By Raine Ishida and RobertDogwood@aol.com
Chapter Four
Laurie shivered in her skimpy bra and panties in an emotional response, rather than a physical one as the current temperature in the room was a comfortable seventy-eight degrees. She wished she would have worn more substantial undergarments.
Suddenly the door opened and a tall, blond-haired, young man wearing a long gray military coat stepped into the room.
Laurie sat on the floor, too stunned, by this recent turn of events, to even consider covering her scanty attire. My God! she thought. It's Seifer!
Laurie was astonished at how incredibly handsome Seifer was in the flesh. Laurie realized she hadn't seen the real Squall as of yet, but thought to herself that he must be an Adonis if Rinoa had been so quick to throw over the extremely handsome young man standing before her.
Seifer cocked his head slightly to the left as he attempted to evaluate the young woman's toughness. "Here," he snarled, while flinging a mauve colored robe to her.
Laurie held it cradled in her arms in front of her body. Now being reasonably covered, Laurie felt emboldened enough to question, "Why was I brought here?"
Seifer responded, "Shut up! I'll be the one to ask the questions when the time comes."
As Laurie began to protest, Seifer held up his right hand to silence her and then replied, "I'll be back when I need you." And then he turned and left the room as quickly as he had appeared.
What in the world was that all about? Laurie thought to herself, as she slipped on her new robe.
"So who have we here?" the most obese of the three bikers asked sarcastically.
As Squall looked quickly from left to right, he noted the two sandwiching the middle one stood a good six inches taller than he and were flying the colors of the Deling City Devils on their motorcycle jackets.
Deling City?! Squall thought. I wonder what they're doing in underground Esthar?
"Hey scumbag! I asked you a question!"
A sudden rare thought had just pushed its way through the consciousness of the biker on Squall's right, and he declared, "Hey, Boss! I think this is the guy that Seifer told us to look out for!"
Squall was amazed to witness the alacrity of the short, squat one in the middle, as he whirled and struck his cohort to the ground with one savage blow. "Shut up, Tiny," he growled. Squall quickly realized he must view them as a legitimate threat or at least the one known as 'Boss.'
Turning his attention back to Squall, the bulky biker demanded, "Okay, one more time, pretty boy. Who are ya and what are ya doing here?"
Not deigning to answer the corpulent ignoramus, Squall reached behind and pulled Lion Heart out.
"Uh, oh, Boss," the biker on the left finally spoke. "It looks like we've got a situation here."
Observing the third biker quickly regaining his feet and realizing they were going to swarm him at any second, Squall galvanized himself into action. Springing forward, he dealt 'Boss' a fearsome blow in the middle of his forehead with the butt of his gunblade, knocking him down and out of the fight completely.
Bang! Bang! - Swish ...The one on the right lay dead at Squall's feet and the other biker lay with a dangerous looking wound in his lower stomach oozing blood. Quickly hurrying away from the carnage at the scene of his crime, Squall realized desolately that his cover had now been blown and decided he needed to go 'topside' to search for assistance.
Raijin stepped inside Seifer's private quarters at the temporary camp for his First Division located on the plains just outside of the Sollet Mountains near Esthar.
"Hey, Seifer! There's some guy out here named Boss Tweed to see ya."
From where he was sitting in a canvas back chair, Seifer nodded his permission. Fujin automatically arose from the small sofa she had been sitting on and stood close to Seifer.
Raijin stepped back inside behind the short, squat biker that Squall had tangled with just a short time before. As Boss Tweed stepped up in front of Seifer, maintaining a respectful distance, Seifer demanded, "Well, what is it? Do you have anything to report?"
I'd say I had a snootful to report!" the burly biker exclaimed angrily.
"I would advise you to be respectful," Seifer suggested calmly. "You never know what might set Fujin off."
Fujin took one step forward and fixed Boss Tweed with her one good eye, causing him to shiver and glance away.
"Begging your pardon, Cap't," Boss Tweed immediately responded. "I didn't mean nothing disrespectful - I just lost two of my boys and I'm real upset."
