Chapter 17
"Vhat iz it? Vhere doez it come from?" Vhy did it happen? All of theze are good questionz indeed."
"We know the questions, Doc. What I want to know; are the answers!"
"Ze answers you wantz? Well, you come to ze right person." Dr. Odine said confidently and calmly back at Laguna.
"So, you do know the answers." Laguna looked thrilled
"Urm… No." Dr. Odine said with a straight face "But, I can tell you who iz the personz that did zis."
Everyone looked at Odine. The doctor laughed.
"Iz when I did some testing during ze Time Compression. I discovered an energy and took a record of zit." "An energy?" "Indeed. Zit iz a concentrated energy of immense power. Like zit belonged to one person." "One person… Ultimecia?" "Nos. She vas strong, but not like zis other person." "Zell? Irvine? You know what he's on about?" Laguna asked the two SeeD's.
They thought for a moment. Then looked at each other.
"Maybe…" Zell said "There was another thing in there, but it was a monster. Very strong though." "Squall, Rinoa and myself battled it. I think it was a weapon… called Omega." "Yes, that's it. I remember Squall saying something about it now."
"Zen, zat iz it. The energy produced by ze light is ze same as ze energy from Omega." "But, we destroyed…"
A Esthar soldier ran into the room "SIR!" "Calm down, man." Laguna barked "now, what is the matter." "A train just left the station." "Huh? What's so bad about that?" "It never left the city, sir." "Excuse me? How can a train leave the station, but not the city?" "We're not sure, sir. But apparently, just before the city limits, it encountered an energy field and stopped." "It crashed?" "No sir, it simply stopped. Like it couldn't go any further. There is no indication that there is a barrier there, except that nothing can get by it. Machine, Human or Animal. Nothing can penetrate it." "Is it just the station?" "Unknown, sir." "Then make it known! Send troops to all exits, to all city limits. Find out if we are completely trapped or not!" "Yes, sir!" The soldier saluted and ran out A new voice went into the room "Good ordering, fella. No room for argument, an excellent sign of a leader." "Zangan?" Zell recognised "Indeed, Zell, good to see you safe." "Same with you, but why are you here?" "I came to see if you had a way for me and my friends to get home." "Huh? Oh, yeah. Odine?"
Odine was looking at a display
"DOCTOR ODINE!"
"Huh, oh, yes?"
"We need you to do some things. They are all of equal importance. One, what is that barrier. Two…"
"Time Compression…"
"What?"
"Time Compression, zit has been a year since zit started and ended, apparently, zit connected all ze time fore zat moment together. Zit vill be like zis for ze same amount of time zat it took you to defeat Ultimecia a year back."
"How long was that?" Cid asked
"Erm…" Zell thought, but Irvine had the answer
"2 days, give or take. It was hard to tell as Time Compression made it so there was no day or night and no clocks worked."
"Great…" Cid noted.
"Anyways, vat els vas vanted."
"Erm, oh yeah, sorry. Two, we need a sweep of Laguna's office. He faced Adel there, but he's not sure if he destroyed her or not. We need to know for sure."
"Indeed…"
"I'll do that, Doctor." Odine's assistant volunteered "I know you won't admit it, but I am better than you in that department."
"… Okay, my friend. Go ahead."
As the assistant went to a cupboard and picked up some equipment, all eyes were on Zell.
"What?" Zell asked uncomfortably "Anything else?" A number of people said "Huh? Oh. And finally, we need you to develop a way for our guests here to get back to their world." "Glad you remembered." Cid said dryly "Hey!"
Odine turned to his display and changed the screen. On there was a number of patterns of light.
"I 'ave been vorking on one for a vile now. Ven Hojo took over zis place. He recognised my abilities. He asked me to verk on that exact project. I 'ave a number of formulas but no vay of testing zem." "What is needed?" Laguna asked "A machine. I need a machine built to exact specifications. I vill need von for each formula." "That's a lot of work." "I know." "Hmm…" Cid was thinking hard "I guess, I could help here. Do you have an plans for these machines?" "I do." "Good, can I see them?" "Zey are on zat table." Odine pointed to a table on the far side of the room.
Cid looked through them quickly. Everyone held their breath in anticipation.
"Shouldn't be too hard." Cid said after a few minutes. Everyone let out a sigh of relief "Plus, I've got a few ideas myself, that will make these better. Odine, I'll make these machines for you."
"You vill?"
"Yup, but I'm going to need help. Laguna, I need your best engineers. Right now. I've got 5 machines to make up here, and not much time to do it."
"I'll go get them now." Laguna signalled to Biggs and Wedge and ran out.
"Great."
"Erm… Zere iz eight plans zere."
"Yes, but I can make it so that some of the machines can test two, or even three of your formulas with only a flip of a few switches."
"You can? Marvellous!"
