Ripples in a Pond
Chapter 1
Rating: G for now, ratings will go up in other chapters
Warnings: Nothing for this one; a bit of violence, maybe. Yaoi in future chapters.
Summary: All bearings are lost when SeeDs experience an unfortunate crash that sends them on a planet where technology is at its beginning and monarchs stillrule. Theonly thingthey can do is try and keep their heads over the water and go with the flow, less they drown.ff8-ff9
Notes: I tried being as objective as I could with the different characters. There will be no bashing here, as I did my best to write all characters correctly despite my personal preferences. However, that will not stop me from playing with the original pairings and finding a IC way to rearrange them to my liking. That means there will be touches of het, but mostly slash and yaoi. You have been warned!
Rain was a rare occurrence in Esthar, though when it did happen, it seemed to compensate for every time it hadn't. To say it simply, it was torrential, and Squall hated it. It made his bangs stick in his eyes and his grip on the gunblade more slippery despite his gloves. And, though it held no consequences in battle, the wet fur sticking to his neck and cheeks was highly annoying.
Flicking the bangs out of his eyes impatiently, he scanned the surroundings for monsters, trying to pierce the sheet of rain and see beyond his nose. Laguna had assured him that thought they were strong, the storms never lasted long. Squall thought it had been enough to cross his patience's limits.
Zell and Rinoa were close behind him and to the side, standing alert. He could see that the girl was growing weary of the monsters and the rain and the patrol. Why she even insisted so much on coming sometimes, he'd never understand. She'd usually been ok with fighting when it concerned saving the world from Ultimecia, but now that it was simple monster hunting, he'd believed she'd be less eager to take up her weapon.
Zell, on the other hand, looked as chirpy as ever, even with his hair looking rather ridiculous, all flattened up like that by the rain. Well, chirpy was maybe too happy a word, as he looked around with seriousness and an intensity that had surprised him at first coming from the loud man. But Squall knew him enough to know that he looked as happy as one could in such circumstances. He wished he could say the same for himself.
"Squall…" The hesitation was marked in Rinoa's voice, and though she sounded unsure, Squall knew exactly what she wanted to ask and also knew how he'd be answering. Turning around, he nodded to her to show that he was listening.
"It's getting late, maybe we should go back?" The notion had been running around in his head for a little while now and, as always with her, she'd picked the perfect timing to ask, since he would've offered the same thing just a few moments later. It was as if she read his mind, sometimes. He usually appreciated that ability of hers to understand his unspoken words, but he occasionally found it unsettling, maybe as if she understood just a little too much for comfort.
"I'm with her there. Besides, we're close to the entrance," Zell agreed. Though killing monsters was his best way to pass time while in Esthar, he wouldn't be one to pass up on getting warm and dry after being in the rain so long.
"Whatever." He shrugged and reached inwardly for Diablos' ability to repel monsters. It was very useful, though it didn't help in the monster eliminating part. Anyways, fighting a few Imps and Toramas wouldn't make much of a difference at this point.
However, before he could junction properly and make any difference, he heard something big slithering behind him, a noise that had been covered by the rain and the building from behind which it was coming from. That had been one of their biggest obstacles; the ruined buildings at the outskirts of Esthar offered too many hiding places for monsters. Zell shouted a warning and he guessed from the clicking sound that Rinoa had launched the Shooting Star already. She'd always been fast on the trigger. Spinning on his heels, he raised his blade high, but it was a poor defence against the rolling black mist that covered him, burning his throat and blinding his eyes.
"Malboro!" he thought with an edge of panic. Fighting one head-on was hard enough, being caught from behind by surprise was not only dangerous but also more often than not fatal. After all, there was only that much status ailments he could defend himself against.
He was dimly aware of the smoke dissipating, caught by the wind and washed by the rain, but he wasn't master of his senses. Berserk, one part of his brain said. Confused, another affirmed. He couldn't bring himself to understand those implications, as his mind had become like a disassembled puzzle he was trying to piece back together blinded. With the mist gone, he could focus on the mass of greenish ooze that was the Malboro. Murdering instincts drove his blade and pushed his feet, ignoring how his body seemed not to want to move at the proper speed, movements achingly slow.
