Chapter 6
Disclaimer: Me don't own, no money, square does, don't sue pretty please with
sugar on the top.
Chapter 6
Balamb Garden, 3 Weeks later.
The sun burned down on the meadows of Balamb, in the distance the Garden shined in the sun. On the grassy plains, there were quite a few people and the streets were bustling with cars. A few patrols of SeeDs, mostly older cadets, ensured that the monsters would not disturb the peace on the plain. Through the great windows of the Garden a person was to be seen, a young man with brown hair.
Squall sat on his chair behind the commanders desk, he read through a stack of papers, and not for the first time. All that SeeD intelligence could have gathered in the last 3 weeks about the whereabouts of Zell, or Calash. He looked up to Xu; she sat opposite to him and was helping him to analyze the situation.
"So he entered the train somehow, as it stopped, hid in a service compartment and after the train started again…" he stopped for a second.
Xu spoke now: "He got out, entered a V.I.P passenger compartment,
slaughtered a whole family and took a train ride to Timber where we lost his
track." Squall looked at the papers in front of him, a great amount of
intelligence information was gathered there, but nothing that was really a lead
to the whereabouts of Zell.
Ellone sat on a chair in the library, she had an open book in front of her but her thoughts were wandering. She recalled the events three weeks ago in her mind again. The train had closed in with frightening speed; Khan had knelt behind her and had feverously worked on cutting the bonds that had held her to the seat. In the very moment he cut them he had grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her out of the car, pushing her away from the oncoming train without loosing a beat of an eye.
She had landed on Fujin and the woman had partly caught her, both of them had rolled down the hillside of the railroad tracks. The last thing she saw before the train hit the car was Khan, trying to get away from the engine.
As Fujin had an argument with the engineer about searching the train, Ellone had taken the moment to inspect the remains of the car, there was a good deal of blood, but not more, no signs of Khan were to be found in there. After the train started again, the SeeDs where not allowed to enter it because they had no police rights on board of the trains, they had returned to Garden.
Khan had walked there about two hours later, his clothes in shreds and bloody,
but completely unhurt.
Sweat ran down Rinoa's forehead, it ran down between her eyebrows, down her nose. More beads of sweat ran down her cheeks, she felt as if she had run a marathon. She breathed heavily and tried to concentrate again, in herself she amassed the energy to cast a spell, not drawing magic, but real sorceress magic. She thrust out her hand and a light-blue ball of fire shot from her palm.
The ball trailed through the air, straight at the bare chest of Khan, but before the ball hit him it hit a kind of invisible field around him, an eerie glow surrounded him for a second and then faded.
"Not bad this time, you are getting the hang of that Lady, but still not powerful enough by far to break my protections, go again." Rinoa did as he asked and hurled another ball of flame into his direction, he sidestepped it and the ball exploded at the reinforced wall, leaving a chrysanthemum of scorch marks. She waved with her hand and conjured a beam of energy towards her opponent, the man lifted his hands at the last moment and conjured a glittering shield in front of him, the beam wavered against it and Rinoa concentrated hard on it putting as much power in it as she could, this time she wanted to pierce the defenses of Khan.
She seemed to manage, Khan had to take a step back to keep his balance this time, but his shield still stood unwavering against her all out attack, Rinoa felt how her knees began to tremble and knew that she could not uphold the attack for much longer. She decided to set everything onto one card and changed the aim from his chest to his feet to get him in by surprise.
Khan took a quick step to the side and the wave just scorched the floor, he let the magical shield go and drew a symbol into the air, his finger leaving a burning trail. A green mist shot towards Rinoa, catching her off guard and knocking her to the ground.
"Remember what I told you about defense?" asked Khan a hint of mock in his voice. Rinoa cursed under her breath and rose again to her feet, the attack had not hurt her, and if she had concentrated on her own shield it would have bounced off harmless. That was the third time she had been caught off guard today, and they had only been sparring for about 25 minutes. She concentrated again and shot another ball of fire at him, but this time it had only a fraction of the power the last ones had, Khan dispelled it with a glare in the middle between them and made a time out gesture.
"We are overdoing it, you need a break, Lady, five minutes" he said and sat down in a Lotus seat, closing his eyes.
Rinoa limped towards a bench; she grabbed a bottle of water and drank thirstily, seldom before had anything stressed her this hard. But she had to admit that Khan was a good teacher, he had shown her completely new ways to use her sorceress magic. She drained the bottle in a deep sip and breathed, the stranger used a kind of magic that was closely related to her own; he did not need to draw magic, but could create the power he needed in himself, but unlike her, his spells were not really more powerful than normal drawing magic. He surely made up for that with his enormous knowledge and practice in the arts.
