Chapter 5
Warning: This chapter gets a little bit violent. I suck at writing fight scenes, so don't get mad at me!
Exiting the ramp, Squall heard two familiar voices headed in their direction. Fujin and Raijin, Seifer's posse, were coming straight for them. They had heard the Ragnarok crashing into the side of Lunatic Pandora and came to seize Rinoa. At Squall's refusal to give her up, Fujin had decided that it would be best to just fight, which was just fine with Ayleia.
Since they were close range weapons and she had no intention of giving them the smallest chance of hitting her, Ayleia had put away her Sais. Before Squall could draw his gunblade, Ayleia had already landed a decisive strike on the side of Raijin's face with her urumi, and knocked a stunned Fujin back several feet with a ball of green energy from her hand. Seeing this as an opportunity to get the upper hand on their enemies, Zell began to summon Doomtrain, while Quistis used fire spells to cut off any of the guards present that were thinking of joining the fight. Doomtrain came and made the dynamic duo inoperative, and once the smoke cleared, they could see Fujin had begun to blindly attack the group while Raijin tried to find bottle of Elixir for himself and his partner. Being that they were easy pickings, Squall immediately unleashed a vicious attack with Lion Heart while Rinoa desperately fired the Shooting Star. Managing to find a couple of Elixirs, Raijin and Fujin saw that their fighting this battle was useless and ran back inside.
Ayleia looked at Squall. "We have to go now!" she said. "According to the timeline, we have approximately two hours before Adel is completely awake and getting through here is going to be a proverbial gauntlet, not to mention it's easy to get lost in here." She hurried into Lunatic Pandora as Squall and the others followed in hot pursuit. They took the only elevator they could find. Once they stepped off, they realized they had reached the center of the jade-green Crystal Pillar. Then they noticed two other elevators.
"Wait," Squall said, stopping the group. "Selphie, Quistis, does this look familiar to you?" he asked.
Looking around, the two girls recognized the area immediately. "Yeah I remember!" Selphie said.
"We came here as Laguna, Kiros, and Ward when Ellone sent our consciousnesses into the past," Quistis recalled.
"So you've been here before? Which elevator do we take to get deeper into the Crystal Pillar?" Ayleia asked.
"Hang on!" Zell interjected. "We came here, too, when Lunatic Pandora passed through Esthar earlier. Matron, Quistis, Irvine, and me took the elevator on the left. It leads down, so let's take that one!"
They took the elevator that Zell suggested, but once they stepped off, they saw that the path was blocked by two imps, a behemoth, and a turtapod. Noticing them, the imps instantly began to cast their magic. Before either imp could get a spell off, Selphie knocked one of them down with a swipe from Strange Vision, while Irvine used Exeter to shoot down the turtapod hurling itself toward him. The second imp hit Zell with a Firaga spell before Rinoa retaliated with a Holy spell, followed by blizzaga, putting it on ice. The behemoth charged toward them, knocking Ayleia into Squall, and forcing them to the ground with Ayleia landing on top of Squall's chest. She instantly rolled onto her side and quickly got back to her feet to see that the beast was now charging toward Quistis. Yelling for Quistis to move, Ayleia hurled a red ball of energy at the behemoth, clipping one of the small wings on its back. Roaring in pain, it turned back toward Squall and Ayleia. While Ayleia threw her Sais into the behemoth's legs from the front, Irvine pumped two shots into its back legs, bringing it down. Quistis rushed to the wounded creature's side and wrapped Save the Queen around the beast's neck, cutting of its oxygen intake, and Squall dealt the final blow, beheading the monster.
"Is everyone all right?" Ayleia asked, looking around, checking for any wounds. Squall nodded, wiping the behemoth's blood off his gunblade. Rinoa, Quistis, Irvine, and Selphie all confirmed that they were okay. "I'm not," Zell replied breathlessly before he passed out.
Ayleia rushed to his side and knelt beside him to see that the imp had done quite a bit of damage. Zell's face and hands had been severely burned and he had sustained minor burns on his legs. Most of his clothes had been burned off; exposing his chest and most of his legs "Is he okay?" Quistis asked, coming up behind her.
