Early Graves

by AntiCensor

A mysterious golden light is making people and objects vanish without a trace. The two young mercenaries Grave and Joselyn take center stage against a new sorceress threat. POV characters include three OC's, Quistis, Squall, Fujin. NOT GARYSTU. Three Lemons, Three Love scenes.

10. The Really Boring Part Before All Of

Disclaimer and A/N: I do not own Square-enix or any property of said company. I also don't own any other trademarked thing in this chapter or whole story that I have neglected to not take credit for.

It takes a mountain of faith

River flowing pain

It takes a hammer on a nail

A whole lotta love…

It takes a lifetime of working

A touch of understanding

It takes a wind in the sails

Little children singing…

It takes a sun burning knowledge

An ocean full of feeling

It takes a certain kind of hunger

A whole lotta love…

What It Takes by Jerry Cantrell

Part Ten: The Boring Part Before All Of The Really Cool Stuff Gets To Happen

The Afternoon After

I have now been awake for a whole forty five minutes but I dare not budge. I dare not move or whisper or blink more than once at a time. Joselyn is still asleep, and she's so peaceful, and warm, and still mildly wet that I could not tolerate separating yet. I'm sure that if she woke up then she would need to go to the bathroom, or perhaps she would ask me to cook lunch for her –which I will inevitably do anyway- so I must keep her asleep as long as I can.

I am aware of the time because our face clock is positioned just beside our front door. Last night Joselyn positioned me so that I was facing the clock. I can see it past her hair… gray with the remaining moisture from her shower last night. Her head is resting on my right shoulder so her hair is only obscuring my vision of the time just a bit. The breaths from her nose are tickling my neck, and her smile which has not slackened at all during the night is stuck, kissing near my collarbone.

It's funny to me, for fifteen of the past forty five minutes I have been thinking about what people say about time. They say, 'Time flies when you're having fun,' I won't argue with that. This implies that time seems to slow down when you aren't having fun. I'm sure that the fun Joselyn and I had last night lasted longer than it seemed, but this seems different to me.

I love the way this woman feels. She's warm and soft, she's tall and she's strong. Joselyn and I are still in basically the same position as last night. She is on top of me, her hands are still like soft clamps around my wrists but she has moved our arms to our sides. My right leg is in between her legs, and her left ankle is crossing her right.

I lay here and I love the feeling of Joselyn, her weight on my body is not at all uncomfortable and I don't think it's because we're still junctioned. Yet as I watch the clock, this lasts forever. Time isn't flying for me at all right now. It's like I'm being given a pause. It's like I am granted extended bliss just this once. Perhaps this won't be the only time; maybe I can have a clock installed on the wall of the bedroom opposite the bed.

Assuming Joselyn has me sleeping in the bed with her now, I should hope she will. As great as last night was I think it would have been more comfortable on a bed.

It has been five more minutes and Joselyn inhales very deeply, enough to stretch all of the muscles in her chest and to obscure half of my vision of the face clock. She exhales by a narrow passage through her lips and makes the throatiest sound I have ever heard. Her breath isn't cold but it is cooler than lukewarm and it nearly tickles my skin.

Joselyn is regrettably waking up. I suppose that fifty minutes of awakened bliss will have to do for now. Her hands come away from my wrists and I am reminded before she gets up of how cold I will feel. Her palms are pressed on the carpet on either side of my shoulders and she pushes her torso up. She stretches without moving her body any more drastically. She rolls her shoulders and turns her head around; she breathes deeply which makes her breasts sway just slightly.

Joselyn looks down on me with one hooded eye and smiles like a vampire horny with runny redness. "Good morning," she whispers huskily, her smile tightens when my loins stir.

I can imagine how we would appear to an onlooker. We must look like a predator having caught her prey, and the prey lying helplessly waiting for the predator to have its way with the still living meat.

"Actually it's the afternoon," I say feeling embarrassingly like a servant daring to correct his master and hoping to be spared punishment.

Joselyn doesn't reply. She only slides her arms against the carpet so that she's held up by her elbows. Her hands go to either side of my head and she massages my scalp and ruffles my hair. She kisses me again but this time she does it softly. Although she allows as much of her weight as there is to her head to press against me.

I cock my head as much as I can whilst still pressed against the carpet and I part my lips. Then I lick her lips like she did to me last night. She opens her lips for me as well and she presses the tips of our tongues together in the same soft manner as how we were kissing.

Last night, just before all of this began, I was worried that my lack of experience would ruin things. I know that my kissing was awkward, my lips were not positioned just right it seemed, and when they were it felt like they were not quite the shape they should be. Kissing lips, I have not. But she didn't stop, not for a moment. I wonder if my lack of experience meant anything to her, she seemed to be enjoying me in a similar manner to the way she enjoys my meals.

Eventually she stops that as well and we're left to just look at each other again. It's interesting how just looking at her didn't have this much merit before. Perhaps it's because back then I was looking at her covered up. It was also I think the fact that I didn't dare look at her so closely at any given time.

I bring my hand to her face and brush away her bang to one side. Now I can do to her what she wanted for so long to do to me. I admit that yesterday I still didn't want her to see the symbols on my eyes. But she was so close to me and she caught me by surprise. Then when she finally had what she wanted it seemed pointless to turn away, she had already seen them, and it would have taken little effort on her part to make me show her again after that.

In truth my pupils are the parts of my body that concern me the most. Joselyn has made me feel less troubled by my skin, my iris's. But the day I saw those symbols so long ago was after the day my pupils had developed those shapes.

In that time I have never discerned how I might be connected to the Headmaster and his wife. I have decided that I look a bit like them, what with my hair sharing the colors and patterns of Mrs. Heartilly. Cody has said that the bones in my face bear a certain resemblance to the couple. That and our Headmaster and I seem to share the same appreciation for leather. I look like the lovechild of the couple killed and reanimated after being kept a few weeks in a large bottle.

But that is the only kind of connection that I have noticed. Similarity, my appearance resembles them and we share symbols. But the symbols are on my body, they wear theirs, on her back, around his neck.

I have never thought of a solid connection to our similarities. But the similarity cannot be coincidence. Coincidence is never this grand. I feel almost like a copy cat sometimes. I wonder if I have somehow stolen something distinctive from these people so that I might have defining characteristics of my own.

But surely I do have characteristics of my own. I know that Joselyn would believe that, and now more than ever her opinion has merit to me. I suppose now I will do what I always do when I think about this too much, I'll find a way to distract my self. How fine a morning this is because of Joselyn, she is going to make my distraction so very easy for once.

I bring my hands to her hair and clutch it the same way she's clutching my head. I don't stop kissing her, I don't move my tongue away from hers but I am a touch surprised by what I feel. Her hair is stiff, and I feel some substance –not her actual hair- crumbling and adjusting under my fingers.

Joselyn ever so slowly stops our kiss and she smirks looking a bit embarrassed "I didn't finish washing my hair last night before I came out here," she explains but I don't quite know what she means.

"But why is it stiff?" I ask as softly as we were speaking before, but the topic makes me sound somehow different.

"Conditioner does that if you don't wash it out," she sounds like she's trying to avoid my oncoming remark, yet she's preparing for it at the same time.

"So you didn't even finish washing your hair," I say as arrogantly as I possibly can. Not all of that arrogance is real but I'd be lying if my ego wasn't genuinely flying high above B-Garden.

Joselyn gives me one of those smiles that tells me that she isn't insulted but she still thinks that some punishment for excessive manliness is in order. She is squinting her eyes and her smile then she smacks me playfully on the side of my head. She knows that I don't think that I have complete command over her. I know that my cock is not some magic wand that will give me absolute control over her. Although, after last night I feel like I have some. I wonder how much I have.

I also wonder how long I've had it, because I know that it didn't begin when she was in the shower.

"You know what?" she takes me out of my train of thought softly, like she was escorting me out of a vehicle because she knew that I was spacing out. "I love the way you smell but I don't think that anybody else does. We should get in the shower."

"We?" I ask with some more of the arrogance that she smacked me for.

"I need to get this conditioner out of my hair, that and I kind of smell like you too," not once has she not been smiling this morning. I wonder when she will stop. I hope that is a gradual thing, rather than her being disappointed in me somehow.

Joselyn stands up then and leaves me on the floor. She points her nose to the ceiling and stretches for real this time. I know that she isn't putting on a show for me but it's just as good. Now I get to see her again but now by the morning light peering through our windows from the ocean where nobody will watch us. I can pretend that her legs are longer than they actually are, I see just the shade of pink her nipples are, and I see a bit of her vaginal lips winking at me from her pubic hair as she slides her legs from side to side.

Joselyn holds one hand down to me and I grab it, she pulls me up with out my help and I think the way somebody might think of a fetish how glad I am that she's strong. There is something very attractive to me about Joselyn's strength, physical or otherwise.

There is a knocking at our door once we are both standing and we are nearly thrown back to the floor by it. We spin to face the door and I know that she's as startled as me. But then we remember than nobody can simply barge in to our room. Our privacy is not in danger.

I assume that Joselyn will want to take charge of this situation so I wait for her to speak.

"Who's there?" she says almost instantly after I decide to let her handle things.

"It's Quistis, Joselyn. Is Grave okay? I'd like to speak with him," her voice is rather muffled but we can make out her words.

"I'm fine now," I say quickly, hopefully my tone of voice alone tells her that I'm not ill or in pain anymore.

"I want to talk with you about your mission, are you out of bed yet?"

"That's one way of putting it," Joselyn mumbles beside me and I almost laugh out loud but I stop myself. "I want you to my self again," she whispers to me softly in my ear, her tongue flicks out to touch my earlobe and I'm reminded of the night of our graduation. "I'll make an excuse for you; see you in the shower."

Joselyn kisses my cheek and presses her tongue against it, she feels the shape my teeth behind the meat then she struts to the bathroom. I can't help but watch her as she walks. It's times like now I wonder if she moves her ass that way just for me, but I've never been so arrogant as to think that, and I've never been so daring as to ask her. I don't think that I ever will in fact.

I go in to the bathroom as well and when I'm in there I see Joselyn wrap a towel around her body. She winks to me as she steps past me and in to the living room again. I shake my head and grin. I'm not sure if Joselyn will do this in the best possible way, in fact she'll probably give away the fact that we are officially together now. She could imply it incredibly without actually saying it; I think that seems like the most entertaining way to do it for her.

