Kindred Spirits Part Six: Kindred Spirits
The answer was right on the tip of Kai Hallen's tongue.
Buried somewhere in the reams of data that he had collected over the past twelve hours-the files on the mission in Deling City, the attached studies on GF that were appended to Quistis' psychological reports, even the medical data on Casey Wellon that he had hacked for his own education-was the answer to what Aileen was. Even as Aileen made her rather frightening pronouncement that she had merely been toying with them, and that her true power was twenty times greater, it nagged at Kai. Somewhere in here, he thought, looking at the computer, is the answer. The trick is to find it before she kills Quistis, Eric, and Aiko. He was absolutely terrified that he was overlooking the obvious, and it was going to cost someone their life. "Easy, Kai," he told himself, "think like that and someone will die." He rose to his feet and began to pace the length of the boat's control area, trying to find what he sought. It's the GF, he thought, all of this bears on the GF. But why? For the sake of the others, Kai knew that he had to find it out, and fast.
Aileen exploded towards Quistis and Eric, covering the distance between them in less time than it takes to tell. She kicked Quistis in the ribs hard, simultaneously slashing at Eric with a stroke that he parried, his arm going numb from the impact. Eric managed to return the stroke, but Grieving Angel only found air. Aileen was now behind Quistis, who was still falling backwards from the kick. She aimed a strike at Quistis' back that looked to break her spine, yet she-and Eric-had once again underestimated Quistis. She turned her backward motion into a neat head-over-heels roll, and Aileen's sword just missed. Quistis cracked Save the Queen at Aileen's right knee and managed to topple her. Aileen did not wait around; she bounded to her feet, landing on a catwalk on the side of the communications tower. She raised her right hand and unleashed a series of rapid fire pulses at them.
"Oh, damn," Quistis heard herself say as she dove to avoid the first barrage. The blasts hit the ground behind her and exploded with the force of a hundred piledrivers, throwing her forward. She wasn't certain where Eric was, but she hoped he would join in if he was able. She hit the ground and, hoping that Aileen wasn't immune to status spells, cast Blind towards her.
Aileen staggered backward, a second group of pulses that were aimed their way now blasting the edge of the cliff opposite of her. Eric accelerated toward her from out of nowhere, Grieving Angel raised over his head. Aileen somehow managed to raise her sword, yet Grieving Angel smashed through it, shattering whatever it was composed of, and buried itself in her shoulder. Eric withdrew the blade and gave her a backhanded blow that knocked her to the ground below.
Quistis closed on her, hoping to end it, which was when Aileen turned toward her, lying on her back, and caught her with a blast of power. Her Shell held-barely-yet the force of the blow sent her flying back at the tower. Eric appeared, again from nowhere, and caught her in his arms. Aileen, now back to her feet, sent a bolt of energy their way that made the very air boil. Eric, still holding Quistis, leaped away, but shrapnel from the resulting explosion tore into his back. He dropped Quistis and spun towards on Aileen, Grieving Angel flying from its sheath like silver lightning, just in time to meet another energy bolt. He managed to deflect it, sending it soaring into the hills where it detonated with a force that shook the area. "She's not kidding," Eric panted, out of breath from his exertions.
"I noticed," Quistis said. Seeing blood through the tears in his jacket, she told him "You're hurt."
"Tell me about it later."
She cast a Curaga spell on him as Aileen stopped her attack and wagged a finger at Eric. "You know, that sword of yours is making things problematic. It's well equipped for defending my attacks."
"Sorry for the inconvenience," Eric called.
Aileen smiled. "I'm sure you aren't, swordsman. However, you are making it hard for me to kill Quistis, and as you just demonstrated, I'm not up to your skills with a blade. So I think I'll find you a playmate. After all, it's just her I want to kill myself. So long as Lord Urizen receives your blade, the manner of your death is unimportant."
"I'm sure that hurt your feelings," Quistis quipped.
"I was hoping for the up close and personal death."
Aileen raised her arms to full extension from her shoulders, her eyes glowing red with malice and power. A red-orange aura filled the air around her, the ground cracking, and small rocks began floating into the air. "This is an aspect of my power that you have yet to face, kids. You're gonna love this." A shape appeared beside her, surrounded by her aura, indistinct, possibly humanoid judging by the silhouette. Aileen focused her power, eyes closed now, as the shape wavered for a moment, then began to come into focus. Eric and Quistis stood wary, wondering what was coming for them this time.
For her part, Aileen was strangely pleased. What she was trying to accomplish here was a talent that she wasn't certain she possessed; it was a talent that Urizen had told her was inherent to the Annointed, and some of the lesser Dominions, and he had often compared her to those. She focused her power on the sub-etheric plane, becoming a conduit, the opener of the way, and summoned the Minion. It took form beside of her, an entity that stood some nine feet tall, hugely muscled, its grey skin covered with diamond shaped plates at the shoulders and over the elbows and knees. Its bald head was nearly featureless; the eyes narrow white slits, the mouth a line that was almost a sketch. In its hands it held a sword, similar to the one she had generated, only this blade was seven feet long from pommel to tip and weighed perhaps five hundred pounds. It took a step forward and roared, in as much rage as pain. Drawing the Unformed to this world is not pleasant for them, she thought. "Say hello to an, ah, associate of mine," she called to her foes. "He's a native of where you sent me, Quistis, and he obeys my every command." She snapped her fingers and pointed at Eric. "Minion, make him dead. And bring back his sword, for Lord Urizen." It raised its monstrous sword and howled wordlessly, then it lifted one hand and a wide beam of power raced towards them. The explosion drove Eric away from Quistis, forcing him away from Aileen, towards the cliff that led to the road back to Dollet. Quistis rolled to avoid the fire of the explosion, unable to see Eric, feeling the wind of the monster's passage as it attacked. She called Eric's name and wasn't shocked when Aileen appeared in front of her. "Oh, Quisty, when you call a guy's name you need to make it more breathy. He'd love it if you did it in his ear. Of course, you'll be dead before you can."
