Lol, sorry, I just couldn't resist being sarcastic about the chapter title… XD *couldn't think of anything else better anyway* =P well, this will probably the last early update for a little while since I start uni again in two days time, but rest assured I'll do my best to get the next chapter up as early as I'm able. ;)
Also, I think that this chapter marks the end of beating around the bush, since our two leading people now (sorta) know what they're gonna have to go up against, and it's about time I got a move on! *Sweatdrop* O.O;;; Actually, I'm giving any new reader the choice to just skip ahead if they don't feel like reading the earlier chapters (since those are primarily there to set the mood, get the characters moving and to get the mystery started), so if any people are just here for the Squalphie, then I'd recommend that you start reading from chapter 8 and onwards. ;) *Goes back to the prologue to put the message in*
And so without further ado, I give you Selphie! ^.^ (Text in bold are supposed to be italics, stupid uploading system is killing my italics…!!) T__T
CHAPTER 10 – No really… next time, just stay in bed:
Like a startled rabbit caught in the floodlight of an oncoming vehicle, Selphie maintained the stiff freeze of her battle posture as well as she could upon the slippery traction of the running mud, her dilated eyes never dropping from the astonishing spectacle of her superior Commander, Squall Leonhart, dangling unceremoniously by invisible skyhooks above the beaten up patch of rainforest scrub. His limbs and slender neck were splayed at awful angles from his body, enough to make her cringe with empathy, but he was indeed still alive, the fluttering movement of his rising and falling chest proof enough of that…
"Ellone? You still there?" Selphie whispered below her breath, mouth barely moving and the words not even audible to her own ears let alone strong enough to disturb her fighting stance.
No feeble reply sounded back along her channels, the silence in her head almost as thick as the silence swirling around her, save for the occasional chirp and rustle of an insect's pilgrimage through the soggy grass. Selphie frowned, her instincts screaming cautionary counsel in garbled voices… too quiet. Everything seemed so… set up. But still, Selphie watched and waited, taking the time to level out her rapid breathing from her reckless dash from the bridge, her fingers flexing experimentally across the polished surfaces of Adamantine resting at the ready in her palms.
I still don't know what I'm up against… Ellone never got to explain. Selphie cursed her inability to pry more information from her former orphanage buddy before she had fallen out of their connection, with Selphie having only received barely sufficient directions in the duration of her short sprint from a to b. Careful, girl. Looks like I'll have to make the first move… I'll figure it out from there – with or without Ellone.
Selphie finally slid forward, mincing her steps through the gooey mud so that she never lifted a heel but instead coasted along the soles of her boots, her gaze trained intently upon the inert figure of Squall for any indication of suspicious movement that might justify her assumption of a trap. Still nothing happened, the peace of the immediate area only disturbed by the slow movements of Selphie as she gradually closed the distance between herself and her target. Two arms-lengths away from Squall, Selphie paused in mid-stride, her hands still cocked in the air in front of her as they elevated the Strange Vision like an offering of earth and water. This close, Selphie could pick out the details of the stitching in Squall's leather jacket, the faint stirrings of the bleached white fur rimming the collar where it stroked against the swan-like curve of his exposed throat… and for the first time since her entrance, Selphie permitted her eyes to flick away from Squall to take note of a badly stained Gunblade lying half submerged in a nearby puddle of filth, its metallic lustre dimmed beneath layers of muck and in as dejected a state as its wielder. The sight was enough to make Selphie tighten her already highly-strung vigilance.
Steady now. I've sparred with Squall on more than one occasion, and Hyne knows he doesn't go down without a fight, a vendetta and then a blood feud where all else fails… I… wonder if I should leave and call for backup? If anything happens now, it won't be until 7:30 before… before anyone comes and finds us… Selphie swallowed a nervous bulge that was clogging up the back of her mouth, and was aware of a certain starchy dryness that was making her tongue feel as though it were wrapped in woolly fleece…
No! Selphie abruptly gave herself a rigorous mental shake up, dispersing her initial trepidation with the even more imposing fear of disgrace. I'm not afraid of anything! I'm not running from this! I'm a SeeD! SeeDs don't fear anything! Haven't you taught yourself anything this past hour?
On that last admonishing note, Selphie boldly scooted up to Squall with no further hesitation, lowering the Strange Vision and letting it hang on either side of her hips, the glinting chain still stretched tautly across the front of her upper thighs. I might as well check if he's injured, instead of just gaping like a village idiot.
