Copyright: I don't own final fantasy 8. I don't own the characters or anything to do with the game. I'd be horrified if there was someone who didn't know that hehe. I do own this story, which I guess is kind of cool.
Note: Wellity, wellity this is it, the final chapter. Sorry it took a little longer to post than the others, I kind of had a little writers block because of the ending of the last chapter. But I got there in the end : ). So my thanks again to Rinoa the wastelander, savannahx(and the fruit fly), r, lilnaych and Kirsten for their reviews throughout this story. Am glad you guys like it. And as usual to Wayne for general rocking and Hannah for helping me out with the pkot lol. Well hope everyone likes the ending, thanks again to everyone who enjoyed this story, this chapters for y'all so I tried to make the ending good. Thanks for your support everyone, peace and love and enjoy the story xx
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A thousand thoughts raced around Squall's head as he was faced with the crowd of people he would be forced to fight . 'there's to many of them, this is impossible' part of him immediately thought. But then another thought seemed to take over 'Remember why I'm doing this. I have to do this for Rinoa'. But before Squall had any more time to think about it, his first opponents-a guy who looked slightly older than Squall, maybe about 20, a young brunette girl and a guy Squall recognised to be an instructor-circled him. The first guy was armed with a large fighting staff, the girl with a mace and the instructor specialised in hand to hand combat. The first guy swung his stick aiming a blow that Squall scarcely escaped by ducking down to the ground. He aimed a hard kick at the guys shin, causing him to buckle. Squall aimed a punch squarely at the guys face and he fell backwards and hit the ground. While he was fighting Squall was constantly aware of the others in the group, in particular the leader who he guessed posed the greatest danger to Rinoa. Searching the group he spotted the leader trying to break down the door of the orphanage. Squall knew he had to work faster if he wanted to protect Rinoa from all of these people. The small brunette girl swung her mace, but once again Squall managed to dodge the attack. Fortunately for him, she was not the best aim and her attack ended up hitting the instructor, who fell to the ground as the blow made contact with his stomach. Squall spun around and whacked the girl on the side of her head using the handle for his gun blade and immediately she toppled to the ground. Squall barely had time to breathe before a fresh wave of enemies descended upon him. Squall took down many of the enemies with ease, quick swings and stabs of his gun blade. But everyone he took down caused him a pang of guilt. How many lives had he ended today? How many futures had he destroyed? But still, he knew he had to carry on fighting. But the enemies seemed to become increasingly tough, or he was becoming increasingly weak. He managed to stay relatively unharmed until about 5 more people circled him waiting to attack. He took several punches from a quick-fisted fighter before disabling him with a quick slash across his torso. As much as he knew he was fighting for a reason, the only important thing in his life, he couldn't deny the aching pain and tiredness coursing through his body. Suddenly there was a heavy blow to his back, from behind, which caused him to fall to the ground. Another student quickly swung their dagger and made a deep slash on Squalls face. He tried to force himself up off the ground but when he looked up he found himself staring into the barrel of a gun.
"Well, well, well. I guess this is my chance to make history" said the guy holding the gun "sorry Commander, but you didn't leave me much of a choice"
'So this is the end?' squall thought to himself 'I'm so sorry Rinoa, I couldn't save you. I failed as your knight. Goodbye'
The guy cocked the gun, but suddenly shots rang out in the air, and one bullet flew straight into the guys arm, causing the gun to drop to the floor and the guy to stagger backwards and trip over one of the bodies lying on the floor. Squall whipped his head round to see what was going on, and was so overwhelmed he could hardly believe his eyes. Standing about 10 yards away, gun raised in the air, was Irvine. And behind him Selphie, Zell and Quistis!Some of the students headed straight for them, knowing that they would be here to help Squall. Before Squall had even managed to haul himself off the floor, Zell had already taken down two people with quick, sharp combos. Irvine made his way over to Squall and helped him off the ground "What are you guys doing here?" Squall asked him
"Well we heard about this whole thing from a few students, so we get here as soon as we could. Better late than never right?" Irvine explained
"I'm so glad to see you guys"
A few more students descended on Squall and Irvine, but they eliminated them with ease.
