The Lunatic Pandora, The Field Outside, and Balamb Garden - Friday, Midday, Fandom Time (NFB)
Hundreds of feet above them, the smooth side of the building bulged out suddenly, and then erupted in a giant fireball. Chunks of molten stone strewed out through the air, vaporizing as they fell. The forcefield surrounding the building started sputtering, and it was only then that the shockwave from the blast finally reached the ground, carrying a deafening BOOM and a hot gust of wind.
The building slowly started tilting in the air, thankfully leaning away from the heroes on the ground. The forcefield winked out and the building dropped suddenly, but not all the way to the ground. Its flight mechanisms groaned loudly and it resumed sinking slowly, listing even more. One corner touched down, and then another. Smaller explosions blew out pieces of the walls here and there as critical systems failed, and the whole thing teetered and slowly tipped over even more.
Squall
Squall silently watched the building fall. Anguish flickered across his face, but was replace by a stony mask. What had happened in there? Was Rinoa okay? Was anything ever going to be okay again?
How much did he trust Jono and Karla?
One hand reached up to clutch at his necklace. This was why he didn't like to get close to people.
Raven
Raven stared up at the building as it exploded and began to fall. "No, no, no!" she said, hand pressed to her mouth. She'd known Jono was going to hit Adel with a great deal of power, but not that much. Could Karla shield herself and Rinoa from that much force?
She made a silent prayer to Azar, begging for them all to be all right.
Tara
"Is that what was supposed to happen?" Tara asked, trying not to keep an edge of panic from rising in her voice. She knew the fireball was what Jono had said he would do, but it was so big and he and Karla seemed so small in comparison...
Balamb Garden
As if on cue, a building crested over the horizon. Balamb Garden wasn't built for speed; the engines which allowed it to fly were part of an ancient fail-safe to allow it to evade incoming attacks. It had never been intended to be a flying school.
Quistis
Despite that, Quistis had pushed it within an inch of its capabilities, and had shaved the time down to just under twelve hours. It had felt longer, knowing that Ellone was in danger. And that the fate of the world was in balance.
When she saw the Lunatic Pandora burning and toppling over, she felt her lungs seize with panic. But that was a personal reaction, and right now, more than ever, she needed to be professional.
There were SeeDs waiting by the bay doors, to fly out and approach the building. Only now, the orders were to secure the area, and not to infiltrate the building. The building looked as though it had already been thoroughly infiltrated.
Somehow, she was sure Squall was responsible for this.
Squall
Squall looked up at the approaching Garden and blinked. The sight startled him, brought him back to himself, and he remembered what was important: Rinoa was in the Lunatic Pandora somewhere, and he was out here. He stood up and starting running toward the burning building.
It took four cadets swooping in to hold him back before he finally stopped trying to fight his way forward.
Raven
Raven really wanted to run after Squall, and the cadets wouldn't have been able to stop her unless they could somehow negate her ability to teleport. But she restrained herself, reminding herself that if she ran in and got herself hurt, she'd be no good to her friends inside if they needed healing.
The cadets were trying to hustle her off with Squall, and she didn't offer any resistance. "There are three people in there," she said, keeping herself calm as she pointed to the building. "Please, you must find them!"
Tara
Tara let herself be swept along by the cadets, though she kept swiveling her head to watch the building burn. "Please," she echoed. "I'm sure they're okay" even though she wasn't, not exactly, "but ... it's worrying us."
SeeD Cadets
"Understood," said one of the cadets, crisply. One of the benefits of Adel's seal coming down was that it no longer interfered with radio waves; Quistis had taken advantage of that almost immediately, outfitting cadets with basic comlinks. Easy enough to call in to base. "Three confirmed in the building, status unknown. Three on the ground. Incoming."
She offered Tara a professional but well-meant smile. "We'll find them."
Jono
It was cold. In spite of all of the fire, in spite of the fact that all there was seemed to be fire, somehow, it was cold. That was all there was to be aware of, if awareness was the word for something like that, for the disjointed consciousness possessed by a mass of swirling psionic energy, scattered throughout the room, throughout the atmosphere, reaching up in crackling tendrils toward the edge of space itself.
It was cold.
