Final Fantasy VIII: SeeD (IC)

[Makokam]

He "hmmd" at Evas comment and then let his awareness once again drift out into the world around him. A few minutes later he allowed himself to follow Evas presence out of the main hall.

* * *

He was unsure if he'd managed to reach a deeper state of meditation than ever before, or if he'd just fallen asleep. When he came back to himself the entire Garden was dark and silent. He didn't need to look at the clock to know it was so late it was early. he made his way to his room to try and get some sleep before the daylight woke him.

* * *

The mission briefing was kind of a haze for him. This would be his sixth consecutive mission, and despite priding himself on his stamina he was starting to fold. The mention of new GFs caught his a attention though.

* * *

shut up shut up shut up shut shut up shut up shut up shut up shutuopshutuoshutuoshutuoshutuopSHUT UP!

What had started as a tense situation, had, over the last few hours hours, degraded to antagonistic, then hostile, until it finally broke out into open fighting. He understood why, on paper, why he had been given Fenrir. For all intents and purposes the Wolf of the Arctic Wind seemed a perfect match for him, and even his current GFs. In practice though, mixing a giant wolf with two minutars had not been a bright idea.

He was finally forced to unequip The Brothers so that he could get to know his new Guardian better.

The whole incident left him in a rather foul and unsocial mood.

* * *

The facility was, surprisingly, right up his alley in regards to fighting ground. He was classed as a berserker, and there were times when he truly lived up to the name, so speed and agility were, proportionally, his weakest elements, and narrows hallways were perfect for him, so long as he could swing his sword and ax.

* * *

When the first monster attacked, he reacted quickly and without panic. He leapt back and spun, drawing his ax and delivering a crushing blow to the creatures head as they both landed, "Down boy!"

The creatures head was pinned to the floor by his ax as he held it in place.

When the creature looked up at him and then just shrugged the blow off, his eyes widened and he leapt back again drawing out his sword.

The wound he'd left was superficial at best.

It was time for him to be serious about this.

He brought the handles of his weapons together, and twisted them together with a solid click.

"Keep an eye on my back, Kryse," and with a whoop he leapt to meet his foe, his single massive weapon a hurricane of destruction.

* * *

He hesitated about sheathing his weapons again. There always seemed to be another critter that wanted to play just around the corner, and his cures had reached a less than optimum level and he didn't want to be caught off guard by even the slightest bit again... but he had a feeling that that was the last of the creatures.

He sheathed his weapons again and sighed, "You okay Kryse?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good, because this is getti-" A bright light lit the tunnel up like high noon as Kryse screamed. He whirled to see him in the center of the light just before something struck him in the eye, bringing an end to the light.

[Jag]

“Hey, wake up.”

Kryse Salmance’s eye would open to a world of damp darkness, his face in a centimeter-shallow puddle of stale water brought on from a steady drip from a high ceiling. What little the dim lighting of the room could reveal wouldn’t be anything startling. The room expanded for quite some ways in two directions from the tight corner in which the SeeD awoke, a number of thick metallic pillars anchoring the floor above the room. The windows, no natural lighting. Underground. The only light in the room came from a number of small vents near the ceiling, somewhere around twenty feet above the floor laden with grated drains.

“C’mon, man, wake up.”

The voice came from the only distinguishable figure in the room. Leaning against the pillar closest to the wall and the crumpled SeeD was a man around a decade older than Kryse, dressed in black pants, no shirt, and a black combat vest. Blonde hair lay cropped close the head as a pair of icy blue eyes looked down at the boy. Kryse Salmance had never met Aiden Barron before, had no reason to panic. He was about the only one.

Thirty minutes earlier…

The door to the cell snapped open with speed and power, sliding from its flush position and jutting to the right. As soon as the door to Alex Raines’ cell open, a uniformed and helmet guard walked in with weapon trained on the SeeD while stepping to the side. A familiar face from Alex’s recent past followed as the door shut behind him. A person she met at a graduation party at Trabia Graden.

