Chapter Nine: I've Never Felt More Safe

Author's Note: I am going to try to start fleshing out these chapters and making them a little longer. This one is going to focus on the aftermath of the hallway fight, as well as the aftermath of what happens to Selphie and Rinoa, as well as some more on Zell.

Everything was silent in the dark room. The rain had subsided, but the damage remained. Water dripped off every surface, soaked through everything in sight.

Sitting amongst the shadows was a girl, still a teenager, with dark hair and brown streaks. She cradled a smaller girl with short, honey-colored hair in her lap, stroking her head lightly and mouthing the words to a lullaby she remembered from a childhood now shattered. Several feet away from the pair was a middle-aged man with graying hair, in a heap beneath the window. From where the sitting girl was, she could not tell if he was breathing or not. Clouds still obscured most of the moon, and from the few rays that managed to slip the open window, she could see very little.

Not knowing how the girl in her lap was fairing, knowing only that the girl was alive, the sitting girl was not sure how to proceed. If she took any of this out into the world, the man under the window would be completely ruined. A dark part inside her told her that it was not only fair, but he deserved it for what he tried to do, and all that he had done in the past.

"What happened to you?" she asked the honey-haired girl, a tear slipping down her cheek. "Why did you need to come here?"

There was too much history in this house, and the only thing she wanted to do was get up and run, but she would not go anywhere without her friend. And this time… she sure as hell was not going anywhere until her father got what had been coming to him for a long time now.

With a soft gasp the girl in her lap woke up. She lifted her head up slightly, then let it fall with a wet slap back into her friend's lap. Her eyes fluttered open, gazing blankly around the room. When they hit the man under the window, a sob shuddered from her body and she began shaking with tears.

Rinoa held her closer, whispering kind words with an urgency that bordered on panic.

"I never meant…" Selphie said, her body going limp. "Why did this have to happen?"

There were no words that could comfort her. There was nothing Rinoa could say that would fix the damage that was caused. She had done everything she could and now it was up to Selphie to get out of these dark woods on her own.

"Selphie…" she whispered, just enough to get the other girl's attention.

She turned her head up to the girl over her, not bothering to hide the tears or the despairing look in her eye. "I don't know what…"

"Sh, it's okay, everything will be okay now," Rinoa said soothingly. "We need to get you to a doctor."

The girl's eyes filled with fright. She made no attempt to move, but Rinoa saw the beginning of fear in her. "No," she said before the girl could say another word, "It's for the best. We need to document this, so we can…"

"So we can what?"

Rinoa leveled her gaze on Selphie, giving her the most serious face she could manage. "So we can make sure nothing like this ever happens again."

"You mean… so this really…"

"It was a long time ago Selphie, and I'm better now. I've changed, just like you are going to. We can get through this together, if only you let me help you."

"I'm so sorry Rinoa, I didn't mean for you to come this far."

"I'm your friend," she said with a smile. "I would go to the ends of the world for a friend. Especially one in danger."

Something seemed to click in Selphie's mind and she broke down in another fit of tears. "I can't go back there!" She cried, turning her head away from Rinoa.

Knowing exactly what she was talking about, Rinoa leaned over and said directly into her ear, "When I left to come find you, Quistis was fine. There's nothing to worry about. Everything at Garden is okay."

"Are you sure?"

"I promise," Rinoa said earnestly, not knowing the lie she was telling, the gravity that went along with it. How could she have known?

There came a muffled grunt from across the room. Caraway shifted positions under the window, he was coming too.

Selphie was momentarily petrified with fear the moment she saw it, and stiffened up beneath Rinoa, who knew that they had to get out of there. She started trying to stand and pull her friend up at the same time, saying "We have to get out of here now!"

Caraway was slowly collecting himself, and Rinoa knew that they had to get out of there before he fully recovered. Her daddy would not be very pleased when he woke up and found that it was his own daughter who did that to him.

