Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy or any part of the series.
Author's Note: Brace yourselves!!! this is a looong chaper!!! okay, so this only has about 8k+ words... lol but it's the longest chapter yet! for any of my stories! LOL
Anyway, I do understand if some parts may come a bit dragging to some of you guys (since action scenes are not exactly my forte), but I wrote them all anyway because I believe they are all part of the story... and I made them to be... I have to write them whether I like it or not. lol
Sorry for not updating regularly... many things are holding me up... ^^"
Hope you enjoy this one!
The hall was an endless maze, as Cloud, Squall, and the whole group that came with them wandered around the incredibly huge place in search for any signs of the two kidnapped girls. Half an hour had passed since they arrived at the place, and the two leaders of the party grew more and more impatient and worried. The longer it took for them to find Rinoa and Terra, the more possible that something might happen to them; and they would forever regret it.
Cloud stopped on his tracks, and Squall looked at him cautiously. The blonde SOLDIER narrowed his eyes warily at the path before them.
"What is it?" Selphie asked after the whole group stopped, her hands tightening their grip on her weapon. Squall followed Cloud's gaze before turning his eyes back at him.
Irvine turned to Zack, whose eyes were just as focused as Cloud's.
The blond frowned. "There's something there. No, there are alot of them. I just know it. I can feel them."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Seifer stepped forward but Irvine halted him with his hand on the blond's shoulder. Seifer glared at him.
"We should be careful." Irvine wore a dead-serious expression on his face.
"We better stick together." Quistis walked past Squall and Cloud. She turned around to the group. "We can't stop here now. There's only one way to get to Rinoa and your friend." She looked at Squall, then to Cloud. "Everyone, stay close to each other. We all need each other's help, and we can't afford any mishap." She turned around and began walking. Everyone else behind her silently followed. And the farther they went, the darker it got.
"Light, aid us." Yuna gently chanted. And as if answering to her call, a medium-sized glowing white orb suddenly appeared between her palms. It left her hands and floated in front of the group, as it lead their trail. The group slowed down guardedly, using their only light source to survey their surroundings for any indication of danger.
Zell, the one standing farthest from the group, noticed a slight movement from a nearby wall on his left. He quickly turned to its direction, only to notice about five bumps potruding from it. Due to the lack of light, he couldn't make what exactly they were, though through their silhouttes, they seem like huge, thick bended bars. One of them flinched and made Zell jump backwards in surprise.
"Guys," Zell called. He turned to them who did not take notice of him, except for Yuna who gave him a scared look. She stopped, and everyone followed soon after. They were all looking at Zell, who was still staring at the bumps on the walls.
"Don't touch them." Squall sternly commanded.
After giving one last look at the strange bumps, Zell walked away from it and he went on his way with his friends.
The orb grew brighter as the place grew darker, and the more alarmed everyone became, especially after with what Zell noticed earlier. The tattooed blond curiously looked around him for any other strange signs that the rest of the party might have missed, since he still chose to be the one watching them from behind. The walls looked normal, though only for a while. Looking at his left, he saw another set of those thick bumps, though they were now supported by a longer and thicker bar, almost like an arm. Also, those bumps were now moving more aggressively and fluidly.
"What the..." He murmured. And despite the silence of the hall, his friends did not hear him.
Suddenly, the bumps opened, revealing its true form. And through the faint, white light the orb provided him, he was able to make out a silver, giant hand supported by its proportionally giant arm. The bumps he had been seeing before were actually its fingers crumpled in a fist.
"The hell?!" He shrieked, as the hand tried to grab him. But he was faster and stepped aside before the fingers could even touch him. The noise he made got everyone else's attention, but before they could even run to Zell, he was grabbed by the hand, so swiftly he was pulled into the darkness where he vanished before his friends could even call his name.
"Zell!" Selphie yelled.
Yuna waved her arm to the orb and gestured it to light the spot where they last saw Zell, but revealed nothing. Squall drew his gunblade out as the others followed by taking their own weapons out as well.
"Yuna, stay close to us." Cloud ordered at the summoner, who was surrounded by Zack, Seifer and Irvine. Then, Squall began to run at the direction where he assumed Zell was.
"Squall!" Quistis called out and followed him to the darkness.
Cloud cursed under his breath before following Quistis and Squall. They were then followed by the rest of the group, with Irvine and Zack protectively holding Yuna.
"Zell!" Squall shouted while scanning aimlessly in the darkness. Yuna's white orb followed him and he squinted at the sudden presence of light. He blinked to get a better sight of the place, though he only saw black void everywhere.
Suddenly, he heard a shriek from his left.
"Zell!"
At that moment, the giant hand finally appeared, with a struggling Zell inside it. He was practically squeezed between its fingers, and the more he struggled, the tighter it gripped.
"AAAH!!!" Zell cried in pain.
Squall jumped to the hand and swung his gunblade at it. It loosened its hold on Zell, though it still did not let him go. The brunette SeeD gave out a low and loud growl before striking the arm even more furiously until it finally dropped Zell to the hard ground.