“Miss Raines,” Aiden Barron said with arms crossing over broad chest, “No no, don’t get up. In fact, Stop.[/b]” he said, the word accompanied by a rush of the like-named magic, freezing the girl’s body in place. “I…hope that your trip wasn’t too hard. We did want to bring you out in style considering all the good work you and your friends have been doing to make out lives a living hell lately.” He spoke with a sense of easy like one would expect from an old friend hoping to catch up during some sort of reunion – not the angel of death that had just kidnapped a number of highly-trained mercenaries.

“Remember that little stunt your team pulled back at the hotel in Deling City? Well, I was so impressed with how you were able to ruin six months of planning that I had a mind to come up to Trabia Garden and thank you in person. Of course, you just couldn’t sit still long enough for me to…express my gratitude. You ran off for another mission to Esthar and, let me tell you, you were impressive again.”

“You see,” he said with a sigh, sliding until he was sitting down next to the still-paralyzed girl, “I have been watching you for a very long time. You,” he said with another pause, twisting his torso so as to get only a few inches away from the immobilized face of the girl, “are very impressive. I cannot wait to get inside and find out just what makes you…tick. This is going to be fun.”

Aiden allowed himself to lean just a little closer and linger for an instant before bounding back to his feet, the door opening as he stepped halfway out before spinning around.

“We’ll have to pick this up later after your tests. First, I’ve got to go kill someone. So busy,” he said with a smirk, turning and leaving. The soldier lowered the weapon, turned and filed back out.

[i]Back in the lower level…

Aiden staggered back and fell to one knee, a hand reaching up and immediately touching his cheek and feeling the warm rush of blood leaking through his fingers. Kryse Salmance had taken some goading to get back to strength, but the young man had finally decided to fight back. Aiden couldn’t have been happier. The initial tests told them that Kryse’s relationship with his GF – if it could even be called that in the traditional sense – was completely incompatible with their cloning process. Like Balian and Ares, Kryse was linked in such a way that could not be undone.

Aiden rose back up to his feet and regripped the long shaft of the spear identical to the one he’d thrust in Kryse’s hands minutes before. The young SeeD surged with another attack, striking downward with the weapon. Aiden spun out of the way, the blade of the weapon jarring into the drainage gate. Kryse pulled back and lifted his head up – just in time to see the forearm of the Galbadian soldier smash into his jaw. The SeeD reeled back and fell onto the floor. He didn’t have the strength to go on.

Calling out to Diablos, he found the being strangely silent. There were no words, just a sense of peace that ran through him, as if the Guardian Force had come to accept this not only as inevitable, but a necessary step to progress. Where he was progressing was something that Diablos didn’t seem inclined to share, but the feeling was there nonetheless. Kryse was almost inclined to fall in line…up until the shaft of the spear was thrown back into his hands.

“C’mon. Get up. This isn’t over.”

Kryse was faster than Balian, but the older man was stronger. Kryse had far better technique as a fighter with designated melee weapons, but Balian had a vicious streak that fell outside the rules of civilized conduct. The fight was a dance. Kryse fought because he had to, Balian fought simple because he wanted to. Every SCORPIA board member that had doubted him from the beginning, every Estharian soldier he’d seen on the other side of a rifle scope – every soul that had tried to take his own was the target of the blows embodied in the young SeeD.

The blades scraped against each other, generating sparks as the two men spun away from one another. Then, the dripping in the corner of the room turned into a rush of water. The grates beneath them began to rise slowly with icy water. It only lasted for a few seconds before a klaxon alarm began sounding, not only in the empty chamber but resonating from several other levels at the same time.

Sensing that older man was distracted by the alarm, Kryse lunged out with one more strike. He couldn’t remember making contact, only a quick bow to the back of the head and the sensation of icy water enveloping his body.