I turn on the water without needing to make the shower operate. Apparently Joselyn didn't even bother to turn everything off completely last night. The water is hot again however, so nothing is genuinely wrong. I hope things go well before Joselyn gets back, she's in a good mood, and I want her to stay that way.

EG

Quistis had not stopped fretting about Grave ever since Cody had managed to usher her out with him and Savior the evening of the yesterday. She could only think about what she was missing in the sense of wanting to know what happened, not in a pleased way. Surely he had changed further, Cody had indicated that much. But he would not say how Grave had changed. She hoped now to find out.

Quistis could talk only about Grave and theories about the things Cody had eluded from when she tried to interrogate him whilst walking, whilst he didn't face her –Savior managed to mock her for that during that previous evening with out being struck. She knew that she couldn't really know what he was thinking or how he felt about that with out asking him, but she was sure that she had bored him and she hoped to make up for it in the future.

Her dreams were peaceful due to nonexistence which she couldn't make herself feel guilty about. If it were another dream of Savior removing his helmet and their ravaging one another like crocodiles then she might have been able to make herself feel guilty. She thought Grave should be her primary concern at the moment.

There was another field exam happening as of now. Xu had decided the policy of two per year was rather inefficient. She thought that by having more they would be able to weed out the higher candidates early. The ones like Quistis and herself and those who wanted to be those people could have a chance to prove themselves early this way. Normally this might have been an irrational and foolish plan, but the PesticidE's made everything safe enough that they would not lose very many –if any- students to a field exam.

Because she was not required to attend this one she did not have any other official concerns. Quistis had no papers to deal with at the moment for she had arranged this for today that she would not have work to do with even the average students. She knew that she would have more soon however since she did not have absolute control over her job, so dealing with Grave was necessary for today.

Quistis felt relieved then when Grave told her through the door that he was okay. He was speaking clearly and apparently whatever change he had undergone was now reverted.

But he wasn't coming out now, and he wasn't saying anything now either. Perhaps she had struck a chord asking to see him now. What if he had only changed back for the most part, enough so that he could speak and cheerily at that? Perhaps he had only said that to make her leave because he had not yet changed back completely and he didn't want to be seen?

But Joselyn was in there too obviously, why would he not mind her seeing that?

The door opened and she was seeing not Grave but Joselyn. Clad in nothing more than a small towel, what Quistis recognized as dry conditioner in her hair… and a smile.

Absently Quistis thought about Joselyn's hair. Quistis herself had found out the hard way that conditioner threatened to stiffen when not washed out thoroughly, and she had never seen Joselyn take such bad care of herself.

Then that first thought past, Joselyn was standing before Quistis and just as the door fully opened, just as she was coming to some conclusion in her mind upon glancing at Joselyn. Then the aroma of three distinctive smelling body fluids wafted directly in to her nostrils and down her lungs.

Oh, was all that entered her mind then. She even mouthed it silently and if it were Joselyn's smile she were watching she might have seen it tighten.

So they're fucking now. Was what her next thought was, and in the back of her mind something scratched at her, with this knowledge she remembered that she now owed Savior money. Quistis was not a betting woman, but it was a harmless amount of Gil. Also she was sure that she knew her students better than he did, so she was sure that she would win.

"We haven't showered yet," Joselyn said in the least suggestive way she could manage. Quistis had to wonder if the girl was even trying. "Can we just call your room in an hour or two?" Joselyn said smiling the whole time, her eyes lidded happily almost as if she wanted to bring Quistis in to the room with them.

Which was impossible of course, thought Quistis.

Quistis smiled and cocked her head to the side cutely, as if she was completely unaware of Joselyn's blatant sexuality. "As long as it happens today Joselyn, I'm sure I'll see you with him later."

"Oh you will," Joselyn assured her happily.

"I'll see you then," Quistis said then began to clop her way across the hall.

"Wait Miss Trepe!" Quistis spun around and saw Joselyn poking her head out of the doorway. She must have been reminded of something as she strutted back in to her room and remembered just before she closed the door.

"Yes?"

"I've been meaning to ask you something for a while." Joselyn fumbled with her hands visibly from inside the apartment, her towel was coming undone… or she had been undoing it as she walked back in to the apartment a moment ago… "Ever since I had my field exam I thought of something but kept forgetting to ask you."

It puzzled Quistis how friendly Joselyn was being right now. It was as if whatever was making her hostile with her was expunged overnight… Something passed through Quistis' mind then that brought her much clarity about the naked girl beyond her, but her thought was interrupted by said girl.

"Do you know if testosterone kills brain cells?"

They paused then, and Quistis cracked a smile. Joselyn cracked her own smile. Then Quistis laughed. Things continued in that fashion for a moment, Quistis held her stomach with one hand and literally needed to close her eyes at what Joselyn had just asked her.

If Joselyn had asked anybody else she would never get the same reaction as she was getting now from Quistis. To a normal person that would be simply amusing, or possibly insulting depending on their genitalia. But to Quistis it was more than amusing; it reminded her of herself.

Quistis caught her breath and snorted once rather embarrassingly. "You know what Joselyn?" Quistis began once she thought she would speak again without interrupting her self, then she laughed a couple of times again. "When I was fourteen years old I wondered that very same thing"

"And," Joselyn sounded literally expectant now, it was the first time Quistis could remember that Joselyn was genuinely interested in what she had to say, concerning her, and not Grave for once.

When Joselyn asked her that question that moment ago Quistis thought at first that she was only telling a joke, and not expecting her to have an answer for her, much less be as amused as she was. Joselyn always seemed to think that Quistis was a humorless person.

This was an unusual change of pace; Quistis wondered if it was an omen, except that was just a little lick in the back of her brain. She had no connection to anything else from this that she was aware of.

"I'm afraid it doesn't." Joselyn only looked mildly disappointed to be wrong; perhaps it was only because she knew she was wrong about something, and it was her nature to be disappointed by that. "But I think you're a very bright girl to think of it, SeeDs are encouraged to discover their enemy's stupidity, and their allies."

Joselyn pretended perplexity. "You never said that in class."

"I meant to imply it," she said quickly, then she gestured towards the inside of Joselyn and Graves apartment. "Go on, he's waiting," Quistis tried to match Joselyn's smile when she said that. The tall girl did not reply to her, she only went back in to her apartment and closed the door.

Quistis didn't leave for another couple of minutes. She contemplated Joselyn instead because she couldn't bring her self to Savior she thought, until she finished her interrupted epiphany from a minute ago.

Quistis thought of how unhappy Joselyn had been with her, and for no apparent reason. She thought of how Grave, in the past, seemed to ignore Joselyn when both of them were around him. She thought of how relaxed and friendly Joselyn was when Grave was so obviously hers now. She thought of the reputation she wished she didn't have, about attracting her unwanted attention from her students.

Quistis had to wonder then, how long had Joselyn had her eyes on Grave, how long had she felt possessive of him?

Perhaps it was none of her business. But she felt strangely responsible for those two. She understood they were people who kept their relationships to themselves and being one of those people herself she respected that. But she felt she had something to do with them somehow, something friendly at least, possibly intimate but in no sexual way.

Quistis hoped that Joselyn felt secure about Grave then. Her epiphany complete, Quistis went to her friend's quarters. She hoped, without conjuring any images in her own head, that her former students were having a good time in the shower.

Sibling Malice

Quistis' pleasure from her delightful encounter with Joselyn receded and her smile slackened as she neared the door to Zell and Netta's couple's apartment. She, Rinoa, Irvine and Selphie, and the couple themselves had been collecting there to simply spend time together.

Really they knew they were trying to mimic their time spent together before Squall vanished. They had done the same thing with him as well in his and Rinoa's couple's apartment. But they all knew that it wasn't quite the same, despite the fact that all apartments were identical just as all of the cadet dorms were identical, and despite the fact that Squall hardly partook when he was around anyway.

Quistis found herself in front of the door and unwilling to go in. The sound of her whip softly tapping her ass stopped just as her feet stopped. She didn't have a concrete reason to be armed at the time, but she had a feeling about strapping the weapon to her belt that morning. Quistis was not always the woman to go with her gut but sometimes it was sharp to her like Marcus' claws in her thighs when he did that strange kneading thing.

It was not strange or against any rule to be armed within the Garden, even if there were no alerts or known dangers within the academy. She would be able to enter and exit a mathematics classroom filled with students and nobody would bat an eyelash at her weapon. Her friends would probably think it strange since they never did that, they would no doubt ask her why she was carrying it first thing in fact, making strange faces and sounds with their throats.

Quistis thought absently that it may be the reason she was reluctant to enter, the reason that gut feeling had arisen in her. Although being armed physically was no match for her concern for she would not physically harm her friends over this.

Quistis' worry was not triggered by Squalls absence. Although being around Rinoa was not entirely unpleasant since that night, Rinoa became much happier and more pleasant, she was more hopeful after they found out that he may be okay. Or that he may be alive at any rate.

No, Quistis's concern was about Irvine and Zell. Lately the two foster brothers were at each others necks. Or rather Zell was at Irvine's neck and Irvine was simply slipping away and in to Selphies little arms. Irvine continued to openly hit on Netta, even when Zell or Selphie was in the room. It irked Quistis even though it was not her relationship that was being interrupted, but it was simply rude. The least her foster brother could have done was to do it quietly around nobody else so she could politely decline him and say that she was flattered.

Instead he was very forthright about it. It was interesting actually, it seemed that Irvine was pretending that it was only a joke, but at the same time he seemed serious about it. It seemed that Irvine wanted to let her know that he meant it but wanted a safety net for falling on. He perhaps needed something about this dangerous activity to be made safe for him.

Zell was clearly not falling for it. In fact he was the first one to demonize their friend –he was probably the only one who had demonized him, Quistis her self and the others were simply annoyed. Zell had already struck Irvine once which Selphie had sadly made him apologize for –Netta had also insisted on it. Quistis would have made Irvine apologize for his behavior now that she was thinking about it.

Quistis smiled to her self secretly, in the privacy of the vast corridor. Maybe that was why she brought the whip, because she wanted to lash Irvine with it. Perhaps she could whip him to the point of proper etiquette.