He was so focused on that sole purpose, on bringing the Malboro down, that his eyes saw only the gaping black mouth, fetid and stinking of the breath it had just exhaled. His vision narrowed down to one small spot so that the tentacle that caught him powerfully at the side came as a total surprise. Time stretched as he was raised off his feet, the wind knocked out of him, and he watched the stormy sky breaking overhead and managed to be annoyed at it before pain exploded in his back and the world faded into a splash of red behind closed eyelids.
---
Squall woke up to the taste of bile irritating his throat and a languor in his muscles he knew too well. His head was also throbbing slightly at the temples, he noticed as he moved up slowly, and those three factors were more than enough to tell him what had happened. The rain falling straight against his face and the smooth, even surface under his painful back also told him of where he was, but it was the silence, the utter lack of sounds save for the patter of rain, that was the most telling of all.
"Zell, he's waking up!" Rinoa's voice broke through the fog around his brain as an arm helped him straighten up, but he couldn't quite shake off the remains of the Slow spell hampering his movements and thoughts and ended up leaning on it more than he wanted.
"Hey Squall, you alright in there?" The martial artist came to squat before him and, seeing the way he was leaning so much weight on Rinoa, took one of his arms and slung it over his shoulder before standing up, bringing him to his feet at the same time.
"What happened?" He remembered the hissing breath of the Malboro, the rolling mist of which he couldn't block all of the status effect, and then it was mostly a big blank. His pounding head told him he'd been Confused, but that didn't explain why the thing was dead before he woke up. He should have been given an Esuna and be brought to help defeat the monster; it was just too idiotic for the other two to have let him rave around under Confuse while they had a Malboro on their hands.
"After it used a Bad Breath, you decided to charge the Malboro and got swept aside by a tentacle for your trouble. Smashed into the railing pretty hard, and it knocked you out," Zell started to explain, slowly loosening his grip as Squall started regaining proper control of his body.
"I treated Zell and me first while he distracted the Malboro, but I couldn't get near you, it was blocking my path. The battle heated up and, well…Phoenix pretty much finished it off," Rinoa continued, sounding slightly sheepish.
At the mention of Phoenix, Squall raised his head quickly, not quite snapping it up, since he was still groggy, and studied his two friends carefully. He noticed then their drawn looks, the fresh and tender scar on Zell's arms. A Malboro catching you by surprise could easily be the end of even a seasoned party, and fighting with depleted numbers was just worst. Not for the first time, Squall was infinitively grateful for the Phoenix, whose timing was always impeccable, though that also meant they had all three been knocked out at some point.
"Let's go back," he said, and hated how slow and dull his voice sounded. From what they said, he deduced that he hadn't been given status recovery magic or items before Phoenix appeared and woke him up. He'd have to fight the last dredges of the Slow off himself.
"That never sounded so good!" Zell agreed cheerfully, and Squall shot him a curious look. How he could still have so much energy when he so obviously looked beat was beyond him.
"Finally…Here, let me give you a hand until the Slow fades off," Rinoa suggested, and he didn't fight her off when she steadied him with a hand. His pace was slow and sluggish and he swayed a bit too much for comfort, but he was steadily recovering his strength. While he'd rather have made his way back on his own, there was no point in falling face first on the road and needing them to drag him up again.
With the help of Diablos' abilities, even their slow progress wasn't bothered with monsters. No one wasted magic on a Cure, as only their energy was low and by going at a measured pace, they were in no immediate danger for their lives. The rain had mostly stopped by then, as Laguna had predicted, and Squall was grateful for that small reprieve even as they accessed the elevator that would bring them in the inner city of Esthar.
---
Squall used the time it took for the Slow to fade completely to dry up, glad for the opportunity to avoid Laguna for just a little while longer. He didn't feel like talking with the man. He rarely did, in fact.
After some convincing –more so for Rinoa- he'd managed to have them go to the medical centre to be given a few rudimentary cares. He hadn't missed how Zell's cut broke open, sending clear blood mingling with the water on the road, or the limp Rinoa had developed on their way back. They were minor injuries, but sending them off would spare future magic and give him some time off by himself.
Since that last stand against Ultimecia, when Time Compression had wrapped everything around their heads, life as a mercenary and Commander had grown steadily boring. The Garden was still useful, of course, but aside from the surveillance on Galbadia and the steady contracts with Esthar to help purge the city from the monsters and stop those from the Lunar Cry to move to other continents, there was nothing to do. Just the same old patrols, their party broken up regularly between Galbadia and Esthar, and he knew that it was starting to wear out on everyone's nerves. They weren't used to routine.
