Author's Notes: Just in case you didn't know, I revised everything up to this point. This includes new and expanded scenes. Seriously, if you haven't read it, read it. There are an additional 20k or so words (excluding the interludes). Yeah, that's about it.
Hyne's War: Chapter 9
"Is it really okay for him to be in here?"
Nida could hardly blame Quistis for the question, he'd asked himself the same thing several times on the way to the conference room, and even asked Squall once, but the question had been ignored. So, in silence, Nida had followed Squall and Seifer into the room and had taken his usual seat, despite the looks he got from some of the others at the table. He no more expected that Quistis would get an answer than he had from either of the gunbladers.
"Princess has decided I'm stuck with baby-sitting duty, but I am kind of bound to be here as well. So I brought the kid I'm watching with me. I hear that if I do a good job I might even get a tip."
Okay, so maybe Nida would get some sort of answer, even if it wasn't the one he expected, or from the source he wanted. Then again, the look Seifer's response had put on people's faces was almost worth it.
"Don't quit your day job," Irvine mumbled from the other side of the table, quiet enough that Nida could only barely hear the words.
"And deprive you all of my wonderful company? Hardly," Seifer countered, apparently having less trouble than Nida, probably because he had some junction or other now that he was working with SeeD.
"I've determined that the best way to deal with Nomura is to assign Seifer to him. When not in Almasy's control, Nomura will be confined to quarters, under a lock-down, or with me. I will hear no objections to this. There are more important matters at hand..."
"Matron, Sis and Rinoa," Zell said, shaking his head. "Fuckers shouldn't go after..."
"But they did," Selphie cut in, her voice cold, level, and serious like Nida had only ever heard once before: upon her return to Balamb after the missile strike on Trabia Garden. "We can't do anything about what they've already done. All we can do is hope to correct their mistakes, and keep them from repeating them in the future."
"On that note, Sorceresses Edea and Rinoa, and Miss Ellone have been moved, with the assistance of the White SeeD, to Esthar. President Loire has promised them the fullness of his protection. Headmaster Cid has put in a request for leave so that he might go and be with his wife," Xu said, frowning over some papers. "None of them suffered any physical injuries, but both Edea and Rinoa have mentioned fatigue of their abilities through their attempts to defend themselves without harming their attackers very severely. Apparently they did not desire to worsen the feelings people harbor towards Sorceresses..."
Seifer scoffed at that, "A noble gesture, but if people were threatening their lives, they should have blown them away. So, is that all we're here for? To hear that those bastards outsmarted us, again?"
"Oooh!" Selphie said, suddenly cheerful again, bouncing around in her seat and all but flailing her arms around. "Oooh! I have news!"
"About something other than a Garden Festival?" Seifer said, only to earn a dirty look from the cheerful SeeD.
"Nope. Squall asked me to handle processing information from Trabia Garden."
"Trabia?" Quistis asked, frowning. "What information?"
"We believe that while the first video may have been prerecorded," Xu cut in, "the others were likely made recently. Since Boyce was most recently in Trabia and there were many visitors to the area, chances are that whoever the other people in the video are, they were in Trabia at the time of the retirement party as well. This means..."
"A recording location!" Selphie cheered. "And we found it! Well, not we as in me and other people. We as in the Trabian SeeDs. Actually it was..."
"Selphie." The ice in Squall's voice made Selphie flinch. "Just continue with your report."
"Right. Well, we believe we found the location of the first video at the very least. There was a house that Megill owned, though in the name of his son."
"Megill has a son?" Nida couldn't help but ask it. Nothing they had found before, at least nothing Nida had learned, indicated such a thing.
"Had," Selphie corrected. "Apparently Megill adopted him when he was in his twenties. Unfortunately, as we all know, one of Adel's first moves before striking out against Galbadia was to take Trabia under her 'protection.' She thought that because we shared a continent she had that right. Some of those who were more outspoken about a Sorceress ruling them, even from a distance, were done away with. Thus Megill's son, daughter-in-law, and grandson were all killed. Megill himself was forced to join the military for a number of years..."
"Long and short of it is that they found something at the house," Irvine cut in, his expression obscured by the shadow his hat cast over his face. Something told Nida, though, that he didn't want to meet Irvine's eyes just then.
"Yeah. In the basement. Tunnel leading to a small conference room, just a bit bigger than this, really. Eight chairs set in a circle, each with a light directly above it. And in the center they found this..."