Selphie tentatively stretched out a trembling hand towards Squall's floppy pillar of a neck, still not fully trusting the convenience of finding her Commander in such a vulnerable pose within one of the remotest areas of Garden, but in spite of that, reaching out all the same. The pads of her fingertips eventually traversed the space between themselves and the scruff of Squall's neck, warily brushing against pale but soft and clammy skin… a flustered outbreak of rose madder decorated Selphie's cheeks as her fingers gathered in the silky locks of brown hair clustered against Squall's nape, a blush which for once had nothing to do with self-rebuke…
Geez Louise, I can't believe I'm actually… touching him… the mere thought in itself was ludicrous, let alone the action, yet Selphie unwittingly found herself cupping the back of Squall's head in her hand, levering his drooping head upwards into a more viewable and comfortable position, trying to ignore the confusing and alien touch of his messy tousle of hair as the tresses attempted to entangle her fingers. This is like… petting a lion. You don't touch lions! This feels so weird… I'm glad no one else is here to see this, they'd be getting really narky ideas…
Selphie swallowed back the same nervous lump for the second time as she leaned forward on the tips of her toes to peer into Squall's now upturned face. Never before had she dared to invade the personal space of her Commander, so severely he guarded it, and now here she was actually having the gall to step over the debris of his defences to gawk stupidly into a face that she had never really seen except from afar…
Don't wake up now… please don't wake up now… Selphie silently pleaded as she tucked the two arms of her Strange Vision between her knees, freeing up her second hand to carefully brush the wayward bangs away from where they concealed Squall's half closed eyes, now rendering the complete set of his facial features visible. The deep chasm of his cleanly sliced scar, faded over time into a hue akin to diluted copper, jumped out of his face like white on black, angling between a pair of slender down-turned brows and cutting across the apex of a finely honed nose. His lips, unusually small at close range, were parted ever so slightly as he inhaled and exhaled with a watery rhythm, while the chiselled point of his chin spoke wonders of an obdurate countenance that seemed fitting for Squall's leading station. Selphie's eyes flitted quickly across each of these recognisable features, picking up no trace of injury or abrasion in the first instance, yet for some strange – and slowly mortifying – reason, she found herself looking long and curiously into this aesthetic face, far longer than what would ever be considered polite if Squall were conscious enough to point out that fact…
It's… so odd. I've grown up with this guy, we've been on missions and shared the madness of the past year with both of us living to sell off the tale… but how much do I really know about him? He seemed to open up for a little while after we'd all settled back down into our normal routines, but then again, he had Rinoa at the time. After she called everything off and headed back to Deling City, Squall just seemed to… go into a relapse. Is that how I should put it…? I dunno. He never talked about it, so there wasn't much we could do to help him… this is probably the first time in ages that any of us have been this close to him, since he's always shut up in his own little world in that stupid office.
Her head tilted to one side, Selphie continued to scrutinise Squall's stern but passive facial aspects with a pondering gaze, milking her unexpected close encounter with the third kind as best as she could.
I wonder what makes you tick? What music do you move to? Who… are you…?
A face that no doubt had left a myriad of broken hearts in its wake, a temperament as receiving as a granite boulder… Squall Leonhart both enticed and repelled, giving nothing and receiving nothing in return, yet he seemed to prefer leaving it at that… seemingly restful now in unnatural slumber, it was still impossible to read anything about him that might surrender a clue as to what each sedimentary layer of stone of his thoughts contained… Selphie could only shake her head in a sheepish acceptance of her failed endeavour.
Almost immediately however, she shook her head once more but more vigorously this time, eyes squeezed shut in obvious exasperation as she silently berated herself for losing sight of the bigger picture…
What the hell do you think you're doing, ogling Squall like that?! Have you already forgotten why you came in the first place? The poor man needs help, for crying out loud! At least try and get him free! Sheesh…
Jerking her priorities back into their proper order after a mental splash of cold water, Selphie broke out of her musing stupor and removed her vacuous stare from Squall's face, instead focusing on his strangely twisted limbs from where they sprouted out of his leather-clad torso and trailed away at rigid angles into empty space. Selphie grimaced at the sight, yet at the same time was baffled by how on earth Squall was being suspended in such a fashion… his body was deathly still, save for the mild indication of his unbroken breathing, giving his whole person the impression of being chiselled straight out of a block of vacant air. He did not sway along any of the artificial currents of wind circulating through the training centre, yet the way in which his persona was positioned seemed to make any lack of movement from outside forces impossible… if Selphie didn't know any better, she would've considered Squall to have suffered a bout of petrification, but that diagnosis would've explained little else apart from his inflexible plight. She was frowning mightily now as she closed an exploratory hand around Squall's left upper arm, immediately startled by how incredibly tense his muscles were beneath their sheath of skin, but nonetheless, gave an uncertain tug. She was hardly surprised by her first ultimate failure to stir any sort of motion out of the comatose Commander and pulled harder, but once again met with no results.
