In the bowels of the White SeeD ship, Ellone slept, not feeling, not thinking, not dreaming. Squall gazed into her sleeping face; he felt helpless, responsible somehow, although he knew that was ridiculous….
"Ellone chose to live in zis state," Dr. Odine explained. "She simply needed rest."
"Squall, I'm sure she'll wake up," Selphie murmured. She patted him on the arm. "She'll come back for you, and for us, too."
Squall nodded absentmindedly.
"It would be better—safer—if she stayed here on this ship," Dr. Kadowaki advised.
"I agree." Dr. Odine shuffled away from Ellone's bedside. "So," and he clapped his hands together, "vat iz ze matter I have been summoned here for?"
Dr. Kadowaki introduced Selphie to him.
"There was an incident during her last mission," she began, "and she's been displaying various signs of—illness ever since."
Selphie stood alone, feeling quite embarrassed, as Dr. Odine looked her over.
Squall took a step toward the door, sensing that his presence was not helping her.
"I probably should go—"
"No, I want you around for this," Dr. Kadowaki insisted. She turned to Selphie and asked, "Selphie, is that all right if he stays?"
Selphie nodded dully. Squall averted his eyes to avoid seeing her face.
"Please describe her symptoms, Doctor Kadowaki."
Selphie pretended not to hear:
"M-Memory loss. Confined only to one very specific time period, as far as we know."
Dr. Odine frowned as he thought.
"Vere zere not… reports of Guardian Forces causing progressive retrograde amnesia?"
"Yes, we have proof that many of our SeeDs and students have suffered amnesia because of GFs, but not in the way Selphie here has experienced."
"'Confined only to vun very specific time period,'" he murmured, thinking ever deeper. "Still, zere iz a simple vay to test it…."
Dr. Odine turned to Squall.
"Do you have a GF Junctioned?"
"… Yes," Squall admitted reluctantly; he had hoped that he would not be dragged into the discussion.
"See if you can Draw any GFs out of her brain," Dr. Odine ordered.
Squall searched long and hard through the packets of energy cluttering Selphie's mind, until he found something: a pulsating, bright white light. He attempted to Draw it out several times, but failed.
"There's definitely something in there," he confirmed, "but it won't come out.
"Do you know vat it iz?" Dr. Odine breathed eagerly; he seemed positively star-struck.
Selphie stared back at Squall; her eyes were wide with apprehension.
He spoke more quietly this time: "… I'm pretty sure it's a GF."
Dr. Kadowaki, Squall, and Selphie all exchanged darkly meaningful looks. Selphie's face was ashen.
"Vell, if it cannot be removed from inside your brain, zen ve have a problem," Dr. Odine muttered. "I discovered GFs, I have seen ze abilities harnessed by zose who Junction zem, but zis iz something I have never seen before."
It seemed that Dr. Odine also had a GF Junctioned: either that or he was now so skilled at dealing with magical matters that he could determine a GF's presence using his own unaided ability. He was now staring intently at Selphie's forehead.
"Zat iz a very special GF inside your brain," he declared. "Perhaps you should try to Junction it yourself."
"No," she insisted, her voice hollow. She felt dirty, tainted with some foreign substance that was infecting her mind. Her stomach plunged as she thought: Is this what it feels like? Did Rinoa have to go through this, too?
"If you could Junction zis GF and become compatible viz it, you may be able to remove it yourself," Dr. Odine suggested.
"Selphie, it's just for a moment," Dr. Kadowaki pleaded. "Just to see if it's possible."
She hated herself for obeying, for soiling herself further, it seemed, but nothing came of her efforts. She tried to manipulate the pulsing light into some sort of recognizable form, but it remained as it was; she tried picking up some sense of what it was like—its personality, so to speak—but everything about it was indecipherable. It sat like a dead weight inside her head, seemingly doing nothing but taking up space.
"I can't do it."
Dr. Odine began to pace around the room.
