Chapter 12
"Hi, Quistis," Raijin greeted, shuffling into a dimly lit conference room. It looked like it hadn't been used in a while. Quistis was sitting at a table, surrounded by printed documents that were spewing out of a laptop computer, connected to the Estharian government database in the Palace. For the past two days, she'd been fuelled by an emotional fire. A duty to fulfill. "Is it okay if I sit down, ya know?!"
Quistis looked up from the line she was marking with a fluorescent orange hi-lighter. "Raijin, hi. Yeah, sure." She waved to the empty chair across from her. There were dark circles under Raijin's eyes, and they were red-rimmed. His cheeks were splotchy too. He'd obviously been crying, and recently.
"You seem really... chipper." Raijin looked at a document, furrowing his brow. "Why are you looking up Trabia?" He looked at a second one. "And, Azabaashe. Hey, I know that name. Adel's Knight, right?"
"Very good!" She praised.
"Must have been one of the history classes that I actually didn't sleep through, ya know?!" He joked. Their smiles and quips were tight, frail. Mask-like and sad.
Quistis looked at him through her glasses. One of the lenses was cracked from all the harsh conditions she'd travelled through, but it didn't bother her. She was far too focused on her new task. She could tell that Raijin didn't necessarily care what she was doing. He just wanted the company. "Where's Fujin?" She asked kindly. It made Raijin think of when she'd been his teacher.
"Dunno, ya know?! We haven't really been talkin' much."
"Because of the Solar System?"
Raijin's brow furrowed. "Yeah..." He muttered. "I guess. I can't believe both her and Seifer kept it from me, ya know?! Like they thought I couldn't handle it!"
"Maybe they didn't want to admit it to you. Maybe they thought you would be disappointed, or that it was admitting defeat, somehow."
"Not for Fujin, ya know?! I'm actually not surprised that she's one of them, as horrible as that is to say, ya know?! But..." He cocked his head and looked at the blonde woman. "You think it was that way for Seifer?"
"No. He felt forced into it by Ultimecia. He wasn't happy. He didn't want that life. He said that he liked his fake life better than his real one." I just hope he was happy in the end. That he knew that we loved him. That Squall loved him just as much as he loved Squall.
"The Solar System's not the only reason," Raijin muttered, tracing an invisible pattern on the table. "I just... I can't be with Fujin right now! She's so angry at Squall, and at the world, and I don't want to be angry. Without Seifer there, it would..." He couldn't come up with a finish for that sentence. It was too painful. He suddenly changed the subject. "You know... Rinoa asked me to tell you to come see her. Please. That was her word. Well, and mine too."
"Oh." Quistis went back to hi-lighting.
"She's sorry, ya know?!"
"I know."
"So, what...? You're never going to forgive her?"
She continued to look down at her papers, frown getting deeper and deeper. "I didn't say that," Quistis answered more waspishly than she meant to.
"Seifer would have wanted you to forgive her. Just like you forgave him after Ultimecia. Just like he forgave Squall."
Quistis had to close her eyes. Pain shot through her head, and she could feel tears coming. "Raijin... please. Not now, okay?" She asked, voice starting to wobble. "I just need a little more time."
"Sorry," said the burly man in sincere apology. "I just don't want anyone to fight anymore. It just seems so stupid and wrong."
Quistis reached across the table and patted his hand. "I'm sorry... I just... I'm worried about trusting someone right now."
"I guess I understand that, ya know?! Anyway, why are you looking this stuff up?"
"I'm looking for information about a woman that was known as La Draconia."
"Never heard of her."
"No, of course not. She lived in Esthar during Adel's time."
"So... Adel, like, destroyed a lot of documents about the city, right?"
"Very good," she replied, at her former Garden Instructor best. "And, she was connected to Azabaashe, and there's far more information about him, being an Adel sympathizer and all."
"So, how do you think you'll find any information about this Ladle Cone person?"
"La Draconia," she corrected sharply.
"Whoa. You just channelled Fujin, ya know?! MORON," he impersonated, actually quite accurately. He tried to smile.
"Adel may have destroyed the records of citizenship, but there may still be information in these military archives. Even if it's just observational notes about the dragoon tribe."
"The... huh?"
Quistis opened her mouth to begin explaining when there was a gentle knock on the conference room door. "Kiros!" Quistis exclaimed. "Thanks for coming. I know you're busy."
"You're looking much better." He took both her hands in his, and squeezed them warmly. "But, your message was a little urgent. Has something happened? Do you need Laguna?"
"No, I think you're the one that can help me with this. I need some historical information."
"Ah, book smarts. Yes... I supposed you wouldn't need Laguna in this case." The painfully elegant man grinned and sat in one of the free chairs. "Hello Raijin," he greeted politely, squeezing his big shoulder.
"Mm, hi..." Raijin mumbled into his chest. Kiros was so much more authoritative than Laguna that it made Raijin shy and a little nervous, how he'd always been around the sterner Garden Instructors as a kid. Kiros seemed to fit the idea of Esthar's President more than Laguna did.
"What would you like to know?"
"Do you know anything about the dragoon tribe from Trabia?"
Kiros's eyebrows arched a little in surprise. "Hmmm..." He crossed his arms, eyes glittered in thought. "Yes, some. Adel, as you know, destroyed any record of towns and tribes that she conquered. They were from a small village near the Grandidi Forest border, called..." He pondered again for some time, spinning his wedding ring around on his finger. Quistis knew from what Bahamut had said to them, but didn't want to prod Kiros's answers. If she led him, maybe he wouldn't come up with tiny yet very helpful details. She also didn't want to mention Azabaashe yet. "Wolf Haven."
Quistis's face broke into a smile that actually kind of hurt her facial muscles. Like her face was asking her why she felt she had the right to smile at a time like this. "Yes, that's right."
"This was probably during one of Adel's raids to figure out about magicks other than her Sorcery. Things like Tears Point and Battleship Island also came up around that time. It was probably about the same time that she first heard about Elle, and started to make her raids on Winhill. There were lots of little Trabian and Abadan villages that wound up being wiped off the map." Kiros's musical voice iced over when he spoke of that time period. Tiernan's village on the Abadan Plains had been one of those that was forever gone, his future husband's family among those that were deemed unworthy of Azabaashe's powers, and burned in unceremonious heaps, the rancid smoke blackening the skies for miles.
"I'm sorry to bring up bad memories, but this is important. I need to know about that tribe's leader. Does the name Dinara Von Munster ring any bells?"
"La Draconia?" Kiros asked, blinking.
"You know her?"
"Who's Dinara Von Munster?" Raijin asked.
"La Draconia. How do you know about her, Quistis?"
"Did you know her?" Quistis urged again.
"Not personally," answered Kiros, eyeing her sceptically. "Just by reputation. She died before Laguna, Ward and I made it into the city to rescue Elle. Why do you ask about her? How do you even know about her? She's somewhat of an Estharian folklore, particularly with women. It's not something an outsider would know."
"Bahamut told us about her," Quistis explained. "Look... I want to know about her because she was Seifer's mother, and I want..." Her voice broke. "I want to do this for him. I want to learn about her because... well, he can't." Her eyes were wet and shining behind the cracked and dirty lenses of her glasses.
"Seifer's mother?!" Raijin exclaimed, lips parted in shock.
"And, this came up because... Bahamut and Seifer shared an unnatural compatibility, I would assume." Kiros sat back in his chair, playing with the beaded tip of one of his braids. He wasn't nearly as surprised. Someone who could cut Odin in half didn't just come from an ordinary bloodline.
"He could also... communicate, in a way, with dragons and other reptiles." It pained Quistis to be talking about Seifer in the past tense like this. "Bahamut told us a lot about her, but not exactly how she died. He only said that he lost contact with Dinara, and then he was taken to the research island. He also told us about Azabaashe, and his royalty complex. How he thought..."
