Chapter 9: Night fall.
9:30 pm
It had taken a while for everything to come together, to wait until Galbadia gave up looking in this area, and until Cho returned from his searching to find ingredients. It was already starting to get late by the time the highly disorganized group finally came together. All of them reconvened in the control room with the other members of the Timber Owls, but where were they suppose to start?
"Ok, this is what I don't get." Seifer announced bluntly, he leaned against the door way with his same generally bored expression he always carried. "Whoever those other people where in the crappy green jumpsuits, why bother attacking one of Galbadia's most controlled cities with a group that small? I mean come on, 2 planes and a couple ground units? It took like 5 minuets to take them out."
"Those people are called Gcom." Zone explained, he sat against the wall with his hands in his lap, he held an inconspicuous nervousness in his form. It was visible in the way his fingers twitched and played with each other, the way his eyes moved around in the darkness, the way his left foot shifted around lightly. "I guess they're a big Galbadian resistance group that really makes Deling nervous."
"That attack was more out of desperation then strategy." Watts said, he stood beside Zone casually, a thoughtful expression on his downcast face shrouded by his hat, an expression that showed every time he was attempting to work something out. "They want Matthew dead, we know that much from the first time they went after him on the train to Dollet. They must have found out we were heading for Deling and into the strongest point of Galbadian territory, so they must have assumed Matthew was going with us and sent the fastest thing they could in an attempt to take him out before Galbadia got him."
"So what did we go through all that trouble to get?" Cho sat on the ground, his back against the side of a chair residing in the center of the large mainframe terminal, the center piece of the room, where Nida was sitting.
"Yeah." Seifer reached over Nida's shoulder and picked up the large drive, it was heavy, and large and he looked over every side of it curiously... Seifer ran his fingers over the pins on the back, they were either a plug or a port. "What is it suppose to tell us?"
Nida held out his hand and Seifer handed it back to him. "That's what I'm gonna try and find out." He set it back down, holding the large box steady as he he pushed a connector onto the pins in the back and then another smaller one onto another set of pins that served as a receptor for a power supply. There was silence about the room as he pushed the backup drive aside and began typing codes and commands into a command prompt shell. "Hmm..."
Cho recognized that sound, and it wasn't the interested inquisitive air that usually came with that utterance. "What's wrong?"
"It's encrypted."
"Figures." Zone sighed, he knew this wouldn't be simple. He climbed to his feet, bending as little as possible in an attempt to keep from aggravating the shallow wounds now cleaned, bandaged and medicated. With all the potions taking effect he'd be healed by tomorrow morning, and he was looking forward to it. "So how long do you think it's gonna take to get past it?"
"I don't know." Nida shrugged. "But it's probably gonna take a while."
"Aw well..." Zone headed towards the door with a yawn. "If theres nothing I can do then theres no use sitting around here." He left out of the room, thinking about what had preoccupied his thoughts for the better part of the day, Enix. He was obviously worried about the bird and thinking of what could be done for him '?' Zone stopped, pausing in front of Matthew who'd been waiting outside in the hallway. "Matthew?"
Matthew glared up at Zone with a hard look and every bit of anger his age could produce. "..."
"What's with you?" Zone asked, he didn't have the slightest clue as to the nature of this new anger. Even he could see it on Matthew's face.
Matthew shifted his eyes away, staring intensely at the wall for a moment. Then after only a few seconds of silence he snapped "What's wrong with me?" Matthew had been attempting to be silent and not say anything provoking, considering Zone's state and his strong sense of worry for the older man. But his will wasn't nearly strong enough, he was much to angry. "Your what's wrong with me! You should have let me go! That's what's wrong with me!"
"I already told you it was too dangerous." Zone stated.
"Everything's too dangerous with you!" Matthew shot back. "I could have helped! If I would have been there then you wouldn't have ended up like this. You almost..." Matthew's voice trailed off mid sentence, leaving him staring up at Zone with the passion of fury still burning in his eyes with no words, he couldn't say anything... he just couldn't.
"What!" Zone shouted with his own anger flowing freely as it always did. After Matthew didn't respond his fury was dulled, ebbed away by confusion "What?"
'Zone...' Matthew dropped his head and looked down at the ground with that same anger still showing in every motion, tensing of his body. Finally he just walked past Zone, disappearing into the darkness of the hall towards his room in silence.
Zone was really lost now, he'd never seen Matthew just walk away in the middle of an argument like that."What was that?"
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Squall groaned in frustration, rubbing his temples with the beginnings of a headache forming. It was around this time that the Garden began emptying out and closing down for the night, and when they started this simple plan to stake out all night and watch the Garden. It hadn't been long into it and Squall was already starting to get annoyed.
Alex had some how gotten a hold of the coffee Squall was reserving for himself later into the night. And he shared said coffee with Carbuncle. So on top of being bored with the fact that a stake out entitled nothing more then sitting around for long periods of time and being forced to pay attention for every second of it. The two became hyper and possibly only mere moments from attempting to bounce off of the walls.
Right now Carbuncle was setting up a series of barriers and Alex was attempting to break through them, by any means he could. "Just give up." Carbuncle sat down with a mocking laziness, wordlessly taunting that he'd get nowhere with his attempts, peaking one eye open and glancing up at the boy. A slightly visible green tinted barrier was sitting in front of him, just waiting to be shattered.
"Think so huh?" Alex took a few steps backwards, moving in the space behind the sofa and the wall holding the bed room door. "I'll show you!" He shouted, taking one last step for space before charging forward as fast as he could through the short gap and then ramming his shoulder into the green barrier. He bounced off painfully and crashed to the floor with a loud clutter.
