Disclaimer: I own none of these characters. 'Nuff said.
The former Knight lifted his head, and tilted it slightly to the side.
"Oh. The perky one."
"What are you doing in Trabia, Seifer?" Selphie demanded.
"You sound like Instructor Trepe." Seifer noted. "And for your
information, we're hunting."
"Hunting what?" Alaina asked from Selphie's shoulder as the
sleepy Headmaster glared at Seifer.
"SNOW LION." Fujin replied. "BUSINESS, NOT."
"Yeah, we can hunt here if we want, ya know." Raijin told her,
"That's true, but Old Trabia Garden is our property." Selphie
pointed out."
"It's abandoned." Seifer waved a hand. "And there's no Keep Out sign
posted. Technically, we have as much a right to be there as you."
"LEGAL."
Selphie frowned. She didn't like Galbadia. Seifer had been their
leader when Edea ruled there. *But not anymore.*
Bahamut stirred. /I believe my last partner told me of this./ he
commented /To my point of view, he was nothing more than a glorified
bodyguard. And he no longer works against you. You are SeeD, so put
aside personal conflict and see what use he could be./
*What possible use...* Selphie's eyes drifted to the weapons the
trio wore. *Of course.* She smiled. "Well, you do have a point."
Startled by her change in attitude, the three regarded her warily
as the door to their cell was unlocked and they were let out.
"So we're free to go?" Seifer asked.
"Yes... But I've got a business proposition for you..."
***
A few weeks later, things had settled down. The lessons with the
Shumi were going on sporadically, with the approval of Scholar.
For some reason, the Shumi were working on some sort of large
project they didn't want Selphie in the village for.
Classes had resumed. Selphie had hired Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin
to act as instructors. Raijin was a pretty good weapons instructor,
amazingly enough. Fujin was a good secretary and aide to Selphie,
and Seifer ran an all-purpose class. The blonde-haired man was a
surprisingly good teacher, especially in the areas of history,
tactics and world politics.
With Seifer acting as a defacto homeroom teacher for all the
students (he worked in shifts and omplained bitterly), Raijin
doing weaponswork, and Fujin as the stark fist of justice on
rule-breakers and dissidents, things got quiet and stayed quiet.
Unofortunately, on a quiet winter afternoon, Selphie was bored.
There was nothing that needed doing. Classes were all in session,
the students were under sharp eye of Raijin and Seifer, and
Selphie had walked the length and breadth of Trabia Garden.
So Selphie sat in her office, spinning in the office chair behind
her desk in circles. Both had been salvaged from Old Trabia Garden,
and worked very well. The office chair had been oiled, and spun
around fast enough that Selphie fancied she could see through time.
Her boredom ended when Seifer entered unanounced into her office.
Selphie stopped the chair with her foot, and swivelled the chair
to look at him, trying to resolve the four Seifers she could see
into one. They all looked too amused for her tastes.
"Having fun?" Seifer asked, smirking at her.
"I've got nothing to do, and I'm bored." Selphie groaned.
"We should switch places." Seifer commented, still looking smug
at having caught the perky Headmaster off guard. "Anyway, I wanted
to ask you something."
"Shoot." Selphie replied. There was only one Seifer right now, and
he looked like he was vibrating around the edges.
"Well, judging from the storerooms, your students have done in more
than enough snow lions. You've got more extra fur than you know what
to do with,
right?"
"Sure." Selphie shrugged. "So what's the big deal?"
Seifer stared at her. "Do you know how much snow lion fur is worth?"
"Lots, why?"
"Then why aren't you selling it?"
"Maybe cause we're miles away from civilization?" Selphie suggested.
"The Ragnarok and chobocos are our only way out of here."
"Not true. How do you think Fuj, Raij and I got here?"
The brunette frowned. "Choboco?"
"Bite your tongue. Raijin breaks out in hives from the things, and
I can't stand the smell of live poultry." Seifer looked disgusted
at the thought. "Nah, we found an old Centran relic which is probably
how the Shumi get out of here."
"The what?" Selphie asked, her face innocent. The Shumi had advised
her to keep quiet about them, since the Galbadians were still in
search of them.
"Don't play stupid. I know Shumi Village is up here, and I could
care less." Seifer waved his hand in dismissal of the subject.
"Anyway, there's a sort of magical tube going to the beach near Dollet."
"A magical tube?" Somewhere within her head, Selphie felt Bahamut
snap to attention.
"Yeah. We found it, it focused on Fujin's pendant, and *zap*, there
we were, in a magical tube. When we found out it went both ways, we
started hunting snow lions and selling the furs for lots of gil."
