Chapter 8:Blood and Tears.
The last chapter was indeed wierd. Chances are, this chapter will be wierder still (I just rewatched 'The Matrix' and decided this fic needs some fighting!) But as well as kickass kung fu and magic action you'll also get Ellone going through super ultra emotional turmoil! Yay! And of course the usual spontanious insane conversation! (Yes, if you haven't guessed I make this fic up as I go along. You think I planned that 'Captain Pink Bunny' conversation? Nope! it just happened!) AND a new character! Yes! The final member of the new six is introduced! I hope you enjoy reading him as much as I enjoy writing him!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zell's eyes widened.
"Woah! There's tonnes of them!"
He dropped into a low, wide fighting stance and drew his right hand to his hip ready to unleash a punch. His trainer squeaked slightly as it rubbed on the damp tiles.
The Grendel hissed at him, rounded it's heavy shoulders and pounced. Zell, quick as lightning, shifted his centre of gravity to the side so that the monster missed him by inches, merely fluttering the boy's hair. Then before it could land, his ready fist exploded into a powerful uppercut. There was a crack of breaking bones and hot blood came from the creature's open mouth. Zell brought the hand back and wiped his face, simultaniously slamming his foot into the Grendel's stomach and thowing it into the nearest wall. It landed with a sickly crunch and lay still.
The other waiting monsters looked at Zell, then at the dead Grendel, then back at Zell. Then they ran.
"Ohhhhh yeah!" The young SeeD jumped and did a couple of quick punches at the air. "No problem." He turned around to walk away and froze. There was a man behind him. "Uh, Hi."
"Hmph."
"Heh, I thought I was the only one here. So, uh, who are you?"
The stranger shrugged.
"...Well I'm Zell. Zell Dincht. Pleased to meet you." He held forward a hand to shake, which the other youth ignored.
"Zell Dincht?" He drawled. "I thought you was older."
The young man was tall, but stood slouched. His face, or what could be seen of his face was heavy jawed and bony, his eyes and brow were hidden behind his very thick fringe of black hair, poking out from beneath a woollen beanie hat. His clothes were as thick, heavy and lethargic as he seemed to be, a grey sweatshirt and baggy trousers that dragged on the floor. He wasn't fat, but there was a feeling of weight about him, as if his bones were made of iron, the silvery dark stubble on his craggy chin enhanced the image. He was like a robot from a retro b-movie, big, slow, heavy and unstoppable.
"You've heard of me?" Asked Zell.
"Aye." He said flatly. His accent was thick Timber country farming dialect.
"Cool." There was a long pause which Zell felt obliged to fill. "You know, it's getting dark. We should go find some shelter." He waited a few minutes for some resonse from the young man. "So should we get going?"
"Aye." Answered the man. Then there was another long pause.
"....So, are you coming?"
"Aye." He replied, but showed no sign of moving.
Zell shugged and began to walk. After a few paces he stopped and looked behind him to see the robot like man trudging behind him. He suppressed the urge to laugh, the guy even walked like a robot, his legs were stiff and his footfalls as heavy as falling anvils, he moved slowly at first, gaining momentum as he moved and eventually walking at the same pace as his blonde companion.
"So...what's your name?"
"Tim. Tim Bob."
"Nice to meet you Tin Bot...uh, I mean, Tim Bob." Zell had the feeling that he would have to make a conscious effort not to call his new friend 'Tin Bot.' regardless of how well it suited him. "So, where are you from?"
"La'l farm near Timber."
"Do you work on the farm?"
"Aye. Killin' monsters. Do freelance mercen'ry work an' all."
"Hey, cool. I'm a mercenary too. From Balamb Garden."
"Aye. You'n killed t'sorceress."
"Wow, news travels fast! Guess I'm pretty famous now!"
Zell was looking for somewhere less damp and a bit warmer. But presently he spotted a fire in the distance and a familliar figure close to it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"How do you know my name?" Asked Squall quietly.
"It's really you! ...Is this a dream?"
"Who are you?"
"I...I'm not sure, when I was in Garden a little while ago, I was Simeon Rego. But I'm different here. And you're different here too, it's wierd."
"I'm different?"
"Well, where I come from, you're older. But here you look just like on the photographs after you defeated the Sorceress."
"You're from the future?"
"Is this your time?"
"I don't know. It isn't yours?"