Quistis hauled off and punched Aileen squarely in the nose, as hard as she could. She would have liked to have been rewarded by some sort of sign of injury, blood or something, yet Aileen just took it. She merely slapped Quistis across the face, a blow that hurt more than any Aileen had delivered yet. Quistis fell back, barely conscious, yet she still managed to cast a Quake spell at point-blank range. Maybe this will slow her down, she hoped. The ground rose up in a tumult beneath Aileen's feet, waves of force hammering into her. Quistis landed on her feet just outside of the zone of influence of the Quake spell, which caused Aileen to fall to her knees. She looked up at Quistis and grinned, amazingly enough. "You have drawn a lot of magic, haven't you? A pity it won't save you."
"Well, a girl can dream, can't she?" Quistis asked. She cracked Save the Queen against the ground threateningly. "You still want to fight me, Aileen?"
"Naturally," Aileen replied, rising to her feet, energy glowing around her fists. "Were you hoping I'd say otherwise?"
"Like I said, I can dream."
Aiko had clambered into the front seat of the RMP car, "accidentally" catching Fullar in the ribs with an elbow (the better to voice her displeasure with him) once Eric had left. Fullar was watching as explosions rose into the sky around the tower, at a loss for words. He looked at her and managed to say "What are you all fighting, Miss Hayashibara? What is going on here?"
"About your typical Saturday night for SeeD," she replied. She was enjoying the increasing realization that was coming to Fullar, that maybe, just maybe, there were things that the RMP should stay out of. Mostly, though, she worried about Eric and Quistis as well. "Can't you drive any faster?" she complained. Worried about Quistis, she thought, now that's a new one. My rep would be shot if anyone heard about this.
Fullar rather suddenly jammed on the brakes and shouted, "Get out!" at Aiko. She looked out the windshield and saw two glowing blurs racing down the road at them. She grabbed her combat staff and managed to get clear of the car an instant before the two forms blasted past, the force of their passage knocking the car end for end. Aiko leaped back to her feet and spun to watch the two combatants-and her keen vision could discern that whomever it was that had gone by, they were fighting-as they fought their way up the side of the hills, out of sight. "Damn," she said, awed. She had a pretty good idea who one of the fighters was, and she wished Eric well. Before she could make an attempt to follow, a new series of explosions rang out from below. She and Fullar had reached the cliffs above the entrance to the tower, she saw as she ran forward, and saw Quistis, doing her best to avoid another fusillade of energy attacks from Aileen. Fullar came up beside her and cried, "What is going on here?"
Aiko sighed and cast a Sleep spell on Fullar, who fell over to the ground. With any luck, she thought, the other RMP goofs with him will worry over him so much that they'll stay out of the way. She gripped her staff tighter and, cursing a blue streak, jumped over the edge of the cliff, unwittingly following a trail that Selphie Tilmitt had blazed during her field exam in Dollet.
Aileen had managed to catch Quistis off guard and now held her by the throat, one handed, cutting off her air. "You know, this is not a dignified way to die, Quistis," she said, condescendingly.
"Sorry I'm not-dying well enough for you," Quistis gasped. She concentrated and cast a Firaga spell at Aileen, taking some of the brunt herself. Aileen fell back, clutching at her face in as much surprise as anything else. Quistis lay on the ground, trying to catch her wind, as Aileen shouted incoherently. "Why won't you die?" she asked Quistis rhetorically. She raised her power again, meaning this time to incinerate Quistis.
Which was when Aiko appeared, scoring with a beautiful flying kick to the face that had all her strength behind it.
Aileen, caught off guard by the attack, flew the distance between Quistis and the tower in a heartbeat. She smashed into an area already damaged in the battle, wreckage falling on top of her. "YES!" Aiko shouted, "I am the girl!"
Quistis got to her feet, breathing heavily. She could discern Aileen within the twisted metal, flames from the explosions that the battle had caused licking at her. Somehow Quistis doubted it was over, but it was a breather. "Thanks," she said to Aiko.
"Don't mention it, unless you can get me bumped up to SeeD level seven and get me a pay raise. Where's Eric?"
For answer, a series of globular explosions rang out over a half-mile distance in the hills around them. "He's fighting something Aileen summoned, some kind of monster. Just how strong is Eric?"
"Strange time to ask that, the middle of a fight."
"I might not survive this fight, Aiko."
Aiko was forced to acknowledge that Quistis had a point. However, she had no good answer for Quistis. "I don't know how strong he is, hon. Just hope it's strong enough."
Aileen had finally made a mistake, Eric thought as he avoided the shots that the Minion was hurling his way.
The monster seemed perplexed that he was avoiding or deflecting all of the attacks that it threw at him, which was not all that surprising; as a SeeD, Eric had only seen a few people move at the speed that he was currently moving-Squall and Seifer were among them-and never over this kind of distance. Squall and Seifer were capable of it, but their training lacked. Eric swung Grieving Angel at a ball of energy, sending it soaring into the sky, and then he closed on the Minion, his sword glowing with force. The Minion met his attack with a thundering parry that shook the ground, then both of them went at it blade to blade, moving so fast that few alive could see them. Eric planted a kick into the Minion's side, but paid for it as the creature opened a palm and fired a ball of energy at him. Eric got Grieving Angel up, the kinetic energy of the attack driving him backwards. The ball threatened to beat his defenses, but with a shout he managed to hurl the attack back at the Minion. The Minion speeded up, avoiding the attack, and reappeared behind Eric, it's huge weapon raised for a killing blow.
