Hey, its me again! First off, I apologize for the relatively small amount of combat in this part. The original idea I had for Part 8 was that it would be the final battle, then followed by the Epilogue. But as I was typing, I found that there was a lot more talking than fighting here, and I wanted to get all the talking out of the way. And I finished this part insanely fast, too. I think Part 8 will probably be posted at the same time as Part 7. Part 9 actually contains the final battle. Part 8 leads up to it. NOTE: Chapter 31 takes place over several hours. Part 8: A TON of stuff happened in Part 7. First of all, we learned what Syric actually looks like under that helmet of his: He's a humanoid, crimson-haired lion, exactly like the uncorrupted GF Griever. Can't be a coincidence...can it? Also, we discovered that Cloud was from the same planet as Squall, only 5,000 years ago. Freaky, huh? And, the biggest shocker of all (in my opinion) we learned what Jenova was ressurecting: None other than Ultimecia and Sephiroth!!!! All together now: "Oh no, not these guys again!" In the last part, Squall, Cloud, and their companions waged a vicious battle with Jenova's minions. Many SeeDs were killed in the fighting, and Squall, Red XIII and Angelo were badly injured. However, they could not stop Jenova's warriors from bringing Rinoa to Jenova herself. The final battle is about to begin.... Chapter 30: Truth That light is really bright, Squall thought as he opened his eyes. The brightness began to fade and return to normal as his eyes adjusted, and judging from the feeling in his mouth, Squall figured he'd been out for a while. As Squall began to sit up, he saw Doctor Kadawaki standing beside his bed. Then Squall realized he was in the infirmary. That's right, he'd been shot by a blue bolt of energy when he'd leaped through the gatway after- "Rinoa!" Squall said suddenly, bolting upright. "Whoa, calm down!" Kadawaki said, putting a firm hand on Squall's shoulder. Then Squall realized that he was only wearing his pants. He didn't care, and swung his legs around the bed and stood up straight. Kadawaki was about to say something, but then she realized that Squall was fully recovered. Before he could do anything else, Squall found Irvine, Selphie, Zell, and Quistis piling into the room. "Jeez, he's quick!" Zell said in surprise. "What?" Squall asked as he stretched. "You were out with a near-fatal wound less than two days ago, and you're already healed," Kadawaki explained. "We honestly thought you were dead," Quistis said. "But you seem to refuse to die." "Not when Rinoa's in danger," Squall replied, a smoldering fire apparent in his eyes as he snatched up his gunblade, resting on the table next to his bed. "I'm going after her." Normally, this would seem like a joke. Squall didn't even have a shirt on, and he was already intent on saving Rinoa. But everyone knew he was dead serious. "Whoa, man, calm down." Irvine said, remembering how Squall had leaped out into space to save Rinoa without a second thought. "Not when Rinoa's in danger!" Squall snapped back, unconciously taking a threatening step forward. The others wisely backed away. "Squall," Quistis said. "We're in no condition to fight." Squall blinked and looked more closely at his friends. All four of them had nasty cuts and bruises on their bodies. For the first time, Squall saw that Quistis's left eye was badly swollen; Squall figured she couldn't see out of it. "What happened?" he asked, suddenly concerned for his friends and embarassed that he hadn't noticed their injuries. "Was anyone hurt?" "A lot of people were injured," Selphie said. "Cloud's friends too." "Did...did we lose anyone?" Squall asked after a moment. Quistis seemed to hesitate before replying. "Twenty-three SeeDs were killed in the battle," she finally said. "Twice that number were wounded, some critically." "Red XIII and Angelo are the worst," Kadawoki said. "Angelo was shot by a bolt, and Red XIII has several stab wounds. They're both still unconcious." "And you've been out for nearly two days," Quistis added. Squall sat back down on the bed, letting the gravity of the situation finally hit. "We're holding a meeting in the briefing room in two hours, Squall," Quistis continued. "We'll try to figure out what to do then." Squall didn't respond for a moment. "....whatever...." he finally said. Two hours later, Squall, Cloud, and their friends, along with Laguna, Bugenhagen, and Doctors Odine and