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Of Now and Yesterday
A FF8 fanfiction by Majo-chan Notes: Same as chapter 1&2. Still post game, still AU. Chapter 3 *** Night fell quietly in Centra, the last rays of the dying sun gradually leaving the barren wasteland that composed of the continent, allowing the shadows to lengthen and consume the ground. The last of the sun gleamed off a rather strange, golden diamond-shaped structure in the ruins of the wilderness. And now he stood in front of the faintly glowing sign with its curved, strangely elegant writing marking this place as 'My Blue Heaven'. The man in black made a little humming noise and looked at the stairs winding up. The place felt...strange, but not dangerous, exactly. There was an air of ancient wisdom and power around here that he hadn't felt since...well, since a considerably long amount of time ago. But it felt faded enough that he was relatively sure that there wouldn't be any random encounters with angry Guardian Forces. With a grunt, he hefted his bag up higher and decided to take a chance and spend the night here. By the time he reached the first level, it was already almost full-dark. The options of just camping here versus going up what seemed like fairly unsteady stairs into the dark unknown were carefully weighed for all of two seconds. He wasn't afraid of the dark, just his other innate ability to find some hole or another and fall into it. And that usually resulted in broken bones, usually all the bones in his body. Ouch, much safer to just camp here, yes. As he chewed his meager dinner in front of a small fire, he pondered on his next course of action. A whole day of walking had gotten him pretty close to Northern Centra. All that was left was the desert, and then from there he could either stay on the continent for a bit longer and hit up some monsters, or head for Esthar. Esthar...once a beautiful, advanced city that was built by technology far more advanced than that of the other continents, rich and influential and fair, now crushed under a Sorceress's heel in a shattered shadow of its former glory. The continent was forever bathed in the red tint of the Lunar Cry, and monsters roamed both the city and the wilds. The Sorceress did nothing to stem the population of demons wandering the place...she encouraged them to wreck havoc. He forced himself to not think too deeply about it, the memories there were not pleasent either. With a derisive snort, he wondered just WHAT he could think about that wasn't some unpleasent memory or another, his pleasent memories seem to be lacking nowadays. But Esthar was unavoidable. He had planned to visit the continent eventually anyway, so he might as well get it over with. He let the campfire burn low and made himself comfortable against a small niche in the ruins of the temple level he was on. Closing his eyes, he let himself fall into a light sleep. What else was there to do on the Estharian continent? I know...He thought right before he nodded off completely. I can visit Rinoa... *** Selphie was doing paperwork with Squall in his office when Xu came in, holding a folder and with a visitor in tow. Squall set down his own work as he took the folder from Xu and gestured for the visitor to take a seat. Selphie tilted her head to one side and frowned a little as she tried to remember where she had seen this man before. He looked...familiar, somehow. "What brings you here today, Zone?" Squall asked as he opened the folder and glanced at the contents. "Making your usual drop-offs?" Selphie's mind went Ah-ha! and immediately dug up the memory of their time in Timber, so long ago. Zone...one of the Timber Owls, part of Rinoa's resistance group to free the city of Timber from Galbadian rule. He looked awfully thin though, but she kept quiet. "Yes, Commander Leonhart." the man was a little fidgety and nervous. "And...um...You mentioned, when I first took up this job for you, that you would want to know if something special or unique turned up..." Squall looked at him with one eyebrow raised. "Er...something turned up that I thought you might want to know." Selphie watched with interest as the man took out two packages and set them on the desk, opening them carefully. She hmphed when she saw the contents. "Regen Rings and Star Fragments. And a few Malboro Tentacles and Energy Crystals." She mused thoughtfully. "Whoever got these must have paid Esthar a visit." Squall murmured, fingering a Regen Ring. "Is this what you wanted to tell me, Zone?" "Actually...no. I've known that he gets these from Esthar, for awhile, anyway. Didn't want to cross him, seeing as how he could take down the monsters that carry these things..." "Him? Him who?" Selphie asked, curious. Even though she had seen these items before--still have a small stash, actually-- she was intrigued by the idea that someone else had been able to beat enough monsters to obtain so many. "Don't know his real name, but the man goes by Ty. He's been supplying me with these for almost two years now." Zone explained. "But that's not the real odd thing...though I suppose that one man taking down all these monsters IS odd. I only gave him 50,000 gil for these here, and a map of draw-points, and he didn't slit my throat on the spot." Selphie gave the nerve-wrecked man a sympathetic glance. Lately the suppliers have been getting more and more violent as the financial situations worsened. The Gardens and