Thus was Squall's annoyment. Zell how ever seemed to take amusement in the display and blatantly laughed at Alex. The other boy leaned on the counter in the small kitchenette, watching the two intently. "Man, that never gets old."
Alex climbed to his feet and rubbed his shoulder while Carbuncle just watched him with the same mocking expression, he couldn't bring himself to laugh at his friend. But taunting was completely acceptable. "It's not gonna work, this one is stronger then the other one."
Alex ran a hand through his short, spiky white hair and took a few more steps backwards. "I'm gonna break through it!" The blue eyes narrowed as the boy determinedly ran head strong at the gap, grunting loudly as he thrust his foot into the center with all of his strength. The kick slammed in to the green barrier and sunk into it slightly, causing an imprint and streaking cracks streaking out from all sides. "Hey!" He smiled brightly at his accomplishment and began slamming his fist into the shield, pounding with a fury of punches until his arm broke through and it shattered around him. "Heh heh! I told you I would!"
Carbuncle lifted his head and looked at Alex with out belief, then the green eyes illuminated and the small GF smirked with a half smile. "That was pretty good, I didn't think you could get through one that strong."
"Be persistent-" Alex lifted his head proudly. "And you'll always succeed."
Carbuncle walked past the boy and sprang up on to the kitchen counter with a cat like agility. "That is so rehearsed, sounds like a book." A few days ago Carbuncle wasn't even sure what a book was, but he junctioned himself to Alex during some of the boy's classes and learned what he could, and he learned fairly quickly.
"No, my father taught me that." Alex rubbed his hands soothingly, noting how trying to beak through Carbuncle's shield was almost like hitting a brick wall over and over. 'Ow...' He leaned on the side of the counter opposite of Zell, folding his arms on the surface and laying his head down, fixing his eyes on the GF and the older boy. "You know, I've been wondering. What kind of GF are you anyway?"
Carbuncle looked up at the ceiling, a lost expression coming on to his face. "Uh." finally giving up on the futility of attempting to remember, Carbuncle looked up at Zell. "I don't know, Zell?"
Zell shrugged, "You never told me..."
"What are you, a rabbit, or a rodent or something like that?" Alex reasoned.
"Damn...I don't even know what I am." Carbuncle sighed, thinking about it was still really depressing for him.
"Aw, your not gonna start getting all depressed on me now are you?" Alex asked, hoping that he didn't make Carbuncle think enough to become sad over his current state. He'd seen Carbuncle sad, and when he was sad it made him sad too, it was enough to make him hate empathy.
"Naw, I'm over that." Carbuncle waved his paw discardingly. "It happened, what am I gonna do about it now."
"Well...do you know how old you are?" Alex asked.
Carbuncle inanely looked up to Zell. "Around 400." Zell said plainly.
Alex's expression grew with amazement. "Wow, that is so cool. You look like..6 or something."
"6!" Carbuncle growled, he leaned forward toward Alex angrily. "I look a hell of a lot older then 6!"
"You sure act like it." Alex rolled his eyes. "How can someone so short and fuzzy talk so big, your like a stuffed animal!"
"Who are you calling a stuffed animal." Carbuncle paused mid growl and his fierce expression dropped momentarily. "Uh..what's a stuffed animal?" He didn't know what it was but he was sure it wasn't good.
The door opened, and Ifrit walked through with steps unexpectantly light for his large size. He had been gone for a hour, repeatedly looking over every reachable inch of the building for any sign of anything out of place. More specifically any lose monsters. "There's been nothing so far." He announced before rejunctioning himself to Squall.
"Hmm..." Alex pushed himself off of the counter and stretched his arms above his head. "I guess it's my turn. Carbuncle, wanna come?"
"Sure."
Zell watched Carbuncle jump onto Alex's shoulder and the pair left the room with slight confusion. 'Weren't they just arguing?'... It was only when he began thinking and got no response that he realize something. 'Hey...Bahamut's gone...he must have gotten bored and went to look around or something.'
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Zone rested on one knee, his hands gripping the edge of the steel table in an attempt to relinquish the nervous energy coursing through his body. He watched as Cho examined Enix fully for the first time, and he'd never thought he'd admit this but he didn't think he'd want his new friend's life an any other one's hands. As much as he despised the boy for grifting him out of all of his money the last time they met and for making fun of him for it the second time they met.
As much as that burned with a fair amount of resentment and annoyment in his mind, he trusted Cho more then ever. Whenever the boy was dealing with injured Chocobos a detectable amount of heart could be seen being put into what he did, an uncharacteristic amount of care showing in every movement of body. He showed that side of him that connected with the birds, the part of him that loved to visualize and could see the appeal in of simple sights and surrounds.
"Well..." Cho placed his hand under Enix who lay sleeping on his back atop the steel table centered in the strategy room that felt almost like a basement. "He's got a few pretty bad injuries. His left wing was broken recently, it hasn't healed correctly, you can tell by how he's always holding it." Cho gently rolled Enix on to his chest, burying his fingers into the young white feathers under his stomach. "And he's got some pretty bad half healed cuts hidden under here, some bruises too. Looks like he got a few too many hard kicks."
"Those bastards." Zone growled angrily, "I can't believe those sons of bitches could do this to him."
"...Well, his stomach shrunk and his feathers are rough and kinda matted. He's pretty dehydrated, Hyne, they barely fed him. I surprised he managed to do all he did half starved, he's probably really weak."
