Chapter 48
Other People's Memories
(Rinoa)
(I can fix it.)
That was Rinoa's first thought, when she saw Selphie hit the roof of the Esthar building. Rinoa knew she could fix almost anything with her newfound powers. After all, she had brought Squall back from what should have been three fatal gunshot wounds. She could do the same with Selphie, whatever her condition.
(And she's not dead.)
(She's not.)
Rinoa ignored the fact that Selphie was not moving. The fact that Ultimecia would have never stopped fighting until the body she was possessing became completely unusable.
Before Rinoa could consider her options, Irvine was running full speed towards the edge of the platform. His boots clicked along the blue glass surface, then kicked in circles in the air as he tumbled gracelessly over the edge, falling down towards Selphie.
Rinoa had no idea what Irvine was thinking, but she knew that there was no way he could he survive a drop from that distance. It was hard to tell from her angle, but Rinoa guessed it was almost five stories down from the top of the platform to the top of the building. Even a SeeD with all his junctions would have trouble escaping an impact like that unscathed.
Rinoa ran to the edge of the platform and called up a gust of wind. The air around Irvine picked up speed, swirling around his trench coat and making it flap against his body. Rinoa quickly corrected his course, using the wind to put his feet beneath him so that he wouldn't land on his back or on his head. She guided him down to a flat, open area on the top of the building then shot up one quick burst of air to slow him down.
Irvine landed with a grunt then scrambled to his feet and took off running towards Selphie.
"We should go down too," Squall said. "Can you do that again?"
Rinoa nodded, and together the two of them ran off the edge of the platform and into the open space above the city of Esthar.
For a brief moment, she was weightless, plummeting down towards the ground. A few weeks ago, this experience might have terrified her, but now she had gained such control over her sorceress abilities that she didn't feel the slightest bit of panic, even though she was facing what could be a fatal plunge. She knew how her magic worked and she could feel the currents of air around her—even without tapping into her powers. The wind was her ally, as strong and loyal as any of her friends.
At the last moment, Rinoa threw her hands out in front of her, making a huge gust of wind blow through the city streets of Esthar and up between its tall, irregular blue buildings. The wind made a terrible noise, but gently picked her up and wafted her and Squall to the top of the building.
Rinoa hit the roof awkwardly and slid on the slick surface. She stumbled, then tripped. She fell onto her shoulder and rolled to a stop. Beside her, Squall had landed in an elegant three-point crouch. He got to his feet and reached out a gloved hand to her. Annoyed by her poor landing, Rinoa grimaced as she took his hand. He hoisted her to her feet as if she weighed nothing more than a feather and she spun around, looking for Irvine and Selphie.
(Where'd they go?)
(They were right here.)
Everything looked different now that she was down on the building itself. When she had been up on the platform, high above the city, she could see everything from her vantage point. She saw the layout of the roof, where the elevator to the lower levels was located, and the strange blue devices on top of the building that performed vague technological functions that Rinoa couldn't even guess at. She had seen the spot where Selphie had landed, and Irvine as well.
Now, down on the roof, the perspective had changed and Rinoa lost her bearings. But it was Irvine's shouts that once more realigned her sense of direction.
"Selphie!" Irvine shouted, his voice carrying in the wind. "Selphie, can you hear me?"
Together, Squall and Rinoa rushed towards the sound of Irvine's voice, moving between the large squares of humming machinery atop the roof, before they entered into an open area. There, in a large circular dent in the roof, was Selphie, her arms and legs splayed at odd angles, her head turned to the side and her eyes closed. Rinoa looked around her body, but didn't see any blood or any major wounds.
(That's good.)
(… I think.)
Irvine was beside her, kneeling, his hands resting on her bare shoulders. He wasn't shaking her—even Rinoa knew not to shake a wounded person—but he looked like he wanted to. His eyes were hollow, his face drawn.
(She's alright.)
(I can fix her.)
Rinoa dashed to the opposite side of Selphie and knelt down.
"Don't worry, Irvine. I can help her," Rinoa said. "Give me some room."
Irvine nodded to her, then looked at Selphie. "Rinoa's gonna help you," he said to Selphie. "You just hold on, ya hear?"
Irvine scooted backwards on his heels, giving Rinoa more space to work.
Just like Edea had said, it was becoming easier and easier for Rinoa to reach out and access her newfound power. The first time she had done it, she had to invoke a powerful rage to touch it. The next time, she needed to distinctly remember that earlier rage. And every subsequent time had required her to at least focus for several seconds before she could establish a link to the power.
This time, the energy leapt to her fingers almost the instant she closed her eyes. She could feel the power within her, like a second sorceress power on top of her existing one, overlapping it, strengthening it. While she was connected to the power, she felt enlivened, capable, indestructible.
(I can do this.)
She lowered her hands to Selphie's body and began to focus.
Her first job was to establish Selphie's condition. Immediately, she sent white energy probes into Selphie's heart and mind, checking for signs of life. Selphie's heart was beating—normally, it seemed. Rinoa wasn't sure about the nuances of hearts and how they were supposed to work, but everything seemed fine there. Selphie's brain was also functioning, sending off crackling bursts of electricity that Rinoa could sense with her powers.
(She's alive…)
As Rinoa searched around, she found a few broken bones, and internal damages but overall her injuries were relatively minor considering the height of her fall. Rinoa surged with new hope. Not only could Rinoa heal Selphie, it would be a fairly simple job at that.
"Step away from the sorceress!" a voice behind her called. The voice was muffled by a mask—unmistakably an Esthar soldier.
