Blades of Destiny Chapter 8
Forming of Alliances, an Unexpected Battle
By Brenton Braswell
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the series of the Final Fantasy series. They all belong to Squaresoft and are being used without permission. All original characters are copyrighted by the author and are not to be used by anybody without my permission. If somebody has a problem with that, all I could say is, tough luck.
I would like to give a special thanks to Selphie Leonhart for letting me use an idea from one of her stories. Also if you didn’t beat FF7/ FF8, you might not want to read this story until you beat both of them. There are major spoilers in this story for those games.
I would like to give a very special thanks to Flaire, for being my beta reader. You should also check out her story, “Different Beat”.
Also, I would really like to give thanks to everyone who reviewed my story so far.
I would really like to thank Ginger Ninja for supplying me with places I could put Diaz’s castle. You should check out her fics as well.
Also if you want to use any of my characters, please ask me first. My email address is bbraswell54@hotmail.com
Character’s direct thoughts are in parentheses ( )
In the last chapter, Lensey came up with a plan to get Irvine’s team and a couple of cadets and SeeDs out of Galbaldia Garden. Once the plan was made, Squall made the necessary call to Balamb Garden. Once the call was made, Rinoa and Squall rushed back to the group. Cloud, Squall, Rinoa, and Tifa charged up their power before Lensey teleported them into Galbaldia Garden. Having the advantage of surprise on their side, they were able to attack Diaz from behind, visibly hurting him. Diaz ordered some soldiers to take care of Lensey, but the others of the small group stopped them. The day was full of surprises when Seifer relized that Ultimecia was back from the dead. Refusing her offer to be her knight once again, Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin was caught off guard with a fast Ultima spell. Having no more patience, Diaz charged up a big ki blast and fired it at the group. Without hestitation, Lensey transported everyone on their side out of there before the ki blast hit them.
Upon arrival at Balamb Garden, the injured was taken to the infirmary. Being confused, the cadets and SeeDs from Galbaldia Garden started asking questions. With a little speech from Lensey, she was able to convince them into fighting with them against Diaz and his forces. In the infirmary, Irvine’s arm was tended to and it was apparent that he was out of the fight. He also informed the others of the power that Diaz used to defeat them. Later, the inauguration ball for new SeeD members was held and Tifa and Cloud attended. They showed how much they loved each other with a passionate kiss. The next morning, Barret asked Lensey to go to the past and tell a few people not to worry. Lensey accepted the request and went to the past. Going to the Highwind II, Rocket town, and Junon, Lensey informed the loved ones and comrades of Avalanche not to worry. Also, during a little conversation with Marlene, Lensey promised that she would get Barret back home to her safely. With her resolve strengthened, Lensey headed back to the future to face Diaz. What plans do they have to defeat Diaz and his forces? Well, find out in this chapter of “Blades of Destiny”.
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Upon stepping out of the portal, Lensey looked relieved when she saw that every thing was the same way when she left. She knew that Diaz must have felt her power disappear for the short amount of time that she was gone. (Good thing that trip didn’t take as long as I would have expected. Diaz would have really gotten cocky and probably tried to attack Balamb Garden.) There’s no telling what Diaz would have done when she had left. He probably could still attack Balamb Garden.
Being brought out of her silent contemplation by a few annoying bite bugs, she easily dispatched the monsters and walked back to the Garden. She still couldn’t believe a place like the Gardens existed. A place that trained mercenaries was not very common to the worlds that she visited and saved. The closest she could have found something similar to the Gardens was guilds. She also marveled at the architecture of Balamb Garden and knew that it was much more than what it seemed. She saw through magic that showed her the past events of the world that Balamb Garden could also becomes mobile.
When she got to the entrance, she signed the in sheet and went to inform the Headmaster that she was back. Walking toward the elevator, Lensey saw Zell and Yuffie playing a card game. (Triple Triad I think it’s called.) She went over to observe for a little while. She saw Yuffie place a card down by another one and flipped it over so it was the same color as the card she put down. After seeing this, Zell looked really frustrated and looked like he was about to put down his last card. He put it down and Yuffie put down her last card flipping over two of Zell’s cards.
“Yesss! I win again!” Yuffie said triumphantly. She then took all of her cards and one of Zell’s.
“I can’t believe I’m losing to a rookie at Triple Triad!” Zell yelled very frustrated. “That’s what nine times in a row?”
“Yup!” Said Yuffie. “I can’t believe I got the hang of this game in such a short time. Oh, hi Lensey, I didn’t notice you there.” She said while looking at Lensey. “Did your trip go as it was planned?”
“Yeah,” said Lensey. “I’m glad it didn’t take too long. I’m sure glad Diaz didn’t try anything while I was gone. I’m not saying you all can’t handle him, I’m just saying that I want to end it all personally.”
“That’s cool,” Zell said. “So are you going to report to the Headmaster that you’re back?”
“Yes,” Lensey said while looking toward the elevator. “I wouldn’t mind some company while I’m reporting. Oh yeah, do you know what Headmaster Cid had planned today? He looked ready to tell us something before I made the announcement to go back to the past.”
“Not a clue,” Zell answered.
“Well, better not keep him waiting,” Lensey said while turning on her heel and walking toward the elevator with Zell and Yuffie in tow. They pressed the button and waited for the elevator to descend. Once it was down, the three of them went up to the third floor.
Once they were inside his office and where the bridge was, they saw him click off a screen. “Welcome back Lensey!” Cid greeted. “I hope your trip to the past went without too much trouble.”
“Yes, it was faster than I thought,” Lensey said with a smile. Her face once again went to one of indifference and she asked, “Excuse me Headmaster, before I left, you seemed like you wanted to tell me and the others’ something?”
“Yes, I did,” said Headmaster Cid. “Let me call up Squall and Cloud up here,” said the Headmaster while walking to the little elevator that took him up to the bridge. He then announced that Squall Leonhart and Cloud Strife come to the third floor.
It took only five minutes for both of them get up there. Headmaster Cid immediately addressed the five individuals standing before him. “As you all know, Diaz has struck a major blow to this planet’s forces by taking over Galbaldia Garden. I don’t think all the cadets and SeeDs in Balamb Garden would be enough of an attack force when we find out where Diaz is situated at.” Cid paused a moment to let his words sink in. He continued, “Therefore, I’ve arranged a meeting with General Caraway and a couple of officials of Galbaldia in Deling City today.”
