Chapter 6
Irvine was the first to hear her fall to the floor. He turned instantly, shotgun drawn, followed by the others. To their shock, Seifer was standing before their very eyes, holding his gunblade. Ayleia was curled up on the floor, unconscious. "Little missy got somewhat distracted," he said, smiling. "Did you really think that I would allow you to take me into custody? Sorry to ruin your plans, but I have a sorceress to resurrect!"
He threw a Fira spell at them to give himself enough time to get past them and out of the antechamber. He rushed into the hallway, grabbed Rinoa and proceeded to drag her up the newly accessible structure, reaching a landing higher up.
Selphie and Zell ran to where Ayleia was lying. Squall, Irvine and Quistis came up behind them. As she rolled Ayleia over onto her back, Selphie noticed the bruise forming where Seifer had hit her and knocked her out. "She's okay," Irvine said, noticing her breathing. "But we have to go get that son of a…"
He was interrupted when Ellone rushed into the room. "Squall," she cried. "Seifer has Rinoa! You have to go after them!"
Realizing what could happen if Rinoa were present when Adel was fully resurrected, Squall rushed toward the hallway. "Irvine, Quistis, you'll come with me," he ordered as he turned back toward them. "Selphie and Zell can stay here with Ayleia and Ellone until Laguna gets here. When he arrives, you will come help us."
Selphie nodded and brushed a lock of hair out of Ayleia's face. "We'll be right behind you," Zell replied. "Besides I'd feel bad not staying with her after she saved me."
Squall nodded and ran out of the room with Quistis and Irvine hot on his steps. He was well on his way up to the next landing when the antechamber filled with royal blue light.
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Now is NOT the time for this! she thought angrily.
Ayleia looked around her to see she was back in her house…again. It was completely dark except for the fire going in living room and a couple of candles. Ayleia, now sixteen, was sitting on a pale green couch engrossed a very thick book. She had destroyed the old couch, unable to bear looking at it even after she'd had it cleaned. Having it in the house was simply intolerable to her, so she took a little bit of the money that her father had left for her and bought another one.
Ayleia had never seen anything that her mother had written until she'd found the journals. Their handwriting was almost identical, which helped a lot when she was studying. After opening the first of the six large books, she instantly felt more connected to her mother than she did when she would gaze at the portrait that had hidden them from her. She had the same dark hair and smooth features that her mother had. She even had the same beauty mark right by her upper lip on the right as her mother.
"When you heal wounds, whether they be your own or someone else's, you must completely clear your mind except to ease thepain caused by the inflicted damage. Focus on making it better and as you focus, the wound will start to heal. Keep your mindfocused until the wounds are gone. To heal someone is a gift that you give someone. To abuse it in any way is abuse of your power and there is no turning back from that. You will then continue to abuse your power and dishonor the gift that Hyne has given you."
She jumped as her concentration was broken by someone knocking on the door. She looked at the clock on the fireplace mantle. Eleven forty-five. To her knowledge, no one other than her was ever awake at this time of night. Not to mention it was snowing outside. She'd often gone out for walks in the cold late at night when she needed to take a break from her studies. All the lights in the houses were always off, so it was odd to her to have someone at her door. She realized that her friends and neighbors had been worried about her after father died and she'd shut herself away, but they usually came to visit during the day.
"Who is it," she asked. She was not leaving the couch if she didn't have to.
"Ayleia, it's me, Ethan. Please let me in. It's cold outside and I need to talk to you," the deep masculine voice answered from the other side of the door.
Groaning, she closed the book and hid it under one of the pillows. She must have not moved for hours, because when she stood up, her knees were hurting. She pulled her hair up into an elastic band and then looked down at the purple pajama pants and the white tank top she was wearing. Knowing that the second she opened the door a draft was going to hit her, she grabbed the nearby robe and put it on as well as her slippers. Ayleia sighed as she reluctantly pulled the door open.
