Disclaimer: Looks like I sold those stocks on time, so I can still afford the gas in my car and the two pieces of cheese that make up my daily diet. So now, I don't own anything affiliated with Squaresoft or Square-Enix, so I only own the direct events that happen in this fanfic. Any of you aspiring authors without a smidgen of originality can go ahead and use what I've created in this fanfic, so long as you don't make money off of it, like how I'm using FFVIII without making money off of it.
Chapter Eight: And the Tempest Gathers
Footsteps echoed slightly as the man passed through the antechamber, and into the command center. There, he saw her on the dais at the end, standing tall in her black and red battle-maiden dress, auburn hair reaching all the way down to her hips.
When they had finally finished making the site and permanently moved all operation centers there, he would practically gape at the room she claimed as her throne chamber. Four times as wide as the walkways of Esthar and two-thirds that as tall, this chamber was carved out of the living rock under the thin soils of the Grandidi Jungle. Though the roughly oval-shaped chamber's rock walls were far from smooth, still looking like it was carved out with a very large chisel, it was all covered in a meter of solid ice. The walls and ceiling were as smooth as porcelain, and the floor was perfectly flat, save the two rows of unsavory shoulder height rocks sticking straight out from the ground, each with a bowl carved into the top filled with oils that burned, giving the chamber an ethereal light. The ice itself was frozen as smoothly as possible, not the slightest crack in it's whole depth, giving everything underneath a blue tinted display.
Despite the ice, the chamber was as warm as the rest of the base, and despite such warmth, not even the very surface of the ice was melted. It was an easy trick for her to pull off.
He walked through the room, to the raised, circular dais at the end, white marble with glass-clear crystal lines in the shape of a diamond, with black quartz lines making the shape of a Behemoth roaring. Behind that was a hovering throne, with a semi-circle of screens on the other side.
He knelt before the stairs leading to the dais. "Your Eminence."
She turned around, focusing blue eyes on him that would be beautiful were it not for the perpetual scowl that harbored them. "Rise, Kaejadra."
He stood up and looked at her with all the pride he could muster. As much as he hated it, she was his superior, both in rank and in reality. "Your Eminence, we have been infiltrated, by SeeD or Manitech most likely."
She nodded. "And how, may I ask, do you know this?" Her tone clearly showed her politeness to be a mock directed towards his inferiority.
"I have felt him coming." Kaejadra answered. "He has not fully awakened, but he is here."
Her eyes narrowed at him, realizing who and what 'him' referred to, and it took all his strength not to flinch. "Then why have we not gone into blue alert? Does Captain Mercon know of this?"
"No, your Eminence, he does not." It was insulting how she treasured Mercon's judgment over his own. "I felt that when they have infiltrated deep enough, we would cut off their escape, and capture them." Then, you will bow to me. He silently added.
She lifted her chin up. "Capture them, you say? Why not kill them instead?"
"We do not know how much they know, and knowledge is power." He answered her calmly, smugly, gathering a rare measure of courage in her presence. "Am I wrong?"
She turned around with an exaggerated flair, and walked to her throne. "Do what you want." She replied. "But do not underestimate them!"
Kaejadra kneeled down once again. "Thank you, Sorceress Andrea."
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Hideo could see the five figures make it to the door to the compound. He lowered the scope he pilfered from the Ragnarok, and took in the site of the compound itself. It was hard to tell just how far across the cliff-surrounded depression it covered, but he could see it was at least half a mile long and wide, with a canopy of camouflage netting, with the roof itself similarly colored. With that makeup, it was also camouflaged three dimensionally, which must have helped it stay undetected by Esthar's satellites. Here and there he could see a gap in the netting, which must have been a heliport or something to that purpose.
He lifted the scope again, and saw the SeeDs get into the uniforms of the guards they had jumped when they got close to the compound. Irvine had sniped the sentries in the guard towers, giving them a clear run without alert. Within a minute, they entered the compound and was out of Hideo's sight, and he out of theirs.
Okay, here we go. He thought. The guard towers' roofs helped make peaks in the camouflage netting, so his margin for error was small. Still won't be that hard.
The fire erupted, and he ran straight down the rock cliff's side, struggling to maintain his Limit Break. At the right moment, he kicked off the wall, and while the Shadow Run was still in effect, he landed as softly and quietly as a chocobo down feather would. He then stepped over to a guard who was sniped by Irvine. Putting his sword and sheath on the ground, he saw the guard's uniform was useless, a large bloody hole adorning the armor. The armor itself was similar to a standard Estharian military attire, except colored in military forest camouflage of green and brown, yet still with that shiny, glass like appearance.
The guard tower itself was a perfectly rectangular box, with a band of open space near the top where the walls were closer in. He would be caught in a second if he wore what he did then, and he couldn't see any quick way of getting a good uniform. Probably the first time in his life he did something completely compulsive, and of course he instantly began to regret it.
Hideo heard the sound of a door swishing open, and instantly hugged the wall. Another guard, in the same uniform, walked out and stretched. I'll have to be quick.
Suddenly, he remembered a tactic some senior SeeD members had told him works well in this kind of situation. He reached out through the GF's, and felt the innate magical energies surrounding the guard. Thunder, no; Blind, he still had several of those left over; Meltdown, maybe, but he might have something more useful. What's this? Warp? That was a rare one. Might as well.
