Thanks Caleb Nova for the review- I admit I hate making mistakes so I'll try to put a little more effort into this chapter- plus I'll try to make it more exciting. I suppose the reason I'm not getting many reviews is because I'm not jumping into the story like most other authors and it isn't very good right now. I will stop pestering for reviews- I haven't updated for a while what with studying etc.
Theories
When -if ever- will life be kind?
Is it possible to halt change?
Self awareness brings new reflections-
Not always pleasant to discover.
When may I have a reprieve?
Squall opened his eyes reluctantly- he had a headache and it was making him dizzy. He sat up, carefully as he felt any sudden movement might cause him to be sick on the floor- of the… cell he was in. That was strange- he looked around the room which reminded him of the cell he had been for attempting to assassinate Edea in d-district prison.
He searched in his memories for some idea of where he was- he remembered a dark space where he had been tied up and had to listen to half-whispers from his captors- yes he was sure now- he was a prisoner and he had been drugged. That would explain the headache at least- he had never been known to drink much. He had a low limit for alcohol and getting drunk and not being able to control his actions had always prevented his having too much in one go during his life so far.
But where had he been? He could only suppose he had been to a bar- it wasn't like he had drinks at the hotel, they weren't allowed in the rooms. Anyway he would only have been taken to his room if he had been drunk at the bar of the hotel.
Another memory entered his mind, Tehn- the attacker- they were linked and it slowly dawned in his head that Tehn was the attacker. He remembered a lot now, Tehn boasting about being the one to attack Rinoa. The soldiers who had been at the bar, skipping a shift he had believed at first but they had been waiting until the effects of the drug the nervous barman put in his drink to kick in before they knocked him out. Evidently Galbadian soldiers thought a single SeeD could fight six soldiers without a weapon.
Maybe if I were Zell I could have Squall considered, but then again, even Zell would have had a job fighting if he had been drugged. These circumstances lead Squall to consider that maybe whoever was holding him prisoner was not very organised, they had certainly left a lot to chance- or else they thought capturing him would be a bonus point in their plan. Whatever it was.
He looked around the cell for any hope of escape, there seemed to be none. The walls were thick as he tapped on them with his knuckles -not really understanding the point of the action to start with- in the hope of finding out how thick they were, his mind was becoming sharper and the effects of the drug was wearing off. He looked around, the floor was stone, polished and smooth, and the walls were badly painted bricks which he would not be able to break. At least not without his Gunblade- which he didn't have. He had left it at his hotel and even if he had had it when he'd been captured they would have confiscated it.
He looked around his cell- the room was not large, about the same size as his room at Garden and a small bed he had been lying on was little more than a board with a sheet stretched across it. But that didn't matter, he wasn't looking for any sign of luxury and he saw a tray of what he supposed was a meal with a dirty beaker of water beside it. It didn't look fit for an animal to eat and he kicked it away irritably.
This attracted the attention of the guard. The beaker made a surprisingly loud noise when kicked against the wall and Squall sat down on the bed expecting the guard to tell him to shut up or something.
But the guard looked though the thin slit in the door and laughed, 'Good, you're awake. I'll tell Tehn." Squall felt a stab of hatred for the man called Tehn who obviously was of some importance in this organisation and wondered what Rinoa was doing, He wasn't too worried for himself, he was a SeeD and was trained to deal with imprisonment better than an ordinary civilian.
He remembered back to a month or so before when Headmaster Cid had been discussing the leadership of Garden, to make sure Garden was not exploited in any way there was an agreement that if a group should capture any of the people in charge of Garden ransom would not be paid and the best measures were taken to ensure that morale of students would not be effected by losing their commander or their headmaster by appointing capable people to take charge of Garden if the need arose.
A noise alerted Squall's attention to who he thought was Tehn but instead there were two more soldiers and Squall looked dazedly around at the security- such a lot for an unorganised group, he had little or no chance of escaping now.
They kicked him as a signal to stand up and he stood up dazedly. The alcohol had not worn off completely and as soon as he stepped through the doorway the soldiers, armed with machine guns indicated which way they would be heading. They marched him through a network of corridors which obviously they didn't fully know yet as there was much consultation at times as to which turning they should take. The corridors were much like the cell he had been in, no windows but many lights and a disgusting shade of green paint covering the walls.
The doors were numbered and labelled in places- but the guard had a map which he kept pulling out of his pocket and consulting. It was a large building and he wondered about where he was. But he had only a little while to think of all the possible places as they reached a door and a series of numbers were pressed slowly, slowing Squall to see them and memorise them. "Damn codes." The guard muttered and opened the door, a large room behind it.