"Why are you coming to me with this? What do you expect me to do?" Seifer demanded.
"It's because of you," Boss Tweed began to say, but stopped when Fujin took another step closer.
"I'll start over. You know, the guy you told us to keep any eye out for?" the heinous hooligan asked. Seifer nodded in affirmation.
"Well, we ran into him alright and he took out two of my best guys, just like that!" Boss Tweed exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "And I wanna know what you're gonna doing about it."
Seifer thundered, "You're lucky I don't have you shot, you moron!"
Boss Tweed flushed heavily, but did nothing because of the close proximity of Fujin and the infamous reputation of Seifer.
"I told you to make contact with him - not rumble with him. Oh, what's the use?" Seifer said wearily. "Raijin, get him out of my sight."
Raijin, being uncertain of Seifer's present mood, moved with more alacrity than usual and hustled the obese barbarian from the large tent in record time and then stepped back inside.
"Come here. There's something I need you to do," ordered Seifer.
As Raijin moved closer, Seifer explained, "I need you to find Squall and take this message to him. I need you to tell him that Ellone is the Sorceress and not to do anything to hurt her, so we can figure out a way to help her regain herself. Do you understand me?"
"Yeah," Raijin rumbled.
"Good, repeat it back to me," Seifer commanded.
"Squall needs to protect Ellone," Raijin replied.
"And?"
"Ya know, uh...something about the Sorceress," Raijin stammered.
Seifer spoke resignedly. "And Ellone is the Sorceress."
"And Ellone is the Sorceress," Raijin mimicked. "Ellone is the Sorceress!" Raijin exclaimed. "Are you sure about that, Seifer? That doesn't make any sense!"
As Seifer expelled a large sigh in prelude to speech, Fujin ordered, "RAGE!"
"Alright, alright, I'm leaving," Raijin acquiesced and turned and left the large tent.
Seifer hoped that Raijin could accomplish this simple task, because Ellone's very life might depend on it. He realized he should have sent Fujin, but his present situation was precarious at best and he needed Fujin to cover his back.
He sat back in his chair wearily and closed his eyes.
After dropping Laguna and Xu off at Shumi Village, the young SeeD pilot pointed the Ragnarok in a south-easterly direction and headed toward Trabia Garden. The old Estharian ship was still so swift that it touched down on the Bika snowfields just outside of Trabia Gartden in a little less than a quarter of an hour.
Quistis and Kasumi, a petite, dark-haired, well proportioned, young beauty disembarked from the Ragnarok. Even though it was just past mid-day, the temperature wasn't anywhere near as warm as the freezing point and the chilly wind blew incessantly. Kasumi shivered in her brand new SeeD uniform, which Quistis thought appeared extremely short on her new charge.
Quistis smiled thinly at her while directing, "Let's hurry and get out of this cold."
Striding toward the front gates, Quistis immediately recognized that an immense amount of work had been accompanied in the rebuilding project over the past few months. The temporary wooden wall which had been constructed to keep out the elements and the various monsters that roamed the immediate area was gone and a permanent one had replaced it. Quistis observed that it appeared from the outside that the second floor had been completed also, but the third floor was still open to the elements because the roof had not yet been completed.
Quistis spoke to the two young SeeDs that were serving as guards at the front gate. "Quistis Trepe from Balamb Garden here to speak with your Headmaster."
"Oh, no need to intoduce yourselves," one of the SeeDs, an attractive young woman, explained, "We certainly know who you are. How's Selphie?" she asked.
Greatly surprised, Quistis exclaimed, "You must be Kaede! Selphie's doing fine."
It was now the young Trabia Garden SeeD's turn to be surprised. "Selphie's told you about me?"
Quistis nodded. "Selphie's told me all about her best friend of all time."
As the young female SeeD beamed with happiness, Quistis asked, "Is the coffee shop repaired? Can we get some cheesecake?"
"Yes!" Kaede laughed. "As soon as I'm off duty."
"Can we take this reunion inside, please?" Kasumi whined. "I'm turning blue."
