Chapter 4

Hope you guys like it! Once they took off in the Ragnarok, Laguna decided that they should go over the plan one last time. Everyone knew that Ellone had to be rescued before anything else was to happen, but they were all nervous about the confrontation with Sorceress Adel. After hearing from Ayleia about their imminent failure, their confidence had dwindled. Laguna prayed that Ayleia's revision of the plan would work, otherwise, Esthar and the entire world would end as they knew it.

"Okay, we know that we were supposed to fail because of bad timing, but if we can kill Adel before Ultimecia can possess her, the rest is pretty much cake. But first we enter Lunatic Pandora and rescue Ellone from Seifer, and then we go into battle with Adel. It'll be a surprise attack, since she hopefully won't be awake yet, so show no mercy. Then Adel's powers pass onto Rinoa, after which we wait for Ultimecia to possess her…"

"Wait," Squall interjected. He turned and looked at Ayleia. She was still shaken up by the memories she'd relived not too long ago and had chosen to sit in the back row of seats. She had her legs tucked under herself and was seemingly lost in her thoughts. Quistis had been keeping an eye on her, making sure that she didn't pass out again. She walked over to Ayleia and tapped her on the shoulder.

"I've been paying attention," Ayleia said, looking up at Quistis. She craned her head to look past Quistis to see that the others were staring at her. She noticed that Squall was looking at her hopefully. "Squall, what were you going to say?" she asked.

"I was just curious why we've settled on Rinoa taking over Adel's powers and being possessed by Ultimecia to instigate time compression," he asked. "Why can't it be you? You're supposed to be stronger than her with your magic, so why can't you take this on?"

Rising to her feet, Ayleia nodded her head knowingly. "It may as well be stamped on your forehead. I saw it when I told you that Rinoa wasn't a strong enough sorceress to help you take on Adel," she gestured toward Rinoa. "Anyone can see that you care a great deal about Rinoa, and I understand that you don't want her to have to go through this, Squall, but we have no choice."

"Ultimecia doesn't know about me and that works to our advantage," she went on. "Since she doesn't know about me, she can't possess me and I can help make sure that Adel isn't alive long enough to be possessed. And even if she did know about me, I am stronger than Rinoa with my magic, and that's precisely the problem. I could battle Ultimecia for control and win or get myself killed in the struggle. Rinoa, on the other hand, has already been possessed by Ultimecia, and it worked in Ultimecia's favor. She gained total control over Rinoa, you saw that for yourself. So she'll go with what works."

"I know you're right," Squall responded, frowning. "I just don't like the idea of Rinoa having to bear this burden," he continued and then walked over to Rinoa and kissed her on the forehead.

"I'd do it if I could, Squall," Ayleia sighed. "But if Ultimecia possesses me, all of this could be for nothing. The idea of my magic combined with Ultimecia's is about as bad as her magic combined with Adel's. It's too dangerous either way. Our magic would be entirely too strong."

"Alright," Laguna said. "Then what exactly are you going to do, Ayleia? You haven't gone into complete detail about this. And we need to know now."

Ayleia walked toward the window of the Ragnarok. She could see the outline of Lunatic Pandora looming ahead on the horizon. There isn't much time, she thought. I need to go ahead and tell them now. She turned back to the group, all of them waiting expectantly. "There is no way we can prevent Adel from waking up," she said flatly.

They all looked at her in shock for what seemed like the millionth time. "Wait, what?" Rinoa asked. "We can't stop it?"

"No, we can't," Ayleia replied, holding up her hand to stop anyone from attempting to interrupt her. There wasn't enough time to answer the batch of questions she was certain they wanted to ask. "You must understand that Adel is already almost awake and by the time we get to her, she'll be ready to fight. And actually we should be counting on that."

"Counting on it," Quistis repeated, "why should we count on that?"

"Please let me finish," she said imploringly. "Adel still won't exactly be fully functional when she wakes up, and she'll be a little rusty with her powers. That will help us a lot, but make no mistake; her magic will still pack a punch. I'll be able to block most of her attacks, while using some attacks of my own to hurt her while draining her of her strength.

"While you all bring her down with your weapons," Ayleia continued, "Rinoa can use her magic to weaken Adel even more. Once she's weak enough, Rinoa and I will combine our magic to deal the final blow. Ultimecia will know what's happening, but she'll most likely think it's just Rinoa's power is getting stronger. She won't know that I'm helping you."

They all looked at her with amazement. "You make it sound so simple," Zell said finally.

