Author's Notes (New): See previous chapters for the copy/pasta notes on the revision.
Author's Notes (Old): I'm back. One more time. Again. Good news is, the rest of the story is now roughly outlined, so things should go far smoother from now on. Some parts are even pretty concretely in my head. Here's hoping I can keep up with it this time.
Hyne's War: Chapter 3
Nida could do nothing more than watch from where he knelt on the floor behind Elijah, his hand clamped tightly over the cut that stretched across his right bicep. A part of his mind screamed about staunching the flow of blood, taking up the nearby sword, and joining in the battle that took place before him. Yet Nida's eyes were mesmerized by the dance of Elijah's red-tinted sword. It was, Nida could not help but note as he watched it draw blood, the same shade as blood smeared on normal steel.
As Nida watched Elijah lifted the blade to block one, two blows from foes whose faces Nida could not see for the fog that pressed in around them. Another block, followed by a parry, and Elijah started to twist the blade in his hand, aiming to cut at where the eyes of one enemy likely were. The blur in the fog—man, woman, or something else—seemed to dance back a step before the other blur struck out at Elijah. Every cell in Nida's body wanted him to rush in to block the blow for Elijah. Something in his head, though, knew that it would not touch the SeeD.
Elijah's blade lashed out again into the fog, and there was a shout of pain that Nida could barely hear for the way it echoed around and through him. A hit, Nida was sure, for Elijah's red blade came back with a liquid gleam at the edge. Amazing, Nida mused, how similar blood and water could look upon the weapon of the one known as the Red SeeD.
But maybe that was the point.
Nida didn't have a chance to ponder that idea, though, for an irritating beeping cut into the fog of the dream, driving it away and Nida into wakefulness. Friday, five in the morning, and Nida almost wanted to rip the alarm clock from its plug and fling the thing at a wall. Yesterday had been bad enough, but a second day was almost too much. Nida reached out and flipped a switch, turning off the alarm even as his eyes opened to glare at the device. Chances were the damn clock took some sort of demented pleasure from seeing Nida exhausted.
"Finally coming around to my way of seeing things?" Elijah chuckled from where he rested at Nida's side.
"I say fuck SeeD and Garden," Nida grumbled. "The money just isn't worth it."
"Well, don't fuck all of them. I kind of have a bit of a claim on you, remember. Then again some of them, like Squall, do have a nice..."
"We could retire to Winhill," Nida cut Elijah off, hardly in the mood to deal with the red-head jokingly referring to any guy like that. "I own a place there. We could just enjoy the world for once, far away from missions and five in the morning."
"You've got a place there?"
"Yeah. Daphne left me it," Nida said with a yawn, stretching and moving to pull the blanket back up around his ears. It wasn't like he was the one who needed to be up this early anyway. The alarm had been meant for Elijah, not Nida. "I'll steal the Ragnarok, and you could sweet talk food out of the cafeteria ladies."
"A perfect plan," Elijah laughed. "We'll put it into motion after I get back from Trabia, okay?"
With that, Elijah levered himself out of the bed, though far from careful not to jostle Nida. It took a lot for Nida not to grab the pillow Elijah had been using and hit the man with it for being so rude, but he held still. This was the second morning of the week that they had awoken so early. Yesterday Elijah had hauled himself from bed with ease, excited about dealing with the last bit of planning left before the departure for Trabia Garden and a retirement party. The better part of Thursday meetings the last two weeks had involved the party in one way or another, and Elijah had been excited enough to wake up early and train with Nida. Today, though, they were up early as Elijah and the other SeeDs were flying out first thing to deal with the physical preparations for the event tomorrow afternoon.
That didn't mean, though, that Nida was getting off lightly. Unbeknownst to Elijah or any other SeeD save Squall, Nida would be departing later in the day for his work in Winhill. With Squall's help Nida had been able to arrange a quiet means to get into Winhill that would draw no more attention than Nida's normal returns to the isolated village. Granted that meant that while three o'clock Balamb time would find Elijah knee deep in party prep, Nida would be in the Deling port, waiting to board a cargo transport bound for the Winhill area.
"Come on," Elijah said, whipping the blanket back from Nida. "I want one more spar before I go, so haul your ass out of that bed."
"Fuck you," Nida grumbled, reaching to try and tug the blankets back, only to find Elijah unwilling to relent.
"That too," the red-head said, his voice mischievous, "but it can wait."
"Odd to see you so eager to be up," Nida complained, ignoring the innuendo. Still, Nida started to give into Elijah's demand anyway, sighing and moving to sit up on the edge of the bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Boyce... He... Well, let's just say I owe him a lot."
