By Raine Ishida and RobertDogwood@aol.com
Chapter Two
"Okay...explain to me ONE more time how she got here?" Mina's voice was strained as she rubbed her forehead.
Zell had brought Raine to Balamb Garden, where he'd wasted no time in taking her to register as a guest, and took her to the library to speak with Mina.
"Like I said, she fell through my bedroom wall. She's from the past, Mimi," Zell explained, using extra emphasis on the special nickname he had for his girlfriend.
"Don't pull the Mimi business on me, Dincht. How can you prove she's from the past?" Mina asked, gesturing largely with her arms.
Raine sighed, feeling neglected. She hated when people spoke of her when it was obvious she was standing right before them.
"I can't prove it, but it's obvious! Look what she's wearing!" Zell replied, pointing in Raine's direction. She frowned, glancing down at her outfit, the black, low necked shirt, her favorite red and black skirt and knee length boots. "What's wrong with my outfit?" she cried in her outfit's defense.
"When are you from, Raine?" Mina asked, taking on a gentler tone.
"The year 2001. Of course, I was born in 1986, but the current time I'm from is 2001. What year is it here?"
"A hell of a lot further in the future than where you come from," Zell replied, banging his fist on the reception desk.
Mina frowned. "Zell, quiet, you're catching attention. Uh...well, Raine, I suggest you work something out with either Xu or Cid, because they won't let you stay here unless you have a visitor's pass."
Raine sighed. "Alright..."
Mina took sympathy on the poor girl and smiled. Taking her arm lightly, she nodded at Zell. "Come on, I'll give you a tour around the Garden."
Once Selphie and Laurie were safely out in the corridor and away from the continually sex-obsessed Irvine, Selphie suggested that they retreat from the men's dorm as quickly as possible as there was male SeeDs and upper-classmen everywhere in the hallway and clearly visible in their rooms through their opened doorways. As most of them were in various stages of undress, Laurie quickly averted her eyes and stared at the floor as she and Selphie scurried along, amid the hoots and wolf whistles that were being offered.
It seemed to Laurie to take forever for them to reach the end of the corridor and enter the door that led to the women's dorm. Once they had entered the relative safety of the female dorm, Selphie turned to Laurie saying, "Wow, you sure were popular back there!"
"What do you mean?" Laurie asked, still blushing from some of the sights that had been offered her.
"I mean...all those whistles," Selphie answered.
"How do you know it was meant for me, instead of you?" Laurie asked.
"Oh, no," the spunky SeeD answered. "They know I would have thrashed them in a second, if they did that to me," Selphie laughed. "Come on, let's go to my room. We can talk there."
Once safely ensconced inside Selphie's dormitory room, Laurie was invited to sit in the one chair present in the room and Selphie chose to sit on her bed. Laurie quickly recounted the entire scenario to Selphie. After she had finished, Selphie asked, "So you have no idea what happened to your friend?" After Laurie sadly shook her head, Selphie responded, "Well, you entered our time here in the Garden, so maybe your friend will too." As Laurie continued to stare forlornly at Selphie, she quickly suggested, "Why don't we go talk to Rinoa? She's a sorceress, maybe she knows something that will help."
"R - Rinoa?" Laurie stammered.
"Yeah, you know who Rinoa is, don't you?" the young SeeD impatiently questioned.
When Laurie nodded, Selphie declared, "Of course you do - that game you said we're in. I remember seeing Rinoa on the cover. That figures," Selphie responded tartly.
Laurie looked questioningly at Selphie, who said, "She's probably in the library. That's where she hangs out when she isn't with Squall. Of course, she's supposed to be my roommate, but I don't see much of her," the young brunette woman went on mysteriously. "She doesn't even come in here often enough to feed and give Angelo fresh water. I have to do it!"
Glancing around the room, Laurie suddenly discovered Angelo lying in the corner of the bedroom by his food and water bowls.
"Angelo!" Laurie squealed.
Angelo blearily lifted his head slightly from his sleep and gave Laurie an owlish look before laying his head immediately back down in slumber.
Opening the door, Selphie grasped Laurie by her hand and pulled her up so quickly, the chair nearly toppled. "Come on! You don't have time to mess with that dog, if you want to save your friend!"
