I do not own Final Fantasy 8 and neither it's characters and/or monsters. Squaresoft does. I only own the characters that appears in this fanfic who dosen't appear in the original game.
By the way, english is my second language. So please bear with me and review fairly. (This means not only the grammar flaws. I know I am far from perfect but I try my best to write in a different language than my native one.) So please, try to give a fair ammount of the good critics as well of the bad ones. It would be more motivating for me to hear some critics about my initial storyline as it unfolds...
Thank you
Chapter 3
River
Squall had finally arrived at Winhill. The flat silence of the moment was sometimes interrupted by childish laughters who was hovering over the city life. A small atmosphere of peace and happiness was surrounding the local childrens who played on the rock paved roads. These rocks were often decored with the kids's colored chalk. Many drawings of houses, skies, birds and family portraits were pratically carved into them. As for the rest, no bothers, no memories and no reminders of sad moments.
'' Perhaps it truly is a good place to start over...'' Squall though taking his packback off his shoulders.
This was going to be, for a while, Squall's new garden of Eden. A safe haven of clouds, flowers, green spaces and a feeling of forgiveness he craved for a long time.
''No wonder Laguna liked this place'' Squall thought.
He walked pass the flower shop and remembered the vase piece quest he did back then. He enjoyed the old look of the flower shop house. It was made out of wood with a small porch at the front to greet the visitors. An old woman drinking tea on a rocking chair looked at her grand son who played marbles with a friend who dugged a hole in the ground.
''Hey gran'ma! Can Joey sleep here tonight? We'll be kind! Promised!'' A children asked.
'' Ask your mother when she comes back from work.'' She replied to her grand son.
'' Excuse me miss, where can I meet Mayor Sylvester? I am a dispatch from Balamb Garden. I have an appointement with him''. Squall asked from a far.
'' Thank goodness you are here.'' The old lady said getting up her chair. She walked toward Squall.
She placed herself beside him and pointed the road ahead.
''Go stairght this way young man. It's the great house next to the old Raine Pub. You can't miss it.''
''Thank you miss.'' Squall said as he got back on the road again.
'' May Hyne protect you...'' She said looking at the old church next her old flower shop.
Squall walked by the first crossroad and kept going forward. As he leaved the first small residential section of Winhill, he walked by the chocobo crossing sign who layed on the floor. Apparently, it was almost ripped off the ground. It was also bent in half and the sign itself had bite marks. Some surrounding wood fences seems to had been damaged as well by either monsters or animals.
''I'll have to post permanent surveillance here...'' He thought as he goed on.
As he crossed the second crossroad, a second man appeared in the horizon. He was wearing a black bandana on his face. He also had black ribbons surrounding his wrists, a dark red coat who's back almost touched the ground as he waked by. He worn also black pants and light black boots As the two gentlemens grew closer to meet each other, Squall had noticed a shining piece of metal that shined from inside his coat sleeves. These pieces of metal seemed to had been placed inside each but the sun reflected it to him. Perhaps was it a warning?
''Greetings. Welcome to Winhill.'' the masked man said.
Squall had taken out his gunblade and placed it into a defensive pose. ''Who are you?'' he asked.
'Ah, please... My code name is River. I come with my sword sheeved. Besides, if I wanted to take you down, you would never have noticed my presence in the first place... I was supposed to patrol this area. You come from Balamb correct?'' The masked man asked.
''That is correct.'' Squall replied.
'' Here, come with me. I'll escort you to the mayor of the village.'' River said.
'' Whatever...''
Once they arrived, both man headed straight to the great house next to the Raine pub the old woman told Squall earlier. They both had stopped at the entrance door who was guarded by two Winhill soldiers. River saluted them both with his right hand. His black ribbons didn't seem to have kept any poisonous darts inside them. Perhaps he weren't an assassin as Squall first thought.
'' This is Squall. He is sent from Balamb Garden. I'll be escorting him to the mayor.'' River said.
''Hey sweetheart! Nice ribbons! Feeling feminine tonight? Too shy to show your face though?'' One soldier said chuckling in a very mocking way. As quick as a shooting star. River released two katars from his coat sleeves to his hands and dashed toward the soldier's throat. He had stopped one inch short from slashing the soldier's throat.
''Who's a girl now huh? I bet you're pissing yourself now that you are trapped you filthy idiot... Don't say shit about what you don't know...'' River said nose to nose with the soldier as he was pushing up the soldier's face with the tip of his katar's blades.
"That is enough! Have some discipline!" Squall said when he seperated the two man apart.
"Don't make this harder for me than what it already is... Honor your uniform for Hyne's sake! What are you? A kid? I just came across some that were more civilized than you... Be ashamed. Be very ashamed of yourself. If you hate your fellow men, fine. But don't you dare do anything that might endanger civilians here or you shall be dismissed for good. Is that clear?" Squall said to the soldier.
"Y-Yes sir!"
The soldier didn't really had to complain about Squall's speech. He probably saved his butt.
