Note: I do not own Final Fantasy or any of its characters (which would be rediculously cool), and I do not own Battle Royale.
Note 2: Okay people, third chapter here, sorry it took so long, but the I got a tad carried away with the fourth chapter and was too busy, but three is here now, and four should follow soon. Have fun reading and please review!
Note 3: This is written so that you don't have to have any experience of Battle Royale OR Final Fantasy, although knowledge of either proabably maks it more enjoyable!
Chapter 3
All eyes turned to the sliding door. Major Wedge stepped aside from the door, opened it, and saluted smartly, calling out "atten-shun" again. The four other soldiers saluted as well, standing rigidly to attention.
A young woman stepped in through the doorway, and absent-mindedly gave a slight hand wave to signal the soldiers to stand at ease. The woman appeared to almost as young as the classmates themselves, and couldn't have been any older than twenty. She was a fairly petite woman, with short black hair, a beaming face, and a mischievous look in her eyes. She wore the classic suit of Galbadian Agents (commonly known as "Turks") – black trousers, white shirt, a black jacket that usually concealed a gun of some sort, a black tie with the Galbadian crest, and black sunglasses – except she was not wearing her jacket or tie. The jacket was hanging from her left shoulder, and her tie appeared to be absent altogether. Her sunglasses were pushed up onto her head, allowing a clear view of her face.
Agent Marlene stepped forward, took a deep breath as if to announce herself, then noticed the corpse on the floor. She gave a little giggle, lightly jumped onto the corpse, and then sprang off it, landing next to Bugenhagen.
"Silly old man! You know you're not supposed to kill any of them before they leave the building. It makes the most awful mess to clean up; blood doesn't come out of carpets easily! Hee-hee-hee!"
"Ho-hoo, but he was getting rather uncivilised too early. We had to subdue him, and unfortunately this involved the removal of the greater part of his head, ho-hum. Pity."
Marlene giggled again, and then turned to the class, who had moved away from the wall, and settled back into their previous positions, but somewhat wearily this time. Marlene coughed lightly into her hand, as if she was politely clearing her throat.
"Ahem. Hello, children! My name is Agent Marlene Wallace, and I am as a representative of Emperor Golbez. My purpose here is to explain how to play this game properly, so you can put up a jolly good fight!"
She leaned forward and lowered her voice, as if she were passing on a secret.
"They have to bring me here coz Buggerface over there can't explain properly without ranting about the 'Planet' and 'Life Stream' and other crap."
"Ho-hmm, it's 'Bugenhagen'," he said, looking mildly amused "try to remember this time."
"Right you are, Buggerhagen." She snickered. Turning back to the class, she continued: "I am also here as an observer to make sure things go as the Emperor wishes. Plus, I love watching these games! Nothing like a good old battle for entertainment!"
It was utterly surreal. Squall was trapped in some nightmare that didn't make any sense at all. They had been told to kill each other, and his best friend lay dead on the floor, yet this girl was acting as if there was great levity in the situation. He sank back to the floor, feeling lost and confused. Rinoa moved next to him and held his hand in hers, and he could feel from the grip that she was just barely holding it all together. She was trembling slightly, although he could not tell whether this was through anger or fear.
"Ahem," Marlene cleared her throat "now to explain how this year's battle will work. You will all leave here one at a time, in your normal class order, starting with a randomly selected member of the class."
Marlene raised her left hand, and snapped her fingers loudly. Two of the blue-suited soldiers immediately rushed outside, and came back in a moment later, each pushing a trolley laden with large green military-issue bags. Carefully navigating around Zell's body, they pushed them to the side of the classroom, and then stood at ease in front of their respective trolleys.
"As you leave this room, each of you will take a bag from those trolleys. Well… it's not compulsory, but you won't survive long if you don't, hee-hee! Anyway… each bag contains some basic provisions to last you a few days, a map and compass to help you navigate your was around this island, a torch, and finally," she paused for effect, grinning at everyone, "your weapon."
A murmur went around the room. Weapons? These people were seriously expecting the classmates to kill each other off in armed battle. It seemed ludicrous, yet it was happening, almost too fast for them to take in.
