It was a further 3 hours before they found somewhere to land. It was around
where Trabia Garden used to be, now, due to the changes in the atmosphere,
it was a baron desert spare a few clumps of dead trees. Immediately the
memories flooded back to Selphie like a tsunami. She couldn't hold back the
tears as she saw the ancient ruins that was once her Garden and thought of
what had happened once the RG's had taken over. The missiles where
considered a pathetic attack compared, despite the devastating impact that
they had. Even as the residents of Garden were re-building after the
missiles, they had to deal with a huge wave of perfectly engineered
soldiers that had been made in secret by the then new clan, the Rise of
Richness, otherwise known as the Rich Guys, RG's. Although the Garden
pupils were unable to do anything while they were re-building, they were
getting much stronger than before, taking advantage of this opportunity to
re-model their Garden and their curriculum. Therefore they posed a
considerable threat to the RG's, they knew just how strong the SeeD's could
get. After taking care of the grounded Garden they sent jets to deal with
the flying ones. Balamb and Galbadia stood no chance against them and many
died. The SeeD's of Balamb were on a mission when the jets struck, all
except Selphie who was planning the Garden Festival. Edea, Cid, Norg, Nida,
Zell's girlfriend, all were killed. And so, they thought, was Selphie until
Zell found her weapons.
Seifer looked around while he jumped off Quezacotl's back. "Hey Instructor, messenger girl, chicken-wuss, we need fire-wood, go fetch," he said in his low drawl, smirking at the reaction.
"Instructor?" said Quistis, confused.
"Messenger girl!?" exclaimed Selphie, disgruntled that he didn't use her name even now.
"Chicken-wuss!!?" shouted Zell who hated his pet name more than the confused feelings he had for Seifer.
"You should know by now not to call me that Seifer," mumbled Quistis.
"You know full well my name is Selphie!" she shouted, swinging her numchuku, "and 'go fetch' is not gonna make me get the firewood!"
"…..Chicken-wuss!!" shouted Zell again. Seifer stared at him and smiled to himself, he was doing that sulky pout again.
"Hey, you all knew who I was referring to so it worked, right?" he said laughing. They all mumbled slightly under their breath and went off in search, except Zell.
"I'm not following your orders Mr Almasy, not until you use my proper name," he said, folding his arms. Seifer blinked and laughed again, approaching Zell.
"You will do as I say," he said then leant toward him to whisper. "Don't make me drag you there." Zell's eyes widened in confusion. Seifer grabbed Zell's arm and dragged him in the direction of a nearby lump of trees. Zell, despite his protests, allowed Seifer to do this and waited till they were out of sight of the others to pull his arm back.
"What's your deal Seifer?" he asked, rubbing his arm and pouting again. Seifer didn't say anything and instead gently cupped Zell's face with his hands. Those bright blue eyes glinted in acknowledgement and he grinned cheekily. Slowly Seifer drew Zell's face nearer then, feeling no resistance smiled and closed his eyes. Zell chuckled and stopped himself. "You really think your gonna get me that easily Mr Almasy?" he said, taking a step back. Seifer grinned, he loved the challenge of those hard to get. "You'll have to work harder than that," said Zell, bending down to pick up a few dry sticks. Seifer saw his opportunity being obviously laid out for him and grabbed the short man's waist and pressed himself against him. Zell stood up straight and looked over his shoulder into his arrogant admirers' eyes, still grinning. He laughed and started back to the others with 2 sticks.
"Two sticks? That's it? Come on chicken-wuss, can't you handle more than that?" Zell stopped in his tracks and turned around, now frowning.
