Echoes of Time
Chapter 6: Between Dream Memories and Pain
By Sephiroth 4000
Rinoa came to with a jolt,
sheets a sweaty tangle around her.
Sunlight streamed through the
quiet white room. She seemed to be the
only occupant; that is until she turned around, and saw the lean form of Irvine
Kinneas slumped in a nearby chair. The
black brim of his cowboy hat had been pulled forward until it completely
shielded his eyes from the bright rays of sun.
She cleared her throat with
some difficulty; her thirst was rampant.
"Hey. Awake at last huh?"
She nodded, and with a start
clutched the place where the icy spear had pierced through her. It was fine, though underneath the baggy
hospital clothing she was wearing, she could feel tightly bound up bandages,
though they were loose enough not to restrict her breathing.
"Where are we Irvine? Where's Squall? And Seifer?"
He shook his head slightly at
her questions, expression slightly bemused.
"For the first one, we're at a high security prison. D-district." He swallowed for a moment, and then continued. "As for where Squall and Seifer are, well, I
don't know. I know that Seifer and the
others are together, but Squall was taken away. Probably because he was our 'leader'. Tell you the truth Rinoa, I think we're not in there because we're
not SeeDs. This Sorceress really seems
to have a thing about them."
She blinked, and swallowed
hard. D-district. . .she had heard so
many ominous rumours about it, living in Timber. The original generation of activists in Timber had either been
killed, or carted off here, along with murderers, rapists, and all other kinds
. . .
"Irvine, what's gonna happen
to us?"
He grimaced and looked at the
floor. "Rinoa. . .just get some more
rest."
Distantly, he could feel the
tug of chains on his bruised wrists.
Distantly he could feel the shocks of energy that had hurt so at
first. Distantly he could hear the
voice of his torturer angrily demanding that he tell what SeeDs were.
Squall didn't know; Squall no
longer cared. The teenager was in a
very different place now . . .A place that was vaguely familiar, and above all
was comfort, safety and happiness . . .
"-you'll come and rescue me,
won't yoo Uncle Laguna!"
"Aww, how can I not, Elle?"
The small girl giggled, and
peeped up through her hair with a pair of bright brown eyes.
From behind the counter,
bathed in soft sunlight, Raine looked, annoyed amusement sparkling in her
blue-grey eyes. "Really, Laguna, I wish
you would speak proper English in front of Ellone. You're teaching her bad habits!"
Laguna made a face at her, and
as soon as her back turned, whispered to the little girl, "I got 'n twouble."
"Awwwww!"
They both burst out laughing,
even as Raine gave an exasperated sigh of reluctant affection.
"Laguna?"
He turned at the sound of his
name, lips widening into an incredulous grin at the sight of the slender man
framed by the doorway. "Kiros! It's been a long time man!"
"Yeah, it's been a while,
Laguna."
He couldn't stop grinning at
the sight of his dark-skinned friend. After
the required introduction to Elle and Raine, he asked where the third in their
trio was. "Hey where's Ward?"
Kiros crossed his arms, and
looked away. "You know with what
happened with the Esthar soldiers?
Well, he never did regain his voice.
I think he's working as a janitor at D-district. . ."
Laguna frowned, vaguely
disquieted at the thought of his friend; Ward, stubborn proud Ward who refused to
accept a loan even from his friends, working as a janitor.
"Squall! Hey man, snap out of it! Come on man!"
"He's really out of it. .
.they've bashed him up so badly, just look at his face . . ."
"I think they broke a rib. We've
got to bind it up."
"Right, Instructor."
The dark haired man
frowned, green eyes pensive. Then he
gave a short unexpected laugh.
Raine looked at him, head
cocked inquisitively to the right. "Laguna? Everything okay?"
"Nah, everything's fine
Raine. It's just that. . .I think the
faerie's are flying over us again."
Kiros grinned, white teeth
flashing. "You too?"
"Yup!" Inexplicably happy, Laguna slung his arm
around the other man's shoulders. "With
you and the faeries here my friend, patrolling today should be a piece of cake."
"Patrolling? Laguna. . ."
"Squall. . .Please. . .just
wake up. . . .everything's gonna be okay. . .just wake up please. . ."
The voice was so quiet; he fancied
he was imagining it. It wasn't until he
opened his eyes, to see the long strands of dark hair that shielded his face
from all other view, that framed the pale face that trailed tears to fall on
his face, that he knew that he wasn't dreaming. As he woke, a myriad of pains flared into life along his body, a
deep ache in his head and on his face, a long trail of agony along his spine, and
the lighter stings around his wrists and ankles, where the manacles that had
borne him up had dug deep scratches.
Bemusedly he thought it was a good thing that he had had a tetanus shot
only last year.
"Squall. . .?" Her voice was
still faint, but vaguely disbelieving.
He simply looked up at the pale moon of her face, her eyes dark
pools. It was very dark, but then again
SeeDs had exceptionally good night vision.