"He must be hungry." Zone sighed. "I'll-"
"No, don't." Cho shook his head. "You can't feed him just any food after a starvation diet no mater how hungry he is."
"Why?"
'It'll cause a lot of damage on his stomach, he'll be in more pain then it's worth...trust me."
'How would you know?' Zone began to wonder how did he know so much about this. "So what should I do?"
Cho laid Enix back down, watching the sleeping bird resettle into a conformable position. He began digging around in his inventory, looking for something... 'Here it is.' He retrieved a roll of bandages that had been down pretty deep, and started unraveling them until he had about 12 inches worth and tore the section off. "Feed him soft foods for a while."
Zone nodded in understanding, watching Cho began to rip off the bandage into smaller strips that would be better suited for Enix's body. "Ok...Uh...what are soft foods?"
"You gotta be kidding me." Cho wiped a small amount of antiseptic on one half of each bandage before he wrapped them over a specific area, Enix visibly shifted around from the stinging it caused, but he didn't when. "You know, stuff thats really easy on his stomach." Cho carefully wrapped a bandage over Enix's left wing, considerably tighter then other places. He took extra time there, making sure every thing was perfectly set, feeling over the wing with soft pressure to make sure he was doing everything right according to that specific injury before daring to move on.
"Yeah, ok." Zone never would have guessed he'd see that level of seriousness and dedication to a task from Cho. He was starting to realize how he'd become a SeeD in the first place. "Poor Enix, no wonder he's so nervous around humans."
"He's not nervous around you." Cho finished with the last bandage and laid the small bird back down on the table, Enix must have been really tired to sleep through all of that. "Here, give him as much of this as he wants when he wakes up." Cho picked up the yellow potion he'd finished some odd hours ago and tossed it to Zone.
He nearly dropped it, the bottle fumbled around on his hands until he could get a firm grasp around it, unexpectant of the sudden object being thrown at him. "Yeah, thanks."
"Don't mention it."
"...Hey. " Zone wrapped is arms around Enix and scooped him off the table, wondering where he'd sleep. "How do you know so much about all of this stuff?"
"I grew up..." Cho looked at Zone for a moment and just shrugged, he was too tired to go into it. "Never mind."
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"Damn..." Seifer stared angrily in front of himself, one hand resting on his growling stomach as he opened the train's side door and reentered the halted transport. It was humid and hot in the tunnel, and it was cool and dry inside of the train, but he didn't mind the uncomfortable conditions of the unfinished tunnel and the fields out side of it so much. Something about being in the train for long periods of time made him feel agitated and cramped.
The only thing that brought him back inside was the almost painful realization of how hungry he was.
Seifer steeped up into the train and shut the door behind him, entering the car that held the strategy room down below and connected to the hall that led to the control room and Matthew's bed room. It was dark, the whole train seemed to be devoid of lights, the only illumination that came was from behind a small window in the door to the train's lead car.
"?" Seifer was surprised to see Watts here. The man was sitting silently on the steps leading to the next car, his hands resting lifelessly in his lap and his head tilted toward the ceiling. "This is a pretty weird place to hang out."
"I guess it is." Watts said simply. He gave Seifer an acknowledging look before turning his eyes back up to the ceiling.
"Thinking?"
"How could you tell?"
It almost reminded Seifer of Nida, the other boy would often find someplace quiet and think of something Seifer would probably never understand. It would take someone like Watts to understand the things Nida found important enough to isolate himself in order to contemplate, they probably thought about the same things. He wouldn't be surprised, the way they both quietly studied people and situations, they probably were the same type of people. "It's kinda late to just be sitting someplace like this for no reason." Seifer never bothered to interrupt Nida when he was thinking like this, and he wouldn't bother Watts.
"Yeah, maybe." Watts shrugged. He was only half paying attention, his mind was too busy wondering about Zone, and Matthew, about what would happen next, what their next move would be. 'Maybe I worry to much...There's nothing I can do about it yet.'
"Is their anything to eat around here? I'm starving."
"Check the kitchen."
"Kitchen?" Seifer looked around questioningly, he never saw a kitchen. "Theres a kitchen? Where?"
"Theres a door past Matthew's room..." Watts looked down at Seifer again. "You never saw it?"
"No."
"...Oh, well then check harder."
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It was starting to get really late, and the Garden had become dormant, completely still and silent. With out a doubt they were the only ones up now, and at this rate even they would be asleep. Alex and Carbuncle finished their watch and ended up going to the training area, they were probably still wide awake. Squall on the other hand wasn't doing so well, especially without his coffee.
(You can go to sleep if you want to.) Ifrit offered. (I'll keep watch.)
'I'm alright.' Squall said discardingly. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, inviting the peace of silence and darkness. 'What about you, aren't you tired?'
(Not really.) Ifrit needed considerably less sleep then humans did, keeping watch like this was no problem for him. He rarely got bored, considering his life before he met Squall consisted of a routine a lot similar to this.
There was a long silence between them, Squall simply sat and thought about everything that's been happening lately and Ifrit waited half attentively for something to happen. He didn't say anything, and he knew Squall was tired and did nothing that would detour that state, if the boy fell asleep he wouldn't wake him.
As much as he wanted to allow Squall to fall asleep, and he knew that talking to him would only make the chances of him actually getting some rest even worse, he had to ask. (Squall...)
'Hn?'
(Have you seen Griever lately?) Ifrit knew he sounded a bit childish when he asked this, but it was something he couldn't help.
