Fantasy Thunder Chapter Seventeen: Rho
By Blue Dragon
Rho may be the only reasonable soul of us all.
Seymour sharpened the end of his nails with his hair and began telling his tale.
"As you probably know, I was born half Human and half Guado. I was supposed to be a symbolization of peace between the two species. I have one thing to say to that now . . . "
After a few seconds, Tidus beckoned him to continue.
"What do you have to say to that?"
"Peace my ass"
***
The five-year-old Guado/Human ran away from school for the twenty-ninth time in the hour and fourteen minutes that he had been in school. The officials meant to keep the children in school were no match for Human speed, even if it was half Human speed. They soon lost sight of Seymour as he burst into his house and then into tears on his mothers lap for the twenty-ninth time in a period of an hour and fourteen minutes.
While a normal woman probably would have grown tired of this boy's constant babble, she continuously comforted her son and told him that everything would be okay, and that he had to get himself back to school.
"Seymour, I know the kids are mean, but I promise you that everything will be okay. You have to get yourself back to school!"
"I'm tired of running! Those kids are mean!"
She kneeled down to look her son in the eye.
"You shouldn't let them get to you if they can sink low enough to ignore what a fine boy you are! You dress well, use good manners, and comb your hair."
". . . Mommy, I don't know if you've noticed, but my hair is sharper than a Behemoth's tooth and harder than one, too! I can't make any friends!"
"Nonsense! They should be able to see what a fine boy you--"
"Mom, don't you know that the stuff a parent considers important in a child aren't the same as the stuff kids look for!? They're the things kids make fun of!"
His mother was surprised to hear such a refined conclusion from a boy so young.
"They make fun of my hair, and nails, and eyes, and height, and the way I talk, the way I walk, my clothes, my weight, my shoes, my gloves, my veins, my skin, and my intelligence. Mommy, I don't wanna go back! Don't make me go! Please!"
***
"The kids made fun of me all the time. At first just for my unique species, and then later I became the butt of every joke! Sometimes they would just make things up just to laugh at me. Things I did perfectly normal they would take and shape so it seemed strange so that they would have more to laugh at me about. You'd think they would become more mature when they became older but I would say it was quite the opposite."
"Didn't the adults ever do anything about it?"
"They would pretend to, but the torment never ceased. They probably shunned me for my species as well. The fools."
***
Seymour felt another tiny ball of paper hit him in the back of the head as it had countless times before. He had made an oath to his mom that he would stay in school AND refrain from harming any aggressors that he could and probably would encounter. He ground his nerves and tried his best to tolerate them, but it was to no avail as yet another tiny ball of paper hit him. He focused on the work before him: Simple math problems.
The life of a small child offered so many challenges and conquests to be fulfilled. To him learning was a wonderful thing full of frontiers of knowledge that had long been neglected by the Guado that paid no attention to its value, and had never been interested in obtaining power through books. Seymour was different, and that was one of the many reasons he was made fun of.
The teacher at Guadosalam had introduced a brand-new concept that would baffle even Seymour, but not to the point that he wouldn't want to learn it to the fullest. Multiplication. Ah, multiplication! The great new frontier of the math area of knowledge! How with only two small numbers you could get one big one. How adding nine and nine would give eighteen, but multiplying would give you eighty-one!
The concept amazed Seymour and within a few days he had learned all his times tables and was moving into bigger multiplication and from that, division. He especially treasured the ideas of fraction multiplication, how four times four was the same as one-fourth multiplied by sixty-four. Even at his age of eight he was setting grounds for moving into advanced arithmetic, algebra, even physics. He would go to the library and read up on equations, literal equations, polynomial division, compound interest, synthetic division of polynomials, the properties of the multiplication of binomials, and trinomials, the sums of squares of binomials, the zero- product property, ratios, the real number system, a y and an x axis, and with it the equations applicable for circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas. All of the vastness of math in particular had amazed and fascinated him to no end, and instead of sitting at home watching Luca- imported televisions or baking cookies or playing like normal Guado children, Seymour would sit at home and get his joy from study. No one paid any attention to this, of course, because what was to be expected of the child of Lord Jyscal?
The studying helped hide Seymour from the fact that the kids were slowly but surely pushing him over the edge. The edges being the lines for complete craziness and lust for power.
***
Omicron paced around the room while his unknown accomplice stood in the corner. Pi was in the chair in front of him, looking down at the ground. He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her head back so he was staring her in the face.
"I'll ask you again. You are with Pyros more than any of us. All the time, really. You have been forgetting vital things of our group and of our cause, as well. Pyros asked me nicely to get simple pieces of information from you, and he said I could use pain as a factor. So here's what I'll do. I'm feeling generous. You are to tell me something simple about our ship, and work up to more complicated things. I have one question. What is the name of the ship?"
She gave a look of genuine terror.
"I . . . I honestly don't know. I don't know anything!"
"Wrong answer."
He flung her against the wall and held her there.
"What is my name?"
"I can't remember!"
Omicron drew a cut against her left cheek with the blade he removed from the sheath on his back.
"What is his name?"
