AUTHORS NOTE:
Thanks! It's great that you liked the tree swingers, though, they were fun too write. Anyway, more of the story now.
Chapter XIX The Next Course of Action
"Laguna's. well. Laguna is, er, preoccupied." said Zell, looking at Clarissa hesitantly and then back to Landers and Caraway who were looking at them, expecting an answer.
"Preoccupied? What do you mean by that?" asked Landers, raising and eyebrow.
"Er. never mind that, umm-"
"What? Don't talk to me that-"
"Aren't you supposed to be with the ground crew, anyway?" Clarissa intervened in their conversation. "Where's Kiros?"
"By the time we got the ground crew together, the Estharian army was drawing back and they left." Said Caraway, his arms folded firmly in front of his chest, "Kiros is with the air fleet at the moment, they're still on stand-by in case the army makes another move."
"I see," said Zell, "I think we should notify the Garden. Clarissa and I will be heading back." He took a step backwards and turned around, Clarissa following suit but stopped when Landers started talking again.
"But what about Loire?" he asked, urgently, "We need to sort out matters, immediately. Where is he?"
Zell shrugged, "I've no idea where he is, the last time we saw him we had just finished fighting Adel and-"
"You fought Adel?" Landers's eyes widened, "How come I was not informed of this? I never sent anyone after Adel, and what happened?"
Zell took another small step back, Landers seemed to be getting angry and the last thing that him and Clarissa needed was to be thrown in a Galbadian prison somewhere for defying orders of the president.
"Explain!" Landers demanded, taking a step forward causing Zell to take one more step back. "Fine. Guards!"
Four guards nearby came and grabbed their arms, stopping them from any immediate way of escaping without harming anyone. "Now, I'm going to ask one more time. Explain."
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Adel stood tall, staring out the giant window that covered an entire wall in the office of Laguna Loire. In the shadows of the far side of the room stood Dean, smirking. Anger was boiling inside Adel as she saw an aircraft take off from the air station and when the doors to the office burst open she turned in fury to see who it was.
"My.My s-s-s-orceress." said an Esthar soldier, shaking with obvious fear of her. "I-I have c-c-come to r-r-report on the c-c-current s-s-status of Esthar."
"Yes?" boomed Adel, moving slowly towards the cowering soldier, smirking at his growing fear. She seemed to billow in the fact that people cowered beneath her; it made her happy.
"W-w-we still have E-e-esthar in our grasp, however, s-s-several people h-h- have escaped in an aircraft." he stuttered, taking a slow step backwards.
"HOW MANY?" Adel raged, wiping aside a chair that was in front of her.
"S-s-s-seven."
"WHY DID YOU INSOLENT FOOLS NOT STOP THEM? WHO WERE THEY?"
"W-w-we tried, my sorceress, but t-t-they escaped." He said, backing into the door. "T-t-they were the i-i-intruders."
"THEM!" Adel roared with rage and with a great roar of anger she picked up the shaking soldier that was now yelling and threw him at the window, causing it the shatter as the soldier flew out of it.
"Dean," said Adel now eerily calm voice as she floated back to the now shattered window, "Please call someone here to fix this." She gestured at the window.
Dean stepped out of the shadows and opened the door. He murmured something to a soldier outside who ran off after Dean was done speaking, and then Dean closed the door and turned to face Adel.
"What now?" he asked, calmly with a smirk crossing his face, hoping it was something interesting.
"I do not know." Adel whispered, turning to face Dean, "I am thinking that we should take Garden. They are the reason we cannot move forward."
"Which garden shall we take over first?" Dean asked, "Balamb is well guarded, so is Galbadia but Trabia is way off in the north, nobody should think that we would take that."
"Good thinking. good thinking." Adel said, smirking. "We will take Trabia, today. Send an air fleet first to scout out the area and then send the ground and the ocean fleet. After we take Trabia I want to be prepared to move to Galbadia. Move the prisoners to the Esthar ship, we cannot leave them here."
Dean nodded and moved noiselessly across the room and out the door while Adel moved closer to the window, where cool air blew in her face. "Now, I will get what I want. Now I receive what I deserve. I will get that crystal."
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Dim light came through the small cracks in the walls of Irvine and Selphies small hut, in the distance they could hear chopping and a lot of speaking and excitement.
"Sounds like morning to me." Said Selphie, drowsily after a good night's sleep. She yawned widely and got up from the bed and moved towards the door. "What do you think that they're doing out there?"
"I don't know, just go back to bed!" said Irvine, rolling over and covering himself with the fuzzy and leafy blanket, it was surprisingly warm and comfortable.
"No way!" said Selphie, vehemently, "I wanna see what's going on, hurry and get up!"
Irvine rolled over and groaned. "Come on, Sefie, its too early!"
Selphie turned right around and glared at Irvine, "COME ON!" she demanded and walked swiftly to the bed and pulled the covers off and from under Irvine which caused him to roll right off the bed with a loud thump on the floor.
"Ouch," he exclaimed, pulling him self up, "What'd you do that for?"
"Well, it got you out of bed, didn't it!" she said proudly and helped him up.
Irvine changed into his regular clothes and slipped on his cowboy hat and walked over to Selphie who had just changed. "Happy?" he asked.