Quistis, greatly desiring to tell the rookie SeeD to toughen up quick or things would only get worse, bit her tongue and simply agreed with Kasumi's assessment.
Once inside Trabia Garden, they were turned over to another SeeD, who offered to guide them to the Headmaster's office. On the way, Quistis questioned who the present Headmaster was. "Zidane Strife," was the answer from their guide.
After the accompanying SeeD entered the Headmaster's office and informed him that the two SeeDs from Balamb Garden desired an appointment, Quistis and Kasumi were immediately whisked into the presence of the Headmaster.
Zidane Strife, unlike Cid, looked as if he could lead a charge of SeeDs into battle himself. As he arose to his feet from behind his desk to welcome the visitors, Quistis observed a tall, slightly older, thin but wiry looking man, who possessed rugged good looks and wore his longish blond hair in a spike cut.
Quistis spoke. "Thank you for receiving us so quickly. I am Quistis-."
The Headmaster interrupted, "Quistis Trepe, your well deserved reputation precedes you. And you are?" he asked turning toward Kasumi, a broad smile visible across his rugged features.
As Kasumi introduced herself, Quistis couldn't help but notice that Zidane was quite taken with the young ninja. Inviting them to sit down, the youngish blond-haired man reseated himself and asked, "To what do I owe the honor of your visit?"
After Quistis quickly informed him of their mission, he claimed to have no certain helpful information, but went on to add that there had been some strange activities occurring around Trabia Garden during each night that might have something to do with it.
"Like what?" Quistis questioned.
Headmaster Strife explained, "There's some sort of enemy troop movement in the adjoining area, but just far enough away that we never get a good look. Not knowing what to expect, I've been loath to send out some of my young SeeDs to reconnoiter at night and in the daytime they're always gone, but we see evidence in the snow of their presence. We've tried to track them, but have always reached a dead end."
"How about we do a little spying of our own this evening?" Quistis asked, smiling at Kasumi.
Kiros and Ward were presently occupying the most luxurious suite the Hotel Dollet had to offer. They had taken the noon train from Balamb and then immediately boarded the train to Dollet arriving in the early mid-afternoon.
As Kiros paced back and forth across the length of their suite, Ward lay comfortably atop a number of cushions on the king sized bed casually eating from a huge plate of squid balls. He studied the room with great satisfaction, as it was extremely ornate with a number of pictures of the walls, and held built-in shelves with books and pottery. There was a beautiful desk with two lamps sitting upon it and a white shag carpet.
Kiros suddenly ceased his pacing and whirled confronting Ward. "Just what are we doing here?"
Ward smiled and nodded at his plate.
"No, I don't mean that!" Kiros exclaimed. "I mean why aren't we out looking for Ellone?"
Ward arched his left eyebrow.
"What do you mean you know she's not here? Why did you want to come here then?"
Ward smiled again and pointed at the room with his right hand and nodded.
Kiros smiled slightly. "Just to get away from Laguna for a day and relax for a change and enjoy ourselves?"
Ward nodded broadly.
Kiros agreed. "Okay, I see your point. We could use a break. Let's go get something expensive to eat and then do up the town right! We can go back to Esthar in the morning."
Ward quickly agreed by standing up and saying.........
Squall was ushered into the private lab of Dr. Odine by the Estharian soldier, who had been standing guard outside. Squall had never been certain if the guard was assigned by Laguna to help keep angry citizens out or to stop Dr. Odine from escaping into the greater world.
As Squall glanced around the huge laboratory, with the usual assortment of Odine's bells and whistles, he saw the little man in the corner hunched over a huge computer and talking under his breath to himself.
Squall had always thought, rather ungraciously to be sure, that the good doctor resembled nothing else but a small clown, what with his usual outfit that consisted of a red vest over a purple shirt, blue bell bottoms and topped off with a red and white round collar that was as large as an inner-tube.
Dr. Odine suddenly noticed Squall and called out, "Hey, young Laguna. What is it you vant?" Dr. Odine began to walk over to him.