Ethan Zandrage stood before her, looking desperate to get inside the house. His dark hair was almost completely white from the heavy snowfall. She stepped aside to let him in. He had to duck to get inside because of his towering frame. Before she could close the door, Deimos, Ethan's dog, rushed in behind him, leaping at Ayleia. After he'd finished jumping all over her, she smiled at him, and pointed to his favorite chair, which he immediately ran to and sat in.
"Ethan, it's late. What are you doing here," she asked. They had been best friends since they were toddlers, so she had always welcomed his visits. He'd even had a key before. But coming by so late wasn't his style, so her curiosity was piqued.
Taking off his coat, he sat on the couch and looked up at her expectant face. His hazel eyes looked tired and sad when he looked at her lately. Gee, I wonder why, Ayleia thought as she watched this scene from the nearby staircase she was sitting on.
"I came to see how you were doing. You haven't returned my calls in two days and I was worried," he answered pleadingly. His eyes followed her as she walked into the kitchen and pulled two mugs from a cabinet.
"I've been busy," she replied, placing a kettle on the stove, and then turning to pull out some milk and sugar. "Some of the stuff I've been working on is a bit tricky, so I needed to concentrate." Ethan was the only person that she told about being a sorceress. She had shown him the letter from her father and he'd even seen one of the journals. Knowing this, he was the sole person in Winhill that understood the reason why she basically kept people away from her.
He shivered. Ayleia had only told him a few of the things she'd had to learn since she started studying the journals. She had made it clear that she didn't want him to know about some of the things she had learned. A couple of things she'd done had freaked him out. Her training with weapons not withstanding, some of the stuff she'd learned had just been outright terrifying. He'd convinced her to go with him to the pub for lunch one day and saw her blow up a caterchipiller on the way there. He had even noticed that some of the chocobos were even scared of her now.
Leaning back, he noticed something poking into his back. He glanced over at her to see that she was pulling down a box of her favorite tea. Content that she wouldn't notice, he reached behind the pillow and found one of the journals. This one was much thicker than the one he had seen before. He opened the book to marked page. Healing, he thought. Well at least this wasn't about hurling multi-colored energy balls at moving objects. He made the mistake of coming by unexpectedly while she was practicing one day and she had barely missed hitting him with a purple one when he walked in on her. After that, he instantly returned the key she had given him, and didn't come to see her for a week.
The kettle had started whistling andinterrupted his thoughts. He looked toward the kitchen to see that Ayleia had finished pouring the water into the mugs and was bringing the steaming cups along with some cookies and brownies on a tray. She set the tray on the coffee table and took a seat next to him. She took the journal from his hand and set it on the end table behind her and closed her eyes. "Please tell me you're not here to try to convince me to stop what I'm doing again," she said finally, now playing with the disk that hung around her neck. She put it on immediately after she found it and learned exactly what it was for.
"I'm not going to try to stop you from learning your heritage," he began. He'd tried to convince her to leave it alone when she showed him the letter a couple of weeks after her father died. She flat out refused and he knew better than to try again. "But I am concerned about you. Your next door neighbor told me that you haven't even been outside in the last week. The older folks are worried that you're going to end up like that woman who ran the pub did when she got involved with that soldier. You know the story."
Ayleia rolled her eyes. "That was like decades ago. People in this town do not know how to let go of things," she said, handing him a mug before she took the other for herself. "They didn't take too kindly to my father and me when we first came here either, but they got used to us being here. I'm fine, I promise. It's just that some of this is a lot tougher to master than the other things from before." She picked up a brownie and ate it thoughtfully.
"Look, ever since you ended our relationship, you've started to draw back further into yourself and I'm not the only one who thinks so," he replied, remembering how heartbroken he was that night. They had fallen in love and he had even planned on marrying her when they got older. But even after their breakup he was still in love with her and came to visit her almost everyday, although she had been trying to push him away.
