VII
"Death is the last enemy. Once we get past that, I think everything will be all right."
--Anonymous

Quistis moved carefully along Esthar's translucent suspended thoroughfares, keeping a tight grip on the wrapped package she held. Though the Lunar Cry had been an entire year ago, almost all the monsters who had plummeted from the moon to the planet's surface coralled or hunted or otherwise made harmless, there was no telling whether or not an Imp or a Torama still lurked somewhere within the city. She wasn't about to be caught unaware.

And besides, the longer it took her to get to the palace, the more time she would have before she had to deliver a death notice to someone she still regarded as a sibling and close friend.

Irvine had offered to accompany her, but she had refused. So she was there, alone, heading towards Esthar's Presidential Palace without deigning to take the in-city lifts. They would get her there faster. And, coming up on the massive residence, she could only reflect that she had gotten there far too swiftly, as it was.

A guard greeted her as she approached. "Excuse me," she said, as calmly as she could. "May I see Ellone?"

"Who are you?" the guard replied, eying her with open suspicion.

"Quistis Trepe, a SeeD from Balamb Garden. I have an... important message to deliver to Ellone. Might I see her?"

The guard grunted. "Yeah, you're cleared. Go on in," he said, and Quistis moved past him into the palace. Asking directions of various milling officials inside, she managed to find her way to the meeting room antechamber where Ellone was sitting.

"Quisty," she exclaimed as Quistis walked in, voice flatly lacking in warmth. It was obvious she was trying to be friendly--but she was preoccupied, and not doing a good job of hiding it. "So good to see you. How is everyone?"

Something in Quistis's expression must have alerted her.

"Quisty--" she began, sitting up straighter, every semblance of levity dropped at once from her face. "What's wrong?"

Quistis steadied herself, trying not to let emotion overcome SeeD presentation, holding the package out to Ellone. Ellone took it hesitantly, unwrapping the folds of black silk that encircled it. An uncomprehending, stricken expression came into her face as she saw the broken gunblade. Looking up at Quistis, she plead silently that it wasn't what she thought.

"We were fighting at Fisherman's Horizon," Quistis said. "An army in heavy armor. We couldn't identify them--Selphie had been kidnapped earlier, and we were going after her. Irvine and Zell were trying to keep more soldiers from entering the city, and Squall and I went to see about the other boarding site. We saw Selphie in custody, and heard them talking about some 'Lieutenant,' and we had to investigate. Squall sent me off to go after Selphie, while he went to the tier--"

Something caught in Quistis' throat, and she paused for a minute to calm herself. "When I got there with Zell and Irvine, all we found was that."

"And Selphie?" Ellone asked in a small voice.

"We couldn't save her," Quistis said. "And Rinoa's been kidnapped, too."

Ellone slumped in her chair, looking at her hands and the silver gunblade. "But why? Why now?"

"I don't know," Quistis murmured.

"Quisty... a blue-armored man was here, a bit ago. He tried to abduct me a bit ago. Laguna pulled me away, but he got taken instead. And I--" she paused just before she finished the sentence. "I can't Connect anymore, Quisty," she said. "I tried. I can't go back into anyone's past. I wanted to know what had happened, see if maybe I could find where he was--but I can't. Anytime I try to do it--it just hurts."

Quistis sat down in a chair across from Ellone, head bowing forward. "What are we going to do?" she asked--all too aware that Ellone couldn't offer a strategical option.

She wasn't looking for stategy. At the moment, she just wanted hope.

Ellone shook her head and stared at the gunblade lying in her arms. "What can we do?" she asked softly.

Quistis closed her eyes. (You're a leader now,) she berated herself. (You have to come up with an option. You have to command.)

"...I don't know."

-

The boredom was driving him insane.

Looking over across the dock he saw that Fujin and Raijin were having a good time. Even Seifer seemed to be enjoying himself. Squall, however, plagued with his inability to to anything, was slowly driving himself crazy. He couldn't even heal himself: the Curaga spell he had tried seemed to give him energy, relieved the headache he had, and even eased the sore shoulder he had had from a recent bout with a Wendigo in the training center--but it had been unable to close or even lessen the gaping wound in his side.

He had managed to get one of the grappling hooks from the invasion and a long coil of rope, and was now trying to snag and rip off a piece of coral from the reef that the magic lamp had been found in. He seemed to be having only marginally better luck than Seifer, who was fishing. Which wasn't saying much: Seifer had already lost two of his hooks.

Squall had managed to catch one fish, though: it had tried to eat the seaweed that had gotten coiled around the grappler. Raijin seemed inordinately pleased with Squall's first catch, and had taken it off to cook it. Horrible smells wafted from the kitchen.

