Chapter 27: Griever
The sparkling flash of crystallized energy clashing against crystallized energy illuminated Balamb Garden's command deck a dozen times in the span of a couple of seconds as Squall and Illarra collided. SeeDs rushed out of the chamber as the two Elementals met with blinding fury, the eyeless warriors connecting with resounding force that sent waves of displaced air across the deck. The last orders were given, and the Garden lurched as Nida set the auto-pilot to move near Galbadia Garden, and over the din of the evacuation, the sizzling impacts could be heard, along with Illarra's inarticulate screams of insanity, and the equally telling absence of sound from Squall. With grit, determination, and a set visage that betrayed an absolute lack of emotion, he parried and deflected with speeds that shocked even those who had seen him in action.
Illarra's frantic, madness-inspired attacks came just as fast, and despite the lack of control she exhibited, her skill was not tarnished, and her frenzy gave her new strength to match and drive the SeeD Commander back as he worked to defend against her relentless assault.
Nida, not bothering with the elevator, dropped off the top of the command pylon and ran past the battling warriors, pausing only to look back at the two human titans as they danced, weaved, and parried in a spectacular ballet of icy blue, vicious purple, and blazing white lights. The Garden pilot, who had seen a lot in his career, had no words to describe the storm of clashing weapons as Squall gave ground, backing up before Illarra, circling and parrying, and she advancing and striking with unfettered rage and reckless abandon.
The pilot was mesmerized by the battle, shocked and awed by the brutal dance, even as Squall backed up to a technician's desk and spun, vaulting over it and landing behind it, whipping around into a kick that sent the furniture flying at Illarra. Her weapon sheared right through the desk as she charged, screaming in inarticulate insanity. Squall caught her thrust, flipped it over with a press of his gunblade, and ducked even before she had started spinning into a kick of her own. Lionheart shot down at her knee, but she shifted her weight, flipping over the blade and coming around in an overhead cleave that Squall was already rolling away from. His left hand shot out in a punch at her gut as she landed, but her left hand interwove, blocking the jab, and her blade shot down, only to be parried by the waiting blue-white edge of Lionheart, which then poked forward at her chest, digging a shallow wound that Illarra was already backing away from, her foot spinning into Squall's temple. The Commander rolled with the kick, coming up in a rising cut that she parried, but he already rolled around the deflection, coming about in another cleave. Illarra dropped low to the ground, chopping in at Squall's knees, but he was leaping over the cut before it began.
And so it went, a whirling, spinning, flying dance of anticipation, counter, evasion, and deflection that had Nida rooted to his spot for a long while, mesmerized by the insane, impossible drama being waged before him. Blood flew from the two combatants, a dozen and more minor wounds appearing on their bodies, shallow cuts, slight gouges, and subtle bruises and welts making themselves apparent as gunblade flashed against gunblade.
Squall caught Illarra's jacket by the front, whirling around and slamming her into a desk, crushing the steel furniture. She flipped backwards even as she hit, kicking the ruined desk forward, Squall snapping his leg out and, in an impossible blow, his boot slammed into the metal and sent the desk flying out to either side, literally kicking it in half. Illarra shot into the gap, and Squall fell onto his back as her blade slashed it, his own weapon driving up at her gut as he dropped. She swerved to the side, rolling around the weapon, and Squall managed to flip over as he fell, planting his left hand against the floor and pushing up, Lionheart shooting up in a mid-air parry as Illarra spun, her violet blade cutting at his prone form. He flew up above the slashing sword, and planted his feet on the floor as it passed, Lionheart shooting ahead in a thrust that Illarra was only barely able to parry and evade through a spinning backflip and an arcing weapon that clashed with the icy edge of Lionheart in a thunderbolt of cracking light and sound.
Squall drove on, weapon slamming into Illarra's gunblade in a rapid stream of colliding blades, neither warrior earning an edge over the other as the battle raged.
"Nida!" Squall suddenly shouted as he and Illarra collided again. "Get clear! There's nothing more you can do up here!" His head shot forward, and Illarra replied, their foreheads slamming into each other, the resounding crack echoing across the empty chamber, even as Squall planted his boot against her stomach and pushed her back. Illarra slammed into the command pylon, and Squall came in with a titanic left hook that slammed her forehead and sent her reeling back toward the window out of the command deck. Squall dove in, slashing across with his weapon even as the retreating woman left a trail of blood following her. She raised her gunblade, blocking the hit, and squall applied tremendous strength behind the swing, forcing her weapon out wide. With a twist of his body and the rapid setting of his feet, Squall angled his shoulder at Illarra, and shoved forward with all his power. The Commander slammed into her, hard, and Illarra was catapulted out of the command deck, sent flying outside the Garden and sliding down the white hull.
Squall wasted no time diving out after her, leaving a shocked Nida standing alone on the command deck.
Rinoa awoke. Her consciousness surged back suddenly, jerking her out of the fugue state she'd fallen into less than twenty minutes ago as she had fended off the assaulting Estharian army. Her entire body screamed with pain as she surged back into a waking state, her mind recovering from the intense agony of her overuse of Sorceress power.
She sat up immediately, eyes widening as her lungs ached, her whole body complaining from the abuse it had suffered. She dimly became aware that she was sitting on a bed in the infirmary of Trabia Garden. The Sorceress panted, sweat covering her as she finished awakening, remembering the intensity of those last moments before she passed out.
Rinoa looked up and around at the infirmary. She heard no battle alarms or other indicators of combat, nor did she see any medics hurrying about. It looked as if there was nothing going on, as if the battle was over.
Did we win?
Rinoa started to push herself forward, to get off the bed, and noticed that there were no medics or doctors in the room. She didn't understand this, but resolving to find out what was going on, and damning the pain she was feeling, she stood up, her head swimming for a moment before her body recovered. She felt shooting pains lancing through her, but ignored them as she moved toward the entrance to the small room.
Something changed, however, as she moved, a presence subtly entering the chamber, a whisper of displaced air. Rinoa whirled around, preparing to utilize a spell, but even as she began to summon the magic, her head exploded in pain, an agony even she couldn't ignore, causing the Sorceress to stumble.
"Feeling under the weather, huh?" came a voice, and she looked up, to see a man crossing the room, clad in jet black robes and with long dark red hair. The man regarded her for a moment, and chuckled.
"I can see why Leonhart digs you," he mused. "But anyway. Let's get this over with."
"Who . . . ." Rinoa muttered through the pounding in her head.
"Me? The name's Hades, and I can't stay long, my boss is engaged with a very angry guy who puts a whole new meaning to the adjective "flaming" when used to refer to a person. Look, I've got a message for you from Hyne." He walked forward toward her, and she stood up, banishing the pain and raising her fists into a guard. Hades blinked once, shrugged and snapped his fingers.
Darkness swept over Rinoa for an instant, sapping her energy with the powerful force of a Demi spell, sending her to her knees. The strength she was barely able to summon before was gone, stolen from her in an instant. As her knees banged on the hard carpet, hade strode in closer.
"Wow. You must have really over-exerted yourself if that was all it took to take you down. Hyne's not too happy with you abusing your powers . . . or should I say, her powers, so, while she's dealing with that nutjob Nash, I'm playing repo man."
She let out a gasp of pain as Hades grabbed her by the top of her hair and lifted her up, and then grabbed her neck with his other hand. Fingers grasping her throat, he lifted her up higher, and then put his right hand on her chest.
"Huh. You've got some nice tits."
Then Rinoa felt energy spike through her, and a sense like every drop of blood in her body was being torn apart, rearranged, and drained through a filter. Icy, burning, painful wires cut through her, and a swelling ball of agony shot through her chest. She felt as if she was being blinded and deafened at once, her eyes and ears erupting in pain as energy shot from her body.
A shining pink and silver cloud of energy surged around Hades' arm as he pulled and ripped, tearing he power that had infused Rinoa for three years, the tremendous strength of the Sorceress, and gathered it into his palm.
Rinoa slumped to the floor limply, once again blasted from consciousness, and Hades towered over her, looking down at the unconscious woman. He glanced to his hand, and the shimmering fist-sized crystal he grasped.
"Huh. So, this is a Hyne's stone, huh? Wonder what mine looks like . . . ." After a second, Hades shrugged, and began to melt away into blackness. "Well, can't screw around here. Got work to do!"
Nash hurtled backwards through two more bulkheads, crashing through the metal as if it were cardboard, before flipping himself over and sending a pulse of flame that rivaled the engines of the Ragnarok out behind him, liquefying the small storeroom he was flying through and sending the enraged Elemental hurtling back through the ship, straight toward Hyne. Riding the torrent of fire like a missile, he flashed back into the chamber, letting out a tremendous roar of fury. The Guardian of The End blinked once as he shot toward her.
Then he flew past, Hyne drifting to the side, and leaving a small ball of light where she had been standing. Nash crashed head-first into the trap, and the ball of light detonated in a tremendous flash of light and explosion of deafening sound, and Nash slammed hard into the wall at a ninety degree angle to his original path.
He bounced off it as if made of rubber, his flames increasing tenfold, sending rivers of fire through the holes and tears ripped in the chamber as he launched himself at Hyne again. He flew in hard, blade flashing across as he struck, but even as the weapon neared, it stopped. With casual ease, the Guardian locked Nash in place with a flex of telekinetic muscles and slammed him down hard into the deck. The metal burst into flames, the very Estharian alloys set ablaze by Nash's rage, and he shot up once again, undeterred, screaming in rage as he flew past Hyne. She jerked away quickly, not expecting so quick a recovery, and hissed as Nash flipped over in mid-air, striking the ceiling with his feet.