Kadawoki, had gathered in the briefing room, with the exception of Red XIII, who was still unconcious. During that time, Squall had learned that Seifer had been the source of the mental disturbances that led everyone to converge upon the Quad. He had been out cold for a day and a half, due to the mental exhaustion, before finally recovering. Squall walked into the briefing room and took his usual seat. He glanced around the room and suddenly stopped when he saw the huge, crimson-furred humanoid lion. It was Griever. No doubt. Griever was among the most powerful GF's in existence, and when Squall was a child, Griever had been his favorite of all the mythical GF's. He had known when fighting the Griever that Ultimecia controlled that that GF was corrupted by the evil Sorceress's powers. The true, pure, uncorrupted Griever looked exactly like the one Squall saw now, except it was a hell of a lot bigger and not quite so...mortal-looking. Then Squall noted the whip gauntlets Griever wore and also the fact that it sat next to Kura, exactly the same way Syric sat, and Squall realized that Syric WAS Griever. Before he could begin to wonder about this surprising revelation, Headmaster Cid stood at the head of the table. "You all know of the events that befell this Garden two days ago," he began. "Warriors serving under Jenova invaded our home. Twenty-three of our friends and fellow SeeDs were killed, along with President Caraway. Rinoa Heartilly was kidnapped. Over the last two days there have been several developments. First of all, the Galbadians are very, very angry." "Right," Xu said. "They would have already launched missles by now, except that they don't have anything to shoot. They don't know where Jenova's lair is." Squall nodded, remembering their desperate attempt to protect Garden from the Galbadian missle strike. "Our friend Syric here managed to invade Jenova's mind two days ago," Cid continued. "and has learned just about everything concerning her past, and her current plans." At that point, Syric rose to the top of his seven-foot height. "As we all know, Jenova sought out a Sorceress. Until now, we had no idea why she desired one." When Syric spoke, Squall heard within his deep voice a profound sense of experience and knowledge, as if he had seen the coming and passing of many millienia. Then again, he probably had. "Jenova is attempting to ressurect dead beings. In order to do this, she required a Sorceress's power to act as a conduit between gathered Spirit Energy and the souls of those she will ressurect." Syric paused for a moment. "I could go into detail concerning the ressurection process, but the information concerning it would be irrelevant by now. There is no doubt that by now Jenova has succeeded in restoring life to those dead beings." "Question," Irvine said, raising his hand. "What exactly is Jenova ressurecting?" Syric, Laguna, and Cid glanced at each other. "This information cannot leave this room," Cid said. "Up until now Laguna and I were the only ones who knew this information." "You guys better make sure you're sitting down for this," Laguna added, a look of dread on his face. He glanced back to Syric. "Go ahead." Syric hesitated for a moment prepare himself. "Jenova is ressurecting Sephiroth and Ultimecia." It took a moment for that to sink in. "What?" Cloud and Squall said at the same time. There were groans from Yuffie and the assembled SeeDs, an "Aw, hell no," from Barret, and a string of curses from Cid Highwind. Then Tifa asked the next question. "Why?" "Simple," Syric said. "Jenova is the embodiment of chaos, death, destruction, pain, and suffering. What she wants, more than anything else, is to cause these things on as wide a scale as possible. Seven thousand years ago, she happened to visit this planet and attacked the Cetra, killing and corrupting them. Then the survivors sealed her away. During that time Jenova learned of the Black Materia, and the immense desrtuction it could cause, and compelled Sephiroth into using it with dreams of becoming a god-like figure." "And Ultimecia seeks Time Compression," Quistis said. "Undoubtably one of the most destructive events imaginable." "Dammit, this is serious!" Zell said. "We gotta stop them, now!" "Easier said than done," Cid Highwind said. "We don't know where they are." "Actually," Laguna said, "we do know where they are. And more importantly, we know how to destroy Jenova permenantly." He glanced over at Doc Odine who promptly stood