A/N: Raine will never hear the private conversation with Elder McGovern and Jade (and apparently neither will Guy)
But YOU will. Lucky you!
The hidden scene below is the piece I'd written so I knew what happened and what exactly was said. Notice how Guy himself is the one who decided she's from Sheridan, not Elder McGovern. XD Oh, the memories people have of things, especially Guy. Enjoy this hidden scene!
Bonus: Hidden Scene - Conversation with Elder McGovern
"Well then," Jade said, "we'll bid you our leave."
"Actually, Jade, do you have a moment?" Elder McGovern nodded to a maid who returned the nod and left. "We found a woman who fell from the sky on a flying machine."
"A flying machine?" Guy asked, immediately interested. Is she from Sheridan?
"All she told me was that she is an itinerant professor," Elder McGovern continued, "but I suspect she's actually from Kimlasca. Do you think you can find a way to send her home?"
"I'm not a passenger vessel."
"You know I wouldn't ask unless I had to. She'll need some protection to get back home." Elder McGovern jerked his head towards the window. Jade followed. In a low whisper, Elder McGovern said, "She doesn't seem to have basic knowledge about our world, especially not our geography. She claims to be a professor, but she doesn't seem to know much about Malkuth, Kimlasca, Daath, or even the Score. She says she knows the Meggiora Highlands really well, but she didn't even know its name. It's a bit strange."
Jade's eyes widened with a sudden thought. Could she be another replica…? How many replicas have they made?
"She doesn't even seem to know much about the flying machine either. I fear she stole it."
"Understood."
"Thank you, Jade. Oh, and here's a passport for her." He pulled travel papers from his coat and handed them over. "Just in case. It didn't sound like she meant to come to Malkuth and I fear she doesn't have her own passport." Both Elder McGovern and Jade returned to the others.
Chapter 26
They reached the open plains and continued towards the Aberria Desert, but once again, Jade called for a stop. Now that the sun was setting again, they needed to set up a camp. Anise grumbled, still worried about Ion, Luke grumbled for some reason Raine didn't understand, but everyone else seemed to welcome the break. Raine opened her bag to take out one of Elder McGovern's books when Natalia approached her.
"You know, it's my turn to cook tonight, and I'm afraid I'm not very good at it. Can I trouble you for some guidance?" Natalia asked Raine. Surprised, Raine agreed right away, but then wondered if that really was a good idea. She'd already been fired from cooking and Natalia was as bad as she claimed, Raine wasn't sure how much help she'd be. Especially since she remembered Luke complaining about Natalia's cooking last time when Raine was fired.
Wait.
Why did she single out Raine? Out of the entire group of people, she wasn't a very good cook and after these last couple of days, the others had already proven they could make edible food. So why her? There must be a reason for this. Both women sat down at the campfire and Natalia consulted their stores of food.
"How about some rice and chicken?"
Is that all? What help would Natalia need for that? The only thing Raine could think of was that Natalia wanted to talk with her about something. Fine, Raine thought, I might as well see what she wants. Besides, how bad could they both be working together? Raine shrugged. "Sure. What would you like me to do?"
Raine tasted the final product. Well, that's much better than last time! The rice had become sticky, and sure the radishes were a bit much, and they only had some sketchy meat they got off some chirpees, but the fresh carrots they added at the end soaked up some of the remaining moisture. Not enough, but some.
"What is this?" Natalia asked, picking up a strange ingredient from the mix. "It looks like fish."
"It is fish," Raine said. "I just wanted to see if Luke would notice." As it turned out, Raine could sneak anything into Lloyd's meals, she could hide only some stuff from Genis, but Luke, the pickiest eater of them all, could find the tiniest bit of fish in his food. He wouldn't eat any of it.
"Come on, Luke," Guy said, exasperated. "It's just rude not to eat what you're given."
"But the rice is the only edible ingredient and it's—" He stopped when he saw Natalia's glare.
"Hmph! You can starve then." Natalia folded her arms and huffed.