armies still needed the raw supplies of rare items, but have been unable to pay as much as before. Naturally many go-betweens suffered the consequences. "What's more odd...right before he left he said something strange. He told me that he was turning 55 next month." Selphie wrinkled her nose. "Poor man. Isn't he a bit old to go monster hunting?" "That's the _really_ strange thing." Zone answered, looking a bit bewildered. "He doesn't look old. In fact, he looks about Commander Leonhart's age, maybe a bit younger." He shook his head. "And it's not just his face, though I've never seen his eyes. The way he moves isn't like an older man, either. And if he's really fifty something, then he would've been burnt out by the monster hunting months ago. This line of business requires some incredible endurance." "You are sure he wasn't just joking with you?" Squall asked, with his eyes narrowed. Selphie knew what he was thinking about the possible connections that this might have to the Sorceress. "He...he sounded like he was joking, but he was serious, I think. We were talking about kids, actually. He has a kid, and that's why I asked him how old he was, since he didn't look much older than a kid himself." "Hmm..." Squall leaned back in his seat and got a small frown on his face, which meant that he was considering what to do next. "We'll take this under consideration. Zone, I'll need you to put down all the information you have on this man, where he might be, etc. Xu, please show him how to do that on the Garden's computers." Taking that as a subtle dismissal, Zone and Xu left the office. Selphie waited for Squall to say something, but her commander just frowned at the papers in front of him, a rather blank expression on his face. "You don't think this has something to do with the Sorceress?" She finally asked, keeping her tone casual and light. "There is a possibility that this is some sort of joke, Selphie." "But you don't think it is." She shot back."If you did you would've just blown Zone off with a 'whatever' right at the beginning." She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "But the only way that we can be sure, is to find this person Zone was talking about." She went back to her paperwork. "I can have some of my people look into it, if you want." Trabia Garden was renowned for its information network, one that kept abreast of all the things, peoples, and events of the world. Coupled with Quistis Trepe and Squall Leonhart's incredible minds for strategy and training, the three Gardens had managed to shore up the Sorceress at the Estharian continent. "Thanks." Squall muttered. "I'll talk to Quistis about this, and she'll help you. Once we get some definite information regarding this man, we can make the final decision on whether or not to approach him." "Just 'approach'?" Selphie replied. "What are you going to do if he has nothing to do with the Sorceress?" Squall gave the packets on his desk a meaningful look. For just one person to be able to take down the amount of monsters needed to get this many items, he would be invaluable as a SeeD. But all he said was, "We'll see." *** "Finally!" He huffed as he found himself within sight of the Estharian continent by mid-morning. The deserts he had walked through today were as unpleasent as he remembered them, and walking around dressed in black didn't help matters any. A shower was definitely on the list of things to do once he reached some shelter, and he planned on emptying his shoes of sand as soon as he get a chance to sit down. And because of the necessary trek through the desert, he got more Cactuar Thorns than he wanted. A few Chimeras jumped him too, and he hefted the small stash of Water Crystals he got from them. Well, it was good warm-up exercise, he supposed. Not to mention he loaded up on Water spells in case he found himself having to trek through the desert again. It took him another few hours to reach the actual continent, via a small boat that he had stashed away for just that purpose. Some sneaking was involved because the borders were closed, but not even the City had enough soldiers to patrol the coast of a whole continent. Usually the monsters served just as well in that respect. After he landed and secured the boat, he set out. He headed north-east toward the city of Esthar, but was mindful to give it a wide berth. The continent of Esthar was rather flat and bare, and it wasn't easy to hide from unwanted watchers if he wandered too close to the City where the Sorceress resided. He made a note to attempt to get to the Lab after dark, until then, he passed time killing monsters. It was boring, hot work. Mostly he ran into Torama/Imp pairs, with the occasional Iron Giant. Silence worked wonders on the first, and Meltdowns on the second. Sometimes he had to fight from snickering as the monsters try to cast magic after being Silenced, and he had to wonder if he got a sadistic streak in him after all. After picking through about a dozen corpses of defeated monsters, he had enough, both of the monster hunting and of the items, for today. "Argh.......I want dinner...and a bed..." he whined to himself as he glared balefully at the setting sun as it went down way too slowly for his tastes. He glared harder, as if it would help the sun go down faster. The sun did no such thing, of course, so he rested up in the shadows of one of the ledges. Once dark fell upon Esthar, he'll have until sunrise to find find Odine's lab. *** Step. Sidestep, swing. Duck, fall back. Sidestep, pivot, swing. Defend, swing again. *Crack!