Chapter 4: Requiem
The gravity tethers binding it to the wall slackened, and then faded, and it fell to the cold concrete floor. Something passed through its body as it kneeled on the still, icy stone below, and the gauzy haze that enveloped its mind began to fade away, as surely as if the drugs within its blood were being purged with anti-toxins. It looked up, the electronic systems within its armor re-initializing and painting everything in its line of sight with bloody red hues.
Two figures stood opposite the cell, bathed in the stark white light from the single overhead lightbulb, their outlines shaded red and pink in the crimson display of the armor's mask. One was diminutive, seemingly harmless, but the other was tall, gaunt, swathed in a black cloak and with a scythe balanced across its shoulders.
There were no questions, no confused demands. All it felt was a surge of unexplainable feelings pumping through its body, the armor it wore supercharging the negative, violent impulses it felt. Hate, fury, rage, disgust, blind, seething enmity toward humanity in general - all shot through it in an instant, untempered by conscious thoughts. The loud, poignant kschkt of the claws on its forearms erupting from their armored sheaths filled the chamber, and it rushed forward, letting out an inarticulate roar of violence and rage, filtered into an inhuman shriek by the mask.
The small figure, a tiny, harmless girl, waved something in the air, and it hit the floor, the strength fading momentarily from its body. Pushing itself up off the floor, growling in defiance, it started forward again, and the girl gestured once more, waving her fan in a lazy, almost bored fashion. Its knees went weak again, and it took a moment longer to recover its strength before it started to advance once more.
"Stubborn," mused the man in the cloak, and he chuckled. "You can stop trying to kill us, y'know; not going to work on things like us."
It ignored him, roaring again, and once more being dropped to the floor, the strength inexplicably fading from its muscles for a heartbeat.
"He's right," explained the little girl. "We're not here to fight you."
"You think I care?" it snarled in response, its voice garbled by the mask it wore.
"You would if we promised you what you want the most," the girl replied, smiling. Her words stopped it in its tracks, and it stared at her through the bloody vision offered by the armor's mask.
"And that would be?" it asked.
"What is it that your armor is telling you to do now?" she asked. "It is heightening that hatred and fury you feel, is it not? You instinctive desires to kill and destroy. The natural instincts borne by one who is born of the Chimera's blood."
Silence filled the chamber for several long moments.
"What are you proposing?" it asked, keeping its fury and hatred in check.
"Total. Complete. Destruction." Hyne giggled. "That's all."
" . . . I like the sound of that."
Slashing rain stormed down on the small group that advanced through the rocky terrain, descending into the heart of the island. Flashes of lightning and roaring thunder resounded overhead once every ten to fifteen seconds, and they were constantly pummeled by the pouring rain and buffeting winds, which cut in at their water-proof commando ponchos as they trudged ahead. In the chaotic windstorm, the possibility of them being detected by nearly any sensor the enemy had was moot.
Seifer, leading the commando team, peered ahead through the thrashing storm, squinting his eyes, and lifted his night vision goggles. He checked the GPS tracker he carried, and nodded. Pressing a hand to his ear, he shouted into the radio.
"Closing in on our target!" he told them. "ETA five minutes!" There were acknowledgements from the rest of the team, and they pressed forward through the muddy patches and piles boulders and jagged rocks. Everyone tensed up, gripping their weapons more tightly. Irvine checked his Valiant rifle for the thousandth time, Rinoa squeezed the handle on her Revolver with one hand while clutching her sub-machinegun with the other, Quistis gritted her teeth, Zell flexed his fingers, and Serra stilled her breathing as best she could. the only one who didn't react was Nash, who walked forward stoically, the modified Revolver he carried wrapped up in cloth and held in hand.
They were all a bit worried. Even with the driving storm, they still should have encountered some form of sentry or guard or sensor, but nothing had shown itself. As they had drawn closer to the laboratory, the commando team started to collectively tense up, expecting something new around each bend or behind each boulder. But nothing had presented itself, and now they were almost to the doorstep of the facility.
