Author's Notes: Fwoo, I did most of this in one night! I hope you guys enjoy, I had a blast writing it. Oh, and for the last few paragraphs, I suggest listening to the "Wounded" track of the FF8 soundtrack (Disk 2, number 15 I believe…the track where Edea stabs Squall) for the full effect…it's really powerful. For the climax of this chapter, try some Linkin Park, especially "One Step Closer". Good music. Well, enjoy. And if you think you were confused at the last chapters, it's nothing compared to this one!

Chapter 4

Night Fire

Squall could never remember feeling more helpless in his entire life. More helpless than when Ellone left him at the orphanage. More helpless than when he learned that their beloved Matron was the Sorceress they had been trained to kill. Even more helpless when Rinoa was in a coma during the Neo Sorceress Wars. And he hated it. All he could be was grateful that he, nor any of this other friends, had fallen victim to this flu-born-from-hell that had now almost completely consumed Balamb Garden.

They had learned some time before to let the ill remain where they were, locked in their pitch-black rooms, only to venture out at night; they were less of a danger that way. There were very few of them left, anymore. The ones who remained healthy - as in still maintaining their own sanity - were none other than Rinoa and himself, Quistis, Seifer, Irvine, Selphie, Zell, Dr. Kadowaki, Xu, and Nida, as well as a scarce handful of SeeD members who looked progressively worse everyday. And, likewise, their numbers grew smaller with each passing night.

Ten left. Just ten to figure out what in Hyne's name is going on.

The oncoming of night had become a fear that forced the unaffected into their last safe sanctuary; the bridge of the Garden, where they disabled the elevator every day at sundown and sat huddled in the center of the room, trying their best to rest until the sun rose again. Or did its best at rising, nowadays.

It was bad enough that the entire world population was becoming hell born creatures of the night; in the past few days, it was undoubted that the entire world itself was falling under the taint of the shadow. Every day the sun was rising later and setting sooner, but to make it worse, the sun itself seemed to be growing dimmer, a flame of a dying candle, as if someone was gradually covering it in some translucent material. The sun, which had once blazed hot and scorching over Esthar, had grown as dim as a winter day in Trabia, and was growing weaker by the hour. When it rose that day, it was nothing more than a distant white star.

And the nights… Squall shuddered. Night and the darkness had never bothered him, even as a child, but there was something about the night now that chilled him to the bones. Never before had he seen darkness such as the type that cloaked the land after dusk. Even after they had defeated Ultimacia and he was lost in the folds of time, he had been lost in a world of darkness, of unending blackness with nothing to break it. But now, if he were to compare that darkness to the night, the dark of the time-compressed world would have been stood out as starkly as newly fallen snow. That blackness hid the stars from view, covered the moon in thick shadow, and made the world beyond the Garden completely invisible.

Squall exhaled, and his breath appeared before him as a cloud of frozen mist. On top of everything, the world had also become so bloody cold.

A sound rose up from behind him, echoing in the cold still of night; footsteps, coming up slowly behind him in the cautious manner as to not startle him. If he had not been aware of them there, he was sure they would have. Although he knew he would never admit it, there had been a lot of things recently that had been making him jump.

"Squall?" Rinoa's voice was laced with concern. "What are you doing out here? You're going to catch your death, you know."

"Better by a cold than by what ninety-nine percent of the world has." Squall said bitterly, slumping down further against the rail so his head was resting on his arms.

Rinoa felt a pang of sympathy strike at her heart. She absolutely hated seeing him like this. Every since she first met him, Squall had always been so strong, so confident in his own way. Determined and stubborn, he rarely let anything stand in his way. And if there was something there, he would always find a way to bust through it, even if it meant hurting himself at the same time. The memory of the lengths he went to save her from space still deeply touched her heart. But now… Now that confidence was all but gone. She had never before seen him so… down. Depressed. Defeated.

Squaring her shoulders, Rinoa approached him from behind and wrapped her arms around him, resting her chin on his shoulder. "Well, you might not care, but I do. Come inside." Not that he had much of a choice. The sun was sinking so rapidly in the sky he could easily see it, and Rinoa's tugging was enough to pull himself away from the balcony, pull his coat higher around his neck, and head back into the Garden.