"He's alive. He's burned pretty bad, but he's okay," Ayleia answered, relived after checking for his pulse. "I can heal the burns and repair his clothes without a problem." As she began working, a pale blue light poured from her hands as she waved them across Zell's body, starting with his face, which had suffered the most damage, and working her way down. His face slowly began to return to normal, as did the rest of his body. She then said something under her breath, and then his clothes returned. But he still remained unconscious. She stood up and returned to the group. "He's fine," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"But why isn't he awake," Irvine asked, "If he's okay he should be awake by now."
Ayleia rubbed her eyes and sighed. "It's because of the shock from being burned. He'll come to in a couple of minutes," she replied assuringly. "Sometimes the recovery time varies from person to person. Zell's tough; he'll snap out of it. Look." Their eyes followed her gaze to see that Zell had already regained consciousness. After being helped to his feet and assuring everyone that he was in fact okay, Zell began fighting an invisible opponent to prove he was alright. "Okay, we've lost a lot of time," Quistis reminded them. "We have to hurry. Ayleia, are you okay?" she asked noticing that she was now holding her hand over her eyes.
Ayleia looked back at her and nodded. "Yeah I'm okay," she said. "Healing can be a little taxing sometimes, that's all. Come on, we've got to keep moving." Ayleia turned around and kept heading down the path into the Crystal Pillar.
After walking for several minutes, they reached a long hallway. At the end of it was a door and to the side there was an inaccessible structure leading to a higher landing. As they approached the door, they noticed that Fujin and Raijin were waiting for them. They raised their weapons, ready to attack. There's no way they'd be stupid enough to want to try to fight us again after the ass-whipping they just took! Zell thought.
Raijin glared at Ayleia as he touched the deep wound she'd inflicted with her urumi. "I'd like to repay you for this, ya know?" he said angrily.
"Yeah, and I'd like to give you another to match the one you already have," she said sweetly, grinning menacingly as she reached for the weapon. Selphie, Rinoa, and Zell just looked at her in shock.
She clearly has no problem with fighting, and she's damn good with that weapon, Squall thought, looking at the gash on Raijin's face.
"NOW, NO FIGHT. NEXT TIME," Fujin declared. "Fujin's right, ya know?" Raijin said smugly. "We've got somethin' special planned for ya, ya know?"
As they turned to run through the door, a huge floating mechanical device landed in front of them. Zell rolled his eyes. This same device had thrown him and some of his comrades out of Lunatic Pandora as it made its way to Tear's Point. They didn't even get a chance to defend themselves before this thing had lifted them off of their feet and sent them flying out. That wasn't going to happen again if Zell had anything to say about it.
Selphie immediately began summoning Quezacotl as Ayleia hurled a wave of energy at Mobile Type 8. Rinoa charged her blaster edge with Thundaga magic and then launched it at one of the probes while Irvine hit the main body with a canister shot. They stood back as the machine began to whir and whiz. It unleashed a beam of light directly at Quistis, who was instinctively pulled out of the way by Zell. Squall launched into the air landing a strike on the right probe of the device before Quezacotl was fully summoned. The effects of Quezacotl's magic damaged one of the probes, causing Mobile Type 8 to go to its mobile attack. The probes separated from the main body and began spinning around the hallway. Irvine fired two shots and missed, and then Quistis tried hitting one of them with her whip and failed. Selphie almost hit one of them with her nunchaku. Squall landed a small strike on the first probe that whirled by his head, but any other attempts he made to hit either orb were useless. It was pretty much like they were just swatting at flies.
This is getting us nowhere, Ayleia thought, angrily. This battle has to end fast! "GET DOWN!" she yelled, without realizing it. She knew that her anger had begun to well up inside her. As they backed up, the others heard her scream in what sounded like a combination of pain, terror, and rage. They turned and looked at her in something close to fear.
