Chapter 19
The Desert Prison
Part II
"What now?" Zell thought. The guard had left them in the cell without returning for the Moomba for about two hours. He just stood outside the doorway, looking in nervously every once in a while.
The three SeeDs had talked for a bit, trying to keep their mind off of the hopelessness of their situation. Quistis even informed Zell and Selphie that she was no longer an instructor, though, their situation was so bleak, it didn't seem to matter much anymore. Everyone just couldn't keep their mind on any thing positive.
"What do we do?" Selphie finally cried out. "Just stay here? We'll get tortured for sure!"
Selphie bit her bottom lip and rubbed the back of her neck.
"I wonder how they'll torture us? I hope it won't hurt!"
Zell looked at Selphie strangely.
"Never heard of torture that didn't hurt…" Zell thought, looking dejectedly at the ground. But he understood Selphie's fear. She probably didn't want to imagine the pain.
Quistis raised her fist angrily. Her depression had finally given way to anger, and that to determination.
"We can't just sit here." she said. "We have to think of a way to escape."
"Anyone got a plan?" Zell replied, doubtful.
Selphie gazed at the Moomba, and a silly thought came to here.
"Well, we could skin this little guy and wear him as a disguise…" she said.
The Moomba gazed back at her, horrified by the comment. The small lion-like creature stood up and crawled away from Selphie, shaking nervously.
"I'm kidding! I'm kidding!" Selphie said, trying to calm the scared animal down.
Zell looked at Selphie strangely again.
"Doesn't sound like you are…" he thought.
"…I told her that these Moombas can understand our speech…" Quistis thought. "…She shouldn't scare it like that…"
Quistis shook her head and tried to think.
"Well, we can't rely on magic here, so we have to go with weapons." she said.
Their weapons had been confiscated earlier. Quistis' whip, Selphie's nun-chucks, and Rinoa's Blaster-edge.
"We have to somehow get them back…"
Zell thought a moment and gazed down at his hands.
"Weapons… My weapons are these fists o'mine!" he thought. "I could do some serious damage without weapons!"
Zell got up and struck a triumphant pose.
"It's up to me, baby!"
"Let me go. I'll go get the weapons back!" Zell informed them.
"Oh yeah!" Selphie said. "You worked here as Ward, so you know the place!"
Zell chuckled nervously.
"Not really…" he thought. "All Ward did was mop the floors…"
"Just leave it to me!" Zell said, putting aside his doubts. He'd already formed a plan.
"You two lie down there."
Quistis and Selphie eyed each other strangely as Zell walked towards the cell door.
"Zell…" Quistis started.
"I hope this works…" Selphie worried.
"Guard! Guard!" Zell cried. "We need some help! Open the door!"
The 'Mean Guy' responded back gruffly.
"What's the problem?"
"The women are unconscious! I think a snake bit 'em!"
"What…?"
Zell shook his head.
"A snake? Oh boy, Zell…" he thought. "That was pretty lame…"
But his lie seemed to work. The guard came in and followed Zell over to Quistis' and Selphie's motionless bodies.
The Guard examined them a moment as Zell stood by. He scratched his head, confused.
"Here's my chance…" Zell thought.
He punched the guard in his stomach, quickly knocking him unconscious. Quistis and Selphie lifted themselves from the ground, impressed with Zell's performance.
"Well, I'm off!" Zell said casually.
Quistis smirked.
"…I think Squall was wrong not to trust Zell… He seems to know what he's doing…" Quistis thought.
The Moomba raised it's paw and squeaked loudly. It looked up at Zell.
"Huh? You wanna go, too?" Zell said, looking down at the bright-eyed animal.
The Moomba nodded. It's red mane shook wildly.
"Ahh, I guess… Just don't get in the way!" Zell commanded.
He motioned for the Moomba to follow him as Zell ran out from the cell, and into the prison hallway.
After Quistis and Selphie had put the 'Mean Guys' limp body outside of the cell and shut the door, they took a seat on the floor, anxiously awaiting Zell's return.
Zell and the Moomba exited the cell, and found themselves in a large circular hallway, with a huge metal crater in the middle, going down into the depths of the prison. Zell saw stairs ahead of him, going up and down. He also noted a small sign above the stairwell which read, '7th floor'.
"7th!?" Zell thought. "I wonder how many floors this place has…?"
Zell looked around, slightly overwhelmed.