"Of course," she said, placing her hand on the door handle and pulling, "Now let's go!"
They stepped through the door and looked around the large cave in amazement. Many of the creatures, the tree-swingers, were perched on the treetops and were chopping away at the wood with their bladed tails.
Others were swinging back and forth to carry the wood and placing it in homes throughout the caves. They even caught glimpses of a few smaller tree- swingers that looked like children, swinging around tossing what looked like a large wooden ball.
"'Ello!" came a familiar high-pitched voice, happily, ""Ow are our guests today?" Ulrich had come swinging from one of the nearby trees to greet them.
"We're great!" exclaimed Selphie, "What's going on?"
"Zat iz juzt ze vood and food collection for ze veek." Said Ulrich, looking around and then back to them, "Vould you like to 'ave some food?"
Just as Ulrich had said that Irvine's stomach made a loud rumbling noise, "Vat vas zat?" asked Ulrich, tilting his head as he looked at Irvine.
"Oh," said Irvine off guard, "That was just my stomach, its telling me that I'm hungry."
"I see." Ulrich nodded, "Vould you like to come to my 'ut?"
"Sure."
Ulrich took the large vine and swung across with much ease and then he threw the vine back to their hut and walked inside his own. "I'm still not used to this at all!" said Selphie, taking the vine in her hand and getting ready to swing.
She did a small leap and flew across the gap to Ulrich's hut and threw the vine back to Irvine, "But it's getting easier!" she called and walked into Ulrich's hut.
"Not for me, though." Irvine sighed and took the vine, "Geronimo!" he swung across the large gap and landed on the other side, "Hmm." he said in an impressed tone that he'd landed better then the last time he'd tried, and he walked into Ulrich's hut to join them.
He sat down next to Selphie on the small bed as Ulrich was busying himself with a small fire and cooking the same type of plant that they'd had the previous day.
"So, I 'ave talked to Nateria last night. She agreed zat she vould listen to your story az long az it 'as a full 'istory and everything." Ulrich explained.
"You mean how we got here?" Irvine asked, "Or what?"
"Vell, zat. and also ze story of vhy you vere over zese lands." Ulrich replied, "It iz a mystery to us vhy you vould be 'ere."
"That could take a really long time though." Selphie said, looking at the plants that Ulrich had just set in front of her in and Irvine.
"Ve 'ave time." Said a voice from the hut door, "Ve vant ze 'hole story." Nateria was standing at the door, looking somewhat furious about something.
"Oh, 'ere is Nateria now!" said Ulrich, clapping his hands together, "Nateria, meet. er, vat are your names?"
"Oh," said Selphie, her eyes widening, and feeling a little guilty, "We never told you?"
"You may 'ave, but I 'ave a very bad memory." Said Ulrich, smiling.
"Oh, well, I'm Selphie and this is Irvine." Selphie said and stood up to greet Nateria, "Hello, Nateria."
Nateria looked at Selphie's hand with much revulsion and she simply walked past Selphie and sat on the ground near the fire, feeling rejected, and staring at both of them expectantly.
"Now, now, Nateria. No need to be like zat." Said Ulrich, his smile fading.
"Let's get on vith it, vat is your story?" Nateria demanded.
Irvine sighed and looked at Selphie and they nodded, "Well." they began their story starting with the Time Compression fifteen years earlier.
Chapter XX A Long Kept Secret
"So," said Lexi, staring at Laguna, "What you're saying is that this.this sorceress, Adel, she's taken over Esthar, and now she's trying to take over Galbadia?" she asked, after Laguna had explained everything about why he was there.
"Yeah, she has and yes, she is trying to take over Galbadia.we think." replied Laguna, staring at Lexi, trying to figure out what exactly was so different about her that made him feel funny.
"You think?" she asked.
"Yes. well," Laguna said, sitting across from her on a bench in the deserted bar, "It's hard to tell what exactly she's after."
"But you say that your grand-daughter, this Aurora, has been taken. that Adel has her?" Lexi sat down next to Laguna.
"Well, we thought that Adel had taken over her body," Laguna explained, "But tonight. well, that wasn't Aurora at all. I don't know what's going on."
Lexi nodded but didn't say anything; she was lost for words. Finally, she said, "You should go back to General Caraway's mansion."
Laguna looked around at her, "You should come too, it's not safe here. We don't know if Adel is gone or not."
"I can't." Lexi shook her head.
"Yes you can, come on!" Laguna pulled her arm and they left the deserted bar, after Lexi had told the group of teens where they should stay (the hotel).
Sirus opened his eyes, the light was dim around him and the floor seemed to be rocking back and forth. He stood up and tried to walk but the floor gave a funny jolt and he fell over.
He looked around the small room that he was in. It wasn't the same room that he'd last remembered, this room was different and there was a window. a window filled with water.
"That can't be right." he mumbled. He walked over to the window and looked outside of it, it was thick glass and as he'd saw, it was completely submerged in water. He was under water.
The floor gave another funny jolt and he nearly fell over, and realized where he was. "I'm on a boat!" he said out loud. He felt the back of his head, it was bleeding a bit from falling to the floor in the last cell that he was in when Dean had hit him.
