Ch 9 – Meeting The Natives
Zell stood back, admiring his handiwork. Aside from the pouring rain and the relatively flat terrain, he had still been able to find a decent shelter spot big enough for the six of them, a small amount of large, oblong boulders that had been uprooted during the fight. Pulling out a Tent canvas, he had managed to attach it to the 'roof' of the little over-hang, cutting out most of the rain from the dry interior.
He turned to look at Julius, who had the unconscious Emily still slung over his shoulder. "She got hurt, Zell. I'll put her in here and make sure Rinoa takes a look at her after we're done looking for the Orihalcon."
"How's she doing?" Zell asked, moving to take the woman from Julius, holding her in his arms.
"She got clocked over the back of the head pretty bad, but I think she'll live."
Zell looked down at her, looking at her pale face as the rain beat down on them. She looked kind of peaceful the way she was, the usual scowl or deadpan expression on her face lost to a dreamy-slumber.
Turning around, he saw Trish walking past them, a hand-full of Orihalcon in her hands. She looked depressed, soaked to the bone, and cold. "Trish." Zell called, gathering her attention. "I'm gonna put Emily in the rest-area, and I need someone to look after her."
Trish shrugged, walking over to the SeeDs and shoving her armload of metal into Julius' hands. "Sure. It beats walking around in the rain."
Zell gestured for her to follow him, and they moved into the little makeshift rest area. The little over-hang was about the size of a small room, and apart from the roof being a little low, it was a lot cosier then outside in the rain. Zell had even dug out a small fire-pit in the middle of the room, and after he placed Emily down on the dry rocks, he pointed a finger at the pit. The small collection of twigs and brush Zell had quickly gathered burst into life, the fire warming the room almost immediately.
He walked over to where he had placed all the packs and after finding Trish and Emily's ones, picked them up and placed them next to Trish, who had sat down next to Emily quietly. "She's soaked through. Hell, you're both soaked through. Change her and your clothes and we'll dry them next to the fire."
Trish looked at Emily, seeing the tattered condition of her shirt and pants, before frowning up at Zell. "What, you want me to strip her naked?"
Zell shrugged. "If you have to, unless you can wake her up, which I don't think you will. She's probably got concussion or something anyways, so I'd advise against it." He saw her disturbed look on her face and frowned. "Well, unless you want her to get pneumonia and die, you'd better get cracking! She can't stay in those clothes otherwise she might catch cold, and I need everybody in top physical condition."
"Well…okay…if I need to…" Trish murmured, looking down at the sleeping Emily once more…before looking up at Zell angrily. "Well? Are you gonna stay and watch, huh?"
Zell had been thinking of what to do next, and Trish's tone pulled him from his musing, making him roll his eyes as he looked down at her. "No…I'm going to go outside and talk to the rest of the team. I'll send Rinoa in shortly and get her to change too. The guys will have to change their clothes later." And with that, he was out into the cold rainy night, the tent-flap closing the biting cold out behind him.
* * *
Trish looked down at the unconscious Emily with muted contempt, before pulling off her own shirt, tossing it over to the area where the fire was burning. "…Supposed to be elite…" She muttered at the unconscious SeeD, pulling off her sneakers and socks and tossing them over to the fire too. "…Supposed to be able to protect yourself…" She grumbled, pulling off her black tracksuit pants too, sending them to the same place where the last articles of clothing ended up.
Now in panties and sports bra, she paused for a second, remembering what Zell had said. Looking down at Emily, whose face was beginning to turn a little blue, she opened up her bun in her hair, allowing it to run loose as she thought of what she should do. Pausing once more, she shot a look at the tent flap, before sighing audibly. "Dammit…"
She put off putting any clothes on for the moment, deciding that Emily should be dealt with first before Trish should worry about herself.
Scooting closer, she undid the clasps for the SeeD boots that she wore, pulling them off slowly and tossing them over to the small pile accumulating near the fire. She then pulled Emily's socks off, tossing them over to the pile of clothing too.
When she turned back, however, she saw something that caught her eye, and picked up Emily's foot to have a closer look. A small tattoo on the ankle of her left foot, depicting a knife stabbing through a heart. It looked like it had been a usual love-heart, with a person's name on it – but somebody had tattooed over the name with the knife, erasing the name forever with the inked blood.
She looked up at Emily, smiling smugly. "Boyfriend, huh?" She muttered, placing the foot down. "Yeah, I know how you feel…"
She reached up and began to unbutton Emily's tattered shirt, taking her time with the buttons. "I've had my fair share of cock-ups…no pun intended, huh? But I don't think anybody made that much of an impression on me…girl or guy…you know, to permanently mark myself…"
She finally pulled open Emily's shirt, revealing her bare chest. It shocked Trish slightly for several reasons – one being that she hadn't been expecting it, another being that the scarring on her body was tremendous, another being that, despite the scarring, she liked what she saw.
