Chapter 1: A New Threat
Later this morning, the gang was meeting in the cafeteria for breakfast as usual. Coran had forgotten about what happened earlier and just enjoyed her meal.
"Isn't everything nice?" Selphie asked making a move of her hand around. "I helped a bunch to restore Garden!"
"Hey, we all helped!" Zell complained. "And we were well rewarded!"
"Enough hot dogs to give you a stomach ache for two weeks," Quistis said with a smile. "And you swallowed up everything in half an hour!"
"Wonder where you put that?" Irvine asked outloud.
"He fills his stomach with food while you fill your eyes looking at girls!" Selphie said.
"Ouch..."
Squall kept eyeing the entrance of the cafeteria from time to time. Coran was just smiling to everyone back in a good mood while Seifer noticed him.
"Something wrong, Squall?"
Since Seifer was dating Coran, Squall's twin, he's been closer to the others than ever, especially to Squall. Nicer too.
"Just waiting. Rinoa said she'd come for breakfast."
"Really?" Selphie exclaimed, pushing Irvine away who was trying to hug her.
"Yeah... She said she would come early to wake me up..."
Squall blushed not finishing his sentence, leaving the others hanging.
"Hey!"
Everyone turned to the entrance and saw Rinoa running to them. Except for their gang, the cafeteria was nearly empty at this time of the day. And except for Rinoa, none of them was fully dressed. Coran was just wearing a long blue t-shirt with light pants under. Seifer wasn't wearing his coat and recently. He has given up on combing his hair back, rather letting it loose each side of his face.
Squall wasn't wearing his jacket, Irvine wasn't wearing his coat or his hat, Selphie was wearing a cute pink pyjamas with kitties on the front, Quistis was wearing something like a kimono and Zell... was he ever changing clothes? Still had the blue bermuda and the jacket and his hair was the same as usual, chicken like.
Rinoa placed her hands on her knees to catch her breath as Squall was approaching a chair for her.
"Hey, what took you so long?" Squall asked with a smile.
"Sorry," Rinoa said with a wink as she sat down. "Something strange happened to me this morning."
Coran's heart missed a beat as she recalled her own thing from earlier.
"What?" Irvine asked. "Girl thing?"
Selphie slapped him behind his head.
"Dummy! Are you doing this on purpose or are you like that only in the morning?"
"Like what?"
"Stupid!"
"So, what is it?" Quistis asked to change the subject.
"You ever heard of sleepwalking?"
They all nodded except for Coran who was getting a strange feeling.
"I think it happened to me. I went to bed yesterday and early this morning I woke up standing in my house."
"Maybe you just woke up and blacked out on your way?" Zell supposed.
"I don't think so. I really woke up, stretching myself and everything until I realized I was standing up."
"Weird," Irvine said.
Coran was frowning curiously and Squall was the first one to notice she was keeping silent.
"Something wrong?"
Realizing he was talking to her, she looked up.
"Are you still tired? You look weird."
"Oh, it's just what Rinoa said... I think the same thing happened to me this morning."
"What?" Seifer stated a bit angry. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because after waking up in the hall, I went back to bed and forgot everything until Rinoa just talked about it."
"Well, it may be just a coincidence," Quistis said like a doctor. "After all, you two used lots of your powers to help repair Garden so maybe you overdid it and it's playing tricks on you."
"It never did before... Not even when I nearly died merging my evil and good parts together," Coran said.
"Yeah..." Rinoa said. "I feel something's coming... and it can't be good."
"Well, no one was hurt and for now, that's all that matters to me," Squall said holding Rinoa and looking at Coran. "But would it ever happen again, I want you both to tell us okay? We'll keep track of that. If it continues, you'll see a doctor."
"Come on," Coran objected. "We're not sick!"
"Well, you never know!" Quistis warned.
"Meanwhile!" Zell interrupted. "Let's eat! I'm starving!"
Somedays later, the SeeDs were finally seeing the end of their hard work coming. Taking Garden out of the sea was a thing but repairing that thing from an ancient civilization was another story. Forunately, nothing major was damaged. Those Centra people knew how to make things last longer than themselves could.
Early one morning, long before the sun would rise on the horizon, a girl's eyes wide opened on the scenery of a burning horizon, caressed by the borning rays of the sun.
Coran dropped on her knees, her palms on the ground in front of her. Sweat was covering her face and she was panting. She was trembling.
"What... what was that?" she asked with a hoarse voice. "What was that voice just now... Someone...someone's calling me... who? Where?"
She looked at her hands. They were trembling. She got up in a flash and rushed back in Garden. She ran straight to the dormitory but not to her room. Her heart was beating fast but not because she was running, because she was scared.
She stopped only once she was facing the door to Squall's room. She opened it so hard it banged on the wall.
"Squall!" she called.
But her attention was caught by the scene offered to her. Squall was firmly holding Rinoa like he feared she'd leave and never come back.
"I tell you I'm fine, Squall," Rinoa said. "I'm not going anywhere!"
"What's going on?" Coran cut.
Squall released Rinoa and turned to his sister. Rinoa was wearing something like a night gown but Squall, only an underwear. But since it wasn't the first time Coran was seeing him like that, she didn't say anything.