Rinoa's concentration wavered, and she spun around to see who had yelled at her. Flooding out from the nearby elevator shaft were dozens of Esthar soldiers, quickly overtaking the roof and fanning out, pointing their rifles at Rinoa and Selphie.
Irvine leapt to his feet and pulled out his shotgun, holding it at his waist and leveling it at the soldiers. Squall stood between Rinoa and the soldiers, magic shimmering in his right hand.
"Hurry up, Rinoa," Irvine said. "Before these clowns make a mess of everythin'."
Rinoa nodded, then brought her hands down to Selphie once more. She began knitting together bones and sealing up the worst of the internal injuries.
"Are you crazy?" one of the Esthar soldiers yelled. His joint pads were a deep red, indicating a higher rank than the others. "The sorceress is finally knocked out and you want to wake her up?"
"She's one of us," Irvine said, tightening his grip on his shotgun.
Squall stood nearby, his eyes slit in concentration. She could see him watching as the Esthar soldiers spread out into a semicircle around them. Judging by his expression, Rinoa figured that he was planning possible strategies and counter-attacks, should the Esthar soldiers attempt to fight.
"Do you know how long we spent tryin' to put her down?" the Esthar soldier asked. "Did you see the damage she caused? The lives she's taken?"
Rinoa hesitated and opened her eyes.
(If I heal her…)
(… Who will wake up?)
(Selphie or Ultimecia?)
On the one hand, Ultimecia was not known for her great patience. She had, in the past, abandoned bodies simply because they had proven to be too weak or too beaten to be useful. After all, back in G-Garden's auditorium, Ultimecia had abandoned Edea after losing her third battle against the SeeD. Edea herself was fairly unharmed, but since Edea lacked the strength to destroy Squall and the others, Ultimecia had moved on, eventually moving on and possessing Rinoa.
Therefore, it was reasonable to assume that the same had happened here. That once Selphie had lost consciousness, Ultimecia had abandoned her body to go find another.
But if she hadn't? If Ultimecia still tenaciously clung to Selphie's body, waiting to be revived? The risk was enormous. With Ultimecia's skills and knowledge and Selphie's ability to manipulate Guardian Forces—even ones that weren't her own, it would seem—then her reign of terror could begin all over again.
As the Esthar soldier had said, the battle had taken an incredible toll on the city. Rinoa could see plumes of smoke rising from buildings, giant holes punched in the walls of the skyscrapers, and see emergency services rushing around the city to contain the fires and rescue the victims.
She remembered the ring. She had brought the Odine Ring along for this very purpose. She could still feel it pressing against her leg in her pocket. It had been her plan to use the ring to sever the link between Selphie and Ultimecia, a nonviolent way to end the fighting. But now that the battle was over, the ring seemed unnecessary.
The problem was, there was only the one ring. If Rinoa gave it to Selphie, then there would be nothing stopping Ultimecia from jumping bodies and possessing Rinoa. Only one person could wear the ring and receive its protection. She hated to admit it, but it seemed like the best option was to keep Selphie asleep and leave the ring in Rinoa's possession. It was the only way to keep both Rinoa and Selphie—and the rest of the world—safe from Ultimecia.
(I don't have a choice.)
Rinoa bit her lip and pulled her hands away from Selphie. Irvine glanced down at her, then narrowed his eyes.
"What're you doin', Rinoa?" he asked. "Help her!"
"She's mostly fine, I think," Rinoa said. "Just stunned. But if I heal her and let her wake up…"
Irvine didn't seem to understand. His eyes were full of indignation and anger. He looked as if he thought that Rinoa was intentionally betraying Selphie.
But Squall understood immediately. He glanced down at Rinoa and nodded.
"If Selphie's okay, then it's probably for the best if you don't take chances," Squall said.
Irvine curled his lip in shock and looked up at Squall, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Y'all are both just gonna leave her like this?" Irvine said.
"She's fine, Irvine," Rinoa said.
Although that wasn't completely true—Selphie did still have broken bones and other injuries that needed to be tended to—she wanted to placate Irvine. At that moment, the three of them had about two dozen Esthar soldiers pointing their guns straight at them. This was not the time for Irvine to get emotional and do something crazy.
"Step away from the sorceress," the Esthar soldier repeated. "While we still have time."
"What do you plan to do with her?" Rinoa asked. The soldier's answer to this question would determine how willingly Rinoa would hand over Selphie. If the soldier gave any indication that he meant Selphie harm—or that he was lying about anything—then Rinoa would have no problem with blasting all the soldiers off the roof and tending to Selphie herself.
"Detain her, for now," the Esthar soldier said. "What happens after that is up to the President to decide. He's in charge of anything related to sorceresses. We're just here to make sure she can't cause any more damage."
(The President.)
(Laguna.)
Rinoa didn't know Laguna as well as the others did. Because Rinoa hadn't grown up in Edea's orphanage, she had never met Ellone during her childhood and therefore had never been selected to go back into Laguna's past and see him as he was in his younger days.
But after her various encounters with the man, she had assembled a pretty good picture of who he was and what drove him. If Laguna was ultimately the one in charge of Selphie's fate, then that wasn't such a bad thing. He would act with kindness and compassion.
"If we hand her over…" Rinoa said. "Then what can you do to keep her contained?"
This was another sticking point. If the Esthar soldiers had no plan for preventing Ultimecia from breaking loose again, then what was the point of handing her over? If they couldn't do anything to keep Selphie safe, then she would be better off staying with Rinoa and the others.
