Final Fantasy 8: Future Bound

by Darsar

The continuation of the events of Final Fantasy 8, shortly after the conclusion of the game.

55. Chapter 55: Game Over

Chapter 55

Game Over

(Selphie)

For Selphie, getting knocked out by the Odine Ring feels like being woken up.

If she were asked to recall everything that had happened to her since the battle inside Garden— after the moment when Ultimecia had taken control over her—she would find it difficult to say anything meaningful or coherent. She has memories from that time period: vague impressions of flying, bright lights, and piercingly loud sounds. She also has a sense that a significant—but not extraordinary—amount of time had passed, maybe hours, but certainly not days. Perhaps the length of a night's rest.

She is comfortable during this time. Or, at least as comfortable as anyone ever is when trapped in an unending dreamlike state. Everything is confusing to her. The images seem random, like disorganized pictures taken from a stranger's photo album. But although she is confused, she is also indifferent to the chaos around her, which allows her to pass through the disorienting madness with relative calm, drifting contentedly along as the time passes, as Ultimecia uses her body to attack SeeD, attack Esthar, and attempt to gain access to the Lunatic Pandora.

Selphie isn't aware of Ultimecia's presence, but she does feel a distinct sensation of not being herself. That parts of her are moving and working without her input. But this alien feeling is lumped together with all the other unfamiliar and bizarre sensations passing through her and easily ignored.

(I hope I wake up soon…)

And soon enough, she does. Or, at least, from her perspective she awakens. As soon as Irvine places the Odine Ring on Ellone's finger, Ultimecia loses her grip on Selphie's mind. The shard of the Crystal Pillar contained in the ring—resonating with the same energy that suffuses Ellone's body—interferes with the connection that holds Ultimecia to the past and to Selphie. Once this connection is severed, Selphie awakens in a sense, though she is still sleeping from the perspective of all other observers.

She stands up. Her body feels light and airy, almost immaterial. She looks around at the destruction in Odine's Laboratory and winces.

"Man, what happened here?" she asks, looking at Irvine and Squall. Both men look beaten and ragged, their clothes ripped and stained. Squall is bleeding down his face. He wipes blood from his eyes and stands up. He looks down at Rinoa and Ellone and Selphie, all three on the floor and unconscious.

"Wait… that's me?" Selphie yelps, looking at her own body strewn on the floor. She rushes over to her own side and kneels down. Her body is still and lifeless.

"OH CRAP I'M DEAD!" Selphie shouts. Irvine and Squall don't seem to hear or notice her.

(I'm a ghost!)

(I'm haunting O Lab!)

But that doesn't make any sense. Aren't ghosts supposed to haunt their homes, or places that were particularly important to them? Why would Selphie's spirit choose to latch itself to O Lab, of all places?

It's then that Selphie notices as her body intakes a shallow breath. Her eyes flutter once, as if she is dreaming. Selphie watches these gentle, almost unnoticeable, movements and sighs.

(Whew… I'm not dead.)

(… I think.)

Selphie bites her lower lip and scrunches up her face in thought. If she isn't a ghost, then what's happening? She crouches down and wraps her arms around her bare legs as she puzzles out this mystery.

"What did you do?" Squall asks Irvine.

"Hell if I know," Irvine says with a shrug. "Somethin' with this ring."

He holds up a small ring in his fingers, allowing Squall to look at it. Selphie glances at it as well and narrows her eyes. She's never seen it before and is confused by it.

(Why's Irvine holding a ring?)

(Is this some really awful marriage proposal?)

Selphie gulps.

(Don't think I'm ready to get married.)

Squall shakes his head and mutters. "Last time I ever accept untested equipment from Odine."

"Yeah, no kidding," Irvine says. "It worked out for us this time, though."

A girl with blonde hair, clad in nothing but a one piece wetsuit, sprints across the room, passing through Selphie as she rushes out the door. Selphie gasps in shock as their two bodies overlap for a moment and shudders with discomfort when the girl leaves. Though she didn't feel any physical sensation, just the sight and the idea of a person moving through her body is enough to make her feel shivery and gross.

(Ugh. Don't wanna do that again.)

"Hey!" Irvine shouts at the girl, holding up a hand, but by then she was already gone.

"Damn," Squall says. "We have to get her. Ultimecia will probably try to take her next."

Just then, the lights flash red, and Laguna's voice comes over the intercom.

"Attention," Laguna says. "Galbadia has reached the city limits. All citizens not in their designated safe areas should immediately seek shelter in their homes or the nearest fortified building. Do not go outside. Protect yourselves and stay away from the fighting."

(Galbadia?)

Selphie wrinkles her nose in confusion. Much has happened since she died or got knocked out, and she wants someone to explain it all to her. As Selphie begins contemplating ways for ghosts to communicate with the living—writing on mirrors, throwing objects, and making the walls bleed are her favorite options—Irvine and Squall dash out of O Lab.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Selphie yells. She stands up. "I gotta talk to you!"

But a moment later, they too are gone, leaving Selphie alone in O Lab amidst all the destruction. She frowns and bows her head. Frustrated, she attempts to kick a piece of rubble, but her booted foot passes cleanly through it, accomplishing nothing at all. She stomps soundlessly on the floor.

"Being a ghost sucks," Selphie says.

She crouches down over her own body once more. She is lying face down on the floor, her hand resting atop Ellone's wrist. She tries to poke herself, wondering if she can maybe reenter her body this way, but nothing happens. She simply passes through her body the same way she passes through everything else.

(Wonder who did this?)

(Maybe that girl?)

Selphie turns her head towards the open doorway. Now that she thinks about it, that girl in the wetsuit looked familiar. Then she remembers. The clothes were different and she wasn't wearing her red bandanna, but Selphie still remembers the blond hair and the short stature from the images she saw on the computer at Caraway's mansion.

(That's Ciel?)

(What's she doing here?)

Selphie realizes that she has yet another unanswered question to lay atop all the other ones she's asked in the past few minutes. Her frustration continues to mount, until she finally stands up, stares at the ceiling, and shouts, "WHAT'S GOING ON?"

The world blurs, as if the universe itself is bending and twisting to provide an answer to her question. Suddenly she is no longer in O Lab, but instead atop one of the highest skyscrapers in Esthar. From here, she can see all the way to the far western border of the city. Soldiers and machines and androids are formed in neat ranks in the streets and atop the buildings, firing downward at a swarming mass of movement and chaos. Selphie wonders what's going on, but no one is around to answer her questions.

Towards the east the city continues on in rows of glittering, futuristic buildings before finally ending in the wide, barren white fields of the Esthar Plains. In the middle of the city is the golden Presidential Palace, dwarfed by the enormous Lunatic Pandora parked above it.

To the north she can see the wall of cliffs and mountains that form a natural barrier, preventing the city from being sieged from that side. She is about to turn away and look somewhere else, when she spies motion atop one of those cliffs.

She squints and uses one hand to shield her eyes. Her hand does nothing to block the glare, as the sunlight passes easily through her body, but she continues to hold her hand at her forehead anyway. At the tops of those distant mountains are a long series of what appear to be trucks, or maybe giant pillars on their sides. The distance is too far for Selphie to tell.

As she watches, the pillars begin to point upwards, now slanted at forty-five degree angles from the ground. She realizes what they are only a split second before the smoke and the fire begins to shoot out of the tail ends of those pillars.

"MISSILES!" Selphie yells.

Since she has been dreaming almost nonstop since the attack on Garden, the bombing of Fisherman's Horizon feels like it only happened a few minutes ago. It seems to her like she has been under attack from missiles for as long as she can remember.

Soon the sky is streaked with dozens and dozens of missiles, spraying out clouds of smoke behind them. They arc across the air, producing high shrieks as they descend towards the city.

To the west, Esthar's long range defenses rotate in place to intercept the missiles, firing lasers and large caliber bullets at the explosives. Many of the missiles burst apart in the air, producing nearly perfect spheres of fire and smoke, but a large number of the missiles still make it through, striking their targets and blowing holes in buildings, shattering skyways, and tearing apart Esthar's infrastructure.

(How did those missile launchers get there?)

(I mean, they'd have to go all the way from Trabia, down south to here.)

Suddenly, she feels glad that Trabia Garden had moved away from its former home. If they had stayed where they were, they might have run into these missile launchers.

(I gotta find someone)

(I gotta figure out what's goin' on.)

Selphie still hasn't learned how to communicate with others, but since she can apparently teleport in this ghostlike state, she figures that she will eventually find a way to converse with others. She balls her hands into fists, squeezes her eyes shut, and concentrates on Irvine and Squall.

She finds that picturing Squall is rather difficult. She remembers the scar across his face, the distinctive jacket with the ridge of white fur along the collar. She knows his gunblade and his personality, but trying to just picture his face is nearly impossible.

But when she thinks of Irvine, she instantly has his whole picture. His billowing trench coat: dusty brown, smelling of earth and gunpowder. His black cowboy hat, and the exact angle he likes to tilt it on his head. His eyes, matching perfectly with his long hair, as if he just stepped out of a painting. She can imagine him in a dozen scenarios, in a hundred poses, with a thousand expressions on his face.

The world blurs again, and Selphie is teleported to Irvine's side—but only for a second. Irvine is running and the moment Selphie appears, he has already blown past her and gone several steps down the sparkling blue skyway.

"HEY!" Selphie yells. But Irvine doesn't hear her. He continues down the road for another dozen paces, then slows to a trot. Selphie's eyes widen, wondering if maybe Irvine has actually heard her this time. She draws in a breath, ready to yell again when Irvine turns around and faces her.

