Disclaimer: What can I say? Except that I'm not a highly respected gaming company that must make millions from their work. I just write stories about their games. Maybe some of the success will brush off on me.
Alternate Fantasy
By Draic
Chapter Nine: Dust
I was watching a scene unfold at a cemetary. There was a girl in yellow talking to the headstones. It was cold. Where am I? I thought, rubbing my arms. Looking down at the heavy black jacket I wore, I corrected myself. Where is he?
"I finally got to play in my own band," the girl said softly, and with a start I realised it was Selphie. I moved slightly to get a better view and with another jolt I realised she was crying. Selphie, crying, but with an oddly bright smile on her face. Now that was something.
Ooh, you're so insensitive, Squall!
I backed up and looked around guiltily as I recalled Quistis' words. No-one here but me. Hang on, there was something I wanted to ask this guy…
I bent down and scratched letters in the snow. You don't see snow like this in Balamb, I thought as I wrote.
Hang on…What was I writing?
I stood up and stepped back.
Squall: Is your birthday the 23rd of Au
I shook my head in amazement. The 'other one' had obviously been here. But why did he want to know my birthday?
The sound of crunching footsteps broke into my thoughts. Selphie was returning. I hastily scrubbed out the writing and fled back to the Garden as quickly and quietly as possible.
I leaned against a wall and tried to look casual as Selphie approached. She was greeted by a young woman and a little girl. The smile was instantly back on Selphie's face and both girls received tight hugs. The woman spoke to her and the girl tugged on Selphie's skirt, jumping up and down. When she leaned over, the girl whispered something in her ear and pointed towards me. Selphie looked over at me and waved, a knowing smile playing on her face.
I nodded back and cleared my throat, embarrassed. Had the little girl seen me following Selphie? I pushed away from the wall and hurried away to look for the basketball court.
Everyone else was there already, waiting for Selphie. I caught Zell's murmuring. "Man, what's taking her so long?"
I looked at him, surprised. 'So long?' But we had only been here for…
I squinted in the direction of the sun, checking the time.
…Three hours!? Had I actually spent the greater part of three hours stalking Selphie, watching her dealing with her grief and bursting into tears one minute and laughing at jokes the next? I must have been in worse condition than I thought.
I'd better go get her, or we'll never get home.
I moved to go, when a basketball came flying out of nowhere. I barely caught it before it hit me in the stomach. I stared at the orange rubber and suddenly found in the depths of my mind an image of Quistis attacking Selphie with a flat basketball. There was no way that was part of my reality.
I let the ball drop from my hands and roll over to rest at Selphie's feet. I hadn't even noticed her join us.
"Hey, take me with you when you fight the sorceress, okay? I want to get my revenge."
That sounds like something 'Sel' would say, I thought with a smile, then spent the next few moments trying to work out who I'd ever heard give Selphie that nickname.
"Umm… I've been thinking… Do we really have to fight?"
What?
Rinoa was standing there, addressing all of us but looking at me.
"I don't understand, Rinoa," I told her. "You are part of a resistance movement. Unlike other people who were all talk, you took to your weapons and fought. And now you don't want to do that any more?"
The others were getting upset; confused. They didn't understand why Rinoa didn't want to have to fight. I wasn't sure I did, either. We were SeeDs, after all. We had been trained since an early age to be fighters - soldiers, mercenaries. It often seemed like we killed for a living, harsh as it sounded. But at the same time, we saved many lives. Why wouldn't Rinoa want to do the same?
I tuned back in to the conversation. "…When we get into battle, everyone's tempo seems to pick up… and I get left behind."
She's not a SeeD, I reminded myself. She hasn't had a decade of training and conditioning to be able to fight, to kill. Yet she does it anyway. All this time, she has been playing by her own choices. Because of the way we were raised, we didn't have too many choices. But she made the decision to come along with us. To do things she hasn't been prepared for, that she wasn't ready for. She lost her innocence all at once, not gradually like the rest of us.
