Secondary Weapon
Final Fantasy Dissidia/VIII
Characters: Lagune, Irvine, Hope, Zidane, Squall, Seifer.
Notes: Was writing prompts and stuff and the words "Weapon" and "Sword" came to me so I wrote this one. Hope you all enjoy it. Also, mini surprise for cinnerman/torayashachan since they were the one giving me prompts to write to! Here's more of the three idiots at the end as well.

"Damn! Gun's jammed." Laguna cursed, frowning heavily as he threw aside his machine gun as he gazed back up at the Behemoth he and a few of the others were fighting.

"Ya know how to use one of these?" Irvine asked as he nodded towards the shotgun in his own hands.

"Uh, yeah. Why?" Laguna blinked.

"Here," The cowboy tossed his Exeter towards the other. "Use it, but don't break her." He warned with a grin.

"Um, what about you?" Hope asked confusedly as he fired off another Firaga spell at the creature to halt its advance towards them.

The unfortunate issue was the majority of them were all long-ranged with their weapons and lacked any real stopping force up close. Zidane was not meant to be a front-range attacker and was having to pull back every other moment to get out of the way.

To that, Irvine sighed as he shook his head. "Watch my back, would you? I really don't want to die today." He said before he held his hand up into the air.

Calling upon Cosmos's power, he summoned a new weapon to his hand and without waiting for the others, ran in closer.

"Here's hoping I can actually do this..." He muttered to himself as he raised the weapon he just summoned-a Gunblade-and calling upon all the times he'd watched Seifer and Squall fight, put his strength into the swing and as he brought the blade down, pulled the trigger on it to fire at the same time and struck the creature.

A loud roar echoed throughout the enormous cavern.

"Now!" He yelled back towards the others.

Gunfire and magic rang through the air and Zidane was quick to take advantage of the stagger to get behind the creature and hit its weak spot.

It angered the creature and it swiped a massive clawed arm at him.

Irvine brought the Gunblade up and blocked as much of the hit as he could, wincing from the force and pain. Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed up several rounds of ammo and loaded them into the Gunblade's barrel before he ducked under another swing from the fiend and twirled the blade. "Let's see how much you like this!" He called before he ran back in and made a leaping slash for the creature's head and once the blade met their skull, he pulled the trigger, unloading all of the AP Rounds at once with it.

The behemoth reared back with a loud, pained roar.

Not waiting for the beast to recover, Irvine could feel himself reaching his Limit. The blade began to glow and with a loud cry, he swing with all of his might, the glowing blade extended and left a large, white gash up the fiend's side before Irvine aimed up and pulled the trigger and a beam of that same white light shot up before splintering into a million smaller light beams and pelted the behemoth.

With one last roar, the creature collapsed onto its side, defeated.

"Is... Is it over?" Zidane asked through his panting.

"Looks like it." Hope answered as he slowly approached the creature's form and gave it a poke with his Boomerang.

Irvine was shaking all over from the rush and the tension that had built up within him. The blade dropped to the ground moments later.

Laguna frowned with concern as he slowly walked to stand beside the other. "You okay?" He asked softly.

"No, not really." Irvine answered in a small voice with a shake of his head.

"You did good. Here," Laguna extended Exeter out to the other and watched the cowboy take it before he looked to the ground where the Gunblade fell and slowly moved and picked it up.

"I didn't know you could use one of these." He remarked as he gave the weapon a small swing.

"I don't." The sniper replied. "I just...copied what Seifer and Squall do."

"Either way, it's pretty impressive. You should look into making it your second weapon incase you're ever in a pinch." Laguna responded cheerfully and gave the blade another testing swing. "It's not a bad weapon, just...unruly."

"Oh, right. You know how to use one, too." Irvine responded.

"Kind of. It's not like I properly trained with it or anything, but I do know how to swing it about if I have to." The gunner replied.

"We done here?" Zidane asked. "We should be getting back to the Tower before nightfall."

"Agreed, staying here isn't necessary." Hope chimed in.

Laguna turned, offering the Gunblade back out to Irvine. "Let's get a move on, yeah?"

Once the sniper took it and gave a nod, Laguna retrieved his discarded machine gun to fix up once they got back.

Thankfully, none of the smaller fiends and creatures they encountered were a match for them and they made it back to Cosmos' Tower in record time.

Seifer was pacing near the gates and Squall was leaning against the pillar beside, arms crossed.

"How was it?" Squall asked in his monotone voice before Seifer had a chance to start in with his yelling.

"Tiring. Things went really bad for a while. We owe our victory to Irvine." Zidane responded before he gave the two a wave as he bounded past them and up the stairs to head inside, Hope not far behind him.

Squall's brow rose.

"That's surprising, what'd cowboy do?" Seifer asked.

Laguna gave them a cheerful grin. "Ask him yourself, he could probably use your assurance right now. He did put himself in danger for the rest of us." He responded, giving a nod back over his shoulder towards Irvine who was the last to make it up to the gate.

"Hm." Squall responded noncommittally, pushing from the pillar while Seifer was already striding over towards the other.

By both of their outward assessment, the other looked worn out.

"What happened?" Seifer asked.

Irvine looked up past the rim of his hat at them and let out a loud sigh. "Let's just say.. Fighting a behemoth up close is not something I want to do again. It was terrifying." He murmured.

That caused both of them to frown in response.

"What'd you do?"

"Laguna's gun jammed," Irvine explained. "So I gave him Exeter. Zidane couldn't hold the behemoth back on his own, so I..." He looked towards the ground again, holding up his hand. In a flash of light, the Gunblade appeared. "I took to the front line."

"Hyne," Seifer swore reaching over to lightly smack the other on the side of the head. "You don't even know how to use one."

"You're right. I just copied you and Squall. How can you stand your Limits? ...I felt like I was going to die." Irvine answered.

Squall frowned deeply again. "You had a Limit?" He questioned.

"Yeah... I took the beast down with it."

Seifer whistled. "That is more surprising. Colour me impressed, cowboy."

"Laguna suggested I should learn how to use it incase I ever get disarmed, but..." The sniper shook his head, his eyes showing the hesitation and fear he held. "I'm not ready for that yet. I'm scared of having to do that again. I don't know how you two can stand being on the front line like that..."

Unhesitatingly, Squall stepped to the side of Irvine and put his arms around him while Seifer pulled the Gunblade from their grasp and let it go, the weapon disappearing in a flash of light.

"You don't have to unless you want to," Squall assured quietly.

"Yeah," Seifer agreed as he reached over to tip Irvine's hat back and catch his eyes. "But listen, don't do anything stupid like that again. That's my department, you hear me?"

Irvine's lips tilted the slightest. "I hear you." He agreed.

"Let's go inside," Squall suggested, looking up towards the sky. "Sun's setting and a storm is said to be rolling in."

With a nod, Irvine allowed the two to pull him inside of the Tower and back to their room to rest.

-End-