Ultimate Fantasy
The Seventh Seal

The trip was almost over. Just another thirty minutes more. It was three o'clock in the morning. Quistis had the night shift, and was gonna wake up Scott in another fifteen minutes. For now, he was sleeping in the pilot's chair of the Ragnarok airship, kind of curled up in the seat.

He's so cute when he sleeps like that, she thought to herself. He had good reason to be tired. The whole day had been a screw job. From being woken up early all the way to having to rush back to Balamb Garden, it was just a nightmare. The day before had been more fun. She had liked being out on the town with the government paying the tab. She made a note to do it again sometime.

Leaning back in her seat, she looked out into the dark morning sky. It was a sight she would never get tired of. Nothing but clear sky. They were flying low to the ocean surface to disrupt any radar they might come across. At 75 feet, the water flew by at unimaginable speed.

Quistis stretched her arms above her and yawned. When we get to the garden, I'm going strait to bed, she told herself. It wouldn't be too long before she had her soft bed back, and her favorite man laying next to her. She never got tired of him. It's what happens when you fall in love she figured. Even now, with him comatose next to her in the most advanced machine known to man, she savored his company. It was like his just being there, awake or asleep, was enough to calm her nerves. She still didn't understand it, but was glad it was there. Was glad he was there.

She looked out onto the sea once again. It was clear. She was about to look away when she spotted a dark shape on the water. She squinted as it got closer. It was long, with an oblong head, and it came out of the water a good 100 feet. She was about to wake Scott up, when the ship suddenly jolted to a stop. It was hard enough to wake the whole ship. Scott was thrown forward onto the controls.

"What the hell was that about?" he asked, rubbing his head.

"Something's got us," Quistis replied. "It's big, whatever it is."

"Great..." Scott grumbled as he worked the controls. He continued to grumble as he set the ship to full hover to keep it from being pulled down. "Damn monster grabs my ship, slams my sleepy ass to the floor, waking me up... It'd better have a death wish.."Despite the situation, Quistis had to smile. No matter how bad it got, he was always ready with a joke or a funny comment. It was how he kept himself in check. She had tried something like that herself, but it never helped her.

When Scott had finished, he hit the intercom button to the passenger's area, and said, "Better stay belted in. We're in for a ruff ride." Turning back to the controls, he looked up and saw what was holding them. A gigantic tentacle with what he guessed to be sucction cups on the underside. Taking stock of the ship, he learned it to be several tentacles gripping the Ragnarok. Bringing up a downward camera on his HDD, he saw a very large squid floating on the surface.

"Great, he said again. "We got bait hanging onto us."

Quistis took a look at his monitor, then returned to her controls. "We can't break free. It's weight is keeping us down, and our thrusters are starting to overheat."

"We can't drop into the water either. That'll give it the advantage," Scott said thoughtfully. "We'll have to cut our way free." Reaching over for the Gripper arms release, he pushed the lever into loose position. After donning two wire laced gloves, he switched on the Waldo Control System. This was relatively new to the ship. It had been installed just before he graduated. When he moved his hands, the Grippers would mimic the move outside. Using his HDD, Scott proceeded to pull at the tentacles. Quistis meanwhile turned on the radio and tried to get help.

"This is the Ragnarok 300 miles east of Fisherman's Horizon. Repeat, this is the Ragnarok 300 miles east of FH to any ships in the area. We need assistance. There is a rather large sea monster holding us in place and threatening to drag us under. We are attempting to remove it's tentacles, but we would still like the help of anyone with a cutter attachment."

"Roger that," said the speaker. "This is airship Pomp and Constance about 137 miles south of you. We are turning towards you, ETA six minutes. Can you hold?"

Relieved, Quistis replied, "We're gonna have to, P&C. We have no other choice."

"Understood. We'll be there soon. Hang tight."

"We have help inbound," Quistis said to Scott, who was busy swinging his hands about.