Seifer pressed on through the gloom and swirling rain and striking winds, and as he moved forward, he saw something, recessed into the side of a rocky hill up ahead. It seemed like the entrance to a cave, but too sharp, too squared, and far too metallic.
"Ready weapons!" he ordered, and noted that the entrance was wide open, and for a second, he wondered why the enemy would be stupid enough to expose themselves like that. That was until, however, he saw the pair of bisected corpses in front of he cave entrance, and the bloody walls beyond. They advanced toward the entrance, weapons ready, but soon saw them to be unnecessary. There were no living guards, either at the door or within the corridor, just five bodies that had been ruthlessly sliced apart. Seifer checked the bodies at the entrance, and confirmed that they had been cut, fats and hard, by a slender blade.
"Its him," Irvine muttered, and Seifer nodded as they moved into the entrance, the slashing rain and rocking winds dying down instantly. They moved over the corpses as their ponchos sloughed off water, dripping across the cold concrete. The next pair of bodies were much like the guards who had been at the entrance, but the fifth corpse, just beyond, caused everyone to come to a dead stop.
They knew the man's features all too well, and recognized his shaven head and slender face. They had been hunting this man for over a year, and here he was, sliced cleanly in half, lying in a pool of his own blood.
"Well, that's our job done," Zell commented, crossing his arms as he stared at Crell Varines' lifeless face. "Let's go home and have pie."
"Not yet," Rinoa and Seifer both replied at the same time. They glanced at each other, then at Zell, and then back toward the corridor before them, leading deeper into the lab.
"We'll need to finish checking this place out," Quistis added, and the others nodded.
"This Chimera guy might still be in here," Irvine added, and Nash grunted.
"Then that means we'll find answers," Rinoa muttered, and she moved past Seifer, suddenly taking the lead. Though Seifer had every right to push past her and resume his position as team leader, he opted not to, and no one argued.
They delved deeper into the laboratory, eyes open and alert, and left the corpse of Crell Varines behind.
The door slid upon, and he calmly walked into the laboratory's control room. His black coat flowed behind him, his hat rested still upon his head, and his right hand clenched the handle of the sword sheathed over his shoulder.
Silence crept across the control room. Red eyes stared unflinchingly across the chamber, and at the slaughtered corpses of the fallen scientists and soldiers, the damaged electronics, and the one other creature standing in the chamber.
"Who are you?" came the quiet, filtered voice of the creature within the Requiem armor. The black-clad man looked up at the creature, and narrowed his eyes.
"You know who I am," he whispered. The room was still for several moments, and the Requiem slowly crouched, the two claws on its arms extending as it slid into a combat stance.
"You're him," it stated. "The Chimera."
"You can call me that if you want," he answered, fingers tightening around the sword's handle.
"What are you here for?" Requiem asked, and the Chimera stared directly at the faceless mask it wore.
"I'm here to fix my mistakes," he explained. "You're one of them."
"Me?" the Requiem asked, and let out a quiet laugh, which came out sounding like claws scraping a blackboard.
"You died thirteen months ago," he stated coldly. "You should have stayed dead. Your life as it is now is nothing but a mockery of the person you were in life." He closed his eyes. "You are an abomination, a person who deserved the rightful rest you received. That you are alive now is . . . an insult to your death."
The red eyes opened again, and ferocious determination shone in their depths.
"Rest in peace," he whispered. And with those final words, the Chimera surged forward. The Requiem let out a tremendous howl, a metallic scream of fury, and bolted forward at the Chimera.
Sword whipped out of sheath in an instant, and it slammed into the Requiem's claws with a deafening impact, air whipping away from the collision and sending echoes throughout the lab.
The team had passes several side chambers, containing laboratories, equipment, and personnel quarters, and had wordlessly broken off to search them. Within, they found nothing but more fallen corpses and destroyed gear, all of it slashed apart by the same slender sword responsible for the initial kills at the entrance. Rinoa had opted to scout out ahead while the rest of the unit started searching one particularly large laboratory section, and was moving down a corridor alone when she heard the resounding impact echo up the hallway.
