Chapter 5


"May this my course through life portray
New scenes of wisdom may each step display
And knowledge open as my days advance!
Till what time Death shall pour the undarken'd ray,
My eye shall dart thro' infinite expanse,
And thought suspended lie in Rapture's blissful trance."

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Life


It had been a long night. The inhabitants of Balamb, tormented by a supernatural storm, had retreated to the docks. They returned to find the east section of the town lying in ruin, evidently destroyed by an explosion in the gas station. Raijin and Fujin were found wounded, huddled together in Balamb Hotel. They were questioned, and then allowed to fall into a fitful sleep. A meeting was called between several of the adults in the town to try and decide what to do. Balamb Garden wasn't responding to any sort of communication they tried to make with it, and Fujin had mentioned something about Seifer Almasy heading there. It was then that Ma Dincht decided to wake Zell in Trabia with a late-night transmission, and like a stone falling into a pond, the events taking place in Balamb slowly and inevitably made ripples that touched the ends of the world.

* * * *

Shortly before dawn, the people of Balamb were again disturbed by the sound of something overhead. Emerging from their homes, they peered into the still-black sky and made out the familiar shape of the Ragnarok as it descended shakily towards the outskirts of the town. Ma Dincht was amongst those who went out in the pouring rain to investigate the aircraft, once it had made a rather ungraceful landing just north east of the place. It was a sorry sight; the starboard side of the ship was mostly in ruins, with the dragon-like docking claw missing altogether. The engine housing too, was clearly in need of repair, with parts near the exhaust literally dripping from the ship due to intense heat. Rain hissed and evaporated on contact with it, and small short-lived fires lit up where globs of the Ragnarok touched grass. Sadly, the sight seemed almost at home in Balamb's ruined eastern quarter.

The people that had gone out to meet the craft milled about uncertainly, confused as to what the Ragnarok's presence meant, and worried that, for several minutes, nobody had emerged from it. Ma Dincht sent one of the younger kids back to get in touch with Zell again and tell him exactly what had happened while she stayed and eyed the Ragnarok with a mixture of suspicion and concern. Just as people were beginning to seriously consider breaking into the craft, there was a huge crash. The port side door mounted on the Ragnarok's neck assembly slid outward, teetered for a moment, and then fell to land smoking on the ground below. For a moment the hatchway was empty, then there was a flash of black and grey as the figure of Squall lunged from the smoke above to land competently next to the remains of the door.

Ma Dincht rolled up her sleeves and peered at him thought the slashing rain. "Squall!" she called, already sounding exasperated. "Just what on earth is going on around here?"

Squall looked up and Ma Dinct was taken aback by the determination in his eyes. "I need a transport," he said, brushing irritably at scorches and burn marks that lined his clothing. His gaze wondered over to the smoking remains of Balamb's gas station. He paused, some of the urgency seeping from his bearing and being replaced with shock. "What happened here?" he asked.

"I was hoping you could tell me!" said Ma Dinct, throwing her arms in the air and shaking her head. "We've had a hell of night, what with these strange storms, and then the gas station blowing up. Raijin and Fujin had something to do with it! I knew those pair were no good from the moment I set eyes on them, and when I heard they were moving back into Balamb - and that Seifer too, well..."

"Mrs Dinct," said Squall, cutting her rant short, politely but firmly. "I'm going to leave a few SeeDs here to repair the Ragnarok and question Raijin and Fujin, then I'm going to take one of Garden's high speed transport vehicles out to sea..."

"But..."

Squall waved her away and began to stride towards the port. I don't have time for this, he thought. Lives are in danger.