"The damn thing's trying to get the Grippers," he said. "That help had better get here quick.." Just then, the right arm snapped from the pressure being put on it by one of the tentacles. The left one was ripped completely out moments later. Laguna ran up behind Scott after coming up on the elevator.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"We've got a serious problem," Scott said. "A monster has decided to turn us into lunch." As he said that, the ship lurched to the right. Scott grabbed at the control stick and jerked it to the right as Quistis and Laguna grabbed onto whatever they could to stay upright. "Damnit.. I gotta go out there," he said when he had steadied the ship. "I need to cut those tentacles away or we're not goin anywhere."

"No," Quistis said. "You can't go out there, you'll be killed."

"I'm the only one here with a blade, Quistis," Scott replied. "I'll be OK, I promise."

Before she could say anything, the ship lurched again, this time making groaning sounds. The hull was buckling under the strength of the monster. Leaving Quistis to right the ship, Scott took off for the top hatch. Quistis called for him to come back, but he was already on the elevator, heading down. It took him but a few minutes to get to the upper decks. The creaking and groaning of metal under stress got louder as he got closer. Popping the hatch, he climbed out and assessed the situation: about five tentacles, no more than four feet thick, with large pads at the ends. Drawing his Gunblade, he went to work, hacking and slashing at the closest tentacle. It reluctantly gave way and withdrew underneath the ship. Scott gave a quick yip of victory, but was almost thrown off by another lurch. Steadying himself, he decided to save the victory cries for after they were free.

The second and third tentacle went with a little less trouble. By now he was standing above the cockpit. Quistis watched from below as he attacked the fourth tentacle. It gave rather quickly. Scott looked down and gave a short wave. Quistis smiled, but the smile faded when she saw the tentacle arc back towards Scott. She gave a yell of warning, but was too late. The pad struck him in the upper body, sending him flying. He went over the edge of the ship, struck the water and disappeared. Quistis gave a cry of grief, grabbed the controls and throttled forward full. The last tentacle, not being strong enough it hold by itself, released the ship.

Quistis angled it toward the ocean and searched for Scott. She didn't dare go into the water with the big ugly still around. She saw no sign of him. She did see the monster coming back. Laguna, seeing that she wasn't about to give up looking, grabbed the controls and pulled it up away from the water. Quistis grabbed for the controls, crying that he was still down there, but after a few attempts finally stopped trying. She put her face in her hands and just cried.

"There's nothing we can do," Laguna yelled over her crying. He pulled her out of the seat and took her place. Throttling up, he angled for FH. The ship that had responded radioed if they still needed help. Laguna, seeing that Quistis wouldn't be useful for a while, answered no, but there's a body in the water back there. He asked if they could look for it. The other ship said they'd try.

Scott slowly was coming around. He had been knocked unconscious when he hit the water. Right now, he was chained to a rack of some kind. As he took stock of himself, he opened his eyes. He looked around, confused, then noticed the figure starring at him. He wore a long grey overcoat that was extremely tattered at the bottom. His black pants were also riddled with holes. His shirt was the only piece of clothing that looked intact. He was holding a black Gunblade against his shoulder in a relaxed position. But the most striking thing Scott noticed was the scar on his forehead.

"Seifer…" Scott said, or rather tried to say. It was more of a dry, hoarse croak.

"So, you know me, eh?" Seifer said. He stepped closer. "Good. That means you know how bad I can be."

"Oh, yeah," Scott replied. "You're a real tough customer."

"You have NO idea!" Seifer yelled, putting the Gunblade to Scotts throat. "I make bad look good."

"Then why am I still here?" Scott asked. "What do you want?"

"From you?" Seifer laughed. "I want nothing from you! Everything I need I have at my fingertips. You are nothing to me."

"Then why am I here?"

"Very simple, really," Seifer said as he stepped back, taking the Gunblade from Scott's throat. "You're bait. I've seen you around FH, paling around with those miserable CeeD of Balamb. Especially Instructor Trepe. Put simply, she'll get them to come rescue you, then I'll kill Squall and the rest of them, saving Quistis for last. Then, my friend, I'll kill you too."