But where it had just been, down below, had been a warmer place than this was. And that was where the energy honed in on, drawn by that promise of warmth, not even a memory so much as an imprint left behind in the makeup of the power itself.
And when it had returned to that place, it was reminded that warmth had come with a form. Warmth had hands and feet, arms and legs, a body. A mouth with which to speak, eyes with which to see. Warmth came with a shape that was well-worn and familiar, even if the only one who really remembered it as it should have been was the one who was being given that form once again.
Jonothon's eyes burned as he opened them, looking first for Karla, then for Rinoa. His lungs seized in protest as the first breath that he drew in was smoke, thick and black, full of the ashes of the body that he'd just given up, of the remains of the room around him, and of the monstrous creature that he'd just destroyed. His second breath was no more pleasant, a desperate gasp for air that was followed immediately by a racking cough.
There was no third breath. Jonothon couldn't possibly have expected that there might be. Eyes that had been tearing up through the smoke were suddenly closed tightly in pain, as a smouldering sensation that was growing all too familiar seared up through his chest.
There was one more burst of flame, prefaced with a scream and followed by silence, as Jonothon hit his knees, and then curled up into himself in the ashes and flames on what was left of the floor.
Needless to say, that was an experience he wasn't hoping to repeat again any time soon.
SeeD Cadets
"There's someone in here!"
The shout had come from down the hall, if 'down' could be used somewhat loosely. The building was topsy-turvy, and crumbling around them.
A few moments later, a figure appeared through a break in the wall. He was wearing a uniform similar to the one Squall wore at formal events.
"This way!" he called to the others, before lifting his shuriken and entering the room. "Three down, no visible attackers."
The cadet didn't know if the three people on the floor were the friends they were looking for, or enemies. As they all seemed to be semi-conscious, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
His eyes widened as he realized one of them was actually on fire, and as other SeeDs piled into the room behind him, he ran for that one, hoping it was only a trick of the light. That something near the boy was on fire, and that he should pull the injured party away as quickly as possible.
Jono
People. Jono was vaguely aware, somewhere around the pain, somewhere around the fatigue, that there were people, here. Not just Rinoa and Karla, no. Entirely unfamiliar persons, approaching from here and from there.
He wasn't exactly pulling himself to his feet, no. But he was turning, just slightly, so that he could look up at his would-be rescuer over one shoulder.
He must have been one hell of a sight. His clothing hadn't exactly survived the first blast, and his body hadn't really survived that last one.
SeeD Cadets
Unfortunately for Jono, the boy approaching made the quite natural, but very wrong, assumption that Jono was not supposed to be on fire. He yanked off his jacket and leapt forward, trying to smother the flames.
Jono
//Shite.//
Yeah. Jono wasn't even going to pretend that he was a mute, here. There was a guy with a jacket making a jump at him, and for as much as Jonothon appreciated the gesture, he was hardly in the mood for this.
... Particularly in his current state of undress.
//Could we perhaps not beat on me with yer coat, mate?// He lifted his arms, somewhat feebly, in an attempt to ward the guy off. //S'been a rotten bloody day.//
SeeD Cadets
"Don't try to... talk," the cadet insisted, still trying to smother the flames. "You're badly injured."
VERY badly injured. How was he even still alive?
Jono
//I am? Oh? I hadn't noticed.// Jono really wasn't taking well to this being smothered thing, even if he didn't need to breathe. //Th'bits of bone and internal organs that I've left scattered about weren't all that important, anyhow.//
Okay, come on, buddy. Jono's eyebrows furrowed and he grabbed at the jacket.
//Would you knock it off?//
SeeD Cadets
If he was alive enough to grab the jacket, then... well, that would have to be good enough?
"Very well," the cadet told Jono. "We've got you now. You're safe."
Jono
Jonothon just buried his face in his hand and gave his head a shake.
//My hero.//
Karla
Karla groaned weakly and stirred. Her entire body felt bruised, like she had been, well, scalded and inside a building that toppled over, oddly enough. "Jono?" she whispered, her throat raw. "Rinoa?"
Even the effort of speaking set off a crescendo of pain inside her head again. Whimpering, she fled back to no-pain world of unconsciousness.