Squall didn’t know where Cid was going with this, but he kept his mouth shut. “We’re going to try to get the Galbaldian Military to join our ranks in the fight against Diaz’s force.”
Now this was surprising news to Squall. He knew that the Galbaldian politicians and Balamb Garden wasn’t the on the best of terms right now. (I really hope I don’t have to be the one to go. I’m no good with politicians.) “That’s all well and good, but do you think we could convince them that we’re telling the truth and that the threat is not only to us but to the whole world?” Asked Squall.
“Yes we can,” answered Headmaster Cid. “That’s why you four along with Lensey, Xu, and myself will go and talk to them.”
Squall still wasn’t sure the Galbaldian military would join them. “I’m not sure this will work, but I’ll go along with anything that you decide to do Headmaster,” said Squall.
“Good,” the Headmaster said. “If they’re not convinced by words alone, I’ll show them the videotapes of the fight outside the garden that took place two days ago.” After saying this, the Headmaster say raised eyebrows from nearly everyone. “I forgot to tell you that I had the security cameras recording that. This should convince them, but if it doesn’t, we’ll just have Lensey show them part of what she showed us two days ago.”
“I hope we I doesn’t have to come down to that,” said Zell. “I can just imagine if they take it the wrong way and start calling her a sorceress and try to arrest her.”
“It shouldn’t come down to that Zell,” said Lensey. “If worst comes to worst, I’ll have to give them a little demonstration of my power and tell them that is part of what they are dealing with against Diaz.”
Cid smiled and nodded. “That’s good, and after that, we’ll go to Esthar and meet with President Loire. I’ve already arranged the meeting for later today.”
At this statement Squall frowned a little bit. He really didn’t want to see Laguna anytime soon. A few days after the second sorceress war, he had just figured out what Kiros, Ward, and Laguna was talking about. He’s been avoiding having that little talk with Laguna since they were contracted to help out with the monster problem. “Knowing Laguna, he’ll probably easily accept the alliance,” Squall said. “What I’m worried about is Galbaldia not accepting the temporary alliance between Garden, and Esthar.”
“We shouldn’t have to worry about it that much,” Zell said while stretching his arms over his head. “While we’re there, we should probably head over to Odine’s Lab and see if he can probably pinpoint Diaz’s castle with all of that fancy technology they have in Esthar.”
“That’s a good idea Zell,” said Headmaster Cid. “Well, let us make haste. We really don’t know when Diaz will make his next move.”
Cloud, and Yuffie turned toward he elevator and started to walk to it when they noticed nobody else in the room was following them. “Umm… Aren’t we taking the Ragnarok?” Cloud asked.
“No, we’re moving the Garden to Deling city,” answered Cid.
“How can you move this place to Deling city?” Asked Yuffie.
“You’ll see if you just follow me,” said Cid while walking to the elevator to the bridge. Cloud and Yuffie went on the small platform up to the bridge. When they were up there they saw a young man in a SeeD uniform with short dark hair sitting down. Once he saw who came up, he immediately went to attention and saluted.
When Cid saluted back, he said, “At ease Nida.” He then gestured to Cloud and Yuffie. “Cloud, Yuffie, I’d like you to meet Nida, the pilot of this garden.” Cloud and Yuffie then shook his hand. “Nida, this is Cloud Strife and Yuffie Kisaragi.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” said Nida.
“Likewise,” Cloud replied, while Yuffie nodded and blushed.
Squall then came up to the bridge. “I’ve made the phone call down to the gate and nobody has left Garden. I also told the gatekeeper not to let anybody out.”
“That’s good Squall,” Cid nodded. “I’ll make the announcement now.” Cid then pressed the intercom button and waited for the chimes to stop. When they did, he spoke into the microphone. “Good morning everybody. If you have any plans to go to Balamb city, you’ll have to cancel them. We are making the garden mobile again and are moving it to Deling city for a diplomatic mission. That is all.” After finishing he turned it off. “Okay Nida, will you do the honors please.”
Nida then went to the recently installed control panel over to the left of the steering fin. He pressed a few buttons and waited a few seconds for the desired effect to happen. The little monitor displayed that the engines were starting and the ring on top of the Garden started coming down. At seeing this, Cloud and Yuffie’s eye widened in surprise when the saw the ring coming down and spreading light around the window of the bridge. Balamb Garden made the magnificent change to becoming mobile. This impressed Cloud and Yuffie and they couldn’t wait to see how the Garden changed on the outside.
Nida then pushed the steering fin forward and the garden started to move forward. Once they were passed the beach and into deep waters, the ring of the Garden went underwater while the Garden sailed smoothly through the water like a boat.
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One thing to say the least, Diaz and the soldiers were very busy today. Sephiroth looked on while he saw Diaz opened a few portals and see some soldiers along with some heavy artillery come out of them. The soldiers then started to install turret machineguns on the castle walls.
Krelnar walked up to Sephiroth’s side and observed this with him. “It seems as Diaz is bringing out the big guns,” said Krelnar without looking toward Sephiroth. Krelnar then looked at Sephiroth. “You know, you’re lucky that Diaz is so interested in your skills and abilities as a general. I still don’t know why he made you the general and demoted me to be under you,” said Krelnar with venom in his voice.
Sephiroth detected the bitterness in his voice, but chose to ignore it. “Right now, that doesn’t matter,” Sephiroth retorted. “Why is Diaz preparing his castle for defense now?”
“I guess he’s planning for Lensey Kusanagi and those SeeDs to try to attack his castle when they find it,” answered Krelnar. “He probably wants to have a glorius battle like we had on Artuna. That would involve them attacking this castle and us wiping out them.”
“It seems foolish that we don’t go destroy Balamb Garden now,” Sephiroth commented. “I wonder what Diaz has planned for those SeeDs from Galbaldia Garden?”
“Who knows?” Said Krelnar. “I’ve been with him for seven years and I still can’t figure out how Diaz thinks.” Krelnar and Sephiroth were silent. “I hope your next plan fails. When it does, Diaz will have no choice but to make me his head general once again,” said Krelnar while smiling. He then turned on his heels and walked back into the castle with a smug look on his face.
Sephiroth just looked at his back with a look of annoyance on his face. (Stupid bastard. So he wants me to fail does he? I’ll show him that I’m superior to him when I get the chance. I will challenge and defeat him to show that I’m better if it weren’t for everything going on and Diaz, I would really give the troops something to marvel at.)
