Chapter Seventeen
Squall and Zell entered the outskirts of FH. Blissfully unaware of the turmoil that was brewing in another dimension, the two friends headed towards Balamb Garden.
"Let's see…what do we have? Lion Heart, Energiz, Save the Queen, Strange Vision, and Exter." Zell said, making a list.
"Don't forget Rinoa's Shooting Star." Squall said softly. Zell nodded.
"Yeah, we can't forget that." The two continued to walk towards the Garden.
In Another World…
"They WHAT?"
"Raine and her friends took the Ragarnok and flew off someplace." Laguna looked across his desk. Six extremely irate parents glared back at him.
"I'm going to kill Sabin!" Anita growled.
"What the heck were they thinking?" Irvine snarled. A solider hurried in.
"Sir, we know where they're headed!"
"Where?"
"The Deep Sea Research Center."
"What? What's there?" Selphie sputtered. Squall plopped into a seat and ran his hands over his face.
"What would Raine want at the DSRC?" He thought.
"That's not all, sir." The solider continued. "We found Dr. Odine unconscious in his laboratory. Surveillance tapes show Raine Leonhart entering and then exiting the building 20 minutes before the Ragarnok took off." Odine waddled in, a white bandage around his forehead.
"Zhat crazy girl!" He snapped. Squall exploded out of his seat.
"Don't you dare…"
"Easy, Squall!" Zell and Irvine lunged forward and grabbed their friend.
"While we're on the topic, Odine, why did Raine pay you a visit anyway?" Irvine asked, getting a better grip on the struggling Squall.
"How am I supposed to know vhat goes on in zhat brain of hers?" Odine retorted. Squall stopped struggling and looked straight at Odine. The doctor's skin was pale, he was trembling, and his eyes were going from side to side.
"You know something." Squall said in a soft voice. Odine jumped.
"I most certainly do not!" But everyone could see that he was lying.
"Squall's right. You do know something!" Selphie said. Odine looked around at everyone, and then bolted for the door.
"Oh no you don't!" This time, there was nobody to prevent Squall from pouncing on the hapless Odine and shoving him up against a wall.
"Okokokok! She came to me!"
"Why?" Squall snarled.
"If I tell you zhat, you vill kill me!"
"If you don't tell us, we're gonna kill you anyway!" Zell snapped. Squall shook Odine.
"Where is my daughter?!"
"Zee Deep Sea Research Center!"
"WHY?"
"Zee JME! For zee JME!" Odine was abruptly dropped. Shaking his head, he looked up into the stunned faces of Squall, Zell, Anita, Selphie, Irvine, and Laguna.
"What?" Irvine said to make sure they had all heard clearly.
"Zhere iz a second JME! It iz a duplicate of zee first one! It has been at zee Deep Sea Research Center ever since Adel's defeat!" Zell turned pale at this, his tattoo standing even blacker out against his skin.
"Squall…" He said, his voice barely above a whisper. His friend turned to face him.
"What?"
"I think I know what Raine wants with the JME." Selphie and Irvine gasped, realization hitting them also.
"Oh my God!"
"What?" Squall asked, exasperated.
"Raine was asking us about what happened during the years after Ultimecia's defeat." Selphie said in a rush.
"She was pretty interested in the year when Setzer Deling was alive too." Irvine added.
"Why would Raine be interested in that?" Laguna asked. Squall blinked. Then his eyes widened as his brain put two and two together.
"Rinoa hasn't been sick because of something that's happened here. She's been sick because of something that's happened in the past!" He said.
"And she fell into a coma because of it!" Laguna added.
"But the only way that somebody in the present can be affected is if something happens to them in the past…" Zell trailed off. Squall nodded.
"Raine must have figured out what happened!" Selphie gasped.
"So she finds out about the JME…" Laguna said.
"And uses it and her powers to go back into the past." Squall finished.
"And Sabin and the others wouldn't have let her go alone…"Irvine said.
"We have to stop them. Now." Anita said.
"How? They've already got at least an hour ahead of us!" Zell said. Squall grabbed Odine again.
"Yuuurrrrkkk!"
"Did you tell her how to find the JME?" Squall asked. When no answer came, he shook the scientist.
