Train Ride to Hell By: Wolfemann and Pink Lemonade
~~~===~~~
Commandant Martine finished giving his briefing to the arrivals from Balamb outside Galbadia Garden. He handed an envelope to their apparent leader, and waited as the young man read them.
"Details of the mission are enclosed in these official orders. Any questions?"
"The orders say by means of 'a sniper'," he pointed out. "We have no one with that skill.
Martine nodded - he'd expected as much. "Don't worry about it. Let me introduce an elite sharpshooter from Galbadia Garden." He turned to the young man sitting off in the distance, and shouted towards him. "Kinneas! Irvine Kinneas!"
Irvine stood up lazily and strolled over to the group, his shotgun hanging from his hip.
"This is Irvine Kinneas," Martine explained. "He will be your sharpshooter. Leave whenever you're ready. Failure is not an option." Martine started back into the Garden, oblivious to Irvine idly pantomiming a shot at the back of his head.
"Bang," Irvine observed with a slight smirk as the door closed behind his CO. The others looked at him a little uneasily, before Quistis decided to break the uneasy silence.
"What's our mission," she asked Squall.
"Our next mission.." He paused for a moment, before continuing. "This is no ordinary mission. It's a direct order from both Balamb and Galbadia Garden. We're to. assassinate the sorceress. We're to shoot her from afar. Kinneas will be our sharpshooter. We're to support Kinneas to our fullest. Should the sniper fail, we are to attack head on."
"Thanks for the support," Irvine chuckled. "But I never miss my target."
"Eliminate the sorceress," Squall shrugged. "That's our order. We're going to head to the capital of Galbadia, Deling City. There we'll meet up with General Caraway to go over the details for the plan. Let's get going."
~~~===~~~
Quistis, Selphie, and Rinoa watched as the three men in their unit started off towards the train station.
"So," Quistis asked quietly. "What do the two of you think of Mister Kinneas?"
"I-I don't know," Rinoa admitted. "He seems a bit strange.."
"Aw, c'mon, you guys," Selphie protested. "He might be an okay guy."
"You're right, Selphie," Quistis agreed. "But still, Rinoa's right - there's something about him that seems a little off."
"I guess you're right," Selphie admitted. "There's definitely something a bit unusual, but that doesn't necessarily mean much."
"Well, anyway, there's nothing we can do about it for now," Rinoa pointed out.
"Right," Quistis nodded, as the three of them started towards the station on their own.
"Is it just me," she asked a few moments later, "or does something seem off about the whole mission?"
"Come to think of it," Rinoa began, only to be cut off.
"Heeey, you're right," Selphie agreed, wrinkling her nose.
"Good, I'm not the only one," Quistis sighed. "I don't think we should say anything about it around Squall, not yet at least, but it doesn't seem right that we'd be sent to do something like this."
"I don't know about that.. What if it's a trap," Rinoa asked uncertainly.
"We'll have to be on the lookout for that, but the main reason I don't think we should tell Squall is that I don't think we'd make much progress with him at this point. We'll probably be better off raising the issue once we have more than gut feelings to go on."
"Knowing Squall, that's probably smart," Selphie agreed.
"I. guess so."
"Do you know anything that would be more proof, Rinoa," Quistis asked seriously. "If you've got some reason to believe this is a trap, we should know about it."
"N-No," Rinoa replied hastily. "Nothing."
The veteran SeeD frowned slightly at that, but decided to let it slide for now. "Just tell us if you notice anything we didn't - discreetly, of course," she amended quickly.
"All right."
"C'mon, we gotta hurry," Selphie shouted. "The train leaves in ten!" With that, the three started running the rest of the way to the station, reaching it just a few moments behind Squall and the others.
Selphie poked her head into the train first, to find Squall putting a ticket in the small slot by the door.
"Hee! You caught on," she declared happily before slipping away to her usual spot.
A polite, cheerful voice cut in over the intercom. "This train, bound for Deling City, will be departing shortly," it explained, just before the train rumbled to life and started down the tracks.
"This is the only train bound for Deling City anyway," Rinoa sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Hmm.," Irvine mused, only half-paying attention as he watched Selphie walk out. "Perhaps it's fate?" With that, he walked out, following Selphie into the next car.
The slender brunette failed to notice him for a while, and simply leaned against the window's ledge and looked out the window.
After awhile, she began to sing to herself.
"Train, train," she hummed. "Take us to the future.."