Sephiroth then looked back one last time at the work before going into the castle too.
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After about a few hours of traveling, Balamb Garden finally reached Deling City. Nida stopped the Garden about fifty feet away from the entrance to Deling city. “Last stop, Deling city,” said Nida. “Thank you for traveling Garden cruise services, please get all belonging before exiting,” said Nida while trying to be funny. This joke got a giggle from Yuffie and a small laugh from Cid while the joke just went over Cloud and Squall’s head.
“We’ll be on our way,” said Headmaster Cid while walking toward the elevator. The others just followed him.
Once they were out of Balamb Garden, the seven walked into Deling city. Once they were in the noticed that there was some troops and two transports. Cloud and Yuffie took notice the uniforms of the troops and could immediately tell who was lower and higher on the totem pole of rank.
The soldiers saluted them and they returned the salute. Without any words between the two parties, Headmaster Cid and the others split into two groups and boarded the two transports.
Cid and Squall suggested that they take their weapons’ before they left Garden. (Why the hell should we have to take our weapons if this was just a diplomatic mission?) Cloud thought. They also told them not to mention they were from the past unless it was necessary. Cid told them that he would just tell them you were high ranking SeeDs that were accompanying him to this meeting. (He probably didn’t want to make the situation more complicated than it should be.) As they traveled through Deling city, Cloud could shake the feeling that this was probably the Midgar of this time. (It’s probably one of the cities that have the most power in this world.)
They were driven to the presidential residence. Once they were inside a soldier asked them to leave their weapons with them. “Why do they have to leave their weapon’s here?” Cid questioned the soldier.
“For security purposes only,” the soldier in a red uniform answered. “We don’t want any of you making an assassination attempt on the general or anybody else.”
“Nonsense, this is only a diplomatic meeting and there will be no attempts on anybody’s life,” the Headmaster quipped. The soldiers and Headmaster Cid argued about this for a few minutes until somebody came out a demanded to know what was all the commotion about.
All the soldiers turned and saluted him. Cloud noticed the man was probably really high up in rank judging by the uniform. He wore a coat like uniform that was black and had many decorations on the left of the chest. He also wore dark pants and black boots. He was dark haired and had some white in his hair on the sides, he looked older than Cid.
The man walked over when he noticed Squall and Zell and the others in their SeeD uniforms along with Headmaster Cid. He nodded his head and said, “Welcome Headmaster Cid, Commander Leonhart, and SeeDs. I’m General Caraway for those that haven’t met me.” He then went over and shook hands with Cloud, Yuffie, Xu, and Lensey. He turned toward one of the soldiers and asked, “What’s all this commotion out here?”
The soldier went to attention and said, “These SeeDs are insisting to hold onto their weapons while they are meeting with you and the other politicians, Sir!”
“I see no harm in taking their weapons with them. We can trust, let them past,” the General ordered.
“Yes sir!” said the trooper while saluting and stepping out of the way.
They followed General Caraway through the presidential palace to a conference room with a long rectangle table with chairs. As they entered they noticed seven people, two men in military uniforms and remaining men and two women in business suits. One man in a black business suit with a red tie and black hair stood up. “Good afternoon Headmaster Cid, Commander Leonhart, and SeeDs of Balamb Garden,” the man said. “I’m Harvey Knoxville, to my left is Hiro Sakaguchi, Marlon Kansenington, First Lieutenant Fox, Major Kittal, Sophie Brown, and Elizabeth Downings.” He said all their names while gesturing to them. “We only make up part of the newly formed Galbaldia Parliament, but I didn’t think the whole Parliament needed to be here. Now what is the business that you wanted to discuss that was so urgent?”
After all of the people from Balamb Garden were seated, the Headmaster spoke. “What I’m about to tell you is very important and it shouldn’t be taken lightly. I’m sure by now you’ve all heard about the attacks on Timber and Galbaldia Garden as well as Trabia Garden?”
“Of course, it’s been all over the news here,” replied Mr. Knoxville.
“Well, they were attacked by very strong and powerful army,” Cid continued. “It belongs to a man named Diaz Marquis.” He turned toward Lensey, “Lensey, could you tell them about Diaz and his forces.”
Lensey nodded. “Sure Headmaster.” She closed her eyes and took and deep breathe. When she opened them, she saw that all eyes were on her. “Before I start, I’d like to say that I’m Lensey Kusanagi and I’m not a SeeD, or from this world.” She paused and saw the Galbaldian politicians had confused looks on their faces. She continued, “Diaz Marquis is a man with a tremendous amount of power and a army that is really strong. He conquered many worlds and has set his sights on this world.”
Now at this news, Lensey saw many raised eyebrow and annoyed looks. The woman in a light green business suit with brown hair spoke up. “You’re saying that a dictator from another world has come to take over our world?” Lensey nodded. “You must be joking, it sounds as though you’ve been watching too much television.” Lensey looked at them to see the men and women in business suits nodding.
“I’m not telling a story, He’s real and right now he’s probably plotting to get rid of SeeD, the Galbaldian military, and the Esthar military,” Lensey explained.
“How do we know that Balamb Garden didn’t cause the attack on Timber?” Said Mr. Sakaguchi.
“I assure you that Balamb Garden wasn’t the one who caused the attack, but we helped in stopping it,” Headmaster Cid interrupted. “I knew that something like this would happen. I’ve prepared a tape that will show you that Diaz is real and he is a threat to this entire world. All we would need is a VCR and a television.” Mr. Knoxville then got up, got a remote off the table and aimed it at the wall behind him and pressed a button. The part of the wall slid up revealing a large screen and a VCR in the wall. He then gestured over to one of the soldiers in the room to insert the tape into the VCR. The soldier did it and they dimmed the lights in the room a little.
Once play was pressed, everybody from Balamb Garden instantly realized that it was the battle they fought against Diaz just outside of Garden. “This is taken from a security cameras outside of Garden when Diaz first came into this world,” said Cid. The tape was from the beginning where Ultimecia unleashed two meteor spells to scatter the group of SeeDs and Avalanche. As General Caraway and the rest watched this and Squall and the rest noticed they were really shocked. When it came to the part where Lensey fought, some of the politicians looked at her and she smiled and gave a little wave. They went back to watching. It came to the part where Diaz and his people disappeared. “You can stop the tape now,” Headmaster Cid instructed.