He could hear deep breathing from around him, as well as a few light
snores. Night.
"You're awake. . .?"
"Yeah." His voice was barely a
whisper, but the sound of it made Rinoa so happy to hear, she had to restrain a
sob, and fresh tears welled up. She
wiped them away with a quick swipe from the back of her hand.
"We couldn't. . .wake you
up. Cure spells don't seem to work
here. All we could do was patch you up
as best as we could. It's a pity all of
our outer garments were taken away, we could've torn them up to make better
bandages, but Seifer said he was glad he didn't have to rip up his trench coat,
an-" she cut off abruptly, embarrassed to find herself babbling.
"And?" Through a fog of
fatigue, some detached part of him wondered what the hell he was doing. He hated girls who gushed, as much as
he disliked Instructor Trepe's probing questions. But, here he was asking for more."
"And. . .nothing. We bound you up as best as we could." She was
glad it was dark; it hid her flush.
"Your wound." In the
stillness, she could hear his subdued voice quite easily, yet. . .was there a
slight tremor?
"I woke up in the Infirmary,
and it was completely gone. Irvine was with
me. I don't know where he is now, but I
got pushed in with you guys. I think
that my da- never mind."
". . . .so cold."
"It's all right. We're all here around you; there wasn't much
room to lie down anyway. But we tried
to steer clear of your wounds."
He remained silent,
confused. He was so very tired, and he
just couldn't deal with himself and her right. Lids drooping over misted eyes,
he continued to look at her face until he fell asleep.
Over in a far corner,
surrounded by Raijin and Fujin, a pair of troubled sky blue eyes flicked open
for a moment, and took in the sight of his rival being embraced by his- girlfriend? Friend?
No, his Princess, tenderly – that was the only word for it - cradling
Squall Leonhart's head on her lap. Seifer could only look away, and wish dully
to wake.
Their leader spoke through
torn lips. "Selphie, I want you to call
in the guard from outside. Probably two
will come in. I'm going to be lying on
the floor, 'unconscious' still. The
rest of you should crowd around me.
When whoever bends down to check, I'll break his neck. Selphie, disarm the other guy; you'll
probably be the closest. Then, one of
you will have to kill him, or knock him out: I don't care which."
His eyes were icy cold, and
the normal tone of his words only made them worse. Involuntarily, Rinoa wrapped her arms around her, face blanching
white. To speak so casually of killing
someone. . .even Seifer didn't speak so blithely of it, proud of his
swordsmanship as he was. But they had
no weapons here, and their only chance was that the guards believed that they
were helpless without their deadly weapons.
They hadn't counted on Garden's extensive training which included
hand-to-hand combat.
Squall gingerly settled
himself against the rough steel floor, doing his best to lie slackly. Selphie walked over to the door, bare feet
making no noise at all. Their shoes,
weapons and outer garments had all been taken away when they had been taken in,
still only semi-conscious from the debacle at the parade.
The petite girl banged
surprisingly hard against the solid iron door.
"Please!" she shrieked, managing to sound as if on the edge of
hysteria. "Please, open up, Squall still
hasn't woken up, I think you killed him!
Please, please, please, just open the door. . .please, just help him. .
." She sobbed quite realistically.
The
door slid open, admitting a grizzled older guard, and a young one with a hard
look in his eyes.
"If you're trying anything. .
." the young one sneered, swinging his truncheon meaningfully.
The elder shook his head. "Calm down missy," he said gruffly. It was hard, they were just kids. . .
The younger pushed through the
other teenagers, and knelt down to look at the unconscious boy.
Squall could feel the slight
wind from his bad breath, the shadow blocking the light. His eyes shot open wide, and his slender
hands grabbed the man's neck and twisted it around with a horrifying crack.
Face regretful, Selphie kicked
the laser out of the grip of other man, the one that had seemed sort of
nice. As he turned toward her in
astonishment, she kneed him hard in the stomach, then jumped, and kicked him
solidly in the head. He crashed into
the wall hard, and slumped down leaving an awful crimson stain. The small girl shook her head, brown hair
swinging; she hoped that he would be okay.
"Good work," Squall said
briefly as he clambered to his feet. "Move!"
Locking the door behind them,
they ran quietly down the stairs, Zell guiding them from his memories as "Ward." Eventually they found the guardroom, and
stopped.
"Weapons. . .fancy. . .SeeD's.
. .not so full of themse. . .ha HA!"
They could only make out a few words of the raucous conversation inside,
and peering through the crack of the partially opened door, Squall could see
two of the guards playing with Lionheart and Hyperion. Slate blue eyes narrowed, and without
another thought, he kicked the door open wide, and charged them.
They were so ineptly trained,
their uniforms proclaiming them not of the Galbadian army, but mere trainees,
that they actually dropped the weapons.
Squall had knocked the two of them out before either could yell for
help. Calmly, he wiped Lionheart clean
of their fingerprints, and buckled it back onto his hip. After he tossed
Hyperion to Seifer – hearing his rival's snort of disgust at it's condition- he
walked to the far wall, took down his coat and pulled it on stiffly, and sat to
buckle his boots on.