Her eyes looked as though they were on fire. She had begun to levitate toward the high ceiling of the hallway and her body seemed to be charging with electricity. As one of the two orbs flew by her head, she reached out and caught it. As she held it in her hands, the electricity emanating from her body began to concentrate in her hands and overcharge the orb. She immediately launched it in the direction of Mobile Type 8's main body. As the orb reached the main body, it exploded, taking the main body with it in the progress. As the second orb began to drop to the floor, Ayleia charged it with more electricity and sent it spiraling toward the door, blasting it open. After she seemed to be satisfied with the damage she'd done, the electrical charge seemed to leave her body and, as she returned to the ground, her eyes returned to normal. She was still gasping for air when Quistis approached her and asked, "What was that?"
"That," Ayleia began breathlessly, "was a little bit of anger management. Zell, your theory was right." Everyone looked at Zell, who seemed to be shocked that she had known what he was wondering when she'd blown up at Squall. "A sorceress's eyes do ignite when they're emotional, especially when the emotion is anger. I got mad that the fight was taking too long, so I had to end it fast," she continued as she caught her breath. "My abilities can be manipulated through my emotions. I'll explain it to you later," she said, nodding at the now blasted open door.
As they walked toward the antechamber, Ayleia turned and sent a beam of light headed toward the entrance of Lunatic Pandora. She noticed that Irvine had a puzzled look on his face when she turned around. "Just to let Laguna know that the way is clear," she explained.
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Pacing inside the Ragnarok, the President of Esthar had begun to get impatient. Damn, how long is it gonna take for them to clear the path? he thought. They had already been inside for forty-five minutes. Laguna wanted to go inside, and even if Squall and Ayleia had told him that it would be for the best if he didn't. He decided silently that he wasn't going to wait anymore, and started sneaking toward the exit.
"….."
Kiros turned to see Laguna halfway toward the exit. "Where exactly do you think you are going," he demanded, crossing his arms in front of himself. "Sit back down."
Laguna looked at him sheepishly. "I can't wait anymore. I'm going in there!" he cried anxiously, plopping down into a nearby chair. "They've been in there for what seems like forever and we haven't gotten any contact from them! I want to know what's going on!"
"Maybe they're bogged down somewhere or lost. Surely YOU can understand getting lost!" Kiros said dryly.
Before Laguna could retort, he saw a bright light shooting straight toward them. Ward recognized it right away. "…."
Kiros looked up at him. "You sure," he asked. Ward nodded. "Ward says that the light was the signal. They've cleared the path so now we can go in."
Laguna stood up and ran for the exit. "Bout frigging time!" he said. "Let's go!"
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Walking into the antechamber, Squall, Ayleia and the others noticed that Seifer was standing on a tall platform. Fujin and Raijin stood on the floor across from them. Fujin was gripping Ellone's arm so tightly, she was wincing in pain as Raijin glared again at Ayleia. As Ayleia reached for her urumi, Seifer addressed them.
"Ah well, the gang's all here," he mused. Looking them over, he noticed Ayleia reaching inside of her coat. "Lady, I don't know you and I have no idea what the hell you're thinking about doing, but whatever it is, I strongly suggest you reconsider." Raijin saw what Ayleia was reaching for and slowly backed away while Fujin tightened her grip on Ellone's arm, which made her scream.
Squall looked over at Ayleia who was smiling mischievously at Raijin. When she finally looked over at him, he shook his head. As she released the grip on her weapon, she gave him a pointed look, as if to say "Do you really think that I would put her in jeopardy?"
Raijin breathed an obvious sigh of relief. Seifer muttered something under his breath. He always did think Raijin was kind of a wuss. But he just rolled his eyes and raised his gunblade. "Let's finish them!" he cried.
Raijin took about four steps before Fujin called for him to stop. Seifer looked at her curiously. "What's going on, guys," he asked.
The huge behemoth of a guy turned and looked at him apologetically. "We've had enough, ya know?" he said. "We can't keep doing this, ya know?"
