The Sorceress' Legacy Chapter 2
By Kettch
They were married in a small ceremony at Balamb Garden. Selphie decorated the newly repaired Quad for the event, and Laguna and General Caraway flew in for the occasion. It was a most memorable time for all in attendance. It saw Zell actually on the dance floor with a girl from the library committee, and enjoying himself, at that. Laguna and General Caraway, both beaming with pride, on the side sharing stories of their time in the Galbadian military. Zone and Watts were there, having arrived on the White SeeD ship, were overjoyed that Rinoa was safe. Cid and Edea, who had come from Galbadia and Trabia Gardens to attend. It was a most joyous day indeed.
Later, at the reception, much to everyone’s surprise, Irvine, in a SeeD
dress uniform, proposed to Selphie and vowed to give up his “womanizing
ways” and stay with her “till Ultimecia comes back.” Selphie
accepted by jumping up and yelling “WooHoo!!” getting a chuckle
from all present. Late that night, after the party, Squall and Rinoa were
walking down the hall toward their room, when Squall stopped and faced his
bride. “One more gift.” He said as he reached into the pocked of
his uniform’s jacket and produced a piece of paper. “Remember
this?”
She took the paper and began to read. “Balamb Garden, hereafter referred as party A, does agree to send to the Forest Owls, hereafter known as party B one party of SeeDs, hereafter known as party C....” She looked up with a smile, “This is my contract with SeeD, so your saying that you still work for me? I could take advantage of this....”
“You wouldn’t,” Squall remarked with mock horror, smiling.
“Try me,” She responded, as she kissed him..
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Squall stood at the table, laying his plan out to Zell, Xu, Quistis, and Rinoa, along with Zone and Watts, listened intently on the plan that their commander had been working since his wedding the week prior.
“Well, first off, Vinzer Deling’s son is in charge of Galbadia now, and with the trouble they’ve had with Ultimecia, they might be willing to compromise for Timber’s independence. At the very least, if the new Deling is reasonable, we should be able to get Timber some more freedom...” He saw that Zone was going to object, "freedoms like your own police department and leaders, a vote, a mayor who answers to Deling for you, but runs things himself. Something along the lines of an commonwealth instead of a conquered state. We would of course try for full independence, this is a last ditch effort. Second, I would feel better if we were representing Timber as a whole, not just the Forest Owls. It would be best in the long run to unite the resistance anyway.”
“I don’t like the commonwealth idea much, but it would be better than nothing.” Zone stated. “I like the idea of uniting the resistance, and your representing all of us. Watts and I will take the idea to the different groups, and try to get their support.”
“If something were to go wrong, we would of course resort to combat to free Timber, but with the new government, I think we should try to solve this without bloodshed if possible.”
“Of course sir, that would be rather nice, not having to risk our necks for a change.” Watts responded.
“Ok, this is agreed.” He looked and noticed everyone nodding in agreement. “Good, now, Zone, Watts, take Quistis and Zell, and go to Timber and try to get the rest of the resistance behind this. Rinoa and I will come back here when we get word from you, to go over any changes they want made before we proceed to Deling City for the negotiations. That is all”
About two weeks later, they met in Timber, where the plan was finalized with a few revisions and accepted, albeit hesitantly by some, and Rinoa was named as the Ambassador to Deling City with the task of representing Timber. Another week of preparations, and they left from Timber via train to Deling City.
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“I wish I had my Gunblade,” Squall complained, pulling on the collar of his SeeD dress uniform. “I would definitely feel much safer.”
“These are peace talks, and bringing a weapon isn’t very peaceful is it.” Rinoa countered. “Don’t worry, if we are not back in a few days, SeeD will come looking for us, remember?” She poked him in the ribs softly, “You gave Quistis specific instructions to come after us if we weren’t back in three days.”
“Right, I know, but I still don’t trust them…..”
They both turned toward the large oak doors and the far end of the conference room as they opened. A man in his late 20’s emerged and seated himself at the head of the table. When Rinoa and Squall had done the same, he spoke.
“I am Vinzer Deling Jr., President of Galbadia, what is your business here?” He asked.
“I am Rinoa Leonheart, daughter of General Caraway of Galbadia. I am here representing the resistance of Timber to negotiate there independence.”