"We've actually come prepared for that," the Esthar soldier said. He stepped aside and allowed for two other soldiers—both with green joint pads, instead of red or blue—to step forward. Between them was a long metallic slab that hovered in the air. Rinoa couldn't see what was keeping it aloft, but the device gave off a tinny hum, like many of the hovering platforms in the city.
"President Laguna insisted that we capture her alive if possible," the soldier said. "This gurney was meant to transport wounded soldiers from the battlefield, but we've adjusted the settings to that it's more akin to a portable Sorceress Memorial. It will keep her asleep and safe until we can find a better solution to the problem."
(… That doesn't sound so bad.)
Rinoa's skin had tingled when the soldier mentioned the Sorceress Memorial. Even now, the memories of that place frightened her. But it wasn't so much the idea of being sealed away that was scary; it was more about the time frame. The Sorceress Memorial had been built to contain a sorceress in perfect stasis for decades or centuries. The thought of being sealed inside the Memorial and waking up hundreds of generations later, with no friends and nothing familiar—of becoming literally a person out of time—was what really frightened her. A modified gurney that would keep Selphie asleep was, by contrast, not much to worry about.
(It might be the only way we can be sure that Ultimecia will be contained.)
"Let me heal her wounds, then you can have her," Rinoa said. "I promise I won't wake her up."
The soldier hesitated, then nodded.
Rinoa immediately set to work, once more sending her energy into Selphie. Now that she had already probed and found the worst of Selphie's wounds, it was a simple matter to find them again and heal them. The newfound white energy functioned ten times better than her traditional healing magic, binding shut wounds and knitting together bone as easily as shaping wet clay. The whole process took less than a few minutes and to Rinoa's relief—and everyone else's as well—Selphie didn't stir once.
Rinoa took her hands off Selphie and slowly stood up. She turned to the soldiers and said, "One more thing. We get to stay by her side, always. If you try to separate us or bring her somewhere we don't want her to go, then the deal's off. Promise me that."
The Esthar soldier hesitated. Rinoa glared at him.
"Promise me!" Rinoa said.
"Fine, fine," the soldier said. "But don't get in our way."
Rinoa nodded, then backed up a step. Grumbling, Irvine did the same, allowing the two soldiers with the green joint pads to push the hovering gurney over to Selphie. They brought the stretcher alongside Selphie's body, then pushed a button on its side. Humming gently, the gurney descended to the floor.
Working quickly and efficiently, the two medics gently grabbed Selphie and placed her on top of the gurney. One of them pushed another button on the device, and a transparent green bubble encased the whole top of the gurney. They pushed another button to make it rise up to waist-height, then a third button that released a fine white mist inside the protective bubble.
"Hey!" Irvine yelled. "What the hell's that gas you're pumping her with?"
"A combination of anesthetics, painkillers, and other substances," one of the medics said. "It'll keep her comfortable and asleep. It's the best way to make sure she won't wake up suddenly."
"It's not gonna make her sick, is it?" Irvine said.
"Side effects are rare and mild," the medic said. "Worst case scenario, she wakes up with a bad headache and some stiffness in her limbs, but those symptoms will pass in a few hours. No need to worry."
Irvine frowned, apparently unhappy with the arrangement, but didn't say anything else. As the medics brought Selphie's gurney back towards the elevator, Irvine jogged to catch up, then walked parallel beside Selphie's sleeping form. He put one hand on the transparent bubble—which was as smooth and firm as glass—and watched the Esthar soldiers warily.
Rinoa and Squall followed a step behind the medics. Rinoa trusted the Esthar soldiers to keep their word—nothing they had ever done before gave her any reason to doubt them—but she still thought it was a good idea to keep close to Selphie.
Apparently, Squall agreed with her, as he kept his focused eyes upon Selphie. Beside them, the lead Esthar soldier with the red joint pads was softly muttering something into his radio as he walked. Rinoa presumed he was in contact with the President, or some other higher-ups in charge of the situation. The other Esthar soldiers stayed in place. Rinoa wondered if they would follow them to the elevator, but it didn't seem like they were going to.
The elevator was—like everything else in Esthar—nothing like what Rinoa was accustomed to in the rest of the world. Instead of stepping into a rectangular box and pushing a button, the two medics, the lead Esthar soldier, and Rinoa, Squall, and Irvine stepped into a massive silver tube with a circular platform at the bottom. When they were all inside, the lead Esthar soldier said, "Ground floor," and the platform at their feet hummed, then descended rapidly.
Within moments, the group was at the ground level of the building. The platform locked in place, and the medics moved forward, guiding the gurney ahead of them. At the ground floor, another big cluster of Esthar soldiers were waiting to continue the escort. As Selphie and the others passed by, the soldiers fell into step behind them, moving in smooth, organized ranks. Rinoa felt like she and the others were out of place, walking along with Selphie, out of formation and out of step with the soldiers.
(It feels like I'm getting in their way.)
"By the way," the lead Esthar soldier said. "Are you two… uh… Squall and Rinoa?" They both nodded. "Okay," the soldier said. "The President is looking for you. He wants you to meet him in the lobby of the Transportation Building. It's just a few blocks down the road. I can have someone show you how to get there, if you'd like."
"What about Selphie?" Irvine asked, glaring at the soldier.
"She comes with us, obviously," the soldier said. "We're going to transfer her over to—"
"No deal," Rinoa said. "I already told you, she stays with us."
