Author's Note: So far, this has been my absolute favorite chapter. I just love it! Please review! And I know, I know, I'm behind! But I've been gone for two weeks, and even though all my e-mail is now gone and all my alerted stories have been read, I still have to catch up! But I'll try not to update too slow again! I own Seraph and Nightshade. ...And the boulder. 8D
The Lone Travelers
Chapter Seven: Reappearances and Disappearances
Locations: As of yet unknown
Time: Post-Time Compression, Present
Zell blinked. And blinked again.
A large golden upside-down chocobo blinked back at him. It warked loudly, almost bursting his eardrums, and grabbed a tuft of Zell's hair in his beak.
Zell promptly fell out of the tree, yelling in surprise and pain, and glared at the chocobo, who blinked innocently at him. Zell carefully picked himself up, brushing off loose leaves, a stray branch, and one unoccupied bird's nest. He gave the chocobo one last glare for good measure, and set off at a sprint for a small town near a beach, the nearby Balamb.
The chocobo watched him calmly until he was almost out of sight. It then fluffed its feathers, flapped its wings and…vanished in a bright flash of pale blue light.
A small crowd was gathering, craning their necks upwards to look a young brunette teenager with flippy hair.
"Don't do it! It's not worth it!" yelled a bystander.
Selphie blinked in confusion. "What's not wor…Oh. Oh!" Selphie stared down in shock, perched on top of the highest remaining portion of Trabia Garden.
Selphie eyed the side of the building, noting the obvious slant in the structure. She stood up, and jumped, easily sliding down the building. Some of the onlookers screamed, while others covered their eyes or fainted. She landed gracefully on the ground, oblivious to the danger she had just been in. A loose chocobo wandered over, and pecked her on the hand, wishing for attention.
She idly waved it off, her mind concentrated on more important things. "Does anyone have a phone?"
A young man with ice blue hair smiled at her winningly, and forked over his cell phone. The ignored chocobo warked at her in irritation, and ran off. Seconds later, a faint flash of pale blue light could be seen in the distance.
A young girl peered at her instructor curiously.
"Instructor, what are you doing?"
Quistis cracked open an eye.
"What?"
Another student appeared, looking slightly amused.
"Instructor?"
Quistis blinked at the two students uncomprehendingly, and moved to stand up.
THUMP!
"Ouch!"
It was then that Quistis realized where she was: under her desk.
Ignoring the two staring students, she reached her arm over the top over her desk, blindly reaching for her classroom phone and dragging it under her desk. In her search for the phone, she knocked over a tiny chocobo figurine in the process, which promptly disappeared in a tiny flash of pale blue light.
Drip…drip…drip…
Irvine twitched. Something was dripping on his face.
Drip…drip…drip-drip-drip…drip…drip…
Whatever it was, it seemed to be dripping faster…and was that a warm breeze on his face?
He opened his eyes and involuntarily jumped in surprise, before groping for his faithful Exeter. Staring right into his face was a long, black snout, beady little yellow eyes, and several hideous looking teeth. It belonged to an absurdly large rat that was about 5 feet in length…not counting the tail.
He tried to smile, making sure not to show his teeth. Its tail whipped from side to side, quite like a dog would wag its tail, splashing in some nearby water frequently.
"Nice rodent…nice rodent…rodent like some cheese?" Irvine asked nervously, still blindly reaching for his rifle.
It squeaked, making poor Irvine's bones rattle. Dust fell down from the ceiling.
'Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit. Irvine, the great sharpshooter, killed by an enormous rat after defeating the Sorceress Ultimecia. That'll go over well…'
"Heh…Nice rodent…will you please not do that again?"
It's tail whipped even faster. Irvine kept groping for his gun, unable to crane his neck to see its location without being obvious. The two were so intent on each other that they never noticed what placed for lights flickering ominously, and a weird slithering sound, until an odd shadow slowly appeared over the rat, and sliced its long claws downwards towards Irvine's head. He barely saw it in time, and quickly moved his head out of the way. The rat squeaked in surprise, twisting around on the ambusher, its teeth barely missing the monster's head.
Free from the rat, Irvine shot to his feet, and quickly took note of his surroundings. A small chair lay on its side, next to the remains of a small table. A small river of sewage gurgled past, and a rickety ladder led its way up to a manhole. Irvine cursed, immediately recognizing it as the patch of sewer beneath Galbadia Garden's former location. It had once been his retreat, until Martine rolled a 500-pound boulder over the manhole. His Exeter was resting next to a pile of rotting books.
Faster than a snake, Irvine grabbed his rifle and aimed it at the monster, a Creeper, who was really pissing off the rat. He let out a piercing whistle, causing both creatures to freeze in surprise, and pulled the trigger, blasting off the Creeper's upper portion. It's remains slowly slipped to the floor, and disappeared into wisps of shadow.
Irvine kept his gun on the rat, inching over to the ladder. Maybe the boulder had been moved. Still gazing at the rat, who was gazing right back at him, he carefully climbed the ladder and tried the manhole. It wouldn't budge.
"Dammit," he cursed. "The nearest exit is in Deling. I hate Deling."
He climbed down the ladder, and began to walk backwards down the sewers, his rifle still aimed at the rat. Three steps later, his foot touched air, and he lost his balance. His arms flailing, he landed with a splash in the sewer water, landing on the still-fresh body of a dead chocobo. He let out a yell, and some of the sewage entered his mouth. He crawled out of the river, spitting in disgust, temporarily forgetting the rat.
He looked up, and promptly fell back into the sewer as he gazed up into the rat's beady eyes once again.
He stared at it in suspicion, and it blinked back at him.