Glancing back over at his former enemies, he saw Fujin walk slowly up behind Raijin, saying nothing. It took a good two minutes before Raijin noticed--and when he did, having just caught his eighteenth fish, he jumped up faster than anyone with his bulk should realistically be ably to do.

"Hey, not again, ya know?" he asked, the expression on his face speaking to terror beyond mortal ken. "I--I can't swim, ya know?"

Squall was finding it very hard not to grab the nearest piece of fishing material that could approximate the size and weight of a gunblade and begin indiscriminate violence.

Raijin ran over to the kitchen, yaking Squall's fish out of the oven with a chorus of "Ah! Ah!"s as he juggled the hot sheet, fanning it with his hand. When the pungent smoke had ceased to waft, he turned and brought it over to Squall.

"No luck, huh?" he asked, grinning when Squall shook his head. "Let me try, ya know?"

Squall shrugged and handed the line to Raijin: unless he lost the hook, he couldn't possibly have less luck than Squall had. The bad smells were still coming from the fish, and Squall wondered for a second whether or not he should eat it.

Raijin kept eyeing him with high anticipation.

Steeling himself, he pulled off a bit of the meat and put it in his mouth.

"This is great, ya know?" Raijin asked. "I mean, Seifer saved you an' all. I guess that makes you... blood brothers, ya know?"

Squall choked. Literally. The piece of fish lodged itself somewhere in his throat, and Raijin had to pound him on the back before he coughed it out and it fell into the ocean. Which was quite all right in his book--it had tasted just as bad as it had smelled.

Raijin yanked up on the line, pulling up the grappling hook and a piece of coral easily the size of his head. "Nothin' to it, ya know?" he said, grinning from ear to ear. Squall looked at the fish suspiciously, pulling off another bit. A reddish ichor oozed from the hole.

"What kind of fish is this?" he asked.

"I'll bet is one o' them Balamb fish, ya know? Delacasies, ya know?"

(This... can't be happening.) Squall looked at the fish suspiciously. "Any chance it might be a Babamb fish?"

Raijin glanced at it, unconcerned. "Maybe. Why?"

(Because Badamb fish are highly poisonous?) Quietly, he tipped the plate into the ocean, then turned to give Raijin an incredulous glare.

There was a moment of pause, and Raijin mouthed a silent "Oh."

The fish floated on the water for a second, then a shark appeared and snatched it. Squall was surprised. He hadn't known there were sharks around FH.

"H-hey," Raijin said. "S-sorry about that, ya know? Didn't realize, ya know?" He jumped up and went running back to Seifer, who was angrily throwing his line back into the water. Squall, with a last, annoyed look at Raijin, turned to the coral and began looking it over.

Coral usually had varying amounts of thunder element charge, but a quick check to see if Quezacotl could refine it showed it didn't. It made sense--why would a gravity elemental GF be found inside a reef of thunder elemental coral? Only Diablos had time-space refining ability, so he couldn't check it for gravity.

Wait--yes, he could! He had a piece of normal coral in his pack. Reaching in, he took it out and tossed it to the ground a fair distance away from him. Breaking off a piece of the other coral, he tossed it to the ground in a different direction. Concentrating, he cast Demi on the thunder-element coral.

As he had expected, it shattered.

Turning, he cast the same spell on the FH coral, watching for any sign. Not only did it not shatter, it actually grew when the spell finished.

(The coral must have a very strong gravity element,) Squall thought. (Was that why those men were here? They used all those Demi spells; having a reef like this would be... a good investment. They would have a damn near infinite amount...)

Thinking about it, his theory made perfect sense. Which meant that the men would, most probably, come back. And in greater numbers. They had expected an entirely defenseless fishing village, not expecting Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin. Then Squall and his team had showed up--but this time, they would be more prepared. The black armies would come with enough men to wipe out both parties, not knowing one had gone. And of the four left, Squall was hardly in a fighting condition: his side still throbbed, and he had no weapon.

The only thing to do would have been to call in for reinforcements, but that was nearly impossible. Fisherman's Horizon was one of the most isolated inhabited areas in the world, aside from the Shumi Village and Trabia Garden--and, arguably, Esthar. But aside from the Ultima draw point in the Shumi village, there was nothing of value there. Trabia Garden was still trying to finish the repairs from when they had been the target of a missile strike, and now no one would find anything of interest there. And Esthar was quite capable of defending itself.

In short, the most defenseless city in the world had the one thing the odd army wanted most. And now Squall was being asked to work with his worst enemy against impossible odds to defend it.

(...yay,) Squall thought sarcastically, staring off to sea. (I knew this was going to be a crappy week.)