The Esthar soldier choked and coughed behind his mask. "I can't bring a dangerous sorceress over to the President!" he said. "What if she breaks loose?"
"We made a deal," Rinoa said, crossing her arms.
The Esthar soldier sighed behind his mask. He raised one hand, indicating for the two medics to stop, and they obeyed. The rest of the column of Esthar soldiers came to a neat halt. "Hold on. I need to call this in."
He stepped away from the group. He brought out his radio and began speaking into it. He kept his back turned to the others so that they couldn't hear what he was saying.
Irvine looked at Rinoa and smirked.
"Look at you, Rinoa," Irvine said. "Not takin' no crap from these soldiers. Ain't seen this side of you before."
"A lot's happened the past few days," Rinoa said.
(And I've… changed.)
She could still feel herself connected to the white energy within her. It glowed in her chest, filling her veins with strength and confidence. She felt taller, lighter, stronger, like she used to feel back when she still junctioned. She enjoyed the sensation, and allowed herself to hold on to that feeling, to let it flow through her.
(Just in case I need it.)
A few minutes later, the Esthar soldier returned to the group.
"I've spoken with the President," the soldier said. "He'll allow you to bring the sorceress along to the Transportation Building, but only if we continue to escort you. And by 'we' I mean the medics and myself."
"That's fine," Rinoa said. "As long as she stays with us."
"Then let's go," the soldier said.
He made a hand motion towards the medics, and they once more continued walking forward. Irvine stayed at Selphie's side, his eyes glued to her sleeping face. Squall and Rinoa trailed behind. The lead Esthar soldier made some hand motions to the other soldiers in the column, and the vast majority of them broke off, leaving only about a dozen still trailing behind the gurney.
"You've changed," Squall whispered to Rinoa. "Last time we came to Esthar, I did all the talking."
"Oh…" Rinoa said. She unconsciously reached up and grasped the copy of Squall's ring that hung from her necklace. "Is that… bad? You don't like it?"
Some guys were like that. They didn't want their wives or their girlfriends to speak for them. They preferred to take charge, to be manly, to be the voice and the face of the relationship while the girl hung in the back, quiet and out of the way. Rinoa didn't believe that Squall was that kind of guy, but it was still early in their relationship. Time enough for surprises to appear.
But to her relief, Squall smiled at her. "What's not to like?" he said. Rinoa smiled back. "I hate talking anyway."
(Whew.)
She didn't know what she would have done if Squall had insisted that she tone down her behavior, because she had no intention of staying passive and silent, not when she had all this power rippling through her. Luckily, she didn't have to consider it anymore, so she pushed it out of her mind and kept walking.
As they stepped out into the streets of Esthar, Rinoa was once again stunned by how different everything in Esthar appeared. Rinoa had been born and raised in Deling City, so she thought she was accustomed to large towns.
But Esthar was something totally different. The buildings stretched up so high into the sky that Rinoa had to bend over backwards to see the tops of them. The streets were not paved with asphalt, but with the same transparent blue glass that was used on the network of skyways above. Hovering cars traveled along the main streets, in two rows moving side-by-side. But instead of just having one layer of cars moving each direction, the hovering Estharian cars traveled two or three atop each other, moving over each other at different rates of speed, not only changing lanes horizontally, but changing lanes vertically as well. Each side of the road effectively had six possible lanes of traffic.
Rinoa balked. She had never been much of a driver back home and couldn't possibly imagine trying to maneuver a car in three-dimensional space.
(They must have accidents all the time!)
Instead of ordinary sidewalks, there were hard blue tiles along both sides of the roads. The tiles were slippery at first, but when Rinoa walked, she found that they were gently guiding her motion forward, and making her move steadily faster and faster. As she continued to walk behind the medics and the lead Esthar soldier, she saw that the group was traveling at a jogging pace, then at nearly a run, yet Rinoa still felt as if she was only walking.
When they reached an intersection, the tiles automatically slowed down their momentum. Rinoa expected to have to stop and wait for traffic to clear, but then she noticed the complete absence of road signs, traffic lights, or pedestrian crosswalks. She was about to ask how they were going to get to the other side—with the traffic stacked three cars high and four cars wide in front of them—when a section of the sidewalk beneath her feet lit up. She yelped as she felt herself go suddenly weightless. Then she was hovering in the air, with a disc-shaped platform of glowing white light beneath her.
With a sudden, smooth lurch, she and the others were picked up and carried across the street, traveling over the cars in the road, which never stopped or slowed or even seemed to notice the pedestrians flying above them. The platform descended at the opposite side and dropped the group off, vanishing into nothingness. Soon the group was walking on the blue tiles again and gaining speed towards the next intersection a block away.
"Fascinating," Squall murmured, as he gazed all around him in wonder.
(It's definitely… different.)
Rinoa wasn't quite sure if she liked all this weird technology. It made her feel alien and out of place. But she had to admit, it was definitely convenient. They were moving through the dense city streets at nearly triple the rate that she would have expected in any other city, and doing it with only a fraction of the effort. It seemed safer as well. Rinoa couldn't imagine trying to cross those hectic streets on foot.
The group continued in this manner for another several blocks. The Esthar soldier and the medics led the way, navigating the streets of Esthar's ground level with ease. Rinoa had no idea how they didn't get lost, since there were no street names, maps, or anything, and all the buildings looked roughly the same to her. All just a bunch of giant blue and silver pillars with no names and no identifying marks.
After a few blocks, they stopped outside of a tall, gray building with blue lines glowing on the outside in a perfect grid pattern.