"Zell!" This time, it was Quistis who called and fell on her knees beside the blond to examine the coughing Zell with the little light they had. Hissing, Zell slowly tried to sit up, but his body could not handle the pain it obtained from the grab.
"Hyne..." Quistis muttered panickly before she held out her hands and cast Cure on Zell.
Cloud did not waste any more moment and dashed forward to the giant hand that Squall was attacking endlessly. It was no feeble hand, and its defense was high. Cloud swung his giant sword and cut one of its fingers, which flew a few meters away from them. A roar of pain echoed from the deeper pits of the place in response to the attack. Everyone heard it, as horror struck them that there was something bigger out there which the hand belonged to. Suddenly, the mutilated finger flew back to its place, sticking itself to its spot on the hand, fuctioning as it should like nothing happened.
"Shit!" Squall cursed.
"Help Squall and Cloud!" Quistis shouted at the boys as she and Selphie protected Yuna and the still-weak Zell with their weapons. Yuna kneeled beside Zell and began healing him with Curaga.
Irvine aimed his long shotgun at the hand and began shooting, while Seifer and Zack dashed towards their enemy and started attacking, much like what Squall and Cloud were doing. More roars echoed around the place, as the four of them tortured the fiendish hand.
The tall sniper detected a glowing black pulse at the center of the hand's palm where the human pulse was usually located. It told him that it was the hand's weakest point, as it sourced the monster's massive power.
"The pulse!" He shouted at his comrades. "The pulse is the weakness!"
Cloud and Squall looked at the palm and saw the same pulsating black spot on it.
"I need a good aim!" Irvine yelled.
"Everyone," Squall landed on the ground. "make an opening for Irvine!"
"I'll freeze it!" Seifer roared and rolled on the ground. He stood up and summoned his Guardian Force Shiva, who blew her icy spell towards the hand. True enough, it froze the hand on spot, giving Irvine his opening.
He narrowed his eyes and aimed his shotgun after loading it with a more powerful ammo. He pulled the trigger, and the bullet went straight to the pulse, just a nanosecond before Shiva's blizzard becomes ineffective.
The ammo pierced though the pulse, as it exploded with thin, black smoke from the palm. Another roar was heard, though it was louder this time as the hand quickly vanished from the wall after its arm pulled it out to the darkness. The cry of pain continued when Squall and Cloud turned to the party.
"LET'S GO!" Cloud shouted.
"NOW!" Squall ran to Zell and hoisted him up with Zack's assistance, dragging him out of the place while they started running away with the others. Catching the pace of the rest of the party, they went on to their way along the hall where they had been wandering before the hand appeared.
"What the hell is it with this place?!" Zell asked.
"I don't know..." Zack replied anxiously.
"It's Hojo." Cloud said breathlessly while running with the others. "That was Hojo's experiment."
"Wha-" Squall was cut in by Quistis. "Let's talk about this when we get out of this place!" She cried out. "Hurry!"
Selphie suddenly shrieked. "OH HYNE!"
Before they could even recover from the previous battle, they seem to be facing a new one. Another monster, in a form of a huge, circular head with a hundred eyes and several tentacles underneath its massive form, suddenly appeared on their way.
"FUCKIN-" Seifer swung his sword in front of him and charged at the monster.
"SEIFER!" Quistis screamed after the blonde and quickly ran to his side.
Yuna, who was finally lightly guarded by Irvine, ran from his side to Quistis'.
"Hey!" Irvine and Selphie followed her.
"Let me go." Zell mumbled, as he tried to walk off from Squall and Zack.
"Zell, you're still wea-"
"I said LET ME GO!" Zell shoved himself off from the two and ran after the whole group. Soon, Squall, Zack and Cloud followed.
"Fuck, it's a Marlboro." Squall said between his teeth as he quickly examined the giant monster before dashing forward to attack as many eyes as his gunblade could allow.
The scene was a whole mess, as each of them took on the creature. The ones weilding swords attacked as much body parts they could, while Zell punched and kicked furiously at the monster. Selphie and Quistis swung their weapons to the monster, injuring it as they did. Yuna stood at a good distance from the battle, healing everyone who took in powerful blows from the Marlboro.
Suddenly, the abomination roared and began swaying side by side. Cloud's eyes widened at the dangerous stance it made, knowing that it meant an inevitable attack that would inflict everyone with various status ailments like confusion, darkness, or even worse, poison.
Squall cursed before turning to the group. "RUN!"
But everyone knew it would be unavoidable, for the attack would be in a gas form, and it would reach the farthest distances. Despite that, they still ran away as far as they could.
Then, as if answering their prayers, another giant monster suddenly appeared in front of the fiend, right beside Yuna. It was a huge, black figure with pointed wings and armored structure, with a circular emblem hovering on its back. Faster than the enemy's attack, it tackled the Marlboro down, halting it's infliction of deadly ailments on the party members.
"Bahamut?" Quistis muttered in awe as she watched Yuna's aeon struggled with the Marlboro.