"What you mean, Luke," Guy started, "is that while you don't like many of the ingredients, you're more than happy to give this new… erm… combination a try." But the look that Luke threw him revealed the exact opposite was true and Guy would likely be condemned for suggesting otherwise.
But Raine noticed how reluctant anyone was to try their dinner. Jade was the first to take a bite with everyone watching him for a reaction. He didn't react other than a teeny smile that Raine knew was there only because she inferred it. He wasn't about to tell them his real thoughts because he loved watching them suffer. Everyone else looked around hoping to get more information from the next person to try it. Guy went ahead and took a bite.
"Hey, this isn't bad!"
"Don't sound so surprised, Guy," Natalia said, but it was enough for Tear and Anise who both dug in. Even Mieu opted for a small taste. Luke was the last to eat, finally having decided it was better to eat food he didn't like instead of starving. Unlike last time Raine cooked a meal, this food was edible enough and Guy wasn't about to make something different for him.
He said so.
Jade set down his empty cup. "Well, then. If Raine and Natalia can make something like this together, I would say they have both learned enough to try again." He looked pointedly at Raine. "Considering you've hidden other skills from us."
Raine smirked. "Be my guest. But any gastrointestinal repercussions are on you."
Tear stopped eating. "Is that a threat?" By the look on Guy's face, he wasn't sure.
"You mean you really are that bad of a cook?" He asked incredulous. "I thought you were doing it on purpose to get out of cooking duty."
Raine shrugged. "I like to experiment and see what flavors go together. Isn't that the point of cooking?"
"Well… I suppose, but maybe that's better left to the professionals. You should probably stick with recipes."
"No, that doesn't work," she replied. "I follow Genis's recipes and I still get strange results."
"How closely?" Luke asked, suspicious. "Or is he as bad as you are?" Tear chided him for his rudeness.
"Oh, no, his food is delicious. Even Lloyd and Colette said so. No, I just make a few modifications here or there."
"Ah…." Guy wore that expression of veiled disbelief. But now everyone understood.
"Have you ever wondered why my younger brother is an amazing chef?" Raine asked. When no one answered her, she said, "because he refused to let me cook by the time he was old enough to use a frying pan. He told me once that he couldn't remember anything Mother made for him, but it was definitely better than anything I've made."
"Nah, he was joking," Guy said. "He wouldn't tell his sister something like that."
"Perhaps so," Raine replied. "Mother never did cook anything for him." Jade's expression was curious to her, like he was trying to decide what she meant. She ignored it and finished eating.
"By the way," Tear said, choosing her words carefully, "who um… prepared the carrots?"
"I did," Natalia said. "I wasn't sure when to put them in."
"Did you… peel them first?"
"Peel?" That question was answer enough.
"Figures she can't cook," Anise muttered. "Are you sure you want a wife like that, Luke? She might end up poisoning you with spoiled food."
"Excuse me?!" Natalia snapped back.
Luke groaned with Mieu taking cover behind him. Jade suppressed a delighted grin. Guy coughed and got up to move before the fight got anywhere near him. Tear rolled her eyes and sighed.
But Raine laughed. She laughed hard enough that even Anise and Natalia forgot their fighting before it could really begin. Before she knew it, Raine was crying all over again as her laughter dissipated into sobbing.
"She's mental…." Anise whispered.
"I'm sorry," Raine said, wiping her tears away with her sleeve. "I was just remembering the first time I gave Genis carrots. I didn't know you had to peel them either. I just brushed off the dirt and ate them straight out of the—the garden. Sure they were bitter, but they were food, something to eat. Genis hated them. He still does." She half-smiled, half-sobbed into her hand. The expression on his face as it slowly screwed up from the bitter flavor was priceless, but he swallowed it anyway. They hadn't eaten anything for a couple of days and he was determined to eat it no matter how badly it tasted. Since she became a teacher in Iselia, their income stabilized and he spent the next several years enjoying carrot-free food. Even on the Journey of Regeneration, he would pick the carrots out of whatever was made, if he had to. "He made sure to cook as much as possible so he wouldn't have to eat them anymore."