I suddenly felt a rush of emotion for the lost angel. She had been so strong during all of this, masquerading as a fully qualified SeeD and paying the consequences in silence.
"Rinoa, I understand." It wasn't me who said it, however much I wanted to. It was Irvine.
"When I was 4 or 5 or so, I lived at an orphanage…"
And piece by piece, our pasts were revealed.
Thirteen years ago, we had lived in an orphanage by the sea. Irvy, Sefie, Quisty, Zell, Seifer, and me. Squally. Even the mysterious Ellone was revealed as Sis, the last person I could stand to lose. The orphanage had been run by…
"Matron's full name is Edea Kramer," Irvine announced, and nodded to the gasps. "Yes. Matron is Sorceress Edea."
So that's why he was so shaky during the assassination. He knew that Edea was the one who raised us all. He knew… and he still worked up the courage to shoot her. He must have been so relieved when it didn't work... it is so much easier to forget who and what it is you're fighting when you're in the heat of close combat…
My respect for the girl-chasing cowboy went up a notch.
"…We may have to fight Matron, whom we all love very much. But I don't mind. It's not as though I drifted here on the tides of fate."
That makes sense, I guess… I wonder what changed his mind?
"So I understand what you're saying, Rinoa. But I still say we fight. Hey, at least it'll keep us together a little longer."
Keep us together? I looked around at our little group. Yes, after this was over, we'd be split up again, wouldn't we? Of course, Squall. What did you expect?
"Squall? What do you say?"
…No.
No, I… I can't take that now. I need… I want to stay with these guys… I… whatever it takes to keep us together…
"Rinoa, it's up to you," I said, not directly answering the question. "I think the rest of us are going to fight. It's the only way we can move on with our lives."
Move on? Aren't I just hanging on to my past? …but I'm sure Rinoa doesn't see it that way…
"If that makes any sense to you at all… come with us," I told her. "I'm sure that's what everyone wants."
They all nodded and murmured their agreement.
"… Alright," she replied softly.
"Good," I said, genuinely relieved. "We'd better get going now. We don't want to miss Garden."
The others moved off, but Rinoa stopped and turned to face me.
"Squall…"
"Yes?"
She reached for her necklace. "Look, I just wan… to s… that I…"
Her voice was fading in and out and my vision was blurring. I felt sick.
"Rinoa…"
No answer.
"Rinoa? Rinoa!"
"Squall! Wake up, you lazy git!"
I jolted upright. Someone was shaking me, shouting into my ear. I was in the cafeteria. The other cafeteria.
"Shit!" I swore.
"I'll say. I can't believe you actually fell asleep in your plate!"
I turned around and glared, until I realised it was Selphie; she had her hair pulled back, where it exploded in a mass of spikes. Okay, I haven't seen that before…
Then I realised what she'd said, reached up, sighed, and began picking food out of my hair.
"Are we cleaning up again?" I asked. Here we go: Othersquall's returning.
She rolled her eyes. "Well, what do you expect?"
She actually sounded almost friendly.
"By the way, you have gravy in your ear."
She ran off, leaving me to clean out my ear with a napkin. Then, remembering his question, I picked up another napkin, wrote 'Yes, 23rd August' on it with my- his pencil and shoved it in his pocket. Then I returned his tray to the cafeteria benches, and wandered out of the room and along the hallway, hoping the owner of this body would come back soon. In the meantime, I decided to find the bathroom and get the rest of this gunk out of his ears.
I took the elevator down, briefly wondering what had made Selphie so happy. Then I frowned. That had been a memory from my world, hadn't it? It was getting a little hard to tell.
"Finally," Seifer commented as I entered the clearing again.
"I did have to wash the food out of my hair and ears," I protested.
"Well we were waiting long enough," he replied, but couldn't hide his amusement.
"We weren't going to start breaking our backs until you were here to break yours, too." Selphie put in.
"Thanks ever so much."
