Author's note: This chapter would have been up weeks ago if it hadn't been for the disease that spread through ff.net recently. Unfortunately, I lost the original document in said disaster, so I had to rewrite everything from scratch. With the recent sickness that this crazy website has been going through, it's a wonder that any work can get done at all! Please excuse the delays, as most of them were beyond my control. Oh, I've also been busy with funeral arrangements. My grandfather passed away on the 26th of June, and I was one of the pallbearers, so perhaps you can understand why I've been delayed so. Thank you for your prayers and your patience. I promise to make it up to you all!

XVII: Savage Ice

There was cold and there was ice; there was frost and there was snow; there was Fujin and Amy, Zell and Nida, and Seifer; there was a gray sky above, and empty white ground below, and haunting trees that stood tall with snow caked on their branches; there was a distinct tundra in the distance, where the earth had been scorched slightly from an explosion, and the skeleton of a building standing right in the middle of it. Zell only noticed this.

"Hey!! We're here!!" He smiled and waved at his traveling companions, and they all climbed the little hill he was on to get a better view. In the distance, past all the fields of white and the mountains in the great distance, there stood the remains of what was once something proud and noble. But now, that was all that was left: the remains. Amy frowned as she saw the skeletal structure, and her sigh created a misty cloud in the cold air.

"What is it?" she asked.

"That's Trabia Garden," pointed Zell. Amy crossed her eyebrows in disappointment.

"What? You mean we came all the way out here just to see this??"

"Urgh, no…" he grumbled. "We actually came out here to see Squall n' Rinoa, but I figured we could swing on by here first, y'know?" Amy tilted her head in confusion, and took another look at the structure. The reason why anybody would want to come near that place was unknown to her; even Zell was not silly enough to "just come". She had heard many things about Trabia Garden, and even knew about the missile attack, but somehow she had expected more than this…

"COME," said Fujin, pushing Amy ahead gently. "GET INSIDE. WARM."

"I agree," shivered Nida. "For the time being, we should seek shelter in the Garden. It won't do us good to stay out here and freeze." Everyone agreed, and despite Amy's disappointment at seeing the ruined Garden, she had to agree that it was a better place to be than out in the cold.

What awaited them beyond the fence was a land blanketed in destruction. Everywhere the eye could see, there were overturned trees, crumbled statues, cracked streets, and a general disarray of property and construction. Everything was in ruins, but not so much so that the land had been turned into waste. No, this was not a hopeless shell of the Garden it used to be, for even though destruction hovered everywhere, there was still a bright and even hopeful feeling in the air. The survivors of the missile attack were all milling around, attending to everything from each other to the ruined land. They were all in a surprisingly upbeat mood, despite the fact that the Garden around them was no more.

"…What a horrible place…" whispered Amy. Zell sighed and scratched his head.

"Yeah, this place is pretty much a dump, no thanks to you-know-who." Instinctively, everyone turned towards Seifer except for Fujin, but he only offered them silence. Zell snorted, and ignored his fellow blonde as he led the group inside Trabia Garden. Amy had been told earlier that this place used to be Selphie's home, so perhaps all the cheer and hope she felt in the air had rubbed off from her.

"Hey!! Amyyyyyyyyyy!!!!" Suddenly, a loud call erupted, and Miss Mizuno looked around to see who had called her. Her face grew into a big grin as she saw the familiar face of Vera Grate, and everybody present, even Seifer, gave the retired General their finest salute.

"Instructor Grate! What are you doing here?!" exclaimed Amy. Vera Grate smiled slyly and crossed her arms.

"Well, you didn't expect your own teacher to let you leave without saying good-bye first?" The Instructor laughed at her own words, but nobody else seemed to get the personal joke. Vera grumbled as she noticed their dry dispositions, and let out a cold sigh.