He willed the spell to come to him, and four spheres erupted from the unsuspecting guard and came to Hideo. As his SeeD peers had told him, like those who've never had spells drawn from them, the guard naturally became frightened and confused as to what just happened to him. Hideo took advantage of this distraction, and Shadow Ran right for him. The guard barely had time to turn his head to see his adversary as Hideo jumped up and put his right foot on the railing bordering the guard towers catwalk. Using it as an anchor, Hideo kicked the guard square in the head, sending him off his feet and into the stone wall. A loud thud resounded, and the guard dropped to the floor.
Hideo let go of his Limit Break, and knelt in front of the guard. Just the force from the impact should have killed him, and his armor wasn't damaged at all. Still, it was best to make sure the guard wouldn't be getting up in an hour and sounding the alarm.
Still, he felt somewhat…uneasy about this. He shrugged it off. You'll have plenty of time to check your anxieties when you get this over with.
He reached over to his left breast gun holster, pulling out his .45. He reached forward with his free hand to pull the guard's helmet off, and then the uneasiness increased, and he finally recognized it as the intuition he got from the GF's!
Before he could react, the guard's hand shot up, and while grabbing Hideo's hand, twisted it so his grip on the gun was weakened. But the SeeD reacted in time to put his other hand on the grip, securing it in his hand. Then, the guard pulled the ramp right off the pistol, exposing the bullet and hammer. Hideo almost pulled the trigger when he realized both what had happened, and that since the confines of the barrel were gone, the propulsion caused by the gunpowder igniting would be minimal, probably not even enough to dent the guard's armor.
In the hesitation, the guard pushed Hideo's hand away, and reached for his other gun. Reacting half on instinct, Hideo grabbed the gun, and after some clumsy wrestling, managed to pull the barrel off that one as well. As soon as he did that, he pushed the guard back against the wall, and backed himself up. He realized he had left his sword with the other guard, and now he only had his fists and magic at his disposal, and the latter would be suicide unless the guard agreed to stay completely still and at least five feet away.
Hideo didn't learn much about hand-to-hand combat at the Garden, focusing mostly on his sword, but still had skill from the many brawls he got in during his life in the Esthar slums. But with the man's eyes, solar plexus, and groin covered, his options were limited.
The guard scuttled forward, swinging his leg out to catch Hideo's, but the Estharian was fast enough to lift it up. Yet the leg grazed his standing leg enough to knock him off balance, forcing him to put his other leg on the ground for support. That was all the time the guard needed.
He jumped up and rammed Hideo into the railing, then pulled and rammed him into the stone wall of the guard tower, disorienting him slightly. He then grabbed the hair on the sides of his head, and head-butted him with his helmet. Hideo fell onto his back, his world spinning for a moment.
The guard stepped forward to kick the downed Hideo, but he recovered enough to pull his right leg in and swing it out to deflect the kick. In that movement, his opposite hip was forward, and he instinctively kicked out with that side's leg to the guard's crotch. It was protected enough that he didn't hurt anything, but having the pelvic area hit so hard thrust the man's hips back, pushing him off balance.
Hideo did a kip-up, and managed to deflect a punch quick enough from the already recovered guard. This guy must have experience. Hideo thought distantly.
He quickly latched his hand around the guard's arm, and pulled him in, elbowing him in the gut. Then with a quick shuffle of his feet, Hideo brought the arm he had grabbed with around to punch the man in the helmet, and he nearly yelped when his knuckles, no longer callused from frequent brawls, hit the harder-than-steel armor.
Despite being hit only in the helmet, the guard recoiled from the force due to Hideo's GF-enhanced strike. Hideo figured his most damaging attack available was a knife-edge hand strike to the man's relatively unprotected throat. He grabbed the guard's shoulder to turn him around, but was caught off guard as that same shoulder rammed him back against the stone wall, his head bouncing off. The next thing he knew, the guard's forearm was pressing his neck to the wall, while his other hand pulled a knife from his belt.
When Hideo saw the man pull the blade back to stab him in the face, the fire of his Limit Break erupted once again. Leaving a shadowy trail, Hideo's arm lifted in what felt like a slow motion, pushing the advancing knife's vector off, and watched it hit the wall next to him, and break.
He then kicked the guard's knee inward, putting him off balance enough to get his forearm off his throat, then lift the guard up and slam him on the ground. Hideo reached down and grabbed him around the armor plating, cart-wheeled over his body, lifted him up, and threw him nearly the full length of the guard tower.
Hideo took one breath, then ran after him, planning on delivering the final blow. The guard pressed something on his belt, and a millisecond later, Hideo's fist collided with his helmet. But it barely touched the surface as the young SeeD was instantly electrocuted. The fire within him receded, and he lost all momentum, dropping straight to the ground.
"How does one-hundred-thousand volts feel?" The guard taunted.
Hideo slowly put his hand on the ground, and when he was half way pushed up, the guard dropped his elbow onto Hideo's shoulder. That shoulder's ligaments had been weakened and stretched due to his injury during the SeeD Field Exam, and it dislocated once again.