Yuna's eyes were closed, her lips formed in a smile, glad that her calls were answered. Bahamut picked the Marlboro up with ease and threw it against a wall. Then, it turned to the summoner, as if waiting for her command or permission. Yuna muttered in reponse, and the aeon turned back to the enemy. It bent its body down to the ground, with its arms supporting it, as the circular object on his back began to swirl in circles. Bright sparks of light began to form, as the round emblem turned faster. More light started to gather on its back, and Bahamut aimed it to its enemy.
What Yuna muttered as a command that granted the enemy's instant defeat was "Mega Flare."
Rinoa did her best to act unconscious on the metal surface despite the awful discussion between Hojo and Kefka she had been listening to for the past half hour. With her eyes closed, she only had sounds as her aid to be conscious of what's going on. But mostly, all she heard was Hojo explaining in scientific terms that she bet even Kefka wouldn't understand. Surprisingly though, he did, and it only made their conversation alot deeper and more tedious to comprehend.
"The subject chromosomes don't match the Esper's." She heard Hojo say. "And that might be the problem, and I know you know why. Our past subjects died because of this miscalculation."
Kefka chuckled. "I don't know what you're planning on this one, and I don't think I want to know anymore. My head is starting to ache with all of your biology lectures."
"Oh," Hojo laughed. "It doesn't really take much of your brain to understand what I am about to do." There was a pause before the professor spoke again. "Have you heard of the calamity, Jenova?"
"Tch, of course I did." Kefka replied. "That was your project back at Shinra. But what does that have anything to do with this?"
"Jenova's cells adapt profusely to human cells when combined. Never did I have any problems with my experiments when Jenova's cells are involved. Unlike the Esper's DNA, which required a perfectly compatible body."
"You're point is?" Kefka was getting impatient.
"I will combine Jenova's cells and the Esper's before inserting their genes to the subject. Jenova's cells will always be greater, more dominant. They will influence the Esper's cells to adapt with the genes of the human subject. But this will require some calculation." He inhaled. "I will have to program the Esper's cells to completely merge with the human's cells, so the mutation of powers will be effective. Bt it shouldn't take long and too difficult." Hojo snickered. "I find this far better than merely cloning. Jenova's cells, combined with the Esper's, that will result to unimaginable intensity of power! The calamity and the mage..."
"I think I know now where you're getting at." Kefka replied, in a jovial tone.
"Oh, and just for the sake of updating you," Hojo went somewhere far from Rinoa's table. "I call this one, the Ultimecia project. And there is this small possibility that the subject might not be able to contain the genes. But according to my examination of her, there's a big chance that she can." He laughed again. "She is a perfect subject, I have a great feeling about this! Don't you?"
"Hmph," Kefka said. "I don't care, I just want the Esper's powers to be cloned. And take haste!" He demanded. "I can't wait to form my own army."
"Alright, then help me out. I'll be doing the calculations on the cells I extracted from the Esper. You go get Jenova's cells. Her head is located at the second floor of-"
"And since when can you order me around?"
Hojo sighed. "The more people working together, the faster it finishes. Besides, it's only a matter of time before their friends realize that they're gone, especially the mage." Rinoa heard typing clicks of keyboard, and assumed that Hojo was in front of a computer. His voice became a bit more distant. "I heard her friend is a SOLDIER. And that means bad news even if we have thousands of monsters her-"
"FIIIINE... Fine..." Kefka deafeatedly said. "What are you gonna do then?"
"I'll go get the mako chemicals I stole from Shinra. I will be needing those to stabilize the genes when I combine them." Hojo replied.
After hearing the sliding doors opened and finally closed, Rinoa opened her eyes.
She breathed unevenly and heavily, overwhelmed by what the scientist and his accomplice talked about. They will be making gruesome experiment out of her. Her heart was beaing furiously against her chest, so hardly that she could feel herself almost puking at the thought. She had to get out of the place, and fast.
She looked around once again to search for any means of escaping. It was only then she realized that she was in a small room surrounded by transparent glasses. There were two sliding doors, on opposite sides of the room, and judging from the sounds she heard a while ago, the two went out on the right side. Of course, there were also alot of boiling, glowing liquids in flasks, and computer monitors with glowing green texts on them.
Then, there was Terra, who was still lying unconscious. Though her table was moved somewhere nearer to Rinoa.
"Terra!" She called, almost ten times louder than she did before. "Terra, wake up! Wake up!"
The emerald-haired finally fluttered her eyes open. She blinked a few times before her eyes widened in shock. She breathed heavily again as her head panickly looked around the place.
"We-we're kidnapped!" She cried.
"Terra-"
"Oh, this is all my fault." She cried.
"Terra-" Rinoa said again.
"I should not have been stubborn. I shoul-"
"Terra!" Rinoa called, in a commanding, yet calm voice. "Listen to me. We should be able to escape, okay? There's always a way out of things." Rinoa looked at Terra in the eyes intently waiting for her response. "So calm down okay? We can do this. We have to..."
Terra nodded, though still agitatedly. "Okay... okay. We'll escape."
"You've been kidnapped several times before, right?" Terra nodded. "How did you escape?"