Raising her sub-machinegun, she quickly signaled the rest of the team with q uick, whispered "Contact" and moved ahead. A sudden powerful feeling of unease worked its way through her as she advanced, and her heart began to beat faster. She had no idea what lay ahead, but whatever it was, it gave her this intangible feeling of uncertainty and fear.
Clawed boots squealed along the floor as the Requiem was shoved backward, the talons gouging furrows in the concrete. beneath the mask, it sneered and shot ahead, snarling in its inhuman, filtered voice. The Chimera watched its advance calmly, and as it drew closer, the sword on his back flew out, erupting in a sudden strike. The Requiem stopped in mid-stride, left arm shooting up, the claw there blocking the blade, while its right arm lanced ahead, at the Chimera's face. The Chimera brought his left hand across, the armored gauntlet intercepting the thrust. He took a step back, sweeping his sword out wide and disengaging, and then flicked his right arm forward in a quick swipe with the blade.
The Requiem leapt back out of reach and dove ahead again, hissing like an animal, both claws diving for the Chimera's chest. the sword came across once again to parry, knocking both claws aside, but the Requiem simply ducked and spun with the blow, coming around in a wide-flying kick that nearly struck the black-clad warrior before he took a quick step back. Setting its feet, the Requiem sprung forward, snarling in animal fury as it leapt through the air at the retreating Chimera. His sword struck suddenly, and the armored warrior had to twist around to parry the strike, the force of which tossed it backward across the room.
"You're good," the Requiem snarled.
"And you are as I expected," the Chimera replied. "A savage animal, and nothing more."
"Animal?" it muttered. "Me? Heh. Far from it."
"You are nothing but a vessel for all the negative impulses you've ever felt," the Chimera replied. "You are a twisted mockery of who you were. You deserve your rightful rest." The Requiem considered his words for a moment, and then laughed, a harsh, grating sound.
"Nah."
"Then I'll have to do this the hard way," the Chimera muttered, shaking his head. He sheathed his sword and clutched it tightly. The Requiem crouched, baring its claws and tensing to attack. They stared at each other, waiting for the other to move-
-and the entrance burst open, and Rinoa stepped into the room, sweeping it with her sub-machinegun.
Both combatants looked to her for an instant, and the Chimera's red eyes widened as he saw her sudden intrusion. The Requiem's response was more vocal and violent however, as it spied what she wore at her side, and the familiar design.
A howl of fury echoed across the chamber, and it shot past the Chimera, rushing toward her in an instant. Responding with speed that shocked even her, Rinoa dropped her weapon and tore the Revolver from its sheath, raising it before her in an instantaneous guard that intercepted the strikes from both of the armored' figure's claws. She hopped back a step, and her left leg shot across in a brutal high left side kick that crashed into the Requiem's side and launched it into a wall.
The armored creature bounced off, its screeching snarl filling the chamber as it shot toward her again. The Revolver moved instantly into a nother defensive guard, parrying a low swipe of the Requiem's claws and spinning around, blocking a high strike in the blink of an eye. Rinoa stepped forward, ramming her knee up into the Requiem's chest, knocking it back a step, and the gunblade slashed down and across, hard. The edge scratched against the armored plating the Requiem wore and paused it back further, and it sprang away, crouching low to the ground like a stalking predator.
"That weapon," it hissed balefully, the sound amplified by the harsh metallic voice. "Where did you . . . what is that thing?"
"This weapon?" Rinoa murmured, and stared at the creature before her. It took her several long moments as she scanned its body, and then a flash of shocking realization struck her as she suddenly realized what she was staring at. They had the same build, the same height, and the brown hair poking out and dropping around the mask . . . just like his.
Her mouth opened as she stared at the figure before her, not certain what to say or what to do. Her hands trembled, and the Revolver shook in her hands as she looked on the animalistic beast before her. Her jaw started to work, but no sounds came out of her mouth, except for one, almost silent squeak.
" . . . Squall?"
The Requiem stared at her for several long moments as that word filled the room. The word echoed throughout its ravaged, infuriated mind, repeating over and over again, crashing against the walls of its thoughts and echoing. The chamber was still and silent, no one moving for a long, breathless moment.