"Where do I start looking?" he thought. Zell heard some commotion up the stairwell. It sounded like guards talking.
"(I guess up is as good a direction as any…)" Zell whispered to his small companion. The Moomba squeaked in reply.
The young SeeD shrugged his shoulders and made his way up the metal steps. He heard the sound of men talking getting louder and louder.
Once Zell reached the 8th floor, he saw two Galbadian guard-soldiers standing before a large pile of chains and metal sticks.
Their weapons.
One of the guards held a long sword with a revolver-butt as the handle. He was gazing at it excitedly through his helmet's eye-piece.
"Squall would hate that…" Zell thought as he inched towards them cautiously. He listened in on their conversation.
"Look at this…" the guard said, impressed. "SeeD weapons…"
He swung the sword flimsily, unable to handle it properly. The other soldier walked over.
"Is this what they call a gunblade?" he asked.
The first soldier ignored him, still examining the weapons with excitement.
"Check these out, a whip, nunchaku…"
"All right…" Zell thought. "Get your hands off of our stuff already!"
He ran towards them, ready to fight. The soldiers heard his loud footsteps across the metal floor, and turned around in surprise.
"Y-You, an escapee?" the first soldier asked nervously.
Zell looked at the two, and smirked.
"Yo, I'm here to reclaim these!" he announced. He quickly jabbed his fists into the first soldiers chest.
"Hey! What are you doing!?" he screamed. The guards quickly drew out their short swords, and prepared to attack.
Zell ducked and dodged as they swung at him wildly. He back-flipped to avoid one slice, and landed on his feet.
The soldiers backed away for a second, amazed, but continued to run towards him. Zell took one look at them, and instinctively started to cast a Fira spell.
"Whoops!" Zell thought. "The anti-magic field…!"
But the magic Zell cast using his GF seemed to have effect anyway. A large field of Fire appeared before him, causing the two guard soldiers to back away.
Temporarily blinded, the two guards held their arms up to deter the flames.
Zell took advantage of the opening.
He lunged forth from the dissipating flame, and rushed the two soldiers. He knocked the first one in his chest, and then a head shot. The other attempted to fight back, but was still unable to see, and took a bad swing at Zell, getting hit in the jaw as he did so. The soldier fell to the ground.
Looking at the two KO'd guards below him, Zell grinned and held up his fist.
"Piece of cake, baby!" he yelled.
The Moomba, who hadn't fought at all, stood over one of the guard's bodies, and growled, swatting at it with his paw.
Both Zell and the Moomba struck a similar, heroic pose, and growled.
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"…Don't hit… my face …Stop grabbing my… leg…"
"Let me sleep…"
"Laguna!?"
"Shut up…"
"Laguna!"
"…Laguna?"
"Laguna!!!"
"Laguna!?"
Squall Leonhart opened his eyes slowly. Harsh light shot in to his bloodshot eyes, constricting the dilated pupils. He blinked, looked around and squinted…
He wasn't dead.
He felt something grabbing at his feet still, though, pulling at the chains.
"What…? …Laguna…?" he thought. What was going on?
Finally Squall's eyes adjusted to the light. He looked below his feet with tired eyes, and saw three small animals, standing on their hind legs, staring up at him. One of the animal's opened it's mouth and began to utter sounds. It almost sounded like speech, but it was slurred, and Squall couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"What?" he replied. "I don't understand."
Another one of the lion-like creatures jumped up and down, yelling excitedly.
"Laguna! Laguna!"
The animal ran off, out of the chamber doors. The third one however, stationed itself near the torture chamber's control panel, and flipped a small switch.
The chain's on Squall's hands and ankles released, dropping him onto the cold floor with a loud thud.
The first animal put it's large front paw on Squall's head gently.
"Laguna." it said clearly.
The creature who had released him joined in.
"Laguna! Laguna!" he squeaked.
Squall was on his knees, hurt, tired and confused.
"Laguna?" he said. He tried to get off from the floor, but he was still too weak.
"…I don't … understand …" Squall thought. "…I don't understand…"
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Zell walked back into the 7th floor cell calmly.
"Yo, sorry to keep ya waitin'!" Zell said as he moved towards Quistis and Selphie. The Moomba followed close behind him.
Quistis gazed eagerly at him.
"Zell, the weapons?" she asked pleadingly.