“What do you propose we do?” asked General Caraway.
“I want to form a temporary alliance between SeeD, Galbaldia, and Esthar,” Cid replied. “We must unite our forces to battle against Diaz and his forces.”
“Surely you’re not saying the Galbaldian military will be fighting against those nine? Questioned Mr. Sakaguchi.
“No, only myself and a handful of other people will be fighting against them, you’ll have an easier job,” said Lensey. “The Galbaldian military won’t fight Diaz directly, but you’ll give us a bigger army than we have now.”
“The whole parliament will have to get together to discuss this,” said Mr. Knoxville. “I would openly have the Galbaldian military join Garden in this fight but I’m not so sure about Esthar. We’ll have to give you our answer later today or tomorrow.”
With that being said they got up to shook hands. As Cid and Caraway were shaking hands, Lensey turned her attention toward the door. She felt a power, but not as strong as Diaz or his elite six.
Without warning, there was screaming and gunfire out in the hall. In an instant, someone kicked open the door. “Get Down!” Yelled Lensey. Everybody with some kind of training knew to quickly jump to the floor. Once everybody was on the floor, they looked toward the door and saw that was nobody there. Harvey Knoxville got up and said, “It was probably taken care of already by the guards.”
The next event seemed to happen in slow motion. A man in blue military fatigues with a ski mask on armed with a machine gun slowly stepped into the doorway. He aimed his gun at Knoxville and opened fire. Before he did this, Lensey jumped and tackled Mr. Knoxville to the floor. Now things started to go back to regular motion.
The room got riddled with bullet holes. Lensey charged up a little of her energy into her hand. When the gunfire stopped, she saw this as her chance and leapt up from behind the table and threw a small ki blast at the man. It missed him and impacted with the wall causing a small explosion with smoke sweeping through the hallway and room.
The man sensed Lensey charging up and leapt back through the doorway as she threw the ki blast at him. He barely avoided it and got up and ran down the hall using the smoke as a cover. During all the confusion Lensey, Cloud and Yuffie ran after the man.
The soldier had a head start but the three knew he was headed for the entrance. As they ran down the hallways, the three saw the handy work of the soldier in blue fatigues. There were Galbaldian soldiers on the ground with their necks cut or a sword slash on their chests. After turning the corner of the hallway going to the entrance, they saw the man with his machine gun pointed in their direction. They immediately jumped back into the hallway as the soldier let loose a volley of machine gun fire. They barely avoided that and stayed around the corner. They noticed the dead soldier on the ground by them. Yuffie picked up the sword of the soldier and nodded toward Lensey. Lensey knew what Yuffie had in mind and gathered more ki into her hand. When she was ready, she nodded at Yuffie. Yuffie cocked back her arm for a mighty throw, and threw the sword spinning into the entrance hallway.
They immediately heard the rattle of gunfire following the sword and Lensey peaked around the corner and fired off her ki blast at the man. The soldier was caught off guard by the little tactic and was thrown back by the impact of the blast.
He was sent rolling on the ground, but recovered after one moment and got back up. Lensey looked surprised and instantly went back around the corner to avoid the gunfire sent her way.
“Damn, He got us pinned down,” said Cloud.
They heard the gunfire stop and a clip hitting the floor. A few seconds later, they heard a clip being slapped into the machine gun, and the gunfire continued. (I guess I must have pissed him off.) Observed Lensey.
After a minute of hearing gunfire, it stopped. They heard the gun being thrown to the ground and running footsteps. They instantly ran out after him. “Who is that guy?” Asked Yuffie while running alongside Lensey.
“He must be one of Diaz’s assasins,” said Lensey quickly. “Let’s try to catch him.”
Once they were outside, they stopped and saw that the soldiers outside were all on the ground. “There’s no blood, they must have been knocked out by some gas,” commented Cloud. The three instantly spotted the man running out the gate and turning right. They followed him closely behind. After a block of running they almost caught up to him.
The man looked back and saw this. He instantly jumped high and into the fast rushing traffic and landed on a car that sped down the road. Lensey, Cloud, and Yuffie stopped to catch their breath.
As Cloud was looking around he spotted a motorcycle. Upon closer inspection, he saw that somebody stupidly left the key in. (That’s going to be how I’ll catch that assassin.) Cloud ran over to the bike and leapt on it and started it up. Yuffie and Lensey saw this and Yuffie jumped on behind Cloud holding his waist. “I’m going to try and catch him,” Cloud said before speeding off with Yuffie. A second later, a man came running out the bar Lensey was standing by. “MY BIKE!” the man yelled.
“Don’t worry, you’ll have it back in one piece or the Galbaldian government or Balamb Garden will reimburse you for it,” Lensey said while watching the Cloud and Yuffie speed down the road.
“I hope so, because that bike cost a lot,” the man explained. Lensey turned toward the man, but then turned back in the direction that Cloud and Yuffie went.
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Cloud and Yuffie sped down the road on the motorcycle. They knew the assassin had a head start on them, but at this rate of speed they should catch up to him. (Let’s just hope the car is still going down this street and haven’t turned on a side street.)
After about a minute of speeding down the road, dodging other cars and buses, Cloud spotted the car the man had jumped on. He saw that the car had stopped at a red light.
The assassin turned around and saw Cloud and Yuffie on a motorcycle speeding toward him. He jumped off the car and punched in the driver’s window. He yanked a man out of the window and opened the car door. He instantly sped off just as the light turned green.
Cloud had to go onto the sidewalk and around the traffic behind the light and avoided the observers of the carjacking. (You’re not getting away that easily!)
The motorcycle was catching up to the car. The assassin in the blue army fatigues saw this in the rearview mirror also. Without warning, the car braked and did a screeching U-turn. Cloud had to break hard as not to hit the car. In doing this, the car caused a few crashes. Cloud immediately turned the bike in the opposite direction and followed the car. Going down the street, the car made a hard right turn. Cloud also turned but not as fast and hard. “Hurry up Cloud or he’s going to get away!” Yuffie yelled in Cloud’s ear.
(I’m going as fast as I can in these turns. I don’t want to go into a turn to fast and wipeout.) Cloud said mentally. Cloud followed the assassin in the car closely and after a few minutes of chasing him, they heard sirens behind them.