Laurie immediately acquiesced and allowed herself to be led into the hallway and down the corridor leading to the main part of the Garden.
Walking quickly to keep up with the fast pace Selphie was setting, Laurie looked around her in wonderment. Selphie was right to be upset that Laurie would think the actual reality could be contained in a game. No game could capture the awesome size of the Garden, the wide open spaces and the bright vivid colors. As they strode along the inner pool of crystal blue water, Laurie thought she recognized several of the minor characters from the game. Amazing, she thought to herself.
Striding into the library behind the fast walking female SeeD, Laurie noted that Rinoa was not at the usual bookshelves that held her interest in the game, but was standing by some shelves toward the back of the library and reading from a book.
She's so beautiful! Laurie thought. The game doesn't do her justice.
"Hi, Rinoa, you got a minute?" Selphie inquired.
Rinoa must have been deeply engrossed in her reading, as she appeared startled when she glanced up at the sound of her name. Rinoa closed the book but kept her finger in it marking her spot.
Laurie became inordinately curious as to what could hold Rinoa's concentration in such a manner and, as she was standing directly behind Selphie, Laurie attempted to look around her to no avail. She finally began trying to step up on her tiptoes in an attempt to see over Selphie as they were approximately the same height.
Glancing at her watch, Rinoa answered, "Actually I don't. I'm supposed to be meeting Squall for lunch as we speak, and you know as well as I do - he can become very surly, if he has to wait for somebody."
Suddenly the ebony-haired woman became cognizant of Laurie rising above Selphie's left shoulder for a few seconds at a time before returning to the floor and she asked sarcastically, "Who's the jumping jack behind you?"
As Selphie turned to see Laurie rising up on her toes once again, she hissed, "Knock it off."
When Selphie returned her attention to Rinoa, she was startled to see her striding from the library.
"Hey Rinoa!" she called out.
Rinoa answered, "Look for me after lunch, I have to go." And she hurried from the scene.
Selphie turned angrily to Laurie and demanded, "Just what were you doing? You have to act just right around Rinoa or she's not gonna talk to you because she doesn't know you."
Laurie explained, "I was trying to see what book Rinoa was reading."
Selphie exploded, "Oh, for Hyne's sake! Like that's important! Well, you wait outside the library on one of those benches. I have to meet Irvine for lunch and I can't stand him up or he'll be in there hitting on every one of the girls in the cafeteria."
Laurie replied, "I want to go too."
Selphhie answered, "You can't, you don't have a pass to be here yet and they won't feed you. I'll try to get you fed tonight."
"But I'm hungry," Laurie whined.
"I'll try to bring you something back," Selphie promised as she was leaving the library. "Remember, wait at one of those benches out front."
As Laurie complied as directed and sat uncomfortably on the stone bench, she couldn't help but notice that every SeeD and upper-classman who hurried by looked at her strangely. Laurie assumed they were either very unfriendly or had never seen a girl wear black leather jeans before. She felt doubly frustrated as she was very hungry and she hadn't been able to make out what book Rinoa was reading. The cute teenager had only been able to see that the author's first name began with R and her last name started with I.
After about an hour, Selphie returned holding a paper sack that contained two very cold hot dogs wrapped in buns. Choking them down without something to drink was quite a task, but Laurie was so hungry she accomplished it with alacrity.
"Did Rinoa come by here to the library?" the green-eyed young woman questioned.
Laurie shook her head. "Nope, haven't seen her."
"Well, damn," cursed Selphie. "She left the cafeteria with Squall a while ago and I thought she would come back to the library."
Well, why didn't you follow her? Laurie thought, but didn't allow herself to articulate, because she didn't want to face the wrath of the rather feisty young woman any more than was necessary.
"Come on," Selphie directed. "Maybe she went back to the room."
Laurie tagged along behind Selphie growing more tired with each step. Man! she thought, I've never done so much walking in my life. But then she recalled how much walking and running they did in the game and wondered if their real lives actually mirrored this.
Reaching Rinoa and Selphie's dorm room, the ebony-haired woman was nowhere to be found and, upon Selphie questioning some hallmates, she discovered that Rinoa had gone to the swimming pool.
