A/n: Hey, guys, series two of the 4400 (show that this crosses over with) is now on that one channel. If you have satellite, you can probably get it. Start looking XD You can also buy season one at walmart for $20. Burn me a copy when you do…wait! I didn't say that, Mr. RIAA person… . Anyways, I think it's safe to say the only character I own is Rinny, and I stole her name, so I don't own her. Oh, and Lisette. But who really knows about her anyway? XD
Chapter Five: Start
Headmaster Cid had consented for her to stay, so he'd taken the opportunity and paid for her train ticket to Balamb. Cid had agreed, mainly because he felt like he'd owed him for the previous adventure with Ultemecia. To him, that was a lifetime ago.
Despite all of this, Squall found himself standing at the train station in Balamb, just watching, waiting for her arrival, finding, much to his surprise and not so sure it was as much to his liking, that he was actually looking forward to seeing her again.
Maybe it was because they were both in the same boat, he told himself, a boat with 3398 other strangers. Maybe it was her vibrant personality. Maybe it wasn't important, he reminded himself.
Still, though, he did find himself smiling as she walked towards him. She looked almost comical in her old work uniform. It was interesting to see how differently times had caused so many things to change. Maybe he could get her a uniform, he thought to himself, at least add something to her wardrobe. He'd been lucky he had clothes to come back to. He felt pity for those who didn't. It had to be hard.
"Eh? Squall?" Rinny called, and he smiled. She could pass for Rinoa, until she started talking, that was.
"Over here," he called, and she skipped over to him, beaming.
"Squallllll, hey," she grinned. "Man, trains sure have changed a lot since I was a kid! I NEVER remembered them going underground, much less under water! Well, can I see your garden now?"
"Yeah," she smiled, and they started walking back. She didn't complain about the distance, but instead walked in silence. It was a comfortable silence, though, one that lasted the duration of the entire trip back, which wasn't altogether that long.
"WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!"
Squall jumped, slightly startled at her sudden outburst, then looked from her to the object she was pointing at, which just happened to be the ever-floating mobile garden.
This was the first time she'd ever really seen the world since 1928. How was he supposed to explain all of this to her?
"That's…my garden," he said simply.
"Well, they've changed a heck of a lot since my day too! Where are all the flowers?"
"Only SeeDs," he said vaguely. "The people."
She was silent as they ascended the ramp and entered.
"HOLY COW!" she exclaimed, and he wondered what it was this time. He looked up and saw Rinoa. Well, that might be it. "That's—YOU! HEY! YOU! IN THE BLUE!"
Rinoa blinked, looking up at her.
"Oh, wow…" Rinoa looked taken aback, and Squall could hardly blame her. "Who are you?"
"I'm Rinoa Heartilly!" Rinny grinned.
"That's cool," Rinoa grinned. "So am I."
"Well, I go by Rinny, so it shouldn't be too confusing."
"Are we…related?" Rinoa finally managed to ask.
"I'm…" Rinny paused, and Squall could almost see the pain in her eyes. How were you supposed to explain how you were a sudden blast from the past? And he thought it'd been hard getting the B-Garden kids to leave him alone about where he'd been. "I'm one of those 4400," Rinny finally settled for saying. "Disappeared in 1928. I'm…Julia Heartilly's mommy. Your grandmother."
Rinoa looked like she was paying attention, all up until the point her cell phone rang.
"Oh no, this is important," she winced, answering it. "Hello? Hang on," she put her hand over the phone and looked to Rinny. "Do you think we could talk again sometime? I'd love to get to know you."
Squall could see Rinny's eyes light up.
"I'd forking love that!" she grinned.
"Next time I'll bring Emmie, your great-granddaughter, alright?" Rinoa grinned. "I'll meet up with you as soon as possible! It was wonderful meeting you!" she said, waving and walking off with her phone.
"I'm looking forward to it," Rinny called after her. Once Rinoa was out of sight, Squall rejoined Rinny, who sighed, as if tired. "Did I do okay?" she looked up to him, obviously nervous. It surprised him. He'd never seen her nervous around people, of all things, before. She just seemed to at ease, even with Rinoa.
"You did great," he assured her.
"…I'm too young to be a great-grandmother," she said quietly, sitting down. He sat down beside her.
I'm too young to have already lost my destiny, he thought to himself, but didn't have the heart to say it outloud. Somehow, it just didn't seem to matter right now, maybe not to anyone but him. Maybe it would never matter to anyone but him.
"We're all too young…too young or too old," she said suddenly. "Where the heck were we, Squall? Does nobody really know?"
"I guess not."
"Well, what's gonna happen if whatever took us comes back?"
He closed his eyes and thought about that comforting, white light. At least he couldn't remember those past 6 years.
"I don't know, Rinny."
"And what did they do to us?" she blinked. "There's no way I went through 72 years without a single wrinkle."
"Maybe we were in a place without time."
A place without time, without memory…maybe it was, indeed, true nothingness, with only their spirits to occupy the place. He shivered, shoving those thoughts as far out of his mind as they could possibly go.
A place without time…
Xu and Selphie had arrived at the meeting that Cid assigned them to go to just as the team of people were getting ready and being called to order. They slid into the two remaining seats silently, exchanging nervous glances. The people varied in all ages and appearances.
"First off," said a man in the suit who was standing at the top of the table. Selphie decided it was safe to assume that he was probably in charge here. "I think we should introduce ourselves. I'm Dr. Vincenzo Andrés, and I was the one who was put in charge of this group by General Caraway of Galbadia and President Atlus of Esthar. I'm 36, and I'm a nuclear scientist."