She glanced at him apologetically. It had been very painful for both of them when she broke up with him, but she had done it for his own good. She knew she had to partially because she was afraid that she would hurt him with her magic. Ayleia had told him that part, but she didn't dare tell him the second reason, for she knew that he would be terrified and try to stop her. But now that she was close to the end of her lessons, it was almost time to begin working on her plan. Unfortunately, this meant that she would have to stop Ethan from coming to see her, which was going to be difficult.
"I'm sorry Ethan," she said softly. "I don't have much of a choice now. I need to be left alone to finish my studying. I didn't want to break your heart, but you know my reasons…"
"You wouldn't hurt me," he interrupted grabbing her hand. "And I understand why you're so afraid, but we've been through a lot together, so I just hoped that we could get through this."
It saddened her to desperately want him to stay beside her, but she knew that it was for the best that he stayed away. She closed her eyes and decided that it was best tosever tieswith Ethan now before it got any more painful for either of them. She looked at Deimos, who was now staring at her sadly, as if he knew what she was about to do.
Of course he knew what was about to happen, she thought as she continued to watch from the staircase. It was going to hurt him just as much as it was going to hurt Ethan.
"Ethan," she began as she got up from the couch, "I'm so sorry to have to do this, but you can't come and see me anymore. I need you to stay away."
He nearly choked on his tea. He understood that she was afraid of hurting him, but he didn't plan on her cutting him out of her life completely. "Ayleia," he started to say.
She held up her hand. "I know what you're going to say, but I've made my choice," she continued to force the words out of her mouth. "You can't come here anymore. It's too dangerous."
He was starting to think that she was considering of another danger. "If you mean Ultimecia, I know that she can't do anything to you," he replied. "Your mother said so in the note she left with your necklace, so whatever danger you're thinking about is not going to scare me away." He got up and walked over to her and tilted her face toward his. "I love you," he said, "and I wish you would stop worrying about all the things that could happen if we're together."
"I love you too," she said sadly, closing her eyes. "But I need you to stay away from me. There things that I'm about to do that could put your life at risk and I won't take that chance."
He recognized the look she now wore on her face. He knew she was working on something dangerous. "Ayleia," he began slowly, "what are you up to?"
She pulled away from him and turned around. "I can't tell you what I'm doing. Just knowing about it could be bad enough," she said quietly.
He grabbed her by her shoulders and made her face him again. "Tell me what you're doing!" he said, giving her a small shake. Deimos ran and hid under the couch.
"I, I can't," she stammered. He was beginning to become desperate for her to tell him what was going on. She tried to get out of the grip he had on her, but it was no use.
"Yes you can," he said angrily. "Stop being so afraid for me and tell me what's going on!" Ethan had never had to force anything out of her, but he knew that he would have to make Ayleia tell him what she was doing. He'd do whatever it took to stop her if he had to.
Deimos was whimpering from underneath the couch. Upsetabout what she would have to do to make him stay away, she sighed defeatedly. "I'm sorry, Ethan," she said softly as her eyes went red.
When she calmed down, she saw that she'd sent him flying over the couch. Deimos was now howling. WhenEthan stood up, the fear she saw in his eyes, tore her heart out. "Ethan, you have to go," she said finally. "It's going to get too dangerous for you to come around. Please leave."
He looked at her sadly, nodded and walked toward the door. Deimos ran out from under the couch to Ethan's side. "If you need anything, call me," he said, and he left.
When the door shut behind him, Ayleia burst into tears. She knew she'd done the right thing, forcing him to leave, but it didn't hurt any less to see the pain in his eyes. She went upstairs to her father's room and walked over to his desk. She looked at the small device that she'd found among some of her father's belongings a couple of years before. "Junction Machine Ellone," she said. Lately, when she wasn't studying, she'd been using the machine to view her father's past with her mother. She'd started to get the feeling that maybe getting to know what her mother was like would help her with her plans. She turned on the machine and picked up the headset and put it on. She put her head down on the desk, closed her eyes and let the machine take over.