'Well…it hasn't killed me yet.'
In one of his stupider moments, Irvine crawled back out of the sewage and turned his back to the rat and continued down the sewer. Well, he would have, if it hadn't've moved in front of his legs, tripping him.
"What the…?"
The rat stared at him pointedly, and its tail flicked, bring his attention to the sign next to it.
It was a sign pointing the direction to Deling City…which was not the way he was going. Irvine stared at it in surprise, and continued in the opposite direction. Surprisingly, the yellow dead chocobo was floating in the same direction, which was odd, seeing as how most sewers flowed away from the city. It was almost as if it was going against the current, but Irvine quickly dismissed that from his mind. With a sigh, he slung Exeter over his shoulder and followed the yellow dead chocobo, trying to ignore the large rat that was following him like a dog.
Two hours, three close encounters with the dead chocobo, four trips into sewage, and ninety dead monsters later, Irvine was staring at a large manhole as the ceiling rumbled and rattled. Irvine glanced at his rat-shaped shadow, quickly squished up the ladder, pushing up the manhole cover…and narrowly missed being run over by a trolley.
"Damn!"
Irvine lost his balance and fell, twisting his leg in the ladder rungs. The rat rushed over to him, nuzzling his face with its snout.
Irvine waved it off, and froze, staring at the remnants of a collar around its neck.
'It can't possibly…'
He pushed its hair back to reveal a badly tattered collar that was too tight around the rat's neck. It had once been a bright red, but was now a faded brown.
"…Nightshade…?!" he gasped in shock.
The rat let out a loud squeak of excitement, and burrowed its head in the crook of his neck. Irvine quickly removed the too-tight collar, and stared at the rat in disbelief.
"I don't believe it…Rats can't possibly live this long."
Nightshade simply looked at him smugly.
Flashback
A young Irvine patted his loyal companion, a small rat about the size of his hand.
"When I get older, I'm going to be a cowboy," he told the rat.
"And you're no horse, but you can be my trusty friend. Just wait, I'm going to learn how to shoot and be the best marksman ever!"
The small rat squeaked as if in agreement, and Irvine grinned.
"Yeah…I'll see ya later Nightshade, I gotta go to class."
End Flashback
When Irvine returned later that day, the boulder was over the manhole.
"All these years…I thought you'd be long gone. I hate to say it, but I forgot about ya, boy. Damn GF's messing with my brain and all. Well, I'll explain everything later. First phone call, then bath."
It squeaked at him in reproach, and Irvine grinned. "Well, c'mon trusty friend, let's give 'em something they'll never forget!"
Nightshade's tail whipped around excitedly and followed Irvine up the ladder, who checked for traffic this time, and climbed out of the manhole. Oblivious to the staring passers-by, Irvine limp-squished his way over to the nearest payphone, followed by a large hulking rat.
Down below in the sewers, the body of the dead chocobo disappeared in a flash of pale blue light.
Raijin woke up to find himself facedown in the dirt, pinned to the ground.
"Mmph, mph neph?"
He immediately received a kick to the ribs.
"Mph!"
The weight on top of him shifted away, and he rolled over to find himself face to face with Fujin in a large crater.
"What happened, ya know?"
"TIME COMPRESSION."
Raijin blinked. " I thought there would be a difference, ya know?"
"STUPID. BALAMB."
He looked around, and saw that, yes, Balamb was only a few miles away. Zell's distant figure could be seen hurrying towards Balamb.
The pair exchanged glances before climbing out of the deep crater and walking towards the small village. Suddenly, Fujin froze, and locked her one piercing eye on Raijin. "WHERE'S SEIFER?"
A pause, and then they broke into a run.
In the crater, a small chocobo pendant lying on a patch of disturbed dust disappeared in a flash of pale blue light.
Poke. Poke. Poke.
Seifer swatted at the source of the annoying poking. "Five more minutes."
Poke. Poke. Poke.
His eyes flew open. "Dammit, I told you…" He broke off. "What the hell?"
An odd white thing with purple bat wings and a red pom-pom in the middle of its head floated in front of him, brandishing a stick. Several more seconds of observation revealed that he was actually laying in a small rowboat before a large city. Nothing about the place seemed even vaguely familiar.
"Where am I?"
"Madain Sari, the city of summoners! I'm Seraph, Official Moogle Assistant to the High Lord Guardian of the High Lord Eidolon Griever!"
"Uh-huh. Enough of this. I'm leaving." Seifer ignored the moogle after the 'Madain Sari' part, and began to walk away."
"Seraph! Seraph!" An old man rushed up to them. "Jane's in labor! Have you seen her husband?!"
"Oh no! He went to the Iifa Tree, kupo, but he should be back soon!" it informed the man. "Hold it!"
He stared bemusedly as the moogle assistant quickly flew after a blonde stranger, and began to literally drag the man in her wake.
"Get your paws off of me, you damn winged cat!"
The moogle puffed up in anger, and began to pull harder. "You need…huff…to come…huff…with me to…huff…Madain Sari!"
Seifer sighed in resignation, and let himself be dragged along. 'Stuck in time…with an old geezer and a damn cat. Knowing my luck, I'm the only one who didn't get home. If only Squall was here, it wouldn't be that bad. Tolerable.'
"Where are we going, cat?"
"First, the midwife. Sever can take care of you then. But first he needs to see to birth of his adopted grandchild."
"Sever?"
"Me," replied the old man.
"Great. The old geezer. Can't you hand me off to someone else more reliable?"
The moogle looked at him in disdain. "I sincerely doubt Squall Leonhart would like to miss the birth of his first child for the likes of you."
Seifer's brain stopped functioning.
TBC…