“What makes you think that I am willing to listen to Timber’s pleas for independence?” Deling stood. “How do I know that I am not supposed to be intimidated by the fact that the so called negotiators are a sorceress and a SeeD commander? Do they think I will roll over and play dead just because of your powers, or a fear of SeeD?”
“President Deling, we do not wish to see any violence, Timber, Galbadia, and SeeD have seen enough fighting these last few months as a result of the battles with Ultimecia. I am here as Timber’s representative because I was the leader of the most active of the resistance movement, the SeeD commander is my Knight, bodyguard, and husband. True, he also is a SeeD commander, but as a commander, I feel he may have valuable input, relevant to these discussions.”
“What you feel is irrelevant, as are your reasons.” Deling motioned toward the large tapestries on the far side of the room, where several Galbadian soldiers appeared from behind them. “Now, by your own admission, you are a resistance leader and a Galbadian citizen, which makes you a traitor. You are under arrest, as is your husband for being an accomplice to the crime, SeeD commander or not. Good day.”
As he opened the large doors to leave, several more guards entered the room. They neared the place where Squall and Rinoa now stood ready. Squall reached out and struck the first one across the jaw with a heavy fist, sending him sprawling to the floor unconscious. He then spun, delivering a crushing kick to the chest of the guard who was coming up behind him. He took two steps forward and ducked just as a fireball from Rinoa zipped over his head and slammed into a third soldier. Squall tucked and rolled forward, straightening into an uppercut, sending another man crashing into the large table in the center of the room.
Meanwhile, Rinoa was letting loose all manner of spells, trying to turn the tide of their struggle. Squall was backed into a corner , swinging and kicking as fast and as hard as he could. He spin kicked one soldier out of the way and dove forward, rolling past two other guards. He sprang to his feet and spun to face one of the guards he passed when he felt a sharp pain at the back of his head. Immediately stars flashed before his eyes and the world went dark.
Rinoa rushed to his side and knelt to use a heal spell on him when she heard the unmistakable sound of a gun being readied and pointed at her head. She realized then that it was over. She didn’t have the control of her powers to deflect the shot.
“Ok, I give up,” she said as she placed her hands on her head and slowly stood. She looked down at Squall’s limp form and hoped that he would be alright.
********************************************
“I see two guards,” Laguna said as he turned to face Kiros and Ward. “You sure this is the right cell?”
Ward just looked with an expression of disbelief on his face before he turned away and grunted.
“He says that he has told you several times that he used to work here. He knows this is the cell.” Kiros interpreted for his mute friend. “Besides, that is what he said.” He pointed to the limp body of a Galbadian clerk they had drug down from one of the offices upstairs.
Laguna just turned back and looked again around the corner at the cell that his son was in. Moments later, a mean-looking Galbadian officer came toward the cell with a small club. Laguna knew he had to act fast, or he shuddered to think what would happen to those inside. The man approached the two guards and muttered something inaudible and proceeded to unlock the cell door. He turned back to his two companions.
“We have to move now.” He produced a small radio from his jacket, “Esthar Guard, we are moving in, be ready to clear us a path out of here.”
“Wait, what are you doing.” Kiros whispered after him as they went around the corner and toward the cell.
********************************************
The Galbadian officer walked into the cell where the Sorceress and her SeeD consort were being held and looked around, noticing that the SeeD was still unconscious. “Good,” He thought, “now I can have some fun.”
“So your boyfriend is still asleep, good,” he walked over and roughly ran a finger down Rinoa’s cheek, “He won’t be able to stop me.”
Rinoa cringed pressed herself into the back of the small room just as there were two muffled thuds outside. The officer turned and came face to face with Laguna Loire.
“That is my daughter-in-law.” He raised his machine gun as Kiros and Ward came to stand in the doorway behind him.
“And who the hell are you?” the Galbadian replied, ignoring the gun leveled at his waist.
“Me, I’m Laguna Loire, President of Esthar.” Laguna then squeezed the trigger. The three round burst caught the man in the stomach and slammed him into the wall next to Rinoa
Laguna walked over and knelt beside Squall, pulling a potion from his jacket. He took the small vile of greenish liquid and placed it to his son’s lips. Slowly as he drank the potion, the young SeeD commander awoke, groaning as he placed a hand to the back of his head. After a short time, he was standing. He accepted his gunblade from his father, and they proceeded toward the top of the prison.