The scars travelled around the breasts, seemingly from fights and battles. The amount and consistency seemed to vary in different areas – her dark nipples had long white scars travelling over them, the area just below the curve of her breast seemingly burned by something. Trish found herself tracing a finger over one of the scars, the jagged white edge rough to the touch. It travelled around the bottom of the curve, coming up to end just at the middle of the sternum. "You poor thing…" Trish whispered…
The flap of the covering suddenly opened, and Trish jumped and twisted her body to cover herself and Emily. "Hey! Stop! Go away!!"
"Don't worry, it's only me."
Trish turned her head slightly to see Rinoa walk into the over-hang, shaking her hair to rid itself of excess water. The rain made her clothes cling to her, and Trish could see the goose bumps on her flesh as she moved over to the fire. "Hyne, it's cold out there, huh? I hope I don't get a cold…I hate colds…" She held her hands out to the flames, allowing the warmth to let the blood run through the frozen digits once more, before reaching up and pulling off her blue cardigan. "How's she doing?"
Trish blinked – before looking down at Emily once more. "She's…she's still out cold."
"We'll, you'd better finish off and cover up her up, before the two of you catch cold."
"Uh…yeah."
Trish quickly scrunched up Emily's shirt and tossed it over to the small pile that had accumulated near the fire then unbuttoned Emily's pants, pulling them off with little resistance. She was surprised to see that Emily wore underwear – she would have figured since she wasn't wearing a bra…
"She looks so peaceful asleep, huh?" Rinoa said, moving over and sitting down next to Trish. She had removed her clothes and had wrapped a blanket around her body. Trish could see a black bra peeking from within the folds, and decided to look away.
"Yeah…a lot better then when she's asleep, huh…" Trish muttered sarcastically, a hint of sadness in her voice.
Rinoa reached out to touch Emily's belly, frowning as she traced a small scar with her fingertip. "Amazing how many scars she has…"
"…Why?"
Rinoa saw Trish's questioning stare and smiled. "'The life of a SeeD', as Squall would say. Cure magic can heal internal wounds, can even heal small scars – but major ones, like these, can't be healed. Some say it's because your soul carries the scars, and the magic can only heal what the soul can heal."
"…Sounds like you know a lot about it…"
"Well, being a Sorceress I have an unlimited amount of magic at my disposal. Everybody else has to draw it, but mine never runs out. That's why I also work as a medic in Garden."
Trish nodded, looking at the raven-haired woman with curiosity in her eyes. It was amazing that Trish, a thief by trade, would be sitting next to the current Sorceress in an alternate universe with a semi-naked woman before them. "So…" Trish said, crawling over to Emily's and her packs and pulling out some blankets. "…What's it like being with the rock man out there?"
Rinoa smirked as she watched Trish place the blanket over Emily and wrap her own around her. "Believe it ort not, he's quite a nice person. It's just that…he grew up believing that nobody could help him. I think he's coming out of shell, though…usually he doesn't even say a word to people, now he can hold actual conversations for short amounts of time…" She giggled. "And don't get me started on how he's like in bed…"
* * *
The guys outside had finally tossed the last remnants of Orihalcon through the Arch, watching as the metal created ripples through the blue-ish wall of energy, the ripples seeming to rebound endlessly. Amazingly, the rain didn't pass through the arch for some odd reason, and Zell put his finger into it once more.
He pulled it back out quickly. "Now it's cold…" he muttered.
"Must be the rain." Squall muttered, seeming to not recognise the rain dripping off his drenched brown hair. "Lets get back to the shelter."
"No, wait…" Zell muttered, grabbing Squall's shoulder as he made to walk past him. "We need to talk. And I'd rather the girls not hear what we have to say…" He looked over at Julius, who shrugged.
"Lead the way, Zell."
Looking around for a second, Zell spotted a smaller overhang just a few meters from the Arch. He remembered considering using it for a shelter, before Rinoa had complained that it would have been too small for six people. The three SeeDs moved over to the rock, relieved to be out of the rain, at least for a short time. Zell slammed his foot into the ground and twisted it around, creating a small fire-pit like the one he had made in shelter, and cast a small Fire into it.
Squall crouched down onto his haunches, pulling his gloves off his hands and stuffing them into a pocket before holding his hands out to the flames. "Right. Talk." He muttered, looking irritated, his voice gesturing so. He'd like to get back to Rinoa as soon as possible – if that's alright with you, Zell.
Zell got the point that he didn't want to be out here any longer, so he started. "Guys…about Garden…you know, the fire, the rooms…"
"What about it?" Julius asked, sitting back on his butt with relief. "You think somebody's tried to keep this mission from going forth?"
Zell raised his eyebrows and bit his bottom lip, crouching down next to the fire too. "It's been concerning me, if that's what you mean." He sighed, his voice sad.
"Why?" Squall muttered. "Why would somebody want us to not come through the Arch? If they really didn't want us to come through, why didn't they just attack us when we came through, when we were weak?"
"I think they did…or at least tried." Zell said, looking up at his scarred friend. "Maybe they underestimated our power compared to the SeeDs that came through before, and thought we'd be a pushover."