"I was half-asleep when Rinoa got out the bed. I asked her where she was going but she didn't answer. I found it strange so I got up... Her face was so strange, like a zombie... I've never heard of sleepwalking people who looked like zombies... Her eyes were yellowish, like giving their own light. So I held on. She didn't say a thing, just trying to move away until she came back to her senses."
"I felt like someone was calling was me and I had to go."
"Squall," Coran interrupted with fear in her tone. "The same thing just happened to me..."
Squall closened in on her, worried.
"Your feet are hurt, where did you go?"
"I woke up outside Garden..."
"Outside?" Squall exclaimed with concern.
"Squall!"
Someone bursted in so suddenly everyone was startled.
"Coran's gone!"
It was Seifer.
"Calm down," Squall said. "She's there."
In his haste and panic, he hasn't noticed she was standing right by the door.
"Coran!"
He grabbed her and held on tight.
"Where were you? When I woke up and saw you weren't there, I feared..."
"It happened again," she finished in his place.
He held her at arms length and looked in her eyes.
"What?"
"You heard her, Seifer," Rinoa said. "It happened again. Squall kept me here but Coran woke up outside."
"Outside?"
"This is getting serious. I think we should dress up and meet the others," Squall said with a formal tone.
The other three nodded. Squall was frowning, Seifer looking concern and the two sorceresses were scared to death.
Half an hour later, the whole gang was meeting in the cafeteria. Normally, they would have met in the headmaster's office but it wasn't big enough to hold their whole gang. They had to close the cafeteria so Raijin and Fujin were guarding the entrance.
Once Squall was done telling everything to the others, they remained silent. What could they say? This was getting serious and they didn't like it at all.
"Man!" Zell exclaimed. "Are we fated never to know peace for more then a few weeks in a row??"
"Calm down, we still don't know anything about this new threat," Squall said still being nervous.
Coran had a frown of concern and Seifer was holding her to comfort her but it was useless. Rinoa was scared too. Something was wrong...
"Maybe it's an unknown disease?" Quistis suggested. "You two worked so hard to restore Garden..."
"No, it's more than that," Rinoa said shaking her head. "I heard someone..."
"Me too," Coran started shyly. "Someone is calling me and each time stronger but all of a sudden, it stops and I wake up!"
"Let me through, I've got information!"
Everyone turned to the entrance of the cafeteria where Xu was trying to force her way through Raijin and Fujin.
"Let her in!" Squall said.
They obeyed and Xu hurried to them.
"Sorry to interrupt but I thought you might want to know. I heard about what's happening to you two and made some research on my side."
"You heard?!" Rinoa exclaimed with surprise but with fear as well.
"I overheard you talking and it got stuck in my mind... Forget about the disease, no one else in Garden suffer from that. No other sleepwalking students, or people hearing voices. So I researched farther, news on TV and stuff."
"So?" Irvine asked.
"It happened to a few girls only around the world."
"What?"
Since the broadcast in Timber more than a year ago, they brought back television things so they could know everything that was happening the world over.
"Apparently, all the girls it happened to show traces of Sorceress powers."
"No way!"
"You serious?"
Xu nodded gravely.
"They're powers are too weak for them to be developped but they're definately there."
Coran starts trembling. She has a bad feeling about all this. It can't be just a coincidence that only Sorceresses are called wherever it is they're called to.
"Did it happen all in the same time?" Squall asked with hope.
"Yes. This morning and a few days ago too."
"This can't be!" Seifer exclaimed. "Who could be strong enough to call all these girls in the same time?!"
"And keep them under his control," Quistis added.
"Whoever it is isn't strong enough to keep them coming long enough," Squall said. "They woke up so that power is strong but not for a long time."
"Hey, wait a minute!" Irvine interrupted. "Rinoa received Edea's powers who has received hers from another Sorceress and took on Ultimecia's. Coran received Adel's and developped her powers with her own strength, making her stronger than Ultimecia, right? No one could be stronger than that it's impossible!"
"It seems it is possible," Rinoa cut. "Someone somewhere has powers greaters than ours. Strong enough to call us all in the same time but not enough to track us to the source of this call."
"What should we do, then?" Zell asked. "Tie the girls up to be sure they don't go anywhere?"
Coran looked at Rinoa who nodded.
"On the contrary, we'll wait for it to happen again," she said.
"What?" the others exclaimed in the same time.
"You can't be serious!" Selphie said.
"She's right," Coran approved. "When you see us leave, you should let us go. Then we'll know what's going on."
Seifer strongly shook his head, completely against the idea.
"This is way too risky! We don't know what's out there!"
"That's the whole reason. Once we get where we're called to, we'll know what it is."
"I'm not too sure about that," Squall said in a worried tone.
"No, my mind is set," Rinoa said. "When it happens again, you let us go. You'll have to follow us because in that state, we'll be vulnerable."
"I agree too."
Despite their determination, the girls were scared to death. What if that thing that was calling them would hurt everyone? What was it?
Was it good? More of it coming, a lot more!! I hope you read the prequels or else you'll be lost in the upcoming chapters! See ya!