"Okay, okay, that was a poor excuse. I really came up here to attend a reunion with the other members of the Savage Six. They wanted to meet the son of the man who personally rid the world of Adel, I guess, and I got dragged along with them. But I guess we killed two birds with one stone, eh?" Amy smiled and nodded, and silent snowflakes fell for just a brief period.

"Hey, Vera!!" called another voice. "Are you gonna stand there all day or are you gonna join us?!" Instructor Grate rolled her eyes and feigned a growl as she called back to her five comrades.

"Buncha fools… Just be patient!!! Here, I have some people over here that you all should meet!!" Vera hoisted her arm in the air and began waving, and soon a group of five emerged from the wreckage: Virgil Homer Smythe and Brutuz von Rightfield of Windhill, Changeman of the Shumi tribe, Morpheus of Estar, and the leader of the group, Turn. Two of them were definitely human, and one was a semi-evolved Shumi, but the others could be speculated upon. They all smiled and waved as they saw their female ally, and the Savage Six were reunited again. They had not seen each other in nearly six years.

"Ohhh, it is great to see you!" sang Vera, giving hugs all the way around. The man she was hugging grinned back, and suddenly paused as he recognized one of the people in Amy's entourage. Fujin gasped as she laid her eye on him, and squealed out something that nobody had expected.

"DADDY!!!"

"My baby!!!" The two rushed at each other, and threw their arms around the other in a tight embrace.

"DADDY, DADDY!!!!"

"My little baby Fu-Fu!!!!" The two cried and wept as they held each other, leaving everyone else stricken stupid with amazement.

"Fujin's father?!" squeaked Amy.

"She called him daddy??" blurted Zell. Nida's eyes twitched.

"…He called her 'Fu-Fu'…" The man hugging Fujin growled, and gave everyone a nasty glare. Nida and everyone else instantly apologized for offending him, and the man gave off a bright smile in return. Fujin squealed out for joy, and stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

"This is nuts!" blurted Zell. "I didn't know Fujin's father was still alive! I thought she was an orphan like the rest of us! What's the deal?!"

"NOT ORPHAN," said Fujin, holding her father protectively. "LIVED IN WINDHILL. LEFT DADDY FOR GARDEN. MISS TERRIBLY. HAPPY NOW." Fujin smiled sweetly, something that only a very few people had seen, and everyone else more or less took this new piece of information with a grain of salt.

Fujin's father was the respected General Virgil Homer Smythe, which would have made both her and her brother Smythes. He was taller than his daughter, but not quite as tall as his son, and looked to be a year or two older than Vera. His skin was of bronze tint, and his hair was quite dark, both of which Raijin seemed to inherit. He was not exactly an old man, nor was he too young, and was normally very grave and serious.

But around Fujin…

"I'm so glad to finally see my little baby Fu-Fu again!" sang the General, squeezing his beloved daughter tightly. Fujin's face was so aglow that she could have lit a cave; it had been the first time since Amy's arrival that anybody had seen her so happy. Fujin allowed herself several tender moments reuniting with her father before things took a more serious turn, but even then she had a smile on her normally-stoic face.

"So, how's your brother?" asked the former General. Fujin shrugged.

"OKAY."

"Has he found a girlfriend yet?" Fujin made a face, and wondered what kind of answer she should give. The last time she checked, Raijin had both Xu and Selphie fighting over him.

"SORT OF."

"That's good," nodded the General. "Rai shouldn't be alone. Oh! Who're your friends?" Fujin pointed a pale hand towards the company that she had been traveling with and introduced them.

"ZELL," she pointed. "EVERYONE ELSE YOU KNOW." Smythe nodded his head, and suddenly gasped as he recognized the crew. He immediately threw his arms around a very startled Seifer first.

"Seifer! Seifer, my boy! How are you?! I haven't seen you since you were with General Caraway's daughter!!"

"Uhhh… I'm… fine, sir," managed Seifer. His face was contorted in confusion, and he didn't know whether to be repulsed or to simply hug back. Fujin smiled dryly and rubbed her father's shoulders.