Julius shrugged. "It's not that, either. Our rooms weren't just ransacked – they were searched. Methodically. And I think the Security room was fire-bombed to erase the evidence of any entry into our rooms." He lay back, pulling his glasses from his face and looking at them with a frown. They had gotten cracked during the fight, and he snorted, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "A spy or something?"
Squall shook his head. "No. A mission of that calibre would need somebody with in-depth knowledge of Balamb Garden, information on our room locations, plus security access to the Security room."
Zell shrugged. "Or maybe not. Remember, Squall, our Garden was almost completely empty cause of the war games. Anybody could have waltzed right in and had a poke around."
The three men were silent for a second, each deep in his own thoughts. The idea of a mole was kinda scary to Zell, but it wasn't a surprise. Think of what we might find in this universe, or any others we might have to pass through! He found himself thinking. That's a good enough reason to make sure that whatever we find doesn't come back.
"Zell…" Julius said slowly. "…Why didn't you want the girls to hear this? Are you afraid they might freak or something?"
Squall shook his head slowly. "They'd be able to handle it. The question is, why don't you trust them?"
Zell shrugged and sighed. "They were basically at each other's throats the other day. I was afraid that they might not trust each other if we begin to fill their heads with ideas of moles and spies and things like that…"
Squall chuckled, before pushing himself to his feet, pulling his gloves on in the process.
Zell blinked at him. "What? If it gets a laugh out of you it's gotta be funny."
Squall stopped just under the edge of the over-hang. "You don't get it, Zell. In order to gather the trust of your teammates, you have to show that you trust them first. You ought to know that. You should have talked to us as a team – not just to the guys. The girls can hold their own, just as well as we can."
Zell looked down at the fire. "But…Emily…"
"A mistake that she'll learn by." Squall said harshly. "You have to stop trying to protect everybody sometimes, Zell – otherwise you'll get yourself hurt." He then stepped out into the pouring rain, pulling the rim of his jacket up and shoving his hands in his pockets as his body became nothing more then a silhouette in the rain.
His words hit Zell hard, and Zell lowered his head to look at his hands, looking at the shining metal covering them. He felt the pat on the shoulder that Julius gave him, but didn't acknowledge it as the hacker waked out of the little cave, leaving Zell alone with the fire and his thoughts.
* * *
Squall moved over to the flap of the tent, pausing for a second before knocking it with his hand. Two of the girls had been talking, but they became quiet as Squall waited, the rain pouring down around and on him. "Who is it?" One of the girls finally called out, their voice muffled by the sounds of the rain slapping into the muddy ground.
"It's Squall. We're coming in now, okay?"
"Okay." Was the reply.
Squall then ducked into the tent, quickly pulling off his coat and flicking it to rid it of its over-load of water. He nodded politely to Trish and Rinoa, who were sitting beside each other next to the fire beside the still asleep Emily, and moved over to where his pack was, pulling off his shirt as he walked.
He pulled out his blanket from his pack and spread it on the ground before lying down on it, not bothering to take off his pants or boots.
He narrowed his eyes as he looked up at the roof of the small makeshift shelter. The rock was smooth, like it was just one giant pebble washed up on a beach, and Squall could see tiny lines mingling with the red rock. His mind was awash with thought as he replayed the conversation he had just had with Julius and Zell. Was it right, what I just said? He thought to himself. I mean, that's what I've been practising. Why would it be any different with Zell? He's had the same leadership training, and he's never had any problems leading his missions before…he's just too hard on himself.
He rolled onto his side, watching as the shadows from the fire-pit played on the tent-wall, the tent rolling and buckling under the pressure of the wind and the rain. Is he unsure of himself? Possibly…he's never been good at taking criticism of any kind…and he criticises himself the most, even more then I do to myself. He's surprisingly sensitive...it's been a while since I've seen him have to think this hard…apart from when he was in the Tournament… He frowned more then usual as something dawned on him. He took everything in stride that time…he kept his head, played it cool…all for me and Laguna. I don't think I've ever really thanked him for that…would I be able to?
He felt a hand on his shoulder, and rolled over to see Rinoa looking down at him. "What's wrong, Squall?" She asked, lying next to him and covering the both of them with her blanket.
He said nothing for a few seconds, before sighing. "Nothing, Rinoa. I'm just worried about Zell." He whispered.
"Why?" Rinoa asked, concern in her voice as she lowered it so Trish couldn't hear it either.
"He places too much responsibility in himself…he needs to stop worrying and take heed of what's going on around him…"
"Sounds like somebody I know..." Rinoa said with a smile, kissing him lightly on the cheek. "It's good that you worry, but I'm sure Zell will be able to do what's right."
"I know…" Squall mumbled, taking her in his arms and holding her close.
* * *
Trish watched as the two cuddled close together, and tried to remember the last time she had been held with love.
Thirteen years ago…when your mother hugged you one last time before handing you over to the Thieves Guild. A small voice whispered in her mind.