Irvine just leaned up next to her, listening for a few minutes.
"Where it goes. nobody knows.."
Eventually, he decided he had to speak up. "Catchy tune," he observed. "Make it up yourself?"
Selphie started, but regained her composure quickly.
"Y-Yeah."
"Thought so," he chuckled. "You're not bad. Why'd you become a SeeD?"
Selphie wore a pained expression for a split second after the question was asked, but her typical 'sunshine' broke out in such a rush that the saddened look seemed almost an illusion.
"I dunno.. I just did, I guess."
The lapse in her demeanor wasn't missed by the gunslinger, but he decided to ignore it for the time being.
"Destiny," he asked idly.
"Could be," Selphie shrugged. "I never really thought about it."
"Never think about why you're where you are when you are," he asked. "About why you meet who you do?"
"No," Selphie began. "But it is odd. I only just met Squall, Zell, and Quistis a couple weeks ago, and you and Rinoa pretty much just now. And then this.."
That caught him by surprise, though he tried to hide it as well as he could. "Pretty big mission," he said, nodding to cover for the moment of surprise. "At least it's pretty short term. Of course, that does mean we'll all be heading back to our usual jobs fairly soon - not going to be working together all that long."
"Usual work's no easier than this for me, at the moment," Selphie remarked. "Of course, if the mission succeeds, Timber will probably get liberated somewhere along the line."
"Then it's time to head back home and wait for them to find some other job they need to pull you out of mothballs for," he said with a half-chuckle. "Ever think about doing something else?"
"Like," Selphie challenged, though not in an offended way.
"Oh, going solo," he shrugged. "Maybe just finding a job that doesn't involve putting large holes in things that didn't have them before. Something that didn't involve a Garden."
"I like this just fine," Selphie shrugged in return. "Sure, it can be dangerous, but."
"There's nothing that isn't dangerous," he chuckled. "Even my job, despite what some of the grunts might say. But there are other things. Sometimes it'd be nice to work with the same people for more than one or two jobs, after all."
Selphie looked surprised.
"I-I guess I never though of it that way," she admitted. "I mean. we're a team. All of us. Squall doesn't show it, but even he knows it.."
"More something I have to deal with," he shrugged. "Nobody likes having a sniper around, unless they need something to go boom far away."
"I guess snipers don't have the best reputation," Selphie admitted. "But then, people never try and put themselves in a sniper's shoes, either."
"Not usually," he agreed. "Not unless they're trying to stop one. Still - gets lonely once in awhile."
"Aren't there even anymore snipers at Galbadia? Or is it something people don't often take up.?"
"Not really - most of the people who want to get into it can't handle it, for one reason or another. Besides, sometimes the people you want to be with aren't the same as you."
".Oh."
"You know," he smiled, "it's nice talking to somebody who tries to understand."
"It's the least I can do," she shrugged. "Besides, you'd be surprised just how much I can relate.."
"Like I said," he chuckled. "Sometime you meet the right person at the right time."
"Yeah, seems like it."
The door to the car opened almost silently as Irvine thought about what to say next, not noticed by either of them.
"Selphie... We're destined to be together," he said suddenly.
At that, Selphie seemed more than startled.
"Y-Yeah right," she blurted, going with her first instinct. At that point, she noticed the figure by the door and drew in a sharp breath. It was exhaled in a shaky sigh, though, when she noticed it was only Squall.
"A sigh of love," he half-joked, hoping he hadn't just screwed up too badly.
"N-No," she replied slowly, looking at her feet.
It was then he noticed the newcomer - Squall.
/"Damn,"/ he thought to himself, turning to leave. "Pardon me," he said, making his way back into the car and sitting down, trying to sort out what to do next. As he sat, he became aware of somebody watching him. Looking up, he noticed Zell half-glaring at him from across the car.
/"Well, that could explain a bit about Selphie,"/ the gunslinger thought.
"You have something you'd like to say," he asked, meeting Zell's eyes.
".Nah," Zell shrugged after a moment, turning his head slightly. "Just thinking."
"The ride shouldn't take much longer," Rinoa remarked, standing on her tiptoes and looking out the window on the door. "We're near ho- Deling."
"You from around here," Irvine asked curiously - he would have thought that somebody from this area would have gone to Galbadia Garden.
/"Though it would explain the way she moves - not like most SeeD's."/
"Um, no. I just came here a lot with my family on vacation," Rinoa stated slightly awkwardly. "That place is pretty much a giant slum, anyway."