Yuffie looked back and saw that there were police cars following them. (This is just what we don’t need now.) Yuffie thought. After a few more turns of following the car, Cloud and Yuffie saw that a roadblock was set up in the middle of the road that they turned down. (He can’t be that crazy to go through a road block of police cars.) Aside from what Yuffie thought, the car speeded up and was headed for gap in-between two police cars. (That idiot can’t be serious. That’s not a big enough gap for that car. He’s going to hit those cars!) Cloud slowed down greatly. The car hit the police cars and they were pushed aside. Cloud immediately speed up and headed for the big gap they were given. (I’m surprised the police didn’t start shooting yet.) Yuffie pondered.
After passing the barricade of police cars, Cloud saw that they were coming to a T-shaped intersection. (If that idiot turns the car at that speed, the car will skid out of control into the railing.) The car wasn’t slowing down, and the car turned and slid out of control into the railing. Cloud and Yuffie got close enough to the car and Cloud stopped the motorcycle. The car door was flung open and the assassin came running out. Yuffie leapt off the bike and sprinted after him. She tackled him and twisted his left arm behind his back.
Just then they heard sirens and saw that the police cars had finally caught up with them. They were surrounded on all three sides. The policemen got out of the cars and pointed their guns at Cloud, Yuffie and the assassin. “Freeze! Put your weapons on the ground slowly and put your hands up!” One of the police officers yelled.
Yuffie looked over to Cloud. “Do as they say Yuffie, We don’t want anymore trouble than we caused,” Cloud told Yuffie. Yuffie got up off the assassin and slowly took the conformer off of her back and put her hands up in the air. Cloud did the same with the Ultima Weapon. The assassin looked weaponless, but he still put his hands up in the air.
The same officer said, “Book em.”
“I’ve failed my mission, I won’t go back to Diaz and incur his wrath by telling him of my failure,” said the assassin while looking down and shaking his head. He then reached into his shirt and brought out a pistol.
“Drop the weapon!” Yelled a female officer while she and all the other officers had their guns trained on the man.
The man ignored this and put the gun to the temple of his head. He pulled the trigger and the shot a hole in his head. (Author’s Note: I’m not going to go into to detail in this part. If I did, I would probably have to change the rating to R. Who’s to say that I won’t need to after this chapter.) His lifeless body fell to the ground a second later. Everybody was shocked and cringed. Yuffie who was close to Cloud grabbed him and buried her head in his chest as not to look at the awful sight. Never in her life has Yuffie saw a more shocking scene. Cloud wrapped his arms the young teenaged girl and comforted her.
When the shock wore off a police officer said, “Hands up you two.” The two did just that. The officer who said this walked over to Cloud and told him to put his left arm behind his back. He did so and one handcuff was place on his left wrist. He did the same with the other arm. Yuffie was also handcuffed. “So you’re Balamb Garden SeeDs? Nobody informed us that something like this would happen. I guess we’ll have to take you two to the station and get this all straightened out.” The officer said while escorting Yuffie and Cloud to a squad car.
“Hold up Biggs!” said a skinny officer on a radio. “I’m getting something here.”
“What is it Wedge?” Officer Biggs asked while waiting for Wedge to get off the radio.
Once he was off, he turned toward Biggs and said, “Well, it seems that we’ll have to let these two go. It’s an order from higher up. They match the descriptions that we were given over the radio.”
“What?!” Biggs exclaimed. “Oh well, can’t disobey orders from higher up.” Biggs immediately uncuffed Cloud and Yuffie. They had their weapons returned to them. “Who exactly was that guy?” The question was directed toward Cloud and Yuffie.
“From what we know, he was an assassin sent to kill some of the top government officials,” said Cloud. “We were chasing him after he failed his attempt to kill some off the top officials and us during a meeting.”
Biggs had a raised eyebrow as he listened to that story. It looked like he didn’t believe it, but he wasn’t going to question the blonde-haired man with the spiked hairdo. “Are you sure that is true?” Cloud nodded. “Man, the media is going to have a field day about all of this Wedge!”
“They sure are,” commented Wedge.
“I thought life would calm down for us after we quit the army,” said Biggs. “I guess this is a remainder that life is too uncertain for anything. Well, you two can be on your way now.” Cloud and Yuffie nodded, picked up their weapons and got back on the motorcycle and sped off into the distance. “Wedge, I’d say that somebody has it out for us or something. It seems as though all the bad things seem to happen to us. Well, I guess we’ll have to come up with another story aside from what those two told me.”
“Do you think they were telling the truth?” Asked Wedge.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Biggs answered. “Anyway let’s do our job. I’d hate to be the person to clean this mess up.” Commented Biggs.
.
Lensey waited for Cloud and Yuffie to come back. During the wait, she saw a couple of police cars speeding down the road with sirens blaring. (Cloud and Yuffie must really be causing trouble.) After that thought, Lensey just waited with the man for Cloud and Yuffie to get back with the motorcycle.
After a few minutes, She saw Cloud and Yuffie coming down the road. When they stopped, Cloud turned off the bike and tossed the keys to the man. “Next time, you should remember to take out the keys,” Cloud suggested. The man looked like he was ready to say something, but decided against it. He really didn’t want to anger three armed people. He was just happy he got his bike back and walked back into the bar.
“What happened?” Asked Lensey.
Cloud looked at Yuffie and had a look that said do you want to tell her or me? Yuffie shook her head and looked down. “Well, we chased the assassin, causing a few accidents and wrecking some police cars,” said Cloud. “When we finally caught him, the police showed up and we had to let down our guard. The assassin took a gun out of his shirt and said something about not wanting to incur Diaz’s wrath. After saying that, shot himself in the head.” He saw Yuffie cringe a little bit after he said the last part. He didn’t want to say it, but it had to be said.
“Damn!” Said Lensey getting mad. “We could have used him to tell us where Diaz’s castle is.” After a second, Lensey calmed down. “Don’t worry, you two couldn’t have know that would happen. Well, let’s get back to the others.”
The three walked in silence back to the presidential palace. Once they got there, they saw a lot of military personnel running around. When they got to the gate. The soldier just looked at them for a few seconds before letting them past. They turned around and saw that news vans were driving up to the gate. The soldiers were instantly refusing them entrance to the courtyard and refused to answer their questions. They turned around and walked to the entrance, they noticed that Cid and the others from the room were standing outside.