Beyond the silent, motionless pair, the Chimera stared, and released his sword, hand dropping to his side. He slowly closed his eyes, and shook his head, almost regretfully.
"Squall . . . " the Requiem grated, turning its head slightly to the side. "Squall . . . Squall . . . ."
The shocking screech of agony and hatred that erupted from the creature an instant later caused Rinoa to flinch. She stared in horror as it clutched its head, shaking and howling, brown hair flying about wildly. It turned around, claws slashing into the concrete wall behind it, and then spun toward Rinoa.
"That name!" it snarled and screamed at the same time. "That name! What is it? Mine? Some . . . someone else's? What is it?"
Then, without any warning, the Requiem shot forward, toward Rinoa. The Chimera stepped ahead, gripping his sword and prepared to strike, but it flew past her, rushing down the hallway beyond. Rinoa whirled to pursue, but watched it bound down the passage. She heard surprised shouts over the radio, and then confused cries, wondering what the hell had just passed them.
Rinoa stared at the door the Requiem - Squall - had just fled through, jaws open in shock, looking blankly down the passage before her, and couldn't find any words to say.
Several long moments passed as she stared at that doorway, still coming to grips with what she had just seen. As Rinoa continued to grapple with the confused jumble that was her thoughts, the Chimera strode across the room. Slowly, almost hesitantly, he raised his right hand and set it on her shoulder. Rinoa flinched from his touch, surprised by the sudden contact.
"I'm sorry you had to see that," he whispered quietly, almost comfortingly. She slowly looked toward him, confused and shocked, trying to say something, and met his eyes. Despite the furious red glow, they seemed to radiate a sense of comfort, as if he was trying to help her. Her eyes flicked over his face, or what she could see, and just as she had with Nash, Rinoa was shocked by their similarities. He had the same slender jawline, and his hair and beard seemed so much like Squall's . . . like the creature that had just fled before her.
"Who . . . who was that?" she asked, almost pleading, and the Chimera closed his eyes and shook his head.
"Someone who should be dead," he explained, and she was struck by his voice, just like Nash's. Everyone in the Chimera's family was so similar . . . it was chilling, like looking at a distorted mirror of him, or a garbled recording of his voice.
He said nothing else, instead walking across the room to one of the intact computer terminals and entering commands. The computer screen shifted with light, but she didn't pay any attention, running the encounter through her mind, and trying to come to grips with what she had just encountered.
Squall was alive. He had to be. That thing, in the armor . . . it had to be him. But-
"How did they . . .?" she whispered, shaking her head. He had drowned to death in Balamb Garden's remains as it sank into the ocean.
"The armor that Nash developed acts as a life support mechanism," the Chimera spoke absently as his fingers clicked against the keys. "Requiem. It is fully capable of restoring even a dead Elemental to life. They recovered the corpse from the remains of Balamb Garden after it sank and attached it to that armor, using technology to breathe life into a dead corpse." He turned his eyes toward Rinoa, who stared at him, shock and revulsion creeping into her features.
"He was dead," she whispered. "But they . . . ."
"Artificially restored life to a body that had been dead for weeks," the Chimera finished her sentence. "Forcibly bringing what had already passed back into the realm of the living. The . . . the thing that you fought is nothing but a shell of broken memories restored to a broken corpse whose rightful rest has been violated for no reason except to further wage a pointless war."
Rinoa was silent after he spoke, and the only sound in the chamber was the clicking of keys and the faint thrum of working machinery. She ran the encounter over and over in her head, and very time, she understood the creature's actions more and more. The reaction to her, to her gunblade, and to its name . . . .
The sound of boots outside snapped her out of her thoughts, and Rinoa looked up at the doorway, to see her comrades rush into the control room, weapons at the ready. A quick, instant sweep showed the chamber clear, and Seifer, in the lead, stepped forward, until he noted the Chimera. The black-clad figure didn't move, and acted as if he had never heard them enter.
