To say Squall Leonhart was bored would be an understatement.
In fact, bored was the understatement of the century.
Squall was not bored he was bored.
Sitting in the Ragnarok's cockpit, watching the white clouds fly by as the ship gently cruised on autopilot, Squall was forced to reflect on the outcome of the past few years and even more importantly the outcome of the past few days.
The Sorceress Ultimecia had met her fate at the hands of Squall and his Lionheart gunblade, thus ending time compression and saving the world, that had happened 5 years ago. Since then those events had been documented in history and Squall, along with his friends, returned to their present time as Heroes.
As a gift to Balamb Garden, Laguna Loire, the president of Esthar, allowed them to keep the Ragnarok and in the process unveiled the city of Esthar to the world, encouraging all the empires to put aside old rivalries and at least try to live in a state of peace. Nobody listened.
Everyone seemed eager to get a bigger piece of the planet under their control and in the end it was up to the SeeD of the world to act as guardians. After a few hectic months, things had finally returned to almost normal.
Irvine had married Selphie 6 months after the incident with Ultimecia and, surprising all; both had settled down and now taught at the newly rebuilt Trabia Garden, training new SeeDs for the problems that they knew, deep down, would arise in the future.
Quistis regained her Instructors license, and was once again taking the wayward and undisciplined students of Garden under her wing and rumours were that she had started seeing Evan, one of her ex-groupies.
Zell remained a regular SeeD, but for his courage and effort during mankind's darkest hour, a new class of SeeD was created in his honour – Z Class – that was recognised by all as the elite of the elite. He also seemed to be enjoying the stability the world now had to offer and was spending a lot of time with Crystel, formerly a librarian at Balamb Garden, but now a fully-fledged SeeD.
Squall and Rinoa were still together, happier than ever, neither could bear to be apart from each other, which was seldom. Squall had secured the job as Headmaster and Commander of Balamb Garden and, to all appearances, was happy in his life, still a fighter, but at peace and in love. Rinoa stayed at Balamb, with Squall, but had not enrolled, or qualified as a SeeD. She spent her time as a diplomat, although as a Sorceress people were generally in awe or fear of her. Then, a month ago, Squall had finally popped the question to Rinoa and they were due to be married in about a year.
People were surprised at the changes Squall had been through and he was surprised himself. He now had a sense of humour, he smiled and he joked occasionally. People grew to accept him and decided that this must be what love can do to a person.
Laguna, Kiros and Ward stilled ruled over Esthar and now shared and developed technology for the whole world. A year after the battle with Ultimecia Laguna finally told Squall that he was his father. It had been difficult for both father and son, yet somehow they had been able to pull together and lived in acceptance, if not comfort, knowing that neither one was alone in the world.
Balamb and Galbadia Gardens – although still capable of movement – were back in their original places, in fact neither of the gardens had moved since the end of time compression 5 years ago and the huge party that had occurred worldwide.
Fujin and Raijin also had remained in Balamb, happily married and recently had a baby boy, which they affectionately named Gabriel. Raijin still fished and very rarely poisoned himself, but more often than not poisoned others who were unlucky enough to try one of his 'meals'.
Seifer. Seifer had dropped off the face of the world, which may have been a good thing overall considering people were, for a time anyway, after his blood for all the deaths that he had caused. Thankfully though that blood lust calmed down and Seifer was no longer on anyone's hit list. People had forgotten and, in their own way forgiven the Sorceresses Knight. Yet even after global feeling towards him had changed Seifer still remained missing.
That was, until 2 weeks ago.
A report had been dropped on Squall's desk describing recent events in Fishermans Horizon. Apparently a warrior, fitting the description of one Seifer Almasy, had been sighted there. Although no trouble had been caused, the local authorities were still worried so Squall had left Balamb and Rinoa behind, taking with him Zell and the Ragnarok and went to investigate the sighting.
It took a week to find him.
Seifer had heard that they where on their way and, not wanting to be found, had hidden himself in the bowels of the city. But when Zell one night tripped over a heap that immediately started swearing at him in an all too familiar manner, they knew that they had found their lost friend.
Seifer, surprisingly, was willing to talk.
Apparently he had been laying low for the past 5 years, moving from town to town and leading, worryingly enough, an honest life doing odd jobs here and there. At last he came to FH and by very bad luck was spotted by an ex-solider of the Galbadian army, and from there the report was sent straight to Squall's Desk.
