It was hard to hide anything from Fujin's watchful gaze, and Taiga had never had much practice disguising fatigue. As soon as he stepped out of the den she was standing in front of him, attracting his attention with a gentle touch on the shoulder. Taiga didn't jump--he was too tired to be startled, really, and he had been expecting immediate attention anyway.

"FATIGUED," she snapped, voice surprisingly commanding for someone of her stature. "REST."

Taiga smiled thinly, letting himself stare at his daughter. He would never get tired, he decided, of looking at her. "I'm sorry, Anyev. I wanted to be able to talk with you--we have so much to talk about."

Fujin's eye softened. "Tomorrow," she rasped. "Rest now."

Taiga pulled her close, closing his eyes and taking a moment to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Then he let go, holding her back at arms length. "Good night," he wished her.

"Good night," she returned.

Taiga glanced toward the rest of the room's occupants--who were either watching him with unveiled curiosity or being very careful to ignore him. "We don't have much bedspace," he apologized, "but make yourselves as comfortable as you can. Good night, everyone."

There were a few civil nods, a low mutter, and Taiga slipped off into the bedroom. The rain outside was still coming down--the bed was slightly damp--but it formed a pleasant ambient murmur.

Taiga hadn't realized how tired he was until he looked at the bed, barely forcing himself to pull off the musty bedding before collapsing into it and closing his eyes. The bed was soft--not that it mattered so much, what with the armored exoskeleton.

Phantom pains were dancing all over him--sparking from his damaged side and creeping into his arms and legs. They always seemed to come back after damage, never so bad as the first days after everything had been implanted, but bad enough.

"Directive," he muttered, trying to block out the pain. "Sleep."

The ICI didn't respond except for a slight hiss in his collar. Taiga wondered at it for a moment--maybe the chemicals were having trouble with the adrenaline that must still have been in his system. It had been an interesting day.

"Directive," he began again. "Sl--"

Directive error, the ICI responded flatly. Taiga C1128513. Analysis: Uncertain. Directive: Disregard.

What, the....

Status: Damaged. Directive: Shutdown.

...NO--!

There was a moment of all-consuming terror.

Nothingness followed quickly.

-

When Lu exited the den, the first thing she encountered was the steel-hard glare that Fujin was trying to drill through her skull.If she had ever felt threatened by Taiga--intentionally or unintentionally--it was nothing compared to the sheer, all-eclipsing disapproval that radiated from his daughter.

Lu froze, and seriously considered backing into the Den again.

"EXPLAIN," Fujin demanded before she got a chance to. Lu hesitated, glancing across the room nervously.

"I'm not sure what you mean," she evaded.

"INTRODUCE," Fujin snapped. "EXPLAIN."

Lu made her way uneasily to a chair, never facing away from Fujin as she did so. "Well," she began, sitting down, "...my name is Hali Lu. Um... your father doesn't know me too well, Anyev. We met up a while back, east a ways of here. I'd been taken by a group of bandits... for reasons I guess I still haven't gone over with him. He took care of them, and... circumstances dictated that we would have to travel together for a ways." She blinked. "...your father would probably be willing to give you a more detailed account."

Fujin didn't respond to that one way or another, so Lu didn't know precisely how she had taken it. But she was still staring, so Lu figured that she had to say something to reduce the awkwardness.

"Anyev," she began uneasily, "I don't know how much you... you know about your father, especially for having been separated for so long. But I've found out a bit about him in the time we've spent together, and--"

Fujin's one eye was narrowing.

"--and I've come to know a few things," Lu finished hurriedly. "Anyev, there's a problem with your father's programming--"

"PROGRAMMING IS PROBLEM," Fujin retorted.

"...I guess it is, in some ways." Lu swallowed carefully. "I'm not a high-ranking science officer, and I work in natural sciences instead of technological sciences, but I... I know people, and I think I could get him somewhere where I could get him helped."

Fujin was staring at her with what Lu could only assume was skepticism. She took a deep breath, and continued.

"I want to get him back to Esthar. I have some authority--not a lot, Hyne knows, but I think I can assure his safety. I want--I have to try to help him."

Fujin was still frowning. "HOW?"

"Technology has increased a lot since the cybernetic implants cyborgs use were first introduced," Lu explained. "So has knowledge of human anatomy, of surgery--the implants were designed to be integrated, so that they couldn't be removed. But that was a long time ago--maybe they can be removed now. It's just that no one's ever tried."

Fujin considered that.

"What I'm asking is..." Lu hesitated again, hoping to garner enough trust to make this work. "I want you to help me convince him to come back--and to convince anyone in Esthar that this is the only right thing to do. The way I understand it, provisions don't get made for cyborgs. But if they won't make provisions for you, then--"

Fujin nodded. "UNDERSTOOD.'

Lu tried not to show any of the anxiety she felt. "Then--"

"ACCEPTABLE."

"Um," one of the room's other occupants spoke up, raise a hand pointedly. After a moment, Lu attached the name Nida to him. "Small problem. It's been pretty clearly demonstrated that Seifer's going to follow Fujin wherever she goes, and our job is kinda to get him back to Garden. Not to mention that I don't think Esthar is going to be too happy having him walk around, given that he tried to invade the country less than a month ago. It's not that I don't sympathize with everything that's going on, and I hate to play the bad cop here, but this only complicates things on our end."

Lu was still digesting a point about a sentence back. "He's--Hyne in hell, he's that Seifer?"

"...or maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that," Nida followed up, awkwardly.

Lu cast a glance back toward the bathroom, blanching.

Fujin turned to Squall, gaze considering. "CONTACT CID," she said. "REPORT. ACCOMPANY."

Squall ignored for a moment the fact that Fujin was asking him to come along, and fixed on protocol. "It's not that easy," he began.

"Actually," Nida interrupted, "given that it's Cid, it'll probably be exactly that easy. But that doesn't take care of the problem of having Seifer walking around in Esthar."

Lu, still rather pale, was making a concerted effort to get used to the fact that they had an overthrown war general standing in the bathroom recovering from his fight with Taiga. "Well," she said, rapping her fingers against the arm of the chair, "I don't think anyone is going to be expecting him to be... well... who he is. No one's seen pictures, and I think the general thought was that he's be... well... a bit older. If we don't point it out to anyone--if we call him something different and don't try to give it away--I don't think anyone will know."

"Well, then." Nida glanced toward Squall. "Problem solved before it even comes up."

Squall looked rather less than convinced.

Fujin was still watching him. "ACCOMPANY," she said again. Then, after a moment's hesitation, she flinched away and added "...PLEASE."

Squall sighed. "I'll contact Cid," he agreed.

Nida grinned. "Well. Looks like we've got everything more-or-less sorted. Now what?"

There was a moment of silence.

A few moments later, Seifer and Raijin made their way out of the bathroom, Seifer looking distinctly as if he would like to murder something--repeatedly, if at all possible.

"All right," he snarled, directing his anger at everything in general and nothing in particular. "Now, would someone like to tell me what the hell is going on?"