Chapter 37: New Orders

I lay awake for most of night. After that weird dream with Antara and Atrum I had a nightmare. Grace was in it, just as she was when we first travelled together, but she was on the edge of a bridge. She turned to me, then she was engulfed in water and a tidal wave tried to drown me. I stayed awake after that, unable to get the fear out my head, even if it wasn't real.

I thought I had gotten over my fear of water, I really did. It must have been repression. I repressed it and now all of a sudden the fear came back two-fold. Water was so destructive, I'd constantly have nightmares about drowning, or Grace drowning with me. The same dreams for six months with only a few nights of dreamless sleep between them.

Irvine woke up later on. Persephone was in the bathroom and she came out, having showered and gotten dressed. Someone knocked on the door and we froze. Persephone signalled for us to wait where we were and she headed for the door, unlocking it and opening it a little. She relaxed and opened the door fully, opening the door fully and letting Lucifer limp in before closing it.

"Thank Heaven you two are okay," He said. "Get up and dressed the pair of you. Caraway has orders for you both," He then turned to Persephone and gave her a smile. "I must thank you for giving yourself the hassle of looking after these two. Lucifer Solomon, and you are...?"

"Persephone Thorburn," She smiled. "And it was no trouble. I suggest you take them now. I need to check out soon."

"Of course, I'll repay you when next we meet," Lucifer nodded. We were getting out of the beds and getting dressed as they talked. "Hurry now, we're wasting time."

"What happened to the others?" Irvine asked, fixing his hat.

"All of them have been arrested and are in the D-District Prison," Lucifer answered calmly. "Well we did try to kill a political ambassador and such, so it's no surprise they were sent to the most heavily guarded prisons in Galbadia."

"You seem calm," I said suspiciously.

"I am worried about them, believe you me," He spoke quickly. "Now come with me to Caraway's Manor. He has new orders for both of you. I can only apologise again, Ms. Thorburn, but I will repay you for this kindness."

"I'm sure you will, Mr. Solomon," She smiled warmly. We got ourselves together and followed Lucifer out of the Hotel, walking down the streets in the rain quickly to reach Caraway's home.

"I want the two of you to retrieve Rinoa from the D-District Prison. Rinoa and no-one else," Caraway had said.

"So you're leaving the others in there?" Irvine was pissed off at that order. "We can't do that to them!"

"They are all guilty of an attempt on the Sorceress' life," Caraway argued. "You're orders are clear: Get Rinoa out, no exceptions."

"What if she doesn't want daddy's help?" I asked.

"Get her out of that Prison and bring her here kicking and screaming. I am not letting my daughter rot in a desert. Here is your letter of permission, it is signed by me, it will get Rinoa out of there. Leave now and return as soon as possible."

Those orders were still fresh in my head as we drove through the desert. Irvine had fallen asleep when we left Deling, I just let him be. Still I was trying to figure out what to do when we get Rinoa out. We'll probably have to go back to the Garden while they all rot in the Prison. Irvine doesn't seem to want to leave them there. He's so certain it's them. Still there was something bothering me.

About halfway to the Prison he woke up, muttering about a weird dream. He explained to me that it seemed real. A dream about two guys called Kiros and Laguna. Sounded like a similar dream to the one I had. Not the people, the concept.

"Why didn't you shoot?" I asked him. He went silent and looked out the window. "Irv, why didn't you do it?"

"... You know I told you I grew up in an orphanage?" He began, I nodded, keeping my eyes on the road. "The Matron there. She was really kind and gentle and amazing, like a mother to all of us. Her name was Edea..." Edea, like the Sorceress. "I didn't want to believe it at first but... but when I saw her at the party I..." That's why he was vomiting. He couldn't believe he was being ordered to shoot Edea.

"You didn't want to kill the woman who raised you," I nodded. It would take some level of heartlessness to kill the woman you considered to be your mother. "How are you going to explain that to them?"

"I'll do it when I'm ready," Irvine stated. "Besides, seeing as they've all got guardian Forces I doubt they'll remember. I have to pick my moment." I didn't reply for a while, I drove a little faster.

"Don't leave it too late," I told him. After a few minutes of driving we were almost there. "So when we get Rinoa out of here we're coming back to get the others, right?" Irvine laughed and fixed his hat.

"And here I was worried I'd have to do it on my own," We both grinned and laughed. Nothing like two mad gunners storming a prison. "Hey, since I told you about Edea, can you tell me what you were talking about last night, you know about... Oblivion and whatever." Only fair.

"Mind I told you that I saved a world? And you didn't believe me?" He nodded. "Well, it happened, even if you don't believe me. At first I thought it was just a rite of passage and to grow up... the further I travelled with Christie, Grace and Angie... the more I realised something deeper was going on; a war between Gods," Irvine thought it was too far-fetched but it was the truth. "Death is building an army. Oblivion is Death and he's building an army to combat the Gods. The army is composed of Connections and Guardians/ Connections are... well I thought were, normal humans who were given powers that could fight Gods... Christie wasn't human... there's a Le Fay as well..."

"You don't think you're human?" I was certain Grace was human. As for me...

"I've had my doubts for a while," I parked the car in the prison garage and took the keys out. "I'll explain when I know more. I'm still trying to make sense of it myself," Irvine nodded slowly, a little shocked. "But trust me, I won't turn on anyone. I'm not mad." I would have loved to see the expression on his face if I had said Antara was the Horseman of Pestilence though.

"State your business," A Galbadian warden spoke sternly. I handed him Caraway's letter.

"Direct orders from General Fury Caraway to release the prisoner going by the name of Rinoa Heartilly," I answered. "Arrested yesterday under false suspicion of conspiring to take the Sorceress Edea's life." They looked at the letter before nodding.

"Remain here, we will get the prisoner," We nodded and stood by the car, waiting for Caraway's daughter so we could take her home, then start our own rescue mission.