"I don't see her!" Irvine yells. For a moment, she's confused about what he's saying, until she realizes that his eyes are not focused on her, but on something behind her. She spins around and sees Squall approaching.

"Keep looking," Squall says. He goes to the edge of the skyway and bends forward, looking down at the city. "She can't have gotten far."

"Yeah, she could've," Irvine says. He rests his shotgun on his shoulder. "She's a sorceress, after all. She's gotta be faster than us."

Squall opens his mouth to reply, but instead says nothing. He sighs and shakes his head. "You're right," he says. "We should go back to O Lab and try to wake up the girls. Maybe they'll be able to do something."

"Even if they can't," Irvine says, "We should still wake them up. We'll need them to help us fight."

Squall nods, and together the two turn back the way they came and dash away. Selphie trots after them. After all, if they're going to try to wake her up, she wants to be there, just in case she's needed. What if they can't wake her up because her ghost is somewhere else?

(That'd be terrible!)

But then she slows down and stops. She realizes that—as long as she can teleport to a particular person—then she should be able to find Ciel just by thinking about it. Wouldn't Irvine and the others be surprised if Selphie woke up already knowing where Ciel was? They never expected her to do anything clever. Grinning to herself, she closes her eyes.

(Gotta think.)

(Think about Ciel.)

She remembers that Ciel was the leader of Forest Wolf, and the person who assassinated General Caraway. Selphie had only caught a brief glimpse of her during the assassination—while Ciel was fighting her way out of the mansion—but the memory is vivid enough for her to be able to picture her face.

As her memory fills in details of Ciel's description, the world blurs. Selphie yelps and pulls her hands up towards her chest, like she had touched something hot. The scenery quickly comes back into focus, and Selphie is still in Esthar, on one of the blue glass skyways, but in a totally different spot.

She finds herself amid a cluster of people. She immediately recognizes Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin. Ciel is standing there as well, and together the four of them are standing in a diamond formation, fighting off a pack of Esthar soldiers. The soldiers come in waves from the front and the back, kneeling down, firing their weapons, and gradually approaching. It seems that for every step of progress they gain, Seifer and the others manage to beat them back an equivalent amount.

It's only after a few seconds that Selphie realizes that she's standing atop a giant robotic spider. She yelps in surprise when she figures this out. The memory of her Field Exam returns to her, and the giant robot that chased her, Squall, and Zell all through Dollet and back to the beach.

Right now, the spider is stationary, apparently on some sort of auto-pilot. It makes minor adjustments, choosing targets and firing a spray of hot lead towards them. The Esthar soldiers try to fight back, but they are seriously outmatched by the Black Widow.

But then, Ciel drops to her knees, clutching her head. Without her magic holding off the Esthar bullets, Seifer and his friends are forced to duck down and use the Black Widow as shelter. Seifer hurls out a quick fire spell, hoping to break apart the Esthar line—and it works, for a moment. The soldiers dodge aside from the attack, then quickly reform the line and continue shooting. Fujin and Raijin jump off the Black Widow and take shelter behind its massive legs. Seifer curses and checks on Ciel.

"Now ain't the time for a migraine, Ciel!" Seifer yells.

A moment later, Ciel releases her head and stands up. She moves with a new purpose, her actions sleek and self-possessed. Instead of attacking the Esthar soldiers, she calmly hops down from atop the Black Widow, stepping openly into their line of their fire, and allows their bullets to bounce off an invisible shield she projects with one hand. The Esthar soldiers retreat slowly from the sorceress, continuing to fire.

Without warning, Ciel raises her other hand and creates a burst of wind from behind the cluster of soldiers. The soldiers are thrown forward and they land in a clumsy heap at Ciel's feet. She presses down with her magic, holding the soldiers flat against the smooth glass surface of the road. She smirks, bends over, and touches the nearest soldier on the back of the head.

"Serve," she says softly, and releases her hand. The soldier twitches and jerks for a moment, but then freezes.

"Yes, Ultimecia," the soldiers says. He gets to his feet and stands stock still, his hands on his rifle. Ciel continues to hold down the rest of soldiers with her magic and, one-by-one, she moves to each guard and repeats the same one-word command. All the soldiers respond with the same hollow, "Yes, Ultimecia," before falling in line with their brainwashed comrades.

(Creeeeeeepy.)

In less than a few minutes, all the soldiers are neutralized, either converted into willing and obedient slaves to Ultimecia's will or murdered and discarded. Then, Ciel—or Ultimecia, more accurately—turns to Seifer, who still stands atop his Black Widow, and smiles at him.

"Now," Ciel says, in the familiar, dark tones of Ultimecia, "We march to the Lunatic Pandora."

She points to the center of the city, where the hulking obelisk stands watch above the Presidential Palace. She climbs atop the Black Widow, standing next to Seifer. A half-mad grin stretches across Seifer's face as he pulls out a remote control from inside his trench coat and stabs a few buttons and levers, urging the giant mechanical spider to march forward.

Its heavy four legs spear into the glass skyway, leaving cracks with every step. The brainwashed soldiers fell in line behind the hulking machine, with Fujin and Raijin standing in the same spot and waiting.

"Hey, Seifer!" Raijin yells. Seifer, still grinning, glances over his shoulder. "I thought this was about Squall, ya know? Now ya suddenly wanna go back to there?" He points to the Lunatic Pandora.

"Squall will come after me," Seifer says. "If he's alive, he'll come to us."

Seifer refuses to say more. Raijin and Fujin exchange a confused glance, and Fujin sighs.

"WELL?" she says to her companion.

"I dunno," Raijin says. He scratches the back of his head and lowers his voice, so that Seifer can't hear. "It's this sorceress nonsense again, ya know? He's doin' that whole knight thing. I thought he was over that stuff."

"INCORRIGIBLE," Fujin says.

"No, I don't think he needs more encouragement, Fuge," Raijin says. Fujin frowns and kicks him in the shin. Raijin jumps back and yelps, holding his bruised leg with one hand.

"What was that for, Fuge?" he asks.

"VOCABULARY," Fujin says.

"Yeah, yeah," Raijin says. He sets his foot down gingerly. "If I wanted to learn a bunch'a big words, I'd've stayed in school, ya know?"

"FOLLOW?" Fujin asks.

"What else are we gonna do?" Raijin says. He sighs and looks to Seifer, who is getting further and further away. Luckily, the Black Widow is traveling at a walking speed, so the two know that they have plenty of time to catch up. "The real Seifer's still in there, somewhere. We just gotta bring him out."

"AGGRAVATING," Fujin says.

"Yeah," Raijin replies. "I'm gettin' pretty sick of this too."

And with that, the two begin to jog after the third member of their posse.

(Well, I know where they are…)

Selphie stands on her tip toes and searches all around her, getting a feel for where she is in Esthar. To her, the whole city looks the same, but after a few moments, she manages to recognize a couple of landmarks. Tracing along those landmarks with the point of her finger, she eventually manages to find the general area where O Lab is located.

(Okay.)

(I'm pretty sure I can find my way back here.)

She looks back to Seifer and the others. Between them and the Pandora is a large network of interconnected skyways, a massive interchange that would probably be clogged with traffic if the city wasn't currently under attack. Judging by the speed of the Black Widow, Selphie guesses that it'll still take Seifer and his posse a few minutes to get there.

(If I can get back to my body and then back here…)

(… We can cut them off.)

With that, she closes her eyes and thinks of Irvine again. His image jumps eagerly to her mind, and the world blurs.

When she opens her eyes again, she is once more standing inside O Lab. The two boys have already returned and have moved the three unconscious women to a relatively clean and undamaged section of the lab, propping them up against a wall with Rinoa's head resting on a cabinet, Selphie's head resting on Rinoa's shoulder, and Ellone's head resting on Selphie's shoulder. Selphie smiles.

(Aw… looks kinda sweet.)

(Except for all the blood everywhere.)

"LOOK WHAT YOU IDIOTS HAVE DONE!" Odine screams at them. He's bleeding from a head wound and his billowing clothes are ripped and torn. "A thousand hours of research, gone! Dozens of experiments, ruined! World's best laboratory, DESTROYED! It iz your fault! Odine demands payment! Odine demands judgment!"

"Bill us," Irvine says, standing up. He turns to Squall. "Got any bright ideas?"

Squall shrugs and looks down at Rinoa's sleeping face. "We'll think of something."

Selphie straights up and stands beside Irvine—although Irvine is completely oblivious to her presence. She presses her hand to her chin and stares down at herself, contemplating the problem along with the two boys.

(Wonder how I can wake up?)

"Oh, good, you're here," Rinoa says.

Selphie yelps and jumps.

"JEEZ, Rinoa," Selphie says, spinning around. "Don't sneak up on people!"

"Sorry, sorry," Rinoa says. She smiles and holds up both hands. "I just arrived here myself a few seconds ago."

"So what's goin' on?" Selphie asks. "Are we… dead? We don't look dead. I mean, we're still breathing. Are we… zombies, maybe?"

(I think I'd be okay with being a zombie.)

"No, no," Rinoa says. "Irvine did something with the Odine Ring, and it kinda… kicked us out into time compression. At least, that's what I think happened. I'm not sure."
"So what's been happenin' lately? I don't really remember anything," Selphie says. "Not since back in Garden."

"I'll fill you in later," Rinoa says. "First, let's get out of here. The boys look confused, and I'm worried that if we stay here too long, they'll do something drastic."

"You know a way out?" Selphie asks.