SeeD Cadets
The fire contained -- as far as it could be, at least -- more and more cadets were piling into the room. Examining the rubble, looking for threats, and searching the three figures the first cadet had found.
One cadet knelt by Karla's side. "It's okay," she said. "We've got you."
Rinoa
Elsewhere in the rubble, there came a low moan. She wasn't awake yet, didn't want to be awake just yet. Something very bad was going on, worse than the inky black memories of the void inside Adel, and worse than the way her body and her mind both seemed to ache.
She barely managed to turn her head to the side so that she could vomit.
SeeD Cadets
That got the attention of another cadet, who headed over to discover the third form.
"It's her," she said, with some surprise. "That girl the Commander likes."
Technically, he wasn't the Commander any more. Quistis was. But the others would know who she meant. Even SeeDs engaged in gossip now and then, and whether he liked it or not, Squall had some very attentive fans.
The room was secure. Now, for the delicate process of relocating the injured to Sick Bay.
Quistis
At Quistis's order, everyone was bustled into Sick Bay. Each of the people recovered got their own bed, in their own room, with nurses and paramedics rushing around to check everyone out. Jono in particular got a crowd of people, all trying to figure out what was wrong with him and what to do about it. He was on FIRE, after all.
Rinoa ended up in the same bed she'd spent so much time in, the last time she was in a coma.
One room, containing one particular comatose troublemaker, was under heavy guard. The other rooms were... watched. Quistis didn't trust the Fandomites just yet.
Squall
Squall sat and endured the ministrations sullenly while counting silently up to a hundred. He figured that was long enough. "I'm FINE!" he told the nurses as he stood up and pushed them away. "I'm fine." And then he stalked out of the room to go sit by Rinoa's side.
Rinoa
Go away, go away, why won't you go away?
There were hands poking and prodding, potions and spells, and voices she couldn't resolve into words. Everything hurt. Something was wrong. If she didn't wake up, it wouldn't be real.
Why wouldn't everyone leave her alone?
Squall
Squall glared at all the people poking and prodding. "Is that helping?!" he demanded. "If it's not, do something ELSE."
He leaned over close to Rinoa, and in a whisper ordered her to "Get better."
Rinoa
The nurses were a bit at sea. People were not typically junctioned to one another.
"Don't," Rinoa mumbled.
She lifted one hand, weakly, to bat a potion away. She didn't want it. She couldn't possibly drink it. She'd be sick if she tried. And she'd have to wake up for that, anyway.
Squall
She was awake!
Squall snatched the potion away from the nurse and pressed it into Rinoa's lifted hand, holding it so she wouldn't drop it. "Drink," he ordered. "...Please?"
Rinoa
Squall. Squall? What did he want? Why ...
"Head," she murmured. Didn't he understand? Her head felt like it was splitting open. If he could make something stop the hatchet-job on her brain, maybe she'd deal with ... whatever he wanted. Something about a potion.
Instinctively, she curled towards him, seeking out the warmth of his presence. He'd protect her from the scary hatchet-person-thing. He should make it go away now.
Squall
He put his arms around her, holding her close. Fine, then. If she wasn't going to drink the potion, so be it. He had Curas instead. A green glow surrounded him, then moved to Rinoa, healing her.
Rinoa
Rinoa coughed, burrowing further in. He should protect her from whatever mean person was trying to make her sit up and get better and wake up. Her head, her head, and nothing swirling around her head made any sense. It had been dark, and she had been -- alone?
Not alone. With Adel. Fused, somehow. She had felt the life drain from her, powerless to stop it. She had been nothing more than a puppet, a toy, a battery for a sorceress whose own had been drained.
Rinoa felt like being sick again. And that constant pressure, near the back of her head, as if she'd been struck there, but the blow didn't stop.
Squall
Squall held her tightly. Because he didn't have a better idea, he started rocking a little. Maybe it would be soothing. Maybe it would... something? "You're safe now," he told her, in case she hadn't realized it yet. "It's over."
Rinoa
Rinoa forced herself to sit up, despite her head's protests. It wasn't over. Ultimecia wouldn't stop looking for Ellone. And Ultimecia had lost her favorite co-conspirator, and was ...
