconscience guards, then stripped them down to their underwear and tied them up with some rope. After sorting them out, Squall knocked the third guard out with his gun and did the same.
Irvine grinned as he changed into the new uniform "suit me?" He asked.
Squall remained silence concentrating on changing himself. "Alright, Irvine I need you to delete the tape that is in the machine" He pointed towards the TV screen in the corner of the building. "I assume it filmed everything we just did. After that, just keep a lookout down here and make sure you look busy. If someone asks about the lack of guards, just make up some crap. You are good at that."
Zell sniggered and Irvine pretended to look hurt. "Squall, You can't mean that!"
"Come on Zell. We will be as quick as possible." He nodded at Irvine as they left him alone at the guard.
Zell and Squall walked across the car park to the main building. Just as they were about to enter the main entrance Squall took a deep breath. * Here goes nothing.*
As casually as possible Squall and Zell walked across the main lobby and flashed the badges at the receptionist who was sitting at the desk. They got weird look but they weren't stopped so just acted as if nothing was wrong.
As soon as they got into the main part of the building they started walking around looking for an obvious place to start their search. Most of the rooms they tried were locked, and there were too many people around for them to break in. * Shit* thought Squall. *This is getting us nowhere. * They finally got to a room which was open and stepped in to find a semi bare room. There were a few wooden chairs and a small machine in the corner. Zell went to look at it, to try and figure out what it did.
Squall glanced around the room and the window caught his eye. A sick feeling reached his stomach as he looked out of the window and saw an empty field, the same barren field from his dreams. Squall put a hand to his head as a sudden wave of dizziness came over him. The dream started relaying in his mind over and over. He kept seeing Rinoa running and falling, she got shot and then it started all over again. A much as he wanted to, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the window.
Zell looked around and noticed the pale Squall. "Yo, Squall. What's wrong?"
Zell walked over to Squall when he got no reply. "Squall" he repeated, this time shaking him slightly. Squall jerked around grabbing Zell by the collar of his shirt. "Whoa, Squall, It's me!" Zell screamed. Zell noticed a slight change in Squalls eyes as he relaxed his grip on Zell's shirt and slumped to the ground.
Zell looked worried. "Snap of it Squall, we need to get out of here. We have been too long." Squall just stared at Zell and seemed to contemplate the words. After a few seconds he shook his head and nodded.
He silently got up and headed to the door. As he opened it though, he was greeted by several men all pointing guns at him.
"Fuck" murmured Zell.
**********************************************************************
Another Authors Note: Hope you liked it! Not sure where it came from, I just started typing and it all came out.
Authors Note: Thanks for the reviews! To be perfectly honest I am not precisely sure where I am going with the story. I have a rough plan, but nothing too firm yet, working on that at the moment. Sorry for the delay, I have finals this week, and studying for them has drained most of my energy.
Chapter 4: The Weapons Facility
Squall slowly opened his eyes and looked around the room taking in his surroundings. He hadn't paid much attention last night, as all he did was collapse on the bed and fall asleep. The sleep hadn't lasted long as he was woken up by the nightmares, but he had just stayed in bed not wanting to disturb anyone by wondering about. He wasn't sure how long he had been lying in the bed before he fell back asleep but sure enough he had. He groaned, and looked at his watch. It was displaying 10:30. "Crap" he said as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and left the room.
Squall followed the path he thought he had come the night before to try and find the kitchen. "This place is huge" he mused. When he got downstairs he heard several voices and just followed them and sure enough he came to the kitchen. Sitting around the table, was Quistis, Rinoa, Zell, Irvine and Selphie all eating pancakes.
Squall stepped into the room and surveyed the people at the table. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?" he complained.
"We thought you could use some sleep," said Irvine with his mouth full of food.
"..."
Quistis smiled. "If it is lack of food you are worrying about, don't worry we saved you some."
Squall shook his head. "It's not that. Come on you two." He said pointing at Zell and Irvine. "We have work to do, we have been here too long."
Zell grumbled "can't we finish breakfast first? " waving a fork in the air.
"No." was Squall's only reply.