"Voila!" Zell replied, tossing Quistis whip into her hands. He then turned to Selphie and threw her nunchakus at her. Zell hooked Squall's gunblade onto his belt.
"I'll hold onto this until we find him…" Zell thought.
"Whoo-hoo!" Selphie cried. "Alright!"
Zell swung his fist around, sparing with an invisible opponent.
"Time to go kick some ass!" he cried.
"YES!" Quistis replied, just as excited. She whipped her weapon about violently, ready to attack.
"Right on!" Selphie chimed in, swinging her weapon around excitedly.
"Rghhhh!!!" the moomba squeaked, not wanting to be left out.
Suddenly, they heard a voice from outside the cell. Someone was coming.
*--------------------------PLACE MARKER---------------------*
(Sick of reading right now? Take a break, and find your spot right here when you come back to the story!)
"Is this the cell with the uncooperative prisoners?"
The voice they heard next was a familiar one.
"Yes, this is it. Please give 'em something to really complain about."
It was the 'Mean Guy'. But the first voice seemed familiar to Zell and Selphie as well.
Another voice came in.
"Should we be picking on prisoners so soon after gettin' transferred here?"
The first man gave a gruff reply.
"Just be quiet, and let me handle this!" he said.
Zell knew the voices sounded familiar… But from where?
Then, the 'Mean Guy' walked in followed by two soldiers. He approached the prisoners slowly.
"T-These are the prisoners, Lieutenant Biggs, Private Wedge."
Zell's mouth dropped.
"Biggs? Wedge?" he thought. "…It couldn't be…"
The two soldiers finally came into the light. One wearing a heavier red uniform, and the other a traditional blue Galbadian troop outfit. They approached the three SeeDs and examined them.
*--------------------------PLACE MARKER---------------------*
(Sick of reading right now? Take a break, and find your spot right here when you come back to the story!)
Suddenly, the lieutenant went wide-eyed, and pointed right into Zell's face.
"AAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Zell, Biggs, Selphie, and Wedge all yelled simultaneously.
Zell and Biggs looked each other in the eye. Now Zell remembered where he'd heard the voices.
"Wasn't he a Major before…?" Zell thought, eyeing Biggs cautiously.
"S-So we meet again!" Biggs stammered. "Now we'll teach you the lesson we should have taught you earlier!"
Biggs folded his arms, smug faced.
"I know it might seem cowardly to fight unarmed prisoners…" he started. Just then Quistis and Selphie pulled out their chained weapons, whipping them in the air.
"…But I hope you appreciate our position. Hey it's a dog eat do…"
Biggs stopped, gazing at the deadly armed fighters.
"Aaa!" 'Mean Guy' yelled, stumbling over his feet as he ran out of the room. Beating on unarmed prisoners was one thing, but now they could fight back, and he wasn't about to put himself in danger.
Wedge turned to his commanding officer.
"Uh, they're fully armed, sir…" he noted nervously.
Biggs was furious.
"W-WHAT!?" he yelled. "H-Ho-How…?"
He snorted heavily. The three SeeDs stood there, ready to attack.
"Little SeeD punks…"
"Ahh, hell with it! Let's go, Wedge!"
Zell, Selphie and Quistis ducked as Biggs fired on them with the gun that was attached to his arm. Metal clanged loudly as the bullets ricocheted off the cell walls. Zell ran towards Biggs, ducking, and pushed him to the ground. He then slammed his fist into the lieutenant's gun, damaging it severely.
Wedge stayed back for a moment, but drew out his small sword, ready to attack. He hadn't learned how to use the sword properly for magic casting yet, like all officers were supposed to, but he thought he could wing-it. The Galbadian government had spent a lot of Gil on developing the magic-using weapons, but most soldiers weren't well versed enough in the use of 'Para-magic' for it to trouble SeeD.
Biggs glared angrily at Zell and kicked him away.
"I was demoted because of you!" he screamed. "I'm only a lieutenant now! I'll get my revenge!"
"…So that's why he's not a major…" Zell thought. "…Oh well… he's a major to me… a major pain in the ass…"
Wedge was swinging, unsuccessfully, at Selphie, who kept hitting him in the back with her nunchaku. Finally, he stepped back, avoiding her weapon, and started to cast magic, using his sword.
"How'd that work again…? Just concentrate and press this button…" he thought.
Wedge inadvertently cast a fire spell on Selphie.