Eric blocked the attack blindly, Grieving Angel going over his left shoulder and catching the blade of the Minion's sword with his. He whirled and struck at the Minion with a blow that caused it to stagger backward, giving Eric a moment to go for the kill. He focused the power that was his/Grieving Angel's, blue-white fire rising from the blade, and he swung the sword in the direction of the Minion. A wave of power rushed towards the Minion, enveloping it in a cocoon of lethal force. It swept past the Minion, uprooting trees and hurling rock and topsoil into the sky before detonating. Eric covered his eyes with one hand, the shock wave of the explosion pounding him. You messed up, Aileen, he thought. I was born to kill things like this.
The smoke cleared, and Eric was a bit surprised to see the Minion, battered and bruised yet still standing. Held too much back, he decided as the Minion moved to attack again. Am I scared of my power?
As Quistis and Aiko watched, Aileen forced the metal that imprisoned her away with a wave of her arms and leaped free. She wore only a few scraps of the blue dress, burns covering most of her body. She glared at them and as she did, her flesh repaired itself, and new clothing-a male SeeD uniform-wrapped itself around her. "She's regenerating herself," Quistis said in awe. "How can we beat her?"
Aileen raised her arms over her head and began to laugh. "That's just it, you can't, can you, Quisty?" Rapid fire beams of energy began raining from her palms, and both Quistis and Aiko retreated, their fear giving them the agility to climb the steep cliff behind them in a series of leaps that stretched yards at a time. They reached the top of the cliff and were hurled forward by a series of blasts. "You know, Quistis, I'm starting to really dislike your friend," Aiko called.
Aileen appeared at the top of the cliff, and Quistis let her have it, casting Meteor at her. Just to be sarcastic, as the meteors began to strike around Aileen, Aiko cast a simple Blizzard spell at her. As Aileen defended Aiko's spell, the meteors that Quistis had summoned began to pound her. Aiko and Quistis retreated further down the hill, past the RMP officers that were trying to revive the sleeping Fullar. Feeling a bit of sympathy for him, Aiko cast Dispel on him as they passed. "I'd leave, gentlemen," Quistis shouted as the Meteor spell sent destruction falling on Aileen. She hoped that would do enough damage to slow Aileen down until Eric returned-for one thing, Quistis was down to her last two major attacks, and neither was one she really wanted to use. And for another, if he came back, that would be because he had survived.
Aileen did not wait for the Meteor spell to finish before she rushed them, scattering Fullar and his officers like tenpins and heading at them. "Oh hell," Aiko said, raising her staff, "she's coming to kick our asses."
Aileen went for Aiko, throwing a wild haymaker punch that Aiko blocked with her staff, the impact sending shivers up her arms. Aiko tried to remember everything that Quistis and others had taught her about the tactics of two people fighting one, and made sure Quistis had avenues of attack as she stepped up to Aiko, striking with her staff. Aileen blocked blows that, backed by her junctions, could shatter stone, with her forearms. Quistis joined in, approaching Aileen at an angle, Save the Queen slicing the air. Aileen avoided the attack, which was just a feint to allow Aiko the chance to attack. Her staff met Aileen's ribs as she moved to dodge Quistis, and the impact was frightening. Quistis added a shot from her chain whip that took Aileen from the opposite side from Aiko's attack. Aileen took a step back, staggering for a moment, and then she grinned at them. "Sorry. Just admiring your teamwork. It was so lovely," she sneered. "I'm through playing, Quisty."
She moved at full speed, already kneeing Aiko in the stomach when she could be seen again. Blood came from Aiko's mouth along with her breath; Aileen chopped at Aiko's back, driving her into the ground. Quistis tried to cry out Aiko's name, but Aileen appeared in front of her, elbowing her in the face. Quistis felt her nose shatter, and she nearly lost consciousness; Aileen kicked her across the jaw, putting her down. "Poor little Quistis," she mocked, "I've broken your pretty face. Your boyfriend will be very unhappy." She bent and lifted Quistis by one hand. "Isn't this where we always wind up, Quisty?" she wondered, clenching her fist, energy surrounding her hand.
Kai was of two minds as the battle raged.
On the one hand, he was terribly worried as he listened to his friends as they battled helplessly against Aileen, actually hearing the explosions through the hull of the boat. On the other, though, he was lost in thought, scanning the data he had gathered with a mechanical precision, trying to find the thread that bound all of it together. My friends will not die because of me, he thought.
When the commo board called for his attention, Kai answered it practically on remote control, merely mumbling "Hallen here," as an answer.
"Hallen, it's the Combat Master. We're en route, what's the situation?"
Oh, Kai thought, now you're coming. You let Quistis talk you into going after Aileen nearly alone and now you're coming to save her. Great. "It's bad, They're fighting the enemy right now and getting their butts kicked. What's your ETA?" As he waited for an answer, he paged through more data, and for once made a mistake, accidentally calling up the medical recording that he had gotten when Aiko had tried to summon a GF earlier. The computers always recorded the earbead data, so he had the entire summoning sequence, the gentle curve that marked the alignment part of the summoning…
…And it all hit Kai then, avalanching into his mind with such force that he felt he was going to faint. "Oh my God," he thought, bending over his computer, "I know what Aileen is."
Eric and the Minion were battling blade to blade again, their battle uprooting trees and sending flashes of light leaping into the night sky. Neither fighter had gained an advantage over the other, which was not what Eric wanted. Quistis and Aiko need me. Eric sent a series of strikes at the Minion, who parried each, but Eric's intent had changed. He drove the Minion back towards the edge of a ridgeline, his attacks with a specific design. If my father was right, he thought, the Minion is designed for combat, almost mechanically. So with any luck…the Minion's feet reached the edge, and Eric thrust straight at its chest, driving it backwards. As he had hoped, the Minion stumbled and fell backwards down the side of the ridge. Eric sheathed Grieving Angel and, in a heartbeat, generated his beam attack. The beam hit the Minion square on and drove it into the ground, a gigantic globular explosion following the impact. Eric reached out with senses that his father had trained him in and did not sense the Minion. "Well, what do you know," he whispered, "it worked." Eric looked across the valley, seeing the light of energy blasts racing towards the bridge that led out of Dollet. "How did they get there?" he asked. Then it hit him, and he smiled. "Aiko, you really are getting into the spirit of things."