"He thought the Queen of the Dragoons should be his wife, instead of a commoner. At least in his eyes. I'm far more familiar with him than I am with Dinara Von Munster." He thought some more, and neither of the other two interrupted this silence. "Laguna is convinced that Azabaashe is still alive, and he won't change his mind, no matter what people try to convince him of."
"You don't sound like you think he's being paranoid, ya know?!" Raijin pointed out with a deep sense of perception that most people didn't notice he had, starting to feel a tad uneasy. Some of the stuff he remembered reading about Azabaashe was rather disturbing, and that was the watered-down school textbook version.
"Azabaashe... well, he had certain powers. Adel ordered Odine to keep it a secret. She didn't want Galbadia knowing about her Knight's secret weapon. It's not like Odine would need a command to keep strange powers a secret. He's nearly as bad as she was when it comes to research into unusual powers that borders on unethical. We only just found out about Azabaashe's powers within the last decade, actually."
"What kind of powers?" Quistis almost felt like Kiros was telling them a ghost story.
"Necromancy."
Whoa, brain. Ghost story is right. A little on the nose there.
Quistis and Raijin stared at Kiros in rapt fascination."So... could he raise himself from the dead, ya know?!" Raijin asked, blinking. He was picturing the different lore from all the zombie movies he'd seen over the course of his life.
"No. At least, I don't believe so. He couldn't heal. To cheat death would be to heal injuries, and he definitely couldn't do that. Now, I'm only really guessing since there aren't any other documented cases of necromancy that I know of, but I think his powers would be like a dim echo of Odin's. To be able to harness dead energy, to animate the dead but not truly bring them back to life. But, Adel probably only made him her Knight in the first place so she could steal his powers after she came to understand them. She was kind of known for it."
"I never used to be able to fathom how a human could do that to themselves... magical mutilation all for the sake of power? It seems so perverse. But, I guess I understand it now, because the same thing is happening to Xu." Quistis unconsciously balled her hands into angry fists, and crumpled the papers she was holding. Kiros may have said something in response, but she couldn't hear it. She could only hear her rage, pounding in her ears like surf. She pushed it down, but didn't ignore it. She wasn't like Squall that way. She didn't want to forget that she felt such hurt and disappointment and betrayal. But, she wanted to hold off on expressing those feelings until she was able to use them properly. She wanted to be patient, and release it all when she came face-to-face with Xu again.
Her internal struggle only lasted a few moments. She came back to hear Kiros had only been talking about going back to the Presidential Palace in the morning. "It looks like Garden hasn't sent in any covert agents, and we've already seen that they can't send in any magical forces as assassins, so it seems safe to travel." Kiros checked his watch, eyebrows raising at the time. "I know I wasn't much help in your questions, Quistis, but I really do have to go."
"I understand. And, you were a help. Thanks" She smiled as he left, but something was bothering her. What Kiros had said. About going back to the Presidential Palace. It filled her with some emotion that she couldn't really describe. Her body and mind were trying to tell her that it was wrong to leave. Why? Because, deep down in a part of her that was completely irrational, she hoped that Seifer was still alive. Hoped it so hard that her chest hurt. And, if they moved to Esthar, Seifer wouldn't be able to find them. If they waited here, there was a better chance he'd find them. What the hell, girl? Get those thoughts out of your head, she bossed herself around. You can't go down that road. You can't let yourself hope that Seifer's alive, she insisted, still crumpling the paper in her fists. Because then you'll have to mourn him all over again. It's just too much pain.
She looked at some of the information about Azabaashe, thinking about Squall. Did he also wonder if Seifer could still be alive somewhere?
----
Though Squall was further and further away from Quistis, and everyone else, on an emotional level, his thoughts did mirror his dear friend's.
He was sitting on the floor of the dark guard's room, staring out to the lonely, windswept Abadan Plains. His head was resting against the glass, slumped and defeated. He could practically taste the warmth of scotch on his tongue, and yearned for the fuzzy edges that cocaine would give all this dull pain, but there was none around here. The ransacked shelves and desks in the room were proof of his futile search for any kind of alcohol. So, he turned to a new addiction - slow death. Letting himself waste away, float in cold black space, all alone. Even Laguna, Ellone and Serino had abandoned him in his solitary, dying misery. Laguna had to go to meetings, or else he would have sat by his son, even if it pained him to see Squall wasting away.
Squall was dimly aware of Laguna's unwavering loyalty and love, and appreciated it on some robotic level. That same level that let him shower and shave and put on clean clothes. Because it was supposed to be done. Done by people. Something he didn't feel like anymore. He felt like he was a speck floating alone in space again, cold and desolate. But, he wasn't really alone. He could feel cool energy in the air, and could see a translucent reflection behind him. Raine. He was slipping so far away from reality that his ability to sense spirits was getting stronger. Or, it could have been a hallucination. He didn't care which it was. His mother's reflection, kneeling behind him and smiling lovingly, gave him a warmth that even several blankets and a boiling hot shower couldn't. He didn't dare turn around to see if she was really there. It would break the illusion. She would leave him. Again.
Are you disappointed in me?
Raine didn't answer, of course, but he felt a warmth pass through him. She put her invisible hand on his shoulder, and he felt it tickle. There was no weight to the touch, but he could still feel it all the same. He reached up and touched the spot, like he was covering her hand with his own.
Do you miss us?
He could feel Raine's sadness.
Laguna misses you.
She smiled warmly.
I'm sorry I killed you, Mom.
The ghostly imprint of Raine's face in the window shimmered, showing a heartbroken expression. He wondered how he was even seeing Raine here, so far away from Winhill. Was it because he was so dead inside now, or was it because of being exposed to Odin and Eden's magic the way he had been? Or, maybe it didn't matter how it came to be. Maybe it was because he'd officially lost all touch with reality. His grief had driven him insane. The thought didn't frighten Squall. Actually, it comforted him. If he were insane, he didn't have to worry about trying to 'get over' anything. He could be like this forever. He could let himself fall into a dream world where he could talk to Seifer and Raine even though they were dead. Or, he could even imagine they were still alive.
Looking at his mother's ghostly face, so pale and white and just like his own right now, he was taken by an idea. He concentrated on his connection with Raine's ghost, and wondered if he could see another ghost. As much as he loved seeing even an echo of his mother, he wanted to see Seifer more. It made his slow heartbeat start to race and come alive again. It made his blood run again, and made his breath fog up the glass. 'Seifer', he mouthed desperately. I need to see you so bad. I need to apologize.
Squall touched the cold glass, fingers splaying across the reflection of Seifer's chest and shoulders. "I'm sorry," he whispered aloud, desperately trying to will this reflection to congeal further. It was so wispy and fuzzy. "I'm sorry I let you die. I'm sorry I ever hurt you... I..." The words caught in his throat when he could practically feel Seifer's breath against the back of his neck, so achingly familiar. Seifer touching him again. Being held in his strong arms to the point of having his breath taken away. God yes, his heart sang and cried out as he was enveloped in the familiar smell of Seifer's skin, a memory that had been with him his entire life.
Seifer's mouth moving over his jaw line. I miss you so much. Strong and familiar hands moving up his chest. Please don't leave me again. Tears stung his eyes like needles as his heart remembered how to beat in time with Seifer's. Seifer's hand covering his heart, feeling the beating through his breastbone. I'm so sorry. I love you. Seifer's hand cupping his chin. Love you. His pain melting away in a desperately desired kiss. Seifer. Seifer. Please... Mouth against his, taking his breath away, kissing him soundly and fiercely, lips curling up into the trademark Almasy smirk against Squall's own mouth. It was like he could devour that smirk and bring it into his own body for safekeeping.
But, it's not real...
