Chapter Thirty-One:

A/N: Tessa encounters other survivors! Also, the significance of the red eyes comes out. Oh, yeah, R&R!

Chocobo Nuchaku: Zell as a zombie... Well, you will have to read to find out!

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Tessa awoke in a dark room, sprawled across the floor. She was wrapped in a long curtain made of silk, which didn't rub her wounds raw as she sat up.

Her lungs ached for air, but her ribs hurt as she breathed deeply. It felt like every muscle in her body was on fire: she could barely move. Still, she stood up and blindly felt around the room. She caught her feet on the curtain and pitched forward, hitting the floor face first.

"Son of a bitch!" she yelled as she rubbed her nose and kicked herself free of the curtain. Tessa stood up again and felt around the room, yelling, "Hello!"

She finally felt a door, reached for the knob, gripped it, and tried to turn it, but the door was locked. Tessa leaned down and felt for a keyhole. When she found it, she placed her right hand over it and sent a Thunder spell into it.

The knob clicked, signifying that she had succeeded in unlocking it. She stood up and twisted the knob, the hinges squeaking as the door slowly opened. She held out her left hand, a Fire spell lighting the dark hallway.

Turning back and looking into the room, she saw a large portrait of a woman with black hair, lips painted purple, and a slim yet flowing black dress. The dress had a cut that stretched nearly down to her navel and clung to her breasts. On her back, whether it was part of the dress or the background of the painting itself, was a structure with lucid, white fabric flowing off of two golden wing-like objects. Tessa was struck speechless by the beauty and power the image of the woman gave off. She was sure that the woman had been a great figure in Galbadia, in control of her femininity and also of herself.

"She's awake! She's out!" a man yelled. Tessa turned quickly and had a light shine in her face, blinding her. She thrust her hands up to block the light, extinguishing her Fire spell. "She's one of them! Get her!"

"One of what?" Tessa asked before a long piece of wood struck her in the side of the head, knocking her down. She grabbed the side of her head and gritted her teeth against the pain. "That hurt, you stupid bastard!"

"Wait," another voice, a low yet soft one, said. It was immediately recognized as female, but it didn't have the same Galbadian accent as Rinoa's. "She spoke, she's not one of them. She's one of us."

"Sorry," another man, with a familiar voice, said. Tessa pressed her left hand to her head and moaned.

"She's one of them!" the first man shouted. "Didn't you see her eyes? She has their eyes!"

"But they can't speak," the woman repeated. "She's not one of them."

"Ow," Tessa said again as she stood up, her legs wobbly. She opened her eyes and held out her right hand, another blaze appearing in it. "Which one of you stupid sons of bitches hit me?"

There were three people standing around her, their faces awash in the light of Tessa's Fire spell. The first was a blonde man who looked only a few years older than she; the second was the same grey-haired, middle-aged man that had saved her in the sewers; and the woman an elderly one, with white hair and a cane clasped in her right hand.

"It was Macone," the old woman said. "The young idiot hit you."

"But, her eyes…" the blonde man said. Tessa guessed that he was the Macone the old woman had spoken about. She dropped her left hand from her head and waited for her vision to clear.

"Did you hit me?" she asked the blonde man. "Are you Macone?"

"Umm…" he said weakly. "Yes, but it was just…"

Tessa didn't give him the opportunity to finish his sentence, though. Her left fist met with his mouth and he stumbled backward, falling onto his butt. Despite her obvious pain, she managed to glare at him. "Don't ever touch me again, or I'll kill you."

The old woman began laughing, and the grey-haired man joined her. Her face crinkled and a smile was plastered across her wizened, dark-skinned face. "I've wanted to do that ever since I met the little louse, but the bones are too weak."

"What about her eyes?" Macone whined as he held his bloody mouth. "She has freaky red eyes, like those things."

"What?" Tessa gasped. She stepped away from the group and touched the soft flesh under her eye. All the months of hiding it from her new classmates, the constant changing of contacts when no one was in the bathroom, and the years of embarrassment she had received for them at Lotia Garden, none of it mattered. Her secret was finally out.

When did I lose them? Tessa wondered of her contacts. Was it in the sewers? Did one of these people take them out?

"Are you okay?" the old woman asked. "My name's Liana, and this," she gestured to the grey-haired man, "this is Holt."

"You're pretty tough," Holt said as he offered Tessa a handshake.

Tessa looked at it, horrified. She still couldn't get past the revelation that the people before her had discovered her eyes.

"You're telling me," Macone said as he stood up, rubbing his jaw. "I still think she's turning, though. Normal people don't have those eyes."

"And what would you know about normal?" the old woman said as she turned to Macone. "You're a lawyer, you don't have a normal bone in your body. Now shut up before I beat you with this cane."

"You shut up, old woman," Macone spat. "I don't have to take any crap from one your kind."

"Shut up, Mac," Holt warned. "You're stupidity knows no bounds, does it?"

"You're the stupid one," Macone responded. "You went into the sewers and brought back two girls, one out of her mind and the other losing what little they have left."

"What did you mean?" Tessa asked Macone as she lowered her hand from her face. It curled into a fist at her side as she regained her senses. "What is her 'kind'?"

"Excuse me?" Macone asked angrily.

"What is this old woman's 'kind'?" Tessa screamed at him hysterically. "Tell me you stupid bastard, before I kick your ass again!"

"I'd like to see you try," Macone said with a laugh. He turned around and walked away as Holt held her back.

"The stupid prick isn't worth it," Liana said. "Just leave him be."

"Where's Adette?" Tessa asked Holt. "Where is she?"

"I put her in a bedroom. Mac wanted us to get rid of her too, but I checked her for bites and she didn't have any. You two were lucky."

"We're not lucky," Tessa said as she checked her emotions. "We're trained to deal with this kind of stuff. We're SeeD candidates."

"SeeD?" Liana asked, her voice filled with confusion. "What's SeeD?"

"Specialized Elite and Economic Desirables for hire," Holt said sadly. When Tessa made a confused noise, he clarified, "I had a son whom attended Galbadia Garden."

"Had? Did he die during the takeover last year?" Tessa asked insensitively.

"No," Holt said as tears formed in his eyes. "He's one of them now: my wife, too. I don't know about my daughter, though. She was working in the hotel when my house was attacked. I can only hope she's safe."

"She's probably dead," Tessa said as she limped past a shocked Holt and Liana. They obviously hadn't expected Tessa to be so blunt. "Don't dwell on it, just grieve. Eventually, you'll get over it."

"You're colder than Macone," Liana said in a whisper.

"She's right, though," Holt said. "My son was the same way when he came back from Garden. They're trained to be cold, methodical, and logical. We need someone like her."

"Where's Adette?" Tessa asked as she tried to shake off thoughts of Holt's son. "I need to see my squad member."

"You already asked that," Liana said with a wheeze. "She's resting."

"I want to know where, obviously. You people never told me, and I don't trust you."

"I'll take you there," Holt said with a scrutinizing gaze at Tessa. "Your friend is lucky you care."

"She's not my friend," Tessa said with a laugh. "I don't even like her."