The Elemental kicked off, shooting down toward Hyne, who now sported a second gash along the edge of her face, leaking silvery energy. He flashed down at her, and a scout bike leapt off the ground, flying into his path and slamming hard into his face, knocking the Elemental tot he side and sending him crashing to the floor below. He rolled along the metal, flames wreathing his body spreading out to set the floor around him glowing with his heat.
Hyne stared at Nash's battered form, and behind her, one of the tanks shuddered and floated up into the air. An instant later, another, behind it started to rise up. And then a third. Then a fourth.
Hyne then swept a hand at Nash, as if dismissing him, and the floating Estharian war machines hurtled toward the Elemental. Nash took a step backwards, sweeping his gunblade out before him as the torrent of steel weaponry closed in. He leapt up into a backflip as the first tank lumbered across at him. The glowing gunblade flashed forward, and there was an explosion as the power core of the tank was destroyed, and the vehicle flew apart to either side of the flipping warrior. He continued to rotate as another tank flew in, and planted his feet against it for an instant, kicking up off the tank and flying over it. Another one came in at him, and he cut quickly, severing part of the vehicle, enough for him to squeeze past the weapon.
The fourth tank crashed into Nash's chest, and sent him flying backward for an instant, before he unleashed a massive torrent of flame against the weapon and slammed both fists down onto it. The metal plating began to melt, and when his balled hands crashed down into the metal, it sent ripples the through the molten war machine, causing it to fly apart into a shower of glowing pieces and a whirling maelstrom of sparks whipping about.
Pieces of the molten, shattered tank clattered down around Nash as he stared at Hyne, his aura of fire simmering down to a smolder. He stared at her, eyes full of hate and denying the pain he was feeling at her latest assault.
The door to the bay suddenly flew open. Both combatants looked to the side, in time to see-
"Baby, I'm back!"
-Hades scoot across the floor, coming to a stop near Hyne, a wide grin on his face. He pumped his right arm into the air, and clutched within it was a gleaming crystal, pulsating with shimmering pink light.
"You took your time," Hyne remarked sourly. Hades shrugged, and looked around the room, at the debris and devastation, and then to Nash. He blinked when he saw the shining gunblade wreathed in god-killing magic.
"Huh. Angry mysterious bandana-wearing scarred badass wielding a glowing god-killing hybrid weapon." He beamed at Nash and gave him a thumbs up. "Congrats, man! You just somehow managed to roll every single fantasy and sci-fi movie hero cliché into one package! Now, do you smoke? That's all you need to complete the image."
"Will you shut the fuck up?" Nash snarled, and Hades shrugged again.
"No." He turned to Hyne as Nash's flames welled up uncontrollably, signaling his flaring temper. "Oh, yeah, I forgot. Here ya go." He casually tossed the crystal to Hyne, who caught it, then stared at the lackadaisical Guardian of Death as if he were a complete fool.
"Do you have any idea-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, real ultimate power, blah-bah. At least I wasn't stupid enough to give the humans a share of my magic. If you hadn't done that, I wouldn't have had to go grope Rinoa and steal her powers and . . . . oh wait, never mind, that was actually pretty nice . . . ."
"You did what?" came Nash's enraged reply, his rage spilling over, an inferno flaring up around him.
"Yeah, I grabbed Rinoa's power and a quick squeeze on her tits while I was at it," Hades responded bluntly. "She's got some nice ones, too. Anyway-" He paused as Hyne held the crystal in one hand, and grinned.
"That crystal is-" Nash began.
"Oh yeah, smart man," Hades answered, nodding. "Not only did Rinoa have all of Edea's, Adel's, and Veronica's power, but she also had Ultimecia's, which was all that same power pulled from an alternate timeline, effectively making her twice as powerful as Hyne had intended humanity to get. But temporal hiccups aren't that bad, when you consider that at this moment . . . ."
"My power is being reabsorbed, twice over!" Hyne finished as the crystal shattered in her hands, transforming into shimmering pink vapor and mist that started to flow around her arms. A vortex of glowing silver and pink light rippled around her, and the small girl threw her head back, laughing an unearthly, demonic laugh as the energy poured into her.
"This whole plan was to get Hyne to absorb Rinoa's powers?" Nash asked, to which Hades burst out laughing.
"No, no, man, our old plan is still running quite nicely," Hades answered coolly. "This is just a bonus, and some insurance to insure angry bandana-wearing scarred mysterious badasses with glowing god-killing hybrid weapons don't wander along. That tends to ruin our days."
"Not if I can help it," Nash snarled, raising his gunblade as Hyne descended into the throes of her power, the new surge of strength rippling into her body. he took a step forward, and then whirled, his blade colliding with the haft of Hades' scythe as the Guardian's youthful feature burned away, revealing his blackened, demonic skull.
"And now, the climactic battle against the mid-boss while the endboss powers up!" Hades shouted, his charred visage grinning like a lunatic.
"Shove that fancy shit up your ass!" Seifer shouted in response to Alucard's words, and lanced forward at the Guardian, flipping his saber into an overhand, defensive grip as he charged in. Hyperion whipped out before him, and Alucard snapped his saber into a sudden guard. The rapier and the gunblade connected, and both broke away, Seifer spinning into a low cut with his gunblade that slashed up at Alucard. The Guardian rapidly parried, falling back a step in the blink of an eye and shooting down at Seifer with a flicking thrust. The saber in Seifer's other hand caught Alucard's rapier and held it for an instant, Hyperion shooting into the brief opening, driving into the Guardian's chest.
The gunblade erupted, firing a blast into Alucard, who grunted, took a step back, and shot ahead into a blindingly fast high kick that rocked Seifer across his temple and spun him around. Alucard stepped into another thrust, Seifer instinctively parrying and jumping up, flipping over the Guardian and slipping his saber into an underhand grip. Both Hyperion and the saber flashed down at Alucard's back, but in a flicker of motion, he was already away from the cutting swords-
-and in front of Seifer as he touched down, slamming the knight with a straight jab that launched him back fifteen feet across the body-strewn courtyard.
Seifer flipped over as he flew, and stabbed his saber into the ground, using it to instantly redirect his momentum, and flip around and hurl himself right back at Alucard, Hyperion shooting inward at the surprised Guardian's face. However, Alucard was surprised for only an instant, his rapier slapping the thrusting gunblade aside, his right hand catching Seifer by the throat and stopping him cold.
The pipe in Alucard's mouth suddenly exuded a wave of smoke that flew into Seifer's face, choking and disorienting him for a split-second while the Guardian spun around, his foot slamming Seifer in the lower back and launching him back across the room.
Alucard turned back toward Serra, and then whipped around, saber flying up and blocking a screaming shard of metal, erupting from a firearm, parrying the bullet with utmost precision. The rapier then flew about in a rapid dance, bullets ringing and deflecting off the slender weapon as a storm of lead shot in, every round rapidly parried. The Guardian eyed his opponent as the two sub-machineguns ran empty, and smirked.
"You'll have to try better, Kinneas," he remarked as Irvine dropped the empty magazines from his weapons and rapidly reloaded.
"Oh, I plan to, asshole," the sharpshooter answered.
A wave of white light slammed into the Guardian, spinning him around, and he saw Serra, Phoenix's wing erupted from her shoulder, staring at him intently, determination cutting across her features. The expression, all present saw, reminded them all of the look on her own father's face before he dove into battle, one of no fear or hesitation.
Alucard narrowed his eyes as he saw her decision to fight him directly, even as Diablos manifested from her other shoulder.
"If this is how it must be . . . ." he whispered, and then vanished, reappearing behind the striking blade of Hyperion as Seifer rejoined the fight,. The Guardian stabbed down at the passing knight, who rolled into a dive beneath the stab. He came around, chopping at the Guardian, scoring a slight cut on Alucard's arm, but the Guardian was already moving away, seemingly uninjured from any of the blows Seifer had dealt him.
"You are not hurting her if I can help it," Seifer snarled.
"Same goes here," Irvine responded, sighting Alucard in his weapon's scopes.
Serra strode up beside Seifer, her expression and posture speaking volumes. She was prepared to fight as well, for her own survival and that of her comrades.
Alucard looked at the three of them, and then flickered across the distance, appearing before Seifer with a rapid thrust. White light flashed, shadow pulsed, blade met blade, and two sub-machineguns roared.
Garden's demolitions team had been lucky. Quistis' rapid assault on the lower levels had ensured that while the enemy had been able to bring a bomb into the MD level, they hadn't had the time to properly hide the thing. However, even so, the SeeD demolitions specialists still had almost missed the weapon, until one man literally ran headfirst into the thing.
The enemy had opted to equip the thing with active camouflage, which helped hide the explosive device, especially considering its sheer size. Once the active camo had been disabled, the power behind the explosive was revealed, to the shock of the entire demo team.
"Shit, this thing's almost taller than me," whispered one SeeD, looking up at the massive bomb. It was easily over five and a half feet tall, a cylindrical device supported by a hovering sled that was fitted to the bottom of the device, though disabled by the retreating Estharian commandos. It was over seven feet long, and judging by the SeeD responses, it was powerful.
"How powerful is it?" Quistis asked, looking over the huge bomb.
"Ma'am, this thing blows, and Balamb Garden is over," answered one of the techs. "The entire MD level will be gone, and the rest of the Garden in under a few minutes. We have to disarm this thing, now."
"Evacuation orders have already been issued," added another SeeD. "The Commander is fighting Illarra upstairs on the command deck now. Nida's got us moving to Galbadia Garden."
"Can you disarm the bomb?" Quistis asked, and one of the techs recoiled as an electric shock went through the device, clearly a security system.
"We can disarm anything, ma'am," another answered as he probed the device with several tools. "The only question is . . .whether we can disarm it in time."
"And we don't know what the countdown timer on this thing is," another stated.
"Then its even more important that we get this Garden evacuated," Quistis responded. "Can you handle this?"