Instead of getting up to run, when Selphie saw him pulling himself up, she locked up and screamed. Rinoa jumped to her feet and ran to the bedstand, searching for anything she could use as a weapon.

"What the hell…?" Caraway asked, looking around the room, trying to gather his bearings. He settled on the dark figure running to the bedside. "Rinoa?" he asked, not believing what he was seeing. After she left, he thought that she would never come back, he was certain of it.

Scooping up a lamp in her hands, Rinoa turned on her father. "Selphie," she said slowly, "Come over here, please." She never took her gaze off her father.

Selphie let a small whimper escape from her throat but started pulling herself across the carpet towards her friend.

"What is the meaning of this?" Caraway asked, trying to take on a fatherly tone.

"Shut it. That won't work on me, not anymore," Rinoa said, closing her eyes for a second to shake away bad memories. "I know exactly what you were doing, and I can't let it continue."

Caraway rushed his daughter, but she brought the lamp down with all her might, shattering it against his head. Porcelain shards splattered with blood flew everywhere, littering the wet carpet. His scream shook the room and make Selphie jump, finally climbing to her feet. She looked from Caraway, grabbing his head on the floor, to Rinoa, who was breathing heavily above him.

Gathering herself back together, Rinoa ran to the door to the corridor, grabbing Selphie's hand and pulling her along. Selphie kept glancing over her shoulder at the open door, but managed to keep her balance and not fall as she was lead swiftly down the stairs and out the front door.

"The next train leaves soon, we'll be okay. We will get you back to the Garden, have you checked up, and then we'll deal with all this…" Rinoa said as they ran.

The front door was still open, spilling yellow light into the night. When Rinoa looked over her shoulder for the last time, she saw a figure standing in the entrance, filling nearly the entire frame. It raised one fist that gleamed as the light reflected off the blood that had not yet begun to dry.

It felt like he had been hit with a train. The last thing Zell remembered was seeing Quistis, and he thought she was dying. She was lying across the bed that until recently Seifer had occupied. And then everything was black…

He woke up when something wet slid into one of his hands. Eyes opening, he saw… red.

The hallway was bathed in blood. His hand sat in a puddle of thickening red ooze, and he jerked it toward him and sat bolt upright. Doing so caused his head to swim and his vision to blank out momentarily.

Blinking away the blackness, he slowly collected his wits.

Blood dripped from the walls, made pools on the floor. The scene was horrifying already, made only worse by the fact that he did not know who the blood belonged to. After a few moments of sitting in silence, he heard something that sounded like soft whimpering. Was someone crying?

Trying to decipher where the sound was coming from, he swiveled his head back and forth, until he saw it. The door to the room he had last seen Quistis in was open, faint light escaping into the hallway. It seemed to be bouncing off things to make it outside, the lamp it originated from must have been knocked over. Sure enough, when he titled his ear that way, he heard soft sobs emanating from the room.

Who was in there?

There wasn't a body, not out in the hall. He wondered what had happened out there, while he had been out. And how long was that, exactly?

So many questions swirled through his head, so many that had no answers.

The small man tried to pull himself up to his feet, an act that took more than a few attempts itself. Once he was successfully on his feet, his knees threatened to give out on him at anytime. A bad mix of fear and helplessness hit him full force, making it nearly impossible for him to walk.

He had to know what was in that room.

Stumbling across the hallway, he fell against the doorframe. Grabbing the molding at the last second, he managed to remain standing to see the sight that greeted him.

The first thing he saw was Quistis, laying on the bed. Her eyes were closed, her head tilted back, her hands crossed over her stomach. She looked completely peaceful, at ease, and for that, Zell was eternally thankful. There was still some rosy glow in her cheeks, so he knew that at least she wasn't dead.

Blood splattered the wall above her head and trailed in imperfect flecks to the body that lay on the other side of the bed, and the figure hunched over it, his head held in his hands, trying to stop the sobs that threatened to tear him apart.

