Final Fantasy : Historical Bonds
Chapter 13 - Sleeping With The Enemy
By: Fat Zombie
Machine guns pumping,
Hearts thumping,
Death is all around.
People crying for freedom,
No one hears the sound.
Taken from Silverchair - Pure Massacre
The alarm clock's endless buzzing awoke Zell. He rolled over and groaned, punching the clock off the table beside his bed. Nonetheless, the buzzing didn't stop. "Okay, alright" Zell moaned. He rolled out of bed and to his feet. Walking over to the kitchen area of his room, he filled a glass with water and gulped it down. If anything, the sobering events of the end of last night seemed to have helped his hangover. It was practically non-existent, nothing but a few aches and pains in his limbs.
He walked across his room towards the small bathroom at the side when he heard a knock at his door. He turned around and walked towards the door. "Who is it?" he called.
"It's Nevaeh" he heard the girl call back through the door.
"Oh shit" Zell said under his breath, running over to his wardrobe and pulling out a pair of his long shorts. Stepping into the shorts, he quickly pulled on a T-shirt immediately after.
"Hello?" Zell heard Nevaeh call through the door. He hurried over to the door and opened it, smiling casually.
"Hi" Zell said, not noticing his own heavy breathing.
"Uh" Nevaeh frowned. "Hi".
"Hi" Zell said again. "How's it goin'?" he asked.
"Good" Nevaeh replied. "We've been called to a briefing".
"When?" asked Zell.
"We've got about twenty minutes" Nevaeh answered.
"Okay" said Zell. He walked back into his room. "Come on in" he said. Nevaeh stepped inside and closed the door behind her. "Make yourself at home" said Zell. He walked to the TV in the corner of the room and turned it on. "I just gotta take a shower, so just watch what you want for a while". He handed the TV remote to Nevaeh and disappeared into the bathroom.
Nevaeh sat down in one of the seats in front of the TV. Idly swapping through the channels, she heard the shower in the bathroom switch on with an electronic hum. Eventually finding something she liked, a cheap TV talk-show, she set the remote down on the arm of the chair. She grinned and slouched into the chair a little.
"Today we're talking about mother's and their daughters who think they are Sorceresses" the host said. Nevaeh scoffed at the notion.
"There's only one of them, I'm afraid girls" Nevaeh said quietly to herself. "And she's right here with us".
One of the girls on the TV was speaking now. "Yeah, that's right I'm a sorceress" she managed eventually. "So you better watch yourself" she added angrily.
"How can you honestly believe that" a woman said. Nevaeh could only assume that the woman was the girl's mother.
"Well Garden is still around, isn't it?" the girl addressed not only her mother, but the entire audience. It emitted several conformations of the girl's statement. "And everyone knows that Garden trains SeeDs, and SeeDs are trained to kill sorceresses" the girl explained.
"But" her mother began.
"No buts" the girl interrupted. "They'll be coming for me one day" the girl announced. "So who you gonna be siding with then?" the girl asked.
"Don't tell me you actually like this rubbish" Nevaeh heard Zell's voice say from behind her.
"No I" Nevaeh quickly turned round but stopped. Zell stood at the back of the room in only a towel wrapped round his bottom half. He held another towel, rubbing his wet hair. Nevaeh sat with her mouth half open, staring at the half naked Zell. After what seemed like forever, she determined the fact that his physique was particularly impressive.
"Nevaeh?" Zell said confusedly. He frowned and grinned.
"Oh, uh" Nevaeh finally blinked. "Sorry I was, umm" Nevaeh paused. "Thinking, about something".
"Oh" said Zell. He frowned again. "Well in that case" he said, walking over to Nevaeh and picking up the remote. He pointed it at the TV and pushed a button. The TV turned off with a click.
He bent down and looked at Nevaeh, putting the remote down on the arm of the chair. In his current position, his wet hair hung down in his face. He almost looked like a different person, Nevaeh noted. Although he did look cute as this other person. She noticed he was staring again, only this time Zell had noticed. "I" she faltered. "Umm" she tried again.