"I agree with Genis," Tear said. "Carrots are too bitter for me, especially if left unpeeled."
"Yeah, no kidding," Luke agreed. They looked at each and then turned away. Raine stared into her cup at the rice and chicken dinner. She could just hear Genis complaining now. 'How come you had to put carrots in it? No, wait, how come we had to buy carrots in the first place?! We should've left them behind and used the money for something useful.' She smiled but then got up and took up her lonely spot away from camp to sit. Knowing she wasn't in Tethe'alla where he was made it so much harder to think about him. At least before her revelation in Baticul, she could look up at the sky and wonder if he saw the same constellations she did. Now she knew he couldn't.
Someone sat next to her.
"Guy, not now, please."
"I'm sorry." It wasn't Guy? Immediately Raine tensed and turned to see Natalia sitting next to her, clasping her hands beneath her thighs. "But I'm worried about you. I won't speak if you don't want me to." Raine really preferred to be left alone, so she sat in complete silence, hoping Natalia would get the point. When she didn't leave, Raine sank in a feeble attempt to disappear into the grass.
"Actually, I do have one thing I want to say." It sure didn't take long for her to break her promise, did it? Raine didn't respond and simply listened. "Father told me that, back in Baticul, Jade said Elder McGovern sent you along to return you to Kimlasca. That's why you were traveling with Luke."
"Yes, that's right."
"I'm sorry about my comment back at the Fabre Manor." It wasn't easy for Natalia to say, but it was enough. Was she actually apologizing to her? The princess above everyone? Huh. "You really do study the spirit seals?"
Finally, Raine nodded. "Yes, I do. The ruins are fascinating."
"What do they look like?"
Despite herself, Raine felt herself opening up to Natalia's curiosity. How would she explain the ruins? And she knew what the spirit seals looked like in Sylvarant. Would they be the same here? "They vary. Of course, they're the world's most powerful fon slots, so they are according to the element that's strongest there. The fire spirit seal is extremely hot."
"Oh, so they're the Sephiroth. Yes, that makes sense. I didn't realize they were the same thing."
So that was why Natalia didn't believe her. It began to feel like maybe the spirit seals were viewed as a bit of a myth. Actually, that would explain everyone's reaction back in Baticul, too. Was that a problem? "My favorite thing about the Sephiroth is that they're some of the oldest ruins on the planet. You can reach farther back in history there than anywhere else in the world. Even our history books fail to truly bring to life what happened in the past." She wanted to add a bit about talking with the summon spirits, too, but stopped herself. With the way the others reacted to her mentioning them, she wasn't sure how Natalia would take it.
"It's interesting that your passion is the past," Natalia said, "and mine is the present. I want to do what I can to help my people. I hadn't thought much about how the past can help us with the here and now."
"If you don't know what bad things have happened before, you enable them to happen again." Yet it was the blindsides that troubled Raine. Keeping a constant watch never meant bad things couldn't happen.
"You sound like someone a lot of bad things have happened to."
And you sound like someone nothing bad ever happened to. Raine's jaw tightened from the thought of it. "Not everyone has the privilege of getting everything they want when they ask for it, Your Highness."
"Please, call me Natalia."
"That's my point," Raine said calmly as she stood up. "You grew up with a life of luxury and stability. How can you know what it's like to live in fear and want?" As she walked back to camp, Raine knew Natalia watched her, slightly mortified. She hadn't used a sharp tone. It was unnecessary.
"Huh." Guy watched Raine and Natalia sit side by side, obviously in a conversation.
"What?" Luke asked him.
"It's just—" How would he explain this? "Never mind." He couldn't quite put it into words, but Natalia seemed to have found a way to communicate with Raine without upsetting her. He decided to ask her about it. Maybe he could find the key to not evoking Raine's cactus defenses. But then Raine stood up and walked away. He recognized that annoyed gait and stiff posture. Never mind.
So, Natalia couldn't break past those walls either. He supposed that wasn't a surprise.