"Answer me!"
"Eeeeee! Yes, I did, I did!" Squall dropped Odine again.
"What do we do?" Selphie asked.
"For starters, we get out to the DSRC." Squall said. Laguna hit a series of buttons on the keyboard.
"They're 20 minutes out. The Ragarnok 2 can get you there in half an hour."
"But they might have gone by then!" Zell said. Squall shook his head.
"Not if we leave now." He replied.
"Go." Laguna said.
Sabin sat at the communications console. Cocking his head, he put one hand up to touch the earpiece in his right ear.
"Hey guys…" Raine looked up.
"What?" Sabin listened closely.
"The Ragarnok 2 just left the Airstation. They're heading our way!"
"That's not good. Ragarnok 2's a whole lot faster and can catch up to us easily." Celes said.
"TIFA AND I.J. KINNEAS!!"
"Aaaagggghhhh!" Sabin howled, yanking the earpiece out of his ear and throwing it on the floor.
"YOU HAD BETTER PICK THIS UP RIGHT NOW! I KNOW YOU'RE LISTENING!" The five teenagers looked at the earpiece like it was about to grow fangs and attack them.
"Your mom wants to talk to you." Sabin said to Tifa and I.J. This set off an explosion.
"I'm not touching that!"
"No way!"
"Selphie, calm down! You're gonna blow their eardrums out!"
"TRUST ME, THAT IS NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT I'M GONNA DO TO THEM!"
"Your mom must have had a little too much coffee this morning." Raine said.
"Little?" Celes asked, a skeptical look on her face.
"Uh, Sabin? Hey, if you're there, fair warning. Your mom wants to kill you. And I don't think I'm gonna be able to stop her this time."
"ZELL!"
"Ohoh. Owww!" The sound of something falling heavily was heard, and then the radio shut off.
"Ooookay then." Raine said. A sudden beeping had them turning around. Celes dashed over to the pilot's seat.
"We're here." She announced.
Squall rubbed the back of his neck. Anita had managed to get her hands on Selphie's nunchaku, and was in the process of strangling her husband when both her and Zell banged into the communications console, breaking the radio. Squall and Irvine had been trying to peel her off with little success when Zell, who was turning blue and desperate for air, cast a Demi spell. The resulting explosion had thrown Anita, Squall, and Irvine across the room.
"That woman's crazy!" Irvine muttered, shooting a sideways glance at Anita. "I hope she knew that other people wanted to use the radio too!" This was said a little louder, and aimed in Anita's direction with another sideways look directly at Squall.
"Chill!" Quistis said. "She was just upset!"
"Just upset?" Zell muttered darkly, massaging his throat.
"Commander?" Squall looked up and walked towards the pilot.
"Yes?"
"My readings indicate that the Ragarnok just landed at the Deep Sea Research Center."
"We're not going to make it, are we?" Squall asked. The pilot checked his panel.
"We're at least 15 minutes out."
"They could have been long gone by then." Squall said. He turned away and punched the wall.
"Raine!"
"So what exactly was going on here?" Celes asked, looking around.
"Dad said that this was a mobile research area once. The scientists here were experimenting on G.F.s and trying to create a system of drawing magic like our own." Sabin replied.
"Who was in charge?" Raine wanted to know. Sabin shrugged.
"He never told me."
"Hey! Ragarnok 2's 15 minutes out! We gotta get a move on now!" Tifa yelled from inside the cockpit.
Thick wires littered the floor as Raine and the others stepped into the abandoned laboratory.
"Whoa." Sabin said.
"I agree." I.J. added.
"If I didn't know any better, I would've said that the battle of the century was fought here." Celes said. She played the beam of the flashlight over the wreckage. "And that looks like a bomb went off." She pointed towards a broken stasis tube in the center of the room.
"This was the room where Bahamut was." Sabin said. Raine blinked and put a hand to her head. Images flashed through her mind.
"ROOOOAAARRR!"
"Watch out, he's charging!"
"Rinoa, get down!"
"Aura!"
"Raine! You ok?" Celes asked, looking at her friend.
"Yeah." Raine blinked, and shook her head to clear it. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Did Odine tell you where the JME was located?" Tifa asked.