"Yes ma'am," the leader of the demo team answered. "Ma'am, get upstairs and direct the evac effort. If this thing goes bad . . . ."
"I understand," Quistis replied. "Good luck."
She had mimicked Squall's earlier moves, driving her gunblade into the side of the Garden and slowing her descent. Squall slid down the hull of Balamb Garden, wondering how many times he was going to have to ride the hulls of these things and cut gouges into the side of his own ship. His gunblade sheared through the metal hull as Illarra came to a stop at one of the classroom windows below, shattered open in the fighting, and dropped into the room. Squall was an instant behind her as she ran into the chamber, leaping up on one of the study panels and spinning to face Squall. He mimicked her action, doing the same on another panel across from her. He stared at Illarra with his eyeless gaze, and she matched the stare, smirking. The expression almost caught Squall off-guard. Moments ago she had been possessed by an insane fury, and now she was smiling. If he hadn't known that she was a complete lunatic already, he would have been shocked at the sudden change in her emotions.
"Don't you understand, Squall?" she asked him, and then lashed out with a sudden strike that Squall instantly blocked. She leapt off the panel and toward another one, and Squall followed suit, countering another thrust with a stab of his own.
"Understand what?" she demanded as she jumped ahead, gunblade chopping violently, flashing and clashing against Lionheart. Squall backed up a step, hopping to another panel, giving ground as she advanced once more.
"We are more than humans!" she shouted, charging in at him, her previous calm and amused demeanor vanishing in a heartbeat. She was getting more erratic and violent in her mood swings; the psychosis was worsening.
"Chimera descendants, infused with the power of the Guardians themselves!" she continued, their blades ringing and colliding as they danced across the consoles. "What do you think that makes us?"
"People who got the shit options in life?" Squall snarled, driving back against her. She backed up a step, and flipped over him with a single bound, cleaving as she did so, but her blade instantly stopped by Squall's parrying weapon.
"Transcendent, Squall!" she answered, whipping around as she landed, her weapon and his colliding with enough force to whip both their long hair backwards. "You and I, and all the other Elementals, we can be something more than humanity! We can rise beyond these worthless base urges and forge a new existence! An existence of a new species, free of humanity's weaknesses!"
"Weaknesses?" Squall snarled. Their dance on the study panels was going nowhere, fast; he decided to end it. He drove forward, blade clashing in a sudden flurry of cuts and slices.
"Weaknesses?" he demanded again, pushing her gunblade back and the slamming her face hard with a sudden right cross, using the force in his snarl to momentarily distract her. Illarra flew back into the wall over the instructor's desk, crashing into the video screen and shattering through the glass.
An instant later, she slammed straight through the solid metal and ceramic wall as Squall crashed into her with a tremendous flying kick, both of his legs impacting against her chest and driving her through the wall and into the hallway outside.
"The only human weakness I'm seeing is your lunacy!" Squall continued as he charged through the shattered wall, forehead rocking into Illarra's nose as she reeled backward from the impact, and crashed into the wall opposite the one she had just exited from. The empty hallway, devoid of soldiers and SeeDs since the evacuation order was issued, echoed with the resounding crash. Squall rammed into her again, cracking the wall behind Illarra, and started punching her viciously, slamming his gunblade's butt into her chest, stomach, and head, while his left hand balled into a fist and provided a brutal beating as well. Each impact sent further cracks through the wall behind Illarra as Squall continued to pound away, unrelenting.
"I'm putting an end to this insanity, right here!" Squall shouted into her face. He reared back, and punched her again, the impact slamming her straight through the wall once more and sending her reeling backward through the gap, which opened up into the main Garden interior structure far below. Illarra fell back, but Squall grabbed her by the front of her jacket and hauled her close, headbutting her again, and reaching back with his gunblade arm, preparing to slam her again.
Hurt her, Squall! Do it! Make her scream and suffer!
Griever's interjection stunned the SeeD for a split second, shocking him with the realization that he was doing exactly what Griever craved the most, and that instant gave Illarra all the time she needed to burst into a wild, cackling laughter, and reach forward, grabbing the SeeD Commander. Before he could react, she fell backward, tumbling out of the hole Squall had punched and dropping toward the lower level stretching out below, and dragged him along with her.
"If you insist on stopping me," she whispered.
Illarra spun around in mid-air as she fell, and pumped her arms, sending Squall hurtling down toward the ground below. She dropped after him, pointing her gunblade at the falling SeeD.
"You'll share humanity's fate!"
Below, the SeeDs and soldiers were still hurrying about. Balamb Garden was near Galbadia Garden, and the troops were already evacuating off of it, but there were still many troops remaining. They scattered as Squall plummeted, and he slammed into the floor hard enough to shatter ceramic tiles and knock several people over with the force behind his impact.
Illarra fell down, gunblade diving for the SeeD commander's gut, and she let out a howl of victory.
Light flashed in the interior of Garden.
Squall, on his back, locked his gunblade with Illarra, both his legs raised and driven into her gut. Her face instantly shifted from one of insane glee to one of shocked pain.
Squall coiled his legs, kicked her up slightly, and whipped around, his legs slamming into her side and launching her off the circular walkway and into another wall. She crashed into it, and dropped down, toward one of the knee-deep pools. Her shocked body splashed into the water, and she rose up, letting out a scream of rage as she did so.
"Squall!" came a shout, and Squall stood up shakily, blood oozing from new wounds, and saw Zell running toward him, Quistis right behind him. Other SeeDs and soldiers gathered around the Commander.
"Get out of here!" Squall shouted. "She won't hesitate to kill any of you! Evacuate the Garden!"
"But you-" Zell protested.
"Go! I'll deal with her! That's an order!"
Zell stood there for an instant, uncertain of doing as Squall told him, and the SeeD spun toward the brawler, grabbing him with his left hand and looking him dead in the eyes with his bandaged face.
"Zell, I have never given you a direct order before, but if you trust me, you will obey this order! Get the hell out of here! NOW!"
Squall shoved Zell back suddenly with such force that the battered brawler knocked over other SeeDs, and then he turned toward Illarra as she splashed through the water, gunblade shining in the reflective pools like a brand of violet flame looking to consume whatever it could find. He charged forward, leaping off the walkway, and dove at Illarra. She cocked her arm back, readying her gunblade. Squall raised his own as he fell.
Both warriors met, their weapons snapping forward in a single stroke of flashing light and striking energy, and the light of impact momentarily blinded all onlookers. The water beneath their feet was swept outward, the floor beneath the two being momentarily swept dry by the shock of the two weapons impacting, and all of Balamb Garden, for a very brief instant, shuddered.
"What the heck is going on down there?" Selphie asked as the Ragnarok swooped over Galbadia Garden. She had picked up the transmission wherein Laguna had effectively screwed Crell's plans for world domination, but now, as she watched, Balamb Garden was docking with Galbadia Garden, and every surviving soldier and SeeD was streaming off the ship and into Galbadia Garden.
"Something bad is going on down there," Jofey commented as Selphie brought her airship lower. Behind them, Elain looked up, eyes widening.
"Selphie!" she called. "There's some thing going on in the courtyard in G Garden! It sounds like something bad is happening!"
"What do you mean?" Selphie asked urgently, looking back at the SeeD behind her.
"It sounds like Seifer and Irvine are fighting someone, I think that Alucard person."
"Irvine?" Selphie asked. "Alucard?" She suddenly swerved the ship, sending the Ragnarok directly toward Galbadia Garden. She accelerated, hurling her ship directly at the ship below.
"Hang on! We're going to give 'em some backup!" she shouted, and the other two SeeDs did exactly that, hanging on for dear life.
"You mother-" Nash clashed against Hades' weapon, slamming his head into the Guardian of Death's face, knocking him backward.
"-fucking-" Hades spun around, melting into shadow and reappearing behind Nash, chopping down with his scythe, the blade clashing against Nash's shimmering sword.
"-bastard!" Nash's scream was accompanied by a cascading tidalw ave of immolating fire that spread across the entire chamber, launching Hades backwards into a wall, which started to glow from the white-hot heat that the Elemental was channeling. Hades pushed himself off the wall, grinning with insurmountable good cheer, and darkness blasted outward, sweeping over Nash and sending the Elemental reeling. The chamber cooled for a moment as his fires dimmed.
"No, seriously, better luck next time!" Hades shouted. "Your next super-charged mega-move might actually be able to really hurt me!"
"Hold still and let me shove this shit right up your ass!" Nash answered, flashing across the room. His gunblade arced over his head, and Hades vanished, cutting in behind him and slashing with his scythe, The blade cut across Nash's shoulder blades and caused the Elemental to thunder a cry of agony. He spun around, the white-hot flames intensifying, the metal walls and floors deforming. Streams of fire shot beneath Nash's feet, keeping him steady as he lashed out again, the room around him letting and deforming as he unleashed true hellfire on his surroundings, his rage peaking over.
"Nah, not today!" Hades replied. "I value the sanctity of my ass, thank you very much! I may be beautiful, but I'm strictly straight, understand?"
The gunblade cut in at Hades, and the Guardian blocked it with his scythe's haft. The white flames shot down the weapon, into Hades' face, but if the Guardian was singed, he didn't show it. Instead, he responded by whipping the weapon across, knocking the gunblade out of line and leaving Nash open for a wave of deathly chilling shadow that sapped the life from his body.
"You don't get it, do you?" Hades snarled, his voice somewhere between condescension and a mocking snicker. "You can't even begin to touch me, let alone her! What power does a punk with fire have against the real force of Death itself?"
Hades ate his words an instant later as Nash shot forward, punching him solidly across the jaw.
"Death doesn't punch over-talkative assholes in the face!" Nash responded as Hades flew backward.
