Author's Note - Took a little liberty with the Brothers origins as well as Irvine's possible lineage in this chapter. Hope it's well-received.
Chapter Seventeen
Tomb of Big Wastes of Time
The next morning the group met out in the lobby bright and early. Rinoa was yawning heavily and rubbing at her eyes—not used to getting up so early apparently—and Seifer also looked worse for wear—his eyes a little reddened and face haggard. The others were bright-eyed and fresh and ready to go. Irvine was strangely silent and subdued, but Squall shrugged, not really caring much what the cowboy may or may not be agonizing over.
He'd filled his 'caring quota' last night with Seifer.
"Let's go get this thing over with," Squall heaved before leading the way out. They left the city and then set out on foot, heading northeast. Any random monster encounters were dealt with swiftly and decisively—except for a couple of battles where Selphie insisted on drawing out a few new spells.
"You never know!" she had defended herself loftily.
Five and a half hours later they entered into a cobbled glade, man-made fountains and pools on either side of the large tomb entrance in front of them. The roof was covered in thick, lush greenery. It was an ancient place, and rather scenic Squall admitted to himself.
Rinoa was a little red-faced and out of breath as they approached, but the others were unfazed by the long trek thanks to their SeeD training. She gave them all an envious glare, but said nothing.
They neared the entrance, but stopped when two Galbadia Garden students suddenly ran out screaming.
"F-Float!" one of the girls gasped as they passed. They turned to watch them pass, then Selphie turned to Squall with a grin.
"Hah! Told yah! Good thing I stocked up off that Thrustaevis, eh? Eh?" Squall just waved her down, rolling his eyes.
"Hopefully we won't be in this place long enough to need them," was all he would allow before leading the way inside.
Immediately they were surrounded by the dark, dankness of the tomb. He stopped a moment to let their eyes adjust to the change, and realized after a moment that faint light was filtering in from above. He looked up and blinked, surprised. There was no roof, it was actually the thick greenery he'd seen outside. The walls and floor were made of stone—the former carved into long-worn-away mosaics—with small streams of fresh running water on either side. Interesting.
They started through the first few halls, sticking fairly close together. Sounds were muffled in here, until even the most innocent sigh of breath or rustle of clothing seemed to become ominous. Squall squinted down at the map as he led the way. "There are two long halls and then we're going to reach a section that leads in three other directions," he called softly.
Everyone stopped when Zell suddenly let out a loud curse. Squall turned with the rest to glare at the blonde, who colored guiltily.
"Sorry," he mumbled. "Tripped on this piece of junk on the ground," he admitted, kicking something out from underneath him and causing it to clatter loudly back into the darkness behind them. "Didn't see it in the dark."
Squall rolled his eyes, then started forward again. They kept turning right at every section—using Rinoa's logic that they'd make one big circle and eventually end up back at the starting point—easily defeating the random Wendigo, Armadodo and Blobras that they came across along the way. Eventually they came to a passage that was different from the others. They started forward, and then came into a room with a huge minotaur statue. It was dressed in heavy metal armor, a large purple shield on it's right arm with a massive spiked mace in both hands.
"Whoa," Zell murmured. "Look at the size of that thing," he continued, stepping forward.
He yelped and they all jerked in surprise when the 'statue' suddenly moved. It waved it's massive arms and roared angrily.
"GRRR!! WHO'S THERE?!!!"
Then it launched itself at Zell, who only kept from getting smashed by that mace by his martial-arts training, allowing him to dive-roll out of the way at the very last minute. The huge weapon cratered the stone floor where Zell had been.
Seifer and Squall leapt in next. Squall's new gunblade shrieked in protest as it caught on the metal handle of that mace, blocking another down swing. Squall grit his teeth and grunted with the effort it took not to collapse under the massive creature's strength. Seifer swung out with Hyperion and caught the creature in the arm. All it did was piss it off, however. The thing roared again and swung around, catching Seifer in the chest with one arm and throwing him back. It shoved its mace and launched Squall back with the other. The two of them landed in a tangled heap several feet away.
Rinoa's Valkyrie canon pinged harmlessly off of the minotaur's large shield, and she quickly hopped back out of the way.
