[b]'F-fuck you...'[/b] It was all Royce could do to keep from passing out. With his pacemaker and even his backup dead, he only had a few seconds to leave a witty repartee. Despite the lightness in his head, he could see what the SeeD girl wanted to do. Every fibre of his being told him to fight, to stand up and give her what for, but blood loss and lack of oxygen rendered him impotent. With the last of his energy, he drew a knife from his belt, drew his arm back to throw... and darkness took him. Royce was unconscious before the blade even the the deck.

[hr]

[b]'One!'[/b] The grenade detonated a split second before SeeD stormed the control room. With Jericho and the others on their side, the fight was decidedly one sided. Duncan charged up and headed left, moving down a pair of shocked technicians at their work stations before  swinging round to pour fire on a charging mech. Between them, they took down the soldiers within the minute. Once the smoke had settled, he slung the machine gun over one soldier and turned to the others. [b]'Alright then, let's get to work. Spread out, turn off any vital systems you can find; power, ventilation, Hell kill the lights if you can.'[/b] He had faith that the anti-0magic field was down and that the others had succeeded in their goal. Now it was time to find out who their mystery saviours were... He trotted out to an open hatch, leading outside of the facility. Dry, listless wind blew in, giving him a good idea of where they were. The light blinded him as he ducked outside, but as his vision cleared, the sight before Duncan's eyes left him in awe. A great sea of sand stretched away to the horizon, with dunes a mile high and dust devils racing to and fro. Now that, he had expected; anyone who was anyone in Galbadia knew about the President's little prison for political dissidents. What shocked him was that he was looking down on this grand vista from at least [i]a hundred foot up.[/i] [b]'What the..?'[/b] He was speechless, awed by the pure scale of the design. It was something uniquely Galbadian in a way; form over function, audaciousness over practicality.

Regardless, they needed a way down and sharpish. With the anti-magic field offline, they could just dive off and use magic to land safely, but they couldn't leave til everyone was present. And some nagging thing in the back of his mind told him that if he didn't find their mysterious intruder, he would suffer for it later... [b]'... Xerox, you guy's gotta hurry. In five minutes, we're leaving. I want all SeeDs up here and ready by then.'[/b] He strode back into the control room, looking for a CCTV station. [b]'You guys, take a look outside. Think of a good way to get yourselves down in one piece and be ready to jump in five.'[/b] Meanwhile, he busied himself by flicking through the camera channels, hoping to find some evidence of who was attacking the prison. Here and there he saw flashes of soldiers running about, most in Galbadian reds and blues, but also in a uniform he didn't expect; Galbadia Garden. Had Garden sent in Galbadian SeeDs to extract them? It would make sense, but that didn't explain the prickling feeling on the back of his neck... While browsing the channels, he stumbled upon another feed that caught his eye. A man was trussed up to a medieval-looking device, his dark hair matted and torn. Duncan paused for a long moment, his eyes narrowing. The prisoner chose that moment to raise his head painfully and Duncan instantly recognised his as a member of his team. [b]'Found Kein! He's on this level.'[/b] Several seconds of furious typing later, he found a schematic. [b]'I'll get him. Jericho, hold the fort and keep breaking shit. I'll only be a minute.'[/b]

Out of the control room, down a side corridor and two dead soldiers later, Duncan found the cell. Rigging up a couple of grenades into a makeshift breaching charge, he stood back and detonated it. This time he took his entrance slowly, swinging left and right before deeming it clear. Before he could call out, Kein spoke in a cracked voice. [b]'Ins... tructor... T-the girl... She's one of... them...'[/b] It took a while to cut him down, but Duncan was able to haul him out eventually. [b]'Save your breath kid, you've done well. Hold on and we'll get you patched up.'[/b] He took the time to cast a battery of healing spells on Kein, but barely managed to stabilise the poor lad. He would need a good period of convalescence once they got home. With Kein slung fireman-style over one shoulder and the machine gun handing ready from a sling on the other, Duncan made his way back to the control room just in time to meet Xerox's group heading up from the stairwell.

[b]'Better late than never, kid.'[/b] To his surprise, they were accompanied by another familiar face. [b]'As I live and breath, Mr Firesong. Good to see you; I take it Galbadia Garden ain't too much a fan of the new government?'[/b] Well that explained [i]most[/i] of the explosions his team weren't responsible for. [b]'Did you uh, bring Syrus along or something..?'[/b]