Squall responded austerely, "My name isn't young Laguna. It's Squall."
"Vatever," the good doctor replied. "You have come to talk?"
When Squall nodded, his head, Dr. Odine declared, "Zat iz nice. What is it you vant to talk concerning?"
Squall discovered himself wondering what planet this guy had come from - it certainly wasn't this one.
Squall explained, "Have you heard anything about a girl named Laurie, who entered our time from the past?"
Doctor Odine nodded his head vigorously. "Yes, I have. I believe she has somehow become entangled with Ellone."
"Ellone?!" Squall responded. "Vat - I mean what are you talking about?"
"You haven't heard of Ellone's disappearance?"
"No, I haven't tell me!" Squall spoke highly agitated, wanting to do nothing less than pick the tiny doctor up and hold him upside down and shake the information out of him.
"I believe sat some-ting veird happened to Ellone on your vay back from time compression," Dr. Odine explained.
"What?!" Squall demanded.
"If I knew zat, I would tell you, wouldn't I. At vat point, did Ellone begin to act vithdrawn?" questioned Dr. Odine.
"I don't know that!" Squall cried plaintively. "I haven't seen Sis for months."
"Oh, zat is too bad. Zhen only zat big dumb lummox Laguna can help me. I can only tell you this - Ellone and zat girl are connected somehow. Find one and you find the other."
Walking down an alley, shortly after returning to underground Esthar following his rather bizarre interview with Dr. Odine, Squall was astonished to perceive Raijin stepping toward him from the other end.
Squall immediately squared off in his traditional fighting stance, keeping his right hand close to Lion Heart.
As Raijin stepped closer, he held up a huge right hand and exclaimed, "Yo, Squall!" causing Squall to comprehend that Raijin was indicating that he came in peace. Squall relaxed his vigilance, because Raijin may have been many things in the past, but never two-faced. If he were your enemy, he was a straight forward in your face one.
Finally reaching Squall, Raijin spoke excitedly, "Thank Hyne I found you. I've been looking for hours. I thought I'd never be able to return to camp, because Seifer ain't in a good mood, ya know?"
"Seifer?" echoed Squall. What is the hell is Seifer doing here? Squall thought to himself.
"Yeah, Seifer, ya know," Raijin repeated, vigorously nodding his head. "He sent you a message. He told me to tell you to protect Ellone."
"Ellone?" echoed Squall. "What about Ellone?!"
"Squall," Raijin chastised, "Would you please concentrate on the information that I am attempting to impart to you?"
Squall gave his head a vigorous shake assuming there was something wrong with his hearing.
"Yeah, ya know, Ellone," Raijin continued. "Seifer told me to tell ya to protect her."
"Where is she and protect her from who?" Squall demanded.
"Uh...ya know, he didn't tell me - wait...he told me that ya needed to protect her from the Sorceress. Yeah, that's it! Seifer told me you had to protect Ellone from the Sorceress."
"Sorceress?" echoed Squall. "What Sorceress?"
"Squall!" Raijin said firmly, "You have to quit repeating everything I say. Now I gave ya the message, ya know and I'm going. If you want to talk to Seifer, we're in camp by the Sollet Mountains."
"In camp?!" echoed Squall.
"Oh, no, here we go again," protested Raijin.
The train was rather quiet for that time of night, but it was to be expected. Zell was silently reading an issue of Combat King that Mina had snuck from the library for him, and Mina herself was practicing dance moves on the carpet of the SeeD room that had been specially requested for them by Headmaster Cid.
"Why do you dance?" Zell asked, glancing up from his magazine. Mina stopped her fluent movements to look at him. "What?"
"Why do you dance?" he repeated.
Mina frowned. "What do you mean, why?"
"Exactly what I mean, why. Why do you dance?" he insisted, setting his issue of Combat King on the cushion beside him.
Mina frowned again. "Why are you so curious?"
Zell rose from his seat. "Am I not allowed to be?"
"Well sure, but-."
"Then tell me. What do you get out of dancing?"