Then, the chamber, glowing white and red and orange from the insane flames that Nash was channeling, went instantly cold. The fires wreathing Nash's body faded in an instant. The deformed metal solidified instantly, turning the chamber into a twisted, surrealistic nightmare landscape. The Elemental looked to his surroundings, and was suddenly struck by a noise that chilled him to the bone.
Hyne giggled.
Brass casing rained to the floor as Irvine fought to track his opponent, bullets ripping through the air. The sharpshooter had to watch his aim, for a crowd of hundreds of onlookers was gathered around the battle, shocked and awestruck that someone who should have been an ally was battling their commanders. The crowd had begun to swell with the arriving evacuees from Balamb Garden, which was making it that much harder for Irvine to use his weapons.
Seifer, on the other hand, had no such limitations, and flew in at Alucard, blades weaving and cutting viciously with lightning-fast arcs and slices. Yet, despite every cunning attack routine and combination he used, Alucard's blade was always there, deflecting his saber and gunblade aside with deft precision. Their blades would meet in a vicious ring of sword on sword, and then the Guardian would flicker away, vanishing as Irvine fired a shot or Serra cast bolts of destruction.
Seifer pursued, always moving near Serra as the Guardian would attack in her direction, interposing blade on blade before the Guardian could harm her. Their swords met again, and over Seifer's shoulder, a black wing stabbed forward, loosing a stream of shadow magic that caused Alucard to teleport away, only to reappear right in Irvine's sights. Irvine fired, using one of his powerful revolvers to minimize the chance of a stray shot hitting a bystander. Alucard's rapier rose up, parrying the heavy slug, and he had to whirl as Seifer shot in, Hyperion stabbing at his gut. A rapid, smooth deflection and a flicking counter-slash of his rapier had Seifer's saber blocking, and Alucard ducked low. His right hand shot ahead in an open palm strike that hurled Seifer backward, and the Guardian then raised that hand as a beam of white light lanced at him, catching it on his palm, resulting in a deafening explosion of sound and blinding light. He shot ahead again, at Serra, whose wings circled in front of her, creating a swirling wall of fire and shadow that gave the Guardian pause momentarily.
He teleported straight through the barrier, however, and attacked Serra directly, stabbing his rapier at her chest. Phoenix shot ahead, the rapier impacting solidly against the shining, fiery wing, and Diablos cut outward, jabbing at Alucard's chest, the wing suddenly becoming bladed and wreathed in shadow magic. Alucard hopped back a step, smacking the wing with his rapier and stopping it, and flashing energy crashed into his chest, courtesy of Phoenix, and he was sent spinning backward into the wall of fire and shadow even as it started to dissipate.
Then, the Guardian blocked another well-placed shot from Irvine, and whipped about to face Seifer as his blades drove in again. Rapier parried Hyperion, and Alucard's right hand caught the saber as it dove in, catching the blade and stopping it between his fingers. His left leg shot up into a kick that Seifer had to drop low and leap back to evade.
Irvine's next shot hit the mark, and Alucard's head was rocked to the side as a .357 slug slammed into the side of his temple. The Guardian reeled back for an instant, but none present were expecting him to fold so easily. Indeed, even as he fell away, the gaping wound on the side of the Guardian's head was sealing up, the bullet pushed out of his flesh by his incredible regenerative powers.
Alucard shook his head, and shot forward again at Seifer, rapier diving in. Seifer raised his saber to parry and there was a sudden impact, but not of blades meeting blades. Rather, this was an impact of metal-wreathed knuckles crashing against Alucard's face. The Guardian was launched backward into the air, but he stopped himself in mid-flight with a sudden teleport that hand him right back in front of his attacker, just in time to catch a knee to the gut. An uppercut slammed his chin and rocked him backward, and a solid right hook sent the Guardian spinning.
"Oh, yeah, suck it!" Zell Dincht shouted. The brawler, freshly arrived from Balamb Garden, rushed in. He had been horribly torn at Squall's order to evacuate, and his pent-up frustrations at the order, which went against everything that mattered to the brawler, were now being let out as he dove into another fight where he could help someone.
Alucard came around, rapier stabbing at Zell as the brawler charged. Zell brought up his fists, the metal knuckles atop his gloves catching the rapier and stopping it, and he flipped forward into a spectacular over head kick that almost smashed into the top of the Guardian's head, if he hadn't seen the attack coming. Alucard vanished and reappeared behind Zell, but the brawler had already dropped to the ground, planting his feet against the floor and whirling into a low sweep.
Alucard leapt over the attack, and vanished again, using his annoying teleportation to evade a thrust by Seifer. He reappeared behind the knight, and shot toward Serra again. Her wings unfurled, fire and shadow flaring up around her as she moved to meet the attack once more.
The resounding crack! of a snapping chain whip filled the room, and Alucard stumbled, the curving blade of a rante cutting into this side and tearing out. He stood still for an instant, and two .357 slugs impacted solidly within his chest. Seifer's Hyperion and Zell's fists roared in at the guardian even as he was reeling, and Alucard teleported away again before he could take more punishment. He reappeared beyond the attacking group, and whirled to face his newest antagonist.
"Quistis!" he shouted, almost as if betrayed. Quistis, standing at the edge of the crowd of onlooking soldiers and SeeDs, advanced, whip gripped tightly in her hands and ready to strike. Her blue eyes projected her determination to enter this battle, and told Alucard all he needed to know.
"You would fight against what is necessary as well?" he whispered, and she nodded firmly.
"I'm sorry," she stated quietly. "I cannot let you harm my friends, or Squall's . . . ." She stopped abruptly, not wanting to let that bit of information slip.
"Holy shit, shock, awe, the two damn fluttery-eyed and warm-hearted comrades are about fight one another blah blah fucking blah let's fight!" came a shout from Seifer, and Alucard whipped around in time to stop Hyperion from stabbing into his back again, and then caught a solid cross from Zell, rocked backwards. Quistis surged forward, whip snapping out, and Alucard was sent reeling yet again as a .357 slug buried into his chest. Quistis' rante dug in, slicing another wicked wound, and Alucard teleported away, his visage now replaced with one of pure rage and anger . . . An anger which doubled over when two bolts, one of light and one of shadow, slammed into his back.
"Fine then!" he shouted. "If you truly do desire to stand in my way, I will show you just how powerful an UnboundGuardian Force really is!"
"Take over!" Selphie shouted to Jofey, and leapt up out of her chair as she brought the Ragnarok into a hover directly over the glass dome overlooking the central courtyard of Galbadia Garden. Jofey dove for the controls as Selphie turned, charging out of the cockpit, strapping her nunchaku bars to her back. She rode the elevator down and charged through the halls to the loading ramp and slapped the control to open the ramp. The ramp started to open, way too slowly for the tiny, excitable SeeD. She watched it lower, almost hopping up and down in anxiety-filled energy. She just knew Irvine was in serious trouble and something -Shiva?- told her that Alucard was too much for even all of her friends to take on by themselves. They would need her Elemental powers to even the score.
The ramp lowered, and Selphie rushed out. She looked to the glass below, and started channeling up her magic, when she felt something, a rush, a clash of light and power. She looked down, scanning the area beneath her, and spotted the entrance to Balamb Garden, now devoid of any soldiers or SeeDs as the last of their forces finished evacuating the Garden. The only thing she could see was a pair of warriors, blue and purple blades clashing.
Her heart jumped.
Squall! He's fighting Illarra!
Even as she was watching, the two Gardens broke away, Nida's autopilot program bringing the two ships apart, and she could clearly see gunblade meeting gunblade as they fought in that archway, their battle having raged through the Garden and bringing them to that point.
Kick her ass, Squall! Do it!
Selphie tore her eyes from the spectacle of the two battling, and looked down at the glass below. She had friends to save.
- parry strike deflection -
The Garden was empty, and Squall and Illarra faced one another alone. Two coins, opposite sides of the same idea, the same face, the same history, the same heritage. Both of them carried that blood in their veins, and both of them carried the strength of an Elemental coursing through their bodies.
- flash cut chop -
Squall Leonhart. Born of Raine Leonhart, daughter of the Chimera. Son of Laguna Loire, President of Esthar. Commander of Balamb Garden. Lover of Rinoa Heartilly. Father of Serra. A man who had fought against the worst of odds, a warrior who had never backed down, never surrendered, and never hesitated to do what he needed to do. Fearless. Lethal. Undaunted. That was the man who fought that day.
- scream attack collision -
Illarra Varines. Daughter of Crell Varines, deposed dictator of Esthar, usurper of the government of that nation, and the man once known as Virago. Key soldier in his army. Raised from childhood in brutality, with the intent to be the ultimate killing machine. A woman who had endured a life of horror. A woman who had responded to her horrid life in the only way she could; insanity. A broken warrior, lashing out at an enemy, any enemy, something to fight and kill, be it her captors, Squall Leonhart, humankind. That was the woman who fought that day.
- killing destroy light -
Hatred, fury, and unrelenting rage burned behind the violet blade. Determination, dedication, and fearlessness stood resolutely behind the icy blue blade. Two warriors, so alike physically, yet so far apart in mind, heart, and soul.
- crash stab assault -
Icy blue and blazing purple met in the entryway to Balamb Garden. The two warriors had fought their way through the Garden, up onto dry land, their strokes sending waves through the water in the pools below. Their battle was a dance of brutality, of interception and anticipation. Blood pooled on the floor as they bled out, the two warriors clashing and battling in a seemingly never-ending struggle. They were as angels and demons locked in eternal struggle, neither human nor monster, neither god nor mortal. They were two warriors, the ultimate soldiers facing each other in a battle of ultimate opposites.
Insanity against clarity.
Rage against discipline.
Hatred against love.
In that entryway, they met. In that entryway, Squall Leonhart and Illarra clashed again, blades cutting and stabbing, weapons stained with each others' blood. At Garden's front gate, the two stood, their clothes stained and running bright crimson.