"Rinoa, are you okay?" Seifer asked, and she nodded, finally remembering to pick up her dropped weapon. Sheathing the gunblade, she hefted the sub-machinegun.
"Good to go," she answered. She looked over the rest of the group. "Did any of you encounter S . . . that thing as it escaped?"
"Yes," Quistis replied, nodding. "Myself and Nash encountered it in the corridors outside. What was it?"
"It was . . ." Rinoa closed her eyes, and managed the next sentence after a few moments, but only very quietly. "That thing is what was left of Squall."
Silence and stares greeted her words, and after a moment, the quiet was finally broken.
"The fuck?" Zell muttered, and Rinoa nodded, opening her eyes.
"Rinoa, what are you-" Seifer began, but she shook her head.
"I'm certain," she explained. "They took his body after he died, they used that armor to revive him, and then-"
Nash let out a profound curse and suddenly punched the concrete wall beside him, cracking the stone with the impact.
"The Requiem?" he hissed. "They used that . . . on the corpse?" Rinoa nodded. "Oh, motherfucking pink moombas!" Everyone glanced at him, surprised by the rather colorful swear, and looked back to her.
"You're certain?" Quistis asked, and Rinoa nodded.
"Very. The way he reacted to my gunblade, and me, and his name; it has to be him."
"No." Everyone turned to look tot he Chimera as they heard his words. He continued hammering away at the keyboard, not looking up at them, even as he spoke.
"That creature is not what you think it is," he explained. "It is nothing but a broken shell of broken memories. It shouldn't even be alive. To call it such is to dishonor the memory of the person it was."
Silence greeted his words for several moments, and finally, Seifer broke the silence.
"Then what do we do with him?" he asked, and the Chimera shrugged.
"That thing deserves the dignity of death," he stated. "And I will put it down."
"Put it down?" Quistis echoed. "You're talking about Squall . . . as if he was an animal."
"The Requiem is not an animal," Nash stated, and Quistis glanced at him as he shook his head. "That armor was never intended to restore life to a dead person, but it has been used as such."
"A perversion of the natural order," the Chimera added. "It cannot be allowed to exist." he paused, and looked back to the group before him. "Not to mention that the armor itself would drive its wearer insane. You noticed that, didn't you, Rinoa? The armor has driven that creature into flagrant psychosis, due to the trauma of being revived, and the fact that the armor perverts the emotions of its wearer, heightening negative emotions."
"As it is," Nash finished, "The Requiem is nothing but a corpse artificially revived and driven insane by the process and the very suit it wears."
Silence once again hung across the laboratory, and the SeeDs looked to one another, uncertain. All, that was, except Rinoa, who clenched her fists tightly.
"Is there no way to save him?" she asked, but from her tone, she already knew the answer.
"The armor sustains its wearer's life functions," Nash explained. "If it is destroyed or removed, the Requiem dies."
"Then we have to kill him," she whispered, and closed her eyes. The others stared at her for several moments, surprised by her words, and the resolve in her voice. "Squall wouldn't want to live like that, and if he were here, he'd tell us to do the same."
"Yes," the Chimera stated, in a barely audible whisper. "Yes, he would." He looked over the screen before him, and nodded. His tone changed, as did the direction of the conversation as he spoke. "There. I found it."
"What?" Quistis asked, walking toward him. He took a step back and turned the monitor so that everyone could see. A blueprint appeared on the screen, showing the plans for what looked like some sort of explosive device.
"That looks like some kind of aerosol bomb," Zell commented, and the Chimera nodded.
"Not just any aerosol bomb," he explained. "A specific type of bomb. The contents of this bomb appear to be a new form of the same chemicals utilized to produce the regular Elemental soldiers that made up part of Crell's army."
"Meaning . . .?" Zell asked.
"Meaning Crell could release this into the air and transform a large populace into Elementals," Seifer breathed, realizing the implications. "He could turn an entire city into Elemental soldiers."
"What?" Rinoa said, a confused look on her face. She shook her head. "I don't get it. Why? What good would turning an entire city into Elementals do him? The only people who follow Crell are his own soldiers; turning a city into Elementals wouldn't do him any good if they were disloyal to him."
