Chapter Thirteen: Conflict

Rinoa trembled uncontrollably as she staggered down the open-air hallway from the infirmary and back into the Garden proper. She was still reeling from what she had seen, what she had done…

"What's up, boss?" Zell greeted as he jogged up to the pair waiting for him at the elevator.

"Dr. K contacted me and told me that Rinoa had done…something," Squall explained, waving his hands in frustration at the lack of a better explanation. "Since she's coming from the infirmary, she can't have gone too far."

"She might even be closer than we think…" Selphie said as she pointed to a lone figure, staggering along the hallway at the bottom of the stairs.

"Dude, it's like she's in a trance," Zell breathed, stunned at the sight of his traveling buddy. "Like the way she was back on the space station."

Squall sighed heavily and started toward his former lover, unsheathing the Lionheart as he moved. "Come on."

"I-Is that really necessary, Squall?" Selphie protested as she followed the commander.

"We don't know what she's done or how she's used her power," Squall replied as he started down the steps. "We can't take any chances."

"I get it," Zell sighed, tugging on his Ehrgeiz gloves as he also followed Squall down the stairs. "I hate it, but I get it. I'm Junctioned to the max, by the way."

Squall simply nodded in response as he turned his attention to the sorceress before him. "Rinoa."

The young woman somehow stopped on a dime, then turned slowly to face the trio of friends. "Squall…"

"What's wrong, Rin?" Selphie whimpered, though she held her weapons in a ready position.

"Why do you have your sword out-oh, right…" Rinoa said, her face a mask of sadness. "Your job is to kill the sorceress…"

"Dr. Kadowaki told me that you attacked her," Squall informed the distressed girl while keeping his blade between the two of them; he was also trying to ignore an ache in his chest. "I don't want to kill you if I don't have to…"

"'Squall's blade will pierce my heart'…" Rinoa murmured, barely loud enough for the trio to hear. "But he's done that already…"

A surge of pain shot through Squall's chest, and he nearly lost his grip on his gunblade as he dropped to one knee. "Zell," he gasped. "Don't kill her; just knock her out if you can."

"Squall?!" Selphie quickly sheathed her weapon to drop to her friend's side. "Are you okay?"

"Chest…hurts…" Squall grunted, his eyes squeezing shut at the pain. "She might….be using a spell…

"I haven't done anything, I promise!" Rinoa cried as Zell took a couple of hesitant steps toward her. "Zell, you believe me, don't you?"

"I…" Zell looked from the sorceress to the fallen commander with confusion. "I don't know what the hell to do!"

"That pain you feel is called 'the conviction of your conscience'," Squall heard as he felt a comforting hand come to rest on his shoulder, and he looked up into the smiling face of Headmaster Cid. "Let me handle this, okay?"

Squall could only nod, though the pain had already started to fade.

"Zell, stand down," Cid ordered as he approached the distressed sorceress. Giving her his full attention he asked, "Are you okay, sweetheart?"

Rinoa's face seemed to melt into tears. "I did a bad thing, sir…"

"I know you did," he replied comfortingly as he tenderly pulled her to his chest. "But I'm sure you'll be forgiven. You probably feel lost and frightened right now, don't you?"

"Yeah…" she whimpered, blinking more tears away as Squall struggled to his feet with Selphie's assistance. "I feel so…alone."

"Losing your relationship with Squall must have been hard, huh?" he asked as he stealthily waved away a curious onlooker. "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," she muffled into his shirt. "It's mine. I'm…I'm so immature."

"How so?" he asked with compassion laced with genuine curiosity.

She gently pushed away from the older man to wipe at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Well, I treated Squall and Zell and Selphie like things instead of people. Here I was, trying to be a big hero, while using Squall and Zell and Selphie like…well, things."

"But it was their job to follow your orders," he politely countered.

"But that doesn't mean that I could do anything I wanted with them," she huffed. "And I feel terrible for what I did to your doctor; she's a really nice lady who was trying to help me, and I'm afraid she'll never forgive me."

"I'm sure she will," came another voice, and everyone looked to see Doctor Kadowaki heading toward them, with a young woman in a candidate uniform behind her. "In fact, she'll also thank you for what you did for her patient."