Hideo's form fell to the ground, his face hitting the dirt-covered floor hard as a familiar pain shot through him once more. His lungs froze, cutting off his breathing. The guard reached down and grabbed Hideo's collar, lifted him up, and threw him against the wall, where he began to slump.
But he didn't sink much, as the guard's hands gripped him around the throat. Hideo panicked and threw his body from side to side, trying to loosen the grip. By luck, the grip lessened, and regaining what sense he had, dug his chin into the guard's thumbs, keeping them in place. He tried punching the man's ribs, but even the strength gained from his GF's weren't enough to knock the man off. He couldn't use magic at this range, unless he wanted to kill himself as well.
The man lifted his head back, looking down on the SeeD. Hideo saw the opening he needed. Reaching out with his one good hand, he seized the man's hyoid bone in his throat, and putting all his hopes into his grip, crushed it.
A second later, the man recoiled, grabbing his throat in a futile effort as it closed up without the support it needed to stay open, not even allowing enough space to breath. Hideo slumped to the ground, and just watched as the man fell to the floor, thrashing in panic, trying desperately to breath. The horrible sight lasted longer than Hideo wanted it to, until the guard threw out his last spasm and went still, his head turned limply to one side.
He sat there, staring at the man he had just killed. It had been so long since he had killed another human being. He never found out if those Thundara spells he used in Deling during the Field Exam actually killed those few Black Behemoth agents, and he was never given the chance to ponder on it. In Esthar, when he and his brother had killed a few rival gang members and other people trying to take their lives. Had he really changed that much that it felt so different, taking another human life?
After taking a few deep breaths, he crawled over to the guard. His armor was still in good shape, and would provide a suitable disguise.
Putting the hand of his dislocated shoulder on the ground, Hideo locked his arm out as best he could, and gritting his teeth, pushed his shoulder at the right angle to get it back in it's socket.
After a minute of letting the pain recede, he got onto his knees and proceeded to take off the guard's armor.
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Five minutes later, after figuring out how everything got on and what connected to what, Hideo pulled the helmet over his head. He expected the usual half regular vision, half X-ray vision the standard Esthar uniform helmet provided, but what he got confused him. It was half normal vision, but what it was blended with was a visual method Hideo had never seen before, seeming halfway between infrared and motion detection. He looked at the dead guard, and saw a human shaped collection of lines, differing in size all over. He looked at his own hand, and saw those same lines, but they looked like tightly packed traffic highways, constantly moving.
I'm seeing blood vessels. He realized. After tinkering around a little, he found the controls on the belt for changing from this blood vessel detection, to infrared, to sonar, then to X-ray. That would be the easiest way to find the others.
After a little more tinkering, he found the control for the electrostatic field generator, and the communicator. Next to that, he found the controls for the inertia dampening field generator. So that's why he didn't stay down from those blows.
He wore his black-and-silver-dragon jumpsuit under the armor, and had his guns and their holsters on over it, but he had to leave his blue trench coat there, on the guard tower. He hoped that strapping his sword to his belt wasn't out of place.
He stopped before the sliding door when a thought came to him. If they were so close to the Esthar capital, how have they avoided detection? It hadn't been the first time an organization had tried to use the cover of the forest to do illegal business, and the government's satellites regularly made sweeps of the deep jungle for these things.
He took off his right glove, and touched the door, feeling it's surface. It didn't feel like metal, more like some kind of polymer-plastic. Probably just as durable as steel, and wouldn't show up on normal radar.
Readying himself, he pressed the switch to open the door, and walked through. He was instantly shocked to find wooden stairs, and the walls of the rectangular spiral hallway was made of clay! If this is what the rest of the base is like, it's no wonder Esthar couldn't find these guys.
After going down roughly fifty feet, Hideo stepped out onto a thirty foot high walkway going around a huge room, one half an armory, the other half what looked like a nano-machine factory. The factory contained void tubes of all sizes, with not even air in them to obstruct the construction within, with partially constructed products floating within via magnetic fields. The armory had projectile ICBM's, with three rail guns to fire them off. If they had developed a non-alloy shielding for the ICBM's, then without gas emissions to give off a heat signature it would be near impossible to identify. If they had the funding to get all this, then they would probably be able to make those rail guns high enough quality to fire one of those missiles halfway around the world!
What the hell are they developing all this stuff for? He wondered. This was a hell of a jump from mass distribution of typical weaponry.
He continued across the walkway, passing some Black Behemoth guards now and then, most of them with different weapons, much to his relief that his sword and two guns weren't out of place. After traveling down a flight of stairs to the ground level and crossing what must have been half the complex dodging the hustle and bustle of loaders, soldiers, technicians, and general laborers, he had noticed a lot of them, especially the ones with the weapons, clearly had non-Estharian accents. Mercenaries most likely.
After a time of walking through crowds of workers, he spotted a series of computer consoles on the wall. Some were being used by soldiers as well as technicians, so it seemed safe enough to be used without drawing unnecessary attention. Dodging a few workers in black jumpsuits with white stripes on the shoulders, he got to a console, and checked the basic options: schedules, maintenance reports, bulletin boards, complex layout.