"Bastard.." Was all Scott got out. An electric shock shot through his body, forcing him to cry out in pain. Just as quickly as it started, the electricity was shut off.

"Does it hurt much?" Seifer asked icily.

Weakly, Scott replied, "Trade places with me… and find out..." He was cut short by another surge of electricity. As before, it stopped just as quickly. As he recovered from this second assault, he remembered back to when it was just a game. He laughed quietly to himself at the irony of the situation.

"Cute comments will get you nowhere, kid," Seifer said. "I'm barely in the mood to torture you." Turning to some men behind him, he said, "Are you ready yet??"

The soldiers were quickly setting up a camera of some kind. Apparently they were gonna send a vid-disk to Balamb Garden.

"Kind of a weak plan, Seifer," Scott said. "Sending a ransom demand on a vid-disk."

"Vid-disk?" Seifer replied, turning back to him. "Whoever said anything about a vid-disk?" He looked back at the soldiers, who flipped him a thumbs-up, then walked over and stood next to Scott, putting the Gunblade at his throat again. "Smile, kid. You're gonna be on T.V..."

Quistis was curled up in her bed, sobbing quietly to herself. She had been there in that position ever since after giving a brief report to Squall and Cid. That was almost seven hours ago. She hadn't moved except to wipe her eyes and roll over. She couldn't believe he was gone. The Pomp And Constance had turned up a negative search. They had expressed their condolences, and returned to their duties. Several time since then, people had knocked on her door to express their sorrow. She took them all without a word. It hurt too much to talk about it. About anything.

As she wiped her eyes for the thousandth time, there was another knock on her door. Squall entered immediately after, a concerned but urgent look on his face.

"Quistis, we need you on the bridge."

"Leave me alone," She replied. "I'm unfit for duty right now."

"No, Quistis. You need to be there."

"I said leave me alone." she repeated, not turning to face him.

"It's about Scott," Squall said, coming right to the point. This brought her to face him.

"What??"

"Come see for yourself," he said, turning and walking away. Pulling herself together and trying, to no avail, t wipe the redness from her eyes, she stood and ran past Squall to the elevator. He got there just as the elevator arrived, and they both rode it to the top level. Once in the bridge, she saw what he had been talking about. On the screen was an image of Scott hanging off of a Shock Rack. He looked like he had been beaten as well. Standing next to him, holding a Gunblade to his throat, was Seifer. Still alive after all they had been thru.

To Scott, he said, "Say hello to the world, kid." He looked into the camera. "There are a million people out there right now; watching you, wondering if I'm gonna slit your throat. Well, I'm not. Not yet anyway. I might later." He walked a bit towards the camera a little bit. "This message is for you CeeD of Balamb. Hello there! You see whom I have? He's one of yours, if I remember right. A rather attached one too. Hi, Instructor Trepe!"

Quistis was too horrified and angry at the same time to even think about the insulting way he said her name and title. If she had a chair and her will power was a little less, she'd have smashed the television. Instead, she watched as her anger boiled.

"I have a little proposition for you people. Surrender your Garden, and anything else I want of course, and I'll let this young man go. If you don't, well.." He walked back to Scott. "Well, we don't have to address that part, do we? I'll give you ten hours." He started to walk out of picture, but stopped halfway off. "Oh yeah, in case you think I'm not serious..." He pointed to someone off screen, who flipped a switch. A bolt of electricity shot thru Scott, making him scream out in pain. "The world is waiting for your answer, CeeDs. I'm not as patient, but you still have some time." The image went blank.

Quistis' rage finally overcame her. She whirled around lightning quick, grabbed her Chain Whip, and with a flick of her wrist and a scream of anger, destroyed the monitor.

"AHH jeeze, Quistis!!" Zell, who was closest to the monitor, yelled.

"Damnit!!" Quistis exclaimed. "That rotten, no good, dirty sonofabitch! That bastard! That Fucking dickhead!" Although they had expected this, it came as a great surprise to everyone there how much language she was using. "He's gonna pay for this!" I kid you not!!"