"Swimming pool? What swimming pool?" questioned Laurie.
"We have a swimming pool in the basement," Selphie replied, rather impatiently. "Don't you have one in that precious game of yours?"
When Laurie silently shook her head, choosing to remain silent because she didn't find Selphie's tone to be to her liking, Selphie responded tartly, "I'm sure there are a lot more things here that you don't know about. The Garden is a lot bigger than you can fit in any game!"
After riding down on the elevator, Selphie and Laurie entered a locker room that Laurie had never seen. There was a young, blonde woman, presumably a SeeD from her age, toweling off in front of a locker. Laurie thought she might have been the young blonde SeeD, who was in charge of the children on the second floor during the fight with Galbadian Garden; but was too embarrassed to ask.
Selphie questioned, "Is Rinoa here, Ai?"
The young woman answered, "Rinoa was here, but she left saying she was going to take a Yellow Cab to Balamb City to do some shopping."
"Yellow Cab?!" exclaimed Laurie. How ironic, she thought. The only thing that survived our culture is a Yellow Cab!
Noticing that Selphie and the young woman were looking at her strangely, Laurie muttered, "Never mind, it's not important."
Selphie instructed, "Come on, we'll wait for her to come back by the front gate."
Finally reaching the front gate, Laurie sank gratefully on to a stone bench and off her tired legs. The front gates were standing open and Laurie could see it appeared to be a beautiful spring day.
After a few minutes, a Yellow Cab did come wheeling up and screeched to a stop. Rinoa stepped out of the back seat, holding a number of bags and bundles and leaned into the front window to pay the driver.
As the driver squealed off angrily, the hazel-eyed woman turned and smiled. "He didn't like the size of his tip," she explained.
"So who's our jumping jack?" Rinoa asked. "I don't remember seeing her around before."
Before Selphie could introduce her to Rinoa, Laurie spoke heatedly, "I am not a jumping jack!"
"Oh, you're not! I apologize, but you were certainly behaving as one," laughed Rinoa.
"Don't let her get to you," Selphie warned in a low tone only Laurie could hear.
Stepping over to the ebony-haired woman, Selphie explained, "Rinoa, this is Laurie. We need to talk to you about something very important."
"So who's stopping you?" Rinoa answered. "If you want to talk to me, have her come over here." Rinoa smiled maliciously at Laurie.
Selphie demanded, "Laurie, come over here right now and quit playing around."
Laurie bit her tongue, but thought to herself, Yeah, like I'm having fun here!
Several hours later, after a wonderful dinner, Laurie lay under a sheet in Rinoa's bed in the semi-darkened room. Her clothes were neatly hanging in Selphie's closet and Angelo was draped over her lower body sound asleep. As she idly petted the slumbering Angelo, Laurie mused that, after all the fuss, Rinoa had been absolutely no help to them at all. But as Laurie drifted off to sleep, one thing seemed to strangely echo in her mind. Rinoa had reported she didn't pick up any vibration from Laurie concerning anything. In fact, Rinoa had said, she hadn't felt an inkling of her own sorceress power since returning from time compression!
Raine lay in Mina's room in the early evening in a bed that Mina had purloined from somewhere...Mina wouldn't say where. She had decided to go to bed early because she had experienced such an exhausting day...both mentally and physically and also she had no company, because Mina had gone out with Zell.
Raine actually welcomed the aloneness, because she thought she needed some time to attempt to sort out her emotions about the past chaotic hours that felt to her as though they had been days. She never would have guessed that it'd be so easy for her to be accepted by the Garden as a visitor. Raine had assumed that her story would never be believed and either she would be thrown out on her ear or placed in the disciplinary room as a dangerous alien. But that's the trouble with assuming, she thought and then giggled, remembering the rest of the old axiom.
In fact, it had all gone quite smoothly. Mina had taken Raine up to the third floor to meet Xu and Cid. She never did meet Cid as he seemed extremely preoccupied with a huge stack of papers on his desk. As she was introduced to Xu by Mina, who then explained Raine's story, Raine expected the best case scenario to be Xu just considering her completely insane and requiring medical assistance from the doctor.