Although she would not actually whip Irvine, this thought gave her the cardiac fortitude she needed to enter.

Quistis knocked on the door once and the moment her hand left the metal it slid open and Rinoa was in the doorway. She was wearing her blue duster again and in her left hand she held a glass of orange juice that probably had some vodka in it. Her right hand was still on the button that opened the door.

Rinoa did not at once let Quistis in, first her eyes made their way to her whip, then she moved them back to Quistis' eyes. "Planning on tying him up today?" she whispered and smiled just a bit. Obviously there was a bit of vodka in the orange juice, normally Rinoa would not like to voice such a joke.

Quistis giggled not just to humor Rinoa. They went in to the apartment quickly as there was little ground to cover. Rinoa remained in front and took her seat on a love seat occupied only by her.

Although every apartment was identical people were allowed to decorate in any way they pleased. Certain erotic posters Quistis had a few times had the non pleasure of seeing when meeting students for tutoring were proof of that. Squall was a most lenient Headmaster. That sort of thing was among the numerous little changes that Xu would love to make.

Zell and Netta's apartment was very quaint but pretty. It retained the same plainness that the rooms began with but it was homier. The white the rooms began with was unchanged except for numerous blue contrasts that Netta seemed particularly fond of. She said to Quistis sometimes that Zell's eyes had fast made her favorite color blue.

They had extra surfaces installed solely for the purpose of holding the flowers and art that Netta was fond of. But there wasn't so much of it that Zell would gag at to look at in the morning.

There was only a couch and another loveseat which the present couples were occupying as they always did. Rinoa's seat was taken mostly out of nostalgia for she had spent many evenings in his lap in that chair. Because of this decided seating arrangement Quistis was always left with the office chair that normally sat before their personal computers desk. It was rather comfy, but it didn't have armrests, and for a woman her size there was no room for two. She thought it was rather silly of her self to think that since Savior was never there, but part of her wanted to at least sit as Rinoa was sitting now when things were normal.

The feeling of another body had never felt quite as rightwith her few former lovers.

Quistis in a mood of character that she only felt when she was with her friends –during unpleasant friendship times or not- jumped in to the chair and allowed it to spin around about a dozen thousand degrees before she plopped one foot down to stop her self. She smiled a bit dizzily and the other two women giggled at her. Zell and Irvine managed their respective smiles and almost fooled Quistis in to thinking that they were on normal terms for the day.

Selphie lifted her head from the crook of Irvine's arm, seeming to be taking a breath from a vat of butterscotch pudding. Quistis found the image of Selphie in butterscotch easy to conjure.

"Happy Quistis?" she asked rhetorically, seeming to be unaware of her lovers not quite founded treachery.

"Oh yes" said Quistis like anybody having stroked a fresh orgasm, although it was her students she was feeling happy for "I know that Grave is okay now, I just spoke with him, I'm going to go in to detail with him about his mission later" Quistis tried to wave dismissively. Although she was most happy about Grave and Joselyn it was not quite the thing she wanted to share with the others. They might think she had a crush on her former students and she could not currently take that type of accusation, no matter how sarcastic it may have been.

Luckily they did not press further; they only nodded and sipped whatever drinks they had in their hands. Selphie tried to poke her head out further to take her drink, she elevated her chin and looked simply pathetic as she tried to maneuver the silly straw in her strawberry concoction over Irvine's suede sleeve so she might not spill her drink on him.

"Raijin will be back soon with Fujin, and somebody else named Terra," said Zell seeming desperate for something to say, his head was in Netta's lap and she was stroking his upturned bristle like hair. At that angle it looked like butter spilling over her skirt, and then frozen in time, like somebody had cast a Stop spell on just that part of his hair.

Quistis had never become closely acquainted with Fujin or Raijin even after the Ultimecia ordeal. But it was good news to her that they were all right and coming home. Fujin especially since she had apparently undergone the same event that Squall had. But that thought was sidetracked when Zell said that last name. She recognized it only a bit at first, but then her own teachings from the Guardian Forces class come back to her.

Terra was the daughter of a woman dubbed the Madonna, and the Guardian Force Maduin of Lightning who was in their custody as it were. The powers and location of Terra her self are completely unknown to anybody but her. B-Garden had tried off and on trying to locate her for the information about her body and brain alone would be valuable to them. Her assistance along with her father and the other Guardian Forces would no doubt be just as valuable in battle.

If Quistis remembered correctly it was Joselyn who had that Guardian Force Junctioned. If what Zell said was true that probably meant that Joselyn would need to present her assistance.

"Did you say Terra?" Quistis asked thinking she might have heard Zell wrong although she was sure she hadn't.

"Mm hmm, why?" Zell said after inclining her head in her direction as best as he could.

"B-Garden has wanted their hands on Terra for a long time, she's a Guardian Force we think," Quistis explained quickly.

"We think she's a Guardian Force?" inquired Selphie rather innocently for a person who sat on Irvine Kinneas' lap. She had escaped the lock that was his arm and was now sitting upright.

"Well, her mother was a human and her father is Maduin so…" Quistis made a gesture by swiveling her hand a bit. She knew where they would go with this so she saw no point in elaborating, they understood what she meant –that the human in her body may not constitute to her being a Guardian Force herself- but that would not be their interest. Talk of bestialityesque activity would ensue in five… four… three… two… and one.

"…wait, wouldn't she get electrocuted or something?" Zell said, sounding much stupider than he actually was.

"No, no man. He controls it, he's a Guardian force for Hyne's sake," Irvine interjected as if he were involved a genuinely interesting and important discussion. Come to think of it Quistis thought, it probably is to him, and surely Selphie will join in shortly…

"But he's really furry isn't he? That probably isn't very comfortable." It was actually rather funny to hear Selphie say this. It was not just her apparent innocence which she miraculously maintained after her first night alone with Irvine. It was not just her sprite like countenance implying sex, what was really funny was the fact that she was posing a good point.

"Maybe he shaved," Netta said reasonably, and surprisingly. Zell looked up to his girlfriend as if Irvine was rubbing off on her in an acceptable way.

"Oh, my merciless Hyne!" screamed Rinoa not due to the emptiness of her glass but the banter around her. "I can not believe I am hearing this," she exclaimed and looked on her friends a touch aggravated. She was clearly amused by the talk as well but not nearly enough to participate.

"I can," Quistis muttered to herself -and none of the others heard her. Except perhaps for Netta she thought to her self, thinking that she might accidentally say it too loudly if she actually spoke it with her mouth.

"Anyway," Quistis interjected loudly, she made very sure to let them know she didn't want to hear another word of this absurdity, although she thought, I'll probably have to actually say that. "They'll be back soon and Terra's arrival is probably going to be a big deal. In class I make it a priority that everybody knows about all of the Guardian Forces that we know of. I just thought that I should let you all know that it will probably be a big deal that she's here. We may have very big issues about Junctioning."

"Why?" asked Sephie, her straw touching her lip but not penetrating her mouth. Irvine seemed to be paying more attention to the object at Selphie's lips and less to Quistis. But Quistis knew that he was listening so she did not nag at him.

"Well she's part human probably so we can't be sure if she can be junctioned. Also she allegedly lived with her fellow Guardian Forces at one point. So as a human she may be able to tell us things about them that the Guardian Forces themselves can't tell us," they nodded understandingly.

Really Quistis hadn't given any of this much thought until just now. True, she was always aware of it in the back of her mind. Ever since that night when she was fifteen and couldn't sleep, that night she crept in to the library unnoticed by using a silence spell on her self. In the same way she had taught Grave secretly later in her life.

Quistis was always thirsty for knowledge; this may have had something to do with being the first of her foster siblings to join the Garden organization. The Guardian Forces had always been the most intriguing thing about B-Garden to her. The very mention of them when she was interviewed so young to join was the reason she chose B-Garden over the other two. That and Trabia was so very cold. Contrary to popular belief within the men's locker room Quistis was not so adaptable to the cold.

Terra had fascinated her though she lost hope of seeing her eventually. Time and time again somebody would be assigned to track down the elusive half breed woman, but always they would come up empty, they would give up, or those assigning them to the job would give up thinking that their time was wasted away from their actual clients.

It was kind of funny when Quistis heard about the radio call. The woman at the helm in place of Nida was the one to receive it. She said that at one point Fujin had barked a quick report over Raijin's shoulder –Raijin being the one who was making the radio call- she had said, 'SHUMI.'

Quistis had been allowing herself to read the reports of the Terra related missions –even though it was actually illegal for anybody but the Headmaster or the writer of the reports to ever read them without written consent, or an urgent situation such as reflection during court or a Garden meeting about the mission- and only a few of them had tried Shumi Village.

The reports claimed that the Shumis were very, very dubious on the topic of Terra or any other Guardian Force for that matter. With Terra they were actually suspicious however. When Guardian forces of any kind came to mention the Shumis hasted to talk about something else. Some sort of worry, the way the reporters had written it, the Shumis seemed worried about information getting out for they were eliciting just that sort of behavior.

With Terra there was a certain anger that seemed to come over them, so the reports went. They became… defensive… that was the only way to interpret the descriptions of their behavior. They would begin to speak of something else and glower for a bit the reports would say. The message they were conveying it seemed –these were the words of SeeDs reporting- was that they had offended the Shumi somehow, and that by changing the subject or escorting them out immediately they thought they were doing the SeeDs a favor.

Quistis her self felt very, very excited about Terra's arrival finally coming to pass. She simply had now shown it in this room because she thought the mood would be sourer, that the air would taste of Irvine's rudeness and Zell's anger.

"I'm really happy about this, I thought that we would never get her," Quistis said sounding not terribly happy at all. The type of forced happiness she had lately shown while she was around these two male counterparts.

"You're such a nerd Quistis," Rinoa said and had Quistis' eyebrows elevated as if she were using telekinetic powers to contort her friends facial muscles her self. It was disturbingly funny Quistis thought with the other members in the room. Rinoa seemed to be very chipper, Quistis had to wonder why, and Rinoa even seemed more chipper than Quistis whose sort of a lover was actually near by.

"And you're unusually happy today Rinoa," Quistis knew it wasn't quite a counter to Rinoa's quip but she could move the conversation in another direction this way. "It can't just be the drink."

