Chapter 20:

Tylor waited in the shadows as the patrol passed by. He stayed as quiet as he could so they wouldn’t find him. As soon as the last soldier passed Tylor reached out and pulled him in. He pummelled him until he was out cold before ‘relieving’ him of his uniform.

Once Tylor was dressed he hid the body in an empty cell. He made his way to the seventh floor where Zell, Quistis and Selphie were being held.

As soon as he got to the seventh floor he saw Zell carrying all their weapons into the cell with the help of a Momba, an orange furred creature that worked in the prison. The Momba carried Squall’s gunblade, Quistis’ whip and Selphie’s nunchaku while Zell dragged Tylor’s swords, Armageddon and Apocalypse. He must have been wondering how the hell Tylor was able to carry those things.

Zell closed the door once he and the Momba were inside. Tylor approached the cell and was about to open the door when he heard voices coming from above. He acted like a guard and stood in front of the cell.

Two Galbadian soldiers came down the stairs and approached the cell. Tylor knew who the soldiers were, Biggs and Wedge, the men they fought on the communication tower during the SeeD exam.

Tylor saluted them as they approached. Wedge asked, “Is this the cell with the uncooperative prisoners?”

“Yes, sir. I’ve been ordered to stand guard to make sure they didn’t do anything funny before you arrived.”

Biggs asked Wedge, “Should we be picking on prisoners so soon after getting transferred here?”

“Just be quiet, and let me handle this! Open the door, soldier.”

“Yes, sir!” Tylor obeyed. He pressed a button on the cell’s control panel and opened the door. “These are the prisoners, Lieutenant Biggs, Private Wedge.”

Once they entered the two men took a good look at the prisoners.

Zell, Selphie, Biggs and Wedge: “AAAAAAAAHHH!!!”

“S-So we meet again!” Biggs said. “Now we’ll teach you the lesson we should have taught you earlier! I know it might seem cowardly to fight unarmed prisoners, but I hope you appreciate our position. Hey, it’s a dog eat do-” Quistis and Selphie showed off their weapons while Zell cracked his knuckles.

Wedge told Biggs, “Uh, they’re fully armed, sir…”

“W-WHAT!? H-Ho-How…? Ahh, hell with it! Let’s go, Wedge!”

Tylor took this moment to strike. He grabbed Wedge by the shoulder and turned him around to face him. He punched the private in the jaw and threw him headfirst into the wall. When Biggs turned to see what the commotion was Tylor kicked him in the stomach, punched him in the face and slammed him into the floor.

He saw the surprised looks on everyone’s faces and smiled. He removed his helmet and revealed his face. At the same time, everyone shouted, “Tylor!”

“You didn’t think they could hold me, did you?”

“How did you get out?” Selphie asked.

“Very carefully.” He took off his disguise and shook his head in relief. “Much better. Let’s go, we’ve got to find Squall and get out of here before more enemies show up.”

Zell grabbed his swords and tried to carry them to Tylor. “Thanks, Zell.” He said, taking the weapons from him. The carrying straps for the swords were with them so he could carry them on his back when he wasn’t using them.

“How can you fight with those things? Man, they must weigh a ton each!”

Tylor laughed. “We’d better get going. I’ll carry Squall’s sword.” Everyone agreed and followed him out of the cell.

“Squall should be around here, somewhere.” Zell stated as they walked up a set of stairs. “You have any idea?”

The Momba started making sounds. “Srrr…Srrr…”

Suddenly, another Momba appeared at the top of the stairs. It saw its friend and shouted, “Laguna!”

“Laguna!?” Together the two Mombas ran off.

“Laguna!?” Zell asked, surprised.

“Let’s follow them.” Tylor told them. “They’ll lead us to Squall.”

Quistis asked, “Tylor, do you know why they knew Laguna?”

“Yes, but that’s a story for another day. Now let’s get going.”

Alarms blared and red light flashed throughout the prison. “Warning! Escapee alert! All guards stand by for battle. If escapee refuses to surrender, you have permissions to kill. The anti-magic field will be lifted.”

“Tch! The security alarm!” Zell complained.

They heard footsteps approaching from below. A platoon of Galbadian soldiers appeared behind them. “There they are!”

“Book it!” The others followed Tylor as they ran away from the soldiers.

On the tenth floor they were met by another platoon. This one was smaller than the one chasing them. Tylor help out his hand and said, “Slow!” Purple clocks appeared over the heads of each man as they began to move in super slow motion. Tylor and his friend ran through the platoon without having to fight their way through. The spell wore off once they had made it through and the soldiers joined the other platoon and chased them.