"Yeah," Rinoa says. "Squall was trapped in time compression during his coma, just like we are now. All we gotta do is link up with a Guardian Force and then use it to reconnect to our bodies. That's what Squall did, if I remember right."

"Oh…" Selphie says. "But, you don't junction anymore, right?"

"Right," Rinoa says. "That's why I'm glad you're here. I think I can just link up to yours. It should work… I hope."

"If you say so," Selphie says.

(Not like I have a better idea.)

"Come on," Rinoa says. She moves over to her own unconscious body and kneels down. Selphie steps beside her. Rinoa reaches out a hand and grasps Selphie's wrist. Selphie is surprised at the contact. It's the first time she's been able to physically interact with anything since waking up.

"Here goes," Rinoa says. She reaches out with her other hand and—while still holding tight to Selphie—touches her unconscious body's cheek. In an instant, the Rinoa trapped within time compression vanishes, and the sleeping form of Rinoa snaps awake. Squall jumps and Irvine stumbles backwards into a table.

"Didn't mean to scare you," Rinoa says with a laugh.

"Jeez!" Irvine said. "Ain't polite to scare people, you know."

"Rinoa!" Squall says. "What? How?" He kneels down beside her and places an arm on her shoulder, looking her up and down.

"Same thing that happened to you, basically," Rinoa says. "It just took me a while because I had to find Selphie and use her GF to come back."

"Selphie?" Irvine says, perking up like a dog that's been promised a treat. "Selphie's in there too?"

"Yeah, give her a sec," Rinoa says.

(Oh, right.)

(I gotta go next.)

"Here goes nothin'," Selphie says. She kneels down beside herself, concentrates on her GF, and reaches forward to touch her face. As soon as her fingertips brush along her skin—

—Her eyes snapped open.

"Alright!" Selphie said, looking up at Irvine and Squall. "I am VERY confused and I want a LOT of explanations!"

"Selphie!" Irvine said, kneeling down and hugging her. The warmth of his body and the closeness of his skin ignite a series of emotions within her. Her eyes widen.

"GRK!" Selphie said, feeling her shoulders and body get squeezed. "Confusion… worsening."

"Sorry, sorry," Irvine said, pulling back Selphie to arm's length. "But you're alright! I kinda thought I killed you for a second there."

"Nah," Selphie said, trying to act casual. "Just spent some time as a ghost for a while. No biggie."

"And Sis?" Squall asked, turning away from Rinoa. "Is she there with you too?"

Rinoa and Selphie exchanged a glance.

"I didn't see her," Selphie said.

"Neither did I," Rinoa said.

Squall's expression darkened. He turned away and looked at the floor.

"Well, we have two choices," he said. "We can either stay here and try to wake up Ellone, or we can chase after Ciel right away."

"OOH! OHHHH!" Selphie said, raising her hand. "I know where Ciel is!"

"You do?" Squall asked. "How?"

(Ha! I knew he wouldn't expect me to know stuff!)

"I had ghost powers," Selphie said. "Duh."

She quickly described everything she had seen concerning Seifer and Ciel, including their current location and the fact that they were heading for the Pandora.

Squall narrowed his eyes. "Then Ultimecia has already taken her."

"Damn," Irvine said.

"And Seifer's back too," Rinoa said.

"How'd he get into Esthar?" Irvine asked. "Didn't Sis say that he was out in the Great Salt Lake somewhere?"

"It doesn't matter how he did it," Squall said. "What matters is how we stop them from getting any further."

"Well, Sis can just knock out Ciel, right?" Irvine asked. "All we gotta do is wake her up."

"But that's the problem," Squall said. "Selphie and Rinoa woke themselves up without any help from us. If Ellone doesn't know how to—or, for some reason can't—wake herself up, then we're in trouble. If Ultimecia is going straight to the Pandora, she'll be there soon. We have to wake up Sis within the next couple of minutes, or else we won't stand a chance of stopping Ultimecia."

"But what's keepin' Sis?" Irvine asked. "I mean, Rinoa and Selphie woke themselves up just fine. Why hasn't Sis followed right after them?"

"She needs a Guardian Force to connect her to her body," Squall said. "Sis doesn't junction, so she can't get out the same way that they did."

"But didn't Piet say that Ellone has the same energy as a GF?" Rinoa asked. "So shouldn't that mean that she doesn't need a GF to come back?"

Squall shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe it's different with her. Or maybe she's lost and can't find her way back here. I know I was stuck in the void for a long time before I found my way back to the present. It could be the same with her."

"What if we give her one of our GFs?" Selphie asked. "I can loan her mine for a little bit."

"She has to be awake to accept the Guardian Force, remember?" Squall said. "She has to consciously junction with it in order to use it. Trying to give her the GF now would store it inside her body, but it wouldn't form a proper connection with her mind."

(Ohhhhh, yeah.)

(That's what they said at school…)

"Right…" Selphie said. She looked down at the floor, sheepishly. "Forget I said anything."

"What about the ring?" Irvine asked. "The Odine Ring put her under in the first place. Maybe it can wake her back up?"

Squall frowned and shook his head. "We can try, but I think it'll be the same problem: Sis won't be able to use the ring unless she's awake."

"It's worth a shot," Irvine said. He knelt down beside Ellone and pulled the small ring out of his pocket. He grasped one of Ellone's hands, splayed her fingers apart, and set the ring on her index finger. He released her hand, placing it down on her lap and waited. There was no response, or any sign that anything was happening. After a moment, he took the ring off her finger and sighed, disappointed.

"I can try something," Rinoa said. "Here, let me get closer."

Irvine shuffled to the side to allow Rinoa to crouch down beside him. She closed her eyes and focused, laying her hands down on Ellone's shoulders. There was a distinct hum in the air as Rinoa focused her energy, transferring her magic into Ellone. Selphie couldn't see anything happening, but she could feel the waves of Rinoa's power flowing through Ellone's body.

"It won't work," Odine said from across the room. Selphie scrambled to her feet, shocked at his rudeness.

"Hey!" Selphie said. "Don't be such a downer!"

She pointed her finger at him and scowled. Odine shook his head and, using a clean white handkerchief, dabbed away some of the blood from around his forehead. One of his aides approached him and gently took away the handkerchief, then continued dabbing away at the blood on the doctor's face. Odine turned to look at Selphie and the others with his small, beady eyes.

"Won't work," Odine said with a shrug. "Ze girl's mind iz untethered from time. Sorceress magic cannot bring her back."

"Then what can?" Irvine asked. "We ain't got a lot of time here, Doc, so give us the answers or leave us the hell alone."

Odine curled his upper lip. "Again with ze impatience. Again with ze demands. You children do not change, nor do you learn."

"Ultimecia's gonna destroy the world in a few minutes if we don't stop her," Irvine said. "So hurry up and talk!"

"Talking vill change nothing," Odine said. "I vill wake up ze girl. Leave her here with me. Ze Great Odine can fix this."

Irvine, Selphie, and Squall exchanged worried glances. Selphie looked down at Rinoa, who was still desperately working on Ellone, but showing no progress. Selphie didn't have any great ideas, and it didn't seem like Irvine or Squall did either.

(Maybe we gotta trust Odine.)

"Are you sure you can help her?" Squall asked.

"Ze girl needs a link to this moment," Odine said. "Something strong to connect her to now, you see? I have several theories as to how this can be done."

"Theories ain't good enough!" Irvine said.

Squall reached out a hand and gripped Irvine's shoulder.

"It's all we got right now," Squall said. "I don't have any ideas right now. And we can't take Sis along with us if we go fight Ultimecia. So leaving her here is probably our best bet anyway."

Odine nodded. "Yes. Perhaps you children can be taught. Yes, yes."

His grin widened, becoming almost twisted. Something about him reminded Selphie of old movies with mad scientists conducting bizarre and unethical experiments.

"I don't like the way he keeps sayin' 'yes,'" Selphie said. "It's creepy."

"We don't have any more time to lose," Squall said. "Dr. Odine, I'll leave Ellone with you. Wake her up as soon as possible, and tell her that she needs to forge a link with Ciel right away. Can you do that?"

Odine looked smug. "Yes, Odine can do that."

"The rest of us," Squall said, turning to the others, "We have to try to stop Ultimecia. Or at least slow her down enough for Odine to wake up Sis. Is everyone ready?"

Irvine pulled out his shotgun and nodded. "Ready."

"I'm ready!" Selphie said, pumping her fist in the air. Her fist suddenly felt empty, and she realized that her nunchaku were missing. She frowned, trying to remember where she'd last seen them, then sighed, realizing that she probably had lost them somewhere.

Rinoa released her magic, standing up and taking a step away from Ellone.

"I've tried everything I can think of," Rinoa said. "I guess we have no choice but to fight."

Squall nodded. "Then let's go."

He rested his hand on his gunblade and spun around, dashing out of the ruined laboratory and into the hallway. Rinoa, Irvine, and Selphie followed behind. Squall went through the sliding doors, emerging out into the city of Esthar. The sounds of battle rumbled from the west like thunder. Missiles streaked across the sky from the north, arcing down towards the city. None made it as far south as O Lab, meaning that they were safe from missiles for the moment.

"Selphie!" Squall said, spinning around to face her. Selphie stopped running. "You said you saw where Ciel is?"

"Uh huh," Selphie said, nodding. "They were headin' towards this big intersection on the skyway. There were like, five or six big roads all meeting in one spot. They were kinda close to the Pandora."

Selphie moved past him and walked to the edge of the skyway, were there were giant red tubes running alongside the skyway to quickly transport pedestrians. The hovering platforms were deactivated, and a small glowing sign indicated that all the lifts had been shut down due to emergency.