"Well..." Mina started. "I get to know a lot of people, I stay in shape."
"That's a good thing," Zell interrupted, wrapping his arms around her waist, "because you look great."
Mina grinned. "It's something I'm passionate for. You love martial arts. I love to dance. We love them for our own reasons. Does fighting hold a special place in you heart?" she asked.
Zell nodded. "You know it's all about my Grandfather."
Mina rested her head on his chest. "I dance because it makes me feel happy. And there are plenty of things besides dancing that make me happy."
Zell considered that. "Oh, yeah? Like what?"
"Being with you," she replied. "Sure, you're an idiot sometimes, but a lovable one."
That comment stupefied him. "Hey! Not fair!"
Mina squirmed out of his grasp and took a seat next to his magazine. "It's late, don't you think we should get some rest?"
"With a body like yours, who needs rest?" Zell retorted.
Mina snickered. "I"m sorry, am I too distracting?" she asked.
"Yeah, I think so. We should try emergency evasive maneuvers."
"And what were those again?" She was curious to see how creative he could be with his answers.
"Where I grab you and hold you so I can't see you anymore."
"Ah, I seem to recall that being comforting. Now, I want to sleep. Come here and prove your theory."
Quistis leaned over and lightly touched Kasumi, who was slumbering on her borrowed SeeD bed. Kasumi awoke immediately and sat up. "Is it time?" she asked.
Quistis nodded. "Yes, it's past dusk."
As Kasumi stood up, Quistis handed her a coat saying, "Zidane Strife wanted you to have this."
As Kasumi slipped on the fur lined winter SeeD jacket, it hung down to her knees on her slight frame. "Ooh, it's so warm," Kasumi exclaimed. "But why would he give me his personal coat?"
Quistis replied caustically, "I suppose it's because he's appreciative-."
Kasumi arched her right eyebrow at Quistis, as if daring her to continue.
"Of our volunteering to discover who's lurking outside their Garden," Quistis offered.
"Let's go," the blonde SeeD directed tersely.
Stepping outside into the almost completely darkened night, as there was very little light available from the quarter moon due to cloud cover, Quistis and Kasumi soon understood that the temperature had dipped below zero.
Treading lightly in the snow, the two young women kept walking away from Trabia Garden among the ever increasing snow flurries until they were about a half of mile distant.
Grimacing with the cold, Kasumi glanced at Quistis, who nodded back. Yes...it is damn cold! her expression admitted.
Silently standing, the two young SeeDs grew even colder as they continued to monitor their immediate area for any type of movement or sound.
Quistis whispered, "Take a few steps in that direction and see if you can discover anything. I'll go this way, but for Hyne's sake - don't go too far. We don't want to become separated in this."
Kasumi nodded her understanding and did as directed, still not seeing or hearing anything out of the ordinary.
It began to snow, lightly at first and then harder. The wind had increased and it was quickly too difficult for them to see anything but immediately in front of their faces. The snow fell harder soon resembling a veritable blizzard.
Just as Kasumi was preparing to call out to Quistis to discover her whereabouts, she heard, "Hey Burt! How much longer do we have to wait to attack? I'm getting sick of this crap."
A voice, whom Kasumi assumed was the aforementioned Burt, answered, "I'm not sure Ernie. It all has to do with the Sorceress, who is in Esthar and the girl who she kidnapped."
Kasumi thought excitedly, There's a new Sorceress?! She assumed the kidnapped girl they were speaking of was Ellone.
Kasumi greatly wished she knew where Quistis was, but she couldn't even really be certain where the two men were, as the wind played tricks with her hearing and carried their voices all around her.
Suddenly a intense light blinded Kasumi, as she heard one of the men say, "So who do we have here?" A sharp blow to the back of her head caused her to lapse into immediate unconsciousness.
Kasumi awoke in a cavern inside a primitive cell, whose bars consisted of steel poles sunk closely together and a ceiling that was made out of plywood. She was schackled on the cavern wall with her feet off the ground and her arms held up above her head. She quickly realized they had taken her coat, as she shivered in her uniform.
