Nightmares
by TacomaSquall
Part Seven: Delta Stage
Selphie shuddered in
reaction to the pronouncement made by Diablos.
She would never be able to rid herself of the memory of how he had held
her helpless, within his power. Even when
she had faced Omega Weapon alongside Squall and Irvine, she had held some
measure of power over her surroundings.
The moment she had
appeared back in the cabin Zell and Seifer shared, she bolted for the doorway,
ignoring her companions' queries. She
had fled to the adjoining room, where she had been quartered, her footfalls
ringing softly on the metal floor of the assault craft. It was all she could do to prevent the rush
of tears from taking place in front of her friend and her former enemy. She was damned if Seifer was going to see
her break down.
Now, she felt somehow
tainted, as if she had been dipped into a vat of impurest filth by being the
object of a Guardian's lust. She wished
the assault craft had a shower on-board.
She wanted to turn the water on hot, at full blast, and let the stinging
rain of water flay the taint from her skin.
She wanted to scrub her flesh to the bone in an attempt to get rid of
this feeling of uncleanness.
Selphie checked her
Junctions, noting that she currently had Neptune, Shiva, Pandemona, and Bahamut
joined to her mind. She sighed with
relief as she remembered that Diablos was currently Junctioned to Squall, to
bolster his damaged health.
Wanting to be alone, she
concentrated and disengaged the enchantments that held her Guardians
Junctioned. As she released each one,
she let them know that she would reestablish her Junctions later, but that she
needed some time without even their presence.
We understand,
Mistress of Doom. Bahamut's reply conveyed the wisdom of the
Dragon Lord, mingled with a deep sadness and sympathy for the Trabian girl's
plight. Remember that we are here
to protect you, even from our own kind.
Alone, she let her
defenses down and cried for the first time since the destruction of Trabia Garden. She allowed herself to be the very
frightened young woman that she was, instead of the happy-go-lucky party girl
her friends always saw her as.
She lost herself in
grief until the Strife arrived in Dollet an hour later. When the ship arrived, a grim and determined
young woman reJunctioned and went up on deck to join her companions. Forever lost was a small portion of her
innocence.
* * * * * *
The two SeeDs and the
gunblade instructor walked from Dollet Port, into the city proper. Clad in their usual combat and travel garb,
the three tried to ignore the stares they were given by the townsfolk of
Dollet. They walked towards a car
rental lot on the edge of town, passing through the City Center.
Zell looked out of town,
towards the broadcast tower where he and Selphie had fought alongside Squall
against Elvoret. He smiled at the
memory, although he grimaced when he remembered that Seifer was supposed to
have helped them, but instead struck out on his own. In the end, he had raced ahead of them, while they held off the
Galbadian X-ATM092 robot. He hoped that
Seifer wouldn't repeat such cowardice on this mission.
Seifer looked at one of
the buildings in the center of town.
The town Inn, the Errant Signal, was still in operation. Seifer grinned. "Lets stop by the Errant Signal."
Zell groaned. "We don't have time to stop at every Inn
along the way, Seifer."
"Chicken-wuss, we may be
able to get some information from the owner of the Inn. He is related to the Card Queen, and she might
have let him know about some of her travels.
For one thing, she might have told him about the rise of any new
Sorceresses, or about things happening in Galbadia." Seifer's grin became a predatory smile. "People in Dollet like to keep themselves informed about events
in Galbadia. There is no way they will
ignore the rise to power of another crackpot such as Vinzer Deling."
Selphie chimed in,
"Zell, Seifer is right. Any information
that we can get to help update the briefing material we were given in Balamb
will be critical." Zell slowly nodded
his assent.
"Let me do the
talking." Seifer's look was
condescending. "He might be more
willing to talk to me, instead of a SeeD."
"Yeah, right."
Seifer laughed. "You always talk about your skill at playing
Triple Triad, Zell. There should be at
least a couple of games going on, so play while you are waiting."
They walked into the
Errant Signal, disappearing into the smoke from within the Inn.
* * * * * *
Zell looked at his hand
again. He had one card left in his
hand, and he was waiting for his opponent's last play. This was the fifth game he had played in
since entering the Errant Signal. Each
of the previous ones had been simple one-card-to-the-winner Open games that he
took easily, picking up a trio of level 4 cards, along with an Oilboyle in the
last game. However, in this game, he
was playing against an opponent that looked to have all Level 5 and 6 cards
show up in his randomized hand. There
were additional rules also in play, with both Same and Plus being in use. This game was for all the cards in the
opponent's hand. Zell had been stuck
with four Level 1 cards and his most treasured card.
Zell's most treasured
card was the holofoil-embossed card containing his likeness. Squall had given it to him after the end of
the Second Sorceress War, claiming to have won it from Ma Dincht, of all
people. It was one of the rare personal
cards created for the game, gathered by Squall during his run to be the
greatest Triple Triad player in the world.
Leave it to Squall to turn a great game into a personal battlefield.
Since Squall's run,
Triple Triad players had become more and more serious about the game, and the
self-styled Card Queen had begun organizing leagues for organized play in
Dollet, Balamb, Deling, and FH. The
leagues offered gil prizes for events, along with special members-only versions
of the cards. Zell had debated about
joining for some time now, but had not joined the Balamb league yet, because he
could not guarantee attendance at events.
Too often, he was out on missions.
Turning his mind back to
the game, Zell watched as his opponent chose one of his two cards, a Granaldo,
and placed it in the center of the 3-by-3 game grid. The Granaldo was higher value than each of Zell's cards - to the
right, left, and above - and all three were flipped over to indicate that they
now were controlled by the red player.
Zell had his card in his hand, and the only open space left was the one
beneath the Granaldo.
Zell placed his card
below the Granaldo, between the Behemoth and Abadon cards his opponent had
played on the bottom row. He looked at
the other player, who was smiling broadly.
"It looks like you lose everything, SeeD," he shouted.
Zell laughed. "Not quite." He pointed to the Behemoth and the Granaldo. "My card matches the Granaldo's lower eight
and the Behemoth's six. The same with
the Granaldo and Abadon," pointing at the other combination. He flipped the three cards over. "By the rules that govern Same-class
captures, I also capture all cards, as if the cards I just picked up were just
played."
Zell pointed at the
Fastitocalon-F above the Abadon. "The
Granaldo and Abadon capture this card by the Plus rule." He flipped the Fastitocalon-F over. He then proceeded to flip over the Red Bat,
Oilboyle and Geezard cards. "These
cards I capture normally."
Zell looks at the
audience that had gathered and smiled.
"As a favorite radio personality would say – 'that's the rest of the
story.'" He looked at his crestfallen
opponent. "You made a good try, man,
but that is game over."
Wordlessly, the young
man handed over his last card. It was a
members-only, holofoil edition of Gilgamesh.
Zell whistled as he
looked at the artwork on the card, depicting the capricious sword-wielding
Guardian in mid-swing with the Zantetsuken.
He held it out towards his opponent.
"I can't take this, man."
"Why not?" Beaming, Seifer strode up to younger
SeeD. "It might just come in
handy." Seifer clapped Zell on the shoulder. "I've got to hand it to you, Zell. When you come through, you come through
big!" He ushered Zell out the Inn's
door, towards Selphie, who was already outside, an expression of distaste
written across her face.
As they exited the
Errant Signal, Zell asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"I made a side bet on
your game with the proprietor of the Signal.
I won a car and enough fuel to get us to Galbadia in record time!"
To be continued …