With heads down Irvine and Zell thanked everyone and said goodbye. "Hey wait a sec. You need to take me down to the car remember." Squealed Selphie.
"Come on then, we haven't got all day."
Selphie stuck out her tongue and ran out the room desperately looking for a pair of shoes to put on. After a few minutes, she ran back into the room. "Ready" she chirped.
All Squall said was bye as he walked out of the room followed by the other three, all looking very despondent. As soon as the door shut Rinoa started banging her head on the table. "He barely looked at me, let alone talk to me." She murmured.
"Hey, stop that," said Quistis "You will give yourself a headache. I'm getting a headache just by watching you."
Rinoa looked up. "You're right." Rinoa cheered up slightly. "So what are our plans today?"
"As soon as Selphie gets back, I think we are going shopping. If we are going to head up into the mountains later on in the week, we are going to need some warmer clothes, aren't we?".
"Sounds like fun." Said Rinoa taking a sip from her mug.
"You know." Said Quistis getting up from the table. "I wouldn't worry about it." Rinoa looked at her with a frown on her face. "Squall, I mean. I don't think he meant anything by it. Not a talkative person." Rinoa smiled weekly. She knew that Quistis was right, and she knew that she shouldn't expect anything. They had only met the night before after all.
"I better get ready then." And Rinoa left the room.
Quistis sighed and looked at the mess of dishes all around her. "I better clean this mess up then." She sighed. "Looks like no one else is going to do help me."
*********************************************************************
Squall was sitting in the car tapping his fingers on the dashboard. * Come on Irvine. What is taking you so long?* Irvine was standing outside of the other car on the other side of the street saying his goodbyes to Selphie. Squall looked at his watch and gave up it had been fifteen minutes. He hit the horn a few times to get Irvine's attention. When Irvine looked around Squall jerked his head to the car signaling for him to come hurry up.
Irvine saw the look on Squalls face and decided that perhaps he should hurry up so ran back to the car as quickly as possible and got into the back.
"Sorry mate" he said closing the door. "Just saying my goodbyes, you know." Squall rolled his eyes
"Whatever."
Squall pulled away from the curb and drive along a few roads.
Irvine pulled himself forward so his head was between Squall and Zell. "So what's the plan for today?"
"We are going to the weapons facility. I want to try and get in there and look around, see whether there is anything obviously illegal going on in there. According to rumors the facility is selling some of the weapons on the black market, instead of giving them all to the government as they should."
"Sounds great." Said Zell cracking his knuckles. "I hope we get some action in there."
"Let's hope not. We want it to look as if we were never in there, we don't want to cause trouble."
A frown crossed Zell's face. "Shame, I was looking forward to some real fighting."
It didn't take long for Squall to get to the weapons facility on the edge of town. He parked a few streets down from it. "Come on, we need to scope out the area, work out a plan so we don't have to go barging in there."
The three men steeped out of the car and casually walked past the building. The large concrete building didn't seem to have many guards about. There were a few at the entrance, but there didn't seem to be anymore around the fence, covering the area. Once they had walked round twice, Squall signaled to head back to the car. They all got in, glad to be back in the warmth.
"So what do you think?' Said Irvine rubbing his hands together trying to make them warmer.
"Doesn't look too bad. The only thing we have to worry about is the security cameras. They might pose a problem." Zell said, "Maybe, we should just wait until the nighttime."
Squall sat there thinking for a second. "No, can't do that. There will be more guards about and that is what they will be expecting. Look like we are going to have to steal some uniforms and pretend we work there. How many men were there at the gate?"
Zells forehead creased. "There were two of them outside both holding pretty big guns. There is bound to be at least one more inside the gatehouse. Checking for trouble."
"If you are right, then there are enough uniforms for the three of us. Irvine, you are going to have to sat at the gate while we go into the building, someone has to be around to not cause a lot of suspicion."
Irvine looked upset, but knew there was no point in arguing the issue. "Alright then. What about your gunblade? You can't just walk in with it, that might cause a bit of trouble."
Squall contemplated this. "I will have to leave it behind. If we get into trouble, I will just have to rely on these." He indicated to his fists. "Ready then?"
