Ultimate Fantasy
Interesting Twists
"Hmmm... Very interesting..."
Cid and Squall had been pouring over Quistis' report of the incident at the prison, and still couldn't really believe what they had read.
As we advanced on the enemy position, our GFs released themselves and struck down the enemy. This incident has happened to me only once before. On a more distracting note, and I don't know quite how to explain this, but I can feel my GF when he's angry, agitated, or any other emotion. It's as if it can feel my emotions and mirror them back to me. I'm not sure what caused this, as there is no written record of such an occurrence anywhere in this Garden. I recommend further study into this phenomenon. It could possibly be a new stage in the bonds between a SeeD and a GF. This report is as accurate as I could make it. Signed Quistis Trepe.
"Puzzling, even," Squall said from across the desk, a copy of the report in his hand. "It really could be a new level of bonding."
"That is a definite possibility," Cid said, his fingers making a steeple. "In that case, it will be both beneficial and dangerous to our SeeD."
"Yeah," Squall said, rubbing his eyes. He hadn't gotten a wink of sleep since they got back the day before. "If GFs decide to take matters into their own hands, it could be bad for the students, not to mention whatever happens to be in the close vicinity."
"We'd better keep this quiet for now. We don't want to start a panic among students and SeeD alike. They'd be trying to get rid of their GFs, and we can't have that happen."
"Agreed."
"Go get some sleep, Squall. I'll file this where it belongs," Cid said.
"G'nite, sir," Squall said as he stood, saluted, and left. Cid watched him go, wondering where this new twist would go...
Squall walked down the hallway to the room he and Rinoa shared. He passed Zell and Sherry's room. Snoring could be heard, even thru the closed door. Next door belonged to Selphie and Irvine. The light was on beneath the door, so he could only guess what they were doing. Further down was Quistis and Scott's room. He expect they were asleep. They weren't night owls like alot of couples in the Garden. Finally he reached his room. As he expected, Rinoa was already asleep.
And hogging the covers again I see, he thought. He undressed himself and lay down, trying to get some covers without waking her. She had a death grip on them, but he finally wrestled enough away. As he lay there, fighting for sleep, he wondered how Shiva could have bonded with Scott so quickly. He hasn't been a SeeD for all that long, just barely had her longer. Squall had her ever since he became SeeD, and he never even got close to this bond.
It almost annoyed him to know that. That a fresh SeeD was able to make a bond with a GF that fast. That he had done it with his GF.
Squall let these feelings drift him off to sleep. He dreamed that he was fighting Seifer again. He tried to summon Diablo, but it wasn't there. It was as if his connections with his GF had been severed by Seifer's Gunblade. He looked up and watched as Seifer waved his hand. And the world exploded. Bright white light engulfed him and Seifer. Seifer cringed and screamed in agony, as if the light was burning him to the core. Squall felt nothing, only having to shield his eyes from the brightness. With one last scream of pain, Seifer disintegrated, and the light disappeared. When he uncovered his eyes, Scott stood a few feet from where Seifer had stood, lowering his arms. In his dream, Scott told him to stop going out alone. He had friends that were more than willing to help. He had a home, a girl, a life. If anyone had to go out alone, it was himself. Squall said no, Scott had a place too. With Quistis. Scott said that it didn't matter what happened to him now. His work was done, it was time to go home. The light returned, and engulfed Scott. Before he disappeared, Scott said to take care of Quistis for him. The light intensified, then pulsed brightly...
Squall bolted upright, ripping the covers from Rinoa's grasp. It had been just a dream. But Squall didn't like what it had been about.
The next morning, Squall woke to see Rinoa writing for the Garden paper, the Balamb Daily. He stretched, and sat up. Rinoa noticed, looked over at him, smiled and said good morning.
"What you writing about this week," Squall asked.
"Nothing much," She replied. "Just about a dream I had last night."
Squall stood and stretched again. "What was it about?"
"Of all the weirdest things," Rinoa said, putting the pen down. "It was about Scott, protecting me with a bright light, then saying he had to leave. Isn't that strange?"
"Not really," Squall said, walking over to the closet. As he dressed, he described his dream to Rinoa.
