Dissidia 011: Undecim

To Trust a Lion

"We had no idea how everyone else had been faring this whole time, but we kept moving on – it was all we could do. Sure, we had things to worry about as we went…but, nothing that we could allow to slow us down. If Zidane had worries though, he didn't really let it show. As for Squall, well…you could never tell with him anyway."

"So, what is this place again?" I asked.

Zidane looked around.

"I'm…not really sure. It's not like there's a sign or anything to tell us "you are here"." he said.

"Hmm…oh well. I was just wondering." I replied.

We kept moving to what we thought was the exit; what he hoped was. This world was strange to say the least. It was all dark with pillars that looked like the remains of a fallen castle or so. The sky was a weird shade of purple and black. It made me uneasy – at best. It wasn't comforting.

"So, where could the crystals be? I mean, we've been to two other places before this one and still nothing. What are we doing wrong?" Zidane asked.

Neither Squall nor I had an answer. He made sense. We'd been on this quest for quite some time now and still nothing. All we'd come across up to this point was empty locations – some of which rather mysterious, and manikins. In all honesty, we were beginning to lose hope.

"I don't know. I mean, they've got to be somewhere, right? Just…where?" I asked.

We both looked at Squall.

"Anything from you, Squall?" Zidane asked.

Squall closed his eyes for a moment. He appeared to be thinking…again. He did that a lot actually. He was a hard read for sure and never said much. Really…I got the feeling he didn't want to be with us. It was troubling for me. I wasn't even sure Zidane had noticed. Squall was so…he was just hard to be around.

"Don't look at me. I don't know this place any better than you two." Squall said.

Zidane didn't mind Squall's enigmatic personality; however…I found it hard to warm up to. Why was he insistent on being so hard to talk to? It was something I wanted to ask him really, but I knew it wouldn't do any good. If he wouldn't talk to us much when we were trying to be friendly…I could only imagine if we tried asking questions of a personal matter.

Zidane kept walking forward out in front of us as he appeared to be scoping the area. Obviously, he was trying to catch some clue as to where we were. Honestly…I didn't think we'd find any clues. I just wanted to get out and get on our way. We were wasting time just dawdling. I was sure that everyone else had already gotten their crystals by now. I felt so slow.

"Hey, look!" Zidane cheered.

"Huh?" Squall and I asked, looking ahead.

Zidane had his hand pointed into the dark ahead of us and I could barely make out some kind of stairwell. At least - I hoped it was a stairwell.

"Come on!" he said, running ahead of us.

"Zidane! Wait!" I hollered.

He kept on running toward the stairs as fast as he could. Squall and I just watched as he made it there in mere seconds.

"How in the world is one supposed to keep up with him?" I asked, jokingly, as I started to follow him.

Before I got too far, I realized Squall wasn't coming with me. I stopped walking and looked at him. He was doing that thing where he was lost in deep thought…again. I didn't know if there was something wrong with him by now, or if he was always like this. I'd never met someone so…personal before in my life.

"Squall?"

He lifted his head a little as he opened his eyes and looked at me.

"What is it?"

I was hesitant to speak. To be honest, he kind of scared me. I never knew what he was thinking, so I didn't know what he was capable of. I mean sure - I had a weapon, too, and was always ready if he ever went crazy and attacked me, but...I don't know. He just didn't seem like someone you wanted to get into a fight with.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." I answered, nodding.

I recollected myself and looked at him again. I had to speak. I had to know. I would be satisfied until I got something out of him. Ever since Zidane and I had caught up to him on our quest, he had been anything but open with us. I figured it was time he started trusting us.

"I wanted to ask you something – if that's okay."

He turned around and stared at me; a stare that made me extremely uncomfortable most of all. I was afraid I had already gone over the boundaries and I hadn't even begun to pry. Granted…I was about to.

"What?" he asked.

I took a deep breath. I had to speak now before he got annoyed – if he wasn't already.

"Why are you here anyway? I mean…with us. You never say much; you haven't said a word since we first met up with you. I just…get the feeling you don't really want to be around us."

He stared at me for a moment and I thought maybe I was wrong. Like I said, he was hard to read. I began to feel stupid for ever opening my mouth in the first place.

To my surprise though, he answered my question. Unfortunately – it wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear.

"I'm looking for someone. I wasn't getting anywhere on my own, though I thought I was just going the way at first. When you two found me…I just thought that maybe it would make my search faster if I went with you. Unfortunately…I can see how well that's paying off."

His words were so cold – amongst a lot of other things. How could be so rude and mean and not have any regrets about it? The only thing good that came out that was that he was honest. Still…he might as well have just left his honesty to himself. I regretted saying anything upon hearing what he said.

"So…you're not really here to help us out or help us help you? You're only with us to get what you want." I said, a bit angered by his selfishness.

He didn't reply. I looked at him coldly. At that moment, I think I would have tried to take him on. I wanted to knock some sense into him and let him know exactly how he was coming off. The thing was…I think he knew.

"HEY! COME ON! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Zidane shouted.

He was clearly getting impatient and my "conversation" with Squall wasn't getting anywhere. I decided to do what I told myself to do before I opened my mouth – keep on walking. I stepped forward past him and started making my way toward Zidane.

"Forget it."

I barely got two steps when I heard Squall say something else.

"Balthier."

I didn't want to do it – but, I stopped anyway and turned around to look at him. To my surprise, he wasn't in his usual stance where he was thinking; he looked at me head on as he walked towards me. My heart started beating faster. I didn't know what he was going to do. I couldn't even move upon just thinking about the possibilities.

"It's not that I don't want to be around you guys. I have no qualms with you two. I just have my own goals and I can't allow anything to interfere with them. I need you to understand that." he said.

Was this guy for real? All that silence, secrecy, and blunt behavior and he wanted me to understand? Just take it easy and let it go? He had some serious problems the way I saw it.

Still…something in me couldn't help but just do as he wanted; I let go – knowing things wouldn't get anywhere if I kept holding to it.

"…Sure. I get it. Everyone has their reasons, right?" I said.

Squall only nodded.

"Right. Come on."

He started walking towards Zidane and I followed right behind him. Zidane was anything but happy as we got close.

"It's about time. What took you guys so long?" he asked, hastily.

"Sorry, Zidane. We're fine though. Let's go." I said.

Zidane glance from me to Squall and then shrugged.

"Alright. Let's get out of here!" he said.

"As we climbed those stairs, we didn't know where they would take us. We couldn't even see where they led as only darkness was visible. Still, we had to hope they took us out of here – as hard as that was to do. While we continued on our way, we had no idea what our friends were going through at this moment. And, Squall's friend in particular, whoever they were – was of no exception."