The others followed suit, and
soon they were fully geared. Their
spells might not work here, but the medicines did, and after taking a few,
Squall's head was much clearer.
"Let's go." He said. As luck would have it, the idiots running
this prison had had the maps stored in this room. The lock was laughably easy to pick. Lunacy. The Galbadian Army just wasn't as capable as
SeeD. Then again, no army was.
It felt like they had been
running down these spiralling stairs forever.
Down and down and down. Peering
off down the hollow centre of the building, the ground spun dizzyingly far
away. But what choice did they
have? There was an elevator at the top,
Zell told them, but to reach the top was to climb as many stairs as it took to
reach the bottom. Besides, using the
elevator might alert that there were prisoners on the loose. The guards that they did encounter were
efficiently dispatched, and locked into cells with the key cards on their
waists.
At last, they had reached the
bottom. His side felt like it was on
fire; Squall was dimly aware that he had a death grip on it. His rib most likely wasn't broken; just
fractured. It hurt like bloody hell
though.
The entrance was barred
completely shut, computer controlled locks built into every part of it. Fortunately, a large computer terminal
glowed beckoningly only a few meters away.
Zell stepped up to it, and began to rapidly flick through and type. He let out an exclamation, just before the
alarm bells rang out, deafeningly loud.
Above that, the computer issued a warning.
"Alert. Alert.
Intruders on the base level.
Alert. Alert. All Galbadian soldiers, alert, there are intruders
on the base level."
Seifer swore vividly, clamping
his gloved hands over his ears. "Good
one Chicken-Wuss!"
Zell yelled back furiously,
his fair skin flushing a painful red. "It's
not my fault they changed some of the codes since Ward's time! What else could we do?" Even now, he typed furiously, trying Seifer
supposed, to still get the doors open.
Pathetic. He really shouldn't
have expected anything else from Chicken-Wuss, and being led by Squall
of all people, he should have known that this would fail-
The doors slid open.
Zell raised and shook his
fists at it in glee. 'Oh baby! C'mon
guys, let's get. . .go. . .ing. . ."
His voice trailed off, even as
everyone froze.
The tunnel leading to outside
filled with a dusky purple mist, carrying with it a subtle smell. The air seemed to grow heavier, time seemed
to slow down. Even the alarm blaring so
harshly only a moment ago seemed removed a distance, slow, silent. It grew stronger, and a shadowy figure
appeared from deep within the mist. It
grew more distinct, and the mist cleared away.
Seifer shook his head; he couldn't think, couldn't move, could only
watch. . .
She was slender, and her frame
was slight. It wasn't her body that was
so daunting, it was the tangible aura of terrible power around her. Ebony black hair cascaded down beyond her
waist, and as she whirled 'round, it swung in a circle, echoing the flow of her
dress. She spread her arms wide, and
lifting her head laughed. Seifer could
hardly breathe; the sound seemed to drown everything, he was drowning in a sound
it wasn't possible, he couldn't do anything. . .
Slowly, slowly, she lowered
her arms, and looked at them, cold amusement shining from those terrible golden
eyes. In a husky, oddly formal, yet
mocking tone of voice, she asked them, "Where are you going, my children?"
Author's Note: Argh! Don't kill me! I didn't mean to leave it on a cliffhanger,
truly I didn't! It just sort of
happened that way. You might think that
this is a Squinoa (argh, I hate that word, Squinoa, why can't people call them
Rialls? It sounds so much less. . .I
don't know. . .then Squinoa. . .)and yes, it is one, because I feel that Squall
and Rinoa do belong to one another, as ordained by the great Squaresoft gods.
However, it is also sort of a Rinoa/Seifer fic, as you will see in the
next chapter. No she does not
end up with both of them! Ew! I'd never make Squall share. Heeheee.
And I am guilty of being a Mercedes Lackey fan; my brother groans every
single time he sees me reading one of her books. Who thought the ending of "Burning Brightly" sucked, while the
end of "Magic's Price" was perfect?
Burning Brightly was the first ML book I ever read, and I was so
frustrated by the ending that I flung it across my room, and then apologised to
it. ^_^. I also like the SERRAted edge series, but there doesn't seem to
be any fanfiction on it . . .Does anyone know where I can find a copy of "By
the Sword"? And why are all the cool
characters shaych? Vanyel,
Tylendel (well, they are lifebonded, one would expect to be but), Firesong . .
.I think the only cool character that isn't is Darkwind! And don't even mention Darian or
Karal, Darian annoys me half the time, and Karal about a quarter of the time. Oh dear, most of this Author's Note has
turned into a rant about Mercedes' Lackey.
Well, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!!!!
PLEASE!!!!!! And thanks for your kind reviews. You should be happy, I just updated only two days ago, and here I
am updating again. Well, hopefully I
won't get stuck. Until the next
chapter. . .