"Quit callin' me that!" he said through gritted teeth. Seifer started chanting his pet-name as Zell dug his left foot into the ground behind him and lifted the other off the ground. Meanwhile Seifer was dancing around, chanting the name louder attracting the attention of Squall and the others back where Quezacotl landed. He then did a finale of spinning round on one foot and shouting out Zell's nick-name which was cut short by Zell charging into his stomach and lifting him up off the ground. He ran with Seifer, who was laughing and hugging Zell's head, behind the same collection of trees that they were before. Twisting round, he fell onto his back with Seifer on top of him, joining in with the laughter that was mumbled into his ear. Seifer slowly moved his face so that he was touching noses with Zell. He waited for his consent to continue, which was Zell running his tongue along Seifer's lips and closing his eyes. With this Seifer lowered his head down and kissed Zell gently, careful not to weigh down upon his tiny form. As he had done before, Seifer traced Zell's tattoo with his finger then with his tongue. It was this moment that Squall decided to look round to see what was taking them so long and why he couldn't hear the sound of Seifer getting punched. There he saw the most unexpected coupling he ever thought he would see. Standing there with his mouth wide open, he watched in shock and slight curiosity as the two blondes explored their partners' bodies with their hands and devoured eachother's mouths hungrily. Zell's small physique was enveloped by Seifer's long trenchcoat but that didn't inhibit the rampant wanderings of his nimble hands. Squall felt a pang of exclusion wash over him quickly, Seifer was meant to be attracted to him, not Zell. Where the hell did this come from all of a sudden? He shuffled his feet slightly attracting the attention of Seifer who looked up, not taking his lips away from Zell for a second. Zell froze, his breath catching in his throat, no one knew or even suspected that he might be bi-sexual, what was he going to say? Slowly he edged himself closer to Seifer thus hiding him in his trenchcoat as Seifer giggled uncharacteristically. Looking down to hide his blush, Squall tried to string a sentence together that wouldn't sound stupid in the circumstances. He failed to find anything so instead just stood there blinking with his mouth still hanging open. The cheerful ring of Selphie's voice came bounding round the corner just as Seifer and Zell were standing up.
"Hey! You two weren't beating on eachother, were you?" she asked in concern. She rushed up to the two boys and frantically started searching them for injuries. Finding none her worried tone turned to suspicion, "just what exactly were you doing? And why does Squall look like he just lost many a brain cell?" Smiling she turned to Squall who, getting the message quickly, shut him mouth and resumed his usual scowl.
"I think I'd better come out now, I've hid it for long enough," mumbled Seifer, rubbing the back of his neck almost shyly. This act of bashfulness from Seifer of all people unnerved Selphie. His choice of words didn't help her confusion either as he headed back to where the rest of the group had decided to sit down while Selphie contemplated what on earth Seifer was on about. Squall sat down next to Rinoa who rested her head on his shoulder. Selphie ran and sat down also, taking a small girl onto her lap and staring up at Seifer who was readying himself. "I think it's best for all of us, mainly me, if I come out with a secret that I've held for quite a while." Zell wondered back and, to everyone's surprise, including Seifer, slipped his arm around Seifer's waist.
"Go on Seifer, tell them already," All those close to the two guys, spare Squall let their mouths drop open in shock. Seifer then proceeded to tell them everything, how he only bullied Squall and Zell to vent out these weird feelings he had for them. How he thought getting involved with the sorceress would take his mind off the obvious love he held for both of them. Finally how his longing for them both, Zell in particular, gave him the inspiration to come back after the incident with Ultimicia. There was a short silence after Seifer had finished that gave Zell the opportunity to plant a small kiss on Seifer's cheek, making him blush slightly. Selphie jumped up and shouted for joy.
"Oh my god! This is the cutest thing!" she said, flailing her arms about in recognisable excitement. "I never would have thought…I mean…you two!" Seifer looked over at Squall, expecting to see a look of disgust as he thought he had seen before when he caught him and Zell kissing. Instead he saw Squall smiling at him. Meanwhile Zell had already been hugged by Selphie, who was now hugging Irvine, and standing in front of Seifer grinning.
"There, you did it. Not so hard, huh?" he said, taking hold of Seifer's hand. Seifer smiled back at him and gripped tightly onto it.
"Zell…" he started, his eyes looking anywhere but at Zell and blush appearing in his cheeks again. Zell leaned closer into Seifer, wrapping his arms around his waist and staring up into Seifer's nervous face.
"Yeeess?" he drawled, smirking slightly. Seifer laughed nervously.
"All this means you're bi…right?" he asked, hoping he wasn't getting the wrong idea. Zell nodded and Seifer continued. "And you don't have a girlfriend…right?"
"Get to the point Almasy," Zell said in a mocking bored tone. By this time the attention of everyone was focused on these two, who remained oblivious.
