"Blank page
Was all the rage
Never meant to say anything..."
--Smashing Pumpkins
"For When You Return"
Part XII
How dare he!
It had been so important to her, what she had tried to tell him over the radio transmission.
Sitting there in that room, she had wanted only someone to talk to, someone to listen to what
she had to say... anything! But rather, she was being sent off to do the man's homework. Even
after a night's sleep, Rinoa still felt enraged. She refused to buy a ticket for the early train
as she had first planned, and it was not until later that morning when she finally set out into
the city.
At first, in her anger, she had decided to ignore what Squall had asked her, but time and careful
thought told her to do otherwise. She may had been furious--insulted, rather, that was a much
better word--but she had to trust his priorities, no matter how insensitive he had been in
displaying them.
Ooh! How -dare- he!
She walked down the open corridor that led to Odine's laboratory. The view was spectacular, but
she hardly gave it a glance. The guards recognized her from her earlier adventures and let her
pass...
...afraid of her, perhaps?
Damn them, too.
Odine's lab was a whirlwind of activity and noise. The strange old man was huddled over a
computer monitor and talking to it wildly when she stepped into the room. Rinoa, silent, stepped
off to one side when the door hissed to a close behind her.
"Leezen to me, you damnable thing! I didn't type thees! Why are you telling me that I typed
thees! I didn't, do you hear me? No-no!" He waved his arms around and pounded on the screen. The
machine hissed back at him angrily.
It was then when he first took note of Rinoa. He caught a glimpse of her over one shoulder and
turned his head with surprise, before whirling his body to face her. "You! It iz you!" As if
this were the most spectacular and yet horrific thing in the world. Rinoa crumpled, trying to
resist the urge to hide in her coat.
She had done such an evil, evil thing... would the world ever let that go?
"Look, doctor," She said, getting straight to the point. She hated the way that he looked at
her and suddenly wished that she hadn't decided to listen to Squall after all. "I have an
important request from Balamb Garden. They need information on Guardian Forces."
"Oh?" He still eyed her, but at her comment he ruffled a little. "Iz thees for personal use? My
information iz very classified, you zee. I can't just throw it out to everyone."
Rinoa tried not to roll her eyes. "Yes," She said. "As I've said, it's very important and to be
used in Balamb only -- if you'd like, I could bring President Loire down here to further stress
the argument."
"No, no," Odine twittered at the pointedness in her tone. "Thees iz not necessary." He leaned
over towards her with a little twirl of his hips and looked her in the eyes. "Vat iz it that you
want to know?"
Rinoa shifted her eyes off to one side and scratched at the side of her head a little. "Well..."
Damn it. If Squall was going to be a selfish jerk, he may as well have gone all the way and
given her a little more to work with. "Could you maybe send a transmission? Can I bring anything
back with me to Balamb?"
Odine's eyes bugged out and he flew up in shock, as if she had just stated a great blasphemy.
"No! Oh, no! Zee airwaves are -very- untrustworthy! And giving you a hard copy? Awk! Thees iz
my life work!"
"What if it were urgent?" Rinoa asked.
"Iz it?"
She paused. That was enough for Odine, who shook his finger at her in the manner of a scolding
parent who had caught her in the middle of a guilty act. "I zee." He said flatly.
She rubbed irritably at the bridge of her nose. "Tell me about the Guardian Forces."
"Vat about them?"
"Well, what have you learned about how they work? About their effect on memory?"
"Well," Odine said. He stretched his back, which made Rinoa worry over the fact that this was to
be a long explanation. For a moment the strange man padded in little circles on the steel floor
of his laboratory, and after a few rounds he began to speak while doing so, "You zee, Guardian
Forces can be junctioned into a human--"
"I know that already," Rinoa interrupted. Odine immediately cast her a red-rimmed glare for
speaking up. Rinoa's lips tightened in a hidden grimace, and she pulled back warily. The
scientist continued to glare at her for a moment, and then he went on with forced hesitation,
as if purposely slowing himself in order to punish her. "Guardian Forces can be junctioned into
a human, you zee. They go in zere." He tapped at his temple. "However, they do not take up space
in zee mind, oh-no... Rather, they control it."
"...Control it?"
"If you would let me finish."
"Sorry."
"Imagine tiny lizzle claws--"
"Lizzle?"
"Lizzle. Small."