'Ifrit?' Squall couldn't help but take notice of that subtle change in Ifrit's voice, no matter how small it might have been. 'Worried about him?'
'Ifrit...' Squall opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling with thought. Neither of them had seen or heard a word from him for the last two days. 'Think he left?'
Ifrit sounded more worried about it then Squall. (...Maybe.)
'Are you worried about him?'
(No.) Griever was the last person he ever had to worry about. (Not at all.)
'So...you said he left a lot before, you think he left again?'
'Hn...' Squall nodded. 'You said you knew Griever from before? You two were friends?'
Friends? Friends? Friendly was the last thing their relationship with each other was, if you could even call it a relationship. It was a painful, completely one sided kind of thing and Ifrit hated it for a long time, he never knew what Griever thought of it. The one thing he did know for sure was that he'd never forget the day they first met, every single moment of it.
Ifrit was young by any standards, maybe 15 or so, and he had been filled with all the brash impatience that came with his youth. They met up by random chance around the Fire Cave, long before any humans care enough to venture there. He didn't know why Griever did it, he'd probably never know for sure, maybe it was because Ifrit was foolish enough to attempt to fight Griever or that he actually harbored the thought he actually stood a chance in hell at wining. But they fought, and Ifrit lost horribly, it was the shortest fight of his life. After which Griever got the annoying urging nagging in his mind and ended up forcing Ifrit, simply because Ifrit was there, and he'd already won, he'd most likely had been denying himself for a long time. It was completely one sided, undeniably rape, and Ifrit struggled all the way. The only thing he did understand about everything that happened was why Griever did it, and it took years of him knowing the other to finally figure it out.
After Griever was done with him they had their second fight because Ifrit was angry enough about what just happened to him to ignore what happened in the first fight. It of course had the same results as the first, and after words Griever left without a look back. Ifrit actually had time to contemplate what had just happened to him, he had time to contemplate how much stronger Griever was then him, the gap was astonishing. He thought about it often, for months he replayed it over and over in his mind and it drove him to train, it drove him to try and become stronger.
It was a few months later when he and Griever stubbed on to each other by the same chance that brought them together the first time. Ifrit again foolishly forced him into a fight, but he lost again just as badly as the first time. It was like nothing he did even helped, like he hadn't been training all those months, he didn't expect the gap between them to be that wide, nothing had changed at all. He was weak and Griever bluntly told himself, and just like he left the same way he did before.
It was a year before they saw each other again, this time Griever intentionally went looking for him. Ifrit didn't understand why Griever came back, maybe he just grew an interest in Ifrit... They fought just as before, Ifrit was still driven by his youthful anger still being on 16 and he got beaten even worse then before. They had sex again, and Ifrit didn't fight against it, it was useless too, he just gave up and submitted. He'd never felt more cold, more alone, more weak in his life, a horrible feeling that made him want to curl up in a ball and sleep until the helpless feeling passed. Griever didn't care either way, and that made Ifrit even madder, and just like before he simply left. The thought of what happened plagued him again even worse then before, every other thought was of Griever. It motivated him, drove him to train even harder then before, to get even stronger.
As much as he hated Griever, he admired him, he admired his strength, his authority, everything about him. It may have been childish, but he wanted that strength, he wanted to be like Griever.
They fell into a long standing routine. Griever would come at unexpectant times whether it would be a few days, or even 20 years since the last time since they'd seen each other. Griever always came to him simply to spar so he could test out his new found strength he'd gained in his travels, or to test out Ifrit's, or when his will power couldn't hold out any longer and he wanted sex. Ifrit long since had lost his anger, his only motivation and goal in life was to catch up to Griever, to be stronger then him, to finally have Griever see him as more then a weakling. It all was cold and harsh, and when ever Griever did what he did he always left Ifrit with that same cold, alone feeling. Griever was the only constant thing, Griever was the only person he had, and he truly did start to love him, even stronger then that admiration he had for him. Ifrit remember how much he wanted Griever to at lest stay with him, he'd cried once...and once only, and the morning after he was motivated more then ever.
Their routine had been going on for 200 years, and some where during it he grew to like it a little, it was the only time he got to see Griever, and he started to look forward to it, awaiting the next time Griever would show up. With the thought that each time he hoped he'd finally become strong enough to win. Ifrit was still working on that.
'Ifrit?' Squall called out. 'Are you alright?' Ifrit had simply drifted off in the middle of the conversation.
(I'm fine.)
Squall decided not to push it...'I better go find Carbuncle and Alex...'
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"Hmm..." Nida typed with the same diligence he'd had hours ago when he first started, though he was considerably more tired and moving a lot slower. He'd spent all of that time he'd been here on decrypting and recovering the metadata, from there it became simpler. Just a few commands to the command shell, then a simple running of /ect/rc.d/init.d/arkela start, and a lot of work was about to pay off.
'...' Nida paused, his hands hovering just over the keyboard with out movement for a few, long seconds. Everything was silent as it had been for the past few hours, the only sound was the small hum of the immensely large computer mainframe sitting he was using at the moment. "So, you gonna stand out and watch all night?"
After a few seconds of seemingly thinking of whether he actually wanted too or not, Shadow emerged from the darkness shrouding the hallway and into the dim light cast by the Mainframe's 5 monitors, silently laying down on the ground beside Nida's chair. He turned his head towards the wall and was without movement for a considerable amount of time, the darkness made him hard to see, and the only thing that confirmed his presence was the glow of his red eyes and the soft breathes he took.
