Chapter Two: Psychic
A/N:
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The train station was busy, as men in business suits and women in power suits rushed past each other, briefcases flying in their wake. Standing at the unloading dock from Timber was Quistis Trepe dressed in black slacks, an untucked white dress shirt unbuttoned low enough to show the split of her cleavage, and below the hem of her slacks could be seen her trademark black boots. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail that fell between her shoulder blades, and on her face was a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles. Her hands were free of gloves, but her whip still hung at her side.
As the train began unloading, a young man in a SeeD uniform stepped off in the accompaniment of Ellone. Quistis narrowed her eyes sourly, irritated by the lack of inconspicuous behaviour. How was she supposed to protect Ellone from possible danger if her existence in Galbadia was flaunted. Even with the reinstated Galbadian Garden, the Galbadian citizenry and government wasn't on the best of terms with the Garden organizations. Many harsh feelings were shared between the two after the immediate disappearance of Seifer Almasy. Galbadia accused Garden of hiding him from their Tribunal, and Garden stating that Galbadia had already killed Seifer and was simply trying to blame elsewhere. Even with her advanced knowledge of world events, Quistis wasn't sure which side she believed.
"Oh, Quisty!" Ellone called as she flung her arms around the not amused Instructor. Her eyes flashed dangerously in the direction of the SeeD as she hugged the older girl. Ellone was wearing a green and yellow sundress with a skirt that fell just above her knees. "It feels like it's been forever since I've seen you!"
"Squall sent you because he doesn't my abilities. He wants us to use yours," Quistis stated, getting down to business. It still irritated her that she hadn't done much more than the preliminary investigation before having Squall pull rank on her.
"That's right," the woman said nervously. Ellone's brown hair had been cut shorter than the last time Quistis had seen her. It was clipped close to her head, except for bangs that would've fallen into her eyes if they weren't tucked behind her ears. "Squall insisted that I have a body guard at all times. That's why he sent Nida."
"Now that she's in my care," Quistis called to the Garden pilot, "you can go back to Balamb Garden." Nida responded by shaking his head.
"He told me that Squall ordered him to stay with me until the case is closed," Ellone told her old friend. She stuck her arm out and waved the young man over. "And he's supposed to assist you in your investigation."
Quistis scoffed. Not only was she not trusted to run Galbadia Garden while investigating Zell's death, she wasn't even trusted to investigate it herself. What would it take for her to prove her usefulness to the Commander? It didn't seem like there was much more that she could do, aside from traveling back in time and defeating Ultimecia by herself.
"It's been awhile," Nida said as he held out a hand for Quistis. Ellone moved out of the way, leaving the Instructor to eye the hand before taking it in her own. The touch was stiff and awkward, with Quistis pulling away as soon as possible.
"Have you been briefed on the situation?" Quistis asked him before turning to Ellone. Her left foot trailed the concrete of the outdoor unloading dock, skuffing the front of her boot. "Both of you?"
Nida nodded and Ellone looked sad before whispering her confirmation. "Squall told me," the psychic continued, "that Zell was murdered. Is it true?"
Quistis looked around to make sure that no one had heard Ellone before she hissed a reply. "We do not discuss the specifics of cases, internal or otherwise, in public!"
Of course, the Brunette girl looked taken aback. For a moment, Quistis had to hold back a laugh. She was beginning to sound like Squall, the man who had reduced her life into glorified baby-sitter.
However, the other two didn't have the opportunity to respond to Quistis's harsh reprimand because the men and women around them began screaming. The Instructor's head jerked to the cause of the commotion and she didn't even try to hold back the expletives that had found their way into her mouth.
A group of three men in black commando gear stormed the train station, with three automatics weapons firing into the various professionals arouond them. Quistis looked back at Ellone and realized why they were there. There was no better way to immobilize Garden than kidnap the headmaster's sister, and she was sitting out in the open. Still, there was no way they could've known where she was going to be unless Quistis had been followed.
Quistis grabbed Ellone's arm in a tight grasp and pulled her away from the fray, stashing the frightened medium behind a large trash can. Ellone whimpered as Quistis looked up and saw Nida running toward them, firing a .9 mm handgun at them. She wondered where he had obtained the weapon before remembering her own concealed firearm lodged in the back of her bra. Expertly reaching back through her shirt, Quistis pulled the gun free and handed it to Ellone, telling her to fire if Nida and she failed to stop the onslaught.
Ellone nodded shakily and took the offered weapon into her hands, then ducking behind the trashcan and covering her head with her hands. While Ellone was doing that, Quistis had freed her whip from its "holster" and swung it dangerously above her head. Nida made it to Quistis, and squeezed off a few more rounds before looking back to make sure that Ellone was okay.
"What do we do?" he shouted over the sound of the firearms. They ducked to avoid a spray of bullets and Quistis let her whip fly, hitting one of the advancing warriors in the side with the chain-laden whip.
"Protect Ellone to your last!" was the Instructor's reply. A woman with a briefcase was blown apart by the fire as she mistakenly ran in front of Quistis. The Blonde tucked her ponytail into her shirt before dropping to the ground and swinging her weapon around, striking the nearest of the commandos in the face. They were wearing modified gas masks, so she didn't directly injure him, but the force had been strong enough to crack the tinted visor that protected his face. Quistis guessed that they were men by their bulky builds.
