Nothing Else Matters
Chapter 2—Investigation
The Ragnarok barely made the landing pad on Battleship Island, slowly skidding to a stop. It didn't take long for the ship to be come to a complete stop, although the passengers were still shaking in their seats. First crash in the Ragnarok. Not a fun thing.
Squall unbuckled his seatbelt while Irvine shook himself.
"Gah!" he exclaimed, shaking his head. "We made it…."
"Yeah, but we have to go see about the others," Squall said, getting up from his seat. "I hope they got in the seats in time. Otherwise…"
He stumbled at first, having to get his balance back as he moved toward the lift. He pressed the elevator button and the lift slowly descended. Slower than Squall would have liked. He finally just jumped off when the lift was close enough to the floor. Out the door and down the stairs to the left, he hurried. At the bottom of the stairs, he took a sharp right into the small hallway. The door slid open and he continued past the draw point to a door that had been previously sealed off: the barracks. It had been sealed off when they had found the ship in space by chance; possibly due to the monsters that had invaded. There had been dead crewmen there when the room was finally opened up. They obviously prefered to starve to death than to be torn apart by those creatures.
Bunks and barracks were two slightly different areas of the ship. Bunks were private rooms for officers, while barracks were shared with a number of other crewmen.
Squall entered the room and flicked on the light. All had their eyes closed, breathing in the relief that they were alright. Selphie was the first to open her eyes. She hesitated for a moment, looking around. She then took off her seat belt and stood up, she, too having to regain her balance.
"That wasn't pleasant at all," she said, stretching. "Is everybody okay?"
Rinoa undid her seat belt as well and stood up. She looked around. "Everybody, but Zell, I think. He passed out from the shock."
Quistis had just took hold of herself mentally. "Whew……that was a ride…..that's the last time I let Irvine pilot…." She stood up and walked over to Zell's seat. The blond's chin rested on his chest. She took him by his shoulders.
"Zell…..wake up," she said. Zell came around slowly, mumbling, and looked up to find another blonde beauty like himself. But, what was on his face was pure fear.
"Oh, no…….." he whispered.
Quistis was puzzled. "……what?"
"I'm dead……!" he exclaimed. "I'm in heaven…!!"
He flung his arms around Quistis and kissed her.
"Hello, baby," Zell said smugly, releasing her. He smiled playfully. Quistis was not amused.
"Don't scare me!" she said and bopped him in the head with her fist. She could simply not stay mad at such a charming smile.
"Oh……the pain……."
Zell unbuckled his seat belt and pushed himself out of the seat. He limped slightly.
Quistis suddenly turned motherly. "You're hurt!!" Zell raised his chin indignantly and spoke in a deep, regal voice.
"Merely a wound on my flesh."
Even Seifer had to laugh at that.
"Crap…." Zell sighed, looking the hover engine over. "We're not gonna get out of here anytime soon…..Something's probably jammed inside it. One of the belts must have came loose and got tangled inside."
"How long is this gonna take to fix?" Seifer asked. "I'm not good with machines."
"Ain't no tellin' how long," Zell said. He sifted his fingers through his hair. "It could take a few days or a week. Or more, if that isn't what's wrong."
"It'll take us a while to get finished with the investigation, anyway," Squall commented. "We could start working on the ship once we're finished with that. Besides, if we need to get out of here anytime soon, we've still got the ship's radio intact and the homing device, too. It shouldn't take Esthar Air Station much to get another ship out here to get us."
"Yeah, but they can't land, Squall," Zell said. "They don't have another Ragnarok, remember? They've only got ships that are in the experimental stage. And they don't carry enough fuel to come out this far, either. Besides, our Ragnarok takes up most, if not all, of the landing space on the pad. There's not enough room for another ship to come in and land safely. Not even a small helicopter."
"We're stuck here," Seifer snorted.
"Essentially, until I can get this fixed, yes," Zell said. "In the meantime, what about the investigation? How is that going to go forward?"
"Well, if you want to go down with us, you can, unless you want to work on the ship," Squall answered, crossing his arms. "Rinoa is going to stay behind and have the med lab ready if anybody gets hurt."