up. "After zome careful analyzize of boz ze Jenova zellz and Cloud'z Veapon," Odine began in his thick accent, "ve have concluded zat Cloud'z Veapon iz in fact dezigned to deztroy Jenova. Ze Veaponz zat Cloud dezcribed vere created wiz ze purpoze of deztroying Jenova, and zus, ve zee zat ven ze Veapon comez into contact wiz Jenova tizzue, ze Jenova zellz have ze wienerzchnizel blown out of zem." "Huh?" just about everyone said at once. "Cloud's Weapon can kick Jenova's ass," Laguna translated, to nods of comprehension. "Fuzermore," Odine continued, "ve have been able to conztruct a devize zat vill cleanze ze Jenova zellz from ze body. However, it vill only verk upon one who haz been recently infected, zuch az Zeifer or a Zeed zat vaz infected during ze battle two dayz ago." "This device works?" Headmaster Cid asked. "Yez. I have already tezted it on Zeifer, and it verkz perfectly." "Back to the problem at hand," Laguna said. "like I said, we know where Jenova's lair is." "Where?" Squall asked. "Battleship Island," Syric said. "The Deep Sea Research Center?" Squall said intently, a dangerous look in his eyes. "Yes. We need to go there and stop Jenova." "We're probably too late to prevent her from ressurecting Sephiroth and Ultimecia," Cid said. "Well that's fine," Zell said standing up and punching the air. Everyone turned to regard him. "We kicked Ultimecia's ass before, we'll do it again!" Shouts of approval came from Barret and Cid Highwind. "Wait a minute!" Selphie said. "We can't just go charging in there with fists flying!" "She's got a point," Vincent said. "We suffered heavy losses two days ago. If we go in recklessly, more will die." "Look, if we wait around too long, Sephiroth might use that damn Meteor again!" Barret roared, slamming his gun-arm into the table, cracking the wood. "And this time we ain't got Holy to stop it!" "Let's let Squall decide," Quistis said. She turned to Squall. "Squ-" Quistis stopped addressing Squall, mostly because he wasn't there anymore. In fact he wasn't in the room at all. "Where'd he go?" Then they noticed that Seifer wasn't in the room either. "You're going after her," Seifer said from the doorway to Squall's dorm. Squall, who had been busy loading his gunblade, stopped and turned to regard his friend and rival, who wore a rare serious expression. "And you're going alone, too," he continued. "If necassary," Squall said, resuming loading his weapon. "You're not going to wait for the others?" "The others will take too long. I'm not going to leave Rinoa there, not with Ultimecia nearby, just begging for a chance to get back at us." Squall finished loading his weapon and pushed past Seifer through the door. "How are you going to get there?" Squall stopped again and turned back to Seifer. "I'm hijacking a Ragnorok," Squall said with all seriousness. Seifer suddenly flashed a wicked grin. He drew his gunblade and made few quick chopping motions with it. "You were hoping I would do something that stupid," Squall said. "Precisely," Seifer said. He dug into a pocket and drew out a blue, transparent keycard. "Stealing a Ragnorok will be a lot easier with one of these." He tossed it to Squall. "You're coming with me?" Squall asked in surprise as he caught the key. "Of course. I want wreak some havoc too," Seifer's grin widened. Squall remembered that look, the one Seifer always wore before a fight began. "Figured I should pay Jenova back for invading my mind and attacking Kura." "Good. Let's go." About twenty minutes later, Squall and Seifer strode into the cockpit of the Dragoon, Laguna's personal airship. For some odd reason, there were no crew, not even guards, and that made the two warriors suspicious. Their suspicions were confirmed when they found Cloud, Tifa, and Laguna lounging in chairs in the airship's cockpit. Laguna had his feet up on one console, and he flashed them a grin. "About time," Laguna said. Squall sighed. "How'd you know?" "Simple," Tifa said. "We know how much you care for Rinoa, and from the tales of what lengths you went to save her, we knew you'd hijack an airship and go after her." "We're running out of time, and we knew that it would take too long to organize a major military response," Cloud said. "Running out of time?" Squall asked. "Galbadian reconiassance aircraft have been detected by Estharian Air Command," Laguna explained. "We estimate that in a few hours they'll learn exactly what's at the Deep Sea Research Center, and they'll blast the crap