Chapter 23: The Revolution

Seifer stared down at Aurelia, not sure that he'd heard her correctly. Had she really said Centra? There hadn't been anyone living there for…hell, a long time. All he knew about the native population was that they'd been wiped out a long time ago by a Lunar Cry, the first victims of the Lunatic Pandora. Other than that, he knew nothing about them. He wasn't exactly a student of history.

Quistis glanced at him once, her expression wary. "You're all here Centran refugees? I find that hard to believe."

Aurelia narrowed her eyes to dark, hostile slits.

"You can believe whatever the hell you want to."

Quistis crossed her arms and shifted her weight onto one foot. It was a stance that Seifer was all too familiar with: she was in her instructor pose, that closed off way she had of standing and staring that drove straight through to a person's soul. It stripped away defenses, burned deep down to the truth.

"If it's true, then how did your people escape the Lunar Cry unscathed?" she asked.

"Unscathed?" Aurelia's hands tightened into fists so tight her knuckles turned white. "There's only a handful of us left, the remnants of an entire civilization. And you think that's unscathed?"

Quistis sighed, but tilted her head to show she was listening.

"My grandparents lived in a small town at the southern edge of the country," Aurelia continued. "It's an area in the forest, surrounded by trees on all sides. It was one of many cities spread across the whole continent. Our capital was in the mountains, guarded by tonberries. We domesticated them…kept them as pets and servants. And we had another protector, as well. That's why Adel targeted us."

"Another protector?" Seifer repeated, not sure what she was getting at.

"Odin."

"Odin is a guardian force," Quistis replied. "We've met him."

"A guardian force…yes. But he's different than the rest. He only offers his protection to a group."

For a moment, Seifer leaned back against the wall and let what she'd said sink in. It was true: Odin wasn't an average guardian force. And his home was in Centra about where she'd described. In fact, the whole place had been crawling with tonberries, now that he thought about it.

"We didn't know about the Lunatic Pandora," Aurelia continued. "That Esthar would even build such a thing…the Lunar Cry dumped monsters all across Centra. We were flooded with them. Dragons. Abyss worms. Everything you can imagine. The sheer number of them overwhelmed our military. They infested our cities. Red dragons would fly over, spraying their breath attack through the streets. Everything was destroyed."

She looked genuinely pained as she told the story.

"My ancestral city was left in ruins. And our civilization was wiped out of existence. Nobody survived, except us. My family left before the cry happened. They'd moved to the coast. After the cities were gone, the monsters eventually began to move there, too. So there was nothing left to do but pack up and ship off to sea, hoping for the best. My grandparents and a few others eventually landed here on this island. The buildings were already here, built and abandoned by Esthar."

"And so you set to developing a new protector?" Quistis guessed. "New watch-dogs that could take whatever kind of monster someone could throw at you."

"You could say that." Aurelia looked up at Seifer from under half-closed lids. "What would you do if your home was attacked like that? SeeDs use guardian forces. You use that…thing to protect yourself and your friends. Why should we be any different?"

"What about Sascha Maurden?" Quistis asked. "How does he fit into all of this?"

"I told you…it was just a few of us that survived. We didn't have enough people to do this alone. So we recruited in Galbadia. Sascha worked for us."

"So what happened to him? How did he end up floating dead in the ocean?"

Aurelia shrugged. "You tell me."

"Okay. Assuming his death was just an accident, then why attack us? Why not tell us all of this from the get-go?"

Aurelia gave them an odd look, as if to say that it should be obvious. "You're mercenaries. You hire yourself out to anyone with enough money to pay for your magic and your guardian forces. You don't care who you're fighting or why."

"We're not working for Esthar," Quistis replied.

"Aren't you? Isn't your commander, Squall Leonhart, the president of Esthar's son?"

Quistis had to cede the point. "Yes. But Esthar is also a different country now. Adel is dead."

"Doesn't matter." Aurelia shook her head and sank back against the wall. "Esthar falls, Galbadia rises. There's always someone throwing around their weight, wielding people like you as a club."

Quistis turned around and pushed her hair out of her face. Her gaze slid swiftly across Seifer's face before she stepped past him and dropped back down into the sea, leaving Seifer alone with the dark-haired revolutionary. The scent of salt washed in with the seawater that crested in through the door to wash across the floor.

There was something admirable about Aurelia, Seifer thought. She wasn't a solider stupidly following orders. And she wasn't a general drunk on too much power. Rather, she was the last remnant of a lost people, living in a sweaty, bug infested jungle at the edge of civilization. She was trying to build a future for her people, holding on tight to her ancestry. Her blood drove her, and a deep sense of the past. That tight sense of herself as part of a group, part of a culture, intrigued Seifer. He'd never known his parents or where he'd come from. And the people he identified himself with, SeeDs, were just like him — the loose flotsam of society. He envied her history, even though it was tragic.

She stared defiantly up at him from the floor.

Without saying anything to her, he turned and followed Quistis out into the sea.

