"That Day of Infamy"
Chapter Three
"Annex"
(Day 0.)
Situated in front of her TV screen, tea mug and toast in hand, Ellone turned it on. The Estharian News Network came on.
Ellone took a bite of her toast. The honey on it dripped onto her plate.
The scenery was something she had seen only once before: a crowd of all ages, sizes and shapes, gathered in the background, a mishmash of noise, color and half-finished words flooding into the boom mic, still in the shot. Amateur cameraman, she assumed. Front and center was a woman wearing a lapel-free, black three-piece, with a microphone in hand, the strands of her auburn hair straight as razors, her face a perfect balance of natural beauty and make-up.
"...Garden has situated itself on the North Western section of Esthar City, where the crowd you see behind me has gathered. There have been no prior information about an announcement, but the Garden hasn't moved in two days, so it is generally assumed that..."
She abruptly stopped. Her left hand went to her earpiece. She listened and nodded once before returning to the microphone.
"We are now going live from the Ocean Garden – acting Grand Master Quistis Trepe has just informed us that there would be an announcement."
Ellone took a sip of tea and a giant bite out of her toast. As she chewed, the screen changed to a simple navy blue background with the SeeD Cross in the middle. Quistis' voice, loud and clear, sounded through.
"People of Esthar. I am Quistis Trepe, Grand Master of Ocean Garden. The events of the past few days have been devastating, and I know that most of you would like to know what happened. I can offer you this: the culprits of this attack on Esthar have been punished to the full extent of our ability."
An ache in her chest where Squall should have been, the memory of his voice on the phone.
"Unfortunately, Esthar has been dealt a crippling blow. The full extent of the damage is still being investigated, however, for the time being, there is no way of predicting when the basic amenities such as power or running water will be restored." There was a short pause. Ellone heard Quistis almost sigh. "President Elise Galloway was also a victim of the attacks, as was the members of the parliament, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Esthar Police. In the absence of a governing body, a police force or a military, I have no choice but to invoke the 64th Amendment of the Estharian Constitution. For those of you who do not know, the 64th Amendment states that in a time of war, the Ocean Garden Grand Master holds the rank of Field Marshal in the Estharian Army. Based on that authority and with a heavy heart and as the only legitimate authority left in Esthar, I declare martial law, effective immediately."
A small window opened in the bottom left side of the screen, showing the mobile crowd fall to absolute silence.
"You are ordered to disperse and return to your homes. A curfew will be in place once it is deemed safe to do so. You are to remain indoors until further notice. I assure you that this will be temporary, and will last as short as we can make it."
No reaction from the crowd. Ellone's mug was frozen in the air, the steam rising from it rippling the view of the TV.
"There will be further announcements as events progress. Thank you."
Quistis slumped into her chair (his chair, damn it, it was his chair.) In front of the desk that also served as the console, seated on the leather guest armchairs and staring at her was Seifer.
"Well." Seifer said with a sigh. His head fell back and he stared at the bleak skies above Sorceress Memorial, visible through the domed, armored glass ceiling of what used to be the General's Office. "That was shit."
"Not yet." Quistis said, "They still don't know."
Seifer didn't respond.
"What?" she asked.
"Wait until they figure it out." Seifer said, "Just wait. That shitshow's gonna take it all. Blood down the storm drains. The whole fucking neon skyline red."
"Maybe not." Quistis said, "Not unless someone is dumb enough to try and organize them. And even if, I..."
The phone rang. Quistis picked it up.
"Grand Master."
"Ellone Loire on priority channel one, sir."
Quistis sighed.
"Put her through."
She put it on speaker. It rang twice.
"Elle, you're on speaker." Quistis said.
"What are you not telling them?"
"What's on your mind, Elle?" Quistis asked.
"Martial law, Quistis? Really?"
"We don't have a choice." Quistis said, "The power plants are gone, both of them. The shields are down and the monsters will soon figure out that there's nothing between them and their prey. The Octagon was destroyed. The barracks were razed. The Parliament Chambers are gone, the Presidential Palace is a ruin and the police HQ is a smoldering wreck. His estimated casualty rate for officials and combatants was around 90 percent, give or take. You do the math."
