A/N: I don't abandon fics. I never abandon fics. I give them my utmost concentration until they are…hey what's that over there?

Without further ado, Guardian Fury, Chapter 5

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Squall had never really abused the power of the Guardian Forces. In his day-to-day fights, he had relied mostly on his gunblade skills, to keep his fighting skills sharp. After all, if he were ever in a position where he couldn't use his GF's, he wouldn't want to be helpless. After all, with the way things were going it didn't look like he was going to keep them forever.

Besides, using the GF's on anything short of heavy machinery and demons was like a crutch, or the very least overkill. There was still a blackened crater outside of Balamb garden from the first time he summoned Ifrit after his trials at the fire cavern. In retrospect, it reminded him of the analogy "hunting a fly with a shotgun."

Not to mention people complained about the damage. And insurance companies were a pain in the ass to deal with. You destroy one city and they get on your case for life. Sheesh…

The simple fact was however, that Shiva simply had no sense of the word control. Her power was spectacular but her moves were easy to predict. Not to mention wasteful in terms of energy.

Squall put a hand to his head in exasperation as Shiva destroyed another monster with her signature 'Diamond Dust' attack. Several hundred shards of ice pierced the snake like creature, continuing on through him and into the rocks.

"Shiva? Have you ever heard of restraint? Or overkill for that matter?"

Shiva looked at him in confusion.

"I'm talking about your fighting style," he explained, "It's a colossal waste of energy, not to mention a public hazard."

"What are you talking about? No one's around here and I've only used a little of my power reserves."

Squall sighed and stared off into the sunset, as if reminiscing about something long ago, "My adventure started out simple. Become a Seed and work with the garden as a mercenary for hire. Then I was drawn into this long and tiring adventure going through cave, and dungeon, and castle alike."

Turning around, Squall began to walk up the path with Shiva following behind him, "There will come a time, when you start on any grand quest, where you will need every resource and piece of energy available to you. And when that time comes, you'll be glad you saved your strength."

"…Did anyone ever tell you your really pessimistic?" asked Shiva.

"No. They just think it loudly."

"Ever try looking at the bright side of things?"

"What bright side?" asked Squall sarcastically.

"Seriously though. We're just going up the mountain. What's the worst that could happen?"

A loud boom and a small rumbling sound was her answer. Looking up at the cliffs she saw some rocks fly loose and tumble down the steep slope of the mountainside. The rumbling sound died down for a few seconds before it suddenly got louder. Then the ground started shaking.

Squall put his hand to his head in exasperation. Shiva had just broken the #1 rule of adventuring. Never ever ever ever ever ever say anything along the lines of "Can this get any worse?" Because it always will.

CRASH!

Squall winced as a particularly large stone broke off from the mountain and fell on to the communications tower, now in view. The base gone, the tower came crashing down on the cliff face. There was an amazing light show display before the tower exploded in flames, like a beacon around the countryside.

"Does that answer your question?" he asked sourly. Shiva didn't answer.

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Wedge shook his head and tried to clear the haze his bout with Squall had induced, 'God damnit,' he thought angrily, 'At this rate, I'll be demoted to janitor if Squall keeps screwing up my life like this.' He was the only guard stationed there, so if things went wrong, he'd take the blame.

Slowly he got to his feet and resumed his guard post. He decided to put the incident with Squall out of his head. After all, as long as no one from headquarters heard about the news, it would be ok right?

BOOM!

The shockwave sent him stumbling forward into the nearby fountain. Fortunately, he was able to regain his balance before falling in.

'Please god,' he prayed silently to himself, 'Please don't let that be what I think it is.'

Turning around, Wedge saw the communications tower in flames.

Letting out an anguished cry, Wedge grabbed his sword and ran up the path.

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"Squall! The Siren is nearby!"

The Seed had already drawn his gunblade and was looking around for the monster that had caused the avalanche. The area was now buried in stone, the point of the satellite dish sticking up at an odd angle above the rubble.

Everything else in the small valley was buried. Fortunately, that small valley had filled up and stopped the avalanche from reaching the cliff face that Squall and Shiva currently stood on.

Squall scanned the terrain, searching with both his eyes and his senses for the enemy. It confused him a bit, as there was nowhere to hide on this now open terrain, and considering the size of the last monster…

His senses alerted him to an attack half a second before it came. Shouting a warning to Shiva, Squall rolled left and brought his gunblade in a block position above his head, as a force impacted it, sending sparks off from the blade and knocking him backwards a few feet.

Getting back up into a sitting position, Squall saw Shiva square off with the…huh?

The ice queen had constructed a shield around herself. His eyes widened as he saw several deep gashes appear in the ice as though someone had clawed at it, but no one was standing there.

Squall jumped up and charged at his invisible opponent, striking where he though s/he would be. He was unsurprised when his blade clashed on solid air. Twisting his blade free, Squall thrusted at the approximate location of where his opponent should have been, but his blade passed through air.