Squall, seeing how much his onetime nemesis had changed, offered him a place back at Balamb that, much to Zell's chagrin, he accepted.
Now at last, 5 years after leaving the Garden that had been his home for many years and turning against his childhood friends, the prodigal son was returning home at last.
How things had changed, Squall mused.
Crashes and clatters came from below and voices drifted up the cockpits lift shaft.
"Seifer! Just stay the hell away will ya!"
"Aww c'mon chickie, are you afwaid mean ol' Seifer will hurt you?"
"Just put that down, I know what you're like."
"You always were a chicken wuss, you're never any fun."
"DON'T CALL ME CHICKEN WUSS!"
"Come on chickie, don't be a chicken all your life."
A sigh came up from the galley.
"Alright Seifer, but don't ya dare try anything."
"Thanks chickie."
Another clatter, a scream and even more noise erupted from below
"YOU BASTARD, I'M GONNA KILL YA!"
"Is wittle chickie Zell afraid of some water?"
The crashes, bangs, smashes, and clangs erupted again with vehemence.
'Or perhaps', thought Squall, 'things haven't changed at all,' and he allowed a smile to form on his lips, surprised at how difficult it was.
Suddenly a huge shape obscured the sun and plunged the Ragnarok's cockpit into complete darkness and a massive roar shook the computer terminals and caused the ship to tremble.
Acting fast Squall took manual control and requesting the computer to calculate the size of the object and, if possible, classify it. At the same time he reached over and punched the intercom button.
"Seifer, Zell, stop messing around down there and get in here now! We've got a problem."
Seconds later the elevator behind Squall whirred into life and into the cockpit strode Seifer, dressed in his usual attire, immaculate and elegant with his trademark smirk on his face. Zell, who was soaked to the skin, followed him; his hair was no longer in its usual spiked form, but flat and covering his eyes. His clothes were all but stuck to his flesh, highlighting the strength and build of the shorter warrior.
"What the hell happened to you?" asked Squall, striving to keep a straight face.
"HE tipped a bucket of water over me," replied Zell, in between shivers, pointing at Seifer.
The roar came again and the ship, from bulkheads to barriers, shook.
"No time for that now," said Squall, pouring the urgency into his voice. "Zell, get to your post, Seifer you take ops and see if you can get an image of what the hell is making that noise."
Seifer sat at the operations desk, while Zell took his seat next to Squall in the co-pilot and tactical place.
"Bringing up a visual," said Zell, also going into a fighting mode.
"Holy shit," murmured Seifer. "Whatever the hell it is it's about the size of the 'rok and it's circling us. It'll be coming round for another pass any-"
Seifer didn't get chance to finish his sentence as the huge form again over-shadowed the cockpit of the Ragnarok.
"Hyne almighty," said Zell
A gigantic armoured beast, like nothing anyone of them had ever seen before, with strong diamond looking plates across it's chest and underbelly and huge, serrated claws that looked like they could pierce solid titanium had flown right in front of them, almost challenging this new intruder to a battle, and was hovering, flapping wings that looked not only menacing, but evil and awe-inspiring at the same time.
"Squall," started Zell. "Orders?"
"Turn around and try to head back, there's no way that we can take that thing," said Squall in a monotone voice.
Suddenly, with a roar that shattered two of the monitors on the bridge, the monster swooped towards them, its claws outstretched and jaws filled with vile looking teeth, ready to devour anything that came in it's path. A menacing gleam was in the green eye of the creature that indicated intelligence and much worse, malice.
Acting as quickly as possible Squall twisted the 'rok's controls and punched the main accelerator, sending the ship away from the creature as fast as possible.
The monster gained on the 'rok slowly but surely, closing the gap between it and its prey.
"It's gaining on us Squall," yelled Seifer, over the sudden noise of the engines.
Squall said nothing, focused entirely on the 'rok, that had now become an extension of his own body. Then, without warning, Squall pulled hard to the right, knocking both Seifer and Zell off balance, but the manoeuvre was to no avail, the creature followed the 'rok and within moments Squall again tried to shake it off. The two aerial creatures ducked, dived, spun and twisted one trying wildly to pull away from the other, but with no success.
The creature reached out a claw and scratched the surface of the 'rok, just enough to send it off trajectory and then, with the force of a thousand Omega WEAPONs dug its self deep into the hull of the Estharian ship, sending it tumbling towards the desert below.
