Chapter 40:
A/N: The first half of this chapter is told by from Tessa's POV, the second (kind of)from Adette's. There's a lot of tears and emotions, not something that (Tessa or) I am good at expressing. Please try to understand our thinking though. The three of us have been through a lot together.
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"You killed her!" Lon said quietly as he walked out to the deck. His nose was swollen and blood trickle from it, but nothing was broken. "Thank you so much."
Lying on the deck, surrounded by a large pool of blood and tissue from where her chest had exploded, was Rinoa Heartilly. Tessa struggled to get up, but her burning muscles refused to cooperate. Lon saw that she was in pain and helped Tessa to her feet. They both stared, not at Rinoa, but at Adette. Clutched in her right hand was a small handgun, the kind that held only one or two bullets. Tessa dimly remembered seeing it in Adette's luggage on the train.
"You two freed me," Lon said happily despite his pain. "She had me under some kind of control. It was like I was there, but my body wouldn't listen to me."
"What the hell have I done?" Tessa asked the cool ocean breeze. "I killed Rinoa Heartilly."
"No, I did," Adette countered in a pained voice. She dropped the gun and it clattered on the wooden deck. "I killed her."
Tessa was completely taken aback. The girl had been completely out of it just minutes before... and now she was stringing complete sentences together! Even though she knew it was possible medically, the odds were still several hundred thousand to one.
"The body, what do we do with the body?" Lon asked after realizing just what had happened. They had killed Rinoa Heartilly, the Sorceress, one of the six that had saved the world from Time Compression.
"Dump it," Tessa spat. She walked to Rinoa's body, with Lon's help, and kicked it roughly. Her foot met the soft flesh again and again until Lon pulled her away out of fear.
"I'll take care of the body," Lon told the two women. "You guys should probably go below deck. There's food and some clothing down there, and you look half-starved. I'll check on you later."
"I don't need to be checked on, I'm not some helpless girl. There's no need for a white knight or some other sexist bullshit like that," Tessa said angrily. She pushed off of Lon and stood for a few seconds before falling to the floor.
"Doesn't look like it," Lon said with a smile as he knelt beside Tessa.
"Leave her alone," Adette said. "I'll help her."
"Yeah, go away," Tessa ordered. Lon looked at her nervously, so she feebly swatted at him. "I said leave!"
Lon stood up and Adette followed suit. They passed each other at Rinoa's body and Adette refused to look at either of them. She knelt down and grabbed Tessa's hand with her good one, still cradling her injured one to her chest.
"Are you okay, Tessa?" Adette asked.
She didn't answer right away, coming to a morbid realization. It was the first time Adette had said her name since the night of the airship crash, the night everyone could have died. It was still unbelievable how she, not under Rinoa's Protect spell, had escaped with little more than a broken leg.
"Tessa?"
"I'm fine," she lied as she held back tears. How long had it been since they were in the Gate and planning on how to get help for Phelan? Was he even alive? Was Xu? She had gathered that Zell was dead, and Adette had just killed Rinoa. The only people left alive, out of three highly capable students, two SeeDs, and a Sorceress, were two girls who spent most of their time fighting: no one would believe what they had done to survive, or even what they had survived!
"Where is everyone?" Adette asked. "Why was Rinoa going to kill you?"
"You don't remember?" Tessa was shocked. How could anyone forget what had happened?
"The last thing I remember is the airship crashing, then seeing Miss Heartilly lying dead and me holding a smoking gun."
They stopped and looked at a door that was practically hidden because it blended in perfectly with the deck, except for a brass handle. Adette reached out with her injured hand and grabbed the handle, holding back a sob as she pulled it up. Tessa felt horrible that she had to rely on an injured girl to take care of her.
"What happened to my hand?" Adette asked as tears slid down her face. Tessa wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, glad that Adette wasn't asking about the others.
"I don't know," she said. "My best guess is that it was ripped off during the escape."
"Ripped off? By what?"
Tessa didn't want to think about what might have happened to Adette, but she knew the girl was expecting an answer. "It must have been caught in the machinery of the... vehicle that got us to the vessel."
They reached the end of the stairs and peered into the darkness. "Tessa, why did I shoot Miss Heartilly?"
Tessa sighed. As much as she hated to say it, the words were oddly suited to the question. "She was going to kill me."
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"Where is everyone? Where are we?" Adette asked impatiently. Tessa had been dodging her questions for five minutes, even after they had eaten some dried fruit they found in a crate. Luckily, Adette had some Fire spells and they'd managed to find an old oil lamp amongst the cargo. "Would you just tell me already? I'm a big girl, I can take it!"
Tessa blinked back some tears and took a bite of an apple. Feeling vulnerable was not something she wanted to do again, but she did whenever Adette spoke. "If you want to know that badly, I'll tell you."
"I'm waiting."
So, as Adette had requested, Tessa told her everything she could remember: the fight to get to the Gate; leaving an injured Phelan with Xu; the escape through the sewers; finding safety in the Residence; watching as Zell was killed; her torture at the hands of Macone and his subsequent death; the invasion of the Residence by the Rots; killing Lotak and Zhen; the escape on the robot and being knocked out; and she ended with Rinoa's crazed attempts to kill them both.
"And here we are," Tessa concluded, "en route to Garden with a Galbadian soldier and what I can only assume is a stolen vessel."
"What about Tifa Lockhart? What happened to her and that guy, Colt?"