Zell began to laugh. "What's with you this morning?"
"Nothing" Nevaeh replied. "I'm just a little tired".
"Didn't sleep well?" asked Zell.
"Err, no" Nevaeh said. "Not well at all". She faked a yawn.
"You should've came to me" Zell said, walking towards his wardrobe.
"Excuse me?" asked Nevaeh. The comment sounded somewhat suggestive. To Nevaeh, at least.
"I have the greatest way to get to sleep" said Zell. "Get a hair-dryer, rig it up next to a fan and put all of this across the other side of room" he explained.
"You own a hair-dryer?" Nevaeh asked, choking back a laugh.
"You see this here?" Zell asked, grabbing hold of his fringe. "How do you think I get this to stand up?"
"Okay" said Nevaeh. "Your secret's safe with me" she added with a grin.
"Anyway, rig all that up, let blow that warm air over you and you be asleep in no time" said Zell.
"Well why not just rig the hair-dryer up next to the bed?" Nevaeh asked.
"The hair-dryer's too loud" said Zell. "Plus the stream of air is too strong". Nevaeh frowned at him. "Trust me" Zell added.
"Okay" said Nevaeh, still trying not to laugh.
"Now, err, could you turn around while I get dressed?" Zell asked.
"Oh, yeah" said Nevaeh, swiveling away from Zell. "Sorry" she added.
* * * *
The were birds singing. Only they weren't singing. It was more of an annoying 'squawk'. She could hear the sea, also. Quistis could also hear the sea. She opened her eyes slowly. The light that met her was possibly the most horrid thing she had been subjected to in a long time. Only moments later she remembered the attack last night and realised how stupid being scared of the sun was. She opened her eyes properly, and looked around herself. She bolted upright as she took in the room. This wasn't her room. This wasn't her bed. Quistis ran through in her mind again. She wasn't in her room, she wasn't in her bed, and she wasn't wearing anything but her underwear.
"Morning soldier". Quistis looked towards the source of the voice. She saw Seifer walk in from the bathroom. He was smiling, but not in a good way. He was smiling in that smug, self-satisfied grin that never to failed infuriate Quistis.
"Why am I here?" Quistis asked. She frowned sharply at Seifer.
"Because you came knocking on my door late last night" Seifer answered.
"Excuse me?" asked Quistis.
"You couldn't sleep" Seifer explained. "And you wanted to thank me for saving your life yesterday".
"Okay" said Quistis. She looked under the covers at herself. "How did I thank you?" she asked, cringing.
"Oh yeah, that" said Seifer. "The whole striptease bit was great". He grinned happily. "Thanks".
"Oh gods" said Quistis, slumping her head forward. She looked back up at Seifer. "That was all, right?". She cringed again.
"No" Seifer said loudly, elongating the word. Quistis head fell into her hands. "You didn't do anything at all, not even that bit I said before".
"Really?" asked Quistis.
"Really" said Seifer.
"Oh, thank gods" Quistis sighed. She looked up at Seifer suddenly. "Then why aren't I wearing any clothes?"
"You seem angry" said Seifer, grinning.
"Just answer the question" Quistis ordered.
"You mumbled something about not wanting to get your dress creased or something" Seifer explained. Quistis frowned and Seifer could tell she wasn't buying his story. "You were half-asleep but you were still your same old adamant self" Seifer said. "I wasn't gonna piss you off" he added. "You still had your whip-thingy with you".
"Okay" Quistis said, finally believing him. Her eyes grew wide and she looked at Seifer again. "We didn't sleep in the same bed, did we?"
"No" said Seifer. "I put you in mine and I stuck a pillow in the tub and slept in that".
"Oh" said Quistis. She felt a stab of guilt for forcing him to sleep in his own bathroom. "Thanks" she said. "That was very nice of you".
"Don't mention it" he said. He turned to walk back into the bathroom but stopped and looked back at Quistis. "By the way" he began. "The, uh" he said while pointing at various parts of his body and nodding his head towards her. Quistis raised her eyebrows. "Awesome" he added with a happy grin.