"Can't sleep?" Nida took a small reprieve from his work, reaching for a cup of coffee set aside near by.
"I don't need to sleep." Shadow said plainly. "What about you? Don't human's need sleep?"
"Yeah, and I'm seriously lacking it right now." Nida complained. But truthfully he didn't mind that much, sure the loss of sleep right now was aggravating, and the work was somewhat menial. But it had to be done. The group's three man engineer team graciously offered to help him, but Nida declined, he knew how to do this well enough on his own. "What's Cho doing?"
"Sleeping." Shadow said.
Yeah, Shadow was definitely thinking about something, he hadn't looked up once. Nida didn't push it though, Shadow wasn't the type that wanted to share anything he thought.
Another silence fell over the room as Nida went back to the working routine of reading, thinking and typing, Shadow laying quietly at his side. Everything was silent, silent and dark, something like this absolute nothingness was unusual for the Timber Owls headquarters. Usually there was some type of noise, someone shifting in bed, something falling, the quiet sounds of a device, even someone snoring, even at night this place had it's usual life. But tonight everything was dormant, it was a cold feeling, like death, and the darkness seemed to hold meaning.
Shadow's ears perked with the detection of a sensitive sound, low tones they'd habitually been trained to listen for. He lifted his head and looked back towards the door, and when Nida noticed Shadow he looked back curiously.
"Man, your good." Cho's voice came before the sight of him did, the boy slowly walked into the room with sleepy expression on his face.
"Cho, what are you doing up?" Nida asked.
"Nothing, just wondering what you were doing." Cho stopped above Shadow, slowly easing himself down into a sitting position and resting his back against the firmness of Shadow's side. His head laid down comfortably on the dark fur covering his back, Cho was amazed at how soft his fur was considering how the wolf attacked his enemies. "I didn't know it would be so much work, sucks to be you." He was content where he was, he could just curl up and fall asleep with the wolf just the way he was.
Shadow didn't seem to mind Cho's action, he didn't care either way.
"Yeah, it's a lot." Nida said with a sigh. "You should go back to bed, we might have a hard day ahead of us tomorrow."
"I guess..." Cho closed his eyes, stretching his arms above his head with another slight yawn. "Look's like I'm not the only one who's is up." Cho peeked one eye open and glanced through the open doorway before closing it again.
"Noticed me that quickly..." Matthew came into the visibility of the light and leaned against the frame, his head fixed downward reluctantly.
"Shadow saw you before I did." Cho replied. "Why is everybody up? Am I missing something here?"
Matthew sat down on the ground, wrapping his arms around his drawn up knees and hugging them close to his chest."Nah...I just couldn't sleep."
Nida took one look at him and could tell why, his age portrayed all of his emotions, he could see the reason in every part of his body. "Worried?"
"A little I guess." Matthew buried his face into his lap, stifling a small sigh. He was worried, he was worried about Zone, and Watts, and everyone else. He was especially worried about the trouble he was causing, but that worry was overshadowed by his anger over the fact that no one would allow him to help.
There was another silence, Cho laid there restfully, Nida continued working on the back up drive, and Matthew watched with light interest.
"I've been dieing to ask this." Cho finally spoke up again, opening his eyes and looking at Matthew. "How did you end up here anyway, I mean with guys like these?"
Matthew knew they'd ask eventually, and he answered without hesitation or the slightest change in tone. "Zone and Watts saved me."
It all started plenty of years ago, he was young, no more then 4 years old when his parents sent him off to Galbadia Garden. It seemed so long ago now, he couldn't even remember their faces, their names, what they were like. They were overwhelmed and half stressed out, from what specifically Matthew wouldn't figure out until years later, and and it showed clearly the day they sent him. They were apologetic, even cried when he left, the hugged him and kissed him repeatedly. Telling him every moment that it was best for him to go away to this school and they loved him. He didn't know at the time he'd never see them again, but when he thought about it now he knew he should have realized it when they never said they'd visit him or when he'd be coming home. "I don't know why." Matthew said. This was the one detail he remembered clearly about all those years ago, everything else had faded. "But it sounded fake to me."
"Fake?"
"Yeah, they sounded like they loved me and all, but it all seemed fake. I guess they really wanted to get rid or me." Everything seemed to go alright for Matthew when he got there, he was generally too young to be a junior classmen but he got in anyway. Which was really sad when he thought about it, how hard his parents must have pushed to get him accepted . They must have gone to a number of different Gardens before they found one that would take him, they wanted to get rid of him that much. At lest that's how he saw it, and how else could he see it, anyway he looked at it, anyway he could have phrased it, it was still what they were trying to do.
He made friends, which because of his age called him short all the time, enjoyed his classes, art and math in particular, and got over the initial pain of missing his parents and what other family he may have had. That was until about 5 years later. By then he was a full pledged junior classmen and completely, and happily, settled in. It was his home, he no longer knew any other place.
He was in class, that faithful day, his instructor had been going over the basics of junctioning and magic use, nothing too deep or serious. He remembered it so well, Matthew raised his hand and asked the teacher about himself since he was able to use, she inanely asked what kind of GF he was junctioned to, and he told her he wasn't using a GF. In retrospect it wasn't the best course of action even to ask that question, he wished to Hyne that he'd just kept his mouth shut. When the teacher realized he was telling the truth she got the most interesting look on her face, something completely bewildering to him and his classmates, something that inspired an unholy stir of curiosity like a storm brewing over the sea. "That was the first time anyone ever looked at me like that." Matthew sighed. She looked confused and utterly terrified at the same time, not afraid of Matthew, but afraid of the meaning of he'd said.