"SEIFER AMNESIAC, DADDY," she told him. "BETTER THOUGH. SINGLE TOO."

"Oh…" Smythe grew genuinely sad, and shook his head as he gazed at the younger man's face. "That's too bad. Losing your memory and your girlfriend all at once… what a pity…"

"I'm fine now, sir," assured Seifer stiffly. Smythe smiled, and suddenly tossed Seifer away as he recognized another member of the party. Nida rolled his eyes and braced himself for the hearty embrace that was inevitable.

"Nida!! Nida, my boy!! I haven't seen you in ages!! How are you?! Treating my Fu-Fu well, I hope!"

"Uh, y-yes, s-sir…" muttered the poor pilot. "Your daughter's… um… really great…"

"But of course!" exclaimed the General. He punched Nida's shoulders playfully, and gave the young man a wink. "So, when can I expect some grandkids from you two, eh?" This last remark made both Nida and Fujin blush, and while a reddish hue might've been common to the young man, seeing Fujin's pale face turn pink was something totally different. Smythe saw both their faces, and laughed like he was a grandfather already.

"Oh, don't take it so seriously!" he guffawed. "I was just kidding! But really, Nida, when are you gonna make an honest woman out of my baby Fu-Fu?"

"I… really don't know," replied the young man with a difficult smile. "We're taking things pretty slow now."

"I see," smiled the General. "Well, no rush!" He gave Nida another hug for good measure, then clung to Fujin again, who gladly took the embrace. Vera, and the other members of the Savage Six, all shook their heads and rolled their eyes at their comrade's performance. They understood his joy at reuniting with his daughter and her friends, but they had business to take care of, and all this happiness was cutting into their time.

"Virgil… we're happy that you're back with Fu again," began the Shumi Changeman, "but we really need to get back to business." Smythe turned around and gave the Shumi a fierce glare, and the poor creature instantly apologized for interrupting. If the Savage Six had learned anything from their friend, it was that they should never interrupt his quality time.

Smythe grinned as he gave his daughter a kiss, but the smile faded fast as he spotted another person he recognized--that of Amy Mizuno. His forty-five year-old hands dropped to his side, and both his mouth and eyes shot wide open. Smythe nearly fell to his knees from quivering, and when his voice finally did come back to him, it was no steadier.

"You… you're… I, I can't believe it…! Fu, is this…?"

"NO," replied Fujin flatly. "NOT AMY. COINCIDENCE." Smythe swallowed, and slowly stood up. He smiled sheepishly, and offered his hand to Amy.

"Yes, I see," he whispered. "This couldn't be Amy Mizuno. Oh, but the resemblance is uncanny, yes?" The members of the Savage Six all gathered around the blue-haired genius, each one remarking how similar she looked to the "real" Amy Mizuno. Amy knew that she was famous, at least in that world, but she never could have realized…

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that it was her!" remarked Turn, the leader of the Six. "By Hyne, what a strange resemblance!"

"Yes…" muttered the humanoid Morpheus. "I was afraid I'd have to get a new prescription…" The Five of them (minus Vera) all muttered and mumbled how striking the resemblance was, but level-headed Vera Grate brought them back to their original mission.

"Listen," she said, "this is all very strange and all, but don't we have somewhere to be?"

"Oh, right, President Loire's son," muttered Smythe. Vera nodded her head.

"Right. It's too late today, so we might as well find somewhere to rest. We'll all go over there tomorrow. Mr. Dincht?" Zell, who for the most part had been forgotten, suddenly snapped to attention and saluted his superior officer.

"Yes Ma'am!!"

"You're free to come along with us, if that's your destination. Turn lives around this area, so he'll show us exactly where they are. For now, you're free to take lodgings in Trabia."

"Yes, Ma'am! Thank you, Ma'am!!" Vera smiled and dismissed Zell, and gave Amy and her crew one last farewell before tiring. Her comrades followed her, but Smythe remained with his daughter and possible son-in-law. The former asked her father what the matter was, and a fairly big cloud of cold smoke came from his mouth in the form of an exhaled sigh.