"It's not," Rinoa smiled just a bit less, not out of sadness; it was more like relaxation from quipping Quistis that moment before. "… Knights and Sorceress's are really connected you know?" she knew they knew, Rinoa's hair flicked around a bit when she brought her face to Quistis' "I feel that Squall is fine right now somehow."

Selphie wanted to say something, and she took her time because it was quite a dangerous thing to ask it seemed, to he it seemed that way. "So when you were bawling over him and not leaving your room he wasn't okay?" It came out now at all like she wanted, and even Irvine flinched, Selphie smacked him lightly. Quistis felt the same as Irvine she suspected.

But Rinoa did not become sad or angry at all, she smiled serenely to her pixie of a friend "No Selphie, any connection I have with Squall was interrupted when I was bawling," she smiled like she had when she quipped Quistis and she took another sip of her drink. Selphie felt better.

"Since I'm receiving something from him to my internal…" she didn't quite know what to say, she knew what she meant but she too late discovered that there was not word for what she wanted to say about her ability, "let's call it an 'Internal Squall Radar'" everybody laughed at her politely when she made up the title, but it did actually sound fitting to what she meant to say.

"If something is happening to me internally," she glanced to Irvine and gave him a ball burning glare, "emotionally-internally is what I mean," she turned her face back to Selphie as if Irvine wasn't below her at all. "Then whatever I might be receiving about his condition will be interrupted and I will not know what is truly happening with him." She sipped the last of her drink with finality, then she stood up, and moved back to the bar to prepare herself another glass.

The rest of their time together went by rather well. Quistis decided she would ask Selphie later if she had given him a talk earlier to keep Zell off of their backs. She wanted to think that it was simply because his troublesomeness was going to stop shortly, but then again she thought, maybe he just noticed my whip.

Quistis smiled and refused to tell he friends what she was thinking about. She stood up herself and went by Rinoa behind the counter to prepare a drink as well. Today was a fine one so far she thought, and any thought of something going wrong was not anywhere near the part of her mind where she envisioned things. Nothing would go wrong… nothing would go wrong…

Alive In the Void

Squall is not yet awoken from his last ordeal. The time disruption that seemed to strike him took much exertion. He has been tired for an undeterminable amount of time in this place that has no time. Yet his body still moves as if there were such a thing here. He will lose no time, but he will be well rested, and well healed when he finally wakes up.

Squall is floating, he spins in whatever direction the current moves his body. But he is stationary, he may feel that he is moving up once he awakens but is staying in the same spot. He might feel that he is elevating the same way he would feel normally if he were in water, if he were descending. That is quite how he will feel soon.

The place where Squall is must be void. He has not been transported to a place where he has been before; perhaps it is a place where he will be. Perhaps now is the time he was meant to show up and he was transported here only moments before then. He may think about this when he wakes up. It will guarantee to give him a harsh headache.

It looks only like blackness. It is the night without its stars or a large rock to stand on and watch this night on. It is a grand dark expanse. But it is not like an enclosed area of darkness. When he awakens he will look on it the same way he looks on the night sometimes, the darkness is not directly in front of him so it would seem to him. He will think always that he is in empty space with out stars.

There is no air to ruffle his clothing or his hair but he moves, it moves seemingly of its own accord. That is another underwater quality there is in this expanse with out time. The body moves as if it is being pushed by something. It is as if he is being moved by an invisible current, like he is floating in the center of a universe of water.

It will take him much time to figure this out after he is conscious, that he is being moved by the will of a powerful being, whose thoughts are everything and whose will moves like an ocean.

Squalls eyes flutter open in rather a womanly way when he is rested enough to sit up, if indeed up is the direction he is sitting. This makes him at once discover that his sense of equilibrium is completely thrown off. He will decide soon that his sense of equilibrium doesn't actually exist in this place.

He takes a deep breath and wonders where it is coming from. Squall thinks that he is in space at first but the lack of stars throws him off. He decides that it doesn't matter where he is really, he will likely be transported somewhere else very soon he thinks. It will probably happen just as something important comes to pass he continues to think.

Squall has register that there is nothing around him. He feels an unusual sense of displacement, as if things are moving but the grand scheme of things has stopped. The truth is it hasn't actually started yet. He doesn't know yet, he doesn't really know anything yet, technically he doesn't yet exist yet. He may never understand that. It is sure that she will not clear things up for him very adequately. This is perfectly fine for he will never really need to understand.

Squall is wondering where he is exactly, and when the next flash of gold will whisk him away. Really he is hoping for it now, for the first time he really wants to see it, he really wants to feel it even if it's as excruciating as the last time.

Squall is hoping for it now because he is starting to get the feeling that he has no other way out of this place, wherever this place is. He is reminded of the times when Holy was cast on him, that first stage of the spell where reality temporarily shatters and you are sent to a plain that is empty of everything but you, your companions and the offensive spell. This place also reminds him of the inside of Diablos's magic lamp. But that area had a floor, and another entity, and like his memory of the Holy spells that was another occasion when he was with allies.

Now Squall was alone, and in a far worse situation than those similar times. When the Holy spell was cast on him he would endure the pain and the bright light in his eyes. He knew that he could heal after it was over despite the pain, and he knew that it would be over, the Holy spell only had you in that other plain temporarily. After it was over you were last back in the original reality as if you were only wrapped in the second one, as if the second one was simply unraveled from him when the spell was over like a great black beach towel.

Diablos' magic lamp was a similar experience. The only difference was there was much more pain, another entity in the void… there was a floor… now that he thought of it there were many more differences but really there was one grand difference. Those other things were subtle ones. The big difference was the requirement to leave that place. Diablos was defeated and then the great void vanished from around them. It was just as the void of a Holy spell did.

Squall felt scared then that there was no escape. He was not familiar with this place; he was only familiar with places that werelike it. But he did feel a distinct impression from it. It seemed to tell him that there was no pattern here. In this place there was nothing for him to rely on because he was the only thing here that was anything.

For a moment he thought that the light may not be here but that made no sense. He was awake for the last time he was transported and he distinctly remembered seeing the light again. It seemed to happen only the moment after the moment he was taken by it, the moment he was transported that is. He concurred that the light could exist here. So his fears were partially unfounded. There was clearly a way out, it was just that this way out was completely unpredictable and possible never to come again, now that it could be a help instead of a nuisance.

"Hyne must be mocking me," he said irritably. He folded his arms over his chest tightly even though he wasn't cold, this place wasn't even lukewarm, and it seemed to be without temperature.

But then he felt something, just before he folded his arms in fact. It was just as the fourth word of his sentence left his lips that he began to feel something. It felt like some kind of activity inside of him. And it was all around him as well. It was something looming and grand like a sunrise happening in fast forward.

It was happening inside of him, and when the hand touched his shoulder he found out that it was happening behind him as well.

"Ah!" Squall jumped and spun himself around. He couldn't be sure how we willed his body to turn in this place, but he couldn't think about that right now either, it wasn't even in the back of his mind.

In front of Squall was the most magnificent woman he had ever seen. She was beautiful in the same way we imagine a heavenly deity to be, without any flaw we can see, with beauty too distracting to notice any imperfection we may be staring straight into. She wore clothes like robes but they seemed the most unconventional kind. It was as if she simply piled her body with as many ribbons, sashes and shawls as she could get her hands on. She was wearing a tapestry it seemed.

At the same time Squall didn't feel quite attracted to her. Squall was not a cheater or any other kind of sexual asshole by any means. He was devoted to Rinoa and he did not indulge sexually any other woman in reality. Sometimes he would steal a glance at Xu or Quistis' ass as they turned away from him when he was at his desk, but that was as far as he ever went away from Rinoa. He was strictly set on insignificant sexual interest in other women.

But just because he did it well and always didn't mean that it was easy. The women he worked with were rather enticing after all. This woman made it effortless, it was almost as if she knew about his plight and was doing all of the work for him on a level he was not at all familiar with.

Her hair was like her robes, the strands of hair seemed like many ribbons as if they could not be brushed into one unit they were meant to be separate. One strand of hair moved away from the air around her face, her robes and hair were swirling around her but this one seemed to be moved by her as if it were another appendage that she had. It was moving around her face, then it tightened in a knot –of its own accord- then it snapped the way two fingers do when brought together and came back to its full length.

Squall blinked and was mildly shocked again. The woman was smiling at him; she clearly did that on purpose, she must have been doing that to get his attention. He wondered for a moment why she didn't simply use her actual fingers to make that sound –for he had noticed that she did indeed have arms, she looked very human to him- and so before he gave her that attention he glanced to her arms and saw a bundle, the woman was carrying a baby in a dark blue cloth.

"And why sweet soul do you think I mock you?" the woman asked reasonably and with a voice that might have been made from magic, for her lips moved and the sound came from her throat, but her appearance was human and no human could sound like that.

I took Squall a moment to realize the magnitude of what the woman had said. And once that magnitude was upon him he had his doubts, but the sincerity of the woman's voice was enough to convince him. Her sincerity even seemed inhuman.

Squall did not say it at once for he didn't quite know how to feel, or what to say in this situation, but he did eventually get it out, albeit chokingly "Hyne?" it almost sounded like he was wheezing for he was out of breath. But he breathed the air that wasn't around him and felt fine, in the ways of his lungs that is. Truly he was far from fine.

"That is indeed what I will have myself called sweet soul, and now you will perhaps answer my question?" she was very sweet with him, her tone implied no amount of anger or urge to smite that certain books would claim. In the Holy Books of Hyne she is depicted as furious when her questions are failed to be answered, and especially when she is questioned at any time. This woman wasn't like that at all, Squall questioned again who she was but felt hard pressed to disbelieve her. Such an air of confidence around her, it seemed very inhuman as well.

"I, um… uh…" he mumbled dumbly to her in this fashion for quite some time. Hyne simply watched him with that smile no man could describe and which no human woman could mimic. It wasn't helping him at all. Squall realized that she meant to coax him into speaking by being patient with him. But there was something overwhelming about that patience which made him feel unworthy, it kept him from taking advantage of it despite it being given to him wholly and willingly.