"What are we going to do, Rin?" Squall asked as they headed back in from the balcony, making their way through the deserted ballroom. Even the physical world around them was loosing its life. The ballroom that held such fond memories for him was now faded, the colors of the room as dull and gray as his own memories. "What can we do to help all these people?"

The raven-haired SeeD did not answer right away. "Hope." She answered. "Pray. Wish for a turn in the tides soon."

"Pretty slim chances that those will work, don't you think?" Squall said quietly, not taking her words at all to heart.

Rinoa only shrugged. "Squall, love, sometimes you just have to put some of your money on the chance that Hyne will solve this problem. I know that's not what you want to hear, but sometimes, a little faith makes everything right."

For the first time in weeks, Squall almost smiled. "You sound just like Matron, you know that?"

"She's a nice woman to talk to." Rinoa said with a smile. It seemed as if she was the only one really able to uphold anything along the lines of a grin these past few days; even Selphie was straining that one expression that used to be so natural on her. Then her expression softened to one that was much more serious in its gentle demeanor. "I know that's not the answer you wanted to hear, but that may be the best choice we have. For right now, anyway. And who knows. Maybe it will turn around."

And, just like Matron, Rinoa always seemed to know what to say to make him feel calmer. Not exactly happy, but it helped lift the weight from his shoulders a bit. He also began to wonder if all Sorceresses (the non-evil ones, at least) had the same frame of mind.

Matron and Cid… I wonder how they're doing? Ever since this began, we've been unsuccessful in sending a message to them… Have they fallen under this thing as well?

By the time they reached to bridge on the third floor, everyone else had already gathered there, ready for the restless night ahead of them. What was left of them, anyway, Squall observed as he felt his stomach sink. "…Where're Xu and Nida? Please tell me that they're on their way." But his worse suspicions were confirmed when he saw Quistis slowly shake her head in defeat. Suppressing a sigh, Squall approached the control panel of the Garden and disabled the elevator for the night.

Never before had they looked in such worse shape. Seifer was leaning against the chair that Quistis was sitting in, arms crossed and face dark in deep thought. Selphie and Irvine were sitting on their floors with their backs to the wall, the cowboy's arm around the smaller girl's shoulders, holding her tightly; Squall wished he had not noticed the dark circles that were forming under her once vibrant green eyes. Dr. Kadowaki was sitting in a chair opposite Quistis, staring off into space, her brow slightly furrowed. And Zell…

At that time, Squall felt the greatest empathy for the martial artist, who was staring absently out the window. Even since Tashlin had fallen completely to the illness, Zell had only been a mere shadow of his former self. Squall could remember in detail the night it took him, Seifer and Irvine from his girlfriend's room and up to their last sanctuary, with Zell protesting the entire time about having to be with her. It had been frustrating, to say the least, and took some very minor threats before her agreed to cooperate, but Squall understood why Zell had been so determined to stay by Tashlin's side, regardless of how dangerous she might have become. Love, after all, made you do crazy things without a second thought to the consequences.

None of them really spoke much, anymore, outside of their significant others. There was nothing to talk about. The first few nights, of course, had been filled to the small hours of the morning with dead-end conversations of what the possible source of this darkness could be; it was obvious now that it was so much more than some sort of disease-causing illness. One day they had cleared out the majority of the library of history records, both eventful and medical, to see if there had been anything similar to what they were experiencing now. But when they thought that that was leading nowhere, Irvine began to notice an interesting patterns in the medical books.

Apparently in the past there had been small outbreaks of the flu in the past with some of the similar symptoms, although none of them compared to this scale, and they all went away in a few days. The interesting thing was that the dates in which these outbreaks occurred were only months after a sorceress threat, dating back hundreds of years, the largest being just after Adel's imprisonment.

"There definitely seems to be some sort of correlation between the two events." Xu had observed when she was still with them. "And so this would make sense, right? There was a sorceress scare in the past, people got sick afterwards."

"It doesn't sound like a real logical reason. How is the flu related in any way to a sorceress?" Seifer had added.

That again was another roadblock. "Well… it says that people got better not too long after all that happened right?" Selphie said. "Maybe the flu just gets worse with the threat. And with Matron and Adel, that could be why it's so bad now."

All the reasons still sounded like one heck of a long shot to Squall, but at the moment, it was the best explanation they had. He wished that they could get a hold of Matron; maybe she would have the answers. But, then again, maybe Selphie and Rinoa were right. Maybe this thing would go away on its own, in due time. He just wished it would start to clear up before he or any of his friends fell under it.