She shrugged. "It may sound easy, but it'll be anything but. Adel, no matter how weak she is right now, is still a powerful sorceress. We'll be lucky if we can bring her down quickly. This could be a long fight," she sighed.

"So like, I guess we'll have to give it all that we've got, right?" Irvine asked. He didn't like the idea of this fight dragging out more than necessary.

"I don't have a problem with that," Quistis said. "But what do we do when time compresses?"

"You all have to stay together," Laguna announced. "Ultimecia lives in a time where we don't exist so you can't forget about each other. Think of a place that reminds you of your friends and that's where you'll end up. It's all about Love, Friendship, and Courage!" He turned to Ayleia. "Will you be going with them into time compression?"

"I kinda have to," Ayleia replied. "I've got to see this to the end. Besides, that bitch took my family. She killed my mother before I could know her, and she took my father from me because he couldn't go on anymore without mom. I want to stop her now." Looking back toward the window, she saw that they were only a few more miles away from Tear's Point. She looked back down at the clothes she was wearing and sighed. "These clothes simply will not do for battle. I'm going to change." She headed toward the door.

"Into what?" Zell asked indignantly. "You don't even have any clothes to change into!"

She stopped and turned around to face them. "Honey, I'm a sorceress," she said smiling. "I can conjure up clothes whenever I see fit. I may not like using my powers, but having them does have its perks." With that, she walked out of the room.

Quistis and Rinoa could barely contain their laughter. Ayleia may have been through a lot, and she seemed to be pretty tough, but she was still a girl. She still cared about how she looked and showed that she was diva enough to want an outfit simply to do battle with a sorceress!

When Ayleia returned a couple of minutes later, Squall, Irvine, and Zell looked at her in stunned silence. Zell had trouble keeping his jaw from dropping to the floor. She had conjured up a pair of tight black pants that showed off curves Irvine wouldn't have imagined she'd had, but didn't hinder her ability to move. She'd donned a corset, knee high boots, and a flowing jacket to match. To go along with her new outfit, Squall noticed that she'd also taken new weapons. In addition to her sais, which were sticking out of her boots, Ayleia had also chosen a flexible sword called a urumi which was attached to her belt, and a stiletto, placed in a hilt on the other side of her belt, to carry as well.

Quistis's envious expression at not ever being able to pour her body into an outfit like that suddenly changed to one of curiosity, as she noticed that behind one of Ayleia's curls, most of which had been pulled away from her face, was a gold chain hanging around Ayleia's neck. "What's that, Ayleia?" she asked.

Ayleia's hand immediately rose to the chain and she removed it from around her neck to show them the disk that was attached to her necklace. "It's a necklace that belonged to my mother," she replied softly.

Rinoa's curiosity got the better of her. "May I," she asked, holding out her hand.

Ayleia nodded and gently placed the necklace in Rinoa's waiting palm. It still looked fairly and upon further inspection Rinoa noticed that there was an inscription on the disc:

Liberi Servo

"Ayleia, it's beautiful," Rinoa said, handing it back to her with reverence. "What does the inscription mean?"

"I discovered it inside an envelope among my mother's journals," she said with a touch of sadness in her voice as she put the necklace back on. "She said that it's the incantation that would remove the protective spell she cast to protect me and my father." She sighed. "There were several times when I just wanted to say it so that Ultimecia would find me and kill me so I could be with my parents." She could feel tears coming back to her, but this time she succeeded in fighting them back.

"But I knew what needed to be done" she said with resolve in her voice. "I knew that I had to come back here and fight because if I didn't, there wouldn't be anyone to stop Ultimecia's tyranny. I have to end this so that no one else will get hurt."

"…." Ward walked over to Ayleia and gave her a gentle squeeze around her shoulders. Ayleia looked up at him and smiled her somewhat crooked smile.

"He's right," Laguna said genuinely. "We all do admire your courage." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Let's just hope that it pays off," Squall said.

"Only one way to find out," Ayleia responded and nodded toward the window. "Come on, we're almost there."

As the others headed up to the cockpit to join Selphie, Ayleia and Squall stayed behind to insist that Laguna, Kiros, and Ward remain in the conference below until they had cleared a path.

"How the hell are we going to know that you've cleared the path?" Laguna asked; his frustration at being kept in closed quarters painfully obvious in his voice. "I wouldn't mind mixing it up in there!"

"Just the same, Laguna," Squall had replied evenly, "you are the President of Esthar and you have a responsibility to your people. We can't afford to let you put your life at risk."

