I don't own any of the Final Fantasy 8 characters, but the newbies are mine.
To warn you, this is starting to get gory, or at least getting really violent.
The Rinoa bashing is revving into overdrive. I promise it's unintentional. Or at least, it started that way...
Chapter 28
Following the woman through the hall, short as it was, Max didn't bother to look around at the walls. Unlike another place he'd had to stay, the walls told no stories. Thus, he concentrated on where the woman was walking, and tried not to visibly dread whatever "gift" Aura might have seen fit to give him. He still had scarring from the last two.
"So, what gift is she talking about?" Quistis surprised Max by having followed him through the hall. As he looked behind him, Max realized that Irvine had followed as well, the others guarding the door from the outside, and just inside instead.
Not far in, the woman stopped. Not that she had far to go, as the building consisted of an entryway, a hall, and one room connected. Smiling gently, the woman gestured at the raven-haired female laying on one of two cots in the room, "While she's not the expressed gift I was told to give you, you might as well take her too. Milady's done with her."
"Please, don't call her milady," Max groaned, "I've been hoping that my greatest fear concerning this situation isn't going to happen, but with you giving her that title, my hopes are fading."
"And that fear would be?" Irvine had crouched down next to the dark haired woman and had patted her on the shoulder lightly, with no response, "Any ideas as to how to wake her?"
"A glass of water should do it," the older woman suggested as she turned from reaching under the bed that was currently unoccupied. As she straightened, the box in her hand was revealed, "This is for you, milady left a note for me, saying it was time for her to cease playing in the past, and she was going to move on to claim her future."
Taking the box from her, Max felt his stomach sink. The message sounded exactly as his fears indicated. As he opened it, Max tried to figure out how the crystal could have found it's way out of the rock it had lodged into before the gunshot Aura had mentioned. It seemed to him that would be the best way for Aura to communicate her intentions, but when he opened the box, he was surprised. It was a sorceress bangle, with a note.
'I'm sure you figured I'd use the crystal as my signal. But of course, if I dug it out of its rocky hiding place NOW, I'd not be able to find it in the future. You've pointed out many times to me that while I can use the machine to send my thoughts back, or send you in your entirety, manipulating your powers, I can't send anything physical other than you. Of course, I had to count on you finding it when I sent you, after all, you WERE the one to wind up with it in the first place, so it could be used like this. By the by, how are you enjoying your life, and friends? Won't it really bother you to lose them?'
Puzzled, Max read and reread it, looking for some clue or another as to how he'd lose the friends he was only just naming as such. Having been told repeatedly that he'd lose them, he'd been hesitant to call anyone friend, so he'd pushed away everyone he'd known in Esthar before the actions of Adel and Laguna had caused it to be closed off. He'd also pushed away everyone in the Gardens who'd met him and tried to be friendly, figuring from the drawings on the walls in the Timeless Castle, that he'd be locked away by something, and not wanting to take the chance that that was how he'd lose his friends. After waking again, he'd decided that he'd already lost enough and wasn't going to lose any more, so he'd slowly allowed himself to call his fellow instructors ad Esthar Garden friends. He'd even unintentionally gotten closer than just friendship with some of them, though he'd never admit that out loud. After all, it wasn't a good time to tell Ariadne that he'd adopted her as a sister, right after she would lose Eric.
Quistis, having found a spigot and glass, and subsequently splashed the retrieved glass of water onto the face of the slumbering woman, was explaining to the newly awoken woman the events of the past few weeks.
"You're serious," Rinoa sputtered, "I was possessed by ANOTHER sorceress? She pretended I was an idiot, and walked me into your Garden, and- " Rendered speechless with anger, Rinoa just muttered darkly, "As if I'd care if there was a same sex couple teaching at a school, as long as they didn't base students' grades on it!"
"Of all things to be ticked about," Irvine chuckled, "You picked the funniest one."
"Well," Rinoa looked crossly at him. Then she continued, "I doubt the sorceress bothered to look too deep into my actual thoughts on things, or she'd have known I would be one of the first ones cheering Squally on in finding a new love; male or female, just because the poor guy's so lonely!"
Quistis blinked, "You'd been under her control that long?"
Rinoa snorted, "What you thought I really was that stupid and close-minded? Shows how much any of you really know me!" she paused, "Though I suppose that's my own fault, for disappearing so quickly after me and Squall fizzled."
Irvine rolled his eyes, "Fizzled? That's the word you're gonna use?"
"Yes," Rinoa nodded, "Haven't you ever been or seen a situation where one person was rescued by another?" she pointed at his chest, "and the rescued develops a crush on the rescuer? After a while, the rescued will come to terms with the reality of the rescuer, and will lose the 'feelings' they thought they had, unless they were real, and apparently, they weren't real for me and Squally."