The night fell like a steadily dimming shadow, cloaking the world in black beyond black, and endless void that swallowed all traces of hopes and dreams. The lights inside the bridge were quickly lit, but they did little to hold off the darkness. They only created small pools of light that they huddled against to keep the darkness a bay, a the last little bit of comfort they had when the sun vanished over the horizon. It sometimes felt as if Squall was loosing his very sanity in that gloom, especially since the time between dusk and dawn was growing so long. No one had any idea that this night would turn out to be something that not even their nightmares could touch.

"Yo!"

That one word made everyone in the room jump about five feet in the air; it was the first time in days that Zell spoke. He was suddenly on high alert, as rigid as a cat, staring out the large bridge window with fierce intensity. "There's something not good going on down below. All of the sick cadets are gathering in the quad… and it looks like they started a fire! Oh, man, Squall… It's like a riot down there!"

The commander did not respond right away. He only crossed the room again, confronting the control panel and immediately began to enter a series of codes into it. "Leonhart, what are you doing?" Seifer asked, but again, Squall did not answer." There was a sudden click, a hum, and the elevator was unlocked and running. "Are you crazy? It'd be suicide to go out there!"

"But we can't have them destroying the Garden." Squall finally replied firmly, picking up Lion Heart from where it was propped against a wall. "Besides, they might hurt themselves in whatever it is they're doing down there. You guys can all stay here, but I'm not going to just sit here and wait for this thing to solve itself. Anyone who feels the same way is welcome to come." Without waiting for anyone's response, Squall turned on his heel and began to walk towards the elevator.

"You won't survive five minutes out there by yourself." Seifer called after him. "I guess someone's going to need to cover your sorry tail."

"And you should learn by now that you can't go anywhere without me with you." Rinoa said almost immediately after, nearly trudging on Seifer's heels as they caught up with Squall.

"Or any of the rest of us, for that matter." Irvine added, getting to his feet and helping Selphie to her own. "Honestly, Squall. We thought we were able to get you out of the whole independent shell thing."

Squall would have smiled in a way of appreciation had it not been for the dire events taking place below their feet. Instead he only returned to his trek to the elevator, only this time with his reinforcements at close hand. Students or not, he was not about to let anybody destroy the place that had fought so hard to protect all those years ago.

"So do we even have a plan?" Quistis asked before they stepped onto the elevator, once again halting Squall in his tracks. "We obviously can't go in there and use brute force without seriously injuring anyway, but I don't think they'll listen if we ask them to stop, either."

"Chances are we'll be dealing with some more experienced cadets who will be Junctioned, and therefore be excepted for some magical assault. Therefore, get yourselves healed now, because it won't work later on, so Rinoa, have Carbuncle ready as soon as we get out there. I also suggest you Protect yourselves; we're probably going to be hit from all sides."

"So how do we get them back under control?" Zell asked from the back of the group. Unsurprisingly, the thought of having to use any force against his beloved Tashlin was the last thing he wanted to do.

Squall thought for a moment. "Not with weapons. We don't want to hurt any of them. So I guess the best way would be through status attacks, to lower their defenses and maybe to gain some control. In that case, Seifer, Summon Cerberus when we get in there so we can use Triple the spells on them. Other than that, our only other hope is the weakest magic that we have stocked. And if things get too out of control… Irvine, Summon Diablos, but Level Down. A Demi spell, if nothing else, will at least knock them off their feet for a while." The cowboy did not say anything; he only nodded in solemn agreement. Bringing the GFs into battle was the last thing that they wanted to do, but depending on how bad the situation was, they may not have had a choice.

"Does everyone understand?" Squall glanced at each face, but he already knew that there would be no disagreement. "We're not sure how many there will be at the first floor, so be ready as soon as we get off. Let's move out."

All seven SeeDs crowded uncomfortably into the elevator with Squall, Rinoa and Seifer near the door to act first; both Rinoa and Seifer had fallen into a sort of half-trance, the telltale mark of preparing to Summon as soon as they disembarked. In the depths of his own mind, Irvine roused Diablos, and the demon lay crouched, ready to act within a moment's notice. The three-story decent seemed to take a lot longer than normal, but finally, it reached the 1F level of the Garden, and, weapons ready, Squall took the first flying leap out of the elevator as soon as the doors were open with the others not too far behind him.