Ayleia put her hand on the not-so-happy Laguna's shoulder. He could sometimes act a bit like a child when he didn't get his way. "Trust me, I'll let you know when the way is clear," she promised. Accepting this, but not liking it, Laguna shrugged his shoulders and plopped down in the closest chair he could find as she and Squall left the room.

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Out in the hallway, Squall caught Ayleia by the wrist. "Laguna seems to have taken a liking to you," he pointed out, caught once again by those vibrant green eyes. He noticed that they had some golden flecks through out them. Okay, why am I paying attention to the details of her eyes? he thought to himself. Thankfully, she closed her eyes as she shook her head and sighed.

"I think it's just because I came back to help you guys out and he appreciates that," she answered as she reopened her eyes. "That's a lot more than I could say about you," she went on, folding her arms.

Squall frowned and let go of her wrist. He thought that maybe she had let go of his hurtful comments toward her. He scratched his head and jammed his hands into his pockets and studied her expectant face. He wasn't sure if she was waiting for an apology or not. "Look Ayleia," he began, "I've never been really good at apologies, but I know that I crossed the line by forcing you to tell us about your parents and I am sorry for that. We don't need this hanging over our heads going into this fight, so can we please drop it?"

Ayleia waved her hand dismissively. She had made it clear that he'd transgressed before they boarded the Ragnarok. But she knew when she went inside the Airstation that her fight with Squall couldn't hang over her head. Destroying Adel and getting to Ultimecia was all that mattered. But then the memories began. She had always considered getting lost in them a gift for her mother. In the last four years, her memories have been the only thing that kept her going. After her father died, she basically cut herself off from the world to study her magic and find a way to stop Ultimecia. Her memories kept her focused, which was what she needed when she walked into the Airstation.

"Forget about it, Squall," she replied. "There was no way you could have completely understood how deep this goes for me without my divulging that to you. So, it's cool." She studied his seemingly worried face. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah I'm ready," he said firmly. He gestured toward her outfit. "Are you really going to be able to fight in that," he asked skeptically.

"Don't worry, I can still move quite well," she answered confidently as they stepped onto the lift waiting to take them to the cockpit.

Once they were in the cockpit, they saw that Irvine was filling Selphie in on the plan while Zell and Quistis had taken over flying the Ragnarok. Ayleia walked up to stand behind them while Squall spoke to Rinoa for a couple of minutes.

"You sure about this," he asked her with concern in his eyes.

Smiling at him, she took his hand. "I think so," she replied taking a deep breath. "Ayleia said that we don't have a choice, I have to do this. We have to stop Ultimecia, and if this is the part that I have to play for us to do that, then I'll gladly do it."

Amazed by her courage, Squall squeezed her hand and smiled at her. "We'll do everything we can to make sure you're okay while you do this," he promised and then walked over to where Ayleia was standing near Quistis and Zell.

Rinoa couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous of Ayleia. She was a far stronger and skilled both as a fighter and a sorceress than Rinoa was. It's almost as if she were made for Squall she thought sadly. But she had to remind herself that Squall had done so much to save her because he loved her. Reassuring herself, Rinoa took another deep breath and readied herself for the rapidly approaching battle.

A few minutes later, Irvine had finished telling Selphie about the plan and Quistis allowed her to resume piloting the she ship. They all braced themselves for the collision with Lunatic Pandora.

"We shouldn't have any trouble getting in once we blast our way through," Selphie said excitedly. "We'll just make a big hole with the cannon!"

Selphie nodded at Zell, who was manning the guns, and gave him the go ahead to blast through. Esthar had spared no expense arming the Ragnarok. The machine guns fired off hundreds of rounds the second Zell's fingers touched the trigger. The bullets seemed to be stopped by a barrier

"Dammit! They have shields," Irvine shouted. Selphie seemed to revel in the intensity of the situation and squealed gleefully as she successfully plunged the Ragnarok through Lunatic Pandora's shield. Once they were through far enough, Zell hit the trigger for the ship's main cannon. The blast was powerful enough to knock those of them who were standing off balance. When they recovered, they saw that the cannon blew a hole so big in the edifice's side; they were able to get half of the ship well inside Lunatic Pandora.

Ayleia instantly drew her sais and headed toward the lift. Before the rest of them could follow, she was on her way down. This is it, she thought. This is what I've been working so long for. Mom, Daddy, this is for you!

She had reached the ramp to exit Ragnarok when Squall and the others caught up to her. "Ayleia, wait," Selphie called, rushing to her side. "C'mon," Zell added, "If we're going to do this, we gotta do it together."

Ayleia nodded as she tucked a loose curl behind her ear. "Okay then," she said, "let's take it to them!"