"Not if he could control them," Irvine hissed, speaking for the first time since entering the room. The others looked to him, and then to Nash as the scientist swore. Irvine and Nash glanced at each other, and both of them understood the sudden, shocking implications.
"What?" Zell asked. "Something we missed here?"
"The Requiem," Irvine muttered, remembering the conversation he'd had with Nash over a year ago in Iceblood Prison. Nash nodded.
"That armor allows the wearer to exert mental control over Elementals," Nash whispered. he reached up and touched his bandana. "Unprotected Elementals - except Serra, who the armor was based on - can be mentally dominated and enslaved to the will of the one who wears that armor."
The pieces fell into place for Irvine in an instant.
"That's what happened to Selphie!" he exclaimed. "They used that thing - Squall - to . . . to take over her mind . . . ." As he spoke, Irvine looked around the control room. "She has to be here, or had to have been. I'm going to go find her!" Without another word, Irvine moved toward another door and ran out of the room.
"I believe that this was what happened," the Chimera commented. "And if they could control a pure Elemental like her . . . then they can control regular Elementals as well. An aerosol bomb that could convert a major city into hundreds of thousands of Elementals would give Crell an invincible army that his armor could control."
"But Crell's dead," Seifer said. "You killed him, right?"
"Yes, but I fear that may not matter now," he replied. "If the Requiem is on the loose, then that means that it can control Elementals just as effectively. And in such a volatile mental state, there's no telling what kind of destruction can be unleashed, especially if what's left of Crell's agents release that gas in a populated area." He looked to the others.
"We have to stop it; we have to destroy the Requiem."
The next room was another laboratory, and was as trashed as the control room, with overturned tables, broken equipment, and bloodstains from a half-dozen stabbed and slashed corpses. Clearly, the Requiem had cut through this chamber just as brutally and efficiently as the Chimera had ripped through the other end of the complex. Irvine swept the room with his rifle, and then lowered his weapon. He moved across the chamber, stepping over broken glass and strewn papers, and opened the door to the next room, which showed an office that was relatively undamaged. Suspecting that there was something to be learned in here, Irvine cross the office and stepped around the desk.
Movement from behind the desk caused him to raise his weapon again, and he caught sight of another form behind the furniture, a familiar, midget-like figure. The SeeD bolted forward, leaping over the desk and planting a solid kick to the man's face, knocking him over onto his back, and leveled his rifle at the man's face.
"What's up, Doc?" Irvine spat, staring down at Hans Odine. "Where the fuck is Selphie, asshole?"
"What released that thing?" Serra asked in the silence that followed the Chimera's declaration, and he shrugged in response.
"I haven't checked the camera records," he replied. He turned back toward the terminal and started hitting keys. "I'll check."
"My money is on you know who," Seifer muttered, and Nash grunted.
"Hyne has a hand in everything, it seems," he explained. "Something like this sounds right up her alley."
"Something to keep us busy?" Quistis added, scratching her chin. "Releasing Squall in such a state to wreak havoc through that armor and keep us occupied while finishing her plans?"
"From what we know of her," Seifer added, "That sounds logical."
"Got something," the Chimera said suddenly, and the others looked toward the monitor, to see a feed from the next laboratory over, and they watched as the door into the room flew open, and a familiar armored figure burst in, claws flashing as it leapt upon the scientists and technicians in the room. As they watched, it systematically slaughtered them, save for Hans Odine, who fled toward an office doorway.
"Odine knows nothing!" the Doctor protested, and Irvine responded by stomping hard on his stomach, inciting a squeal of pain from the mad scientist.
'You probably know more than you realize," Irvine replied. "I have good intel that says Selphie is, or was, here, so start talking." He pumped the action on his rifle. "Or I'll let Mr. Ten-Gauge here starts blasting off chunks of your worthless carcass."
"Okay! Okay! Maybe Odine knows somezing! Like zat ze girl was brought here ven ve tezted ze limits of ze armor's mind control power!"