Instead, it turned out that Selphie had, upon returning from time compression, presented Xu with a detailed report of their experiences in the year 2001 on the way back to their own time. Xu had been expecting something of the sort that occurred to Raine and Laurie to happen anytime. Happily that's all there was to it.
Mina had taken Raine directly to the cafeteria for dinner and filled her with wonderfully strange exotic food. She realized if she ate like that every day, she would put on ten pounds in a week, so she made a mental note to eat lightly on the following day.
As Raine began to slip into a comfortable sleep, she prayed that she might be reunited with her best friend on the morrow, God willing.
Mina frowned for a few minutes, appearing to Zell as if she was deep in thought. He didn't want to disturb her train of thought, but he was dreadfully curious at what was running through her head.
"Hey Mimi, what'cha thinkin?" he asked, placing his face on his folded hands in front of her. She raised an eyebrow.
"Doesn't it seem...oh, nevermind," she trailed off, waving her hand as a movement of giving up.
Zell shook his head. "No, tell me!" he persisted, unclasping his hands to fiddle with a paper napkin that lay, unused, on the table.
Mina sighed heavily. "But Zell...I told you it doesn't matter. It's just...it's a coincidence. It's nothing special. It's silly," she finished, setting her tone deeper at the end of of her statement to let her boyfriend know it was then he should stop asking questions or he'd be in trouble.
Zell shrugged. "Tch, fine..."
Mina sighed loudly and took his hands. "Listen, Zell, if you absolutely MUST know, I was only thinking about Raine."
"What about her?" Zell questioned, cocking his head slightly.
Mina shrugged. "Don't you think it's a little odd.....that her name is Raine, and she happens to end up in Balamb, the place where Squall, the son of Raine Loire, happens to be a SeeD of? Does that not strike you odd in the slightest?" she asked, emphasizing on her final word.
Zell shrugged. "Sure, it does seem kinda...well, I guess weird. I don't know," he said, shrugging once more. "Coincidences do happen. I'm sure there are more than two Raines in the world, you know?"
Mina nodded. "Am I digging too deep into this?"
"The new Raine is not Squall's mother, she's from too far back in the past. It's all just a bunch of crazy messed up junk anyway. I mean, girl falls through friend's wall, girl from a parallel universe ends up in some guy's closet."
Mina laughed, reaching for Zell's drink. "Good point. It's...well, the whole situation is questionable!"
"What was your first clue?" Zell asked, raising a blond eyebrow. Reaching for his drink, he swiped it from his girlfriend's greedy fingers.
"You're not very nice sometimes," Mina mumbled with a sigh. For now, their conversation was over. At least until...Zell's attention was caught by something else.
Mina sighed, her cheek resting on the palm of her hand as she sat, slumped in her chair. Zell sat across from her at the tiny cafeteria table, eating a hotdog, and taking swigs of his carbonated drink. Every so often, he'd sneak glances at her.
"Mimi..." he started, breaking the silence. She looked up, without moving from her tired position.
"Hmmm?"
"I've been thinking..." he said, raising a smirk from her. "This ought to be good," she muttered. He flushed, obviously hurt.
She sighed and reached across the table to take his hand. "Listen, I'm just tired, alright? It's been a long day."
"Yeah...girls falling through walls and such can really take a chunk out of your week."
Mina shook her head, sitting up in a proper position.
The two sat in silence for a little while, when Zell got an idea. His face lit up and he grinned. "Mimi, you know what we haven't done in awhile?" he asked.
She raised an eyebrow. "Dare I ask?"
He stuck his tongue out at her. "Haha, funny. No, Mimi. I haven't seen you dance forever."
Mina shook her head. "Forever is a long time. It hasn't been that long."
Zell blushed. "Yeah...well...come on. Please? It'll be fun. A good way to relax after a long day."
"By exerting more energy?"
"Hyne, you're sarcastic tonight," he shot back, finishing off his drink and tossing it into the recycle bin nearby.
"Sorry. I'm just trying to cheer myself up. Where do you plan on taking me in order for me to dance?" she asked.
He shrugged. "The Quad is the only open place now. How about there?"