Not that he was complaining about the relative peace. It allowed him to spend a few unspoiled moments with his friends, a few closer moments with Rinoa, and not having world domination or destruction hanging over their heads was definitively an improvement. But something was wrong with how their mercenary lives had turned, something was missing.
Shaking the thoughts out of his head as a headache threatened to reward him for his troubles, he stood up, flexed his arms to confirm that yes, the Slow had faded completely, though he was no less tired, and moved out of his temporary room to go and find Laguna. The sooner he dealt with that, the better it would be.
He found the man in his usual room in the Presidential Palace, flanked by Kiros and Ward. He sketched a salute, still feeling the burning in his throat from the Malboro's Bad Breath and focusing on it so that he could have something more annoying to concentrate on than the idiotic man.
"We've completed a patrol around the south western outskirts. It's still bursting with monsters, some strong enough that it's become a danger for the secured areas surrounding it," he reported as professionally as he could. He hated those contracts with Laguna, hated that he had to be one of those on the expedition because of the considerable strength of the monsters, and hated that he had no choice but to accept them to finance the Garden. Keeping it mobile was much more expensive, and it was a gap that harsh but important to mend.
Laguna sighed and scratched his head, his long, greying hair falling before his eyes despite the small ponytail he wore.
"Thank you. Well, I expected that. We don't have enough forces sufficiently strong to force them back, just to contain them."
Squall shook his head and half shrugged. It wasn't his problem, and in a way, the monsters kept them employed in a more 'acceptable' fashion.
"I know that Garden can't expend more resources for us," Laguna continued, crossing his arms and glancing at Kiros and Ward. "I might have asked Galbadia, in the extreme last possibility, but even that is out of the question for now." His voice was clearly worried, and though Squall was aware of how dangerous this situation was, he couldn't bring himself to sympathize.
"We must first reorganize our outward defences, then deal with the monsters inside. The problem is that more leak in every day before we can stop them," Kiros put in, and Ward nodded his silent approval.
"Yes, yes. How they even dare come near such a big settlement is beyond me."
Squall muted out the rest of the conversation, listening with only half an ear as the same old arguments and solutions where brought forth and discussed. He took part in these discussions only to keep himself updated on what was going on in the city that had employed SeeDs for the moment, just in case a security measure was changed that could affect their own jobs. He'd never really needed to drop in his opinion unless he was directly asked, and he mostly only listened, though even that he found annoying.
As the conversation droned on, he noticed how the pain in his back pulsed with his heart and concentrated on that, trying to see if it was more serious than he'd anticipated. Nothing hurt particularly more unless he made a straining movement, and it was the dull sort of pain rather than the sharper one that would have been alarming. He concluded that it was nothing worth worrying too much about, and that he'd just have to be careful of his movements in the future. It would probably only bruise for a few days.
At some point he realized that the conversation was ending and he snapped back to attention to catch Laguna's last words. "I'll ask him, then." Kiros and Ward turned to leave on that sentence, and Squall stepped aside to allow them access. Seeing Laguna stay in the room, looking at him, he stopped his own motion of exit, as he'd assumed he was free to go as well, and turned back with a heavy sigh.
"What do you want now?" he asked, a touch of exasperation tingeing his voice. Laguna was hovering, obviously needing to ask him about something more than a report on local monster activities.
"Would you mind coming with me to the Lunar Gate? I want to show you something," the President finally said, and Squall followed simply because he knew that if it had been anything less important, Laguna would have told him right away exactly what he'd be showing instead of holding information back.
Laguna led him through the Presidential Palace and out where a car was waiting with a few guards. Squall didn't say a word, scrambling after whatever patience he had left and deciding that, with the way it was keeping Laguna silent for once, as if the man realized he needed to keep him on his good side, it might well be worth waiting. Besides, the ride to the Lunar Gate was fast and eventless, thanks to the vehicle, and soon he was in the building again, and it looked stranger to his eyes. It was true that he hadn't taken any time to really explore or see it, so focused had he been on going in space to find Ellone.