Her eyeless gaze projected her unstoppable hatred and her desire for vengeance. His showed only his desire to protect his family, his friends, and his world.
"There won't ever be an end to this, will it?" she whispered through her hoarse throat, raw from her inarticulate screams.
"It will end only when one of us chooses it to," Squall answered.
The two warriors stared each other down, both seeing through the Zanshin sight and into each others' blazing eyes.
"I will have my vengeance," Illarra snarled her promise. "I will burn it all, Squall. Everything will die. You, Garden, humankind . . . Everything."
"I can't let that happen," Squall answered.
Illarra and Squall stared at each other again, their commitments voiced. They both had already known that one of them was going to die, but there was something final about that last exchange, a statement that they were finished crossing blades. At this moment, they both understood.
This is the end.
Squall and Illarra raised their weapons. The two warriors stared at each other, muscles tensing.
They broke at the same time, crossing the short distance, boots pounding on the tiled, bloodstained floor. Their gunblades wavered, prepared to strike. Squall gritted his teeth, and Illarra opened her mouth, letting out one final, enraged roar.
Blue met violet. Lion met serpent.
There was light, and there was noise, and there was pain. Squall Leonhart and Illarra Varines were then past each other, and flying past them, whirling in the salty ocean air, were shards of blue and purple crystal, flying in every direction, the two gunblades broken.
Illarra turned, drawing her knife, spinning to strike at Squall. However, she stopped in mid-motion, something holding her back, pressing against her stomach. She hesitated, her fingers slipping from the knife, her strength fading. She looked down, and understood.
The Revolver was buried in her stomach, Squall drawing and stabbing out behind him with the weapon beneath his left armpit. He turned, lethargically, as if sunk within molasses, and she stared up at his face as she felt her knees go weak. He looked back at her and, without a word, his index finger moved.
There was no pain. All she knew was that she was laying on her back, staring up at the sky. A strange sense of peace washed over her in that moment, a feeling that . . . That she didn't have to keep fighting anymore. As if all her hatred was gone, or that it simply didn't matter anymore.
Squall stood over her, his gunblade covered in her blood. She felt cold, but staring up at his face made her feel warm. Like . . . Like he had just set her free from everything. Her past, her family, her hatreds . . . Squall had taken them all away in that instant.
She couldn't speak. She didn't have lungs with which to speak, but the look on her face, the expression in her eyes, the eyes only Squall could see, told him everything she needed to tell him.
Thank you, Squall. Thank you for . . . for killing me.
And Illarra Varines knew no more.
Alucard had been fast before. But now, as Seifer slashed viciously at the Guardian with both blades, his own weapons flickering like whispering shards of silver light, he found that Alucard was intercepting every hit with stunning precision. Hyperion sliced, the saber slashed, and Alucard deflected every cut instantly and countered with such speed Seifer was barely able to defend himself from the devastating counters.
Zell drove in from the right as Alucard deflected a half-dozen cuts, and Alucard whirled, his rapier somehow trapping both of Seifer's blades together for an instant. Zell's left hand shot ahead in a blindingly-fast jab, but Alucard caught his wrist, turned the hand out wide, and sent a straight, solid kick into the brawler's gut in the blink of an eye, before flickering away in another teleport.
He reappeared in front of Serra, stabbing at her once more, and her wings rushed forward to intercept the attack. He vanished again, however, reappearing behind her, and then disappeared again, appearing just above her, even as she was reacting to the first teleport. She looked up at him as he fell, saber diving at her head, and then a chain wrapped around his leg.
Quistis flicked her wrist and sent Alucard slamming to the ground with tremendous force, but even as he bounced up, he vanished again, appearing right in front of Quistis, rapier flicking across at her. Her whip came back in faster than should have been physically possible, the chain ensnaring and looping around the slender blade and stopping it. Quistis grabbed either end of the chain and twisted, trying to wrench the weapon from Alucard's hands. He held on tight, however, and snapped up his foot, catching her in the chin and sending her flying backward, her whip's chain loosening.
The Guardian turned around instantly as Seifer and Zell charged in, side-by side, and as they neared, the pair broke into attacks at opposite directions, coming at Alucard from either side, blades and fists diving in to attack.
Alucard reappeared beside them, between the pair as they dove at his original spot, sbaer lashing out and striking Seifer in his left elbow while his right arm rocked Zell in the side of his head. Both fighters stumbled, and Alucard was away, shooting to where Serra stood, rapier raised.
A dozen bullets slammed into him as he neared her, as Irvine finally picked up a target, and Serra sent out streaming fire and light accompanied by rolling shadow that the Guardian only barely managed to teleport away from before it could strike him.
Seifer and Zell, neither really slowed by their new injuries, rumbled in, attacking once more. Alucard whirled, saber and rapier meeting as Hyperion cut into his gut and Zell sent one, two, three vicious punches into the Guardian, followed by a powerful right snap-kick that sent the Guardian hurtling backward, right into a strike from Quistis' chain whip. The rante curled back as Seifer and Zell charged in again. Saber and Hyperion rose into diving thrusts at Alucard's chest, neither Seifer nor Zell wanting to give up momentum.
Alucard suddenly snapped his rapier ahead and down, the blade striking the tops of both Hyperion and Seifer's saber, driving them down. He spun as he struck, leg shooting up faster than Zell could follow, and slamming the brawler across the front of his face, sending him flipping backwards across the battlefield. A powerful right hook, flying up and slamming down, hit the top of Seifer's head, pounding the knight into the floor. Quistis snapped her whip out again, and Alucard spun, catching the chain in his right hand. He tugged, hard, and Quistis was suddenly pulled off her feet, flying toward the Guardian, and he raised his foot, a look of faint sadness on his face.
Her chin crashed into his shoe, and she fell to the floor, dazed by the powerful pull and sudden, painful stop.
Alucard turned and, almost as an after thought, his saber rose. The blade flickered about almost casually, bullets ringing off its length as Irvine sent another barrage at the Guardian. The sharpshooter's pistols ran dry, and even as he moved to reload them, Alucard appeared right in front of the gunslinger. A single right hook slammed into Irvine's face, sending him sprawling to the floor, the unjunctioned human dazed by the powerful blow.
Alucard turned toward Serra as all of her comrades and protectors lay across the floor, among the bodies of the dead, and walked toward the girl. She stared at Alucard, her expression betraying no fear or hesitation.
"Do not make this hard on yourself," he pleaded with her. "I will make your death quick."
"Why do you want to kill me?" she asked, and Alucard shook his head.
"You are an innocent child, undeserving of your fate," he explained. "Hyne's purpose for you is unknown, but I do know that your continued life is essential to her plan. If you yet live, all of existence may be threatened. I cannot have that, Serra. I apologize for what I must do now."
"Get . . ." Seifer snarled, and Alucard glanced over at the knight as he rose, eyes full of rage and determination as he started to push himself up off the floor. "Away from . . . her . . . ."
Alucard looked back to Serra, and ignored Seifer as he strode toward her. He raised therapier for a strike, and Serra's wings unfurled, preparing to intercept the attack head-on.
"No!" Seifer screamed, standing up and lurching forward, but knowing he'd be unable to get to Serra in time as she and Alucard prepared to meet.
The chamber darkened, then, and everyone stopped. They looked up, to see the glass ceiling above them seeming to cloud over with a faintly transparent covering, that almost looked like . . . like ice . . . .
The glass exploded inward, and rushing from on high was what looked for all the world like a tremendous serpent, a massive snake-like monster composed entirely of ice, chiseled and shaped from the very forces of cold. The tremendous serpent, plunged down, curling down directly at where Alucard stood, a reverberating roar resounding throughout the entire Garden as the monster dove in.
And riding on the back of that massive serpent was a tiny SeeD, looking almost as if she was surfing atop the dragon's head.
"Whoo-hoo!" Selphie screamed as the dragon dove right at where Alucard stood, the Guardian so shocked by what he saw that he didn't think tot teleport until the icy construct slammed headlong into him in a tremendous explosion of pure cold energy. White shards of ice flew throughout the chamber as the dragon exploded, Selphie leaping off its back, an exuberant expression on her face as she spun toward the epicenter of the detonation.
"Booya!" she shouted as the frigid cold faded away, the shards of shaped ice seeming to evaporate in the wind.
The Guardian slowly stood up, shakily, surprised by Selphie's amazing expenditure of magical power. She turned toward her, respect in his eyes as her comrades shakily rose up around her. Zell looked battered, but ready to fight, and Irvine seemed more angry than injured, even as a tremendous welt became visible across his face where he had been hit. Quistis, too, stood, rubbing her jaw. Selphie readied her nunchaku as Serra quietly moved behind Alucard, ready to flank him.
The Guardian looked all round to the people surrounding him, and then to the hundreds of onlooking soldiers and SeeDs who ringed the courtyard. Each of them looked both awed by the battle and debating to themselves as to whether to enter it themselves, despite their lack of power relative to any of the combatants. As he watched, Seifer moved over to where Serra stood and straightened, despite his painful injuries, and faced the Guardian. He slid into a defensive stance, Hyperion pointed at Alucard, the saber in an overhand grip and laid over the gunblade, also pointing at the Guardian.
Alucard stared at the enemy surrounding him, and anger creeped into his face again.
"So, you all oppose me?" he snarled. "You all oppose my doing what is necessary to save all of you?" He pointed his saber at Serra. "She has to die!"
"Not. Happening." Seifer muttered.
"Right," Irvine added.
"No way in hell you're getting at her!" Zell proclaimed.
"Right!" Selphie added in.
Alucard turned toward Quistis, his expression softening, as if to say "You too?"
Her response was to raise her rante, prepared for combat. There was no mistaking her intent; these were her friends, and she would die beside them if need be.