Harvey Knoxville went over to Lensey and shook her hand. “Thank you Miss Kusanagi,” he said. “You saved my life.” Lensey just smiled a little and nodded.
She turned toward the others and put the serious look back on her face. “What happened out there?” Questioned Squall.
“Well, after chasing him a couple of blocks, commandeering a motorcycle, causing a few accidents, and finally catching the assassin, he committed suicide,” Lensey explained. “I really wanted to catch him alive so he could tell us the location of Diaz’s castle. I guess I can forget about that now.”
“Don’t worry about it now,” Headmaster Cid said. He turned to the general and said, “We don’t know if Diaz will send anymore assassins after you. You’ll really have to tighten up security now.”
“Yes, I guess we’ll have to come to a decision quickly,” General Caraway commented. “It’s a good thing all of you were here today. I guess Diaz’s assassin didn’t plan on you being here. My thanks go out to all of you. We better get all of the parliament together.” General Caraway shook everybody’s hand before leaving into the presidential residence with the rest of his party.
“Well, better get back to Garden and take the Ragnarok to Esthar,” said Headmaster Cid. Everybody nodded and took the escort vehicles back to the entrance of the city and exited it and headed toward Balamb Garden.
.
Upon arrival at the gates of Balamb Garden, Selphie, Red XIII, Barret, and Tifa greeted Squall and the others.
“So, how did it go?” Questioned Red.
“Well, the meeting went well, up until the point that that assassin showed up,” said Xu.
“Assassin?” Asked Selphie.
“Yes, Selphie,” said Headmaster Cid. “He was sent by Diaz to probably get rid of General Caraway and the other politicians in the room.” At this time Rinoa came walking toward them and heard them.
“What?!” Exclaimed Rinoa. “Is he okay?” Rinoa said with worry. Even though she wasn’t on the best of terms with her father right now, but she still cared for him because he was her father.
“He’s fine Rinoa,” Squall said. “You can thank Lensey for warning us. If it wasn’t for her, he would probably be dead right now.” Squall assured her while placing an arm around her shoulders trying to comfort her.
The worry in Rinoa’s eyes was replaced by happiness. “Thanks Lensey,” said Rinoa.
“No problem,” said Lensey. She then turned to Headmaster Cid and asked, “Do you think they’re going to come to a decision soon?”
Cid nodded. “Following that little incident, I think they’re going to really come to a decision quick.” He looked at the Cloud, Yuffie, Zell, and Xu and said, “you can change out of your uniforms if you want to. I had you wear them for appearance, because the Galbaldian officials take appearances of the people they work with very serious. Your clothes should be washed, dried and in you dorm room.” Lensey just nodded and cast some magic. A red fire concealed her from sight for a few seconds. When the fire disappeared Lensey was clothed in her red gi top, white pants, red shoes, with her katana strapped to her back. This time her light brown her was in a braided tail with a few loose strands going down to her forehead. “That’s an interesting technique you have there Lensey, you’ll have to teach me that someday, Even though I might not have a need for it.” Headmaster Cid joked. Lensey just smiled and followed Selphie to the parking lot.
“Thanks Headmaster,” said Cloud. “I think I’ll change before we go to Esthar in the Ragnarok.” Cloud went off to the dorm room, and Yuffie, Zell, and Tifa followed him the dorm section. They only took a few minutes to change and headed straight for the parking lot.
Once they were there, they boarded the ship they saw that nearly everybody from their little group of people with unlocked powers were onboard. They also saw that Quistis, Cid, Vincent, and Lisa were onboard. Dan and Irvine decided to stay at the garden.
The trip was uneventful and there was very little conversation. It wasn’t until they were passing over Fisherman’s Horizontal that Lensey didn’t sense anything. When they were passing over it Lensey felt a familiar power, but it was like the person was trying to hide his power but didn’t do a good job at it.
“Headmaster Cid,” said Lensey. “You don’t mind if you drop me off at that city back there do you? I just felt somebody familiar, a person that would be a great help to our fight.”
“Yes, but how will you get to Esthar?” Questioned Cid.
“Don’t worry, I’ll just use the teleport technique and transport there. I’ll sense one of the others power and teleport somewhere close to them,” Lensey explained.
“Fine then,” the Headmaster said. “Selphie, turn around and go back to Fisherman’s Horizon.”
“You don’t mind if Tifa and I accompany you Lensey?” asked Cloud. “We can never know when Diaz is going to show up and having an ambush laid out for us.”
Lensey thought about it for a few moments. (They would be off great help if Diaz did decide to show up and ambushed me.) “Sure, I don’t mind.”
After saying that, they noticed the Ragnarok was landing in the center by Mayor Dobe’s house. “Try not to cause any trouble here,” said Zell. “These people hate violence and will probably be pissed at you and probably try to throw you out of town.”
“Don’t worry,” said Lensey. “I don’t think we’ll cause any trouble. I think trouble will find us given our luck lately.” Lensey told Zell while walking down the ramp with Cloud and Tifa beside her.
After they got off, they gave themselves a little distance in-between the Ragnarok and themselves. They watched the Ragnarok lift up into the sky and sped off in the direction of Esthar. They looked around at the city. “This looks like a big satellite dish,” commented Tifa.
They walked up from the middle Fishman’s Horizon and explored the city for about 45 minutes. I wasn’t until they were close to a rundown train station that Lensey started to sense the power. Cloud and Tifa followed Lensey and stopped behind her when she stopped at some steps. “You can come out now,” Lensey said toward the entryway to the train station. “Your attempt to conceal your power almost worked if it wasn’t for my senses getting stronger over the years.”
“Well, I guess you never stop impressing me Lensey Kusanagi,” came a masculine voice from out of the shadows. A figure stepped out of the shadows and revealed this person. He was a black haired man, looked very muscular and looked a little bit older than Lensey. He stood about six foot one, and was wearing a tan brown shirt, green baggy pants tucked into some black combat boots. He also had a Katana on his belt. He walked down the stairs saying, “It’s been a long time Lensey.”
Lensey smile and hugged him, “It sure has Hayato.” Cloud and Tifa noticed how happy Lensey was. It was the first time they saw Lensey look this happy since they first met her a few days ago. When Lensey released her grip and backed off of Hayato, she said, “So this is where you went. You must know what has been going on here then?”
