Chapter Five: The Base Moves

Rinoa woke up, her eyes wide. She knew what she had to do and now she was gonna do it.
She rolled over in her bed and took a look at her alarm clock.

'4 o'clock...' She thought. 'Just enough time to get there by train...'

Rinoa burst out of her bedroom door and headed up towards the conductors car.
***************

Quistis was in the conference room, researching with the others, but also thinking.

'Rinoa, a slayer? Whats a slayer? Is Rinoa the only one? Boy I could go for some coffee
right now...'

The train suddenly started moving.

"The Hell?" Zone jumped out of his seat. "This train's not supposed to leave the city.
Who the hell is operating the train!?!"

'HEY GUYS!" Rinoa's voice came over the radio. 'I KNOW WHERE TO GO. I KNOW WHERE THE HELLMOUTH
IS!'

"Umm, where exactly are we going?" Zell asked.

'THE HELLMOUTH, THE LUNATIC PANDORA.'

"Well, I guess we're going to have some explaining to do with Timber officials. But I don't know
if Rinoa is doing the right thing. Why are we going there? We have to prevent the vampires from getting
your blood,remember?" Merrick protested.

'UMM...' Rinoa stuttered. She hadn't told the group about her dream, or what the vamp said the night
before.

'MERRICK, WE DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'LL DO TO THE PEOPLE OF ESTHAR IF I DON'T GO. I'D RATHER FIGHT
THE MASTER THEN HAVE ANY ONE ELSE SUFFER!'

'Nice save.' Rinoa thought to herself.

Merrick smiled, proud of the brave young slayer he had raised.

"I hope you know what you're doing!" He added.
***************

Squall sat in the center of the throne room in the now much larger Lunatic Pandora. Ever since the
defeat of Ultimicia, vampires worshipped this unholy place. For the Pandora rested atop the
legendary Hellmouth, the opening of hell. This was where the Master would rise. And he would rise.
Squall made sure of that.

Now he sat, meditating. He could feel power moving toward him. A slayer. He smiled wickedly, his
yellow vampire eyes glowing with delight.

"I knew she'd come..." He said to himself, fondling the Odine Bangle on his lap. " And soon, I
shall rule!" He laughed maniacly, as bats flew out of the dark room.
***************

It had been four hours since the train set off, and the sun would set in thirty minutes.
The train was just now getting off of the Esthar side of the FH bridge, and Selphie estimated
the train would arrive at Esthar Station in ten minutes. From there, they would rent a Buggy
and get to the Lunatic Pandora around 9 o' clock. Selphie loved trains, but she had spent the
better part of two days on them, and even she had a limit.

"Hey Selphie," She jumped as Irvine said it. She was dazing, you know how that goes. He
handed Selphie the soda she asked for, and quickly apologized for startling her.

"That's okay, Irvine." Selphie blushed.

"We haven't talked much since that 'incident' so I decided we should catch up on lost time.
So, I hear you're a teacher at Balamb. Whaddya' teach?"

"Computer programming." Selphie smiled as Irvine looked sort of shocked. Selphie was never the
brightest crayon in the coloring box, but she did make a good airship pilot. Was it possible
there was more she was hiding from him all this time? Irvine found himself once again intrigued
by his one time flame,and questioning why they ever did break up.

"Wow, you never seem to stop surprising me." Irvine smiled sweetly towards her. Selphie found
herself smiling back.

"Yah, well, Im full of surprises."

"We should do something together... I, uh, mean, all of us, the team. We should do something to
catch up on old times. I've really missed you guys." Irvine found himself holding back, but didn't
know why. All this time, she was still in his heart, but he never did anything about it.

"I've... missed you too."

Suddenly, Rinoa's voice boomed over the intercom, interrupting the intimate conversation.

'HEY GUYS. WE'RE HERE. LET'S GO.'