Sins of the Father Garden


Chapter 2

Zell was lying on a bed in the Infirmary, the bed he had seldom left since he returned from Centra six weeks ago. He stared at the walls without really seeing them. His mind wandered back to the scenes in the mysterious cave under Centra again. Whenever he closed his eyes, he could see the look on Hetha's face as he pulled the trigger. "He fears the firstborn," she had said to him, what did she mean by that?

Zell sighed, a strange sickness had befallen him, leaving Dr. Kadowaki clueless about the nature of it. The sickness began just after they had returned, as he had debriefed Squall and Quistis he suddenly fell unconscious. When he woke up he was here in the Infirmary, feeling as weak as a newborn child. They must have done a thousand tests on him, but nothing seemed to be wrong, except that he was feeling worse from day to day.

And the nightmares, every time he tried to sleep he had visions of slaughter and bloodshed, sometimes there were the dead Cadets in it, sometimes his friends, sometimes strangers, but it was always him who hurt, him who murdered them.

Zell sighed again, he turned his head, and it hurt. Squall stood at the front desk with Doctor Kadowaki, he had visited him every day in the last 6 weeks, and had left nothing undone to help him, but to no avail. Zell reached for a glass of water, feeling parched again, it hurt. He drank it out in little sips, that hurt too.


Selphie skipped out of the parking lot, still feeling a bit annoyed at her mysterious passenger. She saw the man, who called himself Khan, so mysteriously pass first Irvine, then Fujin. Selphie's face immediately brightened up, she ran a few steps and jumped into Irvine's arms. The bigger man had trouble catching her and keeping the balance, but managed both, barely.

Irvine smiled at the young woman in his arms; he gave her a platonic kiss on the forehead. She pulled herself up to kiss him, but stopped as she felt his left arm crawl down her back in a not so platonic way. She gave him a playful fist in the ribs and said in a mock huff, "Irvine Kinneas, you should learn to behave around a young, innocent girl."

"I will," he replied, "Show me one." She hit him again in the chest, this time hard enough to make the young soldier flinch.

He put his arm around her, while massaging his ribs with the other. As they strolled down the hall they saw the man called Khan walk into the infirmary. "Weird guy," murmured Selphie, "I accidentally sprayed him with water on the road, and to make up for it I gave him a ride here." Irvine chuckled.

"Don't you know that nice little girls don't talk to strangers?" he said; knowing that she could more than just defend herself. Selphie made a face at his comment.

"Well the man could have a nice talk with Squall about saying nothing," she said, looking into the direction the man went.

"What about a nice hot coffee" asked Irvine "you can forget about him and tell me what's new in the theatre"

"Yeah, good idea," Selphie mumbled as the two walked towards the cafeteria, "I still wonder what he wanted with Zell…."

The recognition where he had seen the man before hit Irvine like a train…


The door to the infirmary opened, Squall looked up, and saw a tall, muscular man standing in the doorway. The man ignored him and stared directly to the bed of Zell, saying: "Now we will end this once and for all, I will make sure that Protera will never happen again." With that he started to walk to Zell's bed. Squall stepped in his way.

"What do you want in here?" he asked casually, but with a menacing undertone, something about the man maked him uneasy, something inside Squall screamed to immediately kill him. The man looked straight into Squall's eyes, looking willing to kill Squall at that moment.

"Get out of my way, boy, this is none of your concern, leave and you will live," he answered. Squall felt a sudden urge of violence, and drew his gunblade.

"You will leave stranger, immediately!" Doctor Kadowaki wanted to say something, but the stranger made a gesture without taking his eyes of Squall, and she fell down to the ground, unconscious. The man took a step back, smiling like a shark.

"Well, I am not disappointed. A lion, indeed, protective of his pride, but are you willing to die for it?" He held up a hand. "With fire and steel I created you, with blood and magic I bonded you, and with your name I call you!" Suddenly a gleaming broadsword appeared in his hand. With a grin the man charged.


Irvine stared in shock, he couldn't believe it, and it was the same man, without a doubt. Selphie looked up at him, serious concern on her little face.

"What is it Irvine? Is he the father of a lady that you tried to know a little too personally?" she tried to joke, seeing his deathly serious face.

"No," he replied while bolting for his room getting his gun. "He is the man who killed the Cadets in Centra."