out of it with missles." "We have to get Rinoa out of there before those missles hit," Squall declared. "Right," Laguna said. "Quick hit-and-run. Land, grab Rinoa, get out. Then let the Galbadians have their fun, and follow up with a full scale strike." "Sounds like a good plan to me," rumbled a voice from the cockpit's elevator. Everyone spun to see Syric and Kura rise up on the elevator into the cockpit. "What are you guys doing here?" Seifer asked. "Hopping along for the ride," Kura said. "We knew you would need some help, and we want to pay Jenova back too." She cast an accusing glare over Seifer who blushed.. "It was originally just supposed to be me and Seifer," Squall said. "Well, too bad," Laguna said. "You've got a few stowaways on board. And its a good thing, too, because no one knows how to fly this thing better than me." Laguna swung his legs off the console and began starting up the airship. "But-" "No buts. You may have intended to go off alone and not endanger the rest of us, but remember that Rinoa is our friend too." Seifer grinned and turned to Squall. "I think we've been thwarted," he said. Squall laughed and shook his head. One year ago, he'd wondered why the people of Esthar would have let a moron like Laguna become their president. Apparently Laguna wasn't as stupid as everyone else seemed to think. "What the HELL?!" Barret roared as the Dragoon lifted and rocketed southwest. "What's going on?!" He was in the command center, along with everyone else, planning their coming assault. Oddly enough, Squall, Cloud, Laguna, Seifer, Tifa, Kura, and Syric were nowhere to be seen. "Squall, you idiot..." Quistis muttered, easily discerning the reason for the airship's sudden departure. "That kid took off after Jenova by himself?!" Barret growled in surprise. "No...he went after Rinoa." "Well he didn't go alone," the Headmaster said. "I've been talking to Garden Security, and they said that Cloud, Tifa, Laguna, Kura, Syric, and Seifer have not been seen within Garden ever since the meeting." "We have to go after them!" Selphie exclaimed. "They're on a suicide mission!" "Yeah but-" That was Zell, who was suddenly cut off by a SeeD tech running into the room. "The Galbadians are preparing to launch missles!" he shouted. "You have the coordinates?" General Biggs asked the sensor tech. "Yes sir!" the tech replied. Target locked!" the tech shouted from his console. They were inside the command center for the newly rebuilt Galbadian Missle Base. "Excellent. Fire all missles!" Biggs roared. "Ummm......" "What?!" Biggs demanded. "Sir, we've only got enough launchers to fire twelve missles at a time. It'll take three seperate launches to fire all the missles." "Then launch them twelve at a time!" Biggs yelled. "Jeez, am I the only one who can think around here?! Fire those damned missles and send Jenova straight to hell!!!" "Uhhh...Yes sir! Firing missles!" Sephiroth walked into the chapel of Jenova's castle, which seemed to have been built in the same design as Ultimecia's haunt. As he entered, he heard the sound of a bolt of energy being discharged. It didn't take him long to figure out what was happening. Four of the tentacled, winged monsters were hovering in midair, held up by Ultimecia's Sorceress abilities, while the psycho Sorceress bitch herself blasted them one at a time with lightning bolts. The smoking remains of several more lay on the ground. "What are you doing?" he asked. "Enjoying myself," the sadistic Sorceress replied, casting a very dangerous glare upon Sephiroth and sending another bolt into the unfortunate beast. Sephiroth would have liked nothing more than to chop of the bitch's head right then and there, but doing so would weaken their defenses for when the inevitable assault would be mounted on the castle. Sephiroth didn't care if Ultimecia was killed then. In fact, he was hoping she would die by the hands of SeeD. But until they won the coming battle, Ultimecia's powers would prove useful. But Sephiroth hated the fact that the psychotic Sorceress took her pleasure in blowing apart his Mother's creations. Sure, they could be replaced, but the bitch had killed nearly a hundred monsters and humanoids so far in her sadistic love for torture and death. Sooner or later, she would try her hand at destroying one of the golems, and they had only three of those left! Plus, Ultimecia was competition. They both wanted to become god-like beings, but there was only room for one of them in this