Legacies: Chapter 13
by: Gemini83
Disclaimer: You know it, I don't own FF8. But I do own this story.

It took Greymalkin's frayed senses less than a moment to realize that the numbers signified something other than a countdown to the new year. He hastily got up to his feet, ignoring the dizziness he felt, and walked to the row of seats in front of a window, groping for the ceiling. Painfully, and against the will of his protesting muscles, he hoisted himself up to the roof of the car. Shaking his head, he looked down and saw the train was moving over a body of water.

"Well," reasoned Greymalkin, shading his eyes against the beaming sun in the cloudless, great blue sky, "it's a nice day for a swim."

He leapt from the cable car, diving straight towards the blue depths below. His senses told him only after he had jumped that the water was a good hundred feet below, and undoubtedly swarming with Hyne knew what. But Greymalkin didn't care, he'd survived worse. And any sea creature foolish enough to annoy him after this would soon find itself certifiably dead...painfully so....

Then the cable car exploded, shockwaves from the explosives sending Greymalkin towards the water at an alarming rate. It was a tribute to its creators that some husk of the car was still left intact, rolling along on skittery wheels. The tracks were barely even affected.

Greymalkin could appreciate none of this, for he had landed with a great splash, and was currently forcing his screaming muscles to take him to shore.


Two figures took care of maintaining the new Galbadia-Esthar railway systems. They had both seen the workings of Galbadia, as well as Esthar, and been tired of both. So now they found themselves in a clean, stone white, way station, up to their arms in computer terminal wires

"Get a move on!" shouted the larger man in red fatigues, looking over paperwork, "we have to finish putting together the new panels today!"

"I'm workin'...but it'd be a lot faster if I had some HELP!" shouted the shorter man, dressed in blue.

The man in red grunted, "be right there buddy..."

The large man's name was Wedge, the short man's name was Biggs. And both of them heard the ear-splitting explosion just up the tracks.

Wedge was out of the station instantly, looking that the smoke rising from a vague heap of black on the horizon.

Biggs fumbled with the wires, but came out soon after, several conduits still dangling about his arms.

He took one look at the wreckage on the horizon and cursed, "oh great, we got out of the military to avoid these kinds of complications."

Wedge shook his head, wiping sweat off his brow from the sun's heat, "no rest for the weary Major. We'd better call someone in to investigate."

"Who do you have in mind?" asked Biggs.

Wedge pondered for a moment, "well...according to regulations..."

"Which we both helped to write once we took over this railway gig," interrupted Biggs, "get a move on."

Wedge grunted, "hrm...yes. Well, it'll have to be an impartial third party. Neither Esthar nor Galbadia should dominate, but both should have a hand."

"In other words," said Biggs, "we need Seed."

Wedge nodded.

Biggs raised his hands in disgust, "fine, let the dogs go wild, Esthar, Galbadia, Seed, whoever. But I ain't doing the paperwork."

Wedge raised his eyes as if in prayer, "damn straight. Now, where's the blasted phone?"

Biggs shuffled his feet and looked up sheepishly.

"I think I'm holding it," he replied, lifting the remnants of wires and casing entwined about his wrists.

Wedge sighed, this was going to be a really long day...


Greymalkin heavily lifted himself onto shore, crawling several feet away from the sea line, and rolled over onto his back. He breathed heavily finally letting his sore muscles rest for a bit.

"Ugh," he gasped, "I need a vacation. They don't pay me enough to deal with this."

Then he realized that he didn't get paid at all. Greymalkin shook his head, clearing it of stray thoughts, and rose to his feet again. He had no time to be thinking nonsense now. Although a clear sign of his weariness, he couldn't rest. Stretching out the kinks, he winced as several pops issued from his aching bones.

He looked around an noticed something familiar about the surrounding. In the distance, he could vaguely see the outlines of a house, but it must have been hundreds of miles away.

Then something else clicked in his mind, not far from that house was where his journey had begun. He shook his head again, remembering his past.