"Oh."
"Tiny lizzle claws, digging into zee memory, zee very -being- of a person." Odine nodded
empathetically, his eyes gleaming a little with the excitement over anything that was unique to
him. "They fuse together, become one. Zee Guardian Forces' consciousness becomes zee human's
consciousness. It is like having two minds in one--and it leaves less room for zee storage
space," He chortled a little. "Storage space, iz'nt that cute? I made thees up myself. It's
another way of saying, 'memory storage.'"
"I know, I know." Rinoa said. "So you're telling me that it's not the use of Guardian Forces,
but their -existence- that affects a person? Just by being in your head?"
"Yes. Therefore, zee Guardian Force replaces some of the memories, and they take up more and
more as they get bigger and bigger, you zee?"
"Yeah."
"It iz quite fascinating, actually." Odine continued. "Naturally, zee body should not like a
foreign creature inhabiting it, yes? That iz zee strange thing about Guardian Forces. You zee,
most dangerous things..."
Did he just say dangerous? Rinoa, who had been listless and rather disinterested for much of the
conversation, thinking the man to be crazy anyway, found herself snapping to attention at that
single word. No one had ever used the term 'dangerous' before in regard to the topic, at least
not to her.
"Most dangerous things -feel- zat way. When you are infected with a virus, your body, it says
'no, no.' But with zee Guardian Forces, it says, "yes, yes." Do you ever get that feeling, in
zee pit of your belly? That worried feeling?"
Rinoa sure did. She was getting it right now.
"Never have I seen a case where a Guardian Force does zat. Ever. I believe that zee body goes
to -rely- on it, more and more each day. A subject would feel uncomfortable -without- it."
"How would we get rid of them, then?"
Rinoa didn't like the look that was slowly beginning to spread onto his face.
"...Get...rid...of zem?"
"Get...rid of them?" Selphie asked skeptically.
"I'd imagine you'd need to contact an expert, but..." Dr. Kadowaki started.
"No one is expert on these things. -No one-. We can't trust one opinion over another, not
really. The Guardian Forces are just too new to us." Xu said. She was sitting cross-legged on
an open folding chair in the infirmary office. It was the next morning, and they had just
recently re-grouped after a short rest. Squall personally had been unable to sleep, and he felt
groggy and out of place where he stood in the corner.
"I asked Rinoa to talk to Odine." He said in response.
"I've learned quite a bit from him, back when I was just a student myself. He's a secretive
little monster," Xu said. "He's forthright when he's forced to be, but he never tells the whole
story. His paranoia is almost maniacal."
"Gee, I don't see him as maniacal at all," Zell muttered sarcastically. "Old kook."
"Why don't we just un-junction them?" Selphie asked.
"Well," Xu said. "The Guardian Forces are very addictive, in a way. I think that it simply has
to do with the powers, that's my reasoning. Few students can give it up. They just can't
un-junction and leave it at that without running risk of juctioning them again." Dr. Kadowaki
nodded in agreement.
"Besides," Irvine said, "They're still -in- you, they're just not hooked up."
"That's right," Xu replied. "They would have to be destroyed or released."
The SeeDs in the room exchanged a quick glance. Selphie was the first to speak. "We should just
release them," she opted.
"But then they could just be picked up again, and worse by someone else." Squall said. "We don't
want to put these things out where anyone could potentially pick them up again... especially
when they don't have any idea what they can do. We'd have to destroy them."
"Pah, you're just bitter because you can't remember some stupid dance--"
Quistis silenced Zell with a sharp look. "I agree with Squall," She said. And, having said this,
she looked around at everyone else. "But I guess the real question is... has any of this ever
been done before? Would we even know where to start?"
"Yeah," Selphie added. "We can't just clap our heels together and wish them away."
"No," Xu said, and Kadowaki shook her head. "We can't."
"Well," Irvine replied, "Squall said that Rinoa is talking to Odine in Esthar. Maybe he'll be
able to shine a little light on this."
"She must be taking a later train," Zell said, looking up at the clock for a moment. Squall did
the same, and felt a pang of worry run through his innards.
"Odine!" Xu cried. Everyone jumped, and she was too excited to even look apologetic. "Gods, I
just remembered! That's it! Odine was the one who had given us the Garden Guardian Forces!"