"I'm staying behind, too," Seifer said.
"Oh, no, you're not," Squall replied. There was no way he was letting him stay behind on the ship. "You're going down with us. This is your exam."
"Aww, Squall," Seifer whined mockingly. "I don' wanna go down and battle the mean monsters that are left……I wanna stay!"
"Well, you're not. Rinoa's staying," Squall said, impervious to Seifer's mockery. The exam wasn't the only reason Seifer was being made to go with them. "You're coming down with us."
"….fine," Seifer said.
"I'm going down with you guys," Zell replied. "There's not much I can do without somebody here to help me, anyway."
"So, everybody's going down, but Rinoa?" Seifer questioned. He put his hand to his chin in thought, scratching stubble. "What do you think we'll find down there?"
"If the monsters did all kill each other, then we won't find any kind of resistance," Squall answered, shrugging. "But, what bothers me is that these monsters have been coexisting for years by themselves. What would make them suddenly just go ballistic and kill each other off?"
"They could have gotten mad," Zell suggested. "Like packs of wolves fight each other."
"If we were anywhere else, Zell, I'd agree with you, but," Squall corrected, "we're not exactly out in open country. These 'packs' of species have been living here, like I said, for years without a problem. I can't think of anything that would make them go crazy like this. Tri-Faces, ruby dragons, buels, bombs, etcetera. All been here and lived together without a problem. If it were people instead of monsters, I'd be able to think of many reasons they'd kill each other. Paranoia, for one reason or another. Or like one person gets angry at another, they fight, one gets killed and a friend of the deceased gets angry and the cycle continues until everyone dies."
"But, what about the one left?" Zell asked innocently.
"…..suicide, after realizing what he did," Squall replied.
"Well…..what about disease?" Seifer thought aloud, breaking the uneasy silence. "High fevers make things go nuts. Or rabies? Something along that line."
"No," Zell replied. "They would have died a long time a go if disease existed down here. It's basically a purely natural habitat. There hasn't been any outside contact since…."
"Since the researchers were here," Squall finished. "I knew we should have put a restraint on this place…."
"But, there's nothing in the outside world that would cause this kind of a massacre, Squall," Zell suggested. "It just doesn't make sense."
"After we get finished here, I'm going to see the President of every country and settlement about getting a restraint put on this place," Squall stated. He raked his fingers through his dark brown hair. "People can't be allowed to parade down here as they please. At least not amateurs."
"You're right there," Zell said. "This place is almost useless. Nothing exists down here of any value, that we know of."
"…….Quistis and Irvine are scouting the entrance, now," Seifer said, raising his hand to his chin again. "We should be ready to go as soon as everyone's suited up."
"Yuck…." Selphie said, wrinkling her nose as she climbed down the vine to the next level. "Yep, this place definitely reeks of dead monsters…."
"Well, guys, it's a long way down, so if you want to go back, you'd better go now," Zell replied from below as he hopped off the vine to the metal floor. He waved a flashlight around the room to get a better look at his surroundings. He gazed about absent-mindedly as he continued. "There's not gonna be anybody going back after this. We stay together."
"He's right," Squall replied. "I don't care how harmless this place looks, we're all staying together once we get to the lower levels. This place was bad enough the first time around."
He plucked his two-way radio from his belt and held it up to his mouth. "Rinoa, you hear me? Over."
"Yeah, I hear you, Squall."
"Say 'over' when you're done talking," Squall replied.
"Why? Over."
"So, I know when you're done talking. It's a safety precaution. If there's a lot of static, I might think that I didn't receive all of your message," Squall answered. "When, actually, I did. It signifies the end of a message. Just do it. Over."
"Okay, if you say so. Over."
"We're about to go down through to the next level," Squall told her. "Once we get so far down, there'll be too much interference for me to be able to contact you. I'll try to get you on every level we go down until I can't get you anymore. Over."
"Alright, everything's ready up here in case something happens. The door's open. Over."
"I'm gonna turn my radio off to save power, now," Squall said. "I'll turn it on every once and a while for about 15 minutes, but that's it. If you need me, just keep trying. You stay at that comm unit, no matter what. Over."