"It has some good points," Irvine smiled. "Maybe I could show you a few you missed after this job."
Rinoa was about to frown, but recalled Selphie's insistence that he might not be as bad as he seemed.
"Maybe."
"If you know where to look, there's plenty there that can make you forget the slums," he continued. "Of course, unless you live around here, you usually miss half of them hitting the main tourist attractions. I'm sure there'd be something there that'd catch your interest."
"Maybe," she repeated. "All those political places are boring, though, and those are what people go to see.."
"Trust me, I have better taste than that," he chuckled. "Even if Martine'd put me on report for a month if he caught me there."
"'There?'"
"Anywhere that isn't a usual tourist trap," he shrugged. "Doesn't think most of them are the places SeeD should be hanging out, even if most of them don't care."
"Oh," Rinoa replied simply, at a loss for words.
"Not your type of place either," he asked, ignoring the increasingly dark look he was getting from Zell, though it did confuse him a bit.
"It's not that, it definitely sounds more interesting than what I've seen.."
He stood up and moved over next to her, apparently looking out through the windows. "Figure you'll be busy after we finish the job?"
"I don't know - depends on how things work out," she shrugged. "I might be, or I might not be."
"And just what might convince you to be," he asked, letting one arm slip down between them.
"Nothing's gonna 'convince' me," Rinoa began to explain. "I have to liberate Timber- the Forest Owls have to."
"So you're not SeeD," he observed, his interest going slightly beyond the nights after the mission for a few minutes.
"Doesn't matter," Rinoa replied quickly, in a cross between a 'mind your own business' and a pleading tone. Irvine's attitude seemed to change almost immediately.
"If we're going on a job like this with a civilian, it might be good to know about it ahead of time," he pointed out.
"It's nothing you need to worry about," Rinoa was more firm this time.
"Look," he sighed. "I just want to know if I'm going to have to watch somebody else's back more than usual while we're on this job."
"I can take care of myself," Rinoa informed him with slight disdain, turning away.
"Rinoa," he said in an exasperated tone, following her towards the corner just as the door opened and Squall walked in.
"Irvine Kinneas," Quistis scolded him, now that she actually had a legitimate reason to. "You're playing a major role in this mission. Now behave yourself!"
"No one understands me...," he sighed. "Sharpshooters are loners by nature. We hone our instincts, pour our whole being into a single bullet. The pressure of the moment... An instant of tension... That's what... I have to face alone." A slightly haunted expression came into his eyes as he turned.
"...It's not easy. So like.. Just do me a favor, and let me be! You get my drift?"
Zell sprang to his feet, pounding the floor of the car with his foot as he forcibly restrained himself from tying into the young man in front of him.
A voice came over the intercom a moment later. "Err, there was no damage to the train from that, err, minor vibration. I, uh... repeat.. Err, there was no damage to the train from that, err, minor vibration.."
"What's going on," Selphie popped in seconds after the speaker clicked off. "What was that?"
"Personality conflict," Irvine muttered, turning on his heel and stalking off towards the sleeper car.
"Creep couldn't take a hint from anyone," Zell muttered, dropping out of the combat stance he'd slipped into.
"Zell's foot met the train floor," Rinoa clarified with a tiny laugh.
"Zell," Selphie scolded, glaring at him. "Really."
"Yeah, well," Zell said, putting his hand behind his head a little sheepishly. "I wasn't really planning on doing that."
"Well, you did," Selphie continued. "Acting on impulse like that could getcha into trouble, you know."
"Off-hand," Quistis observed. "I'd say it did. Just try to think things through a bit better in the future, Zell - we've all made mistakes like that before." With that, Zell sighed and slumped back into the corner, returning to his brooding from before..
~~~===~~~
Irvine flopped down on one of the bunks on the train, still muttering to himself.
"Dammit - why don't they remember anything!"
Not a one of them seemed to remember him. Not that he couldn't understand that - between the years passing and the fact that they'd all spent time around a number of other people, he could see the faces blending. Of course - he remembered them. Maybe there was something to those rumors he'd heard about the GF's.
And now they probably wouldn't trust him as far as they could throw him. Not that he could blame them - this was *really* not his day.
"Matron," he said softly, acutely aware of the role he had to play in all this. "I can't do it - not to you."
