Note: I do not own Final Fantasy or any of its characters (which would be rediculously cool), and I do not own Battle Royale.
Note 2: I seem to be on a bit of a role at the moment, and here is Chater 7 already! I actually finished it about 24 hours ago, I was just too knacked to upload it then. Anyhoo, here is Chapter 7, the longest chapter yet, and I will immediately commence work on Chapter 8! Hopefull I'll get plenty of chapters done before I lose momentum (assuming I DO lose this momentum, that is!)
Note 3: This is written so that you don't have to have any experience of Battle Royale OR Final Fantasy, although knowledge of either proabably makes it more enjoyable!
Chapter 7
"Come on everyone! We need to work together if we want to get out of this alive! We need to work as a team, so come over here and we can work out what to do, together!"
Rikku smiled and rolled her eyes as she watched her friends antics in the higher branches of the tree. She was enthusiastically jumping up and down on her branch, punching the air with her free hand to emphasis her words, and generally really getting into what she was doing. With the last word she punched the air a bit over-enthusiastically, and nearly lost her balance, but managed to avoid falling off.
"Ahdriceycs bancuheveat..." she called out, giggling, then realised what she had said and giggled again at her unconscious use of the Al Bhed language.
There came a slight electronic crackle from above that Rikku thought was the megaphone being turned off, and then Selphie called down:
"What was that Rikku?"
"Nothing!" she called up, smiling innocently. "Carry on!"
"'Kay!" Selphie said, and lifted the megaphone again, preparing to call out. Then she paused, and called down to Rikku again. "Look! Over there, coming out of the forest!"
Rikku looked in the direction Selphie was indicating, and saw a dark-haired girl running full-tilt from the forest. At first, she couldn't quite work out who it was, but as the girl got closer, she could see a shining silver pendant swinging from the girl's neck, a pendant she recognised.
"Yuffie!" Rikku called out, scrambling to her feet and waving madly. "Over here!"
Yuffie Kisigari charged up the hill, never slowing as she ran, a wild grin on her face. Rikku jumped from her low branch to go meet her, and heard the sound of branches shaking behind her as Selphie rapidly descended as well.
Yuffie and Rikku ran straight into each other's arms, the impact knocking the two of them to the floor, sending both of them into a giggling fit. Then Selphie was there, diving straight at Yuffie wrapping her in a tight embrace which her friend returned in equal measure. The two of them rolled about in the grass, laughing joyously. Rikku lay on her side and watched them, beaming at them.
"I'm so glad you're safe…" Selphie managed to say once she got her breath back. "I've been so scared that something would happen before we could meet up, and I jus-"
"What, someone take me out?" Yuffie said in mock derision. "I'd be more likely to go out with Seymour than let anyone take me down!"
The three girls started giggling again, rolling around in the grass. As Yuffie began to explain what had happened to her since she left the school, Rikku lay back in the grass and looked up into the sky.
It's so strange… even in the middle of a situation this bad, we can still laugh together…
All it takes are good friends.
"Hey, don't you think you should get back up the tree, Selphie?" Yuffie asked. "I mean, I'm here now, but I was under the impression that you were calling out to the entire class."
"Yeah, otherwise people might get suspicious…" Selphie leapt up and dashed back towards the tree, megaphone in hand.
"Hey, wait for me!" Yuffie yelled, and took off after her.
-
Having decided that he was unlikely to encounter any more of his classmates along the cliff path, Sephiroth had taken off back towards the middle of the island. It hadn't been long after that when he heard a voice in the distance. It sounded slightly tinny, not completely natural, and he had suspected at first that it was a radio somewhere in an abandoned house.
But shortly afterwards he had recognised the voice when he heard it again. And he knew for a fact that Selphie Tilmitt was not a radio presenter. He remembered having heard her earlier, and resolved to stop her annoying noise. As he got closer to the source of Selphie's voice, he could make out that she was still saying the same thing as before, and he gave a derisive sneer.
Peace? Foolish girl. For you, there is only one way out of this game, and I will guide you to it.
He hurtled onwards at an unnatural speed, heading for a distant tree that he had decided was the source of Selphie's voice.
-
"She's started again…"
Squall stopped next to Vincent and listened. He too had heard Selphie's voice somewhere nearby, amplified to an even greater volume than the spunky girl was normally capable of.
"Again?" he asked his red-cloaked companion. "I don't recall hearing her before…"
"I doubt you would have, what with your little incident with Yang." Vincent replied. "Although you didn't really miss that much; she's calling for peace, as she was before. I think it's a miracle that nobody has taken her out already."
"Not too harsh, huh?" Rinoa said flatly, moving to stand next to Squall. "You think she's seriously in that much danger?"
"Quite frankly, yes. You two got into enough trouble without broadcasting your presence or shouting out for the world to here."
"Can't we do something to help her?" Rinoa said, looking increasingly worried. "I couldn't bear for any more of my friends to die…"
Vincent turned to face Rinoa, looking like a teacher admonishing a pupil when he really didn't want to.
"To be blunt, a lot of your friends are going to die before the end of this game. I don't know how much of the class you're friends with, but guessing from what little I have seen during my time at Timber, I'm guessing that you get on with most of the girls, so if I were you, I would get ready to hear their names each announcement."
"But there must be something we can do…" Rinoa said quietly, and looked pleadingly at Squall.
"Vincent's right." Squall said slowly. "A lot of our friends are going to die. I don't want to accept that, but I have to. But that doesn't mean you aren't right as well Rinoa. We couldn't consider ourselves their friends if we didn't try to help them."
Rinoa gave a grateful smile, then turned to Vincent again.
"Well?"
"I don't do suicide." He said flatly, crossing his arms. "We'd be easy targets if we went to her."
"Who said we had to go to her?" Squall said quietly. "If we go and scope out the area, and see if she's in danger. If it looks safe then we go to her, otherwise we… adapt to the situation."
"And here was me thinking that you didn't like to think about things too much." Rinoa said, trying and failing to suppress a smile.
"The game doesn't leave room for you to think about what you do or don't like." Vincent said, turning away. "Okay, I'll go with Squall's idea, but if you do anything stupid I'll leave you to it and find someone else."
"Someone else for what?" Rinoa asked for the umpteenth time. "You keep saying you need somebody to trust, but for what?"
Vincent smirked slightly at the looking of childish irritation on Rinoa's face, but said nothing to her.
"Look, let's just get moving. The sooner we see what situation Selphie's in, the sooner we can work out what to do." Squall put in before Rinoa could demand an answer again.
-
"That should do it for the moment." Selphie said, climbing down a few branches to be closer to her friends. "Now we just keep a look out for people heading our way."