"Arshes," he whispered, "I miss you so much."

The wind jealously carried away his words, cooling him. But his memories remained. He could still see her smiling face looking up at him, despite the blood leaking from her mouth. He could still hear he words in his ears, feel her breath against his face. If he closed his eyes and imagined hard enough, he could even think she was in his arms again, her trembling back pressing softly against his fingers.

But such thoughts would do him no good. He heaved a sigh, and began to walk again. The place where he was going was on the other side of the small desert, of course. And he had no time to waste. Bringing out a piece of padded vinyl and cloth, he placed it about his face. It was an old keepsake of his, a mask. It would help keep the dust out of his face. He trudged into the dry sands alone, leaving his memories behind on the beach.

He walked several feet before he stopped, looking into the sky. Wiping gleaming sweat from his brow, he breathed heavily.

This desert felt like the anvil of the sun, as Odin had so quaintly put it. Greymalkin missed the GF's chatter inside his head. Even in the subway, he had felt the urge to junction, making his task so much the easier. But it still wasn't time.

Greymalkin couldn't even talk to them anymore, Griever or Odin. He looked down at four red orbs in his belt, and patted them reassuringly. It would come soon enough.

He glared into the heavens. To the average passerby, it would have seemed Greymalkin was simply staring at the sky in hatred, sneering at the broiling sun. They would have been wrong.

The look was gone in a heartbeat, and Greymalkin trudged along again, having found another use for his mask, and an obviously basic one as well...to keep others from identifying him. And that same average passerby would not have understood the significance of this simple display until much later...


The subway site was currently filled with a team of investigators. Two of them came from Esthar and Galbadia, respectively, but it seemed only a formality. For all the help they offered, Seed might have been there alone, for all the reps did was to gather information from the other investigators.

In any event, none of this please Biggs or Wedge, who were currently surveying the scene with shock.

"Quite some damage done, eh?" asked Nida, the Seed representative. The site being closest to Centra branch, this was in his province.

Wedge shook his head in disbelief, "the thing must have gone up over the bridge, but it still had enough energy to make it to the tunnels."

Which was why showers of light were currently shining down on them from floodlights, lighting up the normally dark tunnels. Several workers were cleaning the debris as the investigators sifted through them. Biggs walked over to shout orders at them in a streaming narrative.

Wedge grunted, "he loves doing that."

Nida massaged his forehead, "so, which one of you has the reports from the bystanders?"

The Galbadian representative stepped forward, "civilian reports spoke of a several dark figures fighting with each other. Lots of heavy duty magic was used before the car uncoupled from the others. One of combatants had a strange sword, silvery white, that glowed in the dark."

"And no bodies either, which is really strange," Nida raised an eyebrow, "anything else?"

The descriptions of the combatants sounded disturbingly familiar.

The Galbadian rep shook his head. However, the Estharian stepped forward.

"We did manage to get a bit of satellite feed on the fiasco," he offered, "we just need a screen."

Nida turned to Wedge, "do you have one we could use?"

"Uhm..." replied Wedge, "hold on a sec...BIGGS!"


Biggs turned around from directing several workers.

"Help me finish up with the conduits, we need to get them working!"

Biggs shook his head, "it'll take us days to fix it all."

The Galbadian rep sniffed, clearly criticizing on the lack of coordination.

"Ah blow it out yer' rear, fancy shirt," fumed Wedge.


Nida checked his wrist watch, "sorry people we have exactly two hours finish up and clear this site. Can you do anything?"

Wedge groaned, "aw Hyne...yeah...sure...have it right up."

"Well then," said Biggs, "what are we waiting for?"


In the end, it took about an hour to get the necessary units together. Nida, and his fellow reps, crowded into the communications room, brightly lit by the morning sunlight and still covered with conduits all over the place. The main screen was put together though, along with the green digital screen to the side, and some keypad controls.

Biggs and Wedge both seated themselves, as the Estharian rep helped them download the necessary files.

