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A blast of fire roared scant inches over their heads.

"Are we...alive...?" panted Irvine, lying flat on his back behind a toppled statue.

"Seem to...be," Squall returned, sitting with his back against one of the statues that the creature's tail hadn't knocked over, breathing hard.

"Lucky...us..."

The six said nothing else until they could do so without losing their breath or requiring water. Rinoa, cautiously, poked her head over the top of the fallen statue 'shield'. "It doesn't look like we even scratched it," she said, almost in a whine.

Irvine's hand clenched around the butt of his rifle, but he said nothing. He'd made it clear to Squall what he thought of Rinoa in recent weeks, and been ordered to keep his mouth shut.

"I lost it," groaned Zell, who was curled with his forehead on his knees a few feet away. The admission was as close as he came to an apology, lately.

"We're alive," Squall replied quietly, which translated as /apology accepted/. Though he knew it had been close, this time. And Irvine's grip tightened on his gun.

"This...has got to stop," he gritted. "We can't win like this."

Squall gave him the cold stare he reserved particularly for this variety of outburst. "And what, exactly, would you like us to do about it now?" he asked coldly. "The only way out is through."

A low, feral growl came from Zell, and Squall bit back a sigh. He knew better than to speak in absolutes around Zell, but damnit...they were all so /tired/...

"Agreed," said Quistis shortly. "But we need better than we have, against that. And there's no telling how much stronger than that She will be."

That was a large, black, armored monstrosity of a beast, currently sitting between them and the only viable exit. Though Squall considered that, properly enraged, the creature might at least drop the whole damn castle on Ultimecia's head. It was something to consider as a last resort; the castle would also drop on /them/, after all. Wearily levering himself upward a bit, Squall had to agree with Rinoa's assessment. They'd barely scratched it - and now it was angry and watching for them.

"Sorry," said Selphie. "I just thought -"

"I know," said Squall, before she could go into details. Selphie was too curious sometimes - and while her theory that there might be a secret passage to their goal had been interesting, even possible, having that dropped on them instead indicated otherwise. "She's playing games with us."

"/Lovely/," growled Irvine. "So, aside from being stuck in a nowhere world, we now have a homicidal bitch tossing freaks of space at us for laughs."

Games. Something about games. Squall was too damn tired to think. Games...

He missed the growling getting louder - from Zell. "So...this thing is between us and Her?"

"That thing is between us and /everywhere/," said Rinoa.

Squall reacted automatically - throwing out his hand to cast sleep before Zell could get to his feet. "Don't do that," he warned Rinoa. "Telling him there's only one way out makes it worse."

"Well it damn sure doesn't make me a happy camper either," snapped Irvine, as Squall dragged Zell between a fallen statue and a wall to sleep. "You gonna cast spells on me, too?"

"Don't know," Squall shot back. "You planning on flying off the handle and trying to blow it away on your own?" Wearily, he sat down, tilting himself so that he could just barely see past the shelter of the fallen masonry. "It's summoned...we've got to deal with it."

"How?" asked Quistis. "Magic barely touched it."

"Weapons did," Squall noted. "Just not well. If we focus on one plate...could maybe break it and get at whatever's underneath." He looked his teammates over. "After we sleep. Rinoa...first watch. Irvine, second. Quistis third, then Selphie, and Zell might be awake for fifth, if not then I'll take it. Go back where I put Zell - it's as safe as we're going to get in here." He paused. "Rinoa...can you restock our spells?"

She blinked. "Um...maybe? I don't know. I haven't -"

"Try," said Squall. "We'll need the junctions if nothing else." He looked at set, hard faces. "You can start with me."

The others, with various mutters and complaints, did as ordered and slipped one by one into the space between a fallen statue and a wall. Rinoa looked sad, watching them. "I'm sorry," she said, reaching out to touch Squall's face. "I didn't mean to -"

"You never do," Squall cut her off shortly. "But you do anyway. We can't afford him losing it against something that big, Rinoa. I'd rather face Her with six than five, if I can."

