Disclaimer : I don't own anything.
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(Balamb Garden with Shane, Kapri and Dustin, Shane's POV)
As we rushed to the front gate of Garden, I was seized by a violent shiver and the feeling that something was horribly wrong. Frowning, I thought about the other team and hoped they were all right.
But here, everything seemed to be all right. The only thing I noticed that was weird, was the number of students that were running through the front gate and out of Garden. But I didn't know what to make of it.
"Alright! Garden's safe!" Dustin cried happily.
I kept frowning. Was it really? It looks like they did it. I thought, looking into the sky. Then I stiffened. Still, the missiles could be on the way. "We need to report to the Headmaster." I said firmly.
Dustin and Kapri exchanged nods before we ran through the front gate.
What we saw inside was nothing short of chaos. Students running left and right, monsters unleashed and running rampant through Garden, Garden Faculty yelling at students and ordering the monsters around... What's going on here?!
"Find the Headmaster!" a Garden Faculty demanded of two SeeDs. They saluted and ran off and he turned to other SeeDs.
Are they evacuating...?!
"Seize him! Kill him if you have to!!" he yelled, watching as the other students saluted and ran off with their weapons drawn.
I felt my eyes go wide. WHAT?!?!
"Kill him...?" Kapri muttered in shock, her own eyes wide with horror.
We ran to the reception area and were stopped by a Garden Faculty member that stood with a T-Rexaur beside him. "You three, which side are you on?!" he demanded.
Huh? Side...? "I don't understand what's going on." I responded in confusion.
"Are you with the Headmaster, or the Garden Master? Do you swear allegience with Garden Master Lothor?!"
There was a gasp beside me, and I turned to find that Kapri had gone pale as her eyes widened even more. As I watched, she closed her eyes tightly before taking a step forward and glaring at him angrily. "I'll never swear allegience to that ass!" she yelled in a pure rage.
Does she know him? I thought in confusion. There was a flash of recognition, as well as a strong flash of pain and fear before she turned determined. Something told her I'd better talk to her about it later, but for now... I turned to the Garden Faculty and grabbed my gunblade. "I have no idea what the hell's going on, but no... I don't swear allegience to this Garden Master of yours!" I spat.
He frowned deeply before pulling out a shrill whistle and blowing it. We watched silently as a Grat and Caterchipillar came rushing over and he ordered them to attack us.
"Lothor is the true ruler of Balamb Garden!" he yelled before he ran off.
Who the hell is Lothor? I thought angrily, swiping my blade across the midsection of the Grat while Kapri and Dustin took on the Caterchipillar. The battle didn't take long and we walked on until I found a wounded student and knelt by his side.
He gave us a weak smile. "Hey Shane."
I raised an eyebrow at this. Did everyone know who I was?
"The Garden is in total chaos. The monsters from the Training Area are everywhere. The members of the Garden Master's faction unleashed them. Watch your back man. If you're going in, take this."
He handed me a mega-potion and I accepted it gratefully before we continued on. Making our way to the Directory in the main hall, I was surprised at who I heard calling my name.
"Yo, Shane!"
I turned and found Taylor and Eric running up to us, looking spooked. That was a surprise because not only didn't I expect to find them here at Garden, but they hardly ever looked spooked about anything. "What's going on here?" I asked quietly, not wanting to draw attention to us from the Garden Faculty.
Eric shrugged. "I dunno. At first, they were sayin' somethin' 'bout roundin' up all the SeeDs, ya know? Now everyone's either sidin' with the Garden MAster, or the Headmaster, and fightin' everywhere, ya know?!"
"DISTURBING!!" Taylor yelled with a shake of her head.
I rubbed my ear for a moment before frowning. "Why are the SeeDs targeted? And where's the Headmaster? Is he safe?!" I demanded.
They exchanged looks before Eric shrugged. "We got no clue."
"We need to find him right away!" I yelled, remembering that the missiles could very well be on their way. "It's important! Galbadian missiles may be heading this way!"
Eric's face paled. "What?! We gotta get outta here!!" he shouted, running around in circles and panicking.
Taylor shook her head and crossed her arms before kicking him in the shin as he passed her, causing him to trip and limp a bit as he held his leg.
"OUCH! Geez, alright!" he yelled rubbing his leg. "We'll warn everyone about the missiles! Man, this is not the time to be fightin', ya know?"
I nodded, thankful for their help. "I'll go find the Headmaster."
"CAUTION!" Taylor yelled with a slightly worried look.