Like the way of Spell-battle he was tutoring her in now, he had showed her to directly channel the magic energy through her body as an attack or a defensive act. That was much more effective than the way she, Edea or even Ultimacia had used their power before, she could cast her spells much faster if needed, but it was much more tiring. After an hour training she felt the need to rest as if she had had a full day work out.
She looked at the unmoving figure of Khan, while she was soaked in sweat he did not even breathe faster than normal, he sat there seemingly completely rested. Rinoa grinned a bit mischievous as she gathered the energy for a new attack inside her, and casted a bolt of lightning, stronger than any before towards the resting figure.
Khan stuck up a hand without even looking up and the bolt disappeared again
in a harmless cloud of sparks. "Ready when you are," he said and
jumped up to his feet.
Quistis stood on a balcony looking over the training rooms. She saw Khan and Rinoa sparring down there and was deeply impressed by both of them. Rinoa's spell casting was full of silent, graceful elegance, Khans actions where full of dash, and he seemed never to tire or slip out of carelessness.
As she thought about Khan a smile crept on her face, but it was not a very amused one. For once he was their new employer, he had walked into Garden after the incidents and had gone straight to the Headmaster's Office and had had a long talk with Squall and Cid. He wanted to employ SeeD to find Zell, and with him the man he searched for, Calash the creature that possessed Zell. When asked about the payment he had wordlessly drawn a small leather bag out of his pocket and emptied an amount of raw diamonds onto the table, more than enough to employ the entire Garden for weeks.
Garden had accepted the Mission out of the old habit never to ask about the reasons of the employer as long as he met the price, and Khan had more than met the price of Garden. Quistis's smile became a bit more friendly and funny as she remembered how she had offered to help him get acquainted with the new age he now lived in, after he saved her life, that was the least she owed him.
It turned out that Khan had indeed a vice and that was vanity, he wanted to shop for new clothes first because the only things he had were some Garden clothes that he had gotten after walking in with his blood-soaked rags the day he saved Ellone. So they set out to a tailor in Balamb. Khan had spent hours discussing with the tailor about the right combination of clothes and materials. After that he had gotten out to get a haircut to match the stile of the time he lived now in. While there he had gotten a manicure and a pedicure. Seeing that Quistis had not really been able to say anything. But that was not the end of the strangely disturbing day, then he had gone shopping, buying about 4 times the body care products Quistis owned.
Still Quistis could not say that his vanity was out of arrogance, he always treated all people in a friendly, if slightly distant manner, he gave generous amount's of tips and never spoke in anything but soft, refined tones. More than that, he was a walking powerhouse of knowledge, he could quote Centran philosophy by heart, and he had a never-ending recourse of anecdotes, ranging from nice towards so kinky that even Squall ended up blushing like hell. Quistis chuckled slightly at the memory of that. All people he met seemed to get caught in the web of his charm, well not all when she thought about it, he and Squall seemed naturally not to get along.
Off course Squall had been nothing but thankful about the rescue of his sister, but the atmosphere between them was cold at best. They kept their distance and even when they managed a few inches more than necessary, they spoke both in respectful voices to each other, but nothing more.
Quistis was drawn away from her thoughts as a young boy walked up to her and presented her a magazine.
"Miss Trepe, I would like to show you an article about an Exhibition of
Centran relicts that starts next week in Deling City." Quistis turned
around to the boy, smiled and set on to answer as below her Rinoa and Khan once
more threw their magic against each other.
Doctor Kadowaki looked at the pitiful shape of Irvine; he once again sat the whole day next to the bed Selphie lay in. She had been able to save the life of the petite girl in the operation, but the damage done to her by Zell had been immense. She shuddered as she remembered it, multiple fractions of bones, her liver and her spleen had been ripped in shreds by the punches, her lungs where pierced from fragments of her rips, the metal rod pieced through her shoulder had smashed her shoulder blade beyond repair, it would need to be replaces by an artificial one in a few months when the girl healed the most serious injuries. Most of that would heal in time, but the girl would never be able to see again on one eye, and the wrist was shattered beyond repair, she would never be able to use it again, and it had been a close call to amputation.
Currently she was in an artificial comatose, sparing her from the pains she would go through in that phase. When that would be so simple with the pains Irvine got through in that time, the cowboy was only a shadow of the man he used to be. He sat next to Selphie for most of the days, talking to her, or only sitting there, looking at her bandaged face.
At first Doctor Kadowski had tried to bring him to leave, and go on, seeking help from his friends, but now she just let him sit by her bed. It was to no avail, the boy was ripped into shreds in the inside and that was the only thing that could actually give him a small measure of peace.