0 0 0

Edea's eyes were tired, her vision blurry. Her entire bottom was numb and the stack of magazines in her lap had been flipped through enough times that the edges of the pages were bent and torn. The tips of her fingers were sore, but she continued to flip sheet after sheet.

Xu had had found Cid in his office, mere minutes after Edea had left him for the night. He'd suffered a major heart attack and managed to hit the intercom button, sending a pulse to Xu's desk. When she went to check on him, she found him pasty-faced, barely able to stand, and she'd immediately called the infirmary's emergency number.

Thank goodness she'd been there.

Edea, on the other hand, was consumed with guilt that she hadn't been. In fact, when she'd left him, she'd been irritated because he hadn't listened to her concerns, because he'd dismissed her. Now that felt petty. If she'd stayed a bit longer, she might have been there for him. Even if she couldn't have done anything to help, at least she would have been there. A loving face.

They had always been apart. Their whole marriage had been spent on different continents, pursuing different goals. Now that she was faced with the possibility of losing him forever to a distance not measurable, not navigable, she regretted those lost years and everything that could have been if their fates had blown them down a different path. Pressing her lips to her knuckles, she closed her eyes and mouthed a silent prayer.

The infirmary was buzzing with voices now. Outside in the hallway, students were slowing down on their way to class. Everyone seemed to know that something had happened. Rumors were already spreading like wildfire.

"Edea." Dr. Kadowaki stepped into the waiting room. "I have news."

Edea nodded, ready to take whatever it would be. "What is it?"

With a small smile, the doctor rested her hand on Edea's shoulder and lowered herself into a seat. "He's out of the woods for now," she said, her words spilling like a flash flood across the barren desert. "We've got to keep an eye on him. But…I think he's going to be okay."

0 0 0

Carson waved at Quistis from the beach, his hand wriggling around in the air like a dying fish.

She sloshed out of the water, her boots sinking into the sand, and pretended not to see him. Right now, she needed time to think, not a long chat with her troublesome boyfriend. Out of the sand and up through the grass, she strode quickly toward the trees, eager to lose herself for a moment in their shadows. Adrian and Kelly were standing together and talking near the tree line. His knuckles were brushing softly across her hair and Kelly was brushing profusely. It didn't surprise Quistis that Adrian was applying his charms to her, but he seemed unusually sincere, a little more honest and not quite as polished as usual.

Past them, Quistis pushed through the thick fan of ferns and into the woods. She continued on a few paces before stopping, resting one hand against the trunk of a tree.

Now that the battle was over, the faces of the people who'd died on the beach floated up to fill the emptiness adrenaline had left behind. Were they what Aurelia said? Were they all that was left of the Centran people, just trying to pull their civilization back together, trying to scrape together a little security so that they could finally return home? Quistis had read a little about the destruction of Centra and knew just how terrible the effects of the cry had been on that country. It was easy to imagine how the experience, even generations down the line, could have resulted in this frightened, reclusive, and violent island-nation.

But even if she could see their point of view, Quistis knew what she had to do. Garden regulations didn't give her any choice in the matter, and the issue of the shadow cats was a serious one, even if they now knew how to control the beasts. The technology alone was dangerous. She had to return them all to Garden. Not just Aurelia, but everyone on the island. And Garden would bury them. They couldn't let word of this get to Galbadia or Esthar.

Maybe it was best for Centra to remain destroyed.

She rubbed her forehead, not sure how to process this.

"Quistis?" Seifer's voice came through the trees moments before he did, the dappled sunlight freckling his cheeks. "What're you doing?"

"Nothing. Just thinking."

His eyebrows pinched together. "About what Aurelia said?"

"Yeah."

"You believe her?" he asked.

"I suppose so. Why? You don't?"

He crossed his arms. "I don't know. I think there's more to it than what she's telling us. You know, some important detail she's leaving out. Seemed to me like she broke kind of easy."

"You'd be surprised how many people have broken in Diablos's arms," Quistis replied.

"Maybe. But I guess that's for everyone back at Garden to figure out, right? I'm sure by the time they're done with all these people, we'll be able to breed our own shadow cats to stock the training center."

He was right. Their part was done.

It hit her then as she stood there looking up at him. Their time on the island together was over, and she was going to have to face reality again. Carson had never been right for her — it was going to be a painful, messy break between them. And she still wasn't sure whether Seifer's interest in her would survive the trip back to Garden. It was hard to judge what they could be together outside of this mission.

"Seifer?" She stepped toward him.

"Yeah?"

She didn't know how to ask what she wanted to, so she tangled one hand in the fabric of her skirt, hanging onto it like a life preserver, and tried to work the words free. There was too much still up in the air to form a cogent question that would assuage all of her uncertainty. Did she mean anything to him? Or was what had happened between them purely physical? Did he want to try for something more?

For a minute, he watched her, his green eyes unwavering. Then he looked away and crossed his arms.

"Loose ends can be wrapped up later," he said, his gaze finally coming back to her. "Right?"

"Yeah," she replied, her voice small.

"Good. Come on." He offered her his hand. "There's people back on the beach who need you."