She climbed atop one of the red tubes and began tracing a path of landmarks back towards where she remembered seeing Ciel and the others. She found a familiar building, then an odd platform, moving her way steadily eastward until she found the intersection. She could see a giant black dot surrounded by smaller dots around it—which she assumed was Black Widow and the others.

Selphie bounced on her toes and pointed this spot out.

"They're over there!" she said, still pointing.

"Then let's go," Squall said. He took off running.

"Hey, hey, hey," Irvine said, running after him. "You seriously plannin' on runnin' the whole way after her?"

Squall slowed to a stop. "You're right. We should get a car."

"From where?" Rinoa asked. She opened her hands and gestured around the skyway, then down at the city streets below. "All the cars are gone. And I don't think the rent-a-car services are going to be open in the middle of a war."

Squall crossed his arms. "Maybe Odine has a car? There has to be something we can take."

"We can fly," Selphie said.

Rinoa looked at her skeptically. "I'm getting better at controlling my wind magic, but I don't trust it enough to try flying just yet. Not for any long distance anyway."

"No, no, no," Selphie said. "I mean fly on Diablos, Irvy's GF."

There was a moment while everyone considered this. At first, Selphie thought that they were going to ignore her suggestion, but as the seconds ticked by and no one raised any objections, she began to realize that maybe she had come up with a good idea.

Squall looked at her. "I think it'll work. It worked with Bahamut, so I don't see any reason why not."

"WOO!" Selphie said. "C'mere, Irvine. I need to borrow your GF."

Irvine seemed uncomfortable with the idea. "I hope this works."

"Psh, it'll be fine," Selphie said. "How hard can it be?"

Selphie reached forward with her hands, lacing her fingers between Irvine's and forming a circle with their hands. This way, Selphie could swap her GF with Irvine's simultaneously without creating any problems with the connections. When they were both set, they closed their eyes and concentrated.

She disengaged the connection with Shiva, instantly feeling her body grow heavier and weaker without her junctions boosting her abilities. At the same time, Irvine broke his own connection with Diablos. Selphie pushed forward Shiva's icy energy through her left arm—feeling it travel down her fingers like cool water—while accepting the power of Diablos with her right.

The basic elements of the new GF were the same—enhanced strength, agility, and durability—but Selphie was intensely aware of Diablos' different personality, different disposition. Whereas Shiva felt cold and solid, Diablos felt both crushing and oddly vacant, like being smashed to bits in an empty, dark room. Selphie didn't enjoy the feeling and was eager to get this over with and recover her old GF.

She unlaced her fingers from Irvine's and turned around.

"Alright, I'm ready," Selphie said.

"Before we go," Squall said. He turned to Irvine. "You still got the ring, right?"

"Yeah," Irvine said. He pulled it out of his pocket and held it in the palm of his hand. "Right here."

"Give it to Rinoa," Squall said. "She can use it to keep Ultimecia away from her."

"And, uh, what about Selphie?" Irvine asked, handing the ring to Rinoa.

"Yeah, what about me?" Selphie asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Put yourself to sleep," Squall said. "Take off your sleep junctions and knock yourself out. As long as you and Ciel are both asleep and Rinoa has the ring, then Ultimecia won't be able to possess anyone in Esthar. No sorceresses, anyway."

"But what if she possesses Tomomi?" Selphie asked. "Or someone else we don't know about?"

Squall shook his head. "Nothing we can do about that. At least, if she possesses Tomomi, she'll be somewhere far away from Esthar. It'll buy us more time to help Esthar defend against Galbadia and get a chance to wake up Sis. Now, if there's no more questions, let's go."

Selphie frowned.

(But…Tomomi.)

She sighed. Her friend was far away now—too far to warn her or protect her. And like Squall said, they had to stop or delay Ultimecia at any cost. There was no choice.

Before Selphie could call up Diablos, Rinoa shook her head and approached Selphie. She held out her hand with the ring, offering it to Selphie. "You should have the ring," she said.

Squall stepped forward and put a hand on Rinoa's arm. "You're the one who knows how to use it," he said. "It should stay with you."

"It's not hard to use it," Rinoa said. She dropped the ring in Selphie's hand. "Just think of a memory, and focus on the ring. It's easy."

"Okay, gotcha," Selphie said. She closed her fingers around the ring, then stuck it in her pocket. Rinoa turned back to Squall.

"I don't junction, so it'd be easier for me to knock myself out with a sleep spell," Rinoa said. "Plus, I think it'd be more dangerous if Ultimecia possessed Selphie than if she possessed me."

Squall stared at her for several long seconds, obviously no pleased with her logic. But then he grimaced and turned around. "Fine. Let's go," he said.

"Alright!" Selphie said. She closed her eyes and focused on the GF inside her.

The summoning process was always the same, regardless of the Guardian Force. She focused on the energy inside her, visualized it, and called for it to make itself manifest in the world. But Diablos was an old and stubborn GF, and it had become accustomed to Irvine. Having a new master seemed to upset the GF, and it was slow to answer her call.

(Come on, come on…)

"… Well?" Irvine asked.

"Give it a minute!" Selphie said, still focusing.

Gradually, the energies that composed Diablos began to form together, creating a dark cloud in the sky. For a moment, Selphie wondered if this huge cloud would give them away to Seifer and the others, or maybe it would draw the attention of the Galbadian missiles. But she realized that it was too late to worry about that now, so she continued pouring her concentration into the summoning until the cloud burst, releasing the black-and-red demon Diablos into the world.

With her sorceress powers, she forged a weak link with the GF, ordering it to fly down to the skyway. It obeyed, kicking up massive gusts of wind with each flap of its broad wings. It landed almost soundlessly on the skyway, then straightened up to its full height—not quite twice as tall as Selphie. Its thick leathery skin was drawn tight over well-defined muscles. Its fingers ended in claws as long and as sharp as its teeth. It stared down at the group with violent, glowing eyes.

"All aboard!" Selphie said. She dashed around the creature, ducking under its wing, and then hopped on its back, throwing her arms around the GF's neck. Once she was physically touching Diablos, she was able to enhance their bond and increase the strength of their connection. She could feel Diablos subtlety trying to resist her will. She slapped it gently on the shoulder, admonishing it.

"You behave!" she said to Diablos. She could feel a low rumble emerge from its chest in response.

Irvine climbed up beside her, his shotgun tucked in his trench coat, his hands gripping the beast's muscled shoulder, and his feet planted unsteadily on Diablos' hip. It was a bit precarious, but Irvine seemed to have enough of a hold to manage.

"Can we all fit?" Rinoa asked.

"He's got two hands, doesn't he?" Selphie asked.

She put forth a little bit of willpower, ordering Diablos to extend his hands in the closest approximation to a friendly wave that a demon could make. Rinoa hesitated, but Squall sighed and stepped forward. Selphie had Diablos scoop him up in one hand and cradle him in the crook of his elbow like a baby. Squall shifted upright, sitting on Diablos' forearm, which was a slightly more dignified pose. Rinoa climbed up on the other side opposite to Squall and allowed herself to be wrapped in Diablos' tight, one-armed embrace.

"And we're off!" Selphie said. She used her energy to guide Diablos up and off the ground. The GF bent its knees and leapt into the air. Irvine yelped at the sudden acceleration and gripped tighter around Diablos' neck and shoulders. A few seconds later, Diablos began furiously flapping its wings, gaining altitude with each thrust.

The city spread out beneath them, glittering in the late day sun. Selphie could see the missiles continuing to rain down from the north, constantly harassing the Esthar defense. Esthar had managed to compensate for this attack by shifting more of their defenses that way, which kept more of the missiles from hitting their targets.

But being divided on two fronts weakened the Esthar lines, and the Galbadians in the west were able to push further into Esthar, making gains and breaking through fortified locations faster and easier. It was clear now that Esthar was losing this fight. It wouldn't be long before the whole army collapsed and the city fell to the Galbadians.

(We gotta hurry.)

Squall grimaced. He spoke, his voice barely audible above the rush of wind and the movement of Diablos' wings. "Even if we stop Ultimecia, we still can't stop Galbadia."

No one said anything for the next few seconds. Finally, Selphie said, "Well, we gotta try anyway, right?"

Squall didn't answer.

(I guess he's lost in thought again…)

She turned her attention back on flying towards their destination. High above the city, it was easier to spot the distant intersection of skyways where she had last seen Seifer and the others. It was much closer than she thought—or maybe that was just because Diablos was moving so quickly. She began to urge the GF to descend, drawing closer and closer. As they neared the skyways, details became more obvious. She could see Seifer and Ciel, along with Fujin and Raijin, standing atop the giant Black Widow. Around them was a squad of a dozen or more Esthar soldiers, jogging to keep up with the Black Widow.

Selphie looked down the skyway, following it as it traveled to the Pandora. She saw no other guards, no defenses, nothing to stop Ultimecia from calmly walking to the Lunatic Pandora and ending the world.

(Nothing but us.)

"That's an X-ATM092," Irvine said, pointing at the large robotic spider. "The G-Soldiers call them 'Black Widows' 'cause they look like spiders and are one of the deadliest machines ever made."

"I know," Selphie said. "We fought one of 'em before."

Irvine stumbled on his words. He blinked and looked at her. "I… what? And you lived?"

"Yup," Selphie said. "Me, Zell, and Squall fought one on our Field Exam."

"And somehow you're not dead?" Irvine asked, still in shock. "Selphie, seriously, those things are murder machines. And you're sayin' you fought one before you were even a SeeD? That's unbelievable."