She sighed audibly – before putting a hand over her mouth. After making sure that the couple hadn't heard her, she looked down at Emily, who was lying still as she had been since Rinoa had checked her to see if she was all right.
"She'll be fine." Rinoa said. "We'll wait until she wakes up, then we'll see how far the damage has gone."
How long has it been since somebody held you close, hmmm? Trish thought as she looked down at the Goth. I'd bet not a long time. I'll bet the last time was when you did that tattoo, huh? She sighed again, less audibly, and patted Emily's long dark hair. I'll bet you could find somebody else if you cared…
The tent flap was pulled aside, and Julius and Zell walked in, each man looking equally miserable and wet. Julius made a beeline for his pack gratefully – but Zell lingered first, moving over to the sleeping Emily.
He crouched next to her, looking down at her with a look that Trish couldn't identify. "What's wrong?" She whispered, scooting over a little to sit next to Emily, looking up at Zell.
Zell's unidentifiable look in his eyes turned to her, and she cringed inwardly – before he shrugged and turned around. "Nothing." He muttered, moving to his pack.
* * *
Trish pulled the blanket wrapped around her a little tighter, trying not to think about the look Zell had given her.
The others had all fallen asleep long ago, Trish accustomed with the human sleep patterns and it's signs. Rhythmic breathing cut through the silence, as the rain had finally stopped its brutal objection to their rude intervention into it's world. The only other thing that broke the silence was the crackling of the Fire, the flame dwindling as the magic grew smaller and smaller, the shadows surrounding Trish becoming bigger and bigger in the flickering light.
The look…she had finally figured out what it might have been. A look of…disappointment? And sadness. Seemingly infinite sadness. As if Zell had been expecting to be looking down at an unconscious Trish, and not a fully trained, high-level SeeD.
He's having second thoughts of this mission… she thought to herself, shifting slightly in her position. …Which is understandable. You'd have to be either really sure of yourself or completely stupid to volunteer to lead a group of strangers into a situation like this…
Somebody cried out in their sleep suddenly, making Trish jump. Abruptly sitting up and looking over the sleeping forms, she tried to find who it was.
Squall and Rinoa slept near the entrance of the tent, snuggled closely in each other's arms. The only sound from them was gentle breathing.
Emily continued to lie where she had been placed, her blanket wrapped as snugly as Trish had tried to make it. She made no sound or movement.
Julius had retreated to a corner of the room, positioned so that he slept as close as possible to the frozen form of his girlfriend. It amazed her how he could withstand the frozen temperature of the ice, his arm lazily draped over the swag.
The cry was made again.
It was Zell. He had retreated as far from the group as possible when they had all decided to go to sleep, not contributing to the small talk that had been made as Julius had pondered where to place Veronica. He lay now, facing the wall, curled into the foetal position, not seeming to move. His voice, however, whispered pathetically, ending in a sad mewl.
"…Can't…"
Trish lowered herself down once more, resting her head on her hands as she looked at Zell. He cried out once more, and she rolled over, shutting out his voice, squeezing her eyes shut.
Everybody needs to do what they have to do… she thought to herself as she forced sleep to come, the last licks of Fire finally snuffing out with a quiet 'pff'.
* * *
The morning seemed to come quickly, the team awakening to a strange sound.
It was introduced by the pitter-patter of feet, was hinted at by the smattering of whispers – before the sound was made.
The simultaneous cocking of several rifles.
Zell was the first up, his body shooting up in his position to look around. "Where – what – oh…" He said, placing a hand to his head as he realised where he was, before looking up. "What the hell was that?"
Trish watched him as he threw his blanket off his body, seeing that his shorts were a bright blue as he made for his pack. "Nice shorts…" She murmured as he passed her.
He shot a look at her as he pulled on some loose cargo pants – before smirking. "Nice panties."
She looked down to see that she had kicked the blanket off her legs in her sleep, and drew it across them once more, her face burning crimson as Zell walked up to Squall and Rinoa. He kicked out with a foot, hitting something that yelped. "Come on. I think we got company."
Rinoa stuck her head out of the lump, scratching her head as she looked up at him angrily. "Hyne, Zell, come back in an hour with some bacon and Cockatrice eggs, huh?"
Zell rolled his eyes. "Not you, Squall."
The scarred gunblade-specialist was already sitting up as Zell threw open the tent's flap – to reveal ten armed men situated around the shelter, rifles in hand, pointed directly at Zell.
* * *
Zell's blood ran cold as he saw the men, the events of last night flooding into his mind. No…wait…these guys aren't wearing Orihalcon…are they somebody else?
He raised his hands slowly, smiling warmly. "Uh…hey fellas. Good morning?"
"Quiet!!" A man yelled, moving forward and jabbing the barrel of his rifle into Zell's scarred chest.
Zell chose to keep his mouth shut. After all, this was his first attempt at contact with a race from a different Universe – and first impression had seemingly been shot to hell. As would he be if he didn't think fast.