universe. Of course, Ultimecia realized that too, and had no less of a desire to reduce Sephiroth to ashes. Sephiroth watched in disgust as Ultimecia blew apart the last beast, and then walked off, searching for more prey. She would have already killed that Sorceress that was being held in the dungeon, except that she was that Leonhart guy's girlfriend, the same warrior who'd killed Ultimecia in the future, and Ultimecia wanted her in perfect condition for when she began torturing her in front of Leonhart. That way, she would last as long as possible, giving Ultimecia the most satisfaction possible as she watched Leonhart being tormented by his love's death. Sephiroth walked away, and sincerely hoped that SeeD would attack soon, so he could have the pleasure of killing Ultimecia himself. Jenova watched the confrontation, and silently cackled in pleasure. Soon, those two would come into conflict, and Jenova wanted it to be at the height of their powers. A full-scale war between Sephiroth and Ultimecia after they had become supremely powerful would cause unprecedented destruction. It could even tear apart the very fabric of time and space! And to Jenova, a being of chaos and destruction, that was a very pleasant thought indeed. Jenova would have been less pleased to learn what Rinoa was doing at that point. Rinoa had realized that she stood no chance of escaping while that bracelet was on her wrist, so she had immediately begun to look for a means to remove it. She found it in the form of a thin, narrow, sharpened piece of crystal from the remains of the shattered crystals from the Ressurection ritual. Using it, Rinoa had spent several hours carefully working the latch, forcing it open. Zell had spent a few hours one day trying to teach her some of the basics of lockpicking, which he was surprisingly adept at. Finally, Rinoa had forced the latch and removed the bracelet. Immediately, Rinoa felt a rush as her supressed powers were restored. While she hadn't used her powers extensively, Rinoa was surprised at how different she felt when her powers were restored. The first thing she did was to disable the lock on the door that kept her in this room using a simple yet valuable spell that magically disabled basic locks. Her confidence raised at the return of her abilities, Rinoa silently slipped out the door. It wasn't long before she ran into trouble. Two enemy warriors, on patrol of the basement section of Jenova's castle, ran into her. The three paused, surprised by the encounter. Rinoa responded first, pointing a hand towards one warrior and firing a lightning bolt. The warrior was blasted several meters backward. The other grabbed for his saber, but by then Rinoa had launched a fireball from her other hand, immolating the evil soldier in an instant. Rinoa heard shouts and what felt like telepathic messages being sent back and forth, and she knew she had caused quite a bit of commotion. She quickly ran down the hallway. Chapter 31: The Calm Before the Storm "Syric, there's a question that's been bugging me ever since the battle two days ago," Squall said to Syric. They were still in the cockpit, along with Laguna, who was flying the airship. Kur and Seifer had gone down below earlier, with Cloud and Tifa following, leaving the cockpit muck more open. "You're wondering what I am," Syric replied. "Yeah," Squall said. "Have you heard of the Sorceresses Tyfanna and Urgata?" "They were two Sorceresses that went to war with each other two hundred years ago," Laguna said from his seat. "Tyfanna was a good Sorceress who led a rebellion against the sadistic and vicious Urgata. Tyfanna won." "Do you remember what Urgata's specialty was?" "Summoning and corrupting GF's," Squall said. Then he connected it. "You were one of those corrupted GF's, weren't you?" "Yes." Syric hesitated for a moment. "When a GF is corrupted, it becomes more powerful, but loses its immortality. If a corrupted GF is killed, it becomes a mortal." "And that's what happened to you," Squall said. "Yes. A GF that is reduced to mortality must spend two hundred years as a mortal, both as a punishment and because its powers must be cleansed of the evil taint. After that period, it resumes its status as a GF." "So, why are you with Kura?" Laguna asked. "Tyfanna was Kura's anscestor. After the battle had ended, and I became a mortal, I swore my allegience to Tyfanna and her descendants. I have served as the knights of Tyfanna's family for the last two hundred