They crossed the threshold from grass to sand, and Raine stopped at the first step. Sand. More sand. Before long, sand would be all they saw. Sand made for difficult walking, difficult breathing, hot temperatures, and just plain discomfort. Yet again. She kept up the back of the party, though this time, she wasn't as far back as usual. The others struggled walking in the sand, too. Especially Natalia. Guy took up step next to Raine, again within his own comfort limits. She noticed him out of the corner of her eye, and waited for him to speak, but this time, it seemed he was comfortable with silence.
She tripped on the sand and he reached to catch her, but missed. Thankfully, she caught herself before she fell completely into the sand. Then, realizing what he almost did, he jumped back.
Raine grew suspicious.
He rarely approached her without some kind of motive. He had a question, a curiosity, or just plain checking in. What was it this time? Baticul? The abandoned factory where she practically took out the spider herself? Her suspicion deepened when he smiled at her, but he didn't say a word.
Guy and Raine walked for what seemed like forever, mostly in pleasant silence in his opinion, until she obviously couldn't stand it anymore. "Did you want something?"
"Huh? Me?" What? Even walking silently with her made her unhappy? Her paranoia certainly had a powerful hold on her, didn't it?
"No, the sand fang walking along you." She pointed at his other side, and startled, he turned to look. He relaxed again when he realized nothing was there. Oh, so that's how she was. He figured he might as well tell her the truth.
"Oh, well… I just thought maybe you'd appreciate me shutting up for once. You get mad at me when I ask too many questions, but I wanted you to know I'm here for you still."
"That's because you pry too much." She refused to look at him.
"Sorry about that." He paused. Should he ask? There were other non-past things he was curious about. "What if the question isn't about your past before you knew us? Can I ask about that?" When Raine gave him a look of confusion, he continued. "It's just… You thought I told His Majesty that you should come with us. Do you really believe that was me?"
Raine shook her head. "Your response was genuine. It wasn't you."
"Do you have any theories?"
But she shrugged her shoulders. "It wasn't Jade, either. Until that stupid factory, he didn't even know I could use fonons. Why would he want me along?" Then she looked to him. "Even as I joined up with you, he commented about how the group was already too big. What about you?"
"I…. honestly?" He paused and then looked over his shoulder to the no-longer-visible Baticul behind them. It's peak disappeared from view days ago. "I kind of half-wondered if it was Mohs. They way he looked at you the day before…."
"No," Raine said. "He was too relieved when I said I would continue on to Belkend. Why would he suggest I come along if he didn't want me to?"
"Oh, yeah, huh?" Well, there went that theory.
"Personally," Raine said, "I wonder if it was Duke Fabre simply because he knew his son was going somewhere dangerous. Luke came home safe with us, so surely if we go with him on his mission to Akzeriuth, we would be able to protect him again, right?"
"I suppose it's possible, but His Grace doesn't strike me that way." Ever since Luke returned from his kidnapping, Duke Fabre distanced himself. It was as if he was disgusted that all of Luke's training was forgotten. "I just can't figure out what Mohs's problem was."
"I can't either," Raine said, "but where I came along with you anyway, that opens me up to the possibility that he'll be angry if he finds out."
"Jeez, you're paranoid," Guy blurted it out, and then clamped his mouth shut. He avoided her glare with a cough and interest in the fonstones in the sky. Huh, most of them were hidden by clouds. But she didn't say anything. In fact, she dropped all conversation.
However, her comment matched the other items on his list. She truly was genuinely afraid of everyone. How had she traveled with them all along? He began to wonder. There was just one thing he could think of.
With all of the people she met that she couldn't trust, she felt she could at least trust Elder McGovern, and by extension, Jade. Something about her interaction with Elder McGovern at Saint Binah gave her the comfort of knowing she was safe with him. What would it take to gain that level of trust? Guy really didn't know, but a part of him really wanted to try. After all, this woman knew fear as intimately and intensely as he did, and the last thing he wanted was to be a source of fear for her. But how could he earn her trust?
Allowing her to get to know him would help, and so would getting to know her.
