Chapter 3
Tempest stood in a dark room, a door opened a beam of light spilling across the floor. A hand pushed a five year old version of herself gently into the room.
"Why don't you play in here for awhile?" a voice said softly, the door closed and the lock clicked.
"I don wanna be in here! It's dark! I don wanna be by myself!" the little girl whimpered tugging at the door handle that would not turn. Suddenly there was some crashing and shouting from the other room. "Mommy?" the little girl whimpered again.
The screaming continued, "Hey you let me out! Let me out! Stop hurting my mommy! Hey!" Little Tempest pounded on the door tears streaming down her face. "Let me out!" Suddenly all sound outside the door stopped, Tempest kept tugging at the door sniffling, suddenly it swung open a dark forboding figure stood in the way.
Tempest sat straight up looking around herself wildly, she didn't recognize where she was, she was in a small bed in a little room.
Gale, she didn't know why but that name kept running through her mind.
"Calm down now, you're going to be alright." a woman was standing beside the bed. Tempest pulled away from her.
She felt something missing inside her mind, like an empty space there, she couldn't place what it was but then,
"My friends! Where are they!" Tempest demanded growing panicy "Where are my friends!" they had been with her and gaurded her, her entire life so far as she knew, they couldn't be gone.
"It's alright, they're fine. I only unjunctioned them for awhile." the woman said soothingly.
"Give them back!" Tempest screamed. "And let me out of here, I want out now!" Suddenly Tempest felt a prick on her arm, she looked and saw the little needle sticking out of it.
"There, that's just some medicine to calm you down. Your GF's are fine. It's not safe for you to keep them junctioned all the time you know. You should only junction them during battle. There are you going to be alright." the woman offered her hand but Tempest jumped to her feet and backed against the wall.
"What happened?" she demanded, she could feel the drug working, making her drowsy but calming her a little. She forced herself to stay alert.
"You got yourself hit by a car, Zell and Quistis brought you here for medical attention. A couple curaga's got you mostly fixed up but you'll need to take it easy for a few days to fully recover. Now, I don't think you remember me, but I'm doctor Kadowaki. It's nice to see you again Tempest."
Tempest shrank back a little. "How do you know my name?" she demanded.
"I knew you when you were a little girl. You used to live here." the doctor explained. "Now get into bed, you need to rest. We'll tell you more when you wake up."
Those words hit Tempest like a blow to the head. She used to live here? She'd never really tried to remember her past, never cared to remember the little memories that flashed through now and again. But now, here she was, in a place where she had been before, with a woman who claimed to know her. She wished desperatly that she knew something, some little hint of what was going on, who this woman was or where she was. Shakily she obeyed the woman climbing into bed.
"Here, this will help you sleep." she was handed a mug full of steaming liquid. Slowly Tempest drank and fell back asleep.
***
"How is she doing?" Quistis walked into the infirmery.
Doctor Kadowaki looked up from her desk. "Her injuries are healed up. She needs rest though. I don't think she remembers much though."
"Is she...?"
"She's not a sorceress no. I don't think Selande got her claws into her." Kadowaki nodded for emphasis.
"How bad do you think her memory loss is?" Quistis asked.
"Well, you know how it works for you SeeDs, you only junction the GFs when you're fighting and even then you loose some of your child hood memories. She had eleven GF's junctioned to her, and I believe they've been junctioned ever since she disappeared. That could do quite a bit to scramble you memories."
Quistis sighed looking into the room where Tempest was asleep. "Do you think she'd remember if we told her everything?"
The doctor shook her head. "I don't think that would be the right thing to do. If you told her these things, I don't think she'd actually remember them, she'd just have the images that she formed from listening to what you told her. I think that would just confuse her, I think it would be best it we just helped her along and let her do the remembering herself."
"I guess you're right." Quistis murmered. "Can I see the data on her GF's?"
"Certainly." Kadowaki motioned to where it sat.
Quistis looked over the list of the GFs carefully. "She must have been there." she murmered.
"Don't ask her about that right away." Kadowaki seemed to know exactly what Quistis was thinking. "Let her get familiar with this place and her childhood memories again. We don't want to traumatize her by bringing up the horrible ones first."
Quistis nodded. "I guess it is what's best for her." She looked down at the sheet again. She wanted to know so badly, but she would wait.