The walls were bright blue in contrast to the dirty green and the lighting in here was brighter and cleared than in the corridors. But it was not this that made Squall nearly cry out in surprise.
At the side of the room, her wrists and ankles strapped to the chair she was sitting, half lying in was Ellone.
~~~~~~~~~~
"What did you do to her?" Squall demanded- which earned a nasty kick from the soldier on his right- he was facing a scientist now who had arrived a few minutes after Squall attempted to reach Ellone on the other side of the room. The scientist walked to the side of the room to some computers and tapped some keys. He finally turned his attention to Squall.
"We have not done any long term damage to her. She is fine." Squall recognised the accent as the distinct accent of Estharians; even Laguna was getting a slight accent after living in the country for so long. The scientist continued. "We put a sleep spell on her- she isn't used to magic so the spell is working especially well."
"Why is she here?" Squall demanded.
"In due time. It would make no sense to reveal what we intend to do just yet." Squall was frustrated by the reply and glanced at Ellone again. She was asleep and now he saw the usual symptoms of a sleep spell which his anger had not let him see to begin with. His mind began to formulate plans for escape but none of them would work with the guards everywhere. He hated to admit it but they were stuck- it wasn't a case of a film where the allies would come and rescue their friends in this sort of situation. He didn't know where they were and the place was overflowing with armed soldiers.
"Where are we then?"
"That I can tell you. To a certain extent anyway. We are on the continent of Centra." Accompanied by a smile, this they both knew was useless information, Squall had flown on the Ragnarok with his friends over Centra. The whole continent was a mass of brown and grey where the grass refused to grow and only tough, resistant trees grew in groups in the few fertile spots of soil. The continent had been destroyed by the lunar cry years before, there used to be a great civilization on the land but now it was destroyed. The few living Centrans had fled to what was now known as Dollet and the number of cities had fallen greatly which overcrowded those remaining.
But there was a slight hope that wherever they were would be conspicuous so that Garden might be able to raid this place. The thought simmered in his mind until he realised how many SeeDs would be needed to rescue two people. It would be far too great a loss of life for the order to be considered.
The scientist walked up to Ellone and checked her pulse. "She should wake up naturally soon, but we'll take the sleep spell off shall we?" he raised his right hand- only physical attacks would wake her up right now and he brought his hand on her face.
She woke up startled- by her location, the disorientation of sleep and the pain in her cheek. She tried to lift a hand to soothe her face but her hands were bound to the arms of the chair and she was immobilised.
"Where am I?" She looked up and saw Squall and the soldiers who were holding guns to his head. Squall suspected they weren't intending to shoot him but to Ellone who was unused to the whole situation it looked as if they were going to shoot at any moment. "No!" She cried and turned her head pleading silently to the scientist who watched impassively.
"Ellone, it's okay." Squall insisted in the hope of alleviating her worry and stopping her making any unnecessary bargains with the Estharian. "They want something and shooting me won't help them."
"You would be right." The scientist ordered the soldiers to lower their weapons. They looked disappointed. "You two are going to be the means of ridding the world of the sorceress forever."
There was silence for a moment. Then Squall laughed, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You missed something right? We went to the future to fight Ultimecia- doesn't that say you won't succeed?" The scientist looked annoyed. Ellone turned even paler, she looked as though she was going to faint.
"No- we have several theories about how she managed to do that- but we won't explain them to you- you wouldn't understand them. But we do believe that this way we will be free from the sorceress with the exclusion of Ultimecia of course."
Squall felt disbelief- of everything he had seen or done nothing compared to this idea. He lived in a world of magic where the unusual mixed in with ordinary day to day life but this beat even that. That these people could presume to even come up with an idea this far fetched was amazing.
He wanted to ask about Ellone- how had she been captured? Laguna would surely provided security for her? He loved Ellone like nobody else- except for his own mother and he wasn't getting into that series of bitter thoughts right now. Another thing he wondered was why they wanted Ellone in the first place but he wouldn't ask- at least not with Ellone here- she might become more frightened.
That was a factor, she was afraid- she had been brought up to expect capture- and had been taken hostage once. She was always in danger and she had grown up expecting that, but now she had no idea how her power would assist in losing the sorceress powers forever- she didn't know what to expect.
"Why am I here?" Squall asked a more subtle question, which might lead to the reason for Ellone's capture too but he decided to risk it. He was a SeeD; admittedly the commander but his position would provide no advantage to these men.
"Don't you understand?" A familiar voice heralded the return of Tehn, now in a white lab coat like the other scientist. Squall saw him and wanted to punch his face- the emotion surprising him. He did not usually feel so strongly about someone. Even Seifer could not provoke this much hatred in him.