Laguna finally stopped before a door that didn't seem to fit in the small, barely used room it was set in. From the look of the structures and the way it was lost in this faraway space, his guess was that it was recent and had been thrown in the first safe place possible.
"What's this about?" he urged, starting to grow impatient and annoyed at being kept in the dark as he followed around in a room that looked too much like a secret rebel hideout for his comfort. It was also equipped full with computers; wires and alimentation cables littered the small cluttered space.
A tech raised his head when they entered but seemed utterly unfazed, simply curious to know who was coming in, and returned to his graphics without a second look.
"After the space station was destroyed by the Lunar Cry, we've been scrambling to remake contact with the other satellites we have out there. This is what this lab is for," Laguna finally explained, moving in the crowded room until he was standing behind the tech. "Show him," he said, and the man reached to the side and entered a few codes and signals. A slightly larger screen than the rest crackled to life, and Squall focused on that image. As two orbs appeared, unfocused and blurry but both colours eye jarringly different, he had to admit that he was getting curious.
Squall would have asked what that was, but Laguna liked to talk and explain things, so he just waited to let the man say it all.
"We've managed to get a spaceship back in space and the connections re-established. We didn't expect to find anything new, but the techs found data on an old satellite lost deep enough that the new personnel mostly forgot about it. We picked this up in its recordings, and they're just close enough to catch our interest." Laguna pointed to the screen, and Squall guessed that they were two planets, though he couldn't fathom why the smaller one was a bright glowing red and the other a tamer blue.
"Ve are thinking that ve reactions might ve azociated vith ve Lunar Cry," a voice suddenly interrupted from behind him, and Squall turned to see the extravagant Dr. Odine walk in, immense collar barely fitting through the door.
"But isn't the Lunar Cry ultimately activated by the Lunatic Pandora?" Squall asked. The topic had finally piqued his interest, though he still ignored where he fit in. Reactions on faraway planets were clearly out of his authority as Commander of Garden.
"Zat iz was iz suppozed here. But look zat this now." Pushing the tech to the side, Dr. Odine punched a few buttons and the screen blacked out, slowly crackling back to life on a similar image. Squall squinted, as the recording was even blurrier and unclear. He could make out the blue planet well enough, as its colour was constant, but the red one was almost gone. He thought he could make out a reddish glow, but it was too vague to be sure.
"Is the red planet gone?" He believed it wasn't, but its colour had definitively faded out.
"Zat is unlikely. Zere iz no disturbance in ze other stars and planets to prove it. But zit haz glowed, and zit resembles the Lunar Cry," Dr. Odine finished.
Squall thought about that for a bit, then shook his head. This was so farfetched; everyone must have lost their marbles. Old recordings from an old satellite on freak planets were just too out there to be associated with anything here. Besides, the Lunar Cry had created a red mass of monsters, that's true, but it hadn't made the moon glow.
"You're stretching it too far," he simply said to express all that he thought about this whole affair. However interesting it might be, it was beyond their power to act on and not exactly their first preoccupation.
"Zere is no limit to vat can be done!" Dr. Odine declared, offended. His collar bounced as the man shook his arms, and Squall found him ridiculous.
"He's got a point. I've seen too many things happen that I thought were impossible to discard any option now," Laguna agreed, and he actually sounded grave. "Besides. Isn't this the perfect excuse to explore space a little deeper?" Now he sounded like the idiot again, and Squall suddenly regretted having agreed to come, as he knew nothing good was going to come of this.
"Whatever. What's this got to do with me?" He was not going to waste one more minute in this stuffy room if everything Laguna was going to do is rant about a kid's visions of space travel.
"Straight to the point, as always. I'll be just as frank, then. We can't travel so far, not with our hastily patched spaceships. We need the Ragnarok. We calculated that, with a few adjustments and the right amount if fuel, it could go far enough to properly monitor the planets." Laguna looked straight at him, a little sheepish, but also dreadfully serious.
"We're not astronauts." Could he let go of the spaceship so easily? Not really. He couldn't move the Garden all around the globe for nothing anymore, since the students and the other SeeD contracts had to be considered, and the Ragnarok was the quickest and easiest way to access Esthar and most other remote regions.
"Of course. We'd send technicians with you, and your job would be to keep them safe."
"Who would replace us here?"