Two large, extremely ugly men, who were untrimmed full beards and resembled demented lumberjacks, approached the cell.
"That one's a real cutie, ain't she, Ernie?"
"That she is, Burt. Too bad we're gonna have to wait for the captain. He's probably gonna want to question her."
"Oh, yeah," Burt agreed. "He'll want to question her alright. I only hope he wants me to help."
Some of the men were already beginning to drift in having completed their nightly maneuvers and were already excitedly approaching Kasumi's cell whooping and hollering.
Kasumi thought grimly, Just unshackle my arms and legs and I'll take as many as I can with me, before they have to kill me.
The captain finally arrived and was quickly apprised of the situation by Burt and Ernie. He wasted no time ordering Burt to bring the prisoner out and as Burt unlocked the cell, which was held by a padlocked chain, Kasumi was gratefully astonished to observe Quistis racing through the open door of the cavern quickly followed by Zidane Strife leading a large contingent of SeeDs and upper-classmen in full battle regalia, who quickly launched a full scale attack on the mysterious army of bedraggled appearing soldiers.
When Quistis observed Kasumi hanging from the wall and the man inside her cell, she appeared to go into a fully psychotic rage and began striking Save the Queen with such savage force and violence that she was laying men out stone cold dead with each flick of her weapon on her way to Kasumi's open cell.
Forcing her way past Ernie by knocking him rudely to the ground, she discovered Burt kneeling pleading for his life. Quistis had just decided to allow him to live, when she happened to catch a glimpse out of the corner of her eye of the pathetically shivering and fully frightened Kasumi still hanging from the wall, and she flicked Save the Queen - CRAACK! - at the pile of human excrement that passed for a life kneeling in front of her and snapped his neck as if it were only a twig.
As Burt fell over already dead, Quistis turned her attention to Kasumi, only to see Zidane had taken his huge old fashioned buster sword and broken her bonds and caught her in his arms, before she could fall to the floor.
Quistis couldn't help, but notice that the Headmaster appeared to hold Kasumi safe in his arms in a tight embrace longer than was necessary. Oh, well, Quistis thought, he deserves a little something for his effort.
Racing up to Kasumi, Quistis grasped her by the hand and commanded, "To the Ragnarok quickly!" Literally pulling the weakened Kasumi along, they raced through the falling enemy soldiers.
Once safely ensconced on the Ragnarok, Brian, who was known to practically everyone in the Garden as the Conceited SeeD, took one look at the frozen beauty of Kasumi and adoration filled his eyes, as he quickly removed his long woolen coat and wrapped it around her.
As Quistis realized that Brian had never quit in his obnoxious quest of Mina, she couldn't wait to tell her that she had witnessed his torch being passed to the figure of Kasumi.
Later as Kasumi was sufficiently warmed enough to converse and the Ragnarok was on its way to Shumi Village, Kasumi questioned, "However did you find me in that storm?"
Quistis replied, "After I heard you being abducted, I knew I didn't stand a prayer of locating where they were taking you in that storm and I was fortunate enough to find my way back to Trabia Garden. Just as I arrived there, the Ragnarok landed on its way to Shumi Village to pick up Xu and Laguna in the morning. I wasted no time informing Zidane and he quickly rounded up his force and we all went up in the Ragnarok, which used its infra-red radar to locate you inside that labyrinth of caverns that ran halfway inside the mountain."
Kasumi halfway sat up from her makeshift bed across two of the seats in the passenger lounge that was covered by Brian's long coat and several blankets and said seriously, "Thank you, Quistis. I owe you my life."
Quistis smiled at the slight figure of Kasumi and replied, "Lay back down, Kasumi and get some rest. We're gonna need you at your best when we get to Esthar tomorrow."
Complying with Quistis' directive, Kasumi murmured, "Good night."
"We're in Timber right now, Headmaster. Yeah, the train ride was swell...yep, the room was great. Yeah. Yes, right. Of course. Thanks."
Zell waited around impatiently, as Mina spoke with Headmaster Cid on the phone in the Timber hotel.