"Righty-o," Selphie muttered decidedly, wiping her sweaty palm against the fabric of her dress before enclosing both of her hands firmly around Squall's stubbornly stiff arm. Bracing herself, one foot lodged securely in the drying mud and the other stretched out behind her, Selphie heaved with all the might that she could muster in her petite frame, her fingers wound tightly around the circumference of Squall's arm so that they puckered the leather. Biting her teeth together with the strain, Selphie still refused to relinquish her hold, even as she sensed the heels of her boots sinking deep into the holes that they were boring in the mud.
"Geez, lay off the hotdogs for a little while, why don't you?" Selphie griped, feeling her grip starting to slacken and threatening to lay all her best efforts to waste. Not a hairbreadth of muscle had stirred, for all that she had tried to make it so, and her whole venture was rapidly spiralling into something of a lost cause. Sighing, Selphie released Squall, taking a moment to rub her hands. Her eyes rested languidly on a nearby and unimportant fern as she felt her circulation gradually restored, turning over any new resolution to the current problem as they came to mind… eyes focusing first on the fern and shifting slowly across the pitted mire that was the clearing, grazing over the solidified figure of Squall, coming to rest on the dirty scuffed toes of her well-worn boots, between which rested the twin shafts of the Strange Vision where she had obliviously permitted it to slide away from the grip of her knees.
Dirty again… right after I just washed you. Selphie clicked her tongue, rolling her green gaze skywards as she bent to retrieve her prized possession.
!!!
Panic coursed through her veins like quick silver, whipping her stooped form back into a stiff vertical stance even as the ringing pealing throughout the catacombs of her head quickened to raging new heights… Selphie gasped, bringing her hands up to her ears in a futile attempt to dilute the noise, but even before she executed the motion she knew that this was no physical sound breaching the airwaves around her, something that could not be blocked or ignored…
Magic! All around!
Disorientated, Selphie staggered backwards with a heavy step, her face distorted with the pressure building up within her magic channels and exerting itself against her mind like a merciless, crushing fist. There was little leeway for her to adjust to the sudden change of events; even as Selphie curled tightly into herself to form a compact SeeD ball against the supernatural onslaught, a white hot flash of blinding light unexpectedly imploded before her vision, enveloping her sight with a white wall of zero invisibility and coaxing an alarmed exclamation from her lips. Selphie plunged her head into the shady cavity of her tightly joined arms, instinctively lurching away from the source of her discomfort with unsteady steps… the backs of her heels abruptly slammed into what felt like a solid wall of rock and she stumbled, her right shoulder taking the full brunt of her body's chance meeting with the marshy ground. Peering backwards through the white luminosity, Selphie marked the inconveniently positioned root erupting out of the mud which was currently prodding her roughly in the leg, before scrabbling messily onto her hands and knees.
As Selphie recovered as best as she could from her tumble, the severe radiance seemed to recede for a moment, curving inwards in a multitude of graceful arches to concentrate on a single focal point amid a fiery cloud of starburst and snapping sparks…
Shielding her pained eyes with the back of a grubby hand, Selphie squinted as best as she could through the driving storm of raining light, pinpointing almost instantaneously a blazing black form that could only be Squall, smudged and undefinable around the edges behind a protective drapery of falling light…
Well, I hope you'll learn from this little experience if you get out of it alive… always trust your gut instinct! Not that it was really that much of a bolt from the blue that she had been set up, or that her suspicions regarding Squall had been affirmed, but Selphie still found room to discipline herself for not having taken action sooner. There was no time left in the present for self evaluation – the pressure upon her magic channels suddenly alleviated and there was now a noted shift in the energies streaming through her flying hair and across her crouching form… the parabolas of light forming the cloister of illumination above Selphie's head abruptly chose to spiral crazily out of formation towards a specified point on the ground, the impact of the en masse strands of bright brilliance splitting the surrounding earth so that it bucked like a rogue bronco. Selphie yelped as she felt her whole body lurch up into the air, hanging in space for a heartbeat before gravity kicked in to slam her back down again into a stinking puddle of glop. She was feeling thoroughly cantankerous by this point, with even the good-natured SeeD hardly appreciating being reduced to something as flimsy as a blown about leaf caught in an updraft. Selphie bit back her annoyance however, not taking the risk of diverting her attention from the writhing bands of light before her, twisting themselves into what she assumed would soon be a recognisable shape, and hell bent on giving her a hard time no less. Mesmerised, Selphie groped blindly at her belt for the reassuring presence of the Strange Vision, emitting an ugly curse as her hands patted against not the cool touch of Adamantine, but at the empty leather sling strapped at her side.
