Chapter Two: Broken Pedals

Sweat shined on Zell's forehead, dripping down his tattoo. The Garden was back in sight, and the end of his jog near. Pumping his arms and legs, he felt slight pride in being able to avoid the subject on his mind for most of the duration of his excursion.

The second he stepped into the main hall, he felt something was not right. It was oddly silent. Usually there were at least some kids running around, shouting, but at the moment, nothing. A couple was huddled close together on a bench not too far away from the entrance, speaking softly to each other.

It was mildly eerie walking to his room, surrounded by silence. Something was wrong, but he hadn't seen anyone he could ask. Everyone was somewhere…

He was about to walk into his room to shower and change into more school-appropriate clothing when a student came running up to him out of breath. "Mr. Dintch," he said, panting, leaning one hand against the wall to steady himself.

"Yes?"

"I was told to find you when you returned. Something happened to Headmistress Trepe. Mr. Leonhart requests your presence in the hospital wing at once."

It was all very formal, and one thing that Zell had learned about formalities was that they never signaled something good. A chill ran down his spine despite the heat. "Okay," was all he could think to say. "I'll be there as quickly as possible."

He went into his room. It was probably best to let all this sink in before he went to the hospital wing. Something had happened to Quistis? What?

The showered offered a nice release as cold water sprayed through his hair and down his back. He lathered up quickly and jumped out. The last time he had seen Quistis, a few days ago, she had seemed perfectly fine. Busy, maybe a little stressed, but otherwise fine. She had kind of lost contact with her friends the more she had gotten involved with the school, but that was only to be expected, right? She had so many things to tend to. Squall had offered to help out, let some of the burden fall on him, but Quistis would hear nothing of it. It wasn't a matter of pride, Cid seemed to have placed his whole trust in Quistis, and she had not intent of ruining that.

Stepping out, Zell grabbed some clothes, threw them on, and sprinted all the way to the hospital wing. He walked in, trying to maintain his composure, trying to prepare himself for anything. There was a crowd of students in the waiting room that parted as he made his way through them.

Opening the door to her room, he saw Squall and Rinoa standing over her bed. They turned to him as he closed the door behind him. Quistis was in a hospital gown, her hair let down from its usual ponytail and framing her face, which looked a little too pale.

"Oh, Zell," Rinoa said, at a loss for words. She went to him and wrapped him in an embrace.

He knew that she was on the brink of tears and faced Squall. "What happened?"

The taller man just shook his head. "We don't really know. She was found outside Selphie's room by a student."

"Where was Selphie?"

"She was gone. We can't find her anywhere. I went to her room and there were things everywhere. One of her bags was missing, as with some of her clothes. I think she ran away." Squall told him all this while watching his face, seeing if it made any more sense to the blonde than him.

It didn't. "Do you think she is to blame for this? But Selphie…"

"I'm not going to assume anything about anyone. But whatever is happening to Quistis, it's serious. She may have just had an episode, she may have gone to talk to Selphie about something, we don't know." Squall's eyes went back to the motionless figure on the bed. "We are looking for Selphie but I have a feeling that if she doesn't want to be found…"

"… She won't be?" Zell finished for him. "Maybe she went back to Trabia?"

"I doubt that. She would know that would be the first place we check."

Zell felt the first burning of tears sting his eyes, but he blinked them back with a little effort. How could this have happened? "What do the doctors say?"

"They don't know what's wrong with her. They said it just looked like a panic attack that went out of control. At some point she stopped breathing, but it wasn't for long enough to cause any damage… we hope." Squall moved to the window and looked up at the cloudless, beautiful sky. "She may wake up any time now, or she might not. In the meantime, I'm calling Cid and getting him back here to cover for her."

Squall excused himself and left Zell and Rinoa alone with Quistis. Zell couldn't help but think how helpless she looked, when the whole time they had known each other, even way back at the orphanage, she had been so strong. Next to Squall, she was probably the one that they trusted the most with their lives. And now, to look at her in this state was almost too much to bear.

"What do we do now?" Rinoa asked, moving close to Zell.

"I don't know," was all her could think to say.

There was a moan from the bed, causing both of the standing people to jump and give their full attention to the figure beneath the hospital white sheets. Quistis was moving slowly.

"I-I'll go get the doctor!" Zell said hastily and ran from the room.

Rinoa went to the bedside and grabbed Quistis' hand in her own. "Quistis? Can you talk to me?"