Squall tried to ignore that small voice of protest that popped up out of nowhere. How could anything inside him protest at a time like this? When he was feeling Seifer with him again. How could any part of him argue when he felt whole once more? How could anything argue with feeling alive?!
You don't feel anything.
Squall shook his head, Seifer's fingers now caressing his hair, stroking his cheeks, cupping his face and feeling for his pulses. Of course I feel something! He screamed at this voice.
When Mom touches you, you can feel it. All you're feeling now is a memory.
"No..." Squall ground out desperately, eyes fluttering open at that maddeningly rational voice. The part of him that was buried deep under his protective ice. "Don't do this to me!" He angrily hissed at himself. "Bring him back!" He punched the window, desperately trying to focus again. Okay, just have to concentrate again so I can bring back his reflection. "I need to see him again," he whispered, shivering. "Need to see him." Squall closed his eyes and used every ounce of willpower, but the vision wouldn't come back. Each second that passed between imagined caresses left Squall's body icier and icier. He was drifting away from the sun into a solitary, lonely existence in space. Like when Rinoa had been floating away, dying in the cold vacuum. Except now it was him, just waiting for his faceplate to crack and let blissful death in.
You can't find him again, can you?
"Shut up," Squall whispered. He could smell Seifer's cologne like he was in the room right now, but it was only a memory. Squall had to rub his chest. The pain of losing him again was crashing against all his unfelt emotion, trying to get out from under Squall's repressing chains. He struggled and fought against it, but this new pain was drowning him. He panted heavily, and couldn't stop the tears from hanging against the brink of his lashes. Just let the pain kill me. Just let me die imagining he's here and real again and that I didn't kill him.
Squall's head and aura ached and throbbed as he tried again and again to bring any kind of vision of Seifer back to him. Anything. Anything.
You can't,
he told himself calmly again. You can't, because he's not dead.Squall's eyes snapped open, and he stared at the window, looking at the paleness of his own shocked face, a tear trickling down his cheek. The first he'd truly shed since Seifer died.
But, he didn't die.
"What...?" He asked his own reflection. He felt completely clear, talking to his own reflection like a madman. But, nothing in the past few days had felt so real as this.
We see Mom all the time. We've seen the ghost of a complete stranger. Remember that child in Balamb? So, why can't we see the ghost of someone that we're so connected to?
"I..." Squall began, looking at himself. This reflection Squall looked sure and calm and impatient. Squall knew this is what his face looked like once, but he'd fallen so far from this man.
She may be our Mom, but we never knew Raine. Knowing Seifer so well, we should have been able to call up his ghost quite easily. But, we can't. He's not a ghost. He's alive.
"His screams," Squall whispered. That awful noise coming from Eden's nail-filled maw. Hyne, it had been real! Xu was using Eden to taunt Squall and Quistis. Seifer was alive, and she had him! "Seifer..." He blinked and looked at his reflection. It was the horribly pale and dead looking Squall again. He felt just like he had when he'd woken up in that Timber flop house. Like he'd broken the surface of a lake to see the sun for the first time.
"No." He made that one syllable so powerful and forceful. "No," he told his reflection. "No amount of hoping will change that he's dead," he told Other Squall. He saw the light of hope leave his shining eyes to float to the bottom of the black pit inside him. It joined pain and grief and humanity, screaming to be let out instead of festering inside Squall's soul like cancer. He closed his eyes and turned his back on his hope, resting his head against the glass. "No. He's dead. And, you killed him."
There were no inner protests this time.
----
Nida's almond-shaped eyes slowly slid open when he felt Xu's breathing regulate beside him. He was spooning her tightly against him. Her skin felt hot and feverish, and actually felt kind of clammy. Her shadow was thrown up on the wall by the romantic candles they'd lit for their lovemaking, and it was different enough from Xu's shape to be disturbing. He slowly disentangled himself from his new girlfriend and made his way to the bathroom. As he urinated, he watched her sleep. She breathed shallowly and quickly. He didn't flush the toilet because he didn't want to wake her.
Nida crept across the room and slowly opened the connecting door between this room and Xu's office. She rarely slept in her old room anymore. She was too paranoid to leave her office alone for five minutes, and whenever she did, Astor and Luchia were always hovering. They'd both disappeared briefly, but only Luchia returned to the school, which meant there was one less guard to worry about. It gave him his chance. Finally. Nida slowly went over to the computer and turned it on, watching the door like a hawk, terrified that even the smallest keystroke would wake Xu.
He watched as the computer booted up, inputting Xu's password, feeling so dirty. Gods, so dirty. Touching Xu made him want to throw up. But, it was the only way he could get close enough to find out what she was hiding. And, lately touching her was even worse. She hadn't told him that she was junctioning Eden, but he could feel it. Hell, he could see it. When he touched her, he could feel Eden's power brushing up against his magical aura. It felt like he was dipping his hand into a vat of acid.
But, every time his resolve weakened, he thought of Quistis and Squall. Well, mostly Quistis. Only Quistis. He would risk everything to protect her, to help her. To expose Xu and clear her name, so everyone would see what Nida already knew. He hadn't even let himself tell Irvine what he'd been planning. It could have ruined everything. Xu would have suspected something otherwise, but Nida knew that she wanted him.
And, he felt dirty for having shot Seifer. The way he'd thrown himself in front of Squall and Quistis to protect them. Nida had purposely shot him in a non-vital area, but now... Nida was sure he was either dead or wishing he was dead. He'd delivered Seifer right into Xu's torturous hands. It made him so sick he could taste bile. As he skimmed through Xu's emails, he could still hear Squall's screams as he tumbled over the edge of the cliff and out of sight. Nida had always liked and respected Seifer, despite his unfortunate affiliation with Ultimecia and his sometimes prickly demeanour, so to do that to him... But, it was necessary. And, Nida knew that Seifer knew that, too. That he had willingly sacrificed himself for Squall, just as Nida was doing for Quistis.
Even though she thinks you're fucking Xu
, Nida told himself dully. In Xu's inbox, there was an email from Astor from that morning. Checking the door again, he clicked on it. She probably hates your guts for shooting Seifer. The email from Astor was short and encrypted in a code that Nida wasn't familiar with. While on missions, SeeD would send messages to each other using standard Garden encryptions, but this was something he'd never seen before. What are you trying to hide?With his eyes constantly darting to the door, Nida went to work trying to decode the email. He had this horrible, sinking feeling that wherever Astor was, that's where Seifer was. Maybe alive, maybe just his body. Either way, Squall deserved to have him back, even if only to say goodbye and give him a proper burial.
"C'mon..." Nida urged himself quietly. As he tried to uncover what the message said, he also tried to figure out what computer terminal it was sent from. Nida knew Xu well enough that if he could just find one small link, he'd find everything. She was so meticulous that she'd keep documents of her true intentions somewhere, no matter how damning. She'd also want proof of her success. Her triumph over Quistis.
Even as Nida knew he was successful in decoding Astor's email, his heart sank to find that even the decrypted information was encrypted again. "No, goddammit..." He moaned, then quickly darted his eyes to the door. He again looked at the email, not letting himself get defeated. Not when Quistis needed him. One thing his decoding succeeded in doing was revealing where Astor sent the email from. He pulled open a program, and traced the Garden terminal to one in a way station they'd set up on the outskirts of Fisherman's Horizon, close to the Great Salt Lake border.
"What are you trying to tell her, you bastard?" Nida mouthed. The email had been sent that morning. As he stared blankly at the email, the code suddenly clicked into place. It was a simple replacement. A equalled B, B equalled C and so on. Nida began to switch the letters around, opening Xu's secure email line. He had to get this information to someone. After he'd replaced everything, he saw that it was Astor's message was a file path to some audio document on the Headmaster's private server.