The next day she nearly dragged him strait up to the head master's office before class and told him about it, by then that friendly teacher voice she always had before was completely gone, like he wasn't even the same person anymore. The headmaster asked him for a demonstration, and Matthew did with a simple fire spell, and he was actually quite proud of himself for doing it right, even smiling afterwords. Unsuspecting of the hell he'd brought upon himself.
The headmaster was disturbed by this but told the teacher not to say anything about it, that really didn't help to contain the situation as the man had hoped. The real problem came from his classmates, they didn't know what it had meant, wondering why such a reaction was brought out in their teacher, so they told the upper classmen about it who did know what it meant and why she would have such a reaction. Pretty soon the word got around the whole Garden, very soon, it wasn't everyday people found out there was a sorcerer in their school.
When they thought of him, they thought of the sorceress, who didn't have a good track record with people, especially since Sorceress Adel was so horrible, Edea wasn't too good herself. Before the day was out his whole world had changed, people hated him for seemingly no reason at all, it had taken him years to gain friend he'd lost with one simple discarding look. At first they called him names and teased him with the bitterness of new found hatred, every bit of contempt they had for Adel was placed on him. The older kids were the worst since they understood it better, and the adults, they seemed to lose their nerve after the first few hours, they were afraid of him just like they had been afraid of Adel. It was an even stronger hate for the adults, the memories of Adel were still fresh in their minds, they knew first hand the horrors of the last sorceress. No one talked to him, no one even looked at him, even the teachers were uneasy around him and spoke to him as little as possible.
It was the worst time of his life, he was forced into isolation. He cried nearly every night, he hated his life, he hated the fact he was born this way, he hated being born at all. It was a good thing he didn't know about suicide back then, he might have been depressed enough to do it. Why wouldn't he be depressed, it was horrifying to walk into a room and watch it become deathly silent at his presence, seeing and knowing people just looked at him with fear and distrust. When they thought he wasn't listening or just didn't care to hide their words they talked about him. And that's when he finally understood then why his parents sent him away like they did and never came back for him, they had the same feelings that the people here had. They must have, or else they would have visited him, they would have called him, they would have at lest written him a letter. "I'm surprised they waited until I was 4."
"Wow, it must have been tough." Nida said sympathetically.
Sympathy, Nida didn't understand how good it felt to hear that. Matthew buried his head into his lap again, he didn't want to think about it, let alone talk about it. "It was." But it got worse for him, if that was at all possible. 3 years had passed since everyone found out and it was notably 2 years since the Sorceress Edea, or rather Ultimenica, had been defeated. He was 12 then, and coming out of class on a distinct day when he heard some of the upperclassmen talking about it. News had finally reached Galbadia about Matthew and it was rumored that Galbadia was coming for him. Even more rumors came about what they would do to him, how they'd give him to Esther to seal up in space, how they'd run experiments on him, how they would cut him open and pull everything out of his body, or how they'd do everyone a favor and simply kill him on sight.
Matthew spent the next few months fearing for his life, he became shy and introverted, fearful of everything. Finally after while another rumor came along that the Galbadia was definitely coming for him soon. The students were overjoyed about it, but Matthew was far from it. When he heard that he barricaded himself in his room and hid, more afraid then he'd ever been, he didn't eat, the only time he slept was when he passed out after a panic attack that seemed to happen after he heard any odd sounds. No one seemed to even care that he disappeared, no one came looking for him, he didn't even know if they acknowledged he was even missing. He didn't wanna die, sure it was bad here but at lest he got to live! His feeling made no difference, after spending several days in his room without even coming out for food or water, Galbadian solders finally came for him. Matthew of course resisted for his life. He fought, scratched, kicked, bit and screamed undignifyingly, but he didn't care, he just wanted to leave. Until finally they just knocked him out.
"I can't believe that happened to you." Cho said.
Matthew was silent for a moment, he seemed more willing to recant the next part then everything else he said. His voice even elevated slightly in tone. "Yeah well..." When he came to he was in the back of a Galbadian army transport, locked in Odine Bangles to suppress his powers and chained to suppress movement. It was like he was cargo that they wanted to keep from sliding around, like he wasn't human. Matthew truly thought it was all over, he'd never cried so much in his life. But then something happened, he didn't figure it out until the truck nearly flipped over that it was under attack. He could only wait fearfully when the two solders got out of the truck, sitting there silently until the sounds fighting subsided.
When Zone and Watts opened that door they might as well have had halos over their heads, he was happy to see anyone that wasn't in a Galbadian uniform. Matthew would never forget when he looked up at the two for the first time, his eyes still blurry with depressed, fearful tears. It was the first and definitely not the last time he saw the two of them confused. But they freed him none the less and Matthew explained what happened to him, and remembered distinctly Zone shouting out 'Those bastards.' and then keeling over from a cramp. They fed him for the first time in days and since he had nowhere else to go anymore they let him stay, they didn't even seem to care about the fact that he was a Sorcerer. Or his completely over the limit inverted shyness that was so strong in him that he could barely speak without stumbling nervously over his words, they completely over looked all of his quirks. He was more thankful for them then he could ever hope to describe.
"I really like Watts." Matthew sighed. "And sure Zone's an idiot some times, but he's a pretty smart guy, I don't want him to get hurt. He should have just let me come, I could have helped him." It was pretty soon that his fear of Galbadia became anger, just like Zone's, his shyness adapted to boldness, just like Zone's, and his boldness became a reserved inquiring, just like Watts.