He jerked his thumb in the direction of the currently nameless accomplice.
"I . . . think I remember . . . his name is--"
"Quiet! His name is not to be spoken aloud. I hope you truly know his name, for if you're lying . . . "
Of course Omicron could read minds if the mind was fearful and of close range, so he knew that it wasn't a bluff.
He believed that slowly, if he could give this girl enough pain, that she would somehow remember. He never got to test his theory completely.
***
Quistis felt frozen in place as she waited for Xu's explanation, the terror and suspense of it mixed in with the ghostly singing that she was hearing from the kitchen.
"She died of a broken heart. The government from Esthar killed her husband in front of her eyes. She told me that they feared sorceress influence, but she also told me that she didn't think that was the real reason. She said that the real reason was probably out of hatred for her, for what she was. And after that day, she'd sing a song to herself every day in the kitchen."
"The song we hear now?"
Xu slowly shook her head.
"No, she only sung this song when she didn't think anyone was around, but that was only before her husband was killed." Quistis moved towards the kitchen but was surprised to find that Xu wasn't following her.
"Don't you want to see what is there?" she asked.
"Well, I think that I should just check around." Xu responded as she hurried to another room, accidentally making it clear that she was too scared to go any further.
Quistis sighed and stepped over the rubble to the doorless doorway that led to what was left of the kitchen. Afraid at what awaited her, she looked carefully around the corner and was surprised to find who seemed to be a girl not much younger than her staring outside through a broken and dirty window, singing to herself. She had unusually bright orange hair that didn't seem to be a proper tone for anyone to have. Not any human, at least.
She felt her heartbeat slow down and put her hand there while closing her eyes to calm herself down.
"How relieving . . . " she said to herself, not realizing that she had said it aloud until she felt a pair of eyes upon her.
"Hello"
It was the girl at the window. Quistis didn't know how to react, and then she remembered that the person their might be helpful to Xu.
"Hello. Do you live here?"
She shook her head slowly.
"DID you live here?"
She shook her head with less hesitation this time.
"Do you know where this place is?"
Quistis' hopes were depressed when the person shook her head for the third time.
"Why are you here?" Quistis realized that wasn't an appropriate question, because she didn't exactly belong either.
"I don't know. I woke up here. Do you live here?"
It was Quistis' turn for a negative response.
"Do you remember where you came from? Maybe I could help you?"
"I remember my name. But not where I'm from."
"And you have nowhere to go?"
The girl slowly shook her head.
"Come with me. There's plenty of room where I'm from, if you're interested. My name is Quistis Trepe. Follow me."
Without requesting a name Quistis led the girl over the rubble she had just passed and to the room where Xu seemed to be searching.
"Xu, I found someone"
Xu looked up from the old severed bookcase and her eyes fell on the person Quistis brought. She stared at her, transfixed.
"She looks like Lamia" Xu said blankly.
"Lamia?"
"One of the sorceress that took care of me."
"Xu? She doesn't look any older than us." Quistis said, forgetting that the person they were talking about was right next to her.
"Well, like a younger version . . . but the similarity is unmistakable. Believe me."
"Your name?" Quistis asked the girl.
Her voice was muted by the sound of Oren reappearing from his blue gate.
"Xu, Quistis, are you--"
The voice was again muted by the electrical sound that came from Oren moving to maximum alert and pulling out a sword from his side.
"Xu! Quistis! Step away!"
The girl seemed indifferent as Oren slowly and cautiously moved towards her.
"Oren? Are you okay?" Xu asked.
"Do you all realize who that is? She's dangerous!"
The girl stared and her eyes flared dangerously, for a split second her mouth curving into a wicked smile before returning to her neutral expression.
"I . . . remember . . . you're Oren! Oren Murasaki!"
"Is that all?" Oren asked her as if testing.
"And . . . I remember you killing someone close to me . . . "
***
Omicron slowly realized that his implements of torture weren't working. Pi wasn't budging even a bit. She couldn't seem to remember anything. Omicron's accomplice walked next to him.
"Should I try?"
"Go ahead. But don't expect anything . . . " he grumbled.
At the time Omicron had put Pi under a Nightmare syndrome, filling her head with constant images of terror and inducing physical pain at the same time. She was still tied to the chair except now sweating profusely and shaking.
Omicron's accomplice kneeled in front of her so his face met her own and slowly removed the Nightmare syndrome spell.
"What are you doing?" Omicron asked.
"Trust me." He responded, staring firmly at Pi.
"Think happy thoughts, Pi. Forget about everything. Just focus on what you love most, and if you happen to remember something, just calmly speak it."
Pi's will had been shattered and she blankly complied without even stopping to consider the strangeness of the request.
After two minutes when nothing happened, Omicron became impatient.
"I thought you'd try something today."
"Give her a little more time."
As if on cue, she began to almost sing the information.
"My name is Mirai Kiloyama, codnamed Pi."
Omicron jumped, surprised to hear her utter her real name for the first time he had known of in years.
"Our designated ship is the Krysta, S-type. Serial number 055833592319SBJX. Our current mission objective: Operation Stardust, is currently classified and further procedures of explanation can ultimately lead to enemy recon. Continue?"
