"The Third Sorceress War, Act II: Terra Incognita"
18. Reentry
(Reclamation, VII)
Seifer crossed the distance between the tree line and the mansion's gates quietly, followed by Selphie, Xu and Brea. When they got to the gates, Selphie cast LVL4 Float on all of them, allowing them to gently glide up and over the wall, and then to descend quietly, all without breaking formation. Selphie dispelled them all, and once they hit the ground, they moved to the double doors.
Seifer checked, just in case, to see if it was unlocked. To his luck, it was. He was surprised that she'd just leave her back door open like this. He opened it up a crack and peered into the door frame. He was expecting sensors, a piece of string tied to a charge, anything... but there was nothing.
"It can't be that easy." Selphie said, "C'mon! Really?"
"She's not this stupid. She can't be."
"Looks like she is, sir."
"Alright, let's move." Seifer said and he slowly opened one of the doors. They snuck in, and Seifer left the door only slightly ajar, in case they'd need it.
They quickly made their way to the foyer. From there, they could hear the guards outside talking, about nothing in particular. Wary of the fact that maybe they could hear them too, they crept upstairs. Brea, Selphie and Xu spread out to check the rooms around the office. All clear. They moved on.
Once they were inside, they all turned to Selphie, who was distracted by the study desk... or just by the sheer amount of text laid out on it.
"Can't believe Rinoa left the interior of the mansion unguarded."
"She didn't maintain a heavy security, that is certain, sir."
"Quist," Seifer said, "Take it from me. She wouldn't."
"She isn't untouchable, you know." Selphie said.
"Tell that to her." Seifer said with a smile.
Selphie went to the desk, to the mess of texts, scrolls, books and tomes. She gave a brief glance to random ones, trying to see to their subject. She clacked her tongue.
"She's been a busy little bitch." Selphie said, "Check this."
"These look old." Xu commented.
Seifer picked one up and opened to the title page. He chuckled.
"This one says it was published in the Holy Dollet Empire."
"She's been gearing up." Selphie said, "Brea, set this thing on fire."
"Yes, sir."
"Wouldn't that put a damper on the stealth part of our stealth mission?" Seifer asked.
"Actually, it makes sense. She probably picked up on red magic through these things. Burning it all might put a limit to how powerful she gets. If they're as old as you say, they'll be irreplaceable."
Selphie went to the angel statue on the corner as Brea picked up a crispy scroll. As Selphie gently pressed down the waiting hands of the angel and revealed the passage, Brea took out her lighter and lit up the scroll. It cracked as it burned, and Brea left it on the desk, standing next to one of the volumes with black, worn-out leather binding.
"Brea, you're up." Selphie said, "Take point."
Brea took point and led them down the stairs. They emerged into the sewer tunnels and spread out along the walkway. Brea turned to the wall behind them. The wall went along the length of the tunnel before sharply turning right, marking one section of the crossway ahead. There were small, vertical protrusions of stone, like columns, separating the wall into sections. The one two sections over had three bricks missing on its upper right. Brea walked over there and scanned the panel. It appeared to be just like the other sections. Brea holstered her pistols and put both hands on the surface, started applying pressure along a straight line. When her hand hit just next to the column, the wall wiggled. Satisfied, Brea pushed on that portion with both hands and the door turned around its center, revealing a passage. Brea could see stairs.
"This way, sir." She said.
"I might not be able to contribute when you're underground. Watch yourselves."
"Always." Seifer said.
They descended the stairs, hugged tightly by the walls trapping the stairs in. It took two flights of steps for them to reach the chamber below. Every sound appeared to be muffled and the small noises they made amplified in the enclosed, rectangular space. Dead ahead was, what they thought, was the panic room.
It looked like a giant safe built of gleaming adamantine, a thick cube that looked to be built into the walls surrounding it. A door wheel, thick, wide in diameter, stood in the middle of the side that was facing them. They moved quickly and all took hold of the wheel. After the count of three, they all applied their strength to make it turn, and the wheel rotated smoothly until the sound of the door's inner latch releasing echoed in the chamber. Seifer and Xu pulled the door open. Selphie and Brea snuck in first.
