For a while, nobody moved. The blackness of the Iron Clad's interior enveloped them in a sort of oppressive air, commanding them to be silent and still. Nida's arm was wedged rather awkwardly against what felt like a chair, but he couldn't be bothered to move it; comfort wasn't exactly foremost on his mind.
Eventually, though, he reached up to activate the night-vision on his helmet, and started squirming to right himself. Quistis and Seifer, he saw, were beginning to move as well; one was wriggling out from under a console, the other was upside down in the gunner's pit.
"...Is everyone all right?" asked Quistis.
Nida wonder if the question could have been any more loaded. He tried to figure out how long it would take for the missiles to reach Garden; he didn't really know how long it would take Irvine and Selphie to reach Trabia, but at least Zell and Rinoa had a pretty good head start; hopefully they'd be able to evacuate everyone in time. Hopefully.
"Never better," said Seifer.
Quistis had extricated herself from under the console, and produced the keycard she had taken from the Galbadian captain. "I guess we should see if this vehicle will still run."
The three of them crawled into seats, and Quistis inserted the keycard into the slot by the driver's console, and all the display screens lit up, displaying messages announcing their initialization and then various status readouts. A green light began flashing beside one button, which was guarded beneath a flip cover. Quistis pressed the button, and the engine rumbled on.
"Does anyone know where the lights are?" asked Nida, before spotting a switch labeled INT LIGHTS near where his right hand rested. "—oh." A moment later, the interior of the tank was filled with green light. The three of them removed their helmets.
"...I can't see anything outside," said Quistis, peering through the vehicle's tiny viewport. "We're probably buried in debris."
"Well, this is a tank, right?" asked Nida. "It's probably got a pretty powerful engine."
"I suppose we'll find out," Quistis said. "Everyone, strap in."
At first, there didn't seem to be much point; the Iron Clad moved at a crawl, and they could feel the amount of resistance it was facing from whatever they had been buried in. There were sounds of grinding metal to go with the vibrations running through the vehicle, and the floor began to incline steadily, as if they were very slowly trying to drive up a wall.
Then the floor swung downward to slant in the opposite direction, and Nida was quite glad he had strapped in as his helmet went clattering down to join Seifer's by Quistis' feet. "I can see something," said Quistis. "...I think the gate fell over. And we're driving over it now. We should have a clear path onto the road."
"Can you see the rest of the base?" asked Nida.
Quistis frowned, checking with the vehicle's periscope. "It looks completely destroyed. So at least Galbadia won't be able to target anyone else."
No one thought of anything more to say.
- - - — - - -
They drove in near-silence into the evening. When they reached the main continental highway, they turned east towards Dollet; despite its size and poor rate of acceleration, the tank was capable of a quite respectable speed, and they were well into Hasberry by dinnertime.
"Looks like there's a roadblock coming up," said Quistis. "Nida, switch places with me when we stop. I'll talk to them."
"Right," Nida said.
The tank ground to a halt. Quistis retrieved her infantry helmet and made her way back to the hatch, as Nida took the driver's seat. Two Galbadian APCs were stationed on the road just as it met the Hasberry Bluffs; in the distance, the Dollet skyline was visible, and the beam of light from the communications tower speared into the sky above them.
"Lemme guess," said the soldier who walked up to meet her. "More armor for the comm station?"
Quistis played along. "We've were ordered to help guard the facility."
"Figures," said the soldier. "They've already got the two Black Widows up there. Y'know I heard these new ones aren't even cleared for mountain terrain? Hell, I don't get why we're even still up there. Deling's not even in charge anymore; not like he's gonna be announcing anything."
"That is strange," Quistis said, frowning. The soldier had a point; why were the Galbadians still using the communications tower? Still, she put the question aside for the moment.
"Keep your head up, anyway," the soldier was saying. "Looks like SeeD may still be operating in the city."
This soldier apparently liked to gossip; Quistis didn't see any harm in encouraging him. "SeeD?" she asked.
"Dunno what the hell they're been doing, but there's been a couple incidents. Police even caught a couple of 'em in town, said they were on some special Garden mission."
