Haha! Finshed chapter six finally. And there's probably only two more chapters left at the most, though I think that the next one could be the last. Thank you for all the reviews reviewers I'd be grateful if you reviewed this chapter as well!

Chapter six – No Love Lost

'Don't you think,' Quistis began, 'that it's a rather peculiar that Squall wasn't in the cafeteria and yet a crazed Xu was?'

'What the hell are you implying?'

My thoughts from earlier echoed ominously in my head. He's probably looking for us anyway…

No…surely not…? No.

'Oh well, it's probably,' the instructor was saying, 'nothing. I suppose we're all just eager to get out of this cursed place.'

'Damn straight!' Irvine agreed. 'So let's stop standin' around and find this pod.' He turned to Rinoa. 'You still wanna find Squall?'

The raven-haired girl looked sheepishly at the floor. I um…think we should find the pod…first.'

'Now that's what I'm talkin' about!'

They were hovering around outside the cafeteria, all ears and eyes, listening and watching for any unwanted visitors.

'Where to then?'

They thought for a moment then Rinoa said, 'Perhaps we should split up?'

'You're kidding! That's what they say in all the horror movies and like, only one person lives!'

'Stop being immature, Irvine,' Quistis scolded. 'I agree with Rinoa anyway.' She rummaged around her skirt belt and drew out two walkie-talkies. 'If one of us finds the pod then contact the other, how does that sound?'

How do we know that you'll contact us at all? Selphie thought, but said, 'Yeah okay!' Then, Well I'll just have to find it first wont I?

She took the tiny contraption and put it in one of her pockets.

Selphie automatically went to Irvine and they wordlessly agreed to search the second floor, leaving the other girls to do the one they were on. As they wandered in their separate directions, Selphie pondered upon leaving Rinoa and Quistis alone. They couldn't expect her and Irvine to split up could they? Even though the girls didn't really get along, she was sure that put in the dire situation they were in they'd pull together. So she hoped anyway.

They took the stairs instead of the elevator this time, just to be safe, and arrived on the second floor to find it deathly silent and still, the cameras blinking and the tiled floor shining dully in the humming overheads. Selphie still found it difficult to become accustomed to this ghost-town version of Garden.

'Let's check in the 2F classroom first,' Irvine said, his voice sounded cracked and strained. He was clearly nervous. He kept fiddling with his hat and jacket and his eyes were shifty. It made Selphie uneasy.

She drew her axe and leapt into the classroom, ready for anything. She could see them now in her minds eye. Crazed students crouched behind the counters; eyes blood shot, foaming at the mouth uniforms torn and meaningless. They would come crashing toward screaming insanely, tearing, biting, ripping at her flesh.

But none came. There was only quiet.

She didn't expect the pod to be in there anyway, Zell had been in the classroom not long ago.

They searched the other classrooms but found nothing, so proceeded to the stairs at the far end of corridor that led to the area, open to the elements, where people could leave and enter the Garden when they docked in places like Fishermen's Horizon.

Selphie released a squeal of joy when she saw the escape pod dominating the central part of the concrete area. It was grander and much larger than the fake one in car park. It looked like it could fit at least six people!

The brunette retrieved the walkie-talkie and pressed down the grey button. 'Selphie here, Quistis pick up.'

It crackled and she thought she heard a distorted noise but wasn't sure.

'Quistis, pick up if you're there.'

The crackling became obtrusive.

'Quistis pick up!'

It snapped and hissed and buzzed.

I knew something would happen! I told myself they didn't get along but Hyne, I didn't think Rinoa would go this far…how could she? Oh Hyne please pick up Quistis! I…I should of-

'Quistis here, have you found it Selphie?'

Selphie gave a sigh of relief and clutched the walkie-talkie to her chest for a moment, closing her eyes.

'Selphie?'

'Y-yes! Sorry, I thought…never mind. We found it! Meet me in the second floor corridor and I'll show you where it is!'

'Excellent! We'll meet you there! Quistis out.'

The green-eyed girl slipped the metallic communication system back into her pocket, and turned around and jumped violently. Irvine was standing directly behind her. She hadn't even heard him approach! The brim of his hat covered his eyes and it frightened her.

'Selphie, Honey.' His voice sounded strange. 'Let's go.'

She took a nervous step back. 'Wh-what? What do you mean 'let's go'?'