"Take your time sweet soul," she said clearly and softly, there was more of that patience, it felt infinite and so wonderful like a harmless but fierce river of orange halves and cream. He felt he was being dipped in it to enjoy the feeling and whatever pleasant sensations that his soul may be able to feel inside of his body.

This must be why I'm not answering, he thought; she's making me feel so good with her patience that I don't want to be without it. He knew now that by answering her he would be without this wonderful and infinite feeling of her patience.

He wondered then what her pride must feel like.

Surely this is Hyne he thought.

Squall squinted and breathed again then. He felt a bit more at ease then; he hadn't realized that such pleasure without physical exertion could tighten him so. He hadn't realized at all that he needed to be eased. It occurred to him then that closing his eyes would help him answer her; surely he couldn't be greedy about this feeling, he was lucky enough to feel it at all. He would answer her now.

Squall took a deep breath, his eyes were closed now and although he could still feel the grand presence of the great creator before him he felt that he could speak now. Not looking at her took much of the weight from him. "It was just a figure of speech actually; I've been part of several unfortunate coincidences that they don't seem coincidental. It seems to me that only someone of your power could make all of this happen to me." Squall worried somewhat about how humble he might sound. This Hyne was not as she was depicted, so much so that humbleness and ass-kissery would accomplish nothing with her.

"I promise you sweet soul that I have done nothing of the sort, I have only brought you here to me. In no way have I ever interfered with you before this." Her sincerity now reminded him of a forest where everything exudes the aroma of mint and thyme. It was just as overwhelming as her patience; he needed to say something again. It's funny, he thought, before I couldn't get enough but now I can't stand it, it's like too much sugar in my coffee but I still want it.

Squall opened his eyes again and looked at her face once more. Hyne had not moved her gaze from him at all, he could feel it so much that he knew it. "I believe you," he said which may have been unnecessary, but he knew of no other way to externally establish trust with Hyne, if indeed there was any need to establish such trust. Hyne seemed to automatically trust, perhaps he was only doing what she wanted him to do, perhaps even Seifer would have her praise for what he had done he was meant to do.

Perhaps, he thought.

He wondered what her forgiveness felt like; he wondered if she felt he needed it.

"So, um," he felt stupefied again, foolishness it was to look in the face of Hyne it seemed. Squall found that one could never answer a single of her questions with your eyes on her.

"Yes, sweet soul?" she said as sweetly as she must have thought his soul was –or knew his soul was rather or so he thought was the way she operated.

"What brings me here?" he said as a joke, she may have known that but she did not laugh and neither did he. Hyne seemed to be very pleased already.

Hyne giggled in a womanly way after Squall thought that his effort at humor was meaningless. With somebody else like Rinoa he might be mildly annoyed, with somebody like Seifer or even Zell he would probably become a bit angry –or very angry in the case of the former… or even the latter once he thought of it. It was impossible to feel bothered by Hyne when faced with her.

Squall wondered absently how angry people would be if he could confirm for them that Hyne was not a man. Even after the feminism movement people insisted that Hyne was a man, that she was a sorcerer rather than a sorceress. The historical evidence didn't actually indicate either really –except of course the careful use of the word sorceress. It wasn't until now that Squall realized Hyne probably gave no indication of which one she was, or if she was really either.

There was one thing that Squall was very certain of now but asking her would have to wait. He thought now that everybody was wrong in that Hyne didn't actually interfere much or at all. She did say just moments ago that she had never interfered with him until now. This would be worth asking her he thought; when else will I get this chance after all?

"I have been watching you very closely for a while now Squall Leonhart," Squall was surprised when Hyne said his name to him. He thought for a while that she didn't know –despite the impossibility of that, or so he thought. Now to hear his name from her he felt almost embarrassed to not assume automatically that she knew his name.

"The after-effects of Time Compression have been a bad nuisance to you."

"What?" Squall knew that it would be very rude to interrupt her but he needed to. He wasn't even sure that he had heard her right. Or maybe he just didn't want to think that he heard her right.

Hyne made a very sweet gesture that someone would do when a pet did something impossibly cute, or if a lover said something a bit stupid but funny. She tilted her head to one side, then blinked her eyes and only opened them halfway leaving them partially lidded. It was just the sort of look he would expect to see from Rinoa sometimes. Thinking of Rinoa made him think that Hyne's version of the look was not quite as moving, but close.

"Time Compression is not yet over Squall. That only happens when the summoner is completely destroyed," she explained giving no indication that she thought him stupid. He knew that she only knew that he was completely uninformed.

Squall did not speak at once now that he knew that there was no rush, not in this place without time. He developed his message on his own time as Hyne adjusted her head the way it was before. "I'm afraid that I only understood the part about Time Compression not being over." And that was the most depressing part for him, until of course he heard the rest of it.

"Then I will explain everything for you, it won't take long," not that it mattered thought Squall, but he decided not to say that. True, Hyne had not shown even the tiniest hint of anger, not even when the mentioned the magic that contorted the reality that she herself created. Still Squall didn't want to encourage any sort of anger in the deity.

"The summoner is Ultimecia. Her magic is not limited to unlimited spells and the contortion of reality. She also has Espers at her disposal, two of which she has created her self." Squall absently wondered how the words limited and unlimited could work together in a sentence side by side. But then he decided that listening to Hyne when she spoke to him was a more important thing to do. But then he recalled that he didn't know what an Esper was, so he spoke up. Hopefully she would keep up her understanding bit for him.

"What is an Esper?" he asked as normally as he could, he didn't really think that he would ever be normal at all anymore, certainly not after meeting the Hyne.

"They are the entities you and your fellow humans call Guardian Forces. I probably should let you discover this on your own, but I feel that I should tell you that they are not entirely happy about it, most of them anyway" this was the first time Hyne gave the impression that she was unhappy about something.

It had truly never occurred to Squall that the Guardian Forces –or Espers as Hyne called them, perhaps I should make a habit of calling them Espers thought Squall- could possibly care about being inside a human. It had never occurred to Squall per se that these 'Espers' had feelings of pride but he did understand that they were intelligent. He also understood that they were always or most often contained in something when they were found.

Diablos had been in the magic lamp; Bahamut was in that tube of light, Ifrit was inside the lava in the fire cavern, the list went on. Many had been found inside the electric currents in machines and the brains of humans and other things like Norg where SeeD's themselves stored them. It seemed to Squall that it was nothing short of natural for an Esper to spend it's time inside the mind of a human like it would anywhere else.

Also, Squall thought, many of these Espers had agreed to join him and other SeeDs. But then again many if not all them seemed apprehensive about joining them, the same way a human is apprehensive about putting their foot in a vat of scorpions. But they always agreed ultimately when they were defeated or simply discovered. Their attitude about it had always struck Squall as displeased but proud. As if they were following some code of honor about taking defeat and mercy with grace.

Upon thinking about it Squall decided that it was possible for the Espers to be unhappy about their… captivity. That seemed to be the life Hyne was suggesting they had. It was certainly conceivable but now he wanted to hear an Esper say that to him. It wasn't that Hynes word wasn't believable, to say that would be more than blasphemy. But this wasn't quite Hyne's issue he thought, this was an issue concerning the Espers and him since he was essentially in charge of how they were handled.

Already he was thinking of how to deal with this, perhaps he thought, at this rate when I do get back home I'll have a good plan to work this shit out.

Squall wondered if Hyne didn't like cursing. He knew that even if she didn't he would probably continue to do it.

Hyne continued once she knew that she had Squall's full attention. "The golden light you have been seeing are time disruptions. They are minor distortions brought on by Time Compression after it has passed. They are a sign that Time Compression is not over and that it is trying to happen again, full fledged just like three years ago." Hyne sounded a touch grim, but Squall hardly noticed with her calm, he still felt hopeful somehow despite the hopelessness of her words.

Squall might have thought that the notion would have struck him like a bolt of lightning, or a shard of glass to his thigh. But he realized what this meant rather gradually without even a touch of shock. It was much like somebody had opened his skull and poured the knowledge into his head as if it were smooth creamy pancake batter… laced with cyanide.

"Ultimecia isn't dead," he stated quietly, he heard himself, and Hyne heard him, nobody else needed to.

Hyne was like a maid who was so very careful with glass. She nodded instead of speaking as if she thought that her voice would destroy him after hearing this. It troubled Squall this, the thought that Hyne herself was afraid she might destroy him with the news.

But he needed to be told. Ultimecia's survival was very serious business. They would probably need to devise a whole new way of coming in mortal contact with her, and then of course there was the matter of defeating her again. She would no doubt have a new plan for her own victory which would prove most troublesome.

So much to be done, he thought, I really don't want to do this.

"I'm sure that you will be able to do this again Squall, and if you can't then I will simply stop this myself," she said this like it were the only way to do things, and so Squall simply had to ask her.

"Why can't you just stop her now?" He couldn't help but include some hostility in his tone. He knew perfectly well who he was speaking with but that was part of why he felt hostile. She was suggesting that he go through what could mean the genuine end of him and the world, and his friends, and his wife when she could no doubt stop this madness as the flick of a wrist. And on top of all of this she was unhappy about it so she could not simply say that she didn't care.

What Hyne said surprised him, and again he found himself believing her, although he didn't want to.

"Squall," she began much like a mother would her child when telling them something they didn't want to hear, and in that moment he felt like that was just what was happening. "I am not as the books say. I can begin everything, and I can end it. I can interfere in minor ways as long as it does not disturb the flow of things the way I did with you. I could not have summoned you to me if not for that random disruption; if I ever tried I would likely destroy everything. You might say I don't know my own strength." She smiled and giggled like a huff. Squall found himself believing Hyne as preposterous as this sounded, surely someone who made them self would not limit their own power so…

"You weren't the first thing to exist were you?" This little epiphany had nothing to do with what he needed to be thinking about but to such a creature as Squall it seemed very, very important information.

Hyne smiled, and thought she could allow Squall to go off track just this once. "No Squall, I am one of many. My people each have their own galaxy to take care of and I am the one who watches over yours, that is all I will tell you." She was absolutely sweet in telling him this, and not once would he try to stray back to this subject because of that.

"You said random," he might not have noticed, and Hyne might not have told him about this had he not asked despite her unparalleled patience.

"Time Compression is not a controlled spell Squall; Ultimecia only uses it without concern because she knows that it will not harm her."

