Rating: R (I tried to keep it lower, but it just wasn't destined to happen - unlike other things [which are responsible for the rating])

Disclaimer: SG characters are (c) MGM (thankie to Morrigan for that :p).  FF8 characters are (c) Squaresoft, original characters are mine – ask nicely and I might let you play with them, s'long's you don't break them...

Warnings: SxS - Yaoi (guyxguy) later - if u don't like, don't read.  Character death.  Maybe angst (I do like to torture my characters sometimes :p), language (prob nothin u aint heard b4, but still...)

~Chapter Twenty: Hangin On~

It was late evening by the time Selphie returned.  Two breaches had been made in the language barrier.  One, mathematical and scientific, was being worked on by Sam and Dr Odine, who had built, between them, a periodic table of elements, and were now working through such things as the volume of a sphere.  Irvine couldn't really see where that would go, it wasn't as if you could have a conversation based on numbers, well, unless you were just talking numbers for their own sake, which the two seemed to be doing.

The other was being worked on by Tira and Daniel.  They had covered most of the items in the canteen - including poss/en (cup/s), mefel/len (table/s) and even the solden (floor) - and had wandered off to name more items around the excavation site, but Irvine guessed that even that system would still involve a lot of charades and gestures, and would be completely open to misinterpretation.

The other one of the three who had come through the gate, the one who seemed to be the leader was looking like he felt, as Irvine did, completely useless.

When Selphie bounced into the room Irvine stood, looking for Edea.  There was no one there.  He raised an enquiring eyebrow at Selphie.  She shrugged, but for once had the sense to walk over to where he was before announcing her news.

"Edea wouldn't come.  She just said something about Hyne returning and the gateway having been opened."  She frowned at the cryptic message.  "Oh yeah," she added.  "Cid said there's only two people can cast that sort of spell, and if we find the wrong one we're in deeper shit than we were with Ultemecia."  Irvine frowned.

"Cid actually said that?"  He asked suspiciously.  Selphie shook her head.  "So he actually said...?"

"That no sorceress can cast that sort of spell, but a venefica-non-elementum-something can.  He also said that there's two types, and you never get one without the other being somewhere around, and one is evil trying to be good, and the other is, um, evil out of good, I think."

"Great."  Irvine rolled his eyes.  "So all we gotta do is find someone who can tell use what a venefica-non-elementum is, then we can guess at the last part, then we can try and find the one that's trying to be good..."  He trailed off and stared at Selphie.  "Holy fuckin Hyne!"  He exclaimed.  "The training centre!"

AN: Yup, Irvine manages to put two and two together.  *sighs*  Selphie came back...  I couldn't think of a way to keep that part of the plot (?) goin without bringing her back, so back she came.  N'mind, maybe I can lose her somewhere else...  Can't kill her, cause I'll get murdered by rampaging selvine fans, and I might do them a lemon later, maybe...  No promises...  If anyone wants to write me a Selphie/Irvine lemon then I'll willingly include it, somewhere... :)