"It's automatically healing!" Irvine suddenly called from the back of the room where he'd been observing the action. "Selphie, cast Float on the damn thing! Get it off the ground!"
"Why?" she demanded.
"Just do it, dammit!"
Selphie stepped forward with a grumble and then cast her spell. The minotaur bellowed in anger as it lifted up off the ground, floating in the air ineffectually. Irvine lifted his Valiant model rifle and barely paused to take aim before firing. His shot caught the thing right in the chest, blasting an impressive hole. It roared again, this time in pain, before it fell back to the ground on it's knees.
"THEY'RE PRETTY STRONG!" it heaved, almost to itself, gasping and clutching at it's wound. Then it straightened and pinned Irvine with a narrow glare. "BASTARDS!!! IT AIN'T OVER!!"
And then with one last roar it suddenly leapt over the top of everyone and disappeared into the maze-like tomb beyond. The pillar it had stood on suddenly raised up with the loud grate of stone on stone and a cloud of dust.
"Ok," Seifer heaved after getting painfully to his feet. "Any guesses on what the fuck that was?"
"A rogue Guardian Force, I think," Squall answered, doing the same. "Probably junctioned to someone who died in this tomb. Maybe even the mysterious student we're after."
Zell sighed heavily, slumping. "So lemme guess," he groaned. "We gotta go chase after it."
Squall nodded. "It could lead us to the thing that supposedly has this kid's ID number on it. Let's go."
He started out, ignoring the groans and grumbles that lit up behind him. They kept to the right, and wandered around in the tomb for another half hour or so before eventually entering into a room lit brightly in sunlight. There was a massive opening with a stone barrier in front of it, holding back a river of water outside.
"Hey, can we rest for a minute?" Rinoa suddenly gasped, wiping at the sweat beading her brow. Squall glanced at her, then sighed and nodded.
She groaned with relief, then walked over and sat down heavily on the ledge in front of the stone slab. Rinoa used the bottom of the light blue top she was wearing to scrub away some of the sweat and grime from her face. Squall felt his face flush as—in doing so—she unwittingly revealed a lot of her flat, smooth belly and a hint of a matching powder blue bra. He stared hard before turning away with a start, swallowing thickly.
Only to lock eyes with Seifer, who was smirking at him in that annoyingly knowing way. Damn it.
"I swear to Hyne, you all are machines," Rinoa suddenly heaved. "None of you even look the least bit tired!"
"That's what you get from enduring PTs from the time you're prepubescent," Seifer replied easily. She quirked a brow.
"PTs?" she repeated blankly. It was Squall who answered, and he did his best to ignore everyone else's surprised glances while doing so.
"It's an acronym for Physical Training," he intoned. She blinked.
"Oh."
"Hey, I wonder what this chain is here for?" Selphie suddenly questioned from the back of the room.
Squall turned, but before he could even open his mouth to warn her not to touch anything Selphie gave the rusted iron links a jiggle. They gave away with a loud clank. Rinoa shrieked when the stone slab gave way behind her and a wall of water rushed into the channel, splashing up on the ledge she sat on and completely soaking her from head to toe. She shot up onto her feet, eyes wide, arms held out at her sides in disbelief and gasping with the cold.
Squall just stared stupidly at the way her thin top now plastered to her skin, nearly transparent and revealing that lacy blue confection she was wearing beneath it to full detail. It also did little to hide the way her nipples suddenly hardened to stiff little points with the sudden drop in her body temperature, too. Rinoa noticed that about the same time everyone else did, gasping again and crossing her arms over her chest, face flushing scarlet.
"Hyne, you're like a little five year old," Seifer snapped. "Just gotta touch everything, dontcha!"
"Ohmygosh!" Selphie cried, eyes wide, ignoring Seifer. "I am soooo sorry Rinoa! Are you ok?"
"Just a little soaked," she chuckled uncomfortably, her black hair now plastered to her forehead and neck, looking like ebony silk in the weak sunlight. "And cold," she added with a slight chatter to her teeth and a visible shiver.
Squall jerked when Seifer suddenly smacked him in the shoulder. "Don't be such an ass," he quipped, grinning. "Give the lady your jacket, Pubes."