Omicron smiled, Pi having regained every last attribute of a computer, particularly the one stored in her brain.
"Yes, go on"
"Operation Stardust includes one primary objective and two secondary objectives. Primary Objective: A thorough sweep and possession of four planets in the general Milky-Stardust area. Secondary Objective One: Eliminate Zatach Oren Murasaki and possible accomplice Jessica Takahashi. Secondary Objective Two: Elimination of various targets from the four target planets for subtle reasons."
"Can you give me the reasons?" Omicron was so greedy for information that he didn't notice Reno in the back, tape recording the hole thing from behind the corner.
Reno realized he would find what they had against him and every other fighter personally.
***
Squall sat down on a rock, staring down at the stream in front of him. He took a pebble and skipped it across. He had been alone for hours now after his disappearance, trying to think of a way to deal with his problem. And he certainly couldn't do that in the confines of Esthar Garden with everyone yelling his name every thirteen seconds.
"Hey there"
He heard a strange voice that sounded familiar behind him. He turned and saw something that made his heart jump. A ghostly image of himself.
"What the holy hell?"
"You know me? I'm not really here. I'm just your subconscious. And hey, I've had enough of your attitude. I'm here to reinforce some stuff that you should already know, so listen good."
Squall had half a mind to run off screaming like a madman, but what good would that do?
"Alright boy, here's the stuff. You were supposed to have gotten over your coldness a LONG time ago. But I see you still let it surface? Listen, you have to change. And do it fast before you lose too many people. You have a heart in there somewhere and you know it. You can be good to your former rival who was once the most dangerous man alive, but not your father who just wants another chance to know you? You have a hot girl and ignore her most of the time?"
Squall was about to tell the image to watch his mouth, but remembered it was actually himself and kept quiet.
"No one will kill you if you LIGHTEN UP! You'd better not forget this! Now show you aren't cold and prove it to the one you love!"
The image disappeared.
"Squall?" Rinoa had come behind him.
"We were worried. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, whate-"
He remembered what his subconscious had said.
"Uh, I love you"
He had been so desperate to find a words that melted his cold exterior that he ended up saying the three most important and meaningful words in the history of mankind. Minus the 'Uh' of course. What surprised Squall even more is that he meant them.
"Squall? Are you . . . alright?"
Squall stood by still with his eyes closed, searching for every instinct that he had stored away, but had never used. It took him a few seconds to shed his cold exterior a bit and try and get rid of the nagging embarrassment that always cramped his style when he got emotional.
Rinoa looked taken aback. Squall figured that actions spoke louder than words. He stood up, focused on smiting every instinct inside of him that told him he was stupid, and effortlessly brought Rinoa into the second kiss they had ever shared.
Rinoa was so surprised she almost didn't close her eyes at first. In their heads they counted off the time simultaneously and the old record of three point two seconds was broken. Broken and passed by an additional thirteen.
***
A fayth. His mother was becoming at the fayth of Baaj. Why?
"Mommy! You're all I have!"
The twelve-year-old Seymour had never grown distant from his mother.
She still comforted him. Now it was for the last time.
"We are in desperate need of aeons. I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I am the only person in the Baaj area that has the spiritual qualifications for a fayth. I will still be with you . . . "
The time of Sin's rebirth was coming near, and there was a shortage on aeons after the time of a few had expired. Sin could not be defeated if a certain amount of aeons had not been prepared for a summoner to receive the "final aeon".
When she left and gave him a last hug and kiss, he had been tearful. He had known about this for weeks and tried to forget it, but it was in vain. The pain in his heart from the lost of his mother further cultivated the developing darkness in his soul.
Seymour never understood what his mother meant. Until that day later on after she took the plunge into the spectrumization liquid. The liquid that would turn a person into a fayth that had been waiting for his mother. He was on his bed, not even able to study, when his father came in.
Of course Seymour had been attached to his mother, but over the years he saw the man his father was and grew equally fond of him.
"Son?"
". . . "
"Seymour, I brought this for you"
". . . "
"It's from your mother."
Seymour raised his head and slowly extended his hand for a present he would soon find that he didn't need to receive in such a manner.
It was sudden, his young body sprawled back against his bed and he felt a presence within him.
"Do you like it?"
"Dad?"
"You are a summoner, now"
"What! I never learned!"
Jyscal picked up one of Seymour's books and turned to the chapter on summoning.
"It seems you have already studied the required knowledge, my son. Use this power wisely. It is a great honor to hold an aeon."
Seymour continued his studies, but now he trained his body and his ever- twisting mind. A mind that was pushed to its limits one day on his way home from school.
As usual the Guado children would pursue him and jeer him about many things. Seymour had learned to ignore them. Until one child said something that made him forget about forms of self-control in an instant.
"Ya miss your mommy, half-breed?"
The Guado almost tripped over each other when Seymour stopped dead in his tracks on the dirt road that led back to the Guadosalam. He focused on every thread of concentration on summoning what was in him. He wasn't expecting the force of the creature to rise up from the ground that had turned blood red. It had to be over thirty feet tall, jagged teeth as long as he was, and chains holding its arms down.
