~
Quistis stood uncomfortably in the chilly hall. Her old friends were before her, standing rather quizzically. Irvine's cutoff-gloves were tight against his hips. The stranger named Aren stood powerfully beside him, his shirt sliced down the middle, and his wounds healed. His black shades, peeking from frazzled black hair, seemed affixed angrily to her eyes. And Selphie stood against him, her arms wrapped about his waist.
Irvine was the first to speak, although it was rather hesitant. "Like...hey, Quistis."
She gave a feeble wave. "Hello, everyone," she whispered anxiously.
Selphie's eyes wandered here and there. "So...how ya been?" she almost-whined.
"Uhm...fine, fine. Yourselves?"
Irvine nodded. "Great! Just fine..."
"Oh, good..." Selphie trailed.
She nodded and nervously smiled to them, then turned to the sharp glass that stared her down. Bowes said nothing. But his tight scowl thinned some, and she thought she'd noticed him tense, and almost lean forward to her. But Selphie tugged him back.
"I'm...afraid this has gotten rather akward," Quistis said feebly.
"I'll say," Irvine said, with a solemn face. She had never remembered him with a solemn face.
I suppose I should continue now, she thought. We might as well get this over with. And she took a deep breath, and breathed out the words twice as heavily.
"And I suppose you know why I've acted the way I did. I've been sent from Garden Defense and Security, to arrest you for the crime you've all committed."
Selphie raised a thin eyebrow to her. "A crime? We've committed a crime?"
"Um, Quistis, babe..." Irvine shrugged, "us? Come on!"
Accomplices, thought Quistis, I knew it! Bowes must have dragged them along.
For the first time since the battle, save a few quiet mumblings to Selphie as she had healed him, Bowes spoke up. His voice was hoarse and tight, and understandably so, for the wound's pain would linger for some time. But his face was beginning to relax, and Quistis suddenly felt less watched by the young man.
"If you please, ma'am," he said, in a strangely polite manner. "Would you recite my charge? I'd like to know what I'm accused of."
She nodded to him, and responded rather formally: "You, Aren Bowes, are under accusation by Galbadia Garden, and the world Garden network, for the crimes as follows. Number one, accessing of restricted material that was securely stored in Galbadia Garden's database. Number two, suspicion of using said information in a scheme of blackmail against said Garden."
Irvine slapped his face hard. "Quistis, you've got this all mixed up! Aren didn't..."
"What's she talking about, Aren?" asked Selphie, looking to Bowes.
But Bowes raised a hand to quiet Irvine, and patted Selphie on the shoulder. He raised his eyebrows to Quistis. "By law," he said, "I'm permitted to plead my case prior to arrest, if I believe my charges are in violation of the law itself. Correct?"
Quistis thought for a moment. I suppose he has a point. She nodded slightly. "Correct."
"Okay, now, lemme think here..."
He snapped his fingers. "Ah! Lemme throw this in. First of all, since you've only got suspicion of an attempt to blackmail Garden, you can't hold it against me. You can't arrest on grounds of suspicion unless I'm in the Garden. And second, since the information I allegedly gathered is confidential to Galbadia Garden, GDS's involvement with the case isn't allowed. You couldn't arrest me if you wanted to."
And the tension between the two began to loosen, but a wave of confusion was brought on, as Aren cracked a little smile. "Ma'am, would you mind explaining this all to me? I've got no idea what's going on!"
Hyne, he's right! thought Quistis, almost staggering back. I can't arrest any of them! But...if GDS knew that, why'd they send me here?
She stuttered to find something to reply. "Ahm...I'm afraid...at the moment, I am a bit confused myself."
Dispite the confusion and a lingering tension, Irvine stepped forth. "You know what? I bet after a cup of espresso and a little explainin', we'd have this whole thing behind us! You take care of your side, we'll do ours."
"I like espresso!" said Aren with a smile.
Quistis tightened her eyes. "I am on a mission!"
"Oh, come on!" waved Irvine.
She was speechless. Well...what else can I do? Certainly not arrest them!" And with a sigh and a shrug, she said, "why not?"
~
Aren sat beside Selphie on the plush sofa, and motioned to Irvine and the strange woman, who had spots on the floor. The newcomer was upright and uptight, seated cross-legged with her coffee cup clenched in both hands. But Irvine was sprawled on his stomach, with his elbows resting in a pillow from one of the beds, and propping up his chin with his hands.
"It started about a year ago," said Aren, sipping at his cup of espresso. "I was studying soundwaves and their timespace relations in Terra. My instructor chose the project of mapping the sound distortion from the missles that traveled from Galbadia to Trabia."
He felt Selphie sink into her chair a little, and utter a small sigh. He considered stopping. But it would be unfair to the others, and so he bit his lip and continued.
"But as I was working the problem, I found a glitch in my calculations. It seemed that if the missles were launched from Galbadia, with the trajectory, fuel supply and speed common to the Galbadian army's missles, they couldn't have made it all the way to Trabia."
He scratched the back of his head, brushing forward his long hair. So I made a little project for myself. A hobby, really. I called it 'Trabia Stratagem,' and I'd been out to find out what was behind my missed figure."
The stranger set her cup down. Her eyes were intent, if a little skeptical.
"But a couple of days ago," he went on, "I tried opening the file to do a little work, and instead it opened one from Galbadia Garden's database. It was a similar program to mine, had all the figures I had, only it was a lot more detailed. There were models of everything...even a three-dimensional rendering of a missle. But the Garden had started working on the project right after the missles had hit. And it seemed as if they'd stopped work a couple of weeks after then. They never finished it."
Selphie rubbed her small chin. "Wow...what's it mean?" she asked.