***
Tempest opened her eyes groggily at first she didn't recognize where she was. Then the memory flooded back to her, the Kadowaki woman seemed no where in sight. She slid out of bed and began searching the infirmary for her things. She found her gunblade on the womans desk and her GFs loaded into the computer. She quickly rejunctioned her friends and slung her gunblade across her back and snuck out the door. The hallway outside was empty but she stuck close to the walls so that she could hide if anyone came her way. When she came to the end of the hallway she stared at how lovely the place was with the fountain and the plants around the hallways. But there were also people, lots of people. There was no possible way she could get through here without being seen, her best chance was to pretend she belonged here and hope that no one noticed her. She took a deep breath before striding confidently out into the hallway, no one stopped her, though some people did stare at her, others pointed and whispered. It made her nervous, she wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, she made herself walk a little faster. This hallway seemed to go in a circle but none of the hallways that branched off seemed like an exit so she kept walking. Then she saw the Kadowaki lady, she had her back turned at the moment so she didn't see her, but there was no way she could get past. Tempest quickly ducked down the nearest hallway, as she ran down it she was surprised to see the scenerey suddenly change to forest. She slowed down to a walk staring at the trees and plants around her. Was she outside now? She heard footsteps behind her, she quickly whipped out her gunblade and spun around.
"Whoa slow down there, I'm not a monster." a young man about her height with blonde hair and big brown eyes stood behind her with a laughing smile. But suddenly it shifted to a frown. "You..." he began, but was suddenly cut off by a loud roar. "Look out behind you!"
Tempest swiftly whirled around to see the huge dinosaur like creature almost upon her. She whipped her gunblade around and slashed it with several hard blows before chopping it's throat. The thing soon fell over dead. Tempest wiped the blood off of her gunblade then stood up to see the young man was watching her.
"You couldn't be." he murmered almost to quiet to hear. "Tempest? You're alive?"
"That's me." she said frowning. Did she know this boy? He seemed to know her. "Who are you?"
He frowned "You don't remember me? It hasn't really been that long has it? It's me, Zan. Man you really learned how to fight."
[ You'll never be a SeeD.] [Go away you're slowing us down.]
[Zio,come get her out of our hair.] [You're to weak, you're gonna have to go somewhere else.] The voices started popping up in Tempest's head. With a scream of agitation she threw her hands over her ears.
"Stop it!" she screamed, she took her gunblade and slashed a chunk out of the foliage near her. "Shut up!"
"Dear Hyne!" Dr. Kadowaki came running in. "What happened?"
Zan stared at Tempest in shocked surprise, "Nothing, I just told her my name and she started going balistic!"
"Tempest, calm down. Please put down the gunblade,"
"Make the voices stop." Tempest moaned.
"Voices? What kind of voices Tempest.
"Hyne, make them stop!" Tempest threw her gunblade down and fell to her knees holding her head.
"You're going to be alright." Dr. Kadowaki approached her talking soothingly. She went over and picked Tempest up. "We need to get you back to the infirmery. Zan grab her gunblade and follow me."
*
Back at the infirmery Zan watched as the doctor put Tempest back in bed. Was that really her? It did look like her, but she didn't seem the same at all.
"What's wrong with her?" he asked the doctor as she came back into the lobby.
"Just go get, your father, Quistis, Irvine and Selphie please." she sighed.
Zan scowled. He was eighteen, he was going to be a SeeD soon, and they still treated him like one of the kids. But just the same he did as he was told. It wasn't to hard to track everyone down, Zio and Ivy came along to. Once everyone was present Dr.Kadowaki looked up at them.
"As most of you know, it is really Tempest I'm pretty sure of that. But her memories are gone, like I told Quistis we were going to work on trying to make her remeber things slowly. But now I'm not so sure how bad her condition is. If she goes into a fit of rage like that again she could easily hurt someone." Dr.Kadowaki paused. "I think that if she is to stay here, and not be a danger to other students she must have one of you with her at all times." she pointed to Quistis, Irvine, Selpie and Zell.
"We'll agree to that." they all nodded.
"I think we should let her rest now. I'm going to try and find out exactly what is wrong with her, I don't know if these voices she hears are a result of some condition or if Sorceress Selande actually did do something to her but I'll do my best to figure it out."
The others began to leave, Ivy and Zio were whispering excitedly. Zan glanced back at Tempest's room before his father ushered him out with the others. She didn't seem the same at all.
"They said she dosen't remember anything, do you think she'll remember us?" Zio asked looking up at her brother.
"Well she didn't remember me." he shrugged.
"We'll help her remember." Ivy bounced up and down. "It'll be just like it always was."
No, not just like it always was, there was still Gale. Ivy and Zio seemed to have conveintly forgotten her and were happy to have her remain out of sight out of mind. Besides that, he didn't think Tempest would ever be just like she always was, he just didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. He decided that he would go and see her later, try and see if he could get any memories out of her.