Quistis felt her stomach sinking. "...When was this?" she asked, barely keeping her voice level.
"Just this morning," said the soldier. "Looks like they —"
"Hey!" called another soldier who was waiting by the vehicle. "You aren't paid to jabber all day! Are they clear or not?"
"Huh? ...Oh, yeah; they're fine." The soldier waved for them to proceed, as his companion shook his head and backed the vehicle out of the way. "Go on ahead."
Quistis retreated back into the tank and closed the hatch, taking a seat in Nida's former chair. "Did that guy say something about catching SeeDs?" asked Nida, as he started them off down the road again.
She nodded. "I guess Selphie and Irvine didn't make it." She shook her head. "They probably wouldn't have reached Trabia in time to do much, anyway."
"How many people are at Trabia Garden?" Nida asked, grimly reflecting that 'were' was probably the better word to use.
"I don't know exactly," said Quistis. "A few hundred, I think. I've never actually been there."
It was easier to think about Trabia Garden, she thought, for reasons that weren't really fair to anyone — it was the smallest of the three Gardens, and the only one she didn't have a real connection to. Now all three had been lost in one way or another, at least one of them without even being warned.
But Trabia, at least, she could accept, as much as she hated the thought of it. She wouldn't really be able to acknowledge Balamb Garden's fate until she saw it for herself.
- - - — - - -
They found a cave in the bluffs that was big enough to hide the tank in, locking it and taking the keycard in case they'd ever need it again. Nida managed to change all the vehicle's pass-codes as well — because of course now his skills were useful, he thought grimly. Then they headed into town, leaving their uniforms behind as well.
It was around dusk when they got into town. The streets bore little sign of the fighting that had consumed the place during Nida's last visit just three days earlier; residents were going about their business, playing or just loitering, despite the occasional crater left by artillery fire or wall riddled with bullet-holes.
Quistis led them to a building at the edge of the docks, whose sign displayed the shield of the Dollet Police and Coast Guard. "Is your captain here?" she asked the officer at the station's main desk.
"Nah, he just went home," said the officer. "The Lieutenant's here, if you want to talk to him." Quistis nodded, and the officer stood. "Wait here," he said, and disappeared into a back hall.
The half-dozen or so officers in the station had been looking at them oddly since they came in, and Nida guessed Seifer was the main reason for that. He was in one of his less personable moods, having barely said a word since the missile base; and his blood-stained, mostly ruined clothes plus the wound on his face made it clear that he'd had a pretty brutal day.
Finally one officer approached him. "So like, what happened to you?" he asked.
Seifer glared at him. "Car accident," he said acidly.
The officer didn't force the issue.
Not long afterwards, the first officer returned. "You can go on back," he said, nodding to the hall as he resumed his seat.
"Thank you," said Quistis; and they did. The hall was short, with a door leading to the holding cells at the very end of it and offices on either side. In addition to being labeled, the Lieutenant's office was distinguishable by being the one that was occupied. The Lieutenant himself was a mustached, middle-aged man who didn't look at all excited to see them.
"Let me guess," he said. "You're following up on your friends?"
"Not exactly," Quistis said. "Although we would like information about the two students you arrested."
"Last I checked," said the Lieutenant, "Dollet didn't have an extradition agreement with Garden. Unless their actions fell under a contract from our government, then I don't owe you anything. And if they did, you can take it up with Parliament. It's not my problem."
"You want us to make it your problem?" Seifer asked, advancing on the desk.
"Seifer," Quistis warned, then turned back to the officer with a more supplicant tone. "...Please. Right now we'd just like to know if they're alright."
"Yeah, well." The Lieutenant shrugged. "Thing is, they're not here anymore. Soon as the Galbadians heard we'd picked up some kids from Garden, they demanded we hand 'em over. I think they were gonna transfer 'em to the 'Desert Prison.'"
Quistis looked at the floor, shaking her head and slumping a little. Seifer turned away like he was ready to storm off or hit something, but restrained himself from doing either. Nida watched both of them, feeling a bit dazed.
"...Well, then," Quistis finally said. "There's another matter. We need transportation to Balamb immediately."