Eric nodded. "Yeah, the fightin' is intense, everywhere! And watch out for those Garden Master goons, ya know!"
"Yo, guys..." Dustin rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
Kapri looked at them curiously, with a hint of anger still lying in her eyes. "The Headmaster?"
"Hey, jus' like Taylor said, ya kno?! We're with Blake. Always have, always will." Eric said proudly before they took off down the hall.
Blake... He's sided with the sorceress. You two alright with that? I thought curiously.
We made our way to the different areas, beginning with the infirmary. No matter where we went, we ran into Garden Faculty and monsters. Each back, we took out, whether it was a T-Rexaur, Granaldo, Raldos, Caterchipillars, Bite Bugs, Bombs, Grats and more...
And when did Bite Bugs start farting on people?!?
Gagging a little, I watched as Dustin took the bug out as I shook my head and held a hand over my nose, quickly using an antidote and glaring at Kapri who was laughing at me.
Most of the monsters were fairly easy to kill, with the exception of T-Rexaurs who could hurt us pretty badly with one hit, and Bombs which exploded after they were hit three times, if they weren't killed in that time. So, to help us with them, we junctioned magic to our weapons.
Basically, we infused our weapons with powerful spells and for some reason, they stayed in our weapons until we changed the spell manually.
Blizzara definitely came in handy.
The only information we'd managed to gather from anyone, was that Cam would probably know where Kanoi was, but it was impossible to find him. Dr. Shayla, when we told her about the missiles, took a seat behind her desk and firmly insisted that she was going to stay. She said something about wounded people needing her help, but what she seemed to fail to realize was that if the Garden was blown up by missiles, no one would be alive to need treatment or to treat the wounded.
At the Quad, we fought of a Glacial Eye and a Bomb before three SeeDs made themselves known and demanded to know which side we were on.
"We're with Headmaster." I replied warily, keeping my blade out.
The female of the trio sighed in relief and replaced her sword. "That's what we thought. Who's this 'Garden Master' anyway?" she asked herself with a frown.
I noticed Kapri ent pale and glared at the floor. She shook a little and her hands were clenched in fists. "He's a rotten bastard!" she hissed angrily, surprising me. I hadn't expect her to speak, but when she did, I knew that somehow, she knew this guy. "He loves watching people suffer."
"The Headmaster said something about having the SeeDs evacuate, because 'The true battle for SeeD' is yet to come." one of the men put in, looking a little freaked by Kapri's words.
The second male nodded and held out an x-potion. "Here, take this."
I nodded in thanks and took it, slipping it into my item pouch.
Next we made our way to the Cafeteria. We battled a T-Rexaur, which was fairly simple when we put him to sleep. We repeatedly casted Blizzara and Summoned Shiva. Then we went in to find three more SeeDs standing here.
They told us they hadn't seen the Headmaster, and that we'd likely find SeeDs at every area, because essentially, they were confusing the enemy and drawing their attention to many places at once.
Apparently, it was Cam's idea. When the attacks had begun, he took charge immediately and ordered them to do this before he disappeared. Now, no one knew where he was.
We fought more monsters in the Dormitory hallway and the Garden Park way, finding more SeeDs. In fact, they even had a pretty convincing hologram of Kanoi in the Garden Park, but they revealed to us that it was fake. Sadly, no one knew where to find Headmaster Kanoi or his son, Cam.
Heading to the Training Center, I heard a frightened voice call for help, and noticed a female SeeD running into the grounds with two students that were still children! A Garden Faculty member walked towards them with a SeeD that had chosen Lothor's side, and grinned as he looked at a little boy, chuckling a bit before me mentioned something about it being easy pickings.
Then the kid kicked him in the knee, and the guy fell over, howling and clutching at his pained leg.
Shaking my head, I jumped and flipped over the Garden Faculty and traitorous SeeD before landing in front of them and swinging my blade threateningly. Kapri and Dustin rushed the SeeD, knocking him out, and stood by my side as the Garden Faculty whistled, calling a T-Rexaur.
"All those opposed to Lothor, must die!" the Faculty member yelled before high-tailing it out of the room.
We took out the T-Rexaur and turned to see the female SeeD salute us with a relieved smile on her face.
"Thanks, Shane. Here, take this." she said, holding out a Remedy.
Raising an eyebrow, I nodded and accepted it before looking to the others, and leaving. We went to the library and fought another Grat and Caterchipillar before heading back to the main hall.
Then I saw a familiar figure make their way onto the elevator and head up to the Second Floor.