***
When Tempest finally got the voices to stop she climbed out of the bed and went back into the lobby. The doctor lady was sitting at her desk.
"Are you alright?" the woman asked her.
Tempest only nodded.
"Here I have something for you." she handed Tempest a small laptop. "Keep your GF data loaded in there so you don't have to keep them junctioned all the time. It will help with recovering your memory loss." Tempest just stared at it for a long time before taking it.
"What if I don't want to remember?" she asked quietly.
"There are many bad things in everybodys life that they don't want to remember, but there are also many good and happy things. The bad memories make the good ones all the more precious to us. I know that you've had a hard life Tempest, but living the rest of it out alone without any memories dosen't mean that it never happened. Aren't you even a little curious about who you were?"
"No." Tempest turned and ran, she didn't like this place. It made the voices come so much more often. She hated the voices. She didn't want to remember her life, she'd been perfectly fine before coming here. She kept running and didn't look where she was going, she had heard the doctor woman yell after her but she ignored her. There was something in her mind that wanted to break out but she didn't want it to, some bad memories that she wanted to remain buried. She ducked into a dark room empty room and sat down on the floor breathing heavily. Slowly she stood up and looked around her, there was a huge statue of a creature in the middle of the floor...a lion.
Griever. The name popped into her head. She looked down at the gunblade she carried, the lion that dangled off the hilt. Yes Griever, that's what its name was. Slowly she approached the statue there was a little plaque at the bottom.
In meomory of comander Squall Leonhart our great comander and his wife Sorceress Rinoa.
Suddenly she felt tears welling up in her eyes, she knew those names but she didn't know who they were. Some of the voices began to come back but she shut them out.
"Tempest?" she looked over her shoulder, that boy...Zan was standing in the doorway. "Are you alright? I saw you running and..."
"Who were Squall and Rinoa?" she asked.
Zan stared at her for a moment in surprise. "Umm well..." he fumbled around a little. "They were your parents."
"They're gone aren't they?" she asked
Zan nodded.
She turned back looking up at the statue silently letting tears run down her cheeks. Tears for people she couldn't remember, or tears because she couldn't remember?
"Will you...help me?" she whispered.
"Yes." he gently.
Tempest stood in a dark room, a door opened a beam of light spilling across the floor. A hand pushed a five year old version of herself gently into the room.
"Why don't you play in here for awhile?" a voice said softly, the door closed and the lock clicked.
"I don wanna be in here! It's dark! I don wanna be by myself!" the little girl whimpered tugging at the door handle that would not turn. Suddenly there was some crashing and shouting from the other room. "Mommy?" the little girl whimpered again.
The screaming continued, "Hey you let me out! Let me out! Stop hurting my mommy! Hey!" Little Tempest pounded on the door tears streaming down her face. "Let me out!" Suddenly all sound outside the door stopped, Tempest kept tugging at the door sniffling, suddenly it swung open a dark forboding figure stood in the way.
Tempest sat straight up looking around herself wildly, she didn't recognize where she was, she was in a small bed in a little room.
Gale, she didn't know why but that name kept running through her mind.
"Calm down now, you're going to be alright." a woman was standing beside the bed. Tempest pulled away from her.
She felt something missing inside her mind, like an empty space there, she couldn't place what it was but then,
"My friends! Where are they!" Tempest demanded growing panicy "Where are my friends!" they had been with her and gaurded her, her entire life so far as she knew, they couldn't be gone.
"It's alright, they're fine. I only unjunctioned them for awhile." the woman said soothingly.
"Give them back!" Tempest screamed. "And let me out of here, I want out now!" Suddenly Tempest felt a prick on her arm, she looked and saw the little needle sticking out of it.
"There, that's just some medicine to calm you down. Your GF's are fine. It's not safe for you to keep them junctioned all the time you know. You should only junction them during battle. There are you going to be alright." the woman offered her hand but Tempest jumped to her feet and backed against the wall.
"What happened?" she demanded, she could feel the drug working, making her drowsy but calming her a little. She forced herself to stay alert.
"You got yourself hit by a car, Zell and Quistis brought you here for medical attention. A couple curaga's got you mostly fixed up but you'll need to take it easy for a few days to fully recover. Now, I don't think you remember me, but I'm doctor Kadowaki. It's nice to see you again Tempest."
Tempest shrank back a little. "How do you know my name?" she demanded.
"I knew you when you were a little girl. You used to live here." the doctor explained. "Now get into bed, you need to rest. We'll tell you more when you wake up."