Everyone was looking at her blankly, and she tried intensely to explain. "Shiva and Quezacoatl
were -given- to us. They were Guardian Forces that didn't need to be captured, because they were
already confined. You simply had to junction them, remember?"
"Yeah...So?" Squall asked.
"-So-," Xu replied smugly. "They were transferred. That means that they had to have been shipped
somehow -- and that they had to be contained. Odine had developed..." She paused and waved her
hands in little circles over her lap, trying to think of a proper word. "I guess 'canisters'
would best describe them. Odine had been studying the creatures, had finished... when they were
confined to those storage spaces, they were put in suspended animation--"
"Like Squall, when he went to the Lunar Base!" Selphie exclaimed excitedly. Zell mock-applauded
and she promptly stuck her tongue out at him.
Xu, however, nodded empathetically. "That's how he got them here. And I'm willing to bet that
we can transfer those Guardian Forces back into confinement. Odine told me how, in case one
managed to escape or if it was given to the wrong student... Simple precautions for emergency
stuff that would never happen... until now."
"...You think it will work?" Irvine asked.
"I guess there's only one way to find out." Quistis said hesitantly.
"...But is it safe?" Selphie asked.
"I can't answer that," Xu said. "But I can't think of anything that would put you in danger.
Either way, the Guardian Force is just as easy to inject as it is to draw out. Odine outdid
himself on that... I just wish... I can't believe that I've never thought about it before.
Anything that we do, we can simply reverse."
Squall found himself checking the time again.
"There's one thing, though. We only have two chambers--if I can find them, even--and they are
both attuned to only one Guardian Force, the ones that they were built to hold. That means that
we can only draw those two."
Squall and Quistis exchanged silent glances.
"I'll go first." Squall said.
It was surprisingly easy to find the said canisters. When everyone looked onto them they found
the sight to be very anti-climatic. They were simply two cylinders, without marking, groove or
design... as smooth as steel and indeed composed of some sort of metallic alloy. Selphie took
one and examined it thoughtfully, watching her face warp in the curve of the object.
"Well," She said.
Dr. Kadowaki had taken Squall into the back and settled him on the bed. It felt to him as if he
were about to get a medical shot, and Kadowaki clucked about as if the process were just that
casual and unimportant. However, everyone clustered in with him despite the fact that Kadowaki
felt the room to be too cramped as it was.
"It's fine," Squall had said while Xu was out searching for the object that would take Shiva out
of his mind. And, just as they had said... he felt a touch of fear. It was not his own, he knew,
but the creature's. His addiction knew of its coming demise.
It almost felt as if he were back in the cave with Zenkamuka glowering down at him.
He tried to hide it. His voice was stiffer than usual, though, and everyone could read him like
an open book. It was almost pointless to even attempt being stoic. However, he continued to
hold the ruse. "We have to hope that Rinoa is going to take a later train home. If we test this
now, we have a chance of getting a message to her in Esthar before she leaves. That way, she and
Odine can--"
"You're just saying that because you want to get this over with before Rinoa gets back and sees
you do something this crazy," Irvine said with a warm and reassuring smile on his face. "Relax.
Either way, we'll get whatever information we can to Odine, and he can build more holding devices
for the rest of these things."
Things. Funny, how they became 'things' when no one needed them anymore. Squall pondered this
for a moment, knowing full well that the Guardian Forces where what did all the work -- it wasn't
his leadership, not at all. That was why Xu had allowed them to use the creatures, that was why
she burned with guilt now that the danger was gone and only the side-effects remained.
"Either way, I want someone there with him when we work this out... I don't particularly trust
that guy," Squall said in his defense, although he didn't feel that defensive. By then Xu had
entered again, with Selphie admiring the second cylinder at her heels. She smiled at him when he
looked up at her.
The Garden had done what it had to do by using Guardian Forces, because the advantages
out-weighed the dangers. But now, finally, it was over. They didn't have to make sacrifices
anymore, not if they didn't want to.
"Squall," Quistis said from her place by the door. "I can do this too, you know."
"I'm fine." Squall replied flatly.
"Squall." Quistis drew out the word pointedly.
"Look, I made you Headmaster behind your back, didn't I? I think I deserve this." He was
worried, the junctioned creature inside him seemed to be radiating some strange energy, and yet
he forced away enough of his apprehension to push on an uncharacteristic half-smile.
"That's not funny," Quistis said.