"Who do you think will come here?" Rikku asked, running through a list of people on her mind. "Who do you want to come here?"
"Well I would hope that everyone would come together to work as one group to try and get out of all of this, but I know that that isn't going to happen…" Selphie said quietly. "But I know that there are some people I would really like to turn up soon."
"It would be great if Quistis turned up." Yuffie said, gazing upwards. "If she came, more people would be willing to trust us and come out of hiding to join us."
"Yeah!" Rikku said, nodding. "And if people like Squall and Cid turned up, the others would follow soon after! Everyone trust them."
Selphie smirked at Rikku.
"Can't help but notice that you didn't say Tidus as well…"
"Hey!" Rikku retorted, blushing. "How many times do I have to tell you that we're just friends?"
Selphie looked like she was about to press her advantage, but Yuffie interrupted her.
"Well Rikku may be hoping for Tidus to come to her rescue, but I know who Selphie is hoping for…."
She grinned evilly at her best friend, who was suddenly blushing furiously.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Selphie objected, avoiding Yuffie's eyes. "There isn't anybody I like at the moment!"
Rikku started grinning as well, and leaned back against the tree trunk.
"Oh, really? Then why are you turning redder than Fire Flan?"
"It's because she's got the hots for a certain special someone in out class…" Yuffie put in, standing up on her branch to bring herself level with Selphie.
"Hey! There isn't anybody!" Selphie retorted.
"A certain guy with blonde hair, and-"
"Shut up!" Selphie shouted. "At least I don't drool over him like you drool over Squall when you think nobody's looking!"
Yuffie's eyes went wide and her mouth started working wordlessly. She blushed, going even redder than Selphie was.
"How… but I… how did you know!"
It was Selphie's turn to go wide-eyed in surprise.
"But I didn't know… I just said it to try and make you shut up."
Rikku chuckled to herself and muttered something that sounded like 'busted' under her breath.
Yuffie went even redder when she realised that she had given herself away, expecting Selphie to make fun of her. But Selphie surprised her by climbing down to her branch and hugging her tightly, laughing happily.
"Oh that's wonderful Yuffie!" she said, squeezing her friend tightly. "That's great!"
Yuffie looked completely surprised, even more so when she looked down at Rikku and saw her wink and give a thumbs-up.
"You mean.. you mean you guys aren't gonna laugh at me?" she said, still disbelieving.
"Of course not! I'd never laugh at you if you said you had a crush on someone! I think it's great that you've found someone you like!"
"Yeah, but it's not like I have a chance with Squall…" Yuffie muttered.
"Sure you do! I bet the two of you would get on great if you gave it a chance, and then it would be-"
"No, I mean I don't have a chance because of the competition." Yuffie said flatly.
"Oh… she's right, y'know?" Rikku put in. "Not that easy to compete with Rinoa and Quistis."
"Rinoa as well!" Yuffie moaned. "I thought it was just Quistis and Lenna… but Rinoa too?"
"Uh… yeah. I wasn't supposed to say that…" Rikku said, annoyed at herself. "She asked me not to tell anyone… bugger."
"I got no hope…" Yuffie moaned. "Why did I have to fall for the guy all the good girls want!"
"Doesn't Garnet like Squall as well?" Rikku asked, scratching her head.
"Not helping!" Selphie hissed, and Rikku adopted a sheepish expression and shrugged.
"Look… if he turns up, just tell him how you feel, yeah?" Rikku suggested. "I imagine the game makes things different, and Rinoa always told me that Squall is actually quite caring, underneath that image he tries to project. I reckon he wouldn't blow you off if you told him."
"Worst that can happen is that he says no, and then you just dry your eyes and look for someone else." Selphie, said smiling gently.
"Yeah, like Cain. Oh, wait, you've already had a thing for him haven't you?" Rikku said teasingly. "Well, it was less of a thing for him, and more of a-"
Rikku stopped dead when Yuffie shot her a look of pure venom.
"You don't want to finish that sentence." Yuffie said quietly, her eyes darkening.
"Woah… someone needs to stop impersonating Lulu…" Selphie said quietly, her eyebrows raised. "You're starting to scare me."
-
Sephiroth crouched at the edge of the tree line, gazing up at the tall tree on the hill before him. Midway up the tree, sitting on different branches were three figures. One of them he knew to be Selphie, and he assumed that one of the others was Yuffie, as the two rarely seemed to be apart. He neither knew nor cared who the third was.
All that mattered to him was that they didn't seem to have realised that he was there, preparing to pounce and gain three more kills. His hand dropped to the hilt of his Masamune, but then he realised that if he were to draw it early, it might flash in the sunlight, giving him away. If the three in the tree realised that he was there before he got close enough, they would easily be able to run, or to defend themselves, and that would make things substantially more complex for him.
Studying the gap between himself and the tree, he could see several hedges, rocks and even a few saplings that he could use to approach unseen. There was a considerable gap between the last rock and the tree itself, and unless he was extremely lucky, there would be no way that he could avoid detection whilst covering that last bit of ground, but by then it would be too late for them.
Sephiroth smiled coldly, and sprinted towards a nearby bush, the first piece of cover on his way to the tree.
-
"Did you see that?" Rinoa asked quietly, pointing towards a low bush near the base of the small hill.
"See what?" Squall asked, his eyes not moving from the three girls perched on the tree branches. "Is it another member of the class?"
"Maybe," Rinoa replied, narrowing her eyes and staring intently at the bush "but I'm not completely sure."
Squall turned to look in the direction Rinoa was pointing, just in time to see something black and white streak from the bush to a small cluster of rocks, behind which it disappeared. He unconsciously tightened his grip on the naginata he was still carrying,
"Vincent, I think we were right to come here." He murmured. "Look over there."
"I know." Their red-cloaked companion said quietly. "I saw him when he first left the tree line. I'm just trying to work out how long it'll take for him to reach the tree."
"Why?" Rinoa asked, looking perplexed. "Does it matter? We just need to stop whoever it is, or warn the girls in the tree."
"We don't know who it is that's heading for them." Vincent said. He paused a second as the mystery figure dashed from the rocks to another bush. "No, still don't know. We don't know how the person will react, or what weapon they have. Until then, we have to be careful, because we don't know how they would react if we were to go ahead with the plan.
"They don't know we're here though," Squall pointed out "and if we dislodge the girls now or give them fair warning, then there's no way this person can sneak up on them."
Vincent looked like he was about to protest, but then the dark figure moved again, and came to rest next to a large rock. Whilst the rock prevented the girls in the tree seeing him, it did nothing to hide him from Squall, Rinoa and Vincent.
"Sephiroth…" Rinoa breathed.
"Now, Vincent. No messing around." Squall said flatly. "We need to do this now."