And was searching for a new one. She had taken control of Rinoa's mind once before. Rinoa had shields, now, keeping her out. How long could they last?
She couldn't bring herself to tell him that, yet. So instead she nodded, quietly, and reached for the potion.
And wondered what she should do.
Quistis
There were several people in sick bay, and only a few of them that Quistis even recognized. She had ordered the cadets to secure the area and bring everyone here. Some were injured, in varying degrees of severity. Others had been cleared physically but seemed to be hovering near the sick ones.
And nearby was a blonde girl, one who had been brought in with Squall. Therefore, presumably, a friend of his. Squall would have mentioned to one of the cadets if anyone in his group was a danger or should be detained.
"Excuse me?" Quistis said. "May I speak with you?"
Tara
"Sure?" Tara said carefully, hands balled into her sleeves as she watched the scene as if expecting something more to go wrong at any moment. "I can't -- promise I'll be, you know. Useful."
Quistis
Quistis gestured to a few chairs, slightly out of the way from the hubbub, but still within view of it all. Just in case either of them were needed urgently.
"I'd just like to know what happened," she said. "There are at least two injured people I have never seen before, and I'm not certain if any of them are enemy combatants. And Squall's ... distracted."
Squall was hovering near Rinoa's semi-conscious form and refusing to answer questions. It was about what she would have expected.
Tara
"Building blew up," Tara said hollowly. "And he loves her, and Raven loves Jono, and..."
As explanations went, it was the type that ... wasn't. She sunk into the seat and frowned, trying to put everything that had just happened into words.
They weren't coming.
Quistis
"We're doing everything we can for your friends," Quistis said softly. "We have excellent facilities here. They'll be all right."
It did worry her that they couldn't seem to quench the one boy's fire, but the girl near him claimed that was normal.
"I know that Squall came for Ellone," she said. "But we haven't seen any trace of her, yet."
Unspoken: her fear that whatever destruction had happened may have claimed Sis's life.
Tara
Tara took a moment to place the girl's name. The whole reason she was there felt very distant.
"Raven took her to the palace," she said. "Before everything else went wrong. L-laguna was watching her. I think she's still safe, unless..."
Unless she was wrong, of course. She was on uncertain footing.
Quistis
"Sir Laguna has her?" Quistis exhaled, unable to hide the relief washing over her. "If she's under Sir Laguna's guard, then she's safe. He won't let anything happen to her."
She might have realized that where Ellone went, Laguna could not be too far behind.
"In the main room, there was a boy who appears to be on fire, a girl who seems to be suffering from exhaustion, and ... Rinoa." Quistis wasn't sure what had happened to Rinoa, so best to leave that as it was. "There is also a girl with a cloak, who was outside with you and Squall. Are all of those friends of yours?"
Everyone would receive excellent medical care, even if they were enemy combatants, but she didn't want to waste cadets guarding people that should be friends.
Tara
Tara nodded. "The boy on fire is Jono," she explained. "The blonde girl is Karla. The one with the cloak is named Raven. They ... I think they'll all be okay. If they just rest."
Quistis
Quistis nodding, filing the names mentally. And the fact that no one seemed surprised that Jono was on fire. It seemed safe to assume at this point that that was normal, for him.
"Rinoa seems to be regaining consciousness," she added. "She's recovered from worse. She'll be all right. Squall wouldn't allow for anything else."
Squall tended to be less sane when Rinoa was comatose.
"I'm assuming, then, that you're from that school of his," she said. "And that all of you came here to rescue Ellone."
Tara
"We're from his school," Tara confirmed. "Well. Their school. Rinoa ... she was worried if she didn't bring back-up, Squall would try to rescue her on his own. So ... we all came."
A helpless shrug. "We like helping out, I guess."
Quistis
"Rinoa was right," Quistis sighed. "I called to tell him we were coming, and made him promise he wouldn't tear off on his own."
Tara could see exactly how well that had worked out.
"I'm only sorry to have placed you all in danger on our account."
Tara
Tara shook her head. "Don't be," she said. "We're all here because we want to be. And parts of your world are just beautiful."