"Sorry." Squall sighed and looked over at Xu and Kadowaki. "The truth is, you've been junctioned
to Quezacoatl longer than I have been to Shiva... it'll be easier on me, right? I think this is
safer." Sure enough, Xu nodded in agreement. Quistis frowned and crossed her arms over her chest,
but still she leaned back against the wall in defeat.
"Well, Squall," Xu said. "This seems so sudden, but..." She turned the cylinder flat in her palm.
"I suppose if we have the means, we shouldn't waste time. I'm not sure what will happen -- I
want to be honest. Your memories may return, and then they may not. You may feel weaker without
your strength and vigor junctions. However, that's all that I can think of, when it comes to
dangers. This thing should just pull out Shiva, as if you were a draw point. It won't affect
anything else inside of you. Nothing else should happen."
"I don't care." Squall said.
Zell stepped a little closer to Irvine, as if for comfort.
"...Okay." Xu said. Wetting her bottom lip, she ground the canister lip with a twist of her wrist.
A blue light immediately illuminated her face as two laser-like beams crossed at the top of the
cylinder. After eyeing it for a moment she lifted her gaze to Squall and watched his face. He was
emotionless.
Her heart pounded in her chest as she approached him. It was odd, how detached her voice sounded
when she asked him to put his head back. His hair fell away from his forehead and the light
caught the grooves of his scar. Squall set his blue eyes into her own for a moment, and then he
simply closed them.
Xu broke out of her professional stupor for a moment and glanced around the room, letting her
gaze fall on Kadowaki last. The older woman twisted her face and shrugged. This gesture was
oddly reassuring in its nonchalance, and she went back to Squall's face with less dread than she
had felt before.
Slowly, she set the illuminated end of the cylinder onto the young man's left temple. Something
whirred within the strange machine, and at that comforting sound--it meant that the old thing
worked--she drew it up around Squall's forehead and toward the opposite side, his right temple.
At the moment it hit home, the metal locked. Xu felt her hand go stiff and then cold, colder
than she'd ever felt it. The sensation was burning, enough to make her muscles want to crawl
away and hide... but she was unable to move anything below her elbow.
And then, suddenly, Squall's eyes blankly flew open.
Selphie and Zell whirled, and Irvine threw his arm over his face. Quistis was the only one who
was able to keep her sight aligned without obstruction, and she was suddenly blinded by a flash
so white that she couldn't tell up from down, forward from back, or arm from leg. For a moment,
it seemed as if she didn't exist. There was only the light, and above the light... the air
screamed with a pitch so high that it was almost a whistle.
...Where had she heard that sound before?
It felt like an eternity, as if time had simply ceased to be. However, at the same time the
moment was only an instant, shorter than a heartbeat, a blink, a single intake of breath. And
then that light had never been there, the air was as still as it had always been. If not for the
fact that Irvine was covering his eyes with a full body wince and everyone else was turned and
covering their ears...
There would have been no flash, and there would have been no sound.
Irvine had to lower his arm. Zell, Selphie, and Kadowaki had to turn their heads, Xu had to force
open her clenched eyes... but Quistis had been staring ahead for the entire time, and she only
had to look.
She only had to look, and see that the bed was empty.
Rinoa stepped off the train in Balamb and, despite her apprehensions, finally felt a little more
at ease. She nodded politely at the man who was ushering her out of her cabin with practiced
movements of his hand and head, and when her feet finally set onto the familiar cement floor...
A sigh. Yes, she was glad to be back, despite it all, she was glad.
Running her hand down the railing as she left it, Rinoa bumped her bag on the bottom step and
held it at arms length as she crossed the station and made her way down the wide, sunlit
staircase that led out of the building. The crowd was easier to manipulate, here, because she
knew this city well, and she even threw a little wave to the shopkeeper in her window, who she
knew by name.
However, as she turned her head away from the woman with a sun-washed sweep of her warm hair
against her cheekbone, she saw it. Or, rather, she saw him.
Zell was standing on the other side of the train station. He had stood up, having obviously
spotted her as well, and something about the way he moved sent shivers down Rinoa's spine. And
then, behind them, came the familiar frames of Quistis, Irvine, and Selphie.
At the sight of the expressions on their faces, Rinoa's blood turned to stone.
End Book One:
"A Window To The Soul"
End Part 12/?
To Be Continued...