"Yes!" He thought.
But it didn't work.
Selphie seemed to pass right through the flames, completely untouched. Wedge didn't realize that Selphie was using fire typed energy to block, and even absorb to a degree, any fire or fire magic.
"What?!" He thought, confused.
Biggs was still trying to deal with Zell, though Quistis now joined in, wrapping her hard metal chain around him.
Biggs pulled the chain, and Quistis down with it, and laughed.
"We're just getting started!" he mocked.
Quistis glared up at him from the ground, infuriated. Her eyes shown with a blue light, and two blue beams shot out at Biggs quickly. He fell back, stunned from her Blue magic, and winced in pain.
"What the hell was that…?" he thought. "No matter… I'll show them…"
Biggs stepped back and started to use his own weapon to cast haste magic on Wedge. Wedge shuddered a moment, feeling the energy hit him immediately. He felt much quicker, and started to slice at Selphie once again, much more confident now.
But Selphie was a well-trained fighter, and Wedge wasn't used to moving so fast. She whipped her nunchaku at Wedge, hitting him directly in the chest.
"Ouch…!" he wheezed. She had hit a detachable piece of his uniform, which slammed into his chest as he did.
"They're always trouble…" he whined, speaking of his uniform.
"Alright…" Zell thought. "Enough of this!"
Zell rushed towards Biggs, socking him across the face again and again. Biggs couldn't keep up with his movements, and started to falter.
Quistis, seeing that they now were in control of the battle, decided to have a little fun. She laughed to herself.
"This should keep them busy…" she thought.
Quistis started to scan through her magic reserves and found what she was looking for… Confuse magic.
She focused, and cast it on Wedge. The soldier's vision became blurry and he was disoriented. But he kept on attacking nonetheless.
He took a swing at Biggs, unknowingly.
"You idiot! What are you doing!" Biggs yelled. He slammed his arm into the private, knocking him to his senses.
"Yikes, what was I doing!?" he replied.
Zell rolled his eyes. This was almost too easy. He ran over to Wedge, and clocked him right on the jaw. Wedge fell down, unconscious, instantly.
Zell then glared at Biggs, ready to do the same to him, but Quistis attacked first, using a Thundara Spell.
"Uh…" Biggs winced. "What's below lieutenant…?" he said, falling to the ground.
Quistis stretched out her arms, and tossed the hair from her eyes.
"Too easy…" she thought.
*--------------------------PLACE MARKER---------------------*
(Sick of reading right now? Take a break, and find your spot right here when you come back to the story!)
The Three SeeDs stood there a moment, dusting themselves off. Then Zell motioned for them to follow him out of the cell. Now that Biggs, Wedge, and 'Mean Guy' were out of their way, they had to find their leader and their client.
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Biggs laid on the cell floor. He blinked slowly, making sure no one was around.
"D-Don't think you can just walk out…" he said. He hit a button on his arm and it beeped loudly.
Biggs winced. He was hurt, and tired. But those SeeDs were gonna pay…
"Ugh." he said. Then the soldier hit the floor without another word.
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"Squall should be around here, somewhere." Zell said. He looked at the Moomba which had followed them out of the cell.
"You have any idea?" he asked.
The Moomba started growling. As if it was trying to speak.
"Rrrgghhh…" it started.
Suddenly, they all heard footsteps running down the stairs. Zell glanced up, expecting to see more soldiers. He laughed a little, though, at what he saw.
Another moomba came bolting down the metal steps. It stopped, noticing the other Moomba, and Squeaked.
"Laguna!"
The furry creature next to Zell looked up at his friend in disbelief.
"Laguna?" it cried.
"Laguna!" the other moomba responded impatiently. He motioned for them to follow him, and the first moomba ran on all fours after him.
Zell looked on at this with confusion. How on earth did those two animals know about Laguna? And what was more, how did they know how to say his name!?
"Laguna?" Zell said, scratching his head. He shrugged his shoulders and turned to Quistis and Selphie.
"I don't know why, but I'm feelin kinda lucky!" he said happily. "Let's just go after them. OK?"
Quistis and Selphie nodded at Zell. Their best bet was to follow the moombas around right now, until they knew where to go.
Suddenly though, an ear-splitting alarm started whooping loudly. Zell jumped at the sound.
"What the…!?" he said, irritated.