"I think you're right…" Vincent replied quietly, flicking gun's safety off, and flicked a second switch to the 'Death Penalty' setting.
-
A thunderous boom echoed around the surrounding area, deafening in volume. Sephiroth hurled himself back into the bush he had just emerged from, not knowing where the noise had come from. Yuna, Lenne and Shuyin exchanged terrified glances and then began to run towards the tree were their friends were waiting, afraid to see what was happening, but knowing that they would help if there was trouble.
Selphie, Yuffie and Rikku covered their ears, to escape the noise. But then the tree lurched beneath them, and they looked up slowly, afraid to see what was happening. The tree started creaking ominously, and lurched again. A large hole had been blown through the tree trunk further up the tree, and the top part of the tree was now swaying around precariously, threatening to break off and come tumbling down and at any second.
Nothing needed to be said. The three girls knew their chances of survival if the tree collapsed onto them. The three began descending the tree rapidly, moving so fast that they repeatedly bruised and cut themselves in their hurried descent. They did not look up once, not even when the tree gave a terrible shudder as the top finally began its own descent.
Selphie hit ground first and took three steps before stopping to wait for her friends. Rikku hit ground next and immediately began running, too panicked to pay attention to anything else. The moment Yuffie hit ground, Selphie grabbed her hand and the two started running as fast as they possibly could, running after Rikku.
But Rikku was the fastest girl in the class, and her terror lent her even more speed, but deafened her to the cries of her friends as they cried out to her to wait for them. Rikku ran straight for the nearest tree line, knowing she needed to find cover quickly. She reached the trees long before her friends, and by the time she finally managed to get a hold of herself and force herself to stop running, her friends were out of site, and she didn't even know which direction she had come from.
She was alone again.
-
Sephiroth was extremely angry. Not knowing what had made the noise and caused the tree to fall, he had back to the forest from which he had first emerged. The weapon that had been used was undoubtedly very powerful, something which would not have bothered him if he had known where the bearer of the weapon was. But the sheer volume of the shot had been so loud that he had been unable to work out which direction it had come from, and thus he had been forced to retreat. His prey had fled into another part of forest, and he knew that there was no way that he would be able to pursue them now. He also suspected that whoever had fired the gun had likely fled the scene to avoid detection, as would anyone else nearby.
He glanced back up at the once-might tree up on the hill, and immediately felt a sense of vicious satisfaction. Running up the side of the hill were three figures. He couldn't make out who it was, but it was irrelevant to him. They didn't seem to care that he could be around, so they couldn't be the ones who had fired the weapon that had felled the upper part of the mighty tree.
Springing from the trees, he charged straight towards the foolish trio, his white hair streaming behind him.
-
"I can't see anyone…" Yuna said softly, growing increasingly worried.
"They must have fled before the tree collapsed, I guess." Shuyin said, jumping down from the trunk of the felled portion of the tree. "That's a good thing and a bad thing; they're alive, and I can't see any blood, so I don't think there were any injuries. There are two pairs of bags here, so one of the girls still has their stuff with them. Wherever they are, they'll be running blind and scared, probably unarmed."
"Cheerful…" Lenne said sarcastically. "But it is true, I suppose. At least they got away alright."
"And I think we need to get away as well. Right now."
Yuna's tone of voice made the lovers spin around and look at her, suddenly afraid. She was standing straight, but shaking violently. She was staring down the hill, at something that was approaching them at meteoric speed. Something that was black and white, and held a long sword that flashed in the sunlight.
"Sephiroth…" Lenne whispered. "Shuyin-"
"We need to run." Yuna said, suddenly exploding into action. "We need to get out of here, now." She grabbed Lenne's arm, but Lenne stood still and looked at her love.
"I think you're right…" Shuyin murmured, grabbing Lenne's other arm and starting to move away.
The three companions started to flee down the side of the hill opposite to the one that Sephiroth was ascending, heading back the way they had came.
Yuna looked back over her shoulder in time to see Sephiroth reach the top of the hill, slicing the fallen tree in two to clear it from his path. One half slammed into the part of the tree that was still standing, and the other half tumbled end-over-end down the hill towards the fleeing trio.
"Don't look back!" Shuyin yelled, running faster. "You'll only slow down, and we have to try and get some distance before we can lose him!"
"I don't think he's the only problem anymore!" Yuna shrieked, tugging her friends in a different direction.
Shuyin didn't look back, as he could hear the noise the approaching wooden juggernaut was making each time it slammed into the hill side again. He allowed Yuna to guide him and Lenne towards a path that entered the woods. It would be unfamiliar ground, but the woods would give them cover and if they proceeded on their current course they would likely be crushed.
Yuna glanced over her shoulder one last time, and just before the trees obscured her view, she saw what could only be a daemon with white hair flying down the side of the hill towards them, moving too fast to be any mortal being.
Trees flashed by on both sides so fast that they almost blurred together, and then suddenly the cover of the trees was gone, and the three were back out in the open, still following the same path. Rising to their right was a nearly sheer grass slope that was far too steep to traverse, and to their left was a slightly less steep but very rocky slope. The path was narrow, but the three continued to run along it, knowing they could not afford to slow down and take care.
Hearts hammering, adrenaline flowing, fear rising, the three hurtled onwards at break-neck speed, round several corners on the path, until they saw the path re-enter the trees only fifty meters ahead. They could hear pounding footsteps behind them and new that Sephiroth was gaining, and that their chances of escaping would be slim, even if they reached the cover offered by the trees.
The tried to run faster, but their recklessness would cost them.
Lenne was covered in cold sweat, the fear of being caught by the white haired daemon beginning to consume her entire being. She tightened the grips she had on her companions' hands, taking some assurance from the firm grip of her lover, and the gentle but firm grip of Yuna.
And then she felt her arm jerk, and suddenly she was only holding one person's hand.
"Yuna!" she screamed, and skidded to a stop to look back.
Yuna was nowhere in site, and the only thing to suggest what had happened to her was a rising cloud of dust at the edge of the path, where a loose piece of ground had given way beneath her and sent her tumbling down the slope.
"Run!"
Yuna's voice sounded pained and faint, but left no room for argument. Not needing to be told twice, Shuyin pulled his lover onwards, knowing that the precious seconds they had wasted by stopping could well cost them their lives. The pounding of Sephiroth's feet was getting closer, and they seemed to be coming from right behind the two lovers as they reached the tree line.
-
Yuna lifted her herself from the ground, surprised that she had not been run through by the long katana blade of the white-haired daemon. She couldn't see him anywhere, but she was not going to just assume that he had followed Lenne and Shuyin instead of her.
She reached beneath her one-leg skirt and drew one of the two pistols she had received as her weapon for the game.