When he found the file, Nida quietly searched Xu's desk drawers until he found a pair of headphones. After plugging them into the jack, he double-clicked, and as he listened, he wished he hadn't.
"Good morning," Astor's voice said smoothly over a small sound that Nida couldn't make out a first. It sounded like... boiling water, or something. "I know the eye thing has gotten kind of tedious, so we're going to try something different today. I think this will be our last day together, so I want to make it special. But, don't worry." The boiling sound got louder, mingled with something that reminded Nida of a shopping cart's rickety wheels against the asphalt of a market's parking lot. "It only means there's one more day until I can fulfill my promise."
There was sound of movement. Astor must have been wearing some kind of headset, and was picking up various sounds in whatever room he was in, including his footsteps as he walked. He must have moved closer to whoever he was talking to, and Nida was certain it was Seifer, because he heard a murmuring over the boiling noise.
"Hmm?" Astor murmured, sounding pleased with himself in a way that churned Nida's intestines. "What's that? I couldn't hear you, my friend." There was a loud crack, and a whine of pain.
"No," Seifer hissed, obviously in great agony.
"No?" Astor echoed. There was another crack, and this time Seifer screamed.
"No," Seifer repeated, panting and groaning. "I... I w-w... won't."
"Won't what?"
"If... if I s-s-s-tayyy alive..." Seifer was now audibly whimpering.
Astor laughed humourlessly. "If you stay alive, I can't go after Squall, right? You think you can survive that long? I beg to differ. I'll make sure you die today. So, say hello to Xu. She's listening." The boiling sound got louder, and then there was a sizzling sound coupled with Seifer's horrible, awful scream. Nida had to yank the headphones away from his ears, but could still hear it coming from them, sitting on the desk.
Nida disconnected the file. He couldn't listen to any more, and the screaming wasn't stopping. His mind filled in the blanks of what Astor was doing with all kinds of horrible options. Under Xu's orders. He glared at the black doorway, his desperation rising as he tried to crack Xu's servers. He had to stop her. She'd wanted that audio to enjoy it. Great Hyne, to enjoy it! Nida knew he would never forget that sound of Seifer screaming. It would be in his nightmares until he died. But, Xu listened out of enjoyment.
Nida started making headway into the encryption, but didn't let himself get hopeful. Though Quistis, Xu and Squall were the names that immediately came to mind as Cid's possible successor, Nida had also unknowingly been on Cid's short list. He went about his work quietly and unremarkably, but he knew Garden backwards and forwards. As he worked, Nida sent the terminal location and the path to the audio file through secure email channels to the only person he knew would properly use the information. He had no idea how to reach Quistis or Squall, but Nida was certain that his partner would know what to do.
Nida's eyes scanned the computer screen, tasting his heartbeat. He gasped and had to bite his lip hard when the encryption fell apart right before him. He kept biting his lip, blood spurting into his mouth as windows popped up and revealed Xu's meticulous file system on Operation: Mariposa. Nida started to send that stuff to Irvine as well, not bothering to read it himself. There was no time.
Click
Snap!
. Send. Click. One step closer to vindicating Quistis and Squall. Click. One more file that would bury Xu. Click. One more file that could possibly save Seifer's life. Click.Nida yelped as pain shot up his arm. He looked down at his wrist, his mind unable to initially comprehend that his hand was turned around backwards, palm up. Shadow was wrapped around his broken wrist like a bracelet, winding and rolling like cold storm clouds. He tried to turn around to see this sudden assailant, and a hand was clamped over his mouth. Ice cold and darkly cruel. The touch made him vomit, the puke spurting out around the hand, that was the same half-formed shadows as the one that had broken his wrist. He knew this touch from contact with Xu. It was Eden in the form of a human. This close to such a bastardized aura made Nida throw up again. The hand was clamped so tight over his mouth that he started to choke on it, going up his nose and dribbling between Eden's shadowy fingers. There was a rancid smell about them of rotten flowers and raw sewage.
To his absolute horror, as if being this close to Eden's false humanoid form wasn't bad enough, the sheer amount of magical energy caused the electricity to surge, and powered down the laptop, erasing the data Nida had cracked, and halting the full email to Irvine. He let out a frustrated scream against Eden's hand, which only caused another wave of illness to overcome him. Great Hyne, he prayed. Please let Irvine have gotten some of that message. Please protect Quistis. I don't care what happens to me just... protect her.
"Why, Nida?" Xu asked, coming out of the bedroom. The highlights of her nude body were set in contrast with the blackness of the doorway. "At first, I was suspicious that you would have finally noticed me, but I really did believe it." She sounded so sad as she stepped out into the office. She looked sweaty, and there was a red gleam in her eyes that made Nida's heart flip-flop in fear. "I thought you would have finally seen past... Her. But, you were lying about that. Why wouldn't you have just loved me? WHY QUISTIS AND NOT ME?!" She screamed in Nida's face. Eden's breath was hellish and fetid against his cheek. Each exhale was a death rattle, and he could feel the cold sharpness of nails pressing against his jugular vein. Just itching to tear his throat out. "Why is it always her and not me?!" Her voice was now shrill and insane sounding.
On a dime, her demeanour changed, and she was pressed up against Nida with Eden's shadowy flotsam billowing all around them. "Oh Nida, please don't look at me like that, my love. I can't believe you think I would kill you."
Nida hurled garbled curses at her around Eden's hand. Bile rose out of him again, but now it was in the form of decomposing flower petals. He could taste the sweet, horrid rot deep in his throat. Both he and Xu gasped when there was a knock on the office door. Xu completely froze, and Nida started trying to scream. He flailed against Eden and managed to bang his boot loudly against the desk. Hellish darkness wrapped around him, and blasphemous runes burned the floor under his feet, binding him like a mummy and lashing him with unbearable pain. His body was frozen stiff, no matter how much his brain screamed at it to move.
"Xu, please tell me you didn't sleep in here again," Zell's voice murmured on the other side of the door. He opened it, and was blasted in the face by the cold ugliness of Eden's magical aura. He took in the whole scene of Xu pressed up against Nida, her completely naked body glowing in the moonlight from all the sweat dripping off her. The way Nida was being held by a disgusting looking thing that seemed made of shadows, its aura even uglier than its appearance. Nida's face... completely frozen in terror, lit from underneath by the runes at his feet. The stench of Eden hit Zell like a punch, but that wasn't what was making him sick.
"They were right..." He whispered, feeling like a complete fool. He looked at the woman he'd felt such love for, and it became terror. Disappointment. Betrayal. Hate. "What have you done?!" He demanded. He tried to call Ifrit, but Eden's aura was just too strong, and it pressed down on Zell's connection with the fire deity until that psychic thread snapped and sent Ifrit to the Summon plane.
"Zell," Xu cooed, sauntering towards him. She wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. The horror in his face made his eyes as wide as saucers. Nida was trying to scream at Zell to run, to just get the fuck out of there and save himself.
"Don't touch me!" Zell hissed. What have you done, Dincht?! You betrayed Squall and Quistis for... THIS?!
"But, you like it when I touch you," Xu murmured, touching the sides of his face. Her hands left shadowy trails in the air, and glowed with a dark, unnatural purplish light. The shadow roiled like snakes, Eden's power flowing through Xu's body and transforming it. "Don't you?" She asked.
From across the room, even in the dim light Nida could see smoky blackness passing across Zell's eyes like clouds before a hurricane.
"Now, go off to bed. I'll join you shortly. I just have to finish up a little paperwork, okay?"
"A Headmaster's duty is never done, huh?" Zell asked teasingly, though there was a scary blankness to his comment. Nida tried desperately to struggle, but Eden's runes held him fast, and now it was like Zell didn't see him at all.