Complex layout? I guess it's not just uninvited guests who gets lost in this huge place. He touched the icon, and a schematic blueprint of the facility came out. It was comprised of four wings connected by a central circular building in the middle. He was shocked to find he had only traveled a third of the way across the complex. This place must be five miles long! He checked a log of maintenance reports, and from looking at them, he got an idea of the key structural points for the east side of the base. He checked the map again, and the central round structure registered as 'The Pit'. Oooookay…might as well check it out, I'm not going to find the others here. At that point, he really wished he had paid more attention in classes about covert infiltrations.
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Thirty minutes later, Hideo walked through a doorway to a circular tunnel that went around the inside of The Pit. He stepped through another door at the other end and found himself in an arena, reminiscent of a coliseum from the old Centra Civilization. But it wasn't human battles that were going on inside.
"I'll bet fifty gil on the dragon!" One person yelled over the cheering to his right.
"You're on!" Another voice replied.
A hexadragon and a Snow Lion were fighting in the center of the arena. Besides the two fighting beasts, there were some monster corpses littering the arena grounds, some were identifiable, others were mutilated beyond recognition. Both monsters were rather bloody, some of the intestines from the Snow Lion were hanging out, and Hideo had to divert his gaze. He looked at the spectators, and was surprised to find that at least as many people in lab coats with personal notepads as there were other people who seemed to be there for the fun.
They must be having the monsters fight here to collect data on them. So they were raising monsters as weapons. He turned and left the fight to the spectators to go in search of a private computer. He had to gather more intelligence than the public terminals would allow.
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Can you get anymore clichéd than this? Hideo wondered as he carefully moved through the ventilation shaft as best he could without scraping his armor, lest he make noise that could give him away.
He moved his head over a grate to look into the room below him. All lights were off, so he switched on his helmet's night-vision mode. He instantly recognized several Estharian computer terminals: six foot monoliths that rose from the ground, looking like something halfway between a tombstone and an arcade terminal in Balamb.
Pulling the grate off, he slipped through and landed on the ground as silently as he could. He picked a terminal, and pulled the keyboard down to expose the monitor before pulling out the Fly from a compartment on his utility belt. Placing his helmet on the rim of the terminal and the little box on the keyboard against the monitor where it would have a more direct route to the mainframe, he went to work. Fifteen minutes later, he had disabled all alarms and had full access to all cameras, structural layouts and mission documents. He found the document detailing the attack on Deling City: Operation Twin Fang.
Twin Fang? He looked deeper into it, and found in the plan that after they finished with Manitech, they were going to overrun the Presidential Residence, setting the stage for Operation: Full Circle. He closed the page and started searching for that document. It took him a few minutes, since it seems to have been dropped to the bottom of the priority list after Twin Fang's failure, but he found it.
They were planning to use Galbadia's long range missiles to launch an attack on Esthar to draw the military away…while they launched an attack on the city itself…in order to take over the Presidential Palace! These guys were planning on taking Esthar itself! But why? Full Circle…
A possibility suddenly struck him. Exiting the document, he started a contained system search over the priority orders reports, and searched for the word: Sorceress. Search Results: 37 matches found. He clicked for a limited list, and found what he was looking for: "Sorceress Andrea has ordered a new shipment of iron." He checked all the others, and found all them saying Sorceress Andrea. These guys are with the Sorceress Liberation Front!
The Sorceress Liberation Front was a rebellion that started shortly after Laguna sealed away Adel. While he helped turn the country into a democracy instead of an empire, there were those that felt Esthar's leadership was only worthy of divine beings such as sorceresses. And they've found a sorceress.
He was about to close the search window, when he noticed a name: Kaejadra, a mythical name. A half-human, half-monster being, combining the strengths of both worlds, who once served Hyne's Descendant. He wasn't into mythology, but a fellow hacker went by that name at one time, and told him about it. As he remembered, some versions said he served faithfully his whole life, while others stated that with his cunning, he turned on the sorceress when the time was right.
He pulled up the personnel records of this Kaejadra. A picture came up, showing a face he almost thought wasn't human. Snow white hair, swept back in spikes from his forehead down to his shoulders. His face was almost as white, and what Hideo first mistook for drawings or tattoos were actually blood veins, a red one and blue one on each cheek and the forehead. But the most distinguishing feature was the man's eyes; they were completely black, save the white pupil in the center.
Who…what is this guy? The woman of light's voice came back to him, so clear he half suspected she was behind the recollection: They have created a Bastard Shepherd. He immediately scrolled down to his background information. There was nothing in that section.
Hideo set up a system wide search for the name Kaejadra, and the results were thousands of matches. He then narrowed it down to file names, and in the seven search matches, one caught his eye: Project Kaejadra. He opened up the file, and the deeper into it he delved, the deeper a sense of dread he felt. This guy was biologically created ten years ago through a combination of human and monster genetic research and manipulation, Odine's magical properties physics research, and the long banned field of soul splicing. He was created to control monsters. Because they couldn't wait another twenty years, they made an alteration to his DNA so he aged twice as fast. He clicked a link to the research data on him. It turns out he can use magic all on his own, more powerfully than any human can use without a GF, but not even a quarter as powerful as a sorceress could use. But apparently to make up for his lack of magical strength, Kaejadra was able to use magical powers and techniques never seen before.
