Disclaimer: FF8…nope, not mine.
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Chapter 3: Gunblade
"Come back soon!" the store clerk called over the door chimes. Quistis walked out of the store and onto one of the main streets in Balamb. They had needed to buy several items before their departure to Esthar. Quistis had volunteered to get them while Irvine and Zell loaded the luggage onto the train. Well okay, it was also an excuse for her to get a soda.
"Oh come on!" she heard someone yell as she neared the train station. Oh no, sounds like Zell. She saw him arguing with the ticket collector, waving his hand around in the air.
"Is something wrong Zell?" she asked.
"This damn guy isn't letting me through. I left my SeeD id in my bag and now he won't let me on the train. Says if I don't have proper identity, I'll hafta buy a ticket like everyone else. Have you seen that line? The train'll be gone by the time I even get near the front!" And Irvine already got on the train so its not like he can back me up. Tch!"
SeeDs didn't have to bother with buying tickets when on a mission anymore. The charge for their tickets was transferred over to Garden. So there had been a lot of people posing as SeeDs to get free rides and now SeeDs were required to show their id before boarding the train to avoid any fakes from taking advantage of Garden.
"No id, no ride," the ticket taker stated firmly.
Quistis shook her head, "He is a SeeD of Balamb Garden, as am I." She pulled out her SeeD id. The ticket collector narrowed his eyes, looking the id over. He very reluctantly moved aside, obviously angry he was proven wrong.
Zell grinned, "Ha!"
"Zell just get on the train," Quistis sighed.
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The rest of the train ride was uneventful. It pretty much consisted of a lot of magazine reading and random comments from Zell about how he showed "that damn ticket taker".
When they arrived in Esthar, they were greeted by a computer generated welcome-voice. Ignoring its enthusiastic comments on how they should check out the wonderful gifts in the Esthar train station gift shop, they headed for the car rental booth. A navy blue car soon rolled up after they paid and entered their rental number in the keypad. "So to the police station?" Irvine asked, getting in the passenger seat. Zell had already claimed the driver's seat, leaving Quistis with the back seat.
"Yeah, we can check in at the hotel after that," she replied.
Zell started the engine up and turned onto the road. He switched the radio on to a local rock station. Irvine reached over and moved the dial to a blues station. Zell shot Irvine an annoyed look and turned it back. Rock, blues, rock, blues, rock, blues, rock…
"Zell watch out!" Quistis yelled harshly from the back seat. During the argument, Zell had moved into the wrong lane.
He looked up and quickly swerved back into their lane, narrowly avoiding a collision with another car. "I swear you two are about as mature as the junior classmen. Just turn the radio off. Zell, pay attention to the road and Irvine, stop annoying him."
Irvine laughed, turning it off, "Sorry Quisty, I just couldn't resist."
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Soon afterwards, they arrived at the police station. Quistis, with Zell and Irvine in tail, walked up to the woman sitting behind the front desk. "Hello, can I help you?" the woman asked with a polite smile.
"Hi, we're from Balamb Garden. Is the Chief in?"
"Yes," the secretary replied. She clacked away at her keyboard. Quistis waited for her to say something else.
"…Can we speak with him?"
"Do you have an appointment?"
"No."
The secretary looked down a list on the monitor of another computer next to her. "Well, lucky for you guys, he's free right now. You should make an appointment in the future however." Zell rolled his eyes, receiving a jab in the side from Quistis's elbow. The secretary pressed a small button. "Sir? Three SeeDs are here to see you."
"Okay, send them up," a voice replied from a speaker.
" You can take the lift to the left," the secretary instructed.
"Okay thank you very much," Quistis replied with a slight nod.
The three sat down on the elevator and Quistis pressed the appropriate button. The lift levitated for a second before zooming down a translucent tube. "Hyne," Irvine said, gripping the edge of the seat. "I'll never get used to these things."
The lift jerked to a stop and they stepped off into the police chief's office. A man with clean cut chestnut hair walked over to meet them. "Good morning, I'm Chief Landers," he shook each of their hands. "Please, have a seat."
They sat down and he returned to his leather chair situated behind a large oak desk. "So, have you come in response to our request?"
Quistis shook her head, "No, our Garden was attacked recently and we believe it was by the same organization you've been having trouble with."
"They sent us to investigate the group," Irvine added.
"Well, I'm sorry to hear that they've targeted SeeD too."
"Any information you could give us would be greatly appreciated," Quistis said.
"Well, we don't have many useful leads at the moment. We think they might be based somewhere on this continent, but we can't say that for certain. We do know their headquarters in Esthar City was destroyed a few weeks ago, most likely by a rogue member. But you guys probably know that too from newspaper reports. We also know that they refer to themselves as Delirium or "D" for short. If you like, I could show you the evidence we've found. I'm not sure if it'll be any help, but it's worth a try, eh?"
"That'd be great," Quistis replied.