Was all the rage
Never meant to say anything..."
--Smashing Pumpkins
"For When You Return"
Part XII
How dare he!
It had been so important to her, what she had tried to tell him over the radio transmission.
Sitting there in that room, she had wanted only someone to talk to, someone to listen to what
she had to say... anything! But rather, she was being sent off to do the man's homework. Even
after a night's sleep, Rinoa still felt enraged. She refused to buy a ticket for the early train
as she had first planned, and it was not until later that morning when she finally set out into
the city.
At first, in her anger, she had decided to ignore what Squall had asked her, but time and careful
thought told her to do otherwise. She may had been furious--insulted, rather, that was a much
better word--but she had to trust his priorities, no matter how insensitive he had been in
displaying them.
Ooh! How -dare- he!
She walked down the open corridor that led to Odine's laboratory. The view was spectacular, but
she hardly gave it a glance. The guards recognized her from her earlier adventures and let her
pass...
...afraid of her, perhaps?
Damn them, too.
Odine's lab was a whirlwind of activity and noise. The strange old man was huddled over a
computer monitor and talking to it wildly when she stepped into the room. Rinoa, silent, stepped
off to one side when the door hissed to a close behind her.
"Leezen to me, you damnable thing! I didn't type thees! Why are you telling me that I typed
thees! I didn't, do you hear me? No-no!" He waved his arms around and pounded on the screen. The
machine hissed back at him angrily.
It was then when he first took note of Rinoa. He caught a glimpse of her over one shoulder and
turned his head with surprise, before whirling his body to face her. "You! It iz you!" As if
this were the most spectacular and yet horrific thing in the world. Rinoa crumpled, trying to
resist the urge to hide in her coat.
She had done such an evil, evil thing... would the world ever let that go?
"Look, doctor," She said, getting straight to the point. She hated the way that he looked at
her and suddenly wished that she hadn't decided to listen to Squall after all. "I have an
important request from Balamb Garden. They need information on Guardian Forces."
"Oh?" He still eyed her, but at her comment he ruffled a little. "Iz thees for personal use? My
information iz very classified, you zee. I can't just throw it out to everyone."
Rinoa tried not to roll her eyes. "Yes," She said. "As I've said, it's very important and to be
used in Balamb only -- if you'd like, I could bring President Loire down here to further stress
the argument."
"No, no," Odine twittered at the pointedness in her tone. "Thees iz not necessary." He leaned
over towards her with a little twirl of his hips and looked her in the eyes. "Vat iz it that you
want to know?"
Rinoa shifted her eyes off to one side and scratched at the side of her head a little. "Well..."
Damn it. If Squall was going to be a selfish jerk, he may as well have gone all the way and
given her a little more to work with. "Could you maybe send a transmission? Can I bring anything
back with me to Balamb?"
Odine's eyes bugged out and he flew up in shock, as if she had just stated a great blasphemy.
"No! Oh, no! Zee airwaves are -very- untrustworthy! And giving you a hard copy? Awk! Thees iz
my life work!"
"What if it were urgent?" Rinoa asked.
"Iz it?"
She paused. That was enough for Odine, who shook his finger at her in the manner of a scolding
parent who had caught her in the middle of a guilty act. "I zee." He said flatly.
She rubbed irritably at the bridge of her nose. "Tell me about the Guardian Forces."
"Vat about them?"
"Well, what have you learned about how they work? About their effect on memory?"
"Well," Odine said. He stretched his back, which made Rinoa worry over the fact that this was to
be a long explanation. For a moment the strange man padded in little circles on the steel floor
of his laboratory, and after a few rounds he began to speak while doing so, "You zee, Guardian
Forces can be junctioned into a human--"
"I know that already," Rinoa interrupted. Odine immediately cast her a red-rimmed glare for
speaking up. Rinoa's lips tightened in a hidden grimace, and she pulled back warily. The
scientist continued to glare at her for a moment, and then he went on with forced hesitation,
as if purposely slowing himself in order to punish her. "Guardian Forces can be junctioned into
a human, you zee. They go in zere." He tapped at his temple. "However, they do not take up space
in zee mind, oh-no... Rather, they control it."
"...Control it?"
"If you would let me finish."
"Sorry."
"Imagine tiny lizzle claws--"
"Lizzle?"
"Lizzle. Small."
"Oh."
