------'-----,--- Torn ------'-----,---
Space was so cold. At least the gravity boots on the space suit kept her feet firmly anchored to the metal catwalk. However each step was slow and heavy making the walk seem very long.
Of course it space was cold, it was just a collection of stars and not much else. Quistis sighed inside her space suit as she started the long walk down the catwalk.
Her mind sorted through the memories, things that had happened ever since all of this started. It all started with her offsite suspension in Shumi, where Ricker had placed the tiny doll she had found in the ruins of the old sorceress' castle.
Then the arrival of Seifer in Shumi, sent to kill her, but it seemed Ricker had changed his mind. It was that night she had become one of the experiments. Both she and Seifer had fallen to the floor knocking the doll off in the process emitting a gas that put them into a catatonic state.
The memories of the doctors talking while they inserted the wires haunted her. How one told the other of Seifer's long days spent in the specimen tube. All the experiments they preformed on him. It was enough to make her sick.
After the procedure was complete both her and Seifer had been placed back into the hut in Shumi, unknowingly wires now ran through Quistis' body turning her into some sort of super solider. All of this for what? Because of some man's sick curiosity.
He must have wanted them to fight because Seifer came after her as soon as the both came around. Quistis could remember how cold the snow was, much like the air around her now. Seifer had fought the wired men, blowing up a car and saving her in the process. He had been standing over her, ready to kill her; she would never forget the look of remembrance that flashed through his eyes.
At least Zell and Selphie had shown up to save her, save them both. Who knows what Ricker might have done had they not gotten out of Shumi.
His return to Garden, screaming for the long dead Squall. The tears that rolled down his face when confronted by Riona. His escape from the infirmary and his second attempt at killing her and the grey of the tranquilizer dart Irvine has so expertly fired into his neck.
That fateful night when the voice had boomed out over the PA system of the garden and she had rushed to the MD level where Seifer had been imprisoned. The sick sight of the metal wires sprouting up from his forearms, at that time Quistis didn't know she had ones to match.
Her demotion. At times Xu's harsh words rolled through her head. Suddenly it hit Quistis; once this was all over she was going to be done with SeeD. She could leave and never go back to the Garden again. Maybe Seifer would come with her.
She was about half way down the catwalk now, the people in the tube eerily still around her. Even if there was noise she wouldn't be able to hear it in her space suit. The only movement was the slight bounce of the test tubes anchored down to the space station by long wires.
The memory of his trashed infirmary room at the Garden haunted her. He had asked her if she was a ghost, it seemed as if he was losing his mind. Perhaps he had for awhile there, being introduced into reality again so quickly had probably been a system shock for him. Quistis shuddered at the thought realizing he was showing a bit of that madness again before when he had pulled her away from the door. Would it haunt him forever?
After his fantastic jump from the window they had traveled to Deling for the United Council meeting. Walking through the park... Quistis didn't think she would ever forget the way those hands felt on her as they roughly dragged her towards the dark alley. Seifer Almasy coming to her rescue using his bare hands to destroy the men that attempted to defile her in the worst way. I couldn't let them hurt you, he had said. Those words had seemed like the most precious gift Quistis had ever received.
The sudden arrival of Laguna Loire president of Esthar at the United Council meeting would have been the most shocking event of the year, if all the other madness had been happening as well. They had come fore Seifer, and were able to take him when a group of wired men burst into the hall. He gave her his Hyperion to fight; of course she had been able to wield it the wires made her as strong as him.
How she hated Riona for carrying her away that night as Laguna escaped with Seifer in his possession. It was that night that had truly changed her life, when she had drug that blade along her skin to find the wires that Ricker Deling had so cleverly implanted there.
Meanwhile Ricker Deling had rescued the Lunatic Pandora and rebuilt the deadly device. This is what Ricker had used to get himself to space, leaving his escaped daughter behind who quickly took over the white SeeD ship with her mind control.
With the Pandora Ricker had brought down Balamb Garden destroying one of the biggest obstacles in his way to world domination. During this time he was imbuing his daughter with the magic trapped in the bones of an old sorceress, unknown to Quistis a dead woman had been found her body ripped apart by the power that escaped her, the power that had been passed on by that sorceress.
It had been pretty easy to commandeer Galbadia and make their way to Esthar where they confronted Laguna Loire. The President has admitted to going along with the project in the beginning to get revenge for the death of his only son. However Ricker Deling had taken it and let things get out of Laguna's control.
Seifer had been behind glass.. She had rushed in to save him. To touch him, to be with him, to feel all these feelings that now she knew weren't real. Eventually they ended up here in space.