"Why won't it do that? Time Compression affects everything."

Hyne smiled at Squalls expense although she knew that he would never have known this if she couldn't tell him. "When you summon Squall, does your Esper harm you?" Squall did not like the look on Hynes face but he didn't say that.

"Time Compression is an Esper?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Not quite, it is the ability of an Esper. It is called Seraphine; it is a great angelic dog. Seraphine is a creation of Ultimecia, and so is Griever if that interests you?" Hyne seemed very pleased with herself at his expense, her status had him forgiving her but not laughing with her.

"I brought you to me Squall because I never get to do this. The circumstances for bringing one of my children to me are so strict that I can never do it, but when I can nothing makes me happier than to speak with one of you. Thank you" Hyne leaned over to Squall and kissed him on the forehead.

Hyne felt the way any beautiful human would, but her kiss there was a breath of something that passed into his brain and gave him an indescribable kind of peace before it evaporated inside his skull.

"I love to let my children know things that fate won't tell them. Now you know that your teleportation has been random, I hope that doesn't trouble you. I know that I shouldn't tell you very much more but I feel that I should. Squall, you have defeated Ultimecia before –I saw, you were very good- and you will need to do it many more times for her to be completely and utterly gone. She exists on many planes and so you will need to travel many planes to utterly defeat her. But the first time is in your own world, and it will be the hardest. Know this now so that you might end this madness forever."

Squall only nodded. This was all quite a load to carry now but he would have time to deal with it he was sure. He believed that Hyne would never tell him all of this if she knew it was too late, if it would be more of a way to mock him instead of a way to help him. He could not believe that Hyne was an entity of trickery.

Squall admitted to himself that he was afraid when he wondered what her malice would feel like.

"How will I travel to her to defeat her?" he asked out of necessity, but he had a strange and horrible feeling that she would choose now to be necessarily cryptic, and he was disappointed.

"I'm afraid I shouldn't tell you that much Squall, but I don't need to tell you, for when the gateway is open you will know what it is." I always hate it when I'm right, Squall thought.

"You're sure I'll know?"

Hyne smiled like a proud mother again. "I know you Squall, you are very perceptive. I may not be able to see into the future but I have become very adept at prediction. If things play out the way I think they will then the gateway will be open before you before long, and you will know what it is"

Squall grinned like a young boy hoping for a treat. "Do you think that you could tell me anything else before I go, surely you're going to send me away?"

"Yes, regrettably I am –really if I had my way I come to you and everybody else myself, I do wish that I could speak with my children more often. And another unfortunate thing is that I must not 'hog' you, as they say back on Gaia. But yes Squall, I may be able to tell you some more."

"I would be grateful to hear anything more," he could not remember sounding more sincere, or more like an ass kisser in all of his life. And for some reason he could forgive himself for it. He knew that he had a very good reason to behave this way. Hyne had quite an affect on people when she could summon them.

"I think that all I should tell you is that the SeeD Grave has you, and even part of your sweet soul Rinoa, but he would be better off without either of you."

That, Squall thought, is the worst possible cryptic thing she could have said to me.

"Are you saying that he's a danger to us?" his grin and boyishness, now the other sweetness she saw in his soul, his protectiveness of his lover, was showing in its place.

"Quite the contrary actually Squall, Grave and Joselyn will make much more than a cute couple later. I just know it." Suddenly Hyne reminded Squall of somebody who couldn't wait to see the next update of their favorite television program.

The news that these SeeDs were involved meant very little to Squall and more than that it didn't surprise him. He had always thought that it wouldn't be unusual for SeeDs rooming together would decide to have sex or at least begin some kind of friendly relationship. And he had never cared about that with any of his mercenaries. If they wanted to sleep with each other it made no difference to him as long as they made sure that there were no pregnancies or trivial arguments within the ranks that could hurt morale.

For the most part those troubles were kept under control without any kind of supervision.

So Squall was completely uninterested in that part of Hynes message. What caught Squall's attention was that these two had anything to do with him and Rinoa at all. "What do they have to do with Rinoa and me?"

"Grave has more to do with you and Rinoa than Joselyn does, in fact she's little more than incidental to you. But she is still very important, if not for her than this would all be ruined and I would simply need to end things ahead of time," this was the first time Hyne said anything to suggest no care for her children. Perhaps she was just letting him know how dire things were, perhaps he sounded like he was less impressed by Joselyn somehow, which he was but he didn't think that he should have mentioned that.

"You're not going to tell me enough to make sense of things are you?" he didn't mean to sound disrespectful, but he knew that he didn't even try to counter that tone in his voice. Hyne did not frown so he assumed that he was already forgiven.

"I'm afraid not Squall, I don't need to tell you anymore." For the first time Hyne looked away from Squall and gave the attention of her eyes and her arms to the bundle she had been holding.

Squall knew then that he would not get anymore concrete information out of Hyne. He decided that he was lucky that she had told him as much as she had. Hell, he thought, I'm lucky to be here in the first place. So like a guest only mildly interested in the host's baby he willed his body to float closer to Hyne's, and he tried to look at the baby.

He leaned as far as he could without looking down the one true creator's cleavage. He could not see the baby still; she was holding it away from him so that he could only see the shape of the baby and the cloth around it. Its shape seemed fairly normal to him, yet with Hyne he wanted to be surprised.

Hyne looked to him with pride again but this time it was not for him. She looked a mother proud of the bundle in her arms despite its lack of activity. Normally Squall would look upon such a person as hopeless and annoying, but Hyne -with her great ability of prediction she no doubt had- he found himself only happy about this child. He could not think pretension of Hyne.

"This is the other thing that I wanted to show you. But before I do I want to tell you a little bit about it." Hyne knew that she was teasing him about this; she obviously had Squalls attention with the child. So far she had only told him interesting things.

"Tell me," he urged her, it would not make her haste herself however and they both knew it.

"This Squall," she stopped for a moment then looked at the child again, she moved only her eyes to Squall then and grinned unlike he imagined any deity would, so adolescent was her countenance now. "Is a very special creature, if I had a favorite this would be it. This is the first sentient creature from which all other sentient creatures evolved from in your world." Hyne lifted her head proudly for him for a moment but then she looked back to the child and tickled its belly. The sound it made did indeed sound childlike but did not sound entirely human to him, semi human at best.

Squall had never before thought about what the first sentient being was. But he did firmly believe that humans and Wendigo's shared a common ape ancestor. But the first one… what did all of the sentient creatures have in common beside their sentience?

"And I mean all of them Squall, I really hope that you get this," she sounded like she was sure that he would, but he thought he might not at first. The anticipation of knowing which was beginning to trouble him and he wondered if Hyne was ever going to show him the baby at all.

Hyne unfolded the cloth from the babies head and she turned it to face him. Squall was more than shocked when he saw what she was carrying at first, he almost gasped even. But his gasp stopped at once. He realized that he was not looking at something horrifying or dangerous; he was only surprised for a moment… and once he thought about it the thing was kind of cute.

In the arms of Hyne was a baby Shumi. Its skin already wrinkled and white, the image of a melting candle without a wick and flame was only interrupted by its big black eyes. Eyes so large the child would no doubt grow into them. The Shumi's cloth was light blue with gold trimming that Squall had failed to notice before. The colors reminded him of the robes the Shumi wore in his time.

These were the original sentient creature? He asked himself.

"Remember what the Shumi said to you three years ago Squall, I know he said it, I watched very closely." Despite these words Squall knew that Hyne was not suddenly impatient, he could still feel the patience in him.

Squall had not spent very much time with the Shumi. He had not visited frequently and for a moment he didn't know what she meant but he hardly thought that it mattered. He decided quickly that Hyne wanted him to recall his first visit to the Shumi village before he and his friends had even finished their journey against the witch who sadly stilled existed.

Squall remembered being very bored every time he had visited, and especially the first time. He remembered doing that inane errand for them; he couldn't even remember what the reward had been. He had only decided to do that to pass the time, despite the fact that he had an epic battle to attend to at the time.

He remembered voices more than he remembered words. The Shumi dialect was a thing that really stood out to a human. It was very clear and easy to understand when they were speaking English instead of their own language –which they for some reason refused to speak in the company of humans and even monsters with whom they would never speak.

Hyne just mentioned evolution, thought Squall, perhaps that has something to do with what she means?

Squall tilted his head back and with a deep breath took in the non air. He tried his best to recall actual words from the small allies they had made –he instead remembered then that Zell did not think that the Shumi qualified as allies to a mercenary academy because they were pacifists.

It was then that Hyne decided to help him, and that was probably good because he might never have remembered on his own. "Think back to when they were explaining what they are to you."

That was also very boring, thought Squall like the childlike adolescent he no longer was. He tried but it was too much like taking the peanut butter from the bottom of the jar before penetrating the layer on top. It seemed impossible, and although there theoretically was a way to do it the method was beyond him. And on top of that he really didn't care enough, but he really didn't want to tell Hyne that.

It was strange and yet it wasn't, how this deity became as important to him as a lifelong family member in a matter of what would have been minutes, had they been in a place where time operated.

Hyne decided to help him a bit more, she sounded very playful about it " 'We Shumi become…" she waved one hand in a circular motion for emphasis on how she wanted him to figure it out for himself. Whenever anyone else did this gesture to him he assumed they thought that he was stupid, but he could not believe that Hyne thought that, Squall thought that she was only trying to have fun with this life changing information.

I wonder if Hyne has a heart he thought then. It was more of an absent thought then anything else. He didn't quite know what Hyne wasreally, so the thought of having an emotional heart –he was sure that she had such a thing- made him wonder if she had an anatomical one. That was when he remembered.

"What is in our hearts," he finished late so when he said it he did not flow with Hynes beginning of the quote, and so he decided to say it again. "We become what is in our hearts."

"Very good," Hyne said, she might have clapped if she weren't holding the Shumi. "I imagine that I have set things in motion enough in your favor now." Hyne made an unpleased face. "I don't want to do it but I have to send you back now."

He knew that he was being selfish but Squall knew he would regret it greatly if he did not ask Hyne this now. "Can you send me back home?" he was excited but not happily, any happiness would come soon, Squall was not a fool who would expect the best at once.