Damn it! We just had to drop it right next to public enemy number one! Selphie bit her bottom lip as she continued to stare at the blossoming profile taking shape before her very eyes, noting how the light had taken on a runny quality that was flowing slickly across innumerable layers… and with a small start and widening eyes, Selphie all at once discerned the figure that was miraculously materialising from the sluicing mercury radiance which was all too soon complete for Selphie's liking…
Holy heck. It's me.
Even her mind voice fell flat in reaction to the sheer audacity. However, no amount of denial and head shaking could eradicate the shimmering clone of the previously one and only Selphie Tilmitt, currently balanced expertly on the tips of its toes in a fighting stance that the original Selphie was only too familiar with, and armed with equally all too familiar twin sticks of glossy death positioned just so in the air to be set up for a devastatingly braining blow…
Time seemed to slow to a sultry and oppressive pace as green eyes met green eyes across the battered clearing, the owner of one pair currently submerged to the wrists in a pool of lapping brown goo, while the owner of the remaining pair held herself up with a carbon copy of natural grace stolen from her original mould, watching and waiting at her end of the makeshift battle field. The mud-caked Selphie scraped away her initial bemusement as she drank in and digested the unbelievable sight of her duplicate ready to dish out punishment to its maker, but then with some immediate relief observing the telltale flecks of coloured light drifting away from the sharp joints of the apparition and dissipating in the air like snowflakes in a campfire.
Another harmless phantom… there's nothing to fear. It'll pass straight through me, just like the others.
With that bolstering thought, Selphie permitted herself to relax and finally decided to pick herself up from where she had fallen last, shaking off the clinging drops of polluted water that coated her running arms like thinned-out oil as she regained her feet. The clone tensed at the sudden movement and brought its weapon further to the front, more scraps of colour breaking away from the angles of its glowering face.
"Oh pish, what's up with you, grumpy guts?" Selphie said dismissively without even looking up, evidently more engrossed with the task of picking out stray strands of green shoots from the fibres of her dress. Her doppelganger did not reply or give any sign of having registered what had just been said, choosing instead to skip forward in little leaps and bounds, mouth set in a grimly straight line as it moulted a colourful light path with its bouncing motion.
Selphie permitted the image a bored glance as it approached, flicking a chunk of hardened mud away from one of her shoulder straps while digging with a fingernail into the dirty buckle. "Nothing beats the real deal, haven't you figured that out yet?" she enquired loudly of the empty air, "Though I'm really flattered that you got the waistline just that little bit smaller, whoever you are, you must be a patron of the great arts… I'm so flattered, trul…"
The 'twack' was acknowledged by Selphie's ears mere microseconds before the ensuing collision of Adamantine and shinbone that had created such a sound, with the clank of the links of a metallic chain coming in at a very close second. Pain, scoring an excruciating path of heated needles up the length of her right leg, suddenly unable to support the weight of the body resting above it and thus buckling under the unbearable burden… for an unacceptable fourth time in the space of twenty four hours, Selphie felt herself becoming the scapegoat of gravity yet again as she crashed to her knees, the muscles of her face wound tightly enough to properly express the sensation of the smarting hurt that was shooting up her leg like heat from a glowing ember…
The agony climaxed with a scalding intensity before sliding back into a slightly weaker throb, but even that slightly milder ache was enough to cajole the sweat from Selphie's temples, and she gasped harshly as she released her tightly interwoven fingers from where they hugged her injured shin.
"That's gotta hoit," she muttered beneath a hissed intake of breath as another wave of pain crashed against her senses with a strength that seemed fitting for the massive red and blue blotch that was staining the skin of her limb like an ink spill spreading across floor boards. No broken bones, Selphie acknowledged in a bid to raise her awareness of some sort of good fortune, but apart from that, there was now hardly anything else to not be strongly concerned about…
It's solid. That's just great, real great. Let your guard down for just a few moments and wind up eating dirt… but we don't have time to kick ourselves now, save it for later. Things are getting too hairy to be ignored, and we can also worry about how the apparition became real some other time. What we need now is to bring it down, and for that, we'll need a weapon… the one over there looks fine to me.