Quistis sat thinking for a moment as Seifer walked into the bathroom. She frowned, then looked under the covers again. Realisation dawned on her. "No, no, no" she sighed, falling backwards back down into the bed and putting her hands over her face.
Seifer closed the door to the bathroom. He grinned at himself in the mirror. He was amazed at easy it was to infuriate Quistis. Still, what he had just said was true. "Get dressed" he shouted through the door. He looked around his bathroom looking for something to do. Eventually he just decided to wash his hands. Drying them off on a towel, he turned to the door and opened it stepping back into his room. "Hey are you-" he stopped in his tracks. Quistis stood in front of him, wearing her skirt, but not her top. "Oh, I, err" Seifer stuttered. "Sorry" he finally managed, turning away.
"Hell, you've already seen it all anyway" said Quistis. Seifer began to turn back towards her. "That doesn't mean look!" she said angrily. "Damn, it was a joke" she added.
"Sorry" said Seifer, turning away again. "Didn't know humour was in your repertoire".
"Well I suppose you do now" said Quistis, putting on her top and zipping it up. "Done" she said. Seifer turned around. "Why do you want me up and dressed so quickly anyway?" Quistis asked. "Want me out before anyone finds out I'm here?"
"If that was the case I would have taken you back to your room last night" Seifer said. "We've got a briefing in about ten minutes" he said.
"Another mission?" groaned Quistis.
"I have no idea" said Seifer. "Just that we gotta be there soon".
Quistis flattened her skirt down with her hands. "Have you got anything left to do?" she asked.
"Nope" answered Seifer.
"In that case I guess we better get going then" said Quistis.
Seifer nodded and picked up his long coat, putting it on in a continuous motion. He walked to the door and opened. He stepped aside and gestured out the door, looking to Quistis. "Ladies first" he said. Quistis hazarded half a smile and walked outside the door, spinning to look at Seifer as she did.
"Don't you dare tell anyone about this" she said. Seifer screwed his face up and nodded behind Quistis and to her left. "What?" she said confusedly.
"Uh, hi Quisty" said Zell as she turned to him. "How's it goin'?"
Quistis eyes went wide. "Zell" she said in a higher than normal tone. "This isn't what it looks like".
"I, err" Zell faltered. "I wouldn't know what it looks like" he said, offering an uneasy smile. The group fell silent, Zell uncomfortable in the quiet. "So" he began, saying the first thing that came into his head. "You, err, spent the night with-"
"Are you on your way to the briefing as well?" asked Nevaeh, purposefully interrupting Zell.
"Yes" said Seifer definitely. His eyes screamed a 'thanks' to Nevaeh. She cocked her head to the side and gave an expression that read 'don't mention it'.
Seifer pushed Quistis away from Zell and Nevaeh and down the corridor. "Let's go" he said, raising his eyebrows at the two behind him. Zell and Nevaeh followed on confused over what they had just seen.
"What the hell was all that about?" Zell quietly asked Nevaeh.
"I have no idea" Nevaeh explained.
The four headed down the corridor towards the lobby. Walking out into the light of the large hall, they headed straight for the elevators. Quistis suddenly turned to Seifer as they walked up the steps. "I didn't kiss you, did I?" asked Quistis. "Tell me I didn't kiss you" she added. Seifer looked at her for a moment. He smiled, the softest and most gentle smile she'd ever seen him make.
"No" he said. "You didn't kiss me" he assured her.
* * * *
The Intelligence Centre buzzed with electric activity again. Monitors displayed any number of statistics and photos, Squall and Lain looking over them carefully. Laguna stood behind them, looking uninterested in what the screens where displaying. Nida was next to him, also looking at the screens. Fourteen SeeDs sat at fourteen separate work stations running through preparations for the communication about to begin.
As Squall and Lain continued to discuss the information on the screens, Laguna and Nida turned to the sound of doors opening at the back of the room. Irvine and Selphie walked through, Irvine looking as normal while Selphie looked slightly tired. "Mornin' people" said Irvine. Selphie managed a laboured wave.
Squall turned around at the sound of Irvine's greeting. He nodded an acknowledgement
"What's this all about?" asked Irvine.