Hyne smiled but it was another enigmatic one, the few seconds of suspense were weighing on him more than a few seconds ever should. "Yes I can Squall, but you should know that I can't tell you how long it will take you to get there, and this time it's because I don't know."

"I don't care I just want to go home," he said very quickly, not a bit of embarrassment came into play.

"All right Squall," she said obligingly. "I was very happy to see you up close," and those were their final words. Squall might have said something but Hyne gave him not the chance. She leaned to him and floated a bit as well and kissed him on the forehead again. This time he felt the very same sensation of stirring with out an unpleasant sensation. He felt it very much in his eyes this time, it felt like ripples of resonance quivering jelly.

For the first time Squall felt not like he was being enveloped by the light, or impaled by the light, this time he felt like he was becoming the light. He did not see golden light overpowering the sights around him, rather everything began with a gold tint, and then it gradually became shining. His sight even was the golden color. He could taste the presence of something untouchable but filling inside his mouth.

Squall was gone but to him it felt like the deity and the place around him had vanished instead. This feeling of light seemed to go on forever, it was lovely, and he had no idea when it would end.

Old Friends Make Up

After their shower Joselyn had favored the couch over the bar stools on the outside of their small kitchen. She wasn't sure if she had a full night's sleep before the light came. Her back was to the clock when she had sex with Grave and she was completely unconcerned with the time then, and now she was too tired to look that way. She would be getting up soon but she still wanted to rest more. Her hair had not yet finished drying and she was only wearing a white towel around her waist.

I wonder if this will boost his ego more, thought Joselyn, he's only done this once but already he can wear a girl out. Joselyn found after that thought that she only had enough strength in her to smile.

Truth be told she had done most of the work and both of them knew that, but it was still a funny thing to think.

Things did not go quite that way when they were in the shower earlier however. Grave took initiative the moment they had the water at just the temperature that they agreed upon. She decided to let him do things this time and he smiled the whole time like a hungry animal. He had found the two spots above each of her hips without instruction that she loved so much. He had found them with his hands initially but once he heard her make her pleased yet unfamiliar moans he latched one mouth over one while he kept a hand on the other.

SeeDs were given very generous showers. The other features of the bathrooms were not very much unlike the cadet dorms except for the closet-like quality. The showers were large enough for two people to lie down in and so lie down they did. Both of them had respectively fantasized about one another on this very tub floor more than once and they had confessed that while they were in there… at the time when they were talking anyway.

A rather cute moment occurred to Joselyn then. Grave had decided that he wanted to be on top this time and Joselyn had no real trouble with that. She already had their first time just the way she had imagined –minus the conditioner on her hair but she found that easy to overlook- so trying things this way was no trouble anymore. The thing about this that pleased Joselyn so much –besides the orgasm of course- was that he was paying attention to her.

Grave had begun like any other male virgin might doing things on top for the first time. He had his hands latched onto her shoulders from the back, and was pulling himself back and forth in her as if he were doing chin ups. In the middle of it all he noticed that she was not responding and even went so far as to say that she looked bored.

Joselyn's memories of the last one were distant but she remembered him doing the same thing but not noticing her discomfort. Grave actually wanted to do things properly. She taught him quickly that he needed to thrust with his hips rather than drag his whole body back and forth. After he understood that, things went as well as they had on the living room floor.

Joselyn giggled when she thought about Graves sexual ignorance. It may have been wrong of her, but she knew that if he heard her mocking him thusly that he would only crack a grin, and then he would grasp the newfound spots above her hips. He couldn't really help it though, even though she knew this was like a jock mocking a nerd for typing really fast… or rather, really efficiently.

Grave wasn't the best lay in the world but she knew that he'd be the best for her eventually. Until then they would simply need to practice as often as possible.

"What are you grinning for?" Grave was leaning against the bathroom doorway in a pair of long boxers with water dripping from the tips of his hair locks like feathers. She was suddenly reminded of that day weeks ago when he apologized for assaulting her. Although then he was fully dressed, completely dry, and leaning on the other side of the doorway, but his stance was just the same. Her smile changed but he still looked inclined to hear about the lecherous one she knew she wore a moment ago.

"I'm just thinking about our new love life," neither of them voiced the implications of the word 'love' when she said it, or the way she said it. But they did acknowledge it silently and simultaneously.

"Oh," he said with the lowest rumble his lustful lizard's voice could manage. He still only managed a low tenor like the kind he usually had but he did manage to enhance the resonance. Hearing him gave Joselyn the sudden urge to say 'shmexy' playfully. She didn't think it would ruin the mood or anything –in fact at the rate they were beginning their sex life a ruining of the mood couldn't hurt.

She was about to conjure a sentence for the non word but Grave had already strode across the room and dropped to his ass in front of her. They were at eye level now, a crack at Graves height occurred to Joselyn then but she held her tongue.

Grave caught the look on her face however and she was caught. "What are you thinking about?" Joselyn thought of about a dozen lies in that moment but she felt that she shouldn't lie to Grave, so it was the truth that came out.

"Just a short joke," she said as innocently as she could manage but innocence had never really been her forte so it came out sounding very sarcastic. She sounded like she had been accused of something she had been seen doing but was trying to lie anyway.

Grave was hardly insulted and it showed. His height was never a thing that he was insecure about; in fact he was fond of it. Mercenary's sometimes needed to hide from the enemy to get the job done efficiently, and being shorter helped in finding hiding places. Also it made flaunting his unnatural strength even more fun because it always had his opponents underestimate him.

"Go ahead; I'll have a tall joke ready for you," Grave said feeling certain.

"A tall joke, really?" she believed him but she needed for him to tell her about it.

Instead of going into a detailed anecdote about her he just asked her something quickly; a long anecdote might not have had the same impact. "Sure, how many times have you hit your head on the cupboards in the kitchen"

Joselyn laughed at that because he had a fine point. That alone gave him easy counter material for any short joke she could shoot at him. "Okay," she said when she finished laughing. "You win, I hadn't even thought of one, I just kind of wanted to."

"Oh I see." Grave put either arm around her head and buried his face in the hair that lay over her neck. It was still somewhat moist but not very much so. It was not quite enough to put droplets of water on his cheeks and nose but enough to make his face feel damp. He breathed in the scent of the shampoo she used and was secretly relieved that it wasn't mint.

It wasn't until that morning that he wondered if she used mint shampoo, he'd thought of other products but never hair products so he had never looked, despite it being right in front of him since they shared a shower.

It had occurred to him more than once that Joselyn could be using some product to give her that otherworldly smell he loved so much. It was that smell that changed him back to his own version of normal. Although, whenever he thought about it logically that smell could never come from some lotion or perfume –he later confirmed also that Joselyn did not wear any kind of perfume.

The fact of the matter was that no toiletry product could have that magic quality that made him human again. His Special Skill he thought made him less human. It was like the blood brought something out of him that changed his body.

In fact, when he reflected on how it felt, he thought there might be something inside of him. A thing that grew and changed his body as if he were a conduit, he wondered if he were holding something inside of himself, and this made him wonder if it were a Special Skill at all.

Grave also worried because even after all of that change that he endured on their mission, he thought that his transformation had not quite finished, not even then after he drank the blood of a child.

"Is something wrong?" Joselyn had turned her head to look at Graves face and he had not even noticed. He had not realized that he was making an unpleasant face.

Joselyn put one hand and the side of Graves face and turned it slightly so that he was looking at her directly. She did not smile at once so he did. Nothing was genuinely wrong with him so he didn't think that his smile was deceptive, he was not trying to hide anything from her. And if there was anything troubling him very much he would have told her.

Joselyn smiled for him but gave the impression that she wanted to interrogate him later. Joselyn inserts her ring finger into Graves mouth and he sucks on it absently while he looked at her up close.

Never before had Grave thought that something could be pleasantly lopsided, in fact the notion had never occurred to him before. But Joselyn's eyes were just that, they were so green, he wanted to pluck them out with his tongue and suck on them too but he wouldn't because it was wrong and horrible on so many levels. They were not in some world where the entities could do that to each other affectionately.

He knew at least that she liked the notion that he wanted her in his mouth.

Unfortunately, like all romantic moments this one needed to end. And like certain romantic moments this one was interrupted with something unpleasant. Grave had managed to take in all of Joselyn's ring finger and had his tongue wound around it as much as he could when Cody knocked on their door.

The sound alarmed them and Grave actually spat out Joselyn's finger in the same manner of a spit take. The door knocked again and Joselyn smirked at him feigning annoyance. He gave a very goofy grin and she wiped her finger on the towel.

"Who is it?" she said in an overly sweet voice.

"It's me," Said Cody's voice from the hallway outside. They didn't want to think that he was as unpleased as he sounded. They simultaneously excused it by the way the door muffled his voice, but they both knew that they heard right. Cody was not going to be as friendly as he was normally.

"We'll be there in a moment," she said only loudly enough for Cody to make out. He mumbled an okay in reply from the other side of the door with the same tone as before. They looked at each other worriedly then but they didn't allow themselves a lot of time for that.

They went to the bedroom they would soon begin to share. Grave found some typically black pants and he threw those on, he was still somewhat wet from the shower so he did not bother to put on a shirt yet. He decided that he would open the door since Joselyn was not half dressed yet.

Grave strode quickly to the front door so he would not keep Cody waiting for longer than they already had. He jabbed the button although that wasn't necessary and it wouldn't make the door open at all faster.

At first, when the door slid inside the wall Grave thought he was not looking at Cody, but his grumpy twin. He looked like a doppelganger of the pissy as it were. He was dressed normally of course, his hair was neat and his stance was normal, he did not have the air or the sagging features of somebody who had not known sleep, but his face was rather different. Cody looked angry, angry at him, and of course it was only then that he thought he should have let Joselyn answer the door.

"What's up?" Grave asked as if things were normal as a way to test that they weren't.

"I was wondering why the fuck you didn't tell me about this," Cody said bluntly and nearly had Grave taken aback.

Blunt Cody was also a change of pace. Normally Cody would do this in the way a mercenary might handle a mission. He could go inside looking only mildly troubled, accept courtesies like food and some such, and then he might segue into the primary objective. Instead he was just coming to his front door with a sour expression and jumping to the point like a redneck.

Something was amiss.