Aileen was ready to end Quistis' life when a familiar crack rang out and something embedded itself in her shoulder. She turned and nearly laughed when she saw Allin Fullar standing there, a smoking handgun of Galbadian manufacture in his hands. "Oh, dear, the RMP. Are you going to arrest me, dear officer?"
"If I would I could. But I'm not going to let you kill those girls, monster."
Aileen tossed Quistis over her shoulder and faced Fullar fully. "Silly man, I am immortal now. And you are just a man."
"Perhaps. But I have my duty."
"As do I." Aileen lifted a hand and built her power. "Say your prayers, little human." She fired a ball of energy at him; however, just before it hit Fullar, someone jumped at him, pushing him aside. She turned to see Aiko, standing next to where Quistis was regaining her feet, holding Fullar by his shoulders. "I thought I had finished you, you bimbo," Aileen snarled.
"Eric isn't the only one with secrets, or surprises," Aiko said. "And it takes a bimbo to know one." A greenish aura surrounded her and the others, and Aiko grinned. "I hope that this works…Flash Teleport!"
The aura seemed to collapse into the air, Aiko, Quistis, and Fullar not so much disappearing as being pulled into where ever the aura had taken them. Aileen stared, stunned, at where they had been. "Wow, cool trick. Is everybody hiding their power from SeeD now?" She focused her senses on the disruption that Aiko had ripped in the fabric of reality and tracked it to the end-not too far away. "I'm coming, little bimbo. Don't you worry."
Aiko, Quistis and Fullar appeared at the end of the bridge that led back to Dollet, and at once Aiko swooned and nearly fell over. Quistis supported her and asked, quite logically, "What did you do?"
"My little secret. Flash Teleport. It's how I met Eric-his father was one of the people that trained me in it." Aiko stepped away from Quistis. "I never told anyone about it because it's dangerous to use."
"That may be, but hiding things like that isn't going to go over very well with Squall." How much are they hiding from us, and why, Quistis thought. "You and Eric have a lot of explaining to do."
"Kinda figures that you'd worry about protocol when I just saved our lives." Aiko pointed into the hills; a thunderbolt of red was racing towards them. "Well, I saved them for the moment." she admitted. "Here she comes again."
Quistis made a decision. "Aiko, Fullar, get going. I'm running out of tricks to use." She turned and began to run across the bridge, letting Aiko and Fullar go in front of her. As Aileen neared, using her power to levitate herself, she began raining bolts of power on them. "Get to the other side," Quistis yelled, not that they needed any encouragement. As she reached the halfway point of the bridge, she stopped to face Aileen. Her former friend landed on the bridge, arms crossed. "Well, that was clever of the little tramp," Aileen said. "I didn't think SeeD had a teleporter."
"Neither did I." Quistis closed her eyes and reached into her supply of magics, finding the one spell that she should not have, the one Squall had drawn from Ultimecia in the future and had given to a few SeeDs, among them Quistis. She only could cast this spell twice, and she hoped it would be enough. She cast the spell silently, and a haze, like that from gasoline, filled the air. Aileen felt the power building and, with the closest thing to fear that Quistis had heard in her voice yet, asked, "What are you doing?"
"My secret, Aileen." Quistis brought her hands in front of her and called the name of the spell that she hoped would bring this battle to an end. "Apocalypse!"
Incomprehensible forces hit Aileen then, rending the very fabric of reality itself. They had barely survived this spell in the future-it had been a near thing-and Quistis hoped that the fact that Aileen was not aware of it's existence would keep her from being able to mount a defense. Aileen screamed in agony, the spell fracturing her very being, until finally her power was unleashed in one monstrous blast. Quistis turned and ran, feeling under her feet the bridge shudder as it began to collapse in both directions. The bridge fell into the river below in sections, Quistis on the last section as it began to fall. Not quite ready to die, Quistis jumped, Save the Queen whipping out and catching an outcropping of stone. She swung back into the side of the cliff with an impact that caused her to see stars, and she nearly lost her grip. The sound of the bridge falling was enormous, huge blocks of concrete smashing into the river below. Oh, man, am I going to get it now, she thought. We'll be in debt for decades paying that back. She felt the whip's hold on the outcropping slip, and she thought that it would be ironic to die on the heels of Aileen.
Aiko removed the irony from the situation by grabbing the whip with both hands and pulling. "You know, you could put those boots of yours to good use and help," she remarked sarcastically.
"Wise ass," Quistis replied with a bit of affection, using her feet to climb the riverbank.
"I understand it now," Kai said to Squall. "It's the thing that we constantly overlooked that is the key."
Aboard the Ragnarok, Squall rubbed at the scar on his forehead. "I'm lost, Hallen. So cut to the chase."
"Sorry, sir. We were so worried about the fact that Quistis was hiding something, or so we thought, that we forgot the other victim here. Casey Wellon."
"Yeah," Selphie cried, "poor little Casey. That Aileen girl attacked her first."
"I don't think that's the case at all, Miss Tilmitt," Kai interjected. "Squall, sir, did you ever find any sensor evidence to indicate how Aileen gained entry to Balamb Garden?"
"No, we never did. I was thinking that she used some kind of stealth tech, but obviously not."
"No, sir. Aileen told Quistis that when she was killed while summoning a GF, her consciousness found itself in the sub-etheric plane that most GF come from. Her behavior is similar to that of a GF; she has demonstrated the ability to manifest herself at any point and like Quistis said, she uses non-typed energy, similar to GF like Bahamut. Plus she has shown an ability to interfere with GF, first, by somehow, probably via the mind link she established with Quistis, causing the GF-supported hypnotherapy she'd gone under to fail."
