It's another Norco Fanction!! That is, a fiction by Norco. I own nothing, except for my computer, the clothes on my person, and my sanity. Sometimes not even that... norco@fantasysquare.com No Rest for the LionHearted - Chapter Four Squall eyed the small object on the dias, as if it were an Anaconduar, waiting to pounce. It didn't pounce, instead sitting on the terracotta pedastal, desperatley trying to convince everyone that it wasn't dangerous. But Squall knew that it was. No little piece of glass could fool him. "This small crystal is the most dangerous object in the world?" Seifer asked increduously, gingerly fondling the artifact, grimacing at it, placing it back on the pedastal and turning away. "You've got to be kidding me," he said quietly. "Believe it," a scientist said, rushing up to inspect the crystal. "You're looking at a Matter/Anti-matter Psionic Waveform Displacement/Replicator crystal," the scientist said, examining the crystal, and paying no attention whatsoever to the SeeDs around him. "You wanna tell me what that means in English?" Zell asked, placing a hand on his hip, glaring laser beams into the scientists head. The scientist ignored him. Squall bent over the crystal, placing his face between the scientist's and the crystal. "My friend asked a question," Squall growled, "and I expect it to be answered. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes when you explain to your president when you tell him that you drove the SeeDs protecting this thing away because you couldn't be bothered to answer a simple question" Both Squall's and the Scientist's faces lifted. Squall turned away. "So, what does that mean in English?" Zell repeated, still slightly ticked off with the scientist. The man swallowed. Clearly, he didn't like the idea of explaining a failure to the president. "What it means," the scientist said, regaining his composure, "that coupled with a compatible power source, a person could psychically create, move, destroy and re-arrange any matter in this universe." He stared at the SeeD's, letting the implications sink in. "And I mean everything" he said, driving his point home. "From the furtherest stars, to the smallest water molecules in your brain." The area was silent, with the exceptions of other scientists and guards going about their business. With the right sort of powersource- "What sort of power source would be required?" Squall asked of the scientist. The scientist looked at him. "The Eye of the storm, or, in Lamen's terms, the center of creation. There lies untapped power beyond imagination. If someone with the basic powers were to use the crystal as a lens, then they could teleport to the Eye of the Storm, and tap into the power, thus unleashing the full power of the crystal." "But, nobody would have that sort of power, would they?" Zell spluttered, obviously disturbed. 'I'm sure your aware of the rumors, that what happened to those scientists was the work of aliens," the scientist mumbled, attention back on the crystal. "Who knows what an alien is capable of?" Elsewhere, a man in his mid twenties sat cross-legged on a bluff, hundreds of kilometers away from the human vermin. Peregrine had no idea why he'd come to this world. He'd just assumed that he had come to this infested world by accident, an aftereffect of the injuries that he had suffered. He could feel the lines of power that ran through him, the rocks, the planets, the stars, everything. He searched, rummaging through the lines, searching for something that caught his eye, much like a hungry book reader at a bookstore. Not interested in anything particular, just searching for that which was different, useful, powerful. And he found it. On this world! What luck! Looking closely at the source, he saw the lines curving far away from the device, indicating that it's power was immense. Not a power in itself, but a focusing tool for the power. The lines shifted color, thickness, and wavered, making look like it was all sorts of power. Then he realised it -- this could only be the fabled Pox- Rin-Umat -- a fabled crystal. All spacefaring civilisations had heard of it, of course, and all of those civilisations had tried at some point to find it. His own race had come across several references to it, and had spent a millenium searching for it. Their failure spoke for itself. And he had found it -- here, on this backwater world!!. Smiling tightly to himself, he stood up, looked towards the source, and leaped. His natural flying and levitation powers took over, keeping him suspended in the sky. Soon, the crystal would be his, and he would eradicate all the human vermin in the cosmos. The Highwind's bridge was unusally silent, Cloud thought, as he stood at his regular place on the bridge. It was too quiet. Something was missing. And then it hit him. Yuffie, Vincent and Red XIII. Red had returned to Cosmo Canyon, to help watch over the place as his father before him had done. Yuffie was tagging along with Vincent, who had gone searching the world to rid himself of his powers. Like Cloud, Vincent too was through being a hero, and having to make sacrifices. He shook his head. They'd proven that they were stronger as a team, all eight of them. Now there were only five. Was this enough? As he was thinking of this, a scene momentarily flashed into his head. A crystal, in a desert. What in the worlds did that mean? He shook his head, trying to clear it. "Cloud," Cid's voice cliced through his thoughts like a hot knife through butter. "The shroud is lifting." The shroud was the nickname they'd given to the black energy surrounding the ship. "I have ship control," Cid murmured, testing the systems. "We're in atmosphere. So, where to?" "A desert," Cloud said, automatically, without thinking. Cid looked puzzled. "A .. desert. Um, why?" Cid