"I don't think so, at least, I don't know what this place is. And I think I'm me, but I think I'm in the body of my older self." Simeon watched Squall raise a quizzical eyebrow. "I'm actually fourteen, but here I'm a few years older."
"...I see." Squall covered his forehead for a second, thinking. "Before you fell unconcious, you were in a trance or something, you said you were looking for your sorceress, and that you had failed as a knight. Does that make any sense to you?"
"No, I'm not a knight so far as I know. And the only sorceresses I know are Rinoa and Ellone, I mean, the older Ellone of course."
"The older Ellone?"
"Oh wait! Of course you won't know that! I know two people called Ellone you see, or rather, I know one and I know of another, I've never met sorceress Ellone, but the younger Ellone is...uh your daughter."
"My daughter? ...Guess the name figures." Squall frowned. "What's she like?" He asked, his curiosity aroused.
"Hmm, well, she's clever and quiet, fierce when she's angry, but I think she's a nicer person than she acts sometimes. I saw her smiling when she was with her parents and then I knew..."
"Knew what?"
"..I'm not sure. I guess I just decided I wanted to know more about her."
"Sounds like you have a crush on her." He laughed, then suddenly looked straight up, a thought had just struck him. He had called his sorceress 'Leonhart'.
"And you're sure she's not a sorceress?"
"Not as far as I know. But she is very strong, so perhaps..."
"HEY! SQUALL!" A familiar voice made them turn their heads. Irvine grunted angrily and looked up, then shifted his hat so he could see.
"Darn it Zell, can't you just let a guy sleep?"
"Well I'm glad to see you too Irvine. Geez."
"Zell. Have you seen any of the others?"
"Nope, picked up my friend Tin Bot- Uh, Tim Bob here though." replied Zell, Tim Bob grunted in greeting. "...Who's this guy?"
"I'm Simeon. Pleased to meet you."
"Nice to know somebody is. Pleased to meet you too man." they shook hands. "You Trabian?"
"Yes that's right. From Trabia Garden originally."
"Thought so, you talk like Selphie. So anyway, what should we do about being here?"
"We're staying here for tonight." Said Squall. "We'll continue searching for answers in the morning."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ellone sat by herself in a small sheltered corner. She had spent a short time crying, but she was done now and felt better. She watched the moths flitting around the torch she had laid on the floor.
"Um."
She looked up. It was Rinoa.
"Sylvie said you might be hungry." She knelt down with a couple of SeeD ration sticks and a container of water in her hands.
"Thankyou."
"You're a sorceress aren't you?" She said. Ellone wanted to look away, those brown sparkling eyes were too familiar, as was the way they seemed to penetrate into her thoughts.
"Did Sylvie tell you that?"
"Yeah. I'm not psychic or anything." Rinoa laughed. "I've never met another sorceress who wasn't trying to kill me."
"What about Ellone?"
"Ellone's a sorceress? I didn't know." She fiddled with her chain, "how do you know her?"
"I'd rather not talk about it."
"Quistis said you came from the future, but I think she was hiding something from me. I hate when people do that. But I guess it's for my own good right?"
"I think even telling Quistis was a mistake. But she probably would have worked it out anyway. Believe me, you're better off not knowing too much about your own future, even if it's good."
"You sound like somebody who knows."
"Well here I am in the body of my adult self, and I know this is what I'm gonna be like when I grow up, I can't change it, and I can't dream about what I'll be like when I'm older, because I know the truth, I won't be all that different. I'll probably keep on making the same mistakes over and over my whole life."
Rinoa tilted her head a degree. She seemed to empaphise.
"You seem like a nice person to me. It's good to meet a sorceress who isn't crazy or being controlled by a crazy sorceress. Would you...like to be friends?"
Sylvie, watching from the shadows saw Ellone smile. The effect was strange because her mouth was so similar to Rinoa's that they looked like mirror images of each other. Ellone's hair was a little lighter, her eyes were blue, her eyesbrows thinner and straighter and her nose was not so petite. But the resemblance was still striking. Rinoa laughed, breaking the little silent moment.
"Well?"
"Yes. We'll be friends Rinoa."
"Friends forever, even after we're out of here okay?"
"We'll be in different times."
"That doesn't matter! I won't forget, I promise. You can't be from all that far into the future if Quistis is your instructor. So unless I'm dead or something then I'll remember and we'll still be friends."