"Would…er, I mean, can I…umm," stuttered Seifer, trying desperately to find the right words. Zell felt that he shouldn't put him through anymore and, pulling on his collar to reach his face, kissed him softly. Seifer kissed back, delighted at this turn out, until Zell pulled back.
"Are you asking me out Seifer?" he said, trying not to laugh as he did. Seifer spluttered a few words, suddenly terrified that he got the wrong idea after all. "How about I try then," said Zell, moving a strand of strawberry-blonde hair out of suffering mans' eyes. Seifer nodded as words finally failed him. "Seifer Almasy," started Zell, flicking his head back and grinning. "Would you mind awfully if I were to ask you out, as a boyfriend-boyfriend thing?" he said, staring into Seifer's sparkling blue eyes. Seifer nodded and, laughing into Zell's warm hair, hugged his new boyfriend. A huge cheer rose from the rest of the crowd as they did making Seifer and Zell both feel like they were in some sort of romantic movie. Selphie and Rinoa couldn't help throwing their arms around their lovers' necks and kissing them, inspired by the show of emotion from these two men. Irvine was happy to oblige, Squall was taken aback by a flash of blue Rinoa kissing his passionately but soon kissed back. Quistis smiled, mostly to herself, having no man to throw her arms around.
Nestella watched all this and wondered how the hell she got into this situation. There she was, walking toward no-where in particular when she crashes into this tall, handsome brunette. Suddenly she's going through, went through a battle, an escape from prison, a flight on an enormous bird and now everyone was kissing. Not to mention that shorter blonde coming extremely close to uncovering her secret. The bird was still standing near them, its head twisting and turning this way and that, looking around and enjoying its rest from wherever it came from. She remembered Zell throwing his arms around, the whole place going black and then appearing exactly where she had been before but with the bird in front instead. She shook her head and decided to try and forget it, wondering over toward her old friend. At any rate this was far more exciting and less starving than her life before. Zell wondered over toward Nez who was staring now into the pitch black eyes of Quezacotl, mumbling words to it as it tilted it's head.
"We still haven't talked about you," he said, watching her talk with his GF in curiosity. "Just what is your deal? You've made friends with Quezacotl easily." Nez shuffled nervously and looked to the ground, mumbling something that only Zell could hear. "Bullshit, 'course you can tell me," he said cheerfully, "what, don't you trust us? After we saved your life and all that?" Nez rang her hands and almost too subtly revealed a small mark on her wrist. Zell frowned and then jumped up as he remembered. "Woa! You're a…" He searched Quezacotl's right wing feverishly finding the exact same mark almost like a tattoo. Running over to Squall he mumbled a few words to him that Nez couldn't hear. She was becoming more and more nervous, if they found out, what would they do? Would they want to capture her? Keep her confined in one of their minds? A freezing cold gale swept around the entire group as Shiva made her entrance. She showed her wrist to Zell and Squall and walked over to Nez, taking her wrist gently sending icy tingle along Nez's arm. Shiva smiled at Nez and spoke with words that, although meant to be warming, were cold as ice.
"Nestella, I thought you were killed," she said softly, releasing a white cloud of cold air. "Do not be scared of these people, Squall is the best partner I have had so far. They will not use you if you do not wish to be a summoning, they are not like that. Trust them." With that she evaporated into ice crystals and made her way back to Squall. Quistis, having been close enough to hear Shiva's words, walked beside Nez and held out her hand to help her up. Nez smiled and took it.
"Nez, I can't think why you couldn't trust us enough to tell us," said Quistis. "Now that we know, I guess we should find out what your element is." Nez took a deep breath and walked to where Seifer had made his announcement only 5 minutes ago.
"Okay, here goes. My name, as you know, is Nestella and I am the Guardian Force of poison. My attack is called Toxin Venom where I wrap the opponent in a spiked vine containing a poison that not only takes off a lot to begin with but also takes off HP at regular intervals till the end of the battle. That's basically it." She spoke slowly, absorbing the reactions of her audience as they in turn absorbed her information. At the end, Seifer stood up and looked her over.
"Why have you been keeping this a secret? With your power you can defeat a lot of the RG's, however strong they have been engineered."
