It is the Starlight, winking in and out of Time so far away.
It is the Eternal Nature, decaying and creating.
It is the heart of the dying wildbeast and the pulse of the living monster, the suppressed and absolute, the arbitrary forgivance. It is the light slanting down from the day-star and washing away the pale shades of night, and I have it. I have it.
It is the Answer.
I have it.
-
It was going to be a bad day--he could feel it.Zell kicked the left rear tire of the transport car, watching with some annoyance as it buckled and bent inward. There was a wide gash tracing its way around the diameter of the thing, and the part that was still more-or-less intact was melted and deformed. The rubber was sticking to the underside of the car, pooling on the ground, and looking generally unhealthy.
What was even worse was that there was no way to tell exactly what had happened. It looked as if someone had slashed it and then cast a Flare on it--but plains monsters didn't generally attack vehicles unless they were being run over, and there was no sign of roadkill.
In any case, the car wouldn't move--or, it if did, it wouldn't move fast, in a straight line, or reliably.
"...bummer," was Selphie's professional SeeD opinion upon seeing the damage.
"There's gotta be a spare in this thing," Zell sad, scratching the back of his head. "So all we really gotta do is get it off the wheel. Right?"
"Did we bring a jack?" Selphie was already digging around in the back of the car, searching for anything that might be useful.
"Shouldn't there be one of those, too?" Zell crouched, tugging at the mass of deformed tire.
"Dunno... I'm not seeing anything." Selphie hopped back out. "Zell? What do we do if we can't replace it?"
Zell thought about that. "Um... I think we contact Garden so they know what's going on. Right?"
"Sounds right." Selphie disappeared back into the vehicle, searching for the transponder system. "...man. We're never gonna get out to Tears Point at this rate."
"Maybe it's all over."
"Yeah, maybe--what?" Zell looked up. "What d'ya mean by that?"
"If they have to send someone out ot pick us up... well, it took a long time for us to get this far, so we'd have to wait all that time for them and then we'd still have to drive a while to get to Tears Point," Selphie explained. "It'll take forever."
"Yeah, but--" Zell considered that for a moment. "...never mind. It hought you--I thought I heard something else."
Selphie poked her head out the window. "Ooh. The voices got you, Zell?"
Zell gave another strong tug to the congealed rubber. "Gee, I hope not."
"Think about it."
"Yeah. It'd suck to be out here where we couldn't write 'em down, or anything." Selphie giggled.
Zell stared. "...think about it?"
"What?"
Zell gave up. The rubber didn't look like it would be removes by anything less than a machete. "I guess we wait for Garden to pick us up, then."
Selphie glanced back. "Guess so."
-
They had gotten to the Airstation and were walking up the stairs into the hangar by the time Squall hesitated. Rinoa would have continued on for several steps before noticing, but the fact that her arm was still hooked through his made that rather more difficult."Something wrong?"
"......." Squall glanced around. "...I forgot my gunblade."
Rinoa gave him a quizzical look. "...you did?"
Squall sighed. "I'll go get it."
"I guess this is why you always take so long to decide anything," Rinoa teased. "If you go too fast, you end up forgetting everything."
Squall shrugged. "Garden stresses a good preparation time."
"I'll bet they do." Rinoa walked to the lift. "Go ahead, Squall. I'll wait right here."
Squall nodded, and walked away.
-
Don't go.Seifer's step faltered, and he cast a glance behind him down the street. The area itself was busy enough, but no one seemed to be paying him any attention--no one had spoken.
Don't go.
He winced, turned back toward his destination, and walked a bit faster. This was getting supremely aggravating.
Don't go, you can't go, she'll see you, she'll kill you--
(Oh, shut up already!) If the Voice had been a real, physical person, Seifer would have thrown it off the skyway with very little prompting.
I can't think. The voice was panicky, growing more and more frantic. I'll know it when I see the blood. She's got warm blood like the rest of us. Not like Her. She's going to die, and I can't save her.
(That's damn sad for you.) Seifer was snarling to himself, walking fast enough to draw any number of surprised glances. It didn't matter. the voice kept up with him perfectly.
You don't understand! You're going to lose her. You're going to lose her and there's no way you can get her back. Do something.
(Bugger off!)
He took several more steps--and ground to a halt.
The Voice was gone again.
-
Quistis, walking from the makeshift SeeD office in the Palace to the Research Laboratory, was beginning to think that her day would be unbearably dull when it took a sudden turn for the interesting.Squall was standing in the middle of the hallway, staring intently at nothing with a listening air about him as if he was trying to remember something just out of his reach. Deciding to offer him some assistance, Quistis put a hand on his shoulder--
--and he jumped, wide-eyed, spinning around and drawing the Lionheart and whipping it through the air in an arc that could have cut her head in half if she didn't evade just fast enough to escape with nothing more than a deep gash across her left cheekbone. She stumbled and fell to the ground, shocked that she had startled him so badly.
He stared at her for a split second in utter incomprehension, and then bolted down the hall.
Heart pounding, Quistis pulled herself up along the wall. Supreme aggravation and utter terror were warring--aggravation that he had attacked her, even if by accident, and then just run off without a word of apology or explanation... and terror that she had no idea what was going on, besides the thought (Squall just attacked me!) that was rebounding inside her brain with frightening intensity.
Blood was pouring down her left cheek, and she reached up to touch the injury. It was a clean cut, at least--Squall kept his gunblade in pristine condition. With a twinge of annoyance, she wished she could say the same thing about his manners.
A scientist was approaching from the hall opposite the one Squall had taken, and he let out a startled yelp when he saw her. "...SeeD! Are you injured? What happened?"
Quistis swallowed, brushing herself off and doing her best to smile reassuringly at the man. "I reaffirmed the common knowledge that it's not a good idea to sneak up on a man with a weapon," she said, trying to inject a hint of levity into her voice. "It's all right. I imagine it looks worse than it is."
The man seemed calmed by her attitude. "Would you like an escort to the Infirmary?"
"No, thank you." The blood was running down her neck and under her collar, now; it was getting rather uncomfortable. "I'll just be heading off in that direction, now."
With a civil nod, she hurried off before her vest soaked up any more blood than was absolutely necessary.