"Each bag has a randomised weapon in; this helps to eliminate any natural advantages you may have in a fight, like being stronger or more athletic than most other members of the class. The possible weapons in the bags range from various guns, through magical weapons for all varieties of spells, down to knives and other melee weapons," she grinned again "so you can really get stuck in to your enemy! There are a few other weapons, and maybe some items which aren't necessarily weapons, but could turn out to be useful nonetheless…
"Anyway, onto the rules of engagement! Once you have left this school the game has begun, and you should try to start killing each other."
"Ho-hoo, and don't think of lingering in the school, or I'm afraid these nice soldiers here will have to shoot anyone without a hall pass." Interjected Bugenhagen.
"I was just getting to that, Buggerface!" Marlene moaned, rolling her eyes at him.
"It's Bugenhagen."
"Whatever!" She looked back to the class. "Now, I know that many of you think that you can just sit tight and not kill each other…"
She clutched her hands in front of her, put on a happy-go-lucky smile, and spoke in a sickly sweet voice:
"Everyone will get along! We can all be happy and help each other and escape!"
She gave a laugh that sounded almost malicious, and pointed to her neck.
"Well, I'm sure that you've all noticed those cool metal collars you're wearing…"
Everyone in the class instinctively grabbed at their necks. Everyone except Vincent, who gave a slight yawn, and continued to watch Marlene with feigned interest.
"Well, those collars are completely shockproof, waterproof, and won't come off until we want them to! They contain a tracking device, so we can monitor your location on the island, a pulse monitor, so we tell if you're still alive and if you're about to die, and – this bit is my personal favourite – a small explosive charge on the front! Tee-hee!"
There was a sharp intake of breath in the room. Marlene was getting very excited as she explained, practically bouncing up and down, as if the whole idea of wearing a bomb on your neck must be very exciting indeed.
"If there are no deaths in the class for a period of twenty-four hours, then we transmit a small signal to all the collars that are still active, and that little charge goes off…. BOOM!" Marlene shouted, jumping up and spreading her arms and legs in mid air, spread eagle. Her jacket went flying and landed on a desk nearby, but she was so absorbed in explaining the collars that she didn't seem to notice.
The entire class moved away sharply as she shouted the last word, as if reeling away from something that had burnt them. Many of the girls screamed, other clamping hands to their mouths to prevent themselves from doing the same.
"Hee-hee-hee! I'd say that that's a pretty good incentive to play, no? Oh, I think you should also know that a person's collar will also go off if they try to tamper with it in anyway, or tug at it for that matter, or if they attempt to leave the island. Oh, and if they stray into a Forbidden Zone. So I advise you all to be very, very careful, or it might just be time for you to… head off! Hee-hee-hee!"
Marlene jumped up and down a bit more, her enthusiasm growing by the second. Squall wondered if she always acted like this when she explained the Program to people. He also mildly wondered if she was on steroids. Looking to the side, he saw Rinoa shaking her head in disgust, her lip curling slightly, and a dark and worrying look in her eyes. This surprised Squall somewhat; she was normally extremely tolerant of everyone, even Seymour (she was one of the few girls who didn't want to just slap him).
"Also, there's a little red LED on the front of each of your collars. It'll light up when we activate your collars in a few minutes' time, and the light will only go out when the wearer's heart has stopped! Good way to tell if someone's trying to be sneaky by faking death, hee-hee!
"Okay… Now, there's only one more rule: every six hours, we will announce new Forbidden Zones, where you must never ever go! If you do stupidly go into a Forbidden Zone for any reason, or get caught in one when it becomes active, then your collar goes off, hee-hee!"
Bugenhagen spoke up again, catching Marlene off-guard.
"We also announce the list of those who have died, along with the new danger zones, so you can work out who's left to take out."
"Buggerface!" Marlene moaned, stamping her feet and shaking her head angrily, "Stop stealing my lines!"
Squall recalled something about mental health problems that could lead to abrupt mood swings, and wondered if Marlene was suffering one.
Great, we have a weird old guy and a loony Turk making us play a death game…
"If I don't say something, then I'm superfluous to requirements, no? Hoo-hoo-ho!"
Bugenhagen floated forwards a few feet.
"Are there any questions, ho-hmmm?"
At the back of the room, Sephiroth raised his hand lazily.
"Yes, young man?"
"When can we start? I'm getting really quite bored of waiting here."
Sephiroth's question caused a wave of panic among his classmates. He's going to play, Squall realised. Bugenhagen raised one eyebrow, regarding the white-haired young man, then he chuckled.