"I guess it's good that Dr. Kadowaki confessed what had been done to her, or we would never had found it out," Squall said.
"You can fine me later, sir. Secondly, Aiko tried to summon a GF and was unable to in Aileen's presence. So she clearly operates on frequencies that are close to those of a GF, close enough that she can actively interfere with GF." Kai started to bring it home. "As you know, while there are naturally occurring GF, such as Cerberus and the Brothers, most GF live in the sub-ether. And once they're junctioned, even GF that begin in the real world are stored in the sub-ether and obey its laws. They have to be summoned to this plane through a specific electromagnetic alignment of the host mind."
"Hallen, what are you driving at!" Squall bellowed.
"A GF has to be summoned! And Aileen behaves like a GF! SO WHO SUMMONS HER?"
Aiko pulled Quistis back up to her feet and, caught by an impulse that she couldn't understand, hugged the older woman. "What was that for?" Quistis asked.
"Oh, the fact that I don't have to explain to Eric how I let you die." She released her teacher. "Don't tell anyone, okay?"
"Oh, no, it'll be all over the Garden as soon as I can get back to Balamb." She looked out over the destruction that her spell had wreaked. "Wow. I overdid it."
Fullar stepped up beside of them and whistled. "I am not authorized to deal with this kind of damage," he said in a business-like tone.Quistis and Aiko looked at each other and then began to laugh.
"Oh, girls," Aileen's voice said from nowhere, "let me in on the joke."
She stepped out of the thin air at the end of the bridge, again unscathed from the attack. Quistis considered her torn clothes, the cuts and scrapes that she had, Aiko's similar condition, and swore. What do we have to do to beat her? Quistis heard the sound of voices murmuring, and, risking a glance over her shoulder, saw that people were starting to fill the street, responding to the destruction of the bridge. "Commander Fullar, I would recommend that you get those people off the street. They're just targets for her." Fullar nodded and ran down the street, waving his arms and shouting warnings.
Aileen sneered. "There you go again, worrying about others. It's going to kill you."
"Just means nothing else will," Quistis replied.
Aileen lifted one hand above her head, her power surrounding her fingers. "Well, shall we go again? This is so boring-"
A flash of silver blurred behind her, and she staggered forward, the blast she meant for Quistis going wild and shooting down into the river. Eric appeared in front of her, Grieving Angel impaling her through the breastbone. He withdrew the blade and flipped back to where Quistis and Aiko stood as Aileen fell to her knees. "Hi," he said modestly, "you've been using your hidden talents, haven't you, Aiko?"
"Well, I did it to save your lady's life," she chirped.
Eric blushed. "She's not my lady, Aiko. How are you doing, Quistis?"
"Been better. She's back up again." Eric assumed his normal stance as Aileen got up, the wound in her chest visibly closing. Stubborn girl, Eric thought.
"You bastard," Aileen croaked, "what happened to the Minion?"
"I killed it. You needed to pick better help."
"Maybe." Aileen's aura rose again, white-hot this time. "And maybe it's time I used the full force of my power."
"Funny," Eric replied, "I was thinking the same thing."
Kai, infuriating Squall and the others, had insisted that he contact Dr. Kadowaki before he continued with his argument. She was in her office in the infirmary, her picture coming to him via the vid-link on her computer. "Dr. Kadowaki, you have still not found a physical cause for Casey's coma, have you?" Kadowaki nodded. "And her readings haven't changed, right?"
"No, they haven't. Still the same, Mr. Hallen."
Kai tapped commands into his keyboard. "I'm sending you and Squall something. I, er, hacked Casey's records out of boredom, so one is her brain wave scan. The second is Aiko's med readings when she tried to summon a GF, modified. You see, I think I know what's going on with Casey."
"What are you getting at?" Kadowaki asked.
Kai rolled the dice, as this was all theory. "I think Aileen is junctioned to Casey."
Aileen attacked again, her power a living thing that threatened to overwhelm her foes.
They battled down the street, heading for the town square, Aileen defending or avoiding every attack as she landed blows that threw Eric, Quistis, and Aiko around like rag dolls. Eric, blood running down his face from a cut over his right eye, threw herself at Aileen, Grieving Angel slashing, and he scored with a blow that hurled Aileen through the fountain at the center of the town square. Quistis cast Meltdown, hoping to lower Aileen's defenses, as Aiko cast a Thundara spell at her. The Meltdown spell did its job, as Aileen howled in pain from the relatively low level spell, and the battle continued.
Aileen accelerated, getting behind them, using raw force to drive them down the street. Windows shattered and cars were smashed by the power that Aileen used, and only their junctioned strength kept them alive. Quistis, from her back, played a card that probably wouldn't work, using the Blue Magic Degenerator. Eerie waves of what seemed to be almost solid sound played over Aileen, yet the attack, which normally dispatched a target to another place, failed. "Ooh," Aileen cooed, "that tickled."
"Well I had to try," she admitted. She cracked Save the Queen at Aileen, who dodged it by sending a flying kick at Aiko. Aiko ducked it, but she was wide open for a burst of energy that caught her in the back and sent her rolling to Quistis' feet.
Screaming in fury, Eric closed on Aileen, Grieving Angel glowing. Aileen caught his sword in both hands and stopped him in his tracks. "Amazing. I see how attracted you are to Quistis and yet hurting the bimbo really got you mad." She tried to force Eric back, and found, to her shock, that he refused to give ground. Aileen strained against him, the white of her power field merging with the blue-white of his. "You-how can you be doing this?" she asked, bewildered. Eric did not answer, just pushed her backward with both physical strength and his field. Aileen took a blast of energy from Grieving Angel and fell into the ground, a column of blue-white marking the spot.