"Calm down," Squall said. "We're gonna get him back. I just need to make a plan."

"Ok," she said, whirling on him, an angry look. "Here's the plan then. We find them, get Scott, and blow Seifer's brains out the left side of his head."

"Uh..." said Squall, not really knowing how to deal with this. He wasn't used to her being this aggravated. Luckily, Selphie decided to step in on the conversation. "Quistis, calm down. Now, we're gonna get Scott back. It's just gonna take some time. And, in your state of mind, you're no use to us. Now, go back to your room, calm down, and we'll think of a plan, OK?"

Quistis hesitated for a minute, and then said, "Alright. But the minute you have your plan, you come get me, got it?"

"We'll get you," Rinoa said, gently pushing her to the elevator. "Now go calm down."

Quistis got into the elevator, and returned to her room. After a few minutes of lying on her bed, she was crying again. But her tears were of anger rather than grief. She had never liked Seifer all that much, but now she hated him. After his defeat at Pandora, he had given up on his "romantic dream" of being the sorceress' knight and went to live in Balamb for a time. He had seemed happy, living with Fujin and Rajin. Why had he become so evil again? What was his motivation? All her questions accompanied her to her sleep.

Scott awoke hours later. He had been brought to a a cell. His Gunblade was gone, as were his gloves and shoes. His whole body hurt. Especially his arms where the restraints held him up. Though he was immeasurably lighter than when he first came to this world, he was still a big man. His pockets were all empty. Even that chocolate bar he had been saving was gone.

"Damn..." Scott said aloud. He looked around to see a barren room. No windows, no beds, only a door. "I've gotta be at that prison out by Galbadia. This is just like in the game. Only it's not a game." Standing up, he paced back and forth for a few seconds. It made his body feel a little better to move around freely. He stretched, and walked up to the door, examining it. Seeing no way out that way, he turned back to the cell. Nothing. He walked to the furthest wall, and sat down. Nothing to do by wait.

Quistis woke to a knock on her door. Her eyes hurt. She must have been crying in her sleep. Wiping her eyes, she rose and answered Rinoa's calling.

"What is it?"

"Oh," Rinoa said, seeing Quistis' eyes were really red. "I'm sorry. I'll come back a little later."

"No no, it's Ok. What do you need?"

"Um... Squall sent me to tell you he's got a plan."

"Ok, I'm coming," she replied and closed the door.

Minutes later, she re-emerged, eyes no longer red, and accompanied Rinoa to Cid's office. Squall was waiting in the outer room of the office/bridge level. He knew she had spent the past few hours crying to herself. Even though her appearance betrayed nothing, he knew her well enough to know how she was feeling. As she walked up to him, he reached out and gave her a reassuring hug, saying it would be alright. She reciprocated by returning the much needed hug. When they separated, Squall led them all into the office. Everyone was there. Even a few students were in attendance. Quite a few, in fact. She inquired as to the reason of there presence.

"Don't worry," Zell said, giving her shoulder a squeeze. Even he knew she was crying. "We'll explain everything."

More students arrived, and Squall announced it time to begin. Everyone sat, stood, or leaned against something in order to see the large monitor occupying the bridge side of the room. Quistis sat at the far end of the table that had been set up, giving her the best view of all. Everyone who stood or sat next to her gave her a reassuring or comforting word, pat, or squeeze, and it made her feel a little better to know they all cared in one way or another. The sentimental help finished, Squall began.

"First off, I'd again like to express my regret to Quistis, and promise her that we'll get Scott Wolf back at whatever cost." He made an all encompassing gesture, sort of reminding Quistis of the way Cid used to speak in classes when he wanted everyone to know he was speaking to all of them. "You've all been summoned here for one reason and one reason only: We will need all of your help to get our comrade-in-arms back. For some of you, this will be your first mission as official CeeD. For others, it will be your graduation test. For all of you, green student and seasoned veteran alike, this will be the most dangerous mission of your lives.