"I know you want to help." Nida said. "But Zone and Watts know what they're doing when they tell you to stay behind, I'm sure it's frustrating for you but they're right. They don't want you to get captured by Galbadia."
Matthew pulled his legs in even closer to his chest and sighed. "I know..." He was still afraid of Galbadia catching him, as mad as he was, he was still deathly fearful of what what they would do...
"So you-" Nida's voice trailed of in mid-sentence, he wordlessly turned back toward the large Mainframe and studied the screen, watching a trail of streaming numbers too fast and too many to trace with human eyes. "It's done."
"Huh? What?" Cho opened his eyes and pushed himself off of Shadow.
"It's done." Nida leaned forward, looking as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I'm in."
"Really?" Cho sat up, looking up at Nida. "Let's see what's on it then."
! - ! - !
No one seemed to be able to hold out the whole night through. Zell was the first one to fall asleep, saying that he would just take a nap and to wake him up in few moments. Squall never did remember to wake him up, he'd gave a simple thought when Zell first announced he'd knock off for a few minutes was that what ever made him so tired during the day probably warranted him sleeping, so he wouldn't bother him.
By the time Squall did find Alex and Carbuncle in the training center, they were out of energy and half asleep anyway. Alex even fell asleep in his arms, so Squall carried him back to his room and allowed him to sleep also. Carbuncle on the other hand stayed awake for a while with Squall, but eventually he fell asleep and Squall dropped him off with Zell. It wasn't long after Squall fell asleep himself, and Ifrit didn't attempt to wake him up, at the moment he was the only one still paying attention.
Rassshhaaaaa
Carbuncle's ears twitched and shifted his head around, rubbing his eyes with his paw. He was laying on Zell's chest, the boy's arms wrapped around him 'Huh...' Carbuncle yawned and opened his eyes. "Zell..." Carbuncle called out weakly, he didn't want to get up, but he wasn't suppose to be asleep either. "Zell."
"Mmm-mmm." Zell moaned weakly and incoherently.
"Zell." Carbuncle thrust his head upward sharply into Zell's chin, forcing him to wake up. "Zell, come on wake up."
Zell finally opened his eyes and sat up, "Huh? What is it?"
"I heard something." Carbuncle jumped off of Zell's chest and landed sloppily on the ground.
Zell threw his legs over the side of the bed and scratched his head, "Yeah, ok. Which way-"
Rasssshhhaaaa
Zell immediately lifted his head. "I heard it that time." He immediately stood up and bolted towards the door with quick steps, Carbuncle jumped on to his shoulder. He burst into the next room with a hasty entrance. "Squall-"
"I know, Ifrit told me." Squall was already awake, gaining a warning from Ifrit that alerted him after the first sound. "It came from the main hall." With Zell right behind him he walked out in to the dormitory hallway and ran towards the center of the Garden. Zell, however was too impatient to wait and broke to into a full sprint, easily passing right by Squall with his superior speed. By the time Squall made it halfway down, Zell was already out of the wing. "Slow down!"
He didn't even notice he was leaving Squall behind. "Carbuncle, do you know which way that came from?"
Carbuncle looked around surveyingly, his ears twitching in an attempt to hone in on any other sound. All he could hear was the echo of foot steps as Squall finally caught up.
Rassshhhaaa
"That way!" Carbuncle indicated the left side holding the Infirmary, cafeteria, and the quad.
"It came from the quad. " Squall announced, charging toward the wing with Zell beside, at a notably slower place. 'What is that?'
(It sounded familiar.) Ifrit said thoughtfully. (I can't remember where I heard that sound before.)
The two of them rushed down the stairs, entering the area where the stage was set up and the balcony opened to the outside. "Huh?" Zell halted at the edge of the stairs, giving a quick, questioning look up at Carbuncle who returned the same gaze. Then he looked Squall's way who only shrugged. "Uh... Bahamut?"
Bahamut visibly flinched when he heard Zell's voice, the dragon, standing in the center of the quad, and slowly turned around with a slightly off expression on his face. He looked... nervous. "Zell, what are you doing awake a this late an hour?"
"Looking for monsters, we're doing a stake out, I told you about it remember?" Zell scratched his slight messed hair as he walked toward Bahamut ."What are you doing up this late?"
Carbuncle smirked and jumped off of Zell's shoulder, looking up at the other GF with an enlightened expression. "So that's what you've been doing all those times." He pointed accusingly. "You've been training...Geez, of course you've been training, I should have figure that out before."
Zell looked up at him criticizingly. "Bahamut, I told you to take it easy."
"I know but..." Bahamut stood completely firm with his usual statue like stance, but his tail gave away his unease, it swished around nervously behind him. "I have too."
"Have too?"
"I feel as if something is going to happen soon, I must regain my full strength." Bahamut said, almost pleadingly.
"If you don't take it easy then you'll just hurt yourself even more." Zell chastised. No wonder Bahamut had been disappearing at night so often, this is were he'd been going. No one would think to come here at this time of night.
Bahamut looked away, his tail shifting around with even more unease.
(I knew that sounded familiar.) Ifrit said thoughtfully.
'Your a little late.' Squall rested his sword on his shoulder and relaxed a little. "Bahamut, have you seen anything strange around here?"
"No."
"Then I'm going back, it doesn't look like we're gonna find anything to night." He sighed, heading towards the main hall. 'We may have missed it.'
Raasshhhaaaa!