Wait, your job? When did he ask about 'us', when did I agree?
You just did, obviously.
Squall listened as Laguna told him of the procedures Kiros, Ward and him had developed in that case. Apparently, it had already been agreed that the whole 'sorceress slayer team' would be going. Squall couldn't fathom exactly what the technicians would have to be defended against in a ship in outer space, but he didn't object. He was tired of the monster missions, of the dull patrol and political meetings with Galbadia. Going in space might be a nice change of scenery for all of them and seemed the perfect opportunity to wear off the edge that had settled on the group.
"Great! We'll start the work on the Ragnarok as soon as possible!" Laguna almost ran out of the room in his hurry to go give the orders, and seeing no point in staying here, Squall followed, thinking.
They were going in space again, this time too far to be rocketed there. They'd be flying a spaceship, to Selphie's delight. Seeing outer space. In the end, if that wasn't enough to get everyone's mind off the dullness of what their mercenary life had become, nothing would. That was the best he could do.
"Zidane, listen to me!"
The blond haired genome blinked his eyes in surprise and sketched a quick smile through pure reflex.
"But I am!" he said quickly, brain scrambling to remember what she'd been babbling about before he doze off. "I know you're going through the list of guests again, see?" he said finally, not raising his head from how he was leaning on his arms propped on the back of the chair.
Garnet shot him a sharp look and raised her chin in a manner that told Zidane in no two ways that he had better tread carefully.
"Of course you do, the list is right here under your eyes. But at which guest was I now, and why did I stop to debate over it?" she asked, victory tingeing her voice already, with annoyance a close second.
"Sir S-something? You know, him." Of course, half the Sirs had names starting with S, and it was the vaguest answer he could give, as well as tell clearly that she'd been right, he hadn't been listening. But these preparations were killing him. He didn't know more than ten people on that list, and he'd given up on trying to understand all these finer high-level politics and squabbling long ago. He knew it was important, but that was why Garnet was Queen. She kept herself informed and told him where to hit and maybe why. It was enough for him.
Garnet sighed deeply as she set down the sheets of thick paper she'd been sorting through, pushing them aside and eyeing Zidane with guarded resignation.
"I need your help with this, Zidane. I cannot do it all alone," she said, and Zidane winced inwardly at her tone. She'd shifted from deadly menacing to the 'we need to talk' voice, and he usually preferred the former. At least she exploded all at once, yelled at him, ignored him for a day or two, and then it was good again. But that? It could mean weeks of walking on eggshells.
"I know, I know. But you've been through that list five times already. Just leave it be, alright? You'll just end up confusing yourself. Besides, the invitations have to be sent soon," he assured, trying for a more logical approach on the matter, to make it look like he'd been dozing, yes, but had every reason to be. Distracting her from the matter at hand was not a bad idea at this point as well.
Garnet considered him for a long time, long enough that Zidane thought that maybe he'd played his cards wrong, but then she etched a small smile and sighed.
"You're right. We should concentrate on other matters, this is not the only thing to be organized," she finally conceded before standing up. Zidane was never happier to stretch his legs and followed her example gladly, popping a few vertebrae at the same time as he stretched his arms.
"Not now, baby. We've been at it all morning and for the better part of the afternoon. Everything essential's been dealt with ages ago, why don't we take a break for a bit?" he suggested, the idea striking him suddenly. He wasn't exaggerating, for once. He was immensely sick of sitting and moving around names on a map of a dining room, or trying to get it through Quina's head that there wouldn't be any frogs on the menu. Some distraction would do him good. And her. Especially her; she had twice as much work of that kind to deal with, what with the matters of the state.
"I can't. I have to meet the Master Architect and see how the development of the new shipyard is going, and then Beatrix would like to talk to me about the state of some of our defence posts, and-" Zidane cut her then, raising his hands up and shaking his head.
"Ok, stop right there. The Master Architect can wait, and Beatrix isn't dumb, she'll understand if you call in sick for once. I haven't seen you take a single break yet. Ever," he argued.
Garnet huffed and placed her hands on her hips, and Zidane thought that the dress, though she often complained about it, only added to her intimidating figure, as strange as it sounded. To those who only knew her as the Queen, it only made sure they never forgot exactly what position of power she held.
"That's because I can't. I'm already putting off some duties to prepare everything, I can't skip anything more!"