Inside the cockpit, Squall was trying desperately to pull up while the others were bracing themselves in crash positions. Even Squall, with all his strength, couldn't dislodge the massive weight that was now sending them tumbling towards the ground.
The monster slashed madly at the 'rok, biting into its electrical systems and tearing out components, flinging them out, trying to get at the flesh it seemed to know was inside.
Squall twisted and spun the main control, until he finally realised he no longer had control. The desert of Centra approached rapidly in the window and Squall looked on, knowing that he could do nothing more.
The surface came closer and closer, the whining of the engines louder and louder until, with a ear splitting bang, the 'rok dug a huge trench as it came to its inevitable stop, blowing out almost every console and monitoring station on the vessel.
The cockpit was a mess, screens were shattered and glass was everywhere, the chairs and stations were flung across the room and electrics fizzled and spluttered, trying to complete connections that were no longer there.
"Bloody hell," said a voice from underneath the remains of the navigator's seat. "Is everyone still alive?" The seat toppled back and Seifer emerged, with a cut across his head that was gushing blood and a rip in his shirt.
"I'm not," said Zell from underneath the pilot's chair that was now the wrong way up and pinning him to the wall, his hair still soaking wet and now had flecks of blood in it. "At least I don't think so." With a mighty heave he pushed the chair away and got up, testing his legs, followed closely by Seifer doing the same.
A blue green light enveloped them both and the familiar tingle of a cure spell flooded their senses as the wounded flesh stitched its self together.
"Come on," said Squall. "We'd better get out of here and fast."
"Why?" asked Zell
Squall raised his eyebrows and then brought them back down in a 'what a dumb ass question' expression. Almost on cue a familiar roar, now all the louder because of the proximity of the monster, was heard and the ship shook and the tearing of metal was heard.
"That's why chickie." Seifer smirked.
The three companions ran out of the cockpit as fast as possible facing literally an up-hill struggle as the ship was imbedded at an awkward angle in the ground and was still shaking from the continued attacks of the monster.
As they stumbled out of the main hanger of the 'rok Zell made the foolish mistake of turning around, attempting to assess the damage, and saw the full form of the beast. Armour plated scales covered the creature, shielding every part of its body, its claws were at least the size of a human and were so sharp, their serrated points couldn't be seen. The creature was pitch black with a slight reflective quality giving the impression of a precious jewel. Its head was at the end of a long neck, similar to that of a dragon, but much larger and its wings were larger than those of Diablos that Zell had equipped.
The creature turned its massive head and spotted the three humans trying to get away and, jumping from the 'rok's almost destroyed hull, landed with the force of an earthquake on the ground in front of them.
Recognising that running would mean instant death, the three warriors took the only other option available: to fight the monster in front of them.
Feeling the familiar tingle of battle flood through him and the adrenaline rush that followed Zell immediately cast a 'Scan' magic on the creature, to at least estimate its weak points, but in his mind an image of Seifer, Squall and him appeared. Zell was aghast, the creature had an automatic reflect ability equipped.
Realising this was a foe that would only be bested through extremely good luck, Seifer did something that he had never before done, he assumed a defensive position and cast haste on himself, followed by protect and shield on his two friends.
Squall, feeling the protect spell envelop him, reached into the back of his mind, calling out his guardian force Shiva. The familiar sensation of fading from reality hit all three of the fighters and the coldness of Squall's resident guardian filled his senses, but the excitement was all too short lived, with a shudder and a flash the fighters rematerialized in reality and a different feeling filled him. Shiva was knocked out and removed from the battle.
The vicious creature in front of them reared its head back, took a tremendous breath so deep that the small group felt the air around them ripple and pucker. Each one of the fighters braced themselves against the attack they knew was coming.
The monster attacked, breathing poisonous fumes onto the small humans that stood in front of it. Squall, Seifer and Zell were cursed with all the usual effects: the dark cloud of blindness around their eyes, the haze of confusion, the countdown leading to death, and the strange tightness in their throats that indicated silence.
Each one of them fell to the ground, unconscious, knowing that they had lost.
Seifer prayed that there was no afterlife because surely he would be punished for everything he had done while Ultimecia had been controlling him. But there was no better way to go than among his friends, knowing deep in himself that he had tried his best, yet that wasn't enough. Then he saw nothing more than black and then he remembered even less.