"So a lot of people are saying these days. The sheer number of times I've heard his name these last two weeks almost makes me shudder."
That wasn't completely true. It wasn't the amount of times that the name was said that put Nida on edge, but the odd fact that the very sound of Megill's name made his stomach do odd flip-flops. Nothing explained the odd feeling in his stomach though, as if he would be sick, so Nida hadn't really mentioned it before now, preferring to look away from the speakers to hide the grimace that always came to him. Honestly, it would be nice to be in Winhill for a few days, far away from the name Boyce Megill and the near fearful sickness it put into him. Better than being here at Garden, unable to explain the feeling, or convince someone that he had a bad feeling about the man. Nida's gut feelings never paid off like they did for other SeeDs.
"Say no more. Still, I'm excited. Oh, let's not use practice blades today. I hear plenty of rumors of you putting that bo of yours to good use, so I wanna check out how you've been doing before I go away. Besides, better that I don't go away with you angry because I wiped the floor with you after a sword fight."
Nida rolled his eyes and rose to make for his closet and some good clothes for training. As much as he didn't want to fight this morning, he could think of no reason that would win over such an excited Elijah. Better just to take out his annoyance to Elijah in a fight than try and dissuade him now.
"Your funeral," Nida said as he found the pair of pants he had worn to practice the morning before and pulled them on. 'Don't blame me when you've got bruises and aches for your celebrations tomorrow."
"I won't, because there won't be any. But I'll give you another chance to leave some when I get back on Sunday."
"Sorry. I'll be busy stealing the Rag so we can run away together, remember?"
Elijah laughed. "Then I'll hold you to that instead."
People, Nida had noticed, changed when they had a weapon in their hands. Sometimes it was out of fear of being in a situation where a weapon was needed, sometimes it was from desperation. For Nida at this moment the driving force was the man coming at him with a sword in hand. Yet with a polearm in hand Nida was unbothered by this. With the weapon in hand Nida felt as if his whole being was smoothed out, calm and capable of flowing like water or air. Every muscle in his body not devoted to his stance or gripping his bo was relaxed, his mind was blank of everything but the man lunging for him. There was a readiness too, his whole body more than ready to pounce on his prey, yet without the tensing of muscles that would make his movements too confined, too jerky. The whole of his mind was spread out around him, his whole body liquid, and Nida was ready to move and flow with anything that came at him.
All of these thoughts came and went in the seconds that it took for Nida to twist his bo in his grip into a block that redirected the blow Elijah had aimed for his head. The stillness was gone then as Nida turned and flowed past Elijah, one end of his bo smacking Elijah's shin, hard, as the Red SeeD's momentum made him continue forward into the spot Nida had occupied just moments before. The emptiness did not stop Elijah though, and quickly the other SeeD turned, his sword coming at Nida again from another angle. Again and again the sword lashed out, and time and time again Nida deflected, parried, dodged the weapon, flowing smoothly from one movement to another. Save for knocking Elijah's legs or rapping the man's knuckles, Nida did not truly lash out.
"Are you ever going to fucking attack?" Elijah snarled, trying once more to get in side of the long defenses Nida's bo afforded him.
"When I feel the need," Nida responded calmly, though he felt his lips curl faintly upward in a smile.
With every minute of sparring, Elijah became increasingly agitated with Nida's almost pacifistic defense. Each attack came faster than the last, was stronger, and it was all for nothing. More than that, Nida could see that Elijah's energy was starting to wane. Just seeing that made Nida feel like he could easily take out Quistis, Zell, and Selphie all at once without much more work than this. Even though they were all of a higher level than Elijah, Nida for one was sure that Elijah's combat skill was higher than any of those three on an individual level.
"Well then, I guess I'll have to force you."
What made Elijah so dangerous to fight was his speed, something that Nida had known since he had first faced the swordsman. In fact, it was for that very reason that Nida had trained with Elijah for so long. While polearms were good for those who needed some extra range or sought to use the leverage for more powerful attacks, speed was what Nida had truly desired for the way he sought to fight. Fighting against someone who was fast could not only teach you to handle that speed, but to become that fast yourself. Over the years Nida had learned one other thing from fighting the swordsman: how to watch. Nida unfocused his eyes just the slightest bit so that he was looking just in front of Elijah, and thus allowing him to see all of Elijah's body at once. It was Nida's hope that like this he could find some small sign of how Elijah would move next.