He braced himself for an attack behind, but then Shiva's shield exploded outwards, sending shards of ice in a huge attack radius. Squall quickly covered his face with his arms, expecting to be hit with the shards as well, but the ice impacted a solid barrier, rather the monster that was standing in front of him.

"What the hell?" asked Squall quietly, as he backed up towards Shiva, his gunblade in the guard position, "Why is she invisible? I thought that the Siren's element was silence."

"The silence can mean many things," Shiva explained to him, "Silence is without sound, without sight, and is undetectable. You only notice her, because she is not the true Siren."

A horrible screeching sound, like nails on a chalkboard, echoed off the canyon walls, and redoubled on itself, making the whole mountain ring with the noise. A few rocks that still hung on to the cliff face were dislodged as well.

"That doesn't really sound like a siren." Squall deadpanned, removing his hands from his ears once the scream was over.

Suddenly, the ice shards that seemed to be floating in air dropped to the ground and shattered. A gray cloud of mist arose and swirled around the invisible creature, seeming to suck the very light out of the air around it.

Then the cloud exploded, leaving a figure in the center.

In all his traveling, Squall had never seen an uglier woman. If he had, he had mercifully forgotten her face.

The thing in front of them sort of resembled a human, with the exception of two black wings protruding from her back. The woman, or creature rather, was gray skinned with yellow eyes. In the place of hands, there were long yellow claws. Her gray hair was tangled, and her face was distorted, an ugly expression permanently branded on it.

Neither side moved for a moment. It was a face-off, seeing who would act first, waiting for the other party to take action. Finally, Shiva spoke.

"Foul creature," she spoke menacingly, her easygoing caring nature replaced by her ice queen persona that she was known for, "Release your hold upon the Siren's spirit!" As she spoke, the air temperature seemed to drop around them, making Squall shiver involuntarily.

The creature spoke, showing a row of yellow and decaying teeth, "Fool! You hold no power over me!"

"That may be true, but if you surrender now, I may ease your passing into the dark realm foul creature!"

"Even if the likes of you were enough to even threaten me, the power of Ultima Weapon will destroy you!"

Shiva was about to begin another tirade, but Squall coughed lightly into his fist, "As much as I like listening to these soliloquies, we're really not getting anywhere so can we skip to the action you 'fowl' creature?"

Both girls seemed to consider this for a moment before they each gave half a shrug, "Sure, why not?"

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'Nothing happens here for 2 years and 1 week after I get posted here Squall comes and…'

Wedge continued to think mutinously to himself as he threaded his way past the beasts and up the mountain. Fortunately a majority of the monsters were feeling the short avalanche and were not looking for a fight.

'I'll be lucky to be able to stay on as a guard after this! Damn you Squall, I was doing fine until you showed up.'

"Squall! Because of you, I've seen hell!" He finally shouted out loud. Unfortunately this alerted a large group of Anacondaurs to his presence.

"Damn you Squall!" He shouted before running as fast as he could up the mountain slope.

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Squall blinked once, and the Siren was gone, faded into the fog that had slowly built up during their discussion, unnoticed by both of them until it was too late.

"Damnit! I can't see a thing in this stuff!"

Out of nowhere, blows started coming. Squall could see her image one second but then it would be gone the next. Shiva took several glancing blows before being hit in the stomach and knocked to the ground.

"Shiva!" Swinging wildly, Squall was rewarded with a lucky cut on the harpies shoulder.

"I'm fine! But we need to clear this fog!"

"Stand back!"

Reaching into his stores of magic, Squall drew out a small portion of fire magic.

WHAM!

And stood still for a second too long. Managing to stay on his feet even though he was in pain, Squall completed his spell.

"FIRE AURA!"

The spell wasn't like a regular fire spell. Instead of a concentrated blast, it was more of a fiery shield that quickly expanded outwards, burning the fog away.

"Ow!"

Oops.

"Damnit Squall! At least give me a little warning first!" Shiva had jumped away from Squall onto the cliff face, sporting a few burns.

"I see you have seen through another of my clever tricks mortal! Perhaps I have underestimated you." The voice seemed to come from everywhere, redoubling off the canyon walls.

Squall brushed some imaginary dirt off his shoulder, "My name is Squall. And don't you forget it," his gunblade glowed blue with focused chi, "Because I'm the last mortal your gonna meet!"

"Confident are we?" The voice was mocking.

"You bet!"

'Shiva!' Squall spoke in his mind, 'Where is she?'

There was a moments pause before Shiva responded, 'Behind you!' she nearly shouted.

Squall's blade erupted in light as he went into the first stage of the lionheart. With a shout, he swung behind him in a full circle.

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Wedge finally crested the hill at the top of the mountain, just as Squall was unleashing his finishing move.

'What the…who is he fighting?'