* * * *

In truth, Squall had no idea what had happened on the garden after his 'conversation' with the past-Seifer. He had seen Quistis begin to struggle, there was the sound of shouting and even gunfire, and then the link had gone dead, refusing to be patched through again. Squall had kept the Ragnarok in the air, circling the garden as it's gravity circlets propelled it slowly, and evidently aimlessly, south across the Alcaud plains. Repeated attempts to hail the garden had met with no success, and Squall reasoned that their comm-system must have been damaged by the explosion. The Ragnarok had trailed the Garden forlornly, but as it reached the Rinauld Coast, the pilot had informed Squall that the engines had reached a critical level of heat and they would have to set down. Inwardly cursing the plain bad luck that had led to a coolant leak, Squall had broken off the pursuit and radioed the garden forces in Esthar. Though Squall liked to deal with problems on his own terms, this was fast becoming a situation he knew he couldn't handle on his own.

For the moment, however, he was alone. The Ragnarok wouldn't be taking to the air anytime soon, and the only way Squall could think of getting quickly to the Garden was to use one of SeeDs fast-deployment sea vessels, assuming that it had continued on it's course out to sea. Though he hadn't been in one since that fateful exam a year ago, he had recently looked over some blueprints for them. One of the modifications to Balamb Garden was a module that housed and maintained sea vessels for use and deployment from the Garden itself. The same modification had been proposed for Galbadia Garden. Squall knew that only one person was needed to pilot the vessel, and he hoped his basic training was enough to get him where he wanted to go.

Ignoring the questions of Balamb's bewildered inhabitants, Squall made his way down to the docks, and the special holding where the vehicles were kept. As he approached the hatchway to one of the vessels, and activated it with an encrypted command from his wrist-set, he heard a voice behind him.

"HEY!" it said.

Squall turned to see Fujin standing on the dockside, squinting at Squall through the rain and the faint light of the coming dawn. He considered just getting in the craft and leaving, but paused when he saw her evidently concerned expression.

"IS... is Seifer...?" The question died on her lips as she saw the look in Squall's eyes. It was obvious he was as much in the dark as she. "Take... take care of him, please?" she said. Before Squall could reply, she turned and ran back towards Balamb.

It was only when Squall was sat at the controls that he began to wonder which one she was referring to.

* * * *

Headmaster Cid froze in the doorway of the engine room, the sight before him taking a few moments to sink in. This was exactly what he had feared. After present-Seifer had escaped capture, Edea had insisted on going after him, and when Cid had shown reluctance she had taken off on her own. All thoughts of going after her had been momentarily forgotten, however, when the Garden was rocked by a massive explotion, and Cid had been forced to organise search and rescue teams to safeguard the Gardens confused and scared inhabitants. Eventually, he had gathered a team of SeeDs and set off for the engine room. It seemed though that this was too little, too late.

The SeeDs flanking him fanned out and entered, but he barely registered their movement. Trying to keep a clear head, his eyes scanned the place. "What happened here?" he asked aloud. He noticed Quistis kneeling by the prone form of one of the SeeDs that had been sent down to the engine room earlier. She appeared to be administering medical attention, but looked up as some of the SeeDs approached her. "Headmaster," she said, relief showing clearly in her troubled eyes. "We've been trying to reach you but the comm system is down, we need to call..."

"Where's Edea?" he replied, cutting her off with an uncharacteristically harsh glare.

"That's what I was trying to say, we need to call Doctor Kadowaki up here right away."

"Why? What's happened to..." his voice trailed off as some movement at the far end of the engine room caught his eye. It was one of the Seifers, his short jacket revealing him as the one from the present. More important was what Seifer was leaning over. "Edea!" exclaimed Cid, his voice an emotional conglomerate of fear, shock and anger. He strode towards Seifer and his prone, obviously injured, wife. Raising a finger and pointing at Seifer, he addressed the SeeDs in the room. "Arrest him!" he ordered.

Quistis looked up again. "No wait!" she said. "It's alright, Seifer helped me."

"I don't care what he did here!" raged Cid, still advancing on the object of his fury. "He was told not to come down here!" Though he was answering Quistis' question, the sentiments were clearly directed at Seifer.