"Gotcha. Over."
"15 minute window to contact me, Rinoa, remember that. Signing off, over."
Squall turned the small knob on top of the radio to the left until it clicked. "We shouldn't have any problems until we get further down. Everybody got a GF? Zell, you've got some magic on you, right? We shouldn't have any problems, but just in case."
"Yeah, I'm ready to rumble," Zell said, rolling his head around his shoulders and popping his spine.
"Zell, do you have to do that?" Quistis asked, adjusting her new uniform. Everyone was wearing basically the same thing Selphie was wearing earlier. Only Irvine had opted to have his old, fingerless gloves. Only now, the equipment that suited the job was attached. Nightvision goggles, a utility belt, and a backpack full of the spelunking tools of the trade. There were old ruins down under where the Deep Sea Deposit was built and they were not very sturdy at all.
"Let's just get on with it," Irvine said. His feet were moving like a nervous race horse, picking one up and putting it down, picking up the other and putting it down.
"Nervous, cowboy?" Seifer snickered. "This ain't nothin'. Peanut operation. We come in, we 'investigate', we leave. Simple."
"Enough bickering," Squall said, starting down the stairs in the hole in the floor. "Let's go."
"Aye, Captain!" Seifer said, snapping to attention and giving a mock salute. He looked around and noticed no one was paying him any attention, so he let his arm flop down to his side and simply followed the group.
"Once we get to the gate, I'm going to run an acoustic," Quistis said, reaching back over her shoulder and tapping her backpack. "If there's any life down here, we'll hear it. This is new equipment for us, straight out of Esthar. It's pretty advanced. Although, everything from Esthar is advanced compared to what we have."
"I hope there's life down here," Seifer confessed. "I want some action."
"Yeah, well, I don't," Squall replied to him, looking back over his shoulder as they reached the next lower level. "I want this to go as smoothly as possible, without any setbacks."
"How many levels are there until we get to the gate?" Seifer asked. "I haven't been here before."
"I think there are six," Squall replied. He ducked as he entered the next stairway. "Watch your head. Low clearance. But, I could be wrong. I didn't count last time we were here."
"It won't take us long to get down to the gate since these stairways are stable," Zell replied, beginning the second descent down a stairway. He smiled as he barely lowered his head to compensate for the low ceiling. "Heh. Not a problem for me. But, once we get to the gate, it's a long way down to the bottom where we fought Ultima Weapon. Not only the length of the staircase, but the instability of the stone it was built with. It's falling apart. That's what the repelling equipment is for: if anything collapses, nobody falls down to a grim and bloody death."
Everyone looked back at Zell, even Squall. Zell looked around, confused.
"…..What…?"
Squall merely rolled his eyes and continued to the next stairway. He paused a moment and looked out the window to the fish under the sea that swam by. He sighed and turned to enter the next group of stairs.
Zell went down the stairs quickly, watching his feet. "What? What'd I say…?? Come back here!"
"Nothing, Zell…." Squall sighed, half-smiling. He's hopeless……
Zell scratched his head and shrugged as they continued on in silence, trudging down further into the Island. Not a word was said until they reached the lift that would take them down to the gate.
"Zell, Quistis, Selphie, and I'll go first," Squall said, stepping onto the lift. They followed behind him and Squall pulled the lever. They descended down into the next room, where the gate was housed. It was a closed gate at the moment.
"Ah, daammnn….!!" Zell whined, snapping his fingers. "Gonna have to open that stupid thing again!!"
"Maybe it's not locked this time," Squall said. The lift came to a stop and Zell stepped off toward the controls. Quistis took off her backpack as she walked and unzipped it as she got to the closed brown gate.
"Raise it up just a little, Zell, so I can get this sensor underneath it to the other side," she said, pulling out a tiny tri-pod with a small radar dish on top. Next, she pulled out a black laptop computer and hooked them together.
The next lift came down carrying Irvine, Selphie, and Seifer as Zell punched buttons. He mumbled to himself while he did this.
"…..dangit, Dincht….figure it out.…stupid machine…."