He had to get this information to both Esthar and Balamb Garden. He unlocked the security door to the room, and walked out. The instant the door closed behind him, he realized he left his helmet in the room. He turned around to go through the door, but found himself facing a smooth wall of ice covering jagged rock. He spun on his heels and saw he was no longer in the room he was in a second ago. It was roughly shaped like a funnel, with clear ice covering the floor, walls, and ceiling, with two columns of jagged rocks sticking out of the ground giving a walkway to a dais with a hovering high-backed throne chair with a couple of legs hanging from it.
"So you have finally come," A female voice said as the throne turned to present a beautiful woman in a red and black battle-maiden's dress, "to kill me." She stood up, and started down the steps of the dais. She was probably in her late twenties, nearly six feet tall, with blue eyes and auburn hair.
Hideo then saw he and the woman were not alone in the chamber, as five other Black Behemoth armor clad mercenaries stood at the double doors to the chamber, one with a sawed off shotgun, one with a katana at his hip, one with no visible weapons, one with two hooked swords, and one with a gunblade…and they were all looking at him without his helmet on.
The sound of the woman's footsteps were coming closer. "I know you are SeeD, and I know why you're here, so stop insulting me and remove those helmets!" She ordered with supreme authority.
After a few seconds, Squall took his helmet off, followed by the others, and threw it away to a corner so it wouldn't get in the way. He then turned his accusing eyes to the Estharian SeeD.
Hideo felt panic start to come up. "Commander, it's not what you think."
Squall's eyes didn't falter. "Who is she?" He said with barely a nod in the woman's direction.
"She's a sorceress, the leader of the Black Behemoth."
Squall turned his eyes back to the woman, and pulled out his gunblade, getting it ready as the others did the same.
Sorceress Andrea's head tilted as if in fascination. "You mean…you didn't know about me?" She laughed softly. "This should be interesting. I have long wanted to clash against the infamous SeeD."
Hideo wasted no time in pulling out his pistols and unloading them at her as she looked at his companions. At seemingly the same instant, without taking her eyes off the others, she lifted her hand in Hideo's direction and a Protect spell stopped each bullet. Then with a flick of her wrist, it felt like Hideo was hit with a battle hammer and slammed into the ice covered wall.
Mikhail, short but thickly built, leapt into the air to land on the far side of the sorceress, readying his fists, while Irvine ran a half circle around to meet him, with Jeremiah and Delta taking up flanking positions. Squall then lifted his gunblade sideways and fired an elephant bullet sized projectile at the sorceress, which was met by a similar Protect spell.
But then Mikail cast Flare at her, and as the white hot ball of energy raced at her, a golden sphere encompassed Sorceress Andrea, the Shell spell dispersing the entire spell without it touching her.
Then Jeremiah shot forward, faster than any human could without aid, and swung his katana at the sorceress, with Delta a half second behind him. But her body flew into the air, and with another flick of the wrist, she was flung right into Jeremiah, both of them skidding across the floor twenty feet away.
Right then, both Irvine and Squall fired at the flying sorceress at the same time, and both were met with Protect spells. Yet she hadn't anticipated another flare spell from Mikhail, and not having the time to raise a Shell, she forced a hasty, clumsy dodge, resulting in the spell missing and her crashing into the ground less than fifteen feet from Squall.
Hideo's head cleared up enough right then to see Squall blast across the floor with his gunblade raised, and witnessed him get batted to the side like an insect from a telekinetic blast. As the sorceress floated back onto her feet, she cast an Ultima spell at Irvine, and though he jumped out of the way, the explosion still reached him, sending him careening into the far wall, burned and unconscious. Delta and Jeremiah had just gotten back onto their feet and were about to charge when a wall of intense flames shot up from the ground almost to the ceiling, dividing the room in half, blocking them off from Squall and the sorceress.
"Tend to Irvine!" Squall ordered as he used his gunblade to get back on his feet. He then charged and pulled off a series of attacks on the sorceress, each being blocked by a shield-like Protect spells.
Hideo pulled his sword out of it's sheath, and while the sorceress's back was to him, he ran forward ready to strike. Soon the two SeeDs were attacking the sorceress relentlessly from both sides. In the process of blocking and diverting attacks, she continually pressed to get the two of them in front of her instead of surrounding her, making it easier to deal with them. But for every move she made to that end, the two SeeDs counter-moved to keep her surrounded. She had almost no chance to strike back between Hideo's speed and Squall's expertise at striking at openings almost before they appeared.
Eventually, by chance, she dodged when the two did just the right attacks where their blades clashed, and the two SeeDs were grouped together. With one telekinetic wave, she sent the two flying into the nearby wall.
As she started to breath a much needed breath, a column of white light hit the wall, missing her by inches, sending a huge wave of shattered ice and rock out, knocking her over as a second column blasted through right where she was standing, blasting another wave of ice and rock across the room.
Hideo pulled his arms away from his face to see what caused those explosions. Irvine stood there, replacing the two shells in his shotgun, fully healed in front of the other three SeeDs, and the aura of a limit break fading.
The sorceress got back on her feet, her hair a tangled mess, with soot on her face and battle dress, with a look that could turn lava ice cold. She let out a yell, and Hideo acted without thinking. The fires erupted within him, and using his Shadow Run, he got in front of the four SeeDs, and cast the strongest Shell spell he could muster a split second before a wall of fire slammed into it. Hideo held his hands up, focusing everything he had to keep the fiery tempest away from his comrades until the Firaga spell subsided.