"Oh, fine. But you know, Vivi's leaving for the Black Village tomorrow morning, and he barely got to see you outside formal meetings. He's going to be pretty bummed out that you couldn't find time for even that," he said on a tone that said he didn't care, but as he watched Garnet start back in surprise and hesitate, he knew he'd chosen the right words.
"Is he leaving so early? I thought we had more time!" Garnet cast about, torn between duty and friendship, and then suddenly stopped to stare intently at Zidane. "You manipulative… You're saying that in your own interests!"
"Damn, found out," Zidane scratched his head with a guilty smile to try and soothe Garnet's rapidly flaring temper. "Sure, I have something to win from this, but I'm not lying. Vivi really is leaving in the morning, and if you want to have a chance to see him one last time in a few months, now's your last opportunity," he ended.
Garnet looked at him for some time again before finally surrendering all arms in the form of a deep sigh.
"Alright, alright. Just wait for me outside; I'm going to have a message sent to Master Farwin and find Beatrix to explain. I shouldn't be long," she conceded, and Zidane nodded his approval and watched her until she'd disappeared around a corner before moving himself.
---
Zidane sat on the edge if the miniature river separating the castle from the town, legs dangling, watching as the soldiers ferried people back and forth, back and forth, from the castle to the city itself. It grew steadily boring, but since he had yet to find a better distraction, he willed himself into finding it even remotely interesting. 'I shouldn't be long' was always an abstract notion with Garnet, especially when she was putting off meeting people. She was probably doing that whole conversation in fast-forward with Beatrix right this moment.
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."
Zidane threw his head back to see Garnet, or rather Dagger, as he preferred calling her when she was out of the Queen's dress, standing behind him in her old orange outfit. Some people knew those clothes and knew they were hers, but not enough that she couldn't walk down in the city mostly unnoticed.
"No problem. Come on, let's go see him before you change your mind," he said as he stood up, waving for a soldier to wait before rowing off to the opposite shore.
Vivi had taken up to staying in the city when he was visiting. He couldn't feel comfortable in the castle, he said. It was too formal, and some still looked at him weird for being a black mage. Dagger had insisted, but the little guy could prove surprisingly stubborn, and he'd only accepted when she'd offered some financial aid, and only so she would stop worrying. So he ended up lodging in a modest but clean inn and gave all the extra money back to Zidane who eventually fed it back to the castle coffers.
The little black mage was rarely in the inn itself, being the busybody he was, so Zidane wasn't surprised when they met him on the road. He spotted the bobbing hat easily and pointed it to Dagger, who was quick to jostle through the crowd and call after Vivi. He followed at a more sedate pace, as he'd had more time to see him than she'd had.
"Vivi! I'm so sorry I couldn't see you sooner! I heard you were leaving tomorrow morning?"
Zidane listened as they exchanged a few polite pleasantries, thinking that they really matched each other in that department, and threw in a few comments himself, just to keep the drive into the conversation.
"Are the preparations going well?" Vivi asked finally, and this time he jumped in to answer before Dagger could start fussing about this or that that she thought wasn't moving fast enough or wasn't done well enough.
"They're moving along just fine. Don't worry, everything'll be done and perfect!" he stated with a decisive nod, and he heard Dagger snort beside him, but she didn't comment further.
"I'm sorry I'm leaving like this. I promise that I'm going to be back in time for the wedding, though," Vivi apologized, only to have Dagger shake her head with a smile.
"We know Vivi, don't worry. You have important things to attend as well." Dagger's sidelong glance was definitively sarcastic, Zidane decided.
"Exactly. You have all your little Vivis to take care of! Besides, it's just a regular trip back home, like all the others, what could happen this time?" Zidane said, and Vivi played with his hat like he always did when he wasn't too sure about something.
"Yes, but it's still your wedding, and…" he hesitated, and Dagger went to wrap arms around him.
"It's alright. It's not the ceremony just yet, the preparations aren't so important," she reassured.
"Yeah, so long as you bring us back a present from the village, what can we say?"
Vivi didn't hesitate too long before nodding.
"Right, I'll be sure to find you something special!"
Knowing Vivi, Zidane was fairly sure that the black mage would surprise the hell out of him with whatever he'd think of. He trusted him to do that.
TBC