"Wow," Rinoa said when he finished. "If we both had the same dream, would it be possible that others had the same dream? Like when Ellone showed us Laguna?"
"I don't think it's like those dreams, but it is possible others had the dream."
"What do you think I means?"
"I'm not sure," Squall said, zipping up his jacked. "Come on, let's get some breakfast."As they entered the cafeteria, the weren't at all surprised to see Zell standing last in line, an impatient pose about him. Smiling, they took their place behind him.
"You know, Zell," Rinoa said, "maybe if you got here a little earlier, you might not be last all the time."
"Yeah, I know," he replied over his shoulder.
"What's new," Squall asked.
"Not much. Quistis and Scott are being interviewed by garden officials again, so they don't get breakfast."
"No big deal," Rinoa said. "They never eat breakfast anyway."
"Selphie and Irvine took a car from the garage earlier. Said something about wanting to check up on Trabadia Garden."
"I know," Squall said. The line moved before he could finish. "They asked about it yesterday. I told them it was ok."
"Ok, cool." The line moved. "Cid left early this morning. Said he was gonna spend more time with Edea."
"Good for him," Rinoa said, clapping her hands. "He needs time off." The line moved. "He does too much for a man his age."
"He just wants to be useful," Squall said. "If I were that age, and not owning the garden anymore, I'd want to help out a lot too."
"Still," Zell said, but didn't get to finish. Sherry, his girlfriend, strolled up and stood beside him. "What's up, girl?"
"Nothin," she replied, giving him a short kiss. "Just hungry, that's all."
"Well, then," Zell said, straightening up. "Go right ahead."
She smiled, and stepped in front of him as Zell continued. "Still, Cid tries to do too much. Yesterday morning I saw him running down to the library, then five minutes later to the infirmary. And I mean running, full speed. Straight out sprint."
"Cid sprinted?" Rinoa said, amazed that a man as old as Cid could run that fast."Fastest I've ever seen him," Zell replied.
The line moved, and Squall pondered why Cid would be actually running anywhere.
"But Selphie," Irvine protested. He and Selphie were in the car they had taken from Balamb Garden. Irvine was driving. . They had been discussing the songs to be played at the next graduation. "I play electric Guitar. How can I get that kind of sound from an electric?"
Selphie, sitting on the chair by her desk, crossed her arms. "There's probably a way, but you don't know it yet."
"I practiced and learned for twelve years, Selphie. There's no way," Irvine replied. She knew this, of course. He had told her once when they had been talking late at night. Studied under an old guitarist named Carlos Santanos. Played in a few bands at Galbadia Garden, when it was still just a garden. And, of course, he had played with Selphie, Zell, and Quistis way back when to cheer Squall up. He loved his guitar almost as much as he loved Selphie.
"There's gotta be a way..." Selphie said, thinking as hard as she could. She had always wanted to hear the guitar make animal noises. Why, she never knew. Her thoughts were interrupted as the car came to a halt in front of a gate. "We're here!" She hopped out of the car quickly and ran up to the gate, opening it and quickly running in.
Irvine smiled, walking up calmly. He strode thru the gate...and froze.
The buildings were gone, a great black burn spot on the ground where each stood. The fountain was the only thing left, and it was dry as a bone. Selphie stood starring around what used to be the main walkway to her original garden, now barely seeable due to charring.
"Jeeze," he said, looking around. "What happened here?"
"I don't know," Selphie replied, very near tears. She dropped to her knees as he walked up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. She gripped his hand and cried, as he assured her that he'd find out what happened.
Squall and Zell squared off into fighting positions. Zell had wanted practice today, and Squall had agreed to spar with him. Scott sat against the wall and watched. Both their techniques were nearly perfect. Scott knew them intimately, they were his own, mixed and blended.
As they began to move closer to each other, Rinoa came running into the room.
"Squall, you guys," she said, still trying to catch her breath, "there's a problem at Trabia Garden. You'd better come to the comm room quick!""And there's barely anything left that's recognizable," Irvine finished telling Quistis. He had called in as soon as he had calmed Selphie down enough to get back to the car with her. She could be heard in the background sniffling quietly.