Quistis knelt beside of Aiko and saw that if she didn't act quickly, Aiko would die. She cast a Full-life spell on her and prayed that it would work. No one dies for me today, she thought. Aiko gasped, her eyes opening weakly. "Quistis…what happened…?"
"Just rest, Aiko. You'll be all right."
"Thanks…" she mumbled, eyes fluttering shut again.
Aileen had survived the attack, and stood in the center of the street, Eric before her. "I could swear your power is higher than it should be," she said to him.
"It's as high as it needs to be," he panted. "I will not give up, ever."
"Well, we got a problem, then, pretty boy. Because I won't quit either." She generated a ball of pure light between her fingers, at first the size of a basketball. It quickly grew until it was fifteen feet across, now floating above her head. "Let's see you deal with this, swordsman."
Quistis got Aiko to her feet and began looking for some cover. This isn't going to be good, she felt.
"What I noticed," Kai explained, "was this." He touched his monitor, which highlighted the thing he wished them to see on Aiko's meds. "This is the summoning signature. Lasts maybe a nanosecond. Now here's what I asked the system to do." He added the projection that he had asked the computer to simulate, and a line of gentle curves appeared. "Does that look familiar, Doctor?"
Kadowaki leaned forward and saw it at once, since Kai had helpfully put Casey's medical record in a window right beneath it. "Oh my goodness. It's the same as Casey's brain waves."
"Precisely. Aileen attacked Casey in order to force a junction with her, then forced Casey to constantly generate the summoning pattern to give herself a continuous physical presence on this plane. She has abilities that GF either don't have or don't use, and she has some kind of ability to link with minds. She must have used that to force Casey to junction."
"My God," Squall breathed. "What does that mean?"
"It means that we have to break the junction and stop the summon pattern," Kai said. "Only…we have to destroy Aileen's current form at the same time. If we can cut her link to the sub-ether and destroy her body at the same time, it should kill her."
"Are you sure?" Squall asked.
"Of course not! But we have to try! Doctor?"
"Yes, Mr. Hallen?"
"You still have Casey tied to the medical network, right? You're having real-time readings sent to you constantly?" Kadowaki nodded. "Perfect. Get to her ASAP."
"But-Kai, we've never had to break a junction in this fashion before. How can we do it?"
The final piece fell in. "We can't, that's true. But you'd be amazed by all the research that Esthar has done on the subject. Research the Masters have."
Aileen threw the ball at Eric, who lifted Grieving Angel to defend himself. Quistis took a tighter grip on Aiko and jumped through the plate glass window of a near-by store as a virtual river of power ran up and down the street, destroying the stone bridges that were such a part of the local architecture. Quistis instinctively covered Aiko with her body as shrapnel from the explosions flew in. "Ouch," Aiko muttered, "get off of me, Quisty, I ain't your type."
Quistis rolled off of her and, struck by a memory, laughed. "What's so funny?" Aiko wanted to know.
"It's just that-during Squall's field exam here in Dollet, if he had avoided the enemy by entering a civilian area, it would have been a twenty point deduction."
"Good thing I'm a SeeD already." Aiko sat up and looked around wildly. "Where's Eric?"
"Out there," Quistis said, indicating the smoke filled street. "Aiko, I-I don't know if he could have survived that."
Aiko stood, a bit unsteadily, and went to the ruins of the window. Aileen was further down the block, floating above a pile of rubble in the middle of the street. "Oh, no-Eric!" she cried.
Aileen turned her way. "I will give him credit; if he hadn't took the brunt of that, I would have leveled a quarter of Dollet. He was a good soldier-and like the best soldiers, he's now dead."
Kai pulled up the files that had included the various treatments that the Masters had gotten from Esthar and, from memory, found a file he'd scanned in passing and opened it. What he was proposing to use was a treatment that was meant to unlock junctions in the rare event of combat catatonia, which was as close as they could get here. He retraced his path into the medical real-time monitoring system until he reached Casey's monitor. "Dr. Kadowaki, this is Kai. The treatment I want to use is electrical in nature-it will be conducted through the monitor sensors. Your job is to check her electrochemical balance. I don't want to fry her brain."
"Kai," the doctor called, voice only, "how long will this take?"
"If my files are right, it will take less than thirty seconds. The problem is it will take four minutes to download the treatment to you. Here goes nothing." Kai sent the program, and realized that now he had to tell Quistis and the others to hold on for five more minutes.
"You bitch, I'm going to kill you."
Aileen seemed a bit amused to hear Quistis speak in such a fashion. "Now, Quisty, naughty, naughty. Mustn't act like you care. You should have kissed him when you had the chance."
Quistis readied herself for her last attack, her last resort, when behind Aileen the rubble began to quiver. The rocks flew apart in a blue white flash, and both women were overjoyed to see Eric, alive, albeit hurt, his jacket shredded, blood running down both arms. "You again?" Aileen shouted in frustration. "Why won't you die? Is it her! Why are you fighting for her?"
Eric gave her a wry little smile. " I like the way that long skirt hugs her hips."
"He heard that," Aiko said, embarrassed.
As Eric and Aileen faced off, Quistis had an epiphany about the two combatants. Both were refusing to be defeated, both were drawing on powers that she suspected that they did not understand, driven by forces beyond their control. They were kindred spirits, bonded by blood and warfare, destined for battle. Quistis knew what drove, to an extent, Aileen. She was scared to find out what drove Eric.
Aileen dove at him again, but he avoided her, kicking her in the back as she passed. He gripped Grieving Angel in both hands. His power field expanded, the ground shaking, as he took the greatest single chance of his life. Father, give me the strength to do what you could not.
Aileen felt the power building and part of her cringed in fear. The rest of her lusted to test it's force. "Ooh, baby," she whispered, "wish I could have met you when I was alive."