Zell stared at to the two combatants; it was like a scene of a nightmare where the monster suddenly jumped you, after you thought you had already killed it. Squall and the man circled each other, after an initial flight of blades both had become cautious, testing each other's strengths and weaknesses. They circled each other ready to bring a killing blow at the first instance.

Zell stared at them in frightened amazement, the man was without a doubt stronger, and had a longer reach than Squall, but Squall made up for it by being a bit faster.

They exchanged Blows again; neither of them gaining an advantage over the other. They both seemed to be determined to wear the other out to the point where he would make a critical mistake.

Squall suddenly attacked, but seemed to slip on the ground. The man jumped and delivered a mighty blow to the head, but Squall brought his gunblade up at the last second, ending his faint and pulled the trigger. The charge went through the blade, ripping the broadsword out of Khan's hand.

Squall allowed himself a small smile, holding the stranger at bay with his gunblade. A strange gleam was in Khan's eyes as he said, "What an interesting Weapon, young Lion." With this he jumped forward, impaling himself on the gunblade.

The blade stuck deep in his chest as the man grabbed Squall's arm and shoulder pulling them down as he brought his knee up. A sickening sound filled the air as Squall's shoulder broke.


Rinoa and Quistis were standing in the Cafeteria, supervising the work on the new indoor stage and chatting, both felt very silly and were giggling a lot. "... And then he asked me if he could have an autograph!" Quistis said, and both burst out in laughter again.

"Men," said Rinoa, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, well at least you got a nice, strong and silent type of that species," answered Quistis mocking. Rinoa laughed again.

"At least he uses two word sentences every now and then, that's about 100 percent better than the last count," she replied sarcastically. Quistis looked out of the great windows.

"Well I bet he likes the weather, want another tea or something?" she asked, but Rinoa didn't heard her.

Her eyes where glowing white as she said in a frightened tone, "Squall, he's badly hurt…"


The man staggered, while pulling the gunblade out of his chest. Even if he can come back from deadly injuries, thought Zell, he isn't immune to pain. Finally the man managed to pull the blade out, falling onto his knees from the pain.

He breathed deeply a few times, while the wound closed. Then he got up, unhurt. He looked down at the unconscious Squall, and had a faint smile on his lips.

"Great fight young lion, you may yet live," his voice only a whisper. Then he turned to Zell, his face going grim again.

"Finally, Calash, my long wait to kill you is over, after all this time, victory is the sweetest thing," he charged Zell. Zell felt a surge of vitality in his body, strength like he hadn't felt for weeks, he stood up without being able to control his body, he exchanged a series of blows with the man, a name popped up in this mind.

"Khan," he whispered.

Zell found himself in the backseat of his own consciousness, unable to move or speak, some strange force was controlling him. He attacked, blocked, kicked and dodged faster and more precise than he ever thought possible, but the man called Khan was nevertheless getting him more and more into a bad position.

"I have come quickly enough," Zell heard him taunting. "This boy was able to resist you for long enough, you have not gotten your old power back yet brother."

Then a fist struck that Zell wasn't quick enough to parry, and hit him in the stomach, pushing the air out of him. He keeled over, and a terrible kick shattered his spine. Zell felt himself fall into a void, as he crashed to the ground. He had no feeling in his legs and lower body, and his back seemed to be melting.

But as the stranger picked him up and threw him on his bed he felt the strange sensation of his bones tried to rearrange themselves.


Selphie pounded on the door to the Infirmary in frustration, it wouldn't open. Irvine reloaded his Shotgun again and emptied it into the door, but to no avail, the heavy reinforced door wouldn't let itself be forced open so quickly.

Selphie was in a mix of shame and rage, she had brought the killer of her friends into the Garden, it was her fault that the monster was here. They had heard a scream earlier, it had been Squall's voice. Tears flowed down Selphie's cheeks, her friends were dying in there and it was her fault. She had allowed the Monster to enter their home.

Irvine felt Selphie's pain, it added to his own rage. He reloaded the shotgun again, the last of his ammo, and kicked against the door as a futile gesture to bring it to open.

"Stand aside," they heard Rinoa's voice commanding, she ran down the hallway, her eyes glowing white, the air around her crackling with power and rage. Quistis trailed behind her, nearly unable to keep up the pace.