Sirus sat down on the hard floor and put his head in his hands, "I've got to get out of here. I wonder if Aurora's here?" he whispered but held his breath as he heard voices. He edged to the door and put his ear up against it so that he could hear well.
"This one was out cold when I last checked. What about the girl?" Said one of the voices.
"The girl is awake, but barely." Said a second voice.
"Good," said the first voice. "I'll go up on deck, you stay here and guard the doors. Check on the boy; make sure he's still unconscious. If not, then make him unconscious."
Sirus heard the owner of the first voice's feet walk away and heard his door unlocking. He ran to the other side of the room, noiselessly, and he laid face down and shut his eyes, pretending that he was unconscious.
He heard the door open and then footsteps approaching him. He held his breath as the guard bent down and chuckled a bit, "Sleeping like a baby!" he taunted and he stood up.
Sirus opened his eyes, now was his chance. He stood up in a flash and put his hand over the guard's mouth that was now turned around and was walking out. The guard struggled and Sirus choked him, eventually making him faint from lack of air.
Sirus let the guard fall to the floor. He ran to the door and closed it, quickly traded outfits with the guard so that it would be easier for him to move around, and he left the room, locking it behind him.
"We are nearly there." The captain of the ship informed Adel who was standing behind him, a smug look on her face.
"Good," said Adel, looking through the large window that was in front of them, into the close distance at the oncoming land. They could see the outline of the large Trabian Garden that stood in the center of a U shaped mountain range.
"Order the air fleet in, they are to make the first attack." Adel demanded, and immediately the captain took up the radio and called to the air fleet. Within minutes they heard the jet's coming from behind them, and towards Trabia Garden.
The captain ordered the fleet to remain on stand-by while their ground army landed and traveled to the Garden, then they were to start the first attack. The air attack.
"Come in Balamb Garden! Come in Balamb Garden! This is a state of emergency!" said a voice from the COM system, grabbing Nida's attention.
"Come in Balamb Garden!" said the voice again, in a panicked tone. Nida picked up the microphone and turned it on so that he could speak.
"Balamb Garden here, what is it? And who is it?" he asked clearly.
"It's Trabia Garden. we don't have much time!" just as the voice said that, the connection began to break up and it was harder to hear.
"We are.. Attack.. Esthar. air crew and army!" Nida only caught those words from the fuzz and didn't understand.
"You're attacked? What?" he asked, the connection grew weaker, "Come in Trabia, come in!" he said, "COME IN TRABIA!" the connection was completely lost and Nida was dumbstruck.
For a moment he stood there with his mouth hanging open slightly, and staring into the distance of Deling City, hardly noticing an oncoming aircraft that was going to land. It looked much like the Ragnarok only smaller and blue.
Finally he slipped out of his trance and studied the oncoming aircraft. "Who's that?" he wondered and left the pilot's deck. He went to the air craft platform and stood, waiting for it to land, his hand placed at his side where he placed an emergency pistol if needed.
The small aircraft landed, Nida saw the name. It was Roknarag. He watched as the crate holder opened and light flooded out onto the darkened platform and out walked seven figures. Figures that he recognized.
"Headmistress! And Headmaster! Squall, Rinoa!" he said and ran to them, and looked around at the others, smiling suddenly. "I thought. you." he sputtered.
"You thought we were in Esthar?" Quistis said.
"Well, yeah!"
"Sorry to disappoint you Nida, but we aren't that easily stuck!" said Seifer, smiling deviously.
"But how did you get out? Isn't Esthar under Adel's control? What happened? Where's Sirus?" Nida flooded them with questions and Quistis put her hand up in the air.
"We'll explain when we get back to my office. It seems you have a lot to tell us too." she said.
Nida looked around at the rest of them and nearly gave a start when he saw Jem and Dawn standing in the back, smiling at his surprise.
"Dawn! Jem!" he exclaimed, "But. how. you crashed. I saw you dive. you dived into Esthar."
"Who couldn't survive my perfect landing's? I'm an expert!" Dawn said, twisting her foot and smiling.
"It was pure luck." Jem whispered to Nida, smirking, but unfortunately Dawn heard and gave Jem a shift kick in the shin. He hopped up and down and Dawn returned to her innocent smile.
"Come on," said Seifer, "Let's go to our office. I have to say, I never thought I'd be so glad to be back here!"
"So, you mean you still haven't received word of Selphie and Irvine?" Rinoa asked Nida, anxiously. She sat next the Squall, across from Quistis and Seifer. Nida sat in an armchair nearby.
They had just finished telling each other all that had happened since they departed before the battle of Esthar. Dawn and Jem retired to the dorms to sleep, and Ellone also left but she went to the library.
"No," said Nida, shaking his head sadly, "We haven't."
Squalls looked around at them all and then back down at his own feet, shaking his head. He'd hardly believed that they could have just been gone until that point and still, he refused to believe it. "There's no way." he whispered.
Rinoa silently agreed but said nothing; her throat was closed off. Finally, after the long and sad silence, someone finally was able to speak out.
"We need to look for them, don't we?" Quistis asked, uneasily.