Quistis
"Thank you," Quistis said with a smile. "I wish you'd seen it under better circumstances. Perhaps another time."
Adel was defeated; the immediate peril was ended. Perhaps they could all relax, if only for a while.
"By any chance," she said, hoping to sound casual, "did you happen to encounter a blonde boy wearing a white coat, while on the Pandora?"
If Tara knew of him, then she would presumably know which side he still served. Which would help with the decisions she needed to make.
Tara
"Seifer?" Tara asked. "Yeah. We -- we talked to him. He ... didn't seem interested in listening. We were going to try to make him better, but ... it wasn't the time."
Quistis
Quistis hesitated, the careful mask slipping more than she would have hoped.
"I'm sorry," she said, "Would you mind ... saying that again? You were going to lift the spell he's under?"
Tara
"To try, anyhow?" Tara said, not sure how to read the girl's obvious interest. "If ... that's okay. I c-can't make promises, but ... if it works it would save him."
Quistis
Quistis straightened in her seat, chewing her lower lip thoughtfully and carefully weighing the pros and cons of what she was considering.
And then she threw caution to the wind.
"I understand," she said. "If ... the situation were to present itself now, would you still be willing to make the attempt?"
Hypothetically. If Quistis happened to know where Seifer was. And if that happened to be 'down the hall.'
Tara
"Right now?" Tara echoed, fighting the urge to protest she wasn't ready, she wasn't good enough, she didn't know how --
But. She could do some good. That was what mattered, that was why she was a Wiccan to start with.
"I can try now," she said. "If the situation were ... there. I'd have to."
Quistis
Quistis seemed to come to a decision. She nodded.
"Thank you," she said, standing. "If you're certain, then please follow me."
Tara
Tara crept in, watching the still form.
"He looks so young," she noted. Seifer's eariler anger had made him seem much larger to her than he looked now.
Quistis
Quistis nodded, her heart aching to see him like this. No matter what had happened, he was part of Garden, and still a friend.
"He's eighteen," she said softly. "When all of this started, he broke out of detention to join everyone else on their mission in Timber. He thought it might be dangerous, and that the others would need his help. He likes playing the hero."
Tara
Tara nodded slowly, reaching out a fingertip to carefully touch Seifer's hand. "What happened to him?" she asked. "Do you know who or what made him -- the way he was?"
Quistis
"Ultimecia," Quistis answered. "A Sorceress from the future. She's been possessing other Sorceresses, from our time. She uses them to do her bidding."
She frowned, trying to remember the scene as it had happened.
"She appeared," she said, "and called him a confused little boy. She mocked him for not knowing where to go. She told him not to be a boy any more, to be a man, instead. She offered her hand. It was like he was hypnotized. He followed. And the next time we saw him, he was calling himself her Knight. And telling us that he would protect his Sorceress from the evils of Garden. He still thought he was the hero of the tale."
Tara
"If she did a spell on him," Tara said, biting her lip, "we might be able to counter it. Kind of like it never happened. It might not work, though. Sometimes spells can only be undone by the witch who cast them. But ... it's worth a try, right?"
A try for the "confused little boy" who had wanted to be a hero. Not a try for the threat she had encountered the day before.
Quistis
Seifer had always been a pile of contradictions. He wasn't much nicer while on Garden's side, but he was loyal, and could be a powerful ally.
More importantly, he was family.
"It is," Quistis agreed. "I mean, we would all be grateful, if you were willing to attempt it. There's no danger to you, is there?"
Tara
"No," Tara said, reaching out carefully with her mind and letting herself see the tangled knots of what Ultemica had done. She was powerful; Seifer's aura barely showed behind the thick layer of magic. "I mean, there's always a risk. But if it rebounds and hits me ... there are three other magic-users here."
She just had to trust that Karla and Rinoa could be healed enough, that Raven was together enough ... or she could just do it right to start with.
She considered what she'd need.
"Do you have salt? Any kind's fine."
Quistis
"Table salt?" Quistis asked. "Sure. One moment."
She didn't understand what salt had to do with it, but then, Quistis didn't know much about magic. (True magic, anyway, and not the para-magic SeeDs borrowed from other places.) And more importantly, if this girl said salt was required, then Quistis was going to get her salt. Understanding did not need to be part of it.