asked, cunfusion regining through his face. "I don't know," Cloud said, more to himself than to Cid. "All I know is that we need to find a desert. "Well, I haven't got anything better to do, and I don't know where the local pub is, so a desert it is," and with that, he turned to the crew, and starting issuing orders. Squall saw the figure floating over the horizon towards them before anyone else did. He drew his gunblade, a movement that elicited grunts and gasps of surprise from the SeeD members. "Squall, what is it?" Quistis asked. Squall pointed to the figure. He could feel Quistis tense up. A person flying without machines was enough to set anyone's teeth on edge. That same person flying towards the most dangerous artifact in the middle of nowhere was more than a coincidence, and needed to have attention payed to it. "Everyone, just get ready. This could be a false alarm," Squall murmured. Although the "False Alarm" part sounded hollow, even to him. He heard the sounds of guns, whips, Rinoa's wrist mounted projectile, shinobu, and gloves being unsheathed, holstered, checked, put on, or otherwise generally being prepared. The stranger was closer now, Squall could see the man was totally dressed in black, bear-footed, and holding a decidedly wicked-looking sword attached to the stranger's back. The approaching man started his descent, still ignoring everyone there, his eyes set towards the crystal. He landed softy, and started slowly towards the group and the crystal behind them. "Hello there," Squall said, the gunblade still drawn. "What can I do for you?" The stranger looked at him with intense, piercing black eyes. He was shaking, and Squall realised that he was laughing softy. "You can die," he said quietly, and continued walking towards the group. Suddenly, Squall and the others found themselves in a heap, about three or four meters to the left of the dias on which the crystal stood. Squall realized that his GF had protected him, any less a person would have been killed. He got up, and retreiving the gunblade, he started towards the stranger, who was nearly to the crystal. "Stop!" Squall called, bringing the sword-gun to a defensive position. The stranger looked at him, mild surprise showing through those creepy black eyes. A chill ran up Squall's back. The stranger smiled thinly, and drew the sword on his back, and lept to the attack. Almost knocked off his feet by the sheer power behind the attack, Squall stumbled, barely able to block the next four blows. Finding his footing, he swung the sword in an upward direction, hoping to remove the stranger's weapon (or perhaps a hand as well). The stranger's hand was no longer there, having spun completely around to slam the gunblade safely away from himself. Kicking hard against his assailant, Squall ducked out of the way, and risked a quick glance at his comrades. Seifer was the only one able to do anything. "Seifer!" He ground out, as the strangers deadly sword smashed into his, and for the first time, he noticed the eerie scarlet coloured fire surrounding it. It was slowly chewing through the gunblades metal. Seifer grabbed his weapon, and lunged straight at the attackers throat. Using Sefier as a distraction, Squall struck with all his strength. Falling off balance, the man tried unsucessfully to swipe at Seifer. He missed, and fell to the floor, breathing heavily. "So .. it's true," he gasped, smiling wanly "The Lionhearted do exist." A small alarm went off in Squall's mind. "What do you mean, Lionhearted." Seifer asked him, the Hyperion ready to strike again, like a cobra in front of a wounded prey. "It .. is a legend of my people," he said, still smiling. Squall wondered for a moment what was so amusing. "The Lionhearted will remove all evil from the galaxy." "Evil .. from the .. galaxy?" Squall asked, finally finding his voice. The stranger's expression changed. "Actually, I never believed in the legend." The stranger said, and with that, he exploded, sending both Squall and Seifer flying. After the stars clouding his vision cleared, he saw that the man hadn't exploded, simply pushed them away with his magic. He stared towards the crystal again, he injuries healed. "He was just foxing us," Seifer growled, and got to his feet. The sky darkened. Rain began to pour, while thunder and lightning split the sky. A giant form parted the clouds, a green bird, a cross between a giant goo mass and a thunderstorm. Quezacotl stood poised, or rather, hovered poised close to Seifer. "YOU WILL LEAVE THE CRYSTAL!" Seifer boomed, shouting to be heard over the massive thunderstorm. "OR YOU WILL DIE!" Squall knew that Seifer was not impressed about being fooled. Squall looked around, to see the clouds parting again, this time, a giant ship of some description came floating through the clouds. The stranger saw it too. "NO!" the stranger shouted, and turned his hands to the approaching ship, palms outward. Before he could move a muscle, dark beams of light lanced out at attempted to swat the ship down. The pilot was obivously skilled, dodging the beams easily. "ATTACK!!" Seifer roared, and with a scream of acknowlegement, the GF moved to attack. It rose slowly into the air, the lightning crackled even further around it. Spreading it's wings back, then forward, the lightning lanced out, and there was no mistaking the grin of statisfaction on Seifer's face. The eletric arcs sped towards their target, and disappeared, as the stranger reached a hand back and diappated the arcs of lightning. The attack completed to the best of it's ability, the bird returned to wherever it was that Guardian Forces originated from. During Quezacotl's attempt, the ship had landed, the thunderstorm had passed, and several strange looking people emerged from the ship. "We're friends," the leader said to