From somewhere, possibly a bag at her feet, Selphie pulled out a clear plastic bag that had been taped shut, the tape initialed and dated like SeeD did when they wanted to preserve the record of a certain item. Quickly Selphie pulled a pair of latex gloves out as well, pulled the tape free, and slid the pale blue cloth inside out. Even before she spread it out, Nida knew just what it was. It was a pale blue robe, with a hood of course, made of a light cloth. It was identical to the robes the Zebalgans wore in the videos, save for the color. The color, though, was what made it stick in Nida's mind: it was the color he had been wearing in the smoke dream when he had been ringed by the Zebalgans.
"So there is a ninth one," Seifer said with a sigh, shaking his head. "Great. Well, hopefully we can find some hair or something, learn about who was wearing this..."
"You won't find anything," Nida said, and was almost shocked to hear the words come from his own lips.
There was silence for a moment, before Squall raised a hand, prompting Nida to continue.
"No one's worn it before. It's special, different from the others."
"How..." Seifer started, but Nida plowed on, ignoring him.
"I don't know what the other colors are for, I can't even begin to guess. Who knows if they represent different roles, or if they are just reserved for certain people. But that color, that robe, it isn't for them. It isn't for a Zebalgan at all. That's why they left it. They knew SeeD would find it, would bring it here. Damn Megill knew that it'd make it to me."
"You're not exactly helping your whole pleading innocent thing right now, you know that, right?" Seifer asked, and the question was oddly amusing.
"As if I'm ever going to prove enough to make everyone happy," Nida spat. "The color of that robe is special, only to be worn by the heir."
Nida slowly reached out, his fingers shaking, and touched the pale blue cloth. It was cool to the touch, almost a relief for how hot Nida was suddenly feeling. All of the eyes in the room were on him now, he could feel it. Slowly he pulled his fingers back and looked around, trying to read something, anything, in the faces around him. Seifer looked concerned, no, make that frustrated and concerned, but the gunblader still met his eyes. Squall seemed almost unfazed by even this, though that was no shock at all. There was something, shock, maybe fear, in Xu's eyes, and disappointment in Quistis's, as well as that calculation Nida had come to know as the woman sizing up an enemy. Zell looked angry, Selphie unsure, and Irvine... The violet eyes of the man across from Nida were a riot of emotions: fear, anger, betrayal, uncertainty, and repulsion just to name a few. With a sigh Nida looked back down at the cloth, and shook his head.
"Nida," Xu said, reaching out as if to touch him. "How do you know this?"
Nida took a deep breath and steeled himself against whatever reactions might come next. "I have seen it before, in a dream."
That, at least, gave a few people pause. It did not, though, stop Seifer from what was on at least his and Squall's minds.
"You said nothing about dreams before."
"You never asked me if I had them, and I didn't think my dreams could be... Everything is vague, and they never play out the way that I see them, but I have these dreams. Smoke dreams, fog dreams. Sometimes I see a lot, sometimes a little, too little. But I've dreamt of this robe, and wearing it. Of Elijah calling me 'Great One' as I wore it, while I knelt in the middle of a circle of eight chairs, all but two of them having a robe clad person in them. Elijah stood at my side, his hand on my shoulder. I couldn't see his face because of the hood, but somehow, I could see his eyes. I would never forget his eyes..."
"When was this?" Squall demanded.
"I dozed off on the boat that took me into Winhill. One of the men tried to wake me up, and I almost broke his wrist because in the dream was I about to struggle away from Elijah."
"Have you had others?" Xu prompted.
"The fight between Elijah, Seifer and Squall. I didn't know it was them at the time, but I was injured, just like I was during the real thing. The problem was that in the dream I wanted to protect Elijah, whereas when it really happened all I could do was watch in shock, and wish to bury Alana's blade in him. That was the morning I left for Winhill. On the Rag this morning, I dreamt of my fight with Squall, that he was going to kill me..."
"That explains why you flinched," Seifer mumbled.
"There have been others, on and off since just before the war. I dreamt once that I died at the hands of a Galbadian soldier, but that never happened, never even faced one. I have dreamt many times of fighting against Elijah, but those I always racked up to so much training. Yet, before I left for Winhill, I told Elijah about one of the dreams, and he seemed... Oddly accepting."
"Hyne, that's why they think you're the heir," Quistis sighed, and Nida was almost shocked to hear such a thing from her.
"Maybe he really is this heir," Selphie suggested, frowning.
"And you didn't think to mention this before?" Squall asked.