The body was totally covered in blood, matting the hair to the forehead in a sticky mess. Zell's first impulse was to vomit, but he gagged it back in order to avoid making this mess more than it needed to be. A gaping wound was slashed all down his front, spilling blood and thicker things into a pool on the floor.

A hand flew to his mouth and he wanted to look away, but knew that he could not deny what had occurred here. The figure kneeling had blood soaked through all his clothes, dripping off his fingers as the drying blood on them mixed with sweat and tears from his face. He did not turn even though it was apparent someone was behind him, and the sobs subsided, leaving the room in silence, and with the lighting messed up as it was, a creepy feeling settled quickly over the battlefield.

Zell pulled himself back when he caught himself thinking those words. This was a hospital, they were supposed to be safe here, but the truth was… in the lives they have always lead, no place was sacred, no place was safe. The room where they were supposed to use to get better in was covered in violent blood.

The whole situation was beginning to get to him, and he clutched his stomach, not sure how much more he could take.

Finally, the kneeling figure whispered, "I did what I had to do." Even though it was said quietly, it echoed across the room to rebound in Zell's ears. The evenness of the voice shook him, made him cringe, like he was really interrupting a private moment.

Of course, killing something may perhaps be more intimate than sex, if the situation calls for it. During the Sorceress War, lives were thrown away and no one thought as to what that meant. All the life force had been drained from the planet, all those lives wasted, their energy becoming nothing more than just that.

"I-I understand…" Zell said, taking one tentative step into the room. His foot fell in a pool of blood and he went careening backwards.

His back collided with the cold tile and he let out a wail of pain, agony, and a million other emotions that he had been trying to keep pent up this whole time.

Squall rose and turned to face his fallen friend. Blood hid his face from view, and the thick wet substance slid down. Tears had cleared two paths down his face, and Zell felt useless when he saw the look in his eyes. It was the kind of pain that no words can describe, it was the kind of unbearable truth that only those who have experienced could possibly fathom.

"I-I-I…" Squall started, but couldn't manage to get the words out. Pausing, he took a deep breath and tried again. "I have to go get Cid, he'll know what to do…"

"You… finally did it," Zell said, not believing what really was going on.

Squall shot him a confused and withering look. "What?"

"Seifer… it's finally over."

Looking back over his shoulder, Squall closed his eyes. "Yeah, I suppose it is."

"Well, how do you feel?"

"What do you mean?" Squall yelled in an outrage. "What do you expect from me? What do you want from me?"

Zell propped himself up on his elbows and backed away from the angry swordsman until his back hit the wall. Slipping in blood, it was a constant struggle to remain standing. So much blood, everywhere…

Could one person shed this much blood? It was utter insanity in that room. Zell could feel the edges of his self-control begin to crumble. Everything around him dripped blood, and Squall loomed before him, covered in it, the tears not even beginning to slow still cascading down his face.

"I don't know!" Zell shouted up at him.

Anger completely overtook the sadness in Squall eyes and he lifted his gunblade with one arm. Zell threw his arms over his head and ducked, not knowing what to expect next.

Once again there was only silence, and he was terrified to lower his arms for fear of what he might find.

Sliding one arm down just enough to get a view of the room, he saw that Squall was gone. Letting both arms fall limply to his sides, he realized that whatever broke in this room tonight was not going to be repaired with the ease that it was shattered.

It was late, and Edea could not sleep. Cid still had not returned from his office, and she wondered what was taking him so long. She knew that he had a lot to work on here for the time being, but he still should get some sleep and there was a whole new mess of problems involving her that she wasn't sure what to do with.

Donning a robe, she left her chambers and started walking the halls of the Garden, the place that once she tried to destroy. She took a moment to think what would have happened if she had succeeded, all these young people would be either dead or homeless, at the very least.

Going up the elevator, a sense of impending doom settled on her.

When the door opened on the darkened office, she knew that something was wrong. Taking one step into the room, she let out a horrified scream that rang throughout the Garden.