Before anyone could react, the mighty sorceress ducked around Balamb Garden's headmaster, putting him between her and the physician. "I'm so sorry!" she wailed. "I'm so sorry!"

"Young lady, stop hiding," Kadowaki said in a stern yet kind tone. "Adults do not hide from their problems."

"She's right, sweetheart," Cid agreed, looking over his shoulder at the terrified teen. "You have the chance to make things right; take it."

Rinoa looked up into Cid's kind face, and in her eyes he could see an abandoned girl, almost as much an orphan as any of the children his wife had cared for. "O-Okay," she finally managed.

She'd barely stepped out from behind the headmaster before she found herself wrapped in another embrace, this one from the good doctor. "I'm so sorry if I upset you," Kadowaki told her in a soothing voice. "I'm so used to talking to soldiers that my bedside manner's not what it could be."

Rinoa briefly froze in surprise; she was supposed to be the 'bad person', the 'evil sorceress', but here was her victim apologizing to her? "But…But I-"

"I forgive you," the doctor said as she caressed the younger woman's hair. "You've had a lot thrown at you and I wasn't very sympathetic."

"But you were right," Rinoa argued even as she snuggled into the motherly embrace. "I've been so immature…"

"R-Request permission to speak?" Tisky spoke up meekly as she stood at attention.

"Of course, Miss Barstow," Cid answered. "It's nice to see your leg's better; I'd read that it had been severed, but it appears that I misread the report."

"It was severed, sir," she replied as she relaxed her stance. "But Miss Rinoa here came in and put me to sleep, and when I woke up my leg had been restored."

"Seriously?!" Zell asked with a goofy grin, then strode up to his sorceress friend. "You fixed 'er up?"

Rinoa reflexively shrank under his intensity until she remembered who he was. "I…I did, yeah; it just seemed so unfair that she'd lost her leg like that, and I wanted to do what I could to help."

"SUH-WEEEEEET!" He thumped her on the back, nearly sending her to the floor. "Oh…uh, sorry. But dude, that's awesome! How'd you pull that off?"

"Maybe we should continue this in my office," Cid suggested, gesturing to the elevator. He then led the way, with Rinoa following him, partly supported by Tisky. Behind them followed Squall and Selphie, the latter of whom repeatedly looked from the raven-haired sorceress to her commander and back.

"I really don't understand all of it myself," Rinoa admitted as she sat in one of the plush chairs across from Cid's desk; Dr. Kadowaki sat in the other chair, while Tisky and Selphie sat in folding chairs that Zell and Squall had brought in, while the men themselves leaned against the wall. "It was like the more I looked at her leg, the more I could see it."

"Fascinating…" Cid breathed, leaning forward to rest his arms on the wooden desk before him. "And how did you know what you needed to do to restore her limb?"

"I…really don't know," she replied with an apologetic glance toward the physician, who simply smiled. "I just knew, somehow."

"Maybe it's a sorceress thing?" Zell suggested, pushing himself off the wall, though he kept his arms crossed. "Hey, HM; couldn't Matron help us out with this?"

"Or help Rinoa, for that matter," Squall added, pushing himself off as well. "She did offer her support and guidance before, didn't she?"

"Hey, you're right!" Selphie exclaimed, hopping up from her seat. "I'll bet she could tell Rinoa all sorts of things that would help!"

"I had forgotten about that," Cid admitted, absently tapping his fingers on the desktop. "All right, then; I'll talk to Edea as soon as we're done here." He sent the young sorceress a gentle smile. "Miss Rinoa, would you be available for dinner tonight?"

"S-Sir?" Rinoa gasped, her hand flying to her chest.

Cid's smile turned mildly awkward. "Well, if I know my wife half as well as I think, she'll want to invite you for dinner; One, so we can talk during dinner and Two, so the two of you can talk privately afterward. Do you think you could be free?"

Rinoa looked around the room at the expressions of kindness and concern before looking back to the headmaster. "I'd be happy to come. Thank you."

"We'll contact you once we've figured things out," he told her as he got to his feet. "Now, I hope you won't think me rude, but I need to talk with my staff for a bit."

