A Voice splits the air, keening in the ecstasy of grief. It is as strong as the wind and no less forceful; it is the Father and the Ancestor and the Child and the Son.It is the unknown and the forgotten; the emperor and the lord of thieves.

Who should know his terrible secrets? They are not for the revenant or the redeemer, the prophet or the politico. His cry is a message, weeping and wailing, from one soul into the darkness of the next.

He is calling you home.

-

By the time Seifer and Quistis made it out of the crevice, there was no way to get back to the device that supposedly contained Griever. Reluctantly, Quistis admitted that they would have to leave it there.

The scientists--and Maiser--were nowhere to be seen, so they made their way out of the halls of resonating crystal and into the bright afternoon glare.

The transport was still there--loaded and full. Maiser was sitting on the hood, staring dumbly at the Lunatic Pandora.

Quistis cleared her throat, and Maiser jumped. "Trepe! Hyne, it's good to see you're alive--"

"Oh?" Quistis asked cooly. "Was there some doubt?"

Maiser gestured awkwardly. "The scientists said that going back into the Pillar was too dangerous--something about the resonance and brainwaves and junctioned paramagic--we were going to wait for you as long as we could, and then scramble back to Esthar."

"We have all the readings we need, then?" Quistis asked. "That was certainly fast."

"Esthar tech," Maiser said. "That, and we're not going back into that thing until we figure out what's causing the resonance and stop it. Too dangerous, remember?"

Quistis sighed. This had certainly been a lot of trouble for not much at all--but sometimes that was how SeeD missions went. "All right," she said. "Let's head back, then."

-

If Nida had to rank what he thought would happen upon returning to Esthar in terms of probability, being ushered into an emergency meeting with Odine, Squall, and President Loire would have ranked somewhere just below a full-scale Lunar Cry. Of course, after the events of the last mission, the Lunar Cry was ranking much higher than it normally would have.

Quistis, Seifer, and one of the Lunatic Pandora scientists were in the conference room already when Nida stepped in, just finishing up their debriefing. As soon as the door closed behind him Nida found himself the object of a great deal of scrutiny--and wanted very much to turn around and sneak out of the room.

Instead, he walked to the nearest open chair and sat down.

"I exzpect you vill have an interezting report?" Odine said, leaning forward and fixing Nida with his beady little eyes. Nida nodded.

"I wrote it up while Selphie was driving us back," he said. "But what it boils down to is that the energy levels in Tears Point are forming a sine wave with a period of three-quarters hour. The Lunar Cry hasn't happened yet, so I don't know how much danger there is--"

"Zere iz no danger." Odine gestured excitedly. "Zis iz perfect! The Point iz functioning az I vould expect it to! Zis iz an entirely new age of energy and para-magic!"

"Doctor," Laguna interrupted. "I want to make sure that there's no cause for concern--"

"Nonzense." Odine shook his head, causing the huge ruff around his neck to flop back and forth. "Zcience vill prevail. Ve vill anticipate any problem zat may arize."

Laguna glanced around the table as if to say See? I'm completely powerless over this maniac. He inhaled softly, nodding. "Needless to say, this is all very unexpected. I would like you all to cooperate with Dr. Odine--he has some tests lined up, a more in-depth debriefing, some additional expeditions...."

"That won't be a problem," Squall said. Laguna smiled at him--a gesture which the SeeD Commander heartily ignored.

Laguna pushed himself away from the table. "I'll talk with Odine and Xu about what we need later and have the funds transferred," he said. "In the mean time, I don't see that there's much more we can do."

Everyone pushed away from the table, heading for one of the many doors that emptied the room. Before they could make it out one,, however, Odine had accosted both Seifer and Quistis.

"You vill come vith me," he insister. "Zere is much vork to be done."

Seifer folded his arms. "I didn't sign on for this entire misadventure," he informed the scientist cooly. "I have things I need to get back to."

Odine blinked, as if the notion of someone having a life outside of his research was a foregn one to him. "Ve vill zee," he said, disapprovingly.

Quistis sighed. "What do you need, doctor?"

"You vere in ze rezonating crystal," he said. "Zere is a tezt zat muzt be run. Come."

Quistis glanced at Seifer, and nodded. "All right."

Odine had already turned and was wandering off through the halls, counting on Quistis to follow him. She did so--it was easy, what with his short gait--and he lead her deeper and deeper into the building.

They finally arrived at a large lab that looked something like Garden's Paramagic Casting Arena--reinforced walls, a few draw crystals by the door, and nothing extraneous or breakable in evidence.

Odine engaged in a rapid-fire conversation with one of his aides, motioning a large piece of equipment to be brought into the room. It looked something like a surgery table, with extra electrodes and a wire headpiece. A junction-reading device, Quistis theorized.

"Lie down," Odine instructed brusquely. "Zis vill not take ze minute."

Quistis nodded, lying down on the bed and allowing one of the aides to attach the electrodes. There was a faint hum along the mental pathways where magic was stored.

"Now ve vill zee vat ze rezonance iz affecting," Odine crowed, rubbing his hands together in unmasked enthusiasm. An aide checked over everything once more, and flipped a switch.

For a moment, she felt nothing. Then--

RESONANCE!

The world shook around her, magic pulsing within itself, GFs coming active all at once, vision dimming, every nerve alight--

(Ohno--)

The world went totally black.

The resonance continued on.