General Caraway held the
wound on his shoulder to stop the bleeding. He was beginning to wish that he
could use magic; maybe then this young Slayer wouldn't be so intolerable.
"I won't tell you!" he spat.
"I won't betray my daughter!"
The young man waved his sword
above his red-haired head and glared at Caraway through his grey eyes.
"Never mind then," he said. "I'll
simply search for her myself!"
The red head turned and walked
out, his black trench coat flaring behind him dramatically. Caraway got up and
phoned Garden.
"You have reached the Balamb
Garden reception. Please wait a moment while we transfer your…"
Caraway slammed the phone
down and leaned against his desk. Rinoa was in danger, and there was no way to
warn her!
----------------------
Squall ran his fingers
through Rinoa's dark hair and smiled down at her. She was so beautiful, so
innocent…yet she was a possible threat to the world with her Sorceress powers. Squall
closed his eyes and thought about his decision. If he wanted to protect Rinoa,
he had to quit SeeD. But Garden and SeeD had been his entire life up until now.
That is, until Rinoa came into the picture. Sweet, beautiful Rinoa. She had
penetrated Squall's shell and had shown him what it meant to really live,
and now, because of his love for her, he had to leave his home.
"Rinoa."
Rinoa sighed softly, happy
to be in Squall's arms. "Yes, Squall?" she said.
"Will you marry me?"
"Squall…" she said. "Of
course I'll marry you!"
Squall smiled softly. "I
love you," he said.
"And I love you, Squall,"
Rinoa replied, snuggling against him in his bed.
-------------------------
Corana slammed the man into
the wall and held him there with her one hand.
"Now, what do you know about
the explosion at the castle this morning?" she asked for the fifth time. The
man just leered at her.
"You think I'll tell you?"
he said. "Ha! Stupid little girl!"
Corana punched him in the
stomach, and he buckled over. "What did you say?" she said, lifting his head up
and staring at him. The man coughed loudly.
"There's a man in the
Theatre District," he said with a wheeze. "He knows something, you should go
and talk to him."
Corana dropped him and
walked off without a word. Her next stop was the theatre district.
--------------------
Meanwhile, Celythia was
conducting an investigation of her own. She had been all over the industrial
district asking the locals if they knew anything about the explosion at the
castle that morning. Most of the people just shook his or her head. Then,
Celythia found an old man sitting on the side of the street.
"Hey, you," he said. "I
heard you're looking for some information."
Celythia looked at the old
man and knelt down next to him.
"Do you have information,
old man?" she asked.
"For a price."
Celythia eyed him. "How
much?"
"Two-hundred Gil."
Celythia looked at him for a
moment, and then produced four hundred Gil. "Tell me everything you know, and
this money is yours."
The old man eyed the Gil
eagerly. "In the theatre district there's a man from Lindblum. He's been
working on some crazy new weapon that blows up after a certain period of time.
Go and talk to him if you wanna know anything about the explosion at the
castle."
Celythia handed him the
money. "Thank you."
She stood up and walked off.
The old man cackled and pocketed the money. "No, thank you," he said.
---------------
Corana was having trouble
with the Alexandrian Soldiers. They refused to let her go, just because she 'looked
suspicious'.
"Look, I've done nothing
wrong!" she said. "Why can't you just let me pass?"
"We've been ordered to
detain suspicious looking people," said the Lead Soldier. "Until you're
cleared, you have to stay here."
Corana sighed. "Dammit," she
thought. "This is all because somebody planted a bomb in the castle!"
"Fine," she said eventually,
and sat down.
-------------------------
The soldiers all saluted
Celythia as she walked past them. She looked into a nearby building and saw two
soldiers and a woman in black arguing, but decided to leave them alone.
"I have to find this man
from Lindblum," she thought. She eventually did. He was tall, with red hair and green
eyes and wore silk clothes and brown boots. He was working on some kind of box
that let off steam every two minutes. She stood next to him until he noticed
her, at which point he put down his tools and stood up.
"How may I help you?" he
asked.
"May I ask what this device
is?" Celythia said.
"What, this?" the man asked.
"It's called a bomb. It's designed to explode after a certain period of time. I
plan to use it in mining."
Celythia summoned her
daggers. "You're under arrest," she said.
"Whatever for?" the man
asked, astonished.
"Last night, one of these 'bombs'
was planted in the castle and nearly killed the King and Queen," Celythia said.
"Now put your hands up and come with me."
The man stared at her for a
moment and took out a small orb. He threw the orb onto the floor and a cloud of
smoke came from it. While Celythia was coughing and trying to clear the smoke
away, the man ran off. When the smoke cleared, Celythia saw that he had gotten
away.
"This is not good," she thought. "I
have to report to Steiner, he'll want to know about this."
She made her way back to the
castle to report to Steiner and Beatrix.