"I'll tell you when the others get here, or rather, Lain will" Squall replied.
Selphie and Irvine walked over to Nida. "You know what this is about?" Irvine asked.
"I do, yes" said Nida, his gaze not moving from the monitors showing yet more statistics in front of him.
"But, you're not gonna tell me, are ya?" said Irvine, half-knowing, half-guessing.
Nida finally turned to Irvine. "No" he grinned.
The doors to the Intelligence Centre slid open again, immediately commanding the attention of all in the room other than the fourteen SeeD's sat at their stations. Through the doors walked Quistis and Seifer, immediately followed by Zell and Nevaeh. They nodded various greeting to people in the room and stood next to Irvine and Selphie.
"Right" said Squall. "Now that we're all here, Lain?"
Lain nodded, and walked to the front of the large table that sat in the middle of the room. "If you would all please take a seat" he said, gesturing to the group. The team all sat down around the table. "Now you may, or may not remember" Lain paused and smirked. "That yesterday evening we received intelligence suggesting that the group that has been causing so much trouble recently is possibly based in Southern Galbadia" Lain pointed to a map of Galbadia showing on the large screen at the front of the room. Four markers were situated in the Southern part of the country. "After you left last night, myself, Commander Leonhart, Lieutenant Yahti and President Loire held a meeting with President Caraway" Lain explained. "He agreed that something must be done about the faction and proposed to send a special forces team to the largest of four facilities in the South in order to try and gain some grip on the situation" Lain paused for breath. "You are all here this morning to witness that operation".
"Sir" said one of the intelligence officers sat at one of the stations. Lain turned to her. "The feed is ready" she said. "The mission is about to start".
"Up on the main screen please, Corporal" said Lain, walking round one side of the table and taking an empty seat.
The screen at the front flickered, then slowly formed a more coherent image. The picture was an almost fluorescent shade of green, and was shaking around rapidly. "Please understand that it is still in the very early hours of the morning in Galbadia, hence the night vision" Lain explained. The camera is attached to the squad leaders helmet so you'll have to excuse the shaky picture" he added.
The group watched on as the camera headed down what looked like a dimly lit, bland concrete hallway. "They're already in?" asked Laguna.
"It would appear so" Lain replied.
The group sat around the table watched as the shot on the screen came to the end of the hallway. "I see a door" they heard a voice, probably the team leader's, say. "Fibre-optics, up front" he said, trying his best to remain quiet while still trying to be heard by his team. A soldier came into view on the screen, kneeling down in front of the door. He held a small portable screen in his hand. A wire lead out of the top of the screen, the other end of which the soldier was currently threading underneath the door.
"Seems quiet" the soldier said. "There's a lot of boxes and debris though, visibility is poor". He pulled the wire back out from under the door, moving backwards and out of range of the camera immediately afterwards.
The speakers in the Intelligence Centre fell silent for moment. "Jarrs, up here now" the squad leader's voice eventually rang out through the speakers. A huge, stocky soldier appeared in view. "On my mark, you breach the door and we enter and clear". The large soldier, 'Jarrs', nodded at what seemed like the camera, though he was in fact nodding at the squad leader. Jarrs set himself into a stance, ready to charge through the door. "Now" the squad leader said. Jarrs shifted his weight backwards hen forwards, lifting his right leg and kicking against the door as hard as he could. The door opened easily under the force of the giant figure, flying off of its hinges and somewhere into room, out of sight. The camera quickly headed into the room, a rifle now held out in front of it, the view looking in all directions quickly. "Looks clear" the squad leaders voice said. The view turned back to the doorway through which it had came, showing six other soldiers quickly and quietly making their way into the room.
"Sir, look out" Jarrs' voice suddenly boomed, a gunshot ringing out quickly afterwards. A low, pained grunt could be heard, obviously Jarrs, then the camera shot suddenly reeled backwards up to the ceiling as if the squad leader was falling. The feed went dead, the main screen at the front of the room a mess of static.