"It seems zat only a very poverful sorceress could have modified zis GF to affect your brain in such a specific vay," he concluded as he paced. "It vill probably take an equally poverful sorceress—if not an even more poverful one—to unlock it for your use, or to remove it from your brain, as ze case may be."
He stopped walking as an idea struck him.
"Ah! Perhaps your Rinoa iz capable of ze task?"
"No," he said at once to answer his own question. "I remember her… she vas too inexperienced, much too inexperienced…."
His peripatetic mumbling dissolved into nonsense to their ears, but he soon looked up, frowning in slight displeasure.
"Zere iz something wrong viz zis scenario," he muttered. "Rinoa is ze sorceress now. Who else could have given her zis GF?"
The question had been more a question for himself than for the others; still, Squall felt that Dr. Odine already knew the answer, but was asking anyway.
"The people who attacked her were from a future time period," Dr. Kadowaki supplied.
"Ah, yes! My Junction Machine Ellone!" His eyes twinkled in excitement. "But—ve must not get ahead of ourselves." His tone of voice grew serious. "You seem to have natural ability viz magic, yet you are no sorceress. Ze GF inside you iz very poverful and much too difficult for a normal human girl such as yourself to harness for your purposes. Likewise, it iz too difficult for it to be taken from you like any uzzer vorldly possession.
"But—But—you must keep ze GF contained. You must keep it controlled, or else it vill destroy you like a parasite encroaching on ze rest of your memories. Meanvile… try and see if Rinoa can gain enough control over her povers to help you. It vill take some time, but it iz your only option."
He was the very first one in the lecture hall. With no one to talk to and nothing much to do, he chose a seat in one of the middle rows and sat down. As instructed, he had showed up in his Galbadia Garden cadet uniform. His right arm was in a sling.
He wished someone would show up soon. He had had over a week of having no one to talk to; he was tired of thinking the same thoughts over and over.
Just as he had been hoping, the doors swung open. He turned his head to see Selphie step inside. She, too, wore her cadet uniform, with a yellow scarf signifying Balamb Garden.
"Selphie," he murmured in surprise. He stood up.
She smiled and waved, then hurried down over to him.
"Hey," she piped up simply. Despite her attempts to seem cheerful as usual, he could tell that something was bothering her. Although nobody seemed to give him much credit for it, he did have an eye for noticing those sorts of things.
"It's… It's good to see you," he replied; he tried to smile back, but it didn't end up quite right, because she was frowning.
"What?" she asked. She wasn't smiling.
"Well… you don't look so good. Is something wrong?"
She exhaled in a huff and crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyes wandered to her feet.
"There's something wrong… with me," she sniffed outright. "I'm sick."
"Like how?" he demanded.
"It's complicated," she added at once. "Dr. Odine—they had to call him in to diagnose me—he said only Rinoa can cure me, because she's a sorceress and she's the only one with enough ability to do it… but she doesn't have enough experience with her powers yet. So right now, I'm just," and she shrugged half-heartedly, "waiting."
Irvine nodded absentmindedly. How was he supposed to feel? How did she expect him to react? Complicated… so complicated. They were stuck, stuck in that fuzzy middle ground between mere infatuation and something deeper, and this insecurity of where the other stood permeated each action they took together, each furtive glance and half-developed thought.
"How bad is it?" He felt strangely childish asking such a question, but he wanted to know.
Selphie literally seemed to be wilting where she stood. Instead of answering, she just bobbed her head up and down, as if mulling something over. He noticed, too, that there were no tears in her eyes.
In what felt like the distant past, he would have known just what to do to cheer her up. This, however, was no laughing matter; this wasn't something they could wish away like the others. Serious was hard. Serious was real. You can't hide behind a smile; you can only be honest.
"So, are you coming to Balamb for good now, or are you still staying here?" she finally asked.
"… Now that I think about it, they might have kept me here because they thought you were coming, too. But… now you're awake, so it's your call."