The landing and the first level before them were…completely vacant. Only the sounds of their footsteps could be heard, and even those echoed dully within the vast empty space around them.

"They must all have gathered in the Quad by now." Quistis said, and they took off down the steps and towards the direction of the Quad without another word.

In the dead blackness of the world outside of the Garden walls, the bonfire that had been started seemed to be as hot and as bright as the summer sun, and would have almost been as welcoming if it had not been for the current situation. Before they even got outside they could hear the roar of hundreds of voice; the SeeD cadets and SeeDs alike were obviously rioting against something and were making an awful big deal of it, but what, in Hyne's name, against what?

Praying that they would remain undetected, the small group made their way cautiously to the stairs that lead down to the main courtyard, where the entire population of the Garden had turned off. Squall got there first and held out an arm to signal everyone to follow his example, and to remain silent. Above anything else, they could not go into this under prepared, or they might not come out of it at all.

At this point, Squall could not make out what anyone was saying, nor pick up on a common theme; only that they were all gathered around the huge bonfire, jumping up and down, pumping their fists into the air, enjoying the burn… And on closer notice, Squall noticed that it was the stage of the Garden Festival that served as the fuel. From the corner of his eye, he could barely see Selphie's pale and disbelieving face, as if she was unable to fully grasp the full concept of what was happening. But there was something else burning within the depths of the inferno, and what was apparently the real reason why they were all cheering…

Apparently the rioters had torn down every single SeeD symbol in the Garden and were wallowing in the sight of them smoldering flames. It was a sight that struck Squall in the heart as if he had been impaled by a Behemoth's horns.

Closing his eyes briefly, he shook the horrible feeling away and looked back at his comrades with a new furious light burning in his stormy eyes. "Protect yourselves, then Irvine, shoot a warning shot in the air to get their attention. Once we're all Reflected, we won't be able to Protect ourselves again, so let's get this done fast." With the scarcest of agreement, they Protected themselves almost all at once, the blue light of the spell drowned out by the blaze of the fire. Once the last traces of the casted spells disappeared, Irvine rose Exeter to his shoulder and fired a single deafening shot into the air, ringing louder than Squall certainly had anticipated. Certainly loud enough to draw the mob's attention away from the fire and focusing on the group that stood before them, and, eerily enough, silencing them in what seemed to be a moment of confusion.

In that moment of silence and confusion, Squall forgot himself and yelled in nearly a blind rage, "What on Hyne's name do you think you're doing?"

"We have been deceived by the Garden!" Someone yelled from the crowd. "We have been training for a lie!" The wave of agreement returned what was once the roar of the crowd, making it almost impossible to Squall to ask anything further.

"The true meaning SeeD has been a lie!" One of the newer SeeD members cried.

"We were only puppets in a cruel scheme!" Xu shouted from one of the closest ranks.

"The Garden is a joke!"

"Death to the Garden!"

"Death to the SeeD!"

In a desperate effort to make some meaning of what was happening, Squall swung Lion Heart once and pulled the trigger; the shot from his Gunblade almost shamed the previous shot of Exeter but only succeeded in returning some of the order as the front ranks of SeeDs and cadets backed away. "What are you talking about? How is the meaning of SeeD a lie?!"

"Because we house what we fight again and take her side! A sorceress!" The SeeD speaking pointed a finger straight as Rinoa as if for dramatic emphasis.

Squall could not believe what he was hearing and was desperately beginning to wish that this was all just a very, very bad dream. "Rinoa? How can you turn on her like that?"

"How do you know?!" Came an angry shout before them. "How do we know that she won't turn on us? She could all turn us into her slaves, ya know?"

"UNFORGIVABLE!"

"But you all know Rinoa!" Squall shouted back, now nearly frantic. "She is not like the other Sorceresses! We have no reason to fight her!"

"Maybe now!" Nida yelled back, a strange ferocity in his usually passive eyes. "But that can change! I say we not take that risk and stop it before it ever happens!" In a vociferous roar of agreement, the mass of revolting people rushed the mere seven that stood on the opposition.