Aren sat back. "Dunno. But my best guess is that they saw the mistake right away, instead of half a year later, like me. And they worked through the problem, and found out that the calculations were right all along. That they'd made a mistake somewhere. So they scrapped the project." He raised a hand, and shrugged to the newcomer. "I guess that's the extent of my crime."
"So," the young woman quickly replied, "how come you left the Garden so
quickly?"
"It kinda got me curious," he said. "I only needed one figure to complete my research, and I needed to go to Trabia for it. Irvine could only get tickets for tonight."
Irvine interjected with a hand of his own. "I'd like to be reimbursed for those, by the way. Just throwing that in."
Aren laughed, and he faced the stranger again. "I'm sorry if I caused any confusion. I'm just some nerdy kid with a weird hobby, that's all."
And the stranger sat in silence for a good moment. She heaved a sigh, and leaned back, propping herself up with her arms. "It looks like I've made an incredible mistake," she shook her head. "I'm sorry, everyone. I never meant to accuse."
Irvine rolled to his side. "Hey, it's all good! Like, we're all on the same page, right? And nobody's at anyone's throat, and nobody's dead, right? I'd say we came out on top!"
He tapped her shoulder, dispite already having her attention, and glanced this way and that. "Say," he whispered. "You're done with that whole arresting thing, right?"
"Of course!" she replied, with a slight blush.
"Good!" he shouted, and tackled her to the floor in a playful bearhug. "'Cause it's great to see you again!"
The stranger struggled to free herself, laughing with her friend. "Gaah! Hey, let me go!"
"Selphie!" called Irvine, slamming her to the floor. "She's getting away!"
"Oh no she isn't!" Selphie laughed, in victory-cry fashion, and leapt into the battle. "Dog-pile!"
Aren stretched his arms across the empty couch, and observed the struggle. He widened a smile and shook his head. And then there were four, he thought. Can't I go somewhere with this guy without running into a lady-friend of his? Guess I'll count my blessings, though. At least Selphie didn't try to kill me...
Irvine halted the action with a sharp "Hold it!" The three landed simultaneously, hitting the ground with dull thuds. Irvine held the stranger by one arm, and Selphie had her by the other. Irvine cleared his throat, and spoke formally. "Aren, I'd like you to meet a dear friend of mine."
"Another dear friend?" Aren laughed.
"Yes, another dear friend. This is the one-and-only Quistis Trepe." He spun his head to the woman, and she turned quickly to him as well. "And Quistis," he said, "is comrade-in-arms and resident Potion-user, Aren Bowes."
Aren nodded cordially to Quistis Trepe. "It's nice to meet you," he said.
Trepe looked to Irvine, then to Selphie, and quickly rolled backwards. She sent the two flipping head-over-heels, and bumping heads lightly. Standing, she brushed off her once-perfect red dress, and stepped to the sofa. "Mister Bowes," she urged. "I'm terribly sorry for what I did to you. Please forgive me, it's a pleasure to meet you." She shyly offered a handshake.
"No hard feelings," smiled Aren. "Guess I can see why you'd be worried. But hey, that's behind us now." He took her hand and gave it a shake.
He felt a quick poke on his shoulder. As he turned away from Trepe, he caught a second's glance of a smiling Irvine and Selphie, and was creamed in the face by a set of pillows.
~
The Intel Center was clean and brightly lit. Half a dozen rows of computers, facing one way in typical control-room fashion, were lined up and attended by red-suited soldiers with headset microphones. At the far end of the spacious, metal-walled room, a giant video screen flashed coordinates, and the wireframe image of a map.
"We've lost her!" shouted one of the soldiers from the middle, but the others already knew that. They had heard the radio connection crackle out, and seen the audio waves go dead on their screens. Their eavesdropping was concluded for the moment.
From behind the computer rows, a sliding metal door gave a hiss, and opened. Commander Zaryn stepped in, and was greeted by soldiers who jumped from their chairs and saluted properly, palm before face. His boots and gloves of shining brown leather glistened from the halogen lights. A combat suit of heavy red cloth adorned him; it was zipped and buttoned to the top. His wide shoulders ended in straps of leather. His chin was clean-shaven, his lips wide, and his nose blunt. Deep-set blue eyes scanned the room behind long red hair; he stood out amongst the buzz-cut soldiers.
"At ease," he addressed them, in a deep voice. "Continue with your respective tasks." He leaned to one of the soldiers, and looked over the information presented on his screen. "Have we lost audio?"
"Yes sir," the officer nodded. "And we've gathered new information, as well! It turns out that Kinneas and Tilmitt were close friends of Trepe's. They seem to have tricked her into letting down her guard. They got her into their room, and it seems Kinneas has just jumped her."
Zaryn growled. "We should have researched more, before sending a Balamb SeeD. I was hoping she'd have known their backgrounds a little better. Who would have known they'd been friends?"
"It was unlikely, sir."
"Well, we must assume the worst case," said the commander. He stood upright, and called to the room of soldiers. "As of this point, we are assuming that Quistis Trepe has been terminated. We cannot wait for her signal to return. She was unaware we were monitoring her in the first place, so it would be impossible for her to find the transmitter anyhow. Cut the audio link."
A multitude of computer keys tapped away, as Zaryn stepped to the front of the Intel Center. "We're behind schedule!" he shouted out. "We have less than twenty hours before the train reaches Trabia. We are no longer concerned with arrests! Priority one is now to terminate Bowes, Tilmitt, and Kinneas!"
A soldier stood, and saluted sharply. "Sir! What if Quistis Trepe is still alive, sir?"
Zaryn was silent a moment. "She could have been exposed to the Stratagem. She will be terminated as well."
~