"Stage is too cluttered," Mina recalled, the stage was covered with wires and instruments. Like usual.
"Well...the club is closed..."
"Damn, it must be late. You know it's late when the club is closed," Mina replied quietly.
Zell sighed. "Mimi, I'm trying here, okay?"
He got an idea.
"Wait here," he told her, kissing her forehead and rushing off to the cafeteria's main kitchen.
"What in Hyne's name is he doing...?" Mina whispered. As she sat momentarily in silence, she was interrupted by the cracking of the overhead speaker.
"A song dedicated to my favorite girl..." Zell's voice was coming through the speaker!
Mina's face displayed shock and confusion, as Zell reappeared next to her.
"What is going on?" she asked, as he took her hand in his. He just smiled.
"Well, there's no where else to dance, why not here?" he asked, moving a few chairs out of the way as he led her to an open space in the dining area.
"Zell...what the?" Mina asked, at a loss for words.
"Shh," he whispered, drawing her closer as the music played overhead. Eyes on Me by Faye Wong. Or Julia Heartilly, however, it'd never been proven who the real singer of the enchanting song was.
"Zell..." she protested. He shook his head. "Quiet. Don't ruin the moment, Mimi. Just dance."
Taking her in his arms, he proceeded to dance with her, impressing her with his knowledge of the right steps.
"You've been taking lessons?" she asked.
He grinned. "SeeD requirement. All of us have to know how. Remember Squall at the ball with Rinoa?" he asked.
She nodded, remembering vaguely. "Yeah...he was so awkward at first."
"All it took was Rin to work her magic on him. And he knew how, just like you did to me. It's all magic. It's all a spell, I swear it," Zell stated, twirling her.
"I shouldn't need to cast a spell on you, you're so easy to charm, it's cute!" Mina exclaimed.
He raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean??"
"Nothing, it just means that you're not so stuck up as Squall is."
"Don't tell him that, you'll be demoted for sure," Zell replied with a slight smile.
She shook her head, and relished in the moment, resting her head on his shoulder.
"Why are you being so normal?" Mina asked, out of the blue. The question caught him off guard.
"Am I not normal?" he asked, rather insulted.
She smiled and lifted her head to look at him. "No, normal...like...hmm. You're not an eccentric. You're...well, you're being romantic, for one thing," she informed him. He nodded.
"Yeah, I figured I better start somewhere if I wanted to get anywhere," he said. That earned him a smack on the arm from his girlfriend as she giggled.
"Watch what you say or you might be stuck in this spot forever."
"Have I complained yet?" he asked. Now it was her turn to blush. "I thought so," he replied with a grin.
"Shut up and relish in the moment, Dincht," she ordered, returning her head to his shoulder. He grinned. She only called him by his last name when she was serious.
"It's all about the moment, isn't it..." he muttered.
Laurie awoke suddenly, her eyes completely open, as she realized she had been having a nightmare that was no longer a part of her memory. Glancing around the bedroom she experienced a second of total panic connected with complete disorientation, before she remembered where she was and why she wasn't viewing her bedroom from the top of her bunkbed back in New Jersey.
Angelo had remained lying across her, and Laurie shifted uncomfortably, her entire body feeling stiff despite the relative comfort of Rinoa's bed because of her inability to change her sleeping position during the night.
And thinking of Rinoa, Laurie idly wondered where she had spent the night, since there was no evidence that she had been in the room for the past twelve hours. Slowly sliding her body from underneath Angelo figuring to let sleeping dogs lie, Laurie stood up. She was wearing an old orange blouse, Selphie had lent her to sleep in, so her clothes wouldn't be wrinkled and she could keep her unmentionables fresher.
Hurrying to the closet and donning her apparel quickly, because she certainly didn't relish anybody walking in on her, not even Selphie or Rinoa...particularly not Rinoa. It had been obvious to Laurie that Rinoa had taken an instant disliking to her and she didn't understand why.
I'm a nice person, she thought to herself. Why didn't Rinoa see that? Selphie had insisted it was because Laurie had been with her and Rinoa was jealous of anybody who Selphie knew and she didn't. But that didn't make any sense, did it? Laurie questioned.
