AN: Huzzah! I'm actually updating an abandoned series! Well, I hope you readers aren't too jarred by my old writing in the prologue and my new writing in this chapter. Anyway, I decided I would try to find a way to finish all my abandoned stories and salvage them, so here you go. I made up a plot, which I believe won't be too hard to stick to and I think I'll have a lot of fun. Hope you guys have fun reading along, although this first chapter isn't really plot-heavy.


Tell Me by KyuuketsukiShounen

Chapter One: Normalcy

"Quistis! A cult?"

"Excuse me, but it is most certainly not a cult. It's more a community of believers."

A familiar blond teen stood before her peers, dressed to the nines in rather elaborate costuming. Said peers, both dressed in their normal fighting garb, could only gawk at her with enlarged eyes and repeated prodding at the odd amulets and tassels of her robes. Quistis Trepe, SeeD's record breaker and all-around Golden Child, had in fact shocked those around her by joining a cult. Or rather, by joining 'a community of believers.' A community of believers that acted suspiciously like a cult.

The three were at present at the entrance of a religious compound, akin to a prison, albeit an extremely beautiful prison. It was composed of several buildings fit for different purposes such as personal quarters or the main chapel, but all were enclosed around a colossal quadrangle, which was in turn surrounded by an extremely ornate, wrought-iron fence. The plants and trees within the compound seemed just as abundant as outside the compound in the forest, however the walls and fences provided comfortable safety.

"Look, I know it may seem strange and irrational, but I'm asking that you guys just support me in this."

"But Quistis," Rinoa broke out, "how will we know if you're okay? What if you get hurt?" Seeing that her pleas were only being deflected off Quistis' iron resolve, she turned to Squall. "Squall, stop her!"

The youth in question merely stepped toward Quistis and advised her, "Remember, Quistis, no matter what you become, you will always be a SeeD. I can't order you around, even if I think you're making a bad decision, but make use of your training and stay out of trouble."

Quistis nodded in compliance. "Yes, Commander," she replied, with a half-sarcastic, half-heartfelt SeeD salute.

"Quistis," Squall said, his voice dire and halting. "I'm asking you take care of yourself, not as your Commander, but as a friend."

This unabashed display of feeling sobered Quistis a bit and she nodded again, this time without playfulness in her. She met Squall's eyes, reading his concern for her in the stormy grey, and answered with as much assurance as she could, "Don't worry about me, Squall." The piercing blue eyes then turned to Rinoa. "Rinoa, can I ask you a favor? Can you please tell the others and try to make them understand?"

Rinoa began to nod, slowly, but soon annulled her agreement by shaking her head furiously. "I can't do that, Quistis, when I don't even understand it myself!"

Quistis nodded, eyes closed. "I suppose it's strange to grasp if you don't really know what happened."

"That's just it!" Rinoa exclaimed. "We don't know at all what happened to you in the last few days."

"It's a bit long, and some of the time I'm not really sure whether I was dreaming or not," said Quistis, testing out the temperature.

"Go on," Squall urged, and that was that.

"Well," Quistis began, leading Squall and Rinoa into a quiet corner of the compound, "it all started when Cid called me up to his office one day."


"I was nervous all at once when I heard my name over the PA System. 'Quistis Trepe,' it blared, after giving its little chime, 'please report to the Headmaster in the bridge.' What was I to expect? The last time I got called up, almost two years ago -right before we launched our attack on Galbadia Garden-, he summarily told me that I, along with my other comrades, were on direct orders to save the world. Not exactly the most thrilling thing to hear outside of my personal daydreams.

"I found myself pacing back and forth in front of his door, wondering whether I should just go back into the elevator and pretend I never heard the summons at all. But I knew it would only be a temporary escape. I wouldn't be able to hide from Cid in his own Garden. So I sucked in all the air that would come into my lungs and held it in as I opened the door. The first thing I noticed was that his office was a complete mess and that Xu and I would be spending at least a few hours picking through it. And then, I noticed Cid, good old, abandon-your-students-and-staff-at-a-crucial-life-and-death-moment Cid. And the man had the nerve to smile.

"'Quistis,' he said, welcoming me like a fly to the web, 'it's been a long time since you or the others have been up here.'

"His voice was so calm and I was so anxious. I just wanted to strangle him. I didn't see how he could be nonchalant about anything at all when he very nearly witnessed the collapse of all existence. But he was. And so I dove straight to the point.

"'Yes, Headmaster, it's nice to see you but please tell me what the hell is going on.' I apparently wasn't on the level for pleasantries. At first, he seemed a little bit shocked at my forwardness, but I think he understood.