Squall prepared to cast a magic spell from behind her, but was forced to put up Shell instead as the sorceress quickly turned around and cast Thunder on him.
Hideo saw his chance and took it. Igniting Shadow Run once again, he ran forward, sword ready to thrust. She turned around instantly and put up a Protect spell, but through the sheer speed and force behind the attack, the blade shattered the spell like glass, the fragments evaporating into blue wisps, and the blade stabbed into her gut. He was about to twist the sword to open the wound even more, when a wave hit him and sent him flying away from her, pulling his sword with him.
She clutched her stomach, and yelled unnaturally loud, "Kaejadra!" A second later, a ripple in the air shaped into a human outline, which solidified into a human. A man wearing a black hakama and haori, with snow white hair and a face almost the same shade, with large blue and red veins and black, abysmal eyes.
The GFs in Hideo erupted in fury, nearly overriding his mind. "Who is he?" Squall asked, edging back to him with his sword trained on the duo.
"Something that shouldn't exist." He answered, though he couldn't tell if it was him or the GF that chose the words. "An abomination."
"Hmm." Kaejadra murmured. "So you're the one." Hideo nearly doubled over as he felt his soul shift, as if it were nearly torn from his flesh. He lifted his eyes back to the man, and he could see the magical fields surrounding the sorcerer and the sorceress. The tendrils of power that flowed into and through Andrea were much fewer than Kaejadra's, but so many times brighter, fiercer.
Then, he was back there, in that infinite tunnel, the light far off in the distance. Hideo forced himself to break the connection, returning his soul back to the material world.
Kaejadra scoffed. "Too bad." Without warning, Squall and Hideo found themselves flying backwards crashing into the wall. And they stayed there. Hideo pulled himself to his feet, but found himself and the commander and the others were standing on the wall as if the room had tilted ninety degrees. Andrea stood right where she was seconds ago, with Kaejadra next to her, a large fiery sphere forming in his hands.
"Scatter!" Squall ordered, and everyone ran away from each other as a Firaga spell blasted towards them. Hideo and the others stopped when nothing happened, and turned to see the fiery orb just hovering there, mere inches above the wall. Out of the corner of his eye, Hideo saw the sorcerer raise his hand, and snapped his fingers.
The spell exploded, and six fireballs flew out, each aimed at a SeeD. Hideo dodged barely, but caught the sight of one being effortlessly dispelled as it hit Squall's Shell spell. Hideo got back to his feet and pulled out a spare clip to put in his gun. Suddenly, the humidity shot up dramatically.
"Double clip barrage!" Squall ordered. The double clip tactic was a simultaneous magical and physical attack, bypassing whatever barrier an opponent currently had up.
Hideo lifted his gun to the sorcerer, took aim, and as soon as he heard the dual whistles of two Flare spells cast by Mikhail and Jeremiah, he pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. The same happened with Irvine's and Squall's weapons. The spells cast by the other three SeeDs were dispelled easily by Kaejadra's Shell.
"Good luck drying off that gunpowder." The sorcerer smirked as the humidity returned to normal. "This is too easy." Suddenly, natural gravity returned, making the SeeDs crash back to the regularly oriented ground.
"Irvine, stay back, and use any support magic you have." Squall ordered quickly and quietly. "Hideo, Jeremiah and Delta, you're with me, we'll attack him head on. Mikhail, use low grade magic quickly when you see an opening, all we need is a moment of distraction. If, at any point, all four of us are clear of him, use fifth tier magic immediately, and hopefully that'll be enough to break his concentration."
Hideo turned his head to look at the duo. Kaejadra, standing there with his arms crossed, obviously impatient to see their move, and Sorceress Andrea, kneeling thirty feet away from him with curative magic spells working on her wound, staring at them like a cornered animal ready to bite back.
"Go!" The Commander ordered, and the four of them charged. When Hideo was halfway across the short distance, Kaejadra cast Blizzara faster than he had ever seen before, and stopped in place violently as ice held his feet firmly to the ground. "Son of a bitch!" He cursed.
Squall leapt and landed on the other side of Kaejadra, and attacked at the same time as the other two SeeDs, and all three hit nothing but air as Kaejadra sank down into the ice as if he were a phantom. Then dozens of jagged ice columns shot up from the ground, forming an arena like circle, encompassing the SeeDs.
Then, out of the ground near the circle's border rose Kaejadra, still seeming like a specter. Squall wasted no time in leaping fast, bringing his sword to bare. Kaejadra sidestepped almost casually, and punched Squall in the face, forcing him to take a step back. Delta let loose a Fira spell, which the sorcerer responded to by telekinetically knocking Squall into the line of fire, the explosion burning the Commander's backside and ruining his coat.
Using the commander's injury as a distraction, Kaejadra formed the pulsating green sphere of an Ultima spell in his palm, pointing towards the others…towards Delta.
Without thinking, Hideo shot out his open palm towards the sorcerer as best he could with his feet still stuck in ice, and felt his unfamiliar, limited telekinetic power lance out. The burst of dimensional energy, invisible and unfocused, knocked Kaejadra off his feet, slamming him into and shattering an ice pillar before he could cast the spell.
