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 29
"So, you're saying that when she found you wandering around, after you left Garden behind," Rinoa puzzled, "that she took you over and dragged you to that dreary castle?"
"No, dear," the older woman, who'd introduced herself as Lena interrupted, "She possessed me for that event. In the back of my mind, where I was, I was not entirely sure my body would survive the trek, but apparently she was able to make me quite strong enough to survive both directions."
"So," Xia took her turn at fitting a piece in, "how did Ultimecia get her hands on you when that castle wasn't present in this time until Time Compression started?"
"Oh it has been present throughout time," Max muttered, "It just takes a special touch to reach it. Or it did, until Time Compression. As far as it goes, when Aura, with Lena's physical form, frog-marched me there, I was more than a little puzzled. Apparently enough of Aura's mind had been leant over to Ultimecia that Aura found it quite easy to slip past whatever wards and enchantments made it invisible and intangible."
"If that's what they did," Irvine pointed out, "The place could have just been on an alternate plane of existence, like the Guardians are, until Time Compression, and your girl was able to shift you through using the crystal."
Max winced at the phrase describing the woman he'd once thought of as a sister or a daughter, "It's a possibility. It would also explain a few things about the Guardians finding it difficult to reach. I'd guess that if it's on a different plane from us, it's also on a different plane from them, so they had to hop through two barriers to get there."
"Fine," Caraway was paler than paper, "But what do we do with the four Guardian possessed and the dead walking?"
"I honestly have no idea," Max bit his lip, "The four are mostly healed, and are just in a form of stasis. More benevolently intended but much like the one I was apparently in for a year or so. Eric, though, when Doomtrain lets him go, will revert to so much rotted flesh, we might as well dig a grave and have her walk him into it for when she lets go."
"That won't be much longer," whistling wind passed their ears as Lynne's mouth moved, issuing the words of Pandemona to all around, "Doomtrain's strength is nearly gone."
"The period of time for the students' break has almost passed too," Selphie pointed out, "And we'll have to report back to the school. We'll also have to report Eric's... death. Oh, and we'll have to find a way to break it to his daughter."
Caraway flinched, "Leave that last to me, it's the least I can do considering it was... indirectly my fault, but done at my hands all the same."
Snorting, Max looked away from the rest of the group, at the wall of the meeting room in the Ragnarok they were using. Then he closed his eyes and rubbed his face.
"Yes, I know, about time," Caraway seemed to read Max's mind, "Too little too late, either of those ring a bell Mister Tyler? I have been a soldier for long enough to know that particular responsibility. How will the girl's mother take it?"
"Uh, yeah, about that," Maria prevaricated, "Her mother's been dead since the Galbadia and Balamb Gardens clashed."
It was Seifer's turn to wince, but Caraway nodded, "So the girl is now an orphan in entirety? Does that mean she'll become a student of Garden?"
"It's her choice," Irvine drawled, "If she wants to, she can try as early as nine."
"Unless she decides to attend Esthar," muttered Max, "Would someone tell me again how we wound up with a student population of five to eight-year-olds?"
"Because Laguna either doesn't understand the rule that was set in place about the age restriction, or he doesn't care," Squall shook his head, "But how do we deal with the Aura/Ultimecia problem and Eric's decomposition?"
"If she decided to stop playing in the past," Rinoa blinked, "Wouldn't that mean we've got nothing more to worry about with her?"
"Maybe," Selphie blinked, "But can we know that for sure?"
"You certainly won't be fighting Ultimecia," Lena suggested, "Because she never attacked this time outside of the incident you all have already dealt with. Aura told me that much."
"So, does that mean that it's over?" Quistis pondered, "We go home, go back to teaching too young children, bury and mourn Eric? What do we do next?"
"No, there is something more," Max turned back to the group, "Her favorite taunt to me was that I would lose all I held dear again, in this time. I just have to figure out what she means, and how she'll go about doing that."
"Are you sure SHE'S going to be the one to do that?" Irvine snorted, "After all, you're a SeeD now, and you could be killed by anything," pointing at Eric's slowly rotting form, "proof walking. She might not have to do anything."
"How's that going to lose him those he cares about," Rinoa asked, "Wouldn't that mean we lost him?"
"So something's going to happen that kills the rest of us," Selphie realized.
"Who says you lot are the ones I give a hoot about?" Max got up, stalked off, and really didn't convince anyone he meant what he said.
Finding a wall to lean against, Max slumped to the ground. Looking around, he rolled his eyes. He'd walked around, mentally berating himself for giving his emotional state away so eloquently, "Maybe I can push them away, solve the problem that way," he muttered to himself. Then he sighed and rested his head against the wall, which happened to be below the catwalk leading to the cockpit of the Ragnarok. He stared for a bit through the grating of the catwalk, and had to suppress a snicker as it began to ice over, signaling Shiva's approach on it, through Zell's body. Without even hesitating, she caused Zell to jump off the catwalk to just beyond where Max sat.
"You know trying to push them away won't work," the voice seemed to have icicles crashing through the words, "It only worked in your previous efforts because you did so from the beginning. This time, you let them grow on you, and you grew on them."
"Just like fungus," Max smarted off.
Sighing, "You know it's not like that," the sound of walking through snow drifts issued from Zell and his clothes as Shiva crouched, "Have you ever thought perhaps that not only humans, but Guardians might be included in this loss of those held dear?"
Horrified, Max stared through Zell's eyes to the icy ones of Shiva, "You're serious. Blast! And I never thought of that one," sighing deeply, "I don't want to believe it's possible, but since you all aren't usually on this plane anymore, it is, isn't it?"
Zell's head nodded affirmation, "We wish we could take you with us to our homes when we retreat from the minds of the children. Unfortunately, while you and your powers are similar, you are NOT a member of our people, and would likely fare as well there as we do here."
"How'd you get to be the one to find me?" Max tried changing the subject.
"I never gave the others the chance," Shiva's smile translated well on the blonde's features, "You and those I find favorable, often think along similar lines. Perhaps you should trust in that more."
"What, and wind up closer to them when I have to let go?" Max winced, "I was adopted by the families of their descendants. I lost those families when Aura used that machine and my power to send me here. I adopted Aura, and I lost that when she got the crystal and let it warp her. All I have to do now is be truly adopted by these people, and find myself cast elsewhere, and I'll finish the path to madness I think I'm already halfway down!"
"If you do actually go mad," Shiva cocked her head sideways, "at least then you might dwell in a world where you've never lost."
"That's reassuring, Shiva, really," Max's sarcasm was thick enough to cut.
"Or you could trust in your own strength of mind and body," Squall spoke from the other side, causing Max to practically jump back into a standing position, "And just let it be as it will. Live with what time deals you," he shrugged, "It's what the rest of us are doing."
Max stared at Squall for a minute, then returned to looking Shiva in the eye. Finally his eyes sunk to the ground, as he tried to put his thoughts into words. Taking a deep breath, he asked, "Do you have any idea how many families I've already had and lost?"
Still trying to figure out how this is going to end, but it doesn't seem like it will be happy.