The Lieutenant rolled his eyes. "Oh, not again. I guess I should be grateful you're not just stealing it this time."
"Garden has aided Dollet in the past," said Quistis. "We should be able to come to an arrangement."
"Hmph," said the Lieutenant. After a moment, he shrugged. "You'll have to talk to the Captain about that," he said. "You can either wait till tomorrow morning or —"
"We'd like this settled promptly," said Quistis, who was getting a bit exasperated.
"Well, he's gone for the day," the Lieutenant said.
"We noticed that," Quistis retorted.
The Lieutenant sighed. "You might catch him at the 'Aphorora Pub' – he goes there most nights to unwind. Better hurry, if you wanna see him while he's sober."
"Thanks," said Quistis, whose voice didn't convey much gratitude. She led them out the door and back to the street.
"So Zell and Selphie are in Galbadian prison," said Nida.
"So it seems," Quistis agreed. She sighed. "...The 'Desert Prison' is probably the most secure location in Galbadia. They aren't the first students to be sent there. Garden's always attempted to negotiate for captives' release rather than attempt a rescue."
"So if we try to break them out..." Nida began.
Quistis sighed, and looked almost as if she would collapse on the sidewalk right there. Her expression, tightly neutral while they met the Lieutenant, had become haggard enough to make her look ten years older. "Our track record hasn't been very impressive so far," she said.
Nida glanced at Seifer, who was pacing a bit farther down the road. If he'd been paying attention to them, it wasn't immediately apparent. Quistis looked at him as if about to ask what he thought, but then shook her head slightly and seemed to discard the thought.
"Let's find this pub," she said. "Let's go home."
- - - — - - -
"Welcome," said the bartender. "We have Sylkis, Mimett, and even the hard stuff..." She trailed off, frowning at them. "Oh...Kids shouldn't be in here, you know?"
"We're looking for someone," said Quistis. "Is the captain here?"
"What, the police guy?" asked the bartender. "He's upstairs with the owner. He doesn't like to get interrupted in the middle of playing, though."
"Playing?" Nida asked.
"Cards," explained the bartender. "The owner's really good, but the captain always says he's gonna win someday. He also says he plays better when he's drunk, though. I'm not sure about that... hear he's lost a fortune to the owner already."
"Thanks," said Quistis. "We should just be a minute."
They headed up the stairs. The pub's second floor was cozier and contained fewer people, so the one in a police captain's uniform wasn't hard to spot. He was seated at a cards table opposite a second man; a nearly empty red-labeled bottle rested next to him and a nearly complete grid of Triple Triad cards sat on the table. The captain was completing a move that he seemed quite proud of.
"Plus!" he declared, downing what was left of his drink. "Let's see you beat that!"
The other man shrugged. "How about this? Plus...combo."
The captain watched in amazement as his opponent turned over nearly every card on the table. "The hell'd you do that? Damn, I'm not drunk enough..."
"Excuse me," asked Quistis. "Can I speak to you for a moment?"
"Huh?" asked the captain, frowning at them. "How old are you kids? Y'know I could bust you just for bein' in here."
"My name's Quistis Trepe," said Quistis. "We're from Balamb Garden, and we need your help."
"Garden!" The captain rose. "Haven't you done enough to this town? The hell do you want now?"
"Hey, show some gratitude!" Seifer growled. "This place'd be occupied by Galbadia if it weren't for us."
"Hmph," said the captain. "With what we're hearing about what's going in Galbadia, the troops are coming back for all I know. There's rumors saying all three Gardens have already been destroyed."
"That's why we need your help," said Quistis. "We need transportation to Balamb, tonight. If you could lend us one of your patrol boats, we'd greatly appreciate it."
The captain folded his arms. "You think I'm gonna be handing out any more boats to SeeD right now?"
"We just need transportation," said Quistis. "One of your officers can accompany us, and bring the boat right back." The captain didn't look convinced. "Sir, I was one of the SeeDs who organized our defense of Dollet when the Galbadians attacked. I grew up here. I promise that we won't endanger you, and Garden may still be of some assistance should the situation worsen. Please."