I have to do something to stop him…
Using her free hand, she began to haul herself back up the slope towards the path, keeping the gun pointed upwards. Should Sephiroth appear at the edge of the path, she would be ready for him.
It seemed like painfully slow progress, pulling herself up one arm-reach at a time, but it only took her half a minute to get near the top.
As she reached the edge of the slope, she heaved herself up over the edge, and rolled into a crouch in one swift movement. The pistol never left her hand, but she needn't have drawn it; there was nobody in sight.
Yuna turned slowly to look into the forest behind her.
Lenne…
Shuyin…
In there with that monster…
She drew the second pistol and ran into the forest. She didn't know much about combat, and she hated the idea of having to fight anyone, but it had to be done. Sephiroth had become a killing machine, and was going to kill her friends if she didn't do something fast.
-
The branches of the trees overhead interlocked, the leaves blotting out almost all the sunlight, even though the sun was rising high into the sky. The darkness pressed in on the couple as they ran through the forest. They had quickly left the path, knowing that they would be sitting ducks if they had continued to follow it. They ran through the forest, crashing blindly through hedges, bumping into unseen branches that reached down from the trees like hands trying to slow them down so the daemon would catch up with them.
Lenne thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye, and risked a glance sideways, and for the barest fraction of a second she thought she saw a shadow moving parallel to them. Terrified, she moved her gaze back to the path before her, only to see the flash off sunlight on metal somewhere ahead. Screaming, she darted to the side, pulling Shuyin after her.
The two ran on, changing direction every time they saw or thought they saw the daemon. They would suddenly run to the side when they saw a flash of white hair, change their direction when they saw or heard someone running near them, and they doubled back entirely when they saw a pair of cold blue eyes shining out of the darkness in front of them.
They ran on, minds numb in terror, unable to do anything but flee. They ran on, moving deeper and deeper into the woods, the light growing weaker as the canopy overhead grew denser.
Suddenly they were alone. No more shadows running with them in the darkness, no flashes from hair or blade, no more eyes in the darkness. They knew they were alone, and after running on a little further, they collapsed together on the damp forest floor. Shuyin was badly shaken, but Lenne was quaking with terror, shaking so violently that Shuyin thought she would completely break down.
"Sh-… Shuyin…" she wept, collapsing onto him, and burying her face in his chest. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know…" he said quietly, stroking her hair, trying to calm her. "Don't worry, I think we lost him, and Yuna should have gotten a safe distance away now."
"I can't believe it… Sephiroth…" she said, her strained voice barely a whisper now. "What is he? What kind of creature could possibly be like that?"
Daemon…
The word echoed through Shuyin's mind, over and over, building into a tumultuous crescendo.
No human can move that fast.
No human can do what he was doing…
Shuyin sure that he and Lenne had been hallucinating because of their terror, but he knew that not all of the glimpses of Sephiroth they had seen whilst running had been products of their minds. He knew that Sephiroth had been racing through the darkness with them, taunting them, goading them onwards, taking some sort of twisted pleasure from driving them to despair.
"Lenne… we need to move. He could still find us, and we need to get back to Yuna."
He felt Lenne push closer to him, but she said nothing. His fear began to give way to anger, and he felt a terrible pain in his heart as the anger grew.
They force us into this… this game…
They make us fight, make us kill, make us die!
The turned Sephiroth into a monster…
They do this to me and Lenne!
The anger he felt built, and built, consuming his entire being and clouding his very soul. And still the pain in his heart grew.
But the pain was not an emotional pain; it was a physical pain.
He opened his eyes and looked down. Lenne was utterly still, her head against his chest.
Her mouth was open, and emerging from it was a twisted perversion of a tongue, sharp and silver. The tongue had entered his body through the left side of his upper body, and had pierced his heart.
Sword…
He looked up, and saw that it was a long katana blade that was piercing his chest and Lenne's head. He looked up further, and he saw a dark figure standing over him and Lenne, looking down on the two of them with cold, cruel blue eyes, and smiling a twisted smile. The sword he held in his hand had passed through the back of Lenne's head and through Shuyin's chest in a single thrust.
Shuyin knew that Lenne was already dead. It had likely been so quick that she had felt no pain, but there was no room left in his anger-clouded existence to feel gratitude for the fact that she had not had to suffer.
"You've taken Lenne from me…" he said in the barest of whispers.
The daemon's twisted smile broadened and its eyes narrowed. Shuyin felt the blade twist in his chest, and he felt the last of his strength leaving him.
This is not the end!
With those five final words echoing through soul, Shuyin died.
-
Sephiroth watched the life fade from the young man's eyes, which continued to glare at him even as he became just another corpse. Sephiroth twisted the blade a second time, just to be sure, and then place his foot on the back of Lenne's head and yanked the blade backwards, pulling it free of both bodies.
"For a puppet," he said quietly to Shuyin's corpse, whilst wiping his blade clean of blood and brain matter on Lenne's arm "that was a remarkable attempt at emotion. If I didn't know better, I would have said that you were angry…"
Spinning on his heel, he sprinted off into the forest, back towards the path, sheathing his sword as he went. He didn't doubt that the Bisaido girl had fled, but he didn't mind; he would get her later. In the meantime, he wanted to try and find the foolish Tilmitt girl and her companions.
Just try calling out again… and see who comes to answer!
-
"I think… we're… safe now…" Selphie panted, leaning against a tree trunk.
"Couldn't… care… less…" Yuffie panted back. "I can't… run… anymore…"
The two girls let their legs give way beneath them, and fell to a sitting position, breathing heavily. Whilst the two of them were extremely energetic and in good shape, they just didn't have Rikku's stamina or speed, so they had grown exhausted after running non-stop for quarter of an hour.
Yuffie lowered her head, fixing her gaze on the ornamental shuriken on her necklace. She rarely needed to use her father's self-discipline teachings, but now was one of those rare times. By focusing on the shuriken, a family heirloom, she could centre herself; clear her mind of doubt and angst. Not having practiced it very much, she didn't manage to do very well, but she did manage to calm herself down considerably.
"So what do we do now?" she asked quietly. When no reply came, she turned her head to the side to look at her friend. "Selphie…"
Selphie's body was being shaken by her silent sobs, tears pouring down her anguish-stricken face. Yuffie had never seen her friend this way before, and it actually hurt her to see her like this.
"Selphie…" Yuffie said quietly, moving over to wrap her friend in a fierce hug. "Don't cry; it doesn't suit you."
Selphie continued sobbing, but managed to force a smile.
Everyone thinks that Yuffie is self-centred, but she can't help but care deeply about her friends.
Selphie surprised Yuffie by returning the hug just as fiercely.