Squall and River entenred the hallway who was guarded two other soldiers.
"Let us through. He came to instruct our men." River said to a fellow soldier who was wearing an eye patch.
"Great! See you later..." The soldier replied.
"His code name is Sphinx. A great friend of mine... A bit weird though." River whispered to Squall.
"Instruct? What do you mean?" Squall asked Rived.
"You shall know right about now..." River replied as he opened the doors to the mayor's office.
The mayor was an old looking man. He was looking over, at his desk, some documents and reports of witnesses during some monster incidents that occured since last week. When he saw the two gentlemans that arrived to his office, he stood from his chair to greet his guests. He had a small white beard and a cane to help him out as he miserably tried to walk his way to shake Squall's hand. He wasen't even dressed as a aristocratic person but rather as a normal townsfolk.
"Mayor Sylvester, this is Squall from Balamb. He came to teach our soldiers the current state of situation concerning the monsters since the last lunar cry. ''
The old man bowed his head down to this declaration.
''Aw yes, this is a very critical state. There is no time to lose. Please Mr. Squall, come with me.'' Sylvester said as he walked to his desk.
He then activated a hidden button underneath his desk and a hologram appeared at the ceiling. River and Squall sat down on the two remaining chairs in front of Sylvester's office. The hologram projected a map image of the continent of Esthar and the Lunatic Pandora with an arrow in the sky pointing the trajectory of the Lunar Tear into Tear's Point. Sylvester then explained the situation
'' This was three years ago during the Lunar cry. According to Esthar's authorities, after the Lunar cry. The sorceress Adel came down with the Lunar Tear at Tear's Point. While then, the Galbadian Army was overrun by monsters as well the city and continent of Esthar. After a raging battle that lasted 7 hours on the ground level and sky level combined of the Lunatic Pandora, many soldiers were injured and coudn't continue on. Therefore, many Galbadian offiviers cursed their men with the spell Zombie so the soldiers could be maintained alive during the battle due to Adel's request before her defeat. Many soldiers were turned against their will into lifeless shells so that they could be virtually impossible to defeat against monsters since they didn't had any holy water of Holy spells at their disposal. After the battle, some soldiers could be returned into their human selves but some had to be executed because they were too injured physically to be able to recover from their bruises and thus, coudn't avoid death. However...''
The hologram image then turned into a three dimensionnal image of the human anatomy.
Sylvester continued on.
''Galbanian army scientists analysed a theory that they could actually create living zombies from monsters and humans alike by modifing their DNA. This way, they would actually be able to follow orders and thus, avoiding the berserk status from the zombie curse. The reason is that their human bevahior from their original DNA could help them be able to distinguish the friend from the foe. The zombie genes could also provide them a physical resistance near to invinciblity since the zombie part of their DNA could actually regenerate their bodies..''
The hologram changed to a fighting simulation.
''As they tested their theory. They forced into combat a zombie soldier against a random enemy. Either opponents didn't had any status handicaps like the Bio or Blind spell to name a few examples. The zombie soldier won. As the forced battles continued, they realized that the zombie soldiers could actually infect opponents and thus, turning them into a super zombie like themselves for a short period of time until they died from the contamination. Different results occured according to many monsters, some did had the berserk status and some didn't. Some survived and some didn't. Many of them died after 96 hours after the contamination of their body since this experiment was created for human beings only. However, Galbadia now tries to create zombie soldiers out of monsters as well so that they could diversify their attacks on their military missions. A hoard of Zombie Wendigos had been sighted around the region. Those are the first breed the Galbadian army are trying to test out. However, once their creatures were defeated, the corpse mysteriously disappeared. We suspect they are autopsying them so they can figure out any possible battle flaws...''
'' Perhaps they would need a greater technological approach for their frankensteins since they are not as efficient as they hoped...'' Squall said.
Sylvester continued.
'' The recently discovered way to defeat those zombies is simple but requires precision. Since the human anatomy is the principal host of the zombie genes, the brain is still fonctionnal. It's that part of the body that receives commands from the officials of the army. Compared to the magically made zombies, the soldiers are virtually alive and cannot be berserked. Therefore, if we consider dealing with an actual human being, they.can actually terminated with a fatal blow to the head like anybody else. I like to call it the Guillotine effect. Since the living brain is seperated from the living body, all commands from the brain to the body is impossible therefore, even though their bodies and organs car regenate, if you seperate the body from the central command, you terminate the living dead and therefore dies like a normal human being since the zombie gene cannot be maintained inside it's hosting body.
Squall, you shall instruct my soldiers into these battle techniques that you know so well so that they can terminate any attempt of Galbadia testing their weapons outside their base. Once this task in completed, I shall call upon more allies to help us terminate Galbadia's zombie project.''
''So now, even small villages wants to turn into military camps as to protect themselves from Galbadia? Something must be done quick because this is bad... Very bad." Squall thought.
End of chapter 3