He chuckled nervously. 'You weren't actually going to wait for those chumps were you? C'mon, we don't need them. Let's get outta here just the two of us.'

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. 'N-no! I wont leave them in this crazy place! They'll kill each other!'

'Better them than us eh? They're crazy. Can't you see it?' He looked at her from beneath his hat, his blue eyes pooled in shadow. 'Or are you crazy too?'

'Wh-what? No! Of course I'm not! I wont leave them Irvine!'

'Well I can,' he laughed again. 'And I'm taking you with me! Conscious or unconscious; it's all the same to me!' He withdrew a long, metal pole from his trench coat and as he grabbed her slender arm she wondered briefly, when did he get that?

'Irvy, d-don't! After everything…please! Stop it! Ah!'

But it was too late because the baton came whistling down past her ears yet she managed to roll away from it and break free of his grasp in one movement. Hesitantly, she drew her axe but it sagged lifelessly in her hands now. It felt so wrong.

'Please,' she sobbed, 'don't do this! I…don't want to kill you!'

'Who said anything about killing?' he laughed and lunged at her.

She skidded to the left and it breezed past her side and crashed onto the concrete floor at her feet. Irvine arched it up instantly but the angle was all wrong and she hardly felt the blow to her shoulder. Selphie jumped back twice as he advanced, whipping the pole back and forth. The axe screamed to be used in her hands and she thought she felt her sanity slip away. The baton came down again, whistling past her ears and smashing onto the metal railing behind her with a loud clang.

Occasionally, through the grey whirling of the pole, she would catch the glimmer of insanity in his eyes and she knew she must take the initiative.

And then she saw the axe swing upwards towards his chest. Irvine parried the blow and resumed his attack. Selphie saw in her detached state the axe rear up again in slow motion and chip the pole. It didn't rest though, and it arched up again, the watery sun catching the metal surface. It bit into Irvine's shoulder and she heard him cry out, though it was like an echo to her, distant and surreal.

She thought the axe would stop then, but it didn't. It lunged at his neck like rabid animal and Irvine tried to push the attack aside but his shoulder wound weakened him and the blade lodged itself in his lower neck. Blood spurted and trickled down the wooden handle and his chest. His eyes bulged and he opened his mouth in a soundless scream.

The sniper fell and when Selphie looked down at her axe, she was astonished to see her blood-soaked hands gripping the handle.

Strangely enough, the first thought that blossomed in her mind was, What will the others think? I must hide the body.

Panting, she looked around, unaware that the axe had fallen out her numb hands, and realised there wasn't any place to hide the body, there was no time to drag it into one of the classrooms. She would have to get rid of it. And there was only one way to do that.

With unseeing eyes, she bent over beside the dead snipers body and encircled him with her arms. Ages ago, doing this would of given her the greatest of all comforts, but now he was nothing but a dead body to her, a traitor that needed to be extinguished from her life forever. She heaved him up and clumsily waddled over the to railings. Looking at his pale face one more time, and feeling nothing inside herself, she pushed him roughly over the side and watched his body bounce limply off the Garden's walls and disappear into the shimmering depths of the sea.

Gone.

She shook the feeling of being veiled from the world off and reclaimed her axe, the head now crusted with the blood of Natala and her boyfriend - ex-boyfriend - and she wished dearly that no other blood would be spilt by her hand. As Selphie walked through the door back into the enclosed corridor, she begged that everyone would just go peacefully into the escape pod and away from this hellish nightmare.

Oh course, she was wrong.

'I didn't say it was definite! You're twisting my words!'

The brunette heard their shouts before she could see them and momentarily considered doing what Irvine had suggested and leave without them. Yet sanity pushed her on.

'How can you change your mind? All that you and him went through together; does it mean nothing to you know?'

'What the hell do you know? You were never there with him - with us! How can judge our relationship by what you caught fragments of? You're an interfering bitch!'

Selphie dragged herself from around the corner like a zombie, her eyes detached and her movements forced. She said tonelessly, 'What are you doing?'

The instructor and the sorceress turned to her, eyes blazing.

'I thought we agreed that once we'd located the escape pod we'd turn back and find Squall!' Quistis explained angrily.

Not this again…

'What does it matter anymore?' Rinoa argued. 'He could be dead for all we know and now I know the way out of this shit-hole I don't want to go back down there and wait for another psychopath to try and kill me!'

Selphie wandered closer. 'Please…let's just go,' she pleaded in a tired voice. 'Let's stop arguing. Please?'