She returned a few minutes later, carrying several salt shakers. "On loan from the cafeteria," she said.
Tara
"Thank the cafeteria for me," Tara said earnestly, as she unscrewed the top of a shaker and used the salt inside to draw an oval around the bed and a chair beside it.
Realizing she needed to explain: "This helps block negative energy. It's weird, but it's useful."
Then she stepped next to the bed, took Seifer's hand, and began chanting in a low voice. If the magic worked, this spell should be enough to release Ultimica's hold on his will. If it didn't work ... well, she'd worry about that when it happened.
Seifer
The first thing Seifer noticed as he started to wake up was the lack of inky wrongness that had taken over his head for the last few months. Then he noticed the massive migraine that the bitch had apparently left behind. This was followed by him noticing he was in a bed, and not lying in rubble somewhere.
He slowly opened his eyes and saw a very familiar ceiling. "What the fuck happened?"
Tara
Tara stepped back, hands flying away as if they were scorched. There was no way to tell whether the spell had worked or not from what he'd said. "You're in a hospital," she said. "Do you ... do you know who I am?"
Not that they'd exactly been formally introduced.
Seifer
Seifer blinked a few times and then looked over. Quistis was there, with that one chick from the fight. He did remember her, but there was no way he was admitting it. Not until he knew what was going on. And whether or not they were going to toss him in D-District.
"...no. Instructor, what's going on?"
Quistis
Quistis raised one eyebrow coolly. Convenient, if he didn't remember any of the more unpleasant parts. But then, he had been acting under compulsion. That may well have damaged his memory. Or he could be faking, if the spell hadn't taken effect.
And ... well. She wasn't going to let him go to D-District, either way.
"You don't know why you're here?" she asked. "Let's try a quiz. Galbadia, Edea, Adel. Any of those names ringing a bell?"
Seifer
Seifer knew that look. It was the look that usually had most of her fan-club running to change their panties, and the rest of the class cringing in their seats.
He tried to look confused and shrugged. "I have an ex in Galbadia. Unless you're talking about the school, which is full of dicks. Edea sounds familiar for some reason."
Adel was a really ugly bitch who would live in his nightmares for a while.
Quistis
Quistis sighed, and rubbed her forehead. "So you have no idea why you're handcuffed to a hospital bed, in Sick Bay," she said.
Or he was certainly going to try to convince her of that fact. He had always been her most infuriating student, alongside being one of the most promising.
Tara had probably picked up on the fact that Seifer was no stranger to things like, say, detention.
Tara
"He's just always like this, isn't he?" Tara burst out, after a moment of staring at Seifer with knitted brows. "I mean -- his aura is clear. But he's still..."
She gestured vaguely, not wanting to call the man handcuffed to a hospital bed a total dick who was probably lying.
"Sorry. I, I just don't think he's brainwashed anymore."
Seifer
Seifer tugged at the handcuffs when Quistis mentioned it, listening at what Tara was telling the instructor.
"Brainwashed? And I figured I had just pissed off the Ice Princess again."
Well... that was one way of looking at it.
Quistis
"That wouldn't earn you handcuffs," Quistis said, outwardly calm. She was hoping to seem threatening, but there was too much affection there for it to work properly.
"You're in it a lot deeper this time," she said, growing more serious. "This girl may have just saved your life. I hope you can at least thank her."
She darted a quick glance over. "Yes, he is," she added, as an afterthought.
But he was still family. And if Seifer didn't say it properly, then hopefully Tara would at least know how much it meant to her.
(Post 7 of plot. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Post 8.)
(Preplayed with the unfuckingbelievable crew of whateverknight, trigons_child, life_inshadow, furnaceface, glacial_witch, and once again (SPOILER!) Kym as Seifer. Coded by the best spouse ever. This is post 7, and there will be a post 8; this post contains all of the Plot-Relevant Bits, and thus, ends Plot(tm), while the convalescent Sick Bay aftermath threads got bumped to the next post, so we can continue those in live play. (So if any of my peeps are wondering where those are, they are coming, I swear!) NFI, NFB, but OOC is love.)