Cid tried frantically to call Squall back but all he got was static. Edea was stood on the balcony watching the Garden make its way through the ocean. A red flash lit up the skyline startling Edea.
"He's awake!" she said "We have to get there" Cid called the white SeeD and told them to come and get them.
Squall lay on his floor gasping in pain; he was fighting Dominic.
Jessie was sat in her dormitory with her hands over her ears, crying, trying to drown out the screams of the people who had tried stopping Dominic.
Rinoa lay unconscious in the elevator as she had tried to escape from Dominic.
Quistis lay at the bottom of the stairs bleeding heavily; she had tried to fight Dominic.
Irvine was lying in a pool of his blood; he had tried protecting Selphie from Dominic.
Selphie was huddled in a corner; Dominic had passed her by.
Zell was trying to save the life of Xu who had been one of the first to be attacked by Dominic.
The white SeeD ship went speeding after the Garden which was moving faster than it ever had. Dominic was the pilot yet he was not driving; the Garden had been told where to go and it would obey.
"What's going on?" a white SeeD asked
"There is a man aboard that Garden; he is very powerful and so I will be the only one boarding" said Edea.
"Edea!" said Cid "Don't be foolish"
"I'm not" she said to her husband "He will listen to me"
"How do you know that?" he asked
"Because I know his story" said Edea "I know what has happened to him in the past"
"Where should we stop?" the white SeeD asked
"Here is fine" said Edea who then vanished.
"Edea!" Cid said in surprise.
Edea materialised in Dominic's room. At first she had to steel herself against what was to come next; the endless pile of bodies and the flowing rivers of blood. So many students had been cut down by the thing that moved in Dominic's image.
Edea left the room and tried to ignore the bodies that littered the floor or the screams of anguish from those that had lived. Dominic had let almost all of them live only the ones who had got up again and tried to fight on had been killed. Edea was halfway around the Garden when she saw Zell and Xu.
"Zell!" she said crouching next to Xu. Instantly she used her cure magic on Xu.
"Dominic has gone insane!" said Zell
"It's not him in control" said Edea "It's his father"
"Who?" Zell asked.
"Diablos" said Edea. Zell froze
"Did you just say Diablos?" Zell asked "As in the GF?"
"Yes" said Edea "He's a rare creation; his mother loved Diablos when he was human; before he became a GF"
"So how do we beat him?" Zell asked
"I don't know" said Edea
"You'll have to think fast" said Zell "Here he comes"
The elevator pinged loudly and Dominic stepped out. He was wearing the black coat and wielded the sword that had also belonged to his father. Edea could see the dual image of Dominic. Every time he moved there would be a second delay and the second version of him would then take the step. Dominic descended the stairs and stood facing Edea and Zell.
"I had not expected this" he said in a voice much deeper than his own.
"I know about your father" said Edea "When you invaded my mind I saw everything you did"
"Then why did you come?" Dominic asked
"You are very powerful Dominic" said Edea "More powerful than your father ever had been"
"No" said Dominic "He ascended into a Guardian, I am still a mere mortal"
"You're not a mortal" said Edea "You know that; you were contained in the Cursed Lamp also, weren't you?"
"No" said Dominic
"Yes, you were" said Edea "How old were you when your father was taken by the darkness? 15-16?"
"Quiet" said Dominic raising the sword
"You've been trapped in that lamp for millennia but unlike your father you didn't age" said Edea
"I told you to be quiet!" Dominic shouted.
"Please Dominic" pleaded Edea "Reverse all of this, beat your father!"
"I cannot!" Dominic said
"He froze you for almost two thousand years Dominic" said Edea "Do you want to respect a man like that?"
"He is my father" said Dominic
"You are no devil" said Edea "I've seen your soul; you are a clean spirit"
"No" said Dominic. Around him his shadow began to shimmer and shift even though he was stood still.
"Fight him Dominic!" said Edea. A gunshot rang out across the screams in the Garden. Dominic put a single hand over his wound in his chest and looked around. Jessie was stood there shaking; her hands held that silver pistol. Tears were spilling down Jessie's face. Dominic fell over but his shadow remained in its place; as though Dominic were still stood upright. From the shadow a large being rose.
Diablos hovered in mid air facing Jessie.
"You are daring" he said and raised his hand "But how strong are you?" Jessie fired at him but caused no damage. Diablos smiled and fired his gravity attack which crashed into Jessie and knocked her backwards against the wall. Diablos smiled and turned to Edea
"Who would have guessed that my son; my vile son, tainted by human genetics, would bring about my second era?" Diablos said.
"Your son is better than you" said Edea straightening up "He will kill you"
"If his companion had not killed him they maybe he would have" said Diablos "But he was always just a polluted half being; not a full demon and not a full human"
"He has the best of both" said Edea "He is greater than you ever will be"
"Greater that a sorceress also" said Diablos "Or a past sorceress" Edea raised her hand to fire an attack but Diablos was faster. He blinked and sent Edea crashing into Zell and they both slammed into a concrete bench. Diablos laughed and floated forwards to kill Edea.
"Dominic" Jessie cried as she held his hand and kissed it "I'm sorry" she wept. In his mind, where he was trapped, Dominic could hear her voice which sang out in the darkness. He tried to get back in control but Diablos, his father, had killed any control he had over his own body. Diablos had not left him completely a small amount; the part which was stopping Dominic from being in control, was still inside him but Dominic could not overpower it. Jessie hugged him close. Jessie felt something press against her thigh. It was uncomfortable and so she had to move it. Jessie saw that it was the summoning crystal Edea had given to her; Give it to him she remembered Edea saying to her.