"Like I said, it didn't seem important. They never come true, not really..."
"Maybe because they are only possible outcomes."
Nida frowned and turned his attention to Irvine, whose face was again obscured by his hat.
"Maybe by seeing them you become able to avoid them, or they change your perspective on things. Of course that makes the whole thing with you dreaming yourself among the Zebalgans a bit of a problem. Is it something you avoided by not going with Elijah, or something yet to come? Or maybe it's all a matter of interpretation... Tell us, Nida, have you ever had anything clearer? Some strange dream that isn't 'smoke?'"
We shall liberate him, and in his benevolence and true to prophecy he shall guide us to the glory our people have long sought.
"Winhill," Nida said after a moment, shuddering. "I had a dream that was different there, different from anything else I ever had. No smoke, no random weirdness like Selphie joining the circus..."
"Not necessarily impossible weirdness," Seifer chuckled.
"It was clear, but I wasn't really in it. All the other dreams I'm in somehow. I always see them from my perspective, with my thoughts. That one, though... I felt like I was floating above it. There were eight people in a room, seated in a circle. A man in white, Megill, was speaking to the others. He told them that the heir was found, amid great corruption, with those who 'bend the power of the sacred guardians to their wills.' I think he was talking about Garden and GFs. He said they would liberate me, and that I would guide them to glory. His was the only voice that I could hear though, the only one that wasn't muffled. The one in red, Elijah, said something, there was a disagreement, and then all I could feel was terror."
"Megill announcing Elijah's 'discovery' of Nida?" Quistis suggested. "Squall, if I might, I think I would like a chance to look at the schedule for Megill's retirement party, as well as any records we might have on Elijah's location at that time, and any other dignitaries or anyone on the missing persons lists who might have been there. There is a chance that, if what Nida dreamt was... well, if it really happened, Nida was dreaming it at the same time it was happening. If not, I don't think it would have been far off."
"So you mean we might have a powerful tool for intelligence gathering in our laps, but we can't make him get the info, it might be too late to use, and we can't even be sure that he's on our side?" Zell said. "Dammit, this is stupid. We're just suddenly supposed to believe that Nida has these dreams and that they're important?"
"I believe him."
Nida knew his jaw must have dropped with Irvine's words. Not once since Elijah's betrayal had Irvine suggested he believed Nida in any way, shape, or form. The sudden display of faith... it was as wonderful as it was unnerving.
"Irvine," Squall said, the name more like a question than an acknowledgment.
"Sure, I wouldn't put it past Nida to lie about betraying us, but who in the world admits to dreams like that? A few weeks ago we would have sent him to Doc K, concerned that he wasn't in his right mind. Hyne, I still think that's a good idea. But while I'm not sure I can trust Nida, I've never known him to be crazy."
"Thanks, I think," Nida mumbled.
At last Squall nodded. "Fine. Nida, from now on you will report any dreams you have, no matter how trivial they may seem. Maybe, if you really are this heir and the Zebalgans are right about the powers that come with it, you will be of use. For now, you are to report to Doctor Kadowaki for an examination. Maybe she'll find something."
"Yes, sir."
"And I expect you to do it now. Seifer..."
"Aw, but the fun part of the meeting is just about to begin, I can feel it."
Nida was already rising. He had no reason to watch Seifer's little rebellion against authority, his meeting Squall's eyes to prove he could handle anything Squall could dish out. Instead, Nida made straight for the door, and wasn't surprised to find Seifer at his side before the thing could slide open all the way.
"Yes, Seifer, I am well aware of what it means for you to be his guard, but that does not mean that I will allow you to sit in on his physical. You will wait on the other side of the curtain, or I will find it necessary to point out to Squall that you have not been in for a full medical work-up since nearly half a year before he gave you that scar."
Nida couldn't help but smirk as he watched Seifer's face, eyes wide, mouth just slightly agape at the threat, disappear as Doctor Kadowaki pulled the curtain shut between herself and the gunblader. There were very few people that the older woman could not put in their place with a threat of physical exams, and apparently even Seifer didn't hold that honor. Hyne, the only reason Nida wasn't worried right now was because watching Kadowaki so easily deal with the blond had been a pure joy.
"Now, I know the reason Seifer gave me for your sudden arrival, but it can be hard to take his word at times," Kadowaki said as she seated herself on a stool by the bed Nida sat upon. "Why are you here?"
"Because I am either crazy or possibly one of the greatest threats to freedom as we know it. Honestly, I can't help but hope for the latter."