Quistis said nothing. She was organising various objects from the floor into piles. She didn't look much like she wanted to talk, either. I sighed. I thought we'd be okay now, since she'd actually been talking to me during the whole chewing gum thing, but I guess I was wrong.
"Squall, can you come help me with these boxes?" Seifer asked.
"Yeah, sure."
We worked in silence for a while, until I heard someone whistling. It was Selphie.
"Why's she in such a good mood?" I whispered to Seifer.
"She heard that the Headmaster is going to send SeeDs to…" He stopped and looked at me. "She didn't want me to tell anyone… you'll find out soon enough, anyway. I heard they're setting the SeeD exam there, too."
"What? The SeeD exam? Where?"
"In… No, I can't tell you."
"…Fine."
We stacked a few more boxes.
"Hey, what happened to you during the Reflect tournament?"
"… I fell asleep."
He rolled his eyes and laughed. "Really? I somehow failed to notice that."
I don't know why, but I didn't feel comfortable letting word out that I was allergic to Sleep magic. Knowing some of the people living in Garden, they would tend to take advantage of it. I suppose Kiros would call it 'hiding your weaknesses'. Whatever the reason, I wasn't just going to tell Seifer. "I guess it was just a really strong spell," I said. "Uh… Selphie's pretty good with magic…"
"Yeah, she is. There was one time she cast a Silence spell on me and I… well, I don't really want to talk about what happened… that week."
I laughed, and he joined in. "So how did the tournament end?" I asked him. "I was blacked out for the last of it…"
"Well, after you went down, I got attacked by this really shy girl who hangs out in the library. She was Beserked, and she looked like a demon. It was even worse because you never see her angry at all, and she was shrieking and snarling and just about frothing at the mouth. While I was trying to fend her off, the guy I was facing Blinded me, and I ended up trying to ward off this crazy library girl when I couldn't even see her. Then-"
"Hang on, wasn't Quistis Zombied? Or was I already delusional?"
"Oh yeah, it was really freaky. The first sight I had when they used the Eye Drops was Quistis staring at me, face all green, and drooling."
"Drooling?" I asked incredulously.
"Yeah!" Seifer replied. "I know they claim that you still have your own mind while you're Zombied, but I swear Quistis was trying to eat me… I'm bet I could find the bite marks to prove it."
I held my hands up in mock terror. "Please don't. I couldn't handle the truth."
He grinned. "Anyway, the guy who had been fighting me was the only one left in the tournament other than Selphie, so they had to duke it out. He was really smart - he kept his shield topped up almost before it wore out. He kept up a steady stream of spells and had Selphie on her toes. But Selphie was playing hard, too. She would cast a spell, then get in behind him and cast another. She almost got him when she accidentally Beserked that library girl again…"
Probably did it on purpose…
"The guy got distracted, and she had her chance then, but he'd only turned to cast Esuna on the girl. He knew he didn't have to worry about her after that, so he turned back in time to dodge Selphie's spell. They ended up circling eachother, both hiding behind a new Reflect… and then he got her."
"How!?" I asked.
"He knew she wasn't going to let her shield down and he knew by now that she wasn't going to fall for any tricks. So he prepared a spell…"
He waved his hands dramatically.
"…and cast in on himself! He was safe behind his own Reflect and since it had already been Reflected by his own shield, hers wouldn't work. It was at such short range that Selphie didn't have a chance to avoid it and next thing you know, she'd been Stopped. She was really mad once we healed her and she found out what had happened."
"Wow. So who was the guy?"
"Oh… I don't remember his name… Hey, Selphie! What's the name of the guy who beat you yesterday?"
The whistling abruptly stopped and there was suddenly a container hurtling towards Seifer's face.
"Yaaah!" he cried, barely catching it before it hit him.
I doubled over, laughing.
"Irvine."
Quistis' voice cut off my laughter as effectively as if she'd used a guillotine. I straightened and stared at her back, as she was still facing away from the rest of us.
"What?"
"The guy's name was Irvine," she said over her shoulder.