Squall scowled back. "Why don't you give her your coat?" he countered, tone annoyed. He hated to be teased, least of all by Seifer. "It'd cover more."
"What, and get my coat wet?" the blonde shot back with mock disgust, clutching the lapels of his worn gray apparel protectively.
Zell suddenly removed his red and blue jacket and held it out to her, revealing the fact that—out of all of the well-built males in the group—the shortest of them was also the most ripped. His chest and arms bulged with thick ropes of muscle beneath his sleeveless black shirt. "Here, 'noa," he offered with a friendly smile. "You can take mine. S'getting kinda hot in here anyways."
Both Squall and Seifer gave the martial-artist a narrow-eyed glare for different reasons as Rinoa accepted his gift with a gracious smile.
"Thank you, Zell," she murmured, shooting the other two a scowl. "At least someone is willing to be a gentleman."
She quickly shrugged into Zell's jacket, zipping it up, then wrung what moisture she could from her hair. Her dark blue skirt was wet as well, but would only be a little uncomfortable, not embarrassing.
"Hey, where'd Kinneas get off too?" Zell suddenly questioned, eyebrow raised. Squall glanced around with everyone else, only now realizing that the tall cowboy had disappeared out of the room. Before they could even think about raising an alarm, Irvine suddenly ducked back in, the barrel of Valiant resting on one shoulder.
"I think I spotted that overgrown cow high-tailin' it into the center of the tomb," he announced. "There's a little island in the center with the main chamber on it. We won't be able to get to it unless we find the controls to lower the drawbridge, though. Not unless the rest of you want to go swimming," he added the last, eyeing a drenched Rinoa with a quirked brow.
Squall pulled out the map and studied it. "By my calculations we should be in the chamber here at the top. There's only one other one, on the far left. If we keep going the way we're going, we should get there eventually. Bets are, the drawbridge controls will be there."
No one contested his logic, so Squall led the way through the passages until they came to the room in question. Sure enough the chamber had a large opening with an old style water wheel hooked up to several pulleys and ropes. It was currently locked in place, however. Squall stepped forward and released the catch, and the wheel immediately started turning with the power of the current outside.
They all heard a distant groan of long-unused gears and then a heavy crash. Zell grinned.
"Bingo, baby!"
The group finished the last leg of the tomb, circling around to one of the first rooms they'd entered. They turned left, now, and went straight through to the center of the tomb. True to Irvine's word, a long wooden drawbridge now crossed out over the massive rushing river outside to a small island with another smaller stone building covered in foliage. The group readied their weapons, then entered.
Sure enough, they found the minotaur inside, now standing atop a massive stone casket, completely healed.
"Y-YO, YOU BACK AGAIN?!" it hollered as they neared. "TOOK IT EASY ON YOU LAST TIME BUT NOT THIS TIME! T-THIS TIME, M-MY BIG BRO IS WITH ME! N-NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO RUN AWAY, MAN!"
Irvine lowered and trained his rifle, sneering. "I never run from a fight, friend. Best you give up, big boy." The minotaur roared.
"BRO!"
There was a bright flash, and then another minotaur appeared. This one was barely four feet tall, a red shield on his arm but otherwise dressed in armor with a similar—though smaller—mace in it's paws. The smaller minotaur sighed.
"yeah bro," he murmured, his tone soft and calm, especially in comparison to the other's loud bellowing. The bigger one turned to the smaller.
"Y-YO BRO, THESE GUYS CRASHED THE TOMB! P-PLUS, THEY ATTACKED ME!" The smaller one snorted.
"oh, really . . ." it murmured, turning to fix Irvine with a curious stare. "they attacked you? not bad for a human."
"Wow," Rinoa murmured suddenly, "so the elder is smaller . . ."
The bigger minotaur waved it's arms angrily. "Y-YO BRO! T-THEY'RE MAKIN' FUN OF US!" The little one snorted again, this time angry as well.
"foolish little humans," he sneered softly. "i'll show you not to judge a book by it's cover."