"So be it," he whispered. "If you refuse to let me save this world . . . You are Hyne's creations, doomed to damn this realm to nothingness. If you refuse to let me do what is necessary, then you can all die yourselves by her hand!"
And, with that final proclamation, Alucard vanished, and did not reappear.
Squall stared down at Illarra' still corpse, her blood pooling over her body. Calmly, he reached up and took off the bandages around his slashed eyes, and knelt down by her side. He tied the bandage around her face, giving her the closest approximation to closing the eyes of a fallen comrade that he could.. He quietly laid her hands over her blasted stomach, and set her shattered gunblade's gun aspect into her fingers, and stood up.
He stared down at the woman, who finally seemed to have found the peace she had never known while living, and turned around, striding back into the Garden.
Well done, Squall.
Shut up.
Squall walked into the Garden, looking around at the badly damage interior, and sighed. At last the war was finally over, though the losses they'd suffered thus far were tremendous. But now it was finished.
Finished, Squall?
Squall suddenly found himself standing ramrod straight, and dread washed over his body.
Oh, no, Squall. I hasn't ended yet. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that we've just gotten started. Come now, Commander. Let's enjoy some fun . . . while we can.
I'm not going to let you! I'll die before-
Haven't you learned anything, Squall? Be quiet, and relax. Its myplaytime now.
Nash and Hades backed away from one another, the Elemental turning to face the Guardian of The End, chills shooting through him as felt her power emanating off her in waves. The Guardian seemed completely unchanged at first glace, still seeming as if a tiny, innocent, harmless little girl, but that was only at first glance. Indeed, there was something more powerful, more sinister about her now as she looked at Nash, a slight smirk on her face.
And then he saw he hands, gripping two long, sender strips of what looked like metal, and Nash then understood.
He had studied the legends of Hyne, and while they had been very inaccurate for the most part regarding her true powers and intentions, they had mentioned that before Hyne had granted part of her powers to humanity, she had wielded two weapons, devastatingly powerful ones.
Hyne flicked her wrists, an the two strips of metal expanded into a pair of large, elegant metal and cloth fans, one made of pure darkness, the other glittering with light. Nash watched her, his wariness increasing as he stared the two fans gripped in the little girl's hands. They looked delicate and simple, but he knew that, like everything else about Hyne, that these weapons were unbelievably deadly.
With her amused smile never wavering, Hyne raised the fan in her left hand and flicked it at Nash. A wave of weakness spread over him, and for an instant, the glowing light of his gunblade seemed to flicker. The Elemental felt his whole body slacken, his knees going weak, and a strange lethargy passing over his body.
Hyne then waved the fan in her right hand at him, and he was caught in the middle of a wave of pure destructive force, the energy blasting the Elemental backward across the room, sending him slamming into the deformed walls, his skin flaring in agony as the destructive power ripped at his body.
"Beautiful," she whispered, looking down at her weapons. "Its been a long time since I got to use these . . . And the magic from the alternate timeline has made them so much stronger! Simply exquisite . . . ."
"The Death Fans," Hades remarked with a chuckle. "One of pure void, total suppression of all energy. And the other of pure destruction."
"Both aspects of annihilation," Hyne finished. "I destroy, and I leave nothing to replace it. Truly the deadliest of weapons. Void and Destruction. I missed these Death Fans . . . ."
Nash picked himself up off the floor, growling in rage. He banished whatever dread or fear he'd been feeling and stood, his glowing weapon flaring again with its god-killing light. He loosed an inarticulate roar of rage and defiance and hurled himself across the room at Hyne, weapon reaching back for a devastating cleave.
The Void Fan waved in the air, and the fires wreathing Nash faded, his sword flickering again as he slowed down, all the energy in his body suddenly vanishing.
The Destruction Fan waved lazily in the air, and the floor before Nash erupted in destructive light, Nash launched backward, his body wracked by searing agony once again. Hyne's mocking laughter cut through the room.
"Whoo!" Hades cheered. "All right! You go, girl!"
Hyne looked down at the fan, and then at the battered Elemental, who shouldn't have been able to keep fighting after all the punishment she had dealt out. He had even withstood two strokes from both of her fans, and was still alive, somehow. That was certainly a testament to his resiliency and willpower.
"I think our work is done, don't you agree?" Hyne asked, and Hades nodded.
"Got the Sorceress power back, and it looks like the battle outside is over with. Guess its time to head out before Alucard figures out we're around and tries to stop us again."
"Don't . . . ." came a growl as the two Guardians turned away, and they looked back to see Nash standing up, his weapon flaring again.
"You . . . ." he hissed, the blade's light growing in intensity.
"Walk away from me!" Nash shot forward, a massive plume of flame roaring out behind him, instantly setting the entire room ablaze once again as he lanced at Hyne, gunblade raised over his head as he screamed in fury.
Hyne narrowed her eyes and flicked the Void Fan at him viciously, and all the fires simply vanished, snuffed out in a puff of denial. The chamber cooled instantly, and the dark energies struck Nash in mid-motion, sending him stumbling forward on muscles that had no strength left. The light around his weapon flickered once more, and then finally faded, even the intense god-killing power unable to stand before Hyne's ultimate power. He teetered forward, his body simply stopping and going completely slack, and he fell toward Hyne.
She calmly reached up, collapsing the Destruction Fan, and letting the tip of the weapon hold up the weakened Elemental. He stared at her, his eyes full of exhausted hatred. She stared back, her expression one of mock pity.
She dropped him to the floor, letting him lay there, body no longer possessing the energy to let him stand up, and turned around, walking away.
"Man,' Hades muttered. "Full frontal assault while Hyne's got her Death Fans? That's just stupid." He glanced down at Nash, and walked over to the fallen Elemental, and reverted his face to his normal human visage, and grinned.
"Now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."
With that, Hades turned away from the defeated Elemental and strode away, chuckling to himself.
In the brief time between Crell's exposure as a mad dictator and Laguna's effective reinstatement as leader of Esthar (as very few people would argue with fifty thousand angry Estharian soldiers), the Estharian troops had stormed Crell's command Fortress, sweeping through the ship and seeking either Crell or his Elemental supporters. With the Estharian army now back under his command, Laguna had emerged from his hidden hacking spot, and had met with a number of the newly arrived troops.
"Sir," one oif the officers reported. 'We've almost finished sweeping the entire ship, sir."
"Have you found Crell yet?"
"No, sir," he answered. "We've encountered a small number of his Elemental soldiers, which we overwhelmed, but it seems that they were fighting a rear-guard action. We haven't been able to locate and capture him yet."
"Damn," Laguna muttered. "That guy is a slippery bastard. Keep searching!"
Meanwhile, in the heart of Balamb Garden, the three-man demolitions team that was frantically working on the bomb below was having a far better time.
"How's the detonator on your end?" one asked.
"Got it down. That should be most of the detonators in the bomb."
"These Estharians worked hard to make sure we couldn't disarm it," another remarked.
"Bah. There's no bomb we can't disarm!" the first stated.
"How much time is left?"
"I'm guessing . . . Five minutes on the timer?"
"That much? Wow. We're a lot faster than we expected."
"Got the last detonator over here. Any more?"
"Wait, there's one more over here. Gimme a second. Almost have it . . . ."
One of the techs leaned back, rubbing his eyes, and smiled. They had done it. With the last detonator taken care of the bomb would be disarmed, and Garden would be safe. He reached over to high-five one of his pair of partners.
He stopped in mid motion, and his partner let out a cry of surprise as the demo technician fell to the floor, blood erupting from his chest.
Dark, resounding laughter filled the room as the two remaining technicians scrambled for their weapons, surprised by the sudden, unexpected assault. Both men whirled to face their attacker, and froze when they saw what was facing them.
The attacker did not hesitate, however, and a moment later, the remaining two technicians, faces still locked in shock at what they had been up against, were down and dead.
Seifer watched the spot where Alucard had vanished, but the Guardian did not return. It was a long while before the knight managed to relax.
"Are you okay?" Serra asked fro behind him, and Seifer glanced back over his shoulder, and nodded. He looked to the other SeeDs all around him, who themselves were finally letting themselves relax after the grueling battles they'd all fought through. And he nodded again.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," he replied. "I'm guessing that this battle is finally over, huh? Crell's beat!" Serra smiled and nodded, and Seifer felt a whole lot better simply by looking at the girl's happy expression. She was exhausted, he was bloody and battered, but they were both still alive, and that was what mattered.
His radio chirped, interrupting the peaceful moment, and Seifer frowned. He pressed his finger to his ear.
"Yeah, Almasy," he muttered.
"This is Xu," came the response. "We've been trying to get in touch with you guys over there. I'm assuming that since Trabia is the only Garden with a working command deck now, that we're in command at the moment."
"Yeah, that sounds about right," Seifer answered. "What's up?"
"We just got a transmission from Balamb Garden. Looks like a distress call from Squall. Something's gone wrong over there, and he said he needed everyone to head back as soon as possible. And he wanted to see you, specifically, on the command deck. Well, you or Rinoa."
"Why us?" Seifer asked, moving out of the courtyard quickly, toward the Garden's main entrance.
"He didn't say," she replied. "And we would send Rinoa over too, but she's still down. Apparently she was attacked in the infirmary by someone, and collapsed. She's starting to recover, but still incapacitated."
"Right. What about the bomb?"
"He said that the bomb was taken care of," Xu replied, and Seifer nodded. Something wasn't right about this . . . Something in his gut told the knight that the situation could be very, very wrong at that moment.
"Look, I'm going to head over there right now," Seifer explained as he exited out the front of the Garden, and saw Balamb Garden drifting closer to the edge of Galbadia Garden. He hurried to the edge of the floating ship, near where the front entrance was about to touch between the two ships.
"I'll check it out, and then call everyone else in."
"Something wrong?" Xu asked, and Seifer frowned.
