"Alright everyone," Alma had hushed the discussions and set up a plan of action, "it's come to my attention by one of Laguna's attendants that there are surprisingly 11- I repeat-11 gates surrounding the Estharian borders, if each of us can get to our respective gates we just might be able to pull this off if Rinoa aims the barrier around the edges of the gates."
Aeris ran toward Alma and whispered in her ear, "What? You mean we don't have enough braves?" Alma said in shock.
"You forget--," Delita drew his Zodiac carved sword, "I don't have a stone even though we are 11 braves."
"Hmmmm," Alma scrunched her nose in thought, "that still means we have another brave to find....but we don't even have a stone to work with to find out who he is. And how are we supposed to set up a barrier if we don't even have all the braves needed, I don't know if we'll make it in time."
"I don't know of any Zodiac stones here on earth--," Laguna commented, "but there's an old Centra story about a Moon Stone. It goes like this: there's a legend of a great knight who must seek out a great treasure for his sorceress, but must give up his heart completely to her, and her his. The next part of the story didn't quite make sense: two hearts become one, Gemini is revealed and the guardian of earth shall appear with the heart of a lion and the soul of a griever."
"Gemini....hmm...." Alma thought, "So in order for us to find the Gemini warrior we need to go looking for a moon stone on the moon."
"But you'll be too busy for that...." Squall interjected, "Rinoa and the Braves are going to have to set up the barrier in time for the large cry. I guess while I'm up there with Seifer, we can look for this stone too."
"I'm not sure but, I doubt it's going to be an easy task to find that stone." Ramza thought out loud.
"You're talking about a 20 billion kilometer rock. How are you supposed to find something like that among other moonrocks?" said Zidane with his arms flailing in exasperation.
"The story never said he would find the moonstone," Alma speculated, "just that he was supposed to look for it, in my honest opinion it'll show by itself, but as far as who the guardian of earth is 'heart of a lion and the soul of a griever' how does that work in with us braves?"
"I think I have a slight explanation," Rinoa answered holding up Squall's gloved hand. Squall was a bit embarrassed by all this public attention, and he voiced it with a glare at Rinoa.
She swallowed her nervousness and continued, "Recently we had to face time compression where all times had become one time, we fought a sorceress named Ultimecia who summoned history's greatest Guardian Force, Griever, this GF we defeated, but realized later the GF itself was summoned from within Squall's ring which he also said was named Griever. As far as we know Griever hasn't existed, not even within his ring, as I've scanned it with my powers...."
"But--" Squall continued for her, "that doesn't mean Griever won't show up anytime soon, and if he's the guardian of earth, we may come across him. As to whether he'll help us or not is a mystery."
"You mentioned Squall had a ring named Griever." Alma questioned, "is there a connection between you and Griever?"
"I.......'m not sure." Squall said finally.
"The ring has been in the Leonhart family for generations, even though Laguna is Squall's father, it belongs to Squall." Rinoa explained.
"Ahem" Squall glared at Rinoa again, rather agitated. He didn't like acknowledging a klutz like Laguna was his father.
"Hmph..." Rinoa gave him a friendly elbow just to say, I'm right, and you know I had to say it.
Ramza wondered in marvel, “The Leonhart family? I thought that lineage was a myth, that the rumored world's greatest warriors came from that line. I never believed the family even existed, but now, right under my nose I find one of their descendents...in the future at that--so the lineage did survive, even during the Lion War, and Sephiroth's War, even after all that! Now I really want to know if he's a Zodiac Brave!”
"So....in order for us to even make a repelling force against the lunar cry...." Ramza reasoned, "We're going to have to get the Gemini Zodiac brave..."
"Ramza," Alma pointed out to her brother, "we won't even know who the brave is unless we have the stone, much less be able to deflect the lunar cry, so I think it's imperative Squall get ahold of that moon stone, though I'm still not even sure we can get the stone to the bearer, whoever he or she is..."
Laguna assured her, "The lunar strike suits are capable of travel to and from the moon within two hours at their top speed, so it shouldn't be a problem transporting the stone once we find it."
"IF it's up there..." said Seifer impatiently, "C'mon, I wanna kick some demon ass!"
The party sighed in exasperation with Seifer's comment, but he had been right, they were wasting time discussing things when there should be a plan of action taking place.
It took about three days preparation, but Squall and Seifer had been suited up for atmospheric launch. Rinoa left a final kiss with Squall as he placed the space helmet on.
"Don't worry...I'll be on a constant Radio and Video feed so you'll know I'm okay...besides, it's my job as a knight to do this..."
Rinoa's eyes glistened with tears as she said, "Come back to me....."
"Yeeach! All this mushy stuff is making me nauseous!" Seifer said over a comm, "C'mon Squall let's rock!"
Squall huffed at Seifer's impatience, but gave a tender look at Rinoa again, then stepped inside his mobile suit for transport. The port slid shut behind him. Rinoa then walked back to the launch station where the rest of the party was waiting.
Most of the party was in awe over the technology of the city, except for Cloud, Sephiroth, Aeris, and a few others who expected as much, anticipating the launch.
A commander announced over the comm, "Pilots secured, fuel supply and oxygen secured?"
Squall and Seifer said in their own respective comm links, "Check."
"Prepare for launch:...10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...Ignition....we have liftoff....."
The launch was successful, albeit loud as the mobile suits rocketed out of the atmosphere. There were a few violent sessions during the video feed, but Squall and Seifer seemed okay after entering space.