"Really," irvine muttered. "What esle?"
"Ze armor . . . it can control any unprotected Elemental," Odine added. "Any, except ze Prototype. But Nash haz machinez that prevent ze control."
"I know that already," Irvine replied, and calmly pumped his rifle's action and leveled it at Odine's head. "Tell me something I don't know."
"Ah . . . um . . . okay!" Odine managed. "How about . . . umm . . . oh! I know! Odine knows something you really don't know!"
"That being?" Irvine asked.
The door to the office burst open an instant later, Irvine flying out of the office and slamming hard into the wall of the lab beyond, air bursting out of his lungs as he heard Odine's wild laughter.
"Zat!" he shouted. Irvine fell to the floor, and as he lay there, a glass syringe rolled past, emblazoned with the word "Pandemonea".
On the recording, Odine barely reached the office door when the Requiem leapt across the room and grabbed him by the shoulder, spinning him around and lifting him up into the air by the throat.
"Odine," it muttered, and chuckled, the grating laughter cutting into the video's viewers even through the tiny speakers on the monitor. The scientist struggled, yelping and whining pitifully in fear.
"You've always wanted to study Elementals first-hand, haven't you?" the Requiem asked. It glanced around, and strode toward a table, and scooped up a glowing vial tipped with a syringe, containing the same fluid that had been injected into Squall and Selphie so long ago.
"Here. Have a taste of it for yourself, then!" it shouted and stabbed the vial's needle into Odine's stomach. The scientist let out an agonized cry of pure suffered, and the Requiem burst out laughing, and callously hurled the scientist through the doorway into the office, before turning and walking out of the camera's line of sight.
An instant later, the shocked viewers heard the resounding impact against the wall of the next room over, and they put the pieces together within a split-second.
The door into the next lab flew open as Zell, in typically selfless and straightforward fashion, dove through headfirst, and ran straight into a whirlwind of . . . well, wind. he was slammed with hurricane force gales of raw, swirling air that launched him all the way across the room to crack another concrete wall.
Serra rushed into the room through the doorway, and instantly, Phoenix manifested itself before her, warding away the striking winds within the chamber and allowing Rinoa, Seifer, Nash, and Quistis to pile in directly behind her. Finally, bringing up the rear, came the Chimera, one hand atop his hat to hold it in place and the other grasping his sheathed blade in a white-knuckle grip.
In the center of the lab, a whirlwind of white are and suit and broken glass swirling around him, hovered Hans Odine, his normally squinting and scrunched up face replaced with a wide eyed look of madness, and insane smile stretching across the scientist's face.
"The hell?" Seifer hissed as the cyclone around Odine picked up in power and speed, filling the lab with a swirling roar. Rinoa leveled her rifle at Odine as Irvine shakily stood up, and Seifer cut around beside her. Nash's fires burst into existence around him, and he leveled a hand at the scientist. A gout of flame lanced out toward the insane scientist, but the winds simply increased in intensity, and the raging fires were scattered by the wall of air. Odine's response came as he channeled the heated air and sent it in a countering strike directly at Seifer as he rushed forward. The Commander stopped in mid-stride and reflexively shifted his junctions in a defense formation, bolstering his defenses against heat, just in time to take the storm of superheated air head on. His waterproof poncho ignited on contact, and he was tossed backward.
Quistis' whip flew into the maelstrom as Rinoa opened fire with her sub-machinegun. The cyclone raging around Odine, however, grew in intensity as he detected the attacks, and Quistis' bladed whip was sent spiraling out wide, forcing Serra to duck or have the chain strike her. The same winds that deflected the blade of the whip sent Rinoa's bullets spiraling wildly out of control, striking walls and ricocheting about uncontrollably.
Irvine experienced the same problem as he fired a buckshot shell from his rifle, the iron pellets swirling about and cast across the room. Zell, standing up, winced as one of the pellets struck him in the upper left thigh, and let out a battle roar. Simultaneously, Nash sent a jet of flame out behind him and hurled himself at Odine, fists wreathed in white-hot fires. Zell charged in on foot, and came at Odine from a different angle as Quistis recovered her whip and considered an alternate angle of approach to the insane Elemental.