"It should be over here." Raine replied, moving over to the left wall. Putting her right hand on it, she allowed her powers to reach out, searching for a hidden room. Her questing fingers paused at a gap in the wall.
"Raine?" I.J. asked. The girl opened her eyes.
"Found it." She said. A sudden beeping had them all turning around. Tifa grabbed a little device out of her pocket.
"Ohoh…Guys, Ragarnok 2's eight minutes out!"
"Time to move." Raine said. Moving back, she took a deep breath, and clasped her hands. Raising them into the air, she focused all her energy and brought them down in front of her. The wall exploded with the force of the energy aimed at it.
"Jeez, Raine!" Celes said, waving the dust away from her. The five peered inside the wall. Two banks of computers were in the room. One against the wall while the other one stood next to a stasis tube.
"This is it? This is the machine that caused so much trouble?" Sabin asked, incredulous.
"This is an older version. It's not the one Ultimecia had in her time." Raine said. "The computer over by the wall must be the power source."
"Well, let's hurry then." Celes said. She went over to the first computer and flicked it on to life.
"How are we gonna fit into that thing?" I.J. asked.
"We're not." Raine replied, turning on the second computer. "The way the JME works, it sends your consciousness back to the past while leaving your body in the present. I'm gonna override that part of the program and use my powers to force it to send both my mind and my body, along with you guys' own back to our parent's past."
"Machine's up." Celes said.
"Gotta set the date on this…" Raine murmured, turning controls and flipping switches.
"Four minutes." Tifa warned. Raine and I.J. hooked their weapons to their belts, while Celes stashed her whip in the bag that held their G.F.s and other equipment.
"You sure this is going to work?" Sabin asked Raine as he attached two bands with wires running from the machine to them on her wrists.
"Has to." The girl said quietly. Then everyone's heads whipped up as the sound of an engine roared overhead.
"They're here!" Tifa said. I.J., Celes, and Raine quickly formed a circle, holding hands.
"We have to concentrate. Our destination is the Balamb Garden of the past, same day, same time. The only difference is the year. We must focus on one another, remembering all the times we've had together. That's what's going to make us exist in that time." Raine said. Celes and I.J. nodded, and then closed their eyes. Raine shut hers as well, and allowed the power to run through her veins. Electricity sparked, and the three started to glow.
"I.J. Celes. I.J. Celes." Raine thought. She felt a pulling deep within her, at her soul. The pulling increased, and Raine started to feel herself leave her body.
"Oh no!" Immediately she threw all of her power into the pull, forcing it to wrap around her body, and Celes and I.J. as well. The sudden surge of power sent a wave of pain cascading throughout her entire body. Raine gritted her teeth, and stifling the urge to fall to her knees, sent out more power. The pain intensified, and then the three friends found themselves hurtling through darkness…
Points of light streaked by, like shooting stars. Slowly opening her eyes, Raine found herself alone, and floating in darkness. Ahead of her, a bright white light shone, it's rays pulling the girl towards it. Deciding not to resist, Raine closed her eyes and allowed herself to be pulled in…
Somewhere…
"My dear, you are simply not paying any attention!" At this, a brunette-haired girl rolled her eyes.
"Uncle, I don't have the time for this!"
"If you put half as much effort into your studies as you do with your summoning and magic skills, you would not have this problem!" The girl stood up.
"Look, I've…" She blinked as the room started to spin. "Whoa…"
"Princess, are you alright?" A dark-haired man, worry evident in his eyes, leaned in front of the girl.
"Uh huh…" Then the pain hit. Hard. The girl let loose a blood curdling scream, and then slumped to the floor, unconscious.
"What happened?"
"I don't know, your highness. We were in the Library, when she just screamed and then fainted."
"Where's the healer?"
"On her way now."
"Mama?" The girl opened her eyes to see a black-haired woman leaning over her.
"What happened, baby?" The brunette sat up.
"I don't know. I was in the Library talking to Uncle Cid when the room started to spin…and then this pain hit. That's all I remember."
"What kind of pain?"
"It felt like my body was on fire…" The woman nodded.
"Alright. Just lie here and rest." The girl nodded, leaned back on the bed and watched as the woman went out. Sighing, she closed her eyes.