The group had practically disabled the party of SeeDs, some dead, some only wounded, when Squall heard a loud scream
"Rinoa!"
"Go" Irvine said "we'll hold em off here. Just get Rinoa out of here. Go somewhere safe"
"Ok. Thanks you guys" Squall nodded before turning and starting to run towards the old building.
"Squall" Zell, now standing next to Irvine a few yards behind Squall, shouted. "Let us know were you are man ok?"
Squall nodded to his two friends. Zell responded with a nod and a thumbs up, and Irvine tipped his hat as a sign of respect.
Squall ran for the door way and sped up the steps. Entering the room he saw the leader and Rinoa were the only two people in there, the other remaining students seemed to be occupied with Squall's friends.
The guy was holding his long sword out in front of him, the tip aimed straight for Rinoa's heart.
"If you're going to kill me, what are you waiting for?" Rinoa sobbed
The guy just laughed "I'm deciding you see, I'm deciding whether I should kill you nice and quickly, or make you suffer. It's a tricky choice. But I'm guessing I have a while to make it. You see, my bet would be that your oh so gallant and brave knight is probably dead right now. So I'm betting there's not going to be anybody rushing in here to save you"
"Guess again"
The guy whipped round to see Squall standing in the doorway."well, you deserve more credit than I gave you. I figured you'd be dead right now"
"I figure you'll be dead in about 3 minutes" Squall said bluntly. The guy raised his sword to the battle position "Let's get this over with Leonheart" he said arrogantly.
He made a quick, fluid stabbing motion with his sword and managed to scrape the side of Squalls arm. Blood poured through the tear in his jacket, but he tried to stay focused on the fight.
"Rinoa, get out of here" he breathed
'I don't think so." the guy said. He swivelled round and swung his sword, the tip of which made a deep cut in Rinoas arm. She clasped her hand to the wound and dropped to the floor.
"You son of a bitch. You'll pay for that" Squall hissed at the guy. He swung his gun blade making a deep cut in the top of the guys leg. Squall couldn't deny this guy was a good fighter, and he definitely had the upper hand given that Squall was wounded and exhausted. But there was an inner strength that kept Squall going, kept him fighting. Every blow the guy struck, Squall managed to block, and vice versa. It was a long fight. After about 5 minutes Squall's exhaustion became too much and he let his guard down for a brief second. Unfortunately it was one second to long. The guy swung his sword with great force and made a huge, deep gash across Squalls torso. Squall dropped his gunblade and stumbled back with pain, and found himself leaning against a wall. The guy approached him and placed the tip of his blade to Squalls throat
"Well, I guess you're not as good as your made out to be. You failed as a SeeD and as a knight. But don't worry, I don't think she'll forget you. I mean the last thing she'll ever see will be you're death. I think….." the guy stopped suddenly as blood began to pour from a wound in his torso. He grabbed his stomach and doubled over, falling to the floor. Behind him Rinoa stood shaking, holding Squalls gun blade, the tip now dripping with blood, as tears ran down her face.
She dropped the gun blade and rushed over to Squall
"are you alright?" she asked desperately
'No' Squall thought to himself as he placed his hands to his chest and blood dripped down them 'I'm probably about to die'
"Yeh, I'm fine baby. Don't worry about me." he said breathlessly. Suddenly there was a wailing of sirens
"the police" Rinoa cried
"Yeh, there after you, actually both of us now. We've gotta go. The others can distract them" Squall tried to force himself off the wall, but the pain caused him to sink back down again. "you…you have to go without me" he said tears forming in his eyes
"No" Rinoa said firmly "we both go or we both stay. I need my knight."
"Fine" Squall, although it caused him incredible, unbearable pain forced himself off the ground "then lets go"
"Wait. Let me try something" Rinoa closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She placed her hands out and suddenly a strange white glow poured from them
"Cure magic. Did it work?" she asked frantically
Squall placed his hand to were his wound had been. His chest still hurt, but the bleeding wound has gone. "Yeh. Thank you baby. But we got to go. Right now" he grabbed her by the hand and together they ran from the orphanage, from centra. They just ran. Neither of them knew were they were running to, they were running into uncertainty, but all that mattered to either of them was that they were running together. And they always would be.