Selphie shrugged. "It's true. Ask Squall."

"It's true," Squall said dispassionately, before Irvine could even ask the question.

"Well, what did you do to beat the last one?" Irvine asked.

"We ran away," Selphie said. "Knocked it down and ran like crazy."

"Hey, you said you beat it!" Irvine said.

"No," Selphie corrected. "I said I fought it. We never did finish it off. At least, not until Quistis blasted it apart with a gatling gun."

"I don't suppose you have another gatling gun handy?" Irvine asked.

"NNnnope," Selphie said.

"Well then," Irvine said. With one hand on Diablos' shoulder, he pulled out his shotgun. "I guess I'll have to be the team's gatling gun for today."

"Can you shoot it from this distance?" Squall asked.

"Not likely," Irvine said. He wrapped his arm around Selphie's arm, forming an anchor so he could use both hands to load a round of pulse ammo into his shotgun. "'Specially not when we're flyin' around like crazy."

"If you don't like my flying," Selphie said, "Then you can walk the rest of the way."

"It's not you, it's Diablos," Irvine said. "He lurches every time he flaps. It's like being in a small boat in the middle of a storm."

Selphie could have sworn she felt Diablos react negatively to Irvine's criticism, but it may have been her imagination.

"Take your shot when you're ready," Squall said. "Then—hit or miss—Rinoa and I will go down and attack. You two fly around to the back and try to flank them. Attack from both sides. You understand?"

"Gotcha," Selphie said. She put energy into Diablos to make it hover in the air, trying to stay as steady as possible without falling out of the sky. It was a difficult balance to maintain. Irvine did his best to raise his shotgun to his shoulder and look down the sights while still keeping a grip on Selphie, but it was clear that he was not in the best shooting position.

(He's gonna miss, isn't he?)

Selphie focused on Diablos, concentrating on timing his wing beats so that they followed a rhythm that Irvine could predict. After a few seconds, Irvine's finger rested on the trigger of his gun and then he fired.

A blue streak erupted from the barrel of his gun and pierced through the skyway below, tearing a hole big enough for Selphie to crawl through. Seifer, Ciel, and the others stopped and looked up. None of them had been harmed. Irvine cursed.

(Aaaand he missed.)

"Let's go, Rinoa!" Squall said. He pulled himself free of Diablos' grasp and hurled himself into the open air. Rinoa did the same and plunged after him, creating a vortex of wind around them that simultaneously slowed their descent and guided their fall.

The Esthar soldiers on the skyway dropped to their knees and raised their guns to their shoulders and began to fire. Bullets whipped past Selphie and blasted off into the sky.

"Ack!" Selphie yelped. She commanded Diablos to spin and dive, dodging away from the attack. Irvine yelped and nearly dropped his shotgun as they plummeted nearly two stories straight down. Diablos' wings unfurled, stopping their fall. A lucky bullet caught Diablos on the wing, but the tough hide absorbed the attack. Selphie knew that she and Irvine weren't so durable as the GF, so she kept on the move, circling around to keep ahead of the bullets.

"Hold it steady, Selph!" Irvine said, struggling to load another round into his shotgun.

"If I stop we'll get blasted!" Selphie said and kept moving.

Down below, Rinoa and Squall landed on the skyway a few dozen paces ahead of the Black Widow, blocking the group from advancing towards the Pandora.

There was no conversation, no threats, no warnings. As soon as Squall and Rinoa had their feet down, exactly half of the Esthar soldiers turned their rifles away from Diablos and opened fire on the pair, filling the air with the reports of gunfire. Rinoa raised both hands and splayed her fingers out before her, creating a shield that deflected the bullets away from them.

Immediately after, Ciel stood up atop the Black Widow and thrust her fist forward, shooting out an arcing beam of lightning that leapt from her hand into Rinoa's shield. Rinoa winced and turned her head, but kept her arms up and the shield steady. Squall stood beside her and answered the attack with a lightning spell of his own—thin and weak compared to Ciel's, but enough to draw Seifer and the others into the fight. Seifer and his posse dropped off the Black Widow and spread out across the road, using fire, wind, and lightning to strike back.

Rinoa did her best to hold her ground, but it was clear that the bullets, the sorceress, and the three ex-SeeDs were too much for her to defend for long.

(We gotta help.)

With half of the Esthar soldiers focusing on Rinoa and Squall, there were fewer left to harass Selphie. She ordered Diablos to hover high and behind the group, then she drew out his energy for an attack. Bullets continued to zip past her—some coming frighteningly close to hitting her—but she held still and concentrated.

She closed her eyes and focused, pouring some of her own energy into the attack as Diablos held steady in the air. The giant demon began summoning an orb of pure black energy that grew and grew, filling with black whorls and archaic symbols. The orb continued to increase in size until it was larger than Diablos itself. Then the demon reached out a clawed hand and grabbed the orb, its fingers sinking into the void as if it was made of water. Diablos arched its back and threw the massive sphere down upon its enemies, threatening to crush them instantly.

Ciel turned and looked up just a moment before the attack struck her. Selphie saw a flash of white emerge around Ciel and the Black Widow—but too late. The sphere engulfed the entire group, burying them and crushing them under the weight of Diablos' magic.

"Got 'em!" Selphie said.

The sphere held in place atop the skyway, unreadable symbols dancing in a circle along its topmost side. Squall and Rinoa stood back, just out of range of the attack, and watched.

After a few seconds, the energy dissipated, revealing Ciel—along with Seifer and his posse—cowering under a protective shield that Ciel had created. They, as well as the Black Widow, had survived the attack. The Esthar soldiers had been too far away from the Black Widow to be shielded by Ciel's magic, and nothing remained of them. But Ciel, Seifer, Raijin, and Fujin were not only alive, they were totally unharmed.

"Oh, come on!" Selphie said. "That was a direct hit!"

"It ain't ever that easy, Selphie," Irvine said. He raised his shotgun to his shoulder and fired. The shot went wide again, blowing open another hole near the Black Widow's massive leg. Irvine cursed and loaded another round.

Rinoa and Squall charged forward. No longer held down by the suppressing fire of the Esthar soldiers, Rinoa could advance with less opposition. Fujin and Raijin resumed attacking—joined by Ciel, who launched repeated lightning strikes against Rinoa's shield—but the fighting was a bit more even now, and Rinoa was holding her ground better than she had been before.

(Well, at least we're makin' progress.)

Seifer, meanwhile, diverted his attention from the fight and pulled out a large remote control from inside his trench coat. He furiously stabbed a couple of buttons, and the Black Widow stirred. Small ports in its back and sides opened up, and a salvo of two dozen small missiles burst out in every direction, spraying out contrails of white smoke behind them as they arced upwards and focused directly on Selphie.

"Ahh!" Selphie said. She didn't know if she could summon a shield strong enough to withstand the force of all those missiles, so she chose to evade instead. Once again, she curled up Diablos' wings and she and Irvine plummeted straight down for several stories.

Selphie pulled out of the dive and checked the sky for the missiles. The missiles had not been fooled by this simple maneuver. They circled around, adjusting their course, and were now back on Diablos' tail and gaining fast.

(They don't give up!)

Irvine jammed a shell into his shotgun and fired. It was a regular shotgun shell, but the scatter shot proved effective, hitting a few of the missiles and causing them to explode midair. But the rest continued on towards their targets. Irvine tried to cram another shell into his barrel, but Selphie dropped into another dive and the shell slipped out of his fingers and floated away into the air.

The first missile caught Diablos in the leg while Selphie was still diving. The explosion rocked Selphie's mind, disorienting her and filling her head with heat and noise. Diablos spun wildly out of control, twitching and jerking to regain its balance. But then the second missile hit, and then the third and fourth. Diablos' tough hide and large, leathery wings absorbed the worst of the blasts, but even it couldn't withstand this assault for long.

Unable to focus on anything else, Selphie closed her eyes and concentrated, enveloping Irvine and herself in the best shield she could manage under the circumstances while the rest of the missiles continued to explode all around her. She could feel the pressure from the blasts slamming into her magic shield, but she held firm and kept herself and Irvine safe.

But Diablos could not bear the attack. When the last missile struck it in the chest, the Guardian Force gave out a weak roar and began to dissolve into particles. Selphie felt her arm plunge through Diablos' neck as the GF faded from existence. A second later, she was gripping nothing but air and she and Irvine fell down the skyways below.

A gust of wind came from below, cushioning their fall and guiding them to the skyway. Selphie and Irvine hit the cold, hard glass and rolled. Selphie, dizzy and confused, pushed herself up on her elbows and looked ahead.

Rinoa stood on the far side of the Black Widow, her hands still stretched out, the last remnants of her wind spell fading out. Ciel took this moment of distraction for her advantage and lunged out with another vicious lightning spell. Rinoa recoiled a step, holding up her arms and recreating her shield, while Squall continued to duel with magic against Fujin and Raijin. Seifer had turned his attention back to Squall and Rinoa, adding his own fire magic to the attack. At the moment, no one was looking at Selphie and Irvine.

(I need a GF so I can fight!)

"Psst!" Selphie hissed to Irvine. "Irvy! Gimme back Shiva!"

Irvine groaned, but complied. He crawled over to Selphie and the two linked hands again. The process was a little quicker now, as both of them hurried to complete the transfer before Ciel or anyone else took notice of them. The familiar, comforting coolness of Shiva flooded into Selphie's arm, filling her with strength and confidence. Once the exchange was complete, she hopped up onto her feet.

