Nightmares
by TacomaSquall
Part 4: NREM Stage
Zell was totally
unprepared for the impact with the cold water. The water must have been just a degree or two above freezing. It felt like the Giant Cactaur had hurled
every needle into his skin, all at once. Zell gasped in reaction, and felt the water rush into his mouth and down
his throat. Zell started flailing in
panic, forgetting everything he had learned about swimming.
A slender form arrowed
its way into the water nearby. With
confident strokes, Selphie swam to her companion's side. She grabbed the back of Zell's jacket and
oriented herself, kicking for the surface. In a few moments, her head broke the surface of the water, followed by
the martial artist's.
Spluttering and
coughing, Zell could barely breathe past the volume of fluid in his lungs. He retched, and some water was forced
upwards into his mouth. Most of the
fluid was not able to escape, and Zell's swallowing reflex drove the water back
into his body, this time, into his digestive system.
Selphie moved the SeeD
warrior so he was lying on his back and began swimming slowly to the
Strife. As she drew closer, she saw
Seifer pull himself on deck, the Hyperion clutched in one wet hand. The tall warrior had lost his trench-coat
during the dunking.
Selphie made it to the
side of the assault craft. As she
reached for the ship's hull, a ring landed in the water beside her. Attached to the floatation device was a long
rope that led upwards, to the deck of the craft. She pulled Zell to it, and made his unconscious form fast to
it. She tugged three times on the rope
and shouted aloft, "Hoist Zell up!"
The Trabian girl watched
as the young SeeD was hoisted into the air. Slowly, Zell's body rose, bumping occasionally against the Strife's
hull. When the SeeD had reached the
level of the ship's deck, Seifer reached over the edge and pulled him up on
board.
Selphie smiled. This reminded her of all the moonlight swims
she used to take with Heidi and Mitchell in Trabia. In fact, the three of them had been founding members of the
Trabia Polar Bear Club – a group of Garden students and faculty that loved to
swim in the ice-cold waters surrounding their Garden.
The ring plummeted back down,
smacking the chill water with enough force to drench Selphie in spray. The splash was enough to jar the
brown-haired lass from her reverie. She
grabbed onto the ring and looked above. One of the crewmen of the Strife looked back at her, his eyes questioning. She waved at him and gave him a
thumbs-up. The crewman smiled and waved
back, and then told the others to begin lifting.
* * * * * *
Zell was wrapped in a
wool blanket from the Strife's stores. He was fighting the urge to shiver uncontrollably from the dunking he
had sustained just a few minutes before. His teeth were chattering violently, and he wished for a steaming bowl
of Mrs. Stepanicci's chicken soup.
He looked over at
Seifer, who wore his blanket as if it were royalty's cloak. The tall instructor met Zell's gaze and
grinned at the younger SeeD. Zell was
shocked. As far as he could recall, it
was the first time, ever, that Seifer had treated him as something of an
equal. "Nice job, Zell. You finished that critter off with your Limit
Break."
Zell burrowed deeper
into his blanket, trying vainly to find warmth from within its folds. He shivered and looked at Seifer. "However, I wasn't expecting the Float spell
to expire so quickly." He made a rueful
grin.
"Better after the fight
than during the middle of it," Seifer asserted.
The door to the cabin
the two SeeDs were berthing in opened. With a towel wrapped in a turban in her hair, and wearing an
amber-colored sweater-dress, Selphie walked in. She smiled at Zell and Seifer as she sat down in the only chair
in the cabin. "What was that thing?"
Zell shuddered
again. "It was a Plesiosaur. There have been no sightings of a living
aquatic saurian like it for hundreds of years. The Estharian Museum of Antiquities lists the creature as extinct for
over a millennia, dying out at the same time as the Centra disaster."
"So they died out due to
a Lunar Cry," Selphie commented. She
shook her head and looked at Zell. A
slow smile spread across her face. "How
do you know so much about saurians, Zell?"
Zell blushed. "When I was a kid –"
"You're still a kid,
Chicken-wuss," Seifer interrupted.
Zell shot a venomous
look at the blond instructor, who deigned not to notice. Zell continued, "When I was a kid, I used to
love dinosaurs. I used to pester Mom
abut going to the woods north of Balamb to get a T-Rexaur egg." He sighed regretfully. "Fortunately, I never found one."
Seifer cracked his
knuckles. Into the silence that
followed, he spoke. "A more important
question is how and why it got here."
Selphie nodded. "That's what you wanted to ask Neptune,
isn't it?"
Seifer shrugged. "That's mainly it."
"I have an idea on how I
might be able to allow us all to speak with him. Let me see if I can make it work." Selphie focused her concentration inwards.
As the battle earlier
had ended, Selphie made the snap decision to Junction Neptune to herself. Now, she sent a query down the mental link
she shared with the Guardian.
Yes, Mistress of
Doom?
Selphie did a visible
double-take. Who are you calling the
Mistress of Doom?
You. Selphie Tilmitt, you are the Mistress of
Doom. Do you not have access to that
puissant ability that you have dubbed 'The End'?
You mean you have names
for all of us?
Selphie received the
impression of an elderly king nodding with grave majesty. Each of the Fated Children is known to
us by the names that Hyne gave to you in her last prophecy. The Lionheart, the Fist of the Fated, the
Knight of the Cross, the Mistress of Doom, the Weeping Queen, the Marksman, and
the Wishing Angel. We have known of you
and waited for your coming for ages.
Why? We're just a bunch of kids…
Perhaps. But it was known to Hyne that a day would
come when the Queen of Heaven would seek dominion over all of time. In that day, the Fated Children would rise
to oppose her. In opposing her, they
would mend the breach that separated the Guardians from each other.
This is waaaaay too much
for me. Selphie paused infinitesimally. I wanted to ask you if there was a way
that you could speak to all of us. My
companions have questions for you that they cannot ask unless they are
Junctioned to you. Since we know that
you can manifest in battle, it was our hope that we could get you to manifest
for a time.
I can do that,
but at the risk of your well-being, child.
What do you mean?
When one of us
manifests, we replace the ones who call us, sending them temporarily to our
realm. To protect them, our summoners
are placed in stasis. It is not known
what would happen to a human who is placed in stasis for more than a few
moments. Selphie could hear a cautionary note in
Neptune's voice. It is possible
that you could be injured, or worse. If
the stasis wears off, your sanity may very well be damaged, for the Guardian's
realm is suited for our kind, not yours.
Selphie nodded. She looked at her companions and said,
"Neptune will be here soon to answer all of your questions, Seifer. I will not be present, so you will want to
record the answers so I can look at them."
Zell's eyes went
wide. "You're gonna summon Neptune
right now?"
Selphie looked at her
friend, meeting his gaze head-on. "Yeah, I am."
Selphie closed her eyes
in concentration. As she began the
summoning, she felt a shiver of trepidation move quickly down her spine. She shivered, and faded from her companions'
view.
To be continued…