"'Oh, Quistis,' he said in that fatherly voice, the one that makes you wish you had someone to teach you how to ride a bike instead of having to learn by yourself, or to give you a piggy back ride instead of having to walk every step of ten miles. 'Don't worry.' I started to calm down then. 'No more saving the world for you.' And then I stopped holding my breath and felt a little better.

"Needless to say, the world had gone through absolute pandemonium and shock after the sorceress incidents and now, a little less than a year since we emerged from compression, was it starting to settle back to normal. The world was still full of its problems; political and domestic, moral and judicial. So Cid had scouted out some people, mostly government bigwigs and whatnot, who would have some need of a mercenary force. Basically, Cid was trying to get some easy missions scored to get Garden back on a track of normalcy. The mission was all about getting back to good ol' normalcy.

"'If we were to get the role models out doing missions, maybe we would start getting back students and setting our academy straight,' he explained.

"And of course, even though I was burning inside, I said 'Okay,' and nodded my head like a good little zombie girl. So the next morning, I went through the routine of prepping for a mission. It was strange, the way it felt so familiar and yet so distant. It was like watching ancient movies, film sullied by time but the images still vivid enough to break your heart. I collected everything into my pack, coiled my whip in hand, and went to the docking bay where the Ragnarok and little Selphie lay in wait to take me out to Esthar."

Rinoa interrupted, the nation's name nudging at old scars. "Esthar? Why there?"

Now Squall chimed in as well. "I remember seeing a file. Civilians were complaining about monsters."

"That's right. The Lunar Cry had upped the monster count by a hefty percentage," Quistis proceeded, "but most people were already used to that, so I was to find out the problem and eliminate it.

"Selphie quickly piloted me to the northern part of the country, away from the more welcoming metropolis, across the Great Plains to the towns bordering the forested cliffs. When I left the ship, some locals were quick to point me in the direction of the monsters. Esthar was still Esthar, and these people were unchanged. Xenophobic as ever, they labeled me as an outsider.

"They told me the problems were occurring on the cliffs to the north of the town and I set out. It was not yet noon when I started climbing up the steep rocks. I continued up until about sunset without any incident, except for finding these strange crystals I took some samples of.

"Before dusk, I decided to fully recover my strength and found myself a nice deep cave. No sooner had I climbed into it and laid down to rest when I realized I had made a novice's mistake. I had climbed into a cave, without checking for inhabitants, during a mission concerning monster attacks. I could hear something approaching.

"Back when I received my mission briefing, Cid told me, 'Don't worry about it. These are civilians registering these complaints. I'm sure the monsters are no worse than Bite Bugs or Gizzards.' Lying old bastard, the cave was home to a Malboro!"

Rinoa scoffed quietly. "Cid can be just as bad as that man sometimes."

Quistis, not one to take sides in this ongoing battle-grudge-war, decided to just continue. "And of course, in that worst possible moment, my head suddenly feels heavy and light at the same time, my limbs start to freeze up and loose feeling, and the ringing in my ears is enough to drive me insane. It took me a while to realize it was Ellone. Oh, she was just as annoying as ever, never knowing when or how to use her flashback powers in a polite fashion."

Squall and Rinoa gave each other a startled glance, but Quistis missed it.

Quistis went on, fondly bashing her elder childhood friend. "I can imagine her sitting somewhere in that garish outfit of hers. I think I'll slap her the next time I see her," Quistis joked. "In fact, I think I'll call her right now and tell her what I thought when she sent me back," she decided. She plunged into her pack for a SeeD administered phone. "Never really learned how to use these," she muttered as she tried dialing the number. "Life wasn't so complicated when Adel was blocking out communications." But before the call could connect, Rinoa raised her hand gently to Quistis' and slowly brought the phone down to Quistis lap.

"Um, Quistis," Rinoa started off awkwardly, "we didn't want to tell you this right away." Quistis' eyes immediately widened, the blue seeming to flicker in dread. "But something happened to Ellone." Quistis kept her mouth shut, waiting for the impact.

"You can't have been sent back by her," Squall commented, monotone, apparently trying to shut off feeling. "She couldn't have done it."

"Honey," Rinoa said quietly, "Ellone is in a coma. She's slipping fast. The doctors don't think she'll live."

And in Quistis' heart, she felt a great deal of pushing and pulling and swelling and exhaustion all at once and she put her head into her hands, eyes still wide in shock.

The universe was ripe for the imploding.


AN: Erm... hope it wasn't painful for you guys! I kind of pulled an Interview with the Vampire thing with Quistis' story, and hopefully you didn't hate it because I'll be finishing up Quistis' story pretty much all of the next chapter. I guess I'm too used to writing first-person now. Ah, well. Please review. Though it's not necessary, I'm sure other authors can relate that it's nice to know if people are reading your fanfics.