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The next thing Ayleia saw was a woman who looked exactly like her. She'd seen her a thousand times when she gazed at the portrait in her father's room. She had the same long, curly, dark hair and the smooth complexion that she had, except she had light brown eyes. She looked to be about four months pregnant and was sitting in a chair writing in a large book. She looked up at Ayleia's father, who was smiling at her, and smiled back warmly. "What," she asked.
"You look beautiful," Joshua replied. Her smile got bigger. Yeah she does, Ayleia agreed. Joshua squinted his eyes and scratched his head.
Concern crossed her mother's face. "Is your head buzzing again?"
"Just a little bit," he answered. "It's no big deal. Lilia, what are you doing?"
Lilia sighed and closed the book. "Joshua, you know that Ultimecia is killing off the other sorceresses. She killed another one last week." She rubbed her belly lovingly. "The magic that protects us won't continue after the she's born, so I've decided that I needed to write down everything that I know for our little girl."
He frowned at her. He was terrified that his wife and child were in so much danger because of Ultimecia. He was grateful that their combined magic was protecting them from her, but he knew that once Lilia had their daughter, he was at risk of losing one or both of them.
"You know that I will do anything to protect our daughter, so rest assured that you will not lose her," she said, reading his thoughts. "I've already come up with a protection spell for her. There's no need to cast it now, so I'll do it right after she's born. But there's something that you have to promise me."
Mom, can't you do something! Can't you fight Ultimecia? Ayleia thought.
"I'll promise you anything," Joshua replied, kissing her hand.
She became serious. "Joshua, I don't know if I can defeat Ultimecia," she said thoughtfully. "She can't do anything to me while I'm pregnant, but afterwards, she'll be able to come after me. So, when I have the baby, I need you to take her away from here. It won't be safe for either of you to be here when Ultimecia comes. Take our daughter someplace safe. Will you do that?"
Joshua looked at her with his green eyes. He could tell that she was afraid of what could happen to him and their daughter. "Of course I will," he replied, kissing her tenderly.
Don't worry, mom, Ayleia said, Dad took very good care of me. I miss you both.
Ayleia disconnected herself from theimage and then sat up and looked around her father's room. The memory faded.
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Ayleia opened her eyes and saw Laguna kneeling over her. "That didn't take long," he said, relief resonating in his voice.
She looked around the room. Zell, Quistis, Irvine, Squall, Selphie, and Seifer were all gone. The only ones with her were Laguna, Kiros, Ward, and Ellone. "Where'd everyone go," she asked, sitting up. She began rubbing the back of her neck where Seifer had hit her.
Laguna got serious. "Seifer knocked you out," he told her.
"I kinda guessed that," she replied.
"He grabbed Rinoa and ran up to the second landing to resurrect Adel!"he continued."Squall, Irvine, and Quistis went after them while Selphie, Zell and Ellone stayed with you until I could get here."
"Selphie and Zell have already gone up to help them," Ellone added. "They said that they needed you to come up as soon as you were okay. How do you feel?"
Ayleia forced herself to stand up. Her head still felt a little woozy, but she managed to keep herself balanced. "I'm fine," she said. "How long was I out this time?"
Laguna looked at Ellone. "You were only out for about five minutes when Uncle Laguna got here," she said, "he's only been here for a couple of minutes."
Ayleia knew that it wouldn't be long before Adel was fully functional. Her window was starting to close and if Adel completely awakened, everything she had done would allhave been for nothing.
"Laguna, stay here until we finish off Adel. I'll send another light to let you know when it's safe," Ayleia said. She ran to the hallway.
"…."
"Ward is asking if you're sure you can fight," Laguna interpreted.
"I can handle it," she replied over her shoulder, leaving the antechamber.
When Ayleia reached the second landing, she heard a scream. She sped toward the doorway of the only room on that floor.