And now here Quistis was striding across this platform while Seifer was in side killing a ten year old child. The thought simple choked her up on the inside, and she tried to focus on the task at had. One long step after the other, the consol at the end of the catwalk getting closer and closer.
Soon enough she was standing before it, reaching out with her hand covered in the white space suit. She was shaking, from the cold, from the memories, and from the tragedy of all of this. All she could think was that soon this would all be over.
The air lock released as she slowly turned the valve and the metal that was covering the venom release trigger shuddered open. With a simple flick of the switch Quistis realized she was killing hundreds of lives, even if they were grown mindless zombies. Taking a deep swallow she reached forward and pushed it down.
Quistis turned and headed back towards the door unable to see into the station. As she was walking she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye, and she turned her head. There beyond all of the tubes and equipment loomed the moon. The surface seemed strange… as if it was crawling, moving.
Her eyes widened as she suddenly realized what was happening. It struck her as she remembered that the Lunatic Pandora was used for not only space travel, but to direct a Lunar Cry as well. Ricker Deling had called upon the monsters of the moon before he had retreated to space to die at the hands of his daughter.
The movement she had seen was one of the first monsters to fall, spiraling through the endless expanse of sky end over in. She watched it in horror as it collided with one of the test tubes bursting it open into a thousand floating pieces the body trapped inside spiraling out trapped forever in the open air of space.
Panic rushed over the blond woman anchored to the catwalk. She started moving again one heavy step after the other, watching as more monsters made their decent from the moon. Something resembling a red dragon was flying at her, moving at an immeasurable speed. Quistis tried not to scream inside her space suit as it collided with the consol where she had just been standing.
The whole catwalk shook as the consol broke off from it moving away into space following the monster on its decent to the planet below. Quistis hung on tight to the rail of the catwalk as it lurched and shook. She started running as much as she could in the heavy gravity boots. The door she was almost there, it was just a few footsteps away.
Test tubes were shattering all around her, tiny pieces of glass imbedding themselves in her spacesuit. Bodies and monsters were floating in the air and she could see the movement on the moon was rapidly increasing. One of the creatures splattered across the windows of the space station. Thankfully the glass was held up, marred only be a smear of blood across its surface as the wounded monster continued it decent.
There it was the door knob in her hand, and she was yanking it open. Hurriedly stepping inside the air lock she released the lock on the suit and it slumped to the floor around her. Rushing forward into the main room Quistis was gasping for air in panic, stopping as she saw Baysla still alive and standing before Seifer. Seifer kneeling before her, his head lowered Hyperion in his hands.
"I couldn't do it, Quistis" he said softly, "I couldn't cover my hands in the blood of anyone else"
Her hurt burned with his pain, but she was starkly reminded of their plight as the building shook around them. His head shot up and he gaze out the windows, through the blood at the monsters falling from the sky.
"Right on schedule, the Lunar Cry" Baylsa said softly turning to look out the huge windows.
"We have to get out of here" Seifer shouted suddenly grabbing Quistis hand and rushing forward to where they had entered his hand desperately grasping the handle on the door yanking with all his might.
"You won't get out that way; you see the machines disabled all escape as soon as you entered. Did you really think I would let two of my fathers experiments roam free? No. No, you will die here will me as we crash towards the planet" Baysla said calmly. Seifer turned glaring at her rushing forward, swooping down in an easy movement to lift his Hyperion.
"Kill me if you wish, Either way you will die 0241" The small girl said unafraid as she stood before him resigned to her death. Quistis started to cry gazing around, this couldn't be the end. Not now, not now that they had finally found each other.
"What do we do Quistis" Seifer said desperately looking out the windows at the moon. The monsters were gathering rapidly, soon they would all tumble to the ground in a giant column and this space station would go with them.
"Take both space suits into the air lock, and give me your Hyperion" she said solidly as she gazed over at Baysla Deling. He frowned and opened his mouth to protest but she held up a single hand, and he did as he was told. Quickly moving both suits into the air lock he slowly handed her his Hyperion.
Opening the door she gave her a look as he waited for what she could do next. Quistis look calmly at the small girl and shook her head.
"I didn't believe in killing you until you attempted this Baysla. I think this is all coming to an end now" Quistis said as she raised the Hyperion leveling it as her target. She pulled the trigger unleashing one of the magical bullets along the blade. It whizzed past the small girl and collided with one of the huge windows breaking it instantly. With a horrified look the girl was pulled up with the rushing air.
Seifer grabbed Quistis in a desperate move pulling her into the air lock, slamming it shut just as Baysla was pulled through the remains of the window. The space station was shuddering around them.
"What do we do from here Quistis?" Seifer asked softly looking at his former instructor. Quistis looked around the small room and sighed softly.
"Pray" she answered simply.