"Hey..." Selphie considered that. "I could bring a bunch of furs with
me to Dollet, sell them, and have enough money to buy an old transport
from them."
"Exactly. And since a bunch of the students know more than enough to
test out for SeeDship, we buy the transport, put out word that another
Garden has become active, and start working."
"Then test out the students and declare them SeeD." Selphie sat up
straight. "You're a genius Seifer."
"It's the truth." Seifer smirked. "So when do I get to be Commander?"
"Don't push your luck."
***
The next day was clear and almost unbearably bright. Selphie, Alaina,
and Fujin made their way down on to the beach.
After about ten minutes of kicking around the snow, Fujin stopped, and
waited. Alaina and Selphie shrugged, and watched.
The odd sword pendant that Fujin wore began to glow green. Then it
pulsed, and a column of light shot up from it. The faint outline of
a tunnel was clear through the glow.
"TUNNEL." Fujin pointed out unneccesarily. "FIRST, GO. I SHUT."
Alaina shrugged and stepped past Selphie into the glow. She
disappeared into the tunnel. Selphie cast an uneasy look at Fujin,
and stepped into the glow.
The tunnel was a glowing green and blue tube that reminded Selphie
of the flitter tubes in Esthar. But unlike those, you couldn't see
out of the tube.
There was a 'zot' sound, and Fujin's voice came from behind her,
annoyed. "BLOCKING WAY. MOVE!"
Selphie hastily moved. The silver-haired woman gave her an annoyed
look and loped down the tube. "COMING?" demanded Fujin.
"Geez." muttered Selphie. "Lighten up." She hurried down the tube
after the fuming wind master.
***
Some time later, Selphie sat in a Dollet cafe, sampling the local
cheesecake with Alaina. The furs had been sold for quite a bundle,
allowing Selphie to give Fujin her salary. As soon as possible, the
petite woman had rushed off to the weapons shop, mumbling something
about swords.
The remaining money went towards two old Dollet military transports
and a good supply of fuel and spare parts.
Selphie took another bite of the cheesecake, nearly purring in
appreciation. "This is good." she said.
"Tell me about it." Alaina replied. "Dollet has the best cheesecake
around. Must have something to do with the ingredients." She was
sipping at the local Ghysal Greens brew. Selphie had warned her off
because of the strongness of it, but Alaina had waved it off,
scorning the warning.
"Yo! Selphie!"
Selphie twisted around in her seat, and clapped her hands in surprise.
"Zell!"
"What's up?" the spikey blonde said "Whatcha doing here?"
"Buying some transports for Trabia." Selphie replied. "How is everyone?"
Zell sat down at the table and crossed his legs. "Not so good." His
face darkened. "Squall, Quistis and Rinoa have been acting wierd."
"Wierd?" Selphie stared at him, smile starting to waver.
"Yeah." Zell scratched his head. "After you left, Laguna contracted
SeeD to clean out the monsters left in the city of Esthar and on the
Great Plains. It was supposed to be Squall and Quistis, but... Squall's
been getting real wierd. He's turned into a stone cold killer."
"Huh?" Selphie frowned. "That doesn't sound much like Squall."
"Quistis is the same. Between the two of them, it's been a bloodbath in
Esthar. Monsters dying all over the place."
"Ewww."
"Rinoa's fanatically dedicated to Squall. She'll do anything he says.
Right now, that means her draining herself to exhaustion slaughtering
monsters."
Selphie shook her head. "What about Irvine?"
"He's got half the female population of the Garden in his bed."
Zell replied bluntly. "Something's wrong with them, Selphie. And
Quez is acting up."
"What do you mean?"
"He's getting slow summoning, and he won't talk to me anymore." Zell
replied.
*Bahamut?*
The dragon stirred. /What?/ He sounded annoyed.
*Why are the other Guardian Forces acting odd?*
There was silence, then /Leave it alone./ The dragon withdrew.
"Bahamut's not answering my questions." Selphie told Zell.
"Sounds about right." Zell shrugged. "Anyway, I've got to catch a
boat back to Balamb."
"Bye, Zell." Selphie said.
"Ya. Seeya later!" Zell left the restaurant, then broke into a jog
towards the docks.
Turning around, she saw Alaina staring in awe at Zell's
retreating back. "What's wrong?"
"He's one of the heroes who defeated Ultimecia." Alaina stared
after Zell. "He's a legend!"
"He's just Zell." Selphie really couldn't see why Alaina was
going ape over her friend. "Sure, he helped stop Ultimecia,
but..."