Eric shaped his field into a ball around him, arcs crackling from the blade of Grieving Angel to the ball. His face was lined with strain as he sought to control a force no man in a thousand years had used. Quistis and Aiko looked on in awe, Aiko thinking Eric, be careful. Eric cocked Grieving Angel over his shoulder and said "Die, spawn of Urizen! Nova Maelstrom!"
He released the attack, a lethal strike that crossed the distance between them and hit, Aileen using her power field to defend the attack. It looked as if she was trying to catch the attack, but in truth her energy was doing the work. She slid backward twenty yards, then another hundred as the Nova Maelstrom pushed her further back. "Damn you, Eric!" she cried as the attack overwhelmed her. The ball soared majestically down the streets of Dollet, it's might tearing at the facades of the buildings, and soared out onto the beach, where it finally struck, the blast being channeled out to sea, the horizon going white.
Aiko and Quistis ran out to Eric as he fell to one knee, Grieving Angel supporting his weight. "Where did that come from, Eric?" Quistis wanted to know.
"It was something my father taught me. That should have done it."
As if the universe was conspiring to torment them, Kai called them. "Guys, I know how to beat Aileen!"
"Kai, stand down," Quistis said, "Eric just beat her."
"For now. She'll be back. Let me tell you what's going on." He very quickly summarized his theories on Aileen's origins and her connection to the GF and to Casey Wellon. "We're trying to break the junction with Casey right now, but we'll need another four minutes."
"So we break the junction and it's over?" Quistis asked.
"No. Without Casey, Aileen loses her hold on this world, but she can re-establish it. You have to kill her as we cut off her escape route to the sub-ether. That way her mind dies in this world."
"Geez, Kai, what do you want for an encore?" Aiko huffed.
"I can do it," Quistis asserted. "Just pray what you're trying works."
Eric was peering into the distance. "She's back. I can sense her on the beach."
"Then let's go. Eric, Aiko, you hold her off. I'm going to play my last card." She extended a hand to Aiko. "Mind doing your secret move?"
"Sounds kinky. Let's get her."
Three minutes, forty seconds:
Aileen was waiting for them on the beach as Aiko's Flash Teleport deposited them just at the base of the sea wall around the city. Eric and Aiko charged, Aiko firing a Fire spell at Aileen to cover Eric's approach. Aileen, her expression that of a cat playing with a mouse, let Eric come, using her speed to dodge all his attacks. She punched him aside and charged Aiko, who attacked bare handed, her staff long gone now. Still playing, she blocked all of Aiko's attacks with dull ease and slapped Aiko across the face.
"Three minutes," Kai called to Quistis, watching the time remaining counter on his screens.
In Balamb Garden, Dr. Kadowaki watched the same countdown run on Casey's display.
Eric slashed at Aileen's leg from behind, severing a tendon that caused her to put all her weight on one leg just as Aiko scored with a kick to the jaw. Aileen recovered, part of her wondering why Quistis had sent these two to fight for her.
Two minutes, thirty seconds:
Selphie firewalled the scramjets on the Ragnarok, desperate to reach Dollet in the event Kai Hallen's desperate plan failed. Squall and Rinoa watched, knowing that for now, they were helpless, and it came down to Kai's stolen, experimental program-and Quistis.
"Two minutes," Kai called, "one minute thirty until program activates."
Eric fell back as Aileen sent rapid fire pulses his way. He put away Grieving Angel and responded with his beam attack that Aileen merely batted aside. "That won't work, pretty boy." Aiko tried to attack from behind but Aileen simply moved to the right, causing Aiko to lose her footing. "Whoopsie, you fell down."
One minute, thirty seconds.
"Aileen!" Quistis shouted, getting her former friend's attention. "It's time that we finished this!"
"Finished what, Quisty? You can't kill me, and all of you are getting weaker. You will die for what you did to me, and then it will be over."
"You know I meant you no harm, Aileen."
"One minute," Kai breathed.
Aileen laughed and hurled a blast of power that Quistis' Shell managed to deflect. "That doesn't matter anymore, does it? I'm going to kill you."
Quistis sighed, closed her eyes, and began to build her last attack, one that would take half a minute to build. "Goodbye, Aileen. I did love you so much."
"That's what they all say."
Kai's program completed it's download and activated, commands racing at the speed of light through the monitor. Electrical pulses of specific patterns began running into Casey Wellon's mind, their purpose to interfere with the pattern that Aileen had carved into Casey's brain. Kadowaki watched as the waves began to change….
Aileen felt something tug at her very being, her very essence, as Kai counted down from fifteen in Quistis' ears. My junction-what are they doing to my junction, she thought…
As Kai counted down from ten, Quistis, tears in her eyes, noticed that Aileen was suddenly pale, wavering on her feet. "I'm so sorry. SHOCKWAVE PULSAR!" she cried.
Three, two, one…
The world went white-
Zero.
Casey Wellon's eyes snapped open and she let out a squeal that caused the doctor to start on kind. "Ouch," Casey groaned. "What happened?"
In the last picosecond of her life, as Shockwave Pulsar destroyed her body, her link to the sub-ether closed, Aileen howled with fury, a little part of her realizing that here, in the real world, she was free from Urizen at least.
Quistis could not move as her most powerful Blue Magic rushed towards her, clearly meaning to add her life to the toll for the day. Then she felt strong hands grab her, and pull her aside, saving her, as the attack raced past her.
"Kai? It's Dr. Kadowaki! Casey is awake. I…it worked I guess!" Kai let out the breath he had been holding and decided to stick to Triple Triad for the foreseeable future.
Quistis opened her eyes and saw that she was laying beside of Eric, who had his arms around her. Well, this feels nice, she thought, reaching over to touch his cheek. "Eric…I think it's over," she told him.
"It had better be," he replied, "because I'm tired." He opened his eyes, surprised at how close Quistis was to him. He rested his cheek against hers. "Really tired."