The mage turned to her hands. "I usually used magic spells to escape from these but..." She thrusted her hand downward, extending her arms, as if she was exectuting something. "I can't... I can't right now."
"Why?" Rinoa was beginning to panic as well.
"Must be... must be the anti-magic field." Terra turned worriedly at Rinoa.
With their only chance to excape gone, the raven-haired was on the brink of tears. But she shook her head hardly. "No. There must be another way. There gotta be!"
But both of them knew nothing else was left for them to hope for.
"Everyone alright?" Yuna anxiously asked as she looked around her comrades who shielded themselves from the blast of Bahamut's powerful attack. Though nobody was hurt, the impact was so great, they were thrown backwards, a few meters away form their original spot. Of course, except for Yuna, who was completely immune of her aeons' attacks.
"Yeah, we're fine!" Irvine yelled before running towards her with the rest of the party, but not before assisting the tumbled Selphie back to her feet.
Yuna smiled and turned to Bahamut, who was still standing strong beside the spot where it defeated the Marlboro. The enemy was lying dead on the ground, toasted to the maximum level.
"Thank you." Yuna bowed at her aeon, indicating it's dismissal from the battle. With great strength, Bahamut flapped its wings and vanished into thin air.
"How did you-why did you-what was THAT?!" Zell stammered as he paused halfway towards Yuna.
"She's a summoner you idiot." Seifer cockily replied.
"I know that." Zell twitched his eye annoyingly at the taller blond. "Being a summoner is one thing. But having Bahamut?"
Yuna giggled. "It is a hard task to go on a journey to find Bahamut, but it's all worth it. And Bahamut is a friendly aeon, just like most of them, so it did not take much effort to convince him to join me."
"Hmm..." Zell rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I don't think that's the case with us though." He began walking with the others. "From what I've heard, the Bahamut I know has this ruby dragon guardian. And if you were able to defeat its guardian, then you'll have to fight him again and stuff."
"That only goes with us normal people." Squall replied as he calmy walked.
"Yuna's case is different." Cloud added before Yuna could protest about Squall's comment regarding her being not normal. "She's a summoner. These spirits respond to her more favorably compared to us who never really connected with them."
"Uh huh, so I have to become this... temple priest to get Bahamut." Zack concluded with a bit of derision in his voice, jealous with the fact that Yuna, the one he had been protecting, was possibly the most powerful of the group.
"That sounds about right." Irvine said suavily.
"But we summoners are not as skillful as you may all think we are." Yuna humbly said. "We are nothing without the aeons. We only borrow their powers in battles."
"Yes. That and-" Quistis was suddenly interrupted by a loan moan that bounced against the walls of the hall. It was a low cry of an approaching danger. Everyone froze on their spot, afraid that one step might trigger anything.
"and that doesn't sound right." Seifer finished.
"What is it now?" Selphie complainingly asked no one in particular.
Squall and Cloud cautiously grabbed their swords as they glanced around the whole place for anything that might appear and attack them. Another cry came out which slowly transformed into a growl. It was louder, a sign that it was getting nearer.
"Everyone, forward!" Squall and began running.
"What are you doing?! Are you trying to get us all killed?!" Cloud protested after running to Squall and grabbing his shoulder.
"There's no other way anyway, we will still end up fighting it!"
Suddenly, the ground began shaking, and everyone found themselves stumbling on the floor, almost falling down. The floor then broke into two horizontally as silver light seeped through the cracks. Emerging from it was a wide, tall, wide skeletal figure with glowing, yellow eyes. It roared,similarly to how it did prior to its appearance, and began swaying its ridiculously long arms to the party.
"It's an undead!" Quistis yelled, dodging its arm, striking her weapon on its arm. But the whip in her hand rolled around the arm that wagged violently upward.
"QUISTIS!" Seifer dashed to the dangling SeeD, striking the arm with his gunblade. But the pain the attack gave only made it move more viciously, throwing both Seifer and Quistis to a nearby wall. Fortunately the male blond was quicker as he covered Quistis with his body and let the wall hit him instead. Still protectively clinging on her, both of them slid down to the cold, shaking ground.
"No! Yuna, save it for white magic!" The assaulting Selphie yelled at Yuna who was about to cast Curaga at the blond couple. "Better yet, SUMMON YOUR AEONS!"
The summoner looked at her before nodding. "Everyone! GET AWAY FROM THE MONSTER! NOW!" Yuna cried out before performing a stance and stretched her arm up. Suddenly, a chime-like sound of a stringed instrument was heard from the darkness, signaling an arrival of another entity.
Cloud recognized the sound and stopped from hitting the giant monster. "RUN!"
Squall's ear finally picked the sound up and gestured his freinds to follow him as they ran away from the monster as well.
"Help me with Seifer!" Quistis bellowed at her companions while heaving Seifer up. Zack immediately ran to her side and dragged the almost unconscious Seifer out of the spot.
Then, a small lion-like animal appeared by Yuna's side, snuggling its head on the summoner's legs. The brunette patted it gently before a tall figure covered in colorful clothes with a big, circular hat suddenly emerged from the darkness. Yuna turned to it, with a hopeful look.