Speakers sounded out all of a sudden, with an announcer excitedly yelling out instructions.
"Warning! Escapee alert! Monsters will be set loose on each floor. If an escapee refuses to surrender, you have permission to kill. The anti-magic field will be lifted.
Zell hung his head and huffed loudly.
"Tch! The security alarm!" he lamented.
"Let's just keep going!" Quistis encouraged. "We're dead if we just stay here!"
Zell nodded, and motioned for the girls to follow him.
"So much for their anti-magic field…" Zell thought, laughing to himself slightly. "…Must've been out for quite a while… We were able to cast spells inside the cell earlier…Or maybe one of those moombas sabotaged the anti-magic system…"
The three fighters made their way up to the ninth floor before running into any trouble. Right as they turned a corner, two soldiers leading a gargantuan robot around caught sight of them.
"SeeDs, you ain't gettin away!" one of the soldiers called out.
The group of turned around to face the soldiers. Quistis recognized immediately that these were no ordinary soldiers. They'd been specially trained to capture prison inmates, by use of sleep and blinding magic. They were also aided by a golden colored GIM47N, an older model Galbadian robot-weapon. It's bulbous mechanical eyes scanned the area, locking in on the targets.
"Be careful!" Quistis advised. "Junction some sleep magic to defend against it if you have any! And don't worry too much about that robot, but be careful… It's slow as hell, but it is powerful if you get hit by it."
Zell nodded, acknowledging her. Suddenly, the large robot rushed towards them, swinging it's large metal fists.
"Watch out!" Zell cried, dodging the weapon.
Selphie attempted to do the same, but she was too late. The robot smacked her right in the side, knocking her to the ground.
"Selphie!" Zell yelled, still trying to avoid the machine. The two guards simply stood by, assured that their weapon would do all the fighting for them.
Zell glared furiously at the robot. He glanced back down at Selphie. She moaned in pain, and he could already see the side of her face swelling up. The machine jumped back preparing to attack again.
"Damn." he thought. Zell quickly cast Cura magic on Selphie.
"ohh… Ouch.." Selphie moaned again. She lifted herself from the ground. The swelling had gone down and she looked almost completely better.
After gathering herself, Selphie glared at the machine angrily. She focused and began to cast Thunder on it.
After getting hit by a heavily charged lightning bolt, the machine simply fell to the ground, and stopped working altogether.
The two soldiers looked on in amazement, but didn't give up. One quickly used his short sword to cast sleep magic on Zell.
Zell attempted to avoid the energy beaming towards him, but couldn't. He hung his head down and became drowsy instantly.
Quistis was taken aback at this. She needed to respond quickly.
"We're gonna be in a bad situation really quick unless…"
Quistis hesitated to do this now, but she had no other choice. She focused heavily and began summoning Quezacotl. While the Seeds were on the train to Dollet, Squall had assigned this GF to her. And it was a lucky thing now… Galbadian soldiers and weapons would be helpless against this kind of Guardian Force.
Blue shards of lightning struck the ground, and the featureless bird formed above the SeeD's heads.
It pointed it's beak at the guards and quickly unleashed massive amounts of energy. The guards fell to the ground, helpless.
Quistis healed herself and Selphie. Zell came-to on his own after a moment.
"Let's keep moving." Quistis said. "…And by the way, we need to be better prepared for that kind of magic…" She pointed at Zell. "These guards will use any kind of blinding or sleeping spells they can get their hands on to stop us…"
*--------------------------PLACE MARKER---------------------*
(Sick of reading right now? Take a break, and find your spot right here when you come back to the story!)
The three SeeDs trudged along silently now. Since every direct route to the stairs on every floor was blocked, they had to go around the large, circular cavity going through every floor of the prison. The large hole seemed to go infinitely far in each direction.
"I wonder how many floors this place has…" Selphie thought, gawking at the huge crater.
As they were making a circle around the tenth floor, they heard two soldiers coming down the stairs. Zell gazed about quickly, looking for a chance to avoid fighting. He motioned to Quistis and Selphie, and they all ducked into one of the nearby cells.
Zell closed the door behind them quietly, and peaked out the small opening, waiting for the soldiers to move.
"Don't get us locked in Zell!" Selphie whined. "Then we'll be in the same situation as before!"
Zell looked back at her.
"Don't worry!" he said confidently. "The cell doors are all unlocked. See?" He pushed the door open slightly.
