CHAPTER 10 – Jailhouse Blues

Shibiru awoke unsure of where he was. The room was nearly pitch black, with the exception of four purple lines, two on the ceiling and two on the floor. Neither gave off much light. He only knew there were other people in the room with him because he could see people's legs crossing the purple lights.

The actual lights kicked on seconds later. Now his cell—for that was what it was, a Galbadian prison cell—was illuminated correctly, and he could see Selphie, Xu and Zell on the floor beside him. Seifer, Irvine, Quistis and Squall were nowhere to be seen.

Oh, God, Squall... He remembered it, now. Seeing the piece of ice that she herself had created lodged in her chest after Edea had caught it and thrown it back at her.

Xu's groggy voice said, "Mom, Dad? Will somebody turn out the lights?"

"Mom and Dad haven't seen us in years, sis."

She sat up and scratched her head. "God... What hit me?"

"I'd say it was that Galbadian soldier with the riot shield. Or the one with the machine gun. Or the one with baton."

She looked around at the others in the room. "Where's Seifer? Or Irvine? Or Quistis?"

"Not in here." He lowered his voice in sorrow. "Neither is Squall."

Xu put her hand on his shoulder. "Shibi, look... I'm sorry, but I don't think anybody could survive that."

He stood up. "I should have ran out there as soon as I saw her. What good is it being her boyfriend if I couldn't even take a goddamned icicle for her?"

Xu stood, too. "You know she'd rather die than watch it happen to you."

"But why did it have to happen to her? Why the hell was she even up there?"

Selphie and Zell woke up at once. "Whoa, hot stuff," Selphie said, in the same groggy tone of voice that Xu and Shibiru had both had. "Keep your voice down. Some of us are still trying to be unconscious."

Seifer's voice entered the room, next. "Not to mention the two people in the cell next to ya, lover boy."

"Seifer?" Zell asked.

"And me," Quistis answered.

"Is Irvine in there with you?" Selphie asked.

"No. It's just us."

"Squall's not in there either?" Shibiru asked.

"Sorry, Shibiru."

"Goddammit!"

A Galbadian soldier smacked the door. "Hey, shut up in there, willya?"

"Bite me, ya fuckin' moron!" he shouted.

"Whoa, lover boy's grown a backbone," Seifer said, mocking surprise. "Tell you what, how about you threaten all the guards in the place while we devise a cunning stategy to get out of here and rescue your girlfriend."

"What are you talking about?" Xu asked.

"Jesus, didn't any of you SeeD's read up on your history? Seloma: crushed by falling rocks—survived. Adel: currently frozen in Esthar—still alive. Plus about a half dozen others that have survived far more than a simple icicle through the chest that our girl got."

"Yeah, but Squall's not as in-control as those others were," Quistis said.

"Anybody else see her make an icicle out of thin air? Or that weird aura coming out of her while she went down? Not to mention, I've known Squall for some time—she's a fighter. Few people have ever matched me in gunblade skills."

Zell laughed. "Good to see that gettin' locked up in prison hasn't taken away your ability to gloat."

"That'd be like stealing my heart, chicken-wuss."

Squall could hear something. Something distant. Something saying something. She couldn't make out what it was, or where it was coming from. The world just appeared in her vision as a dark blur for the moment. Gradually, more of it filtered in through the haze, but it was a long time coming before she saw anything correctly. When she did, small, furry creatures were dancing about. Their cries must have been what she heard.

They were saying, "Laguna."

"Whazzat?" she tried to say. "Howdoyou know mydad?"

As the world came into focus around her, she saw that she was strapped to a vertical bed. It was in a room completely metal. On the far side of the room was a single door.

It opened.

Two shapes walked in, but because of the light now spilling in from outside, they were truly little more than dark shapes. One appeared to be wearing a skirt.

Their voices weren't coming in right. One sounded high-pitched, and shrill. "Let her down."

The other was deeper-voiced. "Okay."

The straps holding her to the bed suddenly loosened, and Squall fell to the cold metal floor. She still couldn't tell who the two dark shapes were, so she started concentrating. She wouldn't let them hurt her.

"Hey, hey, hey," the shrill one said. "Calm down, miss teen Sorceress, we're not here to hurt you."

The deeper one asked, "Squall, can't you recognize us?"

"Notyet... you gotta come intofocusfirst..." She slurred out. "Allyouisis bigblackpeopleshapes."

"It's me, Irvine," the deeper one said. Squall had to admit, it was looking more and more like him. "I've got Rinoa with me, we're here to get you out."

"Irvine? Rinoa? Whatareyouguys doinghere?"

The shrill one—Rinoa—shook her head. "Stop trying to talk. You're just getting worse."

Her eyes adjusted to the light, and now she could see Irvine's distinctive cowboy hat, and the blue of Rinoa's minidress. They were both starting to come into focus. Irvine picked her up.

"Sorry, but you're all we're here to get," Rinoa said. "My father tried to get your friends out, but it was hard enough getting you out. In the end, he had to explain how Galbadian you are and then the warden let you out."

"Yeah," Irvine laughed, "It's tough trying to get a criminal Sorceress, incarcerated for attempting to kill our new Queen, out of prison without arousing suspicion."

Squall's voice was starting to return. "New Queen?"