Selphie froze. Her body simply locked down as the others entered the room and likewise stopped.
Inside of the panic room was almost clinically clean, all sharp surfaces and cold, clean metal. There was a sink on the far right corner, sitting next to a toilet bowl. Right across from that, on the far end of the left wall was a phone. There was a slight draft in the room, gently rolling in through the grates scattered across the ceiling. To their left, lining the wall, were two-story racks made of metal bars connecting to one another and holding up thick sheets of plywood. Monitors of different kinds were lined up on the racks, hanging wires, cables and tubes in the air, all feeding into him.
On the right side, Squall was lying on his back on an army mattress, eyes closed. Trodes were strapped to various parts of his body, and there were several IV spots marked with strips of white medical plaster. There was an IV bag right next to the bed, feeding him, very slowly, a bright blue liquid.
"Holy shit." Seifer said.
"Hyne... what did..."
Selphie, trying to keep her steadily-rising panic under control, approached him. She carefully stepped over the tubes and wires, too afraid she might unhook something vital, and got to his side.
She couldn't take her eyes away from him.
They had shaved his head.
His scalp was decorated by runes etched in black ink. Selphie didn't recognize them, but thought they were similar to rune-strings of more advanced spells she had read about in books. She reached out to touch him, but stopped herself short.
"What's that thing?" Xu asked.
Three evenly-spaced strips of metal were running around his head, starting right above his eyebrows. The strips were connected to a crown, a metal halo. The halo was being held up by an arm with cables running around it. It all tied into a crate-sized machine. On one side, there was a gridded screen and underneath it, a keyboard surrounded by different buttons and switches. The screen showed a steady set of different lines, all in more or less steady waves.
"I... I don't know..." Selphie could manage, "We can't... fuck me, we can't get him out like this. We don't know what any of this shit does. It might be..."
Seifer, going over each monitor connected to Squall, hummed in recognition. Brea, Xu and Selphie both turned to him.
"Selphie, can you get rid of the runes?"
"I can try."
Selphie observed the runes. They didn't seem to be tattooed in, just drawn. She licked the tips of her fingers and rubbed on one. Nothing. Centran ink, most probably.
Selphie drowned her confusion in her training.
"This is a rune-string, a spell that she junctioned to him. I can dispel the runes individually, but..."
"There's a catch, right?" Xu asked.
"If I don't know which one begins the string and which one ends it, Rinoa would feel it. Maybe not so much at the first or second, but we'd be giving ourselves away."
"What about the machine, sir?" Brea asked.
"That has Odine written all over it." Xu said, "Knowing him, we could probably just pull the plug on it."
"And you're basing this on what, exactly?" Selphie asked.
"His most sophisticated technological achievement was Adel's sealing chamber. Didn't take much to stop it mid-operation, did it?"
"You've got a point. Okay then, you go at that. Brea, help Seifer. I'll... get to it."
Her hand was shaking slightly as she delicately touched one of the runes. Xu, next to her, was snooping around the machine, trying to find a way to cut power to it. Seifer was looking at the monitors, along with a slightly clueless Brea.
Selphie breathed in, concentrated and whispered "Dispel." The rune cracked, as if his skin was rapidly healing it, and dissipated. Selphie sighed in relief. She moved to the next rune, but her concentration was broken by Xu's exclamation. She used her sword to cut down thick, snaking mess of wires and cables feeding into a circuit breaker hidden behind the machine. An electric crack spelled the end of the machine's operation. Selphie quickly reached for the crown and pulled at it. It came off surprisingly easily.
"Got it. They kept him in pretty good condition." Seifer said.
Selphie returned to her work on the remaining runes. She quickened her work, dispelling one after the other, but a clacking sound drew her attention away from the remaining two.
Seifer was behind her, casually unplugging everything.
"Whatthefuck'reyoudoin!?"