Chief Landers took them to another lift that brought them to the evidence floor. He led them down a long hallway, past various rooms and filing cabinets. He pulled out a key card and slid it through the lock of one of the rooms. The door lifted, revealing a medium-sized room. There were weapons and documents lining several tables. On another table, there was a little over thirty music boxes, all seemingly identical in appearance. "These are all the items we've found that have connections to D," Landers explained.
Zell walked over to the music box table, "Geez, all of these were found at crime scenes?"
"Yes, one at each crime. Those are the only way we've traced some of these crimes to them. They each play a different tune too."
Irvine whistled in amazement.
The secretary's voice sounded over an intercom, "Chief Landers, your noon appointment is here."
"Alright Patrice, tell them I'll be right there," he replied facing the speaker on the wall. He turned back to the SeeDs. "I'll be in my office if you have any questions. We have already gathered all the information we could find on all of these items, so feel free to look through them. You can take them out too, but if you do, be sure you sign them out on the board over there so we know that they weren't stolen." The team members expressed their gratitude and he walked briskly out the door.
"Well he was nice," Zell commented
"Yeah you wouldn't think they'd be so free with this information," Irvine replied.
Quistis shrugged, looking over a table littered with weapons and pieces of metal, "Esthar has been on good terms with Balamb Garden ever since we helped out with Lunatic Pandora. And President Laguna is Squall's dad after all."
"Psh, not that Squall cares," Zell muttered. Squall had been very distance with Laguna ever since he found out he was his father. He wasn't sure how to act around him or what to say even.
A large case at the end of the weapons table caught Quistis' eye. She lifted the latches on it and pulled the lid up to see what was in it. Her eyes widened significantly when she saw what was in it.
"What's wro-" Zell started, walking over to her. "Oh no way! No freaking way!"
A black steel gunblade laid in the case. Irvine walked over to his two friends to see what the commotion was about, "Hey isn't that-"
"Hyperion. Seifer's gunblade," Quistis interrupted. She glanced at a small tag attached to the case. "They found it at the site of D's old Headquarters."
"Do you think Seifer's involved in this?" Irvine asked.
"That bastard, it'd be just like him to join a group like that." Zell's hands balled into fists at the mention of the ex-Sorceress Knight's name.
Quistis shrugged, picking up the gunblade. "I don't know." The metal of it was icy cold under her touch and the weapon was much more heavy compared to her lightweight Save the Queen. She had to use both hands to make sure she didn't drop it.
It took years to learn how to use a gunblade properly. Seifer and Squall had been Garden's most promising gunblade students. Quistis remembered how Seifer used to swing it around with ease, using only one hand, and all the times she had been caught on the wrong end of the powerful weapon. She shook her head and placed it back in the case. "He hasn't been seen in a while."
"Yeah, not since the trial right?" Irvine asked. Quistis nodded. After Ultimecia was defeated, Seifer had been tried for war crimes. Edea had done all she could, however, to get the charges dropped. She had been convinced that Seifer had been controlled just like she had, even though most people felt differently. After that, Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin had pretty much avoided Garden and SeeDs. Fujin and Raijin had set up their own fishing business in Fisherman's Horizon, but there had been no word of what Seifer was up to lately.
"I guess we've found the first item we'll be adding to that board," Quistis mumbled.
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They finished up in the evidence room late in the afternoon, gathering the things they decided to take with them. Besides Hyperion, they were taking a rather thick stack of papers and two music boxes. Quistis jotted the items down on the board the Chief had told them about, and they left the station.
Irvine put the items in the trunk of the car before getting into the back seat. Quistis had decided that she wasn't going to risk another radio accident so she was driving.
They headed to their hotel and checked in. They had reserved two rooms right next to each other: one for Quistis and another for Zell and Irvine. Quistis dragged her things into her room. The group had decided that all the evidence they borrowed would stay in her room, since she'd be the only one in there and there would be more space. Quistis also felt that it had more of a chance of being returned to the station in good condition if it was kept away from her two rambunctious teammates. After setting her suitcase on the ground, she sat down on one of the beds and picked up the phone.
Selphie's voice sounded on the other line, "Hello?"
"Hey Selphie, it's Quistis."
"Oh hey! I heard about the mission, how's it going?"
"So-so. That's what I was calling about actually.
"Really?"
"Yeah, could you do me a favor?"
"Sure Quisty, anything."
"I need you to call Fujin and Raijin and ask them if they've talked to Seifer lately,"
"What? Why?" Selphie sounded confused. Quistis explained how they found Hyperion in the evidence room. "Ooh okay. I get it. I won't be able to call till tomorrow morning though. Rinoa, Squall, and I are heading over to Balamb for dinner to celebrate their engagement."
"Thanks Selphie, have fun!" Quistis gave her the hotel room phone number before hanging up. Ugh…I almost forgot about the engagement.
There was a knock on her door. "Come in," she called. Irvine opened the door and poked his head in.
"Wanna come get a bite to eat with Zell and me? We're just heading down the hotel restaurant so don't worry about getting dressed up."
Quistis thought for a moment before getting up, "Alright, sounds good to me." It'll be better than moping around my room all night that's for sure.
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