Irvine…
"When I was 4 or so…"
"I can't do it, dammit!"
"Is it true SeeD aren't supposed to question their orders?"
"I might be there later with a certain someone."
"Except for Rinoa, we were all there."
"An orphanage by the sea."
"Squall?" Seifer called, waving a hand in front of my eyes. "You look really spooked. You know this Irvine guy?"
"Yes." I replied. "No. Maybe…" What had just happened? It was like a deluge of information - like when you wake up in the morning and suddenly remember where you are. I had a feeling these snippets of memory I'd received were somehow from the other Squall… except they seemed to be sparking off things that had happened in my own memory. I could barely take it all in, let alone explain it.
"Uh huh… so what exactly does that mean?"
I barely heard him. "Seifer, do you remember your childhood?"
He gave me an amused but curious look. "What, you want to be a psychiatrist? No, I don't remember much about my childhood. Why?"
"Do you remember… a stone building… by the sea? It was an orphanage… and there was a… a sort of light…"
"A lighthouse?" he whispered. His face had gone pale.
"Yeah. And we lived there… with all these other kids… "
"Sefie…" he murmured.
"What?" I asked.
"Selphie! Do you remember where you lived as a kid?"
She turned and gave him a scathing look. She was obviously still stinging from the reminder of her defeat.
"No, seriously!" Seifer persisted. "Do you remember when we used to call you… Sefie?"
She froze, then spun around and stared wide-eyed at Seifer, as if seeing him for the first time.
"…Seifer?" she asked, sounding oddly scared.
"What's the matter with you three?"
Quistis had turned around and seen the odd looks on all our faces.
"And Irvine was there…"
"We called him Irvy…"
"And we always used to play war…"
"You guys are making no sense whatsoever," Quistis said.
"Quisty!"
She stared at me.
"Quisty!?" she repeated, obviously not understanding. "What on earth… Why are you looking at me like that?"
She looked like she wanted to run away.
"Quisty. We called you Quisty." I said.
"Sefie, Irvy, Squally, Quisty…" Seifer murmured.
"And Seifie." Selphie added, and giggled. She giggled! "But you hated how much it sounded like my nickname, so you insisted on being called Seif. You thought it made you sound cool."
"There were other kids, too…" Seifer said, eyes practically shining with excitement.
"Was there… was there a woman?" Quistis asked, voice shaking. "A woman with hair down to her waist?"
"She had dark hair…" I added. "And she always wore black…"
"Matron…" Seifer whispered.
I looked over as Quistis put a hand to her mouth. She was crying.
"Quisty… what's wrong?" I asked.
She looked up at me, tears streaming down her face.
"Matron… she…"
She gulped and continued.
"We were at the beach, and when we came back… Matron… she was dead!"
Told you. Nasty twist. Poor Matron… Why do we have to torture our beloved characters? Poor characters… I can't take it, I tell you! Poor Draic… Oh well.
AUTHORS:
Griever5 (sigh. Yes, another cliffhanger.)
Vick330 (yes! Right! Thanks.)
CuteMooglez (not talking - I'll spoil it!)
Faery-of-fiction (oh wow. You ARE the perfect reviewer. Not the best critic, but definitely the best reviewer)
Ghost Whisper (haunting? Wow. Thanks)
ANONYMITES:
Trepie 28 (Shh… the newbies haven't met him yet! But glad you like him)
Dark Phoenix (hey, nonononono! Not dead! Definitely not dead. Please come back!)
So… whatcha thinking at the moment? What's going on? Whodunnit?
Well, you're not going to find out from me. Not yet, anyway. I would love to hear your theories, though - my email is just above my author bio. Feel free to drop me a line!
Therefore, Read, Review, and Reply! 3R's! It'll be fun! Well, for me, anyway…
Draic
This chapter is sponsoring Solarwind Starfire's "Dragon's Crest" charity.
Perhaps if we gather enough reviews, the story will be continued!
(Please give generously)
http:?storyid=564649