"No signs of survivors," Quistis asked over the comm.
"Not a one." Selphie started to cry heavily again upon hearing that.
"This is not good," Quistis said over Selphie. "What else can you tell me?"
"Not much," Irvine said, looking around. "Whatever got this place was very thorough. All the metal machinery that was below the garden was fused together. Now it looks a great big metal plate on the surface."
"And you say there's nothing else?"
"Not a stone."
"Alright, We're in-bound. Rendezvouse a mile east of your position."
Irvine rogered and killed the radio, then looked over at Selphie. She had curled herself into a ball, sniffling quietly. His hand on her shoulder was little comfort, he knew, but right now he couldn't do much more. Looking back onto the black ground that had once been her home garden, he felt very useless. His life as a sniper, at the begining, had been difficult. When it came down to it, he had choked more often than not. Once, it had nearly cost a life. He had sworn to make up for that mistake, but he still felt it hadn't been attoned yet. He hoped that finding out what had done this to his girfriend's garden would somehow appease his inner demon. Yet, somehow, he knew it wouldn't end there.
Scott piloted the Ragnarok to the spot Quistis had said they'd meet Irvine and Selphie. Irvine had sounded nowhere near as distressed as Selphie. Not that he could blame her. He imagined how he'd feel if someone nuked Balamb, or even Los Angeles, his real home. For a brief moment, he wondered what had happened after he had come here. His dad must have noticed by now, unless that world was on hold till he fulfilled some mystical destiny here. But what then? If he did, would he have to leave his family here? Would he have to leave Quistis? Such was not a thought he lingered on if he could help it.
The nose of the Ragnarok came up sharply as he brought it down as gentle as possible. Within minutes, he and the rest of the group were outside and waiting for Irvine and Selphie to show up. Their car appeared within a few seconds and came to a stop under the left wing. Irvine disembarked as Quistis and Rinoa went to comfort Selphie somehow.
Squall had seen the devastation, having Scott fly over before landing. It was just as bad as Irvine had described. The garden looked as if it had never existed. A big burn mark was left where a school had once stood proud.
Squall had Scott and Zell load the car onto the Ragnarok, while the girls got Selphie onboard as well. Squall and Irvine searched, in vain, for evidence of what could have done this. Frustrated and confused, they returned to the airship and flew back to the garden.
Squall sat silently in the cockpit of the Ragnarok the entire trip home. Selphie was a wreck, emotionally, so Squall gave her and Irvine shore leave (well, what else are you gonna get on a flying school?) and dropped them off at Estar. Laguna and Johnathan had returned there the day before, after adding another worry to Squall's mind. The moon creatures were massing again. The thing he didn't understand was how were they able to regenerate so fast? It had barely been six months since Ulticima's defeat. Was there some new force recreating them? The thought didn't boad well.
The other thing troubling him was that dream he and Rinoa had shared. He had forgotten to ask everyone else if they had had the same dream. He suspected they haddn't, or they'd have mentioned something by now. He was perfectly willing to let it go as a one-time occurance.
Scott expertly docked with Balamb Garden at Edea's house. Squall had ordered it there when they lifted off from Trabia, hoping it'd be safe there. He briefly wondered if whatever had laid waste to Trabia so severely had turned its weapon toward Galbadia too. A pretty tough target to hit, as it was always on the move.
After securing the ship and checking with Squall, Scott and Quistis walked down the access ramp to the ground around the garden. Together they just sat there in the flowers and grass, watching the world go by.
"Scott," Quistis said finally. "Are you happy here?"
"Of course, I'm happy here," Scott replied, looking at her. "What brought that on?"
"Nothing," she said, standing and walking out a few steps. "I mean, you have a family somewhere, back in your world. Don't you ever think about them?"
Scott was watching her as she walked, then looked away into the distance. "Sometimes. I do miss my parents and my sister. But I know that, wherever they are, they'll be fine." He stood and walked over to Quistis, putting his arms around her from behind and laying his head on her shoulder, gazing of in the direction she was. "Are you alright, Quistis?"
"I don't know." She turned in his grasp and held him. "I'm just scared is all."
"Scared? Of me leaving?"