Those words hit Tempest like a blow to the head. She used to live here? She'd never really tried to remember her past, never cared to remember the little memories that flashed through now and again. But now, here she was, in a place where she had been before, with a woman who claimed to know her. She wished desperatly that she knew something, some little hint of what was going on, who this woman was or where she was. Shakily she obeyed the woman climbing into bed.
"Here, this will help you sleep." she was handed a mug full of steaming liquid. Slowly Tempest drank and fell back asleep.
***
"How is she doing?" Quistis walked into the infirmery.
Doctor Kadowaki looked up from her desk. "Her injuries are healed up. She needs rest though. I don't think she remembers much though."
"Is she...?"
"She's not a sorceress no. I don't think Selande got her claws into her." Kadowaki nodded for emphasis.
"How bad do you think her memory loss is?" Quistis asked.
"Well, you know how it works for you SeeDs, you only junction the GFs when you're fighting and even then you loose some of your child hood memories. She had eleven GF's junctioned to her, and I believe they've been junctioned ever since she disappeared. That could do quite a bit to scramble you memories."
Quistis sighed looking into the room where Tempest was asleep. "Do you think she'd remember if we told her everything?"
The doctor shook her head. "I don't think that would be the right thing to do. If you told her these things, I don't think she'd actually remember them, she'd just have the images that she formed from listening to what you told her. I think that would just confuse her, I think it would be best it we just helped her along and let her do the remembering herself."
"I guess you're right." Quistis murmered. "Can I see the data on her GF's?"
"Certainly." Kadowaki motioned to where it sat.
Quistis looked over the list of the GFs carefully. "She must have been there." she murmered.
"Don't ask her about that right away." Kadowaki seemed to know exactly what Quistis was thinking. "Let her get familiar with this place and her childhood memories again. We don't want to traumatize her by bringing up the horrible ones first."
Quistis nodded. "I guess it is what's best for her." She looked down at the sheet again. She wanted to know so badly, but she would wait.
***
Tempest opened her eyes groggily at first she didn't recognize where she was. Then the memory flooded back to her, the Kadowaki woman seemed no where in sight. She slid out of bed and began searching the infirmary for her things. She found her gunblade on the womans desk and her GFs loaded into the computer. She quickly rejunctioned her friends and slung her gunblade across her back and snuck out the door. The hallway outside was empty but she stuck close to the walls so that she could hide if anyone came her way. When she came to the end of the hallway she stared at how lovely the place was with the fountain and the plants around the hallways. But there were also people, lots of people. There was no possible way she could get through here without being seen, her best chance was to pretend she belonged here and hope that no one noticed her. She took a deep breath before striding confidently out into the hallway, no one stopped her, though some people did stare at her, others pointed and whispered. It made her nervous, she wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, she made herself walk a little faster. This hallway seemed to go in a circle but none of the hallways that branched off seemed like an exit so she kept walking. Then she saw the Kadowaki lady, she had her back turned at the moment so she didn't see her, but there was no way she could get past. Tempest quickly ducked down the nearest hallway, as she ran down it she was surprised to see the scenerey suddenly change to forest. She slowed down to a walk staring at the trees and plants around her. Was she outside now? She heard footsteps behind her, she quickly whipped out her gunblade and spun around.
"Whoa slow down there, I'm not a monster." a young man about her height with blonde hair and big brown eyes stood behind her with a laughing smile. But suddenly it shifted to a frown. "You..." he began, but was suddenly cut off by a loud roar. "Look out behind you!"
Tempest swiftly whirled around to see the huge dinosaur like creature almost upon her. She whipped her gunblade around and slashed it with several hard blows before chopping it's throat. The thing soon fell over dead. Tempest wiped the blood off of her gunblade then stood up to see the young man was watching her.
"You couldn't be." he murmered almost to quiet to hear. "Tempest? You're alive?"
"That's me." she said frowning. Did she know this boy? He seemed to know her. "Who are you?"
He frowned "You don't remember me? It hasn't really been that long has it? It's me, Zan. Man you really learned how to fight."
[ You'll never be a SeeD.] [Go away you're slowing us down.]
[Zio,come get her out of our hair.] [You're to weak, you're gonna have to go somewhere else.] The voices started popping up in Tempest's head. With a scream of agitation she threw her hands over her ears.
"Stop it!" she screamed, she took her gunblade and slashed a chunk out of the foliage near her. "Shut up!"
"Dear Hyne!" Dr. Kadowaki came running in. "What happened?"
