Squall and Vincent turned from the bikes to see a large group of people at the entrance of the Shera.
"They've run off to fight the people who attacked Rinoa," Squall was now sitting on a bike shaking the handles viciously trying to start it.
"Who have?" Tifa stepped forward
"Rinoa and Yuffie stole one of the hover bikes and flown off to the attackers hide out, problem is we have no idea where they're headed so we have to follow them now" Vincent seemed to keep perfectly cool about the whole situation.
"Maybe that's not where they're headed, you could be mistaken," Quistis walked over to Squall putting a friendly hand on his shoulder. He pushed it away angrily,
"NO! I know that's exactly where they're going! Now will someone help me or move out of my way!"
"I'll help you,"
Everybody moved aside as Cloud entered the airship.
"I couldn't stop what happened to Aeris, nothing I did could have protected her. You have a chance to save Rinoa and I'm not going to let you lose it," He pulled a sheet off and climbed aboard his motor bike, Fenrir, "We don't know what these guys are capable off, but it doesn't matter. All we need to know is that our friends need help and they need it now,"
Everyone was silent for a few moments before Barrett stepped forward.
"I'm in,"
"Me too," Selphie, Irvine and Zell said in unison.
"You can't forget about me!" Tifa jumped in the air
"I'll run in and tell the headmaster what's going on," Quistis started to walk to the entrance "I'll round up some SeeDs and we'll use Ragnarok to follow you,"
"And what about us?" Red XIII walked into the middle of the group, Cait Sith following behind "We can't exactly drive when we don't have opposable thumbs,"
"That's simple, just let me power up the Shera here," Cid patted the wall of the ship "Barrett, Red and Cait Sith can come with me,"
Everyone nodded.
"Squall," Everybody once again turned to face Cloud "Push the left button and twist the handles towards you to go," In a blink of an eye Cloud shot out of the ship.
Squall turned to Vincent; who in understanding climbed on his own hover bike. Everybody else taking the lead and going into their positions.
"Yo Man this is cool!" Zell plopped himself onto a bike and tightened his gloves.
"Zell, this isn't a game!" Selphie had decided to share a bike with Irvine "I'll tell you what, if you do good and nothing goes wrong I'll give you my voucher for all-you-can-eat hotdogs in the cafeteria,"
"Awww man now I'm hungry!"
"Come on!" they heard Cloud yell from outside "I'll search around town and lower down," they heard his drive away
In unison everybody pushed the left button and twisted the handles flying themselves forward.
SeeDs and Cadets awed in amazement and some cheered. In the sky Vincent, Tifa, Zell, Irvine and Selphie flew together with Squall taking the lead hoping they weren't too late.
X X X
Standing before a dark drippy cave Rinoa and Yuffie held their breath. In the middle of the dark abyss a small light kept twinkling; just like what Rinoa had seen on the balcony a few nights before. Taking each others hand they quietly crept toward the light. Rinoa held up her left arm in case the need to use her Blast Edge arose. Slinging her shuriken over her back Yuffie was amazed that Vincent had missed that small detail.
All that could be heard was the small sound of water dripping and a few distant voices.
"Ok Yuffie you remember the plan?" Rinoa brought her voice to a whisper
"Yup, don't worry,"
"Alright then, come on"
Standing tall they strode into the entrance until it was almost impossible to see. Soon the small flickers of fire lanterns were seen and the voices were more distinguished.
"…now we're back to square one. I bet you know she won't be walking around with less then ten people!" A tall girl, with long red hair paced the caves floor. She was very beautiful and wore a long black dress; almost similar to Ultimecia's.
"I'm pretty sure we could get to her, who knows they could think we're totally clueless about the whole thing and carry on as normal," The second girl wasn't as tall but she was just as pretty. Her hair was blonde and tied up in a high ponytail. Her clothes were of the kimono type and on her neck she wore a blue chocker.