Problem was, Raine gave up very little information about herself, and she never did say much, which made her even more puzzling and hard to read. He could tell a lot of her personality—she carried anger easily—but facts about her seemed as distant as his own. He wondered if he shared a bit about himself whether she would open up, too. Somehow, he couldn't think of a single thing he wanted to share. Maybe there was something else he could ask about? Wait… He knew just the thing!
"Hey, do you have any more stories about the ruins you've visited?"
Last time, Raine, with joyous energy, obliged sharing a story, one that he wished he had paid more attention to. There could've been more truth to it than he had initially realized. This time, she lowered her chin and shook her head. Liar, he thought, half bitter. Now what would he do?
"But," she took a deep breath and raised her eyes to the sky. "I do have one I'm willing to share." Curious, he listened. As he plodded one foot in front of another through the shifting sand, he noticed he wasn't the only one. Jade and Anise both slowed down to listen as well. Tear didn't have to slow down.
"It wasn't often that I came into much money before I became a teacher. Genis and I spent a lot of time hiding out in hostels or places that didn't belong to us. But I remember one time that reinforced a lesson in me that Mother had always taught me. We were walking along the trail. Genis was still three at the time, almost four. A man hobbled from the opposite direction until he collapsed right there on the path in front of us.
"I told Genis to stay behind and wait while I went to investigate what was going on.
The man was fairly old and very weak.
"I don't have the best talent with healing artes yet, but I could try anyway," Raine told him. The man groaned in what she could only assume was the affirmative, so she set her staff and closed her eyes. She pulled as much healing mana towards him as she could. She could tell it worked when he lifted his head.
"That's much better. Thank you, young lady." He tried to sit up with much effort and Raine grabbed his arm to help him. "I had a life bottle in my bag, but I'm afraid it got busted up when I was attacked by that grasshopper." Raine looked and indeed saw a grasshopper corpse. The man knew how to defend himself for sure and he wasn't too old to kill either. Knowing this, Raine hesitated, but she also knew that this man had very poor health from the fight.
"There's a town back that way," Raine pointed behind her where Genis still stood on the path, patiently watching and waiting like he was taught to. "If you have any money, they can give you one."
He considered this, peering past her to see Genis and sure enough, there was a town on the water back there. "Oh, that's so far, my dear. Tell you what? Why don't you go get me a life bottle so I can recover my strength, and I'll treat you and—" He clearly didn't know how to refer to Genis, "That boy there to some dinner. How does that sound?" Raine wasn't sure, but he was already digging for some gald. He handed it to her. "You're a good young lady. I'm sure you'll do the right thing."
Raine nodded. "Yes, of course." She turned back, took Genis by the hand, and led him back to town. By the time she returned, the man had fallen asleep, resting where she had left him. Good thing there weren't any monsters around right then. But was he still alive? "Mister?" She poked him and he woke up.
"Huh? Oh, thank you!" He took the offered life bottle and drank it. "I appreciate your kindness." He was finally able to stand, though not quite straight. He hunched over to a height barely above Raine's own five feet in height. That was all his curved spine would allow. "Let's head back to town, and I'll make sure you get your dinner, as promised."
"I don't know what he expected when we returned to town," Raine continued, "but it wasn't what he experienced. As soon as we arrived, he found out about the trouble I had getting the life bottle, and how another little girl was the reason I managed to get it. The old man found out my brother and I were unwelcome because we stole food and got caught one too many times. He tried to argue on our behalf, but when he looked across the border of town and saw us standing farther away, he knew.
"But I waited. I wanted to see if he really would keep his promise to feed us. He disappeared into town for a long time, and at one point, I felt like giving up, but my heart really wanted to trust him. After all, he trusted me. He trusted me to buy him a life bottle and not spend his money on us. He told me I was a good person, that I would do the right thing. Would he, in turn, do the right thing like Mother told me people do when you show them kindness?
"Or was that just another moment of manipulation? Was he the kind of man who would try to trick me after I saved him? Mother might be right, but she could also be wrong about people. I prayed he would show us the same kindness we showed him. Then I saw him walking towards us. He had a couple of bags with him, ones I didn't recognize. He handed me the one and I felt the weight of the food he had given us. The other, much smaller bag he bent to his knee and handed it to Genis.