"They have a really bad security system here…" Zell thought. "Unlocking all the cells during an Escape? What are they thinking?"
"Hey! You escapees?"
A voice from the back of the room startled them.
Selphie squealed in surprise, but turned around to see a young man, no more than twenty years old, sitting in the back of the cell. He scratched the dark brown sideburns coming from his beanie hat, looking tired.
"Oh…." he laughed. The young prisoner pointed at what Zell had attached to his belt. The 'battle meter'.
"You got a battle meter? Are you guys mercenaries or something?"
Zell looked down at the object, confused a little.
"Where'd I get that?!" he thought. Then he remembered. "…Must've been in that Tomb me an' Squall and Rinoa were at… I think Squall dropped this when the GF almost KO'd him…"
Zell had attached the small hand-held computer to his belt, hoping to remember to give it back later. He'd seen Squall mess around with it a little on the train ride to Deling. Apparently it was meant to record information on battles.
The prisoner continued.
"If you play a game of cards against me, and win…" he said. "I'll add something special to that thing for you."
"Shhhh!" Zell said, trying to focus on the guards outside.
"Of all the dumb ideas… Play cards? At a time like this?" Zell thought. He peeked outside the window. The guards seemed to be assigned to this area, blocking their path of escape.
Zell sighed.
"Well, I guess there's nothin' else to do but wait… I'll watch the guards… maybe Selphie will keep this guy quiet for a bit…"
"Yeah yeah…" Zell started. "Selphie, will you play cards with him while I keep an eye on these guards? They aren't moving, and I wanna avoid a fight for as long as we can…"
Selphie sighed heavily, but agreed, seeing as they really couldn't do anything now but keep low.
They could've taken on the guards easily, but Zell wanted to make as little commotion as possible on their way to find Squall and Rinoa. It was just safer that way.
"He's really acting quite mature for a first year SeeD…" Quistis thought, observing Zell's behavior. "He's excellent at taking the lead… unlike me…"
Zell heard the prisoner and Selphie setting up their triple-triad cards. Selphie always kept a deck in her pocket.
"Alright… but I charge 300 Gil per game…" the young man said.
Selphie rolled her eyes. But it wasn't that much money so she agreed, and they started playing. The prisoner gulped as he caught sight of Selphie's deck. She had collected some powerful cards.
Zell sat down near the door, waiting for the guards to leave the floor. He quietly cast some cure magic on himself, remembering that he still had a broken rib.
"Man… Finally able to take care of that…" He thought. Actually, Zell had hardly noticed the pain while he was fighting. Now that he was sitting still with nothing to do again, it hurt. But he finished the spell and felt his chest area. It was still a little sore, but the magic had worked, and his rib was mended.
Zell heard Selphie and the prisoner finished their game. Quistis was standing quietly, over in the corner.
"Ah, you beat me…" The prisoner lamented. "Okay, a promise is a promise… Let me see that battle meter."
Selphie smiled at this.
"Hey Zell!" she whispered. "Toss me Squall's… uh… computer thing!"
Zell lazily tossed the battle meter into Selphie's hands. She gave it to the prisoner excitedly.
'Whatcha gonna do with it?" she said, examining the small device.
"You'll see…" he said. The prisoner started pressing buttons and realigning wires. He pulled out a small computer chip from his pocket and inserted it into an opening.
"Just move this part around…"
"There you go." he said after a few minutes. "Now you can look at even more detailed records. I expanded the memory, and recording capabilities. The TDI chips should transfer information a lot faster now too…"
Selphie scratched her head, a little confused at this, but took the device back gladly. Selphie didn't know much about computers. She only used the one's at Garden for class, and to post the Garden festival information online.
"I'm sure Squall will love it!" she said happily, glancing over to Zell and Quistis.
She noted the dejected look on their faces, and remembered where they were.
"…If we find him…" she said sadly, her voice trailing off.
Everyone stood there a moment, silent.
Zell peaked out the window once again. He couldn't stand all this waiting. Happily, he noticed that the guards were gone.
"Okay Let's go!" he yelled.
Selphie waved goodbye to the prisoner, and followed Zell and Quistis out the cell door.
Zell quickly ran towards the stairwell again. Now that he was healed, Zell felt confident that they could fight their way out… But first they had to find Squall. He jogged up the stairwell.