"Why don't you come in so you can tell me what you're talking about?" Grave said trying to sound as in the dark as he was. Cody's expression alone couldn't tell him if he was.

Cody came inside and went directly to the bar stool on the far end of the counter outside of their kitchen.

Grave padded his way around Cody and around the counter and into the kitchen. He knew that he would inevitably cook something this afternoon. But he wasn't expecting Cody for some reason. Normally he would, but sex was never part of his routine before. He expected more privacy simply because they had done it; it didn't occur to him that nobody else knew that they were doing that now.

It was no trouble though; they had enough food for everybody. But Grave still felt strange about it. He had never been wrong in this way before and it was hard for him to recognize it.

Joselyn was ready by then and was in the living room when Grave was sticking his head in the fridge. Her hair was again in her three braids and she had on the loosest outfit of sweat clothes she owned. Had Grave been looking in her direction they would have looked concernedly to each other again because of Cody.

Normally when Cody came to the apartment he would be lively with them. If she were in the bedroom she would hear her two men talking jovially about something. Sometimes they would stop speaking abruptly and she knew that they were talking about her. It was times like those when she hoped that Grave was hopeful about her.

Sometimes they would just talk about any other thing happening in the Garden, in which case she would just join the conversation as she entered the room. Today though neither of them spoke, not even Cody, when she sat down next to him she smiled for him and he looked at her but he did not smile back. Cody had not even taken off his jacket and shoes. Grave handed her a glass of milk since he knew that she would want one and she sipped it absently once.

What was so wrong with him that he didn't feel at home with them?

Joselyn took solace in the fact that Cody did not look completely angry. It was more, he looked like he was worried, but his worry was easily overridden by the anger. But still, she knew that Cody wasn't about to disown them, and certainly not without telling them what was wrong.

"What's bothering you Cody?" Joselyn said seriously, knowing that if she tried to sound sweet about it he would not respond well. She knew that look on Cody's face very well, the way she knew her own body, she had held that face before herself, so she was sure that she knew how to deal with Cody when he was this way.

But it was still startling for him to be like this with them.

Cody addressed Grave instead of Joselyn. "Why didn't you tell me about that transformation, you told Quistis but not me." Grave stopped in the fridge then, his hands were on a large container of strawberries. Grave takes his hands out of the fridge and closes the door; he has decided to let the food wait.

Grave turned around and looked unsure of what to say yet he wasn't surprised. He knew that with Cody behaving this way he would not be able to predict what Cody would ask, and he would not be able to expect anything that he could predict. Even Grave had very little experience dealing with Cody like this, it had happened before but his days of moodiness were few and far between.

Absently Grave wondered if Bridget knew how to do this, then he wondered if Cody was like this more often than he thought.

"Well, at first I didn't want anybody to know, it first happened the day Joselyn and I fought in the Training Center." Grave couldn't remember if he had told Joselyn this detail, but if he hadn't he decided that now was as good a time as any other time. "But then Joselyn's smell turned me back to normal when I did it again on our field exam, so she found out."

"Your smell?" Cody looked disbelievingly to Joselyn who smiled goofily and turned her eyes to another direction.

"Then Quistis found out when Joselyn and I did our demonstration videos…" he was about to go on about Quistis but Cody interrupted.

"And she analyzed your DNA for you, she told me that much."

"Well she said that it's my Special Skill."

"She said that too, she also said that you didn't change very much."

"When I smell it yeah," Grave paused but barely, "but when I drink it like I did on our mission then it changes me more apparently, it really depends on my intake of foreign blood cells."

Cody's eyebrows elevated such that he seemed to be judging Grave. "You had never done that before?" he almost looked startled, but they all knew that he wasn't really, they all knew that Grave would do something like that in a second if it seemed the right thing to do.

Joselyn thought that it was interesting how the conversation had become more conversational and less like an interrogation. Hopefully by the time Grave finished the part about how the different kinds of blood intake affect the transformation differently they would be back to friendly.

Joselyn used to think that it was his woodpecker knock, but now she knew that Cody was human like everybody else in the bad ways too. He could be perfectly unpleasant if he really needed to be. And at the most appropriate of times instead of the least. Joselyn almost laughed to herself when she thought about this. Cody was doing them a courtesy being pissy like this, almost; he had decided to approach them about it at what had to be the most appropriate time possible.

At least that aspect of this was typical of him.

"No, it was a gamble really; I was just hoping that I wouldn't lash out at you guys too." Grave shrugged, Cody thought that he was trying to hide something and he showed it with his face.

Cody asked the question then that even Joselyn hadn't. "Do you think you might have?" Joselyn felt different suddenly. She felt like she was being forced into something. It had occurred to her; subconsciously that Grave may have been simply rabid and therefore dangerous to her. But every time that thought came to her she would eschew it. She was afraid to ask him she thought, and she knew it.

Joselyn looked at Grave with Cody then, and they were all suddenly rather quiet. They had thought of it before, but they had never considered it seriously, none of them ever thought they would talk about it openly.

Grave felt the pressure from his friends but this gravity was not shrinking him a bit. He knew the answer, so he just said it. But his breath almost hitched in his throat when he said it because he was afraid of what his friends might say. They didn't notice.

"Yes, if I didn't have any self control then I think I would have killed everybody there."

Cody exhaled; none of them noticed he had taken in his breath. Cody was afraid? Of course he was afraid they all thought. Anybody would be afraid if they thought that their friend was keeping such important things from them, and if that friend might become a rabid monster that only existed to satisfy its pleasure for suffering.

"Is there anything else?" he asked almost quietly, he sounded more like himself now.

"Unless you want the details on the Special Skill then no, I think that's all." Grave didn't sound at all tired but his voice held some element of exhaustion. Admitting that he may have killed his friends after a six year old girl wasn't the easiest thing to admit, even for him.

"All right, I forgive you for not telling me all of this before." Joselyn was startled, but Grave just looked relieved.

"Thanks Cody, I was hoping you'd get over it quickly." Grave smiled a bit then, and his tone reminded Joselyn of another tone he took. It was very caring, like a sibling of tone he used when he asked her what was wrong while they were in the shower. But this wasn't sexual, just friendly.

And that moment they were friendly again, Cody proved that with his smile, he shrugged too and closed his eyes for a moment and thusly made an 'I can't help it' pose. "What can I say? I'm a forgiving guy."

"And I'm grateful for that," he said only to Cody, but when his tone changed again he was talking to both of them. "So what do you guys want?" Grave put his hands together and rubbed them as if it were actual preparation for cooking.

"Whatever," said Cody. "Something with those strawberries, they'll go bad if we don't eat them now." Grave might have said that was a sensible thing to say but he only reached into the fridge for said berries.

Cody took off his jacket and untied his shoes, he kicked his shoes to the area designated for footwear by the door and tossed his jacket on the coat rack with a spearman's accuracy.

Grave took a bottle of maraschino cherry syrup now empty of its cherries and the strawberries, he began cutting the strawberries into quarters and the cutting board and tossing them in a wide shallow bowl. They were quiet for a while then, they only enjoyed their recovered stable friendship. Cody was jovial again, but he was not impatient.

He waited until Grave had poured the syrup on the strawberries, Grave was in front of Joselyn on the other side of the counter. Joselyn is taking a nice long swig of her milk; it was in the middle of her drinking that Cody said it.

"So, you two are finally fucking now?"

It happened just as Cody had hoped. Joselyn literally did a spit take. It sprayed just right; it was just like a cleaning agent spewing from a spray bottle very much like mist. Joselyn covered her mouth quickly before she could spray the entire mouthful on her lover. Large droplets were hanging from her chin and her hand; she almost spat the rest of the milk when she laughed.

Grave had not budged for a moment, as Joselyn was spitting on him he seemed to have accepted it very calmly like it was a rejection for a job. He just stood there and took it. Now he seemed budded for the droplets of milk were the same shade of white as his skin. He seemed to be sweating his own body as if he were melting.

Cody laughed openly and smacked his hand on the counter triumphantly. Joselyn still sat there, she was not even motioning to the napkins, nor was she even reaching for them. She just sat there comically watching Graves grin widen by the second.

Grave did not answer at once, and with a mouthful of milk Joselyn wasn't saying anything at all. Grave swiped a napkin from the counter and wiped down his chest, he said nothing, but his smile said a million things.

"So," continued Cody, who had clearly been planning do this assuming everything went as well as it had "She obviously spits, does she swallow too?" at this Joselyn gave Grave a warning look, then she swallowed and wiped down her mouth with a napkin, but Grave was quicker.

Grave casually finished cleaning his torso and tossed the napkin in the garbage before answering Cody's question. "I don't know yet," he said a touch smugly, and then Joselyn's look of warning became more of an alarmed one. Her napkin followed his and then her whole attention was on Grave, even though all of this was Cody's fault.

This was great for Cody, for now he had a show to watch.

"Yet?" Joselyn said with a fine combination of certainty and incredulousness "We have not begun to discuss oral sex boy." There was no emphasis on that last word but it was still duly noted by the corpse that wasn't.

The banter continued in that manner for the rest of the afternoon. Cody told them that he was not surprised that they were together now and was frankly surprised that it had not happened sooner. Somehow, to all them it changed nothing in their friendship. Cody would find that he was not left out for he had his own relationship to tend to. He would also find that in their company he would not be a third wheel.

Things were the same for the three as it had been ever since their friendship began. Although the humor was somewhat changed. At one point Grave pointed out that there was no whip cream left, and after a rather funny look from Cody he exclaimed that it wasn't what he thought. Meanwhile Joselyn had thought that it should probably become that way, and secretly Grave was thinking the same thing.

The fun would continue into the evening. This time when they went to the inauguration ceremony Grave would not be forced to wear the uniform he had dubbed 'his own Forbidden's tutu' and Joselyn would not be forced to wear a skirt as she had during their Field Exam.

Everything would be fine, until that evening. In the evening something would go disgustingly wrong.

Sorry about the weak ending everybody. The disgustingly wrong thing was meant to happen in this chapter but I ended up working on this chapter less than I should have. Also I was offered a job this very day on the 23rd. And my grandmother died recently so I need to schlep up to Wisconsin with my mother for a week which will set me back in part eleven which bugs me. But then you'll get to know the crazy cool thing.