"Maybe so," Nez answered, "but once I kill a few the rest will come for me and confine me and test me..and.." she trailed off at the horror of the thought. Seifer nodded and sat back down, putting his arm back around Zell's shoulders.
"Have you always been free?" asked Zell, not bothering to stand up. Nez shook her head.
"You got me wrong to begin with. It's not that I don't trust humans it's just that I'm scared of losing a partner again. I did have a, well, a master I suppose you could call him but we were more of a team. There was apparently nothing we couldn't handle together. We'd protect eachother from attacks, help eachother out if it got a bit too much, he treated me as a best friend. We only had eachother in the whole world after he was thrown out of his home. I found him, dying, and took care of him. From then until…" She looked down as she spoke, "until he was killed we were never separated. He felt, because I saved his life, that he owed me something but really it was the other way round. Until I met him I was so lonely to the point of ending it all as no one would seem to care anyway. That's how you found me Irvine," she said, lifting her head and smiling at him. "If we hadn't bumped into eachother, and if you hadn't insisted that I come with you, I would have been all set to do it that morning."
"Could you show us your attack?" asked Squall, curious to see it. Nez answered saying she needed a volunteer first. Squall looked around the baron plains that they had landed searching for some unlucky monster. That turned out to be a Jelly-eye that happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Squall nodded toward it and Nez stepped forward. As she did however, she disappeared, as did the rest of the group. Dark green plants started to sprout up around the Jelly-eye who began to get very suspicious. Five or six thick vines came up from the broken ground, twisting till they were 10 feet high then, spreading at the top like a flower opening, disappeared back into the ground again. There in their place was the new Nestella. She was now clothed in a bright green cat suit with images of carnivorous plants embroided on it. Her eyes were now dark red as was her hair that flew around violently. Leaving a few seconds for the monster to realise that it was about to die she raised her hand, pointing it directly at the monster. Out of this came the spiked vine that she described, wrapping itself around the Jelly-eye who was screeching in terror. Nez clenched her fist and pulled her elbow to her side making the vine tighten and pierce the monster. As she unclenched her hand the vine fell away and melted into the ground leaving a bloody mess that was once the Jelly-eye in it's wake. A cloud of green gas enveloped Nez and disappeared with her. This attack killed the monster straight off. Zell cheered and, as the rest joined in, ran to where the monster lay.
"That was awesome!!" he shouted searching round for Nez. "You can come back now." This she did, still in her green attire.
"This is my true form, cool huh?" she said, laughing slightly. Her confidence was rushing back to her, she realised that she could trust these people. If the great Shiva could then there was no reason in the world why she couldn't.
"Damn straight! You look hot!" said Irvine who was consequently kicked by Selphie. "Woa Sefie, you're still my girl!" he said, hugging her till she hugged back.
Seifer looked around while he jumped off Quezacotl's back. "Hey Instructor, messenger girl, chicken-wuss, we need fire-wood, go fetch," he said in his low drawl, smirking at the reaction.
"Instructor?" said Quistis, confused.
"Messenger girl!?" exclaimed Selphie, disgruntled that he didn't use her name even now.
"Chicken-wuss!!?" shouted Zell who hated his pet name more than the confused feelings he had for Seifer.
"You should know by now not to call me that Seifer," mumbled Quistis.
"You know full well my name is Selphie!" she shouted, swinging her numchuku, "and 'go fetch' is not gonna make me get the firewood!"
"…..Chicken-wuss!!" shouted Zell again. Seifer stared at him and smiled to himself, he was doing that sulky pout again.
"Hey, you all knew who I was referring to so it worked, right?" he said laughing. They all mumbled slightly under their breath and went off in search, except Zell.
"I'm not following your orders Mr Almasy, not until you use my proper name," he said, folding his arms. Seifer blinked and laughed again, approaching Zell.
"You will do as I say," he said then leant toward him to whisper. "Don't make me drag you there." Zell's eyes widened in confusion. Seifer grabbed Zell's arm and dragged him in the direction of a nearby lump of trees. Zell, despite his protests, allowed Seifer to do this and waited till they were out of sight of the others to pull his arm back.