"Where did those moomba-things go off to?" Selphie asked. "I haven't seen them since we left our cell…"
"…They just ran up… the way we're going." Zell replied, not slowing down.
They reached the 11th floor, then the 12th.
"Hey! There they are!" Quistis cried.
The two moombas that they had encountered earlier were making their way up the flight of stairs to the 13th floor. The three SeeDs followed them as fast as they could.
Upon reaching the top of the stairwell, Zell, Selphie and Quistis were taken aback.
"Whoa… different, finally." Zell observed.
They were no longer inside the cell containment area. They'd reached a hallway leading deeper into the prison's control center… An area which prisoners were definitely not supposed to have access to.
They walked further down the hall. Zell led the way around a large crater-like opening in the floor. They were above every cell floor in the building.
Suddenly they came to the end of the hallway. What they saw surprised them.
A large group of moombas standing before a large metal door, all squeaking.
"Laguna! Laguna!"
Zell glanced at the door. On the floor before it, it read, 'torture room.'
Zell walked closer to the door. He examined it carefully.
"S'up, guys? Somethin' there?" he said.
The moomba nearest to the door moved away. The door sensed Zell's body, and slid open, releasing deathly cold air from inside.
Zell looked back questioningly at Quistis. What were they supposed to do?
Quistis urged on, motioning for Zell to go in. Zell gulped, but move his feet forward quickly.
What they saw when they entered the chamber both overjoyed them and frightened them at the same time.
"Squall!!!" Zell cried out happily.
Squall was leaned against the wall of the torture chamber, right below metal shackles and chains. Three moombas were gathered around him with concerned looks on their faces.
Zell noticed the dark circles around his eyes, and the dejected look on his face. Squall always frowned, but not like this. Not with this kind of shame and otherworldly stare. Something was wrong.
"You OK!?" Zell said as he, Selphie, and Quistis, approached Squall.
Squall nodded slowly. He was actually happy to see his companions again, but was so emotionally distraught from what had happened…
"It was hell…" he blurted out.
Squall pushed himself from the wall in anger. He walked steadily towards Zell and the others two SeeDs.
Zell looked at their leader with pity. What had they done to him?
"I can't imagine what they did…" Zell thought. "…We just gotta get outta here…"
"Let's just get the hell outta here!" Zell said. Then he remembered something. Zell unhooked the weapon from his belt.
"Catch!" he said, tossing Squall's gunblade into his hand.
Squall caught it, glad to have his weapon back. He felt a certain amount of safety in carrying his gunblade again.
"…Good to have this back…" Squall thought slashing at the air. He then calmly attached the sword to it's hilt.
"Thank goodness you're alright." Quistis said, relieved . "Let's go."
The three moombas, now standing apart from the group, all started squeaking again.
"Laguna! Laguna!"
Squall looked at them with a blank stare. They'd been calling him that for the past few hours.
"Squall, are you all right?" Selphie asked with concern. She gazed at the back of his head with her bright green eyes pleadingly. She knew that Squall was a bit of an introvert, but didn't he want to talk about what he'd just been through? It was obvious that the guards had tortured him severely. Even if he hadn't said so, the look of injury, both inside and out, was on his face.
Squall turned away from the moombas and simply nodded to Selphie. He wasn't 'okay', but he didn't want to complain about anything too much. Even the brutal violence he'd experienced.
"Why should they worry about it…?" he thought. "We're just going to get out of here, and that's all there is to it."
The moombas squeaked 'Laguna!' some more. Squall was confused by their persistence.
"You know… Laguna?" He thought, gazing back at the creatures. He shook his head, and led himself and his companions out the chamber door. Zell Quistis and Selphie looked at him for a moment, worried, but decided to simply let him be for now.
Now was the time to focus their minds on one thing… Escape.
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End Chap 19.
Things are heating up eh? Lots of battles, and
just a little suspense to keep things interesting…
I think that this chapter should suffice for now. It was gonna be longer, but I decided to take it easy this time around… I'm trying to get ahead of myself in the writing of this, so I can update on a more regular basis later. Trust me, when the time comes, you'll thank me. ^_-
Next chapter! Finally, we reach '20'. Kind of exciting huh? We get to see Rinoa again, (But unfortunately, also Irvine.) And we witness the daring escape from the desert prison!
That's All I got for now. I'm staying away from writing very long author comments now… I think it detracts from the story a little…
Catch ya later!
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