years." "Your mortal period has ended, hasn't it?" Laguna asked. "Yes. I promised Kura that I would wait until she had found a human knight before I resumed my status as a GF. I also promised her that I would be her GF after she became a SeeD. After this battle with Jenova has ended, I will become a GF once more, junctioned to Kura." Squall noticed something odd about the way Syric said Jenova's name. As if he were familiar with her... "You've fought Jenova before now," said Squall. It wasn't a question. "Yes," Syric said again. "Seven thousand years ago. I was serving the Cetra when Jenova attacked. I was one of the GF's that led the final assault upon Jenova herself. Myself, Bahamut, Eden, Levithan, Alexander, and several others battled Jenova alongside our Cetra allies. I and the Cetra I served were the ones who defeated and sealed Jenova. So you could say we have a mutual dislike for one another." Syric clenched his fist. "I intend for this to be the last time we meet." "I didn't want you coming," Seifer said as he paced around the Dragoon's hangar bay. "Oh, so it's okay for you throw yourself at certain death but not me?" Kura replied angrily. "No, its not that, I-" "-didn't want to put anyone else in danger?" Kura sighed. "I can take care of myself." "But..." Seifer began to protest, but stopped to consider his words. "But what?" "But if you were get hurt because of my own recklessness, I...I would..." Seifer stopped for a moment. Kura moved closer to him. "What, Seifer? What would happen?" "I...I'd just...lose it. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. You're..." Seifer hesitated before saying it. He couldn't bring himself to tell Kura how he felt, because it just seemed so strange for him to utter those words. Then Seifer looked into Kura's silvery-blue eyes, full of concern for him. No...more than concern...caring. Longing. She loved Seifer as much as he loved her. To hell with it. "Kura...you're the first peson I have ever truly loved." Kura's silvery- blue eyes teared over. Suddenly, she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pulled him down, and kissd him. Seifer enfolded her within his arms, not letting her get away from him. They held that kiss for a long time, only breaking it for a lack of air. Kura looked up into Seifer's face. She ruffled his hair, then cocked her head to the side. "Interesting. I've never seen this Seifer before." She cast a mock-accusing look at him. "Where have you kept him?" Seifer shrugged. "Hey, I didn't even know he existed," he said with a smile. "Hmmm. I like him." Seifer grinned and kissed Kura again. Cloud stood at the viewport of the passenger deck, holding Tifa by his side, both watching the ocean flash past below. They hadn't spent much time together lately, and this was the first time they'd actually been able to spend some time alone together. They didn't say anything. No mention of the coming battle, of how dangerous it would be, or if they were scared. They were beyond that. They both knew what they had to do. Both Cloud and Tifa were prepared for this battle. They were a team, perfectly complementing each other's abilities, able to practically read each other's mind in battle, and nearly unstoppable together. So they wern't worried about the coming battle. They let their minds wander for the first time since they'd arrived here. They each lost themselves in memories, both good and bad, relieving and terrifying. And as they though of the past, they also thought ahead, to the future. At the moment, Tifa was thinking about the future, both hers and Cloud's. "Cloud," she said. "Hm? What is it?" Cloud asked, pulling himself away from his own memories. "Do you ever wonder what the future holds for us?" she asked him. "Do you think we're always destined to be fighting? Or, is there something else?" "I'm not sure," Cloud said, thinking the question over. "Whatever happens, though, we'll be together. I promise you that." Cloud pulled Tifa closer and they kissed. "Yeah, baby!" Zell shouted. "Its time to...get...it...ON!!!!!!" Zell wasn't the only one eager for a fight when the Highwind lifted off, heading for Jenova's lair. Everyone else, except Red XIII, who was still unconcious, was anticipating the coming battle. Barret, Vincent, and Irvine were loading their weapons, Selphie was taking a few practice swings with her nunchaku, Zell was warming up, performing numerous punches, kicks, and flips, Cid was pacing around the Highind's bridge, every