A hiss was heard and the gate raised just a tiny bit. It was enough for the sensor to fit through.
Seifer knelt down and pressed his back against the equipment.
"Okay, now, everybody be silent while I do this, not even a whisper," Quistis said, getting down on her knees and fitting the tri-pod under the gap and into the next room. "This will tell us if there is anything at all down there, moving. No noise whatsoever, you guys."
"Okay, that means everybody shut up, no talking," Seifer said quite loudly as Quistis typed on her laptop. She stopped abruptly and looked over her shoulder. She scowled.
"Not funny, Seifer." She turned back to her typing, little beeps and tones coming from the computer. She finally stopped and watched the screen. There was a bar near the bottom that told her when scanning was complete. It would last for another minute.
Seifer looked around the place while he waited and noticed a large spider near his foot. He smiled maliciously as he picked it up by one appendage. It fought with its other legs, trying to bite. Seifer nimbly placed the spider on Zell's lower leg.
Seifer snickered to himself quietly, covering his mouth to mask the sound. The spider crawled up onto Zell's middle.
Thirty seconds left.
Selphie looked down at Seifer, who pointed to Zell's abdomen. Selphie's mouth dropped and curled up into a smile. Zell was terrified of spiders.
Zell noticed this and mouthed "What?". She pointed to his chest. He looked down and the expression on his face cannot be told in words. Selphie doubled over and pointed, silent laughter racking her body.
The spider continued up Zell's exoskeleton to his torso. He was completely frozen.
The computer beeped. Zell noticed this immediately and shrieked, throwing the spider to the floor. The room burst into laughter. Squall, who had had his back turned, evidently missed the whole event.
"What happened? Zell, what's the matter with you?"
Zell spoke unintelligibly for a moment, then finally regained his composure. "That idiot put a spider on me while the test was running!!"
He pointed at Seifer.
"Seifer, I told you…..either get along, or you're not making it into SeeD," Squall reminded him, sighing. He wasn't a Commander. He was a babysitter. "This is your exam."
Seifer merely smiled. Squall turned around to face Quistis.
Seifer made a face, imitating Squall's previous words. He shook his finger at Quistis while he did this. She covered her mouth to hide her giggle.
Squall knew what he was doing and paid no heed to it. They had an investigation to do.
"Anything there, Quistis?"
"Nothing," she said, kneeling down and packing up her equipment. "Nothing from top to bottom. This is powerful stuff. It should have reached down to the bottom of the Deposit."
"I hope so. We'll just have to be careful," Squall said.
"There isn't anything?" Selphie asked. Quistis shook her head.
"Nothing," she affirmed. "The only way to bypass this is to become completely immobile. You can't even breathe. Now, heartbeats it can't pick up unless they're very close by. Very close."
Seifer stood up and wiped off the rust on the back of his suit. Zell scowled at him.
"I'll get you back," he mumbled.
Quistis pulled out a strip of paracord and attached it to a metal loop on her belt. She attached the other end to Squall. "Everybody get out a piece of cord and do this until we're all together." It took them a few minutes, Seifer cursing as he looked for his, but they finally finished.
They began down the spiral "stairs", rocks crumbling as they went and falling down to the bottom of the Deposit, Selphie taking silent pictures along the way. It was a silent camera, made for situations where silence was of the utmost importance. The camera flashed without noise as she took pictures of the rotting corpses.
No one said anything. They were forced to step over or on the corpses of monsters such as tri-faces, blue dragons, and even iron men to get to the next open spot in the path. The path was slippery because blood was still standing on the stone. They avoided stepping in it if they could, because it smelled horrible, but they often couldn't.
"I've never seen this many dead monsters before in one place," Quistis awed, looking around them. "Never. I've studied history and nothing like this has ever been found."
"Yeah, I know," Zell replied. "I'm in the library a lot and I've never seen anything like it, either."
They reached a large square of stone, almost like a patio, where a ruby dragon was laying on his side, staring at them with red eyes. The creature wasn't even breathing.