* "Ow, Selphie!" Selphie danced back, nunchaku in hands, a sheepish expression on her face. The blond martial artist she was sparring with was sitting on the training mat on his rump, and rubbing a hand over his chin, working his jaw as if making sure it was still attached. "Sorry, Zell." She apologized as the students watched her give him a hand up. "That was a dirty trick on my part, I got too used to the no-holds-barred type of training we got at Trabia." "No, no..." Zell gave his students a thumbs up. "Sometimes you gotta fight dirty to win, ya?" He accepted her hand up. "That, kids, was a beautifully executed move. Lure the enemy in with a fake fall-back, and when they come in, then WHAM! You got them good!" Selphie rolled her eyes at Zell's exaggerated enthusiasm. "C'mon Zell, you can show them the counterattack, hmm?" she said, dropping back into position. "Show me whatcha got!" The students cheered and whistled. Selphie grinned and if her weapon didn't require the use of both hands, she would've waved too. Zell bounced on his feet a bit before coming in with a combo, kicking and punching up a storm. Selphie yelped and somehow managed to block, even got a swing and a jab in before she got enough distance between them to square off. The two sparred back and forth, Selphie demonstrating the effective reach and power of her weapon while Zell showed off the versatility of martial arts. Before either one could get another hit in though, an announcement came through the intercom. "Will Commander Selphie Tilmitt, Commander Quistis Trepe and Instructor Zell Dincht please report to the Headmaster's office please. I repeat, will Commander Selphie Tilmitt and ..." "The Headmaster's office?" Zell wondered outloud as they both backed off and dropped out of fighting stance. "What'd Cid want with us?" He scratched his head, perplexed. "I have no clue...but you'd better either end this class, or find someone to substitute, and quick. If I remember correctly, if we're not in there in five minutes they'll start the call again." Selphie said, wrinkling her pert nose. "C'mon, c'mon..." She conjoled the students as a few protested. Zell waded in to quiet them down. After the matter of the students was settled, Zell and Selphie left the training center and headed for the elevators. The machinery whirred softly as they went up to the third floor, the ride quiet for the most part, both of them considering what Cid might want. After the doors hissed open, the two bounced toward the office. Cid and Squall were both already there, the Headmaster sitting at his desk, their Commander leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest in his favorite waiting position. Selphie gave their commander a confused look as Zell blurted out, "so what's going on?" "Where's Quistis?" Cid was the one that spoke, much to their surprise. He looked tired and worn, even more than usual. Selphie knew that Edea was onboard Centra Garden when it went missing. It had been missing for five years, and no one can find it. Not even with the contacts she had formed with Trabia Garden's intelligence could she find anything about the missing Garden. The toll on Cid was painful to watch, but they all had to see him age overnight, wracked with fear and doubt about his beloved's safety. Selphie felt a pang of pity. At least Squall knew that Laguna and Rinoa were gone. At least she knew that Irvine was resting in a better place, beyond pain. Not knowing if Edea was dead or alive, or taken prisoner, must have been terrible for Cid. "I...have an announcement to make. I think it'd be better if we waited until everyone's here." "All right." Selphie nodded. "Make yourselves comfortable." It took a few moments for Quistis to appear, looking a bit flustered, with her hair damp. Zell raised a curious eyebrow and she explained. "Training center, grats. I was in the shower when the announcement came in." She took a deep breath. "So, what's up?" Cid motioned for all of them to sit down, and with the exception of Squall, they all did. The four looked at the Headmaster of Balamb expectantly. He seemed to falter a bit under the weight of their scrutiny, but rallied and spoke in a clear, firm voice. "This morning, we received a scrambled and encoded transmission from parts unknown, somewhere off the northern coast of Winter Island of Trabia." He took a deep breath as Selphie made a startled noise. "It took us a while to decode it, but the fact that the encryption was done with a program that the Gardens used for inter-Garden Security simplified the matters quite a bit." "But for the encryption to be of that type, that means the transmission came from a Garden..." Quistis breathed, her blue eyes widening a bit as realization dawned. "Yes." Cid nodded, and the barest hint of a smile that made him look ten years younger. Selphie made a small excited squeal. "The transmission came from Centra Garden. They...they're requesting permission to join the meeting, and to drop off a VIP." "..." Even Squall's expression changed, from his usual stoic facade to something slightly hopeful. "...Matron?" Selphie wasn't sure who breathed it, but the question was asked. Cid's smile was wide. "She'll be here tomorrow." *** End chapter 3. End notes: ...no, dammit no one is STAYING dead!^_^;;;; *goes to yell at her muse* |