They had never expected it to be an easy battle to the top, and they were not disappointed. They were faced with wave upon wave of prison guards, elite soldiers, GIM47N and GIM52A robotic guards. Fighting their way level by level, they made their way to the top, joining up with the Esthar Presidential Guard on about level nine. The arrival of the Guard helped and they soon found themselves in the control room at the top of the prison.
Once there, the Estharian soldiers, along with Kiros and Ward, repelled down to retrieve vehicles for their getaway. Meanwhile, Squall, Rinoa and Laguna looked for the controls to submerge the prison into the sand below.
“Impressive, I didn’t think you would make it this far.” The three looked up from their work to see a man, a colonel from his uniform, walk into the control room followed by almost thirty elite soldiers. A large gate slammed down and locked in the doorway leading back the way back down into the prison leaving the SeeD, the Sorceress, and the President trapped.
“Throw down your weapons or I will kill you here and now.” The Colonel stepped forward as Squall dropped his gunblade and Laguna tossed his machine gun to the side. “It is a good thing I stepped up security and led your capture myself, or you no doubt would have escaped here a second time. That would have been unacceptable.”
Just as soldiers were moving to take the three back into custody, the door behind the Galbadian force burst open, and a middle-aged man in a suit adorned with medals of military conquest ran into the room. He looked around for a moment and stepped up to the Galbadian Colonel.
“I am General Caraway, retired commander-in-chief of the Galbadian military. The man in the blue jacket is President Laguna Loire of Esthar, and That is my daughter. You can’t hold him, or his son” he pointed toward Squall, “without starting a war. And please, my daughter has some mixed up idea’s, I agree. Just let me take her home and will make sure none of this happens again.”
“The President is responsible for an attempted prison break, which is an act of war. As for you daughter, she is a traitor, as are you, if you couldn’t even raise her as a proper Galbadian.” He drew a pistol, “and the sentence for such crimes is death.” The colonel fired, striking Caraway in the heart, sending him sprawling onto the floor lifeless.
“NO!” Rinoa shrieked as her eye’s glowed crimson. A strange wind roared in the control room as the young sorceress began to lift off the ground. As she hovered there, bolts of electricity arced around the room, as fire began to form in her hands. The ice began to form on the ground beneath her from the water and poison that dripped from her feet. She lifted her arms up even with her shoulders preparing for the spell to come as the air above her grew pitch black. She brought her hands together at her chest and abruptly thrust them forward. The area surrounding the enemy soldiers turned black as poison boiled up from the floor. Lightning bolts arced around the room as frost formed on the wall behind the Galbadians. Balls of fire leapt from Rinoa’s hands and slammed into them as lightning struck them repeatedly. Ice ran up their bodies and encased them just for it to be melted away by the fire spells. Finally a ball of pure power formed in the center of the madness and began to grow, devouring everything it touched. It slowly grew and then exploded out encompassing the entire Galbadian force before subsiding, leaving nothing but charred deck plating and piles of ash. Rinoa collapsed back to the ground exhausted.
“Impressive, very impressive.” The Galbadian Colonel said as he stood from behind one of the few control panels left untouched by Rinoa’s spell. “too bad it’s all for not.” He leveled his gun at Squall, who had grabbed his gunblade during confusion. He looked to Rinoa who was resting on one knee, “Say goodbye to your husband, witch, none of your spells will bring him back now.” He carefully took aim and fired as Rinoa stood and ran towards Squall, leaping with her last ounce of strength and knocking him out of the way. Squall stumbled and fell onto his back as Rinoa landed and slid to a stop, leaving a red streak of blood where she hit.
Squall jumped to his feet, gunblade in hand and charged the man with the gun. The Officer tried to fire, but before he could take aim, Squall had brought his blade up and had slammed it into the Galbadian. He was thrown into the air, Squall jumping with him. The SeeD caught up with his pray and began slashing fiercely, reducing the Colonel to a bloody carcass. Finally, holding the gunblade outstretched to his right side and holding it’s trigger to charge the blade, then made one more slash across the man’s midsection releasing the trigger as the last strike hit its target, sending a pulse of pure energy down the blade and into what remained of the Glabadian. As Squall landed, the mass of charred, bloodied flesh landed in a heap behind him.