Thirty minutes later…

The wind swept around Aiden’s body as he reeled about, watching the temporary evacuation of the facility. The place wasn’t destroyed by any means, but the structural damage was enough that all the work would be set back by months. The tall pillar of smoke rising miles into the air, however, was the real problem. Not exactly something that could be hidden from the world. Aiden Barron’s little secret was now a national landmark. Pain from the fused junction rushed to his temples and caused him wince visibly for a few seconds.

They had escaped. The targets of all the research, all the planning, all the scheming. Balian had waged his entire life on the plan and now it had failed. They had all escaped. That is, of course, except for Kryse Salmance. The young man’s battered body, unable to fight any longer, rocked back on bent knees in front of the SCORPIA operative. They had all escaped except for this one.

With one shot of a sniper rifle, Elia Barron had taken from Aiden something that she couldn’t possibly understand. The man that she’d killed at the Deling City Hotel had just been another target to her. She could never truly understand. So, Aiden was going to make her understand. He was going to take from her – and the rest of them – something just as dear.

“A good death,” he said to the boy, tossing a knife down in front of him to give Kryse one last fighting chance. “I envy you.”

The SeeD inhaled deeply and filled his chest with one last burst of the sickly sweet air smelling of blood, sweat, and oil. The blade in front of him was a Galbadian utility knife, standard military issue. He only knew it because Elia had carried one in the short time that he’d known the sniper. There was nothing elegant about it, but the SeeD knew what picking up would mean.

Rising to his feet with the last ounce of strength in his body, Kryse gripped the blade and brought himself to as much of a combat posture as he could manage. His eyes were blurred with blood and he could barely make out the figure of Balian in front of him. He lifted up his arm slowly to block the blow he knew to be coming, but that was all that was left within him. When the blade pierced his chest, he could hear the sound of a voice somewhere in the distance.

As the body slumped into him and slid away from his body, Balian could feel the rush of energy surging through his body, the spirit of Ares drinking in the war and death around him. Releasing the hilt of the blade, Aiden trained his icy eyes on the horizon. Reaching up with his left hand, the man touched the blood on his cheek and stared at the deep red liquid before touching it to his tongue. Somehow, he knew he had an audience.

For Kryse Salmance, the war was finally over. For Balian, it was just beginning.

[SuperVixen]

Not two minutes after the door to Alex’s cell slammed shut, it snapped open again and the uniformed soldier entered again. This time, however, the figure of Balian was not quick to follow. The door shut quickly as the soldier reached up and gripped the tight helmet rather than the rifle slung on shoulder. Pulling it back quickly, the young woman ripped the helmet from her head and mussed her own short blonde hair for a moment with a deep breath.

“You guys didn’t make it ten minutes without me,” Elia Barron said to Alex with a huge smile on her own face.

The humor didn’t last for long, however. The effects of the paralyzing spell were just finally wearing off as the sniper knelt down next to the thief and pressed a hand against her cheek for a moment. Elia could only imagine what it must have been like to be immobilized and have to listen to every word and feel every breath as the man taunted her moments before. She knew because she had been hidden in the room, fighting every urge in her body not to reveal herself in front of her friend and her brother, the traitor.

She’d known for some time now, since a conversation she’d had with Aiden on the Ragnarok after the Esthar mission. Well, maybe known truly known, but there was enough reason for her to lie about an assignment from the Galbadian government and set off on her own. The details from getting from Trabia Garden to this place were another story for another time, however.

“Come on Alex,” she said, reaching up and pulling the girl to her feet. “Let’s go be the big damn heroes.”

Elia’s utility uniform made it easy to conceal weapons, so putting a pair of sleek daggers in the hands of Alex Raines had been easy. Making sure that the girl could use them had been a matter of a less practical and more magic manner. The next cell over was Eva, another simple matter to free the girl. Once they were united, however, it was a tougher matter to get to the boys. Zeke and Wolf had already been transferred for testing and implementation. The girls were going to have to act fast.