He could have killed Martine for giving him this job - the bastard *knew* that "Sorceress Edea" was the woman who'd raised him. It was like some sort of twisted joke.
At least the rest of them might not have to live with the outcome - wouldn't realize what they'd just done. Cid though - this had to be eating him up inside. Just like it was eating him up - killing a woman was bad enough, but killing one who was as kind and loving as Matron Edea had been..
But she was the Sorceress of Galbadia now, not acting at all like the person he remembered. If he didn't take the shot - didn't kill her - then Squall and the others would have to try to do it hand-to-hand, and that *would* be a joke - a group of SeeD's, rookies at that, up against a skilled sorceress. They couldn't have been SeeD's for long - Quistis maybe, but not the rest of them. And Rinoa was a civilian, on top of it.
How many lives could be forfeit if he missed?
And why was he trying to find some way to make Edea's come out ahead in the balance?
"A single moment of tension. What a joke.."
~~~===~~~
It was late at night when Selphie awoke. Really, really late. It was so dark, she couldn't see her hand two inches away from her face. With a sigh, she shifted, trying to get comfortable again. Unfortunately, she never had been able to sleep well in beds that she wasn't used to. Her eyes adjusted to the dark eventually, though, and it was then she noticed the absence of Zell, who'd been on the couch, apparently not caring where he slept, which he apparently wasn't doing anyway.
With a sigh, Selphie rolled to her feet.
/I'm not gonna get back to sleep anyway,/ she decided, not bothering to find her boots and creeping out of the room, barefooted. She found the short blond leaning against the wall, staring out at the passing scenery of the very early morning.
"Zell," she called quietly. "Whacha doing?"
He turned slightly, startled by her question. "Thinking," he shrugged. "Sorry if I woke you up on my way out."
"Nope, just don't sleep well in beds I'm not used to," she replied with a shrug of her own. "What about?"
"I screwed up earlier," he replied, frowning. "Big time. Then there was that trouble with Irvine.."
"I didn't mean that, you know," Selphie said, recalling how quickly he'd become silent at Quistis' mention of the incident in Timber. "And Irvine. I don't know what happened, but I'm gonna guess he wouldn't quite accept that someone didn't wanna talk about something."
"Yeah - that's not what got me pissed off, though," he shrugged. "Kept trying to talk Rinoa into heading out with him after this mission, wouldn't take the hint when she tried turning him down."
"Is that so," Selphie mused quietly.
"Yeah," Zell said, a half-growl creeping into his voice. "Should have stopped after she said she wasn't interested in the tourist traps."
"With what he said to me, he shouldn't have said anything like that to her at all," Selphie half-pointed-out, not quite so matter of fact, if only because she knew that only Irvine, herself, and Squall had seen the first time.
"What did he say to you," Zell asked, turning to look at her hesitantly, almost like he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer.
"Honestly, I don't remember too much other than that he wouldn't drop it," Selphie hesitated. "Left when he noticed Squall, though."
"Hitting on you too," Zell half-asked. "That's just nuts, going after both of you - that fast too."
"Quistis mentioned that she thought there was something odd about him," Selphie admitted. "But she figured we should keep quiet.. You know how Squall can be."
"Yeah," he chuckled. "Way too serious for his own good, or anybody else's. So, uhm. I'm guessing you turned him down?"
Selphie giggled a bit at that.
"Yeah, don't worry."
"Actually," he said, hesitating for a moment as he thought about it. "I don't really mind that too much - I just don't want anybody to hurt you like - like that."
Selphie's expression went to a sort of deadpan for a moment, as if making the transition from a joking face to a more serious one came in stages.
"Thanks, Zell. Really. But I promise I won't let that happen. Irvine might not be easy to get rid of, but he changes focus so quickly you'd hardly notice, by the look of things.. What's important is we keep an eye on Rinoa."
"If he tries anything like that," Zell said, clearly perfectly serious, "he'll be finding out just how much that shotgun *won't* help him. We'll just keep it from becoming an issue."
"We'll need to," Selphie agreed, equally as serious. "We need him around for this to work."
"That's the main reason I didn't give him a black eye earlier," the short fighter admitted. "Man, he gets on my nerves."
"I don't know what to tell you," Selphie sighed. "We all know ignoring it doesn't work- especially when you don't know which of your orders to follow."
"Both," Zell shrugged. "He's not as bad as Seifer was, just hit a nerve."
"For now, we can't do anything," Selphie repeated with a slight frown. "But even if we could, what would it be?"