"Of course we do, but we do have other things on our hands. like Adel. Besides, if they are alive, then they know how to survive, they have skills when it comes to things like this. I remember you telling me that Selphie, Irvine and Zell all hid in a machine while being bombed by missiles about fifteen years ago." Seifer said, looking around at everyone.
Rinoa smirked for a second, and then quickly said, "Yes, and we need to find Aurora and Sirus, they're probably in the most danger." She thought about what might be happening to them and shuddered, wishing she were there to help her them.
"But if Irvine and Selphie are alive, what if they're just stuck in that forest, and they need our help!" Quistis argued, causing Seifer to scowl at her.
At once, Quistis, Rinoa and Seifer began having a furious argument. Squall sat silently for a moment; he closed his eyes and lay his head back. "I've had enough." he whispered.
To everyone's surprise Squall stood up and walked away. He got onto the elevator, carefully not meeting anyone's eyes and went down. The room was silent as they all watched him leave.
Rinoa began to walk away, but Quistis grabbed her arm swiftly, "We might as well leave him be, he'll be better off."
Rinoa turned around and looked Quistis straight in the eyes. Anger boiled inside and she said coldly, "I think I know my husband better then some woman who has had a secret love for him since she was a teenager."
Quistis let go of Rinoa's arm and stepped back, looking hurt. "I was just trying to help." she whispered.
"Yeah well, your help doesn't always cure everything, you know!?" Rinoa snapped and stormed off, going down the elevator in a furious rage.
Quistis looked at Seifer, her eyes wide and her lips in a frown. "This is too much." she said.
"I'll go after them and I'll try to calm Rinoa down." Seifer said, "You should stay here and try to sort things out with Nida. We need to take action, soon. And you're the only one that seems to have a reality grasp on things around here."
Quistis nodded and sat back down. Seifer left and went after Rinoa. He finally caught up with her after going down the elevator and running to the area around the training center where she was sitting on a bench, her arms crossed and her foot was waving up and down.
"Rinoa?" he asked cautiously.
"What?" she snapped.
Seifer walked over to her and sat beside her, looking at her sadly, "Look," he said, "I know that this is hard for you. and for Squall. but there's no need to act like this."
"What would you know about it?" she said harshly, not looking at him.
"I'm not going to lie; I don't know what your going through here, what with losing your daughter. or should I say." he started but Rinoa looked at him suddenly, her voice turning different, calmer and softer but urgent.
"Don't say it." she whispered.
"Our daughter." he said out loud.
"Seifer!" she hissed.
Seifer looked down for a moment and then back up. "It's not going to help if you don't face the truth. You may not want to think that I am her biological father. but I am. And this is affecting me. You have no idea how much instincts kick in when your child is in danger."
"Yes I do!" she said angrily, "She is my daughter you know, not just yours. and actually, she isn't yours at all. She's Squall's and mine. Squall is her father, he always has been, just because he's not the biological father, that doesn't mean that he isn't her true father, he's the one who I married and love!"
"I know that," he said, "And Squall always will be her father, but you don't know how much this is affecting me. It's affecting me more then you think it would, and Squall's going to start wondering things soon, I'm surprised he hasn't already."
"If you'd quit taking me aside for private talks maybe he wouldn't think anything, he doesn't need to know. It would only hurt him to know. and that's the last thing he needs right now." Rinoa said.
"But he's going to need to know some day, I think that you should tell him. it would be better." Seifer said.
"How? How would it be better? What he doesn't know won't hurt him." She said softly.
"It would be better for your marriage. I can see it already, you've been hiding it too long, for 15 years. Ever since you were pregnant, and you knew it was mine, you kept it a secret. It's been eating at you all these years. if you don't tell him, your marriage bonds will grow weak and that's the last thing I want to happen to you two," Seifer explained, "You need to be strong right now, and so do I. That's why I've told Quistis."
"You told her?" Rinoa began to get angry again.
"I don't keep anything from her. I told her a long time ago." He said.
Rinoa looked at the ground; a few tears came down her cheeks. "Why does this have to happen?" she asked. "Why? Why was our house destroyed? Why did Adel have to come back, why did she take over Aurora after we thought she'd died again. and why couldn't we save Aurora when we had the chance!"
Seifer embraced Rinoa in a hug, she began to weep and her weeping turned to crying. "Why?" she whispered again.
"There's no explanation for why," Seifer said softly, "But there's still a chance. we still have time to save her."
Rinoa shook her head.
"We do. believe me. She's going to be fine." He said, yet there was doubt in his mind, "Listen." He said and Rinoa sat up straight, looking at him, "You should go to your room and sleep. You'll feel better tomorrow, and try to help Squall. he's in a lot of pain too. I could see that when he left."
Rinoa nodded and stood up, "Thank you." she whispered and began to walk away, "And." she said, turning around, "Tell Quistis that I'm coming to see her tomorrow. I need to apologize for what I said, I didn't mean it. I just.." She trailed off and turned away.
Seifer nodded and walked as she walked to the dormitory and disappeared down the walkway. He stood up and walked back to the elevator to go back upstairs.
As Seifer left there was a movement in the shadows nearby. From the plants by the training center, near the bench, out walked Squall. His mouth gaping and anger boiling inside, "But how.?" he asked himself, "How could Seifer be Aurora's father. it can't be true, can it?"