Open and closing cells was easy. Breaking into a part of the facility that is by design monitored by at least a dozen cameras and other surveillance equipment was going to be a problem. Uniformed, Elia would create the distraction while Alex snuck in and disabled the research personnel. Eva was in charge of disabling the equipment and actually freeing the boys from the mechanical restraints and medical devices. Releasing Zeke worked perfectly, but Elia forgot the security code to the second room and triggered the alarm. Three dead guards later, the team was complete with Wolf.

“What about Kryse?” The berserker asked. No surprise there, asking about the teammate that he’d been fighting alongside the moment that the ambush had come.

“Forget about him. Aiden has him and there’s no way to get down there. If it were any one of us, we’d want the rest of us to get out of here and put as much distance between us and this base as possible. It’s over,” Elia said sharply as they rounded a corner, looking down at the comlink built into her uniform for a technical readout of the base.

Two more voices of protest rose up upon the sniper’s proclamation, but there were all cut down immediately as they turned a corner to cut through a large supply chamber and found themselves confronted by a thirty-foot mechanical monster with a large drill for one appendage and a cutting tool for the other. The machine was one that was used to judge the strength of the synthetic GFs – now it looked to be tested again against the real thing.

The fight was a fierce one, but each member of the team knew that survival was on the line. By the time that the machine was partially disabled, the rest of the group made a run for it. The machine wheeled out of control and smashed into the water, breaking into a blaze and causing a fire to roar up through the vent facilities vent system.

“Where’s Zeke?” Eva asked, spinning around.

“Over there!” Wolf growled, pointing back in the direction from which they’d come. There was no chance that he was just confused – he had seen them and chosen to run the other way, back into the facility.

“There’s no time, we’ve got to get out of here and warn Garden!” Alex warned the team.

“This way,” Elia said, leading them down one more corridor into a launching bay where a small ocean cutter was waiting for them. The four of them climbed into the boat and released the moorings. Two of their team had been left behind and all of them had left part of their souls there.

After jetting away, Elia reached down into a case on the boat as Eva drove, reaching back with a high-powered rifle and a scope to take stock of everything. What she saw was in surprising clarity. She found Aiden – and Kryse. The young man looked like he’d been to hell and back again twice since the last time that she saw him. Her heart and mind flashed back to the first time she laid eyes on the SeeD, her heart filled with rage at the sight of him in full Estharian uniform. It then flashed to his form breaking into the room and saving her from death at the last second during their first mission as a team.

Now, it watched as her own brother killed one of her closest friends, then turned and looked as though he was staring straight at her through the scope. Into her eyes, into her soul.

Elia’s finger tightened around the trigger. Even at that distance, even with the moving boat, she could have made the shot. She knew that she was that good. Memories began to overwhelm her. Memories of Kryse, memories of a bright-eyed young man that carried as a child. Memories of the life she’d left behind and a fear for the future that was sure to change now. By the time that Elia gained the courage to pull the trigger, she’d lost any chance of making the shot. She’d waited too long.

Leaning back and sliding down into the back of the boat, Elia made a promise that she wouldn’t hesitate to the pull the trigger next time. She would never miss again.

[Xeynar]

What he was doing may as well have been suicide. His GFs pleaded with him to reconsider, to catch up with the others. Their requests fell on deaf ears as Zeke Watanabe made his way deeper and deeper in the facility. While in captivity, Zeke’s world had been rocked to the core. His cell was visited by, none other than, his father. The old man gave Zeke one last chance to turn his back on SeeD, a request that Zeke promptly spat at.

Now, as the others had been distracted by escape, Zeke only turned around and went deeper inside. If his father was still here, then Zeke had to confront him.

In the chaos of the escape, the young SeeD managed to sneak into an empty equipment room. In it, he found uniforms and weapons. This would work nicely. After changing into a uniform like the ones used by the Galbadian Soldiers, Zeke gathered his hair into his left hand. After that, he drew his katana.