Zell and Irvine nodded, and got out of the car. The three of them headed towards to the facility and confidently walked to the gatehouse, where two of the guards approached them suspiciously.
"What do you boys want?" One of them asked.
"We want into this place." Irvine said nodding to the building.
"Hmph, that's not going to happen, so get out of here, alright?"
"Sorry but we can't do that. You see we want to go in there." Irvine was looking fiercer now.
The second guard, who had been listening to this, pulled his gun from the holster.
Before the guard could blink, Zell was over by him, and had his hand on the mans wrist. "I don't think you want to do that." He said shaking his head. He twisted the mans hands pulling the gun up and easily pulled it from his hands. He lifted the gun up and with handle down brought it down on the guard's head. While this had been happening, the first guard had pulled his gun out, and had it pointed at Irvine.
"Now leave!" He barked.
Irvine smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if the gun pointed at his head was not a big deal.
Squall, who had been standing at the back the whole time, ignored the threat and punched the guard in the face, knocking him out instantly.
Squall picked up the firsts guards gun and started walking over to the guardhouse. He tapped on the door lightly.
"What!" screamed an angry voice from inside, and as he opened the door he was greeted with the barrel of a gun pointing directly at his forehead.
Squall kept the gun aimed right at the mans head and walked forward causing the man to stumble backwards. Luckily no one else was in the guardhouse and Squall just needed to concentrate on the one mad. Squall nodded towards an empty chair and indicated to the man to sit. Irvine and Zell came in dragging the two-unconscience guards, then stripped them down to their underwear and tied them up with some rope. After sorting them out, Squall knocked the third guard out with his gun and did the same.
Irvine grinned as he changed into the new uniform "suit me?" He asked.
Squall remained silence concentrating on changing himself. "Alright, Irvine I need you to delete the tape that is in the machine" He pointed towards the TV screen in the corner of the building. "I assume it filmed everything we just did. After that, just keep a lookout down here and make sure you look busy. If someone asks about the lack of guards, just make up some crap. You are good at that."
Zell sniggered and Irvine pretended to look hurt. "Squall, You can't mean that!"
"Come on Zell. We will be as quick as possible." He nodded at Irvine as they left him alone at the guard.
Zell and Squall walked across the car park to the main building. Just as they were about to enter the main entrance Squall took a deep breath. * Here goes nothing.*
As casually as possible Squall and Zell walked across the main lobby and flashed the badges at the receptionist who was sitting at the desk. They got weird look but they weren't stopped so just acted as if nothing was wrong.
As soon as they got into the main part of the building they started walking around looking for an obvious place to start their search. Most of the rooms they tried were locked, and there were too many people around for them to break in. * Shit* thought Squall. *This is getting us nowhere. * They finally got to a room which was open and stepped in to find a semi bare room. There were a few wooden chairs and a small machine in the corner. Zell went to look at it, to try and figure out what it did.
Squall glanced around the room and the window caught his eye. A sick feeling reached his stomach as he looked out of the window and saw an empty field, the same barren field from his dreams. Squall put a hand to his head as a sudden wave of dizziness came over him. The dream started relaying in his mind over and over. He kept seeing Rinoa running and falling, she got shot and then it started all over again. A much as he wanted to, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the window.
Zell looked around and noticed the pale Squall. "Yo, Squall. What's wrong?"
Zell walked over to Squall when he got no reply. "Squall" he repeated, this time shaking him slightly. Squall jerked around grabbing Zell by the collar of his shirt. "Whoa, Squall, It's me!" Zell screamed. Zell noticed a slight change in Squalls eyes as he relaxed his grip on Zell's shirt and slumped to the ground.
Zell looked worried. "Snap of it Squall, we need to get out of here. We have been too long." Squall just stared at Zell and seemed to contemplate the words. After a few seconds he shook his head and nodded.
He silently got up and headed to the door. As he opened it though, he was greeted by several men all pointing guns at him.
"Fuck" murmured Zell.
**********************************************************************
Another Authors Note: Hope you liked it! Not sure where it came from, I just started typing and it all came out.