"Yeah, we have a way to Deling. We're renting a car," Mina told the Headmaster.
Zell heard Cid's reaction. "You're trusting Zell to drive?"
He frowned. "I can so drive."
Mina ignored him and continued to speak with Cid. "Yes, Headmaster. He's driving. Don't worry. I'll make sure he follows road rules. Of course, I'll report in when we reach Deling. Okay, bye bye."
She hung up the phone and rubbed her ear. "Oh sheesh, that was painful. What a weirdo," she muttered before slipping her hand into Zell's.
"Let's go rent a car."
"You're trusting me to drive?" he asked, flabbergasted.
Mina giggled. "You heard what I told the Headmaster, of course I do! It's not like you failed your driver's test a million times."
Zell appeared a little hestiant. "Uh..."
Mina laughed. "Oh, who cares. If all else fails, I'll drive."
The car they were given was a complete disgrace.
"You want us to drive to Deling in that?!" Mina cried.
The man, in his forties, obviously not happy with his job, remained silent, his cigarette in his hand, his expression as sour as the moment Zell and Mina had stepped into the room.
Mina scowled, snatched the keys from the man's filthy hands and went to the parking lot to find their car.
The car wasn't in that bad of shape to Mina's surprise, and ran well. Ten minutes into the trip, Mina came to the conclusion that the car really wasn't much of a clunker after all.
Zell was leaning back as far as the front seat would go, his red sneakered feet up on the dash board. He appeared very bored, which wasn't surprising. There was no room in the car for shadow boxing.
Eventually his gaze fell upon his girlfriend. He was pleased to see that her lovely SeeD uniform showed off the majority of her shapely legs, and the top that went with uniform was riding up with how she sat.
When she caught him staring at her for the fifth time, she grinned. "Take a cold shower, would you?"
"Only if you come with me," he suggested with a smirk, leaning back on the seat a little more.
"I could always make you sleep on the floor, when we get to the hotel in Deiling," she replied.
Zell grinned, his eyes closed in relaxation. "You think that will stop me?"
Mina returned the smile, and her eyes glittered with mischief. "My fist will stop you, that's for sure."
Zell stopped his mouth from emitting sound - he knew she was right.
"Now, we've got about three hours of driving to do. We need to play a game of something."
"We don't have a bottle, and the floor's too cluttered to play."
Mina shook her head in disbelief. "You don't stop, do you?"
Zell smiled slightly. "I'm a guy. It's my nature. I can't help it, ya know. Er-uh...you know."
Mina just smiled again and was silent for nearly twenty minutes before Zell let out a wail of frustration. "I'm so booooooored!" he howled.
Mina narrowed her eyes, yet kept them on the road ahead.
"Well, why don't we play truth or dare?" she suggested. Zell's face lit up and he moved his seat back into a seating position.
"We don't have room to do dares..." he noted.
Mina nodded. "True. Then let's make it truth or truth, how about that?"
Zell raised an eyebrow. "I guess."
"Do you want to go first?" Mina asked.
"What, me ask you a truth?" he asked.
She nodded. "Make it fun, come on, Zell. We don't want this to be a boring trip, now do we?"
Zell grinned. "As a dancer, I'm sure you've seen many types of different people in tights. Now tell me, would I look good in tights?"
Mina laughed. "What kind of question was that?"
"One that I want to know the answer to."
"Baggy jeans suit you just fine, Zell."
Zell glanced down at his pants, and smiled. "Lots of room, you know."
"I'm sure two people could fit in there."
"Wanna try?"
Mina smacked him on the leg for that comment. "Okay, from now on, how about you stay quiet and we enjoy the scenery."
Zell peered out the dirty window. A Geezard was fighting another Geezard over remains of what appeared as a bite bug. "Whoop de doo."
"I told you not to speak," Mina instructed.
"Damn it, woman, you've got me whipped..." Zell muttered, crossing his arms, preparing for the long and silent trip ahead.
Zell whined the entire way. "Do we HAVE to go shopping?"