"Oh…where did that come from?" Her eyes opened, and she looked up at the ceiling.
In the present…
"Ah!" Ellone raised a hand to her chest. A strange feeling had come over her, courtesy of her sixth sense. The odd thing about it was that she hadn't needed to use it in over a year.
"What the…" Mentally Ellone grabbed the feeling and analyzed it.
"What's this?" Her eyes widened as she recognized the feeling. "No…it can't be!"
Julia hissed and put a hand to her forehead.
"What the…what is this?" Almost as fast as it had came, the pain vanished.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that someone or something just passed through the space/time continuum just now!" She thought.
Raine felt something cool against her cheek. After she had passed into the light, her body had felt like it was on fire as she hurtled through the continuing darkness.
"Raine!"
"Is she alright?"
"Mmm…"
"She's coming around." Raine opened her eyes and rolled onto her back. Clouds floated up in the sky, like cotton balls against a piece of blue paper.
"Oww…"
"You okay?" I.J. asked, helping her sit up.
"Ye…" Raine started to speak, and then stared in shock. Around them, the Quad bustled with cadets and SeeDs alike.
"Hey!" Two cadets noticed the trio and hurried over. "Everything alright?"
"Yeah, our friend just fainted from the heat, that's all!" Celes said. Raine bolted to her feet.
"Oooohhh…"
"Hey, go easy!" I.J. scolded. He and Celes helped the girl to a nearby bench. "Get your breath back."
"Maybe she needs to go to the Infirmary." The first cadet said.
"I'll be alright." Raine said. "Could you answer a question for me, however?"
"Sure! What is it?"
"What's today's date?"
"July 21st, 3018." The cadet replied. Raine inhaled sharply.
"Thanks for the offer, guys." Celes said, waving good-bye to the cadets. Once they were out of earshot, she dropped to the ground in shock. "We did it!"
"3018! That's the year right after Ultimecia's defeat!" I.J. said. "And our parents haven't gotten together yet…Raine! Is this where're we're supposed to be?"
"Yes…" Raine said. "It is."
Squall and Zell entered the outskirts of FH. Blissfully unaware of the turmoil that was brewing in another dimension, the two friends headed towards Balamb Garden.
"Let's see…what do we have? Lion Heart, Energiz, Save the Queen, Strange Vision, and Exter." Zell said, making a list.
"Don't forget Rinoa's Shooting Star." Squall said softly. Zell nodded.
"Yeah, we can't forget that." The two continued to walk towards the Garden.
In Another World…
"They WHAT?"
"Raine and her friends took the Ragarnok and flew off someplace." Laguna looked across his desk. Six extremely irate parents glared back at him.
"I'm going to kill Sabin!" Anita growled.
"What the heck were they thinking?" Irvine snarled. A solider hurried in.
"Sir, we know where they're headed!"
"Where?"
"The Deep Sea Research Center."
"What? What's there?" Selphie sputtered. Squall plopped into a seat and ran his hands over his face.
"What would Raine want at the DSRC?" He thought.
"That's not all, sir." The solider continued. "We found Dr. Odine unconscious in his laboratory. Surveillance tapes show Raine Leonhart entering and then exiting the building 20 minutes before the Ragarnok took off." Odine waddled in, a white bandage around his forehead.
"Zhat crazy girl!" He snapped. Squall exploded out of his seat.
"Don't you dare…"
"Easy, Squall!" Zell and Irvine lunged forward and grabbed their friend.
"While we're on the topic, Odine, why did Raine pay you a visit anyway?" Irvine asked, getting a better grip on the struggling Squall.
"How am I supposed to know vhat goes on in zhat brain of hers?" Odine retorted. Squall stopped struggling and looked straight at Odine. The doctor's skin was pale, he was trembling, and his eyes were going from side to side.
"You know something." Squall said in a soft voice. Odine jumped.
"I most certainly do not!" But everyone could see that he was lying.
"Squall's right. You do know something!" Selphie said. Odine looked around at everyone, and then bolted for the door.
"Oh no you don't!" This time, there was nobody to prevent Squall from pouncing on the hapless Odine and shoving him up against a wall.