"No, not sure. I just want to be on the safe side. Have everyone wait for my signal before returning, okay?"
"Right."
The line went silent as Seifer leapt across the distance between the two Gardens as they met. He dropped down at the front entrance, which was still strewn with the corpses of the many fallen in the final Estharian charge. The knight moved forward, but paused as he neared the main entryway, where he saw a single corpse that caught his eye. For an instant, he thought it was Squall's, but he noted the different clothing, and correctly guessed that the woman was Illarra.
Well, that ghost has been put to rest.
He progressed through the empty Garden, a bit put off by the silence within the normally active and noisy building. It seemed too amplify that faint feeling of unease Seifer was sensing in the back of his mind and in the heart of his gut.
The elevator stopped at the command deck, and Seifer stepped out. He walked toward the doors leading onto the deck, but slowed as he neared them. His instincts were screaming at him to stop and reconsider. Something was terribly wrong about all this.
The doors opened at Seifer's touch, and he walked into the chamber.
"Squall?" he called. He looked around at the empty command deck, and at the shattered glass and wrecked furniture and electronics. And then jerked as he heard a sound, the whir of the small lift leading up to the command pylon dropping. Seifer saw the lift stop and, despite every instinct in him telling him to not do so, he stepped onto the platform. It immediately rose up to the top of the structure, and the controls that guided Balamb Garden.
Squall stood at the top of the pylon, looking over the controls and out the shattered glass window.
"Squall," Seifer began. "What the hell's going on around here? Something isn't right."
"That's right, Seifer," Squall answered. "Things are very wrong right now." He paused, not looking back at Seifer. "Did everyone come back?"
"Not yet," Seifer replied. "Rinoa's still unconscious, and I decided to have everyone else stay back until I knew what the problem was."
"I see," Squall replied after a second, and then he chuckled. It wasn't a normal chuckle, but one of malicious amusement, and one that set Seifer on edge. He took a step back, and found his hands grasping his sheathed weapons.
"Human instinct," Squall continued, and he started turning toward Seifer. "One of the few things that keeps your decrepit species alive."
Where Squall's eyes had been cut out, there were glowing white pits that suddenly flared up, the gleam reflecting off his gunblade as he drew it. Squall's voice modulated as he spoke, becoming darker, deeper, and more profound, echoing across the chamber.
The smile on his face was not a smile that Squall would have worn; it was the smile of a madman.
"What the hell are you?" Seifer snarled as he drew Hyperion and his saber.
"Fairly obvious, isn't it, Seifer?" Squall asked, and his laughter resounded across the chamber again.
"Griever!" Seifer hissed, and Squall's body nodded.
"Too bad no one else came. I'll have to settle on you, then, Seifer."
Griever suddenly shot forward, moving far faster than Seifer expected, even after having fought Alucard. Hyperion shot up, ringing solidly against the Revolver, and Seifer stared into the shining pits of Squall's eyes as Griever laughed, twisting his host's face into a sadistic grin. The Guardian Force pressed even harder against Seifer's weapon, and the sudden exertion of force sent Seifer flying backward, tumbling off the top of the command pylon.
Seifer slammed into the floor on his back, pain shooting through him as Griever leapt off the top of the pylon, dropping down toward Seifer's prone form. The knight rolled aside as Squall's body slammed down where he'd been an instant before, the Revolver buried up to its hilt in the floor. With almost casual ease, the Guardian Force ripped the blade out of the floor as Seifer flipped up onto his feet, stabbing ahead with Hyperion. The gunblade dove for Squall's face, but the Guardian Force made no move to block the attack, smiling even as the weapon stabbed at his face. Seifer jerked to a stop, bringing the blade to a halt right in front of Squall's nose.
"That's right! You can't hurt me. Any blows you strike against me as I am will only hurt Squall." Then, as if to emphasize the point, Griever reached up with his left hand, drew Squall's knife off its shoulder sheath, and stabbed it into his own shoulder, before wrenching it free, crimson running down the front of the SeeD's armor.
"After all the fighting, this body's in pretty bad shape. Squall may not be able to take much abuse . . . Can you fight me, Seifer? Fight me, knowing any strike you make can kill him?"
The Guardian slashed across with the Revolver suddenly, wielding the heavy gunblade one handed. Seifer ducked back, evading the cut, and almost rushed forward purely out of reflex, stopping himself in mid-step. Griever slashed again, another vicious one-handed chop, laughing as he did so.
"Why are you doing this?" Seifer demanded as he leapt back out of range, looking for some way, any way to battle this monster.
"There's nothing that will tear Squall up more than to see me doing this to those he cares about. Right now, the agony he is in, the mental torment as he watches me slaughter you, and the agony he will feel when he sees me massacre Garden and then tear his friends apart one by one . . . Oh yes, that's all I need right now. Watching and feeling Squall suffer . . . That is why I do this. Isn't that reason enough?"
Seifer stared at Griever, appalled by the monster he faced, the invincible force of pure sadism and grief, and for the first time in his life, he had no idea what to do.
Nash stood up, groaning in pain. His strength had finally returned to him, and his anger had never faded. That bastard Hades, and Hyne's Death Fans . . . He swore he was going to hunt them down and tear those two apart before he killed them.
Slowly, the Elemental moved through the deformed bay, nothing within the chamber looking as it had mere minutes before, after his overwhelming use of fire and Hyne's destructive strength with her Death Fans.
The Elemental paused as he felt something, a powerful sense of dread shooting through him. Something was wrong, horribly wrong. It felt almost like . . . Like a Guardian Force manifesting itself. And this one felt like . . .
Oh shit, Griever!
The Revolver cleaved in at Seifer's head, slashing down hard, and Seifer rapidly blocked, backing away, giving ground. Griever strode forward resting the gunblade on his shoulder as he advanced, not even bothering with a defense he knew he didn't need. Seifer leapt back up onto a desk and dropped behind it, looking around frantically, seeking a plan, something to use to stop this foe.
"Stop running, you'll only die tired!" Griever shouted, leaping over the desk. Seifer almost met him with Hyperion, but knew that the strikes would do no good, and instead snapped up hi blades as the Revolver cut across, the weapon ringing solidly against Seifer's own. Squall's body shot forward, grabbing Seifer by the front of his shirt and lifting him up. He grinned as he faced Seifer, staring at the knight with glowing pits of eyes.
The entire structure of Garden suddenly shook with a tremendous explosion, throwing the entire ship into wild vibrations and nearly throwing the two off their feet. The lights flickered and then went dark, amber emergency light clicking on and the computers around them rebooting.
"The hell-"
"Ah, so, its done," Griever commented. "I was hoping that the bomb would go off while everyone else was inside the Garden, so I could kill as many as possible, but, well, I'll have to make due with things as they are."
"The Garden-"
"Is sinking, right now. I give it . . . About two or three minutes before it sinks all the way under the ocean." Griever grinned wildly and then suddenly flexed his muscles, throwing Seifer up a short distance, and catching his foot as it passed. Before Seifer could do anything, Griever reared back and, with a wild, insane laugh, spun around and flung Seifer into Garden's main screen.
The glass shattered around Seifer, some of it cutting through his clothes and burying into his skin. Electricity shot through his body, and he pushed forward reflexively, hurling himself out of the gigantic screen and landing on the floor. Without pausing, and ignoring the pain, the knight scrambled forward, spinning around in time to block another rapid cleave from Griever.
How the hell do I fight this thing?
She stared up at the ceiling in the infirmary as a half-dozen nurses and medics tended to her. Aside from the wracking pains of Hades stealing her strength, she hadn't suffered any permanent injuries, much to everyone's relief.
Rinoa felt empty. She felt as if part of her had been torn away in an instant, and now she was left with a gaping hole. However, even with all the sudden, blatant emptiness after Hades had stolen her powers, the pain Rinoa had felt was gone. Something had been taken from her, but without the Sorceress powers, she felt so much more at ease, as if a terrible burden had been lifted from her shoulders.
The Sorceress power was gone. She was . . . Normal again. A normal person. And it felt . . . It felt good. It felt good to be a natural person again.
A dull rumble passed through Trabia Garden at that moment, and Rinoa, despite her exhaustion shot up in her bed, surprising the medics.
What was that?" she asked, and they looked around, uncertain. A sense of dread shot through her as she listened, and heard nothing else. The explosion had sounded like an anti-ship bomb or missile going off, and if it was in close proximity . . . .
Rinoa quickly stood up, surprising the medics. When they started to urge her to sit back down, she shooed them away, insisting she was fine. Her weakness was suddenly replaced by a spike of adrenaline and a profound sense of fear.
Squall . . . Where is Squall?
Seifer flew through the glass wall separating one of the briefing rooms from the main deck and rolled across the table. Griever marched across the command deck after the knight as he flopped off the far end of the long table and onto his knees, banging them hard. His radio chirped in his ear.
"Seifer, are you there?" came Xu's voice.
"More or less," Seifer muttered in response.
"What's going on over there? Have you found the problem?"
Griever strode through the shattered glass, grinning sadistically with Squall's face.
"Squall's been possessed by Griever!" Seifer shouted over the radio. "Keep everyone back from Balamb Garden! I repeat, he's been possessed by Griever!"
"What?" Xu asked, not sure she was hearing him right. He didn't respond, instead grabbing the edge of the table and throwing it up, and then running forward and kicking the table at Griever. The huge metal table flew toward the Guardian Force at the end of Seifer's junction-enhanced kick, and then flew in half as Griever chopped across, splitting the table in two.
Ads the pieces fell, Seifer rushed forward, leaping up into a double-footed kick that slammed the surprised Guardian in the chest and hurling him back out of the briefing room. Seifer started to rush after him instinctively, but then stopped as he exited the room, just in time to see Griever roll across the floor, kick up into a standing position, and charge directly at Seifer where he stood, laughing manically.