"We don't have much," She said. "but we trust your aid." She bowed.
The unknown aeon gripped its sheathed blade, ready to attack while waiting for Yuna's command. She then drew out her wallet and handed a few gil to the entity.
"What..." Squall's eyes narrowed in confusion as he watched Yuna and the aeon.
"What is she doing?" Cloud was just as confused as Squall.
"She is... paying the aeon?" Zell's brow raised.
"That's gotta be Yojimbo, then." Quistis said while curing Seifer on her lap. "You have to pay him for his services. The more gil you give him, the better his attack is."
Zack's eye quivered. "What will he do with the gil if he's already dead?"
Quistis shrugged before turning back to Seifer. "I don't know. Each aeon has its way of doing things."
"Look," Irvine pointed at the battlefield. "it's about to do something."
Yojimbo quickly drew out its sword and swung it swiftly to the monster. The giant skeleton cried in great pain. Despite the powerful attack, Yuna sighed in defeat. Its attack was not enough. She turned to the party.
"Guys, can I borrow some cash please?" Yuna pleaded.
Squall and Cloud began to feel their pockets and handed out two thousand gil each. "Use it all." Cloud said.
The monster roared and swung its hand to Yojimbo, but the aeon was much too fast to avoid its attack. Impatiently, it stroke the enemy with its sword again before turning to Yuna to wait for another order.
"Here's four thousand gil." Yuna handed him the money. But the monster cheated. While the spiritual warrior was taking the money, the skeleton threw a spit-like attack at Yojimbo, so powerfully the aeon flew backwards. The animal that went with it barked angrily at the fiend and charged at it.
Yuna gasped. "Oh no..."
Squall cursed at the fallen aeon before charging at the enemy again, aiding the aeon's pet, with Cloud and Zack at his sides. They knew they might not stand a chance against the enemy, but they had to try.
Squall thought about Rinoa, in every assult that he made, in every attempt to bring the enemy down. He summoned one of his three Guardian Forces Quezacotl, which performed a powerful thunder spell; but it did a little damage against the monster.
Cloud, remembering Quistis' words about the fiend, threw a Cura spell on the enemy. But this was not enough to knock it down, and he still had to use one of his powerful sword techniques against it.
Irvine, the most keen when it came to detecting weak points of enemies, loaded his shotgun with two powerful ammos blessed with holy magic and aimed at the two glowing eyes of the monster. But with the swift senses of the skeleton, it easily dodged the shots before throwing the small animal away, which vanished, much like its master.
"Damn it," Squall hissed under his breath.
Suddenly, a loud crack was heard, and a huge amount of light got into the dark halls. Everyone squinted at the sudden exposure of light, and the monster roared with the interruption. At one side of the hall appeared a large hole on the wall, where came a huge thing, blocking some of the light from entering the building. Everyone paused from the battle as they tried to make out the huge object that abruptly barged in.
And it came to them as quite a surprise.
It was a round robot with two legs, which was just as big as the monster. Judging from its materials, it was obvious that it was a heavy-duty robot, with high defense. Loud gunshots came from the robot attacking the enemy, as everyone rolled on the ground to avoid being shot at with the machinery's aimless rounds.
Squall, who was kneeling on the ground from rolling over, glanced up to their savior and narrowed his eyes. The robot was a machina, a product of the Al Bhed, a race known to excel in armories and technical weapons. They were just as good (if not better) from the Estharians who also exceled in technology.
The topmost part of the robot suddenly opened and revealed two blond heads he clearly recognized; Tidus and Rikku.
"Wha-"
"HEY GUYS!" Rikku waved at them. "How come we're not invited in the partay?"
"Hey!" Selphie angrily pointed her nunchaku at the blonde Al Bhed. "That's my line!"
"YUNA!" Tidus jumped off the robot and ran to Yuna, who was just as shocked as everyone else at the arrival of the two. Tidus tightly embraced Yuna, who hugged him back.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you." She said.
"It's alright." Tidus reassuringly said. He pulled back and examined Yuna. "Are you hurt?"
Yuna shook her head. "I'm fine."
Tidus smiled at her before pulling her back into his arms.
As he watched them, Squall had a pang of jealously over the couple. He wasn't jealous because of Yuna or anything, but he wished he would be reunited with Rinoa soon and make sure she was safe, just as what Tidus was doing to Yuna. The thought crushed his heart as he painfully closed his eyes and focused back on the monster.
"Tifa?!" Obvius surprise was written all over Cloud's face when Tifa jumped out of the robot, followed by Yuffie.
"You don't think we're just gonna sit back and do nothing about Rinoa, right?" She smirked at Cloud. "And remember, Terra's my friend too!" She said before charging at the fiend and giving it a good kick.
"Whoah!" Zell was impressed with her moves. "Nice!"
Tifa winked at him.
"Tifa!" Cloud cried as another hand was about to grab her. He was running, preparing for a strike, when suddenly, another sword came to attack the arm. It was no Squall or Seifer's gunblade, nor Zack's sword. It was...