"Fu… there's something I need to show you… And Seifer and your friend, too."

"WHAT?"

"…The truth," whispered Smythe darkly. He swallowed, and mentally wondered whether his daughter and her crew were really prepared for such a thing. "I discovered something here a long time ago, something that none of you will like. You will most definitely experience great trauma just by looking at it, but nobody ever said the truth was easy to handle. I won't show you what it is if you don't want me to."

"What is it, sir?" asked Amy. Smythe paused and grumbled.

"I can't say. You'll just have to believe me until we actually get there. If you don't want to come, that's all right, but…"

"DADDY… ABOUT AMY?" Smythe took in a deep breath, and quietly nodded his head. In the chill of the ruined Trabia Garden, Fujin hugged herself, and slowly muttered out her reply.

"WILL GO."

"Me too," said Amy. "I have a feeling that I should know what this is."

"I guess, if I'm invited, I'd better go as well," shrugged Seifer. Smythe nodded his head quietly, and pointed off in a southern direction.

"It's out there somewhere," he said. "…Buried under all that snow, forever. You'd better be absolutely sure of yourselves before you come along."

"Now we have to see what it is," remarked Seifer dryly. Nobody smiled; Nida clicked his tongue and stepped forward to volunteer his presence.

"Can I go too, sir?"

"No, Nida…" sighed Smythe. "Nothing personal, but this really doesn't involve you. One day, maybe myself or Fu will let you know, but not today. You're a fine man, Nida, and I like you very much. I know you'd make my baby Fu-Fu happy, and I'd be proud to have you as a son-in-law. But… well, this really doesn't involve you." The average-looking young man sighed, and quietly agreed to stay behind. With a wave of his hand, Smythe urged his daughter and her two closest friends forward, and together the four of them dove into the savage wastelands of ice.

"Huh…" muttered Zell. "Wonder what that's all about??"

Five mugs of beer clinked together, and five loud cheers echoed in the room. Each drink vanished in record time, and another laugh erupted. It was fairly early in the evening, and five of the Savage Six were having a reunion celebration.

"So, how long has it been since the six of us were in the same place?" asked Turn. Everyone smiled.

"Six long years, I believe," replied Brutus von Rightfield. "Wow, what a long time it's been! Most of us are already grandparents--Vera!!!"

"Not me," sighed the only female of the group. "My oldest is barely in college. Brutus, I thought you were the grandfather of the group!"

"Hey, my kids aren't that old yet," argued the former naval General. "Remember, it's only been eighteen years since the fall of Adel. I'd be worried if us younger ones were grandparents already."

"Not me," said Changeman, raising his class in the air. "Changeman already father to a father."

"True, but Shumis gestate faster," argued Morpheus. He smiled, and shook his head sadly. "Looks like I'm the only one here who's single. But Smythe seems to have a family growing." Turn nodded his head.

"Yeah… But I heard his kids had a hand in the recent Sorceress War, with Ultimecia. What do you make of that?"

"It's in the past," snorted Morpheus. "Fujin and Raijin were about as interested in all that as a child is interested in politics. I heard they were merely going along with that friend of theirs--umm, Seifer I believe…"

"A bad influence?" grumbled Rightfield. Everybody mumbled, but nobody offered any suggestions. "He seems to have changed, though. Ms. Smythe, Virgil's daughter, said he had amnesia or something. You believe that?"

"I do," replied Vera, gulping down more beer. "I've had a chat with Mr. Almasy. He's not acting; he really has no clue about anything. But, it's better to let sleeping dogs lie. He seems a lot happier now that he's had that burden removed."

"Agreed," replied Turn. "Now, let's not stay on that subject anymore, all right? All this talk is becoming sour. What about that woman, the one who looked like Amy Mizuno? Now there's a topic!!"