Only like this could Nida truly appreciate Elijah's speed. One second Elijah was dancing out of the reach of Nida's comfortable six foot reach, and the next he was a foot away from Nida, a red blur or strikes that Nida barely brought up his bo to take. The wooden staff did not take all of the blows though, not all of them were directed at the logical areas after all. Nida was trying too hard to protect himself from the sharp edge of Elijah's weapon to notice it at first, and it wasn't until the blossoming of pain in his left side that realization hit Nida. Elijah was no longer relying only on his sword. Every third or fourth blow was a punch or kick delivered to places left open by Nida's defense against the sword. Nor was there anything that Nida could really do about it, not with the way that each strike found Nida pulling his defense in closer, until there was only inches between the bo and his body, hardly leaving Nida any time at all to defend.
This was a speed that Nida had never known in Elijah, had never expected. After years of fighting he had been certain that there was nothing that Elijah was holding back. Yet as a fist barely flew past his temple, Nida could not help but realize that he had seen such speed before. It had been in one of his dreams filled with smoke and fog, much like the one he had awoken from this morning, like the ones that happened so frequently these days. Each smoke dream only had certain things he remembered, and yet he always remembered those as clearly as if they had lived them. And, Nida was startled to realize, he had once dreamt of Elijah like this, attacking and laughing like a madman. It had ended, Nida remembered, with him pinned to the ground with Elijah's sword through his stomach.
The very thought of it sickened Nida, made him recoil from Elijah and the memory of the dream. As he stepped back his heel struck something, and Nida started to fall backwards. At the last moment he caught himself, instinct taking over from the mind, and just as Elijah was raising his sword to deal another blow, Nida did the last thing he would have thought wise for this sort of fight; he thrust himself forward into the blow. At the same time his hands spread to positions further apart on his bo, and he raised the lower side to come up to divert Elijah's strike. With the same movement Nida found himself twisting the movement, pushing at the same time to force the blade to the side. Elijah pulled back, and Nida took the chance to act, twisting his body to plant his right foot firmly before him on the ground and allowing his left leg snapping up to kick at Elijah's open side. The swordsman danced back just in time, eyes wide in shock, and Nida gave him no chance to recover.
Nida obliged the swordsman's desire for a close quarters fight, using his bo as a support as he twisted around it with kicks and flying knees that drove Elijah back across the open ground outside of Garden where they always sparred. A kick towards the temple was protected by Elijah's sword, but left Elijah with no choice but to take a knee to the stomach, though he lessened its impact by forcing the air from his own lungs as the blow came. Soon enough Elijah had decided the close range conflict was too much and jumped back a step, bringing him back into the idea range for Nida's weapon work, and without hesitation Nida brought his bo back into play. In quick succession Nida aimed a jab at the SeeD's stomach, swept at his feet, and finally knocked so hard at Elijah's hand that the red-head dropped his sword. The attack didn't end there though. Disarmed in no way meant harmless with a SeeD.
Before he could do anything, though, Elijah's hands were thrown up in submission.
"Yield!" Elijah shouted, his hands thrown up to block Nida's oncoming attack, and Nida stopped the weapon not an inch away from Elijah's face.
"You're going to let something as simple as being disarmed stop you?"
"That and curiosity," Elijah admitted as he moved towards where his sword had fallen. "How in the world did you do that? I've gone that fast on maybe seven people before. Only two of them are still alive right now, and only one has ever turned it against me."
"That many?" Nida asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Yeah. You and Boyce."
Nida could not help but flinch away from Megill's name, not that he could explain the reason. Thankfully Elijah seemed to ignore that, even though Nida was certain that the swordsman had seen it.
"Most people see how fast I go normally and think I'm going all out," Elijah said as he turned towards the Garden entrance. "It helps if they have seen me take out other people first, though. Then, when I really need it, I've got not only more speed, but surprise on my side. A mortal blow tends to come within three strikes unless I stay my hand. No one has ever suspected it until you."
"And Megill?"
"He taught me," Elijah said as they came upon the entrance. In silence they continued until they had passed the turnstiles, and then Elijah sighed. "It makes sense for Boyce to see it coming, but you... Damn Nida, you're really getting a lot better than I ever would have expected out of you."
"The first blocks were instinct," Nida admitted, smirking. "After that I knew what you were doing. It was like I'd seen it before. You know?"
"Not really. That isn't the kind of thing you see every day, even in the middle of a war and with Time Compression."