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"She's junctioned Rinoa!" Selphie screamed. "We've gotta save her!"
"The only thing we can do is make sure that the magic we use doesn't hurt her," Squall replied. "Just focus on Adel!"
Ayleia couldn't believe the scene that she walked in on. Squall, Selphie, Irvine, Zell and Quistis were now faced with challenging two sorceresses. Adel had Rinoa attached to the front of her body and it looked as if she were starting to absorb her completely. Rinoa would be of no help to her if Ayleia couldn't get her away from Adel. She had started trying to think of a new plan when she noticed that Seifer was watching them, his laughter twisted with madness. She slowly walked up behind him and hit him in the back of the head with the handle of her stiletto, rendering him unconscious. She knelt down beside him. "Now we're even," she whispered in his ear.
As Ayleia stood up to attack, Rinoa screamed. Adel was starting to drain her of her strength.Rinoa had beenfighting the pain as best as she could, but it was no use. She passed out.
Adel had begun to cast another spell when a blue energy ball whizzed by Squall's head and hit Adel in the shoulder. Another, a green one, sped right by Selphie's ear and struck Adel again, this time in her leg.
They all turned. "Ayleia, you're okay!" Selphie cried.
"Well, at least now we don't have to worry about that jackass," said Zell, noting that Seifer was knocked clean out on the floor behind Ayleia.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, hurling a red energy ball toward Adel. This one hit her in her other shoulder.
Quistis got serious. "Seifer allowed Adel to awaken and junction Rinoa and nowshe's draining her of her strength" she said, turning back toward Adel using her Fire Breath magic.
"I can see that," Ayleia said. "We just have to focus on keeping Rinoa alive and weakening Adel until I can figure out how to get Rinoa away from her."
Before Ayleia could block it, Adel cast a Quake spell. The whole room shook so violently that pieces of the Crystal Pillar tumbled down. One of the sleeves of Irvine's coat was shredded, exposing a lacerated arm. Quistis had a cut on the side of her face and Selphie was knocked unconscious.
With three of them hurt, Adel began to get more aggressive. She hurled a Shock Bomb toward Squall. Ayleia instantly shoved him out of the way and deflected it back toward Adel. "Keep her busy!" she yelled at Zell and Squall.
She healed Irvine's arm and Quistis's face, then telling them to help Squall. Selphie was going to take a little work. As she worked on Selphie, she continued to help the others by periodically throwing energy balls and blocking Adel's magic. Butsince her healing wasn't working while her focus was split between the two,she had to make a choice between helping them fight Adel and completely healing Selphie.
Healing is a gift that you give to someone, Ayleia reminded herself.
"I need some time to heal Selphie," she told them, hurling another energy ball. "Can you handle it on your own for a few minutes?"
"Yeah," Zell replied breathlessly. "Try to hurry though," Quistis added.
Ayleia nodded. She focused all her energy on helping Selphie regain consciousness. She was determined to bring Selphie back to help them. She screamed as bright blue light pulsed from her hands. She placed them around Selphie's head, and smiled as Selphie opened her eyes.
"Alright," she asked. Selphie nodded as Ayleia helped her to her feet. "Let's get her!" Selphie exclaimed.
Ayleia blocked an incoming Ultima spell and retaliated by casting Meltdown. She then began to realize that Adel would be rendered defenseless if she could manage to get Rinoa away from her. She had an idea, but needed Rinoa to wake up and help her.
She had read about talking to someone telepathically in her mother's journals, but had never tried it. Figuring that now was as good a time as any, she began to try to speak to Rinoa. She closed her eyes and focused.
Rinoa? Ayleia began
Nothing.
Rinoa? She tried again, concentrating harder.
…..
RINOA! ANSWER ME DAMMIT! She said with all the power she could muster.
Ayleia? Rinoa replied. Much to Ayleia's relief, Rinoa could hear her.