With a grunt of effort, she thrust forth both her hands and fired out a wave of ice from her fingers. The chilled air froze the surface of the skyway and turned the moisture in the air into snow crystals. Just before the attack reached the group, Ciel turned around and, with her one free hand, created a shield to deflect the magic.

"COME ON!" Selphie yelled through clenched teeth. Somehow Ciel was able to split her attention—defending against Selphie while still attacking Rinoa. Maybe that was a trick that Ultimecia knew. Whatever the case, Selphie's attack was effectively neutralized.

"You're cheating!" Selphie yelled.

Ciel jumped down from the top of the Black Widow, leaving only Seifer still atop the machine. Selphie continued to pour energy into her blizzard attack, hoping that Ciel would be forced to give up her attack on Rinoa. Her plan was working so far. The more energy Selphie put into her attack, the more Ciel had to withdraw from attacking and focus on defense. As such, Rinoa was able to gain a few strides forward, pushing back against Ciel's magic and allowing Squall to get closer to the Black Widow.

Then Seifer stabbed a button on the Black Widow and it leapt straight up in the air. Selphie tracked its arc as it traveled high above her and Irvine and then landed behind them with a deafening crunch. The skyway cracked dangerously beneath its massive weight, but somehow held together.

Selphie abandoned her attack on Ciel and spun around. Seifer grinned smugly down at Selphie and stabbed a command into the controls. The gatling gun mounted on the front of the machine began to spin. Selphie stared down the dark barrels of the weapon, then pushed forward with both her hands and sent out a concentrated blast of ice at the gun. The ice formed a thick layer around the machinery, keeping the gatling gun from spinning or firing, and filling each of the barrels with ice.

Seifer cursed and pushed hard forward on a joystick, causing the spider to race towards Selphie and Irvine. Irvine had just gotten to his feet and began reloading another shell into his gun. Selphie focused her energy again and sent out another blast of ice, but Seifer mashed a button, causing the spider to leap straight up in the air again. Selphie chased upwards after the spider, still attacking, filling the sky with ice and snow that fell down around her in cool sheets of white.

The spider landed on a skyway that crossed perpendicular above Selphie and Irvine. The skyway was too high up for Selphie to reach on her own. The ice magic warmed up into nothingness by the time it got that high.

"Drat!" Selphie muttered.

(Shiva might be able to reach.)

Selphie closed her eyes, listening to the sound of battle behind her as Ciel and Rinoa continued to duel. She was aware of the intense urgency of the situation, and called desperately for Shiva to respond. She could feel the icy energy of the GF within her, as well as a touch of jealousy. Apparently, Shiva did not take kindly to being passed off to another person, even if it was only temporary.

(Get over it, Shiva!)

Nonetheless, Shiva answered the call in a matter of seconds, coalescing to form up beside Selphie, radiating waves of cold from her pale blue skin.

Before Selphie could attack, Irvine stepped forward and raised his shotgun. He fired a blast of armor piercing ammunition at the skyway above. The destructive bullet hit right where one of the Black Widow's feet met the road. The force of the bullet, combined with the heavy weight of the machine, shattered the skyway, triggering a chain reaction of destruction. As more and more of the skyway broke, more of the Black Widow dropped down, hitting the glass and breaking more and more loose. In less than a couple of seconds, the Black Widow broke clean through the skyway, falling straight down, heading towards Selphie and Irvine in a shower of glass.

"Gah!" Selphie yelped. She commanded Shiva to grab Irvine by the collar while she gripped the GF's waist and held on. Shiva held tight to Irvine's trench coat and dove forward as the massive weight of the Black Widow landed hard behind them, missing the three of them by a fraction. Glass sprayed up and lashed across Selphie's bare skin, opening up little cuts along her arms and neck.

Irvine wrenched himself free of Shiva's grip and brought up his shotgun again, unloading three quick shots at the Black Widow before it could recover. The bullets struck the machine's armor and bounced off harmlessly.

"Damn it," Irvine muttered. He broke open his shotgun and dumped the remaining rounds onto the skywalk, then began feeding in stronger rounds into the barrel.

Stunned, Seifer managed to get to his knees atop the machine and stab at the control panel again. The spider lurched drunkenly to its feet, its red eyes shining with mechanical indifference as it charged headlong towards Selphie and Irvine.

Selphie yelped and ordered Shiva to spray out a barrier of ice in a concentrated wave of frozen energy, hoping to freeze the machine in its tracks.

The cold seeped into the joints of the X-ATM092, making its next steps slower and slower as it fought to advance. Seifer's clothes became covered with a thick layer of frost, but his junctions saved him from being too harmed by the attack. After a few more faltering steps, the Black Widow froze completely in place, trapped in mid-stride with two legs in the air.

Unable to correct its balance, the Black Widow began to tip to the side. Seifer grabbed on desperately to the robot and grunted as the machine fell sideways. It hit the lip of the skyway and skidded, its top-heavy weight distribution pulling it over the edge. Seifer gave one final, furious yell, and then he and the machine pitched over the edge and fell to the city streets below.

Selphie tried to watch their descent to see where they were falling, but the skyway blocked her view. She could see part of what was happening through the blue glass of the skyway floor, but the image was distorted and vague. She saw the giant machine slam into the roof of a skyscraper, leaving a massive hole as it fell inside the building, but beyond that she couldn't tell what had happened.

Irvine faced Selphie. "Should we make sure he's finished?"
Selphie shook her head. "Not yet, we gotta help Squall and Rinoa."

"Alright," Irvine said. He finished loading a few more rounds into his shotgun, then cocked it. "But you know how Seifer has a tendency to always come back for seconds."

"I know, I know," Selphie said. She raced forward through the remnants of her frosty battle against Seifer and the Black Widow, with Irvine chasing after her and struggling not to slip on the ice.

Up ahead, the battle was still raging. Ciel stood in the middle of the road, firing blasts of lightning at Rinoa, who was struggling to hold her ground against the attacks.

Squall was no longer at her side. Instead, he was further back, using his gunblade to fend off the combined efforts of Fujin and Raijin, who had, at some point in the battle, gotten behind Rinoa and were attacking from the back. Raijin leapt at Squall, holding his staff in one hand like a spear, and thrust the end towards Squall's head. Squall blocked the attack aside with a swipe of his gunblade and countered with a slash. Raijin leapt back from the attack and stood beside Fujin.

Fujin glanced ahead towards Selphie and Irvine, her one eye surveying the scene. For a moment, Fujin and Selphie stared directly at each other. Then Fujin's eye fell on the broken glass and the ice—and the complete absence of Seifer and the Black Widow.

"Seifer," Fujin said. Without waiting for a response, Fujin jumped down to another skyway that ran below them, landing hard—but unharmed—on the glass. Unquestioningly, Raijin jumped down after her, and then the two ran off, scanning all around, looking for Seifer.

Irvine ran to the edge of the skyway and pointed his shotgun downward. He pumped off several rounds at Fujin and Raijin, forcing them to jump down again and land atop a nearby skyscraper to get out of range of Irvine's attack. When they were out of sight, Irvine pulled up his shotgun, reloaded it, and continued along with Selphie and Shiva.

(Three down, one to go.)

Selphie had Shiva come to a stop and raise both her hands again. She created a blizzard in front of her, coating the skyway in ice.

Ciel stopped her attack against Rinoa and spun around, using fire magic to counter the ice. The wave of cold swept around her on both sides. Squall swept his gunblade in a circle and charged forward. With Ciel distracted, Rinoa released her shield and blasted out a wave of white energy.

Ciel snarled as Rinoa's attack staggered her. With one hand, she continued to summon fire magic to deflect Shiva's wave of cold, and with the other she created a shield to defend herself from Rinoa. By that method, she managed to bring the battle to a standstill. But she could neither attack nor move, leaving her stuck in one spot.

Irvine raised his shotgun and took aim, but Squall was charging into his line of sight.

"Squall! Down!" Irvine shouted. Squall, years of training embedded in his reflexes, instantly dropped onto his stomach, but Irvine's call had also alerted Ciel to the danger. She glanced at Irvine and ducked, just as the bullet went soaring over her head. Irvine cursed and aimed lower, but Ciel dropped to her knees, making her vanish behind the white snowy wall of Shiva's ice attack. Irvine no longer had a clear shot.

"Selphie, ease up for a sec!" Irvine shouted.

"No," Selphie said. "She'll attack as soon as I let up."

Irvine cursed again and brought his shotgun down. He began scanning around, looking for a better angle to shoot from, but even if he dropped down to a lower level, he'd still had a difficult angle. With both Selphie and Rinoa focused on pinning Ciel down, that left Squall as the only option.

Squall must have realized this as well, because he quickly scrambled to his feet and charged forward. He raised his free hand into a fist, summoning up some kind of spell, and ran towards Ciel. When he was a few paces away from her, he hurled the spell. She had nowhere to run to dodge the attack and couldn't deflect it away without allowing the ice or white magic to break through her defenses. As such, her only choice was to accept the attack.

The sleep spell hit her square in the chest and—since Ciel had no junctions to protect her—took effect immediately. The magical energy seeped into her nose and mouth. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head, and her defenses dropped. Both Selphie and Rinoa ceased up their attacks, allowing Ciel to collapse, asleep, onto her back among the ice that surrounded her.

(Well, that was exciting…)

Squall, panting for breath, dropped down on his knees beside Ciel to check her condition. Then he glanced up at the others.

"Everyone okay?" Squall asked. Irvine and Selphie nodded. Rinoa ran up to Squall. "You know what to do," Squall said to her. Rinoa nodded and looked to Selphie.