“No turning back…” he mused to himself before his blade cleanly cut through his long hair. He’d done that so his hair could properly fit into a helmet. He needed to blend in with the men who were looking for him. After he was fully dressed, he stood, taking a basic Revolver Class Gunblade off the weapon rack. He wouldn’t be taking his Katana with him, because it would make him stand out among the Galbadian Soldiers, and so it was left behind in the equipment room.

Using the disguise Zeke was able to learn the whereabouts of Taijo Watanabe, and learned that he had already left to return home. Still under the guise, Zeke got onboard a ship bound for the continent, but would remain completely off the grid after that, some even considering him a casualty of the SeeD team’s escape.

----------------------------------------------------------

Since that day, the winds of change struck SeeD and the Gardens like a mighty hurricane. The SeeD team led by Evangeline fa Toren was blamed for orchestrating the terrorist attack on the Deling City Hotel, and for the sabotage of the Lunar Cry Event. Since then, SeeD has been blamed for more and more incidents around the world, until the various militaries ordered the Gardens to be shut down.

In the coming weeks, SCORPIA agents nestled deeply into Government Positions around the world began climbing in power, until they nearly controlled the leading parties of the world. In the meantime, SeeDs were branded as outcasts and traitors to their countries, and orders were given to arrest them for crimes of terrorism and treason.

Trabia Garden was the first to fall. It’s small size forced its residents to abandon the building, it’s SeeDs and students scattering into hiding. It was taken over without a battle having ever been fought. The Garden was taken over by SCORPIA to use as one of their secret Research Facilities.

Galbadia Garden was a different story. It’s Students and Faculty quickly split into those who insisted upon staying loyal to their country, and those who saw through the lies. The Loyalist SeeDs joined the Galbadian Military in an assault on the Garden, forcing the “traitors” to go into hiding like the Trabia SeeDs before them. The Loyalist SeeDs were rewarded for their loyalty by being accused of spying for SeeD and were promptly executed afterward. The Garden was thereafter used by the Galbadian Military for training and transporting troops.

In Esthar, things were no better. Doctor Kessler organized a takeover of Esthar Garden, on the grounds that it should never have been built to begin with. It was then converted into a full-fledged Science Center. Anyone who opposed was branded traitors. This included the Esthar Garden SeeDs, who were executed for their so-called treason.

Balamb Garden put up the most resistance. When SCORPIA assaulted the Garden, Headmaster Leonhart ordered the Garden to be taken into full flight. Most of the SeeDs were evacuated, and only Squall’s most loyal followers, Rinoa Heartily and Zell Dincht, remained with him. The Garden would have escaped but was targeted by Galbadian Missiles. Unlike the first time the Garden was attacked, these missiles hit their mark, and Balamb Garden, along with its greatest SeeD, met a watery grave at the bottom of the sea.
It was a dark day for SeeD. It’s greatest leader was lost, along with its symbolic Balamb Garden. SeeDs were being discovered and publicly executed every day.

The following list of names are those of SeeDs who are considered the most dangerous. Permission to kill on sight is authorized:


1. Quistis Trepe (Status: Executed)
2. Selphie Tilmitt (Status: Unknown)
3. Irvine Kinneas (Status: Unknown, presumed KIA during the assault on Galbadia Garden)
4. Evangeline fa Toren (Status: Unknown)
5. Elia Barron (Status: Unknown)
6. Andrew "Wolf" Khevan (Status: Unknown)
7. Phileo Arentus (Status: KIA)
8. Kryse Salmance (Status: KIA)
9. Alex Raines (Status: Unknown)
10. Zekeimaru “Zeke” Watanabe (Status: MIA, presumed dead)
11. Aiden Barron (Branded a SeeD sympathizer) (Status: Unknown)


With SeeD gone, there appears to be no more opposition for SCORPIA to take over the world from the shadows. SeeDs are continually hunted down like fugitives. Some SeeDs have given up, some have committed suicide, and others secretly train for a day when, according to Squall’s final speech, that SeeD would “rise from the ashes.”

(End of Part 1. Continued in “From the Ashes”)