"But? But he's the greatest martial artist of all time! There
are legends developing around the SeeDs who fought the
future, Selphie. Squall, the Lionheart, the Knight. Rinoa,
the Angelic Sorceress. Quistis the wise, Irvine, the most
handsome and lonely of them. Then there's Zell, the
greatest martial artist ever! They even bewitched the
Sorceress Edea to help them bring back Rinoa from the dead!"
Alaina's eyes were starry. "And then there's you, Selphie the
Bright One, the magician!" Selphie recoiled from the naked
adoration in Alaina's eyes. "With you, I know you can rebuild
Trabia, and I'll get to be a SeeD, since you're my friend,
and..."
Bile rose in Selphie's throat. "Alaina, what do you think I
am?" she choked out, face frozen.
"Of course!" Alaina rambled on, oblivious to the growing
look of repulsion on Selphie's face. "I mean, what more is
there? You're a hero! I mean, you're so perfect, and..."
"NO!" Selphie slammed her hand on the table, angry. "Is
that all you see me as?"
The people in the cafe went quiet, and turned to look at
the two girls. Alaina was oblivious. "You're a hero! Isn't
that enough?"
"I thought you were my friend." Selphie choked out.
Alaina looked up, her pretty face twisted in a look of
confusion. "Well, I mean, yeah, I guess..." she stammered.
"You're a hero. Everything you touches turns to gold,
and you win over everything. Your friends are heroic too,
right? So if I'm your friend, I get to be a hero. I mean,
I can prove it too. You're my friend, so you tell me stuff,
and I can tell people about it. I'm so popular, I know I'll
be a hero."
"You BETRAYED me!" A years worth of repressed anger and
depression, normally held back behind the cheerful facade,
burst forth. Selphie's green eyes blazed with rage. "I
confided in you, and you betrayed me. You're not a friend,
you're just a sycophant. You USED me, Alaina. You betrayed
me so you could be popular with the rest of Trabia Garden.
Do you call that being a friend?!"
The cadet's face crumpled. "But.. but... Why are you mad
at me?" She seemed truly confused, and tears were gathering
in her eyes.
"Forget it." Selphie straightened, and her face went cold.
"Be at the beach by sundown." She threw down some money
on the table to pay for the cheesecake and drinks, and
left the frozen tableu of people behind.
The former Knight lifted his head, and tilted it slightly to the side.
"Oh. The perky one."
"What are you doing in Trabia, Seifer?" Selphie demanded.
"You sound like Instructor Trepe." Seifer noted. "And for your
information, we're hunting."
"Hunting what?" Alaina asked from Selphie's shoulder as the
sleepy Headmaster glared at Seifer.
"SNOW LION." Fujin replied. "BUSINESS, NOT."
"Yeah, we can hunt here if we want, ya know." Raijin told her,
"That's true, but Old Trabia Garden is our property." Selphie
pointed out."
"It's abandoned." Seifer waved a hand. "And there's no Keep Out sign
posted. Technically, we have as much a right to be there as you."
"LEGAL."
Selphie frowned. She didn't like Galbadia. Seifer had been their
leader when Edea ruled there. *But not anymore.*
Bahamut stirred. /I believe my last partner told me of this./ he
commented /To my point of view, he was nothing more than a glorified
bodyguard. And he no longer works against you. You are SeeD, so put
aside personal conflict and see what use he could be./
*What possible use...* Selphie's eyes drifted to the weapons the
trio wore. *Of course.* She smiled. "Well, you do have a point."
Startled by her change in attitude, the three regarded her warily
as the door to their cell was unlocked and they were let out.
"So we're free to go?" Seifer asked.
"Yes... But I've got a business proposition for you..."
***
A few weeks later, things had settled down. The lessons with the
Shumi were going on sporadically, with the approval of Scholar.
For some reason, the Shumi were working on some sort of large
project they didn't want Selphie in the village for.
Classes had resumed. Selphie had hired Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin
to act as instructors. Raijin was a pretty good weapons instructor,
amazingly enough. Fujin was a good secretary and aide to Selphie,
and Seifer ran an all-purpose class. The blonde-haired man was a
surprisingly good teacher, especially in the areas of history,
tactics and world politics.
With Seifer acting as a defacto homeroom teacher for all the
students (he worked in shifts and omplained bitterly), Raijin
doing weaponswork, and Fujin as the stark fist of justice on
rule-breakers and dissidents, things got quiet and stayed quiet.
Unofortunately, on a quiet winter afternoon, Selphie was bored.