'Not until we find Squall!' the blonde shouted.

Rinoa let out a scream of fury. 'You're such an idiot! You're mad just like the rest of them!'

They're crazy. Can't you see it? Irvine's voice echoed round in her head and she tried to shake it off inwardly. They weren't crazy; they were just…stressed. But what could stress do to people? Blind their vision to reason?

'H-how dare you! You called me a bitch yet I can't begin to phantom what that would make you! You're willing to leave behind the one person you claimed your love for! And for what? To save your own pathetic life! You're nothing but a spoiled bitch, Rinoa. And I hope you burn in hell for it!'

'Fpr Hyne's sake Quistis! Just get over it!'

Selphie tried her luck again. 'Please! Let's just go before someone hears you!'

'Get over what?'

Failed.

'Squall! He has never loved you and he never will, not in the situation we were last in and not in this situation. So stop acting like a love-sick whore and get over him!'

Selphie hovered very close to them now, still feeling the wooden grip of the axe in her hand. Throbbing, breathing, calling…calling…

Calm it Selphie. 'If you ask me,' she began quietly, 'you're both idiots. Do you remember what happened last time we all argued like this? There was a death.'

A fleeting silence occurred hand in hand with a memory they strived to forget; a smug grin, an explosion, burning, screaming, burnt, disfigurement, Zell…

'That was different. That was then and this now. It's not like there are explosives wracked up to the walls -'

Blink, blink, blink.

Her voice faded out from Selphie's hearing.

Blink, blink, blink.

There was something surfacing in her mind… but it was just out of grasp…

Blink, blink, blink.

Memories stumbled into a hazy clearing and she picked them out one by one.

Selphie, smash it with your axe…I don't like it! I don't like it watching us… Give me your axe…no…there must be at least two in each room…something's wrong…something's wrong…something's wrong something's wrong SOMETHING'S WRONG!

And then it blossomed, a memory long ago when she was in Cid's office talking to Squall, not long after the war…

'Hey Squall, what are you doing?' Selphie asked, leaning on the wooden desk.

The commander was pouring over something technical, there were lots of wires everywhere and he was trying to fix them together. They were sticking out the desk, which she thought was very peculiar. Why would there be anything electronic built into a wooden desk?

He looked up at her through clear blue eyes and a ghost of a smile played upon his flawless features.

'It's a secret,' he told her.

Selphie giggled and leaned in to get a better look at what he was doing. 'Aw Squall, we've known each other for so long, we shouldn't keep secrets from each other!'

He gave a little laugh. 'If I told you, you'd be the only one that knew who lives in the Garden.'

Selphie clapped her hands. 'Ooh! It must be a big secret then!'

'Yep. So you really wanna know?'

'Tell me tell me tell me!'

He put down his implement and looked her straight in the eye. His expression caused her smile to dissipate. 'It's a bomb.'

Her hands fell to her sides. 'Wh-what?'

'Once I attach this wire to that one, it will be connected to every single room in Garden, ready to be triggered at any time. Both Galbadia and Trabia have been installed with one as well. It's for emergency purposes and it can be disguised as anything. If the Garden is overrun for some reason and there was nothing we could do, either Cid or myself would come up here and hit this button here-' He tapped beneath the desk. '-and the whole Garden will go up in flames.'

Selphie stood there with her mouth agape.

'We'll probably never have to use it. It's the last of the last of the last resort, you know?' He laughed at her expression. 'Hey, it's okay! We'll probably never have to use it like I said.'

Blink, blink, blink.

It can be disguised as anything…it's connected to every single room in Garden…if the Garden is overrun…

Blink, blink, blink.

Garden will go up in flames...

Smash it Selphie… Give me your axe… Something's wrong…

Blink, blink, blink. The camera's red light flashed incessantly in the corner of her eye.

Selphie screamed, 'THE CAMERA'S ARE THE SELF-DESTRUCT SYSTEM!'

EVIL IRVINE MWHAHAHA! You knew it was gonna happen ; )

The explosivecamera thingwas my original idea but I actually cut it out of the story because I couldn't see how I could fit it in. Yet when I began writing about them remembering Zell I thought that would be the perfect place to slip it in. I'm going to have to reconsider my ending now… REVIEW PLEASE!

Oh yeah, and just to pee you off, the final chapter wont be up for a while because I haven't even begun writing it. Sorry!