"Yuffie… I don't know where I'd be without you… and I don't just mean in the game." She moved to touch foreheads with her friend, and managed one of her grins. "I can't imagine facing life without you there."
Normally Yuffie would have turned away to hide the fact that she was blushing, but she didn't move. She met Selphie's gaze, and replied:
"Right back at you… you're the best friend I could ever hope for."
"I… there's something I need to do now, and… I'll understand if you don't want to come along."
Yuffie moved back from her friend a little.
"You're going to try to call for peace again, aren't you?"
Selphie nodded, smiling sadly.
"I can't sit back and let the game happen. I know that we could get attacked again, but I need to do this." She lowered her gaze to the ground, and took a deep breath before continuing. "I don't want to risk you though, Yuffie, so I think it's best if you-"
"Don't even think about saying that." Yuffie said sternly, her eyes flashing. "You're best friend, and I love you like a sister. There is no way I am letting you do anything on your own in this game, and you're gonna need all the help you can get if your plan is to succeed. So don't even think about doing this without me."
"Yuffie…" Selphie looked up again, smiling warmly, crying tears of joy now.
"Besides, someone's gotta be there to keep you in check when Cloud shows up, or you might make a complete fool of yourself." Yuffie added, grinning mischievously.
Selphie's jaw dropped further than Yuffie would have thought possible.
"But… how did… I thought… I thought you were just joking before!" she managed to say.
"I've seen the way you look at him sometimes." The ninja girl replied, smiling kindly. "I can confess to knowing little about the heart, but… I could tell you could really like him. That it's not just some crush."
She can read me so well…
"Yeah… I don't know how long I've felt like this, and I would have acted on this feeling but… but I think he liked Aerith."
Yuffie's smile disappeared, and she closed her eyes. She had always liked Aerith.
Hell, everyone like Aerith. You couldn't help but like her, she was just so… so… there isn't a word for it, really.
"And now… Aerith is gone, but what will that have done to Cloud?" Selphie whispered, beginning to cry again. "Why would he even want to look at me after losing Aerith?"
"Don't say that." Yuffie said firmly, taking hold of her arm. "When he sees you standing up, being brave, calling out for peace in spite of all the danger, he won't be able to refuse you. I wouldn't if I were him."
Yuffie stood up, and pulled Selphie to her feet.
"So let's get moving now. We're gonna stay together, we're gonna call for peace together… but when it comes to Cloud, I don't think I'll join you, that would just be wrong."
Selphie stared at Yuffie, wide-eyed.
"How could you-"
"Just kidding, girl." Yuffie laughed, punching her friend lightly on the arm. "You won't exactly have time to get it on with him."
"Yuffie!" Selphie said, trying to look like she was fuming. Yuffie put on a look of innocence, but neither girl could keep up their facades for long, and they started giggling.
"Better get moving, if we want to find a good place to call from before the next report." Selphie said at last, feeling confident once more. "Let's go!"
-
"Well… I guess we did all we could. It's up to the girls now." Squall said wearily, sitting down on a flat rock.
"We could have done something more, surely?" Rinoa asked, still wishing they had gone to meet up with the girls.
"Any more would have been too dangerous." Vincent said, leaning back against a tree. "By firing, I was potentially alerting everyone in the area that we were there. We were in enough danger as it was. Players would have attacked us because they want to win, others may have attacked us thinking that by firing we were trying to hurt the girls."
"We did what we could to help, then we had to help ourselves…" Squall mused quietly.
Rinoa reluctantly accepted their explanations, and crouched to the ground, wrapping her arms around her legs, and began to rock back and forth. Squall smiled to himself, recognising this as her unconscious way of saying that she didn't want to just hang around.
"So," Squall said to Vincent "what are we actually waiting here for?"
"I'm just thinking for a bit." He said quietly. "I told you that I had been hoping to find a couple of people I could trust, but I hadn't expected to find anybody so soon, nor had I expected anyone to trust me so easily." He glanced up at Squall and cocked an eyebrow at him. "I am actually quite surprised that you could trust me so easily. You seem rather protective of your girlfriend here."
"You were protecting Rinoa with your life. How could I not trust you?" Squall said simply.
Then Vincent's last few words played over again in his head, and his head snapped up. Rinoa was looking away in a failed attempt to hide just how red her face had gone, and Squall felt a warm tinge on his own face.
"Uh… we really aren't together, you know." Squall said, a little too fast. "We've always been friends, so it seemed natural to stay together…"
"Well I would beg to differ, but I'll keep my opinions to myself, since it apparently makes you uncomfortable." Vincent said, pushing off from the tree he had been leaning against. "Let's get moving now. Need to find some place to hole up for a while. Take stock of the situation, see what we have at out disposal, and," he nodded at Rinoa "take a look at that wound you have on your arm."
"I don't think you need to worry about it… it hurts, but I'm sure it'll pass, and I don't feel too bad, honestly."
"Vincent's right, Rinoa." Squall said seriously. "It was a nasty slash wound, and it could get infected easily out here."
"Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks about things like this." Vincent said as he picked up his bags. "I don't know if I would have been able to cope with some over-pacifistic kid who never stops to think things through properly, letting his heart rule his head."
"Whatever." Squall said, shrugging.
If I had it my way I wouldn't think so much about things. You can only have unpleasant thoughts if you think too much… I would prefer to let my heart rule me, but I guess that's not who I am.
-
She lay back against the kitchen wall, absent-mindedly wiping her blood-stained hands on a kitchen towel she had grabbed. All in all, she felt she had done the best she could. She would have preferred to do a proper respectful burial, but she had no tools to do such a thing, and it would consume far too much time anyway.
Lying on the floor close to her was the body of Celes Chere, although she was no longer in the terrible state she had been left in by her killer.
"I hope you can rest in peace now." Said the girl. "And I envy you for not having to face the horrors of this game."
And I hope that I do not join you too soon. I have work to do.
She had found Celes in the building in the way she had been left, sprawling in a pool of blood, her eyes wide and pained, her hands stretching out as if reaching for help. Now, the blood had been mopped up as much as possible, and the body lay on its back, arms crossed across the chest and eyes closed. Although she had never really known Celes well, she knew that she had been a gentle and caring soul, and had not deserved such a horrific death. She had even wrapped her scarf around Celes' neck to hide the gaping wound in her neck.
"Sleep well." She said, rising to her feet. "I never called you friend, but I would have liked to. I never had the chance to make it so, but… I hope this will count for something."
She turned to leave, then froze when she heard a noise from outside.
Someone else is coming… could it be her killer returning?
No… the killer would have no reason to. They would need to keep moving to find more prey.