There was nothing that needed doing. Classes were all in session,
the students were under sharp eye of Raijin and Seifer, and
Selphie had walked the length and breadth of Trabia Garden.
So Selphie sat in her office, spinning in the office chair behind
her desk in circles. Both had been salvaged from Old Trabia Garden,
and worked very well. The office chair had been oiled, and spun
around fast enough that Selphie fancied she could see through time.
Her boredom ended when Seifer entered unanounced into her office.
Selphie stopped the chair with her foot, and swivelled the chair
to look at him, trying to resolve the four Seifers she could see
into one. They all looked too amused for her tastes.
"Having fun?" Seifer asked, smirking at her.
"I've got nothing to do, and I'm bored." Selphie groaned.
"We should switch places." Seifer commented, still looking smug
at having caught the perky Headmaster off guard. "Anyway, I wanted
to ask you something."
"Shoot." Selphie replied. There was only one Seifer right now, and
he looked like he was vibrating around the edges.
"Well, judging from the storerooms, your students have done in more
than enough snow lions. You've got more extra fur than you know what
to do with,
right?"
"Sure." Selphie shrugged. "So what's the big deal?"
Seifer stared at her. "Do you know how much snow lion fur is worth?"
"Lots, why?"
"Then why aren't you selling it?"
"Maybe cause we're miles away from civilization?" Selphie suggested.
"The Ragnarok and chobocos are our only way out of here."
"Not true. How do you think Fuj, Raij and I got here?"
The brunette frowned. "Choboco?"
"Bite your tongue. Raijin breaks out in hives from the things, and
I can't stand the smell of live poultry." Seifer looked disgusted
at the thought. "Nah, we found an old Centran relic which is probably
how the Shumi get out of here."
"The what?" Selphie asked, her face innocent. The Shumi had advised
her to keep quiet about them, since the Galbadians were still in
search of them.
"Don't play stupid. I know Shumi Village is up here, and I could
care less." Seifer waved his hand in dismissal of the subject.
"Anyway, there's a sort of magical tube going to the beach near Dollet."
"A magical tube?" Somewhere within her head, Selphie felt Bahamut
snap to attention.
"Yeah. We found it, it focused on Fujin's pendant, and *zap*, there
we were, in a magical tube. When we found out it went both ways, we
started hunting snow lions and selling the furs for lots of gil."
"Hey..." Selphie considered that. "I could bring a bunch of furs with
me to Dollet, sell them, and have enough money to buy an old transport
from them."
"Exactly. And since a bunch of the students know more than enough to
test out for SeeDship, we buy the transport, put out word that another
Garden has become active, and start working."
"Then test out the students and declare them SeeD." Selphie sat up
straight. "You're a genius Seifer."
"It's the truth." Seifer smirked. "So when do I get to be Commander?"
"Don't push your luck."
***
The next day was clear and almost unbearably bright. Selphie, Alaina,
and Fujin made their way down on to the beach.
After about ten minutes of kicking around the snow, Fujin stopped, and
waited. Alaina and Selphie shrugged, and watched.
The odd sword pendant that Fujin wore began to glow green. Then it
pulsed, and a column of light shot up from it. The faint outline of
a tunnel was clear through the glow.
"TUNNEL." Fujin pointed out unneccesarily. "FIRST, GO. I SHUT."
Alaina shrugged and stepped past Selphie into the glow. She
disappeared into the tunnel. Selphie cast an uneasy look at Fujin,
and stepped into the glow.
The tunnel was a glowing green and blue tube that reminded Selphie
of the flitter tubes in Esthar. But unlike those, you couldn't see
out of the tube.
There was a 'zot' sound, and Fujin's voice came from behind her,
annoyed. "BLOCKING WAY. MOVE!"
Selphie hastily moved. The silver-haired woman gave her an annoyed
look and loped down the tube. "COMING?" demanded Fujin.
"Geez." muttered Selphie. "Lighten up." She hurried down the tube
after the fuming wind master.
***
Some time later, Selphie sat in a Dollet cafe, sampling the local
cheesecake with Alaina. The furs had been sold for quite a bundle,
allowing Selphie to give Fujin her salary. As soon as possible, the
petite woman had rushed off to the weapons shop, mumbling something
about swords.
The remaining money went towards two old Dollet military transports
and a good supply of fuel and spare parts.
Selphie took another bite of the cheesecake, nearly purring in
appreciation. "This is good." she said.
"Tell me about it." Alaina replied. "Dollet has the best cheesecake
around. Must have something to do with the ingredients." She was
sipping at the local Ghysal Greens brew. Selphie had warned her off
because of the strongness of it, but Alaina had waved it off,
scorning the warning.