Fujin released her grip on Ellone's arm and told her to go. As she walked toward Squall, he told Ellone to wait outside for Laguna.
Seifer shrugged. Apparently his posse wasn't behind him on this, but he couldn't understand why. Fujin explained that they were behind him if he wanted to pursue his dream, but it seemed that his dream wasn't his anymore. Fujin and Raijin had been trying to talk him down, but it had been useless. They had known that he would continue with this madness, so now they had no choice but to entrust Seifer to Squall. Seifer sighed as his two comrades left the room.
Seifer leapt from the platform onto the main floor, gunblade poised for attack. "Still playing the role of the knight," Squall asked, mockingly as he drew his gunblade.
"The knight has retired," Seifer smarmily, "I suppose you could call me a young revolutionary." He threw his head back and laughed maniacally. "Come on, Squall! Let's finish this!"
Ayleia took her stance for an attack while Odin galloped toward Seifer in full force. Strangely, Seifer didn't seem to be fazed by the incoming attack and, at the last second, destroyed the GF. "O-Odin!" Selphie cried, her voice reflecting the shock that registered on everyone's faces.
Oh no! Ayleia thought. He knows how to kill GF's! In the future, she knew of only two people that can kill Guardian Forces. And since she knew that the first one who knew couldn't have possibly taught Seifer how it was done, she knew it had to have been Ultimecia.
Seifer just looked at them with a crazed look in his eyes. "You won't get rid of me that easily!" he cried. "C'mon, Squall! Fight me like a man!"
Irvine fired his shotgun and grazed Seifer's leg, weakening him slightly. Ayleia lunged toward him, Sais in hand. Seifer tilted his gunblade to a forty-five degree angle, ready to slash at her. As she got closer to him, he began to bring the blade down. Reading his moves, Ayleia caught the blade between her Sais, locking the three weapons together. She smiled smugly as Seifer tried furiously to jerk his gunblade out from between the Sais. Damn, this thing is heavy, she thought. Thankfully, her strength was holding out. Squall watched with amazement as she used the leverage she had to lower the tip of the gunblade toward the floor as he looked at her with rage in his eyes, and then suddenly head-butted him. The blow stunned him long enough for her to twist his weapon from the hold she had on it, letting it fly into the air. Before the blade came down, she landed a punch on the side of his face, knocking him back a couple of steps.
Those two steps were all Seifer needed regroup. Remembering his wounds, he cast Cure magic to heal himself. His gunblade landed right next to him and he picked it up, glaring at her. Ayleia put away her Sais and drew her urumi, instantly charging it with Firaga magic. The long, whip-like sword glowed with the fire magic it held. "C'mon Seifer," she mimicked. "Fight me like a man!"
Seifer was about to burst with fury. There was no way he was going to let a girl get the best of him. "Stop," Squall finally said. Seifer cocked his head to the side expectantly, but Ayleia didn't take her eyes off of Seifer for one second. She could tell that he was an opportunist. If she turned to look at Squall, Seifer would take advantage. "Ayleia, this is my fight. Isn't that what you want, Seifer?" he said coldly.
Seifer threw his head back and laughed. "Yes, you're right, Squall," he answered. "So, what are you waiting for? Are we going to fight or not?"
Squall raised his gunblade and walked toward them. As he came up beside her, he noticed that Ayleia seemed to have such a commanding presence as she held her fiery weapon. He had seen that she could fight as dirty as Seifer did, and if he hadn't stopped her, she could quite possibly have dominated Seifer. He looked at her as she eyed Seifer. The fire in her eyes was like none he'd never seen before, but definitely something he had to appreciate. She turned her attention to Squall, who seemed to have this glazed-over look in his eyes as he watched her. "What?" she asked.
He nodded toward the others. "I've got it from here," he told her. "Go back and wait with the others."
"Don't use any GF's" she advised. She looked back at Seifer, who was watching this exchange with slight amusement. She desperately wanted to hit him with the weapon in her hand. She looked down at it. It still had the fire magic inside and it would be all too easy. As she gripped the handle even tighter, Squall grabbed her hand and shook his head at her. At this, Seifer smirked. She looked at him sharply. "Kick his ass for me, Squall," she said as she uncharged her weapon, wrapped it around her waist again, and turned to walk away.