"Ho-ho! A quick learner, hmm? You can start as soon as you have left the school."
Rydia raised her hand, somewhat shakily.
"Ho-hmm, yes?"
"Umm… when do we have to go… and who leaves first?"
"Hoo-hoo, that depends upon who was chosen by the same impartial lottery that selected your class for this year's Program."
"I have the name here!" Marlene said, beaming. She retrieved her jacket, rummaged around inside one of the pockets, and withdrew a slightly crumpled yellow envelope.
She opened the envelope, and with a flourish, removed a piece of folded paper from inside. Unfolding the paper with deliberate slowness, she read what was written on it. The class waited, everyone unconsciously holding their breath. Marlene looked up at the class and beamed again.
"Hee-hee! It's none other than male student number one! Who is that?"
Cait Sith raised his hand (as did the huge moogle doll he was riding on), and spoke in a voice that didn't sound like his normal one.
"That's me? W… when do I have to… go?"
Bugenhagen span around once on the spot, and raised his arms towards the ceiling.
"Why, right now! Unless you want your collar to go off, that is, ho-hoo! The game starts now, and if you're still in the school two minutes after your collar is activated, it'll go off!"
Cait Sith jumped a bit, as if he had just had a static electricity shock. Everyone in the room stared at him. The collar around the small, moogle-mounted black cat's neck had apparently activated. There was a small, red light glowing ominously in the centre of the stud in the middle of the collar. Not wasting a second, Cait Sith made his moogle run to towards the door.
"Hey, don't forget your weapon, silly! Hee-hee, stupid moogle-cat!" Marlene giggled.
Attempting to adjust direction too quickly, Cait Sith's moogle nearly fell over as he tried to spin it around to face the other way. Once he had regained balance, he bounded towards the nearest trolley-mounted bag rack, grabbed the bag on top, and then turned around again and bounded over Zell's corpse and out through the door.
The class sat in silence. Vincent looked bored, as if it were just a geography lesson, and started inspecting the fingernails of his right hand. Sephiroth seemed equally bored, but then, he never did seem to take an interest in anything. Everyone else sat quietly, waiting for the inevitable. The sound of Cait Sith's bounding footsteps faded into the distance.
The silence was broken when Relm inhaled sharply. Her collar had activated. She shot to her feet and ran somewhat unsteadily to the bag rack, grabbed a bag, dropped it on Zell, reached down to pick it up again, quivering with fear in such close proximity to the corpse, then ran out.
And so it continued, people leaving one by one, some walking out with some semblance of dignity, others running away, on the verge of tears. Sephiroth calmly walked along, as if strolling through the park on a fine day. He moved slowly enough that Major Wedge told him to hurry up, although the white-haired young man paid no attention to the soldier. Seifer practically strutted as he left the room, leaving no doubt in people's minds that his arrogance and overconfidence hadn't been diminished by his situation.
Squall sat calmly, trying to work out what to do. His desire to avenge Zell still lurked in the back of his mind, and he could still see Zell's corpse every time he closed his eyes, but he would have to wait. Getting himself and Rinoa to safety was his primary concern. He had a nasty feeling that some people would be willing to play this 'game' the government had set out for them. Rinoa came after him in class order, so if he waited near the school, she would come out after him, and the two of them could run to somewhere safe and work out what to do. He knew that she wouldn't believe that others would fight, but Squall knew that all the previous Programs had been successful, one of them killing his sister. Some people would play, he was sure of it.
Eventually, Squall's turn came. He felt a slight shock as the collar activated, causing his lip to twitch in distaste, but didn't feel overly panicked. He had always managed to maintain a degree of control over his emotions when under pressure. He leaned across to Rinoa, whispered "I'll meet you outside," as he gave her hand one last squeeze, then stood up and walked calmly to the bag rack. Giving one final glance to Zell's body, he took a bag from the rack, and walked to the door.
Stopping on the threshold, he looked over to Bugenhagen. The little old man smiled patronsingily at him, and Marlene giggled.
"Ooooh, I think he's a bit pissed off at us! Hee-hee!"
Squall didn't notice what Marlene said, nor did he see Rinoa's lip curl again at the sound of her voice. He glared at Bugenhagen.
I'll be seeing you again. And when I do, I'll take great pleasure in killing you.
--- Start of game ---
41 students remaining.