"Hm, I still can't believe she's not the real one," muttered Rightfield. "But I guess I'm just being stubborn. After all, the Miss Mizuno we knew vanished during that mission up here. You remember that, sir?"

"Do I?" said Turn darkly. He paused, and swallowed his beer extra-slow. "…How could I forget?"

"We never did hear what happened to her after that," muttered Vera. "What do you suppose became of her?"

"No clue," sighed Morpheus. "But a person who had bonded so close with a GF… They're not common. It's a pity we had to lose such an exemplary person. I do wonder what became of her……"

The world surrounding them was a shade of white that did not suggest purity, but emptiness instead. There was snow on the ground, vast fields of white frost and ice and chilling shreds of cold water. There fell from the sky great crystals of sharp, stinging, freezing pain, that slowly piled onto the ground and the bodies and made everything white and empty.

Trabia Garden was long gone by now, enveloped forever in the infinite fields of wind and ice. There were no trees visible, nor mountains, just the white snow. Even the sky above was a dim gray color, so it was impossible to determine which direction was up, or down. The temperature was inhumane, and the winds howled like ghosts of people slaughtered ages ago. There was nothing out in this icy desert except for the color white, and four people who might have been lost.

General Virgil Homer Smythe of the Savage Six seemed to know where he was going, which would classify as a miracle. Everyone else had to rely on him, and each other, if they wanted to escape the cold mouth of winter. One would think that these individuals would be well-suited to cold temperatures--after all, Amy was the warrior of ice, and Fujin exuded a cold aura, and Seifer never was much of a warm person--but in the freezing hell of icy fires and snowy embers, even these were but human.

The winds were very powerful and cold. Seifer and Smythe fought them well, but Amy was not strong enough. She was often protected from both ice and wind by Fujin, who would even stuff Amy inside her own jacket. Amy would always voice her concern for Fujin, who even now was looking a little frostbitten, but Fujin would always smile and shrug it off. If Amy was safe and warm, she reckoned, then everything would be okay.

Amy cried to herself at Fujin's selflessness, and had to wonder what sort of deeds the "other" Amy did to make Fujin so dedicated. She knew she could never replace such a friend, or even fill in the shoes, but neither Seifer nor Fujin, nor Raijin back at Balamb, seemed to mind.

Suddenly, Smythe came to a stop, and shouted for everyone else to halt as well. For a short period, the wind and the snow crashed against the four of them, and only the howling of the merciless wind broke the freezing silence. Without another word, Smythe knelt down in the snow and began digging something out.

"What's going on, sir?" shouted Seifer over the winds.

"You'll see," came the reply. A frosty Fujin managed to speak.

"DADDY, NEED HELP?"

"Just stay warm for now," instructed the General. "This won't take long." Fujin shivered in an attempt to nod her head. Amy suddenly emerged from her jacket, feeling like a piece of bread straight from a warm oven. She shivered, and smiled as the cold briefly relieved her hot body. Without wasting a second, she turned around and used her toasty hands to rub life back into Fujin's face, but of course the woman protested.

"NO! STAY WARM."

"But you'll freeze to death!" insisted Amy. Fujin shrugged and pointed at Amy.

"DON'T CARE. MORE IMPORTANT."

"I am not! Seifer, help me talk some sense into her!"

"She's right, Fu," said Seifer. "You're starting to look like a Popsicle. Let Amy warm you up, okay?"

"BUT--"

"Fujin, do as your friends tell you," grunted Smythe as he dug. Fujin let out an icy sigh, and permitted Amy and Seifer to warm her up. Both gladly shed excess clothes, and covered her cold face with scarves and hats. In the end, everybody had smiles on their face, even Fujin (though hers was hidden).

But the smiles died instantly as Smythe stood up from his excavation, and what he unearthed made the freezing weather outside seem scorching, for right there in the middle of the empty snowfields was the body of Amy Mizuno.