Disclaimer: FFVIII and its characters belong to SquareEnix.
Author's Note: Thanks to all my loyal readers. Hope you like this one!
Chapter 13: Wake up and fall into place
"I linger in the doorway
Of
alarm clock screaming
Monsters
calling my name
Let
me stay
Where
the wind will whisper to me
Where
the raindrops
As
they're falling tell a story"
Imaginary - Evanescence
A heavy mist hung low over the city as the sun rose the following morning. Light filtered through the droplets to cast a smattering of rainbows through the thick air. Quistis stood against metal railing of the balcony outside her room. The rising sun glinted off her hair, which was loose and rumpled from sleep. She'd woken and hastily drawn on her robe, unable to resist the beautiful morning. With the colors dancing off the air around her, it was almost hard to believe something sinister was lurking within this city.
The sun rose higher in the sky and she let out a sigh, pushing away from the railing to turn inside. The bedclothes were still tangled and half on the floor from the restless sleep she'd had the night before. Padding across the room to the small coffee maker that sat atop a short marble counter, she slid in a pre-measured packet of Estharian Premium Blend and pressed the button on the side. As the machine worked its magic she stepped into the bathroom. She double checked the lock on the door to Seifer's room, even though he was most likely still sound asleep, before slipping out of the robe.
As the hot spray pounded against her shoulders, Quistis closed her eyes and took the moment to relax. They were going ahead with their original plans, hoping that the investigation of the murdered scientist would lead them to the bigger picture. She roughly scrubbed the shampoo into her scalp, biting down on her lower lip. What she really wanted to find out was just what was going on with Esthar's President. But right now they had to be very careful where they poked around. Without backup, or even any way to contact Balamb Garden, they couldn't afford to have the city turned against them.
She stepped from the shower, shutting off the water as she dripped onto the plush bathmat. She grabbed a towel from the rack and dried herself before digging into her tiny makeup bag. It held only a pair of replacement glasses, contacts she rarely used, one tube of lipstick, nail clippers, and her one luxury item: a bottle of lotion she bought once from Dollet. It smelt faintly of roses, with the spicy hint of labdanum - neither overpowering. She smoothed it over her limbs, rubbing it between her hands carefully. Capping the bottle she slid it back into her bag, reminding herself to order more when this was all over.
Quistis wrapped herself in her robe once more, rubbing her hair dry with the towel as she went back to her room to dress. She made sure to unlock Seifer's door before she left and went to pick through her small selection of clothes. She laid out a pair of shorts and a sleeveless top on the bed before going to pour herself a cup of coffee. The smell of it had since filled the room and she drew a deep breath before taking a tiny, testing sip. Sighing in satisfaction she turned back to dressing.
oooOOOOooo
Meanwhile, in the next room, Seifer slept soundly. He was splayed across the large bed, limbs flung out in all directions, head buried into the pillow. In peaceful serenity, he dozed.
A soft monotone beeping sounded throughout the bedroom. At first it did not disturb the man sleeping there, but soon it rose in volume. Seifer stirred on the bed, pulling the pillow over his head. The sound increased again, becoming more insistent, and he snapped up in bed, glaring through weary eyes. Beside the bed, he spotted the item responsible for disturbing his rest. The insignificant looking box was no bigger than a pack of cigarettes, but the speaker dominated its surface. The sound it was emitting now had become shrill and the beeps were in such fast succession that it was nownearly a continuous noise.
"What the fuck?" he growled, reaching for the small machine. "I didn't set any damn alarm."
Muttering under his breath he rubbed one arm across his bleary eyes as he turned the box over in his hands, searching for the off button. It was starting to make his ears ache. He tapped his thumb against a button laid along one corner, but he only succeeded in changing the tone of the beeping.
"How do you turn this thing off…?" He scowled and pressed everything that looked like a button or a switch. The machine let out a low blare at him and the small lights across the top began to flash.
At first he thought he'd succeeded in silencing it, and then the irritating high sound resumed. Seifer debated tossing it out the window and trying to get back to sleep, but knowing this place the alarm would probably sprout wings and fly back to torment him. He chucked it to the floor and heaved himself out of bed, tossing aside the bed sheets. His bare feet flexed against the cool floor and the beeping noise ceased suddenly.
"What the hell!?" He snarled and kicked it, letting out a string of curses when he hurt his toe on the small, surprisingly solid, metal box.
He stalked into the bathroom, shoving the door open so it bounced against the wall once. Quistis stood at the sink, toothbrush dangling from her lips, her eyes wide. She was dressed already, but her hair still hung loose and damp down her back. Their eyes met in the reflection of the small mirror and hers slid over him in examination. Heat flushed in her cheeks when she realized he was clothed only in a pair of grey boxers and she hastily looked away.