Squall, the glare from his spiked yellow hair causing him to wince. "Friends, huh?" Seifer said, jogging over. "Who are you?" "My name is Cloud," the spikey headed one said. "This is my wife Tifa," pointing to the young woman beside him. "So, is that damned thunderstorm over yet?" a voice growled from the ship. Cloud sighed. and Tifa slapped him on the arm. "He's taken on some of the most evil stuff in the galaxy, and he's still scared of a thunderstorm." Cloud said to his wife, and then, to the voice, "Yes Barret, everything's fine." "Good," the voice growled, and out stepped a man, who, at a quick glace, could be mistaken for Raijin. He had the same height and build as the Garden's Disciplinary member, but wasn't as tall, and was bulkier. Several hellish tattoos decorated Barret's arms. And there, at the end of the arm, was a large, powerful looking gatling gun, grafted onto his arm. The man stumbled forward, as if someone pushed him out the door. Behind him, a taller, wiry man with a hard bitten face and a cigarette in his mouth stood in the door. This man walked around like he was some sort of legend, at Squall knew he was pilot. He stepped out, and started towards Cloud and Tifa. "Squall!" came Rinoa's voice from behind him. Cursing himself, he realized that the stranger was still after the crystal. Turning to the source of the voice, he saw that Zell, Quistis, Rinoa and Irvine were engaged in deadly combat with the stranger. "Look, if you're friends, we need your help," Squall said tautly, "We need to stop him from getting that crystal." he said, pointing to the crystal and the man in turn. "We don't have our weapons!" a voice squealed from next to the pilot. Squall looked to see a giant white creature, which looked like a Mog, with a smallish creature sitting on it's head. "This is Cid," Cloud said, pointing to the pilot, "and Cait Sith." "Cloud, I stored our weapons abord the Highwind, just in case." Cid said, obviously proud of himself. "SQUALL!" Rinoa shouted again. Squall looked, and saw Quisits on the floor, blood slowly leaking for a nasty cut on her forehead. The cut had been caused by several dark creatures, massive, hulking, assisting Peregrine. Squall hadn't seen anything like them, and wasnt sure he wanted to know. Peregrine was walking calmly towards the crystal, as his monsters attacked the SeeD's. Cloud looked at Cid, Barret and Tifa. "Give them a hand". Seifer followed Tifa, heading straight for Quistis. "He's just taking care of the wounded" Squall told himself. "Okay, I'm ready to go." Squall saw a massive sword, bigger than Cloud himself, made of glass. He shook his head, and together, the seven of them bounded into battle. Cloud and Squall headed to the creature with the katana. Cloud never even had time to ask the stranger's names before they'd started fighting. Letting his old SOLDIER reflexes kick in, he slammed the hilt of the sword into their enemy's gut, doubling him over. Smashing the man in the face, he inhaled sharply. It was Peregrine, the Jenova who had escaped from their last adventure. Cloud brought the Ultima Weapon around to the man's waist, the blue fire lanced out, and sliced him clean in half. The top half of him fell to the floor. And all of them suddenly flew back. Magic, he noted, and shook his head. He saw Peregrine's waist levitate off the floor towards the crystal. He grabbed it, and disappeared with a loud bang. The sound left Cloud's ears ringing, and a brief cackle could be faintly heard across the landscape. Both Peregrine and the Crystal were gone. But the creatures he'd spawned remained. They howled, a bloodcurdling, intense and primal howl. Around them, large purple colored vortexes began to appear, and more of the creatures began to crawl out. Cloud readied his weapon. And with another howl, the creatures attacked, and the final horror began. Not even in the bowels of the Jenova ship, had Barret ever been in such an intense, long, and never ending battle. Every time he destroyed another monster (a most difficult task, considering that there was no magic that seemed to work against them, and their relative toughness.), another two appeared, bigger and more lethal than before. Even as they fell, dozens more appeared, replacing them before they'd hit the floor. Running out of room, out ot time, against the hulking shadowish monsters. People were wounded. They were tired. They needed to retreat. "CLOUD!" Barret roared over the din of battle. "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!!" He saw Cloud, dealing with four monsters of his own, give the slightest nod. Slicing through his opponents, he ran towards the Highwind. The others followed suit, heading to either the Highwind, or to the Dragonlike ship that belonged to the locals. The young man with the scar and the chocolate-brown hair was the last into his ship, as was Cloud. "Follow us!" the young man yelled. Cloud agreed, and the two headed into their respective ships. The ships lifted off, and aboard the Highwind, Barret could see more monsters appearing from portals. INTERLUDE A few hours after the reports of the loss of the artifact, and the reports from the SeeD commander, President Loire ordered the entire Esthar army to move in and destroy the monsters, and to find away to eliminate the portals, if possible. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and troops headed out, towards the distant plains where the monster army had appeared. When the two armies met, there were roars from the monsters, screams of agony from the soldiers. Although they fought bravely, and decimated many monsters, the Esthar Army was obliterated, unable to stop a seemingly infinite stream of powerful monsters. Every soldier perished. The monster army continued, unstoppable, it's target, Esthar. END OF CHAPTER FOUR.