"Yo! Selphie!"
Selphie twisted around in her seat, and clapped her hands in surprise.
"Zell!"
"What's up?" the spikey blonde said "Whatcha doing here?"
"Buying some transports for Trabia." Selphie replied. "How is everyone?"
Zell sat down at the table and crossed his legs. "Not so good." His
face darkened. "Squall, Quistis and Rinoa have been acting wierd."
"Wierd?" Selphie stared at him, smile starting to waver.
"Yeah." Zell scratched his head. "After you left, Laguna contracted
SeeD to clean out the monsters left in the city of Esthar and on the
Great Plains. It was supposed to be Squall and Quistis, but... Squall's
been getting real wierd. He's turned into a stone cold killer."
"Huh?" Selphie frowned. "That doesn't sound much like Squall."
"Quistis is the same. Between the two of them, it's been a bloodbath in
Esthar. Monsters dying all over the place."
"Ewww."
"Rinoa's fanatically dedicated to Squall. She'll do anything he says.
Right now, that means her draining herself to exhaustion slaughtering
monsters."
Selphie shook her head. "What about Irvine?"
"He's got half the female population of the Garden in his bed."
Zell replied bluntly. "Something's wrong with them, Selphie. And
Quez is acting up."
"What do you mean?"
"He's getting slow summoning, and he won't talk to me anymore." Zell
replied.
*Bahamut?*
The dragon stirred. /What?/ He sounded annoyed.
*Why are the other Guardian Forces acting odd?*
There was silence, then /Leave it alone./ The dragon withdrew.
"Bahamut's not answering my questions." Selphie told Zell.
"Sounds about right." Zell shrugged. "Anyway, I've got to catch a
boat back to Balamb."
"Bye, Zell." Selphie said.
"Ya. Seeya later!" Zell left the restaurant, then broke into a jog
towards the docks.
Turning around, she saw Alaina staring in awe at Zell's
retreating back. "What's wrong?"
"He's one of the heroes who defeated Ultimecia." Alaina stared
after Zell. "He's a legend!"
"He's just Zell." Selphie really couldn't see why Alaina was
going ape over her friend. "Sure, he helped stop Ultimecia,
but..."
"But? But he's the greatest martial artist of all time! There
are legends developing around the SeeDs who fought the
future, Selphie. Squall, the Lionheart, the Knight. Rinoa,
the Angelic Sorceress. Quistis the wise, Irvine, the most
handsome and lonely of them. Then there's Zell, the
greatest martial artist ever! They even bewitched the
Sorceress Edea to help them bring back Rinoa from the dead!"
Alaina's eyes were starry. "And then there's you, Selphie the
Bright One, the magician!" Selphie recoiled from the naked
adoration in Alaina's eyes. "With you, I know you can rebuild
Trabia, and I'll get to be a SeeD, since you're my friend,
and..."
Bile rose in Selphie's throat. "Alaina, what do you think I
am?" she choked out, face frozen.
"Of course!" Alaina rambled on, oblivious to the growing
look of repulsion on Selphie's face. "I mean, what more is
there? You're a hero! I mean, you're so perfect, and..."
"NO!" Selphie slammed her hand on the table, angry. "Is
that all you see me as?"
The people in the cafe went quiet, and turned to look at
the two girls. Alaina was oblivious. "You're a hero! Isn't
that enough?"
"I thought you were my friend." Selphie choked out.
Alaina looked up, her pretty face twisted in a look of
confusion. "Well, I mean, yeah, I guess..." she stammered.
"You're a hero. Everything you touches turns to gold,
and you win over everything. Your friends are heroic too,
right? So if I'm your friend, I get to be a hero. I mean,
I can prove it too. You're my friend, so you tell me stuff,
and I can tell people about it. I'm so popular, I know I'll
be a hero."
"You BETRAYED me!" A years worth of repressed anger and
depression, normally held back behind the cheerful facade,
burst forth. Selphie's green eyes blazed with rage. "I
confided in you, and you betrayed me. You're not a friend,
you're just a sycophant. You USED me, Alaina. You betrayed
me so you could be popular with the rest of Trabia Garden.
Do you call that being a friend?!"
The cadet's face crumpled. "But.. but... Why are you mad
at me?" She seemed truly confused, and tears were gathering
in her eyes.
"Forget it." Selphie straightened, and her face went cold.
"Be at the beach by sundown." She threw down some money
on the table to pay for the cheesecake and drinks, and
left the frozen tableu of people behind.