'You took their side.' Rathi said with a frown.
'They're Squall's friends, it's my job. Besides you were talking garbage mate.' Badier slid out his gunblade and watched the light slide down the flat of the blade.
'You know our SeeDs are just as good as theirs.' Badier turned and stared at the crowd of kids who desperately wanted to become SeeDs, or something equally as good.
'Oh they aren't, not quite. But ours students and SeeDs outnumber theirs three to one. I like those odds.' He nodded to himself. 'I like those odds.'
*
The phone was ringing. They stared at each other for just a moment and both dived for the on switch. Edea's face lit up the screen of the computer. 'Selphie... Zell, how are you?' She asked them with her typical gentle smile, she had discarded her fancy clothes years ago and was now the matron they remembered. Her hair was greying and her face had just started to line around the eyes.
'We're...' Zell glanced over at Selphie. 'We're okay I guess, you?' She smiled and nodded.
'I'm doing fine, Squall said you needed to have a talk with me?' She asked and Selphie nodded.
'Yeah. Matron, I have a problem...' She said and then she wasn't quite sure how to continue, Zell sitting next to after what had just happened was confusing her thinking.
'Yes Squall explained the situation a little, you were having problems with Bahumat were you not?' Selphie nodded. 'I have done a little research for you on what could cause a guardian force to become so afraid that he would try and hide from you.'
'And?' Zell asked her with a slight frown as though he was lost in thought.
'There are two things that I came up with, a soceress with harmful intent, it seems such an obvious one and Rinoa wasn't with you, so if this is the case we'll have to assume Rinoa isn't the last of her kind...' Zell frowned and nodded.
'But Bahumat faced Ultimecia without being afraid.' He told her.
'Yes, true I suppose. But her hostility even threatened the elemental plane where the guardian forces exist, he had to fight then, he had no choice. Whatever he faces now is not powerful enough to destroy his world but it is powerful enough to destroy him if he stays and faces it.' Edea glanced down at some paper in front of her. 'I have the data from the tests that were run on Bahumat when he was at the research laboratory. He is extremely old, and therefore very sensitive.'
'You're saying he sensed what? The hostility of a sorceress?' Selphie shook her head.
'No, that's not it... Bahumat reacted to two men, receiving a soceresses power is gender specific.' Edea nodded.
'That's why I found two options. The other thing that could terrify a GF, is a true soceresses knight.' They looked at her blankly and she sighed. 'In the first days of the soceresses they were able to gift their knights with real power, this power was supposed to pass on to the person who would protect her successor when she chose her. It never worked out that way, it was a broken spell, it worked the way of a soceresses power, going to the man closest to him when he died or to the person he chose to give it to whilst he was alive. The switching got out of hand, we all assumed that the power had died out like most of the soceresses power. That the people with the power died without anyone near who could receive it. It's just possible that a strain of it could have survived.' Zell frowned.
'Why haven't we heard any of this before?' She shrugged and sighed.
'It's a very old tale Zell, I personally think it is a myth but I cannot take that risk. Whatever the case, the person that triggered Bahumat's episode was feeling very hostile, and a huge chunk of it was pointed at you Selphie. Probably you too Zell.' Selphie tried to take it all in and pursed her lips.
'Why didn't Ifrit sense this hostility as well then?' She asked.
'The guardian force would have had to have been sensing things through you, if that was the case then Ifrit was probably excisting on the elemental plane where GF's go when they are not summoned. Alternatively, Bahumat is very old even for a guardian force, the older they get the greater their powers get and their abilities to sense things. It's possible that he had experienced this hostility before and he knew what it could do to him.' She looked down at the notes in front of her and nodded. Selphie swallowed hard.
'So what can we do?' Zell asked. 'What kind of powers is a true knight supposed to have?'
'The power to influence people and groups by affecting the elemental plane, the element that he would be particularly attuned to being spirit, it would be a sort of mild version of Ultimecia taking me over. But he can take over a Guardian Force, turn it against it's owner or itself, against it's will, GF's die completely if they die on the elemental plane. Do not use your guardian forces if you confront this man, because they will kill you.' She stated defiantly and Selphie felt something shiver inside her head.
*Bahumat?* She asked and the great dragon roared at her from a very great distance. *Is this true? Why didn't you just tell me?* The dragon growled from it's hiding place.
*It is safer that I am away from you at this time, let me excist in my home, do not encouter this monster, he means you no good. I will come when you need me.* Then he was gone again.
*Bahumat.... Bahumat who was it?* She looked down at the screen and both people were staring at her. 'I think Bahumat just confermed what you were saying, Edea.' She swallowed hard again and looked at Zell. 'We're in big trouble.'
*
Rathi looked around at the company he and Badier were leading out into the forest, all students, ready to try hard and become SeeDs. They didn't know that by the end of the day, they wouldn't want to be SeeDs anymore, they'd want Trabia to be freed.
Authors note~ Okay incredibly short chapter but I wrote it between lectures in my lunch break, now I need to head off for something to eat :) Hope you liked it.... Anyway thanks for reading.... M.