Selphie was never one for slow deliberation or for slow movements, and when the two were blended together, the result was one which saw an immobile, seemingly crippled SeeD reduced to a kneeling heap in the dirt suddenly exploding into life and energy with a nifty little whoop and yell. The tensely wound energy that Selphie had been bunching together in the depths of her good leg released like a sprung elastic band, propelling her forwards in a swift, smooth dive through the air that was angling directly towards her expectant clone whose Shinobou was still inclined at an offensive angle and already swinging into action as Selphie closed the short strip of land between them with her rapid flight. She felt the top of her head reach the zenith of her dive before her body automatically curved back towards the ground, heard the warning clink of a Shinobou about to initiate another damaging swing and then the inevitable swish of one aerodynamic shaft slicing an effortless course through the unresisting air…
GO!
Whether or not the subsequent acrobatic routine was due to a welcome spurt of adrenaline or the result of Selphie playing her cards right did not really matter; all that was important was that the SeeD Elite, fully elongated in the air like a leaping doe one second before bundling herself into a compact ball, hit the ground 'running' as it were - crashing and rolling through the tufts of grass and ditches in the ground beneath the blurred arc of a Shinobou baton as it whistled towards the patch of air through which Selphie had been sailing only moments before. For a split second, Selphie felt the breeze of the swooping weapon rasp against the bare skin of her curved neck like a lunging bird of prey, before the speed of her forward roll carried her safely away from the soaring, dipping threat. Gathering clumps of dirt and grass like a bizarre yellow snowball, Selphie cut a terribly messy path towards her goal, amazingly finding time within the dizzy whirlwind of melting scenery and flying earth to wonder how the hell she was going to get all the gunk out of her hair in the morning…
Now! Selphie unfurled her compact limbs in an instance on the chance that she had managed to convey herself both far enough from her opponent and close enough to her estranged weapon, expertly flinging her legs out beneath her while swivelling her head over her shoulder – Selphie's eyes immediately homed in on the pair of Adamantine rods entwined together on the ground only a few inches away from the floating figure of Squall, who was currently aflame with an inferno of lapping, swirling light and seemed to be only getting brighter as she fritted away more precious minutes…
But I can't help him until I deal with that pathetic phony behind me…As though on cue, Selphie's hearing picked up on the rustling of fabric and the scrape of leather boots, key indications of a person turning on the spot to face whatever lay behind them.
"Hang in there, Squall!" Selphie yelled in the hope that despite what ever type of turmoil the Commander was finding himself victim to, there might still be a chance that a fragment of his senses was still capable of recognition – on that parting note, Selphie pounced upon the Strange Vision, flipping the sticks smoothly into the air and snatching each in mid-fall around the middle with the force of a thunderclap. Her fingers moulded against the glassy curvature of each branch of the weapon without any necessary mental command, and with another heady rush of adrenaline, Selphie blocked out the niggling tenderness of her swelling bruise and wounded shoulder as she bent her knees into a primed crouch, and settled her blazing green eyes upon her glimmering double who was gambolling towards her. Re-armed and no doubt highly dangerous, Selphie felt both complete and raring to go, fully confident in her abilities to take down a mirror image whose strengths and weaknesses were – quite literally – close to her heart.
"C'mon! Just try!" Selphie raged and showed her teeth, clashing the solid bars in her hands together with a wordless challenge that still spoke wonders of the upright defiance that was leaking from her wrap of skin like a provoking musk. Ever obliging, the clone did just that, setting up another bout of swinging death on a circuit that had started at the small of its back and was climbing rapidly towards the space between the original Selphie's jovial eyes. The SeeD had been anticipating such a move and yanked herself backwards, her natural flexibility throwing her upper back past her thighs as the flickering imitation of a Shinobou swerved harmlessly over the peak of her nose. Like a bent sapling released by its captor's hands, Selphie snapped back into her original stance with a nonplussed expression gracing her face which was quickly replaced with a goading laugh.
"My turn!" she quipped cheerfully, whipping the Strange Vision out from behind her back and tugging the tinkling chain with a menacing rattle. Even below its newly acquired coat of grime, the winking lustre of the Adamantine seemed to be laughing along with its mistress as Selphie inclined the two arms at a new angle, shifting her hands into an equally new position across the surfaces.
