Chapter 11

Squall knocked on the door, which was opened immediately by Zell.

"Squall! What are you doing here?" He led Squall inside and sat down on a couch opposite him.

"I wanted to ask you if you have heard anything about Seifer since out battle with Ultimacia." Zell sighed. That can't mean anything good.

"I've heard some things, but right now as far as I know they're just rumors."

"What have you heard?"

"He had gone back to Balamb Garden and taken up Headmaster Cid's job. He was running things pretty smoothly until..." Zell paused.

"Until what?"

"He heard that you had been to see Rinoa and that she had died right after that. He began thinking you had something to do with it because she rejected you when you asked her out again after you dumped her. He realized how stupid that was, but went to see for himself what had happened to Rinoa. Her house was burned to the ground, and he searched all through the rubble. He found her body, and General Caraway's. Besides being burned though, the bodies also had bullet holes in them. The shots were very precise, and the bullets he found around the house were some used by Turks.

"He went to Rufus Shinra and accused him of having his men, or even himself for that matter, murder Rinoa and her father. Rufus said that was ridiculous. He asked Seifer for proof of his involvement, which of course Seifer had none. He left in a hurry and went to look for you. He figured you would know something more about what happened. The last I heard of him, he was headed towards Deling City."

"Has he been here yet?"

"No, but it probably won't be long. Why did you ask?"

"You remember Litta right?" Zell nodded. "She had a dream about my last so-called 'practice' battle with Seifer. I wanted to see if I could talk to Seifer, not that I really expect him to know anything that might answer my questions."

"How could she have a dream about your past?"

"That's the question I need answered. Actually, I wanted to know if it would be possible for Litta and me to stay with you for the night."

"That'd be fine. Just for one night though?"

"I think we'll head out for Deling City in the morning."

"Where is Litta?"

"I left her in the main square by the south-east entrance. I told her to wait there until I got back."

"Well let's go get her then." They walked back towards the entrance, but Squall couldn't see Litta anywhere. "I know I left her right here. Where is she?"

"Maybe she wandered off to look at some of the stores."

"Maybe." She doesn't seem the type to bother looking in stores, Squall thought. Maybe something happened while I was gone. "Why don't we ask some people if they saw her." Zell nodded and started asking everyone questions. Squall went another direction and did the same.

Not long after he started asking questions, Squall found someone who had seen her. He grabbed Zell and asked the man to repeat what he had said.

"I saw a girl that matches that description in my shop, oh say twenty minutes ago. She walked out and kept looking around, like she was waiting for someone. Then a man came up, threw a bag over her head, and ran out the entrance. I thought it was a little odd but never bothered reporting it."

"What did the man look like?" Squall asked.

"He was wearing a suit, had long black hair, and he was kind of tall. That's all I noticed." Squall thanked the man and walked out of the store, Zell following.

"It was a Turk, I know that. It was probably Tseng."

"Maybe, but who knows how much of a head start he has on us."

"I guess we won't be staying at your house tonight."

"That's ok, I was looking for something to do anyways. What better way to pass time than chasing down a Turk." They headed out of the city and saw a few tracks on the ground. They followed them southwest, and they realized in the direction of Shin-Ra Headquarters.

"What would Shin-Ra still want with Litta?" Zell asked.

He might be getting her for Sephiroth, like before. Or maybe he thinks she has the book and is going to make her read it, only she doesn't have it. I still have it from a while back. What happens when he finds that out? But he still probably doesn't even know what it would mean if she read that book.

"Squall?" Squall looked at Zell, aware that he still hadn't answered the question.

"I don't know for sure. All I know is that whatever it is, it can't be good. We need to catch up to Tseng." Zell said nothing, and they quickened their pace.

She opened her eyes, but saw nothing. She wondered if she had truly even opened her eyes. She came to realize that she was being carried, but suddenly she was put on the ground. The bag was taken off her head and she looked up at Tseng.

"Thought you might be awake at this point," he sneered.

"What do you want with me?"

"The same thing we did last time you were with us." She remembered what Tseng had done to her last time.

"And what is that?"

"You'll find out. Now walk," he ordered her. She started to stand, but it was too slow for Tseng. He picked her up by her hair and threw her into a tree. "Get up I said." She got up quicker this time and started walking. He made her walk in front, and he held a gun to her back. "If you try to run, I'll shoot you. I might not be able to kill you, but I can do whatever I deem necessary to keep you in control. Now keep walking."

Litta walked in whatever direction she was told to. She wondered how long they had been walking, when she realized Squall was probably looking for her. How will he find me? He has no idea where I am, or even that I've been kidnapped! Maybe I can leave something for him to find and follow, but what?

She thought for a minute, but knew that if she tried to leave anything behind, Tseng would just pick it up. She decided to just hope that Squall would find her. She had no idea how close he was to finding her.

Squall and Zell had been following what tracks they could find, or just heading in the general direction of Shin-Ra. They were still a few miles away when they came up to a clearing and saw Tseng with Litta on the other side.

"Well at least we know where they are," Zell pointed out. "I hate to do this to you, but I'm going to have to leave you. I forgot that I was going to see Selphie with Irvine. They'll both be disappointed if I'm not there."

"That's fine Zell. I can handle this." Zell turned around and left. I knew he had been hiding something for the last half of our trip. At least now I know what it was. He turned back to Tseng and Litta, but saw that they had passed into the forest. He hurried around the clearing and ended up just in front of them.