"Tiny lizzle claws, digging into zee memory, zee very -being- of a person." Odine nodded
empathetically, his eyes gleaming a little with the excitement over anything that was unique to
him. "They fuse together, become one. Zee Guardian Forces' consciousness becomes zee human's
consciousness. It is like having two minds in one--and it leaves less room for zee storage
space," He chortled a little. "Storage space, iz'nt that cute? I made thees up myself. It's
another way of saying, 'memory storage.'"
"I know, I know." Rinoa said. "So you're telling me that it's not the use of Guardian Forces,
but their -existence- that affects a person? Just by being in your head?"
"Yes. Therefore, zee Guardian Force replaces some of the memories, and they take up more and
more as they get bigger and bigger, you zee?"
"Yeah."
"It iz quite fascinating, actually." Odine continued. "Naturally, zee body should not like a
foreign creature inhabiting it, yes? That iz zee strange thing about Guardian Forces. You zee,
most dangerous things..."
Did he just say dangerous? Rinoa, who had been listless and rather disinterested for much of the
conversation, thinking the man to be crazy anyway, found herself snapping to attention at that
single word. No one had ever used the term 'dangerous' before in regard to the topic, at least
not to her.
"Most dangerous things -feel- zat way. When you are infected with a virus, your body, it says
'no, no.' But with zee Guardian Forces, it says, "yes, yes." Do you ever get that feeling, in
zee pit of your belly? That worried feeling?"
Rinoa sure did. She was getting it right now.
"Never have I seen a case where a Guardian Force does zat. Ever. I believe that zee body goes
to -rely- on it, more and more each day. A subject would feel uncomfortable -without- it."
"How would we get rid of them, then?"
Rinoa didn't like the look that was slowly beginning to spread onto his face.
"...Get...rid...of zem?"
"Get...rid of them?" Selphie asked skeptically.
"I'd imagine you'd need to contact an expert, but..." Dr. Kadowaki started.
"No one is expert on these things. -No one-. We can't trust one opinion over another, not
really. The Guardian Forces are just too new to us." Xu said. She was sitting cross-legged on
an open folding chair in the infirmary office. It was the next morning, and they had just
recently re-grouped after a short rest. Squall personally had been unable to sleep, and he felt
groggy and out of place where he stood in the corner.
"I asked Rinoa to talk to Odine." He said in response.
"I've learned quite a bit from him, back when I was just a student myself. He's a secretive
little monster," Xu said. "He's forthright when he's forced to be, but he never tells the whole
story. His paranoia is almost maniacal."
"Gee, I don't see him as maniacal at all," Zell muttered sarcastically. "Old kook."
"Why don't we just un-junction them?" Selphie asked.
"Well," Xu said. "The Guardian Forces are very addictive, in a way. I think that it simply has
to do with the powers, that's my reasoning. Few students can give it up. They just can't
un-junction and leave it at that without running risk of juctioning them again." Dr. Kadowaki
nodded in agreement.
"Besides," Irvine said, "They're still -in- you, they're just not hooked up."
"That's right," Xu replied. "They would have to be destroyed or released."
The SeeDs in the room exchanged a quick glance. Selphie was the first to speak. "We should just
release them," she opted.
"But then they could just be picked up again, and worse by someone else." Squall said. "We don't
want to put these things out where anyone could potentially pick them up again... especially
when they don't have any idea what they can do. We'd have to destroy them."
"Pah, you're just bitter because you can't remember some stupid dance--"
Quistis silenced Zell with a sharp look. "I agree with Squall," She said. And, having said this,
she looked around at everyone else. "But I guess the real question is... has any of this ever
been done before? Would we even know where to start?"
"Yeah," Selphie added. "We can't just clap our heels together and wish them away."
"No," Xu said, and Kadowaki shook her head. "We can't."
"Well," Irvine replied, "Squall said that Rinoa is talking to Odine in Esthar. Maybe he'll be
able to shine a little light on this."
"She must be taking a later train," Zell said, looking up at the clock for a moment. Squall did
the same, and felt a pang of worry run through his innards.
"Odine!" Xu cried. Everyone jumped, and she was too excited to even look apologetic. "Gods, I
just remembered! That's it! Odine was the one who had given us the Garden Guardian Forces!"