It roared a roar that made leaves fly from trees.
Seymour stood beside it, panting.
"Anima . . . "
The Guado stared for a second, and then proved every scientist that had ever said 'Guado are shown to be fairly slow' wrong.
At first he couldn't retract it, but slowly Seymour managed to regain control of himself and tuck the entity back into where it came from. That was the day that he became spoiled with power.
***
"My life story, like I said, isn't a pretty one. So now you know. Just don't tell anyone as long as I'm still alive or I'll do something that we both might not like."
Seymour said without taking his eyes from Kuja or Zidane.
Tidus had nothing to say. The life of Seymour hadn't been the happy little fairy tale that he had always imagined. It had been the opposite, as a matter of fact.
He finally choked out a miserable 'oh', but that was all.
Kuja finally finished talking to Zidane and then the two stood up and motioned to the others that they were ready for combat.
***
After Seifer had snuck his friends in and into two vacant Esthar Garden rooms to lay low until he could talk to Squall about it, he met Jessica on the garden roof, where they could have a little more space. Seifer would test the limits of his newly found abilities, and Jessica would try and contemplate how while pacing around and occasionally firing her gun into the air for Seifer to chase (Speed tests, of course).
Finally, after twenty minuets of testing Jessica gave up and told Seifer he could stop.
"You guys have it good. I never realized how limitless those bodies were!"
"You may consider them limitless, but the sense of fatigue doesn't show up as much as it would in a human. You could find yourself over fatigued if you push yourself too hard." She pointed out.
As they were walking down the stairs from the roof Seifer heard a slight mumble from Jessica.
"No way it could be from another Zatach . . . "
***
"You killed someone . . . I can't remember"
Oren was so intrigued he almost fell over.
"You remember that I supposedly did a bad deed but you can remember which it was? Just my luck."
"I remember your name, my name, but not who you killed."
"Oren, do you know this girl?" Xu asked him.
"My name is Mirai Kiloyama" she interrupted.
"No. Not anymore. I do know this girl. She is now codenamed Pi. And she is just as horrible as all the others."
"My codename . . .? Yes! Now I remember! It was Omega you kil--"
In a lightning fast movement Pi fell to the ground and Oren put her over his shoulder.
"You ladies continue. I have to take her back to garden."
Oren then disappeared the same way he had come, leaving Xu and Quistis looking blankly at each other. As if nothing had happened, Xu went back to rummaging around leaving Quistis more anxious than before to get back to garden.
***
Before Pi could begin reciting the reasons for targets on the planets involved in Operation Stardust, Omicron's accomplice put up a hand to silence her.
He removed a sword and slashed it down, destroying part of the wall and revealing Reno with the tape recorder.
For a few short seconds the man didn't even realize that he was discovered, and then he trembled slightly and did the wisest thing: ran.
Reno had never believed that fear tapped adrenaline, but when he zoomed up those spiral stairs and out of the Shinra mansion he decided he was wrong.
Omicron looked at Pi and untied her.
"Instead of talking any longer, chase him down and kill him, will you?"
She blankly nodded and left Omicron and his accomplice in a room where anything not firmly attached flew backwards. The force from the wind almost knocked Omicron himself off his feet.
Reno thought he was getting away until he found himself on his back when what seemed to be a blaze flew around him and then stopped in front of him on the road. He shakily stood up and scanned the situation. He could try to fake his way around the fountain, but that wasn't useful for someone who could fly. He considered making a break for a house and hiding, but a person with such speed could effortlessly catch him . . . Reno decided his only option was to surrender. But not before using a bit of the 'slickness' he had learned as a Turk. He dropped the recorder so that it went down behind his leg and then kicked it silently into a crack in the fountain, an emergency hiding spot in case he didn't come back.
"I surrender!" Reno said, putting his hands up in a way to conceal the gun in his sleeve.
"I was told to kill you." Was the response he got from the female.
***
"Do you feel something?" Jessica asked Seifer. The two were sitting on a bench in the hallway.
"Not really."
"You're sure?"
"Like maybe something moving faster than its supposed to?"
"Exactly!"
"Huh. I just thought it was a feeling. Whatever it is can't be too far. One, two miles maybe?"
"The other side of the universe."
"Oh. That's probably a little longer off, but I was close."
"No one moves that fast unless in serious combat." She said, standing up.
"And if a fights going on then we might be needed."
"Hold on! Shouldn't we get more people first?" Seifer asked, trying to stop her.
"I'm only strong enough to bring two people with me that great a distance. You and I are our best bets."
Without another second of hesitation she grabbed Seifer's arm and sent him along with her to the source of the spark of quick-moving mass.
***
Squall and Rinoa stood holding each other for a while. Rinoa smiled and looked up at him.
"Squall?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't know what happened to you, but . . . "
"But what?"
"But I like it"
________________________________________________________________________
AN: Sorry for the hideously long wait. Anyway, I'm going to temporarily calm down the action for a few chapters. The next one will focus on Squall/Rinoa.