"Cam?!" I shouted, but they didn't stop.
Running to the elevator, we took it to 2F and made our way along the hallway, past the class and down to the end of the hall, where an emergency exit sat, and a balcony sat, with the door closed tight.
And right in front of the door, stood a wary Cam who took a defensive stand upon seeing us. "Who's side are you on?!" he demanded.
"Neither." I answered honestly. This wasn't the time to be bickering about who was right and wrong, and who was the 'real ruler' of Balamb Garden. "We have urgent news! We need to see the Headmaster, now! Where is he?!"
He narrowed his eyes at us. "I'm listening..." he said cautiously.
"Galbadian missiles may be heading this way." I said calmly, beginning to get irritated with having to repeat myself so many times.
"Here?!" he cried incredulously.
"Just trust us, please!" Kapri called worriedly.
Standing down, Cam sighed and nodded. "Alright. I'll tell my dad right away."
"Where is he?" I asked calmly, beginning to feel a little better.
Shrugging, Cam grinned. "In his office. We made it look like he was hiding, but he's been there all along. Follow me."
We went back to the elevator and took it up, waiting outside the main office doors as Cam went in to talk to the Headmaster. After a few moments, he came out and looked at us grimly. "I have to go inform the students to evacuate. He's ready to see you, now." he said with a salute and nod before taking the elevator back down.
Heading into the office, we stood in a line, and I briefly noted at Kapri was once again minicking us, standing at attention.
"Sir." I said quietly, alerting him to our presence.
He slowly turned around and nodded with a serious look. "Cam told me about the missiles. The intercom is down, so we can't announce the order to evacuate."
I nodded. "Cam, Taylor and Eric are taking care of that."
"I want you to assist them and then evacuate." he said firmly.
I frowned. What're you planning? "But I have a lot to report."
"You can tell me later." he said with a crooked grin.
But we might all be dead later...
"You have a problem with that?" he challenged lightly with a raised eyebrow.
Yeah. What are you going to do? "Sir, what're you planning?" I felt a little worried, because I was questioning a direct order, but something told me there was more to the story, and there was a way I could help.
He shrugged and turned so his back was to his seat. "I'm going to stay here and see this to the end. After all, this place is like my home."
"You're planning on dyin' here?!?" Dustin cried in shock.
Kapri's jaw dropped and her eyes filled with tears. "No...! You can't! Just come with us, please! You can always rebuild this place!" she pleaded.
"You can rest assured, I'm just going to try something. There still may be a way to save Garden." he said confidently, moving away from the desk, only to stumble over a pencil on the floor and rub his hip.
Against missiles...? How? I thought in disbelief.
Chuckling a little, Headmaster Kanoi straightened up and popped his back. "I'm getting too old for this..."
"Sir, I'd like to handle whatever it is you're planning." I spoke up, biting back a wince for directly going against his orders.
He looked at me in surprise and blinked a moment before his gaze almost turned knowing. "And why is that?"
I frowned as I thought about it.
...I don't know... Because you might screw up. Because I want to do more than announce the evacuation... Because this place is important to me, too. Because this is my home... I don't know. I have too many reasons... I don't know why... and who cares?
"My feelings have nothing to do with it, sir!" I stated firmly.
He chuckled and shook his head with a small sigh. "Tori was right. You do have a hard time expressing your feelings."
My frown deepened and I felt my face heat up when Kapri began to giggle a little. Why bother? And what is this? Why am I being judged?! "Sir! Please tell us your plan!"
"This building used to be a shelter, before it was remodeled into the Garden we all know." he threw something at me and I caught it, looking at it and realizing it was a rather old looking key. "Use that key to open the lock on the elevator. Opening the lock gives you access to MD level. Rumor has it that further below MD level, there is some kind of control system. It was used when this place was still a shelter, so I've never seen it and I have no idea what it does. All I know is that it was used for the shelter, so it might prove effective against the missiles. That's what I'm betting on."
Sounds pretty farfetched... But I guess it's better than nothing. I thought doubtfully. "I understand. We'll find this control system and check it out."
"Good luck to all of you." he said sincerely, going to his desk and sitting at the chair.
We saluted him before going to the said elevator and using the key to unlock the lower level. Heading down, I scowled to myself when the ride seemed to take forever, and then I thought of something. "Kapri..." I waited until her eyes were locked on mine. "How do you know this 'Garden Master Lothor'?"
her face paled and she leaned heavily on the wall. Looking away nervously, she opened nd closed her mouth a few times before manaing to say anything. "I...I don't know what you're talking about." she offered weakly.