Irvine looked straight at Selphie's face, how peaceful she looked, sleeping
her deep and hopefully dreamless and peaceful sleep. Irvine felt the pain within
him, he would kill Zell for that what he had done to her, and if that were the
last thing the young man would do.
Galbadia, a junkyard 45 driving minutes away from Deling City
It was a hot morning in the desert of Galbadia; the sun burned down mercilessly on the scorched earth. A dusty junkyard was to be overlooked, within a fenced area where some one story buildings and a construction hall or two, some of the windows were broken. Vast amounts of scrap metal lied strewn over the yard and piled up into big heaps. Old battered cars lined up with discarded kitchen equipment and even some destroyed military units from the earlier wars showed up every now and then. A spider web of stairs, flights and ramps connected the various buildings and areas with each other. Other than climbing over 12 foot high fence, with sharp spikes, the only way to enter the compound was through the main gate. A few figures were busy in the area, moving a bit of the trash, or just guarding the junkyard.
Two men sat in front of the entrance to the junkyard, on a bench in the shadows of the fence around the junkyard.
"Hey Boss, how do you put an giraffe in a cooler?" asked a tall, broad shouldered man. He stood about 6'6" tall and weighted the better part of 300 pounds. His face sported a wild growing beard, and had a raw brutal expression. A much shorter man answered, he had a facial tattoo and spiked blonde hair.
"I dunno Leroy, tell me."
Calash grinned to no one in particular, Khan was wrong about him, he knew exactly how the human mind worked, and that had not changed in the last thousands of years. He had been able to recruit some helpers with the old ways, bribery and of course pure force.
"You open the door, put the giraffe in and close the door" the man he called Leroy replied, and grinned. The grin of a stupid dog that just managed to pull of a trick, like sit, Calash thought. Then he looked over the junkyard, a perfect place to hide, out of reach from most civilization, or the part that would be inconvenient. And the metal here made any kind of detection impossible, even for the Estharian Spy Satellites.
"How do you get an elephant into the same cooler boss?" asked Leroy again. Calash looked straight into the sun, and replied.
"I dunno again Leroy, shoot!" he listened to the silence on the junkyard, only broken by the occasional noise of a desert dweller. In the distance a column of dust showed the approach of a car.
"You open the door of the cooler, get the giraffe out of it, put the elephant into it and close the door" said Leroy and got into a laughing fit.
Calash smiled and continued to stare into the distance, finally they had arrived; it had taken a long while for them. He needed the freight they brought to continue with his experiments, he would have preferred to get the needed things himself, but he knew that keeping a low profile was more important than hurrying the things that would come inevitably.
"Ok boss, another one, The lion, the king of the animals holds court and all animals have to attend, which animal is missing from there?" Leroy said, beaming with pride about the jokes he told his boss. Calash looked down, grabbed a bottle from the ground and took a deep sip before he answered, the car had come much closer, and it was the one he was waiting for.
" I dunno again Leroy, just enlighten me." The bottle was empty after another sip and he threw it towards the junk. Leroy took a deep breath and made a gesture like a show magician that just showed a particular spectacular trick.
"The elephant. He's in the cooler, boss" he managed to say before he went into another laughing fit. Calash stood up and went to meet that car it was now only a few hundred feet away from them. "Okay, boss, a final one, you have to cross a river full of crocodiles, how do you do that?" The car came to a halt, it was a blackened van, the doors got open and two more men jumped out, they slit open the door at the side of the van and began to pull out a few people, 2 men and 1 woman, all were bonded and blindfold.
Leroy and the other two got hold of the abducted people and dragged them
towards the buildings on the junkyard. As they approached the building Calash
said, "That's an easy one Leroy, the fucking crocodiles are all on the
court that the Lion holds!" Calash smirked at Leroy as the big man looked
at him in surprise.
Balamb Garden
Quistis looked at the magazine the boy had given her; it included a big photo-reportage of an exhibition of Centran artifacts in the Galbadian museum of anthropology. She still attracted her share of fans, the so-called Trepies, even when that had become a bit less in the last year, and Hyne she wasn't unhappy about it.
Below her Khan and Rinoa got their belongings and headed upstairs towards her, Rinoa looked as if she had just done a triathlon. Her clothes were soaked in sweat, and her hair hung in wet strains into her face, even Khan was looking exhausted, it seemed that Rinoa had gotten the hang of what he had shown her. They walked up to her, Rinoa nodded wordlessly and headed for her room to take a shower, Khan gave her a small smile before his eye caught the magazine she was reading.
"Oh, a Centran burial shroud of the third Dynasty." He commented with a small smile, Quistis looked at the picture and the comment said fourth Dynasty, but she did not bother to try and correct him, after all he was a living artifact of that time, not her. She handed the Magazine over and said with a smile.