"What's your deal Seifer?" he asked, rubbing his arm and pouting again. Seifer didn't say anything and instead gently cupped Zell's face with his hands. Those bright blue eyes glinted in acknowledgement and he grinned cheekily. Slowly Seifer drew Zell's face nearer then, feeling no resistance smiled and closed his eyes. Zell chuckled and stopped himself. "You really think your gonna get me that easily Mr Almasy?" he said, taking a step back. Seifer grinned, he loved the challenge of those hard to get. "You'll have to work harder than that," said Zell, bending down to pick up a few dry sticks. Seifer saw his opportunity being obviously laid out for him and grabbed the short man's waist and pressed himself against him. Zell stood up straight and looked over his shoulder into his arrogant admirers' eyes, still grinning. He laughed and started back to the others with 2 sticks.
"Two sticks? That's it? Come on chicken-wuss, can't you handle more than that?" Zell stopped in his tracks and turned around, now frowning.
"Quit callin' me that!" he said through gritted teeth. Seifer started chanting his pet-name as Zell dug his left foot into the ground behind him and lifted the other off the ground. Meanwhile Seifer was dancing around, chanting the name louder attracting the attention of Squall and the others back where Quezacotl landed. He then did a finale of spinning round on one foot and shouting out Zell's nick-name which was cut short by Zell charging into his stomach and lifting him up off the ground. He ran with Seifer, who was laughing and hugging Zell's head, behind the same collection of trees that they were before. Twisting round, he fell onto his back with Seifer on top of him, joining in with the laughter that was mumbled into his ear. Seifer slowly moved his face so that he was touching noses with Zell. He waited for his consent to continue, which was Zell running his tongue along Seifer's lips and closing his eyes. With this Seifer lowered his head down and kissed Zell gently, careful not to weigh down upon his tiny form. As he had done before, Seifer traced Zell's tattoo with his finger then with his tongue. It was this moment that Squall decided to look round to see what was taking them so long and why he couldn't hear the sound of Seifer getting punched. There he saw the most unexpected coupling he ever thought he would see. Standing there with his mouth wide open, he watched in shock and slight curiosity as the two blondes explored their partners' bodies with their hands and devoured eachother's mouths hungrily. Zell's small physique was enveloped by Seifer's long trenchcoat but that didn't inhibit the rampant wanderings of his nimble hands. Squall felt a pang of exclusion wash over him quickly, Seifer was meant to be attracted to him, not Zell. Where the hell did this come from all of a sudden? He shuffled his feet slightly attracting the attention of Seifer who looked up, not taking his lips away from Zell for a second. Zell froze, his breath catching in his throat, no one knew or even suspected that he might be bi-sexual, what was he going to say? Slowly he edged himself closer to Seifer thus hiding him in his trenchcoat as Seifer giggled uncharacteristically. Looking down to hide his blush, Squall tried to string a sentence together that wouldn't sound stupid in the circumstances. He failed to find anything so instead just stood there blinking with his mouth still hanging open. The cheerful ring of Selphie's voice came bounding round the corner just as Seifer and Zell were standing up.
"Hey! You two weren't beating on eachother, were you?" she asked in concern. She rushed up to the two boys and frantically started searching them for injuries. Finding none her worried tone turned to suspicion, "just what exactly were you doing? And why does Squall look like he just lost many a brain cell?" Smiling she turned to Squall who, getting the message quickly, shut him mouth and resumed his usual scowl.
"I think I'd better come out now, I've hid it for long enough," mumbled Seifer, rubbing the back of his neck almost shyly. This act of bashfulness from Seifer of all people unnerved Selphie. His choice of words didn't help her confusion either as he headed back to where the rest of the group had decided to sit down while Selphie contemplated what on earth Seifer was on about. Squall sat down next to Rinoa who rested her head on his shoulder. Selphie ran and sat down also, taking a small girl onto her lap and staring up at Seifer who was readying himself. "I think it's best for all of us, mainly me, if I come out with a secret that I've held for quite a while." Zell wondered back and, to everyone's surprise, including Seifer, slipped his arm around Seifer's waist.