"Okokokok! She came to me!"
"Why?" Squall snarled.
"If I tell you zhat, you vill kill me!"
"If you don't tell us, we're gonna kill you anyway!" Zell snapped. Squall shook Odine.
"Where is my daughter?!"
"Zee Deep Sea Research Center!"
"WHY?"
"Zee JME! For zee JME!" Odine was abruptly dropped. Shaking his head, he looked up into the stunned faces of Squall, Zell, Anita, Selphie, Irvine, and Laguna.
"What?" Irvine said to make sure they had all heard clearly.
"Zhere iz a second JME! It iz a duplicate of zee first one! It has been at zee Deep Sea Research Center ever since Adel's defeat!" Zell turned pale at this, his tattoo standing even blacker out against his skin.
"Squall…" He said, his voice barely above a whisper. His friend turned to face him.
"What?"
"I think I know what Raine wants with the JME." Selphie and Irvine gasped, realization hitting them also.
"Oh my God!"
"What?" Squall asked, exasperated.
"Raine was asking us about what happened during the years after Ultimecia's defeat." Selphie said in a rush.
"She was pretty interested in the year when Setzer Deling was alive too." Irvine added.
"Why would Raine be interested in that?" Laguna asked. Squall blinked. Then his eyes widened as his brain put two and two together.
"Rinoa hasn't been sick because of something that's happened here. She's been sick because of something that's happened in the past!" He said.
"And she fell into a coma because of it!" Laguna added.
"But the only way that somebody in the present can be affected is if something happens to them in the past…" Zell trailed off. Squall nodded.
"Raine must have figured out what happened!" Selphie gasped.
"So she finds out about the JME…" Laguna said.
"And uses it and her powers to go back into the past." Squall finished.
"And Sabin and the others wouldn't have let her go alone…"Irvine said.
"We have to stop them. Now." Anita said.
"How? They've already got at least an hour ahead of us!" Zell said. Squall grabbed Odine again.
"Yuuurrrrkkk!"
"Did you tell her how to find the JME?" Squall asked. When no answer came, he shook the scientist.
"Answer me!"
"Eeeeee! Yes, I did, I did!" Squall dropped Odine again.
"What do we do?" Selphie asked.
"For starters, we get out to the DSRC." Squall said. Laguna hit a series of buttons on the keyboard.
"They're 20 minutes out. The Ragarnok 2 can get you there in half an hour."
"But they might have gone by then!" Zell said. Squall shook his head.
"Not if we leave now." He replied.
"Go." Laguna said.
Sabin sat at the communications console. Cocking his head, he put one hand up to touch the earpiece in his right ear.
"Hey guys…" Raine looked up.
"What?" Sabin listened closely.
"The Ragarnok 2 just left the Airstation. They're heading our way!"
"That's not good. Ragarnok 2's a whole lot faster and can catch up to us easily." Celes said.
"TIFA AND I.J. KINNEAS!!"
"Aaaagggghhhh!" Sabin howled, yanking the earpiece out of his ear and throwing it on the floor.
"YOU HAD BETTER PICK THIS UP RIGHT NOW! I KNOW YOU'RE LISTENING!" The five teenagers looked at the earpiece like it was about to grow fangs and attack them.
"Your mom wants to talk to you." Sabin said to Tifa and I.J. This set off an explosion.
"I'm not touching that!"
"No way!"
"Selphie, calm down! You're gonna blow their eardrums out!"
"TRUST ME, THAT IS NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT I'M GONNA DO TO THEM!"
"Your mom must have had a little too much coffee this morning." Raine said.
"Little?" Celes asked, a skeptical look on her face.
"Uh, Sabin? Hey, if you're there, fair warning. Your mom wants to kill you. And I don't think I'm gonna be able to stop her this time."
"ZELL!"
"Ohoh. Owww!" The sound of something falling heavily was heard, and then the radio shut off.
"Ooookay then." Raine said. A sudden beeping had them turning around. Celes dashed over to the pilot's seat.
"We're here." She announced.