The man regarded him with something akin of fear and revulsion. They were dressed simply in long thread pants and coats, some kinds of design patterns sewn into the shoulders and hems. Label clothing? Zell thought, looking over the men as they looked over him. Are these guys out…hunting or something?
One man shifted slightly over to the man who had jabbed Zell and drew him back, whispering as he went. "…has to be one of them, look at the scars, they've only got them scars…"
The first man hissed menacingly, knocking the second man aside as he beared his teeth, suddenly drawing his rifle up to his shoulder, taking aim at Zell's head. The shot went high, however, Zell moving like grease lightening as slapped the rifle's barrel up high, the bullet flying harmlessly into the air – before the gun was ripped from the man's hands, a powerful force pushing him down to the ground to splat into the mud.
The rest of the men took a step back fearfully as Zell looked up at them, the rifle in his grasp – before he grabbed it with both hands and snapped it in half with no visible effort, the metal bending easily, the wooden stock shattering spectacularly.
The rest of the men tossed their weapons to the ground immediately, throwing themselves to their knees and bowing low, as if to worship Zell.
He blinked, surprised at their reaction. He had expected them to shit themselves and run away – instead they began to beg not to destroy them or take them through the 'Tidus'. He dropped the broken rifle into the mud and stepped forward, lifting the man he had pushed down up to his feet. "Hey, hey, we don't mean you guys any harm come on, get up."
Squall and Julius both jumped out of the tent, the LionHeart shimmering menacingly as Squall surveyed the scene, Julius' hands in white-knuckled balls as he assumed an aggressive stance. Zell held his hand out, gesturing for them to relax. "Lower it, guys…they're no harm." He said quietly as he watched the rest of the people stand sullenly, examining their shoes as if they were terribly interesting. The man who had attacked Zell had also lost his gusto, but looked up as Zell offered his hand. "Me handles Zell, dude. What's yours?"
The man looked down at the hand, before looking up at Zell, before looking at the hand again.
Zell lowered the hand – before raising it again to slap it into his face. Even in alternate universes nobody'll shake my hand, dammit… "Okay, let's start again." He said, deciding to take it slow. "My name is Zell Dincht. The guy with the scar and the glowing sword thingy is Squall, and my blond bespectacled friend is Julius. You are…?" He gestured with his hands for the man to continue the introductions.
The man's eyes were shifting from the ground to Zell's face, looking more and more agitated as he spoke. "My name is Ten'Kal. The man who tried to stop me is Ten'Jar, my brother. We were taking our friends out hunting near the Tidus when we saw your tent. We meant nothing by our aggravating manner, sir. We'll gracefully receive any punishment you wish to bestow upon us if you wish…"
Zell stopped him, placing his hand on Ten'Kal's shoulder. "Hey man, what part of 'we don't mean you any harm' didn't you understand?"
Ten'Kal looked at Zell now, obvious confusion in his eyes. "You…you came through the Tidus, yes? Through that?" He said, waving his hand at the Arch.
Zell nodded slowly. "Yeah…"
"Nothing good comes from the Tidus." Ten'Kal said sadly, looking at the SeeDs with wide eyes. "The Heart Warriors come from the Tidus. We thought you were they."
"Heart Warriors…you mean the guys dressed in Orihalcon? The shiny armour?" Squall said, stepping forward, the LionHeart flickering off with the push of a button. Seeing the man nod, Squall looked at Zell. "Zell, you know what this means?"
Zell nodded slowly. "Yeah…those guys aren't from this universe. They're from another one…" He looked over at the Arch, furrowing his brow. "…Another Universe."
* * *
After packing up their things, the SeeDs followed Ten'Kal and Ten'Jar to their town, talking about thing as they went. Now the sun was up – sorry, now the suns were up – the heat was beginning to become unbearable to the SeeDs, and they were dressed for summer as it was. The universal natives, who called their race the Te'Gets, seemed unfazed by the burning heat of the three suns.
The only people who seemed remotely unconcerned of the heat was Zell and Squall, the rest seeming to sweat right down to their very core. The rest seemed to drip perspiration – even a groggy Emily, who had woken to find herself stripped almost completely naked with a large bump on the back of her head. She made no effort to find out who it had been who had helped her, however – simply casting a Cure magic to dull the pain and dressing quickly. Rinoa quickly checked her over, before announcing that she was, more or less, fine – but it would be best to see a real doctor when they get to Ten'Kal's town.
As they walked Ten'Kal and the rest of the team began to loosen up a little more, happy to divulge any information about their planet and their little corner of the world. As they talked the rocky ground around them began to disappear gradually, the tiny shrubs and little weeds giving way to grass and trees, until their were finally walking through entire fields of flowers and leafy bushes, ripe with berries and fruit. The sky seemed to glow with the flora around them, Rinoa and Trish drinking the nature in with happiness, running forward to pass through the field and inspect the variety of flowers.
Zell looked out at them as they suddenly ducked under the flower-line. "Uh…what kind of animals do you have around here?"