Xu lightly kissed Zell's lips, then smacked his butt playfully as he practically floated out of the office. She turned to Nida and let out a frustrated sigh. "Oh, darling..." She ground out as if they were sharing a private joke. "He's such a complete moron. But... well, he does have his uses. I just want you to know that he really does mean nothing to me. He never has."
Nida couldn't say all the evil and vile things he was thinking, so he only glared at her with all the hate he'd ever felt in his life.
"It was always you," Xu murmured sadly, her emotions completely genuine. It made her sound like the Xu he'd always known. Before she'd let her desire for power twist her into something barely human. "Why couldn't you see how much I love you? Why did you have to always notice Quistis?" She asked desperately, real tears pooling in her eyes.
She leaned against the desk, rubbing her cheeks as tears started to soak them. "I miss her, you know? I never wanted it to go this far!" She cried out, imploring him with her eyes, which shone like mirrors. "I just wanted Cid to see me! I just wanted you to see me, Nida! But, she had to steal everything that I wanted. Without even trying, you know?" She started sobbing into her hands, and Nida's rage began to turn into pity. "I thought she was in love with Squall!" Xu exclaimed through her sobs. "She could have been with him! They could have been happy, if it weren't for Seifer getting in the way. Quisty could have had everything she wanted with him. She loves him. Right...? I thought it would finally help them get together. Then, I could have had what I wanted, and she could have had what she wanted."
Nida just stared at her, wide-eyed. His whole body was on fire, Eden's magic moving through his veins, making them stand out in stark contrast against his skin, black and polluted.
"I'll end it," Xu said with iron conviction, hands balled into fists. "I'll end it!" She exclaimed, smiling at Nida through her tears. Eden was still holding him fast, panting like a hellhound in his ear. "Once Quistis realizes this is right and I'm meant to be Headmaster, then Mariposa will be no more. And, she'll realize that she should be with Squall. Oh, it will all work out for the best. Even with you trying to make everything worse, Nida."
You're insane,
his mind screamed at her. You're fucking insane. Listen to what your lust for power and Eden are turning you into!"I know you tried to send some information to someone." She walked across the room, standing in front of the wall that was covered in butterflies under glass. "Seifer will be dead by now. Nobody could survive what Astor had planned for him today. Seifer will do some good for once in his life before he dies. He'll lure Squall and Quistis out. He'll be dead, and they'll mourn him. It will make them come together, without that fucking asshole getting in the way. When Squall and Quistis are together, she'll be happy that I'm with you. And, I can pardon the charges. I can set them free," she whispered. "I'll be benevolent."
She looked at Nida's reflection in the shadowboxes, and turned to face him. He felt the painful runes release, and Eden's stinking hand lowered from his mouth. "What do you think?"
"I think that I want to rip you apart with my bare hands right now," Nida ground out, throwing up again. His bare chest was now covered in vomit. Eden laughed behind him, and it sounded like broken glass mixed with Seifer's screams and the whispery plea of a voice that sounded like Quistis's. "You insane bitch. You think Quistis would ever forgive you? You think Esthar would just let this happen once they find out?!"
Xu cocked her head in confusion. Though her train of thought was so fucked up, her emotions had really been her own, and her eyes had looked like herself once more. But now, they started to flow with red. "No, she'd never forgive me. She's not only content to steal everything I want, but she's determined to ruin my life, too. She always has been. She kept saying that she didn't want to be Headmaster. She didn't care that she had her own fucking fan club. She kept saying she didn't want to date you out of loyalty to me. What a fucking liar. No. No, no, no, no. I gave her everything. I gave her a chance for happiness, and she threw it away. She spit it in my face and then stole my life."
"Listen to yourself!" Nida screamed at her.
"I finally had you..." Xu shuffled towards him, her brown eyes starting to fight against the encroaching red. But, she'd already lost the battle to power-hungry mania. "And, now that I know what it feels like to have you, I'm not going to let you go." She briefly looked away from his face to make eye contact with Eden. Nida knew something horrible was going to happen to him, but it happened before he could react. The pain of Eden's heinous magic filled him, and he tried to scream in agony, but all that came out were rotten, black flower petals, stinking like a plugged toilet. The kept coming out until the carpet was littered with them. Nida fell to his knees, glaring hatefully at Xu. She smiled down at him lovingly, watching as Eden's power seeped into his eyes and possessed his brain. It enveloped and swallowed him, keeping him safe. Keeping him close to her.
---
Fujin pressed herself into the shadows, rolling a sleeping spell bomb on the ground towards the feet of a few Estharian soldiers, her black jeans and sweatshirt melting into the shadows. She wore a black baseball cap over her silver hair to hide it in the moonlight. When the little bomb hit one of their boots, the smoke released from it, billowing powerful sleeping agents into the air. It only took a few moments for their armoured bodies to collapse to the ground. Quickly and quietly as a cat, Fujin made her way to her goal - an armoured army truck. She crouched beside the soldiers and took their machine guns. She slung their straps around her shoulders, and then started to roll them out of the way, monosyllabically cursing at them for being so heavy and in her way at such a critical moment. Sol's mechanized voice was still ringing in her ears. I'm uploading you some coordinates. Seifer may still be alive. I'll meet you there, Neptune. If there was even the smallest chance that it were true, Fujin would take any stupid risk imaginable. She slipped behind the wheel of the truck and turned on the engine, nobody even noticing she was gone. She started to drive north as fast as she could, switching to the GPS function in her phone. She set it on the dash and briefly looked out to the side window. There were lots of big and ill-tempered animals and monsters in this part of Esthar, so she wanted to make sure she didn't drive too close to a Malboro or Behemoth. But, what made her scream wasn't one of those infamous creatures. It was that there was someone sitting in the passenger seat, staring at her with dead, wintery eyes.
Seifer... alive...?
"Where are you going?" Squall asked. His voice was cold and emotionless. It was actually pretty creepy, like one of those slasher movies that Raijin made her sit through all the time.
"FUCK!" She cursed, the truck swerving a little. "What are you DOING?" She demanded angrily. Gods, she wanted to punch him right now.
"Sol called you, didn't he?" Squall asked. She then noticed he had both his own gunblade, and Seifer's. "About Seifer."
Fujin thought that she hadn't been seen, but from his usual perch in the guard's room, he saw her slipping stealthily towards the army vehicles, dressed all in black. Something inside him had screamed to follow her. That it had something to do with Seifer. He'd snuck out after her, already dressed in his usual black. When she'd been wrestling with the unconscious soldiers, he'd simply slid into the passenger seat. He knew that it was wrong to leave Quistis behind, but he had to. He couldn't put her at risk. She was the one that Xu wanted most.
"He's alive, isn't he?" Squall asked. There was a heat in his voice that had been so very absent in the past few days.
Fujin just glared at Squall, pulling to a slow stop. "OUT."
"No."
Fujin swivelled in the seat and was damn close to shooting death rays out of her remaining eye. He just glared right back. Most people would have looked away by now, but Squall was very well equipped to match her in the icy glare category. "FINE," she hissed, starting the truck again. "Just don't get in my way."
"... Whatever you say, Neptune."
Fujin's teeth felt like they were going to crack from how tight she was clenching her jaw.
"Sol is Irvine. Did he tell you?"
No, Sol hadn't told her. She tried not to look surprised. To have to hear it from Squall of all people. She cast him a sidelong glare. They wouldn't even have to go after Seifer if it weren't for this man beside her. He would be perfectly safe and unharmed in Dollet. Perfectly safe. Perfectly unhappy. Lonely. Miserable. Or dead because he would have gone after them, or gone straight after Xu on their behalf, and gotten himself killed, anyway. Rationally, she knew that it wasn't Squall's fault. Squall loved Seifer. Despite the fucked up way he'd gone about things the last couple of years, his feelings for Seifer were genuine and deep. But, Fujin still wanted to hate him. She held the steering wheel tight as she raced towards Sol's coordinates, towards Fisherman's Horizon. Irvine, she mentally corrected.