"I want you all to know that we will be risking our lives, our well-being, our careers for one man. You're probably wondering why. Why risk all of our lives for one? Because the one life is more important."

A chorus of unbelieving murmurs and laughs went through the group. Squall let them quiet down before continuing. "Yes, yes, I know it sounds like total bullshit to you all. But I've recently been given evidence and testimony to it's truth. Headmaster Cid's wife, Edea, confided in me shortly after the earlier broadcast that she sensed something very special in Scott when he had first arrived, but had kept the feeling to herself. She had thought it nothing at the time. But as time has progressed, the feeling nagged at her. Yesterday, the feeling intensified. It was so great she fainted into her husband's arms. He brought her here, and when she awoke she told me everything.

"She told me her feeling had produced an image in her mind. An image of Scott, standing upon a stone platform called the Seventh Seal, with a power surging through his arms and hands into the sky toward the moon." As he spoke, a picture of what an artist had made to recreate the image showed on the screen. It was indeed Scott on the stone platform. There were licks of fire flowing up the pillar of the platform, as well as around it. The bright blue energy beam from his arms reached up to encircle the moon. "She believes he is the one to return the Moon Monsters to their place of resting. That is why we must get him back alive. You are all still probably thinking it to be fantasy. Well, I am inclined to believe her. So I've ordered this rescue to take place."

He took a look at everyone's face. Each was different, and it ranged from awe-struck to disbelieving. "Whether you believe it or not, it doesn't matter to me. Scott is my friend, and boyfriend of my best friend and instructor. I will not rest until he is safely returned here. Some of you knew him personally, and you know he's a good man. One worth the effort.

"The mission is simple, and Zell and Irvine will fill you in." He motioned for the pair to approach, and stood to the side.

"Ok, so here's the deal," Zell started. "We know where they're holding him, but we don't know how to get in. So we're gonna use the direct approach." Behind him on the screen, a map of the world came up, which zoomed in on the area where the Galbadia Prison was located. "This is the prison's location. There are bound to be sentries set all around this area." As he spoke, a red circle appeared around the prison at a miles distance. "We don't have exact spots, but we know they'll keep in radio contact so they can warn the base of what's coming. So we're gonna have to be really careful."

Irvine took over for the moment. "We will be divided into several teams. Most will be decoys, assigned to put pressure in one area, while the few of us left will make the incursion on the opposite side of the area. Very simply, get in, find our man, get out."

Zell took attention back now. "Our main forces will strike right about here, in this area to the northeast," he said, pointing on the map. "The rest will move in here while the fighting is goin on. Once inside, we'll play it by ear. The main thing is to keep the outside forces where they are while we're inside. You'll take heavy casualties, but we need you to stay there until we give the mission complete signal. Either that, or until the prison explodes," he said with a smile. Everyone got a laugh in, then Rinoa spoke.

"Now listen everyone. As long as you can hold outside, the mission should go smoothly. But with Seifer involved, there's no telling what could happen. If you see the Galbadian Garden coming, if you find you're way, way outnumbered halfway into the battle, if you take too many casualties, run. Run far, run fast. Get back to the garden anyway you can, and be ready to oppose any attack it may come under. After that, continue on with the school. Keep it alive. Train hard, and survive."

The silence at her words was thick enough to cut with a dull knife. Finally Squall broke the silence.

"Ok, let's go." Everyone stood and began moving out into the outer room to board the elevator.

Quistis rose last. She looked back to the map, as if it by itself would bring Scott home. Reluctantly, she returned to her quarters to prepare.

In his dull, grey cell, Scott felt very alone. His knees held to his chest, he rested his head on them. Dimly, he wondered how he was going to get out of here, but that thought was overshadowed by worry. How was Quistis? Had they escaped the monster's grasp? Most likely, he thought. He had been able to get most of the tentacles free. The Ragnarok had enough power to break itself free from two tentacles, but he got greedy. He wanted it to be perfect. It was his fault he had fallen, but how he had gotten here was a mystery. His thoughts accompanied him into an uneasy sleep.