Yeah you do. "You know him." I said again. "Don't bother to deny it." She gave it away earlier, with her outburst, and she knew it.
Sighing heavily, she shrugged. "Ok, I know A Lothor, but you wouldn't believe how." she said quietly.
"Try us." Dustin put in with a wary eye on her.
"I'm...not from this world." she said after a long moment. "As crazy as it sounds, even Billy and Bridge know it's true."
I raised an eyebrow at this. She was right, it did sounds crazy. But it would explain a lot. Those random mumblings about 'Power Rangers', 'Zords' and how she knew someone no one in Garden, but possible Kanoi, knew.
"In my world, I fought for the wrong side. I realized it, but out of fear, didn't do anything to change it. Lothor was who I fought for. He was hell bent on taking over the world. I don't think it's the same guy, but... I don't know." She kept looking at the ground. "I don't know how or why I ended up here, but since it seemed like a second chance, I took it willingly, making sure I fought on the right side, and not really fearing him anymore, because i thought i'd never see him again."
"You knew us." I murmured absently, thinking back to the look of recognition on her face on the train when I introduced her to Marah and Dustin.
She looked at me in confusion a moment before blushing and nodding slowly. "Yeah, I did. In my owlrd, you're all fighters for the side of good. Power Rangers." She went on to explain how her, and her sister Marah, fought against us, working for Lothor. And how Marah went to join the 'right' side, as she called it. How Tori, Blake, Hunter, Dustin, Cam and I were Power rangers, and Kanoi was our teacher, in a sense.
It was a lot to take in, but strangely, I found myself believing her. At first, I was a little angry, that she didn't tell us this before, and for her choices back on 'earth', but hearing her story, I began to understand her fear and anger to this Lothor that she knew.
Suddenly, the elevator shook violently and went dark, stopping it's descent. After a moment, emergency lights came on, and I pressed some buttons on the panel, slamming my fist into the wall when nothing happened. Damnit!
"What?! I don't know what to do!" Dustin cried with a frown.
Kapri sighed and closed her eyes before leaning away from the wall. "Come on. There has to be a way out." she said firmly.
I nodded and began looking around when my foot felt something under it and i looked down, seeing a panel below us. Bending down, I tugged on the handle and managed to open it, ignoring the cheers from the others as I climbed down.
Climbing down the ladder, I soon noticed an opening in the wall and climbed through it, running a ways down the tunnel. I turned back to find Dustin only a few feet away from me, and Kapri was just clibming into the tunnel. She'd only taken a few steps away from the opening, when there was the sound of metal scraping on metal, and the elevator dropped behind her, making a resounding crash and causing us all to jump before hitting the ground and covering our heads.
I barely heard a terrified scream, realizing it was Kapri, and I looked up to see the metal debris of the elevator, only two feet from her prone body. Wincing a little in sympathy, I got back up and made sure everyone was ok before we continued on, climbing another ladder to reveal a large round tunnel.
"An oil stratum... Watch for enemies weak against fire." I warned the others, junctioning Fira to my gunblade.
They did the same to their weapons and we continued on, taking out monsters easily. Mostly, it was Creeps, shadow-type monsters weak against Fire and Cure magic, and Slimes, gel-type monsters extremely weak against Fire.
Finding a valve room, I stood between Dustin and Kapri and together, we turned the valve, opening the ladder to the level below. Wincing a little and rubbing my arm as we continued on, I mentally vowed to ask the Headmaster to send someone down to oil these valves.
Soon, we ended up in a large room with a single pillar in the center and a ladder leading up. Other than that, it was a circular platform, and a ladder leading down that we couldn't get to.
I frowned. "...A dead end?"
"Man, another ladder..." Dustin eyed it with a grimace as he rubbed his shoulder.
Kapri nodded and eyed it warily. "I wonder where it goes..."
"Oh, over there!" Dustin had looked to where it led and noticed a small room across the massive expanse of darkness.
"Well, Shane?" Kapri asked nervously, wringing her hand as she looked almost fearfully at the rusted ladder.
Looking at the ladder, I raised an eyebrow as I briefly thought about sending one of the others. Hmmm...Dustin or Kapri... I scrapped that idea. Dustin was all muscle and would probably bounce up the ladder, making it collapse, and though Kapri stood a good chance of making it to the top, part of me knew she'd find any excuse to refuse. Not to mention, I didn't want to chance her getting hurt if anything happened.