now and then shouting orders or curses at his crew, Quistis, Reeve/Cait Sith, and Xu were discussing strategy, Fujin was watching Rajin practice with his staff (and grinning when Rajin accidentally smacked himself in the foot), and Yuffie was busy emptying her stomach over the railing, as she always did, to a concerned Nida's dismay. At Cid's best guess, the Highwind was only twenty minutes behind the Dragoon, but the pilot noted something odd on radar, a group of objects that were rapidly catching up to them. Then the pilot identified them. "Captain! We've got missles, incoming! I'm not familiar with them!" "How far away are they?" Cid asked. Just then a dozen fast moving objects, Galbadian missles, rocketed past, leaving long white contrails behind them. "Pretty close," the pilot said. "When are they going to hit?" Squall asked when Laguna reported the missles. "About five minutes before we get there," Laguna replied. "And we've got two more groups coming in, one in fifteen minutes and another in twenty five." "Damn Galbadians couldn't wait," Squall said. "We're going to have to get Rinoa out before the next group hits." "That will be difficult," Syric said. "we will have to fight through Jenova's lair to get there, and then fight back out." "And there will be some damage to the lair, as well," Laguna said grimly. "We might not be able to get to her." "Dammit!" Squall said, hitting the console before him. Chpter 32: Impact At least Squall didn't need to worry about finding Rinoa. All he would have to do would be to follow the red energy bolts, the dead bodies, and the sound of magical energy being discharged as Rinoa fought a running magic battle with the enemy warriors and monsters that pursued her. Rinoa hurried down the hallway, a dozen foes pursuing her. She spun around and loosed a withering barrage of lightning bolts and fireballs, The magical energy exploded in the midst of her pursuers, and Rinoa followed up by hurling several shards of ice into the confused and surprised group, and then she ran on. Several red energy bolts struck the walls and floor around her, but the closest was several feet away. Rinoa dove through a doorway and spun around to catch a glimpse of her pursuers. Only five remained, but they had spotted her and two energy bolts struck far too close for her comfort. She quickly shut the door. Rather than block it however, Rinoa had a much better idea. Edea had taught her how to use this nasty little spell. She pointed her hand at the door, and focused her power on it. The casting took only a moment, and then Rinoa was running, having finished placing the trap on the door. She didn't want to be in the vicinity when it went off. The enemy warriors opened the door, but before they could enter, a firey explosion struck the area immediately around the door, followed by a wave of electricity, then a blast of lethal cold. Only one of the warriors was far enough from the blast to escape, and he leaped through the door, arm up and ready to loose a killing bolt of red energy. It took him only an instant to find Rinoa, but Rinoa was already prepared and fired an energy blast that took her foe right in the head. Rinoa heard the sound of more warriors coming from the other direction, and she glanced around, trying to find an escape route. Her eyes fell upon the gargoyle statues lining the top of the hallway. Rinoa quickly enacted a levitation spell, lifting her up in the air and into a safe hiding place behind the huge gargoyles. Below her, moments after she had hidden, a large troupe of over forty enemy warriors ran past her below, coming from the opposite direction of her previous pursuers. Rinoa almost giggled as they ran by. She considered blasting them, but knew that she would have only moments to take out all forty, so she decided against it. Instead, she waited quietly in her hiding place, hoping that Squall would come soon. She didn't know about the missles. They swooped in towards their target, a mysterious castle hovering over the water. However, the Galbadian missiles' AI systems didn't even consider the strangeness of their target. All they cared about was getting to their target and exploding. Jenova, sensing the missiles' appraoch, prepared to shoot them down. They dropped low to the water's surface, only moments from impact. Suddenly, a blue bolt of energy lanced out and took one of the missiles in the wing. It spun, out of control, and plowed into the sea, finally exploding when