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The Longest Road.

"The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we would become."
Charles DuBos.


Chapter eight; Rescue.




The steel of Seifer's gunblade slipped so easily through his flesh. Squall fell to one knee then fell back, his blood seeping into the carpeted floor. The spark in his eye went out.... he was dead.

Squall Leonhart was dead.



Zell sat bolt upright, his chest heaving, his heart pounding and rising to his throat. He'd had nightmares before, many times, but they had never been that real. "Squall?" He whispered, the salty tears stinging his eyes. He turned to look at Squall, quelling the fear in his heart.

His lover was still by his side.

"Still asleep." He sighed. "Thank god!"

It seemed that he had spoken too soon. Squall stirred and his eyes flickered open. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Zell replied. "I just had a bad dream."

Squall stretched a little and yawned. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I'll be okay. It just scared me that's all." He smiled in the darkness. "But do me a favour would you?"

"Anything." Squall answered.

"Just be careful around Seifer okay baby? Please?"

"Okay." He was sure Squall had rolled his eyes and smiled at that point. "Now, come here." Squall reached up and around Zell's neck, pulling him back down beside him. He held Zell close for a few blissful moments of peace.

"We have to begin our plans a little later." Zell sighed. "We have your son to save."

"I know...." He whispered as he buried his face into the tender pale flesh of Zell's neck. "Believe me Zell, it's all I can think about right now." Tear-dampened eyelashes fluttered against his shoulder sending a shiver down his spine. "I still can't believe that he's only a baby and he's already mixed up in all of this."

"Like we were, you mean."

"I guess."

They lay there like that for half an hour, before the two of them stirred from the half-slumber of the point between waking and getting up.

In the war-room the five of them met and poured over the maps, deciding the best strategy. When the other ten SeeDs arrived their parts in this were already decided.

Squall Leonhart, Zell Dincht, Kyra Raven and Naki Keza would be the main team. The team who would find the child.

Selphie Tilmitt and Nida Walsh would be in charge of co-ordination and information.

Irvine Kinneas, Hiro Storm, Bari Robertson and Jessie Rowe would provide the first distraction, an attack on the front gates. Quistis Trepe, Ashby Rushton, Darrel Archer, Dale East and Theiery Hunter would attack the rear entrance shortly after the first team thus splitting Seifer's forces in two.



Irvine, with that same haunted look in his eyes that had been there for the last few days, seemed rather pleased at the thought of taking Seifer's forces on headlong. A small smile flickered on his lips as he cradled the bomb in his arms. It had enough firepower to destroy a small tank. Hopefully a few of the enemy would be near it when it went off.

If this mission hadn't been so important he might have put himself near it...

Looking up as Jessie and Bari, two attractive young girls, prepared their pistols and sword respectively a faint pain fluttered in his heart.

He'd never meant to hurt Selphie like that.

"Hiro!" He called to the small redhead.

"Yo! Whazzzzzzuppppp?" He asked as he moved through the many stances of his chosen martial art.

"Is the second charge set?"

"Uh...... huh. We're gonna create quite a storm here, aren't we?" He grinned. A former pupil of Zell's former tutor and now of Zell Dincht himself. The similarities were startling. Irvine suppressed the urge to slap himself to dispel the image of a whole class of Zell Dinchts.

"You can say that again kid. You remember the plan?"

"Charge goes off, big bang.... All cameras pan that way." He waved at the direction of the bomb he had set. "Me and Bari set the next charge in front of the main gate and it goes off. Bigger bang. Loadsa people run out. You fill the suckas fulla lead with Jessie's help. Anyone left standing when you've finished are mine and Bari's. How hard is that to remember?"

"Yeah yeah whatever."

"Irvine, can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"How long will it take your you to apologise?"

"What?" Irvine seethed.

"To Selphie. How long will it take you to apologise to her? Because the last thing I heard, she, Squall and Zell were all for running you up a flagpole."

Irvine's vision swam. His head felt heavy and he couldn't even see straight. It felt as though, in truth, he were drunk. He ran a hand through his loose hair and then tied it back in it's usual ponytail.

"Let's just get on with this shall we?"

"I agree completely." Selphie's voice reverberated over the radio. "We are detonating the first charge in thirty seconds. Move your asses now." They moved into position seconds before the bomb exploded.

As the echoes of the explosion or big bang as Hiro had eloquently put it died, the other bomb was already set. "Code ID is 271011." Ten second countdown, beginning now.

They scrambled for their secondary positions.