"Holt," Tessa corrected with a sniff. "His name was Holt. As for Tifa, she became a Rot…"
"One of those people you say are dead but walk around and eat each other," Adette interrupt. Scepticism filled her voice, and Tessa couldn't overlook it.
"Yes, they're real! Where else would all of this come from?" Tessa gestured at the bloodstains and dried bodily juices on the soldier's uniform she wore. "How else could I have gotten the uniform?"
"Sorry," Adette replied, drawing out the first syllable.
"Fuck it," Tessa replied darkly. "Where was I?"
"Tifa Lockhart was a Rot," Adette said with no trace of belief in her voice whatsoever.
"Right, Tifa was a Rot," Tessa reminded herself. She grabbed at the collar of her uniform and pulled it from her neck to let some air hit her body. The lamp was causing her to sweat. "I didn't notice until I'd already gotten next to her. You were there, too."
"Of course," Adette agreed smartly with a nod. Tessa was irritated but pressed on.
"Anyway, she was a Rot but, before she could attack me, you shot her. You saved my life."
"Uh huh," Adette replied as she crossed her arms. "What about that guy, Holt? Is he dead too? Let me guess, I shot him too."
"No you didn't," Tessa whispered sadly. "He told me that his wife and son were Rots and that his daughter was in a hotel when the outbreak first happened. He was hoping she was alive, that he'd saved her someday. I told him she was probably dead…"
"Tessa."
"After I killed that lawyer, Macone, he comforted me. I… I led him on… hurt him… acted stupid. He felt foolish and stormed off, leaving me alone with the body. That was when it started raining."
"Tessa?"
"When Rinoa rescued me and blew up the wall so that we could escape, I saw him run by. I ran after him and saved him from a couple of Rots, but I was too late. He'd been bitten. I didn't care, I took him to the hole, but there were already Rots there. I think he knew he was doomed anyway, so he charged them, knocking some out of the way and a couple onto the robot."
"Tessa…"
"I jumped out onto the robot without getting bitten. Holt pushed one of the Rots off, but the other bit him. I pulled out my pistol and aimed, but…"
"Tessa!"
The forcefulness of Adette's voice brought Tessa back to the presence, and she touched her face. It was soaked, tears streaking through the dried blood caked on her skin. She thought that she would have to clean it again.
"Tessa, are you okay?" Adette sounded worried.
"No, I'm not," she told the other girl. It was clear that the memory of Holt falling off the robot still caused her heart to ache. "I shot him, killed him!"
"But you saved him from becoming a Rot," Adette said as she tried to comfort Tessa.
"No I didn't!" Tessa sobbed as fresh tears burst from her eyes. "I wasn't aiming for him, I was aiming for the… the…"
"The Rot?"
"Yes!" Tessa cried. She collapsed against Adette, sobbing and shaking. Snot dribbled down her nose. "I shot Holt in the chest! He grabbed the Rot to try to stay on that damn robot, but they both fell! Now he's out there, one of them."
"It's okay," Adette cooed as she rocked the other teen. She kissed the top of her head and ran her fingers through the greasy hair. It was obvious everything Tessa had told her was true, from beginning to end. No one would commit that much to a lie. "It's going to be okay."
"No it's not," Tessa wailed.
Adette bit her cheek to keep from crying out in pain as she moved her hands to Tessa's faced. She raised it until they were face to face. She wiped the snot away with her sleeve and appraised the redhead in front of her. The acting tough, the assertions of independence, and the chauvinism, they all fell apart at the mention of one man. One man she had known for less than a week. What had happened to the strong Tessa that took command after the shooting on the train? Where was the woman who took care of Zell after the airship crashed? Adette felt a sense of determination to try to bring her back.
"Yes, it will be okay. If not today, then tomorrow. Or next week, next month, next year. Eventually it will be better."
Tessa whimper and tried to move away, but Adette wouldn't let her. I'm all she has right now.
"Tessa," Adette whispered, "it will be okay. I promise."
"How can you make a promise like that? How can you keep it?"
"I can't, but I can try," the Brunette said sadly. "Won't you at least let me help you?"
"I don't need your help," Tessa said as she tried to pull away. Adette wouldn't let her, and she was too weak and tired to fight. "I don't need anyone's help."
"Everyone needs help, even you."
The small lamp almost illuminated their faces, shadows dancing against their cut and scraped skin made them look far different than they did in the sunlight, but their eyes sparkled. Adette noticed that Tessa's weren't normal, but she didn't care. The poor girl had been through enough torture; she didn't need to be reminded of insignificant flaws.
"No I don't," Tessa protested one last time.
"Please let me help you," Adette bit her lip to stop herself from continuing. Tessa was obviously in pain, emotionally and physically. There was nothing she could say that would make a difference, but there was still something she could do.
Adette leaned in and pressed her lips against Tessa's, lightly at first. When Tessa's lips parted the tiniest bit, Adette's tongue found its way into the foreign mouth. They stayed together like that, stopping when they had to breathe.
Tessa's eyes held more pain than they had at first and Adette finally let her move away. The redhead's voice was shaking. "I'm sorry, I'm not a lesbian."
Adette looked down at her left hand, the pain of the missing finger still biting at her brain. However, it was something she had forgotten in that moment she had kissed Tessa. Covered in blood and almost invisible, you wouldn't have known it was there if you weren't looking for it. On the finger next to the missing middle one was a small band of silver that held half of a sign for the planet Garlia, the sign of femininity. On the finger was a ring given to her by the woman she had promised to marry.