"Karin, you're always so pessimistic. I agree with Honda, we could easily get to Sorceress Rinoa with no problems," A third girl walked into the seating area. She was the tallest and wore an extremely short skirt and a kimono top. She wore thigh high boots and had two strands of hair in a samurai wrap. The rest was loose and shimmered purple.
"Remy, its no point. Desmond mucked it up,"
"You know I didn't mean to, my plan would have worked if I wasn't attacked by that scrawny ninja," A man dressed all in leather appeared. He certainly looked like the boy who attacked Rinoa but he seemed aged and more rugged.
"I'll give him scrawny ninja!" Yuffie hissed through gritted teeth. She was about to leap forward but Rinoa managed to hold her back.
"Yeah, come on ladies, no need to panic. If worst comes to worst we'll go. Us knights will be sure to get the job done," Two other men walked in wearing the same attire as Desmond. Rinoa noticed that each of them had a pendant on but she couldn't make out the symbol. She decided now would be the best time to carry on the plan.
"Yeah, Doyle and Lucas could get the job done!" Honda jumped off of her seat
"Problem is who knows where the Sorceress will be," Remy crossed her arms and walked over to Lucas who put a protective arm around her. Rinoa nudged Yuffie who stood up,
"I'm right here,"
Remy, Honda, Karin, Doyle, Lucas and Desmond all jumped at the sound of the intruder.
"Do you think we're stupid? You're not the Sorceress," Karin walked over slowly
"She is now!" Rinoa stood up and took a place next to Yuffie, "When 'Desmond' killed me I passed my powers onto her,"
"Oh really," Desmond stood behind Karin "Then why are you here? To get revenge?"
"No, we're here to give you my powers,"
"Why?!" Honda seemed a bit confused
"We want you to stop endangering our friends. We just want to be left alone and if that means giving you untold powers then we're going to do it!" Rinoa's heart was beating abnormally fast.
"Looks to me that you've come to your senses," Remy walked forward loosening Lucas's arm. "Very well, but you both know there's only one true way a sorceress can relinquish her powers…EVERYBODY ATTACK!"
Rinoa pushed herself aside as the group of six ran toward Yuffie. Rinoa darted behind them hoping to have time to power herself up. Yuffie leapt from wall to wall dodging every attack they threw upon her. Focusing all of her energy on the attack Rinoa stood still and closed her eyes shut not letting any of the outside noises affect her concentration. She subtly floated into the air and brought out her shimmering wings. Soon when she felt she was ready she threw her arms up wide and shouted,
"HELL'S JUDGEMENT!"
At this point Yuffie back flipped away from the distracted attackers and hid behind a stalactite.
A large explosion shook the ground as the attack hit the edges of the cave, heading for its target.
There was nothing but silence as the dust began to settle and the world was clearer. Rinoa had been thrown against the back wall from the impact and was struggling to keep herself awake. She panicked when there was no sign of Yuffie.
"Yuffie," Her voice was croaky from fatigued and could barely be heard. To her horror when the dust settled the Clan of Attackers had not even a scratch on them. Karin was standing in the middle of them one hand high in the air creating a permanent Shell spell; protecting them from any harm.
Remy stood and walked over to Rinoa; grabbing her by the throat and lifted her from the ground. Doyle and Desmond had grabbed Yuffie who was bleeding from the head but still able to struggle viciously. Karin and Lucas walked over to Remy and stood either side of her pointing a weapon at Rinoa. Honda stood just in front of Yuffie threatening her with a Fira spell floating on her hand.
"Poor little Ninja. Did you really think you could trick us?" She slapped Yuffie with her free hand.
"How…did you know?" Rinoa croaked hoarsely
"Isn't it obvious? We've been watching you for the past few months," Remy kept her grip "It took us a while to track you down but luckily we had an insider at the Sorceress Memorial. They gave us all your files. It's a good thing your beloved Knight came to rescue you otherwise we'd be left powerless. We thought it would be so difficult to get close to you and yet all we needed to do was disguise one of our Knights as a student and voila, shows how much your Knight looks after you doesn't it,"
"Rinoa…don't listen to her!" Yuffie was trying to free herself but Doyle had cast a slow spell on her; making her weary.