Let's see how well we both do at close quarter fighting… no more stupid swinging, neither of us is a Wendigo after all!Selphie's alter-ego hadn't fully recovered from its failed attack, and so as the original Selphie threw herself towards it, Strange Vision clasped firmly in both hands with the intention of ramming the clone like two charging bulls, the duplicate was only able to bring its weapon up in time to meet the blow head-on with only half of its artificial strength supporting its straining wrists. The Strange Vision ground viciously against the vaguely transparent Shinobou barring its way, striking up not sparks but chips of coloured light as the friction grew too immense.
Staring hard into the vacant eyes of her imitation, a face that was her own in every way but for the absence of the vein of stubborn and perky resilience running beneath the skin which commonly flooded to the surface in everyday life, Selphie felt a prickling heat of outrage making the space between her shoulder blades itch with inner fire. A surge of extra strength from the sour taste of the insult boosted the weight that she was applying through the Strange Vision, and she felt the chipped Shinobou underneath falter as the clone found itself forced to give ground to the overbearing encumbrance that was threatening to cleave each arm of its weapon in two. It was enough for Selphie, who pulled back and stormed forward again in the space of a second; in the manner of a descending baseball bat, she brought both sticks down upon the duplicate's Shinobou with a mighty and ferocious crack. That too, was enough for the clone, who lurched and crumbled underneath the massive force of the blow and fell back by more than a few steps, legs wobbling crazily and bleeding scraps of colour from all areas of its glowing body like fraying needlework.
Mercilessly, Selphie closed the opened area between herself and her mirror image with the intention of a follow-up attack etched bluntly in the forceful green malachite of her eyes, and the Strange Vision looked equally as angry as it plunged through the air at the bidding of its owner, planting its sharpened ends squarely onto the exposed spleen of the unsuspecting clone with a consequent smash, like that of a rock shattering a window pane of glass. The impact was positively electrifying – the clone jerked with the motion, its form resisting the assault for a few tense moments before the Strange Vision successfully chewed straight through the luminous skin, travelling through the emptiness where a heart and sternum might have been arranged if the duplicate were its original, and erupting in an explosion of a fractured, weeping spectrum from the clone's lower back.
Selphie stooped over the impaled imitation as it wriggled vainly against the sheer mineral piercing its non-existent flesh, struggling to keep a hold of the Strange Vision as the pseudo-Selphie thrashed like a landed fish unable to free itself from its imbedded hook. The original Selphie swallowed nervously, unable to push back the horror that she was feeling at the sight of… herself, in a strange sense, or at least herself as she might look if she ever came to a nasty end on the point of someone's sword… the absolute lack of emotion wrought on the duplicate's face as it writhed like a skewered snake was disturbing enough, rendering it as little more than a vessel filled with a vacuum that lacked thoughts, feelings and emotions, with even pain being little more than an estranged friend…
It's times like these, I should be glad that I'm my own person… Selphie reflected as she grappled with the wobbling Strange Vision in her grasp. I'm nobody's lackey, nobody's dispensable toy – and I hope that I'll never be reduced to one, Hyne help whoever tries…
:Selphie! Fall back! NOW!:
"Ellone?!" Selphie gasped out loud, just as a burst of cloudy static came bubbling down her magical channels, a rushing torrent of sound that contained nothing but urgent cries and warnings jumbled together in an undecipherable code, before being suddenly cut short. Selphie took the hint, jerking the Strange Vision out of the clone with a dismissive carelessness that widened the yawning hole in its chest which dripped with liquid colour around the rim, and skipped away from the falling apparition as it folded into the receiving earth. Even before its flickering body met the upwards force of the ground, Selphie registered a sharp twist in the energies in her wake… there was a newfound vivacity to the feel of the air where there had once been a sluggish rhythm, as though whatever well of power had been depleted was being replenished twofold, and no warning from Ellone was needed to trigger a sense of uneasiness and increased alertness in Selphie's being, although it certainly helped…
As Selphie melted from an offensive stance into a defensive watchfulness, resting most of her weight on the balls of her heels, the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly rose… the level of power that she could sense flowing through the air was building up far too efficiently, stacking itself like a tower of blocks with no intention of toppling and even worse, gathering speed and momentum at the same time! Although she was almost afraid of what she would see, Selphie nonetheless swivelled around to lay her eyes on Squall…
"Holy crud," Selphie whispered hoarsely, feeling her throat constrict with the effort of breathing in the thickening air that was milling around the clearing, as oxygen and magical energies vied with each other for the same space... and it was the sight of those same energies that had compelled Selphie to speak; massive, illuminated vanes of power expanded outwards from the centre of Squall's barely fluttering chest, multiplying at a very alarming rate and as Selphie continued to watch with spellbound curiosity, guttering from white to black and white again with quick, warring flashes of consummation… the shadows in the surrounding area were darkening considerably as Squall continued to turn out increasingly brighter wings of light, the shadows then becoming pale and indistinct as the black hue struggled to gain the upper hand in the white furls of energy. Selphie was at a loss as to what to do, her instincts screaming for flight yet at the same time, her duties as a SeeD demanded that she fight… but fight what?! Squall? Or whatever's eating away at him? Oh Hyne, why did we ever get out of bed to start off with…?