"No." He was back to single syllable answers. They had replaced his usual silence which he used in response to most people before the war. His relationship with Rinoa had changed him a bit but he wasn't completely different, he still felt the same worries and insecurities as he had had for most of his life before Rinoa.
Tehn walked around Squall and watched the expression on Ellone's face. "You're here to lure the sorceress."
"If they don't know where we are how can Rinoa find me?" Squall disguised his concern behind a fact he hoped they hadn't considered. He felt a sudden shock of worry for Rinoa, why was everyone he ever became close to at risk? Why couldn't other people stop thinking about themselves and consider other people- why were there so many selfish people in the world who overreacted about nothing?
"You are her Knight aren't you, you have a link?" He had a point- all of Squall's theories about their being a disorganised group were fading away rapidly. But there were still holes in the plan.
"How do you think you can get rid of her powers?" He wearily gave in to the question he had been dreading to hear the answer to. He felt the sheer unreality of the situation he was in, a week before the worst of his troubles had been that he had to attend the peace talks and see Laguna there too. Now he was at gunpoint of two guards among a group of people who were obviously fanatical about their objective. That was more dangerous than an ordinary resistance group.
"We kill her." Squall and Ellone looked up sharply, Ellone with a bruise on her face where she had been hit and Squall with two guns aimed at his head.
"Why! What will that solve?" Squall was the only one to speak.
"Ellone then takes her powers and we kill her." Squall looked incredulously at them, Ellone looked tearful, and Squall felt the same way, the emotion mixed with anger, both people he had and still loved as his only family were marked for death.
"What about the fact a sorceress can't die with her powers?" He asked, using every ounce of self control to stop the fear in his heart from showing.
"That's different." Tehn replied. "Ellone is a sorceress of sorts, she should be able to take the powers quite easily and according to the tests Dr. Odine made she converts the magic in her body so it becomes a dependant source or energy." He saw the confusion on Squall's face and explained.
"When the sorceress has a power it is unique because the magic seems to be an independent form, have some consciousness, it needs no junctioning and GFs to be used and the ability is not linked to its host. So therefore it does not die with the sorceress as other magic usually can. It seeks out a new host and does not let its host die until the link between them is gone. The powers are the link to the living in these situations, the sorceress is them set free and may die."
"Those are theories." Squall answered. "You don't know the powers have a consciousness of their own and what makes you so sure that if Ellone took them they would change their properties just like that?"
"Because Ellone has the ability to do so, her power indicates this. And what else make a sorceress so powerful? She has magic like other magic users, and they can die with it, hers is more powerful and that appears to be the only initial difference between them."
"You're just making assumptions! You don't know anything! You call yourself a scientist…" He saw the uniform, the Esthar insignia on the pocket of the lab coat. "You're from Esthar?" He said incredulously.
"Yes we are. Most of us in any case. We found plenty of willing people to help us in our cause." Squall looked around at the soldiers.
"That's what the peace conference was for wasn't it?" He said surprised, "You planned this all along. Galbadia is helping you. You're traitors…"
"No we are not!" Tehn interrupted, "We are helping Esthar, and the rest of the world! So many people have died because of the sorceress and we will prevent more!" He paced the room. "Do you think we should have listened to that idiot's orders which he formed on sentimentality? He only became president by accident. We have every right to protect ourselves and our children unfortunately we have to sacrifice a few people to do so."
Ellone bit back a comment, Squall had to agree though, Laguna did not seem to be the most competent person for president, even knowing as he now did that Laguna was his father.
"A few?" Squall wasn't sure he would like what he was going to hear.
"Yes a few." Tehn turned to Ellone to watch her reaction. "You're both going to die."
"Why? Killing Squall wouldn't help you at all!" Ellone spoke; despite the fact her voice was getting a little hoarse, probably from dehydration.
"I think it would. You see, when the sorceress sees her knight die she'll become emotional; and then she will let her emotions affect her judgement. It will provide us with the advantage of clear thinking." He looked at the computer monitor, clearly uninterested in Squall anymore and this provoked the guards into moving and Squall left with them.
If Squall could have looked behind him as he left he would have seen Ellone, clutching the arms of the chair and struggling to stop the fresh tears falling down her already tear streaked face.
Well that was it. Not very good, I jumped into the plot a bit but I thought now was time to. I don't rate the couples because I want this to surprise you how it turns out. You'll have to guess who's going to die in this story. No it's all in my plans- I'm probably going to unpopular with quite a few people. If anyone doesn't understand the theory I made up I'll explain a bit better next chapter in my author's notes. I didn't even know I was going to put the theory in until I wrote it, my plan was different.
The poem is rubbish, but it is put in for dramatic effect so if you want to say its rubbish I don't want to know, only constructive criticism will be paid heed to. That is if anyone wants to review.