Selphie and Xu exchanged glances. Wow. It was going to be practically impossible to top that. Suddenly, Selphie felt like a small child all over again, put in a room with a bunch of intelligent 'big kids'. That's exactly the feeling she had now.
"We'll go around the table," Dr. Andrés said. "Just say your name, who you're representing, and occupation to save time." He smiled to the girl at his right.
"Astrid Shinova, Galbadia, 34, lawyer."
"Roy Vera, 41, Galbadia, forensic scientist."
"Fiona Ment, 83, Esthar, historian. This is my husband, Mikael Ment, 80, Esthar, does sign language at major events and studies history as well."
"Mistral Verdana, Balamb, 26, studying computer sciences."
"Ekan, Shumi Village, I make maps."
"Reki Sario, 27, Galbadia Garden, SeeD and student of psychology."
Selphie and Xu exchanged a quick glance, and then went back to their 'professional look'.
"Magus Dinav, 30, Balamb, scientist."
"Laiken Fabria, 17, Trabia Garden, SeeD."
Selphie waved quickly, and the brown-haired, blue-eyed girl waved back cheerfully.
"David Alism, 20, Galbadia Garden, SeeD and linguist."
"Xu Eman, 28, Balamb Garden, SeeD and assistant administrator."
"Selphie Tilmitt, 26, Balamb Garden, SeeD and part-time pilot for the Ragnarok."
"Looks like we have a good group here," Dr. Andrés clapped his hands. "Now, team, what we must understand, first and foremost, is that what is going on here is top secret and for the good of the public. We have to figure out why these 4400 people were taken, who took them, where they were, why they were sent back, why it was them, if they're dangerous…and that's just the beginning. They're all questions, and we must find answers. Teamwork will be essential for this group to accomplish anything, so let's discuss ways to find answers for our questions as a team. Any suggestions, group?"
"Well, we could keep them all under watch, observe from a distance," Roy suggested. "Take notes on how well they're acting in society, etcetera."
"Good idea," Dr. Andés said, jotting the idea down on a transparency that projected into the wall. "Any others?"
"Quarantine," Ekan said, and Selphie frowned.
"Another possibility," Dr. Andés nodded. "Let's brainstorm with your teammates for a minute and see what we can come up with."
Selphie looked to Xu, still frowning.
"That doesn't mean quarantine will happen, Selph'…" Xu said.
"I hope not," she crossed her arms, glaring at Ekan.
Neither had a good feeling about it, though.
"This is THE most crazy-amazing place that I've EVER seen!" Rinny finally commented after a tour of the Garden. "So advanced! Nobody even thought of stuff like this when I was a kid."
"So, you like it?" Squall asked.
"I love your uniforms," she giggled, spinning around and enjoying the cool blue material. She smoothed down her skirt, grinning. "So comfortable! So adorable! Although they probably would have been considered slutty in my day," she winced. She was so blunt about everything, Squall couldn't help but smile. "I guess I should feel bad for liking them. They do seem modest by today's comparison, though."
He shrugged, supposing she was right. He'd never really given it much thought before.
"So soft," she laughed. "I guess I sound like a moron, eh?"
"No," he smiled. "Well, what do you think of this place?"
"It's very nice here," she commented politely. "Is that…hey! You're that little girl from quarantine!"
Lisette was already walking over. Squall had seen her with Seifer a lot, and assumed that he had brought her. He smiled slightly. Maybe Seifer finally was getting a heart.
"Hello," Lisette said to them.
"Hey!" Rinny beamed. "How are you doing?"
"I'm doing good. How are you doing?"
"I'm great," Rinny nodded enthusiastically. Squall hoped that Lisette wouldn't get mad at her, thinking that Rinny was acting this was because she was trying to talk young to a young child. He had a feeling Rinny was just this hyper all the time. "Life sure is different now, isn't it?"
"Yours is about to get even more different," Lisette said quietly.
Rinny blinked, shivered, then smiled again.
"I bet it is, dear. I bet it is."
a/n: Alrighty…
This is a note on Xu's last name! She doesn't have one! So, I had to make one up. Her last name, Eman, is just name spelled backward. I'm not altogether too creative. The other characters aren't in the game, the huge long boring list of them. Most of them I just made up --; Or thought up. Or stole names of fonts. I'm kind of lame like that.
WELL, chapter five is here and I'm glad to see people are reading it! In fact, I'm so happy, that I want to individually thank each reviewer AND all of you reading this! I'm open to any feedback, so please feel free to complain all you want. Or if you like it, I'd like to know, because knowing that brings sunshine to my day and a smile to my face! (Well, I'm not really sure if it does, but I know it makes me happy. I just wanted to say something cheesy.)
Griever5 – THANX! Your review was the 1rst one I read, and I was afraid it was gonna be like, a super-flame. A flame so bad that I'd just WHOOSH! and incinerate on the spot. So thanx for the niceness
Yae – um, you probably noticed this, but there probably won't be too much more Rinoa/Squall interaction o.O Just a little, randomly…obviously that's not important anymore…
Okay, time for xifa to admit a secret. You never see Rinoa in my stories because I can't portray her to save my life. End of secret.
Melukia – Hey, I got another review from you today XD Yes, Squall being Laguna's kid is just a rumor. But I'd like to believe that it's true, so it is in this fic XD I'm glad you questioned it though, always ask questions
So…that's all. Thanx again!
Love and peace,
xifa