Zan stared at Tempest in shocked surprise, "Nothing, I just told her my name and she started going balistic!"
"Tempest, calm down. Please put down the gunblade,"
"Make the voices stop." Tempest moaned.
"Voices? What kind of voices Tempest.
"Hyne, make them stop!" Tempest threw her gunblade down and fell to her knees holding her head.
"You're going to be alright." Dr. Kadowaki approached her talking soothingly. She went over and picked Tempest up. "We need to get you back to the infirmery. Zan grab her gunblade and follow me."
*
Back at the infirmery Zan watched as the doctor put Tempest back in bed. Was that really her? It did look like her, but she didn't seem the same at all.
"What's wrong with her?" he asked the doctor as she came back into the lobby.
"Just go get, your father, Quistis, Irvine and Selphie please." she sighed.
Zan scowled. He was eighteen, he was going to be a SeeD soon, and they still treated him like one of the kids. But just the same he did as he was told. It wasn't to hard to track everyone down, Zio and Ivy came along to. Once everyone was present Dr.Kadowaki looked up at them.
"As most of you know, it is really Tempest I'm pretty sure of that. But her memories are gone, like I told Quistis we were going to work on trying to make her remeber things slowly. But now I'm not so sure how bad her condition is. If she goes into a fit of rage like that again she could easily hurt someone." Dr.Kadowaki paused. "I think that if she is to stay here, and not be a danger to other students she must have one of you with her at all times." she pointed to Quistis, Irvine, Selpie and Zell.
"We'll agree to that." they all nodded.
"I think we should let her rest now. I'm going to try and find out exactly what is wrong with her, I don't know if these voices she hears are a result of some condition or if Sorceress Selande actually did do something to her but I'll do my best to figure it out."
The others began to leave, Ivy and Zio were whispering excitedly. Zan glanced back at Tempest's room before his father ushered him out with the others. She didn't seem the same at all.
"They said she dosen't remember anything, do you think she'll remember us?" Zio asked looking up at her brother.
"Well she didn't remember me." he shrugged.
"We'll help her remember." Ivy bounced up and down. "It'll be just like it always was."
No, not just like it always was, there was still Gale. Ivy and Zio seemed to have conveintly forgotten her and were happy to have her remain out of sight out of mind. Besides that, he didn't think Tempest would ever be just like she always was, he just didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. He decided that he would go and see her later, try and see if he could get any memories out of her.
***
When Tempest finally got the voices to stop she climbed out of the bed and went back into the lobby. The doctor lady was sitting at her desk.
"Are you alright?" the woman asked her.
Tempest only nodded.
"Here I have something for you." she handed Tempest a small laptop. "Keep your GF data loaded in there so you don't have to keep them junctioned all the time. It will help with recovering your memory loss." Tempest just stared at it for a long time before taking it.
"What if I don't want to remember?" she asked quietly.
"There are many bad things in everybodys life that they don't want to remember, but there are also many good and happy things. The bad memories make the good ones all the more precious to us. I know that you've had a hard life Tempest, but living the rest of it out alone without any memories dosen't mean that it never happened. Aren't you even a little curious about who you were?"
"No." Tempest turned and ran, she didn't like this place. It made the voices come so much more often. She hated the voices. She didn't want to remember her life, she'd been perfectly fine before coming here. She kept running and didn't look where she was going, she had heard the doctor woman yell after her but she ignored her. There was something in her mind that wanted to break out but she didn't want it to, some bad memories that she wanted to remain buried. She ducked into a dark room empty room and sat down on the floor breathing heavily. Slowly she stood up and looked around her, there was a huge statue of a creature in the middle of the floor...a lion.
Griever. The name popped into her head. She looked down at the gunblade she carried, the lion that dangled off the hilt. Yes Griever, that's what its name was. Slowly she approached the statue there was a little plaque at the bottom.
In meomory of comander Squall Leonhart our great comander and his wife Sorceress Rinoa.
Suddenly she felt tears welling up in her eyes, she knew those names but she didn't know who they were. Some of the voices began to come back but she shut them out.
"Tempest?" she looked over her shoulder, that boy...Zan was standing in the doorway. "Are you alright? I saw you running and..."
"Who were Squall and Rinoa?" she asked.
Zan stared at her for a moment in surprise. "Umm well..." he fumbled around a little. "They were your parents."
"They're gone aren't they?" she asked
Zan nodded.
She turned back looking up at the statue silently letting tears run down her cheeks. Tears for people she couldn't remember, or tears because she couldn't remember?
"Will you...help me?" she whispered.
"Yes." he gently.