Selphie and Irvine pressed themselves against the wall as Rinoa blasted the doors open with a mighty bolt of lightning.

Zell felt an unnatural peace as he laid on the bed, his spine nearly healed, and with no control over his body, the whole scene felt so unnatural. Khan, as he knew now the man was called, formed a claw with his hand aiming for his chest.

Suddenly the door blasted open and Rinoa came in like an avenging angel. Khan spun around trying to defend himself, but he was much to slow. A bolt of pure magical energy hit him in the chest throwing him against the opposite wall.

This time he didn't stand up again.


Rinoa rushed to Squall and cast her cure spells, Quistis entered and looked after Doctor Kadowaki. Then he saw Selphie, she was running straight for him, tears flowing down her cheeks. She hugged him tightly mumbling, "I am so glad you all are alive." over and over again. Zell felt the pain and weakness return to his arms, and finally managed to hug her back, regaining control over himself.

After the mysterious man was locked away into a high security cell, Squall called a meeting. Everyone was there, even Zell, brought in by Doctor Kadowaki in a wheelchair. Thanks to Rinoa healing spells, Squall was once again unhurt, and Doctor Kadowaki had just been stunned by the man.

Squall and Doctor Kadowaki told what happened in the Infirmary up to the moment they had been knocked out, then it was Zell's turn. Zell wanted to tell them about the strange things that had happened, but once more he had no control over himself.

"He just picked me up and wanted to deliver a killing blow, taunting my weakness, he asked me if I first wanted to see my friends die, then you busted in, and saved us all," Zell heard himself saying.

"Has anyone an idea what he meant by, Protera will never happen again?" Squall asked.

"You should read more of the classics," Doctor Kadowaki answered. "'The Fall of Protera' is a classical Centran Drama." Quistis looked up.

"I've read it," she said blushing slightly. "It is the story about the rivalry of two brothers for the love of their father. In it, an entire city is destroyed just because of the hatred those two feel for each other."

"But what has this to do with Zell?" Selphie asked.

"Hey, he is clearly a madman," Zell heard himself say. "Look what he did to the poor Cadets in Centra." Zell heard his voice choke, like in pain. "I say we should kill him immediately for his crimes. Remember what he did…" Zell's voice was so filled with hatred that the others shuddered.


Quistis and Squall walked along to the holding Cells, "Have you ever seen Zell so enraged?" she asked him.

"No," was his simple answer.

"What shall we do with our prisoner?" she tried again to bring him out of his silent mood.

"I don't know" he answered. They arrived at the holding cell. The man was sitting on the floor, stretched out comfortably.

Before they could do anything he said, "The young Lion, and another person, a woman, quite young, you are here to decide over my fate." Quistis stared at him for a moment but regained her self-control.

"Yes, that's what we are here for. Why did you do it? Killing the people on Centra and trying to kill us today?" She asked, her voice trembling a little. Squall just watched the man in silence, a piece of the rage he felt earlier came up again, but he was confused. This was not the behaviour of a raging lunatic, the Cadets were killed in a kind of bloodlust, but today this man had fought them in a masterly way, taking advantage of the situation, and he didn't kill anyone. Neither himself, nor Doctor Kadowaki, when he had the possibility. Selphie had given him a ride, and he hadn't touched her either.

The man looked straight at Quistis, but his eyes where closed. "If I wanted you dead, we wouldn't be having this little chat right now, and I didn't kill your kin,." He said in a silent, matter-of-fact voice. "The only death I planned today, is that of the of the vessel of Calash, and Calash itself. I am quite sorry that your friend will die, but it is a sacrifice that is needed."

"What are you talking about?" Quistis asked, she looked at the man but he didn't answer anymore, he just sat there seemingly at peace with himself and the world. "There is one person who can find out if he murdered the Cadets," Squall said and motioned Quistis to follow.

Ellone was sitting in her seat on board the Ragnarok, Squall's call had sounded really serious, she had of course heard about the massacre of the Cadets and the strange illness that had befallen Zell. Still, the situation must be grave if Squall used the Ragnarok to get her personally, and didn't just wait until she could come in one of the Presidential machines.


A/N: My greatest thanks go to Rhyein for patiently proofing this and helping me with useful critic while writing this.