Ten'Jar smiled happily. "One good thing we can say about our oppressors – they keep the monster levels low."
According to Ten'Kal, they called their planet Terra, as opposed to Gaia. As Julius had said, they were situated on the lower part of an enormous continent about twice the size of Esthar. Several other races were dotted here and there around the planet, and open trade points were made with all of them. It seemed that the 'Tens' were one of the lesser races – but that didn't mean they were unadvanced. "We've got cars, radios, telnars, chronometers – everything is a little older, since our scientists are a bit behind in their research."
Squall cocked his head to the side, pulling his eyes from the area that Rinoa and Trish had disappeared to and looking at the villager. "Why's that?"
Ten'Jar spoke up. "The Heart Warriors took all our best researchers a good year ago to work in their own labs through the Tidus."
"Tell us about these 'Heart Warriors'." Zell asked, narrowing his eyes.
Ten'Kal looked down at his feet, the fear evident in his voice. "They're ruthless. They came through the Tidus about a year ago, demanding that we give up and surrender to their Sorceress Queen. We had heard stories of Sorceresses – but we've only got folk-tales and myths. The last Sorceress died decades ago. They are immensely strong, and even our most powerful weapons and fighters were no match compared to them. We had no choice but to bend to their will."
"So what do they do here?" Rinoa asked, suddenly appearing behind the group with an armful of flowers. Walking forward, she presented one to every person, before tucking one into Squall's hair, just in the crook of his ear. Zell tried not to giggle as Squall's face turned bright red and smiled uncertainly.
Ten'Jar shrugged. "We're an 'off-world base'. They use us as a resource dump, and take all our food and shelter. We've been forced out of our homes many times to accommodate their soldiers as they took control of the planet. Now they've got bases all over Terra."
Rinoa stamped the ground as they walked, angry at their submissiveness. "Why didn't you fight back?!"
The villagers were surprised at her sudden mood swing. "We tried!!" Ten'Jar cried. "But they're too strong. And anybody to tries to organise a rebellion is executed out immediately. They have spies everywhere."
Zell narrowed his eyes. More about spies…the Heart Army must be very clever in their intelligence gathering. "We know all about that…so tell me, where do they come from?"
Ten'Kal shrugged the comment off and sighed. "We have no idea. They came through the Tidus, they are indestructible, and they worship a Sorceress Queen – that's all we know."
"Well, first off, they aren't indestructible." Zell said, holding up his hand which had the Uber-Ehrgiez Gauntlet strapped on it with it's covering of Orihalcon over that. "This was taken from a Heart Warrior. Our packs are made of the same stuff too."
Ten'Kal and Ten'Jar looked at the metal with inherent amazement. "My god…" Ten'Kar said, looking at the reflective surface. "…You must be very skilled in order to attain the tooth from the beast mouth while it's snarling at you."
Zell puffed his chest out in pride. "Oh yeah! We're good at kicking the crap outta stuff!"
Ten'Kar laughed out loud – before sighing again, his good humour smothered effortlessly. "But even with your obvious skill you wont be able to defeat the Heart Warriors that occupy our village right now. And even if you did, I doubt you'd be able to keep it unoccupied for very long."
Zell stopped his braying and looked down at Ten'Kar. "What do you mean, man? Why are you taking us to your village, then?"
Ten'Kar shrugged. "To tell the truth, I don't know. I know that you're advanced enough to find it eventually – better you be invited then to stumble in unexpectedly. We'll hide you away until the group occupying our village moves on – then we'll see what we can do for you. Maybe one of the other villages will have something that will give you a lead."
"We could try capturing a Heart for interrogation." Julius muttered, hefting the back on his back, eyeing it as the swag became a little wetter thanks to the melting ice. Veronica wasn't faring very well in the heat. "Who else would know anything about the 'Tidus'?"
"Good point." Zell said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully…before turning to Ten'Kar. "What kind of bathing ethics you guys got here?"
"B-bathing ethics? What do you mean?" Ten'Jar stammered, obviously confused.
"Well, in our world we have a race of highly advanced people called Estharians. They have communal baths. What I mean to say is, I think I have a plan to take a soldier without having to get him out of his Orihalcon first…"
Trish rolled her eyes. "Trust you to have an idea like that, Zell. You're such a pervert."
"Hey, you got any better ideas? No? Good. Then lets get to Ten'Kar's village, settle down, and figure out a battle-plan…"
Unseen by the group, one of the younger men peeled off from the party, disappearing into the bushes as they began to near the village, the smell of breakfast assailing the universal traveller's senses easily.
* * *
"Uh…are you sure this stuff is alright for us to eat?" Zell muttered to Julius as he accepted another plate of the indescribable mush.
Julius rolled his eyes and spoke to Zell with annoyance in his voice. "I ran everything through my scanners, dammit. It's fine. It just looks…weird. That's all."
"No shit." Zell muttered, looking back down at his bowl. "It looks like somebody puked into the bowl and added purple dye."
Squall reached over and slapped Zell on the back of the head. "Hey! Where are your manners? You're insulting them."