Hyperion intercepted another cut, and then Seifer's head was rocked back. The knight stumbled backwards, and Griever attacked again, slamming and kicking Seifer, fists and feet crashing into his ribs and head, pounding the knight down in a brutal flurry of impacts.
Seifer was then hauled up by a hand grasping his hair, and Griever turned his face up so he stared at the glowing white pits of Squall's face. With a sadistic grin, he headbutted Seifer, not caring for any damage that would have been done to his host. Seifer fell to the floor, dazed.
A moment later, Squall had hauled Seifer up once more left hand holding up his chin while his right hand pressed the Revolver to Seifer's throat.
"Death and grief are inevitable," Griever whispered into his ear. "But you, Seifer, you get to die alone, with only me as the last person to witness your end. Is this the glorious end you always wanted? To die a shit-like death in a ruined, sinking Garden, knowing your powerlessness in your final seconds of life?"
"Do all you Guardians give pretentious speeches before you kill people?" Seifer muttered under his breath, and Griever chuckled. However, to the Guardian's surprise, Seifer also managed a laugh.
There was a click, and the flesh over Seifer's right hand parted, and the barrel of his single-shot .50 cal arm-mounted cannon emerged and exploded. The blast knocked the gunblade out of Griever's grasp and gave Seifer the opening he needed. He spun around, planting a rapid-fire stream of gut punches and kicks, driving the Guardian Force back, Griever snarled, and shot forward at Seifer, attacking with his bare hands. Seifer intercepted with a hilt jab from his saber that doubled Squall's body over, and a rising knee that knocked Griever backward. The Guardian stumbled back, not really hurt, but reeling from the force of Seifer's countercharge.
The Guardian, however, recovered very quickly, and turned to face Seifer, rage apparent on his features. He started striding toward the knight, and then suddenly slowed, before coming to a stop, his expression shifting to one of confusion, and then one of outrage.
"No! You! This body is mine now!"
Seifer dashed forward in the middle of Griever's pause, and slammed the Guardian hard with another blow from his hilt, coming to a sudden understanding of what was happening. The impact his the distracted Guardian, and sent him flopping backward onto the floor.
"Squall! Fight him! Don't give in to him!" Griever looked to Seifer as he spoke, and started to stand, rushing toward the knight. Once again, he slowed, and as Seifer watched, the light in Squall's destroyed eyes started to dim. He stumbled forward, falling to his knees, and reached up to his head, shaking it and growling in defiance, protesting the renewed mental assault that was driving him back.
Several long moments later, Griever leaned his head forward, and the light faded. After another couple of seconds, the man looked up, and there was no glow in his eyes or rage in his face. There was only exhaustion.
"Seifer . . . " Squall whispered. He stumbled toward the wounded knight as Seifer walked forward, toward the battered SeeD Commander.
"Is that you?" Seifer asked. "You for real?"
"Yeah . . . ." Squall answered tiredly. "I . . . I can't hold him back for long. His willpower is . . . Incredible . . . ." A faint flicker of light shot through his eyes again, and Squall gritted his teeth, fighting back and driving Griever down.
"Come on, we have to get you back," Seifer said walking toward Squall. He grabbed the SeeD by his shoulder, but Squall suddenly pushed him away.
"No!" Squall hissed, his voice suddenly pained. He shook his head. "No." He sighed deeply and profoundly, and tried to stand straight. Blood was still seeping from his left shoulder, which was almost limp.
"If I go back, Griever will take over again eventually," he explained. "He was . . . Waiting for this moment . . . ."
"The Garden is sinking, Squall!" Seifer said. "We have to get out of here-"
"I know that!" Squall answered forcefully. "That's. . . why I have to stay. Griever . . He'll . . . do it all over again . . . ."
"I . . . I understand," Seifer whispered as he truly did know, at that moment, what Squall was saying.
"My gunblade," he whispered, nodding to the Revolver. He the reached up with his right hand and drew his silver necklace from around his throat. He reached out with shaking fingers, and Seifer took it.
"Give them to Rinoa," he whispered. "Go. Get out of here."
Seifer took the chain, and walked past the SeeD as he stumbled toward a chair in front of one of the working monitors. He sat down, and his right hand started hitting keys on the keyboard slowly. Seifer slowly scooped up Squall's heavy gunblade, and looked down at the etched lion on the steel blade.
"Squall," Seifer said, looking back at the SeeD.
"Go," Squall rasped. "I . . . Have to stay. I have to protect everyone from myself." He looked over at Seifer with his eyeless gaze, and the look on his face and the final words he spoke would haunt Seifer for the rest of his sleepless nights.
"I have to die now."
Seifer stared at Squall's features, and he knew that the SeeD knew what had to be done. Slowly, Seifer nodded. He took the chain and the gunblade in his left hand, and for the first time in many years, Seifer saluted Squall. The SeeD Commander stared at him, uncertain how to respond, before nodding and slowly raising his own shaking right hand.
"Goodbye, Squall," Seifer whispered, and turned, running toward the shattered window, leaving the ruined Garden and its ruined Commander to perform his final duties.
Rinoa stared out the front of Trabia Garden's command deck, at Balamb Garden as it sank down into the ocean. The horror on her face was evident; she'd caught the end of the conversation between Seifer and Xu, before his radio had cut off. Now she watched the sinking ship with ever growing dread and fear for Squall's safety.
"There's someone leaving the command deck!" came a shout, and Rinoa saw someone jump out the window of the deck and splash into the ocean a short distance out from and beneath the deck, as Balamb Garden slipped further into the ocean. She saw a flash of white trenchcoat, and knew that Seifer was alive. But was he fleeing, or was he leading Squall to safety?
"Transmission from Balamb Garden!" came a call. "Someone's using the emergency band! Its being transmitted to all the ships that can pick it up!"
"Put it on," Xu ordered, and the main screen shifted, to show Squall's haggard, eyeless face. Cuts and bruises pockmarked his features, his short beard stained in some places by blood. He looked into the camera.
"Rinoa?" he called, his voice exhausted.
"Squall!" Rinoa called. She ran to the nearest computer displaying his image, and one of the technicians quickly rerouted outgoing signals to the camera over that computer, so Squall could see her.
"Squall, its me!" she said quickly, sitting down. She leaned forward, relief flooding her as she saw his face, and his smile as he heard her voice. His exhaustion was replaced by a peaceful look, serene and happy.
"We did it, Rinoa," he told her. "Its over. We won." She smiled again as he spoke.
"Where are you?" she asked.
"Balamb Garden's command deck," he explained. He paused, and exhaustion began to creep back into his voice.
"Why aren't you leaving?" Rinoa asked. He was silent for several moments, and Rinoa's face shifted to one of worry. "Squall? Why . . . Why aren't you leaving?"
"I can't leave," he answered. She stared at the screen for several long moments, and then glanced out the window, seeing the water creeping up the side of the structure, rising over the second level.
"But . . . But you said-"
"Griever isn't . . . ." He stopped, sniffing the air faintly. "I can't come back. To come back would . . . Griever will kill everyone through me if I come back."
"No . . . ." Rinoa's words were choked as she spoke them. She shook her head, trying to deny what he was saying.
"I can't come back," he whispered. "I'm sorry, Rinoa . . . ."
"No!" she screamed, slamming her fists down on the keyboard. "No! You have to . . . You have to come back . . ."
"I can't," he responded quietly. She looked at his face, and saw the intense regret spreading across his features, and how he lowered his head slightly. "I . . . I fought to protect everyone. Illarra lost her mind. She wanted the kill everyone. I had to stop her. And now, Griever . . . He's going to use me to kill everything I love."
"We can stop him," Rinoa said, her eyes watering. She started to attempt to hold back the tears, tears of denial, but they started flowing despite her best efforts. "We . . . We can stop him together . . . ."
"No, Rinoa," he said. He was silent for several long moments, and shook his head. "This is a battle I have to fight alone."
"You can't . . . you can't leave me . . . ."
"I'm so sorry, Rinoa," he answered. "So very sorry. I wanted to see our daughter grow up. I wanted to live the rest of my life with you. But . . . ."
He was silent, and watched her as she started sobbing, tears running down her face. He reached forward and touched the screen in front of him, and slowly, she did so as well. He stared at her with his eyeless gaze, and smiled.
"I love you, Rinoa," he whispered.
"I love you too, Squall," she answered through the tears.
" . . . . Good-bye."
The screen went dead.
The water flowed in around Squall, creeping in through the broken glass. Squall turned around, and looked across the command deck, his ankles splashing in the icy waters.
So, this is how it ends?
Squall's response came as the icy waters rose up around his knees.
Now and forever, Griever. You will never harm another through me.
Hm. If that is how it has to be. This is quite the . . . Disappointment. The hero dies at the end of his saga?
Who said this was the end?
An interesting answer. Your story will end if you continue down this path . . . .
There is no damn story. There is no final fantasy. There's only life. And through my death, I save all others.
Erudite, Commander. But at least I can savor this fact: through your death, you will cause tremendous grief.
Not as much as you would have caused, Griever.
But I yet win.
No.
How so?
They will grow beyond that grief. They will continue on without me, and will not look back at my death with sadness. They will remember me as the man I was when I lived, not the man I was as I died.
The water was rising up past Squall's chest.
Grief is not eternal. Love and joy are. That is something you've never grasped, Griever.
Indeed. This will be something to ponder during eternity, I suppose.
The water began to rise to Squalls neck, and he leaned his head back. For some reason, griever did not speak as he looked up, his Zanshin sight giving him an impeded view of the sky as the water flowed up past his chin, his mouth, his nose, his scarred eyes . . . . And then engulfed Squall Leonhart.
Goodbye, Rinoa. I'll be waiting . . . Wherever I'll be . . . .