Squall rubbed the back of his neck. Anita had managed to get her hands on Selphie's nunchaku, and was in the process of strangling her husband when both her and Zell banged into the communications console, breaking the radio. Squall and Irvine had been trying to peel her off with little success when Zell, who was turning blue and desperate for air, cast a Demi spell. The resulting explosion had thrown Anita, Squall, and Irvine across the room.
"That woman's crazy!" Irvine muttered, shooting a sideways glance at Anita. "I hope she knew that other people wanted to use the radio too!" This was said a little louder, and aimed in Anita's direction with another sideways look directly at Squall.
"Chill!" Quistis said. "She was just upset!"
"Just upset?" Zell muttered darkly, massaging his throat.
"Commander?" Squall looked up and walked towards the pilot.
"Yes?"
"My readings indicate that the Ragarnok just landed at the Deep Sea Research Center."
"We're not going to make it, are we?" Squall asked. The pilot checked his panel.
"We're at least 15 minutes out."
"They could have been long gone by then." Squall said. He turned away and punched the wall.
"Raine!"
"So what exactly was going on here?" Celes asked, looking around.
"Dad said that this was a mobile research area once. The scientists here were experimenting on G.F.s and trying to create a system of drawing magic like our own." Sabin replied.
"Who was in charge?" Raine wanted to know. Sabin shrugged.
"He never told me."
"Hey! Ragarnok 2's 15 minutes out! We gotta get a move on now!" Tifa yelled from inside the cockpit.
Thick wires littered the floor as Raine and the others stepped into the abandoned laboratory.
"Whoa." Sabin said.
"I agree." I.J. added.
"If I didn't know any better, I would've said that the battle of the century was fought here." Celes said. She played the beam of the flashlight over the wreckage. "And that looks like a bomb went off." She pointed towards a broken stasis tube in the center of the room.
"This was the room where Bahamut was." Sabin said. Raine blinked and put a hand to her head. Images flashed through her mind.
"ROOOOAAARRR!"
"Watch out, he's charging!"
"Rinoa, get down!"
"Aura!"
"Raine! You ok?" Celes asked, looking at her friend.
"Yeah." Raine blinked, and shook her head to clear it. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Did Odine tell you where the JME was located?" Tifa asked.
"It should be over here." Raine replied, moving over to the left wall. Putting her right hand on it, she allowed her powers to reach out, searching for a hidden room. Her questing fingers paused at a gap in the wall.
"Raine?" I.J. asked. The girl opened her eyes.
"Found it." She said. A sudden beeping had them all turning around. Tifa grabbed a little device out of her pocket.
"Ohoh…Guys, Ragarnok 2's eight minutes out!"
"Time to move." Raine said. Moving back, she took a deep breath, and clasped her hands. Raising them into the air, she focused all her energy and brought them down in front of her. The wall exploded with the force of the energy aimed at it.
"Jeez, Raine!" Celes said, waving the dust away from her. The five peered inside the wall. Two banks of computers were in the room. One against the wall while the other one stood next to a stasis tube.
"This is it? This is the machine that caused so much trouble?" Sabin asked, incredulous.
"This is an older version. It's not the one Ultimecia had in her time." Raine said. "The computer over by the wall must be the power source."
"Well, let's hurry then." Celes said. She went over to the first computer and flicked it on to life.
"How are we gonna fit into that thing?" I.J. asked.
"We're not." Raine replied, turning on the second computer. "The way the JME works, it sends your consciousness back to the past while leaving your body in the present. I'm gonna override that part of the program and use my powers to force it to send both my mind and my body, along with you guys' own back to our parent's past."
"Machine's up." Celes said.
"Gotta set the date on this…" Raine murmured, turning controls and flipping switches.
"Four minutes." Tifa warned. Raine and I.J. hooked their weapons to their belts, while Celes stashed her whip in the bag that held their G.F.s and other equipment.
"You sure this is going to work?" Sabin asked Raine as he attached two bands with wires running from the machine to them on her wrists.
"Has to." The girl said quietly. Then everyone's heads whipped up as the sound of an engine roared overhead.
"They're here!" Tifa said. I.J., Celes, and Raine quickly formed a circle, holding hands.