Thanks! It's great that you liked the tree swingers, though, they were fun too write. Anyway, more of the story now.
Chapter XIX The Next Course of Action
"Laguna's. well. Laguna is, er, preoccupied." said Zell, looking at Clarissa hesitantly and then back to Landers and Caraway who were looking at them, expecting an answer.
"Preoccupied? What do you mean by that?" asked Landers, raising and eyebrow.
"Er. never mind that, umm-"
"What? Don't talk to me that-"
"Aren't you supposed to be with the ground crew, anyway?" Clarissa intervened in their conversation. "Where's Kiros?"
"By the time we got the ground crew together, the Estharian army was drawing back and they left." Said Caraway, his arms folded firmly in front of his chest, "Kiros is with the air fleet at the moment, they're still on stand-by in case the army makes another move."
"I see," said Zell, "I think we should notify the Garden. Clarissa and I will be heading back." He took a step backwards and turned around, Clarissa following suit but stopped when Landers started talking again.
"But what about Loire?" he asked, urgently, "We need to sort out matters, immediately. Where is he?"
Zell shrugged, "I've no idea where he is, the last time we saw him we had just finished fighting Adel and-"
"You fought Adel?" Landers's eyes widened, "How come I was not informed of this? I never sent anyone after Adel, and what happened?"
Zell took another small step back, Landers seemed to be getting angry and the last thing that him and Clarissa needed was to be thrown in a Galbadian prison somewhere for defying orders of the president.
"Explain!" Landers demanded, taking a step forward causing Zell to take one more step back. "Fine. Guards!"
Four guards nearby came and grabbed their arms, stopping them from any immediate way of escaping without harming anyone. "Now, I'm going to ask one more time. Explain."
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Adel stood tall, staring out the giant window that covered an entire wall in the office of Laguna Loire. In the shadows of the far side of the room stood Dean, smirking. Anger was boiling inside Adel as she saw an aircraft take off from the air station and when the doors to the office burst open she turned in fury to see who it was.
"My.My s-s-s-orceress." said an Esthar soldier, shaking with obvious fear of her. "I-I have c-c-come to r-r-report on the c-c-current s-s-status of Esthar."
"Yes?" boomed Adel, moving slowly towards the cowering soldier, smirking at his growing fear. She seemed to billow in the fact that people cowered beneath her; it made her happy.
"W-w-we still have E-e-esthar in our grasp, however, s-s-several people h-h- have escaped in an aircraft." he stuttered, taking a slow step backwards.
"HOW MANY?" Adel raged, wiping aside a chair that was in front of her.
"S-s-s-seven."
"WHY DID YOU INSOLENT FOOLS NOT STOP THEM? WHO WERE THEY?"
"W-w-we tried, my sorceress, but t-t-they escaped." He said, backing into the door. "T-t-they were the i-i-intruders."
"THEM!" Adel roared with rage and with a great roar of anger she picked up the shaking soldier that was now yelling and threw him at the window, causing it the shatter as the soldier flew out of it.
"Dean," said Adel now eerily calm voice as she floated back to the now shattered window, "Please call someone here to fix this." She gestured at the window.
Dean stepped out of the shadows and opened the door. He murmured something to a soldier outside who ran off after Dean was done speaking, and then Dean closed the door and turned to face Adel.
"What now?" he asked, calmly with a smirk crossing his face, hoping it was something interesting.
"I do not know." Adel whispered, turning to face Dean, "I am thinking that we should take Garden. They are the reason we cannot move forward."
"Which garden shall we take over first?" Dean asked, "Balamb is well guarded, so is Galbadia but Trabia is way off in the north, nobody should think that we would take that."
"Good thinking. good thinking." Adel said, smirking. "We will take Trabia, today. Send an air fleet first to scout out the area and then send the ground and the ocean fleet. After we take Trabia I want to be prepared to move to Galbadia. Move the prisoners to the Esthar ship, we cannot leave them here."
Dean nodded and moved noiselessly across the room and out the door while Adel moved closer to the window, where cool air blew in her face. "Now, I will get what I want. Now I receive what I deserve. I will get that crystal."
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Dim light came through the small cracks in the walls of Irvine and Selphies small hut, in the distance they could hear chopping and a lot of speaking and excitement.
"Sounds like morning to me." Said Selphie, drowsily after a good night's sleep. She yawned widely and got up from the bed and moved towards the door. "What do you think that they're doing out there?"
"I don't know, just go back to bed!" said Irvine, rolling over and covering himself with the fuzzy and leafy blanket, it was surprisingly warm and comfortable.
"No way!" said Selphie, vehemently, "I wanna see what's going on, hurry and get up!"
Irvine rolled over and groaned. "Come on, Sefie, its too early!"
Selphie turned right around and glared at Irvine, "COME ON!" she demanded and walked swiftly to the bed and pulled the covers off and from under Irvine which caused him to roll right off the bed with a loud thump on the floor.
"Ouch," he exclaimed, pulling him self up, "What'd you do that for?"
"Well, it got you out of bed, didn't it!" she said proudly and helped him up.
Irvine changed into his regular clothes and slipped on his cowboy hat and walked over to Selphie who had just changed. "Happy?" he asked.