Finally snapping out of the stupor caused by the letter, Max heard the tail end of the conversation and blinked a few times, "Okay, I didn't need to know that. Uhm. This letter tells me we have a problem we weren't expecting. I have no idea how long Aura was walking around in Rinoa's skin, but it seems like Aura's done using others to observe. She said she's going to take action to create her future now," holding out the letter, Max winced. The name used to sign it was one painfully familiar to everyone in the room, "I think she's given up her name by birth, and has decided to use one no one ever wanted to hear again."
Landing not far from the brightly red Ragnarok on the coastline, Caraway's troops slipped out of their craft and lined up in regular formation. They stood at attention and waited orders. When the general himself stepped in front of them, some of the soldiers felt beads of sweat drip down their backs. As the silenced stretched, some of them began to wonder what was going on in their commanding officer's head. If anything was, that is.
Barking out commands to the soldiers, Caraway finally set them into motion. Sending some to surround the small structure between their craft and the Ragnarok, Caraway hoped to surround the SeeDs inside. He also sent some to confiscate and tie down the flight-capable craft itself. Finally, when his first and second units were in place, Caraway marched the third group to the building, heading for the front door for a visit.
"Bad news, more bad news, and worse than bad news," Seifer muttered to himself, "We've got Caraway landing out here, sending troops to surround, troops to the Ragnarok, and now he's coming to the front door to knock it down."
Maria shrugged, "We knew we could only stay so many steps ahead of him for so long. What else is there to expect?"
"I dunno, maybe a moment's break?" Seifer groused.
Walking out of the small building, Squall, Quistis, Max, Rinoa, Irvine, Xia, and a strange, older woman were greeted by worried faces, and a rather large troop of Galbadian soldiers.
"Surrender the Guardians, my daughter, and your other prisoner," Caraway called out, while motioning his soldiers to draw and aim, "I don't want any innocents injured."
"Innocents?" Seifer sputtered, "You've gotta be kidding me! You tried to send five SeeDs on a dead-end mission to turn it into a literal dead-end job, and you have the sheer-"
"Father!" Rinoa stepped forward and glared, "I don't know what kind of idiocy you're up to now, but if you think I'm coming home to toe whatever line you dream up, you can keep dreaming!"
Shocked by his daughter's renewed anger towards him, since he'd enjoyed her docility for the last month or so, Caraway blinked. Shaking his head, he modified his earlier statement, "Fine. Then send the only actual hostage, and release the Guardians to me, and we'll have done with it."
Xia glared at the soldiers, at Caraway, and crossed her arms, "So you're not even going to offer us an ultimatum? It's just going to be, do this and die?"
"I have no need of any of you in the future I've envisioned," Caraway flapped a hand in the air dismissively.
Suspicious, Max squinted at the general, and muttered a quick spell under his breath. Those close enough might have just barely heard an Esuna, or a Scan, but couldn't be sure either way.
Flinching as a cold chill settled over him, Caraway paused. Then he blinked. Finally he shook himself all over as a dog does immediately after getting out of the bath. Blinking some more, Caraway asked, "What in blazes are we doing here, and where in the scorching sands of Esthar are we?"
While all of his soldiers tried not to fall on their faces, those facing Caraway down, blinked profusely, muttered, or swore the air blue. Finally relaxing, Max sighed, "General, have you ever met a woman by the name of Aura?"
"Why yes," the General rubbed his chin, "In fact, I believe that's the name of the lady with you that isn't a SeeD or any such thing. She's a citizen of Galbadia through Winhill, and visited me a few months ago, introducing herself. She told me that she was doing research, but never explained it beyond that."
"I'm afraid you have her mistaken for someone else," Max rubbed his elbow, "This lady, while a native of Winhill, is not named Aura. But Aura did visit you, that much I'm sure of. Now."
The woman stepped forward and explained, "I also met this woman, Aura. Only I never saw a physical form. She always showed up in my home in Winhill, speaking to me as a ghost would. After a time, I figured that was what she was. I also came to realize that she might have the power to possess people, as at times, when I had a conversation with her, I would find myself waking in places I'd never been before. Finally, she showed up one last time, and when I woke, I was here, with a note telling me to stay, and wait for the young woman with black hair that would come. It was in my own handwriting."
"What would that accomplish?" Squall looked at Max, "Why would she take a woman from Winhill, meet Caraway, and then take her to here?"
"Sir?" the soldiers took a chance, "Do we stand down now or do we still aim to kill and try to take the Guardians?"
Shocked, Caraway looked as though he was going to have a heart attack, "What in the world?! Stand down! STAND DOWN!!" yelling so that all of the soldiers in the area could hear, he informed them of their orders changing. Most would return to their craft and would return to Galbadia. The rest would act as an escort to the SeeD and himself as they puzzled this problem out.