"The Transportation Building," the Esthar soldier said with a wave of his hand. He turned and headed for the front entrance.
Between two columns of blue light was what appeared to be a long glass door. But to Rinoa's surprise, it wasn't glass at all, but some sort of transparent energy barrier. The lead Esthar soldier passed through the barrier—like stepping through a waterfall, only he didn't get wet—and the others did the same. There was a light crackling sensation along Rinoa's exposed skin as she passed through the barrier, but otherwise she barely noticed.
(This place is weird.)
The lobby of the Transportation building was—compared to the rest of the city—pretty unremarkable. It opened up into a wide, two story tall empty space with sterile white walls and blue highlights. A series of Esthar's peculiar elevators were nestled in a corner, near the back, and a few decorative plants were placed around the room. There was also a small reception area at the far side, with two receptionists robed in white working behind it.
The lobby had been all but overrun with Esthar soldiers of nearly every type. Rinoa could see soldiers of different ranks, some with the common blue markings, some with the less common red, and a few with bright orange markings, which Rinoa has never seen before. She assumed that these soldiers were so highly ranked that they almost never interacted with civilians like her. Rinoa also counted at least two dozen of Esthar's unsettling androids, which stood stock still in the lobby, assessing the room with their mechanical eyes.
(They're still creepy.)
Rinoa shuddered and kept walking.
"Security is extra tight because the President is in the building," the Esthar soldier said.
"Right," Squall said. Rinoa detected a note of "Well, duh," in Squall's voice and smirked to herself.
Everyone approached a makeshift checkpoint near the elevators. A soldier with blue markings held up a hand to stop the group, then spoke quickly back and forth with the lead Esthar soldier for a moment. He checked the soldier's credentials, called in his serial number, and then asked permission for clearance from another soldier via radio. All in all, the process took almost two minutes before the soldier stepped aside and allowed the group into one of the elevators.
(Security never used to be this tight when we were visiting Laguna.)
(But I guess they did just have a sorceress attack them, so I bet they're panicky.)
Rinoa stepped into the elevator with the others. Again, it was another tube with a light-up floor. The lead Esthar soldier spoke and requested the fourth floor and the elevator rose quickly, then deposited the group at a higher level.
On the fourth floor was another security checkpoint with another five minute wait while the group sat idly around waiting for them to be cleared. This search was more thorough than the last, and required a special soldier to come and run a weird scanner over everyone. The scanner made strange noises and lit up various colors. It glowed green and yellow when the soldier ran it over Squall and Irvine, but then glowed green, yellow, and red when run over Rinoa.
Rinoa frowned, wondering if that was going to be a problem, but the soldier didn't make any comment. Rinoa noticed that Selphie was the only other person who made the machine glow red, and Rinoa thought that maybe the machine was scanning for sorceresses. She considered asking, but feared that asking questions would only delay the process, and she wanted to move forward as quickly as possible.
When everything was completed, the soldier stepped aside and waved the group onwards.
There, in the back, strategically placed away from any windows and other vulnerable points in the building, was a wide desk with President Laguna sitting behind it. Beside him were his two aides and friends, Kiros and Ward. Surrounding them were a few tense-looking guards gripping their weapons. A few tall dividing walls separated Laguna's table from the rest of the room. Laguna looked up at the newcomers and grinned.
"Hey!" he said. He stood up quickly and knocked his chair over. Kiros sighed and bent over to pick it up. Laguna moved quickly around the table and reached out to shake everyone's hands. "Glad to see you all made it."
The two medics pushed a button on Selphie's stretcher to make it lower itself to the ground, and then stood alongside the lead Esthar soldier, leaving Laguna to talk with Rinoa, Squall and Irvine. The other guards stood by, forming a defensive perimeter, but not getting in the way of the conversation.
"Got a lot of security 'round here," Irvine said casually.
"Well, you know," Laguna said. He scratched the back of his head. "Sorceress threat, city in peril. Gotta protect the President, right? Normally I'm in my office with a bunch of security on me at all times, but since I'm here, I don't have that."
Squall narrowed his eyes. "What security?" he asked. "Whenever we come visit you, there's just two guards standing outside your door. I've seen village councilmen with more guards protecting them."
"Oh? You don't know?" Laguna said. He eagerly launched into the story. "Well, y'see, you know that elevator you have to ride up to get to my office? And the big room in the middle filled with all these pillars and lights and stuff?"
Everyone nodded.
"That's actually one big security system," Laguna said. "While you ride the elevator, it's busy scanning you for unauthorized weapons, checking your identity, scanning for… um, like a bunch of different stuff. And if it finds anything it doesn't like, the elevator automatically reroutes itself to a detention center underground. The guards on my floor are actually kinda unnecessary, when I got all that tech watchin' out for me. Pretty cool, right?"
Squall nodded, intrigued. "So then if the security is so good in the Presidential Palace," he asked, "Why didn't you stay in there for the attack?"
Rinoa gave Squall a sidelong look.
(If you ask him questions, he'll talk forever…)
"Well, there's a story behind that, actually," Laguna said. "I was negotiatin' with the Head of the Transportation Bureau, you know. He wants an increase in budget to expand the skyway system, but I've told him, like, fifty times that we've already drawn up the budget for this quarter and we can't give him any more funds. He keeps going on and on about how the skyway system will improve the infrastructure and save money in the long term, but—"
Kiros stepped forward and cleared his throat. "We were here on business when the sorceress attacked. We decided it was safer to stay in place rather than to try to relocate to the Presidential Palace."