"We have to concentrate. Our destination is the Balamb Garden of the past, same day, same time. The only difference is the year. We must focus on one another, remembering all the times we've had together. That's what's going to make us exist in that time." Raine said. Celes and I.J. nodded, and then closed their eyes. Raine shut hers as well, and allowed the power to run through her veins. Electricity sparked, and the three started to glow.
"I.J. Celes. I.J. Celes." Raine thought. She felt a pulling deep within her, at her soul. The pulling increased, and Raine started to feel herself leave her body.
"Oh no!" Immediately she threw all of her power into the pull, forcing it to wrap around her body, and Celes and I.J. as well. The sudden surge of power sent a wave of pain cascading throughout her entire body. Raine gritted her teeth, and stifling the urge to fall to her knees, sent out more power. The pain intensified, and then the three friends found themselves hurtling through darkness…
Points of light streaked by, like shooting stars. Slowly opening her eyes, Raine found herself alone, and floating in darkness. Ahead of her, a bright white light shone, it's rays pulling the girl towards it. Deciding not to resist, Raine closed her eyes and allowed herself to be pulled in…
Somewhere…
"My dear, you are simply not paying any attention!" At this, a brunette-haired girl rolled her eyes.
"Uncle, I don't have the time for this!"
"If you put half as much effort into your studies as you do with your summoning and magic skills, you would not have this problem!" The girl stood up.
"Look, I've…" She blinked as the room started to spin. "Whoa…"
"Princess, are you alright?" A dark-haired man, worry evident in his eyes, leaned in front of the girl.
"Uh huh…" Then the pain hit. Hard. The girl let loose a blood curdling scream, and then slumped to the floor, unconscious.
"What happened?"
"I don't know, your highness. We were in the Library, when she just screamed and then fainted."
"Where's the healer?"
"On her way now."
"Mama?" The girl opened her eyes to see a black-haired woman leaning over her.
"What happened, baby?" The brunette sat up.
"I don't know. I was in the Library talking to Uncle Cid when the room started to spin…and then this pain hit. That's all I remember."
"What kind of pain?"
"It felt like my body was on fire…" The woman nodded.
"Alright. Just lie here and rest." The girl nodded, leaned back on the bed and watched as the woman went out. Sighing, she closed her eyes.
"Oh…where did that come from?" Her eyes opened, and she looked up at the ceiling.
In the present…
"Ah!" Ellone raised a hand to her chest. A strange feeling had come over her, courtesy of her sixth sense. The odd thing about it was that she hadn't needed to use it in over a year.
"What the…" Mentally Ellone grabbed the feeling and analyzed it.
"What's this?" Her eyes widened as she recognized the feeling. "No…it can't be!"
Julia hissed and put a hand to her forehead.
"What the…what is this?" Almost as fast as it had came, the pain vanished.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that someone or something just passed through the space/time continuum just now!" She thought.
Raine felt something cool against her cheek. After she had passed into the light, her body had felt like it was on fire as she hurtled through the continuing darkness.
"Raine!"
"Is she alright?"
"Mmm…"
"She's coming around." Raine opened her eyes and rolled onto her back. Clouds floated up in the sky, like cotton balls against a piece of blue paper.
"Oww…"
"You okay?" I.J. asked, helping her sit up.
"Ye…" Raine started to speak, and then stared in shock. Around them, the Quad bustled with cadets and SeeDs alike.
"Hey!" Two cadets noticed the trio and hurried over. "Everything alright?"
"Yeah, our friend just fainted from the heat, that's all!" Celes said. Raine bolted to her feet.
"Oooohhh…"
"Hey, go easy!" I.J. scolded. He and Celes helped the girl to a nearby bench. "Get your breath back."
"Maybe she needs to go to the Infirmary." The first cadet said.
"I'll be alright." Raine said. "Could you answer a question for me, however?"
"Sure! What is it?"
"What's today's date?"
"July 21st, 3018." The cadet replied. Raine inhaled sharply.
"Thanks for the offer, guys." Celes said, waving good-bye to the cadets. Once they were out of earshot, she dropped to the ground in shock. "We did it!"
"3018! That's the year right after Ultimecia's defeat!" I.J. said. "And our parents haven't gotten together yet…Raine! Is this where're we're supposed to be?"
"Yes…" Raine said. "It is."