"Go on Seifer, tell them already," All those close to the two guys, spare Squall let their mouths drop open in shock. Seifer then proceeded to tell them everything, how he only bullied Squall and Zell to vent out these weird feelings he had for them. How he thought getting involved with the sorceress would take his mind off the obvious love he held for both of them. Finally how his longing for them both, Zell in particular, gave him the inspiration to come back after the incident with Ultimicia. There was a short silence after Seifer had finished that gave Zell the opportunity to plant a small kiss on Seifer's cheek, making him blush slightly. Selphie jumped up and shouted for joy.
"Oh my god! This is the cutest thing!" she said, flailing her arms about in recognisable excitement. "I never would have thought…I mean…you two!" Seifer looked over at Squall, expecting to see a look of disgust as he thought he had seen before when he caught him and Zell kissing. Instead he saw Squall smiling at him. Meanwhile Zell had already been hugged by Selphie, who was now hugging Irvine, and standing in front of Seifer grinning.
"There, you did it. Not so hard, huh?" he said, taking hold of Seifer's hand. Seifer smiled back at him and gripped tightly onto it.
"Zell…" he started, his eyes looking anywhere but at Zell and blush appearing in his cheeks again. Zell leaned closer into Seifer, wrapping his arms around his waist and staring up into Seifer's nervous face.
"Yeeess?" he drawled, smirking slightly. Seifer laughed nervously.
"All this means you're bi…right?" he asked, hoping he wasn't getting the wrong idea. Zell nodded and Seifer continued. "And you don't have a girlfriend…right?"
"Get to the point Almasy," Zell said in a mocking bored tone. By this time the attention of everyone was focused on these two, who remained oblivious.
"Would…er, I mean, can I…umm," stuttered Seifer, trying desperately to find the right words. Zell felt that he shouldn't put him through anymore and, pulling on his collar to reach his face, kissed him softly. Seifer kissed back, delighted at this turn out, until Zell pulled back.
"Are you asking me out Seifer?" he said, trying not to laugh as he did. Seifer spluttered a few words, suddenly terrified that he got the wrong idea after all. "How about I try then," said Zell, moving a strand of strawberry-blonde hair out of suffering mans' eyes. Seifer nodded as words finally failed him. "Seifer Almasy," started Zell, flicking his head back and grinning. "Would you mind awfully if I were to ask you out, as a boyfriend-boyfriend thing?" he said, staring into Seifer's sparkling blue eyes. Seifer nodded and, laughing into Zell's warm hair, hugged his new boyfriend. A huge cheer rose from the rest of the crowd as they did making Seifer and Zell both feel like they were in some sort of romantic movie. Selphie and Rinoa couldn't help throwing their arms around their lovers' necks and kissing them, inspired by the show of emotion from these two men. Irvine was happy to oblige, Squall was taken aback by a flash of blue Rinoa kissing his passionately but soon kissed back. Quistis smiled, mostly to herself, having no man to throw her arms around.
Nestella watched all this and wondered how the hell she got into this situation. There she was, walking toward no-where in particular when she crashes into this tall, handsome brunette. Suddenly she's going through, went through a battle, an escape from prison, a flight on an enormous bird and now everyone was kissing. Not to mention that shorter blonde coming extremely close to uncovering her secret. The bird was still standing near them, its head twisting and turning this way and that, looking around and enjoying its rest from wherever it came from. She remembered Zell throwing his arms around, the whole place going black and then appearing exactly where she had been before but with the bird in front instead. She shook her head and decided to try and forget it, wondering over toward her old friend. At any rate this was far more exciting and less starving than her life before. Zell wondered over toward Nez who was staring now into the pitch black eyes of Quezacotl, mumbling words to it as it tilted it's head.
"We still haven't talked about you," he said, watching her talk with his GF in curiosity. "Just what is your deal? You've made friends with Quezacotl easily." Nez shuffled nervously and looked to the ground, mumbling something that only Zell could hear. "Bullshit, 'course you can tell me," he said cheerfully, "what, don't you trust us? After we saved your life and all that?" Nez rang her hands and almost too subtly revealed a small mark on her wrist. Zell frowned and then jumped up as he remembered. "Woa! You're a…" He searched Quezacotl's right wing feverishly finding the exact same mark almost like a tattoo. Running over to Squall he mumbled a few words to him that Nez couldn't hear. She was becoming more and more nervous, if they found out, what would they do? Would they want to capture her? Keep her confined in one of their minds? A freezing cold gale swept around the entire group as Shiva made her entrance. She showed her wrist to Zell and Squall and walked over to Nez, taking her wrist gently sending icy tingle along Nez's arm. Shiva smiled at Nez and spoke with words that, although meant to be warming, were cold as ice.