it's AI determined it could not complete its mission. The other eleven missiles immediately went evasive, splitting up, then juking and dodging wildly, as per their programming. Another blue bolt lanced out, glancing off another missile's armor plating. A number of smaller red bolts began lancing outward as well, from groups of warriors who combined their powers for long range, high-powered shots. Another missile was destroyed, but the others came on resolutely. These were Galbadian missiles, designed for when the Galbadians wanted to reach out and touch someone in a very big way. They were programmed with some of the most advanced evasive technology in the world, advanced and powerful fuels, efficient engines, and that most important of components, lots and lots of bang. They finally reached their target. The missiles came in from multiple directions, but impacted at the exact same time. Six of the missiles struck the outer walls, and three more came in overhead, blowing through rooftops and ceilings, raining destructive death upon upon any monsters and soldiers that were unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. The last missile actually went beneath the castle and into its underside. It blew out the entire basement section and took out part of the central hive. "So that's what Ultimecia's castle will look like," Laguna said as he looked into the monitor. Squall had already remarked on the similarities between Jenova's lair and Ultimecia's haunt. "Jenova probably built it that way to make her feel more comfortable." "There's probably a part more to Sephiroth and Jenova's liking deeper within," Cloud remarked. He and Tifa, along with Kura and Seifer, had returned to the cockpit, making it much more crowded again. "Well, its not comfortable anymore," Seifer said, pointing at the huge holes and raging fires within the hovering castle. So that's what it would look like if the Galbadians had fired on Ultimecia's castle. "Those missiles pack a lot of bang," Cloud said with some admiration as the Dragoon swooped in low, aiming for the front gate. Suddenely a barrage of blue and red energy bolts lanced out, one burning a deep hole in the Dragoon's hull. "Oh no you didn't," Laguna growled, seeing the damage to his personal airship. Laguna hit a button, and a pair of firing buttons popped up out of his controls. He slammed them down. The Dragoon's dual 18-barreled 30mm autocannons opened up on the castle as Laguna swooped in. The 30mm bullets swept in, punching through walls as though they were made of sand and utterly evaporating any unfortunate enemies that happened to be in the bullets' path. Suddenly another bolt struck the ship, striking a topside engine and blowing it out.With less topside thrust opposing the thrust of the lower engines, the ship began to rise. The Dragoon was struck again before Laguna could recover, and suddenly the engines went out completely. The Dragoon was flying at nearly 500 kph, so it continued flying on pure momentum straight at the castle. Brace yourselves!" Laguna shouted as the airship plowed right through the damaged walls. The shockwaves from the explosions and the Dragoon' crash-landing hurled Rinoa from her hiding place among the gargoyle statues. She landed roughly on the floor, and as she sat up she saw several enemy warriors stumble into the hallway. These were from the band that had passed beneath moments ago, which, unfortunately for them, happened to be running into a missile's impact zone. One of them looked up and saw Rinoa. He pointed, but that was all he got to do before being taken off his feet by a lightning bolt. He was dead before he hit the ground. Rinoa was already running She dove through the door at the far end of the hallway, the one she had been making for earlier. She entered a large room, which was dominated by a ten-foot tall iron scuplture of a huge, armored warrior weilding big, spiked clubs in either hand. Spinning around, Rinoa placed another explosive ward upon this door, but then she heard a loud, metallic stomp behind her. Rinoa spun back to see the big, iron sculpture was alive and walking toward her. The iron golem stomped in. End of Part 8 I intentionally left you hanging there. Hah! Jeez, I finished that part fast. Well, actually I'm splitting up the final battle section so I can get all of this talking crap out of the way, so there's two more parts, Part 9 and the Epilogue. Part 9 is coming up soon, with the final battle! Whoo-hoo!