"Oh, well," Laurie sighed. There was no reason to stay cooped up in here.
Exiting the bedroom and walking down the corridor away from the women's dorm, Laurie was careful to not accidentally go the wrong way. There was no way she was going in the men's dorm again and risk running into Irvine! She flushed suddenly as she remembered him standing there wearing nothing.
Opening the door that led to the corridor that was connected to the main part of the Garden, Laurie, once again, was struck by amazement to actually be present in a place she had only thought existed in a video game. Walking down the corridor, she kept a close eye out for anybody she might recognize...hoping against hope that she might once again see her best friend Raine standing there with her ironical slight smile, waiting for Laurie to respond to some sarcastic comment she had just made.
Upon reaching the main part of the Garden, Laurie was at a complete loss as to where to proceed next. She had no idea where Selphie was and, besides she wasn't sure she could handle Selphie's impatience with her so early in the morning. Eschewing the idea of possibly having breakfast at the cafeteria, because she was certain they wouldn't feed her without Selphie's say so, she decided to go to the library even though she might have the misfortune to run into Rinoa. The library was the one location she was certain about.
Stepping into the library, Laurie couldn't believe her own good luck as Zell was standing there with his back turned to her!
"Zell!" she cried out in her excitement.
Zell whirled around with his usual excellent reflexes, poised for fight or flight on the balls on his feet.
"Zell! It's me," Laurie shouted.
"Shhh," the girl with the pony tail cautioned from behind the check-out desk.
Appearing completely puzzled, Zell replied, "How do you know me? You're not from the Garden."
Moving quickly towards him, Laurie explained happily, "I'm Laurie. Don't tell me you crash through so many girls' bedroom walls that you've already forgotten me?"
Suddenly complete comprehension crossed Zell's face as he replied, "Laurie! Of course I remember you. And have I got a surprise for you. Your friend's here - Raine."
Laurie suddenly felt lightheaded and she began to wobble on her feet. Zell noticing that Laurie's complexion had turned ash white in the sudden shock, reached out and clutched her.
"Are you alright?" Zell asked solicitously. "It was bad of me to spring it on you that way."
Regaining her equilibrium, Laurie offered a small smile and responded, "Yes, I'm fine now, thank you."
With Zell remaining so close and literally holding her in his arms, Laurie flushed at the sudden impulses that were flooding her libido. He really is an incredibly sexy man, Laurie thought.
Realizing what was occurring, Zell quickly stepped back and suggested, "I'm not positive where Raine is. She's probably with Mina, so you wait here and I'll go locate her and bring her back."
"Okay," Laurie agreed happily.
Zell turned and sprinted through the library almost knocking the conceited SeeD down as he passed him.
Mina, who's Mina? Laurie wondered. I don't remember any characters in the game having that name.
After a few minutes had dragged by seeming like hours to the excited Laurie, she decided to disobey Zell's orders as far as walking down the corridor to the main part of the Garden. Upon reaching her destination and standing there for a few minutes, she assumed Zell was having a difficult time locating her friend.
Well, this is a huge place, Laurie thought. I'll just walk down near the front gate. I'll be able to see them from there if they head for the library.
Standing near the front gate, Laurie was intrigued to notice that some male SeeDs were pushing huge containers on wheels of garbage and trash by her on their way through the front gates that were wide open for them. She had never really considered the waste problem this many people would generate, Laurie realized. I wonder who you have to piss off to get stuck with that duty? she thought, with a giggle.
Adrenaline began to flow through Laurie as soon as she caught a glimpse of Zell and Raine walking near the corridor to the library.
Laurie shouted, "Zell! Raine! I'm over here!"
She saw Zell and her friend turn in her direction and Raine began to wave, when suddenly the group of male SeeDs, who were involved in the garbage detail converged on her.
Screaming at the top of her lungs, Laurie felt herself easily picked up and placed in one of the huge garbage barges. Oh, gross, she thought. I'm gonna spew.
Laurie began spitting pieces of garbage out of her mouth, when she suddenly realized the container she was in was moving at a great rate of speed. She began to pull herself up the side of it, when a large right fist clipped her very efficiently just beneath the side of her chin successfully sending her reeling into unconsciousness.