Laguna frowned and crossed his arms. "That's the No Fun version of the story. I was about to tell 'em a good story about how the Head of Transportation keeps—"
"They don't need to hear that," Kiros said, holding up a hand. "No one needs to hear that story."
Behind them, Ward crossed his arms and shook his head, giving Laguna a cold stare.
"Fine, fine," Laguna said. He sighed. "The story's probably not appropriate for teenagers anyway. Let's get to business, I guess."
"You said you wanted to see us?" Squall asked.
"Oh yeah!" Laguna said. He snapped his fingers. "Well, first I wanted to make sure all you guys were safe. We got a bunch of distress signals from the Ragnarok, and things started goin' haywire and the escape pods launched and all sorts of craziness happened. I sent out some troops to find the first escape pod, and they tracked it down and found you guys. Then the Ragnarok came back, and that Ciel lady was piloting it and she went crazy and we had to put her down, but that wasn't too hard because we were expecting her. Then she came," Laguna pointed to Selphie inside the gurney, "And more craziness happened and I wanted to talk to you guys to discuss strategy since you always seem to know what's goin' on every time a sorceress is goin' nuts around here, but it looks like you handled it so now I'm not sure what I wanna talk about anymore."
There was a long, extended pause. After Laguna's nearly nonstop, breathless rant, the silence was almost echoing. Rinoa shifted her weight on her feet. Irvine ran his fingers through his hair, undoing some knots. Squall crossed his arms and stared at the President of Esthar.
"Oh, I do have a surprise for you!" Laguna said. "Guess what it is!"
"Just tell us," Squall said, humorlessly.
Laguna stumbled a bit, apparently thrown off his rhythm by Squall's refusal to play along with the game. He bit his lip and said, "Well uh… Look what I found! Ta da!"
Laguna stuck out both of his arms to the side, his fingers splayed and a cheeky grin plastered on his face. He held this pose for a couple of seconds, while nothing happened. Rinoa looked around, then at Squall. Squall closed his eyes and sighed. Laguna cleared his throat and tried again.
"Ta da!" he shouted, a little louder this time.
"Should I come out now, Uncle Laguna?" Ellone's voice asked from behind a partition wall.
"Well yeah, that's the cue, Elle," Laguna said, turning to face the sound of her voice. "I say, 'Ta da!' and then you step out. We rehearsed this!"
"I wasn't sure," Ellone said. She stepped out from behind the partition wall and approached the group. She smiled and nodded at everyone.
"Was that really necessary?" Squall asked. "You could have just told us about her."
"Yeah, but this seemed like more fun," Laguna said. "I wanted to surprise you. Look! It's Ellone! She's alright! Ta da!"
"That's good," Rinoa said, smiling. "How'd you escape from Ultimecia and Seifer?"
"That's a long story," Ellone said.
"Oh! Let me tell it!" Laguna said, hopping up and down like a little kid. "Please?"
Ellone gently placed a hand on Laguna's arm. "I think I should handle it, Uncle."
From there, Ellone went through a quick summary of what had occurred on the bridge of the Ragnarok after Squall and Rinoa's departure. Ellone didn't have very much information to tell, since she was asleep for the majority of the time, but she took care to mention the vision of the future that Seifer had shown her, and then how the Ragnarok was taken over by remote controls and Seifer was forced to escape. She went on to discuss their walk through the Great Salt Lake, and how Esthar came and rescued her.
Squall nodded thoughtfully. "Seifer's story about the future matches up with what we know about what's going to happen. And also it fits…"
Squall trailed off and didn't say more.
"Oh!" Laguna said, raising one finger. "That leads me to surprise number two! Drum roll, please." He drummed his fingertips on the table for a few seconds, then stopped and said, "It's your gunblade!"
An Esthar soldier stepped out from behind the partition wall, carrying Squall's gunblade. He handed it over to Squall, and Squall breathed a sigh of relief, like he'd been reunited with his lost child. He gripped the handle firmly in one hand and rubbed his gloved fingers along the edges, checking to see if there was any damage.
"See?" Laguna said. "Wasn't that just way more fun? I mean, I could've just had Ellone standing next to me when you guys first walked in and then have her chuck your gunblade at you, but where's the fun in that? This way there's tension and drama!"
Squall glared at the President. "I would have preferred it if you'd just given me my gunblade right away. I've been worried about it."
Laguna waved a hand at him. "Ah, you're no fun."
Rinoa smirked.
"So how'd you find it?" Squall asked. He stuck the handle of his gunblade through a special loop at his belt and allowed the weapon to hang from his waist. Now that it was once more at his side, Rinoa noticed how incomplete Squall had looked, walking around without it.
(I almost never see him far from his gunblade.)
"It was in the boarding room in the Ragnarok, just sittin' there," Laguna said. "Apparently, Ultimecia and Seifer didn't bother taking it with them. Maybe they forgot it was there? I dunno. So tell me. What's been happenin' with you guys?"
Remembering how Squall had just said how he hated to talk, Rinoa decided to field the question. It was the logical thing to do as well, since Squall had been in a coma for much of the events following the fight in the Ragnarok. He stood aside and let her talk without interruption.
Rinoa recounted the battle against Ultimecia and Seifer, her escape into the pod, and their rescue by SeeD. She wasn't sure how much she wanted to talk about Mireya and the anti-sorceress students at Garden—since it didn't seem to have much bearing on Esthar—but she was encouraged to keep going by Laguna's frequent nods and "Mm hmm" noises.