Zell realised that he had failed all of his friends, and had failed Squall most of all. He hoped for forgiveness for the way he had treated Seifer in the past, but most of all he regretted not telling Crystel how he truly felt. Then, as he took his last breath a black, elegant form shimmered into view.
'Guess this must be the reaper,' he thought. 'Well he ain't getting me without a fight.' Putting what remain of his strength into his last actions, he started kicking and screaming and then all the lights went out.
Squall's last thoughts were directed to Rinoa, his one true love, how they would never get to live their fairy tale life and that there truly was no happy ending for them, how he would miss his friends, but most of all how he would miss those closest to him, like Zell, Seifer, Laguna and all the others.
A figure with long black wings appeared in the haze that was blinding. Clad all in black, the figure appeared to be beckoning to him.
'I thought angels were meant to be white,' Squall thought. Then Squall Leonhart, the lion of Balamb and saviour of the world, stopped thinking all together.
He felt like he was floating.
He felt strange, almost like he wasn't all quite there, like he was lost.
'Is this death?' he thought 'If it is it's bloody boring'.
Pain.
It came and then it went and suddenly, he felt again.
He felt a bed underneath him, a pillow under his head.
He was alive.
Seifer Almasy was alive.
But where was he?
How did he get here?
He dared to open his eyes, but got a surprise, the room he was in was dim, almost back lit and his eyes adjusted easily to the gloom.
"Where am I?' he croaked.
"You're safe' said a voice next to him, light but cold. 'And if you're interested, it's 14:25 on the 17th of January'
Seifer turned in the direction of the voice and saw a shape on a chair next to his bed.
His eyes slowly focused on the figure and his vision became clearer.
Then he did something he had never done before.
He screamed.
Awake
A voice pierced the emptiness around him
Awake
'Why should I?' Squall asked the darkness.
I need you, my lion.
The image of the Griever pendant appeared before Squall, hovering slightly before him and, reaching forward, grabbed it. Yet as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished again.
Awake
Suddenly Squall's eyes were open and blinded by the bright light, they closed again.
He was alive.
But what about Zell? What about Seifer?
He opened his eyes again, slowly this time, allowing a moment for adjustment before he looked around, taking in every detail.
He was in a room containing three beds the farthest one was by a window and a small door was by it, another small door was inset just behind a wardrobe. Zell was in one bed, he was in another, and the third, nearest the window, was empty but the sheets were rumpled, so perhaps Seifer survived as well?
The Lionheart was leaning on a small chest of drawers at the foot of the bed, its familiar crystal casting a blue glow around it.
Groaning Squall got up out of the bed and, with his head swimming, crossed over to check Zell.
He was alive.
His breathing was shallow though and a damp cloth was on his forehead trying to cool a fever. Squall checked his pulse. It was weak, but present.
Leaving his friend sleeping in peace, Squall struggled over to the chest and opening the drawers found his old clothes. Looking down Squall saw that he was dressed in a plain, simple grey robe. Making a conscious decision to look around first Squall closed the chest and, picking up the Lionheart, made for the door.
Opening it, Squall stepped out onto a wide terrace with a bright noonday sun shining down on the stone path that was strangley warm against his feet. Looking around again, Squall saw mountains in the distance, yet everything else was rocky desert: no water, no vegetation.
'Where in Hyne's name am I?' he thought
His ears pricked at the sound of metal clashing and spinning around saw Seifer, clad in his usual attire trading blows with someone dressed in black trousers and shrouded in an almost long black robe with a hood.
Seifer had his Hyperion with him, whereas the other figure was using just a plain blade with no gun attachment, but wielding it with grace and experience.
Seifer brought the Hyperion crashing down, trying to cut the figure in half, and putting all his strength behind it. The other figure raised the blade and blocked the blow, then with a sudden move, put Seifer off balance, knocking the Hyperion away and then throwing his own blade into the air and pinning Seifer's weapon to the ground.
Knowing that the fight had gone hand to hand, Seifer attacked. Seifer was always a dirty fighter, but his moves lacked the usual confidence and the other figure almost knew what was coming each time. Seifer then tried his old trick of using a fire spell, but it simply washed off the figure in a way Squall had never seen before.
After the effort of a spell, Seifer's strength waned and the other figure got the upper hand, and within moments, the creature had Seifer pinned to the ground with his fist raised, about to strike the killing blow.