:Sel…phi…e…. Li….s…ten…:
"Wha…?!" she exclaimed.
Thump.
Selphie's eyes widened as the bleak sound echoed down her channels…
Thump.
Thump…
"A… a heartbeat?" she asked aloud, then started coughing as the syrupy air successfully clogged her voice, forcing her to take a breather. It was most definitely a heartbeat anyway, or at least a limpid pulse, the rhythmic timbre resounding inside her head with startling clarity and even drowning out the pounding of the blood in her own ears. Having caught her breath somewhat, Selphie ventured, "Ellone? Is that you? You're cracking up…"
Non-surprisingly, there was once again no reply, only the bleak, monotonous beat of a pumping muscle filling the void left in Ellone's wake… but not monotonous for long… it seemed to be… accelerating…?
"Cripes!" Selphie yelled as the entire clearing flared with a blinding spout of opaque light that inflated in a circular motion from Squall's static body, and then to her deep surprise, she found herself being knocked head over heels as the light swept across her form; Selphie found herself tossed into the thankfully padded arms of a harmless shrub, but all around her, even though she momentarily could not see, the sound of breaking wood, uprooted plants and scattered leaves scraping noisily against splitting bark was almost deafening, and one hundred percent terrifying. Selphie huddled in a frightened little ball where she had fallen, feeling the silent, solid wind pummelling the breadth of each plane of her body that was open to its attack, amazed at the astonishing magnitude of pain that the gale was inflicting upon her senses that was only getting worse as the seconds ticked by. Selphie jammed her eyes shut, pushing the lids down as far as they could go, wishing that the pain would subside just for a few moments but her silent entreaty was of no avail… as the tortured sensations continued to escalate, she started to fear that at the rate it was going, she'd be torn asunder and blasted into bite-sized shavings… and still, the heartbeat continued to seethe like a runaway freight train in her ears, like the other half of some sort of ghastly duet it was performing with the bitter wind, thumping methodically in time to the white flashes that were popping in front of Selphie's closed and sheltered eyes…
!!!
Wait! That's it! I…
Thump…
……
Thump…
… I'm listening to Squall…
Thump…
… his heart, it's in my head…! And… the wind… now I understand…
It was getting difficult to think through the foggy sleet of pain that was misting up Selphie's thoughts, but she fought to keep herself conscious, knowing that it would not help her situation to collapse and surrender to the teeth of the snapping white gust…
… or Limit. It's a Limit, I didn't realise before… Squall is in this wind, I can hear his heart in it…! Hyne, how angry must he be to unleash something like this…?! And… how is Ellone letting me hear him? Is she… connected with him too, somehow…?
"Ellone!" Selphie croaked as she bore the brunt of yet another breathy punch across her back, "How… can I stop… this…?"
Please answer… please answer… I don't know how much more I can take… please…
Miraculously, something stirred in the faraway depths of Selphie's channels, like the dying echo of a footstep travelling through the bowels of an empty cave…
Please! Keep trying…!
In desperation, Selphie flung out a personal line of energy towards the fading source, groping blindly in the darkness for some sort of established contact, elbowing her way through the murky pain and navigating around the thundering heartbeat that was drowning her thoughts… swallowing her whole… floundering in a black sea that was the making of Squall's pure, raw vehemence…
… a frail yet commanding grip suddenly caught the thrown line with plenty of mustered effort on its part, drawing Selphie safely away from the clutches of the frothing, ebony foam…
Selphie could almost have sobbed with relief if the connection hadn't been so anaemic; there was no time to lose for such frivolity, and of that, Ellone was obviously aware. Selphie could only just barely recognise her presence, as insubstantial as an element and her voice abstracted into broken syllables by the domineering clamor of Squall's fiery fury…
:G…o….for…t…he…sou…r..ce……s..he…wo…n't……let……yo…u…or…h..i.m…d…i…e…:
'Source'? What source?!