Everyone was looking at her blankly, and she tried intensely to explain. "Shiva and Quezacoatl
were -given- to us. They were Guardian Forces that didn't need to be captured, because they were
already confined. You simply had to junction them, remember?"
"Yeah...So?" Squall asked.
"-So-," Xu replied smugly. "They were transferred. That means that they had to have been shipped
somehow -- and that they had to be contained. Odine had developed..." She paused and waved her
hands in little circles over her lap, trying to think of a proper word. "I guess 'canisters'
would best describe them. Odine had been studying the creatures, had finished... when they were
confined to those storage spaces, they were put in suspended animation--"
"Like Squall, when he went to the Lunar Base!" Selphie exclaimed excitedly. Zell mock-applauded
and she promptly stuck her tongue out at him.
Xu, however, nodded empathetically. "That's how he got them here. And I'm willing to bet that
we can transfer those Guardian Forces back into confinement. Odine told me how, in case one
managed to escape or if it was given to the wrong student... Simple precautions for emergency
stuff that would never happen... until now."
"...You think it will work?" Irvine asked.
"I guess there's only one way to find out." Quistis said hesitantly.
"...But is it safe?" Selphie asked.
"I can't answer that," Xu said. "But I can't think of anything that would put you in danger.
Either way, the Guardian Force is just as easy to inject as it is to draw out. Odine outdid
himself on that... I just wish... I can't believe that I've never thought about it before.
Anything that we do, we can simply reverse."
Squall found himself checking the time again.
"There's one thing, though. We only have two chambers--if I can find them, even--and they are
both attuned to only one Guardian Force, the ones that they were built to hold. That means that
we can only draw those two."
Squall and Quistis exchanged silent glances.
"I'll go first." Squall said.
It was surprisingly easy to find the said canisters. When everyone looked onto them they found
the sight to be very anti-climatic. They were simply two cylinders, without marking, groove or
design... as smooth as steel and indeed composed of some sort of metallic alloy. Selphie took
one and examined it thoughtfully, watching her face warp in the curve of the object.
"Well," She said.
Dr. Kadowaki had taken Squall into the back and settled him on the bed. It felt to him as if he
were about to get a medical shot, and Kadowaki clucked about as if the process were just that
casual and unimportant. However, everyone clustered in with him despite the fact that Kadowaki
felt the room to be too cramped as it was.
"It's fine," Squall had said while Xu was out searching for the object that would take Shiva out
of his mind. And, just as they had said... he felt a touch of fear. It was not his own, he knew,
but the creature's. His addiction knew of its coming demise.
It almost felt as if he were back in the cave with Zenkamuka glowering down at him.
He tried to hide it. His voice was stiffer than usual, though, and everyone could read him like
an open book. It was almost pointless to even attempt being stoic. However, he continued to
hold the ruse. "We have to hope that Rinoa is going to take a later train home. If we test this
now, we have a chance of getting a message to her in Esthar before she leaves. That way, she and
Odine can--"
"You're just saying that because you want to get this over with before Rinoa gets back and sees
you do something this crazy," Irvine said with a warm and reassuring smile on his face. "Relax.
Either way, we'll get whatever information we can to Odine, and he can build more holding devices
for the rest of these things."
Things. Funny, how they became 'things' when no one needed them anymore. Squall pondered this
for a moment, knowing full well that the Guardian Forces where what did all the work -- it wasn't
his leadership, not at all. That was why Xu had allowed them to use the creatures, that was why
she burned with guilt now that the danger was gone and only the side-effects remained.
"Either way, I want someone there with him when we work this out... I don't particularly trust
that guy," Squall said in his defense, although he didn't feel that defensive. By then Xu had
entered again, with Selphie admiring the second cylinder at her heels. She smiled at him when he
looked up at her.
The Garden had done what it had to do by using Guardian Forces, because the advantages
out-weighed the dangers. But now, finally, it was over. They didn't have to make sacrifices
anymore, not if they didn't want to.
"Squall," Quistis said from her place by the door. "I can do this too, you know."
"I'm fine." Squall replied flatly.
"Squall." Quistis drew out the word pointedly.
"Look, I made you Headmaster behind your back, didn't I? I think I deserve this." He was
worried, the junctioned creature inside him seemed to be radiating some strange energy, and yet
he forced away enough of his apprehension to push on an uncharacteristic half-smile.
"That's not funny," Quistis said.