Nash's fists drew close to Odine, and then he hit the cyclonic wall surrounding the scientist, and was whipped backward, blood flying from his arms and chest as the pieces of glass and broken stone caught up in the windstorms slashed viciously at his body, and was flung back, his flames snuffed out by the brutal winds. Zell was even worse off, caught up inside the blasting air and hurled up toward the ceiling. Odine made a gesture even as Zell crashed into the ceiling, and a lab table was lifted up and sent slamming into his stomach, edge first, and Zell grunted in pain as Odine redirected the winds. The brawler was launched back across the room and crashed into a glass display case, blood erupting from his back as hundreds of razor sharp edges bit into him.
Irvine quickly modified his rifle, and loaded a new shell into it, one of the few pulse shells he still possessed. he raised the rifle, bracing it against his shoulder securely, and prepared to fire, when Odine noted the motion and moved to quash Irvine's actions with a single exertion of his control of wind. A wall of air crashed into the sharpshooter, slamming him once again against a wall, and a handful of broken vials were scooped up in the storm and sent his way. The sharpshooter rolled aside as he spotted the slivers of glass flying his way, and managed to evade most of the attack, except for one vial that lodged into his shoulder.
Then Odine had to shift his attention forward as the black-clad specter of the Chimera charged in head-first, one hand securing his hat in place while the other clenched his sheathed blade. Beside him came Rinoa, recognizing her sub-,machinegun wouldn't do any good against Odine's defensive wall. A wave of potent winds crashed over them, and Rinoa was pitched backward, hurled off her feet, but Serra managed to intervene and catch her before she slammed into a wall, cushioning her body.
The Chimera, however, was a different story. He bulled straight through the raging winds and bore in at Odine, and the scientist redoubled his efforts as his opponent came on. The Chimera's steps faltered as all of Odine's winds were sent flying ahead, and he found his feet not touching the floor as solidly as he needed, and was shoved backward.
But in that moment, Seifer Almasy reentered the battle, surging ahead, his poncho still aflame and paying the biting fires no mind, letting out a fearsome challenge as he rushed at the mad Elemental. Saber and Hyperion were drawn as he barreled in, body wreathed in fire, and Odine broke away from the Chimera for an instant to hurl him aside with a blaze of wind that tossed the SeeD away. A second sudden surge of wind tossed the Chimera back further, and he set his feet against the smooth concrete floor and released his sword hand, moving it toward his face. His fingers touched something beneath the shroud of his hat, and the glow from his eyes vanished as something was drawn down over them.
Odine's concentration was shattered an instant later as Zell Dincht charged in, sucker-punching Odine in the jaw as he focused on the Chimera, glass poking out his back and blood dripping on the floor. Odine recoiled, eyes widening in shock, and a reflexive burst of wind force Zell back a half-step before the doctor was able to send a single titanic surge that sent the brawler hurtling end-over-end toward the far wall. Zell managed to flip around as he flew, and hit the wall with his feet, managing to avoid the worst of the impact.
Odine turned toward the Chimera to see him coming on again, but this time, he did not see the fiery pits of his eyes. Instead, he saw a faceless black force rippling toward him, and threw up another powerful surge of wind before him, to drive the Chimera backward.
But then there was a flicker, and the winds diverted around the Chimera, and he shot into the gap, sword out and in his right hand. he raised it, and gripped the blade with both hands, and cleaved down.
Odine blinked as the Chimera stepped past him, and then understood. Somehow, the black-clad man, despite all known laws of physics and magic, had utilized an iaijustu strike to somehow slice through the air and reach him.
"How . . . ." the doctor gasped, not understanding.
"Zanshin," the Chimera answered, and he reached into the darkness beneath his hat, and drew the Elemental Control Restraint bandana, the device that protected him from mental domination, up off his eyes.
Odine blinked again, and then slid apart, bisected from left shoulder to right hip, and struck the floor with two wet, meaty impacts.