"Of course," she said, placing her hand on the door handle and pulling, "Now let's go!"
They stepped through the door and looked around the large cave in amazement. Many of the creatures, the tree-swingers, were perched on the treetops and were chopping away at the wood with their bladed tails.
Others were swinging back and forth to carry the wood and placing it in homes throughout the caves. They even caught glimpses of a few smaller tree- swingers that looked like children, swinging around tossing what looked like a large wooden ball.
"'Ello!" came a familiar high-pitched voice, happily, ""Ow are our guests today?" Ulrich had come swinging from one of the nearby trees to greet them.
"We're great!" exclaimed Selphie, "What's going on?"
"Zat iz juzt ze vood and food collection for ze veek." Said Ulrich, looking around and then back to them, "Vould you like to 'ave some food?"
Just as Ulrich had said that Irvine's stomach made a loud rumbling noise, "Vat vas zat?" asked Ulrich, tilting his head as he looked at Irvine.
"Oh," said Irvine off guard, "That was just my stomach, its telling me that I'm hungry."
"I see." Ulrich nodded, "Vould you like to come to my 'ut?"
"Sure."
Ulrich took the large vine and swung across with much ease and then he threw the vine back to their hut and walked inside his own. "I'm still not used to this at all!" said Selphie, taking the vine in her hand and getting ready to swing.
She did a small leap and flew across the gap to Ulrich's hut and threw the vine back to Irvine, "But it's getting easier!" she called and walked into Ulrich's hut.
"Not for me, though." Irvine sighed and took the vine, "Geronimo!" he swung across the large gap and landed on the other side, "Hmm." he said in an impressed tone that he'd landed better then the last time he'd tried, and he walked into Ulrich's hut to join them.
He sat down next to Selphie on the small bed as Ulrich was busying himself with a small fire and cooking the same type of plant that they'd had the previous day.
"So, I 'ave talked to Nateria last night. She agreed zat she vould listen to your story az long az it 'as a full 'istory and everything." Ulrich explained.
"You mean how we got here?" Irvine asked, "Or what?"
"Vell, zat. and also ze story of vhy you vere over zese lands." Ulrich replied, "It iz a mystery to us vhy you vould be 'ere."
"That could take a really long time though." Selphie said, looking at the plants that Ulrich had just set in front of her in and Irvine.
"Ve 'ave time." Said a voice from the hut door, "Ve vant ze 'hole story." Nateria was standing at the door, looking somewhat furious about something.
"Oh, 'ere is Nateria now!" said Ulrich, clapping his hands together, "Nateria, meet. er, vat are your names?"
"Oh," said Selphie, her eyes widening, and feeling a little guilty, "We never told you?"
"You may 'ave, but I 'ave a very bad memory." Said Ulrich, smiling.
"Oh, well, I'm Selphie and this is Irvine." Selphie said and stood up to greet Nateria, "Hello, Nateria."
Nateria looked at Selphie's hand with much revulsion and she simply walked past Selphie and sat on the ground near the fire, feeling rejected, and staring at both of them expectantly.
"Now, now, Nateria. No need to be like zat." Said Ulrich, his smile fading.
"Let's get on vith it, vat is your story?" Nateria demanded.
Irvine sighed and looked at Selphie and they nodded, "Well." they began their story starting with the Time Compression fifteen years earlier.
Chapter XX A Long Kept Secret
"So," said Lexi, staring at Laguna, "What you're saying is that this.this sorceress, Adel, she's taken over Esthar, and now she's trying to take over Galbadia?" she asked, after Laguna had explained everything about why he was there.
"Yeah, she has and yes, she is trying to take over Galbadia.we think." replied Laguna, staring at Lexi, trying to figure out what exactly was so different about her that made him feel funny.
"You think?" she asked.
"Yes. well," Laguna said, sitting across from her on a bench in the deserted bar, "It's hard to tell what exactly she's after."
"But you say that your grand-daughter, this Aurora, has been taken. that Adel has her?" Lexi sat down next to Laguna.
"Well, we thought that Adel had taken over her body," Laguna explained, "But tonight. well, that wasn't Aurora at all. I don't know what's going on."
Lexi nodded but didn't say anything; she was lost for words. Finally, she said, "You should go back to General Caraway's mansion."
Laguna looked around at her, "You should come too, it's not safe here. We don't know if Adel is gone or not."
"I can't." Lexi shook her head.
"Yes you can, come on!" Laguna pulled her arm and they left the deserted bar, after Lexi had told the group of teens where they should stay (the hotel).
Sirus opened his eyes, the light was dim around him and the floor seemed to be rocking back and forth. He stood up and tried to walk but the floor gave a funny jolt and he fell over.
He looked around the small room that he was in. It wasn't the same room that he'd last remembered, this room was different and there was a window. a window filled with water.
"That can't be right." he mumbled. He walked over to the window and looked outside of it, it was thick glass and as he'd saw, it was completely submerged in water. He was under water.
The floor gave another funny jolt and he nearly fell over, and realized where he was. "I'm on a boat!" he said out loud. He felt the back of his head, it was bleeding a bit from falling to the floor in the last cell that he was in when Dean had hit him.