All the SeeDs in the room turned to watch as Seifer stood up from his position at Edea's side and Cid barged past him, kneeling beside the Sorceress and taking her hand in his. His eyes narrowed in sympathy and anguish as he took in the nasty looking gash that ran down the side of Edea's torso. She had lost a lot of blood, but evidently Seifer had bound the wound somewhat. "Oh my..." he whispered. "Edea... Edea, can you hear me? What happened?"

Though she was still slightly lucid, she could barely speak. "Cid," she whispered, before letting out a groan of pain and slipping further into unconscious.

"Get Doctor Kadowaki up here now!" Cid said, barely controlling the emotion in his voice.

"Headmaster," began Seifer.

"Don't even start Seifer. If you hadn't charged off by yourself none of this would have happened."

"I did what had to be..."

"You did what you wanted to do! You were selfish, and someone else paid the price, as usual! Do you know why Edea went after you? She believed in you, she thought you had changed." Cid gestured to the crumpled form on the floor. "Look how her trust was rewarded!"

Seifer glanced up as the SeeDs began to encircle him. He looked back down at the Headmaster. "What happened here can't be undone, but I can stop the... the other me... before he does even more damage," he said.

"What? He escaped? Where did he go?"

"I don't know, but if you let me go after him I can..."

"No Seifer!" Cid looked up, his face full of anger and resolve. "You've done enough damage." He turned to the SeeDs surrounding them. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to put Seifer in the brig until further notice," he ordered. He turned back to Seifer. "I suggest you don't try struggling this time. It'll be better for all of us that way."



Seifer's eyes darted over to where his gun lay several meters away. It had been flung from the battle by his counterpart and was now out of reach. No luck there. The people encircling him were no SeeD candidates either, they were the real thing, and it was unlikely Seifer would be able to best even one of them in his current condition. He was cornered. He raised his hands in surrender. "You still have no idea what you're dealing with, do you?" he asked flatly, unconcerned at what the answer might be, knowing what the truth was.

Wasting no time the SeeDs moved in and pulled his hands roughly behind his back, slapping handcuffs around his wrists.

"Wait!" called Quistis, hurrying over to the group of SeeDs. "I know how this looks, but this isn't Seifer's fault." She shook her head. "I mean, it isn't this Seifer's fault."

"I understand what you're saying Quistis," replied Cid. "But you don't know all of the factors at play here. I'll de-brief you when you've gotten some rest and the Garden's been stabilised."

"No sir," said Quisitis, almost surprising herslef with her defiance. "Seifer's right. We have to act now. This double of his is extremely dangerous and could be in any part of the Garden by now. With all the internal monitoring down we've no way of keeping tabs on him."

Cid ignored her. He looked up at the SeeDs holding Seifer. "You have your orders," he said.

* * * *

Quistis was about to protest again, but the room was suddenly filling with people. A very flustered looking Doctor Kadowaki came running in with a medical bag and a couple of assistants, and immediately rushed to Edea's side. SeeDs milled this way and that, some of them trying to deliver damage reports to the Headmaster, others asking one another the same question. "What has happened?"

Quistis waved away the myriad of questions flung her way, but accepted a warm blanket handed to her from the busy throng. She tried to follow Seifer as he was taken to the brig but could hardly get close. To her surprise, he turned and looked back, his eyes finding hers. Expecting to see anger and hatred burning there, instead she saw only worry and sorrow. Noticing that she held his gaze, Seifer blinked and narrowed his eyes. It was almost a questioning look. Quistis again tried to push her way forward, but when she looked up again Seifer had been dragged away. She looked down, wondering what she should do next, and realised that she was still carrying something very important. Stepping out of the mass of people and into a quiet corner, Quistis raised the blade and examined it in the light. Hyperion, she thought, her mind playing back the events of the past few minutes. It seemed like an age ago that she had made the decision to try and escape capture, and the events that had occurred in those few minutes had changed things forever. She knew the Headmaster would want to know exactly what had happened when it was convenient for her to tell him, but right now he had other things on his mind.

