Chapter 2 - Awakening and Departure

'That hurt.' Selphie groaned as she opened her eyes. She felt her head and the rising lump growing on the back of it. 'Brutes.' She groped around her trying to feel where she was. It was so oppressively dark, she could not see any better with her eyes open. Her yellow dress was torn in several places and her exposed shoulder showed a nasty-looking bruise.

She stood up painfully, stretching her limbs. If her captors thought they had removed all danger by taking away her nunchuks, they were wrong. She walked towards the wall and felt her way round the room but no door was apparent. *Where the hell am I?* As her pupils dilated to adapt to her surroundings, she caught
sight of a faint beam of light shining on her foot. Looking up, she saw a grate at about fifteen feet above her head through which the light was coming. 'Well, that explains how I got down here.' She called up but the only answer she received was the sound of her own voice, echoing off the walls of the pit.

'Damn them all to Shiva. How am I ever gonna get out of here?' Suddenly, Selphie froze where she was standing. Had she heard something behind her? A second later, her fears were confirmed as her ears picked up a faint breathing sound.
'Who's there?' she called despairingly into the darkness. The breathing was getting closer. Selphie pulled two total back flips, landing near the wall in a defensive position. With the surrounding darkness, she was in no situation to fight off an attacker but she refused to give up. Selphie's jaw tightened, her teeth gnashing against each other as her whole body quivered in anticipation. The breathing was getting closer……….

*****

Fuujin caught her breath as she finished her 35th lap round the campus. She was soon aware of Raijin's muscular frame next to her, bent almost double, trying to regain his breath. For all his body-building training and weight-lifting, Fuujin's closest friend had far less endurance than she did. She paused for a second, eyeing her tired friend as he halted gratefully, sucking in air as if clinging on to his very life.
'OWW!' Raijin yelled out as Fuujin's gloved hand caught him a glancing blow off the side of his head. 'What did you do that for?'
'You wimp!' Fuujin's good eye was ablaze with fury. 'You call yourself a SEED and you can't even keep up with me on a little jog.' Exasperated and annoyed, Fuujin took off once more, leaving the tall black man to eat her dust.

In the next twenty minutes, Fuujin had completed her punishment and was mopping the sweat off her brow with a towel as Raijin pulled up beside her, looking distinctly worse for wear. She tossed him a bottle of water which he swigged at gratefully. After quenching his thirst, he walked up to her and placed a heavy hand on her shoulder.
'Listen, Fuu, I was just thinking. Maybe we ought to tell Squall and the others about the message we received from Seifer.'
Fuujin gasped audibly before whirling round to face him.
'Are you totally insane? The others are prejudiced enough with Seifer as it is. How do you think they'll feel if they learn what he's done this time? Somehow, I don't think that pretty-boy Irvine or any of them would hesitate to kill him this time. Plus, we're not even sure if Seifer meant what he said in that message.' The gray-haired girl's cheeks were red with fury.
Battered by Fuujin's aggressive tongue, Raijin shut up and got up to walk back to the main entrance of the university. Before he had walked ten paces, he heard Shu's voice calling to him from above. 'Oh, Raijin, that was only 47 laps.' He looked up to see the pretty pilot looking down at him and making signals for him to keep running.

*****
'Listen, Squall, you have to try and take your mind off this whole situation until we get to Norn.' Squall took the cup of tea Rinoa had made him and placed it on the table beside him. Without looking up, he continued to polish his gunblade, not even replying to Rinoa's remark. The short brunette sat beside him, patting her dog, Angelo, as he lay next to her feet.
'Honey, the team is looking up to you as their leader. We've been through worse things than this.' As she placed her hand on his arm, Squall leapt up, throwing his gunblade against the wall and turning to face his girlfriend.
'I know! I know we've been through worse but at the moment, I have two of our best operatives missing through my fault. So you'll understand why keeping calm is not my priority.'
Infuriated at Squall's tone, Rinoa slapped him right across the face, leaving a large red hand mark.
'Shut up, Squall Lionheart, and get over yourself. Moaning and whining is not gonna help Selphie or Seifer. You've gotta take action. All the others must be about ready to leave so grab your bags and meet us at the main gate.' Not giving Squall a chance to respond, Rinoa shouldered her backpack and marched out, Angelo barking at her side.

Rinoa arrived at the main gate to be greeted by the sight of the team's two vehicles being loaded by SEED operatives. Raijin was on the roof of the car, busily tying packs firmly down while Fuujin and Shu were tinkering in the engine. The truck seemed to be ready to go with Irvine leaning against the side of it, impatiently waiting for the order to depart.
Quistis strode over to Rinoa, flashing a big smile at her friend and former rival for Squall's affections.
'Everybody's ready to go. We're only waiting for Squall.'
Rinoa rolled her eyes at the mention of her stubborn companion. Looking up at the taller and slimmer Quistis, she nodded towards Irvine.
'You sure you'll be able to handle him, Quistis? He still looks pretty annoyed.'
Both women looked at Irvine, ignoring everybody around him.
'I'm worried about him, Rin. I've never seen him like this. He's spent his entire time since the meeting yesterday morning doing target practice in the Training Grounds.'
A crease ran across Rinoa's forehead as she mulled over Irvine's behaviour. She knew the sniper had always had a soft spot for her so she decided to try her luck. She tugged at her blue dress and casually approached the mulling Irvine.
'Hi, Irvine, excited about the mission?'
Munching on a stalk of grass, Irvine turned his stare onto the gorgeous girl next to him. For probably the first time ever, his eyes did not light up when looking at Rinoa.
'Rinoa, listen to me. I know you're here to try and cheer me up. But I can tell you right now that I'm in no mood to be submitted to your chirpiness. If you try, I'll only end up offending you so why don't you both save us a lot of time and bother and just go about your business?'
He turned away from Rinoa, and opening the door to the truck, slid inside, resting his rifle on his lap.

As the final preparations for departure were almost completed, Squall strode quickly down the stairs to join the others, followed by Edea and Zell. He nodded grimly at Raijin who was indicating that all was ready. Squall then turned to face Zell. 'Zell, I know you're upset at me leaving you behind but I need somebody I can trust to keep an eye on things here.'
Zell, visibly upset, kept his true feelings under wraps and merely nodded. The SEED leader then took Edea aside. 'Listen, governess, I'm also trusting that you and Cid will keep Zell in line.' Edea smiled and placed a reassuring hand on Squall's chest. 'Don't worry, everything will be fine.'

Satisfied at last, Squall clambered into the shotgun position of the car.'Alright, everybody. Let's go! Quistis, move your people out.'
The two engines revved quickly as they took off, spraying an infuriated Zell from head-to-toe in sand.