~~~===~~~
Commandant Martine finished giving his briefing to the arrivals from Balamb outside Galbadia Garden. He handed an envelope to their apparent leader, and waited as the young man read them.
"Details of the mission are enclosed in these official orders. Any questions?"
"The orders say by means of 'a sniper'," he pointed out. "We have no one with that skill.
Martine nodded - he'd expected as much. "Don't worry about it. Let me introduce an elite sharpshooter from Galbadia Garden." He turned to the young man sitting off in the distance, and shouted towards him. "Kinneas! Irvine Kinneas!"
Irvine stood up lazily and strolled over to the group, his shotgun hanging from his hip.
"This is Irvine Kinneas," Martine explained. "He will be your sharpshooter. Leave whenever you're ready. Failure is not an option." Martine started back into the Garden, oblivious to Irvine idly pantomiming a shot at the back of his head.
"Bang," Irvine observed with a slight smirk as the door closed behind his CO. The others looked at him a little uneasily, before Quistis decided to break the uneasy silence.
"What's our mission," she asked Squall.
"Our next mission.." He paused for a moment, before continuing. "This is no ordinary mission. It's a direct order from both Balamb and Galbadia Garden. We're to. assassinate the sorceress. We're to shoot her from afar. Kinneas will be our sharpshooter. We're to support Kinneas to our fullest. Should the sniper fail, we are to attack head on."
"Thanks for the support," Irvine chuckled. "But I never miss my target."
"Eliminate the sorceress," Squall shrugged. "That's our order. We're going to head to the capital of Galbadia, Deling City. There we'll meet up with General Caraway to go over the details for the plan. Let's get going."
~~~===~~~
Quistis, Selphie, and Rinoa watched as the three men in their unit started off towards the train station.
"So," Quistis asked quietly. "What do the two of you think of Mister Kinneas?"
"I-I don't know," Rinoa admitted. "He seems a bit strange.."
"Aw, c'mon, you guys," Selphie protested. "He might be an okay guy."
"You're right, Selphie," Quistis agreed. "But still, Rinoa's right - there's something about him that seems a little off."
"I guess you're right," Selphie admitted. "There's definitely something a bit unusual, but that doesn't necessarily mean much."
"Well, anyway, there's nothing we can do about it for now," Rinoa pointed out.
"Right," Quistis nodded, as the three of them started towards the station on their own.
"Is it just me," she asked a few moments later, "or does something seem off about the whole mission?"
"Come to think of it," Rinoa began, only to be cut off.
"Heeey, you're right," Selphie agreed, wrinkling her nose.
"Good, I'm not the only one," Quistis sighed. "I don't think we should say anything about it around Squall, not yet at least, but it doesn't seem right that we'd be sent to do something like this."
"I don't know about that.. What if it's a trap," Rinoa asked uncertainly.
"We'll have to be on the lookout for that, but the main reason I don't think we should tell Squall is that I don't think we'd make much progress with him at this point. We'll probably be better off raising the issue once we have more than gut feelings to go on."
"Knowing Squall, that's probably smart," Selphie agreed.
"I. guess so."
"Do you know anything that would be more proof, Rinoa," Quistis asked seriously. "If you've got some reason to believe this is a trap, we should know about it."
"N-No," Rinoa replied hastily. "Nothing."
The veteran SeeD frowned slightly at that, but decided to let it slide for now. "Just tell us if you notice anything we didn't - discreetly, of course," she amended quickly.
"All right."
"C'mon, we gotta hurry," Selphie shouted. "The train leaves in ten!" With that, the three started running the rest of the way to the station, reaching it just a few moments behind Squall and the others.
Selphie poked her head into the train first, to find Squall putting a ticket in the small slot by the door.
"Hee! You caught on," she declared happily before slipping away to her usual spot.
A polite, cheerful voice cut in over the intercom. "This train, bound for Deling City, will be departing shortly," it explained, just before the train rumbled to life and started down the tracks.
"This is the only train bound for Deling City anyway," Rinoa sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Hmm.," Irvine mused, only half-paying attention as he watched Selphie walk out. "Perhaps it's fate?" With that, he walked out, following Selphie into the next car.
The slender brunette failed to notice him for a while, and simply leaned against the window's ledge and looked out the window.
After awhile, she began to sing to herself.
"Train, train," she hummed. "Take us to the future.."