Sirus sat down on the hard floor and put his head in his hands, "I've got to get out of here. I wonder if Aurora's here?" he whispered but held his breath as he heard voices. He edged to the door and put his ear up against it so that he could hear well.
"This one was out cold when I last checked. What about the girl?" Said one of the voices.
"The girl is awake, but barely." Said a second voice.
"Good," said the first voice. "I'll go up on deck, you stay here and guard the doors. Check on the boy; make sure he's still unconscious. If not, then make him unconscious."
Sirus heard the owner of the first voice's feet walk away and heard his door unlocking. He ran to the other side of the room, noiselessly, and he laid face down and shut his eyes, pretending that he was unconscious.
He heard the door open and then footsteps approaching him. He held his breath as the guard bent down and chuckled a bit, "Sleeping like a baby!" he taunted and he stood up.
Sirus opened his eyes, now was his chance. He stood up in a flash and put his hand over the guard's mouth that was now turned around and was walking out. The guard struggled and Sirus choked him, eventually making him faint from lack of air.
Sirus let the guard fall to the floor. He ran to the door and closed it, quickly traded outfits with the guard so that it would be easier for him to move around, and he left the room, locking it behind him.
"We are nearly there." The captain of the ship informed Adel who was standing behind him, a smug look on her face.
"Good," said Adel, looking through the large window that was in front of them, into the close distance at the oncoming land. They could see the outline of the large Trabian Garden that stood in the center of a U shaped mountain range.
"Order the air fleet in, they are to make the first attack." Adel demanded, and immediately the captain took up the radio and called to the air fleet. Within minutes they heard the jet's coming from behind them, and towards Trabia Garden.
The captain ordered the fleet to remain on stand-by while their ground army landed and traveled to the Garden, then they were to start the first attack. The air attack.
"Come in Balamb Garden! Come in Balamb Garden! This is a state of emergency!" said a voice from the COM system, grabbing Nida's attention.
"Come in Balamb Garden!" said the voice again, in a panicked tone. Nida picked up the microphone and turned it on so that he could speak.
"Balamb Garden here, what is it? And who is it?" he asked clearly.
"It's Trabia Garden. we don't have much time!" just as the voice said that, the connection began to break up and it was harder to hear.
"We are.. Attack.. Esthar. air crew and army!" Nida only caught those words from the fuzz and didn't understand.
"You're attacked? What?" he asked, the connection grew weaker, "Come in Trabia, come in!" he said, "COME IN TRABIA!" the connection was completely lost and Nida was dumbstruck.
For a moment he stood there with his mouth hanging open slightly, and staring into the distance of Deling City, hardly noticing an oncoming aircraft that was going to land. It looked much like the Ragnarok only smaller and blue.
Finally he slipped out of his trance and studied the oncoming aircraft. "Who's that?" he wondered and left the pilot's deck. He went to the air craft platform and stood, waiting for it to land, his hand placed at his side where he placed an emergency pistol if needed.
The small aircraft landed, Nida saw the name. It was Roknarag. He watched as the crate holder opened and light flooded out onto the darkened platform and out walked seven figures. Figures that he recognized.
"Headmistress! And Headmaster! Squall, Rinoa!" he said and ran to them, and looked around at the others, smiling suddenly. "I thought. you." he sputtered.
"You thought we were in Esthar?" Quistis said.
"Well, yeah!"
"Sorry to disappoint you Nida, but we aren't that easily stuck!" said Seifer, smiling deviously.
"But how did you get out? Isn't Esthar under Adel's control? What happened? Where's Sirus?" Nida flooded them with questions and Quistis put her hand up in the air.
"We'll explain when we get back to my office. It seems you have a lot to tell us too." she said.
Nida looked around at the rest of them and nearly gave a start when he saw Jem and Dawn standing in the back, smiling at his surprise.
"Dawn! Jem!" he exclaimed, "But. how. you crashed. I saw you dive. you dived into Esthar."
"Who couldn't survive my perfect landing's? I'm an expert!" Dawn said, twisting her foot and smiling.
"It was pure luck." Jem whispered to Nida, smirking, but unfortunately Dawn heard and gave Jem a shift kick in the shin. He hopped up and down and Dawn returned to her innocent smile.
"Come on," said Seifer, "Let's go to our office. I have to say, I never thought I'd be so glad to be back here!"
"So, you mean you still haven't received word of Selphie and Irvine?" Rinoa asked Nida, anxiously. She sat next the Squall, across from Quistis and Seifer. Nida sat in an armchair nearby.
They had just finished telling each other all that had happened since they departed before the battle of Esthar. Dawn and Jem retired to the dorms to sleep, and Ellone also left but she went to the library.
"No," said Nida, shaking his head sadly, "We haven't."
Squalls looked around at them all and then back down at his own feet, shaking his head. He'd hardly believed that they could have just been gone until that point and still, he refused to believe it. "There's no way." he whispered.
Rinoa silently agreed but said nothing; her throat was closed off. Finally, after the long and sad silence, someone finally was able to speak out.
"We need to look for them, don't we?" Quistis asked, uneasily.