"'Here you go, Boy,' the old man told him. 'I got you this so that you may never forget to play.' When Genis opened the bag, his eyes got really wide. It was a toy, a kendama with a red ball, something he'd only ever seen and never got to play with. The old man bade us goodbye, but I never forgot his generosity. Not that the old man knew this, but Genis needed a catalyst to help him concentrate on his magic, and that kendama did just the trick. To this day, Genis uses it to protect us and his friends. I don't know that he remembers the old man himself, but I made sure he remembers the story."
Was that story really true? That story had to be true. Why would she make it up? Guy couldn't help staring at her with his mouth hanging open. Raine and Genis really had traveled a lot, it sounded like, but to be thrown out of a town for stealing food…. That did sound possible and it would explain why they were unwelcome in some places. But where was the town that sat on water? Was she talking about Grand Chokmah? That was the only place he could think of. Surely, though, they had some way to help hungry kids wandering the streets, didn't they? He wasn't under the impression that the emperor of Malkuth was that cold.
What's more, Guy realized that he was right. Raine had lied about coming from Radessia and traveling very little elsewhere. That was a cover story for the truth. Why Radessia, though? Was that because Sheridan was on Radessia and she was already connected to the flying machine?
A/N: Oh, yeah! Another deleted scene! I wanted to use this when they entered the desert, but come to find out, they have sand lizards and they poison you, not basilisks that stone you (among other plot holes), so…. Yeah…. This one isn't joining the main narrative. But it was still such a fun read that I wanted to share it, too. =^-^= Enjoy!
Another Bonus: Deleted Scene - Guy Gets "Stoned"
"Man this is so annoying!" Of course, the complaining was from Luke. Raine sighed.
"At least we found a cure for Guy's phobia," Natalia muttered, "as temporary as it might be."
Raine wondered, though. She'd never been bitten by a basilisk. Are you still conscious in that state? She, Luke, Tear, and Natalia each had grabbed an arm or a leg to haul a frozen Guy along the sand, hopefully towards the oasis. Anise claimed to be "too small and therefore not strong enough" even though Raine knew better that she could use Tokunaga's growth abilities. The young girl laughed as she zig-zagged with all her excess energy ahead of them. Jade was just plain an ass and claimed to be too old. "But just imagine how slow we'd be with my having to carry his weight, too." Besides, "you're doing an excellent job as you are!"
If she didn't have Guy by the arm, Raine would've blasted a photon right over the colonel's head. With each step, she imagined it happening anyway until she seethed enough that she just might do it after all when they stop to rest and could set Guy down. She did suppose that if he was conscious, this certainly would help with his phobia, being carried by three women.
"Are you sure no one knows how to help someone recover from this?" Raine asked. She would try, but as she'd use fonons, she wasn't sure it was a good idea to practice de-stoning when light fonons were all she'd used thus far. Tear bid everyone to stop walking.
"I'm not confident, but I'd rather try than carry him any farther."
Thank you! Raine and the others set him down in the sand. "Here," Raine dug through her bag and found the unicorn horn. "Use this and see if that helps."
Final A/N: So, yay! Kat does indeed know how to keep a promise, hidden scenes, background stories with the origins of Genis's Kendama, and moment with Natalia that didn't make me hate her. Also, I noticed I wrote a whole paragraph with nothing but questions... Not sure I have ever done that before... Woot! Happy/Merry Whatever Holiday You Celebrate (if any) This Time of Year!
Thank you to my readers (both silent and less silent!), and to my commentors. All of you are simply awesome!
Also, thank you, AngelAdept for your help with this chapter. Without you, I'd probably still be struggling with it.
As for Chapter 27, it'll come soon, maybe next year. Oh come on! It's not as long as a wait as it sounds. :P (Unless your calendar is different, in which case, I apologize for the lie. But at least you won't have to wait as long as it truly does sound.)
And there you have it! I hope it was worth the wait. Enjoy your holiday season and have an amazing weekend!
~~Kat =^-^=