Nida sighed, his fingers playing across the length of his bo. Saying anything else would likely sound crazy, wouldn't it? Especially if Nida said something like he had seen it in a smoke dream. The things had started unexpectedly after the Sorceress War, and Nida didn't know how to explain them or the way that they sometimes seemed to crop up like today. Still, it might be worth the effort. Elijah, at the very least, would try to understand, right? They had been together too long for Elijah not to try and take him at his world.
"It's like a dream."
When Nida looked at Elijah he was almost surprised to find the man's eyes wide, shocked but somehow almost accepting.
"A dream? What do you mean?"
"I have them sometimes," Nida said as he turned their path past the elevator area so they could head towards the dorm room. "One or two things are clear, and the rest is like trying to see through smoke."
"What are they about?" Elijah asked, sounding oddly serious, which Nida was thankful for. He wasn't sure he could handle teasing about this, at least not from Elijah.
"Nothing really. But sometimes I see things that sort of happen, only not. Sort of close but not what I actually dreamt. Sort of like deja vu I guess. They only really started after the war, but I had one or two before, like about the turret on the SeeD exam. About a month before I had a dream where you did that to something in the smoke, but I didn't know why. So I tried it at that point..."
Nida shook his head and sighed. "You know what, forget it. I sound sort of crazy like this."
"I don't think it's all that crazy. Two dreams showing you two of my best, most secret moves ahead of time? Come on, that is cool, don't you think?"
When he looked again at Elijah, Nida was sure he saw sincerity there, mixed with something he couldn't quite recognize or read. Still, Nida couldn't bear to look at Elijah with that look, especially since something was keeping him from sharing the dream he'd had that morning with Elijah.
"Thanks."
"No prob. Now, how about a story while we walk?"
Nida made a show of rolling his eyes before smiling and nodding. Elijah's stories were always the most ridiculous of things, over-embellishments of missions Elijah had been on, or fairy tales even children didn't believe. Then again, Nida didn't mind them, sometimes it was entertaining to hear Elijah tell Nida about a mission they had both been on in the last few months where Elijah found a way to almost make Nida believe that Elijah had done it all himself. The stories were always entertaining and the ego boosting nature of them bothered Nida less than they amused him.
"A new one?"
Elijah nodded. "About Hyne."
Here Nida raised an eyebrow. "Classics aren't really your normal area, 'Lijah."
"True, but put up with it anyway? It was my favorite as a child." When Nida nodded his consent, Elijah took on a serious voice and began to tell his story.
"Once upon a time there was a great man named Hyne. Hyne was the ruler of the world, but he was a lazy man, and decided that he would make a tool to make his life easier. Thus Hyne came up with a neat little tool that made more tools by itself. Soon these tools made more, and those made more, and there were very many in the world, and these tools were people."
"I think I've heard this one before," Nida said as he rubbed his stomach, hoping to sooth the sudden illness that filled him. The comment only earned him a glare from Elijah though.
"Yeah, well now you're going to hear it the right way, okay? No one tells it right anymore."
Nida nodded silently, but frowned nonetheless.
"Okay, so when Hyne woke up from a nap he was surprised to find a lot of people in the world. Hyne wanted to reduce the number of people so he used his magic to burn up the smallest of the people. These small people were children and people cherished the children very much. So the people mourned and rebelled against their father Hyne for he was cruel. For all of his magic, though, the people had something greater for they had lived long and hard lives together and by living these lives they had gained something that Hyne had never expected: they had grown clever."
A sigh of relief escaped Nida as he caught sight of the door of his room while he tried to tune out Elijah's story and the illness it made in his stomach. Something about the story was wrong, very wrong. The same feeling that had come to appear with Megill's name now plagued Nida with Elijah's very story. It was something the likes of which Nida had only experienced once before, back during the war whenever he had heard someone speak Ultimecia's name. By the time they reached his door Nida was thankful that Elijah quieted himself, even as the word 'Zebalga' floated across his mind and almost found Nida doubling over from the pain it put into his stomach. Why the word had reached Nida even as he tried to shut out Elijah's words.
Quickly Nida punched in the code at his door and frowned when, as the door slid open to reveal Irvine lounging on one of the tall stools by Nida's table. How Irvine was able to lounge in a tall, backless chair, Nida never could have said, but that was what was going on nonetheless.
Irvine looked up as the door slid open, and upon seeing Irvine, Elijah promptly shut up. Long since tired of dealing with the pair's inability to get along, Nida just breezed into the room, ignoring either one of the other two SeeDs. Back when Nida had given Irvine the code to access his room, Elijah had dared to argue with Nida about it. Despite Nida's logical point that Irvine needed access to real practice weapons when Nida wasn't available, Elijah had still argued. It hadn't helped that Irvine had gone out of his way to find times that Elijah was visiting to flaunt his access, or it felt like that often enough. Honestly, it almost felt as if Irvine was checking up on Elijah, but Nida had no clue why the gunner would do that.