Irvine just leaned up next to her, listening for a few minutes.
"Where it goes. nobody knows.."
Eventually, he decided he had to speak up. "Catchy tune," he observed. "Make it up yourself?"
Selphie started, but regained her composure quickly.
"Y-Yeah."
"Thought so," he chuckled. "You're not bad. Why'd you become a SeeD?"
Selphie wore a pained expression for a split second after the question was asked, but her typical 'sunshine' broke out in such a rush that the saddened look seemed almost an illusion.
"I dunno.. I just did, I guess."
The lapse in her demeanor wasn't missed by the gunslinger, but he decided to ignore it for the time being.
"Destiny," he asked idly.
"Could be," Selphie shrugged. "I never really thought about it."
"Never think about why you're where you are when you are," he asked. "About why you meet who you do?"
"No," Selphie began. "But it is odd. I only just met Squall, Zell, and Quistis a couple weeks ago, and you and Rinoa pretty much just now. And then this.."
That caught him by surprise, though he tried to hide it as well as he could. "Pretty big mission," he said, nodding to cover for the moment of surprise. "At least it's pretty short term. Of course, that does mean we'll all be heading back to our usual jobs fairly soon - not going to be working together all that long."
"Usual work's no easier than this for me, at the moment," Selphie remarked. "Of course, if the mission succeeds, Timber will probably get liberated somewhere along the line."
"Then it's time to head back home and wait for them to find some other job they need to pull you out of mothballs for," he said with a half-chuckle. "Ever think about doing something else?"
"Like," Selphie challenged, though not in an offended way.
"Oh, going solo," he shrugged. "Maybe just finding a job that doesn't involve putting large holes in things that didn't have them before. Something that didn't involve a Garden."
"I like this just fine," Selphie shrugged in return. "Sure, it can be dangerous, but."
"There's nothing that isn't dangerous," he chuckled. "Even my job, despite what some of the grunts might say. But there are other things. Sometimes it'd be nice to work with the same people for more than one or two jobs, after all."
Selphie looked surprised.
"I-I guess I never though of it that way," she admitted. "I mean. we're a team. All of us. Squall doesn't show it, but even he knows it.."
"More something I have to deal with," he shrugged. "Nobody likes having a sniper around, unless they need something to go boom far away."
"I guess snipers don't have the best reputation," Selphie admitted. "But then, people never try and put themselves in a sniper's shoes, either."
"Not usually," he agreed. "Not unless they're trying to stop one. Still - gets lonely once in awhile."
"Aren't there even anymore snipers at Galbadia? Or is it something people don't often take up.?"
"Not really - most of the people who want to get into it can't handle it, for one reason or another. Besides, sometimes the people you want to be with aren't the same as you."
".Oh."
"You know," he smiled, "it's nice talking to somebody who tries to understand."
"It's the least I can do," she shrugged. "Besides, you'd be surprised just how much I can relate.."
"Like I said," he chuckled. "Sometime you meet the right person at the right time."
"Yeah, seems like it."
The door to the car opened almost silently as Irvine thought about what to say next, not noticed by either of them.
"Selphie... We're destined to be together," he said suddenly.
At that, Selphie seemed more than startled.
"Y-Yeah right," she blurted, going with her first instinct. At that point, she noticed the figure by the door and drew in a sharp breath. It was exhaled in a shaky sigh, though, when she noticed it was only Squall.
"A sigh of love," he half-joked, hoping he hadn't just screwed up too badly.
"N-No," she replied slowly, looking at her feet.
It was then he noticed the newcomer - Squall.
/"Damn,"/ he thought to himself, turning to leave. "Pardon me," he said, making his way back into the car and sitting down, trying to sort out what to do next. As he sat, he became aware of somebody watching him. Looking up, he noticed Zell half-glaring at him from across the car.
/"Well, that could explain a bit about Selphie,"/ the gunslinger thought.
"You have something you'd like to say," he asked, meeting Zell's eyes.
".Nah," Zell shrugged after a moment, turning his head slightly. "Just thinking."
"The ride shouldn't take much longer," Rinoa remarked, standing on her tiptoes and looking out the window on the door. "We're near ho- Deling."
"You from around here," Irvine asked curiously - he would have thought that somebody from this area would have gone to Galbadia Garden.
/"Though it would explain the way she moves - not like most SeeD's."/
"Um, no. I just came here a lot with my family on vacation," Rinoa stated slightly awkwardly. "That place is pretty much a giant slum, anyway."