Tylor stopped when he got to the top of the stairs leading to the eleventh floor. “Go!” he told the others. “I’ll catch up in a minute.” They nodded and continued on to the next floor. Tylor looked back at the stairs and said, “Time for a little creativity.” He held out both hands and said, “Blizzaga!” A giant crystal of ice shot out of the stairs and blocked the soldiers’ path. Ice alone wouldn’t be enough to hold them back, so he cast another spell. “Break!” The ice turned to stone at the sound of his voice. It’ll take a while for them to get through that. Tylor turned and went after the others.

He found the others standing in front of the torture room that Squall was in. There were six Mombas standing just outside the room saying, “Laguna! Laguna!” The torture chamber Tylor came from was a few floors above this one.

Tylor approached Zell and the others. “Hey, what’s the hold up?”

“Tylor, you made it. You think Squall’s in this room?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.” One-by-one they entered the room. Tylor walk beside Quistis and whispered, “Next comes the missiles.” He was referring to the conversation they had back on the train to Deling City before their mission.

“Let’s just concentrate on the task at hand.”

They found Squall sitting against the wall, surrounded by a few Mombas. “Squall!!!” Zell shouted and the Mombas stepped aside. “You OK!?”

Squall nodded. “It was hell…”

“Tell me about it.” Tylor said. “They don’t call it torture for nothing.”

Squall looked at him. “You were tortured too?”

“I was the first one to escape. I faked passing out and threw the guards in my cell before they looked me back up.” He tossed Squall his gunblade. “Catch.”

Squall caught it and attached it to his waist. “Thanks, Tylor.”

“Don’t thank me, I didn’t get here all by myself.”

“But he did do most of the work!” Selphie pointed out.

“Let’s just get the hell outta here!” Zell exclaimed. As they left the room Zell asked Squall, “Didn’t you come here as Laguna in the ‘dream world’?”

“…No.”

Quistis crossed her arms in disappointment. “So Squall doesn’t know how to get out, either.” She turned to Tylor. “What about you? Did you come here as Eric?”

“Eric…” Tylor didn’t know what was going on with his trips into the past. Ever since they started he felt like it was something he should keep to himself, but after everything that’s been happening he thought he should tell the others what he thought. “I think there’s some sort of connection between me and Eric in the ‘dream world’.”

“Now that you mention it, you two do look a lot alike.” Zell pointed out. “What happened with Eric this time?”

“He was in Esthar swearing his allegiance with a sorceress named Adel. She gave him powers and he became her knight.”

“What does it all mean?” Selphie asked.

“Who knows?” Zell said. “But right now we gotta get out of here.” He scratched his head. “Well… Either way, we kept goin’ up and up. I think we better head back down.”

“It’d be a pain to go down every floor.” Quistis told them.

Tylor pointed out, “Even more so since I blocked one of the staircases with a big chunk of rock to block the enemies’ path.”

Zell looked at Tylor and Squall. “By the way, how the hell did they carry you two up here?” Tylor pointed at a large crane behind them. “Whoa!!! What’s this!?”

“It’s a crane that carries detachable cells from downstairs.” Tylor told him.

Selphie went to the edge and looked down. “Oh, so this big hole goes all the way to the bottom. So if we jump ALL the way down, we’re outta here.”

“Go ahead if you want to be squashed like a pancake.” Quistis told her.

“Oh yeah!!! I remember now!!!” Zell explained, “We can move this arm by using the panel above and the control room. I remember Ward doing this. But we need to operate them both at the same time. Someone needs to stay upstairs and control the panel…”

Quistis and Selphie both placed a hand on Zell’s shoulders. “…Me? F-Fine… I’ll give you instructions from upstairs. Everyone get inside.”

“Zell, I’ll stay with you.”

“You will, Tylor?”

“You may need backup in case the enemy finds us.”

“Alright, the control room is this way.” Tylor followed Zell as he ran up a nearby set of stairs.

They found a large control panel in the centre of the room. Tylor watched as Zell started pressing buttons. “Yo, can you guys hear me?”

Selphie’s voice came from one of the speakers. “Hiya Zell, loud and clear!”

“So, what do we do?” Squall asked.

“Press the red button on the main panel. I’ll take care of the rest.” Zell pressed a few more buttons. A few moments later they heard the crane move. “There!” Zell turned to Tylor. “The crane will do the rest. Let’s go catch up with them.”

“They’re in here!” Tylor and Zell turned to see a large group of Galbadian soldiers enter the control room.

Tylor and Zell: “…Crap.”