She made her way to a seat in the row in front of his and plopped down into it.
"So you heard about all of that," she murmured. She had her back to him; she was staring down at her knees as she talked. "I… I think I should stay. I should stay in Balamb."
He sat down in his seat again and leaned forward to prop his left arm over the back of the seat in front; Selphie was in the seat directly to the right of the seat in front of his.
"It would be nice," she continued, "to hang out with you a bit more often, but I have to get better, and Rinoa's in Balamb, so I should stay close to her, you know?"
He nodded again, then rested his chin on his arm.
"It'll work out somehow," he assured her. "You just go and worry about getting better, okay?"
He pulled out a pen and a scrap piece of paper from his pocket, carefully wrote something on it, and passed it to her. She frowned a little as she read it.
"Is this… your e-mail address?"
"Yep. You have to tell me what's going on over there while I'm gone." He narrowed his eyes threateningly. "I want the scoop! Got it?"
She grinned slyly.
"You bet."
They all filed in quietly by twos and threes and took their seats, all clustered in the front half of the lecture hall. A few moments of silence reigned, and then the doors swung open a final time to reveal Dr. Odine and the White SeeD Leader. He carried Ellone in his arms.
A fleeting shadow stole over Laguna's face.
Cid cleared his throat as these last arrivals found seats.
"That seems to be everybody. Let's begin."
At this point, Caraway rose from his seat and took the front of the lecture hall. This time, he wore not his much-decorated military uniform, but a simple black business suit.
"As you all know, I was very recently elected President of Galbadia," he began. He comported himself with both dignity and humility while speaking; he did not act quite as proud as the Caraway Squall and the others had met on the night of the assassination. "The election happened so quickly after the cease-fire because Galbadia is in dire need of political stability. We simply could not afford to be without a government for months on end. Judging from the… incident in Deling City on Election Day, it is obvious that everyone's presence is required here. The groundwork has been laid for an end to be realized, but we still have much work to do."
"As a side note," he murmured, more quietly this time, "I have been getting… rumors. Rumors that my daughter Rinoa was involved, that the intruders may have even appeared in the first place because of her presence in the general area."
Rinoa glanced up at him momentarily, then back down at her feet. He gazed imploringly back at her. Dr. Kadowaki turned to her and said quietly:
"Rinoa… I think it's about time you told him."
…
Caraway paced across the room and back again. His face looked pinched, anxious, pale, but he took no notice of this.
"How could I not have been informed of this until now?" His words left his lips in anguish. "My only daughter, a sorceress?"
Rinoa had tears brimming in her eyes. She had not been alone in his presence ever since the assassination attempt on Sorceress Edea. So much had happened… she had no idea what to feel.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she murmured as her eyes continued to sparkle. "I guess—while I was in a coma, they didn't want to worry you—and when I woke up, things had already started happening, everything started happening all at once—"
He shook his head in disbelief.
"I helped plan Sorceress Edea's assassination," he muttered in a tone of disgust. "I risked my career—and even my life, and the lives of those SeeDs—to bring some stability back to this country… but I couldn't even protect my own daughter from becoming one."
She looked up and into his face, something she had long been unable to do.
"Just being one isn't the problem—"
"Yes it is… Rinoa," he insisted gravely; he fleetingly tried thinking of the last time he had said her name, but couldn't remember. As he often did, he gazed out the window, into the cold night and the ethereal lights of the city. "How else do you think people will react once we all go public tomorrow morning? We'll have to tell them you're a—sorceress, and they won't bother to look any deeper than that, based on everything that's happened with sorceresses in the past."
This time, Rinoa shook her head, and as she did so, some of her tears finally fell to the carpet.
"I won't let that happen. People are better than that."
He gave a small, sad smile and hoped that she was right.
Dr. Kadowaki was literally on edge. Fujin conceded that she, too, badly needed rest… but then again, this was nothing… she had spent many sleepless nights before….