Raine was silent for a moment, unsure of what she'd just witnessed. Zell was the first to speak.
"Uh...did you just see that?" he asked.
Raine shook her head, then nodded. Still unsure. What was she going to do? Was her best friend of all time just kidnapped right before her very eyes?
"By garbage men, too..." she muttered. She staggered back a few steps, not knowing how to react. "Laurie?" she called out, as if her friend would reappear, calling it all a joke, laughing.
"Raine, we have to find her, we have to follow those men!" Zell announced.
So saying, Zell took off on a gallop dragging Raine behind him by her hand. Quickly reaching the outside gate, they were both totally perplexed to see no evidence of anything out of the ordinary - no male SeeDs, no large garbage bins and most importantly, no Laurie!
Raine glanced at him, her eyes clouded over with sadness. "I don't know what to do..."
"Listen." Zell took her by the shoulders. "We'll go find someone who'll know what to do. Like Squall. Alright? We can talk to Squall."
He shook her a little, clearing her head. "You still have to meet Squall!"
"I know who he is..." Raine muttered.
Zell grinned. "Yeah, but it'd be kind of weird if you spoke to him, because he doesn't know you. We've got to find Mina, then we'll go talk to Squall. Alright?"
Raine nodded slowly, but surely. "Yeah. Okay," she replied. He squeezed her shoulders, giving her a short hug.
"We'll find her."
Mina shook her head. "No...you can't be serious, Laurie?!" Her voice was laced with panic as she searched the eyes of both Zell and Raine.
"Yes, we saw her. She was standing right across the way, near the dump-" Zell started to say.
"What was she doing there?" Mina interrupted. Zell's expression displayed his displeasure in being interrupted.
"I don't know, she was just there, okay?!" he cried, folding his arms. Mina couldn't help but smile. "Zell, relax," she assured him.
He frowned some more, and allowed his gaze to roam elsewhere in the room.
Mina turned to Raine. "Did you see which way they went?"
Raine shook her head. "Probably, but I was too shaken up, startled..honestly, I couldn't remember if I tried."
"We have to report this to Squall," Mina announced. Zell stomped his foot on the ground, uncrossing his arms.
"That's what I've been saying the whole damn time! Why won't anyone listen to me?!" he cried. Mina smiled warmly, leaning over and kissing him lightly on the cheek, making him blush.
Raine grinned. What a sweetheart, she thought.
"Let's go find Squall," Mina instructed them, and the trio left the library.
Later in the afternoon, Raine was still feeling vaguely disappointed that she hadn't been able to meet Squall because of his being in an emergency staff meeting discussing the very fact of Laurie being kidnapped. Mina had assured her that he had left the Garden almost immediately in his quest to search for her. As she was still feeling hightly upset over witnessing Laurie's abduction and not being able to do anything to thwart it and being very worried over her friend's whereabouts and physical condition, Raine wandered into the library searching for Mina.
Not only being Raine's main contact here in the Garden, she also felt an instant affinity with the extremely bright, well coordinated young woman and was badly wanting her company. Glancing around the library, she gathered she was out of luck as she didn't see Mina in any of her usual places.
Standing by herself rather forlornly as busy SeeDs and upper-classmen hustled by her on their way to some personally known assignment or assignation, Raine attempted to recall what explanation Zell had offered for his not being able to spend time with her in the afternoon.
Oh, yeah, I remember, Raine mused to herself. He said something about having to do some adjunct work in a hand-to-hand combat class.
Suddenly a voice asked, "And you are?"
Raine turned and was astounded to observe Rinoa standing before her, holding a book in her right hand!
Raine flushed and attempted to speak, when Rinoa suddenly said, "You're one of the girls from the past...Raine, isn't it?"
As Raine silently nodded, Rinoa spoke again. "You look awfully familiar to me...I wonder why?"
"Oh Great Hyne!" Rinoa cried out, startling Raine. "What's your last name?" the Deling City beauty demanded.
"Ishida" Raine managed to say.
"You're Raine Ishida?!" Rinoa excitedly asked.