"You saved me again. That's becoming a habit."
Eric smiled. "Always a pleasure, ma' am."
"Thought I broke you of that habit," she laughed.
From behind them, Aiko cleared her throat and said "Come on, you two, get a room." She bent over and extended an arm to Eric, pulling him to his feet, he doing the same for Quistis. "Please tell me we got her."
"I hope we did," Quistis said, "for Aileen's sake."
A constellation of lights appeared on the horizon, familiar engines sounding, as Selphie brought the Ragnarok over the beach, switching to the landing engines. "Hiya Quisty!" Selphie called over the earbeads "Better late than never, huh?"
"Remind me to clobber her later," Aiko remarked to no one in particular as the Ragnarok came in for a landing, hopefully bringing the nightmare if not to a close, then to a temporary resolution.
Epilogue(1):
Eric was not all that shocked to find Quistis at the secret place that some of the cadets called the Nest, looking out into the night at Balamb Garden; it was, after all, the first place he had checked.
It had been a busy week at the Garden since they had returned from the war zone that Aileen had made of Dollet, on quite a few levels. On the diplomatic level, there had been the extensive negotiations between the Garden, Dollet, and Esthar, with President Loire finally agreeing to pay reparations to Dollet to cover the hundreds of millions of gil in damage that the battles had caused. On the home front, Squall had gone absolutely ballistic on the Masters for being a part of what had been done to Quistis, and Eric had heard from Rinoa that there had been a rather strained conversation between Squall and Headmaster Cid over the extent of his knowledge of what had happened with Quistis. He and Aiko had not come out of it unscathed-the abilities and powers that he and Aiko had hidden from everyone being the root of it. Technically, by not revealing those skills when they had first applied to Galbadia Garden, they had broken SeeD regulations, but Squall wasn't about to get rid of fighters like them. Which was why he had come to look for Quistis. "Hello," he said, a bit amused when the three couples currently using the Nest, all at the same time, decided it was time to go. "How are you?"
Quistis did not answer for a moment. When she finally did, she said "I keep thinking about Aileen. Not the person we fought, but my friend. She's why I come up here, you know? I was using this place to remember her by. I'm afraid that all I'll ever remember of her is the monster, not my friend."
Eric took a place beside of Quistis. "Your friend died in Deling City, Quistis. Whatever happened to her in the void, in the sub-ether, destroyed your friend. I know that's easier to say than to believe, but it's true."
"You're right on both counts. So, Eric…I haven't seen you in a couple of days. What's up?"
He decided to be matter of fact. "Aiko, Kai, and me have been assigned to the Esthar Contract. Four months or completion of contract. We leave tomorrow at 0530 hours."
"Oh." Quistis was not sure how she felt about that. "Who were you assigned to?"
"The Sixth. Seifer Almasy's command."
Quistis smiled. "You under Seifer's command. That should be interesting."
"I imagine it will. Listen, Quistis…" he searched for the right words, and could not find them, so he tried the direct approach. "Things got confusing last week, mixed up and emotional. But I felt something, some kind of attraction, and I kind of hoped you did too."
Quistis smiled. "I did feel something, Eric. What, I'm not sure. It was all so sudden, and I really could not trust what I was thinking then. But there was something."
"All right, well, here's what I want to say. Four months is a long time. I, well, I don't expect you to wait for something that hasn't started yet. But, if there's still something there when I come back, is that okay?"
Quistis found she liked this side of Eric, so unsure and so human. "Of course it is, Eric." She leaned against him, putting an arm around him. "I'm going to miss you, Eric."
"Me too." He put an arm around her waist, feeling her warmth against him. " I'll be careful down in Esthar."
"I would expect nothing less from my best student." She looked into his eyes. "0530 is pretty early. You need to get some rest."
"I know. I had better go."
"Before you do…" Quistis took a breath to steel herself. "Would you kiss me goodbye? If that's all right?"
Eric did not answer, he merely did what he had wanted to in Dollet, and kissed her, a light, simple, beautiful kiss. Quistis returned it, then stepped back. "You had better go before we convince ourselves to do something too soon." Eric nodded, and got in a quick kiss before he left. Quistis turned back to the night, flush with the emotions stirred by Eric's kiss. Before she could get too contemplative, she heard Aiko, her voice coming from the training center entrance, say in disbelief, "Oh, man, you actually kissed her. You big goof!" Seifer, Quistis decided, needed a healthy dose of luck with Aiko heading his way. Inspired by the words that Eric had said and more importantly by his kiss, Quistis tried to think about her friend, in the place that she had chosen to do so years ago.
Epilogue (2):
In the endless space of the Void, Urizen listened as his rival, Los, berated him for his failures.
Urizen technically outranked Los in the orders of the Dominions, yet, under the Great Mother, dissent such as this was tolerated and encouraged. "I can not believe that you wasted your time with that hybrid Aileen," Los complained. "Her very existence was a scar on the Void! And she was limited by a broken need for revenge!"
"Los, have a care. My plans are not affected by this, they are enhanced. We have scouted our enemy, probed their skills, and we know more now. And as an added bonus, we drew the Killing Hand into the field of battle. The Order is waiting for us."
Los drew his spiritual form up proudly. "You can paint this as a victory, Urizen, yet you know that it does not serve the cause of the Great Mother in any way. She would punish you if she were here."
Urizen laughed, a sound that sent nails running down the back. "The Great Mother is not here, Los. That is our problem, after all. Once she is freed, you can tell her of all my failings. Now leave my sight."
Los could not answer that argument, for it was true. "Very well, Lord Urizen. For the Great Mother!"
Los disappeared into the Void before Urizen could reply. "Yes," he hissed. "For the Great Mother. For Eden."
Urizen's laughter filled the Void.
March 16-April 30,2000
Virginia, United States