"Irvine, what brings you here so early in the morning?" Nida asked, moving past the gunner to head for the closet where Nida stored his weapons.
"Early? It's almost seven. We're leaving in an hour," Irvine pointed out. "I've also been waiting for almost half an hour. I hadn't expected you to be up so early."
"Elijah wanted to do some sparring," Nida called from the closet as he leaned the plain bo up in a corner and started to change into more casual clothes. "I thought it was earlier, though, otherwise I already would have been back here."
"Well, we did have to do warm-ups, the ten minutes where you do that stupid meditation, and then the last bit... Travel time, showeres... Yeah, we easily blew an hour or so with all of that," Nida heard Elijah say from the main room, and Nida couldn't help but grimace at the self-satisfied tone Elijah took. Even without seeing him Nida could tell that Elijah felt in no way guilty for stealing part of the other hour they had been awake for other sorts of exercise, if you wanted to call it that.
"Oh, makes sense," Nida said as he pulled on a clean shirt. "So, what can I do for you now, Irvine?"
"I want to borrow one of your weapons."
"For the honor guard? Aren't you taking Exeter?"
"Of course," Irvine said, and Nida chuckled at the offended sound of the gunner's voice even as he ran his fingers over his weapons, trying to figure out which he would take in Irvine's place. "She'd hate me if I left her alone for a whole weekend. But I need something that looks good for an honor guard. Not everyone keeps things as hideous as Elijah's sword around after all."
Nida wasn't sure which thought disturbed him more, the way Irvine insisted that his highly phallic weapon was female, or the near malice in his tone when he mentioned Elijah's weapon. While Nida himself wasn't quite fond of the coloring of Elijah's Rupio, he could not understand the sheer dislike Irvine showed towards the weapon with a single sentence. Still, having said it, Nida knew he'd have to intervene quickly before Elijah gave Irvine a more intimate introduction to the weapon for the insult.
At last Nida's fingers brushed over the perfect show weapon, and smiled as he pulled it from its place. While Nida wouldn't have necessarily chosen the same thing for himself it was likely the best bet for Irvine, just in case actual combat was needed. Irvine was yet to start into bladed polearms, and Nida hardly wanted to give him a glaive or partisan if he wasn't ready to really use it. This, though, was perfect, almost as good as the intricately decorated halberd that Nida used for dress occasions.
When Nida returned to the main room and held out the quarterstaff he smiled at the marvel in Irvine's eyes. Though it was hardly what Nida would use himself, being too short for some of the combat techniques Nida preferred, it was one of his most prized possessions.
"It's beautiful," Irvine gasped as Nida held the polished ash pole out, the light from a nearby lamp catchign on a hawk carved near the steel-capped tip.
"Should be," Elijah grumbled, "Nida had that commissioned back in Winhill from a master carver with his first pay. Dammit, Nida, don't let this dumbass borrow that beauty."
Nida ignored Elijah's comment and forced the weapon into Irvine's hands. "When you're good enough, we'll see to getting you something like this. To honor the work you've put into learning a second weapon. Most people don't take their secondary very seriously."
"And if he damages it?"
"If, by some rare possibility, there is fighting," Nida said calmly, not even looking at the red-head, "this weapon would come only into use at close quarters. It is for worst case scenarios only. So, if you're so worried about a replaceable piece of wood rather than the life of your comrade, then keep Irvine for needing to use it if there is a problem. You're good enough with Rupio for that, aren't you?"
Both Irvine and Elijah frowned at that, but Nida just smiled and waved the pair towards the door. "I need a shower again after all of that fighting, and you two probably have some last minute packing to do. So get the hell out of my room, okay?"
Irvine was quick to obey Nida's command, something Nida had spent the first day of their training together teaching Irvine, but Elijah—ever a trouble-maker—lingered.
"What could you possibly want after such a blatant get the hell out of here?" Nida demanded.
"By sending him with that weapon it's almost like you're sending him as your own representative to this thing."
With no further explanation Elijah turned on his heels and strode out of the room. For a moment Nida stood there, trying to shake off the sudden and unexplainable feeling of regret that flooded through him. At last Nida shook the feeling to get to his own, albeit secret, packing. There would be time on the trip to contemplate the odd feelings he'd been having lately and take a nap to calm his stomach.