IV

Premonitions

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Centra Ruins,
Centra





The porticos on the upper floor loomed in the half-light of the Ruins, and Irvine suppressed a shudder. Everything looked gloomier than he remembered, though that was probably because they didn't have Selphie's perpetual cheerfulness with them.

It would've been nice if she had came along. She certainly would've been more useful than Zell in more ways than one.

He glanced back down the stairs and only saw Lyana waiting impatiently near the statues. Shrugging off the odd feeling that they were being trailed, he looked around as Rissa rubbed her arms, trying to dispel the goosebumps that were prickling her skin. Jared was watchful and silent.

"Which way should we go?" Rissa asked, her staff wavering uncertainly in her hands. Irvine wondered for the umpteenth time how she had managed to qualify for the exam -- she had to have had a very high written exam score to compensate her prerequisite, assuming she had been this nervous in that one, too.

"Straight ahead." Irvine took a step towards the large doorway, and the other two came after him, neither seemed to be very willing.

"This place is giving me the creeps," Jared muttered. "Kinneas, are you sure your team got rid of all those . . . GFs and whatevers?"

Irvine's glance flicked upwards. Why did the Centrans built the place with entryways almost three times his height? Everything loomed, and perhaps it was just his imagination, but everything seemed to be getting larger by the moment. Just how tall were those Centrans anyway? Freakin' giants?

"We found Odin and the Tonberry King," he answered. Odin was tall -- with that war steed and helm, of course. Maybe all Centrans were his size. Assuming, of course, that the GF was Centran. Irvine shook his head slightly, trying to focus. What was the matter with him? It was just an ordinary mission for Hyne's sake; there was no need to get so rattled. But Jared was right -- the place gave him the willies. "I don't know if there're anything else other than monsters."

He stepped into the next room, the other two close behind. The torches flared as they entered, eliciting a startled gasp from Rissa. "Dear Hyne," she murmured, her hazel eyes wide as she took in her surroundings. "What exactly is this place?"

The place felt like a mausoleum to him, with the carved panels and elegant pillars. The statues, eerily lifelike, seemed to be staring at them. Their shadows danced on the walls as the fire from the torches flickered, and Irvine forced down an impulse to just turn around and flee.

The room looked exactly as it did the first time Irvine had seen it. Nothing was out of place, and it was jarring how he could remember those details and not other things. It didn't look like a speck of dust had moved, and he wondered suddenly if Cid and Squall had made the right decision accepting the mission.

Hyne, you're being an idiot, Kinneas. Of course Squall knows what he's doing. And there's nothing here. You've been here before. Don't frighten the kids.

"Is this the main chamber?" Jared asked, moving closer to a wall, studying the glyphs engraved on it.

Irvine shook his head. "It's higher up . . . this is just one of the . . . anterooms, I guess."

"Up?" Rissa echoed. "How do we go up?"

We might as well get this over with. "Here, follow me." He stepped on a block at the top of the stairs leading to a ledge, and gallantly held out a hand to Rissa. She accepted it, and Jared jumped on. As soon as he did, the block floated upwards gently, leaving them looking at each other with slight alarm mingled with amazement.

"I never liked this place," Irvine said to no one in particular.

"I'll be thankful if I'll never have to set foot here again," Jared said, staring at a statue of what could've been of an eagle as they floated upwards. "How the hell the Centrans managed to this without the technology?"

Irvine barked a short laugh. "This is their technology -- Quistis said they probably rigged it so that some Float spells are released every time there's an increased pressure on the block." All of them stepped off it as soon as it stopped. "I can't imagine how many they stocked . . . it's been a very long time since that Lunar Cry that destroyed them, don't you think?"

"It's been eighty-odd years," Rissa said softly, sounding awed. "Combining magic and technology like that -- what ingenuity." She shuddered slightly. "We don't have the right to be here. Not us."

Irvine almost flinched -- that was exactly what he was thinking. It didn't help when he felt something at the back of his mind totally agree with them.

He didn't have time to be alarmed before Rissa jumped off the block before it had properly stopped. She stopped suddenly to look at two stones resting on an altar of sorts that stood at the base of another flight of stairs. He had the time to think, irritated, Gods, couldn't they just put more floating blocks?, before she asked, "Why is that . . . thing . . . there glowing blue?"

"Beats the hell out of me," Irvine said, moving away from it as fast as it was stately possible. "Just don't touch it -- I don't trust anything around here." He tapped his comm device. "Why aren't they giving further instructions?" he grumbled. "Nida said this thing wasn't succeptible to inteference."

Rissa was staring at the glowing blue stones, entranced. Tilting her head, she reached out to touch the wall behind them. "Doesn't that carving look familiar?"

"What?" Jared said, warily eyeing her. "Oh that. Those are just stylized wings, Rissa . . . they're quite common motifs." His blue eyes caught hers, and a teasing smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. "Come on. You're the class genius. Don't say you didn't know that . . . ."

"Hey, don't pick on her, Jared," Irvine admonished, feeling rather foolishly like he was in charge. Jared quirked an eyebrow at that. Irvine avoided his eyes, and his attention flickered at the so-called wing motif, and his mind flitted to Rinoa. Rinoa. Sorceress. Wings. Angel. Squall. A flash of pleasure-pain ran through his mind, and he almost stumbled. Rissa took a step towards him touched him gently on the arm.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah." Hyne, I hope so. I am completely losing it. "C'mon, let's go -- just up those stairs, if I'm not mistaken."

They climbed the spiralling staircase, moving ridiculously close to one another. If something ambushed them, he was quite sure none of them would be able to wield their weapons -- close-ranged or otherwise -- very effectively. The Ruins felt . . . different . . . this time. There was a presence that wasn't there the first time he had been here, almost a year ago.

Selphie would probably laugh and say his imagination was running wild again. He almost smiled. Yeah, that's what she'd say. Just his imagination.

The stairs ended right in front of the room where Odin was found -- the throne room. "We found Odin h--" he started to say, when Jared raised his crossbow and gave a stifled a shout of surprise, causing Irvine to train his rifle on the same target. He lowered it almost immediately, belatedly realising that it was only a statue. A gargoyle, with two ruby-red eyes, seemed to be leering down at them.

"It's a statue," he said, trying to slow down his own thumping heart. "Squall figured out if we placed the two stones there, we should be able to enter the chamber. He was right." Rissa broke into giggles that bordered on hysteria. He placed a hand on her shoulder and ushered her into the throne room, hoping that nothing inside would pounce on them and skin them alive.

Nothing happened. The torches flickered and the shadows moved, but nothing else happened.

He gave a shaky laugh and the others stared at him. "See? Nothing to be afraid of. There ain't even any monsters here."

A large throne sat on the dais in the middle of the room, and muted sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows behind it.

"It seems safe enough," Jared agreed. Rissa was about to nod when the sound of muffled footsteps were heard outside, and she jumped half a foot into the air instead. Turning around, Irvine saw Zell standing by the door, tattooed face flushed, looking like he had ran all the way from Balamb.

"Hey, Zell. Is something wrong?"