It was an ugly, tense and silent ride. Neither were verbose at the best of times, and Fujin was so full of rage and Squall so full of mourning and guilt. But, they were both also full of hope. What if...? What if?? Squall's heart raced at the thought. It pounded at his chest, throbbing and aching. His fingers stroked the hilt of Hyperion, feeling the cold metal. The realness of it. It was a part of Seifer that he could still feel under his fingertips, and when Squall touched it, it was like he was touching a part of Seifer that still existed in this world. But now... maybe all of him still existed.
"Do you know where he is?" Squall asked in the quiet of the truck's cab. Neither had said a single word after even three hours of driving. They were now passing by the North-Central prefecture at a dizzying speed, heading further northwest towards the Great Salt Lake area of the city.
"FH," Fujin muttered.
"There's a Garden way station there," Squall muttered, watching out the window as they passed by a Malboro, far enough away that the creature paid them no mind. It was too busy digging in the ground with its tentacles for something or other. Squall noticed that it was a truly wild Malboro, the original creature before they got fused with more monstrous strains during lunar cries. He could tell because it had flowers blooming on its head like a crown. In his mind, Seifer's voice was explaining all this to him. He had to bite his lip against the pain of hearing his lover so clearly, and the anticipation that Squall could hear him again.
"Sol said he'd get back to me in more detail," Fujin replied tensely. "IRVINE," she corrected. That was going to take some more time to wrap her head around.
"That building has anti-magic wards..." Squall trailed off. Odin said that he'd lost the feeling of Seifer. Squall had thought that to mean that Seifer was dead, but Odin wouldn't be able to feel him if he were trapped behind psychic barriers.
Both of their gazes shot to the dashboard when Fujin's phone started vibrating and bouncing. "ANSWER," she muttered. Because she only had one eye, it was a lot harder for her to drive, especially when distracted by anything like a phone. And, she was kind of pissed at Irvine from not confiding in his own assassin that she kind of wanted him to know that she hadn't gone on this mission alone.
Squall picked up the phone and saw that it said 'unknown number'. He flipped open Fujin's phone and said "Irvine."
"... Squall?" The mechanized voice asked, unable to show any of Irvine's surprise.
"Where is he?" Squall's blank tone was mingled with the beginnings of desperation.
"SPEAKER," Fujin commanded.
Squall briefly rolled his eyes in annoyance and looked like classic, vintage Squall while doing it. He pressed the speaker button and put the phone back on the dash.
"LIAR," Fujin snapped.
Irvine must have disconnected the voice scrambler, because it was his own voice that came through. "Oh, please. I never meant to tell anyone, but the situation got out of hand, to put it mildly. I'm not sure who sent me the info, but I did get what looks like partial files about Mariposa," Irvine noted. "I confirmed that it's the Garden way station in Fisherman's Horizon where the email was sent from. It contained a link to an audio clip on the server that he must have thought Xu wanted to hear."
"INFORMANT?"
"I don't know. I'm hoping it was Nida, but I don't want to contact him, because if it was him it might blow his cover. If it wasn't... I have no clue. A Trepie, maybe?" Irvine let out his breath in a slow, loud shunt. "Fujin... I hope you're driving fast, beautiful. He might not be alive anymore."
Fujin and Squall both looked at each other, expressions a mirror. Fujin was sure she'd also taken on that sudden green shade that Squall's lovely face was sporting. "MEANING...?"
"The audio is of Seifer being tortured. It's bad."
"SEND," Fujin commanded icily.
"Fujin..."
"SEND!" She shouted angrily.
"... all right. I'll meet you at the facility, okay?"
"FINE."
Irvine hung up and her phone started receiving the file. Squall closed his eyes, trying not to think of what could be happening to Seifer. What if... Hyne, what would Squall do if he had this hope that Seifer was alive, and they arrived only to find it was too late? That he'd died in the most painful way possible? The first thing he would do would be to kill Astor. Then... he would probably die himself. He'd take Astor to hell with him.
Both of them jerked when the phone tinkled to signal the file was finished downloading. Fujin stuck a finger out and played it before she could change her mind. Astor's voice filled the truck cab and stabbed them both in the chest. "Good morning. I know the eye thing has gotten kind of tedious, so we're going to try something different today."
Squall's eyes closed, trying not to let his mind wander when he heard a boiling noise. Astor's voice droned on pleasantly, and when he heard a small noise, Squall let out a small gasp. Seifer! Hold on, baby. I'm coming. When he heard Astor say his name, his attention drew back to the recording. "If you stay alive, I can't go after Squall, right? You think you can survive that long? I beg to differ. I'll make sure you die today. So, say hello to Xu. She's listening." Then, the screaming started. That same screaming that had come from Eden's mouth and plagued Squall's every thought.
"FUCK!" Fujin screamed angrily, smashing her fist against her phone to shut off the noise. "FUCK. FUCKING BASTARD."
While Fujin raged, Squall became unnaturally still, even for his current condition. Esthar whizzed by him to the echo of Seifer's screaming. The last time he'd felt this level of clarity was when he'd known that choosing to be with Seifer was the right decision. It was always Seifer that gave him this sharp focus. Seifer was the focus that he lacked. Seifer was the fiery expression of passion that he lacked. Seifer was the boldness he lacked. He was the patience that Seifer lacked. He was the rationality that Seifer lacked. Apart, they were half-formed people, half-finished and forgotten jigsaw puzzles. Together they were complimentary. Together they were finished. They were whole.
"BRIDGE," Fujin sternly pointed out a few hours later. In the distance, they could see the spires that signalled the Great Salt Lake terminal, Esthar's flags flapping proudly in the light of the rising sun. "UNIFORMS." She jerked her thumb to the back seat.
"I should do the talking," Squall answered as he shed his hoodie, putting the lightweight Estharian armour on over his black jeans and long-sleeved shirt. "My Estharian is better."
Fujin just grunted, stopping the truck so she could also change. They switched places so Squall was driving, and then they were off again, each wondering if those few precious moments wasted were the ones where Seifer breathed his last breath. Fujin just held her breath behind her mask as they pulled up beside a guard station. It was amazing, that completely introverted, anti-social Squall could be such a good actor. He changed his voice, and his Estharian was fluid and beautiful. He charmed and laughed and was perfectly at ease, and within a couple of minutes, they were being waved through.
"They didn't ask about us, did they?" Fujin asked, pulling off her mask when they were once again on their way, driving at the speed limit along the thin highway built alongside the Horizon Rail Line. It felt painfully slow. Astor could be standing over Seifer's dying body now...
"No," Squall muttered, unfastening his mask while still driving. "Dad would have noticed I was gone by now, but word must not have gotten here."
"QUISTIS?"
Squall's scarred brow furrowed. Fisherman's Horizon was now in distant view. "It's better that she stay behind."
"This is a suicide mission for you, isn't it?"
He didn't answer.
"If he's dead, you're not coming back. You'll kill Astor, and ride to the grave with him."
Again, no answer.
"SELFISH."
"...Whatever."
"No, not 'whatever'," Fujin hissed. "What about Quistis, or Ellone and President Loire? Did you even think about them, and how they would feel? How would your father feel to lose his child? How would Quistis feel?! She needs you." She shook her head angrily. "God, you two are so much alike."
Squall knew he was doing the right thing, but he did acknowledge that Fujin was right. He just hoped that Quistis would understand, no matter how this turned out in the end.
---
"Excuse me?" Quistis asked of one of the Estharian guards near the front doors of the compound. She was clutching a ream of papers against her chest, eyes full of mounting concern. "You... you haven't seen Squall Leonhart, have you?"