Quistis held up her hand to stop the group, as she spied the monster first. She took off her cord that attached her to the rest of the group. They continued down the steps and stopped near the bottom. They fanned out around the monster after unhooking each of their cords, the dragon watching them with lethal intent. Its eyes followed Seifer first, then turned toward Zell. Zell's movements slowed down and nearly stopped as he stared the creature down.
"It looks crippled," Quistis commented quietly, creeping closer. The thing's right front leg was slashed so badly, it seemed possible to Quistis that it might not be a leg at all. But, she knew better. She could see gleaming white bone through the gore. "It's not breathing…probably why it missed my scan…"
"Watch it, Quist," Seifer whispered as loudly as he dared. "Those things are incredibly smart. They can hold their breaths up to an hour, like a spider." At the word 'spider', Zell shot Seifer a rude glance, his jaw set. Seifer merely shrugged his shoulders, drawing his weapon.
Quistis took out a syringe from her utility belt and a small moist alcohol towelette. She unwrapped it with her teeth and pulled out the small towelette. She rubbed it along the needle, sterilizing it. The dragon now turned his attention to Quistis, who was coming closer to him.
"I'm not gonna hurt you…" she spoke softly, walking slowly toward him. She was now dangerously close to the injured beast, close to its stomach, but where it could still see her. You never stood where a horse couldn't see you or else you were kicked. If she did that here, she would not be kicked. It was a wounded animal; well, not really a normal animal, more of a very dangerous animal. Being kicked was the least of her worries at the moment.
She pressed the needle into the beast's tough hide and slowly pulled the pump back, filling the container with red blood. It was as if the animal didn't feel it at all. It began breathing again.
Selphie brought forth the camera from her utility belt as she, too, undid her cords that attached her to everyone.. She began to walk toward the creature as Quistis stepped back slowly, holding the full syringe in her hand. She retreated back toward the others. Squall and Seifer both had their gunblades drawn and at the ready, just to be safe.
"Selphie…! What are you doing!?" Irvine whispered to her harshly, trying to grab her while watching the creature at the same time. But, he missed and she crept on silently, holding the camera up to her face.
"I have to document this before we go back up," Selphie said quietly. "We need pictures for proof, we can't have just hearsay evidence….." She pressed down on the button and the camera flashed, beginning to whir.
She had forgotten to turn the flash off. And that was the last picture.
The ruby dragon's eyes went wide and he leaped up, lunging for Selphie with his teeth gnashing. She was caught in the creature's mouth and he shook her like a tiny rag doll, throwing her to the ground. Irvine ran forward to protect her, but was knocked away by the creature's tail. The creature stomped onto Selphie's weakly crawling form and kicked her, making her roll over onto her back. Blood spewed from her mouth, not even having the power to scream. She stared upward, but she wasn't dead. All this, despite Squall and Seifer tearing at the creature with their weapons. Irvine fired his Exeter, screaming.
It hit the creature between the eyes, causing it to collapse.
Irvine lifted Selphie into his arms, casting a curaga spell immediately. Green light surrounded Selphie and the bleeding obediently came to an end. But, this would not last for long, as he remembered from his training at Galbadia Garden.
"Curative spells are not meant
to cure completely. They are meant to
relieve the hurt and cease bleeding from a wound until a doctor could be found
and the wound treated. They are in
no way to be used to substitute for a physician. The only exception is a broken bone. Any bones that might break could be healed. Unless the spine had been injured.
Cure
spells simply speed up the body's response to an injury, causing the blood to
clot around the wound. If the spine had
been injured, even if the spell had been used, it would not have worked.
The spells 'cure', 'cura', and 'curaga' stimulate the brain, sending a sequence
of signals to the blood stream that makes the clotting process continue at a
faster pace. For cure spells to work,
it is essential that the spinal cord be intact. If not, "primitive" methods of preserving a person must be used,
such as applying pressure to a wound or applying a tourniquet.
Curative spells are made to maintain the body for a short period of time and should not be used incessantly over a long period of time for a single wound. The side effects of using this many times over has been proven to cause mild brain damage in patients who thought that the spells had replaced modern medicine and techniques…"
—Mr. Ken Atikomo, Ph.D and magic instructor, Galbadia Garden
