IX
There was a hard knock at the door to ValHalla's office, and the Headmaster looked up. "Come in," she called amiably.
The figure that stormed in looked anything but amiable.
Valhalla put down the memorandum she was working on, frowning. "Mr. Nida," she said. "Won't you have a seat?"
"I'd rather not, if you don't mind," Nida said. "Permission to speak freely?"
"Of course," ValHalla said. Nida planted both hands on ValHalla's desk, leveling his eyes with hers. "Whatever you said to Squall in that meeting was unfounded," he growled.
ValHalla's frown deepened. "Instructor, although you may not be happy with your suspension, there is no reason to assume that--"
"I'm not assuming anything," Nida growled. "I saw his face when he met us after that meeting. I want to know what you said to him."
"That's none of your concern," ValHalla said.
Nida's fist came down on the desk. "I am the chief medical officer of the adjunct medical staff, and I have the right to know what is bothering one of my patients," Nida said, knowing that it would be hard for her not to respect that.
"That's no--" ValHalla started, then bit off the end of the sentence. "...patients?" she asked.
"I just spent the last few minutes trying to stabilize his life," Nida said. "A visitor to Garden brought him in from outside. His wrist was slit."
ValHalla leaned back. "Oh, dear," she said.
"What?" Nida exploded. "That's no response!"
"Calm down, Nida," Valhalla said. "Nothing will be gained by shows of emotion. ...I take it Commander Leonhart's life is stable?"
"For the time being," Nida growled through gritted teeth. "Right now, I'm more concerned with finding out what got him into this mess in the first place."
"And you surmise that I am the cause," ValHalla supplied grimly.
"I can be reasonably certain that you're one of them," Nida returned.
"Have a seat," ValHalla said. Nida glared at her for a moment, then acquiesced. ValHalla steepled her fingers in front of her face--a gesture that Nida was beginning to find very patronizing indeed.
"What did you say?" he demanded.
"You'll have to be patient. I feel I must explain my rationale for saying what I did to all of you."
Nida scowled. Right at the moment, patience was not one of his virtues.
"Before I came here, I was able to study your working administration for some time. Therefore, I could see that it was running exceptionally smoothly. I decided to leave much of the existing structure in place, hoping to take on the role of Headmaster and titular president of the Administrative Committee. However, I require a good idea of the... limits of the people I work with. You see, most of my colleagues agree that I am... not always easy to get along with."
That's an understatement, Nida thought.
ValHalla continued, picking her words carefully. "Some time ago, I devised a method by which I could test my coworkers. It required access to the dossiers of those involved--which were, in this case, easy to come by--and a bit of questioning around in circles of friends. With the knowledge I gained, I could then easily devise a situation in which the person's control was tested to the limit."
Sadistic bastard! "Why?"
"I need to know how much my coworkers are willing to take. The idea is to push them on a weak spot until they are forced to push back."
Nida stared at her in disbelief. "Oh, Hyne," he started. "Dear Hyne."
ValHalla lowered her hands, leaning forward. "Speak up," she said.
"You don't get it," Nida said. "You really don't. Squall isn't the kind of person who will push back unless he's in some physical danger from it."
"His dossier said that he used to be extremely combative--"
"I'd be willing to bet gil that it didn't say that," Nida said. "It probably mentioned that he got into a lot of fights, and you assumed that he was inclined to conflict."
"Did I err?"
"Yes!" Nida couldn't contain himself any longer. Jumping out of the chair, he glared at her, almost yelling. "What the dossiers probably didn't say was that all of those fights were ones he had been prodded into by the Garden bully--that most of them he didn't enter until he was forced to choose between fighting and becoming a bloody pulp! I know! I used to get the same treatment--not as often, but...."
ValHalla nodded. "I see," she said simply.
"With all due respect, sir--" and that isn't much! "--I don't think you do see!"
ValHalla stood up. "I'll deal with the situation immediately," she said. "In the mean time, your instructor's license is restored and the sensory depravation sessions are canceled. Convey my heartfelt apologies to the rest of the Committee, along with the news that whatever penalties I mandated for them have been withdrawn. Dismissed."
"Sir--" Nida started.
"Dismissed, Instructor," the Headmaster said. Nida glowered at her, then spun on his heel and stormed out the door.
ValHalla sat down, lowering her head into her hands. I really jumped in with both feet this time, didn't I? she wondered.
--- - - - ---
Squall opened his eyes with some amount of surprise. He was in the infirmary, that much he could tell--and he could feel something tight wrapped around his right wrist. Those things weren't surprising in and of themselves--what was surprising was that he was alive to recognize them.
There were voices from the office--someone was asking if he was awake, if they could talk with him. Kadowaki answered that yes, the person could--as long as they didn't keep the patient up too long. The patient needed his rest.
Squall resisted the urge to groan. He hated being thought of as a "patient."
A shadow fell over Squall, and he looked up as a hand pinned his shoulder to the bed. The strange blonde man was standing over him, grinning.
"You look better," he said.
The back part of Squall's brain immediately began wondering how he was going to get out this time.
"You're still alive, at least," the man said, lowering his voice. "Thanks to me, of course."
"Why?" Squall asked. If there was one thing he wanted, it was answers.
"Say it."
The hand on Squall's shoulder tensed, sending spears of pain through him. Gritting his teeth, Squall managed "Why did you save me?"
"Better," the man whispered. Squall realized that Kadowaki had probably heard him, and cursed inwardly. If she hadn't been convinced he was suicidal earlier, she would be now. "Do you remember me?" the man asked.
"No," Squall said bluntly.
"We used to be quite good friends, you and I," he explained. "We met some time ago. Long time." He bent over. "The name is Nemo," he whispered.
Squall thought for a moment. He didn't know anyone by that name.
"It wasn't always," Nemo said. "You'd remember me by a different name. That's best left forgotten. Suffice it to say that I haven't forgotten you... that's why I saved you."
Squall's wrist gave an unhappy throb, and he frowned. "Then--"
"Why did I try to kill you in the first place?" Nemo smiled. "Think about that for a good long time, Squall. What happens now? You're going to take me seriously now, for one thing. So is everyone else. Except now I'm the hero to them, and you're the only one who'll believe I have it out for you. You can rant and rail all you want about how I'm going to kill you, but no one will listen. At best, they'll think you want revenge on me because I stopped you from killing yourself."
There was silence for several moments. Finally, Squall asked "Why?"
Nemo grinned widely. "Why do I want to kill you? I'm not sure myself. All I know it that it's this great burning urge... maybe it's because I hate you, maybe it's for revenge for something you did and don't remember, maybe it's because I hate SeeD, maybe I just woke up one morning and decided it was the right thing to do. It doesn't matter."
You're mad, Squall thought. The infuriating grin widened again as Nemo straightened up, still whispering.
"I'm going to let you recover, Squall. Then I'm going to kill you. And you'll never find anyone who will believe you."
Nemo turned, moving out the door. With a few words to Kadowaki, he exited the Infirmary.
Squall closed his eyes. Dammit, it wasn't fair! Nemo was right--half of Garden had thought he was suicidal before this... or at least not completely stable. Like ValHalla.
Involuntarily, he winced. If ValHalla had thought he was unstable before, what was she going to think now? This time, his position really was indefensible....
Squall was forced to admit that things looked bleak. He had suddenly been saddled with a lot more than he wanted to deal with. But when had that not been the case?
No, he thought. There was another dimension to it, this time. Nemo--the madman. Although, he was forced to admit, if Nemo was a madman, he was certainly one who knew what he was doing.
And that was usually the most dangerous kind.