"He's not in the guard's office?" The soldier asked, cocking his head.
"No."
The guard gently moved past her and into the office. When he came out, his body language was all puzzlement. "Perhaps he went to the bathroom?" The soldier then walked up the hall to the nearest men's room, but came back out with that same level of confusion.
"I checked his room and the infirmary, too." Quistis's concern was starting to become full-fledged worry. Had Squall done anything rash? What if...?
"I'm sure he just took a walk," the soldier assured, taking off his faceplate so he could look into her eyes while he tried to convince her that the only person left in her life hadn't just committed suicide. Quistis was surprised when she looked into his face. He had the most startling pair of grey eyes she'd ever seen. They were an astonishing shade of silvery dove grey that would have gotten lost in the whites of his eyes if it weren't for the dark, stormy ring around the outer edge of the iris. It made them look luminous and mysterious. Almost inhuman. She couldn't help but stare. Aside from the eyes, the rest of his face was quite nice, too. Even though he gave her a kind smile, he still pulled out his radio and asked the other soldiers if they'd seen the President's son.
"Jurgen!" A voice called, coming up the stairs from outside two at a time. It was another soldier. "Three soldiers were attacked outside. Looks like it was a sleep bomb. There's also a transport missing."
"Missing?" Jurgen of the grey eyes answered. "Check the security cameras," he instructed.
"Yes, Sir!" The soldier saluted hastily and scurried off, calling on the radio for help.
Squall, please... please Hyne, I hope you haven't done anything stupid. No, no... he just took a walk. Maybe he went looking for Tiernan. Being around him is the only time that Squall gets close to a smile. Squall just went for a walk. He just finally went to sleep. He didn't wander off into the plains to be eaten by a Behemoth. Maybe he didn't kill himself because he can't live without Seifer. Just like he's been trying to destroy himself his entire life. He killed himself and left me all alone...
Quistis looked up from her horrible reverie that just kept getting darker and scarier when she heard her name. The hallway was now filled with the commotion of radios squawking and soldiers calling to each other about the security cameras and the missing army vehicle. Amidst this, Rinoa was pushing past a soldier towards Quistis, her heart-shaped face full of the same worry that was plaguing Quistis.
"Quistis... I overheard that Squall's... missing? Is he...?"
Quistis nodded. It could still be that he'd just wandered to somewhere else in the compound, but she knew that wasn't true. She knew that he'd left.
"You don't think he'd do anything stupid, do you...?" Rinoa asked. Quistis looked so scared and lost that the Sorceress wanted to wrap her arms around the other woman. But, they weren't that far yet in their relationship repair, so she didn't try.
Quistis didn't reply. She knew the right answer was 'yes', but she just couldn't say it out loud. She looked up when she heard Jurgen shout "bring them over here!" A soldier was ushering in a few other soldiers who were lumbering around and banging into things. One of them yanked off his faceplate and retched, though only saliva came out. She felt Rinoa's hand gingerly touch one of her own, and didn't pull away. She felt too alone to hold onto her anger.
"What the hell is going on?!" Laguna's voice demanded as he pushed his way through the hall. Neither woman had ever heard Laguna's voice hold such firm authority. His eyes blazed, cold and angry and so much like Squall's.
"Sir!" Jurgen saluted. "Your son is unaccounted for, Sir. There is also a missing transport, and these soldiers were afflicted with what looks like a sleep bomb. We're looking at the security cameras to see what vehicle was taken exactly, and if it was Squall. Once we know, we can log onto the servers and track the truck."
"And, nobody saw him leave?" Laguna demanded, worry punching through his anger. "Did he say or do anything the last time you saw him?"
"No, Sir. He'd barely moved all day except to rummage through the desk in the morning. Earlier he was muttering under his breath, but it was nothing to give serious alarm."
Quistis clutched her papers tighter to her chest and stepped back against the wall as one of the sick soldiers stumbled down the hall towards them. He was doubled over and clutching his stomach, making his way towards the bathroom. He lurched towards Quistis, and she had to sidestep to avoid being crashed into. As he sleepily stumbled, his body suddenly became fluid and lucid, and a blade was suddenly in his hand. Quistis saw the flash, and the papers about Seifer's mother flew into the air as she ducked low. The blade nicked her shoulder, and a second blade sprung out from a wrist sheath, and slipped in between two of Quistis's ribs.
Her breath came out in a surprised shunt, but she still had her wits about her, so grabbed her assailant's shoulders and kneed him in the bread basket, pitching him forward. The first blade whizzed past her ear. If she hadn't pulled him forward, it would have gone right into the side of her throat and severed her jugular.
"Quisty!" Rinoa screamed, leaping onto the soldier's back with her arms wrapped tight around his throat. She tore at his faceplate, a couple of her nails breaking. She felt a blade dig deep into the back of her hand. She couldn't cast any powerful magic because of the cramped quarters. This close, she could kill Quistis, too.
The cut on Quistis's shoulder started to sting horribly, and her vision was going grey. She could hear Rinoa calling her name, and then felt the heat of magic near her. Rinoa sent some magical electricity through the soldier's body and dug her knees into his kidneys as the fell to the ground. But, he was very well-trained, and as he was falling, he rolled his body so that he got Rinoa pinned underneath him. He flung his elbow backwards and jabbed it hard into her chest, winding her. She started to cast more magic, but he flung his head backwards and slammed it against her face. Because of the armoured helmet, it was a heavy blow.
The soldier arched his hips, still pressing his weight down on Rinoa. He kicked his feet up in the air so he could reach the concealed gun holster around his ankle. He aimed the gun at Quistis, but it was hard to get a firm target because Rinoa was still trying to get her limbs all around him. He fired the pistol at the same time that he cracked his head back against Rinoa's face again. Magic jerked through him and changed his aim, so the bullet barely missed Quistis's head.
Rinoa groaned, pretty sure her nose was broken, but she didn't dare stop fighting, even if physical fighting wasn't her strong suit. She just knew that she couldn't let him hurt Quistis. She held onto him as tight as she could, ignoring the throbbing pain in her face, and let out a controlled wave of magic. It sent pain through her own body. She still wasn't used to concentrating such a strong blow, and hoped to Hyne that she didn't lose control. She could smell burning fabric and skin as the white hot magic poured from her own body into the parts of the attacker that she was touching. She heard him scream above her, and it felt like she was in a blast furnace, but she didn't stop until his body went completely still.
Around this nearly fatal scuffle, chaos erupted. The soldiers' first priority was to protect Laguna, so when the would-be assassin's body was lifted off Rinoa, it wasn't a soldier of Esthar. It was Raijin. "Holy crap, Rinoa! Are you okay?"
"Quisty..." She ground out, rolling onto her side so she could cough up some blood from her broken nose.
Raijin pushed the dead body away and crawled over to his former Instructor. "Quistis!" He exclaimed quietly, gently pulling her hands away from her ribcage. The knife was still embedded there, keeping most of the blood inside her body. The cut on her shoulder was starting to look red and angry.
The cut on Rinoa's hand was the same. She looked at it, how it looked infected already. "That blade..." She slowly sat up, rubbing her jaw. "I think it was coated in poison." She pointed to it, blood dripping on the floor. "Don't touch, Raijin!"
"Rinoa!" Laguna exclaimed. "Quistis!" He brushed off Jurgen, who was trying to keep him away from the scene. "What happened? Are you okay?!"
"They need to get to the infirmary," Raijin said. "Rinoa says that blade was probably poisoned, ya know?!"
Jurgen crouched beside the dead body, ripping off the faceplate. "I don't know this man."
Quistis groaned, looking over at the body. The eyes were wide and staring up at the ceiling, the light already having left them. "He looks familiar," She panted. "... Garden."
"No more talking," Laguna commanded. "We better get you two to Tiernan."