Her eyes fluttered open and it took her a moment to focus on anything in the room. The first thing she saw was Rinoa's worried face, and when she saw the terror etched across her face, her eyes bolted open right away, all the fogginess of unconsciousness wiped clear. She tried to sit upright in bed, but Rinoa kept a hand firmly on her shoulder, whispering that she should stay down and try to rest.

"What happened?" Quistis asked, looking at her surroundings.

"You collapsed in the hallway. A student found you and brought you here." Rinoa tried to explain.

"But – Selphie!"

"Shh… just wait for the doctor to get here. She will explain everything to you, at least, as far we know."

"I have to talk to Selphie, please, get her!"

"Quistis," Rinoa began. "Selphie's gone…"

"Yes, as soon as you can, thank you so much!" Squall paused, listening to the other end of the phone. "Matron is always welcome here, she should know that." Another pause. "Yes, yes, of course. So in a couple days, right? Thanks again! Bye."

As he hung up he couldn't help but feel a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. When he went back across the room in the Headmaster's office the phone rang again.

Please don't let this be Cid saying he can't do it, he silently pleaded as he lifted the receiver up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Squall?" It was Zell.

Squall immediately stiffened. "What's wrong, what happened?"

"Quistis – she woke up."

A long, slow breath exhaled from Squall. "I'll be down there as soon as I can. I'm not going to call Cid back and tell him not to come."

"Of course, Quistis will need her rest for awhile."

"See you in a minute."

Feeling much more relieved, he set the phone down again and went to the elevator. Looking out over the foyer to the school through the glass as he descended, he noticed that students were once again milling around, which brought a flutter of joy to his heart. Maybe things could go back to normal, now that Quistis has woken up. This day had just been to unreal for his tastes, and he would much like things to return to the way they were.

And with Cid back, he thought. But… he was bringing Edea with him. As much as Squall did not like to admit it, her presence here may cause some discord among his friends. He knew for a fact that Rinoa still partially blamed her for becoming a sorceress, even though she knew deep down that it wasn't really her. And Zell… he never quite forgave her for some of the things that went on way back at the orphanage.

The elevator bumped when it reached the ground floor. With a light ding the doors opened, revealing Squall to the hall. He walked down the stairs slowly, readying himself for the hospital wing.

Natural light spilled across the hall, causing him to look up at the main doors to the Garden. Several students who were closer gasped and shrank back at the figure walking in. Squall could not make out who it was, the glare from the sun made everything shine brightly.

The only thing Squall could think was that whoever it was, he or she was too big to be Selphie, returning from wherever she had gone. Sunlight glinted off what looked like a gunblade. That was impossible, only one other person had had access to a gunblade that Squall knew, and that person was dead… wasn't he?

Placing one hand on the hilt of his own sword, he made his way to a place where he could see the figure coming towards him. Sure enough, blonde hair met cold eyes as Seifer Almasy stalked inside Balamb Garden.

Panic rushed in a hot wave up Squall's body. What was going on? Too many things were happening at once. He ran from his vantage point to get in the path Seifer was making for himself, raising his gunblade as he did so.

The doors had closed and Squall could see his old rival clearly. He looked terrible, his features sunken. How he had survived was beyond Squall, but he was alive, and looked completely defeated, destroyed. When his eyes met Squall's, the hand holding his weapon relaxed, and the blade fell with a clatter to the floor.

He dropped to his knees and held both hands up for Squall to see. There were no tricks, he just looked so… bad. Sympathy tugged at the corner of the man's psyche, pulling him to the man on his knees. Squall holstered his blade and stopped about a foot away from the Sorceress' Knight.

"What do you want?" Squall asked, trying to keep his voice neutral, knowing that undertones crept into it. "Why are you back?"

Seifer looked up, pleading with his eyes. "I… I can't… go…" Before he could finish whatever he was going to say he collapsed on the floor. His chest rose and fell, so Squall knew he was alright, but he made no attempt to go to his side. It was painfully clear that he meant no harm, that his reasons for returning were other than murder and mayhem, which he specialized in not so long ago, but Squall would not move to his aid. There was too much pain there, too much history, for him to completely forget what had occurred, leading them to their current situation.

With the help of several students in the area, Squall carried Seifer with him to the hospital wing. There they set him up in a separate room, with plenty of security, and then Squall went to check on his friend.

Author's Note: Haha… well. Things are beginning to pick up, and I promise that the next chapter will not end the same way! Reviews are always much appreciated.