It looked like Squall was shadowboxing or going through a form, but this was different. Every time Squall swung he could see a discharge of energy when the extended blade connected.

'The person's invisible?'

It was a mixture of awe and horror at the same time. It was graceful and deadly, even more powerful then their blasted GF helpers. Speaking of GFs…

Wedge looked around the battle scene again and saw Shiva, sitting in a meditative position a distance from the actual fight.

'That's a GF! I'd recognize Shiva anywhere! But…what's it doing?'

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Shiva sat and concentrated. If she concentrated hard enough, she could almost see the full being of the Siren-monster. As it was, she could see her well enough to tell Squall where she was.

Squall timed his combo perfectly. The monster was unsuspecting of an attack and was caught off guard. With a single sweep he knocked her into the air and jumped after her, unloading several hits while he was in midair, the sheer energy coming off each strike enough to keep him airborne.

With a final flourish and explosion, Squall finished off the combo and began to fall gently back to earth. Unfortunately…

WHAM!

For the second time that day, Squall found himself doubling over in midair. He had forgotten about the wings.

Shiva tried to warn him, but there was little he could do after the first strike. Blows rained down on him fast and hard, speeding up his decent towards the ground. Some point during the combo the harpy had dropped her invisibility, and began pummeling Squall with a malicious grin.

Finally, she cupped her hands together and brought them down. Hard.

Squall rolled in midair to take the fall on his back rather than his front, but it sill left him incapacitated.

Rolling over, Squall saw the harpy charging up one of her blasts. It was colorless, but seemed to distort the air around it, sucking it in and bending it into a ball shape. With an inhuman laugh, she let it loose.

Summoning his strength and biting back the pain, Squall rolled to the side just as the blast hit the ground, kicking up rubble and throwing him off to the side.

Quickly assessing himself, Squall found that his left arm couldn't move without intense pain. Glancing up from his prone position on the ground he saw the Siren charging another blast. He made the effort but he already knew he couldn't avoid it.

"ICICLE BLAST!"

There is a saying that goes, "Learn from the mistakes of others, as you don't have time to make them all yourself." The harpy apparently, had not learned that lesson from Squall, and had stood in one place for too long.

Unfortunately for Shiva, the blast had to go somewhere, and this one traveled straight into the cliff face, starting another small avalanche and burying Shiva under it. A large rock hit her on the head and she knew no more.

The harpy had not gotten off easy though. Her right wing was nearly torn off, while the left wing had several holes. Having lost the power of flight, the Siren careened into the rocks below.

With a grunt, Squall staggered to his feet, his left arm hanging uselessly at his side, the right holding his gunblade. He was unsurprised when the harpy rose as well.

There were small cuts all over her body, while the lionheart had left a large X shaped scar on her belly, bleeding freely. If he had been able to see her back, he would have also seen several wounds there as well.

Without fanfare, forewarning or any remote trace of skill, Squall lunged forward, swinging the gunblade clumsily. Squall was tired, but so was the harpy, and they both knew it.

Squall didn't know if GF's even had adrenaline, but the Harpy was able to dodge, if barely. Weak from blood loss, the gunblade fell from his fingers and his feet stumbled from under him.

Rolling over, Squall saw the harpy pick up his gunblade, "An interesting weapon," she said mockingly, "But utterly useless in the end." She threw the gunblade behind her.

The gunblade master put on his coldest look. If he were going to die, he would die fighting. His right hand groped for a rock, and found one that fit his hand perfectly. Summoning the last of his strength, he chucked it at her head.

She didn't dodge this one.

If it was possible, the face became even uglier. The yellowed teeth became fangs and the eyes shone a blood red. Raising a hand, energy slowly gathered in her palm, aiming directly for his head, "You Die now Mortal!"

SHINK!

There was a hiss of steel, and Squalls gunblade was suddenly protruding through the harpy's chest.

"Actually," commented Wedge as if he was talking about the weather, "I think it's a nice weapon really." With that, he pulled the trigger.

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Cid massaged his head. He had just gotten a call from the Dollet mayor, about his 'illegally parked aircraft.' Fortunately they weren't holding him responsible for it, as long as he cleaned it up. Good thing he was on good terms with Laguna.

No sooner had he called Esthar to ask for assistance, that he had gotten another call, telling him that the communications tower was destroyed. He was asked firmly, politically, and politely, just what they hell his man was doing up there. They weren't satisfied with his answer.

Running out of options, he had dispatched Squall's friends with orders to 'render assistance in any way they could.' Seeing how they didn't have the Ragnarock anymore, he had dispatched them by boat.

That was half an hour ago. And the phone was ringing again. Cid slowly beat his head against the wooden desk. Some days, it just didn't pay to get out of bed.

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A/N: Longest chapter to date. Hoped you liked the fight scene. I appreciate the support from all the people who reviewed my story.

Feel free to drop a review on your way out.