"Seifer! Rinoa! Now!" But the two did not need to be reminded as the Summoned almost simultaneously. The sky bled red for the space of only a few seconds as Cerberus rose from behind the crowds, the spells of the Counter Rockets already in the mouths of its three heads and Carbuncle appeared from the ground. With a wild howl, Cerberus released its spell just as Carbuncle cast its Ruby Light. Counter Rockets was cast first as Ruby Light washed over them a heartbeat later, successfully lasting Double, Triple and Reflect almost all at once with perfect timing. With the spells in place, they wasted no time in unleashing Status-Effect magic in sets of two and three; the first few ranks of charging SeeDs went down easily in a flurry of Blind, Sleep, Confusion spells, but they knew if they stayed in that area, then it would not be long before their resources became exhausted.

Squall felt a Fire spell crash over him, making him flinch but nonetheless not damaging him as it bounced off the Reflect shield and back at the cadet who had cast it, taking down three others with him. This was not going to go as cleanly as Squall thought it would, but what else were they to do? And in the midst of the chaos, he could see the fire of the bonfire beginning to creep its way up the nearest wall and setting several nearby trees ablaze. If we don't stop that, then the whole Garden can go up!

"Selphie!" He shouted over the din of the battle. "Summon Leviathan, we have to get that fire out!" Squall turned his attention back to the crowds, throwing a hand forward and unleashing a wave of Demi spells that cleared a space in the mob before him. Shiva, I need your help. Assist Leviathan in getting that fire out!

The already chilled air around him as Shiva appeared from the ground almost immediately from Squall's command, and a familiar whistling bellow signified Leviathan's appearance. The giant serpent reared over their heads, then bowed low to allow Shiva to jump onto his back before they both took off to the inferno, releasing their attacks to kill the now out-of-control fire.

Squall almost lost his footing when he felt a Thundra Spell crash into him, followed shortly by a Bio. Although the Reflect would stop any physical damage from the magic spells, he was still getting thrown around quite a bit. That, and they were loosing this battle, and fast; they had already been pushed back to nearly the very entrance of the Quad. He tried over and over to get to Rinoa to protect her, he was sure that she would have been the main target, but every time he got remotely close a blow from a weapon or a spell knocked him back several feet. From what he could see, it appeared as if Rinoa was having an okay time fending off the attackers herself, and Quistis was close at hand as well. Before he was pushed away he saw the instructor lash out with Save the Queen to wrap around the weapon of a student, ripe the weapon from his hand before throwing a Confuse spell in his face.

"We can't hold out much longer Squall, and I'm beginning to run dry!" He barely heard Zell say as another group of students dropped from some Sleep spells. "We don't have a choice! Have Irvine Summon Diablos!" As much as he hated to admit it, Squall knew that they had no other choice. It was several hundred people against just them, and if they were overpowered… then it would be all over.

"Irvine! Call Diablos! Seifer, use the Level Down ability on him first!"

Both Seifer and Irvine had their hands full warding off physical attacks from some of the higher-trained SeeDs, but Seifer was nonetheless able to use Tonberry's Level Down ability to weaken Diablos' overall attack, and Irvine Summoned.

Through the darkness of the night, Squall was unable to see the gathering of bats the signaled Diablos' arrival, but Squall could still feel the ominous presence of the GF as he built up his power. Sickly yellow lightning shattered across the sky, outlining the silhouette of the devil in eerie shadows as his Dark Messenger Spell built in strength and size.

Hyne, please forgive me, I had no other choice.

Just as the spell hit a breaking point, Squall leap out of the way of his attackers, hitting the ground with the others as they gathered in a tight-nit group in an attempt to shield themselves as Diablos unleashed his spell and it crashed into the group below him

In the space of a heartbeat, the thundering roar of the battle turned to the silence of a graveyard, sending a shiver down Squall's spine. For being silent, it was the most unsettling sound that Squall ever heard. Light flared somewhere behind him, and he slowly he cracked one eye open and looked back out at the battlefield, and saw that every single cadet, every single SeeD had been grounded. Rinoa had created some sort of sphere of glowing light that hovered above them, illuminating the scene before them in a ghostly pale light.

"Great Hyne…they're not dead are they?" Quistis was the first to break away from the group, rushing over to the nearest SeeD and checking her pulse, sighing in relief when there was one to be found. Zell was not too far behind her, but he instead rushed out into the sea of unconscious bodies, calling desperately for Tashlin, and Seifer searching for the fallen members of his posse. Selphie was walking in a near-trance to the ruins of the stage with Irvine following her silently.