Hayato nodded. “Yeah, I sensed all the energy being used in the past few days. I couldn’t believe Diaz actually came here at first. I guess I should have known that the effect of time compression was going to get his attention sooner or later.” Hayato then noticed the people behind Lensey. “Who are they?”
Cloud stepped forward and put his hand out, “I’m Cloud Strife.” .
“Pleased to meet you,” Hayato said. Hayato shook his hand and turned toward Tifa
She stepped forward and held out her hand, “I’m Tifa Lockhart.”
Hayato took her hand and kneeled down and kissed the palm. “Please to meet you my lady.” Tifa just smiled at this.
“I see that you’ve never changed over the years,” said Lensey while grinning.
“Hey, I have to keep a little sense of humor or life would be dull without it,” Hayato explained.
“These two are from the past, about six thousand years,” Lensey said. “I guess that was another little effect of time compression.” Hayato just nodded. “You must have felt and heard about all the craziness going on in the world. Why haven’t you tried to contact me?”
“I’m not sure,” answered Hayato. “I don’t know if I could fight against Diaz again. It’s not that I’ve gotten weaker, it’s just I don’t know if I have the will to fight against him anymore.”
Lensey was shocked by these words. Never in her life would she have thought that Hayato, her comrade and friend, would ever say things like that. “You’ve changed Hayato,” said Lensey. “I would have never believed you would say those things.”
“You’ve changed too,” Hayato replied. “You’ve seemed to gotten more strong-spirited and let your emotions show more. I remember when I first met you. You were a shy and withdrawn person. You only cared about getting your missions done and about your sister. Aside from Naomi, you hardly ever talked to anybody else.” Lensey looked down at the mention of her sister.
“Yeah,” Lensey said while looking back up. “I wasn’t until I met you with your accepting attitude and silly sense of humor that I started to change. I guess people change a lot over time.” Lensey looked toward the afternoon sky. When she looked down back at Hayato she asked, “Will you help us in our fight against Diaz and his forces? Your help would be much appreciated.”
“I don’t know?” Answered Hayato.
“You don’t know?” Said Lensey. “It’s either yes or no. You can help us fight against Diaz or you could stay here and wait for everything to play out. I really don’t know how you could have sit here when all of this was going on.”
“It’s not fear that is holding me back,” Hayato replied. “It’s just that I really don’t know if I can face the man who murdered my family after he destroyed the organization.”
“So that’s it huh?” Lensey said while looking disappointed. “I would have thought you would want to pay him back for that. I know that’s probably not the right reason to fight, but it could be one. Another reason to fight would be to protect this world that you’ve grown to love and chose as your home.”
Hayato had to admit; Lensey always did have a way with words. (What the Hell!) “You’ve convinced me, I’m in,” he answered.
In an instant, Hayato, Lensey, Cloud and Tifa immediately sensed three powers in the rundown train station. They heard clapping a few seconds later. “Aw, a moving speech, one that could probably even convince me to join you if I was Hayato,” said the voice. They instantly recognized the voice as Diaz’s. “It’s too bad you four won’t see another sunset or sunrise after this day,” Diaz said coming out of the train station followed by Sephiroth and Oriana.
The four instantly jumped back and unsheathed his or her weapon and got into a fighting stance. “Damn, who would have thought Diaz would appear now,” said Cloud.
“Yes, who would have thought,” repeated Diaz. “Well, Sephiroth, Oriana, you may take care of Strife and Lockheart. Hayato and Lensey are mine.”
Lensey got close to Hayato, Cloud and Tifa. “Let’s have them chase us away from the city on the railroad tracks,” Lensey whispered to them. “When we’re far enough we’ll fight them.” She got nods from the three.
“So, you’re already coming up with plans to defeat us,” Diaz commented with a smirk. “Well, they won’t work.” Diaz, Sephiroth, and Oriana instantly unsheathed their weapons. He then saw the four powered-up and jumped to the railroad tracks and took off running. Diaz and the two instantly powered-up and followed them.
After Lensey thought they were far enough from the city, she stopped with the others and turned around to face Diaz. Diaz instantly stopped and stood there smiling. “I guess we’re far enough that none of those annoy insects in the city won’t bother us,” Diaz said. “You may care about them, but their lives mean nothing to me.” Without warning Cloud rushed at Sephiroth once more and attacked him to get his sword blocked. Both of them immediately jumped a few feet behind Diaz and Oriana and started really fighting furious. (Those two must really hate each other to be fighting like that.) Diaz then flipped over Tifa, Hayato, and Lensey. He landed about thirty feet away. “Well, let’s have at it you two!” Diaz Yelled. Lensey and Hayato charged at Diaz and attacked.
.
Tifa only watched the fight for a moment, but she turned her attention to Oriana. “So let’s see if you learned any new tricks,” Oriana said before charging Tifa with her sword. When she was close enough she swung the broadsword at Tifa’s neck. Tifa ducked and was about to attack when she saw Oriana recover from her swing and took another swing at her. Tifa dodged this also.
(I’m going to have to get that sword out of her hands if I want to stand a chance.) Tifa thought. She dodged a couple more swings of Oriana’s broadsword. Every time Tifa tried to attack, she was forced to dodge. Oriana thrust her sword toward Tifa’s midsection and Tifa saw her chance. She sidestepped the attack, grabbed and Oriana’s Left arm that the sword was in and drove her right elbow into Oriana’s face. The blow threw Oriana back making her drop the sword.
Tifa immediately charged Oriana as she was getting up and threw a barrage of lefts and rights at Oriana. Oriana blocked all of these and hit Tifa in the gut with a knee. This blow had Tifa doubled over and she kneeled down and grabbed her stomach. Oriana leapt in the air and did her triple spinning roundhouse kick on Tifa. All the kicks connected and Tifa was sent flying backwards. She got up a little dazed, but shook off the dizziness and wiped the blood that trickled down from her mouth. She once again got into her fighting stance. Oriana charged Tifa. Tifa got down into a crounch and threw her arms to sides. He instantly charged up her ki and pushed it to her legs. When Oriana was close enough she realized what Tifa was doing but it was too late when Tifa did a backwards-flip kick that was charged up with energy to give it a little more sting. Oriana was reeling back about to fall, when Tifa grabbed one of her arms and pulled her upright. She the hit Oriana in her exposed belly with a right and a left and floored her with a spinning reverse roundhouse kick to the head. When Oriana got back up, she was bleeding from her mouth too.