"I know it sounds silly..." she said as she buried her face in his shoulder.
"Quistis, I wouldn't leave even if I could. I've made too many friends here to just up and go like that." He hugged her tighter to him, feeling her shudder in his grasp. "I have a new family, here, with you and everyone."
"Scott..." She began to cry. He felt so helpless, as if nothing he could say would stop her tears. So he just held her, letting her cry it out. When she looked up, she was smiling again. "I'm glad you think of us as your family."
They held each other as they walked back to the garden. Quistis told him about a dream she had had the other night. It was strikingly similar to the one Squall had, tho neither knew this.
Zell was running up the stairs to the elevator when Scott and Quistis entered the lobby. He looked practically hysterical. Scott called to him and asked what was happening.
"It's them!" Zell shouted over his shoulder." The people who glassed Trabia! They called us and we're next!"
All the while, waiting for the elevator; Zell was practically hopping from foot to foot.
When they reached the top floor, they all went running to the bridge. Squall was there, issuing orders and preparing to leave. He spied them as soon as they entered.
"Scott, Quistis, ready the Ragnarok," he shouted over the commotion. There were a great many people running around.
"Why," Scott asked.
"You're going to observe where the shot comes from."
"You wanna run that by me again?" Scott couldn't believe his ears.
"No time," Squall replied. "They're gonna hit us in five minutes. You've got that long to be airborne."
"What about you and the garden," Quistis asked franticly.
"We're gonna try to not get hit. If you're in the Ragnarok, at least someone will be able to tell what happened."
"Yeah, but…"
"Scott, this is a direct order. Get your asses in that ship and LIFT OFF!!"
Without another word, both Quistis and Scott saluted, then left the bridge. They had the ship powered and in the air within minutes. As Scott piloted the ship to what he hoped was a safe distance, he reflected on what he was about to witness. "This is gonna suck."
The flight deck was tense on the Garden. Nida searched the sky, along with Zell and Squall. Everyone else was either evacuating the garden or helping, getting people to ejection pods or readying them for more students and staff. Two more minutes and they'd start evasive maneuvers, with fifteen seconds to spare before they were shot at.
Rinoa headed up to the bridge to be with Squall after making sure all the dorms were empty. She nodded to Squall upon arriving, and he hit the eject button for the life pods, which flew off the garden and into random directions. Sherry was already there with Zell. Everyone knew what hat happened to Trabia. No one had any illusions of what would happen if they were hit. The pressure was on Nida to get them out of the way as fast as possible. He was an excellent pilot, but he didn't know which way he'd have to dodge. It would have to be on the fly.
The timer rolled down to zero, and Nida began to turn the garden left, then right, varying their movements. Rinoa clutched Squall, Zell held Sherry. They all braced for what would come.
A bright light filled the night sky out of the west. It seemed to come from the sky, then hit the ground. It stayed on the horizon only an instant, then an energy bolt came hurtling toward Balamb Garden.
The flying fortress slid sideways at the last minute, but it wasn't enough. It took most of the hit on its left side. When the light was gone, Scott and Quistis could see that the entire side was melted away. The garden began to slide downward, and another energy bolt flew in to strike dead center. In a bright flash, it seared straight thru to streak out the other side. Scott and Quistis could only watch as their home fell to the ground, sounding like a great animal crashing to earth. Before it could even finish its landing, a third energy bold pierced it, causing it to explode across the landscape.
Quistis could not hold back her tears, and fell on her control board, sobbing. Scott could only sit in awe, then, as the realization of what happened fell upon him, let out a agonized cry of despair, which was mirrored by another from Quistis.
For many minutes that followed, neither could speak. The simply fell into each others arms and grieved. Grieved for their home and, more importantly, for their friends. Finally Quistis spoke.
"So what do we do now?"
"I don't know, Quistis."
"Let's at least get somewhere safe," she said, pulling away from Scott slowly, reluctantly, and returning to her controls. "Let's head for… for Balamb." The word caught in her throat, threatening to send her into tears again, and she was still crying.
Scott wiped his eyes, and took the flight sticks, angling in the direction the HUD indicated and applied power, making a pass over the final resting place of Balamb Garden. "Good bye, my friends."