By Blue Dragon
Rho may be the only reasonable soul of us all.
Seymour sharpened the end of his nails with his hair and began telling his tale.
"As you probably know, I was born half Human and half Guado. I was supposed to be a symbolization of peace between the two species. I have one thing to say to that now . . . "
After a few seconds, Tidus beckoned him to continue.
"What do you have to say to that?"
"Peace my ass"
***
The five-year-old Guado/Human ran away from school for the twenty-ninth time in the hour and fourteen minutes that he had been in school. The officials meant to keep the children in school were no match for Human speed, even if it was half Human speed. They soon lost sight of Seymour as he burst into his house and then into tears on his mothers lap for the twenty-ninth time in a period of an hour and fourteen minutes.
While a normal woman probably would have grown tired of this boy's constant babble, she continuously comforted her son and told him that everything would be okay, and that he had to get himself back to school.
"Seymour, I know the kids are mean, but I promise you that everything will be okay. You have to get yourself back to school!"
"I'm tired of running! Those kids are mean!"
She kneeled down to look her son in the eye.
"You shouldn't let them get to you if they can sink low enough to ignore what a fine boy you are! You dress well, use good manners, and comb your hair."
". . . Mommy, I don't know if you've noticed, but my hair is sharper than a Behemoth's tooth and harder than one, too! I can't make any friends!"
"Nonsense! They should be able to see what a fine boy you--"
"Mom, don't you know that the stuff a parent considers important in a child aren't the same as the stuff kids look for!? They're the things kids make fun of!"
His mother was surprised to hear such a refined conclusion from a boy so young.
"They make fun of my hair, and nails, and eyes, and height, and the way I talk, the way I walk, my clothes, my weight, my shoes, my gloves, my veins, my skin, and my intelligence. Mommy, I don't wanna go back! Don't make me go! Please!"
***
"The kids made fun of me all the time. At first just for my unique species, and then later I became the butt of every joke! Sometimes they would just make things up just to laugh at me. Things I did perfectly normal they would take and shape so it seemed strange so that they would have more to laugh at me about. You'd think they would become more mature when they became older but I would say it was quite the opposite."
"Didn't the adults ever do anything about it?"
"They would pretend to, but the torment never ceased. They probably shunned me for my species as well. The fools."
***
Seymour felt another tiny ball of paper hit him in the back of the head as it had countless times before. He had made an oath to his mom that he would stay in school AND refrain from harming any aggressors that he could and probably would encounter. He ground his nerves and tried his best to tolerate them, but it was to no avail as yet another tiny ball of paper hit him. He focused on the work before him: Simple math problems.
The life of a small child offered so many challenges and conquests to be fulfilled. To him learning was a wonderful thing full of frontiers of knowledge that had long been neglected by the Guado that paid no attention to its value, and had never been interested in obtaining power through books. Seymour was different, and that was one of the many reasons he was made fun of.
The teacher at Guadosalam had introduced a brand-new concept that would baffle even Seymour, but not to the point that he wouldn't want to learn it to the fullest. Multiplication. Ah, multiplication! The great new frontier of the math area of knowledge! How with only two small numbers you could get one big one. How adding nine and nine would give eighteen, but multiplying would give you eighty-one!
The concept amazed Seymour and within a few days he had learned all his times tables and was moving into bigger multiplication and from that, division. He especially treasured the ideas of fraction multiplication, how four times four was the same as one-fourth multiplied by sixty-four. Even at his age of eight he was setting grounds for moving into advanced arithmetic, algebra, even physics. He would go to the library and read up on equations, literal equations, polynomial division, compound interest, synthetic division of polynomials, the properties of the multiplication of binomials, and trinomials, the sums of squares of binomials, the zero- product property, ratios, the real number system, a y and an x axis, and with it the equations applicable for circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas. All of the vastness of math in particular had amazed and fascinated him to no end, and instead of sitting at home watching Luca- imported televisions or baking cookies or playing like normal Guado children, Seymour would sit at home and get his joy from study. No one paid any attention to this, of course, because what was to be expected of the child of Lord Jyscal?
The studying helped hide Seymour from the fact that the kids were slowly but surely pushing him over the edge. The edges being the lines for complete craziness and lust for power.
***
Omicron paced around the room while his unknown accomplice stood in the corner. Pi was in the chair in front of him, looking down at the ground. He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her head back so he was staring her in the face.
"I'll ask you again. You are with Pyros more than any of us. All the time, really. You have been forgetting vital things of our group and of our cause, as well. Pyros asked me nicely to get simple pieces of information from you, and he said I could use pain as a factor. So here's what I'll do. I'm feeling generous. You are to tell me something simple about our ship, and work up to more complicated things. I have one question. What is the name of the ship?"
She gave a look of genuine terror.
"I . . . I honestly don't know. I don't know anything!"
"Wrong answer."
He flung her against the wall and held her there.
"What is my name?"
"I can't remember!"
Omicron drew a cut against her left cheek with the blade he removed from the sheath on his back.
"What is his name?"