The elder minotaur might've been smaller, but he was by no means weaker. The tiny bipedal bull soon had Zell, Rinoa and Squall all flat on their backs and groaning in pain. The two minotaur brothers worked well in tandem as a team, quickly putting the group on their heels and on full defensive.
"They're earth elementals," Irvine heaved to Selphie from where she currently crouched, favoring her bleeding leg which had been caught by one of the minotaur's spiked maces. "As long as they're in contact with the earth, they can't be hurt. You have to keep pumping them with that Float spell. Then we'll take care of the rest. Focus on the little one first, he's the strongest."
The group went with Irvine's strategy, and it proved extremely effective. Selphie cast Float on the smaller minotaur, and then Seifer, Squall and Irvine peppered it with gunshots until it ceded defeat.
"the rest is up to you, bro," it murmured before collapsing to one knee.
The bigger one was taken care of similarly, this time with Zell pummeling it with blows until it fell back heavily.
"THE BROTHERS DEFEATED?!"
"Damn straight," Seifer snapped.
The smaller minotaur suddenly got back to it's hooves, wincing. The group tensed, but it waved them down.
"you have proven your prowess, humans," it murmured. "there will be no more battles between us."
"You are GFs aren't you?" Squall questioned then. "Guardian Forces," he clarified. They both nodded. Slowly, as they spoke, their wounds began to close over and heal until they were whole and healthy again.
"my brother, Sacred," the smaller one introduced, pointing to the bigger one. "and i am called Minotaur."
"Were you Junctioned to a student who died in this tomb?"
"NO WAY MAN," Sacred protested. "WE WERE JUNCTIONED TO THE KING, VINCENT. HE FOUNDED THE KINGDOM OF GALBADIA OVER 300 YEARS AGO, AND RULED FOR MANY GENERATIONS OF PROSPERITY BEFORE SUCCOMBING TO THE HUMAN FRAILTY OF MORTALITY."
"we have guarded his resting place ever since," Minotaur continued, "long after the world of man forgot his name or the greatness he accomplished in his lifetime." Then he eyed Irvine speculatively. "you have the look of him."
Irvine blinked, stunned. "Me?" he parroted in disbelief. "Descended from a King?"
"you were also the one who discovered our ties to the earth," Minotaur continued. He and his brother suddenly hit their knees again, bracing on their maces with their horned heads bowed. "we would be honored to junction with you and call you master, son of vincent."
The others stared at Irvine. He was too flustered to speak at first, then shrugged. "Um . . . okay then, sure. What the hay. I'm game."
"VERY WELL," Sacred boomed. "WE WILL JOIN WITH YOU."
There was another bright flash, and then the two brothers disappeared. Irvine jerked, and then his eyes went very wide. Seifer grinned and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Helluva rush, ain't it."
Selphie tended her wounded leg with a few potions. Squall sighed heavily.
"We still don't have that ID number."
"Man, I dunno about the rest of you, but I'm tired of wandering around in this place," Zell complained.
"Let's just go back to the city," Rinoa agreed grimly. "I'll speak to the guard."
Although Squall didn't see how her speaking to the guard would do anything but get her arrested or worse, he had no better ideas to give, so followed the others as they began filing out again. On the way, Zell suddenly tripped again.
"Hyne-dammit!" he snarled. "It's that stupid hunk of metal! I tripped on it again!" He reared back to kick it once more, but Squall suddenly snapped for him to stop.
He knelt down and snatched the 'hunk of metal' off the ground and everyone widened their eyes as it was revealed to be a broken Garden issue sword. Squall narrowed his eyes, then shoved it in Zell's face, so that he could read the student ID number stamped plainly across the blade.
His blue eyes crossed. "Number 79," he read, then winced, chuckling sheepishly. "Ooops."
"Sonofabitch!" Seifer snarled. "You mean we just wasted two hours wandering around this stupid tomb when the number was right here in the first room the whole time?!" Not needing an answer to his question, the blonde reached over and popped Zell in the back of the head. "Stupid Chicken-wuss!" he snapped.
"Let's get back to the city," Squall called loudly when Zell would have come to blows, face flushed with fury. "We still have a mission to complete, in case you've forgotten. If we hurry, we can be back to the mansion by 1800."