Nida had abandoned his firearm in favour of a pair of sai that Quistis had also not noticed. She metally cursed herself for not being on task and wrapped the edge of her whip around one of the cammando's legs. The Instructor jerked and he fell back, his gun clattering away.
Meanwhile, Nida had managed to disarm the other two men by launching his sai at their hands and knocking the weapons to the floor. The SeeD bent down and ran by the commandos, grabbing his sai on the way.
"Bring it on!" Nida shouted, twirling the weapons in his hands as the two commandos stood back up. They grabbed at the sides of their legs and pulled out extendable batons. ((A/N: Similar to what Alice used in her fight against Nemesis/Matt in RE Apocalypse)) They rushed Nida, who parried with his Sai. His leg swept out and knocked one black-clad warrior to the ground as he spun and drove his elbow into the face of the other.
With her own opponent still very much alive, Quistis jerked her whip loose and attempted to bring it down on him until he blocked it with his own baton. Admiring his craftiness, Quistis jerked her whip back once more, bringing the baton with it. She reached a hand up and yanked the baton free. One fluid motion coiled the whip back in her hand and Quistis reattached it to her side. She gripped the baton and charged, whacking the commando in his mask before he could get up. This time the racked visor shattered and he screamed as shards of it caught in his eyes. The man grabbed at something on his chest, and it took Quistis a second before she realized what had happened.
"Grenade!" she cried before diving behind the trashcan with Ellone, the baton still fiercely within her grip.
The other SeeD, Nida, stabbed one commando in the chest with a sai before delivering a kick to the other one. He dropped and rolled beneath the train just as the grenade exploded, vaporizing the three instigators.
Quistis protected Ellone with her own body, feeling heat brush by. Luckily, no shrapnel had struck her in the blast. When a calm silence finally settled on the train station, the Instructor stood up and walked to the least magled body, nudging it with her baton. There was no response.
"Come on," Quistis offered Ellone a hand and helped the medium to her feet. Nida rolled back into the open and dusted himself off before silently surveying the scene all around them. Dead civilians lay all around, bodies ripped apart by gunfire. The bodies of the commandos seemed to have disappeared with the blast.
"Let's get out of here," Nida agreed. He wiped his sai on the body of a dead conductor. Then the deadly blades went back into their sheaths in the interior of the thighs of his pants. Quistis made special note of this.
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"Are you saying that you were attacked?" Xu asked as Quistis briefed her about the situation at the East Academy Train Station. "Who do you think did it?"
"Well," Quistis said as she took off her glasses. At that moment Ellone was in the former Headmaster's apartment/dorm with Nida keeping watch. "History would dictate Galbadia being behind the strike, but I've fought Galbadian soldiers. These people were too sloppy, easily overcome by a couple of lone SeeDs. My guess is that it was someone else."
"Esthar or Dollet?"
Xu was an intelligent woman when it came to leading battles, but her mind wasn't attuned to the complexitites of international woes and the like. Quistis, still angry at Squall for giving control of Galbadia Garden to someone that the Instructor believed to be unprepared for such a daunting task, growled before answering. "It was probably a small rebel group hoping that they could force our hand by taking Ellone. It wouldn't be Esthar because Laguna Loire is still the president, and Dollet is still an ally of Garden."
"Until we figure this out, I don't want you or Ellone to leave Garden," Xu ordered. "That goes for Nida, too. He is assisting you in your investigation, after all."
Outrage wouldn't even begin to describe what Quistis was feeling at that moment. Not only had she been left uninformed about Nida "assisting" her on her investigation with Zell, but Xu had effectively strangled the investigation by saying that she couldn't leave Garden! "Listen here," the Instructor spoke up, "Squall left you in charge of Garden while I'm investigating Zell's death. You do not have the authority to bar Ellone or myself from leaving. And Nida, if I remember correctly, isn't under your authority as well."
Thus the stalemate had been reached. Xu's upper lip curled back menacingly, her newfound power already being challenged. However, she knew that Quistis was correct. Her authority encompassed only Galbadia Garden's students and SeeDs. Ellone wasn't affiliated with Garden beyond Squall being her brother, Nida was a SeeD from Balamb Garden, and Quistis was currently untouchable.
"I see you get it now, Headmaster," Quistis mocked before standing up. She was still wearing the outfit she had worn at the train station, and the baton she had stolen from the commando was resting in her pocket. Quistis prefered carrying it as a secondary weapon over the pistol, which was still in Ellone's possession. "If you try to interfere with my duties as a SeeD again, you will regret it. Even if Squall does think you're more qualified than I to lead this Garden, we both know that he's wrong. I have put more into this place than you have back at Balamb. The residents won't take to kindly to you trying to throw your weight around, either. If you know what I mean."
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A/N: Gratuitous fight scene? Maybe, but it does come into play later. And what happens when Ellone tries to use her powers to look into the past of a dead person? You'll see in the next chapter.