:S…qu…all……t…ak…e……hi…m……o…u…t…:
!!!
:Tr…u…st…m…e……ca…n't…h…o…ld……o…n…:
A sharp, screaming flurry of obsidian noise suddenly sheared the flimsy connection between them, sending Selphie spiralling back into reality and the world of sensation, which thus heralded the triumphant return of pain which now felt as close-fitting as a tight shirt. Every ounce of Selphie's body was complaining from the battering it was receiving, not to mention the existing abrasions that had taken up residence on her shoulder and shin beforehand, but with an exertion that could only have been accomplished by the steeliest of wills, Selphie wrenched herself off her knees and elbows and hauled herself to her feet. Bearing herself open and vulnerable to the full force of the scalding wind, she tottered like a drunkard but still held herself steady, knowing that if she allowed herself to fall again, the temptation to remain on the ground would simply prove too appealing to resist…
The Strange Vision had somehow managed to remain enclosed in one hand, its chain fluttering behind it like a sparkling banner, and Selphie numbly wrapped her remaining hand around the twin Adamantine bars, propping the compacted weapon above one shoulder in preparation for a two handed swing.
Have… to stop… this… now…
Already half dead on her feet, it didn't bother Selphie too much to scope ahead for the dark centre of the driving wind, despite the brilliant glare of white reflection that stung her shrunken pupils. It hardly compared to how the rest of her was feeling; Selphie had already decided that she wouldn't be too stunned if she were to look down at herself and see nothing but the flesh falling away from her bones. Her thoughts felt unusually light, as though one gentle puff of a breeze would send the top of her head spinning away into space, depriving her of coherent reasoning and sanity… although she suspected that such an occurrence had already taken place, for how else was she to explain what she was about to deliver to the most senior authority in Garden and her superior in all military, administrative and community state of affairs?
Completely overwhelmed by a stupefied daze, Selphie by hook or by crook found her feet shuffling forward at an arduous pace while the rest of herself fought for each finger length of distance through the unsympathetic winds… the pounding of Squall's frantic heartbeat was still frequenting the back of her head like a chugging jackhammer, all the more incentive for Selphie to achieve her task… slowly but oh so surely, she dragged her mistreated body across the clearing towards Squall's lit up form, a length that could not have exceeded three or four metres but felt for all the more like two football fields lined up side by side. Gasping from the enormous exertion and swaying from a combination of exhaustion and the wind currents, Selphie stumbled the last few inches, nearly losing her balance for the umpteenth time that day, but finally arrayed herself in striking distance of the hovering Commander. The blast of energy that was emanating from the centre of his chest scorched across Selphie's cheeks, cutting tears from her eyes and sending her hair streaming away from her face where it winked in the white light like a newly minted copper coin. Shaking away the mental cobwebs that were congealing her thoughts and doing her best to not pass out before she had executed her action, Selphie finalised her decision, raising the clamped-together rods of the Strange Vision even as the white noise and incessant heartbeat picked up in tempo and viciousness, as though gaining some psychic inkling of Selphie's intentions. Securing her feet in the torn up dirt underneath and holding her buffeted torso steady against the snarling winds, Selphie's mind was obviously made up, no matter how greatly in principle she was opposed to what needed to be done…
"I'm sorry!" Selphie wailed, even as she swung the Strange Vision down from where it was poised above one shoulder and watched it descend with blurred velocity towards the very same head that she had been cradling only a horrifying short while ago…
* * *
Aaaaahhh! Cliffhanger! XD XD I'm sorry, I couldn't resist! *Has a weak will* Don't worry too much though, Selphie knows that she'd get fired from the story if she killed her co-star… @___o *Coff*
Something that I find ironic is that I divided the content of chapter 9 and 10 because combined, they were over 6000 words, but this chapter is actually about 6000+ words in length… XD *well, I tried* Heh heh, and I see that Zero-Vision has finally gotten an account of his own! *Stalk stalk stalk* And it's okay, I don't see you as a crazed groupie or anything like that… ^.^;; ;) Also, a thankyou to George, who has spoken up in favour of a Squalfie! ^.^
Coming up next: What are Rinoa's thoughts on what has happened so far, and what will she reveal about Galbadia's intentions? A time lapse will also occur which will cut straight to the chase of the outcome of Squall's subjection to Selphie-bashing… XD see you soon!