Silence.
"What are you going to do?" Ellone asked.
"That's the hard part." Quistis said, "You're still in Timber, right?"
"Yes."
"Might interest you and the rest of the Maniacs to know that we've struck a bargain with Galbadia's acting president, Olga Sevron."
"What kind of a bargain?"
"We now have full control of both Galbadia and Trabia Gardens, as well as the Galbadian military. We can't hold Esthar with just SeeD, and we don't have enough cadets to put through crowd control ringers as field exams."
"Somebody will fuck up, sooner than later, and the fallout'll be worse." Seifer said, "Better to keep the bread and circuses handy while we try to clean up Leonhart's legendary night of total fucking destruction. Maybe we'll get lucky and even save face a bit."
Silence.
"So you've... allied Esthar with Galbadia?"
"In a sense." Quistis said.
"Why mince words?" Seifer laughed, "We own the world, Elle. That's what it's come to – the two of us here, me and her, we own the world now. It's ours." He chuckled, wistful, "Isn't that fucking funny? Elise Galloway died trying to ensure that this would never happen. Hate to admit it, but credit where it is due – Onesson won. Motherfucker did with two cyborgs and a basic bitch what Rinoa tried and failed to do all those years ago."
"Win, Seifer? How? How did he win?"
"We're now tyrants, and the world is ours." Seifer said, chuckling, "Fucking once in a Lunar Cry."
"What happened to Onesson? Nobody said anything since you took him in."
"He's rotting in the brig." Seifer said, "His wife asked for a divorce on the spot. We granted it. Lost the custody of his kid. He'll never get out of his solitary confinement cell. I give him a week before he hangs himself, the fucking waste."
"I'm sorry, Ellone." Quistis said, "I never wanted it to come to this. But after Selphie, he..."
Silence, almost hesitant.
"What did he tell you?" Quistis asked, "The logs say he called you right before. What did he say?"
Silence, pregnant with meaning.
"...he said that he missed his dad."
The dial tone felt like a gavel striking home, again and again and again and again. Ellone shut the TV off, drained the last of her tea and returned to bed. She only wanted to sleep. To sleep, to die, and to forget before the memory of her family, gone and ashes and blood vials now, came to keep her awake.
She ran like the wind after him, her legs straining to propel her forward, and she cursed him for being able to run that fast and through the brush. Ellone followed her, and both followed the boy, the witness. There were a million dangers between here and wherever he thought he was running to, and while they wouldn't touch her, she knew that they wouldn't extend that generosity to her little brother. The night time breeze bent the tall blades of grass, a wave rushing through them as the moonlight showed his small frame, darting in and out of view.
"Josh!" she called after him, one hand reaching out, aware of the distance between them. Josh just sped up, rushing with a desperate run through the bushes and towards the Chocobo crossing.
A thought exploded in her head, like a flash of blinding light. Ellone heard it as a distant echo.
If he gets there, it's over. It's all over. They'll kill me.
"Josh!" the girl called out again, and reached out with her entire being. Ellone saw the same luminescent tendrils, thin, long and billowing as if caught in an invisible breeze, shoot forward and wrap around the boy's body, move with him as he ran. At the same time, Ellone knew that Lea herself couldn't see it... because the next time she called his name, she saw the strings tighten, tensing, straining against the boy's speed. "Josh! Stop!"
Ellone saw every single string tense up, pulled along by the word, and they pulled loose something from the boy, a glowing shape that Ellone couldn't quite place. Pulsing, colorful, beautiful and teeming with more than ever could be expressed, the light was ripped from the boy's body, and his next step missed. His legs tangled up and he fell, his body twirling obscenely around, arms limp and flailing, and he rolled once, twice, and then... stopped.
The girl rushed on, her legs aching with every step, and got to his side. She crouched down.
"Josh, hey, are you..."