"If he really wanted to look after you then he would have made sure that no harm came to you. You know, we can hear everything that goes on in that school. And we've been hearing the most truthful rumours,"
"Oh yeah…surprise me!" Rinoa chocked
Remy smiled and brought her lips to Rinoa's ear.
"He's only with you to keep an eye on you like a child. He doesn't love you; it's all a little plan to make sure you don't turn evil,"
Rinoa knew it was a lie but for some reason it didn't make it any less hard to hear.
"I have an idea Sorceress," Remy dropped her and kneeled down to her level "Why don't you join us. Split your power and we can take over this world together. With your connection to Garden we can over throw it and destroy every SeeD that ever walks by! What do you think?"
Rinoa looked at the purple haired girl with pure hatred. She was rubbing her neck when impulse took over and she spat on Remy's cheek.
"Fine if that's how you want to play," Standing up Remy turned away from Rinoa and clicked her fingers.
And with no warning for the Sorceress and Ninja, everything went black.
X X X
"Any clue which way they went?" Irvine yelled to Squall
"I dunno spread out and-" he was cut of by a loud explosion in the cliffs "This way!"
Everybody revved up their bikes and followed Squall toward the noise.
"Irvy I'm scared," Selphie gripped onto the handles tightly
"Don't worry Sefie, I'll look after you"
"If you two love ducks are finished I think you should turn otherwise your about to hit the cliff face!" Zell pointed
Selphie quickly turned the bike away from the face and pressed a button making them faster "Maybe I should have stayed, I'm the best one at flying Ragnarok,"
"Don't worry about it Selph," Zell appeared aside them "You taught Quistis everything she needs to know and she's a really fast learner,"
Selphie nodded and smiled as she felt Irvine hold onto her waist reassuringly. Looking back ahead of her she had to stop abruptly as all those in front had stopped and was hovering in midair.
"Yo Valentine, what's going on?!" Zell continued moving on his bike over to Vincent
"We've lost the trail,"
As if on cue loud whirring noises and engines were heard behind them. Turning their heads they saw the Shera rising off of the grounds of Balamb Fields and floating into the air. From around the back of Garden Ragnarok shot into the sky; its large head producing lights so everyone could see the groves and inlets better.
Leading everyone around the cliff Squall and Vincent stopped quickly as they saw thick patches of dust and smoke floating out of a cave. They nodded in acknowledgment to each other and gestured for everyone to follow.
Arriving at the cave's mouth they saw a small twinkle deep inside.
"Look!" Tifa whispered hastily pointing to Rinoa and Yuffie's hover bike "They were here"
Vincent ran over and picked up a bag.
"That's definitely Yuffie's,"
"Rinoa!" Squall shouted ignoring the angry messages from his friends.
"Irvy look!" Selphie pointed to a large coffin that was leaning off the left side of the cave; the only thing holding it up was a rope which with each second was wearing away; one strand at a time.
"This is freaky guys," Zell commented
"Rinoa!" Squall yelled again this time taking a few steps forward "Rinoa where are you?!"
"Hello…how nice of you to join us," Honda and Karin walked forward stealthily; Remy leading them "I'm afraid Sorceress Rinoa is unavailable at the moment…can I take a message?"
A/N: Oooo cliff-hanger! How much do you want to shoot me?
Helllooooo...BabemRoze here saying howdy! And i feel like i should have also thanked JeanneAndHerAlters because she was the first person to fave my story and she gave me a soul consuming muffin...my fave :D As I said in my last notes the reviews don't go in vain. I only read Jeanne's review this morning and i've already updated for her...coz i'm just that nice :P.
I think there will be about 1-2 more chapters of this story left...depending on how I feel when i write it :P.
So yeah...its gonna be finished soon! How lucky are you:D :P :D :P
Well luv ya n leave ya!