As she remained stationary, her hand drifted towards he green Program bag. She had been issued with a very formidable weapon, but she did not want to use it if she could help it. She may once have been a rowdy little girl, happily picking on others, but she had changed when she realised the pain she was inflicting. She had gone from being the terror of her primary school to being a quiet but friendly girl who only wanted to be friends.
She heard a faint pinging noise come from near the window she had entered through, and realised that whoever was outside had likely figured out that the open window meant that someone was around.
She slowly moved closer to the window in a crouch, hoping that the unknown person was not hostile. A shadow appeared at the window, a shadow which resolved into the silhouette of a head and shoulders, but she could not work out who they belonged to.
"Hello?" came a voice from outside, making her jump slightly. "Who's in there? I don't mean any harm, and I'm unarmed."
Tidus… that sounds like Tidus out there. And the hairstyle kinda looks like his, too…
Can I trust him though? I know he's not one of the bad boys, but… someone killed Celes, and I never would have thought any of my classmates capable of such a thing…
She remained motionless, hoping that Tidus would make a move that would show her proof of his intentions.
"I know you're in there, whoever you are." Tidus said again. "I can see you on my scanner."
Scanner… dammit. Guess I should reveal myself, he might think I'm hostile otherwise.
"It's me." She said quietly, standing up slowly and keeping her hands in plain sight. "I mean no harm either."
"Beatrix? That is you, isn't it Beatrix?"
Beatrix Cabrita nodded an affirmative, and took a slow step towards the light.
"What are you doing here, Tidus? And why did you approach me? For all you know I could have been dangerous."
"I… I dunno, I guess I trusted that I wouldn't run into a killer."
Naïve…
"Look, I'm coming inside, okay?" he said, moving to climb into the window before waiting for a response.
"Okay…" she said, not sure what to make of him. "Oh… I should warn you that I'm not exactly alone in here."
Tidus paused, midway through climbing through the window. His brows furrowed and he glanced down at the smooth plastic case he held in his hand.
"But the scanner showed only one person in the area…"
"It's Celes. And she… she… she's dead. I found her corpse here."
Tidus froze again, and looked at her with a suspicious gaze.
"I swear it. Look, take my weapon, if it'll make you trust me." She said, placing her Program bag on the floor by the window. She stepped back and put her hands on her head. "See? Not a threat."
"I believe you." Tidus replied, now standing in the room with her. "You can take your hands off your head."
He moved over to Celes and crouched by her. He quickly looked over her with a sad gaze, then turned back to Beatrix, confusion etched into his features.
"What happened to her? I can't see any wounds, although there is a lot of blood…"
"Her neck." Beatrix said simply, turning away. She didn't want to have to see the wound again.
Slowly, unable to suppress his morbid curiosity, Tidus reached out to the scarf that was wrapped around Celes' neck. He moved it aside slowly until he could see the neck wound, then put it back in place.
"Well that's quite possibly the sickest thing I've ever seen…" his voice a bit strained.
"Tell me about it…"
"Who killed her? And why is she like this now?"
"I don't know who killer her, only that it's somebody armed with a bladed weapon, possibly even a knife taken from in here. And I arranged her like that… it wouldn't have been right to leave her as she was when I found her… she deserves better. She-" she broke off, trying to suppress the tears the threatened to overcome her.
"We all deserve better than this fucking game… but we got stuck with it anyway." Tidus mused.
"Tidus…" Beatrix began, trying to work out how to say what she wanted to. "I… you aren't playing, I can tell that, otherwise you would have taken my weapon and killed me. So what are you doing? You said you have a scanner, so I assume you can see where people are?"
"That's right, although apparently it only shows living people…"
"So if you can see where people are, then why aren't you avoid them?"
"I'm looking for someone."
"So am I… I don't suppose you would care to help me?"
"I… I'm sorry, but I'm going it alone for the moment. I need to move as fast as possible, and I'm sorry but I think you might slow me down. I'm a fast runner, remember?"
"I know, you nearly gave Rikku a run for money last Sports Day…" Beatrix replied, smiling at the memory. "Wait… is it Rikku you're looking for?"
"Yeah, and… and someone else as well. I… I'm sorry, but I don't think I can say who yet. I-"
"I understand." Beatrix said quietly, smiling at him. "And I know who it is. You kind of gave yourself away by blushing whenever she was near you."
Tidus' eyes went wide, and he shot to his feet.
"What! You… you mean everyone knows!"
"No, not everyone. In fact, I don't think many people know at all, and she certainly doesn't." she assured him, smiling broadly.
She's just as naïve as you… I guess she wouldn't have noticed your attention unless someone out-and-out told her.
"Look, I… I'm sorry, but like I said, I need to go it alone. But if you tell me who you're looking for, I can keep a look out for them and tell them you want to find them if I bump into them first."
"I'm looking for Quistis." Beatrix said simply. "I know she'll want to try something with the girls, and I want to help. I know that most of the girls don't really trust me, but I think Quistis would…"
"Hey, I'll put in a good word for you." Tidus interrupted, grinning. "I'll put in a good word for you with anyone I bump into."
Beatrix blushed slightly, and her smile broadened even further.
I can see why Rikku is friends with him… he's such a nice guy.
"I need to get going…" Tidus said, looking at his scanner. "I don't know what the battery life on this thing is, and I want to find certain people quickly, before I'm flying blind. If you bump into Squall, Cloud or Cid, can you tell them I'll try and find them once I've found the girls I'm looking for?"
"Sure thing… although I might have trouble with Cid…"
"Let me guess; he talks to your chest rather than your face?"
Both laughed at that, mostly because they knew it to be true.
"Well… it's more because I've felt a bit awkward around him since we broke up…"
"Don't worry, it's just Cid." Tidus said, flashing a grin. "You know how he is, he doesn't mean to hurt anyone, only to spread the happiness a bit."
"Point." Beatrix conceded.
This is almost unreal… a friendly chat in the same room as a corpse… I guess it's a way to avoid the stress of the situation, though…
"Well…" Tidus said, looking down at his scanner. "I should get going… damn."
"What?" Beatrix said, dropping to a defensive crouch when she heard the tone of voice he used for the last word. "Is someone coming?"
"No… I… two of the signals disappeared…" he said, turning the mini computer around so she could see the map on its display. "I guess that means that someone killed someone… I just… why does this have to happen?"
"Do yourself a favour, Tidus; just ignore it. Just think of it as your search being narrowed down."
"Not too cold-hearted…" Tidus murmured. "But it is true… and I just know that Rikku will have enough sense to stay out of trouble."
You mean you hope you do…
"Well… I'm off…" Tidus said, turning to climb out of the window.
"Hope I'll see you again." Beatrix said, smiling warmly.
"I know you will." Tidus replied, returning the smile. "Be careful out there."
