"Where's that funny Doc?"
"Zell, watch your words," warned Quistis, not looking up from the book she was reading.
"Nobody's here…" said Rinoa, looking around. "I wonder where everyone went."
Dr Odine's lab was pretty deserted except for the six of them there. Even the Presidential Aides were not there. From within the corridor, came the sounds of bubbling and occasionally the sound of a bell chiming in the silent lab. Otherwise, nothing much was added to the boring interior of the lab.
Besides a creepy-looking creature in a glass bowl on the table, which was a pathetic sight. It looked like the fish just bathed in mud with its brown mosaic-like patches around its body, and its wide black eyes stared at the side of the bowl with a blurred expression, its mouth opened in a wide, boring-O.
It had been in that state for the past twenty minutes.
Sighing, Squall got tired of watching the fish and stood back up. He saw Rinoa standing near a wooden pedestal, looking at a black book. Irvine and Selphie were chatting away at the other side of the room. Quistis was leafing through a thick, green book she took from the bookcase, and Zell was strolling restlessly around the room before coming to a stop in front of the fish bowl on the small table.
"This is getting us nowhere," said Zell in a dull tone, poking absently at the glass bowl in front of the fish.
Suddenly the glass bowl shook. In it, the creature grew black, its eyes turned into a livid red, and rows of sharp teeth grew from its protruded mouth. It started snapping its jaws at where Zell's finger was pointing at it, making loud, angry noises. The water where it was contained in started to quake, sending drops of water flying out of its bowl.
"Woah!" Zell took a few steps back away from the angry fish.
"Zell, don't disturb the fish," said Quistis without glancing at him as she returned the book to its shelf.
"I didn't do anything-"
"Who dares to dizturb my precious!" a voice thundered.
Everyone turned to find a stout-looking man in purple and a red-and-white-fanned collar around its neck standing in the doorway of the corridor. They silently watched him walked in a penguin-ish way towards the glass bowl and eyed his creature. Sighing, the man got out a blue vial and poured its contents into the bowl.
In a few seconds, the fish changed back to its original boring state, and it slowly swam to the other side of the bowl. Satisfied, the man corked the vial once more and kept it in his pocket of his baggy purple pants before turning to the silent audience in the room.
"Now what do you people want?" demanded Dr.Odine.
Squall got out the yellowed paper and showed the message in red to him. The scientist stared at it for a few moments before saying, "So?"
"We want an explanation," said Rinoa.
"Do you know anything about this, Doctor?" asked Quistis.
"Well…I'm not the one who waz in thiz, so don't ask me."
"Lately, we couldn't summon any GF. How come?" asked Selphie.
"Becauze one, you didn't junctioned it; two, you didn't have it; and three…" The scientist paused.
"Three…?" prompted Irvine.
"Three…I don't know." Silence in the lab. Squall just shrugged as everyone sighed heavily.
"Forget that we asked about it." Quistis got out the red spherical gem and showed it to him. "Do you know anything about this?"
This time, the scientist's eyes grew wide with interest as he saw the gem. "Zat…zat…how did you get zat?"
"A kind dragon gave it to us," said Irvine. "But after he tried to hitch a free ride aboard the Ragnarok."
Dr Odine shook his head in disbelief. "Thiz cannot be…I thought the Five Spheres are fake accountz of stories, but…now…"
"Five Spheres?" asked Rinoa.
The scientist started muttering a lot of words so fast nobody could catch what he was saying. Squall could only heard snippets of words, "Five Spheres…five elements…Dragon…"
"Slow down, Doc. We don't get what you're talking about," said Zell.
"…Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth…A powerful dragon guardz each of the Spheres of the same element with it…" The scientist paused and turned to Quistis. "Bring me zat sphere…"
Quistis showed it to him. Dr. Odine took out a monocle from his pocket and eyed the gem inquisitively. Bobbing his head, he kept his monocle and said, "Thiz you have here iz the Fire Sphere."
"How did you know?" Zell asked.
"Don't you ever study your elements, Zell? Red usually symbolises the colour of fire," said Quistis, casting an annoyed glance at the spiky blond. Zell smiled sheepishly before turning away.
"Which means the dragon we fought earlier is the Fire Dragon," she continued. "But why does it want to attack us?"
"For zat I am not sure. But I do know zat if humanz ever get their handz on one, one can command utmost power. One can take over the world." The scientist laughed as his face gave way to a malicious grin. Then pointing up a finger, he said, "But for a cost."
"What cost?" asked Irvine.
"The cost…the power from legendary beingz you mortalz called the Guardian Forces."
"What has the GF's power got to do with these spheres?" asked Rinoa.