Lain frowned, twisting in his chair to look at the intelligence officer that he had spoken to earlier. "Corporal?" he said confusedly.
"We've lost the feed sir" the Corporal explained. "I don't know what happened" she added.
"Keep on it" said Lain. He turned back to face the group sat round the table.
"That didn't sound good" said Zell.
"No it didn't" Irvine agreed.
"What do we do now?" asked Nevaeh.
"There's not much we can do about the feed" said Lain.
"Let's just be patient" said Squall. "Wait and see if we can get the feed back".
The group sat in silence. While Quistis looked at Lain, then at Squall, Laguna twiddled his thumbs and Seifer leant way back into his chair. Selphie stood up and walked over to the Corporal's workstation. She rested her hand on the hand on the headrest of the Corporal's chair, bending forwards to look at the monitor in front of her. "Is it something wrong at our end of the communications?" Selphie asked.
"I don't think so" the Corporal answered. "All diagnostic tools are coming up normal".
"What about tracing beacons?" asked Selphie.
"Nothing" a male SeeD sat in the workstation two feet to her left said. "We're not picking them up at all". The monitor in front of him showed a map of the infrastructure the Galbadian team had entered. It was only partially completed, the only parts shown being those the the special forces team had actually entered and been through. Selphie assumed that the SeeD had been creating the map as the mission had occurred.
Selphie stood up straight again. She turned around and walked back to the table. "Can we get in touch with the Galbadian mission headquarters?" she asked Lain as she sat back down in her seat.
"I'm afraid not" Lain answered. "We haven't even talked to them yet" he added. "We were just sent instructions for patching into the feed and that's it".
"A little unsociable" Seifer stated.
"That it is" Lain agreed. "But, maybe they'll try to contact us".
"So we just sit around and wait to hear from them?" asked Laguna.
"If it's such a chore then whoever wants to can leave" said Squall. He seemed annoyed.
"Oh thank gods for that" said Irvine, pushing himself up out of his chair. He looked at Selphie.
"I think I'm gonna stay" she said.
"Suit yourself" Irvine answered.
Nevaeh stood up, shortly followed by Zell and Seifer. "I'm gonna go and find breakfast" said Nevaeh. "Call me back if regain the feed or get word from Galbadia HQ" she added. Lain nodded. Seifer merely walked past the two and left, not bothering to say anything.
* * * *
Irvine walked out of the elevator that had just brought him up from the basement where the Intelligence Centre was situated. He walked down the steps towards the directory. Despite choosing to leave the Intelligence Centre, he didn't really have any clue as to what he was going to do instead. In any case, he wasn't interested in all that technical mumbo-jumbo. If they wanted him to shoot something, he'd do it. If they wanted him to travel trough time, he'd do it. But he wouldn't sit a room bored out of his mind while technology failed around him. His lack of patience with electronics as a whole would infuriate Selphie sometimes. But that was only because she had a tendency to spout complete jargon at him, and do it really, really fast.
As he approached the the directory in the large center of the Garden, he only just noticed the crowd of young girls behind it. Noticing one girl in particular, he quickly turned and walked the other way. Taking several steps, he was confident that he'd avoided attracting any attention.
"IRVINE" he heard a shrill voice call out. He had no choice but to turn around.
"Hi, Yeula" Irvine said, confronted with a girl wearing a SeeD uniform running toward him at full pace. When she finally got close enough she threw herself at him, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly. Irvine half-heartedly returned the hug, breaking it as soon as possible and taking a step away from the near hysterical girl.
"How are you doing?" the girl, Yeula, asked over-enthusiastically. "I haven't seen you in so long".
"Oh, it can't have been that long can it?" asked Irvine.
"No it's been" the girl paused, adding up in her head. "Well, quite a long time, anyway".
"Really?" asked Irvine. Yeula nodded. "It doesn't seem that long" Irvine added.
"How have you been, what's been going on?" Yeula asked. She was still speaking very loudly, despite the fact that herself and Irvine were stood no more than three feet from each other.
"Not much" said Irvine eager to get out of the conversation.