And without a backward glance, he clambered out of the window, consulted his scanner once more, then sprinted off.
-
"It's time." Vincent said, without opening his eyes or looking up.
Squall grimaced and Rinoa closed her eyes as the hidden speakers crackled to life again.
"Ho-hoo! Time for the noon report, I do believe. Listen in whilst you eat your lunches, my friends."
"I'm not your friend, fucker." Squall murmured, standing up and pacing around the small clearing.
"A feeling I share with you." Vincent said, still not moving.
"Well I'm sure you're all just dying to hear the list of the dearly departed…" Bugenhagen said, then he waited patiently for Marlene to stop giggling behind him. "We have another quite impressive list this report; ho-hmmm, I think this game could end in record time at this rate!"
"Fucker."
Vincent and Squall stared wide-eyed at Rinoa, who was glaring angrily into the distance, silent again after her single-word outburst.
"First to die was Yang Fabul; I guess his karate didn't help, hmmm?"
Squall sighed a deep, world-weary sigh, and sat down, the weight of his guilt suddenly too heavy to bear standing up. Rinoa shuffled over to sit next to him, and gripped his hand, smiling sympathetically.
"Next to have an appointment with fate was one half of the Mysidia twin-bond, Palom."
Rinoa closed her eyes and rested her head against Squall's shoulder, her eyes moistening.
"Next up were Cecil Ordeals and Rosa Purheart, who were in for a spot of cliff-diving, although I somewhat doubt that it was entirely voluntary, ho-hu!"
"Rosa…" Rinoa whispered, her eyes still closed. "She was a nice girl… I'm sorry I never go to know her."
"And finally were the couple Lenne Summer and Shuyin Vegnun, rounding off a nice even six deaths!"
Rinoa tensed up a little at the last two names, and pressed herself closer to Squall.
"No… not them as well…" she whispered. "All of my friends are dying on me…"
Cecil and Shuyin gone as well… they were good guys. Good fighters… they can't have gone easily, Squall thought.
"And for the next three danger zones…" Bugenhagen said, sounding a little less enthusiastic now that he had run out of deaths to announce.
"Remember to avoid them if you want to keep your head firmly on your shoulders!" Marlene put in.
"Quite. Anyway… at one pm zone D13, at three pm zone E6, and at five pm C5. Play hard, and you'll soon be out of it, one way or another, ho-hum!"
The speakers gave another slight crackle, and then silence returned.
"Six down…" Vincent murmured. "That makes twenty-eight of us left. Bugenhagen was right, this is going faster than normal… worryingly so."
"You speak as if you know of these things…" Rinoa said lifting her tear-stained face from Squall's shoulder.
"I do. And I think it's time I told you why." Vincent said, standing up straight and looking down at his two companions. "I've asked you to trust me, and I want to trust you. Before there can be trust, there must be honesty, and that is what I will give you, although you may not like it very much."
"You've been in one of these games before, haven't you, Vincent?" Squall asked quietly, somehow already knowing that he was right.
Vincent raised a single eyebrow in surprise, and then smiled slightly.
"Indeed I have."
Rinoa tensed up and gripped Squall's shoulder slightly. She looked at Vincent with confusion, unsure of whether she should fear him or pity him.
"Much as I wish that had died in that game, it was necessary that I survive… for her sake."
Squall and Rinoa waited quietly, knowing it was best not to interrupt Vincent with questions we was likely to answer in his explanation of what happened.
"My class was chosen near the beginning of last school year… we had only been in Year Eleven for a mere two months when our class's ferry was taken by G-Army troops while we were on a trip to the Chocobo Reserve Island off the coast of Dollet. We were gassed as they boarded, so there would be no resistance."
"That's how you knew something was up when they gassed us back on the airship…" Squall said. "You recognised what was happening because you'd been through it before."
"Yeah… fat lot of good my knowledge did me though… it just earned me a tranquiliser dart in the chest.
"Anyway… we woke up in one of the buildings on an island near the Chocobo Reserve… an old island where Chocobo breeders had once lived and worked, but it had been evacuated for our game… we woke up in an docks building with collars round our necks and a fat tub of lard called Palmer having a whale of a time telling us that we had to kill each other."
"No Turk at your game then?" Rinoa said, her lip curling at the mere memory of Marlene.
"There was, but he kept utterly silent, and out of sight. He was an observer like Marlene, but he did nothing more than just that; observe.
"Well… we were sent out one by one, much the same as here. The death toll began to rise, but it wasn't quite as fast as here, but worryingly fast even so… I guess hearing your friends' deaths being called out is always too fast, huh?"
"Did you have many friends, Vincent?" Rinoa asked quietly.
"A few… not that many, but I treasured the friends I had. And there was one person I treasured above all others, who was far more than a friend to me.
"Lucrecia…"
He closed his eyes as he said her name, an image of her dancing before him.
"We had been together for as long as either of us could remember… we had been friends since we could talk, and it changed into something much more as we grew older. We loved each other, and I would have done anything for her. I would have died for her… and I nearly did.
"It took me so long to find her after I left the building. She left a long way before me, I was almost the last person out. The whole time, I searched for her, and I had to kill people who got in my way. It seemed like half of our class went berserk and started killing each other, it was horrific… I ran from fights where I could, but there were some I just couldn't avoid.
"But it was my willingness to defend myself that drove Lucrecia from me… when I finally found her, she was being attacked Kinoc, a self-righteous prick who I had always hated. I fought him away to defend Lucrecia, and although I tried to use non-lethal force, I ended up killing him to save Lucrecia. But when she saw that, she fled from me… with all the deaths that were being announced, she thought that I had become like so many others in the class, a mindless killer. She ran from me, and I lost her.
"And when I finally found her again…"
Vincent closed his eyes, and turned away, but not fast enough to hide the tear that escaped his eye and trailed down his cheek.
"Was she…" Rinoa breathed.
"No. She was alive, but…" he paused, then spat "Hojo".
"Hojo?"
"He had always wanted Lucrecia, despite the fact that he knew she didn't want him, despite the fact that she had always been with me. He saw the game as his chance… he attacked Lucrecia, nearly killed her. And then he… he…" Vincent stopped, and forced himself to breathe deeply, trying to clear his anger.
"He violated her. He raped her, my precious Lucrecia…"
Squall looked to Rinoa, who was staring wide-eyed in horror at Vincent.
I know how Vincent feels… if anything were to happen to harm Rinoa… let alone someone violate her…
"I tore Hojo away from her and broke his spine with my bare hands." Vincent continued. "Then I went back to Lucrecia… she was near death, and there was nothing I could do for her… I stayed with her until the end, and she forgave me for the deaths I had inflicted. She said she was sorry for causing me such grief by fleeing from me. She died in my arms… but I vowed that I could not let her truly die. Her memory needed to live on… I sought out a classmate that I could trust to preserve her memory for me, because I felt I could not live without her. But as I searched, I found that all the people I would have trusted had all died or gone mad. I was left with nobody to trust.