He jerked his thumb in the direction of the currently nameless accomplice.
"I . . . think I remember . . . his name is--"
"Quiet! His name is not to be spoken aloud. I hope you truly know his name, for if you're lying . . . "
Of course Omicron could read minds if the mind was fearful and of close range, so he knew that it wasn't a bluff.
He believed that slowly, if he could give this girl enough pain, that she would somehow remember. He never got to test his theory completely.
***
Quistis felt frozen in place as she waited for Xu's explanation, the terror and suspense of it mixed in with the ghostly singing that she was hearing from the kitchen.
"She died of a broken heart. The government from Esthar killed her husband in front of her eyes. She told me that they feared sorceress influence, but she also told me that she didn't think that was the real reason. She said that the real reason was probably out of hatred for her, for what she was. And after that day, she'd sing a song to herself every day in the kitchen."
"The song we hear now?"
Xu slowly shook her head.
"No, she only sung this song when she didn't think anyone was around, but that was only before her husband was killed." Quistis moved towards the kitchen but was surprised to find that Xu wasn't following her.
"Don't you want to see what is there?" she asked.
"Well, I think that I should just check around." Xu responded as she hurried to another room, accidentally making it clear that she was too scared to go any further.
Quistis sighed and stepped over the rubble to the doorless doorway that led to what was left of the kitchen. Afraid at what awaited her, she looked carefully around the corner and was surprised to find who seemed to be a girl not much younger than her staring outside through a broken and dirty window, singing to herself. She had unusually bright orange hair that didn't seem to be a proper tone for anyone to have. Not any human, at least.
She felt her heartbeat slow down and put her hand there while closing her eyes to calm herself down.
"How relieving . . . " she said to herself, not realizing that she had said it aloud until she felt a pair of eyes upon her.
"Hello"
It was the girl at the window. Quistis didn't know how to react, and then she remembered that the person their might be helpful to Xu.
"Hello. Do you live here?"
She shook her head slowly.
"DID you live here?"
She shook her head with less hesitation this time.
"Do you know where this place is?"
Quistis' hopes were depressed when the person shook her head for the third time.
"Why are you here?" Quistis realized that wasn't an appropriate question, because she didn't exactly belong either.
"I don't know. I woke up here. Do you live here?"
It was Quistis' turn for a negative response.
"Do you remember where you came from? Maybe I could help you?"
"I remember my name. But not where I'm from."
"And you have nowhere to go?"
The girl slowly shook her head.
"Come with me. There's plenty of room where I'm from, if you're interested. My name is Quistis Trepe. Follow me."
Without requesting a name Quistis led the girl over the rubble she had just passed and to the room where Xu seemed to be searching.
"Xu, I found someone"
Xu looked up from the old severed bookcase and her eyes fell on the person Quistis brought. She stared at her, transfixed.
"She looks like Lamia" Xu said blankly.
"Lamia?"
"One of the sorceress that took care of me."
"Xu? She doesn't look any older than us." Quistis said, forgetting that the person they were talking about was right next to her.
"Well, like a younger version . . . but the similarity is unmistakable. Believe me."
"Your name?" Quistis asked the girl.
Her voice was muted by the sound of Oren reappearing from his blue gate.
"Xu, Quistis, are you--"
The voice was again muted by the electrical sound that came from Oren moving to maximum alert and pulling out a sword from his side.
"Xu! Quistis! Step away!"
The girl seemed indifferent as Oren slowly and cautiously moved towards her.
"Oren? Are you okay?" Xu asked.
"Do you all realize who that is? She's dangerous!"
The girl stared and her eyes flared dangerously, for a split second her mouth curving into a wicked smile before returning to her neutral expression.
"I . . . remember . . . you're Oren! Oren Murasaki!"
"Is that all?" Oren asked her as if testing.
"And . . . I remember you killing someone close to me . . . "
***
Omicron slowly realized that his implements of torture weren't working. Pi wasn't budging even a bit. She couldn't seem to remember anything. Omicron's accomplice walked next to him.
"Should I try?"
"Go ahead. But don't expect anything . . . " he grumbled.
At the time Omicron had put Pi under a Nightmare syndrome, filling her head with constant images of terror and inducing physical pain at the same time. She was still tied to the chair except now sweating profusely and shaking.
Omicron's accomplice kneeled in front of her so his face met her own and slowly removed the Nightmare syndrome spell.
"What are you doing?" Omicron asked.
"Trust me." He responded, staring firmly at Pi.
"Think happy thoughts, Pi. Forget about everything. Just focus on what you love most, and if you happen to remember something, just calmly speak it."
Pi's will had been shattered and she blankly complied without even stopping to consider the strangeness of the request.
After two minutes when nothing happened, Omicron became impatient.
"I thought you'd try something today."
"Give her a little more time."
As if on cue, she began to almost sing the information.
"My name is Mirai Kiloyama, codnamed Pi."
Omicron jumped, surprised to hear her utter her real name for the first time he had known of in years.
"Our designated ship is the Krysta, S-type. Serial number 055833592319SBJX. Our current mission objective: Operation Stardust, is currently classified and further procedures of explanation can ultimately lead to enemy recon. Continue?"