"Paine!" Irvine happily greeted.
The silver haired girl turned to him. "I don't remember hearing a mission about this."
"Huh?" Selphie suspiciously turned to her boyfriend. Irvine scratched his head.
"Well, Paine here... is from Galbadia Garden."
"Another candidate?" The recovering Seifer asked.
"Not really." Irvine shook his head. "A SeeD actually."
"Should've known." Squall muttered before dashing towards the enemy.
"Guys!" Yuffie began throwing out potions to the fallen comrades. "Heal yourselves!" She was about to hand Selphie a potion but paused, after realizing that it was her supposed enemy from the other section. They both awkwardly looked at each other.
"Hey." Selphie greeted.
"Hey." Yuffie replied uneasily. "Here. You might need this." She handed a bottle of potion to the brunette.
"Thanks." Selphie took the potion before looking at the ninja again.
Then, after another moment passed, as if they had a mutual understanding, they hugged each other and began crying.
"I'm sorry I blew up your materia collection!" Selphie sobbed.
"I'm sorry I stole your old pair of lucky yellow jumper!" Yuffie sniffed. "And never admitted it!"
"I just want to tell you, you're one of my best ex-best friends!" Selphie added.
"Same here with you!" Yuffie replied.
Rikku sighed contentedly while watching her two perky friends making up. "Finally!" She then ran to them and joined the group hug.
Quistis, along with Zell and Tifa, kept attacking the giant skeleton.
"It's weakening!" The female blonde said.
"Yeah!" Tifa replied. "Throw me to the head, the eyes are its weakness!"
Quistis nodded and gently rolled her whip to Tifa's leg. Then, she threw martial artist to the head.
"We'll hold the hands down!" Zack shouted.
"Attack the hands!" Cloud yelled at the swordsmen. Paine, Zack and Seifer took care of the left, while he, Tidus (and his water-blue sword) and Squall took on the right.
Irvine aimed once again at the eyes, taking advantage of Tifa's attack that somehow helped in steadying the head. Within a split second, he pulled the trigger, and the bullet went straight to the eye.
The monster roared and cried, shaking its head vigorously. Tifa jumped from the head and gently landed on the ground.
"I need a steady head!" Irvine yelled. "There's only one eye left!"
"Throw me, Quistis!" Zell said.
Without wasting anymore second, the blonde rolled her whip on Zell's leg and threw him to the monster's head, similarly to what she did to Tifa.
Irvine loaded his gun with another holy bullet and aimed at the other eye. Zell was doing good in stabling the head by balancing with his powerful kicks, giving the sniper a good aim of his target.
He smirked before pulling the trigger.
The siren began crying, the alarm gave out a defeaning honking sound with the universal meaning of danger around the area. Hojo stood up from his computer chair and ran to the screen that showed a radar of the place that detected any intruders, which he never noticed until the alarm came.
There was only one reason why the alarm would sound; his experiment, the abomidable Gargantua which he created exactly for the reason to guard the whole building, was taken down. And he blamed it to the several red dots moving around his radar, which obviously did enough unwanted damage in the place. He cursed under his breath.
Rinoa and Terra glanced around the room panickly before they realized that ice came out of Terra's hands.
"Terra!" Rinoa called as she looked at Terra, then to her metal-binded hands.
The mage gasped before effortlessly breaking her hands free from her frozen binds. She casted the same blizzard spell to her feet and freed herself. She then did the same to Rinoa and before they knew it, they were moving freely out of the table.
"Over here!" Rinoa pulled the other captive out of the sliding door and ran to the dark hallway. They didn't know how Terra was able to cast magic when she couldn't before, nor why the alarm just went on. But they did know had to take their chances to escape as quickly as they could.
Hojo was too late when he went to his hostages' room, only to find it empty. He cursed again, knowing that the alarm automatically de-activated the anti-magic field in the room for safety measures. Kefka would kill him if he knew about this. Then again, he didn't need the mage anymore, he got everything he needed from her. He just needed the other girl.
Grinning, he went back to his computer desk and pushed a large, blue button. "Come out, my babies. This is your moment." He glanced at the radar and raised an eyebrow challengingly. "Think you can escape me?"
With the monster finally killed, and the coast finally cleared, the exhausted and wounded Squall did not waste any more minute as he began walking forward. Cloud, who was just as tired as he was, did the same while dragging his huge sword.
"Hey!" Zack and Zell yelled at the two, trying to stop them from going any further. But the two ex-rivals did not listen.
"Wait! Wait for us!" Yuna called and ran after the two while casting Curaga at them. Of course, Tidus followed her and soon after, the whole group was walking again along the halls.
"Guys! You can ride on my machina here!" Rikku called while sitting in between Yuffie and Selphie on her giant robot.
"You can join them, Babe." The recovered Seifer said to Quistis, who was walking right beside him. He was referring to the three most hyper members of their group. She turned to him and smiled. "I think I like walking like this better." She turned away. "And don't call me Babe."