"Squall thinks there is some physical way for me to prove or disprove this 'heir' title you have been given? Nida, do you believe I can test for 'destiny' and 'prophecy' in a person? It doesn't show up in the eyes, the skin, the heart rate, even were we to wish for it."
"I think I dream something of the future."
"Explain."
As simply as possible, Nida explained the dreams her had been having, just as he had before the group of SeeDs. The whole while he watched Kadowaki, who listened attentively without any expression. Finally, as Nida ended, Kadowaki crossed her arms across her chest and nodded.
"I see. There may just be something I can do. While I cannot test the content of your dreams, I can test your dreams themselves."
"What does that mean?"
Kadowaki stood and pushed the curtain aside. For a moment she paused, likely to glare at Seifer from the blond's reaction, but Nida could hardly blame her. The proximity of the blond to where the curtain had been meant one thing at least: Seifer had been listening in. Though it had likely earned the blond nothing, that didn't stop Nida from being annoyed.
"So, Seifer, interested in my personal health or just watching me for Squall?"
The blond grit his teeth, knowing just as well as Nida that Squall hasn't asked such a thing, and Nida was sure that Hyne himself would walk the world again before Seifer admitted about having concern of any sort for another person. Then again, after the last week or so, Nida wasn't sure that Hyne walking the world in the next month or so wouldn't be possible.
Nida turned his attention to Kadowaki, who was half hidden in one of the metal closets near her desk. At last there was a small noise of victory, and Kadowaki's muffled voice calling for Seifer. Moments later Seifer was helping the doctor haul large pieces of equipment onto rolling carts and then pushing them over to Nida's bedside.
"What's all this?"
"With these devices," Kadowaki said as she connected lines to machines, plugged things in, and started sticking diodes all over Nida's forehead, "I will be able to monitor the patterns of your brainwaves while you sleep. All levels of sleep, even dreaming, have characteristic patterns. I will be able to tell if you really are having dreams, or what you claim to see after you wake up are things made up afterward. I don't know whether it will be enough to satisfy Squall or not, but it is something."
"It's not even evening yet, how are you expecting me to sleep? And who is to say that I'd have one of the smoke dreams if I could?"
"The latter I can't do anything about. The former, though... I could use a sleep spell, or if that doesn't work, I'm sure there are other methods of inducing sleep..."
"I could always knock him over the head for you," Seifer offered with a smirk, though moments later he was flinching back as Kadowaki turned to glare at him once more.
"Seifer... If you ever threaten to harm one of my patients again in my presence, I will give you a reason to be in my gentle care for at least a month, whether Squall likes it or not."
"Woah, woah, no need to get so hostile!" Seifer protested, raising his hands before him as if in defense. "Geez, I've never seen you so protective of someone before."
"If memory serves," Kadowaki said with a sigh, "you have caused severe damage to students before, and I am far from happy on that end. And so you know, when NORG tried to take over Garden, Nida was one of the few who, without hesitation, came forward to defend me as I sought to unite students on Cid's behalf."
"Repaying your protector then?" Seifer asked.
Kadowaki nodded. "He protected me, I owe him as much."
Nida was about to speak when Kadowaki turned towards him. For just a moment he noted the way that her hand was outstretched, a classic casting gesture, and then he felt the undeniable pull of a sleep spell, drawing his eyes closed and dragging him into the darkness of sleep.
Everything was warm. The sand that he could feel beneath his boots, the sun that shone down on his skin, the clothes he wore, even the color of the setting sun that painted the seas. It fit the way Elijah looked, red against a red-yellow sea, yellow sand, pink skies. Nida, though, felt cold as he looked upon Elijah, his hand wrapped tightly around the haft of his halberd.
"You were right," Nida heard Seifer's voice all but whisper from behind him, but Nida ignored it. "I guess this means..."
"Elijah," Nida said, sighing and taking a step forward, his mind focused as much on the man as on his weapon.
"I knew you'd come for me. No, that's not right. I knew you'd come to me. It took a lot to convince Boyce to allow me to join the attack here. His goal was to call you out, despite SeeD. He succeeded in that, but nothing he could do would win you, right?"
"I'm not here to talk."
"You're here to protect them? They aren't worth your time. You belong with us."
"Aren't worth my time? They are my friends. They were Daphne's family. They are my people. I won't let you harm a single one of them."
"And who will stop us?"
Nida raised the halberd before himself, gripping it tightly.
"I will."