Emerald Storms
Silverium
Squaresoft not Silver though Trianon, Psyche, Michelle and Kerei are mine, mine, mine.
Selphie yawned. The Aries, completed, stood behind her silently as a black hulking mass. She had come back to run a few more tests and decided that the engine had been secured properly and all systems were a go. Gathering up her tools, and the special letter from Galbadia, which had been a dark weight in her mind, she left the Mechanics room for a quiet evening in her dorm. Well. An evening of loud music, singing, and maybe planning a party or something.
Her latest mission was now to get Trianon interested in Irvine. Selphie realized she didn't know how old the tall lady was, it was hard to tell. The Instructor acted as if she were quite mature, yet she looked young. Her face seemed ageless, smooth and serene, but her eyes spoke of something else. What an enigma. The woman had given Selphie an insight though, at the pool she had been more carefree than Selphie had ever seen her. It was a small beacon of hope, because Selphie, and Selphie alone, knew how lonely Irvine truly was.
"Ack!" Selphie smacked into a hard surface and dropped her tools.
The clatter was resounding and she winced as the metallic crash bounced off the walls and reverberated up her arm. She opened an eye warily and saw Squall looking pained and close to laughing.
"Sorry," She squeaked, kneeling to scoop up her various accessories.
He knelt to help her, his head shaken by the loudness in an otherwise silent hall, and saw a piece of folded paper. Curiously he picked it up and when it fell open his eyes widened. Then narrowed. Obliviously Selphie was organizing tools in her box but she looked up when she realized Squall had stopped moving. His face was white.
"Oh no…" Selphie whispered, horror in her eyes when she saw the paper slip from his fingers.
Xxx
"Well Mr. Morgan, we have a nice task for you," the oily voice of Boss rang out in front of Morgan's cell, "I have good news, the Aries is completed, and guess who is going to try and retrieve it?"
"Me," the reply was a hushed whisper.
"Yes, you, now, you may be wondering why we want the Aries. It's not just to spite you, well, partially," The man laughed, a thick brassy sound, "You were right in choosing the Aries for its special qualities, a stealth ship like this is new technology. See, this establishment is a prison, it's not that glamorous but it is the best hiding spot. But I though, why not expand? This is one sector of one city. The black-market options here are limited. I think big, Mr. Morgan, as do you, I think, why not unite the world? Why not set up bases…everywhere? Why not make an underground source of power to directly influence every single person with our secret power. I'm thinking of an organization, kept low, but it will be everywhere. I don't want world domination, but I do want domination itself. Now, the Aries comes in as a ship I can reproduce. With an army of stealth ships I can get all the peons I need from every black-hearted prison on this planet. These men want some freedom, they want some power, some dignity, and I'm going to give it to them."
Morgan could see the gleam of pearly teeth in the darkness. He shuddered, suddenly feeling very small. His cell was nearly duplicate to the one he had slammed the princess-girl in, and he could feel her laughing at him, laughing at his karma attack.
"Now then, Mr. Morgan. It seems those little SeeDs are on to you. This would be a good time for you to leave Esthar while they are still here, no? We will move out tomorrow, and you will get the Aries. It's simple, you can break in anyway you wish, their security systems haven't been installed where you damaged their little home. We can take out any guards, and you can find and pilot the Aries. If you crash it, think of your sister, because we can make her life quite enjoyable."
Morgan twitched. His sister. He hadn't seen her in years since she was a decade younger than him, he didn't even know where she was. The little girl with jet-black hair and bright green eyes, running around, scampering up his back and wrapping her arms around his neck, giggling into his hair…
"Not Carrie," He whispered, "I'll fly the Aries,"
"Good, Mr. Morgan."
Xxxx
Quistis gleamed. She held in her hand a plastic-coated folder with Morgan's life story. She had already flipped through it, noting his family, and most specifically his father's death. Their involvement with weapon production was startling but it made perfect sense. Dropping the folder on to the table Quistis smiled brilliantly.
"There's no address or anything, but we know the people that he'd be involved with, and the direction he was taken in. He has one living relative, that we can also drill,"
"An' who's that?" Irvine asked curiously,
"A young girl, only twelve years old, named Carrie," Quistis replied, "we can lock down her whereabouts via the internet I'm sure. There's got to be some record of her somewhere. It doesn't list any public schools under her name, so perhaps she's in a private one,"
"What's her name again?" Seifer asked.
They were in a conference room with a laptop glowing in their faces and copies of Morgan's file spread around so Irvine and Michelle could look them over for anything Trepe had missed.
"Carrie," Quistis replied, sliding in front of the laptop and entering the Balamb Garden Instructor's special page.
LOGIN: Trepie04
PASSWORD:
Quistis smiled when her password was cleared and the depths of Garden were opened to her. Behind her Irvine gasped in surprise at all the options the woman had…including a special search engine made for locating people.
She entered in Carrie's full name and waited patiently for the information to load. Birth dates and previous homes came up immediately, followed by pages dedicated to acting and sports that the girl had been involved in. Quistis was faintly surprised, Carrie was a typical girl performing in typical child activities…including…
"She's a cadet. At Balamb." Quistis whispered in shock, "She's in Trianon's youngest class!"