('This is strange, I'm making friends with my mother. She probably won't remember when this is all over. My mother will go off to Timber again and leave me all alone. And I'll just have the memory of Rinoa.')
"You look sad. I will try my best to remember you know?"
"It's not that...It's...nothing."
"You look like Squall when you do that. Oh, I hope we find him, I miss him so much!"
Ellone looked pained and stood up, breaking eye contact.
"I should go back to the others, They'll wonder where I've been."
"Oh, okay." Said Rinoa, puzzled and concerned for her new friend.
Ellone walked a few feet, then stopped in front of a doorway.
"Sylvie. Move out of the way."
"What? How did you know I was here? Did you do that magic sensing thing?"
"No. I just figured you'd be listening in on me, and where else would you stand but right in the doorway?"
"He hee, you're good!"
"You seem more cheerful."
"Well, I feel better now, I did just what you said, and it works. Selphie's a fun person you know."
"I bet she is. I ought to go get aquainted with her."
"Okay, swapsies, I want to talk some more with Rinoa."
('Friend swapping, typical Sylvie, life's all a game.')
Ellone walked to the campfire. The heat coming from it was comforting, as was the presense of her two instructors, though they were strange childish versions of themselves.
"Oh, you're back."
"Hey! I haven't got to know you properly yet! I'm Selphie, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." Ellone took a seat on the floor next to Selphie. "Aren't you cold?"
"Not really, have you ever been to Trabia?"
"Yeah, just once. I see what you mean, this place isn't nearly as cold as Trabia garden basketball pitch at night."
"Trabia Garden?! You mean...It's gonna be rebuilt in the future?"
"That's right. They finished it when I was very young, I went to the grand opening. That's when I was in Trabia."
"That is sooo cool! The future's fine with me if Trabia Garden is back. But I don't get why I teach at Balamb not Trabia."
"I'd rather not talk about the future."
"Okay, but I have one question to ask."
"Hmm?"
"Is...Sylvie my daughter?"
"Yes."
Selphie looked unusually serious for a moment and nodded.
"...Is Irvy her father?"
"Yes."
"It's wierd, I don't know if I should be happy or freaked out."
"I think you should be happy. Sylvie's a great person."
Quistis suddenly sat up, she looked as if an idea had just hit her.
('You can almost see the lightbulb above her head, what's she going to say?')
"I've got it! That's how you're different from Squall! You actually answer truthfully when people ask what you think!"
"Hey! Yeah, that's a Rinoa thing!" Said Selphie exitedly, "Only Rinoa says what she thinks even if you don't ask her. But it's still really cool!"
('I don't understand what's so wonderful about it, so I'm honest about my opinions, so what?')
"Rinoa's frankness and Squall's discretion combined in one person. How strange."
"...Do you think Sylvie is like me?"
"She has your eyes."
"No, not like that, I mean, like, her personality and stuff."
"Yeah, she's cheerful, a bit of a dreamer, idealistic and a Romanticist. But she's deep too, much deeper than she seems and really smart too."
"You really respect her don't you?"
"...She's my best friend. It's hard to come out and say it, but she is."
"Well, everything's cool with me then! Hee hee! This is really exiting! I love adventures!"
Something Ellone had written in her letter came back to her. 'It wouldn't be an adventure.' She looked at her two to be Instructors. ('I wonder, is it possible to inherit personality traits from people who you're not related to?')
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile Sylvie was sitting with Rinoa.
"So Ella's your best friend?"
"Yeah, took her seventeen years to say it."
"She's always quiet like that then? I'm glad, I thought she didn't like me."
"If she didn't like you, she wouldn't have bothered to talk at all. It's just Ella, you get used to her. She can be really kind when she wants to be, and when she's nice, you always know she's telling the truth, because she never lies."
"I'm concerned about something...You guys are from the future right?" Asked Rinoa tentatively, "Well, Ella, she's a lot like Squall..."
"I'm sorry Rinoa, I can't tell you that stuff. Please don't make me."
"But-"
"-Ella made me swear I wouldn't tell anybody anything. I'm sure you know what the truth is without asking me." Sylvie stood up and looked away. "I'm sorry."
Rinoa looked at the torch on the floor. She knew what the truth was, she was sure of it. Squall would leave her, Ella was his and Quistis' child wasn't she? That was why they wouldn't tell her. Of course, she couldn't let them know that she knew. She'd have to hope it wasn't the truth and be a friend to Ella as well as she could.