She worked her way up to the battle in Garden, Selphie's possession by Ultimecia, and the chase to Esthar. When she got to the present, she stopped.
"And that's about it," Rinoa said.
Laguna nodded. "Right, right. Good story. Well, I gotta admit I already knew about Galbadia's attack on FH. The Esthar boats I sent out to find you guys had called back in and said that Galbadia was bombin' FH. I can't believe that Galbadia would go so far…"
Laguna's smile faded, and he looked off into the distance.
"So what are you planning on doing about it?" Squall asked.
Without his usual humor and levity, Laguna said, "We're already mobilizing our troops. Fisherman's Horizon isn't our ally or anything, but they're so close to our borders that we can't allow Galbadia to attack them without us responding."
"So it's gonna be war then?" Irvine said.
"Yeah, seems like," Laguna said. "Well, war was kinda guaranteed once I ordered the Esthar navy to step in and rescue you guys. Galbadia ain't the kind of nation to just lose a fight and then walk away with no hard feelings."
Rinoa thought briefly of her father, the image of him adorned in his Galbadian Army regalia. She could hardly picture him out of his uniform. She wondered if things would have gone differently if he had stayed in charge of Galbadia. If he hadn't been killed.
(Worrying about the past doesn't change anything.)
She shook her head and focused back on the conversation.
"If it makes you feel better," Squall said to Laguna, "I'm fairly certain that war was their intent from the beginning. Nothing you could have done would have changed that."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Laguna said. He shrugged. "Still, I was hopin' that Esthar would reemerge into the world stage peacefully, you know? We were gonna share all our cool gadgets with the world and… you know. But now it looks like our first international action since Adel was overthrown is gonna to be open war with Galbadia."
He sighed. "Man…" he said.
"Speaking of that," Kiros said from behind Laguna. "We still have a lot of planning to do."
"Right," Laguna said. "So is there anythin' I can do for you guys? Sorry I dragged you all the way out here just to chat, but I wanted to exchange notes and stuff, you know? Get a better picture of what's goin' on outside our borders."
"I'd like to speak with Sis, if that's alright," Squall said. Ellone perked up and turned to him. "I want to talk to you. About your power."
"Oh?" Ellone said.
"I have a couple of theories I want to run by you, and something I want to test," Squall said.
"Alright, you two talk it out," Laguna said with a dramatic wave of his hand. "I'll be right here if ya need me."
He walked around the table and sat back down. Kiros and Ward returned to his side, and together the three of them sorted through maps, paperwork, and communicated via radio to soldiers stationed throughout Esthar.
Meanwhile, Squall quickly summed up everything he had witnessed after being shot by Seifer. The white void of time compression. Reassembling his GF. Meeting the sorceress. The story of how Adel got her powers. And finally ending with how he finally managed to return to the present and wake up.
All of this information was startling to Rinoa. Squall had mentioned that he had seen things while he was unconscious, and that it had something to do with time compression, but Rinoa had assumed that he had only had a few brief visions, some scattered images and details. Not the grand, lengthy adventure that he told to Ellone.
(There is a lot he doesn't tell me…)
(Well…)
(It's not like we've had much time to talk recently.)
"When I was in time compression," Squall said, "It occurred to me that time compression is not a thing that happened in the past, when we defeated Adel and allowed Ultimecia to go further back in time. Rather, it's an ongoing event, one that continues to happen even now. We're living in the time compressed world."
Irvine and Rinoa looked surprised, but Ellone merely nodded.
"Yes," Ellone said. "I had begun to suspect something along those lines myself. The past and the future are muddled. Perhaps they have always been this way, and we simply never noticed before. But there have been signs indicating that things are not as linear as we once assumed."
Rinoa and Irvine exchanged a glance, as if to ask, "Do you understand any of this?"
"Right," Squall said. "And that idea, the idea that all of time is currently compressed into one moment, it got me thinking. What if everything is connected? It makes sense, doesn't it? Dr. Odine said that the Lunatic Pandora is emitting waves that resemble Ellone's brainwaves. Well, the Lunatic Pandora sent us—and apparently Seifer as well—into the future. So what if the Pandora has a power like yours, Sis? We already know that it can be used to form a link between the planet and the moon. What if it can also be used to make links between times, like you can?"
"It makes sense," Ellone said. "But how? What mechanisms make it work?"
"Okay, I'm lost," Irvine said, scratching his head. "Everything's connected? The Lunatic Pandora is like Ellone? Y'all are gonna have to slow down if you expect me to keep up."
"Me too," Rinoa said.
"It's hard to explain," Squall said. "And I don't fully understand it myself. I just… have this feeling, like I'm on the edge of figuring it all out. As if there's some massive discovery just around the corner. When I was unconscious I saw how all of time was compressed into one moment—everything that has happened or will happen all squeezed together in one eternal instant. I saw how a sorceress from the future came into the past and then used my Guardian Force to manifest herself in Adel's time, to complete an event that—paradoxically—had already happened before that sorceress was even born. And then I myself did the exact same trick to return to my own time. These things don't make sense. Cause and effect have been thrown out the window. It seems that anything can happen in any order and the universe is perfectly happy with that."
Squall shook his head, trying to collect his thoughts, then continued. "When I was in time compression, I wondered 'why us'? Why did the six of us go into the future, while Ellone and Laguna stayed behind? My guess was that it was because we all junctioned Guardian Forces at the time. And now Ellone said that Seifer was pulled into the future as well. He junctions too, which seems to prove my theory. Or at least add evidence to it, anyway."