Omicron smiled, Pi having regained every last attribute of a computer, particularly the one stored in her brain.
"Yes, go on"
"Operation Stardust includes one primary objective and two secondary objectives. Primary Objective: A thorough sweep and possession of four planets in the general Milky-Stardust area. Secondary Objective One: Eliminate Zatach Oren Murasaki and possible accomplice Jessica Takahashi. Secondary Objective Two: Elimination of various targets from the four target planets for subtle reasons."
"Can you give me the reasons?" Omicron was so greedy for information that he didn't notice Reno in the back, tape recording the hole thing from behind the corner.
Reno realized he would find what they had against him and every other fighter personally.
***
Squall sat down on a rock, staring down at the stream in front of him. He took a pebble and skipped it across. He had been alone for hours now after his disappearance, trying to think of a way to deal with his problem. And he certainly couldn't do that in the confines of Esthar Garden with everyone yelling his name every thirteen seconds.
"Hey there"
He heard a strange voice that sounded familiar behind him. He turned and saw something that made his heart jump. A ghostly image of himself.
"What the holy hell?"
"You know me? I'm not really here. I'm just your subconscious. And hey, I've had enough of your attitude. I'm here to reinforce some stuff that you should already know, so listen good."
Squall had half a mind to run off screaming like a madman, but what good would that do?
"Alright boy, here's the stuff. You were supposed to have gotten over your coldness a LONG time ago. But I see you still let it surface? Listen, you have to change. And do it fast before you lose too many people. You have a heart in there somewhere and you know it. You can be good to your former rival who was once the most dangerous man alive, but not your father who just wants another chance to know you? You have a hot girl and ignore her most of the time?"
Squall was about to tell the image to watch his mouth, but remembered it was actually himself and kept quiet.
"No one will kill you if you LIGHTEN UP! You'd better not forget this! Now show you aren't cold and prove it to the one you love!"
The image disappeared.
"Squall?" Rinoa had come behind him.
"We were worried. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, whate-"
He remembered what his subconscious had said.
"Uh, I love you"
He had been so desperate to find a words that melted his cold exterior that he ended up saying the three most important and meaningful words in the history of mankind. Minus the 'Uh' of course. What surprised Squall even more is that he meant them.
"Squall? Are you . . . alright?"
Squall stood by still with his eyes closed, searching for every instinct that he had stored away, but had never used. It took him a few seconds to shed his cold exterior a bit and try and get rid of the nagging embarrassment that always cramped his style when he got emotional.
Rinoa looked taken aback. Squall figured that actions spoke louder than words. He stood up, focused on smiting every instinct inside of him that told him he was stupid, and effortlessly brought Rinoa into the second kiss they had ever shared.
Rinoa was so surprised she almost didn't close her eyes at first. In their heads they counted off the time simultaneously and the old record of three point two seconds was broken. Broken and passed by an additional thirteen.
***
A fayth. His mother was becoming at the fayth of Baaj. Why?
"Mommy! You're all I have!"
The twelve-year-old Seymour had never grown distant from his mother.
She still comforted him. Now it was for the last time.
"We are in desperate need of aeons. I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I am the only person in the Baaj area that has the spiritual qualifications for a fayth. I will still be with you . . . "
The time of Sin's rebirth was coming near, and there was a shortage on aeons after the time of a few had expired. Sin could not be defeated if a certain amount of aeons had not been prepared for a summoner to receive the "final aeon".
When she left and gave him a last hug and kiss, he had been tearful. He had known about this for weeks and tried to forget it, but it was in vain. The pain in his heart from the lost of his mother further cultivated the developing darkness in his soul.
Seymour never understood what his mother meant. Until that day later on after she took the plunge into the spectrumization liquid. The liquid that would turn a person into a fayth that had been waiting for his mother. He was on his bed, not even able to study, when his father came in.
Of course Seymour had been attached to his mother, but over the years he saw the man his father was and grew equally fond of him.
"Son?"
". . . "
"Seymour, I brought this for you"
". . . "
"It's from your mother."
Seymour raised his head and slowly extended his hand for a present he would soon find that he didn't need to receive in such a manner.
It was sudden, his young body sprawled back against his bed and he felt a presence within him.
"Do you like it?"
"Dad?"
"You are a summoner, now"
"What! I never learned!"
Jyscal picked up one of Seymour's books and turned to the chapter on summoning.
"It seems you have already studied the required knowledge, my son. Use this power wisely. It is a great honor to hold an aeon."
Seymour continued his studies, but now he trained his body and his ever- twisting mind. A mind that was pushed to its limits one day on his way home from school.
As usual the Guado children would pursue him and jeer him about many things. Seymour had learned to ignore them. Until one child said something that made him forget about forms of self-control in an instant.
"Ya miss your mommy, half-breed?"
The Guado almost tripped over each other when Seymour stopped dead in his tracks on the dirt road that led back to the Guadosalam. He focused on every thread of concentration on summoning what was in him. He wasn't expecting the force of the creature to rise up from the ground that had turned blood red. It had to be over thirty feet tall, jagged teeth as long as he was, and chains holding its arms down.