"It has some good points," Irvine smiled. "Maybe I could show you a few you missed after this job."
Rinoa was about to frown, but recalled Selphie's insistence that he might not be as bad as he seemed.
"Maybe."
"If you know where to look, there's plenty there that can make you forget the slums," he continued. "Of course, unless you live around here, you usually miss half of them hitting the main tourist attractions. I'm sure there'd be something there that'd catch your interest."
"Maybe," she repeated. "All those political places are boring, though, and those are what people go to see.."
"Trust me, I have better taste than that," he chuckled. "Even if Martine'd put me on report for a month if he caught me there."
"'There?'"
"Anywhere that isn't a usual tourist trap," he shrugged. "Doesn't think most of them are the places SeeD should be hanging out, even if most of them don't care."
"Oh," Rinoa replied simply, at a loss for words.
"Not your type of place either," he asked, ignoring the increasingly dark look he was getting from Zell, though it did confuse him a bit.
"It's not that, it definitely sounds more interesting than what I've seen.."
He stood up and moved over next to her, apparently looking out through the windows. "Figure you'll be busy after we finish the job?"
"I don't know - depends on how things work out," she shrugged. "I might be, or I might not be."
"And just what might convince you to be," he asked, letting one arm slip down between them.
"Nothing's gonna 'convince' me," Rinoa began to explain. "I have to liberate Timber- the Forest Owls have to."
"So you're not SeeD," he observed, his interest going slightly beyond the nights after the mission for a few minutes.
"Doesn't matter," Rinoa replied quickly, in a cross between a 'mind your own business' and a pleading tone. Irvine's attitude seemed to change almost immediately.
"If we're going on a job like this with a civilian, it might be good to know about it ahead of time," he pointed out.
"It's nothing you need to worry about," Rinoa was more firm this time.
"Look," he sighed. "I just want to know if I'm going to have to watch somebody else's back more than usual while we're on this job."
"I can take care of myself," Rinoa informed him with slight disdain, turning away.
"Rinoa," he said in an exasperated tone, following her towards the corner just as the door opened and Squall walked in.
"Irvine Kinneas," Quistis scolded him, now that she actually had a legitimate reason to. "You're playing a major role in this mission. Now behave yourself!"
"No one understands me...," he sighed. "Sharpshooters are loners by nature. We hone our instincts, pour our whole being into a single bullet. The pressure of the moment... An instant of tension... That's what... I have to face alone." A slightly haunted expression came into his eyes as he turned.
"...It's not easy. So like.. Just do me a favor, and let me be! You get my drift?"
Zell sprang to his feet, pounding the floor of the car with his foot as he forcibly restrained himself from tying into the young man in front of him.
A voice came over the intercom a moment later. "Err, there was no damage to the train from that, err, minor vibration. I, uh... repeat.. Err, there was no damage to the train from that, err, minor vibration.."
"What's going on," Selphie popped in seconds after the speaker clicked off. "What was that?"
"Personality conflict," Irvine muttered, turning on his heel and stalking off towards the sleeper car.
"Creep couldn't take a hint from anyone," Zell muttered, dropping out of the combat stance he'd slipped into.
"Zell's foot met the train floor," Rinoa clarified with a tiny laugh.
"Zell," Selphie scolded, glaring at him. "Really."
"Yeah, well," Zell said, putting his hand behind his head a little sheepishly. "I wasn't really planning on doing that."
"Well, you did," Selphie continued. "Acting on impulse like that could getcha into trouble, you know."
"Off-hand," Quistis observed. "I'd say it did. Just try to think things through a bit better in the future, Zell - we've all made mistakes like that before." With that, Zell sighed and slumped back into the corner, returning to his brooding from before..
~~~===~~~
Irvine flopped down on one of the bunks on the train, still muttering to himself.
"Dammit - why don't they remember anything!"
Not a one of them seemed to remember him. Not that he couldn't understand that - between the years passing and the fact that they'd all spent time around a number of other people, he could see the faces blending. Of course - he remembered them. Maybe there was something to those rumors he'd heard about the GF's.
And now they probably wouldn't trust him as far as they could throw him. Not that he could blame them - this was *really* not his day.
"Matron," he said softly, acutely aware of the role he had to play in all this. "I can't do it - not to you."
He could have killed Martine for giving him this job - the bastard *knew* that "Sorceress Edea" was the woman who'd raised him. It was like some sort of twisted joke.