"Draw," said Rinoa. "I'm not sure how to cast...but if you draw I'll learn from that how it feels."

Silence fell as Squall pulled magic out of Rinoa - he didn't care what, he was low on about everything after days of wandering the huge, and hugely trapped, castle. If 'days' held any meaning under the red sky. Rinoa nodded after a few minutes, and then magic flowed in a wave from her to him. Spells of all kinds, bright and strong, filling the empty places, and in his mind he heard Quezacotl's thunderous laughter.

"I do care about him, you know," she said softly. "I wouldn't...set him off on purpose..."

Squall had long since grown familiar with the cloud he kept between himself and the things that mattered. Zell had flinched away from the touch of any man, however casual, but his own. And Rinoa confused him - cozy one day, cold the next. Squall would have encouraged the relationship if it were steady - anything, anything at all to give Zell something solid to cling to - but Rinoa was not it. "This is not the time for dating advice," he said shortly, and she stiffened.

"I didn't mean -" she sighed. "I would just like a friend. Is that too much to ask?"

Squall nodded in the direction of the monster. "I'm sure it would love to know you better," he said. "Rinoa, this is a mission. At the moment, a life or death mission. We either get through it, or we die. There's no time for this bullshit."

Rinoa's jaw set. "I'd say there's no better time," she shot back. "Tomorrow you might be dead. You could try living tonight."

"I'd rather sleep tonight and live through tomorrow," growled Squall. "This place might kill me. It's damn sure trying. But if it does it's going to have to throw everything it's got at me, because I am not going down for anything less. And I'm not letting it have any of you while I can do anything about it, either." He scrubbed his face. Damn, so tired. "Wake them, one at a time, renew their spells."

"How will I know when it's Irvine's watch?" she asked.

"When you can't see straight," said Squall. "There's no time, here. Nothing to measure. But I'm guessing you can stay awake for maybe two more hours."

"It can't be measured, but you measure it anyway," Rinoa noted.

"Paradoxes later, Rinoa," Squall sighed, and crawled into the narrow space. The others were already dozing. It was worrying - death was only a few dozen feet away, but no one was at all wakeful. The castle was draining them dry. He laid down and closed his eyes, waiting for his thoughts to stop scurrying and let him rest.

It was all getting worse. Tensions the group had had since the prison were starting to come to a head - at, of course, the worst possible time. Once they'd committed, none of them could leave save through Ultimecia's death. Zell, near his own goal of getting a degree of vengeance, was growing more prone to wild attacks on his own - losing patience with the long hunt. Irvine seemed to at least have made up his mind which of the girls he wanted to date, which was good at least for Selphie, but Rinoa had not yet taken the hint that none of the guys were available. She called Squall her knight and he hadn't said no, but she didn't seem to realize that affection played no part in the decision - having a second insane sorceress to deal with did. Quistis, he knew, was going to have Words with him about this latest Zell Incident when she could, and that wasn't something he relished either.

He wondered, in the mind-wandering way of the exhausted, where love went. He'd loved Zell...was very sure about that. But lately...while he did want Zell alive/, preferably healthy, it was nearly to the point where he flinched at the sound of Zell's name, because it always came down to the same uncontrollable things. In a dull way, he realized that Zell probably /wanted to die. Just on his own terms, which apparently involved fighting. Which was unsurprising. The only surprise was that Squall was starting to find it hard to care, particularly. There was only so long he could watch the boulder wavering on the precipice before a part of him just wanted to say "fall, already, and get it over with". If Zell kept on like this he was going to die. It was just a matter of when, and how many went down with him.

No. I can't let him. Not here, not now. When she's dead...if there's nothing... But "when she's dead" was such a hard thing to envision. Her guardians were everywhere, hugely powerful, and She was nowhere to be found. Part of Squall hoped that, vengeance exacted, Zell could try to come to grips with things. The soldier in him told him that wasn't likely.

And nowhere a solution. Tomorrow...hah. 'Tomorrow' was meaningless. When they were rested, he'd turn everyone loose on that beast and try and get through.

That was the only way out - through.