AN: 'insert witty comment here'
Seifer: 'Is there anybody there?! Cried the writer. Review once for yes, and twice for no!'
Squall: ';;'
Book Three of the Sorcerer Arc Battle Lines Chapter Four A Noble Sacrifice
Ellone's return from the Phoenix hadn't been kept quiet.
They hadn't thought it was necessary.
How wrong could they be?
Kylari was facing a turning point. She could feel it, looming over her mind, the moment so pivotal that her decision, as yet unmade, was casting a shadow of its effects backwards in time.
In fact, her decision was so important that she had called a meeting of the personalities still within her mind...
]She knew my child, my not-child. I must talk to her. She must tell me the truth. She must know the truth.[
#The meddling bitch tricked me! I'll kill her! I'll make her beg me to kill her!#
Silence! Kylari's mental voice blasted through the mixed demands of her two other-selves. Ellone would die, sooner or later - there was no question of that. When that time came, or after they had the sorcerer powers, then their personal vendettas and agendas could be fulfilled. Until then they had to consider the longer-term implications of their actions.
]Later then. The truth, later... What now?[ Kylari pounced on the rare moment of sanity and relevance, well aware that it would not last long.
Do we tell the Kenthra of her? Or do let her do all our work, running around killing sorceresses for their power? There was a snort of discontent.
#Our work. Our fun. Stalking sorceresses, their knights, helpless. Making them feel what we felt...# Kylari ignored the grumbling personality.
]The Kenthra will bathe in blood. They will blind Esthyre's land with the blood they shed. That is this world's truth. This time's truth... But what of my truth? What of my child?[ Kylari sighed, aware that the personality was unlikely to make any sense for some time. But she had spoken - and if it was somewhat of a riddle, that made it all the more likely that it was truly prophecy, and not just incoherent ramblings.
#Bathing in blood...# The other personality purred, seeming fascinated with the idea. #The Kenthra bathe in the blood of Estharian scum, and we bathe in the blood of the world..." Kylari rolled her mental eyes.
So we tell the Kenthra. But how much do we tell them? And what of their Centra brethren?
#Not all.# Came the hissed response. #Let them take the girl and the Esthar scum, but the sorcerer is ours.# Kylari silently agreed. #Tell the Centra nothing. They could find him in this age, but he is ours.# Decision made, Kylari turned her attentions back to the external world, and the worshipful Kenthra on the floor before her. Her lip curled.
"Worthy Kenthra. You have proven yourselves loyal and strong, and I have your reward." Carefully she explained about Ellone - and her return to the earth. The fact that she had been in space seemed to be all the proof or evidence that the Kenthra needed to declare her a 'sorcerer bitch'. With a mighty cheer, the Kenthra swiftly vanished to go about their mission. Kylari smirked. Esthar wouldn't know what had hit it.
And they didn't.
There hadn't been any warning before the attack, and it was only the Kenthra's sheer technological naivety that had given the workers inside the Lunar Gate time to prepare. Even so, they never stood much of a chance. No one was armed except Kiros, Laguna's small escort, and the guards fortunate enough to be on the inside of the base when the Kenthra attacked.
So it was with the certainty of death facing them that they retreated to the communications room, and began to send frantic warnings both to Esthar and to Garden. There was no hope of rescue arriving in time to save them, but, once they received the message from the Phoenix that Ellone was returning in an escape pod, they didn't care. Their task now was to delay their attackers - clearly after Ellone from their fervent screams of 'death to the sorcerer bitch' - long enough that a rescue party from Esthar could reach the emergency landing zone, far to the south, without having to fear an attack from the black-robed, kukri-wielding lunatics.
And they performed that task well.
When Edea arrived on the scene, barely half an hour after the last desperate messages from the Lunar Gate reached Esthar, she found only blood and still-warm corpses. Even silent, the bodies of those who had fallen spoke of the high price they had forced the attackers to pay.
Laguna, at the very end, with no weapons but his bare hands, killing at least three Kenthra in an adrenaline and rage-fuelled berserker's charge, before several others swarmed and overwhelmed him...