At least the rest of them might not have to live with the outcome - wouldn't realize what they'd just done. Cid though - this had to be eating him up inside. Just like it was eating him up - killing a woman was bad enough, but killing one who was as kind and loving as Matron Edea had been..
But she was the Sorceress of Galbadia now, not acting at all like the person he remembered. If he didn't take the shot - didn't kill her - then Squall and the others would have to try to do it hand-to-hand, and that *would* be a joke - a group of SeeD's, rookies at that, up against a skilled sorceress. They couldn't have been SeeD's for long - Quistis maybe, but not the rest of them. And Rinoa was a civilian, on top of it.
How many lives could be forfeit if he missed?
And why was he trying to find some way to make Edea's come out ahead in the balance?
"A single moment of tension. What a joke.."
~~~===~~~
It was late at night when Selphie awoke. Really, really late. It was so dark, she couldn't see her hand two inches away from her face. With a sigh, she shifted, trying to get comfortable again. Unfortunately, she never had been able to sleep well in beds that she wasn't used to. Her eyes adjusted to the dark eventually, though, and it was then she noticed the absence of Zell, who'd been on the couch, apparently not caring where he slept, which he apparently wasn't doing anyway.
With a sigh, Selphie rolled to her feet.
/I'm not gonna get back to sleep anyway,/ she decided, not bothering to find her boots and creeping out of the room, barefooted. She found the short blond leaning against the wall, staring out at the passing scenery of the very early morning.
"Zell," she called quietly. "Whacha doing?"
He turned slightly, startled by her question. "Thinking," he shrugged. "Sorry if I woke you up on my way out."
"Nope, just don't sleep well in beds I'm not used to," she replied with a shrug of her own. "What about?"
"I screwed up earlier," he replied, frowning. "Big time. Then there was that trouble with Irvine.."
"I didn't mean that, you know," Selphie said, recalling how quickly he'd become silent at Quistis' mention of the incident in Timber. "And Irvine. I don't know what happened, but I'm gonna guess he wouldn't quite accept that someone didn't wanna talk about something."
"Yeah - that's not what got me pissed off, though," he shrugged. "Kept trying to talk Rinoa into heading out with him after this mission, wouldn't take the hint when she tried turning him down."
"Is that so," Selphie mused quietly.
"Yeah," Zell said, a half-growl creeping into his voice. "Should have stopped after she said she wasn't interested in the tourist traps."
"With what he said to me, he shouldn't have said anything like that to her at all," Selphie half-pointed-out, not quite so matter of fact, if only because she knew that only Irvine, herself, and Squall had seen the first time.
"What did he say to you," Zell asked, turning to look at her hesitantly, almost like he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer.
"Honestly, I don't remember too much other than that he wouldn't drop it," Selphie hesitated. "Left when he noticed Squall, though."
"Hitting on you too," Zell half-asked. "That's just nuts, going after both of you - that fast too."
"Quistis mentioned that she thought there was something odd about him," Selphie admitted. "But she figured we should keep quiet.. You know how Squall can be."
"Yeah," he chuckled. "Way too serious for his own good, or anybody else's. So, uhm. I'm guessing you turned him down?"
Selphie giggled a bit at that.
"Yeah, don't worry."
"Actually," he said, hesitating for a moment as he thought about it. "I don't really mind that too much - I just don't want anybody to hurt you like - like that."
Selphie's expression went to a sort of deadpan for a moment, as if making the transition from a joking face to a more serious one came in stages.
"Thanks, Zell. Really. But I promise I won't let that happen. Irvine might not be easy to get rid of, but he changes focus so quickly you'd hardly notice, by the look of things.. What's important is we keep an eye on Rinoa."
"If he tries anything like that," Zell said, clearly perfectly serious, "he'll be finding out just how much that shotgun *won't* help him. We'll just keep it from becoming an issue."
"We'll need to," Selphie agreed, equally as serious. "We need him around for this to work."
"That's the main reason I didn't give him a black eye earlier," the short fighter admitted. "Man, he gets on my nerves."
"I don't know what to tell you," Selphie sighed. "We all know ignoring it doesn't work- especially when you don't know which of your orders to follow."
"Both," Zell shrugged. "He's not as bad as Seifer was, just hit a nerve."
"For now, we can't do anything," Selphie repeated with a slight frown. "But even if we could, what would it be?"