"Yeah," Rinoa said, "Edea has named herself Queen of the Galbadian Empire."

She couldn't believe it. An evil Sorceress takes control of a country, kills its current leader, tries to kill a complete and total stranger, and she's allowed to name herself Queen? The world was going to Hell. That was the only thing she could say with absolute certainty anymore. The world was going to Hell.

They passed several security checkouts, and at every one, Rinoa had to tell them who she was, what she was doing there and why she having an enemy of the Empire taken out of the facility.

When they were finally in the garage, Squall saw that the car laid out for them was just a normal car—not some fancy car, or some military vehicle, but a normal car with four wheels and four doors. Irvine carefully laid her in the back seat and then got in the driver's seat, Rinoa beside him.

Then all hell broke loose.

An explosion blew the door leading into the garage straight out, barely missing the car. Then, several people ran inside the garage. It took a Squall a moment to realize who they were: Shibiru, Seifer, Quistis, Selphie, Zell and Xu. They quickly ran past the car and got into two separate army vehicles.

"Follow them," Rinoa said to Irvine. "We need to get Squall back to her friends."

"You got it, ma'am."

Seifer noticed the car when they were ten miles out from the prison. It had been following them. "Anybody else see that black sedan back there?" he asked. "Anybody know who they are?"

Quistis looked through the window in the back door. Her face lit up with joy. "It's Irvine and Rinoa!"

"Irvine and who?"

"Rinoa, she's the girl who hired Squall, Selphie and me to go to Timber."

"How the hell did Irvine manage to escape incarceration, anyway?"

Selphie answered, "He's from Galbadia Garden, technically he's a Galbadian soldier."

"Technically, so's Squall."

"She's just Galbadian by birth, she's not an actual member of the Galbadian military."

"Anyway," Quistis said, "stop the truck, Seifer, stop the truck."

"Your wish is my foot hitting the brakes, Quis."

All three vehicles stopped. Zell, Shibiru and Selphie got out of their truck and joined Quistis, Seifer and Selphie. Irvine and Rinoa exited their vehicle as well. "Man are we glad to see you guys," Irvine said, cracking a smile and hugging Seifer. Seifer wanted to beat his brains in. "And, we've got a special present for you guys. Rinoa, show 'em what they won!"

Rinoa reached into the back seat and helped someone out of the car. She was somewhat bruised, and her tank top was torn where the icicle had gone through her chest, but it was definitely Squall. Shibiru quickly ran over to her and grabbed her, holding her in his tight embrace.

Seifer said nothing, but he was happy she was still alive.

Quistis, Selphie and Xu also ran over to her and gave her hugs. Seifer hadn't seen this much of a love display since he saw that movie about some Sorceress and her knight back when he was a kid.

"Okay, okay, we're glad you're back," Seifer broke the scene, "but we've got one helluva serious problem on our hands, here."

"What is it?" Rinoa asked.

"Galbadia's gonna shoot missiles at Balamb and Trabia Gardens."

Selphie's eyes widened. "Trabia, too?"

"Wait," Zell said, "ever since we woke up, we've all been together, how the hell you know this but we don't?"

Quistis said, "You guys were still asleep when we woke up."

"Okay, and you didn't feel like mentioning this then?"

"We needed to get out first. Escape was the key."

"Whatever the reason," Squall said. Her voice was somewhat slurry, "we need to do two things: Stop those missiles and warn the Gardens. When are they launching them?"

"Early this evening. Five, maybe six."

"Okay, that gives us plenty of time to get back to Balamb while some of us also head out to where ever those missiles are coming from to stop them."

"So, who does what?"

"I can't stay," Rinoa said. "I've gotta get back to my father."

"Who's your father?" Selphie asked.

"General Caraway."

"I knew there was something fishy about that old guy!"

"Selphie, calm down," Shibiru said. "Okay, so we split up. Seifer and I'll go back to the Garden."

Seifer didn't like that Shibiru was deciding things for him. Sure, he was going to go to the Garden anyway, but he wanted to say so himself.

"I'll come, too," Zell said.

Xu said, "If it's all right, I'm gonna go with Irvine and Rinoa back to Deling City."

"How come?" Shibiru asked. Xu walked over to him and whispered something in his ear. Squall could obviously hear it, because she started giggling. "Oh, okay. You be careful, sis."

"Of course."

"So," Quistis said, "I guess that just leaves me, Selphie and Squall to go to the missile base."

Shibiru looked down at his girlfriend. "You be careful, too, Squall. Don't go using any of your special Sorceress powers."

"Oh, you can count on that, babe. I'm not using those for at least another twenty or thirty years."

"Okay, so it's decided. Xu, Rinoa and Irvine are headed back to Deling City so that Rinoa can go back to her daddy. Squall, Selphie and Quistis are going to the missile base to try and stop those missiles. And Shibiru, Zell and me are going to try and warn the Gardens," Seifer said. "Everybody clear?"

They all nodded in agreement.

"Okay, then," Squall said, trying to stand up without assistance. Shibiru steadied her. "Okay, then, we're all agreed. As they say in the movies, 'May the Force be with us all.'" No one spoke for a moment after that, then Squall asked, "Didn't anybody else see that one? It had a cool little green alien with big pointy ears and a really hot dude going evil? Anybody?"