For a second Edea had been in control before Diablos had controlled her and she had given Jessie the crystal.
Jessie put it in Dominic's hand
"There" she whispered in his ear "You have the crystal; please help us"
Diablos screamed inside Dominic's head as he was ripped away and trapped inside the crystal. Jessie gasped as Dominic jumped to his feet. The bullet hole had healed fully and he was ready to face his fear, face his darkness; face his father.
Diablos turned to face his son
"I thought you were dead" said Diablos
"I am your son" said Dominic "Give me some credit" Jessie saw that Dominic's shadow was increasing in size. Jessie scrabbled away from it as it widened.
"Come here son" said Diablos "Come rule by my side"
"I don't want to rule" said Dominic "I want to live a normal life"
"You can't have a normal life" said Diablos "You are not a normal child"
"You are right" said Dominic summoning all his dark thoughts and combining them inside his shadow which was sucked into his palm
"I am greater than a normal person" he said "In fact" he raised his hand "I'm greater than you, right father?" Diablos did not even had time to roar in fear before his son annihilated every last trace of him using the darkness he had inherited. All people present covered their eyes as red, white, yellow and purple flashes of light lit up the Garden. A sonic boom rang out and destroyed all the windows in the Garden. Edea removed her hand from her eyes and looked up to see Diablos being turned into smoke and then being siphoned into nothingness.
Squall gasped and dragged himself back to his feet. All around him glass was scattered. Squall put his hand on his chest; the place where Dominic had stabbed him and killed him. Squall walked over to the elevator and opened it. Inside Rinoa was laid against the side wall. The young woman was alive but unconscious. Squall put his hand on her cheek
"Rinoa?" he said. Slowly Rinoa opened her eyes
"What's going on?" she asked softly. Squall helped her to her feet
"I don't know" he said. Everything was silent in the Garden. Far below them the engines had stopped turning; the Garden had stopped. Edea looked around and saw that time itself had come to a stop. Glass floated in mid air and bits of stone, sent flying by the explosion were suspended in time. At the heart of it all Dominic was stood looking around at everyone. Quistis was dragging herself to her feet as were many of the students around the Garden.
Squall emerged from the elevator and looked down at Dominic who looked back at him.
"What happened?" Squall asked
"Diablos" said Edea "He tried to get back onto this plain of existence through Dominic"
"How?" Squall asked as he descended the stairs "How is that even possible"
"He is my father" said Dominic "He had control over me"
"I don't think you should stay, Dominic" said Squall "After you killed two of the students and attacked all the others; I don't think any of them can ever trust you, I don't think I'll ever be able to trust you"
"Sir" said a SeeD "I saw it; I saw everything" he looked a bit uncomfortable but continued "When he killed Diablos, I saw it all inside my head"
"Same here" said a few of the other students gathered around
"How?" Squall asked
"I think it was some of Diablos' psychic powers" said Edea "He was a powerful GF, maybe with the surge of released energy it brought everyone back to life, healed all the wounds, stopped time but most importantly showed people what happened"
"I'm sorry Dominic" said Squall "But whatever the reason you still were responsible, if only partly, for the deaths of two students, I am going to have to expel you" Squall had thought it was the right thing to do. Suddenly there was an outcry from the pupils around them
"What?" one shouted "He's a hero! He killed his own father to protect everything!"
"He saved us after his father tried killing us!" another said
"This is unfair" said another angrily.
"He should be rewarded not banished" said another. Squall stood there completely silent while contemplating what to do; the students wanted him to stay yet Squall was unsure of having him here.
"What do you want Dominic?" Squall asked him.
"I would like to stay" said Dominic "If that is alright?"
"I guess so" said Squall "You have your colleagues on your side, after all"
"I just have one last thing to do" said Dominic. Flames curled themselves up the arms of his jacket slowly. Seconds later the entire coat was on fire. His sword melted in his hand as his jacket turned to ash and fell to the floor. Dominic wiped some remaining ash off his shoulder before turning his head to the heavens. With a wave of his hand everything began to go in reverse.
The glass that littered the floor recombined in it's original place to make full windows, stone's congregated to recreate the benches they had originally been. Pools of blood vanished from sight and any sort of fatigue vanished from all the students. With a crack like that of a whip time continued and the Garden continued to move.
"Impressive" said Squall "Now what of your father?" Dominic removed something from behind his back; it was a vase.
"I think he'll look good on my mantelpiece in Dollet" said Dominic. Jessie laughed as she linked his arm
"You really have your father in there?" Jessie asked
"No" said Dominic "He is the vase" Jessie laughed. "So what happens next?" Dominic asked Squall
"We need to stop so that Edea can get back on her ship, then we're going back to Balamb" said Squall.
"I mean with me" said Dominic
"You go back to being a student" said Squall "I would say no more getting into trouble but seeing who your father is I guess you can't avoid it" Dominic laughed
"Fancy a vase?" Dominic asked him. Squall seemed alarmed at the idea of having Diablos as a mantle ornament
"Keep it" said Squall "Not my type of antique"
People were told to return to their rooms until they arrived back in Balamb. Dominic lay on his bed with Jessie at his side
"That was pretty impressive what you did back there" said Jessie
"I couldn't have done it without you" he said "And this" he removed the summoning crystal from his pocket. It was now jet black
"What's in that?" Jessie asked
"Another bit of my father" said Dominic "His mental state, the vase is just his body"
"Cool" said Jessie looking at it. Dominic put the crystal on his desk and then got back onto the bed next to his best friend.
"So what adventures await us next week?" Jessie asked Dominic
"How about Ifrit?" he asked. Jessie smiled
"That sounds like a plan" she said with a smile and hugged her best friend.