"Sure Babe." Seifer grinned.
They were walking in silence (except for Selphie, Yuffie and Rikku who were endlessly blabbering about random things) and made a good progress in getting as far as they could reach of the long hall.
Suddenly, Paine, Zack, Cloud and Squall stopped. Like an infection, the whole party stopped as well.
"What is it?" Yuna anxiously inquired.
"Something's coming." Paine tightly grabbed her sword.
"There are more of them." Zack held his sword in front of him warily.
"More?" Tidus and Zell asked in unison as they turned to look at the deeper side of the hall. Growls and roars from hundreds of monsters could be heard from it.
Squall drew his gunblade out. "Hojo?" He asked the blond beside him.
"Definitely." Cloud replied.
Rinoa pulled a slower Terra as they ran along a narrow hall lit with flashing red lights. She didn't know where they were heading, she just needed to escape.
Suddenly, an fat, armored reptile in two legs appeared, skidding the raven-haired hostage to a stop. Rinoa gasped when Terra stepped in front of her. The mage waved her hand upward, and water sprang out from the ground, hitting the monster.
Rinoa's eyes widened as she stared at Terra while she casted more magic spells on the attacker. She never imagined that Terra could be THAT powerful, taking a monster down with just a wave of her hand. And it even suffered from her spells, taking serious damage from her assaults as it cried painfully and loudly. When it was finally knocked down, the emerald-haired girl turned to a startled Rinoa and took her hand.
"Come!" She said.
They began running again, avoiding monsters here and there as much as they could. And if they were unavoidable, Terra would step forward and take them had been running for twenty minutes, yet the alarm still wouldn't stop, but they didn't halt their feet from dragging them away.
Until they faced a forked road.
Two halls separated by a wall greeted the two girls, giving them two possibilities for an exit. Terra panickly turned to Rinoa, with a questioning look, asking what they should do. Rinoa wore a determined expression, as she evaluated the only options they had. But she shouldn't take too long, or else their captors would catch up with them.
Inhaling deeply, she turned to Terra. "We're moving on separately."
The mage's eyes widened. "What- NO!"
"We have to Terra." Rinoa anxiously replied. He placed her hands on Terra's shoulders as she glanced once again at the halls, rethinking her decision.
"You-you can't go alone!" Terra held the raven-haired's arms. "You don't have anything to fight against the monsters! I can't let anything happen to you!"
Rinoa shook her head and gave Terra a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine Terra, don't worry about me. But please do listen to what I'll say." Without waiting for the mage's response, she continued. "Whoever reaches the exit first will ask for help, okay?"
Terra assessed Rinoa's words in her mind as quickly as she could. She looked at her friend. They didn't have any other choice, and Rinoa's solution was the best one they could do. Though, without her help, Rinoa might get hurt, having nothing to defend herself from the monsters. But she had to trust Rinoa, or else, nothing would happen to them and Hojo and Kefka would catch them again, and they might do worse than just chasing them. The laboratory where they woke up in did not seem a very harmless place.
She didn't want to be stuck in that place forever, and she didn't like the same thing for Rinoa.
Finally, she nodded. "Okay, Rinoa. Whoever gets out first will ask for help."
Rinoa nodded and smiled. "Okay." She pulled away from Terra. "I'll take the right one." And with that, she ran to the hall at the right side. Terra did the same with the left one.
"Damn!" Squall cussed as his last Guardian Force Pandemona was knocked down by yet another Marlboro after it released its final attack.
"Boost me!" Cloud yelled at his partner and the brunette obliged. The blond jumped on Squall's gunblade which pushed him up towards the tentacled fiend. He twirled his sword over his head, glowing in blue power in the process, before striking his large silver blade on the Marlboro's head, ultimately killing it.
"More are coming!" Paine agitatedly clamoured as she slashed an armed, shadow figure thrice with her sword. It was the fifth monster she slayed, adn she was about to target another one.
"This is never going to stop!" Tifa said, as she kicked a large, green worm that attempted to literally bite her head off. The other martial artist, Zell, roundhouse kicked a giant, poisonous spider right behind Tifa.
Tidus swiftly dodged another attack from a canine-like fiend, while Yuna ordered her aeon Bahamut to use its impulse attack to take three beasts down.
"Guys, just hop on here!" Rikku shouted from her robot, which was being controlled by Selphie as she gunned down many other monsters. Though despite aiding the whole party with a powerful robot, the monsters kept on flodding forward. As Yuffie joined the fight, Rikku threw her third bomb to the mass of enemies.
Seifer took the chance and carried a wounded Quistis in his arms before jumping into the robot. Inside, it was a bit small, but enough to contain about five people and provide them with the remedies and potions kept inside small glass cabinets. Carefully, he placed Quistis on the floor, removed his long, gray jacket and placed it under the girl's head.
"I'm fine." The blonde SeeD assured Seifer weakly. "I'm good, I can fight."
Seifer didn't reply and grabbed a hi-potion from his pocket. "Drink this." He told her.
