------'-----,---Chapter Four------'-----,---
------'-----,--- Fractured ------'-----,---
The pain curled all the way down her spine, settling deep in her lower back. The ache spread across her shoulders and down into her arms. Her neck was cramped, her legs numb from sleep long ago. Her long slender fingers were stained with dust and dirt, and her nail beds full of the deep brown stuff that covered the ground.
In her left hand she loosely held a brown handled brush. The bristles once white now tainted with the dirt they so softly brushed aside. Emerging from the dirt with each careful stroke of the brush was a tiny porcelain face. Blue eyes surrounded by soft blond eyelashes. A shock of blond hair tumbling around the tiny child like face.
Quistis hadn't moved the whole day her whole being mesmerized by the task of unearthing the child toy. The tiny blue dress it wore was caked with thousand year old dirt. It had tiny hands, the white fingers seeming to reach up at her from the filth. It was begging to be saved, it wanted her to rescue it from its grave.
The sun was had long set and she had been there all day her concentration spent. She finally freed the doll from its soil prison. Quistis held it in her hands for a few long moments her fingers buried in the frills of the blue dress. She stared into it's blue eyes, so reminiscent of her own. It reminded her of all the childhood memories that lingered in the back of her mind, all the things that had been discovered during the war.
She at last stood up, the bones in her body cracking as she stretched them. She shook her head trying to clear her thoughts as she wandered out of the building. The real archeologists had gone to sleep for the night, the city of Shumi sleeping around her.
Her hut awaited her, tiny and dark amongst the others. Moving inside she clicked the light on casually. With tenderness she places the doll on her nightstand spreading its dirty blue skirts around it. With a sigh she slumped into bed pulling to covers up over her fully clothed body.
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"Someone has to inform Quistis" Xu said with cool calculating precision as she looked down at Selphie. The brunette nodded looking around the table of people.
"I just can't believe that Seifer is alive" Rinoa uttered under her breath. She stroked the feathers on the collar of her jacket with one lazy hand. Her brown eyes focused mistily on the table.
"What are we all doing sitting around here for, we gotta get to Shumi and protect Quistis!" Zell exclaimed jumping to his feet as one hand came crashing down on the table top.
"Ho there boy, calm down" Irvine drawled rising to his feet as well. "Quistis is more then capable of taking care of herself as long as she gets some warning"
"Irvine has a point. We have no SeeD to spare for a journey to Shumi" Xu said looking down the roster or students and SeeD that lay on the table in front of her.
"No SeeD to spare?" Zell said outraged, his blue eyes raking over the brunette commander. He grit his teeth in anger his fist shaking as it clenched in rage. Xu just stared at him her posture stiff. He turned and headed for the door striding across the room.
"Where are you going?" Xu snapped.
"I'm going to Shumi" Zell said coldly, pausing only a moment before the door.
"SeeD Dichnt you are not to leave this garden!" Xu exclaimed. He turned and looked at her with fiery, screaming blue eyes.
"You weren't at the orphanage. You weren't there for Ultimacia. Quistis is a member of this Garden, she is a SeeD, but most of all she is our friend. You will not stop me from leaving" Zell said turning again to head for the door.
"I'm going with him" Selphie said scooping the key to the Ragnarock up from the table. She moved quickly after Zell stopping for a moment to give Irvine a quick smile and a wave.
Irvine stood slowly his gaze resting on Xu for a long moment. Then he shook his head, his ponytail swishing down his back. Without a word he turned and followed the two out of the conference room.
All that was left behind was Rinoa and Xu.
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Metal, cold and sleek. It chilled him to the bone as it flashed into his vision. He took a step back suddenly colliding into something, someone. Baker turned trying to struggle against the strong hands holding him in place.
"Which building is Quistis Trepe staying in" a male voice hissed in his ear. Baker raised a shaking hand to the tiny hut, his heart pounding in his chest. He couldn't catch his breath, the cold metal nicking his neck. He felt a tiny trickle of blood roll down his neck and snake inside his shirt.
"Who are you?" Baker croaked, his voice cracking against the night air. He was turned around by a rough hand and found himself staring up into two green eyes. The metal at his neck was a long sleek gunblade held by a black-gloved hand.
"Do you want to look in the eyes of your killer before you die?" the blond man said, his voice hissing through his teeth. Baker shook his head wildly, his long brown hair falling from its ponytail. His killer only smirked, his eyes lighting up with a sick glee.
Seifer took a step back raising his gunblade into the air. With one foul swoop Baker slumped to the floor, his disembodied head rolled a few feet away lying amongst the tall grass. The smirk sliding off his face Seifer coolly, methodically wiped the blood from his blade onto the clothes of the now dead man.
He then turned his eyes, focusing on the hut he had pointed out a few moments before. With long malicious strides he headed for it, his black boots thumping loudly on the cobble stone streets.
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Quistis rubbed her eyes groggily at the sound of the phone ringing. She rolled over and stumbled out of her bed across the dark hut. She pulled the phone off the receiver placing it to her ear in one smooth motion.
"Hello" she said, leaning heavily against a table. Her body was so tired after all the digging.
"Quistis?" a female voice said. Whoever it was sounded so far away, scratchy. The voice sounded so familiar, Quistis just couldn't place who it was.
"Hello?" Quistis said again, frowning as she strained to hear.
"Quis, its Rinoa" the voice said coming a bit more into focus. Quistis raised her eyebrows, Rinoa sounded almost panicked.
"What's going on?" Quistis asked her posture straightening immediately.
"You have to get out of Shumi, Seifer he's –" with that the door to the hut banged open, the night air blowing a smattering of leaves across the floor. There in the dark doorframe stood Seifer, his trench coat flapping around him. The Hyperion on his hand was drenched with fresh blood.
Quistis fumbled backward, the phone sliding out of her hand. It clattered loudly to the floor as she reached for her Save the Queen.
"Trepe" Seifer said with a grin. Her hand clasped around the ever-familiar handle of her whip. The hut was small, there was hardly any room to use the lengthily weapon. His gunblade was shorter, quicker. She knew she was at a disadvantage.
"What do you want?" Quistis asked trying to put as much distance between them as possible. He stopped for a moment, staring deeply into her azure eyes.
"Your blood" he whispered his voice filling the tiny space. He lurched for her, and she dodged ducking under his arm. Her foot caught on his boot and she went tumbling forward, brining him down with her. His head hit hard on the night stand sending it tumbling to its side.
Her doll crashed to the floor, its porcelain face shattering on the wood floor. It stared at her with one eye as she struggled under Seifer's heavy unconscious form.
In the darkness she could barely make out the tiny green mist that was floating out of the gaping blackness of the doll's face.
It seeped towards her, rolling across the floor. It almost seemed to have a life of its own. It touched along her arm, caressing her pale skin. It tickled across her lips and leaked into her mouth as she breathed in. It snaked along her blond hair, covering all of her.
A strangeness over came Quistis, her vision obscured by the green mist she just couldn't get away from. Seifer was so heavy collapsed on top of her. Panic started to over take her.
"Help!" she screamed, just as the darkness overtook her.