"Remember," Rinoa said. "If you feel Ultimecia coming back, just put on the ring and think of a strong memory."

Selphie nodded. "Gotcha," she said.

Rinoa chewed her lip, then brought up both hands to her chest. She lowered herself to her knees, and then sat down. She focused her energy, called up a sleep spell, and allowed the cloudy white magic to enter in through her nose and her mouth. Her muscles relaxed and she collapsed backwards. Squall reached out and caught her before her head hit the skyway and cradled her in one arm. He sat, kneeling, in the skyway, Rinoa's long black hair billowing down his arm.

Several seconds passed, while everyone waited for something to happen. In the silence following the battle, Selphie was once again reminded of the distant battle in the west. When she focused on it, she could hear the sound of fighting still happening, and she could see missiles still launching from the north.

(Step one, complete.)

(Now for step two.)

"Well…" Selphie said. "It worked. We stopped Ultimecia."

"For now," Squall said. He looked down at Rinoa's sleeping face. "But stay alert. She could come for you at any moment."

"I know that," Selphie said. "I'm ready for—"

Just then she felt a familiar, queasy pang stab her between the eyes. She winced at first, then her eyes widened as she realized what it was.

(She's back!)

Selphie pulled the ring out of her pocket and then put it on. She was too flustered to think of a really good, really clear memory, so she instead just focused on the first things that came to mind.

For some reason, she thought of Matron. Matron how she used to be back in the orphanage. And how she was later on, when she became the Sorceress Edea, and was possessed by Ultimecia.

An alien presence invaded her mind, and everything went black.

A parade.

She's standing atop a massive float, which is controlled from below by a large car. Long wooden slats are beneath her feet, forming a sort of stage. At the back of the stage is a throne, currently empty. Ultimecia—in Edea's body—stands before the throne, dressed in her dark robe, her eyes cold and filled with malice.

(I remember this…)

As soon as she thinks this, Selphie corrects herself. Yes, she remembers the first battle against Ultimecia in Deling City, during the inauguration parade celebrating Edea's ascension to the position of Galbadian Ambassador. She remembers how she, Zell, and Quistis had almost gotten trapped in the sewers, which would have ruined the entire assassination attempt.

And she remembers seeing Irvine's bullet, streaking across the sky, only to strike uselessly against Edea's magical shield. After that, Squall attacked and defeated Seifer, and began to challenge Ultimecia before the rest of them caught up and joined him for the battle.

She remembers all this happening, but now that she thinks about it, she doesn't remember what happened after the fight. There's a blank spot in her memory, followed a little bit of fighting against G-Soldiers and then her waking up inside D-District Prison. She had always assumed that she had been struck during the fight and knocked unconscious, but now that she's watching the scene unfold again, she isn't so sure.

She stands watching, immobile, as Ultimecia creates several long ice spears above her head. They hover there, menacingly for a moment, pointed directly at Squall.

(Yeah… I totally don't remember this.)

The spears of ice shoot forward towards Squall. Most of them go wide of their target, shooting down the streets of Deling City—but one spear finds its mark. It lances clear through Squall's chest and emerges out his back, so quickly and so smoothly that it doesn't even draw blood. Squall staggers backwards a step and bends over, gazing with shock at the massive shard of ice piercing through his chest. Rinoa gasps, Irvine's jaw drops open, and Quistis is dumbfounded. Selphie's body does not react, apparently frozen in place, every muscle tense and locked.

(What? Squall… dies?)

(Or died?)

(What is this?)

(Why don't I remember this?)

Squall stumbles backwards and pitches off the front end of the float, falling down to the street below and out of sight. For a moment, Selphie is afraid that her meddling with the Odine Ring has somehow altered the past. That Squall was supposed to have dodged those spears, but by going back in time, Selphie has ensured that one of them struck him. Before she can figure out what to do, a terrifying voice booms within her head.

(ANOTHER RING?)

(OR… PERHAPS THE SAME RING USED TWICE?)

Rinoa rushes to the edge of the float and collapses on her hands and knees, peering over the side and shaking her head. Her mouth forms the word, "No," over and over.

"You can't help him!" Quistis says, grabbing Rinoa's arm and pulling her to her feet. "We have to fight!"

(Who are you?)

(Wait… Are you Ultimecia?)

"Selphie!" Irvine shouts. He raises his shotgun and aims it at Edea. "We gotta fight, Selph!"

Selphie wants to obey. She wants to fight back in this version of the past that she doesn't remember. But her body is still frozen, and her eyes stare dully into space, seeing everything, but not truly seeing anything.

(RELEASE CONTROL.)

(THE LEGENDARY SEED MUST PERISH.)

(The who?)

(I MUST FINISH WHAT I HAVE BEGUN.)

(Eh?)

"Selphie!" Irvine shouts. He fires his shotgun, but Edea bats aside the bullets with her hand as easily as swatting gnats. Quistis leaps forward and lashes out with her whip, aiming for Ultimecia's legs. The cord wraps around Edea's knee and Quistis pulls hard, throwing the sorceress off balance and pitching her onto her back.

(RELEASE CONTROL!)

(Why would I do that?)

(DO IT OR I WILL DESTROY YOU.)

(… Weren't you gonna do that anyway?)

There's a moment's pause. The voice in Selphie's head does not respond.

(Gotcha there, didn't I?)

Before Quistis and the others can capitalize on Ultimecia's prone position, a swarm of Galbadian soldiers come rushing through the barred gates and the front and back of the giant archway, brandishing swords. There are too many, dozens and dozens continue swarming in every second.

"We gotta get out of here!" Irvine yells. He lowers his shotgun and turns around.

(I CAN SPARE YOU.)

(THERE ARE WAYS I CAN KEEP YOU FROM HARM.)

(RELEASE CONTROL, AND YOU WILL SURVIVE.)

(… Just survival?)

(That's it?)

(C'mon… offer me money or somethin'.)

(Make it worthwhile at least.)

With a flick of her wrist, Quistis releases Edea's leg and turns around to face Selphie. She slaps her on the shoulder, trying to knock her out of her stupor, but it has no effect.

"Selphie, snap out of it!" Quistis yells.

(MONEY PALES IN VALUE NEXT TO THE PRICE OF LIFE.)

(What about a dragon?)

(Can you get me a dragon instead?)

"What's wrong with Selphie?" Irvine asks. He raises his shotgun to his shoulder and begins firing on the guards as they begin to climb up on top of the float.

"I don't know!" Quistis says. She calls forth fire magic and shoots it down at the advancing guards, setting two of them ablaze and scattering some of the others.

(A ruby dragon would be cool.)

(But I'm not picky.)

(A dragon is a dragon, after all.)

(INSOLENT CHILD.)

(YOU WILL REGRET THIS.)

Selphie expects Ultimecia to unleash some kind of psychic attack, harming Selphie or warping time or doing something else to coerce Selphie into complying. But instead, Ultimecia abandons the fight entirely, and the alien presence inside Selphie's mind evaporates, leaving her alone inside her own head once more.

(… Hello?)

There's no response. Selphie assumes that, now that Ultimecia has left, she'll be able to control herself once again. But although the past version of Selphie now breaks out of her stupor, she finds that she still cannot influence past events.

The Selphie in Deling City snaps awake, shakes her head, and then quickly realizes what is happening. She grabs her nunchaku and begins to fight back as the Galbadian soldiers climb up onto the float.

A G-Soldier hops onto the float and raises his sword. He brings it down in a vertical slash, and Selphie catches the blade in the chain of her nunchaku. At that moment, time freezes. Selphie is locked in her defensive pose, her legs spread to absorb the impact of the attack. The G-Soldier's scowling face is visible underneath the visor of his helmet.

(What's goin' on?)

"Maybe I can help," a voice says. Selphie tries to turn to look, but she cannot move her head. A second later, Ellone steps into view, just to the side of the G-Soldier. She is slightly transparent and wavy around the edges, like a picture painted on smoke.

(Hey, Sis!)

"Hi, Selphie," Ellone says.

(Can you help me out?)

"It depends on what you want," Ellone says. She folds her hands in front of her body. "I can do many things, but there's only one thing that will give us the future we need."

(Eh? What's that mean? Explain!)

"I can only tell you so much," Ellone says. "Too much information will alter the timeline."

(But… I thought you couldn't change the past.)

(That's what you said, right?)

Ellone smiles sadly. "That's what I said before, yes. But now that I'm here in time compression, I see that the truth isn't quite so clear cut. Changes can be made… within certain limits."

(I don't get it.)

"Leave it to me, Selphie," Ellone says.

Ellone closes her eyes and focuses. A high-pitched whining steadily builds in Selphie's mind, making her wish that she could squint her eyes against the painful noise. After a few seconds, when the shrieking becomes almost unbearable, the world dims to blackness and the whining stops.

The world snaps back into existence, but the perspective is altered. Now, instead of looking at the throne from an angle, she is watching it straight on. She can see herself, standing off to the left and little ways ahead of her. She can see that she's clothed in black, with black gloves. A familiar gunblade is in her right hand.

(Now I'm Squall?)

Edea stands before him, with the ice spears once again raised above her head. She flicks her whole arm forward and the spears shoot straight ahead—but in slow motion. They travel slowly enough for Selphie to be able to watch their movement, the slow spinning motion they make as they fly through the air. Squall's eyes widen reflexively. Selphie can feel his feet shifting as his mind automatically makes the adjustments necessary to avoid the attack.