She touched him and he turned over. The girl recoiled with a gasp, her breath caught in her throat. The shadows drawn on his face under the moonlight only made it worse. She felt like there were two hands on her throat, squeezing the air out of her lungs. Unable to breathe, she stood there, looking down at his open, glazed-over eyes, staring into nothing, frozen in their sockets, forever empty, forever vacant now... forever... forever...
No, no, no, please, no! Please, I didn't... I didn't mean...
Panic, breath on hold, rising, overwhelming, every nerve burning up, every sense screaming as loud as they could, mixing with the clean air, the curiosity of the thing... the thing on the ground, the body of proof... the proof...
No, no, no, nononononononononono not him no, I didn't, I just didn't...
Ellone knew that the boy was dead. The body, bathed in the pale light was a stone's throw from the road.
In the grip of the dream, Ellone stirred. In the back of her awareness, there was a warning, praying for her to hear: that this was impossible. She didn't know the girl. She didn't know the Sorceress.
The girl's knees hit the ground. She reached out, and pulled the boy into a tight embrace, pressed him close to her heart. With shaking hands, she cradled his head and listened for the sound of his heartbeat, to hear nothing but silence.
The soil and the grass rustled. The creatures that had given bits of their lives for the Chicobo's came crawling, slowly but surely, gathering around her.
The girl couldn't breathe. She was rocking him back and forth, limp limbs swaying to her rhythm, the lifeless flesh sagging in her arms as she tried to draw breath and when she breathed out, barely a gasp, she tried to breathe back into him what had just been taken out. The luminous, pulsing light that had been his life, brimming with infinite possibilities, snuffed out... surrendered to the darkness in an instant with a stray word.
"No... no... no... please, I did't mean to say it like that, I didn't... I didn't mean..."
The creatures around her, the Bite Bug, the Chaterpillar, the Chocobo, they bent their heads and stood in silent vigil, holding her at the center of their circle as she held onto the body and breathed in, and it felt like drawing breath for the first time. She breathed in his scent, and the smell of the body out in the damp night, and exhaled with a sigh.
And to each one a gift, the girl and Ellone both remembered, may it bountiful be.
"Is this... what I am now..?" she asked out loud, and Ellone feared that she was talking to her, "But the Chicobo... I helped the Chicobo, so can't I..?"
The girl reached out. The strings, now thicker and longer, whipped out of her and unfurled, their tips searching for something equivalent, something like life itself to heal the wound, but they grasped at the empty dark without touching anything. She lashed out at the night, at the houses and the dark windows, and those sleeping their beds, her reach extending and extending until it covered the field... nothing. There was nothing.
It felt like drowning, this clawing at the very idea of life, the thought of drawing it.
"Why can't I..? Why can't I..?"
And to each a gift, may it bountiful be.
"Then what is my gift..? What is my gift if I can take his life, but can't give life back to him..?"
The monsters were watching silently.
Ellone woke up, covered in cold sweat. She woke up out of breath, with a soreness in her legs. She laid there, staring at the ceiling, trying to calm herself. She breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth. When her heart slowed down and the feverish rush receded, she forced herself up.
The Sorceress' brother is dead. Lea and Josh... maybe...
The thought cut itself off. No. She had made a promise to Laguna. She wouldn't fight in their wars. She wouldn't be a soldier.
But if there's a chance to find her... then what?
The question hung in the air. She wondered briefly if that was how they thought all the time, if that was how they operated. The memory of Odine's lab surfaced, the sprawling nightmare of Squall's mental connection choking her out every time, and the goal of those days. To find him, to save him.
She knew that now, it was too late to do that. But maybe, she could help save the others.
Ellone went into the kitchen to put the kettle on. She would have to call in sick. It would be a long day. In her head, a part of Squall's last will kept replaying, which followed the water beginning to boil.
"If we've killed the Sorceress, it means that another is either born, or will be born. For this, I am initiating Ellone Loire into the Garden Intelligence Unit, effective immediately. A portion of our intelligence cadre will be devoted to finding others with unique abilities like hers, and the witch-kin, as she is known, will henceforth be under our jurisdiction and protection. And sis... I need you to find the Sorceress. Please."
By your last command, little brother, Ellone thought.