"I fought my way out. I killed, and I won the game, because I had to keep Lucrecia's memory alive. I survived the game as the sole survivor, but at a cost. My body was severely damaged, and I nearly died. It took me eight months of hospital treatment for the doctors to rebuild my body… apparently one of the privileges of the winners is that you get the best treatment possible."
"Eight months!" Rinoa said incredulously. "But with Curaga spells and Elixirs and such like it should have been nearly instantaneous…"
"Indeed… but such treatments don't work when your body was caught in the blast of a Death spell. The only reasons the spell didn't kill me outright were that I was wearing a magic ward I took from the corpse of the class comedian and the fact that the person who fired the spell, the last person standing between me and victory, had somehow damaged their Death Magic Staff and the spell wasn't fully effective. But the damage it did couldn't simply be undone with potions and magic."
"A Death spell…" Rinoa said quietly. "I thought they always killed no matter what?"
"Normally, yes. But in my case, all that happened is that my right arm was essentially destroyed. This together with my bullet-wounds nearly finished me off, but I survived." He raised his gauntleted arm. "They weren't able to restore my arm properly, so they put in some bionics and covered it with this. Very… gracious of them."
"So why do you need us then?" Squall asked, partially perplexed, partially suspicious.
"I'm still searching for someone to trust… when I joined this class, everyone was unsure of me and stayed away, so I couldn't get to know anybody well enough to tell them… and would anyone have wanted to hear if I had told them about the Program I had been in? But this game has accelerated things somewhat, and I cannot afford to wait. I had to choose someone to trust."
He turned to the two of them and smiled that slight smile of his.
"And I don't think I could have chosen better. I've had my eye on you two for a while. You two and Zell. I thought you three were the perfect people; you seemed like good, caring people who I would be able to talk to and confide in. It was a stroke of luck that the two of you ran into me."
"You say you want us to preserve Lucrecia's memory…" Rinoa said slowly. "But we nothing of her. We don't know what she was like, what made her special."
"I know, but that is something I can tell you." Vincent said, smiling a broad smile now. "And I can show you."
He reached inside his golden gauntlet's rim and pulled out a sphere. He focused on it, and it rose out of his hand and started spinning.
"This is a video-sphere, an rare technology that Lucrecia's father had been experimenting with. He gave on to me and Lucrecia to play around with, and we used it to record some of our times together. With this, I will show you what she is like. But… not yet. First things first; we need to have a look at that wound of yours, Rinoa."
-
Porrom Mysidia rocked back and forth, hugging her knees, and moaning quietly. The hollow area in the centre of the bush she was hiding in seemed almost claustrophobic, pushing in on her, even though there was easily half a meter of free space in every direction around her.
With the walls of her hiding place (or is it a prison?) pushing in on her, one thought repeated in her head, as if bouncing of the surrounding hedge and back into her head in an endless cycle.
Palom is… He's de-… he's de-…
She couldn't even bring herself to so much as think the word 'dead'. That would only make it real. If she thought he was still alive, then everything would be okay…
NO! Not gone; Bugenhagen got it wrong… he isn't de-… he just got hurt… I'll have to go and boss him around so he doesn't mess up again…
She slid her left hand down her leg, and onto the floor, where a long wooden pole lay. When she had first found it in her bag, she had felt cheated; she had been given a large stick as a weapon?
But when the dawn had come, she had looked at it again, and realised there were runes carved down the length of the pole. She sensed a magical resonance within these runes, and realised that the staff possessed some form of magical power. What kind of power she didn't know, but something about runes made her think it was offensive magic… black magic. The runes seemed slightly crude, and seemed to twist slightly beneath her hand as she gripped the staff. The staff itself was warm to the touch, and resonated with its hidden power.
At least I can defend myself… other people will want to kill me… because they tried to kill Palom…
Everyone except Palom is playing…
"You gotta be real careful, Porrom."
Porrom looked up at her brother. Although she didn't know it, her fractured mind was conjuring hallucinations, and the image of her brother was one such hallucination. Her now-deceased sibling was kneeling on the sparse grass in front of her. He looked almost hyperactive, even more so than normal.
"They'll all try to kill us. We gotta fight!"
I got some magic stuff to fight with… what did you get?
"I… lost my weapon, when I got attacked."
Porrom reached up and swung her hand at the side of his head. The fact that it passed right through him didn't register in her broken mind.
How could you lose something so important!
Porrom was forever chiding Palom, for his behaviour, for the way he talked to people (not enough respect, she always thought), and the things he did wrong. After all, it was her job as the older sister to keep him in line; she may have only been a minute older, but it still counted.
"Don't hit me! You should be hitting the others! Before they try to kill us!" the image of her brother had jumped to his feet, and was rocking back and forth on his heels as he said this, punching the air as if to emphasise his point.
Yeah… hit the others…
"We gotta do it! We have to survive! They'll let the two of us out if we get the others! Twins probably count as one!"
Yeah… we're like two halves of a whole… we can get out together…
"Let's go do it! Let's fight!"
"I'm gonna do it! I'll kill them all!" she shrieked, jumping to her feet.
However, her sudden rush to her feet left her feeling dizzy, and she topples sideways through the sides of the hedge, landing roughly on the patchy grass beyond.
"Huh?"
Her head snapped up, and she saw a guy in front of her. She was already pointing the staff at him before his face registered in her mind.
Tidus… that guy who transferred to our school from Zanarkand High a couple of years ago… he wants to kill me!
With a shriek, Porrom concentrated on the staff in her hand, and willed it to unleash its power. The tip glowed for a second, then a thin shaft of molten flame flew forth, straight towards Tidus.
But Tidus wasn't standing there any more. He had moved with incredible speed, and was fleeing, dodging around trees and disappearing deeper into the forest. The shaft of flame hit a small sapling, which burst into match-stick like splinters of wood, and left nothing but a small, smouldering stump sticking out of the ground.
Palom cursed. Porrom looked at him. He was standing near her, staring in the direction Tidus had fled. Normally she would have chided him for using bad language.
But now it doesn't matter; the only thing that matters now is killing the others, and surviving… we gotta kill the others… we gotta…
"Kill them…"
"Yeah!" Palom shouted, jumping up and down. "Now you're getting it! We gotta kill them all!"
Kill them all…
With this thought reverberating around her broken mind, Porrom Mysidia set off into the woods, the image of her brother walking beside her.
28 students remaining.