"Don't worry about... me..." Quistis answered haltingly. "Find... Squall."
"Oh, President Loire!" Raijin exclaimed as Jurgen came over to help Quistis off the ground. "I came to tell you... I can't find Fujin, ya know?! I think it might have something to do with Squall."
"Are you saying she hurt him?" Laguna demanded, his eyes cold like Squall's again. From all accounts, Raine had been one of the sweetest, most serene people in the world, so Squall's coldness must have come from somewhere, and though Laguna didn't show that side of himself often, he'd passed that down to his child.
"I dunno, ya know?! I know she blames him for Seifer's death, but... I don't think she'd hurt Squall. Seifer would have never wanted that, and she loved Seifer too much to go against his wishes, even though..." He trailed off. He didn't mention the fact that Fujin was a trained assassin. She could have taken off on a job for Sol, but somehow Raijin knew she hadn't. "It's just this feeling I got."
"Okay, thanks Raijin." Laguna clapped his shoulder. "You two take them to the infirmary," she said, pointing to Raijin and Jurgen.
"At once, Sir." Jurgen gently lifted the now unconscious Quistis off the ground, carrying her towards the infirmary wing.
"Whoa...!" Raijin exclaimed when he'd helped Rinoa to her feet. She could walk so he didn't pick her up, though she did lean heavily against his side. He pointed to the ground. The shape of her Sorceress wings were burned into the floor like a macabre snow angel.
"Quistis..." Rinoa muttered, starting to black out.
"Come on," Raijin urged, fully picking her up when she swooned. "You gotta get to the infirmary, ya know?!" He urged. "Your hand is turning black from that poison."
"Quisty...?"
"She'll be okay," Raijin assured, but he was sure Rinoa was now hallucinating and didn't hear him. So, she wouldn't have been able to hear the doubt in Raijin's voice.
---
"THERE." Fujin slowed the truck and pulled into the dark parking lot of a boat motor repair shop half a dozen blocks from the way station. The headlights briefly illuminated Irvine leaning against an old rusty fence, motor parts stacked behind him.
Before she could even kill the engine, Squall was jumping out, both gunblades out and ready. He stormed towards Irvine, fury filling his eyes. "You betrayed us," he hissed, raising Hyperion so it was pointed at Irvine's throat.
To his credit, Irvine didn't flinch. "I didn't," he denied calmly. "Xu must have been watching me closer than I thought. I wouldn't hurt you."
"Even if someone paid you to?" Squall hissed cruelly.
Irvine knew he deserved that comment, but it didn't stop him from frowning angrily. "You want to argue, or do you want to save Seifer's life?"
That shut Squall up quickly. Fujin crossed her arms and glared at him. "LIAR."
"You've never looked hotter," he said with a wink. "Okay, I got that file about Seifer, but I also got some other information. I think they were trying to send me Xu's files on Operation: Mariposa, but something happened during transfer. They're all encrypted like the power went out." It was a Garden failsafe that if the power went out during the transfer of sensitive information, it would re-encrypt the data. If the file transfer was legitimate, it could just be attempted again, but it would prevent undesirables from receiving unwanted data.
"SEIFER. PLAN?"
"There can't really be much of a plan. This way station is so small, and there's no real chance for a sneak attack. As soon as we step in there, Astor will know. There's one main level, and two basement levels. Astor will probably have Seifer in one of those underground levels. I do know that Luchia and Xu are back in Balamb, so at least we won't have them to deal with." Irvine unfurled a blueprint onto the hood of the station wagon and pointed to things as he spoke. "There's a stairwell here, and here. There won't be many SeeD here, since Xu wouldn't want anyone to know that Seifer was still alive, and what she was doing to him."
"What about people coming from the outside? Astor could summon for more agents while we're in there," Squall pointed out.
"One of us will have to stay upstairs and guard the doors. One to find Seifer, and the other to deal with Astor." Irvine narrowed his periwinkle eyes at Squall. "You up for this?" He looked exhausted and weakened.
Squall just looked up from the blueprint and gave Irvine a glare that made the assassin leader look back down.
"I can watch the exterior."
All three of them yelped and cursed under their breath, and whipped around to see Ivan Blackmoon standing behind them, hands held casually in front of him like he'd been taking an evening stroll and just happened upon them.
"IVAN?" Fujin asked, shocked.
"Fujin," he greeted, though his eyes didn't leave Squall's face. The human was glaring daggers at him. "Don't worry about the entrance. I can't enter because of the anti-magic field within the building, so I'll remain out here."
"Can you teleport us back to Esthar?"
"TELEPORT...?" Fujin echoed in confusion.
"Not if Seifer is seriously injured. Go," Ivan commanded, his powers leaking into his voice and creating an ethereal echo. His sword appeared in his hands, and his black cape flowed from his shoulders like water, his human disguise giving way to his true appearance.
Fujin gaped as Irvine tugged her towards the door.
"We need a plan," Irvine murmured to Squall as he put some plastique into the lock.
"No," Squall answered sharply. "Just stay out of my way."
"ODIN...?" Fujin muttered, still looking at Seifer's ex-boyfriend in confusion.
"Long story. Not now," Irvine pushed her away from the door. "Fire in the hole!" He shouted as he blew the plastique. The door blasted inwards in a ball of fire and black smoke. Squall was the first through the door, not caring if it was reckless and suicidal. Seifer was all that mattered.
The noise drew a few plainclothes SeeD. Squall didn't even look at their faces to see if he knew them. Right now, he would have killed even Selphie or Zell without a second look. In his right hand, he carried his familiar gunblade, and in his left, Hyperion. Seifer's gunblade was a lot heavier than his own, and Squall couldn't hold it in the same manner his lover did, but he found he got used to the weight quickly. He slashed out with Hyperion and decapitated the first SeeD before he'd even been able to draw his weapon. As his arm was arcing back from the swipe, he circled his right arm back so Lionheart cast a deadly arc behind him and spilled the intestines of a second SeeD. The explosion caused the sprinkler system to buzz and go off, so water rained down on them. It also set off the alarm, so all the red safety lights came on, and the whole building was filled with loud, annoying beeping.
"Down!" Irvine commanded to his assassin, pointing to the stairs. "You find Seifer! I'm going to find a computer terminal!" He shouted over the alarms, SeeD gunfire and falling water.
"SQUALL?" Fujin called, jerking back when the lower half of an arm flew past her and smacked against the wall with a nauseating thump, leaving a smear of gore. Squall appeared before her amidst the smoke and sprinklers, the SeeD gunfire having gone quiet. There was a dark look in his eyes, and blood splattered across the left side of his face. He looked frightening. Like he should have been the assassin, and she and Irvine the tag-alongs. Bloody bits were smeared on the blades of both weapons.
"The terminal's up here," Irvine breathed, water dripping from his hair. He looked almost like a stranger without his cowboy hat on.
"We'll go down," Fujin whispered. "Just try to get those files and hope that bitch hasn't wiped them completely yet."
Squall just ignored this whole interaction, and pushed past Fujin into the stairs leading down. Stealth didn't matter. Secrecy didn't matter. Mercy didn't matter.
"Go after him, love." Irvine kicked a hacked-up body out of the way, raising an eyebrow at the level of destruction Squall had wrought in such a short amount of time. He started to log into the computer, not bothering to hide that he was using his own name. This was his stand against Garden, both as Sol and as Irvine Kinneas.
"LOVE?" Fujin repeated angrily, even as she was going to the stairwell to follow Squall. "SQUALL?" Her voice echoed through the hallway, smoke wisping after her from the stairwell. Squall was standing a few yards ahead of her, facing another man who had a large knife in one hand, an electrified staff in the other. His pale green shirt and jeans were covered in blood, both drying and fresh.
It was Astor, and he was covered in Seifer's blood.