Yeah it's me. I know you're weak, but I need you to wake up and help me focus on pulling you away from Adel.
How? Rinoa asked.
Use your magic against her. Just one spell can break the junction! Then we'll take her out!
What do you want me to cast?
Anything! Blizzaga will work, but you have to use all you power! Hurry! Ayleia pleaded.
Okay…
You ready, Ayleia asked.
Yeah…came the reply
Okay, I'm gonna hit her with an energy ball and then you can cast the magic.
Alright…
Ready? NOW!
Ayleia opened her eyes and hurled the purple energy ball right at Adel's face blinding her. At the same time Rinoa opened her eyes and used all that she could to cast the Blizzaga spell.
Adel screamed as Rinoa fell to the floor. "Squall!" Ayleia shrieked. He looked at her and nodded understanding what she was saying.
Before Adel could grab her again, Squall raced toward Rinoa and pulled her out of Adel's reach. Once they were out of the way, Ayleia hurled her Sais toward Adel's chest. She rose up into the air and launched the largest black ball of energy she could muster at her. Adel began staggering.
"I'M…NOT…DONE…YET…" Adel gurgled.
Desperately, Adel tried to hit Ayleia with a Shock Bomb. She spun out of the way, her eyes flaring as she charged her urumi with Ultima. She flew at Adel, wrapping the weapon's flexible blade around Adel's neck.
"Yes you are," she replied softly. "For the sake of the world and my family, YOU ARE FINISHED!"
Adel screamed as the blade tore into her neck. "Rinoa," Ayleia called. "Cast Ultima!"
Rinoa staggered to her feet. Holding her hand out to release the magic, she launched the spell toward Ayleia and Adel. Right before the spell hit, Ayleia unwrapped the urumi's blade from around Adel's neck and dropped to the ground.
After the room cleared, they watched as Adel began flailing her arms wildly. Ayleia knew that she was dying, but she couldn't die without passing her powers on. "Rinoa, go," she cried as shesent Laguna the signal he was waiting for, "go absorb her powers!"
Rinoa slowly stepped toward Adel. She could feel Adel's strong powers pouring into her as she accepted them. The feeling as she absorbed the power was almost hypnotic, but then the feeling that she had when Ultimecia possessed her before began to take over. And Adel disappeared.
Laguna and Ellone burst into the room. "Ellone, now's your chance!"
Rinoa's body fell to the floor as Ellone sent Ultimecia and Rinoa's consciousnesses further back into the past to make time compress.
Before Ellone brought Rinoa back, Ayleia felt that it was time to tell them an important piece of information. "When time compresses, I'll be separated from you since it's a time that I truly exist in," she told them. "I'll most likely get to the future first, arriving at my home, but I'll probably be waiting for you when you arrive at Edea's house. If I'm not there yet, it shouldn't take long for me to get there."
"That makes sense," Quistis replied. "But why can't we just all go to your house or you just come with us?"
"Well," Ayleia answered, "my house isn't familiar to you and I've never been to Centra so I don't really know how to find Edea's house. I've lived in Winhill my entire life."
"Winhill?" Laguna asked, surprised. "Y-You're from Winhill?"
She looked at him indignantly. "Yeah, I'm from Winhill. Look, there isn't time for any explanations right now so let's just get ready for this. Moving through time can be a little painful so just be prepared for a couple of aches," she warned.
"Okay," Selphie gulped. "Hey, how are you going to find us?" Irvine asked.
Ayleia looked around the room from one face to the other. "Well since I've healed all of you except Squall and Rinoa, I've kind of given a little bit of myself to each of you. That's all that I'll need to find you."
They all nodded. This girl is full of surprises, Squall thought.
"It's time," Ayleia said, taking a deep breath.
Ellone brought Rinoa back to her body and sent Ultimecia back to the future. Laguna wished then luck, a few seconds later,the room shook as time began compressing.