"Seifer, save it for the others. I told you I'm fi-"
"Drink it." Seifer repeated, motioning the item into her mouth. "Hyne, please Quistis, just do what you were told."
Quistis looked at him for a while as he looked intently at her with his worried green eyes. Finally, she lifted her hands and placed her fingers around Seifer's hand, which was holding the bottle. She then pulled it to closer to her mouth and drank.
Outside the robot, Zack whirled around with his sword extended out, slicing as much mosters with it as he could. Irvine, on the other hand, targeted the winged enemies hovering above them.
"Dudes!" The brunette called to their two leaders at the battlefront. "You should go get Rinoa and your other friend now!"
"Yeah!" Zack added,as he swayed his sword once more to another enemy. "We can do this! We'll stop the enemies from here!"
"Squall!" Irvine called again as he shot another giant red mosquito. "I know your Pandemona's out!" He ran through the chaos to his brunette friend, who just took down a plant-like creature with long arms, though with much more difficulty, especially without any Guardian Force junctioned with him. Irvine, after shooting another random flying creature, placed his hand on Squall's shoulder. "You can take the Brothers from me!" He shouted against the noise of rattling guns from Rikku's robot, which was being controlled by his girlfriend.
Squall shook his head. "No! I can't take them from you! You need them too!"
Irvine chuckled. "Dude, nothing to worry about!" He turned and faced Squall. "I got them!" He was referring to their other comrades who were tirelessly fighting the monsters with them.
But still, Squall didn't accept. "I can't Irvine! You need the Brothers as much as I do!"
"I'll help you!" Yuna suddenly said after commanding Bahamut to attack a monster. She ran to Irvine and Squall's side. "I'll get you an aeon you can junction yourself with!"
"An aeon?!" Irvine questioned disbelievingly.
Squall turned his head away and shut his eyes. As far a he knew, aeons were too powerful for the likes of him to junction, and they only worked with summoners like Yuna. But her offer was not something he could reject. It was his only option, possible or not. He opened his blue orbs and turned to Yuna. "How?"
"There are many restless spirits of monsters out here!" Yuna said. "And they are willing to help! They just don't know how! They need my help!" She stepped back and extended her arms. She pulled them back in front of her chest and formed a small ball with her hands. "I'm going to call them..." Despite the noise in the place, Squall was amazingly able to hear her voice, and he squinted at her. She was truly a mysterious one. She closed her eyes, keeping her prayer position, and mumbled some words Squall couldn't understand.
"Squall!" Cloud called from his back, running to the shorter brunette. "Zack and Irvine are right, we should go search for Terra and Rinoa now." He said in a loud tone.
"Yeah, I agree." Squall replied. "But I need Yuna to do something for me first. She's going to give me an aeon to junction with."
After a few moments of praying, (with Squall, Cloud and Irvine as her protectors from the monsters while she meditated), Yuna finally opened her multicolored eyes and looked at Squall. The brunette SeeD turned to her.
"Done?" He asked, while kicking a smaller monster away from him.
Yuna nodded. "It's a restless spirit." She said. "It would take a great deal of urgency and desperation to be able to summon it. I don't think I can even summon it." She shook her head. "But it will lend you great powers, even without calling it. It's with you now, it answered my request to join its powers with you, to aid you with your mission."
"Then that's enough for me." Squall nodded gratefully. "Thank you." He turned around and nodded at Cloud.
"Ready?" The blonde asked.
"Ready." Squall replied.
"Goodluck fellas!" Irvine saluted at them.
"Oh, and Squall!" Yuna called out again. "I forgot to tell you how to call it. Its name is..."
Terra kept on running, never letting her feet fail her from her escape, especially that her abductor was right on her tracks. Kefka, who instantly sensed the escape of his captive, immediately ran after the mage, correctly predicting where she could be. Terra felt his massive powers around the place while running away from him, and didn't dare to stop and face him. She was no match for him.
Behind her, she could hear his jeering laugh. "Don't you think you're being a bit foolish?" He said in a mockingly curious voice. "You've escaped me thrice before already, I've learned enough from you, you imbecile!"
Terra did not listen. She tried not to. She couldn't let her fears eat her up to be caught again. Partly she was happy Kefka was not after Rinoa, or else she couldn't imagine what might have happened to her friend. But then part of her was scared, for she knew what Kefka was capable of doing. His strength, his powers, they were results of selfishly injecting himself with her genes everytime he kidnapped her before proceeding with his cloning projects. And that only made him three times as stronger as she was.
Breathing unevenly, Terra could feel her body weakening, as she ran aimlessly away from Kefka's laugh.
"Oh... I can feel you now, my favorite..." He taunted. "You want to sleep, don't you? Well, by all means, do! You will only make it easier for both of us!"
Despite Kefka's attempt of enticing her to sleep, Terra kept on running, just as fast as she could. She had to find some way to get out of the place, to find some help, especially for Rinoa.
Tears of distress suddenly started to roll down her cheeks as Kefka's laughter slowly became louder and louder every minute.
I can't get myself caught. She told herself, as she pushed further. I can't let him become stronger.
"GOTCHA!"