But as before, he is too slow. Selphie can tell that he won't get out of the way in time.

(What's this?)

(What am I supposed to be doing?)

Ellone doesn't answer.

One spear touches its dull tip against Squall's chest. Through Squall, Selphie can feel the icy pressure building and building as the spear pushes itself against Squall's skin.

But before it can pierce his flesh, Selphie's Guardian Force reacts. Shiva awakens and—without Selphie's input—dissolves the ice as it passes into Squall. Squall can still feel pressure and coldness, but the ice does not do any permanent damage. After a few fractions of a second, Shiva uses her power to create a nearly identical shard of ice out of Squall's back, giving the illusion that it is one continuous piece.

(I am so confused right now.)

The shard of ice leaves no holes, no wounds, but it creates a painful pressure against Squall's skin, which his panicked mind mistakes for a mortal injury. Time speeds up again, back to normal speed, and Squall blinks as he looks down at the two shards of ice that look like one single shard. He struggles to draw in a breath, but the ice holds his ribs in place.

Stunned, Squall falls backward off the float. His last vision as he falls is the sight of Rinoa's face and of the burning torches atop the float. He shuts his eyes, and everything fades to black.

The sensation of being connected to Squall ceases. Selphie finds herself in an empty black void, unable to see or hear or touch or smell. She panics for a moment, before Ellone speaks comfortingly.

"Well done," she says.

(I don't even know what I did)

"We did what had to be done," Ellone says. "We did what has already happened. We changed the past by ensuring that it remains the same. In truth, we've done nothing of consequence, but it will have great impact on history as a whole."

(Now you're just messin' with me.)

(You know as well as I do that this doesn't make any sense at all.)

Ellone doesn't answer right away. And when she does speak, her voice is full of sadness.

"I'm glad we got this chance to talk, Selphie," Ellone says. "But I have to go. The past version of myself has to make a connection with Squall at this moment. So I can't hold you here any longer."

(Wait!)

(I wanna help you get out!)

(You're trapped in time, right?)

"No," Ellone says. "I'm not trapped. I'm here by choice. I'm actually much more useful here than I am in the real world. I can see how the pieces fit together, and I can move events around to ensure that the best solutions are achieved. In the real world, I'm just a woman with no skills and no real strengths. But here, I'm quite powerful. As powerful as Ultimecia, in my own way."

(… So… you wanna STAY?)

"For now," Ellone says. "But when you wake up, could you do me a couple favors?"

(Yeah.)

"Bring my body to the Lunatic Pandora," Ellone says. "And don't trust Dr. Odine."

(Sure, Sis.)

(But why?)

Ellone doesn't answer.

"And don't tell Squall about what happened here," she says, before everything vanishes.

Selphie woke up stretched on a table in Odine's laboratory. Irvine and Squall were there, along with Rinoa and Ciel's unconscious bodies. A few aides scuttled around, trying to prepare the two undamaged stasis tubes for Rinoa and Ciel. They cleared out the excess water and swept away all the broken glass as they checked the machinery to make sure everything was working. Ellone sat, unconscious, in a chair in the corner with wires and devices hooked up to her head. Dr. Odine stood beside her, gazing at a monitor that was spilling out numbers and graphs that only he could decipher.

"Selphie!" Irvine said, rushing to her. "You're finally awake?"

"How long was I out?" Selphie asked. She rubbed her aching forehead and sat up.

"Long enough for us to get back here," Irvine said. "We just set you down a minute or two ago."

Selphie shook off the remnants of her headache and hopped off the table. Her boots crunched on broken glass.

"Oh, by the way," Selphie said. She turned to Squall and Irvine. "I talked to Sis. She said we have to take her to the Pandora. And to not trust Odine."

Odine spun around.

"Vat iz this nonsense!" Dr. Odine said. "Odine iz ze most trustworthy scientist in ze world! You are hallucinating! Dreaming lies about ze Great Odine!"

Selphie shrugged at him. "Just tellin' you what I heard."

Squall glanced at Selphie thoughtfully.

"You really talked to her?" Squall asked.

"Yup," Selphie said. "And that's what she said. 'Take me to the Pandora and don't trust Odine.' I dunno. She said a lot of weird things. And I guess she's changed her mind about the whole 'you can't change the past' thing. Cause I think we changed the past."

("Don't tell Squall about what happened here.")

Remembering Ellone's words, Selphie shut herself up before she said any more. She clapped one hand over her mouth and gazed, wide-eyed at Squall. Luckily, he didn't seem interested in asking her what she changed about the past. He crossed his arms and stared pensively down at Rinoa's unconscious body.

Irvine turned to Squall. "If Sis says she should go to the Pandora, then that's what we gotta do."

Squall nodded. "Maybe the Pandora is the secret to waking her up." He turned to Selphie. "Did she tell you why she needs to go to the Pandora?"

Selphie shook her head, one hand still clapped over her lips.

"NO!" Odine said, jumping up and down. "Odine iz the secret to waking up ze girl! Not ze Pandora!"

"Sorry, doc," Irvine said. "But we're taking her now."

Squall stepped forward and began stripping off the equipment from Ellone. Odine shuffled around, pointing and screaming, his billowing shirt flapping around as he struggled.

"This iz outrageous!" Odine yelled, his voice cracking. "Someone! Arrest this moron! Hang him! Hang all of them!"

"Does Esthar still hang people?" Irvine asked as he grabbed the small doctor by the shoulders and pulled him away from Squall.

"I don't think Esthar has the death penalty," Squall said as he worked. "Can you imagine Laguna executing anyone?"

"Yeah, you got a point," Irvine said.

"You can still rot in jail!" Odine said. "Release me, or you vill never see ze light of day again!"

"Prison don't really scare us anymore," Irvine said.

Squall finished undoing all the equipment around Ellone and then hoisted her onto his back. He started walking towards the door, followed by Odine's shouts and insults.

"Wait," Irvine said. "I don't wanna leave Rinoa and Ciel here with this crazy guy. Didn't Sis say not to trust Odine?"

"IT VAS A DREAM!" Odine shouted. "Crazy little girl has scary nightmare! Iz not ze truth! Odine is trustworthy!"

(Even if Sis didn't say that, I still wouldn't trust him.)

Squall looked down at Rinoa, then nodded. "You're probably right. But how can we take them with us?"

"OOH! Shiva can do it!" Selphie said.

Without waiting for permission, Selphie closed her eyes and concentrated. She searched for and found her Guardian Force, waiting for her inside her body. Shiva rushed into existence at Selphie's call, and formed together beside her. Within seconds, O Lab was turned into a freezer, the temperature of the room dropping several degrees and continuing to plummet every second. Odine's aides scrambled around the preserve their undamaged equipment, and Odine shouted a continuous stream of insults.

Ignoring the doctors, Selphie ordered Shiva to grab Ciel and Rinoa—one under each arm—and carry them. Squall nodded, content with the arrangement, and carried Ellone down the hall and out of O Lab. Shiva followed next, with Irvine and Selphie taking up the rear.

They stepped out into the late day sunlight, with the sounds of battle drawing closer and closer to the west. Squall took a few steps down the road, then walked to the edge of the skyway and peered to the west.

"They're getting closer," Squall said. "Looks like we were right not to stay here. The G-Army will be all over her in a few minutes."

"Maybe that's what Sis was talkin' about," Irvine said. "Odine can't protect Rinoa and Ciel from the Galbadians."

Squall nodded and turned, heading a few steps down the road, with Shiva following him. Irvine paused and turned to Selphie.

"Ya think maybe we should swap GF's again?" Irvine asked. "Diablos would get there a lot quicker."

"Yeah, you're right," Selphie said.

As she reached out to form a loop with Irvine, the skyway up ahead shattered apart as a massive black object burst upward through the road. Irvine and Selphie were knocked down by the force of the attack. Squall was hurled into the sky, losing his grip of Ellone and dropping her on the skyway ahead. Ellone hit the skyway hard and flopped lifelessly to the side. Squall dropped down beside her and rolled, trying to get back to his feet.

Shiva was knocked back, and she dropped Ciel and Rinoa on the ground, hard enough to jostle both of them out of their slumbers. Rinoa shook her head and began to stir, and so did Ciel.

"Ugh…" Irvine said. "What happened?"

Selphie rolled onto her stomach and looked up. There, beyond the break in the skyway, was the massive Black Widow, still with fragments of ice on its exterior, and with Seifer atop, grinning madly.

"It ain't over yet!" he yelled.

"Knock out Ciel!" Squall yelled. "Before she wakes up!"

Selphie hopped to her feet and rushed over to the blonde sorceress. Ciel glanced up at her, groggy from the aftereffects of the sleep spell.

"Sorry," Selphie mumbled, before hitting her with another sleep spell. The cloud white magic went into Ciel's head, and she drifted back into unconsciousness.

(Whew. Close one.)

From behind Squall, Raijin leapt from nowhere and cracked Squall hard in the shoulder. Fujin jumped up, flinging her chakram at him and narrowly missing slicing his head off. The chakram spun in the air and looped around, returning back to her hand.

Selphie moved forward to Shiva, getting the GF back to her feet.

"Come on!" Selphie said, turning to face Irvine. "We gotta help—"

Her words were cut off by a blast of white energy to her chest. Pain erupted in every part of her as she was thrown backwards off the edge of the skyway. For a few moments, time seemed to slow down. Selphie's eyes scanned along the road until they met with Rinoa's dark, steely gaze.

Only it wasn't Rinoa. It was Ultimecia who gazed back at her.

(Oh crap…)

And Selphie fell down the city streets below.