"Here maybe you find some stuff you owned years ago" He took it and flipped through the sides, given a small chuckle every now and then.
Suddenly he stopped dead, staring on one picture, it was only small, not more than a filler and the comment just read, "Ancient storage compartment" but to him it seemed to be of great importance. Quistis looked into his face with an asking expression.
"Anything you really owned back then?" She asked with a slight grin.
"No," answered Khan with great seriousness, "But you could
call it a legacy, this container bears the sign of my maker." Khan looked
at her. "We have to inform the young lion about that one, it is the
possibility that Calash will see that too, and it is his legacy also, so he
might try to acquire it." He gave her the magazine back. "Inform him
about the new situation, tell him to make plans accordingly. I will conference
with him as soon as I get showered and dressed again." Without waiting for
an answer he headed off.
45 minutes later, in the headmasters office
Squall, Rinoa (still looking tired), Quistis, Xu and Khan sat around a table, a stack of papers in front of every one of them.
Squall looked into the round and spoke. "In addition to the fact that the centran artifacts in Deling could be an attraction to Calash, we have just been informed about the fact that there were three kidnappings this morning in Deling City. All seem to be unrelated, but that is the best lead we have of him at the moment. Any suggestions?"
Xu spoke, "I would advise a covert team to the area, the persons in this room to be exact, Garden Intelligence can keep us posted to the current situation and we could surely get more information directly in Deling than through the spy network, no matter how good it is."
Khan took the floor now, "I am for that way of action, we need to be in the vicinity of the possible location where Calash is to act in time to prevent more loss of life. And I want to remember all of you again that the person you will face is just the body of your former friend, his soul is vicious, and he will kill and hurt anyone of you without hesitation. The only way to put him down is to rip the heart out of his body; everyone should make it clear to himself that this is what is needed to do for you. Once done and the heart is in my hands, your job is finished and the affair is no longer your business."
A short silence followed, as Khan had spoken what they all knew but no one had really wanted to admit, when they succeeded on that mission it would mean that Zell had to die. Quistis broke the silence, "We know that Zell, Calash I mean, has a wide variety of guns and ammo from the SeeD weapon chambers, and that he seems to be fond of Glaser rounds. So, I advise that anyone, Khan included will wear a fitted body armor that is impenetrable to Glaser's and most common rounds."
Finally, Rinoa spoke, "And remember that Zell had the security codes to the Ragnarok, so it is not safe to use the spaceship, besides that it is hardly a covered approach when we use the ship. We should go to Deling City in two or three teams, operating separately and keeping in touch per normal means and a new set of codes."
Squall nodded to this. "Okay we move out in 0300. Xu, you get us a
complete new set of codes that can be used in everyday conversation. Quistis,
you get the equipment for the mission. Rinoa, you will arrange travel for two
groups, and I will fit Khan with a suit of armor. Dismissed."
Irvine still sat on Selphie's bed, Doctor Kadowaki had left for the day and only the night nurse, and a fairly new woman, called Francine, manned the desk looking at him in concern. It hurt her to see him like that, and she wanted to draw him from the desperations that seemed to slowly burn his soul leaving only a dead husk of a human body on the outside.
She remembered what she had heard from Xu, as she gave out five standard rations of supplies to her earlier, that news would surely cheer him up. Francine got up and walked over to him, kneeling down next to him looking upwards into his face. He looked down at her, his eyes empty, waiting for her to state what she wanted or maybe even just to vanish again.
"Hey, I tell you what, I will tell you a secret, one that will cheer you up, and you will go to sleep for today, I swear when something happens here you will be the first to know, have we a deal?" Irvine looked towards her with an unchanging expression, and then he shrugged.
"I take that as a yes," she smiled and continued, "Your friends left today, they seem to have a lead to the man that did that to her, they will find him and put him to justice!" she smiled at him, his expression showed that his brain worked. After a short while he managed a smile.
"Yes, that are indeed good news, you are right, maybe I should sleep a bit" Both rose and Irvine went to the door, before he reached it, he turned around and said, "I thank you, you cannot even imagine how much you helped me with that." Francine just smiled back; she was glad that he seemed to be a bit more lighthearted now.
Irvine walked through the halls of the sleeping Garden that was exactly what he needed to know, he still was classified as Garden Master, and could log into all databases, getting the mission specs for the search for Zell. It would be even easier to get the needed equipment to hunt that bastard down.
He gave himself a sacred oath, he would be the last thing the bastard would ever see, for what he did to Selphie he would hunt him down and kill him, rip his blackened heart out of his chest, and feed it to a rabid dog.
A/N:
A/N: My greatest thanks go to Rhyein for patiently proofing this and helping me with useful critic while writing this.