"Sorry." Squall sighed and looked over at Xu and Kadowaki. "The truth is, you've been junctioned
to Quezacoatl longer than I have been to Shiva... it'll be easier on me, right? I think this is
safer." Sure enough, Xu nodded in agreement. Quistis frowned and crossed her arms over her chest,
but still she leaned back against the wall in defeat.
"Well, Squall," Xu said. "This seems so sudden, but..." She turned the cylinder flat in her palm.
"I suppose if we have the means, we shouldn't waste time. I'm not sure what will happen -- I
want to be honest. Your memories may return, and then they may not. You may feel weaker without
your strength and vigor junctions. However, that's all that I can think of, when it comes to
dangers. This thing should just pull out Shiva, as if you were a draw point. It won't affect
anything else inside of you. Nothing else should happen."
"I don't care." Squall said.
Zell stepped a little closer to Irvine, as if for comfort.
"...Okay." Xu said. Wetting her bottom lip, she ground the canister lip with a twist of her wrist.
A blue light immediately illuminated her face as two laser-like beams crossed at the top of the
cylinder. After eyeing it for a moment she lifted her gaze to Squall and watched his face. He was
emotionless.
Her heart pounded in her chest as she approached him. It was odd, how detached her voice sounded
when she asked him to put his head back. His hair fell away from his forehead and the light
caught the grooves of his scar. Squall set his blue eyes into her own for a moment, and then he
simply closed them.
Xu broke out of her professional stupor for a moment and glanced around the room, letting her
gaze fall on Kadowaki last. The older woman twisted her face and shrugged. This gesture was
oddly reassuring in its nonchalance, and she went back to Squall's face with less dread than she
had felt before.
Slowly, she set the illuminated end of the cylinder onto the young man's left temple. Something
whirred within the strange machine, and at that comforting sound--it meant that the old thing
worked--she drew it up around Squall's forehead and toward the opposite side, his right temple.
At the moment it hit home, the metal locked. Xu felt her hand go stiff and then cold, colder
than she'd ever felt it. The sensation was burning, enough to make her muscles want to crawl
away and hide... but she was unable to move anything below her elbow.
And then, suddenly, Squall's eyes blankly flew open.
Selphie and Zell whirled, and Irvine threw his arm over his face. Quistis was the only one who
was able to keep her sight aligned without obstruction, and she was suddenly blinded by a flash
so white that she couldn't tell up from down, forward from back, or arm from leg. For a moment,
it seemed as if she didn't exist. There was only the light, and above the light... the air
screamed with a pitch so high that it was almost a whistle.
...Where had she heard that sound before?
It felt like an eternity, as if time had simply ceased to be. However, at the same time the
moment was only an instant, shorter than a heartbeat, a blink, a single intake of breath. And
then that light had never been there, the air was as still as it had always been. If not for the
fact that Irvine was covering his eyes with a full body wince and everyone else was turned and
covering their ears...
There would have been no flash, and there would have been no sound.
Irvine had to lower his arm. Zell, Selphie, and Kadowaki had to turn their heads, Xu had to force
open her clenched eyes... but Quistis had been staring ahead for the entire time, and she only
had to look.
She only had to look, and see that the bed was empty.
Rinoa stepped off the train in Balamb and, despite her apprehensions, finally felt a little more
at ease. She nodded politely at the man who was ushering her out of her cabin with practiced
movements of his hand and head, and when her feet finally set onto the familiar cement floor...
A sigh. Yes, she was glad to be back, despite it all, she was glad.
Running her hand down the railing as she left it, Rinoa bumped her bag on the bottom step and
held it at arms length as she crossed the station and made her way down the wide, sunlit
staircase that led out of the building. The crowd was easier to manipulate, here, because she
knew this city well, and she even threw a little wave to the shopkeeper in her window, who she
knew by name.
However, as she turned her head away from the woman with a sun-washed sweep of her warm hair
against her cheekbone, she saw it. Or, rather, she saw him.
Zell was standing on the other side of the train station. He had stood up, having obviously
spotted her as well, and something about the way he moved sent shivers down Rinoa's spine. And
then, behind them, came the familiar frames of Quistis, Irvine, and Selphie.
At the sight of the expressions on their faces, Rinoa's blood turned to stone.
End Book One:
"A Window To The Soul"
End Part 12/?
To Be Continued...