As Raine again nodded her head, Rinoa queried, "You're Raine Ishida...the famous author?!"
Perplexed, Raine responded, "Famous author?...No, but I have hopes of being a published writer someday."
"Come with me!" Rinoa commanded, while grasping Raine by her right hand and leading her to a row of shelves near the back of the library. "Look!" the ebony-haired woman directed, pointing at one of the middle shelves.
Raine complied and gasped audibly when she saw an entire row of books with the name of Raine Ishida carefully stenciled on their sides. Moving as if in a dream, Raine reached out and pulled one down.
The Catastrophic Man, Raine murmured, reading the book's title to herself. Quickly flipping to the inside of the back dust cover she was confronted by a picture of herself looking quite serious, but with a twinkle in her eye. Raine noticed she appeared a few years older than she was presently.
Glancing up to Rinoa in complete puzzlement and shock, Rinoa explained, "You're one of my favorite writers of all time. We have fifteen of your published works in our library. I once saw a bibliography of yours in one of our old computer data bases and you had written over fifty books, but I guess these were the only ones that were saved at the end of your civilization."
"In fact," Rinoa continued, "it's a mystery how these survived, but I gather from what I'd read that someone had the foresight to keep them in a lead lined, titanium steel vault. I wonder how anyone knew to save them like that?"
"yes, I wonder," Raine murmured softly to herself. "Hey, can you check this out for me?" Raine excitedly asked.
"Sure," the hazel-eyed woman responded. "But why? You wrote it?"
"I haven't written it yet...I want to see how good a writer I am," Raine explained.
"Trust me," Rinoa said, leaning over and placing her right hand on Raine's arm. "You're awesome."
Rinoa linked her arm through one of Raine's and suggested, "Come on. We'll check this out and then go get a bite to eat."
Laurie regained consciousness several hours later and the first thing she realized was her head was throbbing with pain. As she was laying on a floor, Laurie attempted to sit up and immediately bile rose in her throat. Coughing violently, Laurie decided to immediately regain her reclining position.
The second thing she recognized was she wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing. She lay there attempting to not hysterically panic.
Glancing around her environs, she observed she was residing in a room that most closely resembled a padded cell. The room was completely covered, ceiling included, with some sort of soft, slightly bouncy, material that she wasn't familiar with. The only familiar objects she recognized was a toilet in the corner of the room next to a sink. "Thank God for that," Laurie spoke aloud, because she realized she would need to use it very soon.
Abruptly Laurie became recognizant that her body was perfectly clean and that was simply an impossibility considering all the garbage she had been laying in. Somebody must have bathed me, she thought, greatly alarmed. Slowly rolling her head to the side in order to not increase her pain, she took a whiff of her golden locks. Yep, she thought, Somebody's shampooed my hair too.
Suddenly a door opened mysteriously appearing through the wall as the padding over the door was peerlessly installed to be practically invisible to the naked eye. A tall, slender, Eurasian woman of great beauty and wearing a long gown of flowered design entered the room. Laurie still felt too debilitated to move and just lay there crimson in embarrassment.
The woman closed the door behind her and then quickly moved until she was standing over the reclining young woman. The beautiful woman spoke in a husky voice, "My name is Sari. I feel I must apologize for the rude manner in which you were brought here, but your presence is of the utmost importance to my employer."
Laurie suddenly noticed that Sari was holding her clothes folded neatly, with her black shoes resting on top. Thank God! the desperate young woman thought.
Sari continued to speak, "I also apologize for removing your clothing without your permission, but they were horribly covered with garbage and needed cleaning badly. It was extremely rude of me also to leave you to suffer the indignity of being in a strange place without clothing, but I had nothing of mine to cover you that would have fit your small frame. And there is but one other woman here and asking her would have been out of the question."
The woman called Sari explained, "I will now leave your clothing." And she gracefully placed the clothing next to Laurie without seeming to bend at all.
"Are you in great pain?" questioned Sari.
Laurie slightly nodded her head. Sari continued, "I will return presently and bring you some medication to ease your pain. Please excuse my humble presence until then."
Sari deeply bowed from the waist and left the room, leaving Laurie spellbound and still unable to articulate in her amazement.