The Headmaster cleared his throat. "May I have your attention everyone," he said, his voice ringing out clearly to every SeeD present. He stood up, leaving Edea in Dr. Kadowaki's care for the moment. "For reasons unknown, Balamb Garden has suffered an attack by a duplicate of Seifer Almasy." Murmurs spread throughout the room. "I know what you are all thinking, but we haven't yet confirmed if this is related to the incident in Esthar. In any case, this Seifer remains at large. With most of the critical systems down we have no way of tracking him, so I need double the repair detail and guards posted at every crucial location. All those left over, including SeeD candidates are to patrol every section. If you find Seifer, call for back up and wait for it to arrive before you do anything," he paused and looked at all the anxious faces around him. "One more thing. It seems the Garden is currently drifting south, out of control. I need qualified pilots and engineers to help bring it to heel. Those with the necessary qualifications are to report to the bridge. I'll be giving these orders out over the PA system as soon as it's back online, but you'll have to spread them by word of mouth until then. Get it done people."

* * * *

The high speed vessel jumped and rolled on troubled seas, it's engine pushed to the limit. Inside, Squall clicked the monitor off, ending what seemed like the hundredth conversation he'd had over the Comm-system that night. Since he had boarded the sea vessel at Balamb Harbour, he had been contacted by Zell, then by a very angry Rinoa, then by Zell again, and finally by President Loire, wanting an update. All of them had been extremely worried and hungry for information. Unfortunately, Squall had very little to give them. He'd had to persuade Zell to stay where he was for the moment until they'd worked out what exactly was going on in B-Garden, figuring it would take a fair amount of time for him to get down from Trabia without transport anyway. Rinoa, however, had been inconsolable. She was in turns angry at Squall, for keeping things from her, and overjoyed that he was safe, at least for the moment. She had insisted on taking G-Garden out to rendezvous with it's Balamb counterpart and Squall couldn't argue with her. If things really were serious, then G-Garden was the only real tool they had for interception and salvage.

Still, the two had argued slightly, Squall insisting he didn't know that things were going to get this bad and that he didn't want to see her hurt - Rinoa insisting that being kept in the dark hurt her more then Seifer ever could these days. In the end they had reluctantly ended the conversation, pledging to see each other soon.

A whine from the console in front of him brought him back to the present. It was a proximity warning. There was no way to look out of the armoured cockpit of the new style vessels, as there was no physical link between it and the outside world. However, a set of exterior sensors provided the pilot with a computer generated image of his or her surroundings, and it was this function that Squall now utilised. Found you at last, he thought. Looming out of the rain filled darkness before the vessel, was the hulking form of Balamb Garden. Just as Squall started pondering how he was going to get on board, the comm-pannel beeped again. He had to contain his astounding relief when Headmaster Cids face appeared on the monitor.

"Are you alright?" asked Squall immediately, his head spilling with questions. "What happened in there? Is anyone hurt?"

"There's no time for that now!" replied the Headmaster urgently. "You need to watch out! We just restored power to our main systems and someone immediately stole one of the sea vessels in the new dock module!"

"Seifer," said Squall. It wasn't a question. Damn, he thought, as the proximity warning went off again. I'm too late,. He watched as the sleek form of the stolen boat darted from the far side of the garden and span round behind his own ship. Move! he though, pushing the vessel to maximum throttle and trying to veer round. Though it could barely be heard over the roar of the sea, Squall had just a few moments to make out the sound of heavy machine gun fire before an almighty booming sounded at the rear of his craft, signifying the end of his engines. He slammed his fist onto the control console, knowing that Seifer had wanted to cut off any pursuit, and that was exactly what he had done. Adrift and helpless, Squall could only watch in rear-view as Seifer's rain soaked form slipped back through the hatch to the machine gun turret. His craft turned almost lazily about, pointing into the black void of the open ocean, and then sped off into the darkness.