"What?!" Irvine and Michelle leaned over Quistis' shoulder and Seifer stared at her as if she were nuts,
"She was enrolled two years ago by an anonymous donor who is still paying for her schooling. She's in four classes this semester, all typical,…fieldwork, diplomacy, history, and stealth tactics, she's smart too." Quistis was in awe, "I don't think Morgan knows she's in there,"
"If he did he would never have attacked Balamb," Seifer agreed, "But maybe he does know, maybe she's helping him,"
"True, that could be it," Michelle nodded, her eyes wide, "We need to talk to her right away! She could be leaking information!"
"What information could a twelve-year old have?" Irvine asked dubiously,
"We're going to find out. We'll head our investigation tomorrow, earlier than we planned, and depending on what we find we'll head straight to Balamb. In the meantime, I'll contact Trianon and have her keep an eye on Carrie," Quistis decided,
"This is such a maze," Seifer groaned,
"Welcome to being a SeeD." Quistis returned gravely.
Xxxx
Trianon blinked as, across the room from her, a small chime sounded.
"I have mail," She said in unison with the computerized voice.
Slipping over she slid into her desk seat and stared intently into the screen. A message from instructor Trepe and it read urgent. Opening it and scanning the letter briefly, Trianon opened the many attachments and raised her eyebrows. The life story of one of her students. Little Carrie. Involved in the destruction of Balamb?
"I doubt that."
Trianon stood and changed back into her uniform. She didn't like the starchy material and dark green wasn't really her colour but nevertheless she got into it and then strode out with a mission in her eyes. It was the afternoon and kids would be heading to their third class, Trianon already had Carrie that morning but she knew where to find the girl. Cadets had a block of training in this hour.
"Good afternoon Instructor Elvelyn," Trianon turned to see who was addressing her,
"Good afternoon Tristan," She replied softly,
"Heading to the Training Centre?"
"Yes,"
"Didn't you do training earlier this morning before classes?"
"I am looking for Cadet Carrie,"
"Good luck then, I'll see you later, we have a meeting at sixteen hundred thirty hours,"
"Thank you for reminding me."
Trianon bid him goodbye and kept walking. The meeting, she had indeed forgotten, had been scheduled out of the blue and so far not many knew what it was about. She had an inkling it would have something to do with the Aries, since the ship was now completed.
The training centre was balmy and marked with clusters of students fighting, exercising or taking breaks together. Trianon swept through them with her eyes tracing patterns over the many heads, looking for Carrie and finding her near the back where Selphie's summoning of Ifrit had cleared the land to a black plain. Covered in ash up to her knees she was using a silver-bladed axe to hack away at her enemy.
Waiting patiently until the girl finished, her chest heaving and eyes alight, Trianon stepped up and smiled thinly.
"Carrie, may I talk to you in my office for a moment?"
Carrie paled, suspecting the worst, especially since they had just had a test, but she wordlessly followed Trianon and put on a brave face. The tall woman lead the girl into her classroom and pushed some papers aside, motioning for Carrie to sit down.
"Carrie, you have an older brother,"
Carrie looked confused, "Yeah, Morgan…is he in trouble?"
Trianon noted the pain in her eyes and silently shook her head. Carrie's eyes filled with tears which confirmed Trianon's earlier hypothesis that Carrie had nothing to do with it.
"I haven't seen him in a long time," Carrie whispered,
"He was in charge for the recent attack on Garden. You are now a suspect," Trianon responded bluntly.
Carrie shrieked in surprise and stood up, then she dropped down immediately and apologized. Nodding once, Trianon looked at her papers and back to the girl who had begun to cry. Frowning sadly, Trianon stood up and stroked the girl's back.
"I don't believe you have anything to do with it," She told the girl, which seemed to help, "I think I have a way of proving your innocence as well. There is a manipulative Guardian Force that can peer into your mind and deal out a scenario. I suggest we use this GF on you, to find a scenario that proves your innocence, and have the prosecutors witness it. I need your consent," Trianon said evenly,
"Will it hurt?" Carrie asked, "This is what they did to Seifer…"
"I will direct the Guardian Force as best I can, do not worry," Trianon dropped down to eye-level with the girl, "I am a superior magic-wielder to most of those here at Garden. I will not let you be harmed Carrie."
The girl nodded, her green eyes troubled and red-rimmed. Trianon cleared her for the rest of the day and lead her back to her dorm where she made Carrie a cup of tea and settled her nerves somewhat. When the girl had fallen asleep, Trianon left for her own dorm and closed her eyes.
Psyche, can you hear me?
Trianon felt a shock run up her spine and in seconds she had hit the floor with a dull thud.
Review Please!
Author's Note:
I'm amused. When I reached my home on the island the creative juices began to flow. Usually I write a page a day, throughout the week, and have your update ready by the Friday. As soon as I got home I wrote ten pages over that evening and following morning. So I have this update plus the next, which is nice. I'm still going of course. I don't have my review database with me so I'll reply next week to all the reviews I've received, thank you all so much for giving them. It's really touching to have you "regulars" to look forward to. Thanks for the love and support!
Silverium.