“Rinoa!” Squall hit the ground running toward where Laguna now kneeled over the wounded sorceress. He slid to a stop and knelt next to his young wife, fearing the worst.
“Squall…..” Rinoa whispered weakly, “Squall I…”
“Shhh….. Everything will be fine.” Squall reassured as he reached into a pouch on his belt. “Drink this.” He removed a small vile of a greenish liquid from the pouch and pressed it to Rinoa’s lips, letting her drink half before applying the rest to a makeshift bandage for the bullet wound just below her collar bone..
“Squall….I’m….I’m scared,” She whispered as her eyes fluttered closed.
“Laguna, we need to get out of here and take her someplace safe.”
“I think I know just the place.” Laguna pulled out his radio and stared for the exit as Squall picked Rinoa up and followed after.
“Kiros, get the Ragnorok ready, fast. Rinoa’s hurt.”
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They ran across the desert sand toward the Ragnorok when they saw the large Galbadian force heading for them. Squall paused for a moment to look, and shuddered at what he saw. There had to be over two thousand troops, robotic sentries of all kinds, and several armored personnel carriers, bristling with guns. He turned to run, but realized he wasn’t going to make it to the ship in time. He passed Rinoa off to one of the Estharian guards who met them at the main doors and readied his gunblade when he saw it. The large mass of blue that loomed in the distance, with its massive golden disk supporting it in the air. Balamb Garden.
“Look’s like Kiros called in the Calvary!” Laguna shouted to his son across the noise. He turned to his radio, “Kiros take off and give us some air support!”
Balamb Garden moved overhead and SeeDs began repelling from ropes just as the front of the Galbadian mob arrived. Squall charged forward, slicing through one man and thrusting his blade through another’s chest. He spun and took out a third while Laguna mowed down a dozen with his machine gun before changing the clip. Squall parried a Galbadian blade and sliced the soldiers stomach open as he began to fall back toward Garden. Most of the SeeDs on Garden had entered the fight, and still they seemed outnumbered. Squall stepped aside and bashed another man in the head as he stumbled by, knocking him unconscious. Even with the Ragnorok now strafing up and down the enemy formation, there were just not enough SeeDs to stem the tide of enemy troops pouring into the battle. What he needed was another Garden, but Galbadia Garden only had a small faculty and no SeeDs, and Trabia Garden was still in ruins. Squall ducked a blow to the head, while bringing his gunblade up and into his assailants ribcage. He stepped forward decapitating another Galbadian, then pivoted and spun around slashing behind him, killing another. “This is hopeless“, he thought as he readied for the next enemy to come at him. To his surprise, the man never got to him. Instead, as he rushed toward Squall, a dark gray blade emerged from the man’s chest. He fell revealing Seifer Almasy, gunblade in hand.
“Xu said you needed a hand.” Seifer commented as he slashed through another‘s midsection as he ran by, “Looks like I’m just in time.”
“What are you doing here, I told you to stay at Trabia until the repairs were completed!” Squall shouted over the noise of battle, as he sidestepped another attack and made his way over to Seifer.
“Your welcome, Squall, don't mention it." He remarked sarcastically, as he pointed to the sky, "Besides, I didn't leave Trabia. I brought it with me."
Squall looked to see Trabia Garden right behind Balamb, battered, beaten, but still flying, and still pouring SeeDs into the battle. Obviously the Galbadians had seen it too, because they began to break off their attack and flee.
“I bet Selphie’s happy,” Squall said as he stepped over the dead Galbadian and met up with Seifer. “As much as I hate to say it, Thanks for the save. I guess you redeemed yourself.”
“Hey, no problem, where ever there’s a need, the people’s knight is there to help,” Seifer chuckled, “Besides, you’re the one who gave me the chance to redeem myself, so I’ll call it even, this time.”
“He really has changed, hasn’t he,” Squall thought. “Well, its good to have Trabia back. Good work” And with that, He ran for where the Ragnorok was touching down.