"Oh, c'mon" said the girl, not believing his answer. "You, the best SeeD in the Garden, haven't been doing anything lately?" she asked.
"Well, I've seen a friend shot and almost killed and had someone try to assassinate me while I was out for dinner" Irvine answered truthfully.
The girl frowned and looked him up and down. Eventually she smirked. "You're important but not that important" she said. "You're such a fibber" she added with a giggle.
"That I am" said Irvine with a laboured laugh that ended up sounding more like a sigh. The girl didn't seem notice. In fact, she seemed to be looking up the steps past Irvine.
"Aren't those your friends?" she asked frowning.
Irvine turned around, spotting Zell and Nevaeh walking down the steps towards. Seifer could be seen behind. Zell was grinning like an idiot at Irvine. He'd obviously already surveyed the situation and he certainly knew the score. Irvine silently mouthed the words 'save me' at Zell.
Zell led Nevaeh over to where Irvine and Yeula stood. "Hi" Zell said to Irvine. He looked past Irvine to Yeula. "Hello" he said.
"Hi" Yeula returned the greeting, again somewhat over-enthusiastically.
"Listen" began Zell, looking back to Irvine and speaking before Yeula had a chance to say anything else. "I've got some work to do and I'd really like it you'd help me" he said.
"Oh" began Irvine. "I see" he added. "Well in that case I'll be right there Captain" he finished with a grin.
"Thank you Captain" said Zell with a grin. He turned and himself and Nevaeh headed past Irvine and Yeula towards the main entrance of the Garden.
"Well, I guess I gotta go" said Irvine. "I'll see ya round" he added, then stepped into a jog to catch up to Zell and Nevaeh.
"Oh" said Yeula, slightly surprised. She turned to watch him run away. "Well I'll talk to you soon" she called after him. "TAKE CARE IRVINE" she shouted.
Irvine caught up to the couple in front of him. "Thank you sooooo much" he said to Zell.
"You're welcome, Captain Kinneas" Zell replied.
"Honestly man, you're a life saver" Irvine explained. The three continued to walk towards the exit of the Garden. "So, erm, were are you headed?" asked Irvine.
"We're gonna go into Balamb for breakfast" answered Nevaeh.
"I'll probably visit my Mom too" Zell added. "For some reason I get the feeling we're gonna be on the move again soon".
"You mean Garden?" asked Nevaeh.
"Yeah" said Zell. "This bird's gonna fly again soon" he explained, looking all around his surroundings.
"Just to like, keep up appearances to Yeula and that" Irvine began. "Can I maybe tag along with you into Balamb?"
"I don't see why not" answered Nevaeh.
"But you'll probably get bored" said Zell.
Irvine frowned and looked at Zell. "Hell no man" he contested. "I can just sit around somewhere quiet and be perfectly happy".
Author's Note: - Well, there's 13. I'm not happy with the way this chapter ended, but I got a little lost, and it still feels like a reasonably logical finishing point. No one wants to read about how Irvine, Nevaeh and Zell walked to Balamb! In any case, sorry this one took a while but I've been working on a lot of other stuff away from my writing recently, and also have about three or four writing projects going on as well. Hopefully the story should soon pick up and actually start to go somewhere now. Having read through it all the way, I realise how stationary its become. It hasn't progressed as far as timeline is concerned as much as I would have liked.
Anyway, there should be the first chapter of a new fic of mine on fanfiction.net pretty soon. Fans of Resident Evil are hopefully in for a treat, but please to be put off if you are not familiar with the games. The fic doesn't focus on any of the characters or complex story lines from them. Its merely based off of them, so people with no experience in the Res Evil world can hopefully enjoy it as well. I personally think its far better than Historical Bonds in terms of the quality of the narrative. Unfortunately, to implement the same type of quality in HB would ruin the feel of the story and continuity so it will stay as it is - Simple but good (Hopefully). Anyway, please keep a look out for the Res Evil fic. It would be greatly appreciated if you could review it when it comes online, and HB will continue regardless, so no need to worry there!
The next chapter should see a few more details about our mysterious villain revealed! Thanks for continuing to read and review!
C ya soon...