"And… what is that theory?" Irvine said.
"I don't really know," Squall said. "But I think that Guardian Forces can form links between places and between times. I mean, I've studied GFs my whole life, and while science does understand a lot about them, we don't understand how they truly work. Where does their energy come from? How are they created? Where do they go when we aren't using them? All these are unanswered questions, but I think I'm beginning to figure it out."
Irvine shook his head. "I ain't following this at all."
Rinoa was glad that Irvine was there to admit that he didn't know what was going on, so that Rinoa didn't have to.
(This doesn't make much sense…)
Squall grimaced, then took a breath. "Whenever I think about it, everything always seems to come back to time and memories. Think about Ellone's powers. How they work. What their limitations are."
Irvine shrugged. "Okay, I'm thinking about it. Now what?"
"Ellone can only connect with people she knows, right?" Squall said. He looked to Ellone for confirmation and she nodded. "Now why is that?"
"Dr. Odine always assumed that I needed to focus on that individual in order to form the connection," Ellone said. "The more I knew about the person, the easier it was to form the connection."
"That's one way of looking at it," Squall said. "But I think it's more accurate to say that you have to remember that person. You have to have that person stored in your memory in order to form the connection."
Irvine shrugged. "I don't see the difference. 'Knowing' someone and 'remembering' someone are basically the same thing, ain't they?"
"But when you think about it in terms of memory, it makes more sense," Squall said. "After all, what is the price of junctioning with a GF?"
"Your memories," Rinoa said. "They make you forget things."
Her mouth opened a little. She was still lagging behind Squall's logic, but she was finally beginning to see what he was seeing. The connections that were forming between events, between phenomena. There was something there, an answer somewhere just ahead. She could feel it.
She had stopped junctioning herself because the price—her memories—was too steep, especially after she became a sorceress. She already had a great deal of power because she was a sorceress, and junctioning just seemed like a waste, so she had stopped.
Squall nodded at Rinoa. "Right. The longer you junction, the more memories you lose. Like I said, everything keeps coming back to memories."
"I'm lost," Irvine said. "Draw me a picture or something."
Squall ignored him. "But then that got me thinking. How is Ultimecia going back in time?"
Irvine snapped his fingers. "Oh! I know that one. The Junction Machine Ellone, right?" He looked proud of himself, glad that he had finally been able to supply an answer and participate in the conversation.
"Maybe," Squall said. "But think about it. The machine is only supposed to replicate Ellone's brainwaves. At best, it can only copy her powers. Which means that it has the same limitations as Ellone."
"It can only send a person back to people it already knows," Ellone said.
"Right!" Squall said, getting more and more excited. "So how can the machine send Ultimecia back to Edea? Furthermore, why would it sent Ultimecia back to Edea? Edea never knew about the Junction Machine Ellone, and unless she encounters it in the future, the machine won't remember her, and shouldn't be able to form the connection."
"But what if they improve the technology in the future?" Rinoa asked. "Make it so that it doesn't have Ellone's limitations?"
"If it doesn't have Ellone's limitations, then why," Squall said, "Of all the sorceresses in the world, did Ultimecia pick Edea to possess? She could have chosen literally any of them, from any time period. What was special about Matron?"
"I… don't know," Rinoa said.
"Matron is a great woman," Squall said. "I don't know where I'd be without her. Where we'd all be. But she has no purpose for Ultimecia. No reason for her to be singled out."
"So?" Irvine said. He shifted on his feet. "Honestly, Squall. I'm starting to get kinda annoyed here."
"I'm getting to the point," Squall said. "Basically, I'm saying that Dr. Odine's Junction Machine Ellone theory is full of holes. I don't think that Ultimecia is using a machine to travel back in time. And now, after hearing everything that Ellone has told me, I'm almost sure that's the case."
"So then how is she doing it?" Rinoa said.
"Another person," Squall said. "Like Ellone."
"You mean there's more people like Ellone?" Irvine asked.
"Perhaps," Squall said. "There's no way of knowing for sure just yet."
"So then how do YOU know?" Irvine said. "If y'all don't know for sure if there's more Ellones out there or not, then how can you even make a guess?"
Ellone spoke up. "I… I think Squall's right," she said. "I think there are more people with my ability."
"And you're just mentioning this now?" Irvine asked. "Why didn't you say somethin' before?"
"Well, I didn't remember it until now," Ellone said. "But when Ultimecia was commanding me—using her mind control trick—she kept referring to me as 'the heiress.' A title. Like there are many heiresses in the world, and I'm only one of them. Also, she seemed to know a lot about me and how my powers work. As if she'd already encountered others like me before. If I'm the only person in the world who has this power, then she shouldn't know anything about me. Yet she does."
"So then what does this change?" Irvine asked. "Why does it matter? Okay, so Ultimecia is using a person, not a machine. Who cares?"
(Settle down, Irvine.)
"It changes everything," Squall said. "If she's using another person—an heiress—then that person is likely to have all the same rules and restrictions as Ellone. And if that's the case…"
Everyone paused while they waited for Squall to finish. But he never did.
"Aw man," Irvine said. He threw his hands up. "Don't do that trailin' off into silence thing. I'm lost enough as it is."
"I need to test something," Squall said. "I need to find out if my theory is correct. And also, there's something I need to see for myself. Sis, I need you to connect me."
Ellone nodded. "Okay. You need to check something in the past to confirm your theory?"
Squall shook his head.
"No," he said. "I need to check the future."