At the rear of the building Quistis prepared herself for the next strike. Several small charges were placed on the fence and were rigged to go off in five minutes. She looked up at the others; Ashby Rushton, Darrel Archer, Dale East, Theiery Hunter.... They all seemed like children to her. The youngest of them, Dale, was only sixteen. A prodigy of Squall's with her gunblade skills, she was already a level twenty-seven SeeD and had killed over thirty men. Sometimes she was so like him it was scary. Only Theiery could bring her out of her shell. A slightly taller girl than Selphie with ginger hair and a massive smile. Together, out of battle it was like a party, in battle they were deadly. Darrel, a young man with a crush on Irvine for some strange reason and was a master of the whip. Ashby was an eighteen year old who was just like Seifer had been. Needless to say, his main two rivals on the battle field were Squall and Dale.

They were all kids. For god's sake she was little more than a kid too, and here they were putting their lives on the line again.

She looked up as the charges on the fence blew simultaneously.

'I wonder if a SeeD will ever reach retirement age?' She thought glumly.



Squall had been standing as though in a trance. His eyes closed, his gunblade in both hands. Having managed to get down the air shaft, they were preparing to charge in. A gently vibration echoed through the tunnel and Squall's eyes snapped open. He charged forward and severed the metal grate from it's mountings. Throwing himself into the narrow opening, he began the four minute crawl through the ducts.

Once in the corridor, Squall looked around. It was completely empty. Red lights flashed at regular intervals. "Must have made a real impression." Naki whispered behind his shoulder. "They left in a hurry."

She was right. It looked like people had left their belongings in the hallway, even a half eaten lunch had been dropped.

Kyra patted Naki on the shoulder. "I think we should get the child before they get back."

"Might be a good idea." She grinned.

"Come on then!" Zell gave the two of them a gentle push. "The main holding cells are in the centre of the complex. It's the most secure part."

It took them twenty minutes to find a locked door in the secure section. Squall moved to shatter the lock with a trigger-pull from his Lionheart but stopped.

"Let me." Kyra stepped forward. Pulling one of her needle daggers from her belt she set to work picking the lock. With a click, the door swung open Kyra turned and said, "it's a good thing you stopped commander." She waved to the cot in the room, barely a metre from the door. "I think they wanted you to hurt him."

Squall nodded slowly, barely hearing. He swallowed loudly and walked to the cot, sheathing his gunblade and taking the baby into his arms.

He was horrified at what he saw on the baby's face.

Just above the snub button nose was a mark. A fresh scar was cut into the flesh, an exact representation of Squall's own.

Picking him up had stirred the baby from sleep and he cried for a moment, then stopped just as suddenly as he had begun. He reached up to Squall's cheek with a tiny hand, storm cloud grey eyes watching him. His full head of hair was black with both nutmeg brown and golden strands.

"If I find out who did that..." Zell's voice trailed off behind him.

"Awww. How cute." Naki said as he pulled a blanket around him and handed the child to Kyra.

Kyra nodded to the door. "Aww, how cute."

Where she had nodded towards, a group of armed twenty of so guards were standing. Zell arched one golden eyebrow. "Looks like fun." He grinned as he cracked his knuckles.

"Oh yeah baby." Naki confirmed as she readied her staff.

"Let's go." Squall charged the first two, swinging the Lionheart in cerulean arc, slitting the first one's throat and completely cleaving the second man's head from his body. Then through the fountain of blood a blonde appeared. His eyes flashed with malice and power as he rammed his fist into one man's nose and then twisted his head until he heard the familiar crack of a breaking neck. Naki used the platinum base of the staff to crack the nearest soldiers skull open.

Kyra held back as the others drove the attacking force into the hallway. A heavily armoured guard managed to break off from the others and ran towards her. She spoke to the baby in her arms; "Hello Ayden. Now, I want you to be very quiet okay?" He gurgled as though he understood. She held him close to her chest and drew a knife from her belt.

The man went down with Squall's gunblade in his back. He flashed her a quick thankful smile, the white of his eyes a startlingly sharp contrast to his blood covered face.

"Thanks sir." Kyra whispered. Then her eyes widened and she flicked her wrist, sending the knife in her hand over his shoulder into the jugular of another of the forces.

"Thanks Kyra." He said as the body fell beside him. Squall returned to the fray. When they were all down he motioned for them to get back to the air shaft.

As they walked away one of the guards pushed himself up to send a final weapon their way.

To Squall it felt as though a mosquito had bitten him.




If only he'd known the truth.......






Authors notes.

*Hides underneath her desk.* Please don't kill me! I know this chapter has some parts that may not make complete sense but most of it will become clear over the next few chapters. And BTW if some of them aren't written as good as my usual stuff it's because I'm suffering a little depression at the moment and my greatest weakness at times like this is the fire water (alcohol, for our younger readers knowledge.) It's not like I'm a drunk, it's just that I have to drown my sorrows every once in a while. I don't even know why I'm depressed again...... More next time chums.

SPIN OFF ALERT! I'm writing one between Irive and Selphie, just a single fic that I think I might call "Diamonds" after a wonderful song. Look out for it.

Thankyou to Flowergirl826000. Thanks for the reviews and for making life heaven with your brilliant fic.


C ya.

Darksquall. ;)