Seifer shoved a hand through his bed-mussed hair, not even in the mood to tease her about her obvious embarrassment at seeing him half naked.
"Do you mind?" he fairly growled. "I need to take a piss."
She wrinkled her nose, spitting into the sink before turning to him. "What's your problem?"
"My problem is damn irritating alarms that set themselves and then don't even have a fucking snooze button!" He pressed his thumbs against his eyelids, rubbing away the last bits of sleep.
Her mouth formed a small "Oh" and she tucked her toothbrush away. "Well it's a good thing you're up. You'll probably want to have a quick breakfast before we leave."
He stared at her blankly. "Yeah, fine."
She smiled and made her way to the door that led to her bedroom. "Oh and by the way, Seifer?"
He turned towards her, one questioning brow raised slightly.
"I set that alarm." She grinned cheekily and quickly closed the door, chuckling under her breath as he cursed her from the other side of the door.
oooOOOOooo
Zell tapped his foot as he waited for the elevator that would take him up to the Commander's office. He and his team had returned to Balamb Garden that morning, and though they'd found a lot of inconsistencies in the stories of the witnesses against Cid, their mission had not been as fruitful as he'd hoped.
The elevator dinged softly to announce its arrival as the door slid open. Zell stepped on, moving to press the button for the third floor when a voice rung out through the lobby.
"Hey, Zell. Hold the door!"
He spotted the petite form of Selphie bounding towards him. She wore a pair of tiny shorts in bright orange and a yellow tank top. Her orange sneakers resounded against the marble tiles before she leapt up the short staircase towards the elevator.
Zell grinned, keeping his finger pressed against the "Open door" button as he waved with the other. She stuck one tiny foot out to keep the door wedged open and he could see little plastic moombas dangling off the laces on her shoes. He shook his head and looked up as Irvine came up the steps towards them. He'd clearly been moving at a more relaxed pace than his girlfriend, but his long stride hadn't left him far behind.
He tipped his hat in greeting, his other arm curled against his side, a round metallic object tucked in the crook of his elbow. Zell cast a questioning gaze at it as Irvine stepped onto the elevator after Selphie. The taller man held it up – balancing it between the fingertips of both hands.
"We found it at the crash site," he explained as the lift doors swished shut.
"What is it?" Zell cracked his knuckles, itching to hold the strange sphere in his own hands and examine it.
"Dunno. Popped her open on the flight back, but wasn't anything we could make sense of. Gonna drop it off with the tech guys after we make our report to the Commander."
The elevator halted at its destination and the three of them filed out towards Squall's office. His secretary sat behind her desk, tapping away at the keys of her computer. A bright pink pen topped with a riot of feathers stuck up from the mass of red curls that was her hair. She paused and lifted her head to look up at them.
"You can go in."
The woman returned to her typing as they walked past her and in through the double doors to the office beyond.
Squall sat behind the immense desk, papers stacked and scattered across the surface. A large pile of reports sat haphazardly atop one of the file cabinets along one wall, sticky notes were littered across his desk and over his computer screen. Still more were wadded into the overflowing trash can. Zell looked down at the thick grey folder in his hands that comprised his own report, somewhat guiltily. The Commander looked like the last thing he needed was more reading material.
Still, as the man in question raised his head and gestured for them to sit, he didn't look nearly as harassed as Zell had supposed. He pushed aside some papers to fold his hands together atop the desk.
"Thanks for coming guys. As you can guess, I don't have a lot of time so just give me the short versions. Zell, we'll start with you."
"Sure… right." The young blonde stood, clearing his throat as he handed over the envelope to Squall. "My team and I traveled to Balamb, Timber, and Dollet within the past week to question some of the supposed witnesses against Headmaster Cid. We found some conflicting stories in all places, which led us to believe these witnesses were lying."
The Commander nodded, signaling for the young SeeD to continue.
"After that we were trying to get something a little more solid when you called us back. We brought everything we found but it's not much. It wouldn't do a lot of good at the trial."
"That's fine, thank you, Zell. I should inform all of you…" Squall began as Zell took his seat once again, "The trial has been postponed. As first it just seemed that the other members of the tribunal were already convinced of the Headmaster's guild, but there may be more to it than we are aware of. Beginning with the accusations against him and following the incident with the Estharian ship, we suspect that this is only a distraction from a larger problem. Selphie, Irvine, if you'll tell us about your findings now, they may help to shed some light on things."
The petite brunette nodded and stood to pass him her own report, setting it daintily on his desk. The plastic ends of her shoe laces made an irritating clinking noise as she paced several steps across the room and then back again. She stopped, much to the relief of the other occupants in the room and pursed her lips.