Litta stumbled on some raised tree roots, and wasn't able to hold her balance.

"Get up!" She stumbled again, and then felt Tseng grab her hair and pick her up. She continued walking, aware that she couldn't fall again or Tseng would have no patience left.

Squall saw what Tseng did when Litta fell, but waited a few more minutes before revealing himself. "Hope you're getting paid for baby-sitting, Tseng," Squall called out.

"Come out where I can see you Squall, or I'll shoot her." He stopped Litta from walking and put the gun to her shoulder. He won't kill me, just cause me pain.

"You can't kill her, even I know that. Just let her go and you can shoot me." Tseng pushed Litta ahead, but kept her in his grip.

"I can't kill her, you're right about that. But I can cause her pain." He loaded his gun. So I've been doing everything he told me to and his gun wasn't even loaded. I feel like such a fool. He pushed Litta a little farther ahead, just out of his reach.

A few branches rustled to her left and Tseng fired. Nothing happened. Branches to the right rustled, and Tseng fired again. Still, no sound of pain was heard. Then from behind Tseng Squall swung his blade, but Tseng had heard him coming. He stepped to the side and Squall couldn't stop in time. He hit Litta instead.

"Nice job Squall," Tseng taunted. "I can honestly tell Rufus that it wasn't me who injured her. It was you, the one who was trying to protect her.

Squall turned to face Tseng, refusing, in his mind, to look at Litta. He knew he wouldn't be able to stand the sight. What he didn't know was that Litta had used her magic and healed herself up, but Tseng hadn't looked either.

"So what now? Are you just going to stand there or are you going to shoot me?" Squall knew Tseng wouldn't be able to resist, and he was right. Tseng fired his gun, but it suddenly flew out of his hand. Squall was as surprised as Tseng, and they both turned to look at Litta. She was angry, that was obvious. She had her hand in the air, and she had obviously cast some sort of spell to control the gun.

"I'm sick of this," she blurted out. Her voice was cold as ice, but her eyes were on fire. "All you ever do is fight. You don't care who you hurt, and who you kill, so long as you get your job done. Well I'm through watching from the side lines. I won't let you hurt my friends any more, and I won't let you control me any more either." She closed her fist and the gun folded into itself, creating a ball. It exploded.

"You can't stop me Litta," Tseng said after her outburst. "I can do whatever I want, no matter what you do."

"Want to bet?" Squall had stepped off to the side, knowing he didn't want to be caught in the middle when Litta went after Tseng. Litta pulled out a gun and fired shots straight at Tseng. He dodged them all, but barely.

"Nicely done, but as you can see, I am unharmed. You are just a weak girl who is powerless."

That was the last straw. She pulled out a blade that Squall didn't even know she had, and ran towards Tseng. He pulled out another gun and fired some shots at her. She bounced them back at Tseng with her blade and kept towards him. He began moving to the side, but Litta still headed towards him.

Suddenly, Tseng ran towards Squall and grabbed his sword. He then turned and blocked Litta just in time. They fought for a few minutes, but it was obvious that Tseng was not as experienced with a blade. He was getting tired, and Litta could tell.

"You don't know how to use a blade very well," she commented.

"And you do?" he shot back.

"I'm not the one who is losing." After that she gave one final push and knocked Tseng to the ground. She stood over him quite confident, while he lay on the ground gasping for air. "This is a sight worth remembering." As she was about to put her blade through his heart, Squall stopped her.

"Let him live." He picked up his blade.

"Why?"

"It's not your place to kill him, not right now."

"Why should I let him live, when he never would have given it a second thought if he had killed either of us?"

"Because that's the way he is. Do you want to be the same?" Litta slowly changed, Squall noticed, back to her normal self. The harshness of her voice was gone, and the fire in her eyes had died.

"You're right. But I'm not healing him."

"I wasn't going to ask you to."

"And I won't let you heal him either."

"I wasn't going to. I do think we should leave though." Litta nodded in agreement.

Where to? Squall thought as they left Tseng. I still need to figure out why she had a dream about my past. But Seifer isn't going to have any answers I don't already have. So where to indeed? He thought some more. He said nothing, but just started walking.

"Squall, are you ok?" He looked at her, but still said nothing. "Are you upset about something?"

"I'm still trying to figure out how you had a dream about my past, that's all. And I think the only one who really knew the answers to these questions was Cloud."

Litta looked away at the mention of Cloud. She hadn't thought of him in a while. But he was to one who seemed to know a lot about her. He knew enough to send her to Squall and away from Shin-Ra.

Why did he have to die? she thought. Why couldn't just a Turk die? Why did Reno have to shoot Cloud? It isn't fair, I won't take it anymore. I'm not going to sit back while Squall fights from now on. I'm going to fight right along side him. I won't let him die alone.

Squall had been watching her. Her face had seemed sad, almost regretful, but then it had slowly changed to anger. He sensed a resolve he wasn't going to be happy with.

"So do you know where we're going?" she asked.

"I think we'll head to," he paused for a moment. He couldn't head back to Balamb because Zell was with Irvine and Selphie. He didn't want to have Litta get between Irvine and Selphie. "We'll head to Nibelheim. Hopefully we'll find Vincent there."

"What happened to staying with Zell?" I was hoping she wouldn't ask. So what do I tell her?

"He had plans, so we can't stay with him." Litta seemed satisfied with that answer. They continued walking, but stopped at a hotel in Deling City for the night. The next morning they continued on their way towards Nibelheim.