"Hm...," said the captain. "...Tell you what. It's not that I don't trust you but...well, I guess I don't. And there's no better way to get a sense for a person than by their cards game. If you can beat me, I'll let you have your ride. I gotta warn you, though: technically, I have to turn you over to the Galbadians. If you lose, that's just what I'll do." He turned back to the pub owner, who'd been organizing his cards. "Mind if we use the table?"
"Is he serious?" asked Nida. "Our future depends on a cards game?"
Quistis smiled, with a look that radiated more confidence than Nida had seen from her for quite some time. "Don't worry," she said. "It won't be a problem."
- - - — - - -
"You know, he had some rather good cards," said Quistis, who was sorting her new acquisitions by the decklight of the Dollet patrol boat as it sped towards the Balamb coast.
"Huh," said Nida, absently. It was dark, so he couldn't see much besides the shadow of the mountains looming ahead of them, and he didn't even know if anything would be visible from this part of the coastline, but he still couldn't help but look for any sign that Garden was still there.
"We'll be there in just a minute," said the officer driving the boat. "You sure you don't want to go through the harbor?"
"No, thank you," said Quistis. "Just put us on the beach, as close to Garden as possible."
The officer shrugged. "If you say so. You'll have to swim ashore, though."
"That's fine," said Quistis.
Not long afterward, the officer brought the boat to a halt about a hundred meters offshore, and the three of them dove into the water. Nida hadn't had to swim in full gear since he'd taken the training two semesters ago, and he'd never much liked swimming anyway; but he managed well enough to reach shore not unreasonably far behind the others. Quistis waved to the officer that they had all arrived safely; he waved back, turned the boat around, and headed back towards Dollet.
Then, they turned and looked in the direction in which Garden should be. A shallow ridge rose at the edge of the beach, so the building itself wasn't visible. But Nida had been on this beach enough to know it didn't seem right.
"There's no light from the ring," he said. Really, the pillar of light given off by the Garden's floodlights, refracted by the giant ring that haloed the building, should have been visible for miles; but he was sure he should see something now.
Quistis had noticed too. "...They could simply have shut off the power," she said, though her tone didn't do a good job of selling the idea. "We'll know soon enough. Come on."
They headed inland in silence, at a swift walk that quickly became a jog and accelerated to a flat-out run. Nida wasn't sure how long it took them to actually reach the ridge; the intervening moments became something of a blur even as they were passing, and he couldn't think about Garden, Quistis, Seifer or anything other than putting one foot in front of the other as quickly as he could. He wasn't even aware how close they were to the top of the shallow slope until Seifer, who had been bounding ahead of them, came to a halt, staring at something ahead. Nida and Quistis were a few seconds behind him; and upon reached the plain, they both froze as well.
The once idyllic plains were now pockmarked with craters from missile strikes, one of which had landed right on the road that had led from Garden to Balamb town. In the nighttime darkness, the uprooted trees, dirt and rubble thrown about merged into a single, black mass centered where their academy had proudly stood.
Where it still did stand.
As Nida observed the structure, however, the rush of relief that passed over him vanished as quickly as it had come. The ring was not only unlit, but all its supports had collapsed, and it now rested at an angle, having apparently crashed straight into the library. The training center looked to have taken a direct hit, another crater engulfed half the Quad, and the bell tower that had overlooked the entrance had crashed through the central building's walls. Nida couldn't make out the front courtyard at all. The building was lit, dimly, by a flickering yellow glow, and Nida caught a point of light in the blackened mess where the main entrance should have been.
He was on one knee before he even realized his legs had given out. Reflexively, his hand shot out to stabilize him, and he realized his heart was beating so hard he could hear his pulse pounding by his ears. He didn't even try to get back up.
After a long minute, Quistis was the first to speak. "...Campfires," she said, identifying the light source Nida had noted but been unable to coherently think about. "There are survivors." She put her hand on Nida's shoulder. "Let's see if they need help."
A few seconds later, when Nida managed to process what she had meant, he nodded and shakily rose back to his feet; the two of them started off across the plains.
Seifer was well on his way there, having already sprinted on ahead.