Frowning to myself, I sighed and shook my head. Why am I even thinking like that? "I'll go take a look. You two wait here." I instructed heading for the ladder. Climbing up the ladder, I must've made it a good halfway up when it began to shake and pulled away from the wall. Turning to look over my shoulder, I noticed the room coming closer and closer, and jumped away from the ladder, shielding my face as I smashed through the window and rolled across the ground.
When I opened my eyes again, I swallowed heavily as I noticed one of the ladder legs only a few inches from my face. Damn, that was close! I thought as I shakily stood up. Wandering to the broken window, I waved down to let the others know I was alright before looking to the door on the other side of the room and noticing that there was twisted metal debris blocking the way.
Sighing, I turned and hit a button, opening the gate to the stairway down before looking at the ladder. It looks like I'll have to climb down the ladder, again. At least this time, it looked a lot safer. It was leaning on the wall, crossing the massive darkness to the platform the others stood on.
Climbing to the top of it, I carefully balanced myself and walked back to the others, hopping off beside Dustin, who was looking at me with wide eyes.
"Shane! That was close!" He breathed a sigh of relief. "You ok, man?"
"...Yeah." I said quietly, looking out over the dark hole that could've easily been my final resting place.
"God, you scared me half to death!" Kapri almost shouted, holding a hand over her heart. "That must've been terrifying!"
"Yeah. But this is no time to be worrying. The missiles might be on their way." I reminded them grimly.
We climbed down the new ladder to a floor below with a Curaga Draw Point, and made our way to the path leading to a final ladder, when two slimy-looking monsters jumped out of a pit of oil.
They were white, with black spots where the oil stuck to them, and had a long suctioning snout, with six tentacle-like legs.
Frowning, I drew my gunblade before shaking my head and summoning Ifrit. He flew through the air in a giant fireball before landing at my feet and shaking himself off. Raising his arms, he jumped into the air before roaring loudly and creating a ball of fire, throwing it at the monster.
As the last traces of fire faded away and Ifrit disappeared, Kapri cast double on Dustin and herself and raised her crossbow to hit the monster.
One of them reared back before unleashing an oily substance that hit me in the face and chest, knocking me down. Shaking my head, I wiped as much of that stuff off as I could, but when I opened my eyes, I noticed that I couldn't see, and I also felt drained and sick to my stomach.
Blind and Poison.
Cursing to myself, I frowned deeper when I heard nothing come out and sighed in irritation.
And Silence...
Digging blindly through my item pouch, I grabbed a spare Remedy and used it, sighing in relief once I could see again, only to growl quietly when I noticed Kapri unconscious and Dustin barely conscious, poisoned, silenced and blinded.
Grabbing a phoenix down, I used it on Kapri before using a remedy on Dustin and standing up. I then cast Double on myself and Kapri.
Kapri doublecast Fira on the monsters, followed by Dustin doing the same. Then I draw Life and Curaga magics from them before doing the same.
With the constant casting of mid-level Fira spells, the monsters soon fell, burning away into nothing.
Turning to look around, I noticed a lever and walked over to it, seeing that it was connected to the blocked ladder. Pulling it, I sighed and rolled my eyes as I made my way to the ladder ahead of us. Please tell me this is the last ladder! I pleaded as we climbed down.
Now, we were all standing in a small room. And I mean small! There was barely enough room for the three of us to stand, and in front of us was a massive, rusted machine. Looking at it, I doubted if it'd ever work, but sighed as I looked at the control panel in front of us.
"Looks like we're here..." I mused.
"Oh man..." Dustin groaned, looking at the dead-looking panel in front of me. "What the hell do we do now?!"
"Well, we can't just stand here and stare at it." Kapri said, raising an eyebrow.
Looking at the panel, I noticed a small valve and began to turn it. How am I supposed to know what to do!? Headmaster Kanoi doesn't even know! I thought furiously.
"What the heck are you doin'?!" Dustin yelled.
"Shane!" Kapri called worriedly.
"I don't know!" I yelled, beginning to panic. The missiles could be here at any moment. I had to do something! "What else can I do?!"
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Ok. No other good place to make a chapter break, that I could see.
I don't remember too much of the games, so those who do know them, might notice I have the wrong spell in a Draw Point, or I'm drawing magic from a monster that doesn't have it. Sorry.
Also, I'm trying to explain things the best I can, from memory.
Hope you like it.
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""Missiles! Incoming!"
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R+R please.
Thank you.
Tenshi.