This wasn't going well. If they didn't do something soon, Andrea would be fully recovered, and they wouldn't stand a chance! They needed every advantage they could get.
Malak's words came back to him, 'Speed is your ally.' He needed his Shadow Run.
Driving away worry of injury, and hoping the armor would protect him enough, Hideo shot a Fire spell straight down, hitting the large block of ice covering his legs. The concussion from the blast disoriented him enough that he neither felt nor was aware of him landing on his back until his senses came back to him. After a few seconds for his head to clear up, he shook his legs to release the remaining ice crystals, and got back onto his feet.
He saw Delta spin around for a swing of one of her swords, but the sorcerer was constantly staying just out of her range, taunting her. Using the momentum of her spin, she hooked her swords together and swung the one unit out, the crescent moon blade hilt-guard leading.
Hideo was about to grasp Shadow Run, when he saw the aura of Squall activating his Limit Break as he tore the charred remains of his leather coat off his shoulders.
He rushed forward, gunblade low and to the side. Kaejadra's Protect spell stopped the blade, but at the instant of the strike beams of golden light with electricity flashing between them shot up from the ground, both burning and shocking the sorcerer. An instant later, the ground erupted, pebbling Kaejadra with ice, rock, and a concussion shockwave. So intense was this wake attack that the sorcerer barely managed to put up another Protect spell to stop the second strike, which wasn't slowed at all by the previous block. The wake from this attack knocked him clean onto his back, his black hakama and haori cut and smoking from the beams of light.
When Squall started a third assault, Kaejadra used his powers to slide himself quickly away from the SeeD. The commander didn't break off his momentum as he jumped in the air, and spun a full circle, the trail of his gunblade making a ring of energy that flared out, its edge striking the ground just in front of Kaejadra, the explosion that spread across the floor in front of him blasting him further away.
The sorcerer managed to regain control of his tumble and kicked off the ground into the air, using his powers to fly. Then he saw red, gold, and blue energy beams lance out of Squall's weapon, making the weapon a dozen times longer than the physical blade was, and came down on him, slamming him to the ground with a thunderous boom, sending shattered ice everywhere, followed by a blinding flash as the attacking column of energy dissipated.
When the light cleared, Kaejadra laid there against the bedrock, a trench going through the ice and digging through the rock, extending from Squall, across the floor, up the wall and halfway across the ceiling. The sorcerer's breathing was labored, with blood trickling out of his mouth and oozing out from under him as he squirmed in pain.
Hideo stood there, shocked at seeing Renzokuken techniques for the first time. Then he recognized the feeling from his GFs, and saw Andrea cast four Fira spells simultaneously.
Hideo immediately grasped his limit break, and fired off three Blizzaga spells. The large rock like ice shards shot from his outstretched hand, each leaving blue comet-like trails behind, and struck each fireball, his own third tier magic barely strong enough to cancel the sorceresses second tier magical energies in flashes of light. The last fireball struck the floor, igniting a pool of flames on top of the ice, stopping Squall as he moved in for the killing blow meant for the sorcerer.
Hideo raced across the floor to the sorceress, knowing she couldn't block his attack, fully intent on taking her life. In the split second it took for him to reach her, she had already prepared a Firaga spell, and even if he had killed her, it would've still gotten him. Instead of swinging his sword, he stopped a few feet away from her and cast Blizzaga to counter her spell. The two opposing magical forces clashed for a second, sending out blinding light. Yet it only lasted for a second, as the young SeeD's spell didn't dispel hers enough, and what was left of the spell struck, blasting him across the icy floor.
Before his head cleared up fully, Hideo was aware of the intense heat, and as it cleared up more, he fought off panic as he quickly tried to take off the super heated armor he wore. He nearly ripped off the breast plate's straps, and threw it away from him.
As Delta tried to help him back onto his feet, Hideo saw Squall just standing there, gunblade at the ready, a look of intense concentration on his face. The sorceress was finishing casting a curaga spell on Kaejadra as he slowly got back on his feet. This isn't going to work.
Suddenly, a green aura encompassed the commander, four orbs surrounded him then dispersed. Everything disappeared, the floor, the ceiling, the SeeDs. All that remained were the sorceress and sorcerer.
A being unlike any Hideo had ever seen descended from skies above, a Guardian Force radiating power even greater than it's incredible size. As Eden, the GF that was rumored the commander had, one even stronger than Bahamut, came to bare on the it's prey, Kaejadra laughed.
The sorcerer lifted his hand in a casual manner toward the gigantic Guardian Force, and a violet swirl of energy gathered in his palm. The image of Eden shimmered, like a television set with sudden bad reception. Then, gradually but with a quickening pace, the GF's body started breaking up, dissolving into the air like a cube of salt in a pool of water. While dissolving, the main body suddenly broke, split into several units, and all started to decay.
Then, when there was no longer any discernable body left, the vapors of what was once Eden started swirling as if in a whirlpool, and it all drained into Kaejadra's hand.
The surroundings returned, and all was silent.
Kaejadra looked up to the ceiling, looking like he was basking in a new, powerful sensation. Squall dropped to one knee, looking suddenly bereft of his strength.