Zell looked down at his bowl in embarrassment. The food, though looking like something you would think was regurgitated from a Catchepillar, smelled delicious and was surprisingly good. The fist-fighter had a thing about the appearance of his food. Maybe if I put it in my bread, or something… he thought to himself, reaching down and picking up what looked to him was a bun. Digging his fingers into it, he was greeted by a slurping noise, and watched as yellow gunk oozed out of the wounds he had just inflicted. Dammit…
"Why are you doing that to your Turling fruit?" Ten'Kal said, looking up from his bowl.
"Sorry…" Zell said with a smile, placing the 'fruit' down next to his bowl and wiping his fingers on his shorts. "I thought it was bread." The confused look on Ten'Kal's face said it all, and as the villager opened his mouth to question, Zell raised his hand. "Never mind, I'll tell you later."
"You universe must be very strange indeed…whoever has heard of 'bread'? Huh…" Ten'Kal said with a snort, before returning to scooping the purple stuff into his mouth.
The entrance into the village was surprisingly quiet. It looked much like Winhill, the cosiness that a small, close community could only emit radiating out to the team as they passed under the sign announcing the name of the village – Te'Get Ternal. The villagers nodded their greetings to the team as they passed by, seemingly oblivious to their strange clothing or travel equipment. Ten'Kal had taken them to his home as quickly as subtly could allow, and asked them to be seated as he asked his wife to prepare breakfast for their guests.
"I'm sorry about the food, " Te'Kal said as she placed another large bowl of…stuff onto the dining table. " but we have to give all our decent food to the Heart Warriors. They all have quite an appetite."
Now seated in the villager's home, Zell was beginning to get a feel for the universe's character. The home was a decent yet small one, the eight people sitting in the dining room filling it up completely. There were knick-knacks strewn all over the place – pictures, ornaments, tiny stuffed monsters – and Zell finally realised just how old Ten'Kal was.
Not only that, but there were things about the culture that Zell was picking up too. The 'Ten' before their names was pretty obvious – it was the race's founding name. Also, the female's names for the race dropped the 'n' in Ten. Zell couldn't figure out why.
Also, when Ten'Kal and Ten'Jar had parted ways, they had performed a strange ritual. Standing close to each other, they placed their hands on the other's shoulders, before touching foreheads gently. This strange head-butt must've been a way to say hello or goodbye, Zell figured – much like the shaking of the hands in their universe. Which was why he looked so confused when I held out my hand… Zell thought to himself. There are many different nuances to this culture that we'll have to be careful about – but it all seems pretty close to our own. We both speak Gaian, at least the majority of the time, and we both have the same basic living and clothing habits.
"Thinking, Hunter?" Emily asked quietly, reaching over for a 'Turling' fruit. "How uncharacteristic of you."
Zell smiled a little smile. "Somebody has to do it. It's best you don't, though. That bump on your head might just put too much pressure on your brain."
Emily bit into the fruit angrily, deciding to quell a retort for now. It had been a major blow to her that she had been the only one severely injured during the fight, and the throbbing pain of the lump only reminded her of the fact – she had been weak, weaker then the newbie Trish, weaker then the gunblader – the weakest.
Zell watched as she returned to her own little world and tried to fight his smirk as he bit into his own fruit. Not so great when you're on the receiving end, huh?
Trish watched this little exchange and looked down at her bowl of goop, scooping up some more and sipping it slowly. It was served hot, thankfully, and was simmering much like the angers that were within Zell and Emily. She had known of their fight in the tournament, and had heard rumours that she had been the reason why Zell had been out of public sight for the duration of the Tournament's enquiries – but that was all she knew. She knew nothing about what kind of relationship they had, and every chance she tried to glean information out of them always resulted in both of them moving into moody silence.
"Well…" Squall said, finishing his bowl and pushing it away. "Now what? We can't stay here forever. We have to figure out how these warriors got here and what they want with these people."
Trish burped and took a sip of her glass of green liquid. "Do we really have to? Why don't we just find out how they got here, go through it, kill this Sorceress chick and go back home!"
Zell rolled his eyes. "It's not as simple as that, Trish. The more we know about the enemy, the less surprised we'll be when the shit hits the fan."
Trish looked down at her plate, stirring the food absently. "I know…" she said quietly. "…But we shouldn't really worry that much, right? I mean, we did pretty well against the tools at the Tidus, right? What do we have to fear?"
Squall shook his head, before turning to Ten'Kal. "Sir, do you have any idea of how many of these soldiers there are in these patrols?"
"Around fifty…I think. Why?"
"Nothing." Squall said, looking at Trish as she looked down at her plate once more. "Just proving a point."
There was a sudden bang on the door, and Te'Kal jumped to her feet. "Oh god! They're here!!"
Everybody was on their feet in an instant, looking around them. "What? Why would they be here?" Trish yelped – before Emily slammed a hand around her mouth, muffling her voice as she pulled her close, forcing her to be silent.