"Good thing we finished the satellite dish last week," said Biggs, beaming proudly.

"Yeah, sure," said Wedge, "shut up. Feed coming through."

Nida and the others intently looked at the screen as the blurry pictures coalesced into an image of the cable car. It was a bird's eye view of the cable car from a few hours ago.

"Can we see what's going on inside?" asked Nida.

Wedge nodded, turning a dial, and an infrared visual appeared on the second display, showing the combating figures inside.

Biggs whistled, "some fight."

Nida had to agree, there were so many figures inside, the infrared display was almost a solid block of reds and yellows.

The screen tracking faded for a moment, then reappeared at the second bridge, where they could now see a figure getting out of the car. He jumped from the top, into the water, after which the cable car exploded.

"Good lord," said Nida, "how much explosive was in there?"

"No idea," said Wedge, "but Hell, the tracks were barely affected, real solid construction."

The satellite feed followed a moving figure in the water.

The Galbadian rep gasped as the man from the top of the cable car emerged, "that's...not possible."

"Apparently it is," voiced Nida.

The feed continued to follow the figure, until he reached a beach. He raggedly got to his feet, and began walking. Biggs closed in on the picture, trying to get a better look at him. Soon, however, the figure stopped, and looked up. All of the viewers were slightly taken aback. It was as if the figure was looking at them. Then the picture stopped.

'TRANSMISSION LOST,' the picture displayed.

The Estharian rep shifted on his feet, "several satellites blew up after that, including the one that took these images, and a couple belonging to Galbadia."

Biggs shook his head, "wait a second, are you telling me that this man KNEW he was being spied on AND destroyed all the satellites BY HIMSELF?"

"It seems so," said Nida.

"But, that's impossible," reasoned Wedge.

"It's true, all our sat-links are down," the Galbadian rep added, "that leaves only the space bases."

The Estharian rep agreed, "and when we did a flyby of the desert, our units found no one."

Nida shook his head, "let's see the wreckage again.

They all left the room, and went back to survey the car.

"Did they find anything?" asked Wedge.

Nida consulted another Seed, then turned back to them.

"Not a thing, the explosion was large enough that we don't even have a proper body count, much less who did this. I could only give you a guess as to our stranger in the desert, but that's classified."

They all shook their head in disbelief.

"I expect," said Nida, "that both your governments wish to hush this up?"

The reps nodded.

"Of course," replied Nida, a bit coldly, secretly thinking it was all probably for the best the satellites HAD been destroyed.

"In the meantime," suggested The Galbadian rep, "we must work on getting new satellites up."

"That's not my department," said Nida.

"What about the records of this fiasco?" asked the Estharian rep.

"Don't expect ME to do the paperwork," snapped Biggs, "I'm tired of reports."


Nida was about to reply, but missed the rest of the conversation. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a figure in the darkness of the tunnel signaling to him. After the others had gone, Nida walked into the shadows, pretending to investigate further.

A face emerged from the darkness, smiling grimly.

"Good morning," said Gabe.

Nida smiled back, "hello."

"It's a bit early in the day for this nonsense," said Gabe, "but I'm here."

"I agree," grinned Nida, "still...duty calls, eh?"

Then the smiles were gone.

"I take it you have...information for me?" asked Nida.

"Oh yes," answered Gabe, handing him a slip of paper, "a certain party we both know has agreed to meet under the...afore mentioned conditions."

The Seed nodded, looking down at the slip of paper.

"See you later," whispered Gabe, "give my best to Nox."

Nida grunted. Only after he had looked up to ask what was happening did he realize that Gabe was gone.

"One of these days," said Nida, "I'll catch him at that trick."


He shook his head and left the subway tunnel, clearing out his people. After all, the trains would be coming by again in an hour. And none would be the wiser about the events that had transpired, other than some terrified passengers.

And, of course, the dead, but they weren't talking.

Author's Note: Alrighty, on to the next chapter. Tell me what you think, and thanks again for the support!