The Sorceress Andrea stepped away from the man, keeping a keen eye on her subordinate, an eye with the look of watching a predator. "What did you just do, Kaejadra?"
"Did you like it," The sorcerer answered, coming out of his trace, "Mistress?" He added, suddenly full of hatred and scorn.
Hideo reflexively turned his head away from the sight, unsure whether to wince or not. The tendrils of power that stemmed from the sorcerer, once barely noticeable over the sorceress, now became nearly blindingly bright.
The sorcerer started taking steps towards his mistress, and she stepped back even further. "What have you done? Answer me!" She ordered.
Without breaking stride, he examined his arm as if it were fascinating. "Just a little trick I discovered while dueling with a merc who had a GF. Unfortunately, he died before I could fully use it, but now I have assimilated a GF into my body. Just as I knew would happen if I dropped them in here." When before she had backed off, his glare now held her in her spot. "Before, bitch, I could never match your power. Now, you-are-NOTHING!" He shouted.
The sorceress brought her hands forward, and cast an Ultima spell, one five times more powerful than even Squall could create at his peak. The massive ball of green energy lanced forward, the rapidly beating pulsation of the spell was felt like shockwaves, hitting Kaejadra's Shell, and there it fought against the barrier, sending off tendrils of green energy that broke up the icy floor. The battle lasted only a few seconds, and the sorceresses spell gave in, dissipating into oblivion.
The sorceress staggered from the excursion, and panic started to show in her face. "Kaejadra, I raised you, like…like,"
"Like a child?" Kaejadra suggested. "Or could you not come up with a fitting role? Why not just admit it now, like you have for the last decade? That I am a weapon, your slave, your creation, your obedient dog?" The mock left his voice. "Well, bitch, this dog's shackles are gone, and it's ready to bite back!" Kaejadra pulled his arm back, and threw it forward furiously, a blinding light flashed, and a deafening boom blasted the SeeDs away.
When the shock of the explosion wore off, Hideo and the others got off the ground only to gape at the sight. The ground where the sorceress had been standing on and the wall behind her were gone. No rubble, no scorch marks, no vapors or smoke, it was as if a large section of the room was scooped out and no longer existed, leaving perfectly smooth cut bedrock.
A tremor suddenly ran through Hideo. No! Krakken, don't! The green aura surrounded him before he disappeared, revealing the water GF appearing all on it's own accord.
Kaejadra rolled his head, cracking his neck. "Protecting him, eh?" He smiled, and raised his hand, lightning running up and down his forearm and dancing between his fingers. Those lightning bolts, silver in color with space warped around them, lanced out and struck the GF, cutting into it's ethereal flesh like a storm of swords. Where chunks and pieces fell off, more bolts would lance out and smote them into oblivion, leaving nothing but memory. The process lasted nearly a minute, until the water GF was gone from existence.
Where one would normally return from the ether realm to the physical realm would be smooth after the GF returned to it's place in it's host, the SeeDs violently shifted back into this reality. Hideo instantly fell to the floor convulsing heavily as the part of his soul the GF merged with was violently stretched between the realms of the living and the dead. Shortly after, the physical reactions and pain subsided, replaced by a sense of disbelief. Krakken…
"Now for you." Kaejadra said. Though the others thought he referred to all of them, Hideo knew the comment was directed at him.
The Woman of Light's voice spoke in his head. You have the means to escape within your grasp. He was able to think about his options for half a second before fear overtook his reasoning. There was no way to escape, nothing could save them! He then felt the pulling of the GF, the instincts and drives and advice they present to their host. And this drive was to his spell stock. And there, Hideo realized, was his answer.
He reached out and grabbed Squall by the shoulder, pulling him into the small crowd of SeeD. When he was sure they were close enough together, he reached into his spell inventory, and cast the lone Warp spell he had acquired not even an hour prior. He poured everything he was worth into the spell, stretching the distance as best he could.
A circle of silver light rose up around the SeeDs, looking like a warped glass bottle, and then it closed off above them. A brief flash of light occurred, and suddenly, they were back on jungle soil, the Ragnarok's port engine looming above their heads. Hideo didn't know what the others saw as he teleported them back, but he knew he saw a look of panic, of desperation on Kaejadra's face as he realized what was happening. Then the Bastard Shephard's voice echoed in his head, "You will not escape from me!"
After a second to understand what had just occurred, Squall started giving orders, "Everyone, back in the Ragnarok, immediately! I want it prepped for launch in three minutes, no more-I don't care if it's not properly warmed up!"
Hideo absently followed the orders, nearly all thoughts on his predicament eluded him. He was trapped, right when he had nearly obtained freedom he fell even deeper into this nightmare, and now that he was on a one way flight back to the Garden where he would likely be detained immediately, with a virtually omnipotent being now after him, he knew he no longer had any chance of escape.
He was trapped.
End of Chapter Eight
Author's Notes: I apologize for the unusually long chapter. The rest will be shorter, don't worry. Well, for those of you who are wondering, Kaejadra is pronounced Kay-ha-dra. The next chapter will be mostly story, but I'll be adding a few things that were requested when it was originally posted, so it'll probably take a few days longer than normal to post.