The two went at it some more, punching, kicking, dodging, and blocking at each other. Both got their fair share of hits off of each other. The fight looked more in the favor of Tifa. During their fight they heard explosions behind and in front of them. This distracted Oriana a little bit, and Tifa saw her chance. She kicked Oriana with a hard sidekick to the abdomen and charged up the power in her fist as Oriana doubled over in pain clutching her stomach. Tifa then unleashed a powered-up version of the Final Heaven punch to Oriana. Oriana was thrown back and knocked out. She then turned her attention to Cloud and Sephiroth’s fight.
.
After charging Diaz, Hayato swung his katana at Diaz and he blocked. Lensey attacked a second later making Diaz dodge the strike and jump back. (Now this is more of a challenge then those six in Galbaldian Garden.) After jumping back, Diaz attacked the two with the quickness and the fury. Lensey and Hayato were forced to go one the defensive blocking his broadsword.
When Hayato got into a sword lock, Diaz swiftly threw his other hand in Lensey’s direction and shot a small ki blast at her. She was hit is the chest and thrown back a few feet rolling.
Hayato pushed Diaz’s sword off of his and kicked Diaz in the stomach where armor was. The kick was hard enough that Diaz winced at the blow. Hayato swiftly did a diagonal slash toward Diaz’s chest.
Diaz jumped back and did a horizontal slash aimed for Hayato’s gut. Hayato jumped back.
Lensey jumped high over Hayato and connected with a flying kick to Diaz’s chest. The kick sent him flying backwards landing on his back.
She then tried to press her advantage by jumping at Diaz’s prone figure with her sword over her head. Diaz saw this and rolled out of the way dodging the overhead strike. He tried to trip Lensey but she backflipped back to Hayato’s side.
Diaz got up and jumped high in the air and hovered. He swung his sword in their direction and two fireballs were sent careening toward them. Both of them immediately shot a crescent moon wave of energy at the two fireballs. When the four energy-based projectiles connected, there was a blinding bright explosion.
Hayato and Lensey had to cover their eyes. When they opened them they didn’t see Diaz in the air anymore. Diaz had teleported behind them. When the two were turning around he swung two times. One slash caught Lensey in the left shoulder and the other slash caught Hayato in the chest.
Both jumped back and inspected the cuts they had received. Lensey’s was not too deep and a little blood went down here left arm. (It isn’t too bad. I’m lucky a little deeper my arm would be useless.)
Hayato wasn’t as lucky and was grabbing his chest. The cut wasn’t that deep, but deep enough to put Hayato on his knees. Lensey immediately started casting some cure magic. She was only able to cast a little on Hayato when she had to dodge the sword slashes from Diaz. “We can’t be having that now can we?”
The cut on Hayato’s chest was healed up enough to stop the blood from flowing from his chest. He was still in pain, but he could endure the pain and fight on.
Both immediately jumped away from Diaz considering their next move. “Don’t tell me that’s all you’ve got?” Bellowed Diaz.
“Don’t bet on it buddy!” Yelled Lensey as she and Hayato charged once again at Diaz.
.
After Cloud and Sephiroth left the other people, they were both fighting fast and furious like enraged demons. Neither was gaining the advantage.
A few minutes of blocking, slashing, thrusting and parrying each other’s attacks and the two warriors jumped apart. Sephiroth then shot about three fireballs toward Cloud. Cloud deflected all three with his huge sword and blocked an attack from Sephiroth who rushed him after shooting the fireballs. They were in another sword lock and Sephiroth as cautious to watch out for any of the previous tactics that he’s fallen for in the recent past. Cloud tried a foot sweep and was surprised when Sephiroth raised his leg and avoided the sweep.
Sephiroth recovered fast and connected with a hard kick to Cloud’s jaw that sent Cloud sprawling on the ground. He dropped masamune and scooped Cloud up by his neck and started punching him in his gut. Sephiroth was enjoyed making Cloud Suffer like this. After about seven punches, he tossed Cloud into the air a little and did a spinning roundhouse kick to Cloud’s chest.
The kick sent Cloud flying back a few feet and he landed just 10 feet to Tifa’s right. Tifa gasped after seeing this.
Sephiroth immediately charged up his energy into his right hand as a green aura surrounded his body. A little wind started to kick up and blew his hair backwards. “Now you die!” Sephiroth sent the big ball of green energy flying toward Cloud.
Cloud never in his life had received a beating like that. He got up slowly using the Ultima Weapon as a crutch. When he was nearly up, he felt a big ball of energy being shot off. He turned around toward Sephiroth and saw that a big green ball of energy was headed his way and it was fast.
He wouldn’t have enough time to dodge it. He put arm up to cover his face. When it was almost to him, his eyes widened and he braced himself for impact. Without warning, he felt somebody push him to the ground and take the blow for him.
His eyes widened as he saw the person who pushed him out of the way fly back from the attack. When Cloud looked, she was unconscious and lying a few feet away from him.
“No,” Cloud said quietly. “TTTTTTIIIIIIIIIFFFFFFAAAAAA!” Cloud screamed.
.
Author’s Notes: Now that is one nasty cliffhanger! I’m sorry to all the people who wanted to see more, but I’ll end this chapter right here. Well, after going to Deling City and making the offer of an alliance to Galbaldia, and thrawting an assassination attempt, Cloud would have never thought something like this was going to happen. I tell you, it hasn’t been Cloud’s day. Well, I know I said this chapter was going to be about our heroes going to Deling City and Esthar, but something changed while I was writing this. The next chapter will be about what happens in the continuance of this battle and Balamb Garden forming and Alliance with Esthar. Also, reasons for fighting will be questioned. Oh yeah, the next chapter will have everyone’s favorite president, (A very lucky person if you ask me.) Laguna! Also to answer a question, Yes, Diaz is the main bad guy. Lensey, I would say she’s one of the main characters in this story. She’s not the main character, even though I may focus on her more in the story. Well, I’m going to try to work fast on the next chapter and have it out as soon as possible. I’ll also repost some of those earlier chapters with the grammar errors fixed that I’ve found. Well don’t miss chapter nine of “Blades of Destiny”.
I’d really like to hear what people think about this. Just email me and tell me what you think since this isn’t fanfiction.net. My email address is bbraswell54@hotmail.com.