"Without GFs, this Spheres won't function, and if it can't function, you can't use itz power. Common zense, my dear."
"What power does it has?" asked Squall.
"Enough…to deztroy an entire city. Use five and the entire world will be…" The scientist trailed off. He didn't need to say more; everyone understood what would happen.
"Who the hell's so nuts about destroying a city, or a world for that matter?! Isn't this getting a bit old?" complained Zell.
"Zell, shut up," everyone said. Zell went silent.
"That's why we couldn't summon any GFs…" said Rinoa. "They are not appearing anymore…"
"They either refuzed to appear or they are already captured," explained the scientist. The last part of the scientist's statement sparked off another question from Zell.
"How can you captured a GF?" asked Zell.
"So many questionz to answer, so little time." The scientist sighed heavily. "You summon you get the GF, no?"
Everyone nodded.
"So, you—summon—you—get--the GF, understand?" said the scientist slowly word-by-word as though talking to a bunch of five-year-olds. Dumbfounded silence filled the room again. Zell resumed to poking the fish once more, only to earn an annoyed glare from Quistis.
"Riiight…but I still don't get it," said Selphie. "You summon and the GF comes forth, unleash its attack and poof they disappeared. Well, that's what they used to do anyway…"
"Scientistz can conztruct machinez of many wonderz, my dear," replied the scientist.
This struck a thought in Squall's mind. "This means the person who captures the GFs…is a scientist." Everyone turned to face Dr.Odine. He looked back at them, unfazed by their stares and shook his hands in a 'no' gesture.
"But I told you already, I'm not the one in it."
"Then which mad scientist wants it?" asked Zell.
"They are many scientistz out there, so you can slowly find them one-by-one and question them. Don't come and look for me." The scientist bobbed his head up and down before making his way out from the lab.
"Wait! You didn't tell us how to solve this!" called Rinoa. The scientist stopped, spun a smooth 180º around and quietly said, "Juzt get the other Spheres."
"This world is so huge, how are we gonna find them?" asked Irvine.
"You have to find them no matter what." He turned to walk away again. His last few words lingered for a few moments in everyone's mind, "And unless you get the other four Spheres, you know what iz gonna happen."
* * *
"I don't believe it," said Selphie.
"Me either," said Rinoa.
"Enough to annihilate mankind…" Quistis added. "Who wanted to do this?"
Everyone was quiet as the Ragnarok moved silently back towards Balamb. Selphie tweaked a few levers here and there, and the airship creaked for a few seconds before the signal "AUTO-PILOT" appeared on the screen-board.
"So, what are we gonna do now?" asked Selphie as she turned back to her friends. Everyone couldn't speak a word. The room was filled with an irritating silence. Squall was brooding as usual in one corner with Rinoa. The rest were staring into space, arms folded. Selphie sighed and turned back to piloting the airship, even though she had set it to auto-mode.
Ragnarok, thought Squall. They were coming back, bearing the message of a potential doomsday that was bound to happen anytime, any moment, anywhere. Ragnarok itself meant 'doom of the living gods' in the ancient language Hyne knows what. Squall shook his head wearily at the irony of it all.
But for us, it's the doom of the living. And until we stopped it…
Suddenly the intercom of the airship blared to life. Static filled the silence, and suddenly a man's voice broke through screaming, "Ragnarok! Esthar to Ragnarok! We are being attack by a vicious dragon! Please sent help immediately!" A screeching roar that sounded familiar emanated in the noisy background. "Ragnarok! Do you read me?"
Another dragon?! Squall thought.
Then another voice came, this time all too familiar to Squall's ears, "Commander Squall? This is President Laguna here. I need you and your SeeDs at Esthar right now. We-" Another roar and the line went dead. Tension hung heavily in the air. Everyone was stunned into silence.
"Squall…what do we do now?" asked Selphie softly, turning back to face Squall. He stood back up and went forward to the cockpit, with Rinoa trailing behind him. Everyone watched their Commander silently as he looked out at the view outside before turning to Selphie.
"…We'll go back to Esthar."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Another wave of dragons? Yeap…I think now there's more dragons in this fic than any other that I've read about…don't worry, it's not gonna run from the central theme of Griever. :P
A grateful thank you to my constant reviewer, Mogmatt – I totally agree with you, you just CAN'T go wrong with a guy in a trench-coat :P And Seifer's gonna appear soon, and there might (I said might) be a Seiftis somewhere in this fic…
Upcoming chapter – Chapter 6: Chaos within the City
P.S. If you want a Seiftis, post your answer in your review after reading this fic. I hope to get good response out of this…Arigato gozaimasu!