Seifer saw this as a chance to pay her back for that punch she landed on him. He raised his gunblade to slash at her, but before he landed the blow, Squall blocked him with Lion Heart. Ayleia whirled around to see that the tip of Seifer's gunblade was a matter of inches from landing on her. Without thinking, she withdrew her stiletto and plunged it into his side. He roared in pain as she pulled it out and leaned in close to him. "Don't ever try that again," she warned and walked away, wiping his blood off the dagger and sheathing it.
As Squall fought with him, he could tell that Ayleia had weakened Seifer a great deal. His seemed to keep himself on the defensive and rarely attacked. Squall went after Seifer relentlessly, but eventually Seifer landed a punch on Squall knocking him back. He had time to cast another cure spell, but he was still weak. Seifer finally realized that he was backed against the wall, and as Squall approached him, he raised his gunblade again and lunged in a desperate attack.
Squall had to spin out of the way to avoid the attack. He caught the back end of the attack by bringing the edge of his gunblade behind him. With the gunblades locked together, the two fighters were in a struggle to find out whose will was strong enough. The others could do nothing but watch, hopeful that Squall would win. Rinoa breathed a sigh of relief as Squall used every ounce of strength he had to push Seifer back. As it looked that he was going do finish Seifer off, he felt a gust of wind and heard Zell call for him to move out of the way. Squall turned to see a man with what looked like six arms dressed in red. He was holding four swords, one of which appeared to have been the sword wielded by Odin. The guy seemed to be focused only on Seifer, as he stared at him maliciously. Squall backed away and rejoined his comrades as the apparent GF challenged Seifer to dodge his blows and then knocked him into the wall so hard, there was a dent from where Seifer's back hit it. The GF disappeared and the wind stopped.
"What was that?" Selphie asked trying to straighten out her hair and right her clothes.
"That was Gilgamesh, the King of all GF's," Ayleia replied as she walked toward Seifer while brushing her windswept curls out of her face. "Apparently Odin's sword was the fourth that he needed to be allowed back into this dimension." She drew her stiletto cautiously as she approached Seifer's seemingly lifeless body. "He had been banished to another dimension; cursed to remain there until he acquired the Four Sacred Swords. He would then come back to destroy the one who gave the last one to him and aid the ones the Fourth Sword was sworn to protect. So now he'll help you, although he will come as he pleases."
She knelt down over Seifer, dagger poised to attack if necessary. His eyes were closed and she couldn't feel a pulse. She was starting to think that maybe he was dead, so she lowered her weapon slightly. But as Squall knelt on the other side, she noticed that Seifer's chest was moving slightly. "He's still alive," she said looking up at Squall. "Do you want Laguna to have him taken into custody?"
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," he replied, looking back at her. "He's lost a lot of blood from that stab wound, so he'll have to be treated first." He stood and walked over to Rinoa, who had been watching their exchange rather intently. "Rinoa, would you mind waiting outside to let Laguna know that we have an injured prisoner?" She looked at Ayleia, who was still leaning over Seifer. Not wanting him to die, she obliged, but she didn't seem to be too happy about it.
As she watched Squall and the others while they waited for the Estharian soldiers to come for Seifer, Ayleia desperately tried to stop Seifer's bleeding. Selphie had told her that except for Rinoa, they had all grown up together at Edea's orphanage, but were separated. Even after all those years of not being together, they seemed to be closer than ever. Even Squall would have to admit that much. She was kind of jealous of them, when she really thought about it. Being around them made Ayleia see how incomplete her life was without her friends. After her father died, she basically shut herself off from the world. She didn't have any kind of connection to anyone anymore. Watching them had made her realize how alone she was….
Then everything went black…..
Author's note: The Gilgamesh thing is just something that popped into my head. I may have read it somewhere, but I don't remember.