"We found the wreckage not far off the coast of the continent of Esthar, where it was partially submerged. It was missing one wing and engine and various portions of the hull were broken off or badly damaged. We have aerial and ground images in the file." She motioned with her hand and Squall flipped open the folder, sifting through the large glossy photos before looking back at her. "We found the bodies of the two crewmen who operated and piloted the ship. They've been brought back here where Dr. Kadowaki can perform an autopsy to see if they died as a result of the crash or drowned…."
Selphie's fingers flexed together, curling into small nervous fists as she took a shaky breath. She turned to Irvine and he passed her a warm smile that seemed to settle her as she reached out for the metallic sphere he held in his hands. She clutched it briefly against her chest before pivoting, the moombas on her laces clanking noisily together. With a smile she offered it to Squall, who closed his hand around it. It felt lightand the metal was warmed from being carried. He turned it around in his hand, inspecting its smooth surface. There was a small seam that wove around in an intricate design and he passed his fingers over it.
His thumb dipped into a circular indent and with a faint mechanical whir the sphere began to move. Squall frowned and held it up as it split at the seam, unfolding like the slices of a pie. Inside were a hundred blinking lights; it looked like the inside of a computer, a highly complex and tiny computer.
"What is it?" He lifted his head to look at his friends.
"We're not really sure." Selphie admitted, "I took a look at it and its obviously advanced technology. Also… if you look just inside the on the top piece, you'll find a familiar symbol."
Squall shifted the object in his hands and frowned as he made out the symbol for Odine Labs etched into the metal.
"We found it in the engine." Selphie's hands curled into fists again. "If I could take a guess… I'd say that thing, whatever it is, is responsible for the airship failing. When we recovered information from the main computer in the cockpit it pointed to engine failure. Sudden and without warning."
"If that's true…" Zell spoke up from his chair, "Than someone in Esthar is responsible for killing or attempting to kill their own leader!"
"And," Irvine's voice was without its usual calm drawl, "That person is still there, probably involved with whatever is going on with Odine Labs, and probably linked to that dead guy in FH."
Squall pushed the metallic sphere shut. "We're jumping to conclusions. Anyone could buy Estharian tech these days. It's shipped all over."
"That's assuming that all this other stuff is a coincidence," Irvine stated firmly, brushing his bangs away from his face. "If it isn't, then we just dropped Quistis into the middle of a very dangerous situation."
The Commander stood, walking to gaze pensively out the window. "Quistis is smart. She can take care of herself and lay low if she has to. I just hope she managed to find someone dependable to back her up." He scowled at his own reflection, knowing he should have gone with her himself.
Selphie rolled her eyes and made a noise of derision. "Yeah right! You don't know who is with her?!"
He turned to look at her blankly as she bounced on her feet, clasping her hands together in front of her chest.He let out a long sigh and looked away.
"Who?"
"Seifer," Irvine spoke up calmly, running a fingertip along the rim of his cowboy hat.
Squall fell utterly silent, caught in his own thoughts on the subject, whereas Zell shoved out of his chair, knocking it to the floor with a muffled thump.
"WHAT!?" His hands bunched into fists and his shoulders trembled, almost as if he was face to face with the subject of his rage and could attack at any moment. "That… that jerk!? There's no way Quisty would ask him to help her!" He dodged from foot to foot, swinging a punch through the air. "There's no way he'd even do it. Everyone knows Seifer helps no one but himself!"
Irvine shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "Sure Zell, that's why he's with her in Esthar right now. Anyhow, that's the way it is. No use getting so worked up about it."
Zell turned to look at the other man in disbelief. "I can't believe you're okay with this! You just let her go off to Esthar with…. Seifer?" The name was spit from his mouth as if it were an offensive taste.
"Quistis can take care of herself, and deal with him just fine. I warned him. It's going to be fine."
"He did seem to be behaving himself…" Selphie added softly, sparing a glance at Squall.
Zell made to open his mouth but one firm look from their commanding officer silenced him and he turned to straighten his chair, shoulders hunched slightly.
"There's nothing we can do to change what's already happened." Squall moved to return to his desk, "So I think there's really no point in arguing about it. We'll try and contact someone in Esthar. We may have to go through unofficial channels. For now, I think we have to consider that the city may be under the control of dangerous persons. We have to be prepared for any and all possibilities. I'm going to put the Garden on alert and notify the other Gardens of this information. You're all dismissed."
They stood and Selphie moved to collect the sphere from his desk with the promise of taking it to the tech rooms. After the door slammed shut behind them Squall stared at its dark wooden surface for a long moment. Outside the shadows of a cloud passed overhead, briefly darkening the office as the sun slid away behind it. As the shadows fell across him Squall pressed his face into his hands and sighed.