"Nestella, I thought you were killed," she said softly, releasing a white cloud of cold air. "Do not be scared of these people, Squall is the best partner I have had so far. They will not use you if you do not wish to be a summoning, they are not like that. Trust them." With that she evaporated into ice crystals and made her way back to Squall. Quistis, having been close enough to hear Shiva's words, walked beside Nez and held out her hand to help her up. Nez smiled and took it.
"Nez, I can't think why you couldn't trust us enough to tell us," said Quistis. "Now that we know, I guess we should find out what your element is." Nez took a deep breath and walked to where Seifer had made his announcement only 5 minutes ago.
"Okay, here goes. My name, as you know, is Nestella and I am the Guardian Force of poison. My attack is called Toxin Venom where I wrap the opponent in a spiked vine containing a poison that not only takes off a lot to begin with but also takes off HP at regular intervals till the end of the battle. That's basically it." She spoke slowly, absorbing the reactions of her audience as they in turn absorbed her information. At the end, Seifer stood up and looked her over.
"Why have you been keeping this a secret? With your power you can defeat a lot of the RG's, however strong they have been engineered."
"Maybe so," Nez answered, "but once I kill a few the rest will come for me and confine me and test me..and.." she trailed off at the horror of the thought. Seifer nodded and sat back down, putting his arm back around Zell's shoulders.
"Have you always been free?" asked Zell, not bothering to stand up. Nez shook her head.
"You got me wrong to begin with. It's not that I don't trust humans it's just that I'm scared of losing a partner again. I did have a, well, a master I suppose you could call him but we were more of a team. There was apparently nothing we couldn't handle together. We'd protect eachother from attacks, help eachother out if it got a bit too much, he treated me as a best friend. We only had eachother in the whole world after he was thrown out of his home. I found him, dying, and took care of him. From then until…" She looked down as she spoke, "until he was killed we were never separated. He felt, because I saved his life, that he owed me something but really it was the other way round. Until I met him I was so lonely to the point of ending it all as no one would seem to care anyway. That's how you found me Irvine," she said, lifting her head and smiling at him. "If we hadn't bumped into eachother, and if you hadn't insisted that I come with you, I would have been all set to do it that morning."
"Could you show us your attack?" asked Squall, curious to see it. Nez answered saying she needed a volunteer first. Squall looked around the baron plains that they had landed searching for some unlucky monster. That turned out to be a Jelly-eye that happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Squall nodded toward it and Nez stepped forward. As she did however, she disappeared, as did the rest of the group. Dark green plants started to sprout up around the Jelly-eye who began to get very suspicious. Five or six thick vines came up from the broken ground, twisting till they were 10 feet high then, spreading at the top like a flower opening, disappeared back into the ground again. There in their place was the new Nestella. She was now clothed in a bright green cat suit with images of carnivorous plants embroided on it. Her eyes were now dark red as was her hair that flew around violently. Leaving a few seconds for the monster to realise that it was about to die she raised her hand, pointing it directly at the monster. Out of this came the spiked vine that she described, wrapping itself around the Jelly-eye who was screeching in terror. Nez clenched her fist and pulled her elbow to her side making the vine tighten and pierce the monster. As she unclenched her hand the vine fell away and melted into the ground leaving a bloody mess that was once the Jelly-eye in it's wake. A cloud of green gas enveloped Nez and disappeared with her. This attack killed the monster straight off. Zell cheered and, as the rest joined in, ran to where the monster lay.
"That was awesome!!" he shouted searching round for Nez. "You can come back now." This she did, still in her green attire.
"This is my true form, cool huh?" she said, laughing slightly. Her confidence was rushing back to her, she realised that she could trust these people. If the great Shiva could then there was no reason in the world why she couldn't.
"Damn straight! You look hot!" said Irvine who was consequently kicked by Selphie. "Woa Sefie, you're still my girl!" he said, hugging her till she hugged back.