"Walking into the village in play daylight must've made more of an impression then we thought, honey…" She whispered into the thief's ear. "Keep quiet – or I'll make you keep quiet."
Ten'Kal quickly ran around the table, blocking off the entrance to the dining room. He was wringing his hands nervously. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't think when we were coming in…I-I'll try to ward them off. You must hide!!"
Zell stepped forward. "We can't just hide, Ten'Kal. We're warriors. We'll handle them."
"If they find you here, they'll kill everybody involved!! Please, you must hide!" Quickly running into the hallway, Ten'Kal threw open a door, revealing a passageway down. "Quickly! Into the basement!"
Zell decided not to argue with the man, turning and gesturing for his team to go down the stairs. As they made their way down he turned to Ten'Kal and placed his hand on the man's shoulder. "You're taking an awfully big risk for us, man. Why?"
"You seem like kind souls. I think you would help us if you were given the chance – so I'm returning the favour first."
Zell shook his head and smiled. "Thanks." He said, before running down the stairs, the door shutting behind him with a bang and the click of a lock.
* * *
The basement was one filed with junk, much like most Galbadian basements. Bicycles stood near the stairs up, and a small bench was on one of the walls to the south of the entrance. A small door was situated next to the bench, turning out to be a larder. Boxes and items were piled all over the place, filling up the space easily. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Trish found a light-switch, flipping it to bath the basement in light from numerous bulbs situated strategically across the roof. "Hyne, what a pack-rat…" she muttered as she cast her eye over the room.
Amazingly the room was about the same size as the whole house – making it the largest room in the house. In between the piles of boxes and sheet-covered items was the occasional wooden pillar.
Julius walked amongst the piles of junk, lifting a sheet here and there. "It seems our friend Ten'Kal is something of an archaeologist. Look at all these little statues and slabs."
Emily stepped forward, looking at the nearest artefact and picking it up to examine in her hands. "What junk." She muttered, placing the tiny statue of a woman with wings down next to a man with four arms. "Archaeology is so boring."
Julius seemed interested, however, and began to sift through the piles of stuff, coming up with more and more items of interest. "Fascinating…" He said, turning a small plaque over and over in his hands.
"Why the hell would you find this interesting?" Emily muttered, looking down at the blond hacker as he placed the slab down and traced his hand over a large marble stone.
"I'm not just a hacker, you know. I'm also a scientist." Julius said, looking over the artefacts. "I've studied many theories and possible avenues in my quest…a lot of the old magic was rather powerful…in it's time, anyways."
Rinoa and Squall leaned against a wall, next to the stairs up. Rinoa was in Squall's arms, looking down at the small statue of the winged woman. "Don't you think it's weird that most of this stuff has something to do with my Angel power? I mean, look at those pictures. They all have winged creatures in them. And I'd say that the majority of the statues all show women with feathered wings."
Julius paused, before looking over the room once more. "You're right. Interesting…"
"Guys…" Trish said quietly, looking at something hidden under a sheet. "Check this out. It's an Arch. Just like the one we came through…"
Everybody dropped what they were doing and moved to where Trish was standing, Zell ripping the sheet off of the Arch for a better look.
The Arch was made seemingly like the gigantic one that they had come to this world in – same insignias, same colour rock, same everything – except for the size, of course. This Arch was about the size of a normal door.
"Shit. Could this be the way that the Heart Warriors have been getting into this world?" Emily spat, looking up the stairs. "I think we've been fucked."
"No."
Everybody turned to Rinoa, who walked forward, reaching out with a trembling hand and laying it on the cold stone. "This…this Arch hasn't been used in a long, long time…"
The silence in the room was tangible as Rinoa continued to trace her hand over the insignias on the rock, and Julius stepped forward. "And just how do you know that, exactly?" He asked.
"…I don't."
Squall was looking around the room, however, the only one uninterested at this surprising turn of events. He was remembering something – before cursing. "Oh shit."
"What?" Trish asked.
"Our packs. We left our packs upstairs."
It was all happening then. One second, the acknowledgement of their monumental screw-up was chilling them to the bone – the next, the door to the basement blew open, the wood smashing in to reveal several Heart Warriors, their metallic bodies gleaming as they ran down the stairs.
"Fuck!!" Zell yelled as the first Heart came at him. "We've been made!!"
* * *
Expecting a fight scene now? Well stiff, you'll just have to wait until the next chapter!! Haha!!
I've been watching the Matrix a lot lately, as well as several other martial arts movies – you know, research purposes – and I've realised that a true martial artist must take his/her surroundings into consideration when in a fight, utilising anything to his/her disposal in order to defeat an opponent.
That's why, in some future fights, all hand-to-hand fighters will begin to use weapons. Not conventional weapons, however – unconventional weapons. Chairs, rocks, ropes, belts, shirts, each other – whatever is at hand at the time. Not only will this make it a little more realistic (have you realised that Zell only fights using his hands, feet and magic only? I have!), it'll also give me some stuff to play with!!