"Of course we do, but we do have other things on our hands. like Adel. Besides, if they are alive, then they know how to survive, they have skills when it comes to things like this. I remember you telling me that Selphie, Irvine and Zell all hid in a machine while being bombed by missiles about fifteen years ago." Seifer said, looking around at everyone.
Rinoa smirked for a second, and then quickly said, "Yes, and we need to find Aurora and Sirus, they're probably in the most danger." She thought about what might be happening to them and shuddered, wishing she were there to help her them.
"But if Irvine and Selphie are alive, what if they're just stuck in that forest, and they need our help!" Quistis argued, causing Seifer to scowl at her.
At once, Quistis, Rinoa and Seifer began having a furious argument. Squall sat silently for a moment; he closed his eyes and lay his head back. "I've had enough." he whispered.
To everyone's surprise Squall stood up and walked away. He got onto the elevator, carefully not meeting anyone's eyes and went down. The room was silent as they all watched him leave.
Rinoa began to walk away, but Quistis grabbed her arm swiftly, "We might as well leave him be, he'll be better off."
Rinoa turned around and looked Quistis straight in the eyes. Anger boiled inside and she said coldly, "I think I know my husband better then some woman who has had a secret love for him since she was a teenager."
Quistis let go of Rinoa's arm and stepped back, looking hurt. "I was just trying to help." she whispered.
"Yeah well, your help doesn't always cure everything, you know!?" Rinoa snapped and stormed off, going down the elevator in a furious rage.
Quistis looked at Seifer, her eyes wide and her lips in a frown. "This is too much." she said.
"I'll go after them and I'll try to calm Rinoa down." Seifer said, "You should stay here and try to sort things out with Nida. We need to take action, soon. And you're the only one that seems to have a reality grasp on things around here."
Quistis nodded and sat back down. Seifer left and went after Rinoa. He finally caught up with her after going down the elevator and running to the area around the training center where she was sitting on a bench, her arms crossed and her foot was waving up and down.
"Rinoa?" he asked cautiously.
"What?" she snapped.
Seifer walked over to her and sat beside her, looking at her sadly, "Look," he said, "I know that this is hard for you. and for Squall. but there's no need to act like this."
"What would you know about it?" she said harshly, not looking at him.
"I'm not going to lie; I don't know what your going through here, what with losing your daughter. or should I say." he started but Rinoa looked at him suddenly, her voice turning different, calmer and softer but urgent.
"Don't say it." she whispered.
"Our daughter." he said out loud.
"Seifer!" she hissed.
Seifer looked down for a moment and then back up. "It's not going to help if you don't face the truth. You may not want to think that I am her biological father. but I am. And this is affecting me. You have no idea how much instincts kick in when your child is in danger."
"Yes I do!" she said angrily, "She is my daughter you know, not just yours. and actually, she isn't yours at all. She's Squall's and mine. Squall is her father, he always has been, just because he's not the biological father, that doesn't mean that he isn't her true father, he's the one who I married and love!"
"I know that," he said, "And Squall always will be her father, but you don't know how much this is affecting me. It's affecting me more then you think it would, and Squall's going to start wondering things soon, I'm surprised he hasn't already."
"If you'd quit taking me aside for private talks maybe he wouldn't think anything, he doesn't need to know. It would only hurt him to know. and that's the last thing he needs right now." Rinoa said.
"But he's going to need to know some day, I think that you should tell him. it would be better." Seifer said.
"How? How would it be better? What he doesn't know won't hurt him." She said softly.
"It would be better for your marriage. I can see it already, you've been hiding it too long, for 15 years. Ever since you were pregnant, and you knew it was mine, you kept it a secret. It's been eating at you all these years. if you don't tell him, your marriage bonds will grow weak and that's the last thing I want to happen to you two," Seifer explained, "You need to be strong right now, and so do I. That's why I've told Quistis."
"You told her?" Rinoa began to get angry again.
"I don't keep anything from her. I told her a long time ago." He said.
Rinoa looked at the ground; a few tears came down her cheeks. "Why does this have to happen?" she asked. "Why? Why was our house destroyed? Why did Adel have to come back, why did she take over Aurora after we thought she'd died again. and why couldn't we save Aurora when we had the chance!"
Seifer embraced Rinoa in a hug, she began to weep and her weeping turned to crying. "Why?" she whispered again.
"There's no explanation for why," Seifer said softly, "But there's still a chance. we still have time to save her."
Rinoa shook her head.
"We do. believe me. She's going to be fine." He said, yet there was doubt in his mind, "Listen." He said and Rinoa sat up straight, looking at him, "You should go to your room and sleep. You'll feel better tomorrow, and try to help Squall. he's in a lot of pain too. I could see that when he left."
Rinoa nodded and stood up, "Thank you." she whispered and began to walk away, "And." she said, turning around, "Tell Quistis that I'm coming to see her tomorrow. I need to apologize for what I said, I didn't mean it. I just.." She trailed off and turned away.
Seifer nodded and walked as she walked to the dormitory and disappeared down the walkway. He stood up and walked back to the elevator to go back upstairs.
As Seifer left there was a movement in the shadows nearby. From the plants by the training center, near the bench, out walked Squall. His mouth gaping and anger boiling inside, "But how.?" he asked himself, "How could Seifer be Aurora's father. it can't be true, can it?"
