QuickNavigation - FF Odyssey Fan Fiction  Final Fantasy VIII: Final Call _
 		 (Chapter) 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13
Epilogue
 
Chapter Nine: Countdown

The next morning, Miles stood out on the landing pad, beaming at the Ragnorak. It was every bit as beautiful as he had heard. Although its bright red color had faded over the years, and it had some rust showing, the ship still radiated a sense of importance, and awe-inspiration.
Rinoa walked up to him, and looked at his face, she grinned a bit, “You look like Squall did when he first saw it.”
Miles remembered the story, although it had been embellished slightly over time, “I’d imagine he was a bit happier.”
“Well, that is true, but I think the circumstances led to that one.”
He nodded, “You two really had something…” Miles found him unable to finish the sentence.
Rinoa placed her hand on his shoulder, “It’s okay, do you have something to say?”
Miles shook his head, “No, thank you.”
Lee quickly ran up next to them, followed by Seifer, then Laguna and Squall, walking side by side. Rinoa gave a small grin at that sight.
“Well,” she said, “I’ll be boarding the ship now.” She gave a quick bow, “Goodbye Mr. President.”
Laguna bowed, and then Rinoa walked off into the ship. Seifer wordlessly followed her, and Miles was ready to walk inside when the alarms blared.
The entire city was suddenly filled with the sound of emergency sirens, and Laguna picked up his phone, which was ringing wildly. He listened for a minute, then gestured dramatically, and screamed something about evacuation plans. After hanging up, he looked at everyone grimly, “There’s a bomb in the city.”
Squall bit his lip, “How big, and where?”
Laguna shook his head, “City-destroying, and it’s in the Palace.”
“Can they disarm it?”
“They’re working on it, but they don’t think so.”
Lee jumped forward, “I know bombs like the back of my hand, let me give it a shot!”
Laguna shrugged, “Can’t hurt. I’ll start the evacuation.”
Lee ran like a bat out of hell, and Squall nodded, “We’ll help, dad. I’ll just call out Seifer and Rinoa, the more people, the better.”
Miles jumped at the words Squall used, Dad?
Suddenly, the Ragnorak lifted off from the ground and began to hover, Squall gaped and ran towards it, pulling out a radio, “Rinoa! What’s going on!”
A voice returned through the Ragnorak’s loudspeakers, blasting to the launch pad, but it wasn’t Rinoa’s voice, it was Seifer’s. He laughed, then spoke, “Sorry, Squall, but I must go. Don’t want to be here when the bomb goes off! That thing is infinitely more powerful than the one I used on Garden!”
Squall cursed and yelled into the radio, “You son-of-a-bitch! Where’s Rinoa?”
“She’s… safe. I wish I could say the same for you. When that thing goes off, there won’t even be ashes left of you.”
Squall spat at the Ragnorak, “Land and face me like a man you coward!”
All that was returned was a bitter laugh, and then the Ragnorak began a slow flight away from Esthar. Squall collapsed and smashed his fist on the ground, “Damn…”
Laguna ran up to him, “It’s not over yet, Squall. I’ll handle the evacuation, you get that jerk.”
“How?”
“Squall, there were three ships, two came back originally. We’ve still got two more.”
“Are they prepped?”
“Not fully, but it’ll have to do. Do you know where he’s going?”
“I think so, it’ll be a race though.”
“It’s better than nothing.”
Squall nodded, “Okay, I’m going.”
Miles nodded, “Me, too.”
Squall jumped back, “What?”
“You’ll need some backup. Besides, that bomb on Garden led to Jasmine’s death, and I plan to avenge it.”
Squall nodded, “Laguna, where is it?”
Laguna helped Squall up, “I’ll take you there.”

***

Lee arrived a second after the bomb squad. They all gathered around the device, and although it took some coaxing, they allowed Lee to offer assistance. The commander had his men take positions, and then one slowly stepped up and used an electric screwdriver to remove the casing. From there, everyone gasped.
It was a mess of wires, all wrapped around each other, and then wrapped in protective coating. It emitted a strange glow, and the countdown timer was down to about ten minutes.
Lee knew when he looked at it. That thing can’t be disarmed.

***

The other ship, or Ragnorak Deuce, was in worse condition, and age as well as misuse had shown its toll. The thing still worked though, and Laguna ushered Squall and Miles in.
Squall hesitated, “What about you, dad?”
Laguna shook his head, “I screwed up once. I’m not going to abandon people depending on me again.”
Squall nodded bitterly, and then hugged his father. They let go, then the bay doors closed, and the Ragnorak Deuce lifted off.

***

The city was chaos, despite a well-placed together evacuation plan. Lee stood up and stared silently at the bomb, as the rest of the crew ran off, and tried to urge him to follow. He shook his head and stared hard. The bomb would kill everyone. Any evacuation would be too little, too late.

***

Squall leaped into the seat next to Miles, “Where are they?”
“Half a mile ahead of us, Seifer is taking his sweet time, he wants to see this, the sick bastard.”
“Well, that’ll be his undoing, full tilt!”
Miles shook his head, “He’ll detect the engine signature. We’ll plod along, slowly catching up with him….”
Squall nodded.

***

Lee breathed heavily as he hefted the device up. It wasn’t that heavy, but it was heavy. Pressing a button on his belt, he activated the radio and spoke into the headset he had put on, “Miles, Squall?” The path was long, and he wanted someone to talk to.

***

Miles heard Lee’s voice over his radio, and placed his headset on quickly, “Lee, what’s up? Did you do it?”
The voice that returned was solemn, “No. It can’t be disabled, but I’ve got a plan.”
“A plan?”
“Miles… do you think there is a heaven?”
“Lee, you’re scaring your best friend.”
“Heh… you always were a little slow. Listen, I’m almost there now.”
“Where? Lee what are you doing?”
“Huff… I’m getting rid of the bomb, the only way I know how. Do you have a message for Jas? I’ll make sure she gets it.”
“Lee, don’t do this!”
“I gotta. I lot more people’ll die if I don’t.”
Miles closed his eyes, “Please.”
“Look, tell Veronica, that I really DO know who she is. I just… I don’t know what it was. You’ve been a good buddy man. See you on the other side.”
Miles screamed as the radio cut off, then he jumped up and looked out the windows. He got a great view of Esthar, and suddenly, there was a bright flash in the water outside the city.
The ship’s radio blared to life, “Squall, Miles, are you there?”
Squall answered, as Miles collapsed to the floor, “We’re here.”
Laguna’s voice came back strong, albeit a bit remorseful, “Your friend just did an amazing thing. He grabbed a boat, and bought that bomb out into the ocean. He just saved every person in Esthar.”
Squall nodded slowly, “Well, I always knew he would do something great.”
“How’s Miles holding up?”
“Not so well, he’s lost two people in the past few days.”
Miles shook his head and got back in the chair, “Seifer is about to lose something much more dear.”
With that, he hit the accelerators.