Squall froze in mid step at the sound, it was that sound again, and it was close... "That wasn't you was it Bahamut?"
"Something's coming." Bahamut announced, becoming visibly tense. He could sense it, something odd...
"Yeah! It's coming right for us!" Carbuncle growled, immediately junctioning himself to Zell. He could hear it, heavy foot steps moving with a stealthy attribute to them that was completely over ridden by the noise it made when it cried out, coming directly toward them.
Bahamut junctioned himself to Zell right after Carbuncle, (Get ready Zell.)
Squall realigned himself with Zell, both giving each other a quick, affirming glance before getting into a ready stance. They could hear it now, coming toward them with quick, slick foot steps, charging swiftly down the stairs of the quad with an unexpected speed. It found it self suddenly blocked by the two and was forced to stop, that's when they got their first real look at it.
This monster was Unknown. It was extremely human like, a complete human body, though it was with out the flesh of skin so it's whole body was comprised of raw, firm, bulky muscles, it was like seeing a person inside out. From it's finger tips and toes extended long, thick, bone claws that looked better suited for something a lot larger, like a Ruby dragon. The unknown creature crawled low to the ground when it moved, almost in an insect like manner, bending in strange ways, it pushed itself on to it's feet and stood strait up, showing it's hight to be at lest 10 feet tall. And finally from the back of it's neck were a series of small tendrils.
(It's body is all oily or something.) Carbuncle said (That must have been what those tracks me and Alex saw were, that's definitely it.)
Unknown let out a snake like hiss and lept at Squall with it's speed, the tall form landed in the same, creeping position it usually moved in and swiped across his chest with it's claws. They went deep with the single blow, painfully deep, causing Squall to stumble back and fall. Unknown quickly scurried backward before Squall could retaliate.
Zell charged forward and ran after it just as it got a safe distance from Squall, it stood again and Zell was already half way into attacking. He drew his arm back and sent a hard blow into the open expanses of it's abdomen, then jumped up and sent a swift kick into it's stomach, carrying enough force to make it fall back down on to all fours.
It made a growling hiss, rising back onto it's heels and then springing into the air again. "Whoa!" Zell jumped backwards evadingly, but he wasn't quick enough to avoid completely. Unknown came diving down head first, it's long arms stretched out in front of it and it's hands press together with claws outward. It fell to the ground, it's claws slashing downward across Zell's chest as it landed, leaving behind deep holes in the marble ground where it's claws had burred into. "!" Zell was knocked backward to the ground, a large, bloody gash left behind down his torso. 'Damn that thing hits hard. Wonder what it would have done if I hadn't moved.'
"Zell, are you alright?" Squall asked.
Zell nodded."Yeah."
Squall rested the tip of his blade against the ground and lifted one hand, the glowing force of a casted spell rising up. "Flare!" A soon as he called out the name, a rush of red energy exploded outward from it's body with enough enough to distort it's large form in the crimson haze. It fell onto all fours again, drawing backwards with a hiss of pain. The tendrils on it's back began flailing around, and with a small out pouring of the clear, oily liquid that coated it's body, they extended out of it's neck and burrowed into the ground.
Ifrit quickly called out when he saw this. (Squall!)
(Zell!) Bahamut warned.
Zell was the only one fast enough to strife backwards out range as a those tendrils shot upward from the ground where he'd been standing. Squall on the other hand wasn't, and he was suddenly caught in a forest of the creatures, whipping furiously at his body from all sides. "Urhhggaaa!" He grunted loudly, with a tight grip on his Lionheart he slashed through the tentacles, enough of them to make the remaining one's draw back. He had to admit, it did hit hard.
(Squall, are you alright?) Ifrit asked.
'Don't worry about me, I'm fine.'
Zell hastily dug around in his inventory and retrieved a Mega-Potion, just about the only thing he had left. He quickly drank about half of the bottle himself, wiping away the portion of it that spilled and rolled down his chin with the back of his hand. "Squall, Here." Then he tossed the remaining part of it to Squall who drank the healing liquid thankfully. With it's usual potency the potion took effect and began healing almost instantaneously.
'Ifrit.-' Squall didn't even have to finish his thoughts.
(I understand.)
Zell agilely flipped backwards when Unknown lunged outward for him again and attempted to slash him with it's claws, evading the blow completely. Zell ran forward with his fist drawn back 'You are so mine!' He was about to counter when he and Squall suddenly faded out of reality just as he reached the creature and was halfway into delivering the final blow. Ifrit took their place, bursting through the ground with a rush of burning hot air, rocketing high above Unknown atop a large Meteor engulfed an intense flames. He floated off of the burning rock, cuffing his hands together into fist, arching backwards with all of his flexibility and with a fierce roar he hammered his fist into the Meteor and sent it plummeting towards the ground. It slammed into Unknown before it could even attempt to move, smashing it beneath the hard rock and scorching it in the flames.
Zell and Squall returned, finding the Unknown laying weakly on the ground, it's body smoldering and sizzling from the last attack. But it had some strength left in it, it pushed it self on to all 4s and charged forward, surprisingly leaping over Squall and Zell instead of attack and diving over the Quad's balcony to escape.
Zell and Squall immediately ran after it, halting at the balcony and peering out into the darkness outside of the Garden. "Uh... I guess we wont have to worry about that anymore." Zell leaned over the balcony, trying to distinguish something out of the infinite black. "What was that?"
Squall looked forward, and finally gave up trying to see it. "I've never seen anything like that."
! - ! - !