Kiros cutting a larger swathe, surrounded by Kenthra dead, having matched his hand-blades against their kukris, and finding the kukris wanting, but the odds just too great...
And Ward, perhaps most tragically of all, slumping at last over the table he'd used as an impromptu weapon, wicked-looking shiruken with poisoned blades covering him like a second skin, the Kenthra finding even their numbers no match for the hulking man...
Edea, to her surprise, found herself blinking back tears. She had admired Laguna, in a way. Respected him certainly. She could still see, in her mind's eye, the nervous but determined young soldier, carrying an infant in his arms, and leading a young girl by the hand, as he approached the gates of the orphanage. Had she not had Cid, and had Laguna not been so determined to help the people of Esthar - so determined that he had given up his children to her upon their mother's death - she might have asked him to become her knight.
'I ask you to take care of them whilst I cannot. I will return for them, one day. I promise.' His final words to her, before he turned and walked away into the gloomy Centra night, never looking back.
'I ask you to take care of them whilst I cannot.' The words echoed in her mind. He had promised to return for them, a promise he had not kept. But he had not asked her to promise to care for Squall and Ellone. He had not asked for any assurance, any binding word that she would care for them. She had no obligation to him, or them.
So why would his words, from what seemed like an eternity ago, not leave her alone?
Feeling tears prickling at her eyes again, Edea hastily scrubbed them away with the back of her hand. Automatically she checked, finding only clear liquid. There was still time. Still hope. But would Squall accept her help? Would he help her? Or would he coldly swing that chill blade of his, and end it that way. There was only one way to find out, but it meant trusting Ellone's safety to the Esthar rescue crew. No doubt, having heard the warnings of those manning the Lunar Gate, there would be a heavily armed military compliment with them - after all, Ellone was now President, if she accepted the job. And besides, if anything were to happen, the White SeeD ship was nearby, and would be monitoring the situation.
Squall, having heard the news of the deaths of Laguna, Kiros and Ward, was in an extremely quiet mood. This was not, as anyone who knew him - namely Seifer, Quistis and Zell - a good thing. Squall's quiet moods had a tendency to break without warning, and without warning of which direction they would break in. You did not, as Seifer well knew, piss Squall off to break him out of a quiet mood, because he would make a serious effort to kill you. Not a serious threat and a mock attempt to end your life, but no threat and a very serious attempt to permanently stop your breathing. You also did not, as Quistis well knew, try to break Squall out of a quiet mood by telling him why he was in a quiet mood in the first place, because you might just end up learning things about yourself that you didn't want to know. And he'd immediately snap back into the quiet mode as soon as you left him alone - which was extremely fast if you were a child, and you were told that the reason you tried to be grown-up was because you thought then your parents would return. But they wouldn't, because they were dead, and never coming back. Zell, on the other hand, thought perhaps he'd had the most brains of them all, because he'd never attempted to break Squall out of a quiet mood in any way, shape or form. Privately, Quistis and Seifer agreed with him.
Thus it was, that when Edea returned, determined to speak to Squall, that all three of them did their best to dissuade her.
Seifer, so aware that a single mention of Laguna's name could send Squall over the edge in either direction, caved first. He saw Edea's tears, saw the fear in her eyes that she might be losing it there and then, and stepped away from the door with a shake of his head.
"You still have something left to lose." He told her. "Don't throw it away by mistake." With that warning he left Quistis and Zell blocking the doorway alone.
Quistis, afraid for Edea, but aware that the sorceress was free to choose her own path, and indeed, entitled to, moved next, saying nothing as she went to stand by Seifer. Zell was left, perplexed and alone, in front of Squall's office door. Finally, recognising that, as their matron, Edea had once been able to dispel Squall's quiet moods without consequences, Zell also moved to one side.
The three watched in silence as Edea opened the door, and entered the lion's den.
AN: wow...four chapters down...I'm on a roll. The joy of having everything plotted out ;) Well, almost everything ;; Review please!
