Chapter Two.
From the authoress: more introductions-but the plot thickens.
Disclaimer: …Whoever is stupid enough to think I own any of the Square Soft cast, shouldn't be allowed to buy/own anything hot, sharp, or is small enough to swallow. I only own my own characters, for example Kim, or Ranner, and my plot.
Sorry to sound patronising, but, really, we are on a site called 'fanfiction'. Its kinda obvious that us poor writers own basically squat-'cept their own plot.
Disclaimers piss me off.
Enjoy and review!
Darkness blanketed the room. The only source of light was a blinking computer screen, turning everything near it a sickly green colour. Slumped in front of it was a tall girl in her teens with ruddy-brown hair. Footsteps approached.
Whump, whump, whump, whump…
The door opened.
"Kim…what are the statistics of …oh for fucks sake…KIM WAKE UP!"
Kim, who had been having a rather nice dream, tried to sit up and swivel round in her chair, and to pretend that she had been awake all the time simultaneously, ended up falling off her chair. Painfully.
"Kim I leave you alone for one freaking minute on an all-nighter, and what do you do? You fall asleep! For gods sake what the hell do you think we're running here?"
Kim whimpered and pulled herself off the floor.
Yay. A lecture. She's not going to shut up for a while now if I don't produce some good news about what I was working on… What the hell was I working on? Oh crap. Hyne, think Kim, think! I was…uh…running a search, about…something…uhhh…access codes? No. Galabdia? No. Someone who a probably do fighting…that would be… Seeds. Info on them. Yes that's right…I hacked into Esther's main frame and…
Kim glanced at the screen.
"Got good news m'mam!"
Even if they were best friends, she had learnt that it was best to talk to her using formality when she was in her rages. You tended to escape with you're hearing intact and all you're limbs attached that way.
"What?"
Frankly Kim didn't know herself what exactly type of news was it, but it was news that the screen was flashing 'Search Complete'. Any port in a storm.
Flashing her friend a big smile, she jerked her thumb at the screen.
"Go see for you're self."
Slowly her leader walked over to the screen, and let her fingers dance over the keyboard.
"Good job."
Kim sighed in relief.
Irvine peered at the familiar faces crowded around him and grinned. Cadets, Seeds and old friends swarmed on masse to see the figure that had previously been considered dead. And hell was he enjoying himself.
So much so that he was disappointed when Quistis broke up the crowds. But of course everything had its merits…namely Selphie.
She was the picture of happiness, She was bouncing on the balls of her feet, grinning manically, twirling her weapon above her head. Once, twice, swinging it in lazy arcs above her brown haired head, thrice… and she caught it deftly in one hand. She didn't look at him. Irvine walked hesitantly to her, and tapped her shoulder. Selph…listen, I-I'm sorr-."
Selphie pounced
"IrvyIrvyIrvyohmygodimissedyousomuchdeargodWehavesomuchtocatchupon…"
Slowly Squall opened his eyes. He felt dizzy, sick, and exhausted, even after hours of sleep. Everything was fuzzy, his eyes couldn't focus. He was vaguely aware that his thoughts, once deep, so deep that he oft got in trouble for it, was now piecemeal and incoherent.
He remembered, slowly that the had been dragged, literally, by Rinoa towards his room, sometime after dawn, telling him over and over again that he needed sleep, how he was making himself ill-things that he'd been hearing over and over again for months now. He had, for lack of better words collapsed from exhaustion, enroute to his dorm, and so now he must be in... Either Rinoa's room or the hospital wards of the infirmary.
Bright intrusive lighting was all that he could see when he opened his eyes, so he guessed that he was in the hospital wing.
Click, click, click.
Hard heels on a stone floor, which he presumed to be Dr. Kawoki.
"Commander, did I, you're physician warn you about this? Did I not tell you this would happen?"
"…" Old habits were hard to break, and Squall had for the moment slipped back to the seed cadet he once was.
The doctor clucked her tongue, sighed and shuffled her notes.
"Squall…you cannot keep this up-you do know that, don't you? You, and you alone, are driving yourself far too hard."
"…" Silence. It was so easier this way.
"Squall, I know that you can hear me, and so, I'll tell you now. I'm giving you resting time, a weeks bed rest to be precise, and-"
"A…week…?" Even to him he sounded ridiculously weak and fragile.
"Ah, so you can speak after all. Yes, Squall an week."
The Commander wished that he could show her that she was talking rubbish, to jump out of bed, to at least sit up.
The doctor watched silently as the once proud Commander struggled to open his eyes, and then watched as he lapsed back into darkness.
She sighed to herself and sat down on the chair and began to type on her computer.
In another country someone else was hunched over their computer, this time running powerful decryption software. For five long and tedious hours the program had been churning the symbols and hieroglyphs that had been 'liberated' from Selax Ranner, five hours and the last line of the poem was being completed from the ancient text. As the decryption progress was complicated, the finished result was in 'old English' but it was readable.
It appeared to be an ancient prophecy.
Quistis shifted in her seat. Squall was ill at the worse possible time. Of course he couldn't help it, but still…
She glanced down at the memo, or rather wanted poster that lay lightly on Squall's large oaken desk. Irvine's face was plastered over it, along with the price the Galbadian army would give the person or persons who brought him back dead. There were an awful lot of zeros.
Sighing she brought the mike up to her lips, she hated, hated herself for doing this…but it was for his own good. If Quistis allowed him to stay, it would be seen as an act of open defiance, however, if she handed him over, then he was good as dead.
She announced over the communication system that she wanted to speak to 'Mr Irvine Kinneas', and waited, fiddling with her hair as she listened to the lift whirr down to meet him. Kinneas was about to become a fugitive.
Okay…so its only two pages-later I might merge chapters one and two-but for now they're separate. Sorry about the wait.
Look! A shiny review box, click and leave a nice comment and Zerda will stop being a bitch and update quicker.
Next chappies got some good stuff.
Like unhallowed violence.
Yay!