"If you don't need me for anything, I could see her out," Dr. Kadowaki offered.

"That'd be perfectly fine, thank you," Cid replied with an approving nod. "See you later, Miss Rinoa." He then exchanged a friendly wave with the young sorceress, and as she followed the physician out the office door he was relieved to see that the smile she gave him looked more genuine, more relaxed. He then settled back into his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. "That could have gone a lot worse," he murmured to no one in particular.

"Did we do something wrong?" Selphie asked worriedly.

"No, no…" Cid replied, waving a reassuring hand. "You followed protocol to the letter. I understand that it was hard to raise your weapons against a friend, though."

"No kidding," Zell murmured as he rubbed at his tattoo.

"W-With all respect, sir," Tisky started with an apologetic expression, "if I'm not needed for this, may I be excused?"

"Huh?" With as caught up as he had been in the situation, Cid had nearly forgotten that the candidate was present. "Oh! No, Miss Barstow; you're dismissed. Thank you for your patience."

"Y-You're welcome," she replied as she rose from her seat to salute her superiors, who stood as well to return her gesture. "Gentlemen, ma'am; have a pleasant day."

"You too, Tiss," Selphie replied as she exchanged a hug with the surprised girl. "Take care of that leg, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am," Tisky replied with an awkward smile as she reached for the door handle. "Have a pleasant day."

Squall smiled at the exchange, but held off on saying anything until after the door had shut behind the candidate. "Sir, you said something earlier that… Well, I'm not sure what you meant."

"About the conviction of your conscience?" Cid replied with a knowing smile.

"Yes, sir."

The headmaster leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his stomach. "You and Rinoa were very close, went through a lot together, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"So it must have been difficult to raise your gunblade toward her," he suggested.

The pause before the commander's response was unmistakable. "It's…my job to protect everyone from the sorceress as well as the sorceress from the world."

"…and, sometimes, the sorceress from herself," Cid added.

"Yeah… I mean, yes, sir," Squall quickly amended.

Cid smiled up at the stoic young man. "I think we can relate on some level; wouldn't you agree, Sorceress' Knight?"

Squall blinked in surprise; he'd forgotten that Cid would have to have been Edea's knight, and to order his SeeDs to fight her… "I guess so, sir… But I think you had it harder."

"Maybe," Cid replied offhandedly as he straightened in his seat again. "But the heart is a very volatile thing, and what can be easy for one can be nearly impossible for another."

"Don't you know it," Zell quipped with a goofy grin, apparently thinking of his extremely introverted girlfriend.

Selphie watched with interest as Squall's eyes briefly lost focus. "I'm not sure I understand, but I'll think about it."

Cid noticed the intelligence chief's expression and inwardly smiled. "I believe you'll understand the idea, and very soon," he told the commander. "I have faith in you; in all of you, in fact."

"Thank you, sir," Squall replied, reflexively saluting.

There was a brief yet heavy silence in the room before the headmaster spoke again. "At this point I don't see anything more that needs to be discussed. If none of you need anything from me, then you're dismissed."

"Yes, sir," Squall replied, and everyone stood to salute their beloved headmaster. "Have a good day, sir."

"Thank you, you too," Cid replied as he returned the salute.

"Catch ya later, boss," Zell added as he dropped his hand and headed for the door.

"Bye-bye, HM," Selphie said, giving her trademark wave before taking Squall by the arm. "C'mon, Squall; let's figure out what movie we're going to see."

"Movie?" Zell froze with the door held open and watched somewhat stupidly as Selphie half-dragged Squall out the office door. After they left his line-of-sight he looked back at the headmaster. "Hey, uh…Anything I should know here, boss?"

Cid spread his hands with a look of innocence. "Not that I'm aware of."

Zell stared at him for a moment, then out the door where his friends had departed, then straight ahead before shaking his head. "Weird…" he finally decided as he left, quietly closing the door behind him.

Finally alone in his office, Cid stretched his arms over his head and enjoyed the feel of several popping joints before leaning back again, with his hands behind his head. "Not quite what I would have expected, but I'm glad to see everything's going so well…"