"So," Dr. Kadowaki huffed. Her voice rang throughout the empty office. "So Selphie… is awake."
Fujin blinked placidly.
"Why?" Dr. Kadowaki demanded.
She gazed blankly back.
"I don't know why."
Dr. Kadowaki rose from her seat and began to pace from the door to the window and back again; her arms were crossed over her chest as she did so. Fujin slowly closed and opened her eyes.
"How about the sorceresses?" Cid proposed. "Ultimecia and Adel are dead," he supplied, "so…"
"Rinoa stood up slowly.
"So… it's just me." She felt her face grow hot. "I'm the only one left."
"Zat iz… debatable," Dr. Odine commented smugly.
"You know, Fujin," Dr. Kadowaki began at last, in a significantly different tone of voice, "back a few days ago, when I first questioned you, that was the first time—the very first time—that you… withheld information from me."
Once more, Fujin closed her eyes slowly, then opened them just as slowly.
"Did you go anywhere near this infirmary between then and now?" Dr. Kadowaki demanded of Fujin.
Dr. Odine surveyed the room: some faces were unreadable, while others seemed confused.
"Rinoa iz ze only sorceress ve know ov. Ve must not forget zat most sorceresses prefer to hide zeir povers." He turned an expectant eye on Rinoa. "I am sure zat if you had had ze choice, you vould prefer to do ze same."
Fujin hung her head in resignation.
"And if I did?" she asked quietly. Despite her body language, however, her voice remained stoic, even defiant.
Dr. Kadowaki shut her eyes in an attempt to momentarily escape the implications of Fujin's words. She sighed heavily.
"Fujin… what did you do?"
She started shaking her head.
"I didn't know she had awoken at the time. I left right away; I'm almost certain she didn't see me." Lifting her head, she added, "I just wanted to figure out what was wrong, I—felt responsible somehow…."
"Then you think there are others? Other sorceresses, in hiding somewhere?" Rinoa asked him.
Dr. Odine nodded; that familiar twinkle in his eye was there for just one instant, and Squall couldn't help but feel that Dr. Odine could very well know of others, know that they were out there somewhere, perhaps even knew where to look and what to look for. Maybe Dr. Odine's question, the simple question that Squall thought was obvious, was a better question than he, Squall, had given the doctor credit for….
Dr. Kadowaki leaned forward.
"I certainly hope you do not need my reminder than you cannot afford to be discovered!" she hissed urgently. "If Selphie remembers something, if she traces it back to you somehow—"
"She won't." Fujin's gaze was steady. "I left it inside her, didn't I?"
"Of course," she muttered darkly, "of course, because her illness is the only thing that is keeping your secret." She crossed her arms and threw a furtive glance to her side. "But if you indeed felt responsible, surely you would have removed it?"
"Stop testing me." Fujin's brows were tight. "I thought about doing it, but what was I supposed to do with it once I did?" Her fingers found their way to her elbows and curled tightly around them. "Where do you put—something like that?"
"So you didn't do it. Good."
Dr. Kadowaki turned her head to look Fujin full in the face once more. With Dr. Kadowaki's face in shadow, Fujin could fully appreciate the lines in her face. How many of those had she, Fujin, caused?
"It makes no difference whether you can help her or not. You have to stay away from her. That's an order. Whatever it is you want to do, whatever it is you wish you had done, none of that matters. It doesn't have to be you," she explained firmly. "At least we still have Rinoa, and she has already been exposed!"
Fujin gave her a most peculiar stare of incredulity. She stood and made to leave.
"You remember what I said to you before, don't you?" Dr. Kadowaki spoke to Fujin's back. "I won't sell you out. We gave you our word."
Fujin nodded silently.
"Goodbye, Doctor."
Finally regaining her confident composure, she passed through the open doorway and into the night. At a time like this, there was no looking back, only moving forward, no matter what lay ahead.