It roared a roar that made leaves fly from trees.
Seymour stood beside it, panting.
"Anima . . . "
The Guado stared for a second, and then proved every scientist that had ever said 'Guado are shown to be fairly slow' wrong.
At first he couldn't retract it, but slowly Seymour managed to regain control of himself and tuck the entity back into where it came from. That was the day that he became spoiled with power.
***
"My life story, like I said, isn't a pretty one. So now you know. Just don't tell anyone as long as I'm still alive or I'll do something that we both might not like."
Seymour said without taking his eyes from Kuja or Zidane.
Tidus had nothing to say. The life of Seymour hadn't been the happy little fairy tale that he had always imagined. It had been the opposite, as a matter of fact.
He finally choked out a miserable 'oh', but that was all.
Kuja finally finished talking to Zidane and then the two stood up and motioned to the others that they were ready for combat.
***
After Seifer had snuck his friends in and into two vacant Esthar Garden rooms to lay low until he could talk to Squall about it, he met Jessica on the garden roof, where they could have a little more space. Seifer would test the limits of his newly found abilities, and Jessica would try and contemplate how while pacing around and occasionally firing her gun into the air for Seifer to chase (Speed tests, of course).
Finally, after twenty minuets of testing Jessica gave up and told Seifer he could stop.
"You guys have it good. I never realized how limitless those bodies were!"
"You may consider them limitless, but the sense of fatigue doesn't show up as much as it would in a human. You could find yourself over fatigued if you push yourself too hard." She pointed out.
As they were walking down the stairs from the roof Seifer heard a slight mumble from Jessica.
"No way it could be from another Zatach . . . "
***
"You killed someone . . . I can't remember"
Oren was so intrigued he almost fell over.
"You remember that I supposedly did a bad deed but you can remember which it was? Just my luck."
"I remember your name, my name, but not who you killed."
"Oren, do you know this girl?" Xu asked him.
"My name is Mirai Kiloyama" she interrupted.
"No. Not anymore. I do know this girl. She is now codenamed Pi. And she is just as horrible as all the others."
"My codename . . .? Yes! Now I remember! It was Omega you kil--"
In a lightning fast movement Pi fell to the ground and Oren put her over his shoulder.
"You ladies continue. I have to take her back to garden."
Oren then disappeared the same way he had come, leaving Xu and Quistis looking blankly at each other. As if nothing had happened, Xu went back to rummaging around leaving Quistis more anxious than before to get back to garden.
***
Before Pi could begin reciting the reasons for targets on the planets involved in Operation Stardust, Omicron's accomplice put up a hand to silence her.
He removed a sword and slashed it down, destroying part of the wall and revealing Reno with the tape recorder.
For a few short seconds the man didn't even realize that he was discovered, and then he trembled slightly and did the wisest thing: ran.
Reno had never believed that fear tapped adrenaline, but when he zoomed up those spiral stairs and out of the Shinra mansion he decided he was wrong.
Omicron looked at Pi and untied her.
"Instead of talking any longer, chase him down and kill him, will you?"
She blankly nodded and left Omicron and his accomplice in a room where anything not firmly attached flew backwards. The force from the wind almost knocked Omicron himself off his feet.
Reno thought he was getting away until he found himself on his back when what seemed to be a blaze flew around him and then stopped in front of him on the road. He shakily stood up and scanned the situation. He could try to fake his way around the fountain, but that wasn't useful for someone who could fly. He considered making a break for a house and hiding, but a person with such speed could effortlessly catch him . . . Reno decided his only option was to surrender. But not before using a bit of the 'slickness' he had learned as a Turk. He dropped the recorder so that it went down behind his leg and then kicked it silently into a crack in the fountain, an emergency hiding spot in case he didn't come back.
"I surrender!" Reno said, putting his hands up in a way to conceal the gun in his sleeve.
"I was told to kill you." Was the response he got from the female.
***
"Do you feel something?" Jessica asked Seifer. The two were sitting on a bench in the hallway.
"Not really."
"You're sure?"
"Like maybe something moving faster than its supposed to?"
"Exactly!"
"Huh. I just thought it was a feeling. Whatever it is can't be too far. One, two miles maybe?"
"The other side of the universe."
"Oh. That's probably a little longer off, but I was close."
"No one moves that fast unless in serious combat." She said, standing up.
"And if a fights going on then we might be needed."
"Hold on! Shouldn't we get more people first?" Seifer asked, trying to stop her.
"I'm only strong enough to bring two people with me that great a distance. You and I are our best bets."
Without another second of hesitation she grabbed Seifer's arm and sent him along with her to the source of the spark of quick-moving mass.
***
Squall and Rinoa stood holding each other for a while. Rinoa smiled and looked up at him.
"Squall?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't know what happened to you, but . . . "
"But what?"
"But I like it"
________________________________________________________________________
AN: Sorry for the hideously long wait. Anyway, I'm going to temporarily calm down the action for a few chapters. The next one will focus on Squall/Rinoa.