Mina dragged him along by his hand, as he walked behind her, slumped over.
Mina grinned happily. "Of course! We're in Deling. You can't go to Deling and not visit the shopping center! Now come on! I have gil, and I wanna spend it! I need some new dancing shoes, and I want to check out the Dance Box. They always have new stuff."
"I'll only allow myself to get sucked into this, if you promise me you'll model new leotards," Zell muttered. Mina smacked him on the back of the head.
"Stand up straight, you're with a lady."
"Unfortunately," Zell replied as quietly as he could.
Mina frowned. "Alright, then, I guess you don't get to see those new leotards...I bet they were really nice too, nice and tight, so body fitting...don't you just love how they hug my curves?"
Zell hung his head, then lifted his eyes to scan her body hid by her outfit. Either way, her short skirt showed off her lengthy legs and Zell groaned impatiently. "You're doing this to torture me, aren't you?"
"Of course I am, now come on. Dance Box is right ahead!" Mina cried, opening the door and entering the unoccupied store.
After waiting for what felt like hours, Mina finally selected new shoes.
"It's a time consuming process!" Mina explained, as she shook Zell awake.
"No tight form-fitting outfits to model for me, I take it?" he asked, rubbing his eyes irritably.
She grinned. "That's being saved for the next store, come on!"
"It better be lingerie," Zell muttered. No such luck. Clothes and lots of them.
Mina was in too much of a good mood, Zell thought. Her mouth would not stop moving. "I mean, you heard what we need to do. We need to remain low profile. New outfits would totally rock anyway! Come on, Zell. Let's get some new clothes!"
"What wrong with my clothes..." Zell muttered.
Mina shook her head. "People might recognize you. Don't ask me how, they just might, okay?"
After what seemed like three weeks, Mina had selected some clothes of her choice. "Wait here," she instructed. "I'm going to try these on."
"They better be to my liking," Zell muttered. Mina winked. "You don't care either way, do ya?"
Zell shook his head. "Just hurry up, my legs are going to fall off."
Mina was quick to her word, and exited the change room in less than five minutes. Her clothes were an obvious hit, on the Zell scale of one to ten, she figured a fourteen was in line.
She wore a short white denim skirt, and a blue top that bared her flat stomach. The shirt had a picture of an angel on it, and on the back of it, there was a quote. "I didn't do it, I swear."
Mina had also gotten rid of her boots, and wore sandals; Zell was pleased.
"Great. Glad you like it, now hurry. You're next!" she cried, a huge smile lighting her face up.
Zell protested, but after minutes, Mina was able to to shove him into the change room without further argument.
Seconds later, Zell emerged, dressed completely different. Baggy black jeans that hung low on his hips, and a white muscle shirt. Mina topped off the ensemble with a thick gold chain and some sunglasses.
"Now you look sexy," she remarked, running her hand up his bare arm.
He smiled and nodded. "I could say the same for you. However, I think your skirt needs to be shorter."
"Shut up, will you? For a moment, why don't you not let your raging hormones do the talking? Let's go buy the stuff."
As Xu lay in a back bedroom in the Elder's house, waiting for sleep to overtake her, she thought about the events of the past day and realized if it hadn't been for the fact that he was worried sick about the whereabouts of Ellone, this would have been a grand homecoming for Laguna.
He apparently hadn't been back since Ellone had been a small child and the Shumi had waited patiently all these years knowing he would return one day. They probably have a Laguna alarm on the elevator, Xu thought ruefully.
Whatever the reason, the Shumi all knew when he was on his way down and were all gathered to greet him when he stepped off the elevator; even the Elder and his assistant were there. Xu realized Laguna had been touched by all the attention, because he couldn't think of anything to say.
That had to be a first, Xu thought.
But as far as their mission, the visit had been a total bust-out. The Shumi had no ideas at all. They lived just too far out in the wilderness to be of any assistance. Xu discovered herself hoping the Ragnarok was on time in the morning. She didn't want to spend one extra minute away from civilization, if she didn't have to.