"No…he was Leveled Down enough to just knock them out long enough." Squall said gravely, picking himself up. Rinoa was close behind him, looping her arm through his and holding him close. Squall shivered, closing his eyes tightly and turning around to embrace her tightly, burying his face in her hair. "Rin…I didn't want to… We used the GFs on our own…."

"Shhh…" She soothed, stroking his hair. "You didn't have a choice. Squall, we all know you were thinking about what was best for everyone…you did you best…" Squall pulled away from her, keeping his eyes hidden under his disheveled hair. "What are we going to do with all of them?"

"I…don't know. They'll only be out for an hour, tops, so we have to…"

"Squall!"

Both Squall and Rinoa looked over to the center of the Quad where the others had gathered, looking skyward. It was also then that Squall heard the sound of flapping wings and a deep, throaty growl…Diablos was still out. "He says that there's something up there." Irvine said, not taking his eyes off his GF. "But he can't…."

Suddenly with a howling scream that made the teeth in Squall's head rattle, Diablos reared back as if he had been struck along the head, faulting in the air… It had to have been one of the most horrible sounds that Squall had ever heard, and he did his best to try to purge it from his memory only to have Diablos scream again, writhing once again, and his time sending him falling straight into the ashes and remains of the bonfire. "Diablos!" Irvine was at the GF's side at an instant, kneeling near the devil's head. Diablos opened his fire-orange eyes weakly, made a small effort to lift his head only to let it fall back before fading away, returning to Irvine's mind in a complete KO situation. The others only stood there in stunned silence, but before any of them could say anything…

"Look!" Selphie shouted, pointing up towards the sky. Squall followed her finger up…and his eye widened in amazement.

In the light of Rinoa's glowing sphere, he could see that the night sky above them had suddenly become full of hundreds, if not thousands, of flying black….things that circled and screamed above their heads. They reminded Squall of winged snakes; hideous, greasy snakes with acid greens eyes that glared down at them, circling over their heads like vultures…

"What the hell are those?!" Zell exclaimed, voicing all of their thoughts almost perfectly.

"I don't know…but let's not take any chances! Shiva, Bahamut, get them!" Everyone else caught on almost immediately, and proceeded in Summoning their strongest GFs; except for the exception of Diablos, Siren, Ifrit, Alexander, Quetzelcotal and Cerberus all appeared at their master's Summon to join Shiva and Bahamut, a grand display of raw power at its greatest form. But to Squall's shock, the things in the air did not seem to sense the danger of the situation; in fact, if anything, it seemed to make them excited. The hell-born creatures suddenly began to swoop and dive, coming dangerously close to the unconscious cadets and SeeDs.

In a wave of power that would have sent Ultima Weapon running for cover, all of the GFs unleashed their most powerful attacks at once; a solid wave of magic that would have leveled a mountain. But what happened made the pit drop out of Squall's stomach completely out of existence. For the wave of attacks did hit its target, but disintegrated into absolute nothing upon contact. The assault of the most powerful spells known to man - Thunder Storm, Diamond Dust, Holy Judgment, Mega Flare - was as harmless as a warm breeze. And where those things…laughing at them?

Then, one by one, the GFs began to physically fall back, slumping over, collapsing before fading away into. And they were not even fading back into their minds. They were fading into…complete nothingness, their junctions falling apart like crumbling ash on the wind. Squall could feel himself grow weaker in all its forms, making him feel as helpless as a newborn kitten.

Shiva was the last to disappear completely, falling to her knees just before she joined the rest. Before she faded from Squall's sight, she looked over her shoulder with sad and defeated eyes.

I'm sorry, Master…

Then she was gone.

Overhead, the mass of flying creatures increased as they intensified their circled, descending lower onto them. And they were helpless to do nothing but watch in disbelieving silence.

This is not happening…this is not happening…

With a scream, Squall saw Selphie fly back as if she had been physically struck, sliding backwards a good twenty feet along the ground, just before Zell was picked up by invisible hands and thrown into a wall. One by one they were struck down, until Squall felt something wrap around his neck, lift him clean off his feet…

Pain exploded through his skull and there was only darkness.

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To be Continued…

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