"Well?" Rinoa remembered Squall's question, and prompted Max to answer.
Sighing deeply and hoping the world would open up and swallow him, Max replied, "I don't suppose you'll let me finish puzzling this out for myself before demanding an answer, will you?" At their glares, he began, "I'll start as close to the beginning as I can. Aura was a student at Esthar Garden. A descendant of some of you, she was held to high standards. Unfortunately, her Headmaster hated her. I never did figure out why, she shot me before I could do research, but that comes later," he rubbed at the scarred over shoulder, "She was approaching her nineteenth birthday, with seven attempts at graduating, all ending in abysmal failures. It seemed as though the people in charge saw her name and threw the folder away each time, without even giving her a chance. At least, after the first three tries."
"She had as many tries as I did," Seifer whistled.
"Wonder if she was anything like you," Quistis muttered.
"Actually, she was almost a female Seifer, minus the gunblade and the Disciplinary Committee," Max smiled sadly, "Right after her final attempt, I noticed she had a crystal around her neck. It was the one used to seal the Sorceress powers, I later found. She'd found it right outside the castle named for Ultimecia, and had wandered around in the castle while she was at it. She knew the history of how SeeD defeated Ultimecia, how SeeD sealed Sorcery away and freed the Guardians, and moreover, I think she knew that Caraway was going to have a case of temporary insanity that would result in the death of one of the Esthar Garden instructors."
Caraway paled, "One of you lot is dead? I can't tell which, you're all standing-" choking as he finally caught a good look at Eric, Caraway looked back at Max, "How is he doing that? Or are one of you controlling him?"
Crackling ice sounded in his ears, as Shive spoke through Zell, "In a manner of speaking. Truthfully, Doomtrain is but controlling the speed of decay caused by those bullets that kill zombies you had Odine create."
"I do believe that I will be resigning from the military when this is all ironed out," Caraway muttered to himself, "It should be about the only way to begin to apologize for my actions, though I don't seem to remember them well."
"That you remember them at all is reason enough to discharge yourself from Galbadian service," Max glared, "Anyway, back to Aura. The problem is, the crystal drives mad all who wear it, except a select few. I suspect that Rinoa, Ultimecia, and I were the only ones on the list that would be affected by this generation of events. I think Ultimecia wouldn't have gone mad because she already was. Rinoa wore it before the powers were contained, so she should have been safe. Me, I'm the oddball in the equation, but that's not the point. The point is that Aura wore the stone, and it drove her mad. She thought about releasing the power, and about meddling with events in the past, because of it."
"So there's every chance that by meddling with events, she actually ironed those events into happening," Squall guessed, "Including the existence of Utimecia herself."
"Forget cementing her existence," Siefer snorted, "I think the little madcap IS Ultimecia!"
"Wouldn't you have known her then?" Maria pointed out, "You were, or are, her knight."
"Not if she hadn't inherited the power yet," Seifer grumbled, "She wasn't a sorceress yet when she took over Rinoa."
"Then how'd she do it?" Caraway chanced butting in.
"Odine has or is building a machine that mimics Ellone's powers of sending people into the past to experience it. Of course, with that in mind, it had the same limitations," Max shrugged.
"She could only visit people she knew?" Selphie guessed.
"That, and she couldn't actually affect the past," Max looked at the ground, as though it had the answers for what he had to say next, "So she tried to get around that, by using the gift of another. She knew of someone who could send themselves into the past, and could actually affect it, to a degree. Of course, he didn't want to, but she HAD shot him in the right shoulder, and socked him in the throat a few times, so it wasn't like he could actually keep her from using the machine to activate his curse."
As it dawned on them, Max started pacing, "I showed up about a year before the uprising in Esthar that ended Adel's reign. I got out just before the borders of the city were closed, and began wandering the other continents of the world. I took advantage of the fact that I look under nineteen and joined Garden. Or I should say, I joined it again. Since I refused to select a specialized weapon, I was never actually allowed to graduate, but since my first stint as a SeeD cadet had ended with me as a swordsman, I didn't care much. Then on a whim, I disappeared. I thought I'd terminated my education at Garden fully, and would have no pursuers," he stopped, "That's when the results of her first attempts at bridging the past took effect. She sent herself back with the machine, to me, because she knew I'd be there. She walked me into the castle, and put me into place so that Ultimecia could make use of me. You should know the rest."
"So how is it you have this power?" Selphie felt brave and hopeful enough to ask.
"Tch," Max shook his head, "I was born with it? I don't know much about how I came into being. For all I know, I'm going to be sent forward into the future again, with my memory wiped clean, to start this cycle all over again!"
I'm feeling about two or three more chapters out of this. We'll see.